Grace Notes

Family News/Homeschool Conferences

Indianapolis Home School Conference

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The past three days have been jammed packed with action as our family has been at the IAHE (Indiana) home school conference!

We are very excited about the new wooden shelves some friends helped us build for our booth. (Quite an improvement to what we had before.)

My dad presented his session, “Learning from Dad”. We noticed how many more dads were at this conference in comparison to most home school conferences. It was neat to see so many couples shopping together–not just moms by themselves. My dad’s session accents on the point of how important it is that fathers play a role in teahing their children– not necessarily “academics” but more importantly the standards and convictions each family needs to have.

Sarah speaking on “Raising Pure Daughters in a Generation of Darkness”.

Things always get pretty busy, messy and crazy inside our booth at the end of the conference…!

Friday night we got together with some of my parents’ friends from college.

Stephen, Sarah and I came along for the entertainment. (And the food 🙂 .) No, actually, it was a very nice evening and it’s always fun hearing new stories about mom and dad. 🙂

Note the above picture was taken inside not outside. Our friends live in an old school they bought downtown Indianapolis and they use it for ministry, a home church, etc. Pretty creative!

Announcements

Mark Cahill Coming to Cedar Rapids!

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We are very excited to be bringing Mark Cahill to speak in Cedar Rapids in just over a month. His ministry has greatly impacted my life, and I’m praying that my city will be impacted in the same way. Each time I pick up his book or listen to one of his messages I get excited about witnessing all over again! I’m grateful for the practical steps and ideas he lays out for the rest of us who desire to reach the lost.


Click here to see an 8-min Youtube of Mark Cahill speaking.

To Download a flyer, click here.
Contact us for questions or more information.

Recent Productions

One-On-One Discipleship Tool

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Have you ever noticed how meaningful a good, edifying one-on-one conversation can be? Although discipleship groups or classes can be great, there is much value in the individualized attention received when someone is discipled one-on-one. With this in mind, Sarah developed a one-on-one discipleship program to use within our Bright Lights group. The older girls went through it with the younger girls and both were strengthened and encouraged. We’re excited to announce that it’s now available for others to use as well. (Thanks to graphic / layout work done by Sarah Smith and Nickie!) It’s called “4:12”, based on three theme discipleship verses: 1 Timothy 4:12, Ephesians 4:12 and Colossians 4:12. We have been very encouraged by the results we’ve seen each time we’ve used this material. It’s designed to help older girls or mothers spend one-on-one time with younger girls studying God’s Word, discussing important areas of life, committing to pray for each other, and holding each other accountable in Scripture memory and other disciplines and projects. For more information see our online store.

Click here to see pictures from the first time we did “4:12” last spring.

Bright Lights Local Group/Family News

Bright Lights / Light Shop Report

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I was working in my little cubicle the other day when I heard a very loud racket. I walked out and found my dad and Stephen in full combat…
They told me they were “testing” the armor they were going to use for an activity at Light Shop.

(For those who don’t know, “Light Shop” is Stephen’s boys discipleship group that meets every time Bright Lights meets. It stands for Leaders In Godliness, Holiness and Testimony.)

Dad and Stephen prepared 24 helmets, swords, and shields.

There were 12 guys in brown and 12 guys in red. The objective was to knock the newspaper breastplate off your opponent. As you can see, the activity was a big success.

Stephen (along with David Jones who helps him teach) taught the young men about Ephesians 6 and how we are in a spiritual battle and need to know our weapons.

In Bright Lights we try to be a little more feminine. 🙂 We’ve been going through a series of lessons on being “daughters of the king” covering topics such as femininity, modesty, inner beauty, joyfulness, etiquette, etc. As daughters of the King, we need to remember Who we belong to and Who we respresent! At one of our recent meetings we gave each small group 15 minutes to create a complete outfit with brown paper and tape. Everyone had a good time, and some of the outfits the girls came up with were pretty impressive!



The theme of the lesson last week was on “pouring yourself out” and learning to die daily for Jesus. (I Cor 15:31) Sarah told some amazing stories of great missionaries and martyrs who went through tremendous sacrifice to proclaim the gospel. Then she emphasized how God values not only the big sacrifices, but also the daily little sacrifices we make in serving our families and those around us. He sees and weighs the heart. It’s not necessarily the intensity of the suffering He rewards (we can’t choose our circumstances) but the response of our heart to whatever He allows. May we, like Paul and Silas in prison, sing praises in the midst of difficulty.