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GROWING FAMILIES TESTIMONIALS
We would like to share with you Testimonials by families from around the world who have been helped by Growing Families International's parenting programs. These stories are of ordinary people who have put Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo's parenting philosophy into everyday practice and have seen beneficial results in the lives of their children. Some have become voluntary class facilitators to be able to share the programs with others in their communities. These are their stories....
All testimonials are used with permission. All testimonials are real, though some details may have been withheld upon request. If you would like to show your support for Growing Families related programs, submit your short story to the GFA Website Administrator. All testimonials will be verified before publication.
From Russia: Vlad & Natasha
We are the Zuev family: Vlad, Natasha, Elina(10) and Mark(9). We are on staff with Vyborg Christian Church in Vyborg, Russia. We are the leaders of Worship and Family Ministries. The Family ministry in our church actually started from one of the parenting courses written by Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo. That was Preparation for Parenting (now called Along the Infant Way).
When we were expecting our first child in 1993, our ministry mentors, who happened to know Gary and Anne Marie and their family, gave us the Prep book and shared the parenting principles with us. It was SUCH A BLESSING to our family! It answered a lot of questions we had, it gave us confidence and what is more important it gave us a Biblical principles of parenting. As we applied what we learned, people from the church started asking "How did you do that?" question. And God gave us a dream of these parenting materials being translated into Russian.
So we started to pray about somebody who will translate and teach it here in Russia... God showed us those people :) We realized that we need to share what we have learned. Some time later we had a blessing of getting to know the Ezzos and then taking part in a GFI Leadership conference in 1997. Since then we've been leading parenting groups in our church, printing materials and sending them all over Russia and also to Ukraine, Germany and Israel to Russian speaking families.
And we are thankful to our Lord for the blessings that He gives us in our own family and in others that we are ministering to.
With love from Russia.
From Western Australia: Mary's Story
When working as an airhostess, Mary observed a delightful baby on a flight and on speaking with the mother, found she had used the principles espoused in the very popular paperback, "On Becoming Babywise", to nurture her baby. Mary searched out and found the book and when some years later she had her own child, she also used the principles and was delighted with the results – a contented baby who slept through the night at approx. 8 weeks - and developed a good routine as a welcome member of the family.
Mary and her partner then went on to the next paperback in the series, "On Becoming Babywise 2" – guidance for the toddler years. The next logical step was to attend the parent/discipleship class called “Growing Kids God’s Way” (now called Along the Virtuous Way). Mary’s partner, Gino, was very reluctant to attend a “religious thing”, so Mary was stuck until she was offered a 10 week course called “On Becoming Childwise” – this was a pilot course here in Australia. Both Mary and Gino attended with others of their friends who did not attend church or relate to the Bible at the time.
Well, that was in year 2000. Both Mary and Gino say that their doing the program has revolutionised their lives, enhancing their relationship and brought order, direction and confidence to their parenting. When Mary and Gino heard that the authors of these parenting materials, Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo, were coming to Perth to launch the new 10 week parent/education video series, “On Becoming Childwise”, they were so excited, and are looking forward to bringing their friends to discover the life changing parenting foundations they have found.
Mary’s reflection was, “I wonder if other people who do the course will be drawn back to the Bible and relationship with God, through Jesus Christ, like I have been?” Mary’s Bible now sits next to her Childwise book on her bedside table, and she and Gino attend Riverview Church with their daughter, who will be commencing school at Regent College where the same biblical principles laid down in "On Becoming Childwise", are practiced in the classroom. Such congruence between home and school is a wonderful support for them as parents.
From Western Australia: Alan and Julie
Even before we were married, Julie and I had ideas of what we desired our family to be like. As we observed today’s kids, it seemed the philosophy of childrearing was, “let kids direct their own lives and eventually they will come around to ‘acceptable’ behaviour.” We felt there must be something better than that.
When Julie became pregnant, we read many parenting books, but one, sent from a friend in New Zealand, really gripped us. It was called “On Becoming Babywise” by Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo, and it dynamically influenced our thinking. Not only did it give us foundations for structure and routine (the baby sleeping through the night at 8-12 weeks - yeah!), but as we worked through subsequent “On Becoming" parenting courses, we discovered principles on which to base our parenting as we grew together as a family.
In addition to discovering the importance of the husband/wife relationship in parenting, we learned how to raise a morally responsible child, how to really show our children we love them, and what discipline is really about: heart training, so our children will do what is right by choice and not coercion. Most significantly however, we were also brought back to the Bible and, ultimately, Jesus Christ.
Interview with Alan & Julie:
Alan: "I had attended a Church school and had a basic religious understanding, but through the years I subconsciously learned that reading the Bible was a bad thing, and I was brainwashed against the Christian faith."
Julie: “As a child, I was gently coerced to believe in Christianity, and although I never rejected it as an adult, when we began the “On Becoming Babywise” journey, a crack in the door opened. Now I want to believe and have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ - no coercion."
Alan: "We questioned together, “What do we want to teach our children?” We knew that our culture is based on the Judeo/Christian ethic, but where did our values come from? I think now how stupid I was not to see – obviously it was the Bible. My eyes are now open, and together our desire is to raise our children to know God and live by His standards."
Julie: "One way we have commenced doing this is by changing the emphasis of Christmas and Easter. Our children have responded far more enthusiastically to Jesus being the baby in the manger now, than to Santa Claus, and at Easter we shared Jesus being the Saviour of the world, rather than just Easter eggs and chocolate."
Alan: "When our eldest, Danielle, was a few months old, we moved on to the second book by Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo, "On Becoming Babywise Two", which assisted us with the toddler years. It was at that time we discovered a whole group of likeminded people who had the same heart desires as we did – it’s like we have another family really. Through them we then joined an "On Becoming Childwise" class with our friends Gino and Mary. And that is where the journey began to fast track."
Julie: "Danielle commences kindy this year at Regents College. Here too we were excited to find a school where the principles we are raising our children by are practiced by the school community and in the classroom – and so our “family” is growing."
Alan: "We are so grateful to God for opening this door for us and we do look forward with anticipation to the journey of parenting our children. Our spiritual goal is for our whole family to experientially know God, and our relational goal is for us to all be “best friends”."
More testimonials can be found here on the Growing Families International website.
* Stock photos used above.
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