The Hamilton Corner

March 31, 2025 · 48:53

("Best-of" Edition from 3/8/24) Heidi St. John, Speaker, Author, Podcast Host, Co-Founder of Firmly Planted Homeschool Resource Center, steps into “The Corner.”

Parental Rights & EducationBible & Theology

Show notes

0:00 - 15:00. 2 Kings 6:24-7:2. By this time tomorrow the famine will cease. 15:00 - 31:00. Heidi St. John, Speaker, Author, Podcast Host, Co-Founder of Firmly Planted Homeschool Resource Center, steps into “The Corner.” 31:00 - 48:00. Everything that has value costs something. We will sacrifice for what’s important to us. Video Clip Links The Homeschooling Miracle in the Pacific Northwest

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Transcribed with OpenAI Whisper (base.en). Timestamps are approximate. Lightly cleaned for readability; quotations from on-air callers may include filler words. Use the audio player above for the authoritative recording.

  1. 0:00Darkness is not an affirmative force.
  2. 0:02It simply reoccupies the space vacated by the light.
  3. 0:06This is the Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio.
  4. 0:10It should be uncomfortable for a believer to live as a hypocrite.
  5. 0:15Delivering people out of the bondage of mainstream media.
  6. 0:18And the philosophies of this world.
  7. 0:20God has called you and me to be his ambassador.
  8. 0:23Even in this dark moment.
  9. 0:26Let's not miss our moment.
  10. 0:28And now the Hamilton Corner.
  11. 0:32Good evening everyone.
  12. 0:34Welcome to the Hamilton Corner here on American Family Radio.
  13. 0:37I am your host Abraham Hamilton the third.
  14. 0:40I am joined by producer extraordinaire, J. Mac.
  15. 0:43Man in the controls when we're ready to get going.
  16. 0:45And I guess I should add, he is still often imitated
  17. 0:48but never duplicated.
  18. 0:49I know, you know, many still try.
  19. 0:52We know how that ends up.
  20. 0:54But we are ready to rock and roll with today's edition
  21. 0:56of the program.
  22. 0:58At this very moment, many of you, if not most of you are transitioning from your part time jobs,
  23. 1:01where you generate an income to your full time jobs, your full time jobs are where you cultivate
  24. 1:07an outcome. And as you do so, I want to remind you to do so with intentionality, understanding the
  25. 1:13primacy that God places on family. The first institution that God created was the family before you get to
  26. 1:20an order of prophets, priests, modern iterations of civil government, monarchies, the first institution
  27. 1:26that God establishes his family with marriage at the center.
  28. 1:30He does that intentionally, the first command that God gave to mankind.
  29. 1:34Before you get to, you show not murder, before you get to, you show not steal,
  30. 1:38before you get to, you show not covet.
  31. 1:40The first command that God gave to mankind was given within the familial context.
  32. 1:45These observational facts from the scripture communicate the primacy that God places on family.
  33. 1:52It's not a surprise that the commission, the Great Commission, as articulated in the New
  34. 1:58Testament context requires the establishment first and foremost of a home base, the fulfilling
  35. 2:06the commission in the home base, and then expanding outward from there.
  36. 2:11I do not mean to convey that this was the apostles and Jerusalem, that this was all of their homes,
  37. 2:19became the home base for the Christian church's ministry and the Great Commission flowed outward
  38. 2:26from there. I want to remind you that the scripture teaches very plainly that all believers are
  39. 2:32called into ministry. All believers. This clergy-lady distinction is not one that exists for the
  40. 2:40purposes that cause you if you identify yourself as non-clergy, to mean that you are disengaged
  41. 2:46from obeying the Lord's call to ministry.
  42. 2:49We are all called to execute our Lord's commission.
  43. 2:52You know, I've heard people ask the question,
  44. 2:54I've had the question even asked of me
  45. 2:56in our church services, we have times for questions and answers.
  46. 3:00And I never forget I was asked the question,
  47. 3:03whether or not the Great Commission applies to all believers
  48. 3:05because it seems to this questioner that it would only apply to Jesus' apostles
  49. 3:10in the first century. And I just simply took them to the scripture,
  50. 3:14First in Matthew 28, when the Lord says this great commission is to be executed until the end of the
  51. 3:21age, until the end of the age. So that was indicative of the fact that this is not something that was
  52. 3:26limited to the first century apostles because the first century apostles would not be alive
  53. 3:33until the end of the age. And then another biblical source, and these are not exclusive
  54. 3:36biblical sources to affirm what I'm telling you, but these are just a few that I want to just give
  55. 3:41you. Second Timothy chapter two and Paul's epistle to Timothy. And
  56. 3:45this is not the main scripture you're going to share today, but I want you to see this in
  57. 3:48second Timothy. If I can get my pages and stop sticking. Second Timothy chapter two while
  58. 3:54one Timmy while Paul is in Nero's prison. His execution is shortly to come in second Timothy
  59. 4:05chapter two. This is how you know I want to plan to speak of this. You have Paul who gave
  60. 4:10this instruction in Timothy.
  61. 4:12Second Timothy chapter two, verse one,
  62. 4:13you therefore my son,
  63. 4:15be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus,
  64. 4:18the things that you have heard from me
  65. 4:20in the presence of many witnesses,
  66. 4:22entrust these two faithful men
  67. 4:25who will be able to teach others also.
  68. 4:29So here you have the Apostle Paul saying
  69. 4:32that I was grounded, I was minister to you,
  70. 4:35I was discipled and I poured into you as a disciple, Timothy.
  71. 4:39the things that you've heard me teach to you while in the presence of many witnesses.
  72. 4:46So you Timothy are aware that I was teaching you, but I wasn't only teaching you.
  73. 4:49I was teaching you and other witnesses who were also to go and do likewise.
  74. 4:53But the things that you have been taught, Timothy, you now seek out faithful men.
  75. 5:00You seek out faithful men and you teach them, you entrust to them,
  76. 5:04everything that I've entrusted to you.
  77. 5:06And when you seek out these faithful men, look for men who have the capacity to teach others
  78. 5:11also.
  79. 5:12Simply put, this commission is to continue until the end of the age.
  80. 5:18Paul, disciple Timothy, along with others.
  81. 5:21Timothy is now being commissioned to disciple others, who are apt to disciple others.
  82. 5:26The process is to continue.
  83. 5:29That's the point that I'm making.
  84. 5:30And this is something that applies to all believers.
  85. 5:33All of us are called to be executors of our Lord's commission.
  86. 5:39Some of us are more effective at some aspects of it than others, but every single believer
  87. 5:44is called to this.
  88. 5:45And we all who are Christians whom God has entrusted to us his heritage, our children,
  89. 5:53God expects us to pour into them of first import.
  90. 5:59The first outlet for my miniscule engagement outside of my personal commitment to the Lord
  91. 6:05is my wife and my children.
  92. 6:08I have a duty, as Ephesians 5 lays out, to wash my wife for the water of the Word.
  93. 6:13I have a duty to rear my children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
  94. 6:17Ephesians 6, when it says, fathers, fathers, do not exasperate your children rather.
  95. 6:23Rear them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
  96. 6:25This is a command of God.
  97. 6:26I am accountable to him for the quality with which my children are reared.
  98. 6:33Discipleship is central to my mandate as a father because I am to make sure my
  99. 6:39children are read in the, the pidea and nuthisia of our Lord.
  100. 6:46You are accountable to the Lord just as I am for what you do with his heritage,
  101. 6:52that he entrusted your care.
  102. 6:53This is why I say on a daily basis, what goes on in your house is far more
  103. 6:58important than what goes on in the White House.
  104. 7:01The things that are beyond our control,
  105. 7:03we shouldn't allow ourselves to be fixated on those things.
  106. 7:06The things that are within our control,
  107. 7:08we must respond to with an excellence
  108. 7:10that is indicative of our worship quality unto our Lord,
  109. 7:13praise God.
  110. 7:14Second Kings Chapter 6 is where I plan to go.
  111. 7:16I didn't plan to spend all that time on that,
  112. 7:18but that's what the Lord took me.
  113. 7:20Second Kings Chapter 6 is where I wanna go today.
  114. 7:23And I want to communicate to you and with you
  115. 7:29from this portion of scripture.
  116. 7:31as a simple reminder of our God's power to refuse to allow the circumstances that
  117. 7:39transpire around us and that are happening within our nation to cause us
  118. 7:43to become hopeless as it pertains to our confidence in the Lord.
  119. 7:47Second King, chapter six, verse 24, and I'm going to go all the way through chapter
  120. 7:51seven, verses one and two. All right. Now, what came about after this, that
  121. 7:56Benedict, the king of Aerum, gathered all his army and went up and besieged
  122. 8:01Samaria and there was a great famine in Samaria and behold they besieged it until the donkeys
  123. 8:07here was sold for 80 shekels of silver and a fourth of a cab of a doves dung for five
  124. 8:15shekels of silver.
  125. 8:16Now a shekel was about 11 grams, a cab was about two quarts there about.
  126. 8:22So a quarter of that was being sold for five shekels of silver, a quarter of a cab of doves
  127. 8:28dung was being sold for five shekels of silver. Simply put, Israel was suffering overwhelming
  128. 8:34inflation as a result of being besieged by the Syrian army. I'm sorry, by the Aramaic
  129. 8:40army, the Syrian army. And the siege, what it is basically, is that the Syrian army surrounds
  130. 8:47the nation of Israel and primarily the capital city of Samaria at this time and does not allow
  131. 8:53anything to be imported into the city nor does it allow anything to be exported. And
  132. 8:58So it's basically choking off supply lines that over time
  133. 9:02will cause death, poverty, and destruction
  134. 9:05within the city, that's what the siege is.
  135. 9:07And oftentimes that this was the chosen act of warfare
  136. 9:12because it minimized the besieging army soldiers
  137. 9:17to exposure to battle.
  138. 9:19So you lay the siege, you're not contained
  139. 9:22with an army in the plains or anything,
  140. 9:24you're choking off the city and literally starving it to death,
  141. 9:27which is what happened in Israel here.
  142. 9:29Cause this famine lasted for seven years.
  143. 9:31This wasn't just, you know, a two week siege.
  144. 9:34This famine in Israel lasted seven years, or verse 26.
  145. 9:39As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall,
  146. 9:42a woman cried out to him saying,
  147. 9:44help my Lord, O King.
  148. 9:46He said, if the Lord does not help you from where shall I help you?
  149. 9:50From the threshing floor or from the wine press?
  150. 9:52And the king said to her, what does the matter with you?
  151. 9:54And she answered, this woman said to me,
  152. 9:57And this is, I have to give a caution.
  153. 10:00This is the word of God, no doubt.
  154. 10:02But if you have little ones that are listening,
  155. 10:03you may wanna turn them away from them
  156. 10:05because it gets very graphic.
  157. 10:07And this is in the scripture,
  158. 10:08but you may be the one who wanna broach this with your children
  159. 10:10and not have me introduce this notion
  160. 10:12to your children from scripture, all right?
  161. 10:16Verse 28 again, and the king said to her,
  162. 10:18what does it matter with you?
  163. 10:19And she answered, this woman said to me,
  164. 10:21give me your son that we may eat him today.
  165. 10:25And we'll eat my son tomorrow.
  166. 10:28So we boiled my son and ate him.
  167. 10:29And I said to her on the next day,
  168. 10:31give your son that we may eat him,
  169. 10:33but she has hidden her son.
  170. 10:36When the king heard the words of the woman,
  171. 10:37he tore his robes.
  172. 10:40Now he was passing by on the wall,
  173. 10:41and the people looked and behold,
  174. 10:42he had sack cloth beneath his body.
  175. 10:44Now there's a lot that can be said about all of that.
  176. 10:47The king has a sack cloth beneath his body,
  177. 10:49that should be an expression of lament and woe
  178. 10:51and crying out to the Lord, but he's hiding it.
  179. 10:53There's much to be said about that,
  180. 10:54but I won't address that today.
  181. 10:58I wanna address the reality that the Bible records,
  182. 11:02things got so bad in Israel as a result of the Syrian army siege that cannibalism was
  183. 11:11engaged in in Israel.
  184. 11:14Now before anybody whacked shocked at that, if you're at home following along with your
  185. 11:19Bible, turn over to Deuteronomy chapter 28 verses 52 through 55 because in Deuteronomy
  186. 11:26chapter 28, among the consequences for rebelling against God, and he spoke this through Moses,
  187. 11:34The Lord prophetically warned the Israelites
  188. 11:37that if you rebel against me,
  189. 11:39things will at certain points get so bad
  190. 11:42that even in Israel, you result to cannibalism.
  191. 11:48What was prophesied in Deuteronomy is being fulfilled
  192. 11:51in what we're reading here in 2nd and 2nd, King chapter 6.
  193. 11:55That inflation had taken root, the siege had been imposed,
  194. 11:59things were so bad there was no food in Israel.
  195. 12:05This is included in the scripture
  196. 12:07to communicate to you two things.
  197. 12:08One, God's word is true.
  198. 12:10Would he prophetically, prophetically declared in Deuteronomy,
  199. 12:14is fulfilled centuries later in 2 Kings 6.
  200. 12:21Secondarily he wanted wants us to know
  201. 12:23how bad things have gotten in Israel.
  202. 12:31Verse 30 again,
  203. 12:32"'When the king heard the words of the woman,
  204. 12:33"'he tore his clothes, now he's passing by on the wall,
  205. 12:35"'and the people looked to behold,
  206. 12:37"'he had sackcloth beneath on his body.'"
  207. 12:40The king now at this time is Jehoram,
  208. 12:42the second oldest king of, second oldest son of Ahab.
  209. 12:45All right, verse 31,
  210. 12:46then he said, may God do so to me,
  211. 12:48and more also, if the head of Elisha,
  212. 12:51the son of Shafat remains on him today.
  213. 12:56So in light of the famine,
  214. 12:57the king is mad at Elisha.
  215. 12:59Why?
  216. 13:00Couple of points.
  217. 13:02Johorim being the second oldest king,
  218. 13:04second oldest son of Ahab,
  219. 13:06he was alive when Ahab was contending with Elijah.
  220. 13:12He was alive when Elijah,
  221. 13:15his exploits ended a three year, three and a half year famine.
  222. 13:20In addition to that,
  223. 13:21King Jehoram most likely is aware
  224. 13:24when there was a famine among the sons of the prophets
  225. 13:27and Elisha had them to put flour into the poisonous stew
  226. 13:35back in Second Kings chapter four.
  227. 13:38So Jehoram often most likely thought,
  228. 13:40well, Elisha could end it if he wanted to,
  229. 13:42so I'm gonna kill him, let's continue on.
  230. 13:44Now, Elisha was sitting in his house,
  231. 13:46which was in dothin and the elders was sitting with him
  232. 13:48and the king sent a man from his presence.
  233. 13:50But before the messenger came to him,
  234. 13:52Elisha said to the elders,
  235. 13:53do you see how this son of a murderer
  236. 13:55has sent to take away my head?
  237. 13:57Look, when the messenger comes shut the door
  238. 13:58and hold the door shut against him.
  239. 14:00It's not the sound of his master's feet behind him.
  240. 14:03While he was still talking with him,
  241. 14:04behold the messenger came down to him and said,
  242. 14:07behold this evil is from the Lord.
  243. 14:08Why should we wait on the Lord any longer?
  244. 14:10Then Elisha said, listen to the word of the Lord.
  245. 14:14Tomorrow, about this time,
  246. 14:16measure of flower will be sold for a
  247. 14:18shackle and two measures of barley for a
  248. 14:20shackle in the gates of Samaria. Simply put,
  249. 14:24by this time tomorrow the famine will be
  250. 14:26over. The famine will be over. What happens
  251. 14:29after this? The lepers walk toward the
  252. 14:31Syrian military. God amplifies the
  253. 14:33footsteps the Syrians flee. And just as
  254. 14:36the Lord said through Elisha, the famine
  255. 14:38was over in the day. My main point that I
  256. 14:40want to make to you today is do not
  257. 14:43forget the power of our God. Do not
  258. 14:46exclude the potency of our God from your calculations because just as it happened
  259. 14:50then it can happen in our day not saying it will but it can we must remain
  260. 14:54confident in the power of our God. The medical establishment has been playing
  261. 15:02God with the lives of innocent babies for decades now. Many have grown callous
  262. 15:07because it seems surreal to think that over 64 million babies have been lost.
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  266. 15:28three weeks and can be heard on ultrasound by five weeks. When a mother making that ultimate
  267. 15:33choice, hears her baby's heartbeat and sees the precious life inside of her, the majority
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  271. 15:56keyword baby. That's pound 250 baby or go to preborn.com. That's preborn.com.
  272. 16:10Shiting light into the darkness. This is the Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio.
  273. 16:15Welcome back to the Hamilton Corner Abraham Hamilton the third here. I am honored to have
  274. 16:19on the program with me. My guest right now who is an author of nine books, including becoming
  275. 16:26mom strong, how to fight with all that's in you for your family and your faith. The becoming
  276. 16:31mom strong Bible study, as well as her latest mom strong 365, which is a one year devotional
  277. 16:37to encourage and empower everyday moms, as well as her first children's book, The Mouse
  278. 16:41and to see with Brave Brooks.
  279. 16:43Brave books, I'm sorry.
  280. 16:44She's also a speaker, a powerful dynamic speaker.
  281. 16:48She's also a podcast host as well as co-founder
  282. 16:52of an amazing work in the Pacific Northwest,
  283. 16:55firmly planted homeschool resource center.
  284. 16:58My guess is none other than Miss Heidi St. John.
  285. 17:01Heidi, thank you so much for joining me
  286. 17:03on the Hamilton Corner.
  287. 17:04Abraham, it's so great to see you.
  288. 17:06Thanks for having me.
  289. 17:07Oh, it is certainly, certainly, certainly my pleasure.
  290. 17:09You and your husband, Jai, are just such a tremendous blessing
  291. 17:13to the body of Christ.
  292. 17:14I'm so grateful that our past have crossed,
  293. 17:16but I've told you when I met you first
  294. 17:18that I was familiar with your work before we'd ever met,
  295. 17:20because I've been able to appreciate you from a distance,
  296. 17:22and now the Lord has crossed our past.
  297. 17:24And so I am grateful for that.
  298. 17:26And I am also grateful to be able to introduce you
  299. 17:29to our audience here.
  300. 17:31Many of them are familiar with you.
  301. 17:32Some of them may not be.
  302. 17:33And so I think this is a great opportunity
  303. 17:35all across the board for them to get familiar with you
  304. 17:38the work that God is doing through you all over the country, all over the world frankly,
  305. 17:42but as well as in the Pacific Northwest.
  306. 17:45Well, I'm excited to be here.
  307. 17:47I've been looking forward to this.
  308. 17:49Exciting to see what God's doing with you.
  309. 17:51There's just, you know, people keep griping and complaining about what a, you know, what
  310. 17:54a crazy upside down world we're living in.
  311. 17:57And that's true, but God's also at work and he's doing good things through you.
  312. 18:01So I'm excited to be here.
  313. 18:02Amen.
  314. 18:03Praise God.
  315. 18:04Well, I want to begin because similar to myself, I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum.
  316. 18:07My wife and I, Maria, we have six children.
  317. 18:10We are a homeschooling family.
  318. 18:11I know you, all of your children, you and your husband, Jay, have had seven children.
  319. 18:15But now you have grand children.
  320. 18:17Yes.
  321. 18:18But we do share that in common.
  322. 18:20I first want to start our conversation today by simply inviting you to share with our audience
  323. 18:25here.
  324. 18:26How did you come to Faith in Jesus Christ?
  325. 18:28Well, I actually grew up in a Christian home.
  326. 18:32And if people have read my book, Becoming Mom Strong, they know that it was an unhappy
  327. 18:35my parents divorced when I was 18,
  328. 18:39but I came to faith in Christ, my grandmother,
  329. 18:41actually led me to the Lord.
  330. 18:43I went to a private Christian school,
  331. 18:45kindergarten through high school all the way through,
  332. 18:48and I remember, and I love to talk to people about it,
  333. 18:50because I believe, you know, I was saved,
  334. 18:53and I was very, very young.
  335. 18:53Probably around four years old, five years old,
  336. 18:55somewhere in there, and I remember it.
  337. 18:57I remember, you know, being sorry for my sin,
  338. 19:00I remember just thinking, man, he loves me, you know,
  339. 19:02he loves me.
  340. 19:03And I also can still smell the month later
  341. 19:05on my grandmother's chest.
  342. 19:07Thank you.
  343. 19:07You know, leaning over me at night and praying over me
  344. 19:10and introducing me to the Savior.
  345. 19:13And so I've been, you know, working at, walking with the Lord
  346. 19:17and getting to know Him better now for a long time.
  347. 19:22Well, praise God.
  348. 19:23I am grateful for that and the journey you've been on.
  349. 19:26And I know there's a lot of ground to cover
  350. 19:28and only so much time to get to you.
  351. 19:31How did you come to the place where one,
  352. 19:33how and where do you and Jay meet and then how did you guys come to the place where you
  353. 19:36considered homeschooling your children? Well, we met actually in Bible College. So Jay
  354. 19:42went to Multnomah School the Bible and so did I in the late 80s when you know we were all
  355. 19:48enjoying the good rock and roll music of the 80s and we met through mutual friend at Bible College
  356. 19:56in probably 1987 or 88 and we were married in the fall of 89. I never wanted to homeschool
  357. 20:03I, it's probably important for me to say that.
  358. 20:06I, I knew a few people that were homeschooling.
  359. 20:08I thought they were absolutely insane and a little bit on the weird side.
  360. 20:11And there was a, like, proselytizing, you know, so my kids, my oldest daughter,
  361. 20:15who's 32 now, she was in a private Christian school, the same one that I went to.
  362. 20:19And I remember just people trying to get me to take her out of school and, and
  363. 20:22homeschool.
  364. 20:23And I was like, why would I do that?
  365. 20:24And then it got to be expensive.
  366. 20:26We couldn't keep doing it.
  367. 20:27I just remember still thinking, why would a sane woman in a right mind want to stay
  368. 20:31home all day long when a yellow bus come take your kids away for free. It was just my,
  369. 20:35it was my paradigm, right? It's, it's what I understood. But the Lord really got a hold
  370. 20:40of my heart when she was in second grade and our second daughter was getting ready to go
  371. 20:44into school and she missed the cutoff by just a couple of weeks. And so they wouldn't take
  372. 20:49her and I had this just really bright and inquisitive, you know, little five year old and I was like,
  373. 20:53dude, she's ready to learn. So I went down to a homeschool supply store just to like kill
  374. 20:58time and I said, Hey, I'm looking for something I can do with my daughter.
  375. 21:03And they gave me a book called teacher child to read in a hundred easy lessons.
  376. 21:06And in that learning while her older sister was in school, I was teaching her to read and
  377. 21:11I realized I'm accomplishing in an hour and a half with her every day.
  378. 21:15What is taking this school, you know, eight hours every day, five days a week, nine months
  379. 21:20out of the year.
  380. 21:21And God just started doing to work in my heart.
  381. 21:23And I realized, you know, I started praying about it.
  382. 21:26And I realized this job of educating children was never something that was meant to be outsourced
  383. 21:33in the way that we outsourced it today.
  384. 21:35In other words, parents just drop their kids off and sort of check out, right?
  385. 21:38Mom, dad, go to work.
  386. 21:40Kids days with what is really just a glorified babysitter all day long and hopefully they get
  387. 21:44an education out of it.
  388. 21:46Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.
  389. 21:48And we at the end of toward the end of that year, I went to my husband and said, what would
  390. 21:52you think if we homeschooled our kids?
  391. 21:54And I'll never forget, he was just like,
  392. 21:55who are you?
  393. 21:56What have you done with my wife?
  394. 21:57Like we don't want a homeschooler, remember that?
  395. 21:59And, but he said he would pray about it.
  396. 22:02And as is often, you know, has been the case of our nearly,
  397. 22:05you know, 35 year marriage, where he just said,
  398. 22:07let me take it to the Lord.
  399. 22:09And it was just a few weeks later, he said, yeah,
  400. 22:11I'm here in the same thing you're hearing.
  401. 22:12And so we pulled our oldest daughter out of public school
  402. 22:15and the rest of our kids have all been exclusively homeschooled.
  403. 22:19So, yeah, kind of an accidental homeschooler,
  404. 22:22best decision that we ever made.
  405. 22:23Yeah, and you said your husband initially was not open to it,
  406. 22:28but he committed to pray about it,
  407. 22:31which I think is a vital, vital, vital component
  408. 22:34of your deliberations because I've had conversations
  409. 22:36and pretty sure as you have had,
  410. 22:38where people will often offer their response,
  411. 22:41just kind of an emotional response sometimes
  412. 22:43and kind of a knee-jerk reaction
  413. 22:45without an express willingness to consider and to pray,
  414. 22:48well, what would the Lord have me to do?
  415. 22:50not just what I think, you know, not just in imposing on the conversation,
  416. 22:55my preexisting thought processes, but to see what is the Lord,
  417. 22:59could the Lord be at work right now with this conversation that we're having,
  418. 23:02the conversation that we're having, even inviting me to consider whether or not I need to make a
  419. 23:07change in the way that we're educating our children. And when you and Jay were having this
  420. 23:12conversation, you didn't have drag queen story hours going on. You didn't have planned,
  421. 23:18who had funded curriculum to teach sex ed to children
  422. 23:21what expressed purpose is of many of the progenters
  423. 23:26of this curriculum are to get innocent children
  424. 23:29to become stimulated sexually
  425. 23:30so that you could have a more robust opportunities
  426. 23:33to collect money to kill children.
  427. 23:37And it involves an industry.
  428. 23:39Yeah, it's really true.
  429. 23:40And I tell people a lot, you know, I mean, God's been good
  430. 23:43to Jay and I, and we have, you know,
  431. 23:45our seven children are 20 years apart.
  432. 23:47So I have a 32 year old and a 13 year old and I'm raising my 13 year old daughter in a vastly
  433. 23:53different world.
  434. 23:55Then I raised my 32 and 30 and 27 and 25 year old kids in the world looks different and we
  435. 24:02need to respond to it that way.
  436. 24:04You know, I hear people say, well, I went to public school.
  437. 24:06Listen, the public school that you went to is a shadow of what it is now and you're absolutely
  438. 24:13right.
  439. 24:14targeting children and they're injuring them.
  440. 24:16Body, soul, mind, and spirit.
  441. 24:18And I've been urging parents now for 20 some odd years,
  442. 24:21get your children out of these schools,
  443. 24:23they're hurting your kids.
  444. 24:25And that is such a profound statement.
  445. 24:27And many people received that as a provocative statement,
  446. 24:30why are you so passionate and so emphatically able to state,
  447. 24:34get your children out of these schools?
  448. 24:36Well, because I know what's going on inside the schools.
  449. 24:39So, you know, probably about eight years ago,
  450. 24:41I started going to school board meetings
  451. 24:44when I heard about something called
  452. 24:45comprehensive sex education.
  453. 24:47Well, now everyone knows about it,
  454. 24:48but at that moment, it was a relatively new idea.
  455. 24:51And I remember thinking,
  456. 24:52we're not opposed to sex ed, right?
  457. 24:53You wanna teach our kids how their bodies work
  458. 24:55and how babies are made and whatever.
  459. 24:57I think that's the parent's job,
  460. 24:59but I wasn't inherently opposed to sex ed in schools.
  461. 25:02That this is not your generations
  462. 25:05or my generation sex ed.
  463. 25:06This is radically bent toward the homosexual lifestyle,
  464. 25:11pushing the transgender ideology.
  465. 25:13And I started meeting parents out on the road.
  466. 25:15I'm speaking at home school conferences.
  467. 25:16I've been doing it for 20 some odd years.
  468. 25:19I started meeting parents,
  469. 25:20whose kids have been in the public school,
  470. 25:22who have literally been injured by this ideology,
  471. 25:24come home from school and decided,
  472. 25:26they're born in the wrong body.
  473. 25:27Because we're pushing through scholastic books
  474. 25:30through Planned Parenthood,
  475. 25:31who really is the purveyor,
  476. 25:33as you rightly pointed out,
  477. 25:34of most of the sex ed curriculum that's in our schools.
  478. 25:37And so I started going to school board meetings
  479. 25:39and testify went up to the Washington State Legislature
  480. 25:42and I testified in front of the superintendent
  481. 25:46of public instruction for Washington State schools.
  482. 25:48And I said, this stuff does not be long in our schools.
  483. 25:51It is radicalizing children.
  484. 25:52It's indoctrinating them.
  485. 25:54Brainwashing them actually is a better word.
  486. 25:57And I started realizing, okay,
  487. 25:59they're not, because I used to softshoe it, Abraham, honestly.
  488. 26:02If someone would have said to me,
  489. 26:04hey, you homeschool, I would have said,
  490. 26:05hey, you do you, is homeschooling, it's not for everyone.
  491. 26:08And now I'm like, the barn's on fire, the Titanic is sinking.
  492. 26:11At what point do we get our kids off of the boat and into lifeboats?
  493. 26:15And these schools are hurting our children.
  494. 26:17And all you gotta do is get on TikTok or Instagram or Facebook or any of the other social media
  495. 26:21platforms or half a second.
  496. 26:23And you'll see that what I'm saying is true.
  497. 26:25And if we care about our children, then we should care about who's teaching them.
  498. 26:29Jesus said in Luke 640, when a student is fully trained, you'll be like his teacher.
  499. 26:32Well, then we better know who's teaching our children, right?
  500. 26:34We should know who's teaching our children.
  501. 26:37And I think in large part, this society in Western civilization has decided that outsourcing
  502. 26:43parent, outsourcing our parenting and the education of our children should be the norm.
  503. 26:47That's what we should do.
  504. 26:49But if we really take a look at it and we recognize and we're honest, we have to say we
  505. 26:53don't know who's educating our children.
  506. 26:55We don't know the world be these guys are coming in from.
  507. 26:57We don't know how they think about any kind of sexual ideology.
  508. 27:00We don't know how they think about God or creation or our children for that matter.
  509. 27:05And most of these teachers now are activists disguised as teachers.
  510. 27:10And parents need to understand that this is happening to their children.
  511. 27:14And if you care about your kids, you're going to do some digging.
  512. 27:17So well said.
  513. 27:18So well said.
  514. 27:19And I resonate with you because in my journey, I used to be reluctant to tell somebody else
  515. 27:26what I think they should do.
  516. 27:27I didn't want to be self-righteous and pose my convictions for anybody else.
  517. 27:31when you see the barn literally is on fire,
  518. 27:35and there are several things that happened
  519. 27:38and Marie and I and our journey, one of them,
  520. 27:42and you mentioned a Planned Parenthood curriculum,
  521. 27:44they're literally right now as we're talking,
  522. 27:45is a new edition of Sex Edge Curriculum
  523. 27:49that is funded by and crafted by
  524. 27:51a combination of Planned Parenthood,
  525. 27:53Glisten, the Gay Lesbian, Straight Education Network,
  526. 27:55and several other LGBTQIAP plus
  527. 27:59element of PX, YZ organizations coming together.
  528. 28:01The alphabet mafia.
  529. 28:02Yes, and they literally are providing video curriculum
  530. 28:05where they're teaching lessons like virginity is not real.
  531. 28:09There's no such thing as virginity.
  532. 28:11I'm dead serious.
  533. 28:12There's no such thing as virginity.
  534. 28:13It's just a social construct.
  535. 28:15Like gender.
  536. 28:16Yes, yes, happening right now.
  537. 28:19And there was a book that the Lord allowed me to read
  538. 28:23years ago, it was called The Scarlet Lady by Carol Everett.
  539. 28:26Carol Everett is a sweet lady who had the opportunity
  540. 28:28to meet now, she lives in Texas, she used to be an advocate for abortion.
  541. 28:33She owned and operated a Planned Parenthood clinic, several clinics,
  542. 28:37ultimately in Texas.
  543. 28:38And she exposes in the book how Planned Parenthood became the number one lobbying
  544. 28:44entity for sex ed curriculums to be imposed in public schools because they
  545. 28:49realized a connection between wherever sex ed was taught, they would have a
  546. 28:54higher incident of, you know, so-called unplanned pregnancies.
  547. 28:58and it would heighten their ability to profit from murdering the babies that these girls,
  548. 29:04often high school girls often, were procreating and it was better for their bottom line.
  549. 29:10And their strategy was the earlier we can get sex ed taught, the better it is for our
  550. 29:16profit margin because we have a higher likelihood to have repeat clients.
  551. 29:19This is what they said.
  552. 29:21Repeat clients from these children who are taught to be stimulated prior to them knowing anything
  553. 29:27even about their own bodies, about anything else.
  554. 29:30And so that level of insidious wickedness is what undergirds the sex ed curriculum in
  555. 29:37our country and many much of the school system.
  556. 29:40Yeah, it's true.
  557. 29:41And the other thing that parents need to understand is that they're working hand in hand with legislators
  558. 29:46who are trying to reduce the age of consent.
  559. 29:50And you'll see that they're teaching in sex ed now.
  560. 29:53They're teaching something called consent.
  561. 29:54Well, parents will go, that's good.
  562. 29:56I want my kids to know that they can say no and they can say yes and we want them to understand
  563. 30:01consent.
  564. 30:02But what you don't understand most of the time is that the way that we think of consent
  565. 30:06is not the way they frame it in this radical sex ed curriculum that they're bringing out.
  566. 30:12And in fact, right about the same time in California, for example, that they're teaching about consent,
  567. 30:17you've got people like Senator Wiener who's going around and saying we want to lower the
  568. 30:22age of consent which makes kids vulnerable to pedophiles. And people say, well that's conspiracy
  569. 30:27theory. No, it's not. This is happening in our schools. I'm watching it happen. I have
  570. 30:32listened to the testimony of these people. I've listened to the curriculum, watched what's
  571. 30:36happening with when a Planned Parenthood goes and testifies before state legislatures.
  572. 30:41When they say they want to teach children about consent, they are trying to lower the age
  573. 30:45of consent and remove the inhibition of the child. And what happens is you make a child
  574. 30:50vulnerable to sexual abuse, to sexual assault, to unplanned pregnancy, all of these things,
  575. 30:55and they work hand in glove with each other. It is insidious, and it is in our schools.
  576. 31:00You're absolutely right. And it's happening. It's coinciding with the efforts in the mental health
  577. 31:05community to remove pedophilia, to rename it, first of all. To rename it.
  578. 31:09To minor attracted person. Yes. And I literally play TEDx talks on this show explaining that,
  579. 31:14to rename it away from pedophilia to minor attracted persons, but also to assert that minor attraction,
  580. 31:20quote unquote, is nothing more than another iteration of sexual orientation.
  581. 31:24And so it is to decriminalize it, to destigmatize it and to normalize the idea of children.
  582. 31:31Yeah.
  583. 31:32I'm getting mad as I'm thinking about this.
  584. 31:33I got to call my.
  585. 31:34I should make you angry, right?
  586. 31:35Children engaging in intimate physical actions with adults into normalize that.
  587. 31:41These are the things and these are the people that are that are getting access
  588. 31:45and have access to our children in our nation.
  589. 31:47And it should cause us to be spitting mad, frankly,
  590. 31:50and to do something about it.
  591. 31:51Yeah, I was talking to Lucas Miles about this a little bit
  592. 31:54on his show a couple of weeks ago.
  593. 31:56And he was saying that this idea
  594. 31:57that we have an evangelical Christianity
  595. 32:00of this sort of meek and mild Jesus does not,
  596. 32:03it does not sink, it doesn't match up with the Jesus
  597. 32:07who we know loves children.
  598. 32:10There is a time for flipping over tables.
  599. 32:11There is a time to call people vipers.
  600. 32:13And Jesus knew when that time was,
  601. 32:15We need to understand that this is a time for parents
  602. 32:18to defend children and to start it to stand up to say,
  603. 32:21absolutely not, there is such a thing as evil.
  604. 32:24And I heard a pastor just a couple of days ago
  605. 32:26call the transgender movement demonic.
  606. 32:28And I thought, hallelujah, someone's finally saying it.
  607. 32:32This has always been an assault against the creator God,
  608. 32:35always been an assault against his children.
  609. 32:36If you look at a lot of the ills
  610. 32:38that we're dealing with in our country right now,
  611. 32:40what's happening at the Southern Board of Abraham,
  612. 32:42sex trafficking, who is it targeting children?
  613. 32:45I gotta break in.
  614. 32:46I gotta break in because this disrespectful music
  615. 32:48is coming on because we gotta take this break.
  616. 32:50But when we come back, I wanna pick up right there
  617. 32:53and continue the conversation with Heidi St. John,
  618. 32:55author, speaker, podcast host,
  619. 32:57and co-founder of the Firmly-Planted
  620. 32:58Home School Resource Center.
  621. 33:10The Hamilton Quarter Podcast and One-Minute Commentaries
  622. 33:13are available at EFR.net.
  623. 33:16Back to the Hamilton Quarter on American Family Radio.
  624. 33:20Welcome back to the Hamilton Corner.
  625. 33:21Abraham Hamilton III here.
  626. 33:23My guest is the Heidi St. John author, speaker, podcast host, co-founder of Firmly, the Firmly
  627. 33:30planted homeschool resource center.
  628. 33:31And before we went to the break where the disrespectful music grabbed us, Heidi, you were
  629. 33:35explaining about the tragedy that's happening on a southern border.
  630. 33:38And one of the things that's happening is sex trafficking that's focused on children.
  631. 33:42Yeah, that's right.
  632. 33:44And if you stop and think about my friend Katie Faust, who's going to be here at Firmly planted
  633. 33:48and teaching children how to respond to what's happening in the culture right now from a
  634. 33:52a biblical perspective, she rightly pointed out on my show the other day that most of the
  635. 33:56issues that we're dealing with even legislatively right now are targeting young children.
  636. 34:01You know, the age of consent targeting children, LGBTQ agenda, targeting children, transgenderism
  637. 34:07in our hospitals, the redefinition of male and female, these are not targeting adults, they're
  638. 34:11targeting children. And Jesus said to be better for us to have a millstone hung around our
  639. 34:15neck and be thrown into the sea than to lead even one of his little ones astray. This is
  640. 34:21an area where the church must be vocal.
  641. 34:24We've got to stop being quiet, stop being silent,
  642. 34:26stop being so meek and start standing up
  643. 34:29in defense of our children.
  644. 34:30There is a solution to this and it starts with the pastor
  645. 34:34and it starts with pastors partnering with parents
  646. 34:36and we need to start telling the truth
  647. 34:37about what's happening to our kids.
  648. 34:39So very well said.
  649. 34:41One of the things that I love about you
  650. 34:43and just looking at the things that you're involved in,
  651. 34:46your podcast, Off the Bench,
  652. 34:48mom strong 365 face speaks that there's a commonality with you to where you're calling people, you're
  653. 34:56rousing people, you're summoning people, not merely to assess the damage, not merely to identify
  654. 35:01what's going on, but to respond to what's happening.
  655. 35:04And one of the things that I endeavor to communicate to people all the time is that the reality
  656. 35:08is all sin is the same in terms of its eternal impact and consequences.
  657. 35:13But all sin is not the same in terms of its temporal impact.
  658. 35:16And so there are things that happen, that if our young ones are exposed to certain things,
  659. 35:20they can be marred in such a way to where their entire lives are adjusted to shape and
  660. 35:26shape the court and the things that they suffered as an injury at that particular juncture of
  661. 35:31their development.
  662. 35:32If we won't show up for our children, what will we show up for?
  663. 35:36Yeah, that's a really good question.
  664. 35:38You know, people ask me all the time.
  665. 35:40I was just at NRB and I did a lot of interviews there and people would ask me all the time,
  666. 35:45Heidi, I know that you're passionate about what's going on in the schools and I know that you're
  667. 35:48an advocate for home education and all this stuff.
  668. 35:51But talk to the parents who just can't do it.
  669. 35:53And you know what, Abraham, I'm starting to get mad.
  670. 35:55I just said, listen, we learned in COVID, what did we learn, right?
  671. 35:59We learned that for a virus at the 99.9% survival rate, we would pull our kids out of school.
  672. 36:06We learned that.
  673. 36:07Well, there is a virus at the 99.9% spiritual mortality rate.
  674. 36:11It is taking no prisoners.
  675. 36:13Get your children out of these schools.
  676. 36:14I've been asking parents, I understand that there are small percentages of people who just
  677. 36:20can't make it work.
  678. 36:21For one reason or another, obviously, sometimes there are situations beyond our control.
  679. 36:25But I believe, and I think studies will show this, and I think we're going to look back
  680. 36:29on this and go, man, Heidi, you right, right?
  681. 36:31I think that the vast majority of parents can do it.
  682. 36:35They just don't want to do it.
  683. 36:37It requires sacrifice.
  684. 36:38It's hard.
  685. 36:39Show me anything that we do in this life, Abraham, that's worthy, that's not difficult.
  686. 36:44I'm tired of making excuses for these parents.
  687. 36:46My question has become, do you love your children?
  688. 36:50Do you love your children?
  689. 36:52If you love your children, you will protect their heart and their mind.
  690. 36:55And you can't expect a child to swim through a cesspool every single day and come out on
  691. 37:00the other side without having the residue all over their minds and their heart.
  692. 37:06And that is what is happening.
  693. 37:08I'm I've made.
  694. 37:12If we were to empirically track the secularization of America, and it's actually not something
  695. 37:19that's novel, it's actually been done, Lyman Stone has done research, we've shared the data,
  696. 37:24was actually published in a series of articles surprising that Yahoo actually published them
  697. 37:29to where the secularization of America is directly attributable to consistent generations
  698. 37:36of American citizens being reared in less and less and less Christian homes, not in what's
  699. 37:43proclaimed to be Christian, but in the actual homes that are steeped and grounded in the word
  700. 37:47of God's where discipleship is happening and to where, frankly, to where we are, and this
  701. 37:53is my words now, we are living in such a culture idolatry to where we have people who are not
  702. 37:57saying what their mouths, well, we reject the God that has revealed himself to us in
  703. 38:01the Bible, but the practical realities that we've elevated other things to the same level
  704. 38:06of devotion and affinity that God alone should have to where we have things like sports and
  705. 38:11popularity and other things that we've established as being just as important to us.
  706. 38:17Really more important when you think about the time devotion to us than really our commitment
  707. 38:21to the Lord.
  708. 38:22And the unfortunate reality is that you diagnosed this 99.9% successful virus with a spiritual mortality
  709. 38:29rate.
  710. 38:30the reality that too many of us don't see it with that same level of lethality.
  711. 38:34We don't see that this is actually a demise.
  712. 38:38There is demise ahead for our children.
  713. 38:41And in many instances, it's already happened, but we simply don't see it that way.
  714. 38:45Yeah, it's true.
  715. 38:47And I think God's not going to hold us guiltless for this.
  716. 38:50Parents will say to me, well, I had to work or I need it.
  717. 38:54And we got to think about what you just said, what are we working for?
  718. 38:58What are we working for?
  719. 38:59And you know, my husband and I, my Jay was a pastor for 20 over 20 years and we raised
  720. 39:04seven children on a shoestring and it was difficult at times, very, very difficult.
  721. 39:09And I'm not here to say, well, if Heidi can do it, anyone can do it. I'm just saying, wow,
  722. 39:12you guys, at some point it's going to require sacrifice. We're not used to that in this country.
  723. 39:17We're very, very soft people. We're not used to sacrifice. We're not used to, we don't
  724. 39:21understand duty. You know, you know, we don't have time to talk about it today, but I ran
  725. 39:25for Congress in 2022, because I saw an opportunity to exercise my responsibility as a citizen
  726. 39:32of the United States. We have responsibility and God will hold us accountable for whether
  727. 39:37or not we stewarded the responsibility that He has given us, first inside of our homes
  728. 39:42and then outside the four walls of our churches. God has called us out into the culture, not
  729. 39:47to blend in with it.
  730. 39:48So well said, so well said. And I just want to underscore what you mentioned, anything
  731. 39:52that's valuable is going to require a sacrifice.
  732. 39:55You know, my wife and I, it's hilarious.
  733. 39:58When my wife, we met, we worked together
  734. 40:00in the Harris County District Attorney's Office
  735. 40:01and when my wife was sharing with her superiors
  736. 40:04that she was going to resign from her job,
  737. 40:06they said, well, what did Abe do to you?
  738. 40:08Is he forcing you to do this?
  739. 40:09And she was like, no, actually, this is something
  740. 40:11I don't want to do to invest my talent skills and abilities
  741. 40:14in cultivating our family, importing into our children.
  742. 40:16And my wife resigned when she was pregnant
  743. 40:19with our oldest son.
  744. 40:20But it's a sacrifice.
  745. 40:22It's not like my wife is sitting around,
  746. 40:25and I'm sitting around,
  747. 40:26there are things I have to do,
  748. 40:27work juggling schedules,
  749. 40:28and I am actively involved in teaching our children,
  750. 40:31and as well as teaching others,
  751. 40:33children are a part of our co-op,
  752. 40:35to where I teach at our co-op.
  753. 40:38I teach some of the higher courses,
  754. 40:39my wife teaches some of the younger level,
  755. 40:41done with children's courses.
  756. 40:43But it's a sacrifice, but we do it because it's worth it.
  757. 40:46Anything that's worth it,
  758. 40:48is going to require sacrifice.
  759. 40:49come on.
  760. 40:50And Jesus told us that in this world we will have trouble but take heart because he has
  761. 40:55overcome the world.
  762. 40:56The level of difficulty should not be the thing that is the enduring impediment.
  763. 41:02What has to be the enduring consideration is what has got required of me?
  764. 41:09When I stand before the Lord, how will I answer his inquiries as to what I did with his
  765. 41:14heritage that he's entrusted to my stewardship?
  766. 41:18The reality is that our children are only children for so long.
  767. 41:22You only have a certain amount of time to shape them to mold them.
  768. 41:25George Barnas come out with extensive research to say worldviews are solidified by the age
  769. 41:29of 13.
  770. 41:31Yes.
  771. 41:32What are we doing?
  772. 41:34And one of the things that is that is ignored, unfortunately, not merely what is curricular coming
  773. 41:38from the teachers, but peer learning.
  774. 41:41What are they learning from Johnny and Junette at the Water Fountain and in PE class and oh
  775. 41:46wait for it in the sex ed classes where they're being taught there's no such thing as virginity.
  776. 41:52Yeah, we're hurting our kids and you know someone I like I said I'm running out of patience and it
  777. 41:58sounds like you are too with the conversation on full of patience and daffodils and lilies.
  778. 42:03That's right and everything and Easter bunnies are everywhere and I just think man we got to start
  779. 42:08having hard conversations and I said to him on the other day where there's a will there's a way
  780. 42:14if you care about this and you know God cares about it.
  781. 42:17So we know God cares about it, God can do it.
  782. 42:20God can provide for your family,
  783. 42:21He can give you what you need to stay home with your children.
  784. 42:24And you rightly pointed out, I mean Abraham,
  785. 42:26there are seasons of our lives and where we're either,
  786. 42:29we are either sewing or we are reaping.
  787. 42:31I am very much in a season of reaping right now in my life.
  788. 42:35Jay and I are reaping the fruit of 30-some odd years
  789. 42:40of parenting children.
  790. 42:41And I wanted my children, we said this to them,
  791. 42:44and they would say, Mom, why can't we do this?
  792. 42:46Why can't we do that?
  793. 42:47Oh, I wanted to be whatever.
  794. 42:49And I often said to my kids, listen,
  795. 42:51your dad and I have two jobs.
  796. 42:52Our first job is to teach you that you've been made
  797. 42:55in the image of God to introduce you to your savior.
  798. 42:58And the second one is to get you to adulthood
  799. 43:00with as little regret as possible.
  800. 43:02I want to get you to the jumping off place
  801. 43:05to where you don't look back and say,
  802. 43:07man, I wish that hadn't happened to me
  803. 43:08or I wish this had been part of my life.
  804. 43:10Have we done it perfectly?
  805. 43:11No, but you only get a small amount of time
  806. 43:14to invest in your children.
  807. 43:15And as you just said a moment ago,
  808. 43:17you don't get a do over.
  809. 43:19You don't get a do over it, right?
  810. 43:20We're taught in God's word that our children
  811. 43:22have been given to us like arrows in the hands
  812. 43:24of their warrior parents.
  813. 43:25So stop being so weasily and wobbly out on the field.
  814. 43:29You are a warrior in God's eyes.
  815. 43:31Fight for your children.
  816. 43:33Fight for your children,
  817. 43:34because we only get one opportunity to launch them.
  818. 43:37And when it's over, it's over.
  819. 43:38Now, my responsibility for six of our seven has turned from that of being a full-time mother
  820. 43:45and an educator to being a prayer warrior on behalf of my children and coming alongside them as an
  821. 43:51encourager and a coach and tell, reminding them, I'm in your corner, I'm cheering you on. I've got
  822. 43:56one child left at home, she's 13 years old. And yesterday, you know, I take Wednesdays and I spend
  823. 44:01the whole day with her. We're, you know, yesterday, we're making sourdough bread and I was teaching
  824. 44:05how to make halibut for dinner and all those things.
  825. 44:07And we're doing the things.
  826. 44:08And she said to me something that I thought was so profound,
  827. 44:11she said, Mom, I realize I'm the last,
  828. 44:14I'm the last one that you're gonna get to do this with.
  829. 44:17And she said, thanks for not quitting.
  830. 44:20Has there been times, honestly,
  831. 44:21Abraham, when I have wanted to quit?
  832. 44:23Oh, I know it.
  833. 44:24I just thought I have been teaching long division
  834. 44:27for 187 years in homeschool years.
  835. 44:29And I'm kind of tired of doing it.
  836. 44:31And I think that's where the Apostle Paul said,
  837. 44:33don't grow weary.
  838. 44:34Amen. Don't grow weary and well doing. Your kids are worth it. Your marriage is worth it.
  839. 44:40Your relationship with the Lord is worth it. Don't give up hanging there.
  840. 44:45So well said. Now I want to definitely include two things. One, you host monthly Bible studies
  841. 44:53with women all over the country and if you're listening and you'd like to be a part of
  842. 44:56Heidi's Bible studies, you can do so by going to faith. That speaks.com. Faith. That speaks.com.
  843. 45:03And in addition to that, you and Jay founded the firmly planted homeschool resource center.
  844. 45:08I got a small clip I want to share with the audience on that.
  845. 45:10It's clip number one, Jeff.
  846. 45:11Go.
  847. 45:12The scenery here in Vancouver, Washington across the Columbia River from Portland is simply beautiful.
  848. 45:18A very appropriate setting for what's taking place here.
  849. 45:21The whole story is a miracle story, really.
  850. 45:24Heidi St. John and husband Jay started their homeschooling venture about 20 years ago.
  851. 45:30What began as a small, humble homeschool ministry has now outgrown two locations thanks to a booming
  852. 45:37demand. God just kept putting on her heart, stepped forward in faith and I will bring the
  853. 45:41people and the resources and he's done that. Boy has he. When COVID hit, so did a rush of parents
  854. 45:48and their kids to the homeschool center causing it to almost quadruple in size. A new building was
  855. 45:55needed to house that a man but it carried a hefty price tag that only God could meet.
  856. 46:00We didn't have $16 million.
  857. 46:03And so we took it to the Lord and we at one point, actually several points along the way,
  858. 46:08we brought families over here to pray for the building.
  859. 46:10People walking the perimeter of this building, putting their hands on the bricks and just saying,
  860. 46:15Father, you see what's happening to your children.
  861. 46:17We need your help.
  862. 46:18We need your help.
  863. 46:19And he showed up in a mighty way, enough money in full so they could move forward.
  864. 46:25free. Wow. Tell us a bit about the
  865. 46:29firm of the Planet Homeschool Resource Center.
  866. 46:30What is your vision there and what are you seeking to accomplish?
  867. 46:34Well, the Homeschool Resource Center exists to really come alongside parents and remove
  868. 46:38every obstacle. So if a homeschool, you know, if a woman comes to me and says,
  869. 46:42my kids are in the public school and I'm really thinking about taking them out,
  870. 46:45but I just don't want to teach chemistry or I don't feel like, you know,
  871. 46:48great, I've got a chemistry tutor for you. I don't know where to get curriculum.
  872. 46:51Awesome, we have a bookstore here for you,
  873. 46:54where she'll say, I just don't have any community.
  874. 46:55That's awesome, we've got community here for you.
  875. 46:58And so we have over 200 tutorials happening right now here.
  876. 47:02We're doing tutoring and everything from the Constitution
  877. 47:06to languages to math, algebra, reading, science, you name it.
  878. 47:11We're teaching kids to be entrepreneurs here.
  879. 47:13We have a thriving entrepreneurship program going on,
  880. 47:15and we have over 800 students here.
  881. 47:18And so what we're trying to do is tell parents,
  882. 47:20listen, if you're feeling insecure, if you're feeling like you can't do it, we are here
  883. 47:25to help you do the thing that God has called you to do. And so we've seen literally, I mean,
  884. 47:31one of my favorite stories that happened over COVID was a mom came to us after they'd been
  885. 47:36at the center for maybe a month and a half. And she stood at the front desk and she was crying.
  886. 47:41And she said, Heidi, I finally have my daughter back. I haven't seen my daughter in years.
  887. 47:46And you know, really what we're doing is it's coming alongside helping parents do what they're supposed to do.
  888. 47:52So we're not a school, parents do not drop their kids off here, parents are here with their kids.
  889. 47:57So you'll see lots and lots of areas where as if a child's being tutored in algebra or maybe they're in a tutorial for chemistry or whatever it is.
  890. 48:05The moms have a place to sit. We have a coffee shop here. I call it the four C's. It's coffee, it's curriculum.
  891. 48:10and it's the bookstore, it's classes,
  892. 48:14and it's Jesus Christ, and they're getting all that stuff
  893. 48:16here at the center.
  894. 48:17That is wonderful, and parents are the ones who are doing
  895. 48:19the teaching.
  896. 48:20Ladies and gentlemen, Heidi St. John, you can follow Heidi
  897. 48:23in all of her wonderful work, and what she and her husband,
  898. 48:26Jay, are doing by going to Heidi St. John.net.
  899. 48:29You can get connected to her podcast.
  900. 48:32You can get connected to the women's Bible study
  901. 48:36at FaithThatSpeaks.com.
  902. 48:38You can find all of her books and all of their material,
  903. 48:40Heidi St. John.net is website.
  904. 48:43Thank you for being on the show, Heidi.
  905. 48:45The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast
  906. 48:48may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family
  907. 48:51Association or American Family Radio.

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