Forty Years Strong

For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing.”’–Deut. 2:7

Three couples sat around a kitchen table, concerned about the trajectory of Christian homeschooling in the state of Illinois as well as the Midwest. What was the result of this meeting? Illinois Christian Home Educators. From this humble kitchen scene, God has blessed the vision of those six pioneers. As ICHE begins her fortieth year, we want to celebrate the faithfulness of God as well as seek His blessing on the next forty years.

God took the Hebrew people out of Egyptian bondage and brought them to the border of Canaan Land. That generation, however, grew weak in faith and let the threat of cultural giants intimidate them. The result was that generation died in the wilderness. ICHE’s generational faithfulness has been much better as our predecessors have handed us a ministry that has kept its founding vision intact: home discipleship with the centrality of Jesus Christ. That message is as strong today as it was at its inception. Glory to God.

The question before us now is what will the next generation do with such a wonderful inheritance. Many people are writing off the next generation as immature, uninterested in the things of God, and self-focused. We believe otherwise. In the fourteenth chapter of Numbers, God said the following generation who were considered as prey for the Canaanite culture would be the ones who would inherit the land. It is the ICHE leadership’s sincerest hope that the next forty years will be even greater due to the abundant grace of God.

To encourage the parents of the next forty years, we want to remind you of God’s faithfulness to the first forty years of homeschoolers. In that spirit, we are going to include one-page testimonies from various ICHE family members on how God has used this ministry to encourage, instruct, equip, and change their family’s trajectory through the power of the grace of Christ. As the Executive Director, I feel such a great indebtedness to ICHE. It was either in 1999 or 2000 that we attended our first ICHE Conference, but it almost didn’t happen. We had never been away for even one night from our then four children. To make matters worse, one of our daughters was not quite herself, so we were worried if she was coming down with something. At the last minute we decided to drive the five hours to Naperville. It seemed like every spiritual and natural force was against us as we had to drive through various storm warnings and watches, including a tornado warning. It hailed on us so hard at one point we had to pull over. We talked seriously about turning back to home. Oh my, what we would have missed!

In the next two and one-half days, God revealed to us—especially me—how biblically disconnected we were regarding family life. We realized that we were basically public schooling at home, not understanding the glory of home discipleship. Throughout various keynotes and break-out sessions, my wife and I would look at each other and simply shake our heads in disbelief at how far we were from the biblical mark. Rather than discouraging us, however, we were grateful that God loved us enough to share us some of the errors of our way, and this lit a fire in our souls. On the five-hour trip home, we had ample time to talk about a few of the things that we felt we needed to implement. This first conference was the genesis of a move of God that continues to this very day. Better yet, our married children have already started implementing things we were ignorant of for the first ten years of our marriage. Our entire legacy has been changed.

Being a pastor and speaker, I have also been able to share with many others some of the things God has taught us during our time with ICHE. It has been a joy to see many buy into the vision of home discipleship and apply it to their own family life to one extent or another. Some are now seeing a third-generation impact. That is something to get excited about.

If home discipleship has been the D.N.A. of ICHE, prayer has been the fuel. This should not be shocking to the Christian community, but the sad reality is we often talk more about prayer than actually praying. The first thing I did when hired as the Executive Director was to make a monthly day of prayer and fasting where we could cry out to God for His direction and supply. Ten years later, we are still crying out, and ten years later, God is still answering.

The first e-blast of each month is usually reserved for the many needs of the homeschool community, but at the risk of being self-serving, would you allow us to take this month and make it about ICHE and her needs so that we can better serve others in the next forty years? Also, if ICHE has impacted your walk in some way, would you please share it with us by sending a one-page testimonial to Kirk at ksmith@iche.org as we celebrate God’s goodness.

Please, join us this month by praying the following:

1. Pray that God would give the ICHE leadership such a big vision that it would take God’s power to see it through. Pray that the Holy Spirit will give us directions on the how and when.
   • But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” –Matthew 19:26
2. Please pray that God would till the soil of those who hear the message of home discipleship, and that ICHE would communicate this vision in such a passionate and anointed way that it would stir Christian parents deep in their souls.
   • But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. –Acts 6:10
3. Pray that we would connect on a deep and meaningful level with the next generations as their needs are different than the previous generation’s needs.
   • And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. ³⁸ But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. –Luke 5:37
4. Pray that God would show ICHE how best to use technology and supply us with the people to do it.
   • If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. –James 1:5
5. Pray that we would passionately keep Christ first in all that we do.
   • But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. –Rev. 2:4
6. Pray for the leadership of ICHE to be on the front side of trends to best prepare the homeschooling community for what is coming down the cultural pipeline.
   • Of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, 200 chiefs, and all their kinsmen under their command. –1 Chron. 12:32
7. In going to the National Alliance Conference each fall and hearing how other boards struggle with unity, it causes the ICHE board to realize how much unity and how little drama we have. Please pray that we will continue this unity of spirit and purpose, showing no concern about who gets what credit as long as God gets the glory.
   • Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. –1 Peter 3:8
8. We thank God for supplying our financial needs through the generosity of the ICHE family. Pray that God will continue to meet our growing needs as we continue to expand.
   • And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. –2 Cor. 9:8
9. Pray that God would raise up like-minded volunteers to help serve in needed positions.
   • to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, –Eph. 4:12
10. Pray for a genuine revival to break out among the ICHE households, especially within the next generation.
    • Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? –Psalms 85:6