This month, we are going to look at the ten plagues of Egypt and what they, in their rich symbolism, reveal about God. We will also connect them to the Ten Commandments. Help your students make the connections themselves, giving them just as much information as they need to do so. Begin by reading Exodus 7-11 and Exodus 20:2-17. Then, print off the table on the next page and fold it in half to refer back to throughout the lesson.
When taking up any study of the Bible, it is good to consider the types of God’s plan for our salvation that we see throughout the Old Testament. Typology, the “study of types,” is defined as: “an approach to the interpretation of the Scriptures found in the New Testament itself, and in the writings of the Church Fathers, which sees certain people and events in the Old Testament (Types) as foreshadowing things fulfilled in the New Testament (Antitypes).” You might think of types as a non-verbal, material kind of prophecy!
In this lesson, we will be considering what was happening around the rest of the world at the time when the Israelites fled Egypt and wandered through the desert. Of course, exact dates are not known, but we generally think it was sometime in the early 1200s (13th century) B.C. By simply reading the Bible, we can learn some things about some other civilizations that existed at this point in time: the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites are all mentioned several times in Exodus!
The Antiochian Archdiocese theme for 2025-2026 youth activities is The Book of Exodus. We’ve developed a series of lesson plans that explores that theme through a different discipline. In this lesson, we will be looking at various visual depictions of Moses, both in the setting of a sacred space and outside of the church building.
Saint Emmelia Ministries is blessed to have a board of wise, loving Spiritual Advisors who help run our regional conferences and online events, provide guidance to local homeschoolers, and guide the vision & work of the ministry. Alongside them are their wives, who work tirelessly to support their husbands’ work, on top of educating their children. In this series, we are honored to introduce you to these exceptional women.
Saint Emmelia Ministries is blessed to have a board of wise, loving Spiritual Advisors who help run our regional conferences and online events, provide guidance to local homeschoolers, and guide the vision & work of the ministry. Alongside them are their wives, who work tirelessly to support their husbands’ work, on top of educating their children. In this series, we are honored to introduce you to these exceptional women.
Saint Emmelia Ministries is blessed to have a board of wise, loving Spiritual Advisors who help run our regional conferences and online events, provide guidance to local homeschoolers, and guide the vision & work of the ministry. Alongside them are their wives, who work tirelessly to support their husbands’ work, on top of educating their children. In this series, we are honored to introduce you to these exceptional women.
Saint Emmelia Ministries is blessed to have a board of wise, loving Spiritual Advisors who help run our regional conferences and online events, provide guidance to local homeschoolers, and guide the vision & work of the ministry. Alongside them are their wives, who work tirelessly to support their husbands’ work, on top of educating their children. In this series, we are honored to introduce you to these exceptional women.
Saint Emmelia Ministries is blessed to have a board of wise, loving Spiritual Advisors who help run our regional conferences and online events, provide guidance to local homeschoolers, and guide the vision & work of the ministry. Alongside them are their wives, who work tirelessly to support their husbands’ work, on top of educating their children. In this series, we are honored to introduce you to these exceptional women.
Saint Emmelia Ministries is blessed to have a board of wise, loving Spiritual Advisors who help run our regional conferences and online events, provide guidance to local homeschoolers, and guide the vision & work of the ministry. Alongside them are their wives, who work tirelessly to support their husbands’ work, on top of educating their children. In this series, we are honored to introduce you to these exceptional women. Today, we’d like to introduce you to Kh. Anna Phelps.
Everyone has standards and beliefs. These influence their judgment on what they will accept from the culture. An example is the music one decides to listen to. In seventh grade, the popular music culture began to peak my interest, and I was captivated by the various tunes. Though I was skeptical of some lyrics, I unfortunately placed my concerns aside to enjoy the catchy tunes. I came to realize the themes in many popular songs contradict the Christian ideal. I learned I must use discernment in choosing the music I listen to.
“Oh, I guess that won’t matter, since you’ll be at the Saint Emmelia conference,” I said, looking at the little square on my screen that housed Fr. Noah’s face. We were heading towards hour two of a ministry meeting for our parish, working out logistics for an upcoming project.
“Well…we might be having the conference here…” Fr. Noah replied, his voice as calm as ever. I laughed, not realizing that he was serious and that hours later, I’d be frantically sending emails to our parishioners, looking for accommodations for 30 Saint Emmelia families.
Ah yes, fall. Us students’ favorite time of year. Right around August/September, we are all starting up school again (or maybe you’re taking a gap year, or you’ve graduated. If so, congrats!). If you’ve had a busy summer like me, then you might feel as if the months flew by way too quickly, and school can’t possibly be starting again so soon. Yet here we are, about to jump into a world of books, lectures, homework, and more! It can seem pretty daunting, I know. However, with the right mindset and God’s Grace, it can be accomplished fairly easily!
It seems a bit silly for me, of all people, to be writing this blog post. After all, I am not, by nature, a particularly “still” person. I struggle with fairly severe anxiety, and my mind tends to wander towards current or potential projects whenever I’m faced with a task that seems mundane. On the other hand, that means that I have had to think a lot about ways to achieve even the tiniest bit of stillness.
Ah, curriculum. How on earth do we fit in all the sundry bits of knowledge that we want our children to learn? History, math, geography, biology…and most important of all, our faith! It can feel like there simply aren’t enough minutes in the day to fit in all the information that we need to transmit.
When I first started homeschooling, I was frustrated that I didn’t have access to as many service and leadership opportunities as public-schoolers. I felt that my resume was lacking compared to theirs; the clubs, service opportunities, and honor societies which public schools offered seemed to be impossible to be part of as a homeschooler. However, I have come to find that within my church, diocese, and community, there are a myriad of truly rewarding opportunities in which to serve and lead. My resume is now jam-packed with lists of activities and initiatives I have undertaken. If you’re struggling to build up your resume, I hope these ideas will help you:
