Home School Corner: The End of a Season!

 Welcome back to the Homeschool Corner!

I have some news today, and it's really hard for me to figure out how to tell you all!

Things are changing; with the 'rona, with ministry opportunities, with life. My husband and I have been led to a new area of ministry (more details on that below!) and we realized that we were stretched too thin to be whole-heartedly present in every area.

This being the case, with much prayer and deliberation, I have decided to resign from my six-plus-year role on the Crossroads Women's Ministry team, and focus on the new adventures the Lord has set before our family. I have been involved in the CWM in some capacity (officially and unofficially) ever since I was in high school, particularly since my mom became the CWM Coordinator about 13 years ago--so this is a pretty dramatic step for me! 

I'm still going to be homeschooling, and I love sharing what God is teaching me with my littles, so feel free to ask me anytime if you have homeschool questions or I'd love for you to follow our adventures and my homeschooling thoughts at my blog, Little Patch of Heaven, or any of my personal social media profiles! (Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest)

I have absolutely loved working with the ladies at Crossroads--growing together and ministering and being ministered to. Even after lockdown hit, I loved the opportunity to share my heart for homeschool with all of you, and I sincerely hope it has helped to bridge the gap in this weird season over the past few months--and seriously, if you were an "accidental homeschooler" and now want to do this for reals, I would love to help you in any way I can!

 In the meantime, my husband and I are going to start pouring into a new calling and ministry opportunity: Trail Life USA for our boys, which we are chartering in partnership with the Christian Association of Parent Educators! We have been working toward this since early 2020, but it's been an answer to prayers about the cultural attack on boys that has been a concern of mine since I became a #boymom! My husband and I both believe that it is our responsibility to engage in raising up our boys as the next generation of godly leaders of men--and after much prayer and research, we think Trail Life is an awesome way to approach that, and a perfect fit for our family. (We also are hoping and planning to launch their sister organization, American Heritage Girls, within the year for little sister--because we know girls are not exempt from cultural attack either!) 

Our troop is now meeting, and it's already an exciting and wild adventure--which is just about what I would hope with a ministry for boys! Feel free to get in touch with me about TL-USA or AHG if either of these ministries strike a chord with you!

It has been such a joy and a privilege to serve the women of Crossroads in a variety of capacities, and I am so grateful for the friendships, the learning, and the grace that I experienced on this team and with this body. I hope and assume that we'll still be all working and fellowshipping together, just in a slightly different context--but there are, of course, a lot of unknowns, and I wanted to mark this change by raising this little virtual "Ebenezer" of God's faithfulness and recount my joy in ministry with you all over the years.

I want to particularly thank my mom, Vickie T., for her years as coordinator and the discipleship and mentoring--which is still ongoing!--giving me the (perhaps overly-confident) belief that I can do anything I set my mind to do through Christ who strengthens me. I also want to thank Sandy Z., our current CWM coordinator for her continued enablement of my crazy ideas, her grace in leadership in severely trying circumstances, and her encouragement for me to utilize the gifts God has given me, even when they were not gifts in her comfort zone! Additionally, I want to thank Christi G. for being my "other mother," and a long-time mentor; Karen L. for being my Titus 2:3-5 woman I could look to for homeschooling, marriage, and everything else; Kirk C., for being willing to build or back just about everything I could think up when I was doing non-virtual ministry at Crossroads before 2020; and Shawna H. and Ang B. in the office, who got stuck doing paperwork and helping me troubleshoot when my ideas got too big for me. 

Beyond these, there are simply too many individuals to recount who have made all the difference in this last era of ministry for me. Thank all to all you wonderful ladies (and guys)--you are my dearest friends, the heart of your home, and the arms of the body of Christ--keep fighting the good fight! I will be seeing you around--and I hope you'll reach out if there's anything I can do to help! And as we say in Trail Life (referencing Colossians 1:10), Walk Worthy!

Much love,

Em