It’s funny how God works sometimes. Not funny haha but just funny in a delightful, different sort of way. I am in the process of starting an internet business selling custom slideshows. The problem is that in our house for someone to work online all day long would be very disruptive for other who also need to use the computer. So sometime last January or February I prayed for a laptop.
As evidenced by my last post, I decided to do whatever I knew how to get a laptop. Very shortly after I had posted about Swagbucks, my cousin called…
…and mentioned he was trying to sell his laptop and if he didn’t find a buyer by Friday the laptop was mine! Friday evening it was mine!
So at this moment I am happily typing on an answer to prayer. Not only do I have a laptop, but it is EXACTLY what I needed! Vista, slideshow creating software, the works!
So I need a laptop. I am in the process of gradually starting a slideshow business. I'd also like to possibly do some web design once I learn enough code to be of use. The only thing is that even with our 3 computers (Wanda, Enrico and Mom's uber slow laptop with limited space) it is simply not possible for me to spend at least several hours a day working online. So I need a laptop.
I can't possibly afford a laptop. That's why I need one: to make money. :) Recently I discovered a way to get one. It might take me a million years, but with YOUR help, I think I can do it!
I have been earning Swagbucks. I currently have 167. I need 7,400 swag bucks in order to get 2 Apple gift cards which could buy me a $600 laptop. It's slow going, but I have high hopes. That's where you come in.
Swagbucks is a search engine that you can easily add to your browser and use instead of google. The more you search the more you earn. Here's the catch, if you register using the link at the end of this post then every time you earn a swagbuck, I get one too! So the more YOU search the more I earn! Want to help me get a laptop?
In all honesty, I was a bit surprised at the responses I received to my first installment of the Jobless Filmmaker. I expected my readers to be appalled and express surprise that anyone could be so out of the loop after which I would immediately respond with the true story of a man with the same attitude only about a different subject than filmmaking. In a way, I was pleasantly surprised. Instead of the more dramatic, shocked responses I had expected the majority of the answers I received were down to earth, comments from sane people. (Notice I did not include all...Nate's was anything but sane! :D)
Here is the true story of the jobless filmmaker as it has been and is being played out in the lives of thousands of godly men and women nationwide:
A long time ago a little boy was born. He was blessed with godly, Christian parents and two older brothers, (and plenty of younger siblings, but they’re not part of the story). The little boy grew and thrived under the capable guidance of his parents. They taught him to weigh everything with scripture, to recognize right and wrong, and be unspotted by the world.
As he grew older he began to feel God calling him to prepare for marriage so that when the time came for him to start his own family as his parents had done before him, he would be ready. The more he studied God's word concerning biblical marriage, the more he was convinced that this was God's will and the more excited he became.
He began to study how to be the best husband and father that he could be. He was determined to not let God down. He read, watched, and listened to everything he could get his hands on. He did everything he knew to do including growing his relationship with God and learning from older, more experienced men.
Meanwhile his parents reminded him to trust God with the outcome. "You may never get married. Perhaps God has some other plan for your life. Just trust Him with your future and wait for Him to bring the right woman to you, don't even think about it much less go look for a wife."
So that's exactly what he did. He grew into a man and he was a godly man indeed, the kind that any father would rejoice to give his daughter to. At last he was ready. But his parents, church leaders, and friends all cautioned him to not go out and look for a wife, but to just be content with Christ completing him.
So he waited...and waited...and waited... As years went by and he saw numerous eligible young ladies around him who he might have been interested in, he began to grow impatient with waiting for God to show him which one. But he was always told, "God obviously doesn't think you're ready yet since He hasn't brought you a wife. You need to wait patiently. Don't get ahead of God. Have faith!"
So he kept on waiting...and waiting... As he waited he found other ministry opportunities. People told him, "Just think, if you were married you wouldn't be able to be flexible to go out and help people the way you do. Maybe God doesn't want you to ever get married."
This went on for 10 years. The little boy in our story is a full-grown man at 30 years old. Every day he gets up and cooks his own breakfast, fixes his own lunch, and goes to work. Every evening he comes home to a darkened house, tired and hungry with the knowledge that he must also make his own supper and do all the household chores before heading to bed. He thinks back over the years wondering how his life would have been different had he married when he was young. But how could he? He must continue to be patient and wait on God's timing. A picture flits through his brain of the many young women that he had known in his youth. They are young no longer. They too have grown old and lonely. With each passing day the husbands that they will perhaps someday marry miss a little more of their youth. But he keeps on waiting, trusting in God.
I have met this man. I have seen him in the faces of many going about their daily lives. I have seen the results of his inaction and unfaithfulness. Scores of once-young women go on about their lives watching as the men travel the world without them, minister to people without them, live life without them. The lucky few are actually in a position to do something with their lives albeit not nearly as productive and God-honoring as the position of wife and mother and they go and travel about and minister alongside the men. But most simply go on doing the same things they did when they were teenagers as they wait, desperately hoping that one of these men will wake up and realize that trust also includes action. I have seen the population decline as every culture including those who call themselves followers of Christ...except the Muslims who marry early and value children, highly rejects their God-given mission to multiply, replenish and fill the earth. I have watched with tears as the talents and abilities of numerous young women and men go to waste. Yes, I said WASTE! Enough of this "singleness is better" business! We take ONE scripture, a SUGGESTION from Paul that it is better to be single in certain circumstances and we hold that up against not only numerous passages clearly indicating that we are to marry and marry young, but also against the very first command that God gave to man!
What has happened to us that we despise the marital state? Why do we take the most sacred human relationship created by God as a picture of our relationship with Christ and trample it in the dirt? How can we continue to fight against the love that God put in each of our hearts to be given to the one we ought to spend the rest of our lives with? We fight against the evils of abortion and yet we will not allow our own children to even be conceived! Tell me, which is the greater sin? When will we wake up and serve God in purity and in truth?
I was not able to make it to Jefferson City yesterday so I have combined some friends' explanations of the situation and what happened.
"The senate introduced and approved bill 291, a major public education bill. Three days ago, it reached the house floor and was voted down. Session ends today, so in an attempt to pass ONE major education bill this session, the bill went back to committee to be re-written (in a hurry). They revised it, but in the course of the revision there was new wording that was vague, and potentially dangerous to home-schoolers.
In a clause that dealt with encouraging students to stay in school, the compulsory attendance law was going to be changed "This act also changes the requirement for compulsory attendance age for school districts, except for the St. Louis City School District. Current law defines the compulsory attendance age as sixteen. This act changes that to successful completion of sixteen credits toward high school graduation." Where this presented a problem, is that there was no definition for a credit for home schoolers, leaving the potential of defining this "credit" to the state." Monica Tull
"The bill would have left the door open for compulsory attendance to actually change. It included language that changed compulsory attendance requirements from 16 years of age, which is what the standard has been, to 16 credits completed towards highschool graduation.
The problem that this posed for homeschoolers is that there was no legal definition of what a credit is, thereby leaving the door open for any school authority to define completion for homeschool students however they wanted - which created the possibility of keeping students trapped under compulsory attendance laws well past 16.
This obviously posed a huge potential problem for homeschoolers, however, partly due to the rally yesterday, an ammendment was added to the bill that defines a highschool credit for homeschoolers as being 100 hours of homeschool education. Hours have been the tracking method for homeschoolers for a long time under Missouri law, and so the law now has a clear definition of what is required for a homeschooler to finish their legal mandate with regards to high school.
The additions to the law actually have the benefit of: 1) Detaching homeschoolers from an age requirement, as once 16 credits have been completed (1600 hours of highschool education), the student will be free from compulsory attendance laws. 2) Due to some extra language inserted in the ammendment, it also clarifies that only a homeschooler's local prosecuting attorney has a right to examine their school records, thereby greatly reducing headache for homeschoolers who no longer have to comply with the demands of other officials who want to see evidence of homeschooling. Legally, those other officials no longer have any grounds to make such requests.
Hope that helps clear it up for you.
Yesterday ended up being a good day for Missouri homeschoolers, because not only did we get some good legislation passed, we also sent a strong reminder to the Missouri State Government that we are serious about our freedoms, we will mobilize, and we can do all of this with almost no warning.
As one of the homeschool lobbyists said, "You've made my job easier for the next ten years.
Senate Bill 291 modifies the language in 167.031.6 to extend compulsory attendance indefinitely, based on an unidentified standard of 16 high school credits before a student is released from the compulsory attendance statute. This means, home educators would have to prove their student had 16 acceptable credits before considering their mandatory education complete. While this MAY occur at an age younger than 16, it could also extend to 18 or even 20 if the un-named authority did not accept the credits of the home school. And again, just who assesses the validity of those 16 credits is not defined in the bill.
Therefore, we need as many home educators as possible to attend a Rally on the Capital Steps at 1 pm, Thursday, May 14, 2009 (yes, tomorrow, if you get this Wednesday evening).
It is ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL WE HAVE A MASSIVE TURNOUT. This is the gravest threat to Missouri’s homeschool freedom since it was secured 25 years ago.
FHE will organize the Rally on the steps at 1 pm, and will have flyers and talking points to pass out, as well as instruction on which offices are most critical.
Please pass the word and make a commitment to attend.
I am a follower of Christ and I try to put Him first in everything that I do. I want to reach out to hurting people and tell them there's a better way. I want to marry a godly man to whom Christ is more important than anything else and help him in his calling and I want to raise as many children as God gives me for His glory.
I was home schooled all my life along with my 8 siblings.
I tend to be very opinionated most of the time.
I like to write.
I like to dance in the rain.
I like to go ice-skating.
I like barn dancing (English Country/Contra Dance).
I occasionally do out of the ordinary things for fun.
I laugh very easily and very often.
I am not a Calvinist, but several of my friends are.
I am not Baptist, but lots of my friends are.
I believe a true Christan can turn their back on God and fall away as evidenced in too many scriptures to list here.
I love music and started playing the piano when I was 7.
