Everyone wants to make a difference with the short time they have here on earth. Even more importantly, Christian parents hope their children find meaning, purpose, and joy in knowing the person of Jesus Christ. While there is no one single ingredient—outside the grace of God—that can cause this to happen, one weekend event that has literally changed the lives of dads and moms, as well as their legacies, has been the ICHE Family Conference.
It was two decades ago when my wife and I drove five hours from our Southern Illinois home to Chicagoland. We traveled through hail, thunderstorms, and tornado warnings. At the risk of sounding dramatic, looking back, it seems like all hell was aligned against us, somehow knowing that our lives would be forever changed. One line, shared almost as a sidenote, was used by God to deeply convict my wife and me of our perspective of a biblical family life. Another speaker asked the question, “Were kangaroos ever in the Middle East?” My lack of a truly biblical worldview was exposed. Since then, others who attended that same conference have shared how God used it in a powerful way to change their entire way of thinking as well. In the last 23 years, we have only missed the conference two times.
I once talked to a pastor who said, “Everyone needs to go to a homeschool conference at least once. After that, if you’ve been to one, you’ve heard all you need to hear.” Having been year after year with increasing benefit, I thought, “If you have been to one Sunday morning message have you heard all you need to hear?” Culture is always changing. Each generation has unique temptations to which it must confront. Resources change. Our children change and so do the seasons of our lives. It is so important to hear how others are navigating these changes successfully.
In 35 years of ministry, I have had the great pleasure of traveling to various conferences from the West Coast to the East Coast. I have heard some of the best-known names in modern Christendom. Speaking honestly, the best, most life-changing information I have heard on a consistent basis has come from the ICHE Family Conference. There are even times I don’t like the words “homeschool conference” because it is so much more than that.
There are many homeschoolers who really need to experience the presence of God. They feel like they are nothing but spiritually dry bones. Some parents are facing rebellion in their homes. Others are becoming tired of constantly swimming against the tide of culture, the culture of society, church, and family. This generation has been inundated with so much anti-God sentiment from every media outlet possible, perhaps more than any other generation. They need help and encouragement to stay grounded.
Would you please pray faithfully in the month of April for our conference that runs from May 19 – 22. I am praying for a special outpouring of God’s Spirit so that grace may overflow and all attendees bathe in the presence of Christ.
1. Pray that God will put an irrepressible desire on the hearts of thousands of homeschooling dads and moms to attend the conference, and that all of hell’s attempts to thwart that desire would completely fail.
- and said, “O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you. –2 Chronicles 20:6
- Or how can someone enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house. –Matthew 12:29 (we want to plunder the enemy’s plans)
2. Pray that God would enlighten the eyes of all attendees to a fresh revelation of His glory as well as to the vision of home discipleship.
- He who has ears to hear, let him hear. –Matthew 11:15
- Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. –2 Kings 6:17
3. Pray that God would supernaturally ordain the right sessions for each person to hear, even if it is not what he/she had prepared to go to initially.
- Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear: –Psalms 10:17
- And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, –Romans 9:23
4. Pray that God would supernaturally ordain people to meet one another, and that they would find much encouragement.
- And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. –Luke 24:15
- For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. –Matthew 18:20
5. Pray the hearts of young people, especially young adults, would be turned in a powerful way to the person of Christ and to the principles of His Word.
- Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved. –Psalms 80:3
- A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. –Ez. 36:26, 27
6. Pray for everyone to experience the presence of God in a way that they have not experienced in a long time (if ever), and that a refreshing would fall on all.
- And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? –Luke 24:32
- Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. –Acts 3:19 (KJV)
7. Pray that anyone carrying a burden—homeschooling, parental, marital, emotional, physical—will have that burden lightened supernaturally by Christ.
- For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. –Psalms 38:4
- Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved. –Psalms 55:22
8. Pray that we will be able to connect with pastors of area churches, and that they would be supernaturally drawn to the conference to hear the message of home discipleship and really get to know the homeschooling community.
- And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. –Jer.3:15 (KJV)
9. Pray that all the logistics, from food to housing to volunteers to technology, will run smoothly for the weekend.
- For the body does not consist of one member but of many. –1 Cor. 12:14
10. Since we must travel from building to building, pray that the weather will be hospitable if not outright gorgeous.
- “Has the rain a father, or who has begotten the drops of dew? –Job 38:28
- And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. –Matthew 8:26
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