The 'Firm Foundations' Conference
Every once in a while, we are at our daily work and the Lord visits with great favour. Towards the end of 2022, my husband Simon and our church elder Joe Bailey had a tentative conversation as to whether our church might be able to host a home education conference for local home educators. Countesthorpe Baptist Church has somehow become a hub for Christian home educating families over the past few years and perhaps it was time to publicly demonstrate how a local church can support and bless families who chose to teach their children from home. The original idea to use our own church building was soon scrapped as the forty or fifty families we were hoping might possibly attend would not be able to fit.
Roll on December and Joe, his wife Tami, Simon and I spent a memorable Monday planning the conference. God had placed on our hearts a burden for Christian education in the home and we decided to take the plunge and hire a local college in faith that God might at least half fill it.
Over the next few weeks, we watched in amazement as God brought all the gifting that we needed into the fore via members of our little church and faithful friends. He answered a very specific prayer to provide a Christian home educating father who could oversee the audio and video and he even provided some finances to get the thing rolling. He warmed our hearts to a greater vision of home education than simply our own families.
By January, we had our systems and excel spreadsheets in place. Our YouTube video to advertise the conference was good to go and we were astounded that somehow people discovered the secret link and began booking in before we had even made the conference public! I put an advert on the ‘Leading Them Out’ Facebook page on Saturday evening and by the time Wednesday and the church member’s meeting rolled round we were already able to tell our church that 100 adults had booked in (and quite a few more children!).
God truly overwhelmed us with his goodness and faithfulness. There was nothing to do except stand back with wonder and a little emotion as family after family registered and after three weeks, with some sadness, bookings had to be closed. 200 adults and 300 children had signed up! We then opened a list for people who missed out on this year and wanted to be informed about following conferences (we had not even run the first one yet!). I guess at the back of our minds, we were vaguely wondering whether we had bitten off more than we could chew, but we continually called to mind a faithful God who had already provided everything we needed push forward.
Saturday April 22nd was a truly special day. To greet families who had travelled up the evening before and booked to stay overnight nearby because they were so eager to attend the conference was quite overwhelming. I had the personal joy of meeting for the very first time, precious mothers who I had only known from Facebook! What a delight to put names to faces as well as the added bonus of being introduced to husbands and children.
Simon kicked off with a talk entitled ‘The Gospel and Education’. He demonstrated how Christian education is an extension of the gospel of Christ, rather than a secondary issue. Our children are born in sin and our great task is to present them as a mature in Christ. Pooyan Mehrshahi then spoke to the men about family worship whilst I sought to encourage the ladies through my talk ‘Striking the Balance: How Not to be Overwhelmed’. Pooyan wrapped up by talking about home educators in the life of the church. He described churches as ‘multi-faceted jewels’ and encouraged us to ensure we are taking as much advantage of our churches as we can. He proposed that churches need home educating families since the strength of the church relies on the strength of the families that make up that church. What a wonderful encouragement!
Crown College did a sterling job of occupying the children so that parents could enjoy the talks. We are so grateful to them for their loving commitment to the conference and to the cause. What a blessing to have children’s workers so thoroughly committed to Christian home education that they would so freely give of their own time and energy that other families might be encouraged. It would have been absolutely impossible for us to have provided children’s work for so many children and we are so grateful for their sacrificial service.
We were also delighted to have Answers in Genesis, Classical Conversations, Broken Wharfe Publications, Church and Family Life UK and Chapel Library UK exhibit. We pray that the resources sold and the contacts made will continue to bear much fruit over the coming months and years.
The Reformers coined the phrase ‘Post tenebras lux’ (after darkness, light). For years, the education system has become increasingly estranged from
the Word of God and yet there are signs that God is doing a mighty work in this land. As the trickle of faithful home educating families slowly becomes a stream we can only sit back in wonder, praise and prayer that God might yet have a greater purpose for our nation and that he might be pleased to use our little ones, educated in the ways of the Lord to bring it about.
As for me, there is no place where I would rather be than where the battle rages mostly fiercely: for the hearts and minds of our children.
‘So those who love [Christ] most not only gladly deny themselves the delicacies of the court, but volunteer for service along the border where the enemy is strongest. And they thank their prince for the honour of serving him.’
The Christian in Complete Armour, William Gurnall
