God Works, Part One

I've been hinting at some educational rearrangements that might be in store...and now it's time to share a story of how God has worked in some amazing ways!

At the beginning of this summer, I met a couple, friends of mutual friends, who told me about their four kids' high school experiences, after being homeschooled through middle school. Their first two went to the public high school that Bantam18 goes to, "and they did fine. Only fine...they didn't really bloom spiritually until they went to Christian colleges." They decided to send their last two kids to a private Christian high school, "and they really bloomed in their faith during high school, while they were at that school."

That was how God awakened a desire in my heart, to see Blondechick16 "bloom" spiritually. She did "fine," and more than fine, at the charter school she attended last year. She stood up for her faith when she needed to, and she made a sweet Christian best friend. But among the rest of the student body, and it is a very small one, she didn't find other committed believers to be friends with. She tried several church youth groups, but didn't end up committing to one, and she only did one session with our Christian youth theater group last year. So, other than Sunday mornings, the year was spiritually a wasteland for her.

And it was beginning to show. The most disturbing thing was that at the end of the year, she developed a relationship with a non-Christian boy from her school that quickly became way too serious, in their own eyes at least.

Last summer, we had formed the idea that this summer, we would send Blondechick to Africa on a service mission that would give her some perspective beyond her own self-centered interests. Through Anglican connections, we knew of an orphanage in Rwanda that surely could use help with babies and toddlers, which she loves. We even knew people there in the same town. We had connections elsewhere in Africa too, if that didn't work out.

But when we began to knock on doors last spring, every one slammed shut. And we were grateful, because the Lord's answer was so clear! But what to do with Blondechick? We knew we couldn't let her just hang out with friends all summer. She looked, but couldn't find a job. We talked about sending her to an Anglo-Catholic conference for high school youth, with classes and lectures that sounded fascinating to us, but probably wouldn't have made a dent in Blondechick's psyche. And it was expensive, if you counted the airfare to get her to the East Coast.

In fact, for that amount of money, we could send both her AND Bantam14 (who also needed a better way to spend his time this summer) to Honey Rock, Wheaton College's Christian camp in the north woods of Wisconsin, for TWO WEEKS. And that's what we ended up doing.

A month or so before she left in late July, we planted the idea of maybe switching to the Christian high school for her last two years of high school, and unsurprisingly, she was adamantly against the idea. Her boyfriend and her best friend were both going back to Harborside--of course she was too!

The idea was mentioned a few more times before she left, and she was worried. But we weren't sure. Papa Rooster wasn't certain at all that it was the right thing to do. I was eager to make the decision and move on with the rest of my planning for fall, because we were also discussing sending Bantam14 there for a class or two, if Blondechick went. If she didn't, then I wasn't sure about driving him there and back every day. But every time I prayed, asking for closure, God said, "Wait till she gets back from Honey Rock."

...to be continued!

(A perfect place to leave everyone hanging, as I was for 7 or 8 weeks!)