Grace Notes

Homeschool Conferences

San Diego, Texas, and Pennsylvania

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city-2 Stephen and Sarah flew to the CFS Expo homeschool conference in San Diego last weekend. Before the flight, Sarah prayed that God would put her next to the right person. She found herself next to a man who used to be a Jehovah’s Witness but was now a Christian. (Apparently a Christian acquaintance had witnessed to him in a gas station and the Lord used it to get his attention.) He has only been saved for two years now. Sarah talked with him the whole way and left him with some materials for his family –which he was very enthusiastic about receiving. He said that God just keeps putting Christians in his path who have been discipling and encouraging him.

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The booth in San Diego

img_2928 Meanwhile, my parents and I were at the Arlington, TX Book Fair

100_15132 Simultaneosly, the Florio family was representing Bright Lights at the CHAP Pennsylvania homeschool conference for us. See a report of their week here. Thank you again, Florio family, for your help and hard work!

We felt like we were in “three places at once” last weekend, and we were grateful for the way God worked everything out.

Below are a few more pictures from Arlington.

img_2943 Alexandra drove up from Austin, TX to help us. It’s neat how the Lord provides. Since Alexandra had just interned with Bright Lights for 10 weeks, she already knew how to run the booth. She jumped right in and was a huge help.

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These twins came up to the booth and were excited to tell us how they were best friends.

img_2888 Haley and Megan (both 14 yrs old) lead a Bright Lights group together. God gave them both the desire to disciple young ladies independantly. When they met each other last year, they hit it off right away and excitedly made plans to start a group together. Their group has now grown to about 17 girls and they are very excited about what the Lord is doing.

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Tear down…

img_2948 As you can see we were one of the last booths to get packed up…we weren’t moving too quickly at the end of the day.

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I was a little worried about how we’d get through this conference without Stephen and Sarah because Arlington is one of the biggest conferences of the year. But thankfully none of our equipment broke, (answer to prayer!) Alexandra was a big help, and when we were ready to load up, the ALERT guys showed up and took out all our boxes really fast. Like, in about two trips. Wow, it would have taken us forever… (Not to mention, they also brought our boxes in before the confernece started…) God provides. 🙂

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Alexandra and I had a good time jumping on the trampoline with the daughters of the family we stayed with. The Friesens lead a Bright Lights group and it has now grown to become four separate Bright Lights groups. Each one is led by an older girl or a mom, and occasionally they all meet altogether. It was very encouraging to hear their positive reports! Praise the Lord.

“I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations.” Psalm 89:1

Homeschool Conferences

Oklahoma Home School Conference (OCHEC)

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It makes it a lot easier to unload and load up when we can pull our trailer into the convention hall…

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Friday evening, after a long and tiring day at the OCHEC homeschool conference, we enjoyed a great BBQ dinner with the Solis family from Lifetime Books and Gifts the Reinhart family from Rhino Technologies, and Jan and Gary Bloom from Books Bloom. One of the highlights of traveling to homeschool conferences each spring is being able to visit with the community of other “homeschool resource suppliers” and speakers. We usually see each other several times each spring in different states and leave each conference saying, “See you next week in Texas!” and then “See you in Florida!”, etc. The men help each other with their trailers, and it’s always a highlight when we get extra opportunities to talk — which is rare because the conferences are so busy!

Many of these families go to far more conferences and put on a lot more miles than we do. They are very dedicated in their ministry to homeschoolers! Plus, they are a lot of fun to be around, and we always enjoy the great fellowship (and humor) :).

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I didn’t take very many pictures at the confernece, but here is half of our booth.

The conference went very well and we are so grateful that God brought us here. We were praising the Lord for many things as we left!

Family News/Witnessing Stories

Midnight Tire Trouble

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It was a typical late night stop. We had just crossed the Oklahoma state line and there was nothing around except one gas station. Stephen bought some gas and Dad bought some coffee. It was after midnight. Dad walked around the trailer to make sure the tires were okay because the roads had been very bumpy and we had just blown out a trailer tire a week ago. It was good he checked because one of the tires was missing! Because we have a duel axle trailer with four tires we hadn’t noticed as we were driving. The rim was still there, of course, but the tire had completely disintegrated except for a tiny bit of rubber around the rim.

Dad and Stephen knew we didn’t have the right jack with us. So before attempting to use our two van jacks, Dad decided to see if the gas station had a floor jack. He noticed two employees standing outside smoking and he asked them if they knew where we could find a jack for our trailer.

“Oh, we’ll fix the tire for you,” they said, “we work at the tire shop across the street. It’s closed but we’ll open it up.”

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Tire shop across the street?! Dad thought…

Yes. Amazingly, we just “happened” to stop at a Love’s gas station with a connected truck tire shop and the tire technicians were still there. It was a good thing, too, because the rubber was wrapped around the axle and it would have been difficult for Stephen and my dad to fix it without better tools. There are only a few Love’s stations with tire shops and this one had opened only three days before. We were thankful for the way God had taken care of us.

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I had been asleep, but I woke up in time to get out of the van and document the event. 🙂 The mechanics were friendly, had the tire fixed in about 15 minutes, and charged a very low price.

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I prayed for a chance to witness to these mechanics because I know that God allows these things to happen for a reason. While dad walked with one of them back to the gas station to pay, I handed the other one a “10 Commandments Coin”. (I like these coins because they are great conversation starters.) Apparently he was a Baptist pastor’s son but “didn’t have very much time for church anymore.”

“So what is in your trailer and what are you guys doing?” he asked me.

“We are on our way to a home school conference in Oklahoma,” I told him, “In our trailer we have some resources for families including some books about Creation Science. Science and the Bible don’t contradict each other – in fact, science is consistent with Genesis.”

He raised his eyebrows and seemed interested.

“Most people don’t hear this because schools today teach evolution,” I continued. “Schools claim to be ‘neutral’ about religion, but they are actually ‘anti-god’ in what they teach because evolution is in essence an ‘anti-god religion’.

He agreed with me, and seemed to find what I was saying very interesting.

I thanked him for his help with our tire and told him that their help was pretty much a miracle for us. I told him about how the Lord had provided in similar ways recently and we were grateful to the Lord for taking care of us.

My dad came back about this time with the other mechanic. We left them both with a Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends book, and prayed that the Lord would continue to work in their lives.

Homeschool Conferences

Spring Travels

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We are leaving in two days for a chain of home school conferences. Below is our schedule for the month. Hopefully we’ll see some of you along the way!

May 1-2
OCHEC Home School Conference, Oklahoma City, OK

May 8-9
Arlington Home school Book Fair, Arlington, TX
(My parents and myself)

May 8-9
Christian Family Schools Expo, San Diego, CA
(Sarah and Stephen)

May 15-16
INCH Home School Conference, Lansing, MI

May 21-23
FPEA Home School Convention, Orlando, FL

May 30
Cousin’s Wedding, Duluth, MN

June 5-6
NICHE Home School Conference, Des Moines, Iowa

Bright Lights Conferences/Radiant Purity Conferences/Strong in the Lord Conf.

Omaha Bright Lights Conferences

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Last week we “moved in” (literally!) to Kingsway Christian Church and spent the week running two Bright Lights Conferences…

We followed our typical conference schedule:
Monday: Set up
Tuesday Evening and Wednesday: “Strong in the Lord Conference”
Thursday: Rest day
Friday Evening and Saturday: “Radiant Purity Conference”

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Before each conference we spent a few hours in “teacher’s training”, discussion, and prayer. We were excited to see the Lord provide the leaders we needed for the small groups. Many of the leaders who had helped at past conferences were not able to make it this time, but the Lord raised up an awesome new team. About 20 godly older young ladies–outstanding leaders–joined us from over 9 different states. We agreed that this was definately something God brought about.

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Hannah’s small group

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The age range for the Strong in the Lord conference is 8-14.

One of the topics we stress at the “Strong in the Lord Conference” is the importance of reading your Bible daily. The morning after the conference while I was at the home of one of the ladies who hosted the conference for a shower, (all of us leaders sleep at the church and shuttle to homes for showers), I began chatting with Hannah (10 yrs. old), who had attended the conference.
“Did you sleep in this morning?” I asked.
“No, I got up at six,” she said sweetly, “because I was so excited to start my Bible reading plan.”
She went on to tell me what she read and what she had learned. Way to go, Hannah! Keep it up! 🙂

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The skits always keep us laughing, and no matter how much we prepare and organize… it’s still crazy backstage, right girls?!

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“Cowgirl Bekah”, (along with Alexandra), cooked several meals for our staff throughout the week. And as you can see, she doesn’t stop acting when she is offstage. Thanks again, Bekah and Alexandra, for all your patient work in the kitchen — even when the potatoes wouldn’t cook!!

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Having the Wissmann girls join us at the conference was definitely a special treat! Each of their songs and testimonies added a beautiful dimension to the conference. We’re grateful to God for arranging their schedule so that they could come join us.

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The Bright Lights group in Omaha sang a song for us that was written by the mother of one of the girls in their group. We really liked the song, and now we are excited to teach the song to our own Bright Lights group in Cedar Rapids.

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The cool down after the “Strong in the Lord Conference” was refreshing. After a non-stop day, it was wonderful to relax on a beautiful evening and listen to stories and reports from the conference.

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Happy Birthday, Stephen! Stephen has a pretty high-pressure job all week as he keeps the technical side of everything running smoothly. We are also very grateful for the other guys who came along to help with video.
We’ve been trying to get the conferences recorded for years, but there have been countless obstacles. We decided to try–yet again—to tape the conference, but we needed sufficient lighting and good camera men.
A couple weeks ago some good friends, Daniel and Samuel Roberts, contacted us and volunteered to help with video at the conference if we needed it. Of course, we said “yes”, and they drove all the way from Alabama to Nebraska to help. They are experienced camera men and did an excellent job. Combined with the three other young men from our town, Andrew, Issac, and John, we had just the video team we needed.
In addition, the church had great lighting because they used to broadcast their services. Coupled with our own lights we brought, we were able to produce sufficient lighting for the video. The sessions and skits went well, and we think that we actually may have gotten the video footage we need this time!

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On our free day, our team enjoyed some much-needed rest and recuperation which included extra sleep, an afternoon at the park, ultimate Frisbee, a relaxed dinner, birthday dessert for Stephen, and a nice time of singing with instruments in the evening. Yes, it felt wonderful.

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Here is my small group from the Radiant Purity conference! I appreciated their honesty and good insights!

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Sarah is affectionately nicknamed our “fearless leader”… Sarah, what can I say about you?! You definitely have a way of communicating truth to young ladies in a practical, understandable way. Thank you for the difference you’ve made in all of our lives.

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What you don’t see in this picture is the tears in many eyes. As I took this picture, Tami, our wonderful hostess, (in pink) was sharing through tears how clearly she saw the Lord bringing this conference together and how excited she is for what HE is still going to do. Thoughout our whole pizza and sharing time we heard report after report of encouraging ways the Lord worked throughout the week.

In Joshua 24:2-13 we see the Lord reminding Israel of how HE was the One who had really done the work in bringing them into the promised land. Joshua 24:12 says, “And I sent the hornet before you, which drave them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; but not with thy sword, nor with thy bow.”As we reflected over the conference, it was so obvious to us that the LORD fought the battle last week – not us. May HE continually receive all the glory and all the praise from our hearts!

Homeschool Conferences

Minnesota Homeschool Conference (MACHE)

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Last weekend, Sarah, my dad, myself, and the four Bright Lights interns went up to Minneapolis for the MACHE homeschool conference…

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Setting up our booth the day before

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With over 6,000 attendees, the convention hall kept pretty busy.

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I don’t know what we would have done without the help of our four interns!

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Sarah giving her session called “Raising Daughters who are Pure in a Generation of Darkness”

Before our session on “Developing a Family Ministry” my dad informed us of some bad news. Our projector was missing. It had been left at the house we were staying — a half hour a way. Not good. We were relying heavily on the powerpoint because we had just revamped our whole talk and we really needed our powerpoint to help it stay connected and smooth. And with three speakers it can be especially difficult to keep it flowing in a clear way.

My dad asked all the other speakers at the conference if they had an extra projector we could borrow, but nothing was available. Finally he resorted to the least desirable option — driving all the way back to our host home. Our session was beginning in just over an hour now. We were cutting it close. After arriving at the house, my dad called again with more bad news. “I can’t find it. I’ve looked everywhere.”
Sarah and I dropped what we were doing and prayed.
Five minutes later the phone rang again and I could tell by the relief on Sarah’s face that my dad had good news this time. “I found it. I don’t know why I didn’t see it before–it was right there in the middle of the room.”

Next we needed to tune the harp (which we use during the chalk talk), and guess what? Our tuner was in the van that Dad had taken. Thankfully, Dad arrived about 15 minutes before the talk and we were able to tune, set up, get everything ready and start the session really fast. Whew!
The session went especially well, and many shared very encouraging comments about how the Lord used it to change their perspective. Praise the Lord.

I love looking back and seeing the Lord’s hand in taking care of so many little details!

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Dinner at Chipotle!

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Thank you Buller family for the very nice time we had at your house!

After church, my mom called with urgent news that we couldn’t come home because of the weather. Apparently the snow storm hit right in between Minneapolis and Cedar Rapids, and everyone at our church back home was very concerned after looking online at the weather. So, we decided to “drop in” on some more friends instead of coming home.

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We called the Lenz’s and they graciously opened their home even at such late notice. We enjoyed eating several dozen eggs from their farm 🙂 (among other things), ice cream, and enjoyed great fellowship…

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And, of course, we had to pull out the instruments and have a singing time.

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After a good night’s sleep, a great breakfast, and a refreshing hike through the cornfields, we hit the road again.

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We made it about 5 minutes down the road…and the van broke a belt. We stopped and prayed. My dad called Lenz’s and got the number of their mechanic, who said he happened to be only 5 minutes away (even though he lives in another town) and he’d come take a look. Wow- how convenient! After he looked it over, it was decided that my dad would drive the van to his shop to get it fixed. I was wondering what all of us girls would do while we waited…especially since everyone was getting hungry for lunch.

We passed a Panera Breads.
“Dad–there was a Panera back there! Can you drop us off?” I asked.
“Well, I could stop right here and you can walk back to it,” he offered (he was following the mechanic).

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“K guys let’s go!” I said and we all grabbed our computers and bags, rolled out of the van (almost), and walked through the cold back to Panera, laughing. Panera was a great place to get some e-mails sent and enjoy a relaxing lunch as we waited for the van to be fixed.

My dad had a chance to speak with the mechanic about the Lord and he left him (and the secretary at his shop) with a few of our books.

Each trip is different and unique. Each one is usually characterized by hard work and various problems to work out. But those problems turn into blessings and opportunities when we trust God–the One who’s really “running the show”.


“And my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

Homeschool Conferences

Nebraska Home School Conference

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Karissa, Alexandra, and Nickie working at the booth

The home school conference season has begun….! We just arrived home from Lincoln, Nebraska where four of us girls set up a booth at the NE home school conference. One of our main goals for the trip was to get the word out about the upcoming Bright Lights conference in Nebraska. Everything went smoothly and it was a very good trip.

Radiant Purity Conferences/Strong in the Lord Conf.

Upcoming Bright Lights Conferences in Omaha!

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We are excited to announce our next Strong in the Lord and Radiant Purity Conferences scheduled for April 14-18th — only 3 weeks away!

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Click here to view flyer / registration form.

See our schedule page for more info.

To see pictures and reports from previous conferences, click here or here! If you can’t make it to the conference, we’d so appreciate it if you would keep us–and the attendees–in your prayers!