Wrestling

As a family we've had unexpected and unrelenting problems since the launching of The Daniel Academy 6 weeks ago.
Car problems- 3 cars down in one week. The third car, our 17 year old Suburban pulls the trailer which hauls the wood, which affects our ability to heat our home. Our vans had to be repaired (neither repair was "that" much, but both in one week was a hefty bill in a month that was already short due to required travel in August) as we rely on them daily. The burb will just have to wait as it's too much right now, and we're praying that it doesn't get too cold too soon. The very next week one of the NEW spark plugs "blew"- defective from the factory, causing some wire damage and more time without reliable transportation. Thankfully, our mechanic had a loaner car but it was still pretty hectic as Viking Man works an hour west twice a week and we go east 3 days a week. Another week a tire was mysteriously flatter than a pancake. The tire repair dude at Stuff Mart checked it out and reported that there was, "no hole, no leak." He refilled it and said to come back it there were any more problems with our month old tires.
Last week the washing machine began making little greasy pock marks on all of our clothes. We didn't fully discover this until an entire load of Viking Man's dress clothes had been pock-marked. Thankfully, the place where Viking Man offers Biblical Counseling Services also has a washer and dryer so I spent several hours there this week-end doing a week's laundry for a household of six. A short term fix for now.
As if that wasn't enough, this week I've had strange and mysterious physical ailments that range from an old and irritating knee injury causing pain and distraction, to more serious and painful problems that I won't bore you with the ugly details of .
Why are we not surprised?

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Ephesians 6:12

Sure, all of these irritating and annoying problems could just be the result of having way old cars, over-taxing our washing machine with the demands of a large family, overtaxing my over-40 year old body. All true. However, I truly believe that education is the transmission of culture and I also believe that The Daniel Academy is a proactive Family Partnership that allows parents to guide and direct their children in the way that they should go. It's a new paradigm and a new/old way of thinking about child-rearing. It allows homeschoolers the fellowship and expertise they are lacking and public schoolers the excellence and personal attention that they are lacking. It fills some gaps. It threatens the expected. And when we do that in the name of Jesus Christ, I believe that the enemy takes notice.
I'd appreciate it if you could pray for me and my family as we walk out the call. I ask this because, "Two are better than one, they have a good return for their labor." Ecclisiastes 4:9 and we stand strong when we stand together. Right now we could use some good folks standing with us.