How on earth did we get here?

About the Nunnery Family, Missions, Homeschooling, and Teach Them Diligently.

Throughtout history, many people have said that they cannot believe where God has directed their paths. That is generally expressed with a sense of awe at all that God has done and how clearly His hand can be seen in the cirumstances of their life. His direction in the course our family has been chosen to take is nothing short of miraculous, and He deserves much praise for great things He has done.

Several years ago, our family functioned very differently than it does now. Our children were young and enrolled in a very good Christian school. We were heavily involved in our church and the mission work of Worldwide Tentmakers as David worked in the college sports industry. In all honestly, life was really easy. We had more than we needed. Very little was actually asked of us, though we didn’t realize it then.

In late 2009, God began to impress upon our hearts that we were to homeschool the children. At the time, that was the farthest thing from our minds and to be quite honest, we thought it was a passing fancy, so we started homeschooling our children when they were in 4th, 2nd and 1st grades (plus the youngest one!) As is often the case, we began to see God’s perfect plan in our homeschooling unfold quickly, for in 2011  God clearly called David to go full time to lead Worldwide Tentmakers. The call was so clear that we really didn’t think twice about it. There was little fear, for we had always seen God provide so abundantly before we knew He would continue to do so as we transitioned.  Now that we were a homeschool family, we had the freedom and flexibility to accompany him on survey mission trips and other travels he was called upon to do. Homeschooling didn’t seem like such a passing fancy anymore, for we could see that it was clearly part of God’s call on our family.

Just as David was preparing to go full time with Worldwide Tentmakers, which is a mission agency centered around self-supporting missions endeavors worldwide, we knew that we would need to have a way to support our family and the mission work of the organization. Once again, God used His call to homeschool to open another door. We sensed a great need in the homeschooling community for a regional event celebrating the reason so many Christian families choose to homeschool– why THIS Christian family chose to homeschool (which you can read about here)– which is to disciple their children and instill in them a love of the Lord their God with all their hearts, souls, minds, and strength. So, at the end of our very first year of homeschooling– yes, you read that right— by God’s direction, we started Teach Them Diligently. We had extremely limited knowledge of the players in the homeschool world. We had extremely limited knowledge of ANYTHING homeschool related, which added to the incredible story God was writing. That first Teach Them Diligently, held in Spartanburg, SC, saw about 1,500 families in attendance from 38 different states and 4 different countries. God did a marvelous work!