Earl & Diane Rodd 26 October 1988 93 Great Ryrie St. Heathmont, Victoria 3135 Phone (03) 879-4082

Announcements

The November meeting will be on Sunday, November 6 with those wishing to share a picnic lunch together starting at 1PM and the main meeting from 2PM until 4PM. We encourage you to come along and share even if you can only come for any part of the afternoon. The meeting will be at YWAM, 1 Kent Rd. Surrey Hills. Enter from the gate on Middlesex and look for a sign.

In speaking with Dr. Raymond Moore on the phone for a few minutes, I learned that he had had good meetings with school officials in different states. In particular, I asked about Victoria and the A.C.T. In Victoria, he met with a man whose job relates to creative areas (I was told the name, but am not sure I have it correct, so will not repeat it) and had a very friendly meeting. He was told that the Victorian Education Department has directed that home schoolers be left alone as long as they are actually educating their children. In the A.C.T., he was able to meet with Margaret Jones in the Education Department whose area of responsibility is early childhood development. This meeting was very friendly, and he was told that the department is not interested in pursuing home schoolers. Dr. Moore's approach with officials is to ask that they do their own studies over a number of years knowing that they will confirm his own research showing the benefits of home schooling.

For those concerned about tertiary education, we have learned of one option which may be of great interest. I suspect that there are many other options available away from the mainstream of H.S.C./on-campus tertiary, and we need to learn about these. What I have confirmed is that Deakin University in Victoria has a program (that is crying out for students) which allows a student to go all the way to degree studying at home. Lessons and books are provided, and the student sends in work for examination by instructors. In addition, tutors are available in various areas (tutors may be local TAFE instructors or instructors at country tertiary institutions). It is even possible to do computer science by electronically transmitting assignments back and forth between the student's computer and the instructor's computer at Deakin. We pray that God will give each family wisdom and open the doors for each child to obtain the training needed to fulfill God's call on his or her life.

A size 0 windcheater was left at the seminar venue. It is turquoise blue and decorated with planets, sun, stars and earth. If it is yours, please contact us.

Bob Jones University publishes a quarterly newsletter for homeschoolers entitled Helper . If you would like to see a copy, send us a stamped self-addressed envelope. We have 50 copies.

Looking for good Australian literature? Koorong Bookstore has Currency Lass , a biographical novel based on the diaries and letters revealing the life and circumstances of Mary Hassell, a dynamic $9.95.

Three books have crossed our path recently which we would recommend to families training their children at home. The first concerns training our children in their mission in life as Christians, the second concerns teaching children to be obedient, and the third addresses the practical day to day aspects of home schooling.

How to Raise Your Children for Christ by Andrew Murray. This is an old (1900) book still in print (your book seller should be able to order it from Bethany Fellowship Publishers - Koorong books has it in stock) which provides a strong Biblical answer to this vital question of raising children for Christ. The book is a refreshing step away from modern materialistic concerns. This is excellent reading when you feel tempted to give up. It will spiritually edify and rekindle your faith.
What the Bible Says About Child Training by Richard Fugate. We believe this is the best book on child training available. It seeks to carefully look at what the Bible says in the faith that God has given us the wisdom we need. The strength of the book is its constant application of the truth to teaching our children to obey. It is a very practical book providing concrete ways to apply Biblical principles. The format makes the book suitable for a husband and wife to study together chapter by chapter as you seek the Lord and come to agreement on how the truths of God's Word need to change your behavior and be applied in your family. We have 19 copies of this book which we will send to you for $4 which is well under the cost of the book - an indication of our view of the worth of getting it into parents' hands.)
Schoolproof by Mary Pride. This book does an excellent job in showing the reader all the traps of "school" which can make home schooling a lot more work for no purpose. The book consists of many observations about home schooling in our age given the culture we live in and the materials available. You may not find every one of the author's observations to conform to your own experience, but you will benefit from the author's efforts in organizing the material in a way to allow you to exploit her experience. Christian Home Schools of Australia (Sonnemans) at 11 Mt. Pleasant Rd., Nambour, QU 4560, had some copies of the book for sale.

What is Our Purpose?

God has made us human beings with a need to have a purpose in our lives. The Bible says,

Proverbs 29:18
19. Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, But happy is he who keeps the law.

The King James version says, "the people perish" without a vision. The word "vision" in this verse means a "prophetic word" or "revelation" and carries the sense of knowing the purposes of God. Also, the Bible tells us that God has a purpose for each of our lives as evidenced in the following two Sciptures.

Ephesians 1:11
12. also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will,

Romans 8:28
29. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to {His} purpose.
30. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined {to become} conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren;

Just as it is important for us to have a purpose to our own lives, we need to press on to instill into our children the fact that God has a call on their lives. If we train children to be successful in the material world but fail to lead them to a life fulfilling the call of God on their lives, have we succeeded? Meditate on the following Scripture:

James 4:3
4. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend {it} on your pleasures.
5. You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
6. "He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us"?
7. But He gives a greater grace. Therefore {it} says, "God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble."
8. Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
9. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
10. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy to gloom.
11. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.

For us two key verses are verse 8 which guides us in our day to day setting of priorities in leading us to "draw near to God" and verse 10 which reminds us daily that God will lift us up and lift our children up when we are humble in His sight. In reading these verses from James , we are very challenged about what we communicate to our children as the most important goals in life. Because home schooling is demonstrated to be so effective in training children in academic and practical pursuits, we are in danger of being proud about this success and therefore concentrating on the worldly success. Our priorities can be brought into line when we consider,

Matthew 16:25
26. "For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it.
27. "For what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

Does any of the above discussion on the importance of our #1 goal - to train our children to know God through Jesus Christ and follow him - say we should be slack in our home training in math or English or history or science? NO! As our children know that God has a call on their lives, then they have a purpose in all they do. Jesus instructed us to be "wise as serpents"! What better motivation is there to learn geography than to examine the "ends of the earth" to which you may be sent? What better motivation for science than to seek to understand the mysteries of the Creator? What better motivation is there to learn rhetoric and public speaking than to communicate the Gospel? What better motivation is there to learn economics than to speak the Truth into a field characterized by failure upon failure in economic theories.

In the world, many humanistically believing people home school their children. Do they get good results? In many ways they do. The reason is that when anyone applies a principle of God (in this case for parents to train their children rather than another or their peers), results are apparent. We should rejoice whenever and wherever we see testimony to God's truth. And we should be quick to be willing to give testimony of the good fruit of applying God's truth in our families, whether that testimony be to a neighbor, friend, relative or parliamentarian. Can we learn from humanistic home schoolers? Perhaps we can in that God may allow a person to develop a superior training program or method for a subject or skill. However, we believe that we need to be cautious in this area because the basic philosophy of the author will come through in some way as has been discussed in previous newsletters. As our children mature, they will be required to be more and more "in the world", and our task is to train them how to view day to day events and thinking of other people from God's perspective so that they are not "of the world."

We will conclude with one very powerful example in the Bible of a person who knew the call of God and accomplished what he did with a driving purpose . Can we have faith that we and our children know such a strong sense of purpose?

Acts 19:21
22. Now after these things were finished, Paul purposed in the spirit to go to Jerusalem after he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, saying, "After I have been there, I must also see Rome."

Paul knew persecution and prison awaited him in Rome, but no one (not even well-meaning believers) could dissuade him from obeying God's call on his life. This strong commitment to Christ is what we Christian home training parents must desire for our children. Andrew Murray's book is excellent in providing us with a book tested by time that will help us keep God's call on our children as our main priority. Read it and be refreshed. We want our children to be skilled capable people, able to do the work they are called to. But if we primarily prepare our children to seek a nice house in the suburbs with two cars, house at the beach etc., they will in the end see the same frustrations and failures as did the children of Israel when they were comfortable while God's call went unheeded (Haggai 1 :4).