Jennifer

Jennifer, 12-going-on-13, likes art, drama, singing, sports of all kinds… and loves animals. She has two guinea pigs, two rabbits, a cat, and a goldfish.

There have been some exciting developments for Jennifer recently. She has been finding school life in Britain extremely difficult, to the point where she was sinking into depression and cynicism, and in danger of losing her faith. This was not the fault of either of the two schools she has attended, which are both excellent, responding swiftly to any problems affecting pupils. Stephen, in fact, after some difficulties last year, has come through very well, and is now happily adjusted to school life over here. But it seems that Jen has never fully accepted our move from Kenya; she frequently harps back to the “idyllic” life we had out there, and has felt very much of an outcast at school, where none of her friends have had experience of living abroad for an extended period, and are therefore quite unable to sympathise or understand her feelings. In addition, she felt she could no longer cope with the very strong social pressure to have a boy friend and use swearwords etc. in order to be accepted among the girls.)

We have therefore quite often considered the possibility of home schooling for Jen; but always came up against the brick wall that it would require a huge investment of time and effort, mainly on Johanna’s part, which would simply be physically too much for her.  However, last month we ‘accidentally’ discovered, through the Wycliffe newsletter that Steve edits, the existence of a Christian Internet school here in the UK. NorthStar UK offers course materials and tutorial support for home-schooling students in most of the major subjects in the British national curriculum—plus specifically Christian subjects like “Christian Worldview”. It also provides contact with other students in a similar situation, including many living overseas. (The setup is similar to an Internet chat room, with students able to ‘converse’ with one another and with their tutors by means of typed messages.) The overseas contacts would be particularly important for Jennifer, ‘releasing’ her from the small-minded parochial worldview of her schoolmates. Also, she is the kind of person who is self-motivated and can set her own goals and work in a disciplined way to achieve them—i.e., we can see her doing well in a home-schooling environment (unlike Stephen!). Then again, we feel the specifically Christian courses would be particularly good for Jennifer, in helping her to understand the intellectual basis of her faith. She is a thinking person, and often asks penetrating questions about the Bible and Christianity.

We therefore immediately felt how wonderful it would be if Jen could do this kind of schooling for two years, returning to the upper high school (ages 15-18) for GCSE and A-levels. There seems to be a more mature attitude among the older students, and she would hopefully have matured herself by then as well, and be better grounded in her faith and better able to cope with the challenges of a non-Christian society.  But—there were two major hurdles to be overcome: finances, and the question of whether she would be readmitted after two years, having surrendered her place at the school. We prayed that if this was God’s way forward for Jennifer, He would overcome these obstacles. The first, praise Him, has already been dealt with: we shared the situation with just two of our close friends and supporters—one in Holland, the other a couple in the UK—and both instantly reacted extremely positively, and offered to put up half the funds needed! Between them, therefore, the full cost of 2 years’ schooling for Jen with NorthStar has been covered. The second hurdle—readmission to the local high school after the 2 years—has met with a qualified response from the local education authority: if we are still resident in Thame at that time, they will guarantee a place for her at  a high school in the area; but they cannot guarantee in writing that it will be the same school she is attending now. However, the verbal responses of both the headmaster and the county education admissions officer indicate that it would be highly unlikely for her to be sent to a different school. So, on that basis we feel the Lord’s peace about going ahead.

In September, therefore, Jen will start Internet schooling here at home. Obviously there are many things we are having to work out: neither Art nor a foreign language are offered by NorthStar, so we will need to make alternative arrangements for these subjects. Johanna feels she can help Jen in both areas, as she herself has had training in Art, and she studied German at school—which is the language Jen has been doing this year. (And of course German is similar to Dutch.) There are also excellent short art courses and workshops available at local institutions. We will have to work out a daily schedule for Jen, and fit this in with Johanna’s requirements; and we will have to make sure she has enough physical exercise and social contact with others of her age. We feel that while these things do present difficulties, they are not insurmountable; and we are trusting the Lord to show us the way ahead in each of these areas. It will mean a big change for all of us, though; please do pray with us in the months ahead.

But the difference in Jennifer herself since this prospect opened up has been almost unbelievable! Virtually overnight she has changed from being a morose, ‘closed’ and cynical teenager, to being her normal outgoing and friendly self again! It’s as if we have our daughter back again. This has obviously been an enormous weight lifted from her shoulders. Just the realisation that the biggest obstacle—finances—was swept away instantly in answer to prayer, and that other people have been willing to pay large sums of money just for the sake of  her well-being, has done a tremendous amount to strengthen her faith and boost her self-esteem. We’re praising the Lord for this.