History of The Adventist Home Educator
The Adventist Home Educator is a ministry that began in September of 1989. The ministry began with a focus to support Seventh-day Adventist home educators. Back in those days, resources were harder to find and support for home schooling in general was also hard to find. This ministry started small, but has grown and touched many Seventh-day Adventist home schooling families.
Newsletter
Finding and reaching out to all of these home schooling was a challenge when distance separated many of them. AHE’s beginnings of support were in the form of monthly newsletters. To spread the word, an introductory issue was created to share with other SDA home educators. Subscribers grew and spread from Texas and California (where its beginnings started to reach out) to many Adventists across the USA. Eventually, the newsletter was even crossing country borders and began to touch more than just the United States of America. Today, AHE continues to be an international ministry supporting Seventh-day Adventist home educators.
The newsletter was available only by paid subscription and mailed out by regular mail to subscribers. In 2006, the paid subscription ended with issue #129. The newsletter then began to be offered by a free email subscription. Doing the newsletter by email saved both the ministry and its subscribers money. This email version still continues and is available free to those who wish to receive it.
Handbook
In August of 1991, our first published handbook was created. This handbook was a compilation of home schooling articles specifically aimed at supporting Adventist home educators. Resources and some short reviews of available curriculum were shared in the handbook from the beginning. Through the years, the handbook has grown by adding more articles of interest to home educators. More curriculum resources were also added as new curriculum became available. In 2009, we published our 24th edition of the Adventist Home Educator. The 25th edition is currently in the editing process of production.
The handbook is an exciting part of the ministry. It gives Adventist home educators something to guide them as they go about planning their children’s education. We feel the Adventist Home Educator Handbook is a huge asset for guiding SDA home school families in understanding “true education” and how to apply it according to the counsel that we have been given.
Email Lists
AHE began an email list in 1997. This email list allowed for Adventist home educators to get a quicker response of support for their personal home schooling questions. The email list continues to be a place of encouragement for many SDA home educators. The email list ministry of AHE has grown from one single email list to several. In 2006, the newsletter began to be offered via an email list. In March of 2009, AHE-Living was introduced as a place to discuss topics of interest that were not related to home schooling and in November of 2009, AHE-Teens was started for the teen SDA home educators.
Website
The AHE website was created in 1999. The website has allowed us to reach other Adventist home educators by web searches, rather than completely through personal referrals. Not only was the website important for getting the word out that we exist (so that we might support more SDA home educators), but it also created another platform by which to distribute information.
The Adventist Home Educator ministry has grown from its humble beginnings. God has blessed the ministry, and it continues to grow. We’re learning new and exciting ways to reach out to those who desire the support of AHE. We pray that AHE will bring God glory and honor as we continue to support Seventh-day Adventist families who have chosen to home school. Please pray with us for God’s blessings on this ministry. Thank you!
