June 2003 Archives

This Sunday, I preached on 1 Samual 20 — the friendship of David and Jonathan, surely one of the most profoundly moving and passionate friendships in recorded history. Jonathan is the personification of self-denial, submission, and loyalty. David appears as a man who embodies honor and commitment. Here are two “princes” caught up in enormous events of cosmic significance, and yet they manage to show a loyalty so sublime and uncommon that there is little to parallel this God-revealed story in all the annals of Western litreature. How tragic that the manly beauty of this relationship has been twisted and perverted by the same sodomite thinkers that were ultimately behind last Friday’s horrific United States Supreme Court attack on the Constitution, the common law, and the higher Law which is the foundation of both.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 29, 2003 | Permalink

As between traveling to the land of the “Mouse Mafia” (Disneyworld) or spending an afternoon in the empire of Richard “Little Bear” Wheeler, my children would pick the home of my dear friend every day of the week. Thanks to the efforts of his wife Marilyn, Little Bear’s home is a beautifully-maintained, hopsitality-rich homage to the history of faith and freedom. Every nook and cranny of the domicile is brimming with patriotic paraphenalia, animal skins, military surplus, and books, books, books. This Saturday, my family and I spent one of the more precious afternoons we can remember enjoying the company of “the bear” and his family. The children swam, as Little Bear and I ate venison burgers and plotted the takeover of the world.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 28, 2003 | Permalink

This is my fourth year at the St. Louis CHEF home school convention. Each year we are impressed and blessed by the spiritual hunger and gratitude of the precious families we meet here. My daughter Liberty and I arrived on Tuesday evening and enjoyed a special dinner with John and Candy Summers. The line-up or speakers for the conference was particularly impressive and included my good friends “Little Bear” Wheeler, Dr. S.M. Davis, and Dr. Jeff Meyers.

The highlight of the event was a special “‘Little Bear’ and Doug” keynote in which together we shared about our friendship, offered observations on home education, and answered questions from the audience. Below, Liberty and “Little Bear” pose for a snapshot.

The children pictured below are all brothers and sisters. The twin boys joined us earlier this year on our Ice Age Adventure and are featured on our short film on the same subject which you can view on this Web site.

The Bell family (pictured below) told me they are regular readers of “Doug’s Blog.” It has been my privilege to visit with the Bells and other dear families annually on my visit to St. Louis.

Daddy and Liberty snuggle-up on a drive to dinner with the other featured speakers.

This dear family of ten children also attended our Father and Daughter Retreat

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 26, 2003 | Permalink

Over the last couple of months, my bride Beall and I began to notice an abundance of unwittingly whacky comments coming from our youngest daughter. Here is how it normally works: Beall or I will be with Faith Evangeline Phillips (she is two and a half), when out of her mouth pops a comments so hilarious, we have to bite our tongue, run out of the room, and find or call the other. So we decided to start writing these down.

Here are a few:

Episode #1: Faith on Courtship
“Daddy, you have to find me a husband, but if you can’t, then you have to marry me, okay?”

Episode #2: Faith on Multi-generational Parenting
“When I get married I am going to have a million googleplex children, and also a couple of boys.”

Episode #3: Holy Communion and the Sheep
We practice weekly communion in our local church, so I am not surprised that our little ones take it to heart. What surprises me is the way the words they hear from us come out from their own mouths at the strangest times:

The other day when Faith was playing, we heard her say, “Sheep Mommy says to the Sheep baby: ‘Take this cup, and drink it in remembrance of me.’” Then she added, “God loves everybody in the family, especially the girls, but not lions.”

Episode #4: God is Everywhere
Beall writes: A couple of months ago, Faith and I were talking as I put her to bed about where God was. I said He was in the room, even with her in her bed. She said that He’d have to get out and sleep somewhere else. A few minutes later she told me He’d gone downstairs.

Episode #5: Spankings
About a month ago, Beall spanked Faith (she gets the most of any child I have ever seen) for some atrocity to which she responded: “I’m going to go upstairs and tell God that you spanked me!” Beall told her that it was actually God that had told her that she had to spank little Faith. She responded that then, she’d “go tell Jesus.”

Of course this little bit of disrespect merited another spanking and a dose of a theological discussion about who tells what to whom, and the glories of the Trinity, but that did not stop us from howling about it later in the night.

Episode #6: Dino-Girl
Readers of Doug’s Blog will note that the Phillips family is dinosaur obsessed. Sometimes this rubs off in strange ways. Recently Beall walked into the girls’ room and called out: “Where is Faith?”

A little girl in the room responded, “Faith isn’t here. I’m a pterodactyl!” With that she pulled some dino-bird-like fabric over her head.

From Doug’s Bookshelf: Last year we republished the nineteenth century classic Little Faith. This is a heartwarming morality story about a little girl who learns the true meaning of her name. A beautiful story of devotion between father and daughter. This reproduction of this hardback classic was dedicated to — you guessed it — my daughter. Available on this Web site.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 25, 2003 | Permalink

My son Justice and I were joined by my personal assistant Bob Renaud and Vision Forum Ministries conference coordinator Brian Howell for a blessed time of ministry at the 2003 New Jersey ENOCH state home school convention. God has given me the privilege of speaking in more than forty states, but this was my first opportunity to preach in the Garden State.

One of the benefits of being on the East Coast near Boston or New York is that we can enjoy the food of my youth: real bagels, knishes, kreplach, and matzah ball soup.

Below are images of some of the delightful families with whom we met:

The Knowles Family: Tim & Judie, with Aaron (20), Shaina (18), Ashley (14), Joshua (12), Joseph (12), Naomi (10), and Josiah (8).

This lovely family from “The House of a Song” treated us to many beautiful scriptures songs, including a wonderful version of Isaiah 40 to the tune of Ashoken Farewell. I joined them on the violin.

The Stinett family travels with us annually on the Vision Forum Ministries Faith & Freedom Tour. They are a constant refreshment and encouragement to our souls. This weekend they donated their time to help at the Vision Forum tables.

What an encouragement to see how the Lord is using Vision Forum to bless the household of faith. This dear couple shared a sentiment we hear frequently: “We have been thinking and feeling the same things, but we just did not know how to articulate our beliefs until we listened to the Vision Forum tapes.” Afterwards they treated us to some beautiful classical guitar music.

Brother Gus (in the bowtie and pictured with his family) picked us up at the airport. His family are all proficient on the Ham Radio. We spent the evening discussing this interesting hobby. He said to me: “I don’t have much, but I have the hearts of my children, which makes me rich indeed.”

This last image is not from New Jersey but the day before in my office with Faith and Justice. Here they are both doing little home school projects.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 20, 2003 | Permalink

I am amazed at how many men today have no sense of their clear duty under biblical law to protect the virginity of their daughters. Once upon a time, it was highly unusual for a woman to travel abroad without the protection of a male guardian, normally her father. Women without male escorts were described as “unprotected ladies.” (Aboard the Titanic, for example, first class passenger Archibald Gracie was personally responsible for the protection of six women, all of whom survived the night because he made sure they made it to safety.) The notion of protecting women at home and abroad stems from the biblically-mandated obligation not only to protect a woman generally from harm, but from the father’s duty to preserve the chastity of his daughters from any who would seek to violate it. It is the unique responsibility of fathers to watch over their daughters. An unwed daughter, be she eighteen or twenty-eight, is under the headship of her father, which means his protection and provision. Protection requires proximity — one of about six reasons why I have concerns about fathers sending their unmarried daughters thousands of miles away from home for extended periods of time to college. Yesterday, I received the following sobering letter from a reader. Her experience is worth noting:

“I have listened to your tape What’s a Girl to Do several times but today a sentence that you spoke jumped out at me as if it was just added to the tape. (Shows how I am always listening while mothering, sewing, and doing other tasks doesn’t it! hee hee) Anyway, I had to make a comment about the statement ‘When you send your daughters thousands of miles away without even a church, etc., you are asking for trouble’ (VERY loosely quoted mind you). I want to comment on that.... I was allowed to go almost two thousand miles away to a Bible school at a young age. I DID have much support by the church but that didn’t keep me from foolishly opening the door to my apartment at midnight and being assaulted. The result was the birth of my first child. While this worked out to the glory of God in ways that you can’t imagine, this was also the result of my being in a place where I ought not have been. I was out from under my father’s protection and this would NEVER have happened in his home. (Not that it wouldn’t have happened anyway, but not IN my father’s home.) THANK YOU for telling fathers to guard their daughters’ safety. Not enough men are willing to be so bold. I praise God that my husband is such a man.”

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 19, 2003 | Permalink

“The ‘Sisters, Sisters’ Unity Song for Home Schoolers”
(Modified lyrics by Doug Phillips with sincere apologies to Irving Berlin)

Sisters, sisters,
There were never such devoted sisters.
Never wander very far from “Sis,” no sir,
I’m there to keep my eye on her.

Caring, sharing,
Every little thing that we are wearing.
We don’t go on dates and that’s okay,
We’d rather stay home and play all day.

All kinds of weather, we stick together
The same in the rain or sun.
Two different faces but in tight places,
We think and we act as one. Uh-huh.

Those who’ve seen us,
Know that not a thing could come between us.
Many peers have tried to split us up but no one can.
Won’t help a mister to come between me and my sister,
And won’t help a mister to come between me and my clan.

“Brothers, Brothers,” or “The Just Say ‘No’ to Peer Grouping Song”
(Modified lyrics by Doug Phillips with sincere apologies to Irving Berlin)

Brothers, brothers,
There were never such devoted brothers.
When there comes a flock of peers to tempt a sin,
He watches me and I watch him.

Caring, sharing,
Ev’ry little thing that we are wearing.
When a certain “Little Bear” hero came,
He wore buckskins and I the same.

All kinds of weather, we stick together, the same in the rain or sun.
Two diff’rent faces, but in tight places, we think and we act as one.

Those who’ve seen us,
Know that not a thing could come between us.
Many peers have tried to split us up, but no one shall.
Won’t help the peer group to come between me and my brother
And won’t let another to come between me and my pal.

Helpful Hint: When Irving Berlin wrote the original “Sisters, Sisters” in 1954, he chose a really complex, but satisfying lyrical pattern which you might find difficult to sing without a bit of help.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 17, 2003 | Permalink

Over the years, I have spoken at numerous graduations for Christian students, only to hear the young ladies being celebrated publicly declare their independence and rejoice that “at last” they can toss the reigns of parental authority and escape the dominion of home life. From a biblical perspective, such students are unfit to be described as “graduated.” The word “graduated” comes from the Latin gradus which means to take a step. But the only step taken by such individuals is a step backwards. They should not “pass Go,” not “collect $200,” but go directly back to the starting point of their training where they must learn basics of biblical womanhood before a parent should even consider placing a seal of approval on their training or maturity.

The Bible actually has a great deal to say about what distinguishes a girl from a woman. For one thing, a mature Christian woman is one who has demonstrated that she has been trained and is ready for marriage. Historically, parents understood that it was their mission to raise their daughters to marriageable maturity so they could enjoy the husband “of their youth.”

To raise a daughter without thought to marriage, to instill in them a spirit of independence from the family, or to focus their training on a career outside the home, is actually to disqualify them for graduation and the next step in life. In contrast, a woman who meets the biblical requirements for graduation is one who is comfortable being under the jurisdiction of her father and seeks to make him successful in every way. She recognizes that God calls women to be under the authority of God-appointed men, first in the form of fathers, and later as husbands.

There are other clear benchmarks of mature Christian womanhood outlined in Scripture. They include demonstrating a spirit of submission to authority, modesty, and gracious communication (1 Peter 3), sobriety, an absence of gossip, and faithfulness in all things (1 Timothy 3), a love of home and children (Titus 2), and numerous skills that will equip the woman to guide and develop an economically successful and prosperous household (Proverbs 31). These are the very qualities (not John Dewey’s model of academic advancement) that should be celebrated and honored at a Christian graduation of a young lady.

Last night I attended one such graduation. Beall and I were honored to have been asked to sponsor and speak at the graduation of Miss Lourdes Torres. The event signified much more than just the completion of academic requirements. In fact, academics were purely incidental to the real reason for the celebration. The heart and soul of the purpose of the graduation was for her Mom and Dad to honor the Lord for bringing their daughter into mature Christian womanhood.

Home School Graduate Lourdes Torres with Liberty, Faith, and Jubilee Phillips

Beall and I have known the graduate for more than three years. In fact, we consider her to be a member of the family, and her parents to be the dearest of friends. She has assisted my wife on more occasions than any of us could count and even traveled with us on adventures with Vision Forum. The celebration was a special blessing because, in every respect, Lourdes personified the characteristics that a Christian woman should possess to be described as “commencing” or graduating to the next step on the journey of mature Christian womanhood. What a tremendous blessing!

Grateful Parents Alfredo and Carmen Torres

After the celebration, families and friends from our church and the San Antonio community fellowshipped into late in the evening. My heart rejoiced to see the young ladies of our community delight in loving and caring for the children; to see the men discussing things of God, and to watch families, many of whom share a common vision, fellowship into the night.

Aimee Wheeler — daughter of “Little Bear” — reads Mike Mulligan to the children

Life is abundant in a home school community as evidenced by the following expecting mothers comparing bellies.

From Doug’s Bookshelf: How to Make Wise Decisions About College and Life After Home School. This tape series is an important work I have put together to help parents and students think through the difficult issues of college from a biblical perspective. Available from Vision Forum.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 16, 2003 | Permalink

Today I spent a glorious Father’s Day worshipping with my dad, family, and brothers and sisters of our congregation and friends from across the nation at our little meeting house we call “The Little House on the Prairie Church Building.” My time together with Dad is so precious. He reminded me of how much he missed our Monday morning prayer breakfasts in Virginia at Anita’s mexican restaurant when I lived in Virginia. It was hard saying goodbye to my father, but God willing, I will see him again in four weeks.

It is always so wonderful to be with the Saints. This Sabbath was especially blessed for me because I had just experienced the busiest travel season of the year for us, having preached more than fifty messages over the last month while travelling. Praise God for His Church and for the blessing of being home. My message for the morning was on the significance of martyrs and understanding the message of martyrdom from the perspective of the role of fatherhood. My text was Hebrews 11:35 to 12:18. I gave the history of the first four major persecutions of the Church through the Third Century, explained that God exhorts us to run with patience, reminds us that we have yet to resist with bloodshed, and tells all Christians to remember the example of those who came before us when we think life is tough because we are being scourged for our own benefit by earthly fathers or our heavenly Father.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 15, 2003 | Permalink

With the conclusion of my father’s San Antonio summit meeting (see past Thursday’s blog) at about 4:00 in the afternoon, I took the entire team to the Alamo where I enjoyed leading them on a tour of the remarkable site where 186 men withstood three thousand troops under the command of the notoriously wicked General Santa Anna. I always enjoy speaking in a public forum because it inevitably attracts the attention of passers-by and provides great opportunities for evangelism. On this occasion, I read the letter of the great hero Colonel Travis and shared what we know of his famous speech in which he drew a line in the sand to divide those who would fight from those who wanted to leave. Only one left, for which we can give thanks to God. Because of him we have the story.

After the Alamo and a brief tour of the Menger Hotel where Teddy Roosevelt raised the Rough Riders, my family and I were honored to be joined by my father and the Michael Petrouka family for a special evening of good, old-fashioned red meat and tremendous stories. We plotted, laughed, and rejoiced into the night.

From Doug’s Bookshelf: The Letters and Lessons of Teddy Roosevelt for His Sons is a little volume of letters and speeches that I compiled and edited. The book offers the reader a delightful collection of communications between the President and his children that offer insight into his vision of fatherhood. Also included are his speeches to the boys of America and his “Strenuous Life” speech. Available from Vision Forum.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 14, 2003 | Permalink

Family traditions are crucial to the culture of the family. Each family should develop its own unique traditions based on the character, giftings, personal testimony, and history of its leaders. In the Phillips family, many traditions abound, all glorious and memorable. One of these traditions involves a special “too secret to be revealed in a blog” gift my father gives to me and each of his grandchildren every single year on our birthdays. The gift is basically the same each year, though it annually grows bigger and bigger depending on the age of the recipient. Though the gift is financially valuable, the monetary value of the gift is not at all what matters to us. Because our birthdays are so close, my son Joshua and I received our gifts at the same time. Each year we know it is coming, but it always brings delight and wonder to my children who look forward to it with great expectation. (See if you can guess what the gift is?)

For as long as I can remember, my father has enjoyed telling the Uncle Remus stories of Joel Chandler Harris. These readings normally occur on holidays and special occasions. Since Dad was in San Antonio, we seized the opportunity for a special recitation. The children sat spellbound. No one reads Uncle Remus like my father, or brings to life Brer Rabbit, Brer Bear, and Brer Fox with such gusto. We read from the original volume which is replete with dozens of stories and includes a lengthy cast of characters.

Jubilee listens intently to Dad reading Uncle Remus.

Another Phillips family tradition is that we look for every opportunity possible to invite great men and women to our home so we can learn from them, bless them with hospitality, and interview them to learn their life stories. The San Antonio Summit officiated by my father afforded an opportunity to show hospitality to these guests and to learn from them. One guest in particular caught our attention: Tonight we spent over two hours around our dinner table with the camera rolling interviewing Hilmar Von Campe, a former member of the Hitler Youth, an applicant for the Nazi party, and a soldier under the Third Reich. (I made sure my eldest children were there to drink in the rich history.) Today, a repentant Mr. Von Campe is a Christian who has spent the last half of a century sharing a message about the dangers of moral cowardice and the evil of Nazism and all systems which oppose the Lord. In a future blog I will give you my two bits on this remarkable interview.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 13, 2003 | Permalink

Today I had the privilege of sponsoring in San Antonio my father Howard Phillips and about twenty-five leaders from around the country for a special summit to discuss key public policy directives for the United States. The common denominator of the group was a love for Christ, the Constitution, and an appreciation for the role of Divine Providence in our nation’s history. The group was delightfully diverse and included physicians, attorneys, businessmen, pastors, authors, and radio personalities. My sons Joshua and Justice attended with me, as did my personal assistant Bob Renaud.

From Doug’s Bookshelf: I am currently reading and plan to write an extensive review of the book All the President’s Children by Doug Wead, published by Atria Books and released this March. The book, which carries the subtitle, “Triumph and Tragedy in the Lives of America’s First Families,” is very significant for proponants of biblical patriarchy because it examines the interaction of great American leaders with their children and analyzes the results. I am holding off on discussing the thesis of the book until I complete my read, but the facts presented are astonishing. It is a landmark bit of research which should be of great value.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 12, 2003 | Permalink

I recently purchased a print of a famous painting of the early martyrs in the coliseum. After some discussion, I decided to place the picture prominently in my dining room next to my chair where I often teach and speak to my family. The picture depicts the early Christians, young and old, gathered together while an elder stands and prays. From the ground emerges a lion and a tiger, hungry and ready to consume the faithful believers. In the foreground, two images contrast: Lining the edge of the arena are stakes with Christians who have been burnt alive, or are being consumed by the flames. Behind and around them are the faceless images of tens of thousands of spectators watching and laughing at the terrible fate of the martyrs. To my thinking, the juxtaposition of the crowd, the lions, the burning Christians, and those about to be consumed, is a profound representation of the antithesis between Christ and the world which must define the life of the believer.

For the last two nights during our family altar time, I have used the picture to teach my children the true meaning of being a Christian. They have been sobering but beautiful experiences. My prayer for my wife, myself, and each of my children is that we will live well by resolving now to die well, should God call any to make the ultimate sacrifice for their Lord. In my own life, it was the reading of Foxes Book of Martyrs at age fourteen which forever transformed my view of the Christian’s walk. Now I hope to share this message with my own loved ones.

There are those who believe that we should hide such truth as martyrdom from our children, but I think that to advocate such a view is to misunderstand holiness. It is to relegate the Bible to a book of cute children’s stories rather than the true saga of the battle between the kingdom of life and the kingdom of death. Such individuals would overlook the execution of the entire world by the Lord at the time of the Flood, the beheading of Goliath by a little boy, and perhaps even the agonies of the Cross. God, who is holy and who defines propriety, has given us a book which He commands to be read to our children. They must know of sin, death, and judgment form their earliest days, as well as of hope, redemption, and victory. Yes, biblical wisdom dictates the how and when of the way we communicate such truths, but we must not shirk from reading the whole Law of God and His wonders and praises to even our infants and little ones, as He has commanded.

I am also reminded that the images we display in our homes have a greater impact than we might imagine in the lives of our children. Our children look at these thousands of times, and though they may never comment on them, the sights and sounds of the home become tools to help them absorb and internalize the culture of the family in ways that are more profound than any of us dare to imagine. The music, the smells, and the images of family life help to define their view of Christian culture. We must live deliberately and choose wisely if we are to “take every thought captive” and rebuild the culture of the Christian household.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 11, 2003 | Permalink

Someday, posterity will look back on this generation and ask where we stood on the defining battle of our culture at this moment in history: The family. They will ask where we stood on a pivotal issue of that defining battle: Life. They will want to know if we viewed life, the way God views life, as a blessing greatly to be desired. Posterity will discover the truth — that most Christians of our generation, including Christian leaders, advocated the cutting off of the godly seed and unwittingly embraced the culture of death, by distorting the natural purposes of their bodies and thwarting the blessings of the womb. The result is a generation of males stripped of their manhood and women with empty wombs. The Bible calls debt a curse and children a blessing, but our culture applies for curses and rejects blessings. This will be the tragic legacy of far too many Christians.

All of this brings me to Knoxville. If there is one simple principle embraced by Bill Gothard and the ministry of IBLP that has left the greatest and most positive impact on our nation, it is their vigorous, uncompromising, unequivocating view of children as a blessing and birth control as a perversion of God’s design for husband and wife. Today, there are thousands of precious babies walking the earth because their parents heard this message from the IBLP ministry. For this I am grateful. Below is pictured a choir of “reversal babies” who came to sing praises to God. What a joy to see how God has blessed these many families who acted in faith to restore the manhood of the husbands and the wombs of the wives.

At the 2003 Knoxville home school conference, it was a joy to meet hundreds of families from around the country who had been blessed by the ministry of Vision Forum. One of the staff members commented that, before listening to the tape The Blessed Marriage, she had a very negative view of marriage, but that the message opened her eyes to the wonderful message God intends to be broadcast in the life of the Christian through the nobility and beauty of a Christian marriage. This thrills my heart. Also, exciting were the many young people met and for whom I signed bibles who commented that they had seen our film Raising the Allosaur. One little boy told us that it was “his favorite movie in the whole world.”

Dr. Jim Leininger and bride Cecelia spend a few moments together before he delivers a message to the main Knoxville auditorium on the significance of giving to the Lord. This message, borne out of a lifetime testimony of experience with both failure and success, was one of the most tender, personal, and meaningful messages of the 2003 conference. It is my hope that many will be able to hear the testimony of my dear friend on this subject so crucial to the Body of Christ.

The Lavin family is one of the many faithful families seeking God for healing. Please remember them and daughter Jaimee who suffers from a serious back problem. We have known and worshipped with the Lavins for several years. Their testimony of faith amidst excruciating pain has been instructive to all of us.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 10, 2003 | Permalink

The stadium housing the event was enormous. It appeared to hold about 10,000 to 12,000 on the evening of my keynote. This was probably the largest group to which I have had the honor to speak.

The Pierpont family offered a tremendous musical presentation for the opening night at Knoxville. We were delighted to learn that they regularly peruse “Doug’s Blog.”

One of the highlights of the event was spending time with Shawn Cohen, the young man assigned as my escort. He demonstrated sincerity, humility, personal attention, and a can-do spirit which blessed my personal staff.

Mr. Gothard was the perfect host, making sure that all of his speakers were well cared for, and visiting with us on multiple occasions to pray and share his heart for the event.

One of my break-out workshop sessions was entitled “The Most Important Questions in a Man’s Life.” Here I address a group of young men on that subject.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 9, 2003 | Permalink

With the many glories of Knoxville fresh in our spirit, I today joined my bride and all of our children for a full day of preaching and speaking at the Houston SETHSA home school conference. I preached for about five hours on the subjects of biblical worldview, biblical fatherhood, courageous boyhood, and unity between church and home. Joining me as speakers at the conference were Jeff Meyers of the Meyers Institute, long-time friend Marylyn Rockett, and Jim Weiss of Great Hall Recordings, which produces outstanding Henty readings on tape and CD, available through Vision Forum. Scheduled speaker Dr. John Morris was replaced by our ICR colleague Mike Riddle, whose video science courses for high school students is excellent.

The highlight of the day for us was a conversation with a precious family from Corpus Christi who showed us a picture of their son and explained in sum: “Our baby is here today because we heard you speak four years ago and we were convicted that we should have a reversal.” To God be the glory for every parent that is willing to embrace the biblical mandate to be fruitful and multiply. If only more families would receive children as a blessing.

My boys enjoyed discussing with Mike Riddle recent evidence uncovered in England for dinosaurs living contemporaneously with man. Mike is a circuit teacher for the Institute for Creation Research.

After the event, we enjoyed a glorious dinner at a local steakhouse in Houston. I was reminded that all meetings are providentially ordained when the manager of the steakhouse asked if we were home schoolers. When I answered “yes” he told me his sister was “at some conference in Knoxville this week.” Joining us for dinner was Vision Forum director of operations Kevin Turley and his family. The Turley family is one of the greatest encouragements in our lives because of their ability to combine professionalism with enthusiasm and an infectious love that transforms all who meet them. Pictured below is Kathleen and Samuel Turley at the Vision Forum table.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 7, 2003 | Permalink

Never to be forgotten was my experience this wednesday offering a keynote address to a capacity crowd of 10,000 to 12,000 home educators in the massive auditorium of the University of Tennessee as part of the 2003 Knoxville convention sponsored by the ministries of Bill Gothard. For the last twenty years this annual conference has attracted thousands of home educators participating in Advanced Training Institute, a unique character driven, unit based approach to Christian home education.

My topic for the evening was “The Promise,” a message which examines the beauty and power of the Fifth Commandment through a simple examination of more than two dozen key Scriptures. My heart is that the message will help sons and daughters embrace a spirit of honor with their Godly parents, but also learn from Scriptural examples how we may honor even abusive or perverse authority figures. Joining me for keynotes this week were David Barton, Gary Smalley, Joni Erikson Tada, and Ray Comfort, to name a few.

From a speakers perspective who has no formal connection to Bill Gothard or his ministry, several observations stood out: First, Knoxville afforded me an opportunity to experience the single most grateful assemblage of individuals with whom I have ever had the honor to speak. There were times when I literally could not move without being immersed in a sea of home educators, each with a special story to share, a signature to request or a note of thanks to offer. Young and old alike communicated with the language of gratitude in a manner that surely gave honor to the Lord. I enjoyed hundreds of conversations over the course of the week, each of which was an encouragement to my soul. Mr. Gothard himself set the standard as a man of encouragement and gratitude, taking regular opportunities to meet with me over the course of the week to give me reports on the impact of my keynote.

Second, the Knoxville conference provided me with the single most remarkable example of a conference organization structure I have ever observed. Like a hive of well-trained bees, the hundreds of staff and volunteers who manned the Knoxville swarmed and moved with a dizzying speed, but always with clear purpose and direction. Though managed by individuals largely under the age of twenty-four, professionalism was extremely high, yet another testimony to the capability of home educators to do great things. Finally, the conference offered the most uplifting and Christ-centered music I have experienced at a home school conference (or any conference for that matter).

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 6, 2003 | Permalink

Beall and I am are at a season in our parenting when “firsts” seem to be on the increase exponentially. Two weeks ago, my four oldest children began violin lessons for the first time. The other day, our daughter Liberty rode a bike without training wheels for the first time. She was so thrilled. Today was the first day that my youngest son, Honor, sat on his own in a swing and had his daddy push him. This same day, both of my older boys received their first baseball mits, which we broke in during an afternoon of recreation at the park. Each of these events, though seemingly small, are landmark in my mind. Later, my son pointed out for the first time that his height had finally reached my shoulders. Each “first” marks a new step in the progress of life for the souls God has entrusted to me. Each event is a memory to be treasured, discussed, and chronicled. But this will never happen unless we stop, observe, savor, and rejoice in the progress of the life of our little ones.

Another first for me is my participation this year as a keynote at the Knoxville ATIA conference. I look forward to delivering some messages on honor, ethics, and life preperation on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. I do appreciate your prayers for our travel and ministry.

Posted by Doug Phillips on June 3, 2003 | Permalink