Lakewood Gathering – Christian Homeschooling Gone Astray

A few months back, Elizabeth, the girls and I joined Lakewood Gathering, a Hernando county Christian homeschool co-op led by Virginia Lamb, Lori Grothe Musgrave and Vicki Saltsman Balogh that meets every Friday at the Lakewood Retreat, a lovely Christian camp and conference facility located in Brooksville, FL.

Though my family and I are grateful for many things we learned at the weekly meetings, for safety, moral and spiritual reasons, we will no longer be attending.

Let me digress…

Upon our very first meeting, I was shocked to notice the co-op leaders lacked modesty, an important virtue found in female Christian leaders. Though fancy hair styles, gold jewelry, caked on makeup and tight jeans were clear transgressions of the word of God, I ignored these red flags as my family and I continued meeting with the group each Friday.

In 1 Timothy 2:9-10, the bible teaches women that “⁹ in like manner also, that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing, ¹⁰ but, which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works.”

To make matters worse, it turns out the Lakewood Gathering ministry leaders think the moms and daughters in the group should model their lives after Dani Johnson, a woman I feel is a disgrace to Christianity. Even more so than the leaders of Lakewood Gathering home-schooling co-op, Dani Johnson dresses provocatively, capitalizing on the lust of her Christian brothers to prosper, while teaching about modesty. What a farce!

To add insult to injury, last week meeting featured some play time at the Lakewood Retreat pool where rules were not only broken, but completely ignored turning a seemingly pleasurable outing into a life threatening hazard as kids ran recklessly around the pool, throwing around a basketball violently inches away from unsuspecting children’s heads climbing in and out of the concrete pool.

The last straw came earlier this week when we received the schedule of events for this coming Friday, which featured, of all things, Easter egg decorating. I’m not sure you’re aware, but the Easter egg tradition associated with this time of year is not only a Pagan tradition, but a sin – plain and simple.

Just like stealing, or lying, engaging in such a tradition is a sin against the One true God as it places one’s focus, energy and time on the fertility goddess, the ancient Queen Ishtar (pronounced “Easter”) and her husband/son (yes, both her son and her husband!) Nimrod, who was the grandson of Noah. When Nimrod died, she claimed that he had ascended to the sun, and was to be worshiped under his new name, Baal. A more adequate explanation, including how Easter eggs are tied into this, can be found here: http://www.lasttrumpetministries.org/tracts/tract1.html

So, we joined a Christian group that’s, well, led by women who model themselves after, and look up to an offensive female business woman who, to me, looks like a high class harlot. A Christian co-op that engages in rule breaking and dangerous & reckless pool behavior, and by their actions, teach their (and our children!) to worship false gods.

Thanks, but no thanks!

We’ll continue to enjoy the Lakewood Retreat, since it’s a completely separate entity and a wonderful place to hike, canoe and play tennis or mini-golf, and be sure to steer clear of any Lakewood Gathering event. I suggest you do the same if you also have daughters you’re trying to raise in a godly manner… To him or her that has an ear, let them hear!