Navigating Diverse Cultures and Worldschooling with Janeen Marino | #134

Join Lemon Price as she interviews Janeen Marino, an inspiring woman who has embraced world schooling and mission work with her family.

In this episode, Janeen shares her unique journey of traveling across the globe, homeschooling her five boys, and living a life on mission. Discover how their travels have deepened their faith and connected them with diverse cultures and communities.

Learn about the challenges and blessings of radical obedience, intentional living, and how God has transformed their family dynamic through this incredible adventure.

00:00 Welcome to Milk and Honey with Lemon
00:59 Meet Janine: The World Schooling Pioneer
01:38 The Journey to World Schooling
03:56 What is World Schooling?
05:14 Faith and Mission in Different Cultures
08:52 Challenges and Rewards of World Schooling
18:06 Family Dynamics and Personal Growth
20:13 Encouragement and Final Thoughts

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Chapters

• 0:18 World Schooling and Faith Journeys
• 9:51 Exploring Different Faiths Around World
• 15:04 Living a Life on Mission
• 21:56 Spreading Inspiration and Wisdom

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:18

Hey, I'm Lemon. I am just like you, sister friend. Talk about stepping into that overflow that God has for us by becoming those ultimate Proverbs 31 women. Hey, I'm Lemon. I am just like you, sister friend. I knew God had something more in store for me, but I couldn't see a way out of the laundry piles and, frankly, I resented that Proverbs 31 woman. How was I going to live up to the hype? That is until I found out how to really step into becoming this Proverbs 31 woman through leadership development. In this podcast you're going to find financial freedom, leadership, growth and motivation so you'll be able to do all the things God has called you to do with ease and really step into that land of milk and honey.

Speaker 1: 0:59

Welcome back to the Milk and Honey podcast. I'm your host, lemon Price, and I'm really excited because I have my friend Janine here. I am so inspired by her and I thought you guys would be too. So Janine is the first person I've ever met who world schools her children. She has five boys that she is world schooling, which is amazing. She's written a children's book. She's co-authoring another book which is coming out soon, and I just love this concept and her passion and her mission and I'll let her share more about that, but just thank you for being here, janine. Oh, thank you so much. So, guys, she's in Thailand right now and we met through Girl Power Alliance and I will never forget. When you're like, okay, we're selling everything in our house and we're world-fueling, I would love to first like where did this, even this concept, come from? Is this something you always wanted to do?

Speaker 2: 1:44

Yeah. So it's interesting it came about a couple different ways. So first, I've had this vision for a long time, since I was younger, of just like being on mission in another country, like it's almost like I can picture it. It's interesting because I never thought it would happen when I was younger. It was just such a far-fetched dream to me. And then, even a couple of years back in like 2019, 2020, we traveled full-time in our RV across the states, so we did the national parks and all of that. And when we went and did that, that was when I started learning about world schooling and seeing how people were doing that.

Speaker 2: 2:25

It's funny because before we even traveled in the RV, my husband hated traveling, hated it. I loved traveling, I've always loved traveling but he didn't. And it was something that I had to pray about, because at one point in time, I was like what are we going to do when we're retired? Because I'm going to be traveling. And so I prayed and I asked God. I was like Lord, please either change my mind or like my heart on it, or change his, because we're not on the same level right now. And I was surprised. I thought maybe he would change mine, because I thought it's crazy to want to travel full time. But he didn't. He changed his, and so when we were traveling in our RV, I'd heard about world schooling and thought, gosh, that would be so cool.

Speaker 2: 3:12

We had settled in Colorado for a few years after being in the RV and we were getting ready to put stuff in storage again. We thought we were going to go back into the RV and travel again that way. There was some friends that had all these problems with their RV, so we thought maybe that's not what we're supposed to do. I was joking. I was like we could move to Bali. I heard it's cheaper there. And that's how it started. It started as a joke and then prayed about it and talked through it and just ended up going on this journey and we weren't even sure how long we would stay out.

Speaker 1: 3:48

Okay, this is so fascinating to me because I feel like I'm like a healthy mix of you two. I'm like I want to be home all the time, but then also I really enjoy traveling. Can you explain what world schooling is so?

Speaker 2: 4:01

world schooling is. It's basically just homeschooling, but while you're traveling, we do our basic stuff, like we still do reading, writing and math but the rest of it is usually more what, where are we, what are we doing? Like it's more hands on. So we're doing more museums, more cultural things, learning more about different languages and just being able to experience things in wherever we are, and so it's much more hands-on than traditional school. Okay, oh, they love it. They loved it when we did so. If you're traveling in your RV, a lot of times they'll call that road schooling, because you're schooling on the road and, yeah, they thrive on that because they're used to it too. We've traveled a lot and they really do enjoy it.

Speaker 1: 4:52

I am really obsessed with this and just your ability to give your children this experience where they can go and experience different cultures and all those kind of things. I would love to know how, being in Thailand right now. So, if you guys are listening, she started in Bali. Now she's in Thailand and has been there for a little bit, but how is experiencing other cultures and probably different religions and all those things? How has that impacted your faith? Because the whole reason you started is to be on mission right Gosh, so many different ways.

Speaker 2: 5:23

First off, off, just launching what took a lot of faith and just not being unsure about all the different things with the different religions and stuff, and just following God's leave and just really being radically obedient in all the little things. And so I feel living this way it intensifies that because you're living this okay, what's next, like, how's it going to work out? And it's like praying through those things and also then connecting missions with it. So it's different than like being a missionary, because generally missionaries will either go and they'll do a mission trip, so like a short-term mission trip where they're going to stay somewhere specific and help and volunteer and serve in that space right For like X amount of time. And being a missionary, you go and it's the same concept, it's just long-term. But with what we're doing it's a little bit more God-led to where we go somewhere and we're connecting with churches and really like looking up different things and talking to the community and trying to figure out what God wants us to do there. And at first we got to Bali and I was like what are we supposed to do? Okay, now, lord, we're here, what are we doing? What's next? And so it was really digging into figuring that out. There was a time we connected with a couple in Bali that had a raw vegan cafe. That was a front to really engage and talk to travelers that were into the new age because that's their scene that kind of cafe and invite them up to a Bible study. They called it a deep dive and just the way they stewarded that was just incredible. To see and to connect with and to link arms with them in that space was so incredible.

Speaker 2: 7:16

And then, as we came over to Thailand, it was again now, what are we doing? What's next? And we came across this church. It was such a sweet church. They are Thai and English, so they have both. They had a Thai pastor and an English-speaking pastor and their worship was both. So they would sing a song and we all knew the song and they would have the lyrics up in both languages and they would sing the first verse in Thai and the second verse in English. It was so beautiful. They connected us to this house of refuge, was getting ready to take in trafficked and abused girls, and so we were able to go there and help them finish up their kitchen and so we were able to paint and work on the kitchen and all the boys helped. It was so sweet. My youngest is five, so he was picking up sticks and looking for bugs and just cleaning up little things here and there.

Speaker 1: 8:14

And I see to me. I think that's like the most beautiful thing about your journey, to be honest and the way that you share it is. I didn't even know this was a thing. Right, I knew people unschooled. They do things not traditionally, but being you, go out and really be intentional with where the Lord has you and what you're doing, what your purpose is and how you're pouring that back into your children and the communities you're in. I'm like wow, there's so much out there that is available to us. If you just lean on God and ask him for some clear direction, things don't have to look the way that we think they're supposed to look or you get to do things differently. I would love to know how being in other cultures too, and attending church in different countries, has it changed your relationship with the Lord a little bit. I would love to hear if that's impacted your relationship with him and church as a whole.

Speaker 2: 9:08

Yeah, I think so. It's different when you're in, like right now we're in the island that we're on. There is no church on this island. It's a mostly Muslim island. So you actually hear the mosques at a couple times during the day you'll actually hear them doing the call to prayer over a loud speaker, like in the village. So like you're like walking down the street and they have the call to prayer and I doing like the, the Sacred Sixty too, and the prayer walks, passing the mosques and stuff, oh, my goodness, like I just get chills when I think about it and just think about like praying over each individual home and business and almost every home is a business too which is different.

Speaker 2: 9:51

Out here too, some of the churches we've gone to have been radically different. So one church we went to, I remember in Bali we were having a hard time finding it it was on top of a parking garage, on the top level of a parking garage, and we took the elevator up to this parking garage it was a parking garage for a mall and we got to the floor that it said it was on and the door was locked and you could hear the worship music going on, and so we were knocking on the door and they were like no, you got to go outside and go around, and so it was so strange, and so we did. We had to go down the elevator and then walk up the parking garage to get to the top, to go into this church, and I was like, are they hiding up here? What's happening? And then to go in, and it was just such a spirit-filled church. The worship was amazing.

Speaker 2: 10:42

It's interesting, though, because a lot of the churches that are out here, especially the English speaking ones, are run by people that are either from Canada or from the States. So, yeah, it's been different to see the way that each church is and, just going into different denominations, every church is so radically different. It's interesting to step into that and to see that, and even being in this community here that we're with on this island because there's some Christian families here, there's some people from the UK and people that believe in the they celebrate the feasts and not Christmas and Easter there's just so many people with so many radically different beliefs around the world it's really made me dig in more to my Bible and listen to the Lord on what he wants and what he has for us that is such a unique experience that you have to be able to just go out and see other cultures, see other belief systems.

Speaker 1: 11:39

Everybody's pretty set Okay, we do church in general this way we believe as a country. Necessarily, as Christians in America, we tend to believe in one way of doing things and one set of beliefs. Like we're pretty good on that, secondary, tertiary, like we can. Everybody differs a little there. But as a whole I don't think I would walk into. I've definitely been to churches all over the state and it's. I've never walked in and been like oh, this is really like outside of my norm or the belief pattern is different. I think it's really cool that you have this experience, your children have this experience, because I think all it's going to do is just give them a more holistic view of God and like really decide, like what it is that they believe and what the Lord is telling them and I actually so my 13 year old.

Speaker 2: 12:27

As we've been doing this and stepping out into this, I touched base with him. We always talk to the kids about what do you want to do when you get older? We want to be intentional, like we're not necessarily just trying to check all the boxes and make sure they know all the things. We want to really set them up for what God has for them and make sure that we're being intentional with the time we spend, and so we're always checking with them. And for a while he wanted to be a chef. That's my 12-year-old.

Speaker 1: 12:51

He like tells me all the time I just want a food truck.

Speaker 2: 12:55

I think they just like to eat, and when there's like food truck rallies, they get really excited because there's lots of options. He recently told me as we were doing this, and I was like just checking in just to do that. Every so often he told me he wanted to be a missionary and I was like what do you want to do? How do you want to do it? And he's like I'm not sure.

Speaker 2: 13:12

Yet it's really interesting hearing about even one of the churches we went to were like what do you do for outreach? We were like really eager. We were like what are you doing? How can we help? How can we jump in? And they were like nothing. And we're like what do you mean? Nothing. And they're like everyone here is Hindu or Muslim. They're like, if we go and pull them into Christianity and they become a believer, like they're going to be shunned, like they could be killed because of their faith here, and so they really felt strongly that wasn't the right thing to do, and that was when I was like all right, god, now what? What do you want us to do here? And so he wanted to learn a little bit more about the different religions and how to talk to them. So we had gotten him a book on that.

Speaker 1: 13:54

To dive a little bit deeper, so then let me ask you, being in a village right now that's predominantly Hindu and Muslim, how is it for you guys to be Christians and be American in another area that's not as favorable?

Speaker 2: 14:13

Yeah, I was nervous about that. That was one of the things that, like right before we left, I was like wait, with everything going on with Israel and all of that, I was like are we making a bad decision by bringing our kids over to like Muslim countries? Actually, we haven't had any issues, even when we did one of those nighttime tours in Bangkok and we had a Christian tour guide. She introduced us to one of her friends. Some of the street food and stuff that she was introducing us to was Muslim and they were hugging. That gave me confirmation that it's going to be all right. And the other thing, too, is like most Muslims and Hindu believe in karma and they're not like trying to go out and harm Christians. There is that small minority, but that's like a different denomination too. It's been really good. We've met some wonderful people.

Speaker 1: 15:04

I think that's so beautiful to give you again like a completely different experience that you wouldn't have had, and while maybe mainstream news or something like that will tell you this is how to respond or this is the way people are, whatever it is, you can confidently say that's not my experience and God's giving you this entirely new perspective.

Speaker 2: 15:26

Yeah, and it's really cool too. I feel like God set us up for this too, because my family is a mixed family of beliefs too. So I have three stepsisters. One of them their mom was Jewish, their dad was Hindu, and the oldest married a Muslim and is raising her children Muslim. The next oldest one she married someone that's a Buddhist, and then the youngest is not sure what she's believing right now. It's given us a framework to talk to different people and to be able to really just be the light without shoving things down people's throats.

Speaker 1: 16:02

I feel like that's really important. It's like you're coming into somebody else's culture, somebody else's religion, like coming into their space, and you can be the light without blinding people. Yeah, and.

Speaker 2: 16:16

I think doing a lot of short-term mission trips sometimes you see some toxic evangelism that doesn't come off well knew that I didn't want to do it like that, and so that was part of the reason, too that I was like let's just see where God leads us and what he wants this to look like, versus going under an organization or a church and doing it with them how they do it.

Speaker 1: 16:42

It feels to me like you're doing just some intentional relationship building and connecting with people. Is that basically like how you're like on mission? It's just seeing people as?

Speaker 2: 16:52

people we're able to go into the schools and be able to do like a Christmas party and stuff, and one of the schools you can tell we had to keep it on the DL about what Christmas was all about. But then the other one we were able to be a little bit more open about it, but it was still with being respectful to the fact that a lot of these kids don't even know what we're talking about. A lot of these kids don't even know what we're talking about and just really showing them in a way that is showing them love and showing them light, not necessarily being like this go in and they think they're doing all of the things. They think they're planting the seed, watering the seed and harvesting the seed, but you're not necessarily meant to do all three of those all in one day. Trust the process, trust God. It's God that does it.

Speaker 1: 17:59

Okay, I'm so obsessed with what you're doing and just the way that you go about doing it and the way that you're leading. I know you shared this the other day, but your family has shifted a little bit, right your dynamic and, like your husband, has made some shifts and things. I feel like you've seen a change in your husband and your boys and things like that. You want to talk about that a little bit.

Speaker 2: 18:20

Yeah, when we first started off doing this, it was my idea I get some crazy idea and somehow my husband follows along and we were serving at the House of Refuge and it was like the first day was clunky and then we went in a couple of days a week for a couple of weeks and one of the days my husband was like I want to do this full time.

Speaker 2: 18:42

I think we should do this. I want to live life on mission full time. I just cried because not only did we start off with he didn't even really want to travel to I couldn't even really imagine him being on a mission trip because it was just not outside of his comfort zone but then for him to want to do that. So, yeah, things are shifting and he's planning on selling his agency. It's supposed to be selling in a week or two now. So, yeah, definitely some big transitions coming and just with the boys being able to do this all together, I'm just I don't know. I'm just so excited and just honestly so humbled that God would lead us down this path and just speechless.

Speaker 1: 19:22

I think it's incredible. I love seeing that your husband's like I'm ready to go, like all in on this. I think that's 100% what happens. The Bible says that we're going to win our husband over, like by him watching our behavior, and not necessarily from I don't want to travel to, I want to live life fully on mission, selling his agency, like doing all of these things to really serve the Lord.

Speaker 2: 19:50

And it started with your obedience and your intentionality and I just think that's really beautiful because you are literally shifting an entire generation yeah, and I don't know just the way that my kids talk about God and their relationship with Jesus has changed so much in the last couple of months. It's just been so beautiful to see, okay.

Speaker 1: 20:13

So if somebody was listening and they were like all right, janine, I feel like I'm called to do something a little outside of my comfort zone, what advice would you give them?

Speaker 2: 20:29

them Say you got to take the step. Even if you can't see the whole thing, even if you don't know exactly what it is that God has for you. You got to just move forward, Just make the step forward and go all in with him, because I feel like there's so many blessings on the other side of our obedience and things that we would never could have imagined. How can they go? Do all of those things.

Speaker 2: 20:49

Yeah, I just mostly on social media. I'm on Instagram and Facebook mostly. If you're interested in world schooling, we have a Christian world schoolers group on Facebook, so definitely come check us out there. Really excited about connecting the Christian world schooling community with missions and having some meetups and stuff around the world. I think that'll be a lot of fun.

Speaker 1: 21:08

I am so excited, guys, I will link to everywhere you can go connect with Janine, because I just find her to be one of the most inspiring people that I know. So just thank you, janine, for doing this. I know you're getting ready to travel back to the States and everything and I just so appreciate you just coming on and sharing what the Lord's doing and how he's using you because of your obedience.

Speaker 2: 21:30

Oh, thank you so much, Lemon. I'm just so grateful for you and you've been such an inspiration to me as well. I love your podcast so much and what God is doing in your life and you just have such an anointing on you of leadership and the way you're impacting people is just amazing. So love you.

Speaker 1: 21:47

Oh my gosh, I love you, friend. Guys, go connect with Janine. Just thank you guys for listening. Hey friend, what a joy it has been to share today's journey with you. If you found a spark of inspiration or a nugget of wisdom that resonated, would you bless someone else by sharing this episode with them? It could be the encouragement they need to step into their purpose and calling. Also, if you could spare a moment to leave a review, it would mean the world to me. I really appreciate your feedback and it really helps our community grow. Remember, the road to discovering God's call for you isn't one you have to walk alone. So join me again next Monday for another episode where we'll continue to explore the depths of leadership and the heights of our heavenly calling. Until then, keep seeking, keep growing and keep trusting in his plan. God bless you and I'll catch you on the flip side. Bye, friend.