Finally, some sleep!

After being up for 33 hours, Bruce and I were finally able to get some sleep last night! We both crashed about ten o'clock after a wonderful night of teaching and a three-hour seminar. These people in Minsk are amazing. When I was here last year, I was so taken by their zeal and desire to reform their families, their society, and their country. And last night was further evidence of that! People have traveled from all parts of Belarus to attend the seminar; there were probably 100 there last night, and more are expected today. Most of them were diligently taking notes and passionately agreeing with points as Bruce went along.

Bruce spoke so well, as he always does, about the Biblical role of parents in education in the first session and about Christian principles and methods of education in the second session. The role of parents in education is namely that they have the primary responsibility for educating their children, or as I call it, they have a mandate to 'oversight and ownership' of the process for their children. That includes providing an educational atmosphere in the home, take full advantage of "teachable moments" when they occur, and, in some cases, directly providing the day-to-day teaching for their kids. We found out yesterday that there is a burgeoning homeschool movement here in Belarus. Surprisingly, it is legal to homeschool, though regulations make it such that the children must really be "attached" to a registered school for exams and such--much like back home in the U.S. And last night revealed that parents are parents everywhere in the world, and they struggle with inadequacy when it comes to homeschooling. Many people here lack real formal education beyond the compulsory Communist dogmas and primary schooling, so they are terrified to homeschool for fear that it will wreck their children. Sound familiar? That was a stumbling block we uncovered last night along with the need for further clarifying that homeschooling a wonderful Biblical ideal, but it is not the only Biblical ideal. That's a misconception back home, too, when one teaches about Christian education. It can come across that homeschooling is the only answer. But, it's not. So long as the parents are deeply involved in the educational process--oversight and ownership--and take great care to insure that their children are being taught Godly principles and within a sound Biblical framework.

Today, it's back for four more seminar sessions and then a "Concert for the Day of Reformation" this evening. October 31 is Halloween, but it's also Reformation Day, celebrating the history of the Reformation in the Protestant church. The churches we're working with here do it up right with a public concert and celebration in a city park. Should be fun!

More to come...