What Patience Produced is our end of year series to catch you up on how your support has kept us patient and how it has led to fruit.
Fruit: The start of a biblical parenting philosophy & practice that is deeply impacting our home, our church, our community and our world.
Our Home: “Let Me Check The Spreadsheet”
Actual footage of my spreadsheet on that day. I saved it as: “Confirmation from the Lord” 🤣
It was a sleepy Saturday in 2022 when a very-pregnant Nendir turned to me and said, “I want to homeschool.”
My reply, “Let me check the spreadsheet.”
For me, it just came down to dollars and cents because I already saw:
How much reading Nendir was doing on parenting and how much counsel she was proactively receiving
How much I
sufferedenjoyed all of her musings on the topic 🤣And the sobriety with which she approached the topic. See, it wasn't the toxic “this-way-is-the-only-wayism” it was a, “I think this is best for us”.
So I checked the spreadsheet, cried a little and said, “let’s do it”.
4 years in, 2 girls and a baby boy on the way and I’m deeply encouraged by the peace in our home. It’s very early in our parenting journey but I’m hopeful we will become warriors worthy of such wonderful arrows.
Our Church: Plants & Pillars
We don’t provide children’s programming during service. I don’t say that with an ounce of embarrassment or pride. I share it with joy.
See, before we went public in November, our team had the conversation:
If we have children’s programming during service, it means we either:
Hire out
Have 1 member miss church every Sunday and given capacity and availability (members falling sick, running late, etc… life happens!) this member, more often than not, will be Nendir - our Director of Plants & Pillars (Children’s Ministry/Discipleship).
After receiving counsel from some longtime Children’s Ministry pros we decided to prioritize Nen’s spiritual health over the program.
So…what do we do?
We run Plants & Pillars, a children’s ministry program after service that is bearing fruit in our families. Our kids enjoy church, they sing out and every service they grow quieter and quieter 🤫.
(Not last Sunday though 😱. We are convinced last Sunday they colluded together to give us a run for our money. Thank God, we have more endurance than them 😆).
Our Community: In Conversation
At the start of the year we started a home school co-op for children ages 0-6. And it’s been wonderful.
The name, In Conversation, reflects what we value:
The ongoing conversation between ancient books and modern minds.
The dialogue between one culture and another.
The lifelong conversation between parent and child.
And above all, the conversation with Christ, who is Truth.
We’ve received a great deal of interest for a new co-op and the response from participants has been deeply encouraging.
The space and time to serve others in this way, is simply not possible without your financial support. Thank you!!
Our World: Karen Swallow Prior, Rachael Denhollander and…
Nendirmwa Noel.
Those were all recent guests on the internationally acclaimed podcast, “The Well-Trained Mind” with host Susan Wise Bauer and Susanna Jarrett.
Nen was reluctant to do the podcast when asked by the hosts, but I think after listening to it you’ll agree with me that she had absolutely no reason to fear.
The Lord enabled Nendir to conduct a tough conversation with God’s grace, that rare balance of conviction, wisdom and humility.
What’s my role in all this? I’m at her service haha. More spreadsheets, sending out embarrassing emails, being the gym teacher at times, making sure our church includes children and doesn’t cast them aside, blah, blah, blah…
I’m just thrilled that we have an opportunity to continue serving parents and their littles. It’s great, great work. The international audience is just an unexpected bonus.
Final issue of this Volume 2 of What Patience Produced is set for next week 🙌 . In the meantime:
Thank you for all the love that shows up in prayer, checking in and financial support.
Please sign up and/or leave a comment for our second Community Conversation, “The Bible Is…”, set for Sunday, June 14th @ 4p. Promo for this starts next week 🙌.
Here’s a 2 minute video that I think you’ll enjoy. It’s different, but in a really good way. Also features a guy who was once in my youth ministry back in the day haha. Time flies 😆(aka I’m getting old).
Much love,
Pastor Dave