Embarking On A New Venture: Part 4 – Have a Good Summer

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I don’t want to say this but this has been an awful year.  Actually, the last two years have been very trying.  However, it’s all been worthwhile because of the establishment of the Education Unlimited Academy.  This new development is the pinnacle of my entire career as an educator.  I cannot hide my glee with our new school situation!

No doubt there will be a lot of work and more than a few frustrations and disappointments, however it is nothing if not worth fighting for.

I want to end this year and this era by reminding you that June 30 will mark the end of Education Unlimited Inc., the private third party home education provider working on behalf of an associate school.  This September will mark our inaugural year as a private school, the Education Unlimited Academy.
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Embarking On A New Venture: Part 3 – A Miracle

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Most true believers know there is a reward for faithfulness, but most believe this is only obtained when we get to heaven.  I am convinced this is true, but I also believe that in this world, you reap what you sow.  Unfortunately this is too often quoted when people who are making bad decisions are threatened with bad consequences.

However, the Bible does not support an only-bad-consequences narrative.  Those who sow good seeds reap good crops.  This is not a big deal if you understand our job description as representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Our job is to do everything with two things in mind:  do everything to the glory of God and give Him thanks for the accomplishments.  A perhaps more common sense approach is: “If you are going to do something, aim for excellence”.
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Embarking On A New Venture: Part 2 – Education Unlimited Explained

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Last week, I shared about my long and continuing career in education.  Today, I want to focus on how Education Unlimited came to be.

You will remember that a bad experience in my daughter’s school prompted my wife and I to reconsider what we had unquestioningly accepted as the only way to train and teach our children.  That wake up call led not only to our decision to home educate, but also to me transferring to a large high school in Edmonton where I saw out my public school teaching career, fourteen years later.

Ironically, while I was still teaching in public school, I became a consultant for home education in my local school division, as well as a leader in our local support group.  Because of my newly gained expertise in home education, I became a facilitator with a home education provider and soon became an expert on successfully moving students to the post-secondary level without needing high school credits and diplomas.
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Embarking On A New Venture: Part 1 – Some History

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Yes, we are engaged in a new venture.  Perhaps even my final big venture.  This is certainly my biggest venture and most likely to be a really exciting adventure.  This could be the culmination of my career in education, but God only knows that for certain.  Before I get into what this new venture is, I think it would be a good idea to review a bit of history.

My wife, Faye, and I started our home education journey during the late 1980’s.  I had been teaching in a variety of capacities for over ten years at the time and I was very disappointed with what I saw inside the school industry.  Like most teachers, I had tricked myself into believing that while the school I was teaching at may have been less than ideal, the ones my children attended were somehow better.  That “lie” was exposed when I was transferred to the school my daughter was attending.
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Lessons Learned (Part 4)

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In the last few blogs, I discussed how simple life can be when we choose to serve God rather than man and prioritize our lives to include God, family and friends.  I then went on to show how we end up being directed in life by things we believe to be true, but we end up misguided because we do not question what is being presented.  We have come to trust the “science”, the “experts”, the “professionals” and the “authorities” without considering that they could be wrong, or worse, intend on doing wrong.

When filled with the false information we have come to believe, we end up pawns in a game that almost always takes us away from God and/or the purpose for which we exist.

However, it is not always because we have come to be filled with bad information that we stray from reality.  It can certainly be as a consequence of being so busy there is no time to stop and evaluate.  There is also the problem of familiarity which often causes us to miss two important issues.
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Lessons Learned (Part 3)

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A few years ago, I heard some sound wisdom while helping a friend at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.  This is a place were you will find no pretensions.  Everyone is genuine and sincere.  All understand that they fall short of the glory of God.

At this gathering, people shared their sad stories without fear of being judged by others because everyone is well acquainted with their own faults.  As I listened to these accounts, an old man not only shared his story of profound loss and destruction, but offered his advice for recovery from alcoholism.  I will never forget his wisdom and even though I cannot point to a specific Chapter and verse of the Bible in direct support of his statement, I can testify from a lifetime of experience that his insight was genuine and most certainly true.  He simply said he finally came to a place where he could seriously deal with his problem the day he stopped believing his own bullshit!
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Lessons Learned (Part 2)

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I ended my last blog by questioning how we have complicated our lives such that we have lost our focus on God, family and friends?

I spoke of our busyness and how we unquestioningly accept and believe what we are told.  How does this happen?

Perhaps it is best to start by going back to the beginning of time.  We are all familiar with the story of Adam and Eve: their creation; their freedom; the directives God gave them; how they failed; the consequences of their disobedience; and the repercussions of their disobedience for all of mankind.
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Lessons Learned (Part 1)

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Continuing with my recent return to blogging, I would like to share the lessons I learned while flitting in and out of consciousness during my struggle with Covid.

Before I begin, I must share that most of what occupied my thoughts at the time made no sense at all.  Repeating that I have enjoyed Divine health most of my life, I can easily say I have had very little to do with pharmaceutical drugs and I am blaming the hospital-administered drugs for causing the hallucinations and lack of reasonable cognizance.  Still, some things kept returning to me as I analyzed life and living from the base perspective of either no return or an opportunity for renewal.
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Restart on Blogs

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For those of you who have been faithfully following my blogs, you may have noticed they ended abruptly and inexplicably at the end of January (2022).  In a most incredible case of irony, something happened to test the very statements I had made in my last blog when I questioned what one might be thinking about when knowingly on his/her death bed.  I speculated about which things would be occupying one’s thoughts, assuming, of course one was lucid enough to have them and suggested these final earthly thoughts would be about God, family and friends.

Faithful followers will remember the 2021 summary in which I shared my experience of a very bad year.  There is no need to go over this again, except to say the bad news has continued and 2022 has, thus far, presented me with yet more opportunities for “learning and growing”.  Keeping in mind that blogs are created quite a while before they are presented, by the time my last blog was uploaded, I was in the midst of a struggle for my own life!

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What Matters and Why It Is Important: Relationships (Part 3)

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Most of us are glad to have seen 2021 fade into history.  It was certainly filled with many disappointments, frustrations and discouragement, not to mention deep sorrow and grief for our family, as well as for many others.

Our bad year ended in yet more sorrow as we suffered the tragic loss of my dear mentor and friend, the iconic and legendary Ted Byfield. Adding this loss to the litany of deaths and other sorrows that occurred in 2021 led me to seriously reconsider what life and death are all about.

Imagine for a minute being on your deathbed, knowing you are about to depart from this world.  Assuming your mind is clear enough to reflect on your life, what do you think will be on your mind?  Let me share what I believe will be on most minds at this juncture between life and death. Continue reading “What Matters and Why It Is Important: Relationships (Part 3)”