Pollywog Creek: L'Abri, Rebecca St. James and homeschooling
Emily and I had the opportunity to meet and interview Rebecca, as well as her very talented brother Joel, a little over a year ago. In preparation for our interview, I had read that Rebecca had recently spent six weeks studying in L'Abri, and I was particularly anxious to ask her about that experience.
(...) Rebecca is one of the most delightful young women we have met in the
Christian music industry. She is not only talented and beautiful, but
humble, gracious and mature beyond her age. The initial interview was
conducted over the phone a few days before we met her at a concert.
After brief informal introductions, it was Rebecca who offered to pray
before we began the "official" interview. Rebecca's publicist had
granted us twenty minutes to complete the interview (...)
Patricia - Rebecca, thank you so much for taking the time to let us interview you for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine.
This is a huge honor for my daughter Emily and I to be interviewing one
of Christian music’s most loved, appreciated, and celebrated
artists. We both want to congratulate you on your recent Dove award
nominations for your contributions to WOW Christmas Green and Music Inspired by the Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. Both of those CDs are part of our personal music collection.
Much later in the interview...
Patricia - Rebecca, I was intrigued to read about your retreat to L’Abri. Can you tell us about that experience?
Rebecca
- Yes, it was a real amazing time in my life. I went to L’Abri
just wanting to be renewed and to be refreshed knowing that I might be
filled up so I could continue to give out in ministry and I felt that
at the beginning of my trip that God promised me that time would be
like a sunrise in my life. I was praying at the beginning … I
was outside on my walk and just sort of praying and I was watching the
sunrise and felt like God was saying that a similar thing was going to
happen in my life through this trip and that is exactly what happened,
it was like a sunrise and a new day in my life spiritually. It was kind
of a time where God was just teaching me who I am in Him and teaching
me that I am loved just as I am. I felt that He was just loving on my
life, loving on my heart and just really treasuring me through that
time. The new album and the new season of ministry that has come from
that time has a lot of joy in it and shows how renewing my time with
Him was there.
(Patricia) Icannot seem to find it in my notes, and
would need to listen to the tape to know for certain, but I remember
that Rebecca also told me that her experience at L'Abri changed her
understanding of the meaning of Christian community. I grieve that I
did not have more time for her to elaborate.
(...)
The interview as it was published:
EMILY: C.S. Lewis and his writings are very popular among
homeschoolers. What was your first exposure to him, and how has he
influenced your writing and music?
REBECCA: C.S. Lewis has
influenced my life quite a lot. I’ve read a lot of his work and
really appreciate the challenges he issues. I love that he is so
honest, but so profound—aspects I want in my music and in my
writing. I want to be profoundly led by God’s Word and also very
real. I have a song on my new album called “Shadowlands”
that ties into C.S. Lewis and the movie about his life. We all go
through shadowlands where it is like we are surrounded by a fog and
don’t know what is coming next. It is a scary, fearful, and dark
time and yet God is working with us through those times where we cling
to Him. He will walk us through and back into the sun and into the new
day and the new season. Sometimes when people are in the middle of a
dark or hard time, they find it hard to see how God is going to bring
good out of it. “Shadowlands” encourages people to see the
hope in the midst of their pain and know that God is with them. I read
[the Chronicles of Narnia] as a child and again as an adult,
probably 6 or 7 years ago. I love the richness of the symbolisms
throughout, and when I wrote the song for the Chronicles of Narnia
soundtrack, I wanted some of that symbolism— to look at Aslan the
lion who is so powerful, so strong, and yet so gentle, the same as
Jesus—strong and powerful but also loving and kind, and that is
what draws us to Him.
EMILY: What motivated you to add writing books to your already very busy schedule?
REBECCA:
Writing books is something that happened quite naturally. It
wasn’t this big huge dream, but one of those things that God
opened up the doors for me and I walked through them. When I was about
18 or 19 I had an opportunity to write a devotional book. The amazing
thing is that God had already prepared my heart that that might happen.
Even though it was not a huge consuming dream to write books, it was
something that God had prepared me for and something that He contin-
ued to lead me into, so I wrote a second devotional book, and a book
about purity. SHE, a book for women, was after that, and SHE Teen. Then Sister Freaks, which I was involved [with] more on an editor level.
EMILY:
You once stated, “A big problem with our generation is that we
don’t have mentors. We surround ourselves with our peer
group.” Can you elaborate on that thought and share with us who
you consider to be your mentor(s)?
REBECCA: Yes, I think that
mentoring is a lost art. It is something that generations before us
naturally knew was important— older men and women speaking into
the lives of younger men and women, giving them wisdom they had
learned. I think that saves a lot of young people from having to learn
the hard way, but our generation seems to want to do stuff on their own
… largely because they don’t know there is a better way.
Mentoring is something that we need to recapture. As young people we
need to be asking for it, and the people in generations above us need
to be available to mentor those of us who are younger. I prayed for [a
mentor] for a while—I saw the need in my heart to have a mentor.
My parents have definitely been mentors, but there came a time in my
life when I needed wisdom outside all the wisdom they had imparted me
so that I could have even more life wisdom. God provided Evie
[Tornquist] through a friendship I built up with her. Through a series
of pretty miraculous events, He opened up the door for her and me to
have that mentoring relationship. I am on the road so much that it is
hard to be involved in meeting regularly with young girls, but there
are a couple that I do feel I am an informal mentor to, especially two
in Christian music.
PATRICIA: Does your family travel with you on tour?
REBECCA:
Yes, they come out most of the time—not all of the time, but when
we do a tour like we are on right now with BarlowGirl and Jadon Lavik.
All the family except for two brothers—three brothers, my sister,
and my parents—are all involved in different areas, from
merchandise to accounting to background vocals. They are a huge, huge
part of the team— the show couldn’t go on without them!
PATRICIA: Are your parents still homeschooling your brothers or sister?
REBECCA: Yes.
PATRICIA: How do you feel that homeschooling prepared you for adulthood?
REBECCA:
It taught me a lot about the importance of good family relationships,
and I grew in closeness to my family just spending so much time
together. I also think that spiritually I grew because the books that I
was reading were all encouraging me in my faith. [Homeschooling]
definitely allowed me to live out my calling. I was signed at 15 and my
first album came out when I was 16, so I was able to travel and do
schoolwork as well. Also, my family went through some financially hard
times when I was homeschooling, and we pulled together and prayed
together as a family, so it really enriched my life both spiritually
and relationally.
EMILY: Do you feel that you missed out on more traditional activities by being a homeschooler?
REBECCA:
My life was so different anyway. Being on the road kept me from being
involved in traditional teenage activities like hanging out with
friends, going to prom and dances … so it wasn’t really
homeschooling that kept me from things like that. You know, my brothers
and sister have really good friends from church, and my sister rides
horses, so she has friends through that. [Homeschooling] can keep you
from being able to do some things, but I think that if you are
intentional about being involved in other groups where you are meeting
people or you are involved in sports or other extracurricular
activities, you can make up for it.
EMILY: Do you have any advice for homeschooling teens?
REBECCA:
Appreciate the joys and the blessings of being homeschooled, like the
closeness to your family that you are achieving. And being able to get
done with school. Homeschooling generally takes about half the time
that you take in school. You can then devote your time in other things
like training for your future. I think often that the education is
better, but I think also that the spiritual value of what you are being
taught in the home— making sure that what you are hearing is
solid—is great, too. Just value the blessings of homeschooling.
Also, I have spoken a lot about purity and the importance of honoring
God in this area of waiting for marriage. Sometimes we think,
“I’m in a Christian community or high school, so I
don’t need to worry about that,” but there is so much
pressure on young people in this area to compromise. All of us need to
be encouraged to wait and save sex for marriage and be honoring to God
in that area. I have a book, Wait for Me, and a song I wrote
to my future husband saying that I was waiting for him and praying for
him, and that is a very important part of my message.
Check out this complete article here:
http://pollywogcreek.blogspot.com/2007/10/labri-and-rebecca-st-james.html
Thanks to Cathy for the link to the Pollywog interview.
