u/Dangerous_Dirt_9376

I homeschooled my oldest son when he was in 1st grade using Acellus (all online). I had to go back to work and sent him to public school. He's an exceptional student, in the gifted/advanced program and reads 100's of books a year. He's a self-starter, very inquisitive, active and will probably work ahead naturally. He likes history and STEM, will also be starting Bible quizzing this year as well. He will also be taking some music lessons. Our youngest will be starting 2nd grade. He is more of a "class clown" and gets very bored very quickly. He's not dumb, but he tells himself that he cannot do hard things and then whines etc. He has done great at public school academics-wise, but he gets bored easily, dawdles, and would rather watch movies than read. He takes more encouragement and discipline to stay on task. I'm almost finished with my Bachelor's in Psychology and possibly going into a Counseling Master's program. Anyway, our youngest loves action and fun. but I think he might need something different than our oldest.

I was originally going to just go with Abeka because we have friends that think it's amazing. I want to do a mixture of video and textbooks since my oldest one's handwriting suffered from doing his 1st grade year online only. What are some suggestions you can offer me as a first time homeschool mom of 2 wacky boys? I want it to be Christian-based. I've heard good things about The Good and the Beautiful. My husband grew up doing ACE but I've never heard anyone other than him say they liked it. We are Apostolic Pentecostal and don't mind KJV Bible verses etc. We do believe in intelligent design. Thank you and God bless!

What’s the city vibe? We’re from Southeast Texas but have lived in North St Louis the past 2 yrs. We are Apostolic/Pentecostal, small family, love outdoors, love biking and shopping. What are some interesting things about your city? Any places to avoid? Middle income neighborhoods (300-340ish?)

If I’m moving from STL to KC, working downtown and church near Olathe, where we be a good, family oriented place to live? And, how does one go from the suburbs of St. Louis to suburbs of Kansas City? It seems very much not crowded and doesn’t appear to be as exciting as far as places to go and outdoor things to do. Enlighten me.

I have intense radiating burning in my upper stomach area - right under ribs. It usually happens at night or wakes me up. It feels like the most intense burning I’ve ever had and it brings my blood pressure up. I’ve had a CT but it was clear. I can’t figure it out! It’s scary and causes extreme anxiety. How did you fund out if you had an ulcer or h pylori?

We are from the South (Bible belt) and are UPC. We are conservative and don’t own TV’s, don’t watch a bunch of things and are probably a lot closer to WPF in our standards but we don’t feel wearing a shirt with sleeves a couple inches above the elbow will send us to the fiery furnace. My issue is that I’m used to this and feel it’s my personal convictions yet, in the Midwest, specifically Missouri (STL) and Kansas (KC) seem to have a lot of churches where almost anything goes. I am searching for a UPC church that is conservative like the “old UPC” but not as strict and shall I say controlling as the WPF churches. I know lot all WPF are controlling, but I’m saying that because I have a friend that had to ask permission to make purchases from her WPF pastor. That’s a complete no go for me. I’ve tried the STL area churches and while they’re kind and sweet, do not fit the bill when it comes to deep prayer, moves of God and fasting etc. Do you know of any churches that are in this very hard balance that I’m trying to find? We may be looking at KC area also. I’m still not feeling the men’s facial hair - I know it’s not a Biblical mandate - but for me, it feels like it’s too close to the world and I’d rather my children learn to live separate in a confusing culture. Maybe some of you can help a person out and send a few churches that you think might be like what I mentioned. Thanks!

I had a C-section 7 years ago. A couple days after, I was sitting in a chair feeding my baby. I felt a sudden “pop” in my upper abdomen, right under the bone at the end of the sternum. It was tender to the touch but I also had just had major surgery. Since then, I’ve struggled to get a good, deep breath. I’m a singer and have also noticed a change in my ability to sustain long breaths. Now, I’m having more aside reflux and have taken Pantaprazole for the past 4 yrs as my ENT said my esophagus was “cobblestone”. I still have reflux pretty badly and have to sleep with head propped up or acid shoots into my throat and burns and it has even woke me up before. I’ve had a couple recent incidents where I woke up and noticed a little “vomit” or acid on my pillow.
My current symptoms are:
Shortness of breath
Getting full very quickly
Random episodes where that area gets hotter than anything I’ve ever experienced (internal heat) and then palpitations follow and my BP will rise to approx 137/100. It can last from a few moments to several hours and has woke me up 5-7 times in the past 10 months. My Dr put me on BP meds but took me off as I do not have hypertension, it just flares randomly. It was also thought that it was a hormonal blood pressure change since I’m in perimenopause. This month, I’ve started taking BHRT (bio identical estrogen and progesterone) and it happened BEFORE my period instead of during or after. This leads me to believe that maybe it’s not a hormonal blood pressure issue, or maybe it is but it’s combined with a hernia pressing against my diaphragm and causing my vagus nerve to be pressed which makes me feel like lava is pouring from the inside in that specific region, and my heart rate and BP go up. I’ve had a CT to check for bleeding (with contrast) and nothing was of note, I’ve had a calcium CT score a= 0, so I’m wondering if anyone has had such symptoms that made their blood pressure change when the hernia flared. And I’m wondering what test do I need to have to verify if it’s a hernia or not. It is still tender to touch and I’m afraid to stretch and lean backwards because I’m afraid I will tear or pop something. I feel like I need someone to deep massage my abdomen and diaphragm because it’s very very tense from me not stretching out of fear.

So for about 10 months, I have been having a strange occurrence. This happens randomly and I’m usually not worried that I know of. I am 44 year-old woman. I am in perimenopause what happens well sometimes even wake me out of my sleep. Right below my breast about one hand with below my breast, upper abdomen on either side, I feel intense burning. This is not like a stomach ache or a virus type of burning. It feels like either side is pouring hot lava inside my body. This makes my chest tight and obviously makes me very anxious. I feel like I can’t get a good breath my blood pressure rises. For instance, this happened today the best way I can explain it is when you’re about to drop on a roller coaster and your stomach burns because you’re nervous that’s what this feels like the only problem is it doesn’t stop. It feels like a panic surge in my gut that just won’t stop or turn off. I do box breathing. I change my thoughts I take a walk and it’s still there. My blood pressure was 136/97 today during this occurrence it can be anywhere from one hour to six or seven hours maybe longer it just feels like I don’t know why it won’t shut off and I don’t know why my body is doing this it’s not every day. It’s not even every week at first I thought it was hormonal but now I have no idea what it is. Does this sound familiar to anyone? Does anyone understand what I’m trying to say have you faced this before?

Taking my issue to Reddit wasn’t really something I wanted to do but it’s a last “unbiased” resort.

My spouse (genders protected for anonymity) and I are music ministers at a UPCI Pentecostal church. We’re regular, ordinary people that left everything we owned to embark on a journey (and a risk) to become music ministers for a small but formerly powerful church. The last name of the pastor is common in UPCI circles yet, we have come across a deal breaker.

Our values do not align with the pastor. This is something that came as a shock and surprise after being her a year. Now neatly 3 years in, it’s an issue. The issue is that before we came, the church had dwindled down to a handful of very faithful saints and elderly people. Everyone left during the COVID era and/or after a heated issue with a young person pointing out another church member wearing jewelry. Evidently, as it was told to us, the young person, friends and other families left because they were unwelcome after this happened.

Fast forward a few years and we enter the picture. We did ask what standards were expected for platform ministry. At the time, we should have asked deeper questions but we did feel it was slightly odd that the answer was - the people will follow my wife’s attire.

Now, we’ve since learned that before we came there was a musician that was not filled with the Holy Ghost nor baptized in Jesus name that was allowed to play for services.

We told the pastor upon learning of this that we do not adhere to that as we feel there should be a set standard or guideline for those on the platform for protection of them and the newcomers and onlookers.

We now have a new family that showed up and are not of oneness bs ground but from another culture that is very bejeweled, painted, extravagant clothing etc. Beautiful people! The issue is that they want to be used on the platform and they’ve asked the pastors wife hit have not gotten any direction. I spoke with the pastor/pastors wife about it and they said, we don’t know what to do. We were quite puzzled by this as we felt like giving the people a beginners class, Bible study - something! Would be a good first step. The lady asked us today if she could be on the platform. She asked what she needs to do. I gave her a brief explanation that the platform is a leadership place that we take seriously and prayerfully. I explained that with her being new and learning the faith we should start with a Bible study and I explained why we choose not to wear jewelry or makeup. She seemed like she was interested. I told her I’d tell the pastor/pastors wife about our discussion. I also met with the pastor/pastors wife and told them of this conversation. I expressed concern that allowing her on the platform with never being baptized or filled with the Holy Ghost that it could hinder her growth, but maybe we should plug her in somewhere that she can be used now while she grows so she does not get discouraged. I also mentioned the importance of platform guidelines being given to everyone because we are representing the church and need to be all consecrated, living a separate lifestyle and filled with the Holy Ghost. The response floored me. They told us - we believe people should work out their own salvation and we do not teach on outward standards because we think God should speak to them and they make changes in their heart. I told them we absolutely agree and want them to do it for their love for the Lord and not just to get on the platform. They told us that she will need time to grow but they’ve allowed others to grow and start on the platform. We have a real problem with this mindset - not because of legalism or standards - but because not being filled with the Holy Ghost could truly damage a newcomers faith or worse - our kids are watching and learning. We’ve watched people walk away one by one in the last 2 years.
We planned to leave 2 months ago but the pastor begged us to stay and says he will change anything and that *drum roll * he just doesn’t know what to do! He’s part of a famous/well known line of Pentecost yet says this? He said he would meet with us about our concerns. That meeting has been put off and has never happen yet.
We feel stuck. How do we get out? How do we fix this? We love the place we live and don’t want to uproot our kids to move again. How do we leave and either find a local church to attend or move somewhere else and make another bad risk?