Over the weekend I joined with two of my long time friends, Caroline and Karen at the Boyanup Christian Homeschool Conference. Caroline was our host – she opened her home to all who wanted to learn about a relationship approach to homeschooling. Karen and I both spoke.
I was so excited to see the opportunities that Caroline’s kids had because of this step the family took. Their son took on the technology side of things – he had to learn about recording and microphones and mp3’s. Their oldest daughter – 14yo helped with the food. The freezers were very well stacked before the weekend. She very competently encouraged and managed 4 other young girls (her sister and 3 of Karen’s daughters) to get the food on the table at the right time – morning and afternoon tea as well as lunch. Their youngest daughter proudly told me she cleaned. And though that wasn’t such an ‘up front’ task it was certainly necessary.
This was the first conference I’ve spoken extensively at and it was very exciting opportunity. When I arrived home Peter asked me what my highlight was and at first it was hard to define but as I thought over the two days I was able to share the incredible feeling of looking out on a group and ‘seeing’ what it looks like when God touches hearts. Karen and I were so excited to see how God had pieced our sessions together though we didn’t collaborate together. It was truly a Christian conference where the word of God was referred to, and fellowship and encouragement was based on our love of Jesus. Exciting!
Our sessions were as follows:
Saturday:
- Knowing our Goals (Belinda)
- We touch the Heart (Belinda)
- Family Discipleship (Belinda)
- My Testimony (Karen) including thoughts on depression
- Character Training (Belinda)
Sunday:
- Promises of God (Karen)
- Wisdom not Knowledge (Belinda)
- Co-ops – a relational approach (Belinda)
- Q&A (Belinda and Karen)
It was a very full on schedule but we wanted to make the most of the time we had together. I came home feeling very content – not just because it was over but because I felt very much that I had shared the things God had put on my heart to share, because we believed that the ladies God wanted there were there and their hearts desire was to go home and think about what they had heard, and to tweak a few things as they responded to God’s prompts.
One of the things that one of my friends from Kununurra suggested was that we take note of a priority and a task working towards that priority for each person to work on when we returned home. I think one of the things that confirms God at work is the diversity of these priority tasks – one lady was going home to hug her husband and tell him how much she loved him, another was going to re-instate character training in her home, and another was going to work on introducing productive free time to her 11yo son. God works like that – different things for different people.
Hi Belinda,
I met you last year at a GEMS afternoon tea in Perth last year. I really wanted to come to the conference but as my hubby works away and my parents were babysitting my sisters children, I was unable to come.
Was is recorded? Do you know how I could get hold of the recording?
Thanks so much
Tanya
Hi Belinda, Im Chanoa from Busselton (I emailed you years ago for some advice and since realized we have many friends in common such as (Kingsley & Lyn Chapman and the Scotfords!!) Anyway, I was incredibly disappointed that I was not able to make this recent conference and I’m hoping that it may be come a more regular thing down this way. Many close friends attended and I have been trying to drain their brains for every bit of info they can remember 🙂
is there any chance there is a recording of the talks. I would love to be able to access them if there are! I understand there may be a cost involved.
Thanks heaps, I know a lot of us appreciate the wisdom of yourself who have gone slightly further ahead then ourselves and done well!
Chanoa