“I never wanted to be a homeschool mom. I could not relate to people who take their kids out of public school.
But I began to see something that was really exciting.”
— Heidi St. John, Co-Founder of Firmly Planted Family
The Lord shall honor those who honor Him, we read in 1 Samuel 2:30, and Firmly Planted Family is a living testament to that beautiful truth.
Founded by Jay and Heidi St. John, “Firmly Planted Family exists to encourage and equip Christ-centered families to be firmly planted in the rich soil of God’s Word.” What began as a homeschooling ministry continues today, but its impact and reach have been blessed and now it has expanded — and as we shall share below, there are new developments in the works for even greater expansion. FPIW rejoices with the blessing upon this ministry located in the city of Vancouver, WA (near the Oregon-Washington border), and we are delighted to introduce it to our readers and share a few highlights.
History
Firmly Planted Family began in 1999 under the name “First Class Homeschool Ministries”, which planted more than 100 homeschool co-ops in the United States, Canada, and Europe. In 2012, they changed the name to “Firmly Planted Family” and expanded its mission to include not only homeschooling, but marriage and family mentoring and encouragement, along with their own conferences.
But God was not finished with Firmly Planted Family, and in 2016 a new era began. Knowing how broken spiritually and academically the government school systems are, God placed a new vision upon the hearts of Co-Founders Jay and Heidi St. John: to create an amazing new full-time Homeschooling Resource Center that is open, not one day a week, but five days a week in order to support homeschooling students. With a pioneering spirit and the Lord’s guidance, the Center bloomed from 200 students (2017) to more than 1,600 students today, and it offers some 200 classes in all kinds of topics that homeschooling students can enjoy. They can pick and choose those classes and teachers that best suit their schedule and interests.
In addition to all the core subjects in English, Mathematics, History, Science, Music, and Physical Education, they also offer other extracurricular classes, such as:
• Painting
• Ceramics
• Sewing
• Graphic Design
• Videography
• Dance: Classic, Ballroom, Tap, Swing, etc.
• Foreign Language: Latin, Russian, Spanish
• Logic & Games
• Theology: Worship, Bible
• Theater: Improv, Production
. . . and many, many more! (See the full list here.)
This new $16 million Resource Center was a great blessing from the Lord. It was such a major blessing that the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) profiled it under the story “The Homeschooling Miracle in the Pacific Northwest”:
“A lot of families feel like homeschooling is too hard,” says co-founder Jay St. Johns. “Like it’s just something that you know, you have to be trained to educate your kids. But the reality is that as a parent you love your kid more than anyone else does, and just by putting that effort into your kids and pouring into them, studies have shown that homeschool kids do better than public school counterparts.”
On a practical level, an excellent resource for homeschooling parents can be found here. As a preview below, notice the checklist for parents to do in order to homeschool.
Life-Giving: A Shining Model in Vancouver
“It is very routine here at The Homeschool Research Center to see a mom come in and say ‘I don’t know what to do. I’m overwhelmed’ and oftentimes they’ll look around and see the life and the joy that is the reality here every day at The Homeschool Research Center,” shares Heidi. “Those moms will look at their students, and come to the front desk, and they’ll just start crying — ‘I had no idea that there was so much life.'”
To that FPIW says a heartfelt “Amen.”
We proudly join with others who know first-hand the wholeness, purity, and power that living a Christian life should embody, and how Firmly Planted Family models such a life for people in our state. It empowers parents in their utmost noble calling and sacred responsibility to raise children who fear the Lord. To accomplish such a mission, they have assembled an impressive team. To contact them for more information about how you can support and join Firmly Planted Family, please click the image below.
Addendum: More To Come
We, too, pray that Firmly Planted Family’s impact will continue to expand, for we know that today’s classrooms will be tomorrow’s citizens. In fact, there are currently developments for a new resource center in Battle Ground, Washington. For more, click the image below:
