In August, my daughter and I took a short trip to Ireland — a gift from my husband, who knows that I love to travel, and have little opportunity to do so. We saw and experienced some of the things we expected to see there, but a few things really surprised me.
One of our contacts, with whom we stayed, explained to us that Northern Ireland is “the Bible belt of Europe”, as he called it. That explained a lot to me. It is hard to explain, but N. Ireland was feeling to me like the U.S., 30-40 years ago.
Those dynamics need some fleshing out, but one area in which I saw this very clearly was in their schools and in the home-schooling movement. Their struggles are so similar to ours. N. Ireland is largely Protestant, and the schools have many Christian teachers. They are still “allowed” to teach the Bible in the schools, etc., and so the difference that home education would make are not immediately clear. That means that Christians differ widely and sometimes bitterly on what is the best way to teach children.
I was transported back to 1981 when I began to teach in the home, as I listened to proponents of both sides. I don’t know what the Lord has for these dear people, but I am glad I do not have to go through that again. Even though we may be worse today in our public school education, we are so much better in the acceptance of our home schooling choices. We have much to praise the Lord for, and we need to remember to pray for our friends in Northern Ireland. There are thriving groups there, but they are experiencing disbelief and disdain when they explain their purposes. Do pray for them, and other like-minded peoples all over Europe.
If you get a chance, look on the HSLDA site for recent developments on those countries. 😉