GFA About Us

Gary Ezzo is the Executive Director of Growing Families International. He is a graduate of Talbot Theological Seminary and served ten years as Pastor to Family Ministries in Sun Valley, California. Anne Marie Ezzo is a registered nurse and a childbirth instructor. She is the co-founder of Christian Childbirth Educators and co-author of Birth by Design.

Together the Ezzos have authored a number of biblically based parenting curricula and books used by more than 2,500,000 (growing daily) parents throughout the world, including Along the Infant Way (Preparation for Parenting); Along the Toddler Way (Preparation for the Toddler Years); Along the Virtuous Way (Growing Kids God's Way); Along the Middle Years Way (Preparation for Adolescence); Along the Adolescent Way (Reaching the Heart of Your Teen); and Along the Innocent Way (Reflections of Moral Innocence). In addition Gary has co-authored the On Becoming Series of paperbacks which espouse the principles of the biblical based curricula for parents unfamiliar with the Bible. Their church-based parenting curricula have been utilized by more than 8,000 churches world-wide.

In 2002 the Ezzos released their latest parenting curricula On Becoming Childwise, The Series, this is a 10 session video presentation designed to be used to support, encourage and impart practical parenting skills to parents in the general community. The Ezzos have two daughters and six grandchildren and live in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, U.S.A..

How did the GFI ministry begin? The simple answer to the above question is that God in His grace and sovereignty chose Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo. They never planned to minister to parents outside their local church, let alone start an international parenting ministry . The GFI ministry developed humbly as a result of the example of their own children and from their discipleship of families within their church. "It was the practical side of moral truth that attracted our first Growing Kids God's Way (now called Along the Virtuous Way) class back in 1984. Six couples gathered together every Wednesday night for six months. We [the Ezzos] talked about right and wrong, good and evil, and what it looks like in everyday parenting. We had no plans of going beyond the six months or working with a second group, but those six couples bore fruit, and others began to inquire. We agreed to another class and much to our surprise, one hundred and sixty parents signed up to meet with us. The following year another four hundred came, followed by six hundred the next year. From family to family, community to community, state to state, country to country the message has been spreading. Today, by God's grace millions of parents around the world attend the various GFI classes."

This amazing ministry has been available in Australia since the late '80's. In November 1996, Bill and Joan Grosser (left) were appointed as National Directors of Growing Families for Australia. They began using the materials in 1990, after they had met Gary and Anne Marie, and realised that this material was urgently needed in Australia. They are delighted and amazed to experience what God is doing in families around our nation. The ministry operates from Western Australia, however Ministry Teams are operating in all states now and are available for support, encouragement, fellowship and leadership training. In January 2002, "Growing Families Australia" became a not-for-profit organisation. GFI also operates in many other countries.

Bill and Joan were married in 1965, they have 3 children and 4 grandchildren. Bill has been a TAFE lecturer in trades for many years and Joan was a registered nurse and midwife. Together they have been involved in "Christian Nurture" since they were teenagers. Currently, they run their own family, marriage and personal counselling clinic, and Bill is an Associate Pastor at Balga Church of Christ.

MISSION STATEMENT

The worldwide mission of Growing Families International through its staff and ministry partners is to provide the family, church and community with parenting resources that will help instil, encourage, and perpetuate the passing on of biblical values from one generation to the next.

STATEMENT OF FAITH

We believe the Bible to be the authoritative Word of God (literally God-breathed), inerrant, verbally inspired, and infallible.

We believe there is one true God, manifested eternally in three distinct Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We believe in the deity of Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, who possesses all the divine attributes and is coequal, coexistent, and coeternal with the Father. We believe in His virgin birth, that He was God incarnate (both God and man), for the purpose of revealing the Father, redeeming men and ruling over God's Kingdom. He accomplished man's redemption by the vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood and sacrificial death on the cross. By His literal, physical resurrection from the dead and His ascension to the right hand of the Father, the sinner is justified. We believe Jesus to be the mediator between God and man who will return in glory to judge all mankind.
We believe the Holy Spirit is the third member of the Trinity, possessing all the divine attributes with the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit is the super-natural and sovereign agent in regeneration, baptizing all believers into the body of Christ at the moment of conversion. The Holy Spirit also indwells, sanctifies, instructs, and empowers all believers for spiritual service.

We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit who administers spiritual gifts to each believer for the purpose of equipping the saints and for the building up of the body of Christ.

We believe in the bodily resurrection of both the saved and lost, the saved to eternal life and the lost to everlasting punishment.

We believe that all who place their faith in Jesus Christ are placed by the Holy Spirit into the spiritual body of believers known as the church, with Christ established as the head. The purpose of the church is to glorify God by the teaching and instruction of the Word, by building the faith of its members, by providing an atmosphere of worship, by providing fellowship, and by fulfilling the great commission to reach the world for Jesus Christ.
We believe that man is a sinner and that the penalty for sin is eternal separation from the Father. We believe that eternal life is a free gift of grace bestowed upon each repentant sinner who responds in faith to the provision of salvation in Jesus Christ. Regeneration is instantaneous and is accomplished solely by the power of the Holy Spirit. Genuine regeneration will manifest itself by righteous attitudes, edifying conduct, and good works to the extent that each believer submits himself to the control of the Holy Spirit.

A letter from Gary & Anne Marie - A Word of Encouragement

Dear Parent,

Oh, the joys of parenthood. Our children delight us with their laughter and humour, surprise us with their imaginations, and amaze us with their perception. Through their growing sense of wonder, they renew Mom and Dad's sense of adventure. Through their continual dependence on our care, they make us feel important. More than that, with their tender smiles and warm hugs, they make us feel loved.

Oh, the frustrations of parenthood. Our children have a knack of saying the wrong things at the wrong time in front of the wrong people. They throw our orderly world into disarray. When we plan an event weeks in advance, that is the exact day they get sick. They track in mud seemingly only after the floor is washed and stain only their new clothes, not their old. They humble us in public and make us feel like failures in private. This, too, is parenthood.

There is no avoiding this truth: Parenting is (to put it gently) a challenge. Children at all ages have needs, and as they grow their needs become more complex. Naturally, as parents we want to meet as many of these needs as possible, but while striving to do so we must be careful not to attempt to meet them in our own strength. We cannot parent by our own strength and still achieve a godly outcome. If this is true, however, upon whose strength can we rely? The authors of a best-selling book? Our children's teachers? The couple next door? As helpful as these resources may be, they are not sufficient in and of themselves. If we place our confidence in our own abilities or the abilities of others, we will be too stressed out, too tense, and too anxious to enjoy the parenting process or, more tragically, our children. Moms and dads, we urge you to settle this in your mind now: You will never have perfect children. None of us will.

This is true in part because there is no such thing as a perfect parent, regardless of how many resources are made available to us. However, we do have a perfect God whose grace takes up the slack of our failures. Be encouraged by the apostle Paul's words: "And He has said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.' Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

This verse is true for all of us, even moms and dads. If we remain faithfully obedient to our parental duties and take seriously the calling to bring up our children in the nurture and admonishment of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4), we can be confident that God will use us in our weakness to bring forth His fruit in His time. More than anything else we will share with you in these pages, this one truth supersedes them all: With the grace of God on your side, you can enjoy your children now-and forever.

While we are confident that the GFI resources can be of help to parents, our resources are not intended to give all the answers or provide the reader with all he or she will ever need to know about the process of raising a child. Therefore, parents guided by their own convictions have the ultimate responsibility and duty to research parenting philosophies available today and then make an informed decision as to what is best for their family. Growing Families International is just one resource out of many available to guide parents along the way.

The tools of our endeavour include prayer, observation, experience, personal study, common wisdom, and, most importantly, the Holy Spirit. We are a husband and wife, a father and mother, co-labourers in ministry, and two observers of human nature. It is our desire that the truth presented in our resources fall somewhere between correction and challenge, enlightenment and confirmation.

Thank you for considering Growing Families International as a parenting resource. May God richly bless you in your efforts to raise your family to His glory.

Gary & Anne Marie Ezzo