CATCHING UP FROM FPEA

Hey Everybody!

FPEA was so wonderful! I just wish I had had more time to shop! If you can believe this, I actually left there with only some T-shirts for my boys. My daughter bought a few items, just a couple of small things. But her cousin, who went with us, bought her curriculum for next year! WOW! Oh, for once in my life to be ahead of the game! But alas, I am just not!

I had the thrill of speaking to the largest crowd I have ever spoken to--there were over a thousand people in my first session, which was on "How to Date Your Kids." Quite frankly, I wasn't sure just how many people would be interested in that topic. Turns out, a lot of folks were! :) People kept coming by the booth and saying, "I've got your talk marked; I'm planning to go to it!" And so I started getting really excited! Then, all these people started coming into the workshop and all the seats were filling up until it was actually SRO! Amazing! And how did I start off my lovely talk? Well, it's always good to begin with a question, and so I asked, "How many of you have children?" hardee har har--it's a homeschooling convention, of course! So, all thanks goes to the Lord for anything that comes out funny.

Yes! I had the new book! Season of Change made its debut and the official release date is August 26th. That is such a special date in the life of our family, and I will be sure to blog about that soon. I cannot believe that is the launch date--God's timing is incredible, as always.

All you wonderful SHEM ladies--your books were shipped today! Yay!

Media: Interview Questions for Season of Change by Rebecca Ingram Powell

• What is your definition of a middle schooler, or a middler?
• What are some of the ways we can help our daughters with what’s becoming known as “girl politics”?
• How can we help our sons resist the lure of pornography?
• Kids tend to clam up at this age. How can parents stay involved in their kids’ lives?
• What do we need to be teaching our kids to look for in their friendships?
• What did God teach you during your "season of change" that has equipped you to guide others through the often turbulent and confusing middle school years?
• Most parents would admit that many days they wake up less than enthusiastic about facing their middle schoolers. Where do you find your passion for parenting, and how do you keep it?
• Your book promotes ideas that seem to be in contrast to the world, like modesty, reverence, accountability, and "Drastically Different Dating." Does drastically different dating differ any, by your definition, from courtship?
• How can we encourage our children to be different, when at this age they simply want to fit in, not stand out?
• What advice do you have for parents who may find themselves at this pivotal time in their child's life without having those "heartstrings" tied?
• As your book begins, you talk about forgiveness. How is forgiveness an important part of a child’s season of change?
• What do you mean when you talk about apprenticing your child?

To learn more about Season of Change, click HERE.

MEDIA LINKS

Looking for media links?

Interview questions for Season of Change are HERE.
Rebecca's bios, short and long, are HERE.
Contact Rebecca HERE.

WHOOO-HOOOO!

Hey Everybody!

Season of Change will premiere at the FPEA convention this weekend! I am so excited! Can't wait! If you are planning on attending the convention, I hope I get to meet you! Please drop by my booth or join me in one of my workshops--it will be fun!

The MTHEA conference was GREAT! We had so much fun. Sandy and I found a WONDERFUL new history curriculum being offered by the Notgrasses! If you have done Tennessee History or Georgia History with your kids, then you know the Notgrasses are wonderful with their history programs. This new curriculum looks so great--I'll be getting mine later at the Chattanooga convention, but Sandy went ahead and purchased hers in Nashville. SHE LOVED IT!

I hope I get to see my friend Dorian Holt at FPEA this weekend! She is the author of Learning Adventures, which my children and I have enjoyed over the past several years. It is good stuff! And she is such a doll.

Hopefully, I can contain my enthusiasm for all things homeschool (since I got the fair-going out of my system last weekend) and just enjoy meeting all of you this weekend! Come by and see me!

My Testimony

I believe that a Christian's testimony should be always evolving. We should always be telling others what Jesus has done for us, not only what happened "way back when He saved me" but also what happened yesterday, or five minutes ago, in our here-and-now, walking-what-I'm-talking daily life with Christ. The following, however, excerpted from Get Real! Embrace the Reality of Ruth, is my personal testimony of a significant spiritual marker in my walk with Christ.

I knew something was wrong when I knelt down to pray that
night. I hadn’t even gotten any words out. It was simply the act of kneeling and
bowing that startled me into realizing, for the first time in my life, the
familiar posture felt suddenly foreign. It had been a long time, I must admit,
since I had prayed. But still, I knew prayer was not supposed to feel so empty.
It was the summer before my senior year of high school. I had spent those
carefree days of vacation with the wrong attitude, at the wrong places, and in
the company of the wrong people. On that particular night, I was in my bedroom,
listening to the radio and thinking about how cool it was that I was going to be
a senior. That caused me to take an objective look at how I spent the previous
three years of high school. What had I accomplished? As a student, I was doing
all right. But what about as a person? The Lord brought to my mind the faces of
a couple of Christian girls at school. They had a far better witness than mine.
These young women stood out because they were more than just “good kids.” I
would always remember them as Christ followers.
I had spent a lot of my time
just being angry. I couldn’t stand many of the people I went to school with.
They had teased me relentlessly in middle school and completely ignored me in
high school, and I was mad. I couldn’t forget and I wouldn’t forgive. I could
give up the idea of anyone thinking of Christ and me in the same sentence. And
it occurred to me that for the most part, my high school years had been wasted,
squandered by the lukewarm testimony of an immature Christian. That night, when
I bowed my head, it was like nobody was there. I didn’t know what to say or do.
Feelings of remorse and regret began to fill my soul. Only one word came
tumbling over my lips: Father! And then everything changed.
His presence
filled my little room as I asked Him to forgive me. The wall of unconfessed sin
I had built over the course of time collapsed as He proved His faithfulness and
forgave me, true to His Word. I repented that night and my life took on a new
direction as I began to truly follow Christ.
There would be other times in
my life I would stumble and fall and find myself in the wrong place at the wrong
time with the wrong people. Still today, I’m not perfect. I’ll never be! That’s
why I need Jesus. His perfection covers my imperfection. His blood covers my
sin. That night, the focus of my heart became crystal clear. My goal and my
heart’s desire was (and still is) to be His—completely His--and completely
surrendered to His will for my life.

Adapted from Get Real! Embrace the Reality of Ruth by Rebecca Ingram Powell, 2007, All Rights Reserved.

GOING TO MTHEA!

I am so excited about going to MTHEA tomorrow! I am not going as a vendor or a speaker, but just as a homeschooling mom! My friend Sandy said, "Just be a mom this year, Rebecca!" and so that is the plan. I know I am going to love it. You would think that I would have my fill of homeschool fairs, but when I am traveling and speaking at one, I don't get to look at anything! So I am really looking forward to actually shopping tomorrow! My sister-in-law is going with us, and she has one starting first grade. She will have a lot of shopping to do! I am also looking forward to spending her money (LOL!) as Sandy and I help her get everything she needs for first grade!

It is really kind of neat that as I am coming to the last years of homeschooling with my oldest, Karla is beginning the first years with her oldest. Helping her and encouraging her for however long she decides to homeschool will take the edge off admitting that these days are coming to a close for me and my oldest. Of course, I also take comfort in the fact that my sons are very much in the middle of things, and we still have some great years ahead!

I also am looking forward to seeing the folks I only see at this conference. The homeschool fair is really a celebration of homeschooling, don't you think? And I just love it!

Got worship?

Got Worship?

Rebecca travels frequently with her daughter Danya assisting as worship leader. Together, they make an excellent team, especially at mother-daughter and girls' events. (To find out more about Danya, click here.) If you are interested in having Rebecca speak at your church or special event, please contact us.

My Writing Story

I always wanted to be a writer. I mean ALWAYS! When I went to college, I wanted to be an English major so that I could one day be an author, but "common sense" prevailed and I chose to major in education because I never thought I could really be a writer and make a living at it.

I was student teaching one semester and the teacher I was working for asked me, "What do you really want to do?"
And I said, "I want to be a writer."
And she said, "Oh, I wanted to be a writer, but once I started teaching, I never found the time."
Of course, that got me to thinking. I went to one of my favorite English professors and talked it over with her. Her advice? "Do this," she suggested. "Go drop the education courses and state your major as English. Then see how you feel." Her theory was that I would know once I took action. If I started to freak out and have an anxiety attack or something, I guess I would know I needed to switch back. But what I did was this: I pretended that I dropped out of education, and I pretended I was an English major. I liked the way it felt.

After a couple of days, I walked over to the administration building and changed my major to English. Peace! Yeah, lots of peace, but it sure wasn't easy to get a job! LOL! I think, however, that when you really feel a calling on your life, or a passion for something, you do it because you love it. And then, you do what you have to do on the side in order to do what you want to do from your heart. Does that make sense? I have taken my beloved Liberal Arts degree and been a bank teller, a paralegal assistant (that's dressing it up a bit), and even worked at a leasing company. But I got paid! And in the evenings (this was BC--Before Children) I worked on my books. It was a big dream, but I have always been a dreamer.

I live in Nashville--Music City, USA. It is home to many dreamers. Recently, I was at an "open mic" night down on Music Row with my daughter, an aspiring music artist, and I was reminded that while Nashville is a place where dreams come true, it is also a place where dreams die--where they crash and burn on the opinion of a record producer, a music publisher, or the finicky public. As I looked at all the dreamers who filled the cafe that evening, I felt a common bond. I'm no musician, but I am quite familiar with the rejection of my craft. And I'm familiar with the feeling that fills each dreamer's heart: POSSIBILITY.

When I first ventured out into the land of "seeking publication," I had no idea what I was doing. I had never heard of a "book proposal," so I was sending manuscripts out cold. Looking back, I'm surprised those first manuscripts made it as far as they did! I started out writing fiction--fiction for young 'tween and teenage girls. I sent my dreams (in the form of a book) to a large Christian publisher, and then I waited. I waited for what seemed like an eternity!

I got a rejection--nine months after submiting the manuscript. (This was before email. Since email, I have gotten rejection letters in record time!) I was eight months pregnant with my first child, and goodness, the emotions were in full swing. My husband was the one who picked the letter up off the floor and read the editor's personal note at the bottom (I had read the first few sentences and thrown the letter down as I quickly ran off to my pity party!) But Rich had seen the note at the bottom.
"Don't give up!" was handwritten in a feminine scrawl across the bottom left corner of the letter. "Someone will publish this."
"Call her," my husband urged. So I did. She was full of encouragement and told me she had pushed my manuscript through five committees but couldn't get it through the last one. It seemed the publisher had just been bought by a secular house, and they weren't sure if they were going to continue publishing Christian fiction.

A rejection? Yes. But I held on to the letter from that editor. I still have it today! It reminds me that every rejection should be an encouragement. Think about it this way: Rejections are directions from God. It is His hand that guides you through those rejections and leads you to what He has planned. Disappointments are plentiful in this business--but so are dreams--and this is where I've made my home and hope to always live:

in the land of POSSIBILITY...........

Misty Rae

Yay! Misty has music on youtube now! Enjoy!

NO WAY!

I want to share a story a mom told me at the SHEM conference. We were talking and she said that her son was going through the "Dig Deep" Bible study and really enjoying it. She told him when she left that morning that she was going to the conference to see me and go to some of my talks.
Her son looked surprised.
"She is a mom," the woman said, by way of explanation.
"No way," he replied.
"What do you mean, 'no way'?" she asked.
"She can't be. She understands too much."

Those words were a real compliment! It meant so much to me. God led me to write this study for my boys, and I am so thankful that He is using it in the lives of other young men. May He receive the praise! When I first began writing Dig Deep, I was really concerned that I was a woman writing to boys. But I really wanted to write it! As I prayed through it, I began to realize that it is we moms who are the ones at home with our sons when they have questions that just can't wait until Dad gets home. And there are lots of single moms out there who are looking for a vehicle they can use to enter into some discussions/conversations they need to have with their sons! So, for all of you, there is Dig Deep! And it is such an encouragement to hear from moms who tell me their boys have loved it.

I often get mail from girls who have been through the Wise Up! and Get Real! studies--but it is rare to hear from a boy! I hear instead from their moms. And that's great! I love it!

Fun at SHEM!

The SHEM conference was absolutely great! We enjoyed ourselves so much! It was fun getting reacquainted with the lovely people we met last year, and also making some new friends! On the downside, Danya came down with one of those yucky 24-hour viruses, so that kept her out of things on Saturday. Thanks to a great homeschooling dad who is also a dr., she was able to get some much needed meds to help her get over the worst of it!

I was thrilled with how much fun we had in the "13 Going on Dirty" talk! That was the first time I had done that talk and I think we all had a great time talking about our sons and what they really need from us moms! I'll be making that audio available soon, and we are also getting the Top Ten list up on youtube just as quickly as we can. When I saw the video, it was pretty funny, and I want you guys to be able to see it, too. It's a little shaky in places because Danya was laughing, too. Next time, I won't forget the tripod!

Thanks, Springfield!