Dear Friends of the Harris Family,

I am sending this message to you to let you know of a need. Perhaps you have heard that our dear sister, Sono Harris, is struggling with cancer - and soon to go Home.

The Harris Family hold a special place in our hearts as it is through the ministry of Gregg Harris and Christian Life Workshops....that many years ago, my  husband came to know Christ. Many of you have been influenced, inspired, helped and taught God's principles by this ministry. And many of you who are new to homeschooling may have never even heard of Gregg Harris - one of the key pioneers of the homeschool movement. BUT, even if you've never heard of Gregg and Sono, you probably have heard of their talented children: Joshua Harris (author of I Kissed Dating Good-bye) and Alex and Brett Harris - authors of Do Hard Things and the Rebelution blog.

Sono is my dear friend. I am at a loss to express how deep is my sadness. But I know for certain that God is good and that He never makes mistakes. He WILL be glorified! Sono lived well and has worshipped the King and now she is dying well.

Though this trial is difficult beyond words, they have walked through this with grace and courage. Read Joshs' posts and updates on his blog here.

 I am posting here to ask you to prayerfully give to this family....whether you know them or not, if you are a homeschooling family, we owe a debt of gratitude to their work and their faithfulness. Let us give as we are able. The medical bills are mounting.

Cards and notes can be sent to:

Gregg and Sono Harris and family – 6920 SE Hogan Road, Gresham, OR 97080

You can also donate to Noble Institute, marking the donation Friends of Sono Harris Fund.

Blessings in Christ's Name -

Jennifer Steward

Summer is here! We had quite the wet and long Spring, so we are enjoying the warm days now :)

Our days are always full and we have much to be thankful for! Last week our family was busy helping some dear friends of ours prepare for a wedding. Everything turned out beautifully. Jennifer helped coordinate, Kally helped with seating, I, Brooke, was honored to be a bridesmaid, Sam helped with parking. It was a family effort and we were blessed to be a part of it. These were lifelong friends of ours and it was so amazing to witness a wedding where Christ is the center and it is evident the couple's desire is to glorify Him. What a blessing! The bride has been like a sister to me through all these years, which as you can imagine helped to produce lots of joyful tears on the day of. :)

Well, I, Brooke, am busy gardening and trying to stay on top of Steward Ship business. I am very excited to garden this year. I realized this Spring that I have gotten into the habit of being too busy all the time...and don't just have time to think and pray with true sincerity because I usually always thinking about what else I have to do....even when I'm driving. And, I'm only 21 years old. So, I decided I needed to do something that would take time and couldn't just be "checked off" a list. I planted, with the help of sisters, cabbage, broccoli, lettuce, spinach, carrots, turnips, tomatoes, peppers, squash, pumpkin, cucumbers, and wild flowers. Not in one day. It was a process. :) One thing at a time.

I have been blessed to have some "dwelling time" while in the garden. A lot of what I have been dwelling on has been lessons a garden has to teach. Like the weeds, for example. They grow so easily and will "take over" if I don't pull them. It's like sin in our lives, it will take over and cause delay and harm to the plants growth, if I don't pull them.

Or watering. If I don't water the plants die. If I don't stay in the Word of God slowly it is hard to know truth and to live by it.

Or how you need both sun and water, with just one or the other the plant can't survive. It's like how we need both the Holy Spirit and the Holy Bible to help us grow.

I have become quite thankful as I have been paying attention to the plants in the garden and as I compare myself to one of those plants I get a new perspective. How grateful I am that God does pay attention to my life and helps me to grow through His Son, His Spirit and His Word of Truth. It is also quite humbling to realize that in and of myself I cannot grow, it is something, Someone much greater than myself that produces growth and fruit in my life. Therefore, when growth and fruit comes forth the glory and credit goes to the gardener and not the plant. I am left with a very thankful heart....for who could ask for more than I have? To work towards accomplishing the task I was created for, there is great joy in that!

I hope this finds you all enjoying your summer days and rejoicing that Jesus Christ is alive and His Word is true! How sweet it is to trust in Him!

I received this story through email and, even though I’ve heard something like it before (as you may also have), I thought it was too good to pass up! Let us remember how our Lord values the eternal investment of motherhood!

JUST A MOM

A woman, renewing her driver's license at the County Clerk 's  office, was asked by the woman recorder to state her occupation. She hesitated, uncertain how to classify herself. “What I mean is,” explained the recorder, “do you have a job or are you just a ...?”

“Of course I have a job,' snapped the woman. “I'm a Mom.”

“We don't list 'Mom' as an occupation, 'housewife' covers it,” said the recorder emphatically. I forgot all about her story until one day I found myself in the same situation, this time at our own Town Hall. The Clerk was obviously a career woman, poised, Efficient, and possessed of a high sounding title like, 'Official Interrogator' or  “Town Registrar’

“What is your occupation?” she probed.  What made me say it?  I do not know. The words simply popped out. “I'm a Research Associate in the field of Child Development and Human Relations.” The clerk paused, ball-point pen frozen in midair and looked up as though she had not heard right.

I repeated the title slowly emphasizing the most significant words. Then I stared with wonder as my pronouncement was written, In bold, black ink on the official questionnaire.

“Might I ask,” said the clerk with new interest, “just what you do in your field?” Coolly, without any trace of fluster in my voice, I replied, “I have a continuing program of research, (what mother doesn't) In the laboratory and in the field, (normally I would have said indoors and out). I'm working for my Masters, (first the Lord and then the whole family) And already have four credits (all daughters). Of course, the job is one of the most demanding in the humanities, (any mother care to disagree?) And I often work 14 hours a day, (24 is more like it). But the job is more challenging than most run-of-the-mill careers and the rewards are more of a satisfaction rather than just money.” There was an increasing note of respect in the clerk's voice as she completed the form, stood up and personally ushered me to the door. As I drove into our driveway, buoyed up by my glamorous new career, I was greeted by my lab assistants -- ages 13, 7, and 3.

Upstairs I could hear our new experimental model, (a 6 month old baby) in the child development program, Testing out a new vocal pattern. I felt I had scored a beat on bureaucracy! I had gone on the official records as someone more distinguished and indispensable to mankind than 'just a Mom.' Motherhood - What a glorious career! Especially when there's a title on the door. Does this make grandmothers

“Senior Research  Associates” in the field of Child Development and Human Relations'

Sunday morning – post “slumber party!”

Most of my older kids are out of town at a homeschool debate tournament, so we decided to have 2 of our granddaughters (Elaina 5 & Lily 3) over for a slumber party. At the current time, we have about an hour before we leave for church, so I’ve been enjoying watching the girls crawl under the hide-a-bed fort they made.

It’s funny how much more relaxed I am with my grandchildren than I would be with my own children. Years ago, when my children were small, I would NOT have allowed a fort on a Sunday morning. How nice it is the 2^nd time around and to have a different vantage point.

Last night Laurel (our youngest…now 10) built the girls a fort using chairs, blankets and heavy books to keep the “walls” up. I got a little disturbed at her (okay…a lot disturbed!) for making such a mess when the books didn’t hold and the blankets all fell in! When the girls discovered this new found way to make a fort using the sofa bed, Elaina said to me, “Nana, you should have thought of this for a fort.” Oh, the little joys of life - we can thank the Lord for such small delights and take a moment to enjoy them!

It’s 6:00 am and the house is quiet (at least for now!) Well, since I can’t sleep anymore, I may as well get up. I think my time clock is sort of “off” due to the activities of the past few days. As our new granddaughter arrived home from Africa the welcoming activities included moving our daughter and son – in-law while they were away (escrow closed on their new home while they were gone!), getting things ready and settled to help them be calm so their little girl could adjust to her new surroundings. It also included a late night flight / arrival and “Nana” staying over to help out with the children. All I can say is that it’s a good thing the Lord’s grace does not run dry, for we have needed it in these past few, glorious, days!

So, there I was lying in bed and I started thinking of the value of children and the legacy our family has started...eight children...eight grandchildren AND only three of them married! You know, it is sort of a novelty in our day and age (not so much amongst home educating families) to see large families, so I thought our readers might like to know why we had eight children! In fact, when we would be out in public people would often say, "Are they all yours?" Folks often think maybe we always wanted a large family and we did…we wanted four, which IS a large size family today, but that’s not why we ended up having eight children.

I have an interesting birth history: I had my first child normal, my 2^nd and 3^rd by C-section and then when I was pregnant with my 4^th, I had a successful VBAC. But since it was likely that I’d have another C-section, we were considering a tubaligation. During my pregnancy we heard a speaker talk about the value of children. It was the first time we had ever considered that God might have an opinion on the subject. We started reading God’s Word and discovered that He never said anything about NOT having children, but only said what a blessing they are and that mankind should be fruitful and multiply…that sons are a heritage and that the fruit of the womb is a reward. He said that a dearth (a decrease in population) is the ruin of a prince. In short, we realized we had only considered what we wanted or what we thought was best and decided, for now, that we would not make any permanent decisions about the future of our child bearing and decided to pray about the matter.

Four children later, we wonder what life would have been like without them had we decided to stop having children for each one is unique and amazing! It really was not out of our desire to have them, but it was out of obedience to God that we had them. True, it makes for a busy life and a lot of hard work so we’ve had to have “kingdom perspective”  in order to deal with the daily demands of a large family. People wonder how we do it financially – Jim is self – employed and even though we live in a rural area we can attest to God’s goodness in providing constant work for him all these years. Now, before you go feeling sorry for our children for having to sacrifice, let me tell you that each of our children love being in a large family. They lack for nothing and have more stuff and more activities than is needful!

Now that our children are having children, we see that they have the same perspective on valuing children and the correct biblical view which is that we don’t live to serve ourselves and do what pleases the flesh, but rather we live to serve others which requires self sacrifice and some inconvenience. We didn’t “drill” this into our kids – but rather lived it out before them and somehow they “caught” it! Our recent family picture (see About Us for our picture)- has lots of people! It started with two, grew to ten, some got married and now those “two” have grown and grown. We are blessed and we praise God, but the bigger picture and our prayer is that each one would bow their knee to Christ and live a life that is pleasing to Him, that others may come to know Him by the testimony of their lives and by the “real” love of God that they display to others as they love people like Christ loves people.

Each of our children love the Lord and each of our married children have committed their marriages to Christ and have set up their households to be “embassies of God’s kingdom” – this is our family legacy and the scripture that comes to mind and the one that we cling to, is “Do not grow weary in doing good for at the proper time, you will reap a harvest if you do not give up.” Galatians 6:9

The idea that the world is overpopulated and in need of reducing the number of consumers who are damaging the earth and using up the resources has been promoted for a long time. But this is not a biblical world view, because if you’ve ever flown in an airplane and looked down, you can see that there are vast amounts of land area and only small clusters where cities are located. The scriptures are correct (as always!) Many countries are now realizing their mistake in reducing their population and are trying to encourage families to have children. The trouble is, it’s hard to change the mindset of a couple of generations who have been told, in essence, to live for themselves!  It takes 2.2 people to replace the existing population which means with fewer people being born there will be less people growing up to fill the work force and with more people growing old – there will be fewer younger people to care for them.

“Lo children are a heritage of the Lord, the   fruit of the womb is His reward.”  Psalms 127