"Why do we sit here until we die?," asked a group of lepers who were sitting outside the gates of a besieged Jerusalem in a time of terrible famine (2 Kings 7:3 (NASB1995)). There was no food in the city. There was a huge army camp outside the city filled with well-fed enemy soldiers. The lepers were faced with a dreadful choice: Sit where they had always sat and die waiting for the crumbs from a collapsing system everyone had always lived by or walk into the unknown, as horrible as it seemed, and actively seek life.
Today, that same essential choice is before every parent who has recognized that the public schools are failing their children. Are they going to passively wait for a fix that will never come? Or are they going to choose to actively trust in the Lord and walk out whatever path He presents, even if the unknowns in that process seem more terrifying than the slow death they have known where they are right now?
The lepers decided to leave the familiar and walk into the unknown. They embraced the risk of leaving the relative security of the city–where they faced slow, agonizing starvation–to go where they might face instant death but also might find relief from their hunger. That risky choice to seek life, rather than passively accept slow death, ultimately blessed them and blessed everyone in Jerusalem who was willing to receive God’s unexpected provision.
They arose at twilight to go to the camp of the Arameans; when they came to the outskirts of the camp of the Arameans, behold, there was no one there. For the Lord had caused the army of the Arameans to hear a sound of chariots and a sound of horses, even the sound of a great army, so that they said to one another, “Behold, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us.” Therefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents and their horses and their donkeys, even the camp just as it was, and fled for their life…2 Kings 7:5-7
As the lepers entered the camp, they were overwhelmed by the abundance they found. Not a single soldier remained, but the tents, the food, the equipment, everything was just sitting there for the taking. But after grabbing enough for themselves, their thoughts turned to the suffering of the people of Jerusalem. They headed back to the city to invite everyone to join them in the feast God had so unexpectedly provided for them.
So they came and called to the gatekeepers of the city, and they told them, saying, “We came to the camp of the Arameans, and behold, there was no one there, nor the voice of man, only the horses tied and the donkeys tied, and the tents just as they were.”...So the people went out and plundered the camp of the Arameans. Then a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel and two measures of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the LORD. 2 Kings 7:10 and 16 (NASB 1995)
The lepers chose to walk into the camp of the army that was sitting outside the city and seek food. What they found was a bounty just waiting for them. They started a movement in which everyone in the city ran from famine to feast. What does that walk, that discovery, and that movement look like for parents today?
Homeschooling pioneers walked away from public schools years ago. Many of them discovered that it was possible to feed their children’s starving minds and hearts by educating and discipling their children themselves. But, when they “went back to the city” to tell everyone what they had found, the response from those who had remained behind was largely negative–that it would be too hard and too risky to follow. The fear of the besieging army of ignorance and want remained a daunting presence in the eyes of most. So how do we make a path for those experiencing famine in the public schools to the feast that parent-led education can be?
Parents who remove their children from public schools need to know that doing so will improve their children’s present condition and their future prospects. We believe the Lord is calling KAP, as among those who have walked into the abundance of the camp, to help them see that is true. Those parents who are seeking an alternative to public schools need to see a path that includes the resources they need to succeed, not merely a way to escape the troubles that have been leading toward failure. It is not enough to know that there is no food in the city, they must understand that the feast outside the city is actually available to them. Christian community, Academies run by local churches, is the context in which we see such feasting being fostered.
At Kairos Academy Pathfinders we have chosen to walk back into the city and announce the end of the famine to all who will listen. We have experienced firsthand that the key to success for most parents in leading their children’s education is found in community–so we are committed to designing, building, and supporting such communities. Our vision is that congregationally-based Academies will supply the means to provide Church-facilitated, parent-led education to every family willing to walk into the feast. Our children and our neighbors’ children need not starve any longer.
The time for passivity is over. We need your help in getting the word out and in walking out our calling as a ministry. Come be a part of the movement that brings our children out of the days of famine and into the feast found in Christian discipleship.