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Keynote Speaker: Homeschooled himself in the 1960’s and 70’s, Kevin Swanson and his wife, Brenda, are now homeschooling their five children. Kevin has 35 years of experience in the homeschooling movement and serves as the Director of Generations with Vision, a ministry he founded to strengthen homeschool families around the country. As a father who wants to leave a godly heritage for his own children, Kevin’s passion is to strengthen and encourage the homeschooling movement all over the world and to cast a vision for generations to come. Kevin also hosts a daily radio program — Generations Radio — the world’s largest homeschooling and Biblical worldview radio program reaching families across the US and in over 80 countries. Kevin also served as the Executive Director of Christian Home Educators of Colorado from 1998–2009 and still works actively with CHEC. He has authored several popular books for homeschoolers, including Upgrade -10 Secrets to the Best Education for Your Child, Second Mayflower, the Family Bible Study Guide Series, Christian Classics Study Guide, and others. Serving as a passionate supporter of home education, he has been interviewed on hundreds of media outlets, including Dr. James Dobson’s Focus on the Family and the Fox News Network. |
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Keynote Speaker: Gary has been speaking on the creation/evolution issue since 1990. With a background in management and marketing, he joined CMI full-time in Brisbane in 2002 and eventually became its Head of Ministry. Much in demand for his popular lay talks on creation, Gary and his wife, Frances, and their four children relocated to America where Gary serves as CEO of CMI-US and CEO of CMI-Worldwide, CMI’s international Federation of ministries. Once a convinced evolutionist, the Creation message had a dramatic impact on Gary’s life. He is now a young-Earth creationist with a heart to communicate this life-changing information to the average ‘person in the street’. Concerned about the tremendous interest in UFOs and associated extraterrestrial beliefs, Gary undertook specialist research in an attempt to solve this seemingly baffling phenomenon, which led to his Amazon.com top 50 bestseller Alien Intrusion: UFOs and the Evolution Connection (the only Creationist book ever to achieve this feat). This landmark book provides biblical answers to the many puzzling questions regarding UFOs and alien life on other planets. As a leading Christian authority in this area, Gary has travelled extensively around the world, speaking and conducting literally hundreds of interviews on radio, television and various media. |
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Special Appearance: Brad Stine is the most media covered Christian comedian in the country. He had an 8-page profile written about him and his comedy in the New Yorker magazine where he was referred to as “God’s Comic.” Brad was a regular live social commentator on Fox & Friends every Monday morning for six months and has been featured in the New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. He has also been featured on NBC Nightly News, HBO, Showtime, CNN, Glenn Beck, Hannity and Colmes, NPR’S Fresh Air, ABC Nightline, MTV, and Comedy Central. He has had material published in Readers Digest and Focus on the Family magazine. He has five original DVDs featuring his comedy, and has written two books: Live from Middle America; Rants From a Red-State Comedian, published by Hudson Street Press, and Being a Christian Without Being an Idiot. He has also appeared in numerous films including “Poodle Springs” on HBO, “Welcome to Paradise,” “Sarah’s Choice,” “Christmas with a Capital C,” and “Covering Your Tracts.” He tours nationally on a regular basis performing in clubs, churches, and fundraisers for Crisis Pregnancy Centers, ministries and conservative causes and candidates. He’s created Electronic Press Kits (EPKs) for churches, colleges, youth, and men. The New Yorker magazine stated that Brad’s style is “frantic, aggressive, and caustic, with echoes of Robin Williams, Sam Kinison, and George Carlin, who is his comedy hero.” |
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Featured Speaker: Sharon is a pastor’s wife and has been married to her best friend, Dennis, for 35 years. She is also the mother of six young adults in ages from 34–16, including a daughter who lost most of her hearing as a baby. The Grimes have four home school graduates, three college graduates, two married children, and three grandblessings (with two more arriving soon). Founder of New York State LEAH in 1983, the Grimes have led a local support group and home school co-op under the umbrella of their local church and also network with home school leaders on the national level through Sharon’s speaking ministry. Sharon has been a popular speaker at state home school conventions since 1985 because of the practical counsel and inspiration she gives to parents from the heart of a pastor’s wife and the knowledge of a veteran home educator. She has a real burden to minister to the heart needs of homeschooling women in particular, and has three goals as a speaker: to edify, exhort, and encourage — and have fun while doing it! |
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Featured Speaker: Carol Barnier is a fresh, fun and popular conference speaker who continually strives to have the wit of Erma Bombeck crossed with the depth of C.S. Lewis but admits that most days she only achieves a solid Lucy Ricardo with a bit of Bob the Tomato. While her humor will have you leaning sideways, her faith is solid stuff. Whether speaking about her first born son’s 13 surgeries, her family’s many ADHD challenges, or her own walk from being a God-denying atheist to the most grateful recipient of God’s amazing grace, this woman speaks from the heart. She knows why she knows what she knows. |
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Featured Speaker: Jonathan received his B.Sc. (hons) in Chemistry and his Ph.D. (Physical Chemistry) from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He has long been interested in apologetics, and was a co-founder of the Wellington Christian Apologetics Society (New Zealand). His first book, Refuting Evolution (1999, 2008), was written to counter a teacher’s guidebook by the National Academy of Sciences (USA). It now has over 400,000 copies in print. He later wrote Refuting Evolution 2 (2002, 2010) and the highly acclaimed Refuting Compromise (2004, 2010), both as responses to attacks on the biblical view of history, plus the booklet Mammoth: Riddle of the Ice Age. Jonathan is co-author of the updated Creation Answers Book and 15 Reasons to Take Genesis as History (2006). In 2008, he finished By Design: Evidence for Nature’s Intelligent Designer—the God of the Bible. And in 2010, Dr. Sarfati wrote The Greatest Hoax on Earth? Refuting Dawkins on Evolution, a response to leading atheopath Richard Dawkins’ latest book. Jonathan works full-time for Creation Ministries International in Atlanta, GA, having relocated there in April 2010 from the Brisbane, Australia, office. Co-editor of Creation magazine, he also writes and reviews articles for the in-depth, peer-reviewed Journal of Creation (formerly TJ), as well as being active in speaking ministry. Jonathan is also an accomplished chess player and is a former New Zealand Chess Champion, representing New Zealand in three Chess Olympiads (and drew with Boris Spassky, world champion 1969-1972). In 1988, the International Chess Federation awarded him the title of F.I.D.E. Master (FM). For the fun of it, he regularly accepts challenges from multiple players while he is blindfolded. He then plays from memory with up to 12 players simultaneously. |
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Featured Speaker: Ruth Martin is a mother of three children and veteran home schooler. She has a Master's Degree in learning disabilities and spent many years in public and private school classrooms, both teaching and testing children with learning disorders, attention deficit disorders and emotional disorders. Ruth is the founder of Fellowship of Christian Family Educators, Inc. She has helped start at least 20 local support groups and is presently serving as Support Group Coordinator for GHEA. Ruth and her husband, Jackie, have been home schooling since 1984. |
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Featured Speakers: Upon retiring from pro football in 1980, Greg Brezina, along with his wife, Connie, founded Christian Families Today (CFT), a non-profit, interdenominational counseling and training ministry in Newnan, Georgia. Greg holds a B.A. in business administration from the University of Houston and an M.A. in counseling from Liberty University. Greg is currently the executive director of Christian Families Today. Connie is a career homemaker, former homeschooling mother, and recipient of the Eagle Forum’s 1991 Georgia Homemaker of the Year Award. Her teaching and counseling skills have been honed through personal study and more than 30 years of encouraging women in their Christian walk. She holds a B.A. degree in education from the University of Houston. Greg and Connie counsel and teach at Christian Families Today and have conducted their marriage and family seminars at churches and retreats centers around the country, including the Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove. They have four sons and 16+ grandchildren. |
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Featured Speaker: Woody’s personal mission is to live “a real life with a real relationship with a real God.” He’s a first generation homeschool graduate with huge passion for the next generation of culture shapers. An entrepreneur and visionary, Woody has been a principal player in several start-up companies . In 2004, he co-founded CollegePlus after earning his accredited BSBA in General Management in 18 months for under $10k! A frequent motivational speaker at conferences nationwide, his information-packed sessions are innovative and inspiring. He’s characterized by a high level of energy and enthusiasm. He blends each session with motivation and practical information which attendees can put immediately into practice. The results are contagiously astounding. |
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Teen Film Camp: Daniel is an American-born director, actor, film producer, and artist. No stranger to film production, Daniel has actively worked on sets around the country since 2005. His film directing debut came with the family comedy Late For Church, winner of a Jury Award at the 7th Annual WYSIWYG Film Festival in fall of 2006. In the spring of 2007 he directed a promotional video for the Titan Sentry 5000, a disaster relief unit that was marketed to the Department of Homeland Security. Daniel recently wrapped up production on his second film, Ultimatum: Destiny is Eternal, a dramatic multimedia presentation of the epic story of the Bible. Daniel observed, “The Bible is literature’s greatest masterpiece. Not only has it shaped society but it has defined storytelling for us.” Ultimatum has been received well, particularly overseas. Filmed during the summer of 2010 and currently in postproduction, Creed of Gold was Daniel’s first feature film as director. He particularly enjoyed working with homeschool author and speaker Dr. Jay Wile as a supporting actor. Creed of Gold already has distributor interest from as far away as Australia. A homeschool graduate himself, Daniel is excited to work with the homeschool community, saying, “I have enjoyed teaching the art of filmmaking this past year to homeschool students. Film Camp will be an amazing opportunity to do what I love: teach students to have a passion for Jesus and apply that to multimedia.” |
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Teen Film Camp: As a homeschool graduate herself, Kathleen has a heart for homeschool families. Throughout high school, she actively coordinated and coached a homeschool speech & debate club. In 2006, Kathleen completed her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Thomas Edison State College through accelerated learning. After college, she worked with several businesses and organizations, gaining valuable experience as well as providing creative ideas particularly in development. From 2007–2011, she was employed by Verity Institute, an innovative college program that assists young people in earning an accredited college degree from a Biblical perspective in under two years through non-traditional approaches (such as CLEP). One of her favorite projects was writing a college prep curriculum for homeschool students. In December 2009, Kathleen began working with Crystal Creek Media as Producer/Director of Operations for the forthcoming movie Creed of Gold. From recruiting cast and crew to coaching the press team, Kathleen helped to provide the tactical support necessary to ensure the successful completion of the film. Creed of Gold (www.creedofgold.com) is currently finishing up postproduction. A special prerelease version is available at Film Camp and homeschool conventions this spring. In addition to operational support, Kathleen also does graphic design work and functions as the web master for Crystal Creek Media. Throughout the last five years she has traveled across the U.S. to numerous homeschool conferences and spoken on a variety of subjects related to high school, college, and media. |
- My husband described the conference as life-changing – praise God! We loved it and will be back next year with reluctant grandparents in tow!
- Wish I hadn't waited so many years to come! Can't wait for next year.
- Love the organization of the convention. Extremely well done - thank you!
- I love the Christian emphasis and environment. I also loved the Free Thursday workshops for new homeschoolers. It was most helpful.
- Our children really enjoyed the sessions. Thank you for opening the conference to families with your generous family pricing plan.
- This was the best convention I've been to in the past few years! I can't imagine another state/organization having a better convention than GHEA.
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