Homeschool Update

Hello!  The other night I was looking at school stuff in anticipation of the new school year starting in a few weeks and I realized that I never posted Audrey's final report card from last year so here it is.  Year one of homeschool was a HUGE success!  Paul and I are very proud of our two kiddos!

.

	~ The 3rd Story Academy ~
	Student Name:	Audrey Simmerman		Age:	6 years 3 mo
	Session:	Four (Days 136-180) - 2014		Grade:	Kindergarten
	Date:	June 2-6
	Reading	Every night Audrey pulls out her Bible and reads a few pages out of it to me.  This was her idea and she is very persistent with it and willing to sound words out.  I notice that Audrey gets very frustrated with herself when she can't sound out a word in the "teach your child to read" book and she does not want to continue with the lesson.  Audrey loves to be read to, and she has a great attention span.  I am able to read longer books with plots and Audrey can tell me what the story was about as well as her favorite parts of the story.  Audrey is getting much better at writing and she will come out with papers where she has written things herself by sounding them out.  When Audrey takes the initiative to read or to write she does extremely well.  We will continue to work on her learning new things successfully.
	Math	Audrey continues to do very well in math with case scenarios in her head.  She is able to write her numbers well.  She can count to 100 and by 10s and 5s.  She bakes well with measurements.  She knows days of the week, seasons, months of the year…
	Bible	Audrey is very knowledgeable about the Bible.  She loves reading Bible stories.  She is a worship artist.  She spontaneously prays for people all of the time.  She drew a picture for someone's healing and has prayed for multiple people that have been healed.  She is a spirit filled young lady.
	History/Books	Audrey loves to be read to.  Her favorite books are fairytales about princesses.  She has amazing story recall, even months after the fact.
	Life Skills	Audrey successfully and consistently completes the following Habit Training Sets:  Habit Training Set #1: Set Table, Clean up Table, Brush Teeth, Get dressed, Clean room, make bed is done every day at this point.  Habit Training Set #2:  On coming in, shoes go in the slot and jacket gets hung up.  Clothes in hamper at night and clean room.  Habit Training Set #3:  Put out all vitamins for the whole family, fill and empty dishwasher.
	Science/Geography	Audrey is very explorative outdoors.  We started a garden and she can name all of the plants that we have planted from seeds.  She waters the plants and weeds and she loves the plants.
	PE/Arts	Audrey rides her bike without training wheels and is very brave.  She loves to climb trees and play in her playhouse.  Audrey loves to color and draw and paint and she does it very well.  She loves to swim.

21June2014 - The Need for Jesus

How you doin?  It's something to see the tremendous need for Jesus.  When we look around we can see  an uncountable amount of needs.  Sickness, disease, sin, fear, religion, unbelief, human tradition, financial insecurity, addiction (to more then just drugs and alcohol), and much more.  Stacey and I find ourselves praying some specific prayers, but mostly general prayers due to the massive amount of prayer request we receive during our time in the morning.  Throughout the day we pray for individual people.  A lot of time our prayers are for heaven's rain to fall on the earth.  For the glory of the Lord to rain down and cover us. 

As I was reading Job 23 today, I felt overwhelming gratitude for Jesus and the ongoing process of walking out my identity/destiny in Him and the new covenant that he established for me/us.  Verses 8-12,
“Behold, I go forward but He is not there,
And backward, but I cannot perceive Him;
⁹ When He acts on the left, I cannot behold Him;
He turns on the right, I cannot see Him.
¹⁰ “But He knows the ^[e]way I take;
When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
¹¹ “My foot has held fast to His path;
I have kept His way and not turned aside.
¹² “I have not departed from the command of His lips;
I have treasured the words of His mouth ^[f]more than my ^[g]necessary food.

Job's afflictions, which are from the devil, are causing him to respond to God poorly throughout this entire book.  Job doesn't have the benefit of the Bride Groom's pursuit.  Job is searching for God based on his level of understanding.  He doesn't have the Counselor teaching him and reminding him of the things Jesus said and did.  I/we are certainly not exempt from falling into this trap.  That's why I feel such gratitude toward Jesus and the Holy Ghost this morning.  It's Jesus' acts on the cross that made it possible for me/us to receive God's glory through His Holy Spirit.  The very same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in me/you.  I wonder how Job's story would read if the Holy Ghost lived in him.  What a gift we have to live in such a great age of spirituality.  I love and am very thankful for knowing that I need Jesus like I need air.  Understanding that I need Jesus in this way makes it possible for me to yield myself to Him.  COME ON!!!!!!!  A yielded heart is a mold-able or shape-able heart.  A transformable heart.  WOW WOW WOW!!!!!!!  Tell Jesus how much you need Him today.

PS  I left about 2 pages worth of stuff out of this email.  The Holy Ghost is again pouring out into me and our home.  AWESOME!!!!!!!  I keep thinking of the importance of keeping our feet on the right path.  Verses 10-12 pretty much wrecked me this morning.  When I don't understand why things occur in life it makes stay the path even more.  I keep thinking of the song by Petra that asks "When will the world see that we need Jesus".  That's not condemnation... I'm in the world as well.  Praise God that when I/we can't see God due to life's circumstances that "He knows the way I take".

20June2014- I'm Back!

How you doin?  I had a tremendous time with God.  He's really AWESOME!!!!!!!  I don't think the training is ever over, but for now I made it through this session.  I don't know if sharing what happen is a good idea or not, but I will say that the Holy Ghost changed my perspective.  That's what He does.  He changes me/us.

Stacey and I had a wonderful experience last night.  We've always envisioned our home as some place that was luring to people who needed/wanted to be in the Presences of God.  So last night we had 3 very dear friends come over.  1 was invited and was over in 20 minutes after the invitation and another couple (the husband of the couple is my unofficial spiritual mentor) asked if we were home so they could come over and talk & get hugs.  Now as much as I would love to think and take credit for people being lured to our home due to my incredible attitude and personality, I saw clearly that it was the Presence of God that was drawing them in.  That's not to say that we have nothing to do with it.  We pray everyday without fail for awareness of His Presence.  We pray for His Presence to be known in our home and in our lives.  We pray faithfully and in belief that we will be transformed into His likeness from glory to glory.  Last night was an answer to prayer and a reward for our obedience.  God gave us a glimpse of what it looks like to live in Him and to welcome Him in us.  PRAISE JESUS!!!!!!!...  for everything. 

John 4:45, "So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things that He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they themselves also went to the feast."

John 6:20-21, "But He *said to them, “It is I; ^[h]do not be afraid.” ²¹ So they were willing to receive Him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going."

Luke 10:38, "Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home."

Luke 8:40, "And as Jesus returned, the ^[k]people welcomed Him, for they had all been waiting for Him."

These are few of so many verses that tell us of the importance of welcoming Him and others as though they were Him.  Welcome Him and receive Him, and others, today.

12June2014- Testing Training

How you doin?  This is going to be lightning fast since I'm at work.  I'm sure you can hear some struggle over the last few days.  I was "listening" for/to God on my way to work this morning.  Meaning, I wasn't praying.  I was listening.  I heard something that I've never heard before.  I heard, "I'm testing you and training you for a new glory".  This rocked me.  I don't have time to get into many details about this, but there is a lot more.  I still feel relatively unhappy here in the natural, but I can't say that I've ever had so much joy.  Please pray for the Holy Ghost to teach me to trust myself enough for this new glory/season.

My emails may look a little different and a lot less.  I know that this training and testing is very personal between God and I.  He is waiting on me to pull back and spend time Him and only Him.  If anyone would like to still receive daily emails for encouragement and fellowship please let me know.  I have had some people tell me that they count on and look forward to the email each morning.  I don't want to stop that ministry.  Please let me know if you want an email daily.  Otherwise it will be as the Holy Ghost leads.  I have no idea how long this will be.  Please be praying for me to trust myself and to yield myself to God completely.  WOW WOW WOW!!!!!!!  I'm a wreck.  AWESOME!!!!!!!

While I'm going through this training/testing, I don't want to neglect this call to ministry.  So the Holy Ghost gave me strategy this morning to do both.  I'll be copying and pasting a devotional email that I receive.  THIS WILL NOT BE MY WRITING.  This devotional has been instrumental in my spiritual growth.  I don't now how long God will have me in this training/testing but I will email you my writings as I'm lead by the Spirit.  These devotionals are written by various writers.  I hope and pray they serve you well.  One thing that always stands out to me is the numerous times God says in the Old Testament, "Hear me, listen to me, and pay attention to me".  I pray that you are able to not only do that, but be patient with me as I do that.  I hope you enjoy this until I'm through this process.  I do know this is leading me into a new glory.  Please keep praying for me/us and I'll be praying for you. 

11June2014 - 4th Day

How you doin?  I'm a little better today.  I feel a bit more rested.  I'm still having trouble coming out of the state that organizing conferences puts me in.  I still feel like I need time with Him and only Him.  My relationship with Him is the most important thing.  When I'm in right relationship with Him my life produces fruit.  I did make the mistake and asked someone how they liked the message on Sunday.  He ripped the message apart and basically said it was worthless.  Ouch!!!!!!!  Take that for asking.  One of these days I'll learn NOT to ask.  I'm still struggling with the book of Job.  I'm not sure why God has us here reading this book.  It seems extremely redundant. 

In the first five verses Job rips his friend a new one.  That part I get.  It's the rest of the verses that I don't get.  In the NASB verses 6-22 are titled "Job Says God Shattered Him".  As I've said before, we have the benefit of reading about God and Satan's dialog in the beginning of the book.  Though God allowed this to happen, it's Satan's hand that's causing the damage.  God still put restrictions on Satan both times He allowed Satan to afflict Job.  Here's where it feels redundant.  I'm not sure what I'm missing.  There are 22 more chapters of this.  I'm praying that I get it.  Whenever there's an issue with understanding or making sense of the Scripture, I always look at myself. 

I've heard from Doug Addison via text message Sun, Mon, & Tues.  More is being revealed about the weekend.  For those of you who read this email and attended the conference, please email me any testimony you have.  Healing, deliverance, revelation, understanding, etc.  Stacey and I, along with Doug, would love to hear about it.  I know some people that were in attendance aren't on this email list.  If you talk to them, please ask them to email me as well. 

I do feel as though I could burst.  I know that God has a great work in me and in us as a couple.  The anticipation is at a boiling point.  Know that God is good today.

PS   After talking with Stacey this morning, we both feel that the conference released freedom and acceptance for us.  Freedom to be in our identity and destiny in Christ.  Acceptance by God.  Acceptance by God to be His children.  I think that I'm dealing with some 4th day stuff.  I feel like the heavy weight of rejection is on me.  The rejection of those who didn't attend the conference.  The email I received about the message on Sun. and more.  I know that Satan can only counterfeit or do the opposite of what God does.  So it makes sense.  I received acceptance and now Satan is hitting me with rejection.  I keep thinking of Dan Mohler's message.  If I'm being hurt by other people it's my problem not theirs.  Rejection from people has NO business speaking louder then acceptance from God.

10June2014 Maintaining STewardship

How you doin?  I'm really exhausted.  We spent the day in Widwood yesterday with Stacey's family.  It was very fun, but very full.  I feel like I need a day of recovery.  I heard God say "stewardship" this morning while praying.  Stewardship of myself, my marriage, the kids, my house, and most of all my relationship with Him.  God can only pour out of me what He fills me with and what I can retain or hold.  My thoughts are some what tiring right now.  I have had a ton poured in and not much time to let it set in.  I love the fact that I received text message from Doug Addison Sunday and yesterday.  WOW!!!!!!!  What a blessing that would be to maintain communication and to develop friendship with him.  We did read Job 14 this morning.  I didn't get much out of it, except for more of the same.  Job's "friend" has a major case of identity theft.  Not just his identity, but all believers.  He also shows how he doesn't know God at all.  Sorry for such a short email today.  I feel like I'm jipping you this morning.  I'm just really exhausted.  Be good stewards of what God has given you today.

PS   Not only do I hear "stewardship", I'm hearing "rest".  "Rest in the Lord".

9June2014 Dust Settling

How you doin?  Whatta weekend.  The entire weekend was a huge set up by God.  Doug Addison brought a freedom impartation with him like I've never experienced.  Praise God!!!  Doug's message was refreshing, uplifting, and inspiring, but wasn't a pep rally.  AWESOME!!!!!!!  It will take some time for the dust settle.  It will take some time for the anointing to become a reality and part of my everyday.

One day last week I had written that I could feel God pouring into me what He wants to pour out of me.  That really became a reality yesterday as I gave the message at all three of our church services.  The message was on the transformational power of the Holy Ghost.  I can't really preach on or testify to something I haven't experienced.  The time I spent with Doug was such a divine set up.  It's amazing to come into right relationship with Him.  Not based on what I've been traditionally taught.  That actually leads to spiritual death and separation.  Right relationship with Him based on His heart.  COME ON!!!!!!!  It's more then a thrill to step into my identity and destiny in Christ. 

I was certainly stretched over the weekend.  At the conference as well as giving the message at church.  New wine taste wonderful.  I'm praying to be a new wine skin.  I so want to hold on to this glory and not let it fade away because of everyday life.  I don't ever want to go back to "normal".  I'm praying that my "normal" becomes Christ like and reflects His image. 

Those of you who attended the conference, pray about being a new wine skin so you can hold the new wine that was poured in.  Those of you who heard the message that I was fortunate enough to speak out on Sunday, yield yourself to the Holy Ghost and let Him transform you into His likeness and image.  The second greatest commandment is to love you neighbor as you you love yourself.  It's easy to love yourself if you see how God sees you.  If you love yourself, it's easy to love your neighbor.  COME ON!!!!!!!  Don't let the devil steal your identity today.

PS   Sorry if I'm all over the place today.  The dust will settle and my "normal" will become different, but better.  This weekend wasn't a mountain top experience... it was transformation.  COME ON!!!!!!!