After a few interviews, some paper work, and even a mandatory essay, my support manager hired me in late May to be a director and to start a new CC Community.
However, I was NOT the obvious choice. I was still new to area, only had a handful of friends, I had no network or connections anywhere. From the very beginning, I knew that the only way a community would form would be if the Lord formed it himself. Let's be honest...that is the Best way for a community to form :)
I spent the summer of 2013 in prayer. A lot of prayer. I visited around 15 churches, trying to find a facility that was willing to host a community AND was big enough. Most people say this is the hardest part. It was hard to be sure, but it was also quite encouraging. Most of the pastors I met were very kind (a few weren't). Several offered to show me around their campus, prayed with me, and offered encouragement. I had my eye on one specific church that seemed to be the "perfect" fit, however God had different plans. After 6-8 weeks, I finally received confirmation from a different church that we were approved to meet at their facility. It was quite exciting!
I had a church....now I needed some people :)
The first family to agree to join the group was an acquaintance from my other CC group. That group was now full and could not accept any more registrations, so this family was "stuck" with me. Thankfully, we because friends quickly and she became my support through the summer. I held lots, and lots...and LOTS of information meetings. I put flyers all around town. I joined Facebook groups. I did everything I could. However, by the time Practicum rolled around in late July, It was still just me and my friend.
We decided that if no one signed up within a week after Practicum, we would part ways and try to join another community for that school year. I felt like we had done our best, and I was ok with joining another group if that was where God wanted me.
However, God had other plans. That three day Practicum brought 3 families into our community. We had a large enough Essential enrollment to have a class, and one of the moms agreed to be a Foundations substitute (I knew she would end up being a tutor, but I agreed to the "sub" title for now ;)
It was exciting how the Lord brought these families into our community.
The first family had come to an info meeting and had a family member in another CC Community, however they were not 'sold' on the model and just didn't know what they would do (She became my tutor :)
The second family I met while re-stocking the snack bar (that was my 'job' at Practicum). We stood and chatted for a while, and she signed up then and there. Since that moment, she has been the greatest source of human encouragement and support a director could ever wish for.
The third family signed up because we were much closer than one they were going to originally attend.
In the next 2 weeks, I had more families sign up. One I met on a Craigslist sale site. I bought a couple books from her, noticed she homeschooled and struck up a conversation. The "God thing" is that her husband had seen my flyer at the library, and brought home the contact info. They just had not contacted me yet. Another family had a neighbor who did CC in another community and wanted to join one as well, and one was in my Foundations class at our previous community and felt led to join us. Finally, the last family for that year couldn't get into their old group because it was full.
God had provided 17 students, 2 Foundations tutors, and 1 Essentials tutor. It was "go" time. I had less than 5 weeks before CC started to get all of my work done. But I was so excited I could hardly sleep!
Watching Him work that first year, and even writing down when I saw Him move helped me through some rough moments when it would have been easy to doubt what I was doing.
Our first few weeks had a bumpy start and it became clear that we would need to go from 3 classes of 5 or 6 to 2 classes of 8 or 9 students. God is so good and faithful, and the transition was basically painless.
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| Imitating Monet and painting outside |
We enjoyed beautiful fellowship and sweet relationships during our first year. Our little community, where everyone was new, really came together and encouraged everyone along. We had a Rocket picnic on our last day of the first semester, a fun Family picnic during Christmas break which included the dads and flag football, field trips, memory masters, mom's night outs, and a sweet evening at our End of Year Ceremony.
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| A few dads made it to our "Rocket" Party to help is launch |
It was beautiful. Truly. It was a blessing to be part of the community and see how the Lord used it to grow and encourage each family on this journey.
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| Flag Football at the family picnic |
This past summer marked the beginning of our second year. We had tremendous increase and quickly filled up to our facility max of 40 children (with 10 in the nursery) and 21 families. This summer came with it's own challenges. How would our families blend? Would those seasoned homeschool moms reach out to the new moms? Could I juggled and schedule 5 classes and 40 children? Would I continue to lean upon the Lord and trust Him that this is His community and not "mine"? Was I becoming prideful and reliant upon myself?
These were all questions that I wrestled with over the summer.
We had some fun events like a "Mom's Night Out [In]" at my house where we cooked together, a planning meeting in late July, and practicum in May. However, by far, the greatest encouragement for ME was hearing about our families reaching out to each other (already) and hosting play dates, chatting on our Facebook page, and working to get to know one another before class even began. It was amazing to watch these sweet moms begin to love on one another even before they "had" to.
This year we have several families from other communities (for location/drive time sake), lots of new homeschool families, a few who came out of public or private school, several whose oldest is only 4, a grandma, and veteran homeschool and CCers.
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| Minute to Win it games |
We have only had one week so far, but Day 1 was wonderful! It was full and busy, but it was beautiful. The children did a good job in class, the moms were interactive and participated well, and the tutors did a wonderful job.
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| Moms shared information about the different instrument families at the end of the year. |
I know there will be challenges this year, but I trust God to be in control of those, just as He was in control of our challenges last year. My greatest prayer is that THIS community would be one that brings glory and honor to Him.
Classical Conversations is a wonderful homeschool support group, utilizing curriculum that teaches parents to educate classically with a Biblical worldview. I love being a director, it is quite fun and exciting to see God working in people's lives. I hope that since our community is full, that it will split off next year and form at least one, maybe even two more communities so that CC can grow in the North Tampa area. I am so thankful that the Lord has given me this opportunity. It has strengthened my relationship with Him, allowed me to grow, and forced me to pray :) May He be glorified!
