Homeschool Etc Inc

Background Statement

1996 - Artists Etc (Expressing Talents for Christ) was born in LaGrange, Georgia, as God used five homeschool families to form the foundation, structure and vision of a homeschool enrichment program. Seventy-five students travelled from distances of 90 miles to attend this new Christian, fine-arts based history program. The program thrived for two years.

1998 - The program in GA closed as the founding families were each called away from GA to various locations around the world. While each family was sad to have God close that door, each was grateful for the season of ministry they had been given. Kim & Harry Traum moved to Arvada, Colorado where they continued to homeschool.

March 2006 - In Denver, CO, homeschooling was an ever-increasing option for Christian families. However, the founding families were moved as we saw that more and more homeschooling families were drawn toward secular programs for the lack of Christian options. God allowed us to easily draw from the structure of the previous program, Artists etc., and a new program was quickly born. In the Spring of 2006, with a small building secured, we prayed for an enrollment of 75 students. In June, we were all a bit confused when God allowed us to lose the building. With 60 families on board, we prayed for a building and, through a series of beautiful situations, God provided Arvada Covenant Church which was a much larger facility. Immediately, we were able to increase enrollment to 100 K-12 students, but a waiting list was already forming.

August 2006 - Sixty families, 15 teachers and 105 students, witnessed what only God could accomplish in a matter of 6 months. Our non-profit status had only taken 3 months to be approved and Homeschool ETC, began with classes in history, art, theatre, music and science.

2008 - The leaders of Homeschool etc. began noticing that high school families were struggling to find great Christian educational options for their older students. This year God allowed the program to grow by beginning classes that were geared specifically for these students. Writing, biology and Spanish classes were added. The program grew to 150 students - still with a waiting list.

2010 - In addition to providing educational support for homeschool families, God impressed on us the desire to encourage mothers through monthly support meetings. These built our community further as we lifted each other's needs in prayer and provided emotional and financial support for families in need.

2012 - God provided the vision and means to introduce full-scale musical productions with the purpose of proclaiming the Gospel through theatre. Esther - A Contemporary Musical, our first production, included 110 students who shared the promises of God to about 1,000 people over four performances.

2013 - The leadership of Homeschool etc. was moved by families abandoning home education to participate in secular dual-enrollment opportunities. We realized that God had provided a number of our teachers who had previous college teaching experience, and we applied to offer Christian based dual-enrollment courses through Colorado Christian University. This allowed our students to gain college credit through a regionally accredited university - all from a Biblical perspective.

2013 - God allowed us the opportunity to perform a second full-scale production, Pilgrim. Eighty actors gave 5 performances to almost 1,500 people. Numerous people accepted Jesus as their Savior after this moving adaptation of John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. The leaders, and especially the students, were being given the vision to share God's word with our larger community.

2014 - Although each year we had accepted new families, the waiting list was ever increasing. This year we restructured our classes and expanded our student enrollment to allow for 160 Jr./ Sr. High students in addition to our 100 elementary and 20 pre-k students. We now used almost every room in Arvada Covenant Church - not including the mop closet and offices. Even with this restructuring, Homeschool etc. still had a waiting list.

2015 - Homeschool etc. performances of our third full-scale musical, Acts - A City Rising, had 80 actors present 6 performances to over 2,500 people. By portraying the story of the early church, many people recommitted their lives to walk with the Lord through this encouragement to the modern church to withstand the trials of our world. After these performances though, we realized that Arvada Covenant Church could no longer house our theatre productions, as we had completely out-grown the space.

2016 - God began impressing on us a need to reach beyond our walls. The theatre group took our next production, Esther, on tour throughout the Denver-metro area as various local churches hosted our performances. God was bringing to completion the goal of performing gospel-centered theatre by taking us out into the community to share His word. Concurrent to His work with our theatre group, He was working through various community connections from our ten years of ministry to plant a vision for coming alongside other small non-profit Christian groups. The purpose? To encourage and provide tangible support to those groups by providing a building that would serve as a community hub for sporting events, Bible studies, enrichment classes, support group meetings, and so much more. Our goal is to purchase a building that we can use to expand our own enrichment program ministry and that we will open to those organization who need a consistent, supporting base of operations - and thereby reach a larger portion of our community for Christ. In all that He is doing, we see God encouraging us to reach further. His arm is not too short! Please join us in prayer as we seek God's provision and wait to see how He will complete what He has begun.