Through recreation and character events we support churches and schools to empower parents to lead their children to Christ. And the more character immersion we give our children-compassion, servanthood, love-the more they will reach out to children and families in need through ministries like International Children’s Care. Watch this video to hear the full message!
https://youtu.be/Z072CaOqQ9M We finally made it to Round Lake Park! The weather was sunny and a bit warmer, just right for the group to enjoy hiking and riding. Some families were on spring break from their schools, so everyone enjoyed their company. We missed taking photos of some of our hikers, but we sure got video […]
Our co-op just got healthier by contributing to the process of feeding the hungry! Ten family units, or 25 children and parents, met at The Center’s organic community garden in Vancouver, WA. They came together to finish a garden-stake service project they began earlier in the month. The students engaged in experiential learning by getting […]
Everywhere we go, there are traces of God’s wonderful creation. Here in Washington State, mountains and rivers speak loudly of God’s delight in making beautiful landscapes. The Kalama River, 30 minutes north of Vancouver, WA, is one of those places. On Kalama River Rd is a 100 year old cabin with 160 feet of water […]
March 2022 Update People like you have a heart and a passion for something better. Remember Jim Collins’ book Good to Great? In it he said “good is the enemy of great.” People like you don’t want just lukewarm; they want hot. They want what the Bible calls pure and undefiled religion, and worship in […]
5 Miles Later–Healthier Bodies, Healthier Families Beginning at the Hantwick Rd parking area, Adventure Days families walked and biked to the Moulton Falls bridge, then made their way back, for a total of 5 miles! The Adventure Days group is a collection of parents who love to get outside and get exercise. They believe that…. […]
Click on the image below for the short video! What a fun day the Adventure Days group had last Wednesday! We went to our resident camp with the ultimate goal of service. We whittled large stake poles to make garden signs from. Beforehand all the children took a whittling class and made a pledge to […]
Water and mountain views were a plus as we served others and brought a smile to Christ! This last Wednesday, the sun shone brightly, and Mount Hood could definitely be seen in the distance past the pond. A group of parents and their kids came together to spread wood chips in the forest to make […]
Acquainting Agriculture with Kris and Angela Frauenfelder It was a treat to have Kris and Angela join our Adventure Days group! Thanks to local church friends who connected the couple to the Homeschool group, Kris and Angela came to Optimist Camp and shared their knowledge about linking the Gospel to nature and gardening. Parents and […]
Beacon Rock State Park was Sublime! Less than an hour away from Vancouver, WA, is a unique landmark –an eroded lava plug –called Beacon Rock. Adventure Days families climbed the rock, hiked the forest trails, and spent time enjoying the Columbia River below. This Adventure day was different from others, as we had a morning […]
D2D Parenting Day took place on February 5 with around 15 family units in attendance. Parents in SW Washington received discipleship training through interactive family sessions. According to parents, the intergenerational approach created a “good combination of kids & adult activity,” Some parents did mention the approach was a bit distracting. The trainer, William Hurtado, […]
Snow Days at Summit Ski Hill! We had a near perfect day on the Summit ski hill on Mount Hood! Parents and children joined together for a day of fresh powder and kid fun. During Adventure Days, we usually gather for a few minutes to consider a spiritual lesson. Since it was not possible for […]
Snow Day with Blue Skies Our first snow day of the season was marvelous! We decided to go easy and hit up Snow Bunny Park. The snow in the morning was hard as rock, but as the day progressed, it softened and kids enjoyed it more and more. It did feel like a “beach day,” […]
Girl Teaches About the Gospel https://youtu.be/yE7jlxz3384 This Wednesday was our last indoor rock-climbing day for the 2021-2022 winter! Besides kids doing a lot of climbing and adults having conversations about life, faith, parenting, and education, we were happily surprised with an impromptu lesson from one of our young climbers. Now in her third day of […]
Five adventurous families came together to enjoy nature in our local camp this last Wednesday. With two fires going, and a roof over our heads, we made Christmas wreaths and enjoyed each other’s company. The children got their physical exercise, and all received the blessing of community. The ruggedness of camp reminded us of the […]
Our adventure day outings are not just for kids but for parents too. Parents need a strong village to help them raise their children. Most of us have our extended families and churches to connect with, which is great. But their sole purpose isn’t necessarily to empower you to educate your children for eternity. […]
Indoor rock climbing at its best! Adventure Days’ families, within the context of a loving community, tripled their rock climbing time in one day as they enjoyed climbing with friends. What we planned for to be one hour, turned out to be three. Kids climbed multiple routes. Some kids skipped lunch. Some raced each other […]
When we arrived at The Center Community Garden, the winds were blowing and the Sun was shining bright. Marilyn, the garden coordinator, already had dirt under her fingernails and was eager to get started with collecting the bags of leaves and showing the kids how to prepare them to make leaf mold. They had to […]
To be in nature; to be at camp! To play schoolhouse; to cook around the fire! To be outside; to be with friends! “Time spent amongst the trees is never wasted time.” – Katrina Mayer Our early Thanksgiving feast was really a free-play day immersed in nature. Kids played school, built forts, went fishing, played […]
There is so much to learn about trees! Did you know that… Being around trees makes you feel happier. Feeling sad? Spend a little time around trees, and your mood will lift. Trees share each others nutrients through their shared root systems. When one tree isn’t getting enough water, the other tree shares their nutrients. […]
When strollers go into three-wheel drive, you know there are tough moms in the group! One mom described this week’s Adventure Days as “Fall, forest fresh air and fun in fellowship with friends!” Thanks Mira for that fabulous description! The group adventured into the cougar trails, eventually finding Mill Creek and the historic cabin site. […]
With Fall colors and smiling faces at their brightest, the Adventure Days group of 25 pioneered back into the early 1800’s to make their own meals over the fire, hunt for fish, carve out tools, and learn in a pretend school-house. All enjoyed their time together, especially as they realized that being in the forest […]
This is a big month of moving forward into God’s full calling for my life! Check out the highlights in October’s life and ministry update to get the scoop.
The Adventure Days group went to the Salmon Creek Greenway Trail with a mission: To fulfill the Lit Challenge! Through a fun litter clean-up scavenger hunt, the group made the greenway trail a cleaner place. They also knew that some people who went there were lonely. That’s why the Lit Challenge was twofold: Pick-up litter, […]
Our growing group visited the Cedar Creek Grist Mill! The volunteers there have been there for 20 to 40 years! They made the Grist Mill come alive for us as the showed us how the turbine worked, and how the wheat grinder produced fine flour. They gave each of us a bag of flour to […]
Did you know that the Oregon-Washington border on the Columbia River could have been the American-Canadian border? Washington State could have been in Canada! But as it happened, Washington State was ceded by the British Empire in 1846, in accordance with the Oregon Treaty in the settlement of the Oregon boundary dispute. Fort Vancouver, near the shores of the Columbia […]
Trout fishing was never so easy! Rainbow Trout Farm in Sandy, OR, was the best place for kids (and adults) to feel success and satisfaction when fishing. We had to stop casting our fishing lines because we had already caught too many fish! What one catches is what one takes, “no throw backs.” We learned […]
We visited one of the 7 Wonders of Oregon today! The number of notable waterfalls in the Gorge is close to 50, so whittling them down to a single road trip naturally leaves some good ones out. We made it to Vista House on Crown Point, then drove the highway, then stopped at Multnomah Falls. […]
Day 2 of Adventure Days was on the golf course! There was heightened interest in golfing from the kids, so we made it to our local golfing course called The Cedars on Salmon Creek. Some kids golfed for the very first time, others golfed like pros. We definitely better understood what it means to push […]
Day 1: What a great start for Adventure Days! Five families came together to experience the very first Adventure Days ever! We enjoyed time together, brainstorming about future Adventure Days, river time, and an epic tug-of-war! The sun was out, the birds were singing, and we soaked up every minute of it.
School is here and so is Adventure Days! Adventure Days is a school-year version of Upstream Camp, with fun and instructive excursions throughout the year. Check out the details here. If your child is attending a traditional school, maybe you can pass this information to someone who could benefit from it. If you are interested, William […]
The video and photos of our glorious weekend in the Rockies this last weekend are not what they seem. A perfect family. Nothing that can upset. Sunshine and love everywhere. As humans we like to capture the best moments, where the everyone is smiling. My family this last weekend captured those moments. But don’t be […]
In 1980 the fifth highest peak in Washington State blew up–a volcanic eruption that made history and spread ashes around the world. Mount Saint Helens is now a national monument that people can visit. My family had the opportunity to hike the ash covered trails recently with another family whose story of resilience is worth […]
What are you afraid of? I wonder if a swim with blacktip sharks can reveal some of our fears, and help us know if these fears are valid or not. All of us are afraid of some things; from small things like spiders to big things like failure. But most if not all of these […]
Have you heard someone say “high risk, high reward?” True in the stock market, for example, but how about in activities that involve our kids? I appreciate Love and Logic’s spin on how to approach risk with kids. Let them fail as much as possible when they are young, when the cost of failure is […]
Laurelwood Academy and Highest Education partnered this summer to deliver a fun way to educate children in today’s culture. On the shores of the East Fork Lewis River near Battle Ground, WA, a group of children and their family members gathered at a private camp to reconnect with nature and to experience character training through […]
My family headed to the beach as soon as regulations eased up from the COVID19 lockdown. We needed to get outside, get in the sun, go to see the ocean. We went to Long Beach, and surprisingly, that county was still in lockdown mode. The public parking access roads to the beach were closed! We […]
Now that our nation has been on “lock-down” for a couple of months, people are realizing how foolish it is to not go outside and recreate. Being outside is a proven way to boost immunity! Look at any health website, like https://www.webmd.com/balance/ss/slideshow-health-benefits-nature, and read all about it. Thankfully, my family got outside for some fun […]
Directing my local-church outdoor youth club was a delight this year, even though our year was cut short because of COVID-19. The ministry team that I joined is incredible, and it was a privilege to lead them as best as I could. Check out our year-end video!
There is nothing like it…a peaceful getaway with land and trees and river! A perfect place for children and families to relax!
The easiest to access mountain in the Pacific Northwest, get ready for adventure on the slopes and at the Timberline’s national historic site.
While parents learn new Love and Logic parenting skills, their children spend time playing with educational wooden toys. Wooden blocks often have a lot more to offer children than many of the latest trendy educational toys. We bring these blocks out when taking care of children during a Love and Logic seminar. Why? Because of […]
Ask God for a continual baptism of His Holy Spirit, that this yearning for Him which He has placed inside of you will grow and shine “ever brighter unto the perfect day”: As your soul yearns after God, you will find more and still more of the unsearchable riches of His grace. As you contemplate […]
Pray for the Holy Spirit to be the oil burning in your lamp, so Jesus can shine more brightly through your life today: The nearer we come to Jesus, and the more clearly we discern the purity of His character, the more clearly shall we see the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and the less shall […]
Ask that the Holy Spirit give you encouragement to keep fighting the good fight: Sanctification is not the work of a moment, an hour, a day, but of a lifetime. It is not gained by a happy flight of feeling, but is the result of constantly dying to sin, and constantly living for Christ. Wrongs […]
Today, pray that as you commune with Christ, the Holy Spirit illuminate an area that needs His transforming grace: Such transformation of character as is seen in the life of John is ever the result of communion with Christ. There may be marked defects in the character of an individual, yet when he becomes a […]
Today, pray that the Holy Spirit give you a “heart overflowing with love” for God and His people: Jesus loves those who represent the Father, and John could talk of the Father’s love as no other of the disciples could. He revealed to his fellow men that which he felt in his own soul, representing […]
Today, thank God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for always being there for you: In the courts above, Christ is pleading for His church—pleading for those for whom He has paid the redemption price of His blood. Centuries, ages, can never lessen the efficacy of His atoning sacrifice. Neither life nor death, height nor […]
Ask the Holy Spirit to implant in you His principle of unselfish love today: John strove to lead the believers to understand the exalted privileges that would come to them through the exercise of the spirit of love. This redeeming power, filling the heart, would control every other motive and raise its possessors above the […]
“Abide in Me…for without Me you can do nothing!” Divine love makes its most touching appeals to the heart when it calls upon us to manifest the same tender compassion that Christ manifested. Those who have never experienced the tender, winning love of Christ cannot lead others to the fountain of life. His love in […]
Ask the Holy Spirit to create in you a love for all your “neighbors” today: A new commandment I give unto you,” Christ said, “That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” John 13:34. What a wonderful statement; but, oh, how poorly practiced! In the church of God today […]
Pray that the Holy Spirit fill your soul with admiration for Christ today: In the life of the disciple John, true sanctification is exemplified. During the years of his close association with Christ, he was often warned and cautioned by the Saviour; and these reproofs he accepted. As the character of the Divine One was […]
Pray that the Holy Spirit give you the peace of Christ today: The lessons of Christ, setting forth meekness and humility and love as essential to growth in grace and a fitness for His work, were of the highest value to John. He treasured every lesson and constantly sought to bring his life into harmony […]
Pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, to become a doer and not only a hearer of the Word: John and Judas are representatives of those who profess to be Christ’s followers. Both these disciples had the same opportunities to study and follow the divine Pattern. Both were closely associated with Jesus and were […]
Ask the Holy Spirit for a revelation of God’s transforming power of love today: John did not naturally possess loveliness of character. He was not only proud, self-assertive, and ambitious for honor, but impetuous, and resentful under injury. An evil temper, the desire for revenge, the spirit of criticism, were all in this “son of […]
Prayer is heaven’s ordained means of success in the conflict with sin and the development of Christian character. The divine influences that come in answer to the prayer of faith will accomplish in the soul of the suppliant all for which he pleads. For the pardon of sin, for the Holy Spirit, for a Christ-like […]
Ask the Holy Spirit to help you seriously engage in this battle to overcome your defects of character: When a man is earnestly engaged day by day in overcoming the defects in his character, he is cherishing Christ in his soul-temple; the light of Christ is in him. Under the bright beams of the light […]
Pray for the Holy Spirit to give you victory today: True happiness will be the result of every self-denial, every crucifixion of self. One victory won, the next is more easily gained. Had Moses neglected the opportunities and privileges granted him of God, he would have neglected the light from heaven and would have been […]
Pray for the Holy Spirit to take you one step further toward Him today: Moses endured the reproach of Christ, considering reproach greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt. He believed what God had said and was not influenced to swerve from his integrity by any of the world’s reproaches. He walked the earth […]
Pray for the Holy Spirit to open your heart so you can see the Unseen today: The faith of Moses led him to look at the things which are unseen, which are eternal. He left the splendid attractions of court life because sin was there. He gave up present and seeming good that flattered only […]
Pray for the Holy Spirit to do this “New Thing” in you through His Word today: In doing the work of a humble shepherd, in being forgetful of self and interested for the flock given to his charge, he was to become fitted for the most exalted work ever entrusted to mortals, that of being […]
Pray for the Holy Spirit to do this “New Thing” in you through His Word today: In doing the work of a humble shepherd, in being forgetful of self and interested for the flock given to his charge, he was to become fitted for the most exalted work ever entrusted to mortals, that of being […]
Yesterday, I was fasting and praying for some people in my life—and (as usual), through my time with Him in Bible and SOP passages, God played out in MY LIFE what He wants to do in those people’s lives… One of the last messages He gave me was the above passage from AA ch. 54, […]
Pray for the Holy Spirit to tell you how His Word directly applies to YOU today: Moses had been a student. He was well educated in all the learning of the Egyptians, but this was not the only qualification which he needed to prepare him for his work. He was, in the providence of God, […]
Please pray that the Holy Spirit illuminate your mind as you eat and digest His Word directly to YOU today: When Moses saw the majesty of God, he exclaimed: “I exceedingly fear and quake.” The law pronounced death upon the transgressor. Then the atoning sacrifice was presented before Moses. The cleansing blood of Christ was […]
If you are conscientious human being, you will want the best for yourself and for your children. Wouldn’t anything short of this goal seem as a betrayal to your family’s best interest? While we may have our family’s best interest in mind, as circumstances would have it, our lives are many times far from ideal, and our children many times […]
Here is a growing list of practical ideas on how to daily live Deuteronomy 6:4-7. Enjoy! As you are driving, conversations about billboards, store signs. Link it into faith. Have breakfast or dinner together–at least one meal a day together. Think “everything is with my family.” Do things with your family. Let your kids see […]
Ketchup on My Ketchup: Are We Obsessed with Traditional Education, Keeping Us Away From More Biblically-Centered Approaches to Education? By William Hurtado Ketchup and salsa—favorite American condiments—are so important to the American diet that it’s hard to believe their base ingredient was once considered toxic. For about 200 years through the end of the 19th century, most […]
Like a State Superintendent of Public Instruction said, “There are many pathways for students to obtain their high school diploma.” How true this is! Especially after the emergence of “cloud computing” over 10 years ago. Now, instead of having to wait in long lines or go to a building to take a class, for example, all one has to […]
Do you want to know about the philosophy behind Highest Education? It is called Transformative Learning. Transformative Learning is a sophisticated way of saying much of what an inspired educational expert Ellen White said about true education. Prepare yourself for heavy scholastic language that explains how the Transformative Learning theory is a process of “perspective transformation” with […]
What is Highest Education? Highest Education is not higher education, because an academic degree is not the end-goal; it is highest education, because something much greater is the goal—eternity. If a diploma is an earthly treasure, then a Christlike character is a heavenly treasure. “A character formed according to the divine likeness is the only treasure that we can take from this […]
7 Reason Why I Appreciate Our Brick-and Mortar Schools and Those Who Teach There We need our schools and teachers! Our society needs certain institutions to function. City halls, libraries, parks, stores, schools, and the list goes on. We need our brick-and-mortar schools to help families educate their children, plain and simple! A CHRISTIAN School! […]
Does it feel like our world is in a downward spiral? Pain and suffering seem to outweigh the good and it doesn’t appear to be getting any better. How did we get to this point? Is there any hope? Ravi Zacharias looks at the story of the thief next to Jesus on the cross on […]
Embracing a faith that is real begins with acknowledging our need. Like Matthew 5:3 says, “blessed are the poor in spirit…” Oswald Chambers explains it best. “Beware of thinking of our Lord as only a teacher. If Jesus Christ is only a teacher, then all He can do is frustrate me by setting a standard […]