My uncle Harold warned Leon and I when our children were little. He said, “don’t spend all your time
doing good things and never get around to doing the most important things”.
We took that to heart throughout the years and frequently stopped to ask ourselves,
“what’s the most important thing right now as a family serving Jesus?”
We have had to say, “no” to a lot of good things so that we could focus on the most important things.
We often remind the children that we are in charge of creating “the ultimate childhood experience”,
which should include elements of the funnest bible camp ever and seminary, and we realized
that we only have a few years left.
Now Zuriel’s high school education is drawing to a close and I want to tell you the history of her
education. Reading, writing, mathematics, health, theology, and biblical studies, culinary arts,
agriculture, social studies, language, Spanish, early childhood development, leadership,
physical education, drama, music, technical skills, construction and interpersonal communication.
How did all that education happen?
In her first school years we studied the civil war by traveling to some of the civil war sites and places
of historical significance such as : Antidem, Gettysberg, Plymouth rock, the Plymouth Plantation, and
many others.
After a few minor adventures we ended up in Oklahoma and began our first of several house
remodeling jobs.
When we moved to a house on 5 acres of lawn and woods in Idaho things really got exciting for Zuriel.
We read for hours every day as a family and individually. In the next few years Zuriel learned how to
crochet and began gardening, cooking and nutrition, Saxon math, Spanish, logic and making music.
She started sewing and continued on until she was sewing clothing for her siblings.
During this time Zuriel worked with the whole family learning; Bread making, Kombucha, preparing other
fermented foods and film making.
We also studied material from Greg Kokl, R.C. Sproul, John Piper and others.
I think that one of the most impactful life lessons up to this point was when 2 brothers joined our family
through adoption. We learned much more than african culture.
Our time in Idaho was fun and hard. The children could finally be noisy and play wild and free, start fires,
and dig holes. They all worked together to build things out of mud bricks, wood and snow. We raised
milking goats, chickens, ducks, rabbits, pigs and a lamb.
Then we moved to Chile. We went there to preach the gospel to ourselves, the church and the
un-saved with our words, lives, relationships and music. This was total immersion Spanish language
and Chilean culture. We lived like Chileans, shopped where they shopped and squished in with them
on the buses and subways and in government offices.
We started a church in our cabin where the message every single Sunday was “Las Buenas Noticias”.
We started a donut business and cooked the donuts over a fire in our wood burning cook stove. Zuriel
went around with a couple of her siblings selling the donuts to anyone and everyone. Of course, no one
spoke English but by this time she could speak the language well enough to conduct business,even
using Chilean currency.
Like everywhere She lived, Zuriel gathered all the local children to herself and played outdoor games,
many that she and her siblings would make up. This ended up being the best way for the younger
Goodenough’s to learn Spanish while the rest of us were learning it as the locals came into our house
everyday to ask us the reason for the hope that was in us.
While in Chile, the goodenough children designed and built beds that hung from ceiling chains. They
also designed and built triple bunks. Using these designs we were able to fit 12 people into a 400 sq ft.
cabin with room to play musical chairs with company.
It was there that Zuriel and Asaph became the dynamic duo in tiling. I remember cringing as they carried
slate tiles outside and dropped them off of the deck so they could artfully reassemble the pieces on the
bathroom floor and walls. The bathroom wasn’t very usable but it was beautiful. We lived without power
and used an outdoor sawdust toilet . We were surprised to find out that life goes on just fine without a
fridge, running water, oven, lights and showers and in some ways it’s much better.
We were in Chile for a year and a half.
Then we moved back to Vancouver, WA, USA. Zuriel studied Spanish grammar, writing, thinking skills,
KungFu and she attended her 4th birth, working as a doula.
After that we rather suddenly moved to Oklahoma. She was actively involved in the house remodels
now of 2 more houses. She learned some wiring, wall building, foundation work (floor braces) and quite
a lot of texture and paint and more tiling (4 bathrooms, a shower and a kitchen and office) .
Zuriel and Asaph joined Stage Art Dance and continued studying on their own when they discovered
Swing dancing.
She was finally able to put her technical skills to work when she took a job backstage at Theater
Bartlesville operating the sound board. All this time she continued making comedic videos with her
siblings and performing on stage with; voice, melodica, keyboard, beginning harmonica and clarinet.
. This led her to Speech and Apologetics classes which she took for 3 years. In the summer of 2017
and 18 Zuriel received training through Child Evangelism Fellowship and taught 5 day clubs during both
summers.
Then, last summer she moved in with strangers in Tennessee to work full time in an apprenticeship
position with Nancy Campbell. She was there for 2 months learning administrative skills.
Recently she has enjoyed playing on the worship team at our church gatherings and is leaving next
week for her second summer working at the Cannon Beach Christian Conference Center in Oregon.
I’m glad that Zuriel learned disciplines and worked hard to finish all her books. I am even more excited
to release her into the world prepared to do what’s most important, Love God, seek His kingdom
and make disciples.
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