The year was 1991, and my husband was spending his Saturdays helping frame a Habitat for Humanity house just off Capital Street in downtown Jackson. The work allowed him to rub shoulders with a co-laborer named Matt Devenney, director of a church-sponsored inner-city program called the Stewpot that offered meals and medical services to the needy.

Both men were first-time dads with toddler sons at home, and standing there in the sawdust, Devenney broached a radical subject. I hear it went something like, “Yeah, I think my wife and I are going to homeschool our son,” (and pass that two-by-four over here, please).

Little did Devenney know he was building more than a kitchen wall. Their conversation, coupled with the contents of a certain James Dobson “Focus on the Family” radio broadcast, led to major re-construction at our house, the kind that set us on a homeschooling journey that continues still today.

We were telling our children about that providential meeting between their dad and Devenney on a recent family vacation. We called it an “Ebenezer,” a Bible word for something worth marking on your memory. There are several reasons worth remembering that conversation, not the least of which includes the sad reality that the first person my husband ever met who was determined to homeschool his child never got to. Devenney, 33, was fatally shot later that summer by a drifter who claimed to be the governor of Mississippi. It happened just outside the soup kitchen he supervised.

Don London, a current Stewpot employee, remembers the tragedy. “I was supposed to begin job training under Matt that day,” he says, going on to speak openly of his life before Devenney’s intervention as one characterized by homelessness and alcoholism. “Brother Matt befriended me and got me out of my shell, got me to take a bath,” London shares with a sad laugh. “He eventually sent me to a program that changed my life.” London says their relationship was typical of Devenenny’s work at the Stewpot, adding that when he was on his medication, the man who shot the beloved director was actually Devenney’s close friend.

Today, there’s a photo hanging on the wall in the Stewpot’s chapel of Devenney holding his young son. It’s flanked by one of his quotes:

“I might not be able to feed everybody, but I can feed somebody. I might not be able to provide shelter to everyone, but I can provide shelter to someone. I might not be able to know and love everyone, but I can know and love the people in front of me today.”

The people in front of me today.

Am I stretching it to think that part relates as easily to homeschooling as to homelessness?

A desire to “know and love the people in front of me today” has caused many of us to take on the mantle of full-time teacher in recent years, and as the culture grows increasingly toxic, more families than usual are looking at homeschooling as an educational option for their children. While some may be focused on avoiding things like transgender bathrooms and Common Core, many may be surprised to find it is the positives homeschooling has to offer, rather than the negatives homeschooling can distance you from, that is its greatest benefit. I admit it took me a few years of singing phonics songs and detailing the scientific method before I really grasped the spiritual opportunity aspect of homeschooling, but the truth was there all along: whoever is educating our children is discipling our children.

As the directors of Brookhaven’s local homeschool support group (some 60 families strong), my husband and I would like to invite you to visit Brookhaven Home Educators’ new website at www.homeschool-life.com/ms/bhe. It provides a window into what homeschooling is all about, from the laws regulating it, to enrichment offerings like Lego robotics, chess, and cross country. The irony that we are involved in the launch of this website during a week commemorating the 25th anniversary of Matt Devenney’s death – well, it’s certainly not lost on our family.  So here’s to broaching radical subjects (and pass that two-by-four over here, please).

 

Wesson resident Kim Henderson is a freelance writer who writes for The Daily Leader. Contact her at kimhenderson319@gmail.com.