Jackie's Journey "Jungle School"

Christina’s Early Schooling Interior

“...Teach them to your children and to their children after them.”  Deut.4: 3

 Good-morning, Mom’s!  I have two princesses who have lived to tell the story of their educational process as tribal missionary daughters.  From Home Schooling to graduating from college, they have been in every type of school and curriculum available at one time or another! Furloughs from the field and sickness made academic flexibility an imperative and a household word for us.

 Both girls have their Bachelors and our youngest daughter her Master’s.  I say this to encourage you, young homeschooling mothers that God is faithful beyond our circumstances and He has trusted us and is faithful to do what He calls us to do.

 I was told that a good teacher causes learning and to accomplish this there are two pre-requisites:

 1)    A teacher must know the child’s need …spiritual first and then academic…for the child to learn.

 2)    The girls would need to be under my authority to receive from me. 

 I did not always feel like a “good teacher”. 

My sense of failure was forever present.  

Would it be enough…is it going to allow them the opportunity

to find their way in life?  Would they be prepared?

 I was teaching school in the jungle before the term “home-school” became popular!”  I was given the choice of sending my little ones three days journey to live at our Mission boarding school for the school year or being a home school pioneer.  It was not a hard decision, but it was a tremendous step of faith and a huge commitment.

 We lived in very primitive conditions where my job description included many already time-consuming activities.  There was no running water or electricity.  Cooking was an experience in itself, as many of the animals I was preparing were unknown to me!   There were no computers, Google, Youtube, phones, radios or T.V.  There was no written alphabet in the Kuna language so linguistics occupied hours each day (oh, for an I pad).

 In time, literacy became a necessity.  Sue, my partner, and I ran a medical clinic in the mornings for treating malaria, T.B., parasites, bat bites, open wounds, even setting broken bones, delivering babies, colds and flu… etc.   We joined the women weekly to sweep the village with palm leaf brooms (yes… imagine!).  There were remarkable teaching times, prayer meetings and lots of needs and visitors all day long… every day.  My girls were small; one was still nursing when we moved into Pucuro, our village on the Colombian border.  Time was a precious commodity…days were short… darkness came early.

 Teaching the girls was a blessing I loved.  These two girls, my heritage…are the only thing that will go on into eternity and carry on—our beliefs, our character, our philosophies, etc. into the next generation.  They are a commanding responsibility and the most important investment I wiould ever make.  You, mom’s, face the same imperative today in this asphalt jungle, as I once did as a tribal missionary mom tucked away in the tropical jungles of Panama.

 As a parent we have an unequaled opportunity with each child.  We want our child to be wise, truthful, grateful, honest, mighty in spirit… etc.  It is important that our heritage has the godly character necessary to produce success in life.

 My question this morning is threefold:

      1) Are you satisfied that you know how to take advantage of that

 opportunity for the benefit of your child?

 2.     What is the cost to your children and to yourself if you fail to properly complete the task? 

 3.     Is there a system that we can know for sure is going to work and we can utilize to obtain the right results? 

Scary, I know!!

 If there was ever a time in history when today’s youth must become God’s men and women for the world tomorrow…. THIS IS THE TIME!

 Isn’t it true, Moms, that our success comes from making our children successful?!

 I believe Scripture gives us a system we can use with confidence.  It focuses on building Godly character and uses very simple tools to accomplish that purpose.  Many parents spend hours teaching the “do’s and don’ts” that instruct the soul…but building character trains the spirit of the child.  Our involvement in actively and aggressively developing character meets a desperate need in our child and our society.

 Character is developing right attitudes that produce right actions habitually!

 Do you know how to do this?

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "What's the Target?"

“What’s the Target?”

“Education is the knowledge of how to use the whole of oneself.  Many of us use but one or two faculties out of the score with which they are endowed.  A man is educated who knows how to make a tool of every faculty…how to open it, keep it sharp, and how to apply it to all practical purposes.”  Henry Ward Beecher

We would not disagree that we need to target “making a tool of every faculty”, but when we talk about our children’s education we are entering “holy ground”.  America’s founding fathers did not intend to take religion out of education.  “Many of the nation’s greatest universities were founded by evangelists and religious leaders; but many of these have lost the founder’s vision and become secular institutions.  Because of this attitude, secular education is stumbling and floundering.” Billy Graham  (i.e. young fraternity pledge that died during hazing recently in Pennsylvania!)

If you are home schooling or have your children in a public or satellite school, or even a prestigious private school, you are aware of the effort, time and money it takes to educate young people today.  Our progressive culture and the technological world have swallowed us up with their demands and the need to excel in every area if you want to triumph in this competitive world.

After all, we want the best for our children, don’t we?

As a young mom I wanted“the best” for my two princesses while living in the jungles of Panama.  My choices were, however, limited, in that I knew I could not send my little girls to a mission school for months at a time and be able to focus on the job we had been commissioned to do among the Kunas.  My hat is off to those who successfully pull this off!  Home school curriculum was limited to ABeka and I was so grateful for this provision.

Jungle school with Christina in Kunaland Kindergarten!

Maybe some of you young moms are busy looking to the future for the education of your child and considering the multitude of options out there today.  For those of you who have set your goals for your children’s education and are preceding as our culture sets the standard, might I suggest an additional target that you can add to your consideration?

As moms, our pursuit is “to find His purpose and make it our goal to please Him first”…because one day “we will all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us will receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”  II Cor. 3: 2,3 Our focus, so often, separates academic schooling from the instruction of our spirit and soul.  We, frequently sacrifice the spiritual aspect to make sure our children will academically excel.

We want to achieve the full potential God has planned for our children…

and us.

We, so often, compartmentalize academic schooling from the instruction of the spirit and soul, relegating the responsibility of the spiritual aspect to our local church, a good bible teacher or the weekly Sunday school class.

“(God’s) purpose is that (our) children be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they have the full riches of complete understanding (applied wisdom), in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom (learning to see life’s situations from God’s point of view and acting in harmony with Him, His will and His purpose for our life) and (lastly) knowledge (familiarity gained by insight to truth, experience, accumulated facts and reports). Col. 1:28, 29

Taking time to educate the soul (mind, will and emotions)

and the spirit of a child is the heart of where

the success of true education really lies.

The instruction of the spirit and soul cannot be taught well from any other place but a godly home from godly parents and it trumps all other forms of education.  It takes personal commitment, learning to be a good student of the Word, time, “walk your talk” determination and dedication to teach the Words of God to an eager little prince or princess…but the reward far out ways anything this world, Christian or otherwise, has to offer.

Which will it be…?

What’s your target?

 His will and purpose found in quiet times of rich Bible reading and then,

teaching your little one, introducing the eternal hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge

 or

The secular education being fostered in most churches, homes and schools

across America today…?

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is discipling and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights.