The Voice of the Martyrs

The Voice of the Martyrs -- Servants of the Persecuted Church

There are more Christian martyrs today than there were in the days of the Roman Empire. We hear the stories of what happened to the Christians in 100 AD times--thrown in for the wild animals to tear apart, beheaded, stoned, crucified, thrown into boiling oil or a furnace, or coated in tar and used as human torches, to name a few--and yet we do not hear what is happening to our Christian brothers and sisters around the world today, where Christians are still dying.Christians are still dying for their faith in Jesus Christ today. An estimated 164,000 Christians were martyred in 1999 alone. The numbers and stories are staggering. A great book to read is Jesus Freaks by DCTalk and The Voice of the Martyrs.

They encourage and provide smuggled Bibles for Christians in persecuted countries, distribute tracts in various ways, encourage and help those imprisoned for their belief in Jesus, and do numerous other activities that benefit Christians in persecuted countries (an example is the Sudanese blanket drive, where blankets are collected and distributed to Sudanese Christians).

UZBEKISTAN – Pastor Sentenced to Four Years in Exile March 9, 2007
On Friday March 9, Pastor Dmitry Shestakov was sentenced to four years in exile. According to The Voice of the Martyrs contacts in Uzbekistan, the location to which he will be exiled has not been determined. It is not clear if his family will be able to go with him.
In January, Pastor Shestakov was arrested in a raid on his congregation in Andijan, which is affiliated with the registered Full Gospel Church. Uzbekistan’s Religious Affairs Committee claims Shestakov, an evangelical pastor, is not an authorized leader of any officially recognized religious organization in Uzbekistan. They describe him as an “impostor” leading an underground group identified as “Charismatic Pentecostals” engaged in proselytizing under Shestakov’s leadership.
“This is an example of what our Uzbek brothers and sisters face in their country,” said Todd Nettleton, Director of Media Development for The Voice of the Martyrs. “This is a government that says they give their citizens religious freedom, but that is clearly not the case.”
“Our prayers will continue to be with our brother as he faces this sentence, and we pray that the gospel work in Andijan will continue and grow.”

Please visit The Voice of the Martyrs to keep informed of news across the world. Please continue to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Some samples

This is Allison's rendition of The Bedroom by Van Gogh. As you can see she felt his room was a bit too drab and added her own character to the picture.


Twelfth Night

Our week

I can't believe how quickly our days are going. It has been another busy but productive week. Morgan and Bryan are both doing well in their honors and AP Biology classes. They have both received A's on their exams and homework assignments. In history we have begun a more in depth study of the constitution and how our country's government was formed, plus began the reading of Washington Irving's The legend of Sleepy Hollow. Our cultural center is doing the play in a few weeks and we hope to get to see that. Algebra is just algebra, progressing well.
Aaron is moving along in his study of American history by reading Genevieve Foster's book George Washington's World. Physical science is still going well. Reading is still slow in that he just doesn't love to read fiction. But we are working on that.... He loves his Fallacy Detective Logic Book, but then again that is his thing. He is keeping up with the others in his high school Latin course. IEW has really helped him with writing and he is writing some good papers these days.
Allison is just thriving on the changes we have made for her. Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day is her favorite book right now. She has learned all about binomial nomenclature, and can tell you all of the classifications in order. Her notebook looks awesome. We are continuing our study of the Vikings and Leif Erickson for history. She is reading Socks by Beverly Cleary and of course loves that since it is about a cat! We are about to wrap up our study of Van Gogh and Vivaldi even though we hate to say good bye to them. We are reading Twelfth Night for our Shakespeare study. In Latin she has learned the first conjugation verb chant and the first declension noun chant. She has memorized the Lord's Prayer and several Latin sayings. Grammar and spelling come fairly natural for her.
Jonathan just read Bob Book #4. He is so proud of himself! We have enjoyed reading many books together. But he says that You are Special by Max Lucado is his favorite of all books. If you haven't read this book, it is a must read. We have also read Stone Soup, Panda Bear, The Napping House, Duncan and Deloris, Right Choices, and How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World. All great reads. He is beginning to tell time in math and is working on numbers above twenty. Science is just nature study. We collected many leaves this week and pressed them in a book. That was a huge hit.
So overall a great week.

Why study Shakespeare in the early years

I guess when I first started researching Charlotte Mason's educational philosophy I just wasn't too sure about starting Shakespeare so early. But as I have studied Shakespeare and began to introduce his writings to Allison and Jonathan I am amazed at how well they are understanding the plays. We are using Tales From Shakespeare by Tina Packer and also an illustrated book of Twelfth Night by Bruce Coville. It is being enjoyed so much. They are also required to memorize certain phrases from each play that we study. Shakespeare is responsible for adding over 2000 words and phrases to the English language. His plays help us to understand the virtues of man and provide for in-depth discussion of many worldly issues. I know they don't understand everything at this point but as we study the plays each year their understanding will increase. Even though sometimes the stories show behavior somewhat questionable, this is usually unnoticed by young children. Many times Shakespeare is not enjoyed by high school children because of its difficulty. My hope is that if they are exposed to his writings at an early age they will have a much better understanding when they have to study his works in-depth. Here are some recommended resources we are using:

http://www.berith.org/hsres/shak/shak01.html http://cla.calpoly.edu/~smarx/courses/510F99/510Cal.html http://absoluteshakespeare.com/index.htm http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/ http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/shake.htm http://karenswhimsy.com/shakespearesplays.shtm

The Giver

I just recently read The Giver. This is a book I recommend to everyone. If you are not familiar with this book it is about a functioning Utopian society;a perfect world as envisioned by its creators. It has eliminated fear, pain, hunger, illness, conflict, and hatred—all things that most of us would like to eliminate in our own society. It is written from the point of view of Jonas, an 11 year old boy living in a futuristic society of sameness. There are no choices to make so no one ever makes a wrong decision. Everyone is polite and no one feels much pain. There are pills given to suppress pain and other feelings that are normal and healthy. At age 12 everyone is assigned an occupation, from doctors, lawyers, teachers to birth mothers. Birth mothers are the only ones that have the children, and are never permitted to see them. The babies are sent to the Nurturing Center until they are placed into families which have previously applied and have been approved to receive them. Each family is allowed 2 children, one boy and one girl. When the children are grown, the family unit dissolves. As you age you are placed in an old person's home until you are "released".

At the ceremony of the Twelves, Jonas is given the high honor of Receiver of the Memories. When the community went to sameness they released all memories of pain, war, love, colors, hunger and joy. The Giver places his hands on Jonas's back and begins to give him memories. The story is about how he deals with the realization that without any pain one cannot understand joy. No matter how delightful an experience is, you cannot value the pleasure it gives you unless you have some memory of a time when you have suffered.

This is a must read. Lowery was inspired to write this book after a visit to her aging father who had lost most of his long term memory. The major theme is about how important our memories and experiences are to us.

It has been an awesome 2 weeks off from our routine. The beach was a great way to spend some time together as a family. But now we must gear up for our busy time. Hockey season is back in full swing, and all of their classes have started as well. All of my lesson plans are completed for the next few weeks and we are all ready to begin. Here are some samples of things we are doing and things the kids have worked on before the break.
Here are a couple of samples from Allison's Vikings Notebook.



Here are the books she is using.

Jonathan also loves to draw!

And math is by far his favorite subject.

Here are some of the books he is using.

Morgan loves her Advanced Biology class. Here she is working hard on her drawings of salivary gland tissue.