Our Father: Geoffrey Botkin
Posted June 21, 2009, by Elizabeth
This Father’s Day, we would like to talk a bit about the man we are privileged to call our father.
All our lives people have asked us what it’s like to be the daughters of Geoffrey Botkin, a man who inspires people with both awe and curiosity. Today he is becoming known as a visionary with seven activist children, a background in nearly every area of study, and a plan for international reformation. However, his understated modesty and relatively low profile make him mysterious to some.
Our father has led a remarkable life – we continually find out history about accomplishments that he never publicized. He has never sought fame or spotlight, but he has been influential in everything he has ever done. It so happens that much of his past professional work as a political advisor, and a pastor, involves confidential information about a large variety of people, from heads of state to royalty to rock stars. As a man who protects people’s reputations, that part of his life will always remain confidential.
And that is only part of what makes our father’s history enigmatic to some. That he is not the product of any group, denomination, organization or institution makes him impossible to pigeon-hole. Geoff Botkin doesn’t fit in any biographical box known to modern media.
So who is Geoff Botkin? First and foremost he is a family man, with an intense interest in the church and the condition of the suffering. Whether serving as an author, filmmaker, entrepreneur, mentor, or pastor, he is ultimately a shepherd whose whole life is about the essentials of the Great Commission.
From the beginning of his Christian life, which began in 1975, he understood the stakes in the culture war and wanted to take his place on the front lines. His is the story of a man who would raise or lower himself to any position to do what his times required of him. In our lives, we’ve seen him rise to meet any challenge, learn any skill, wear any hat, and go any place.
Man of many talents: Geoffrey Botkin snow-sculpts one of the great Reformers
Some people find him intimidating — until they get to know him. Beneath his gravitas and self-command, he has a heart for people that is unusually tender and loving. As children accompanying him on various outings and business trips, we were often astonished by the kinds of people he would stop to talk to. He could connect with the bums on the street, hardened D.C. power-women, teenaged neighborhood hellions, high-school cheerleaders, Army generals, and little children on the playground.
Almost 30 years ago Dad married his boyhood sweetheart, Victoria, and began the best adventure of his life: his family. Geoffrey Botkin loves being a daddy. The days of drawing with us and telling us Cowboy Joe stories, though, have given way to new adventures — traveling the country speaking together, making films together, fighting the culture war together. Instead of helping us build tree forts and doll houses, now he’s helping us start our own businesses and write our own books. Dad has always been a strong and visionary governor of his household, but a servant-leader with the compassion and humility of a man who understands that he, too, is under authority. He taught us honor and obedience primarily by his own example of it.
His uncompromising devotion to God’s Word has always brought him a share of enemies, cynics, and persecutors, but no one who knew him personally could reproach him for his character. We heard even his political enemies describe him as “an honorable man.”
Our father and brother Benjamin give a presentation illustrating the Seven Attitudes of the Auteur
Dad always taught us not to fear having critics or sparking controversy — by his example he showed us that the only thing that mattered was saying and doing what was right, and the only one to fear was God. Mammon also has no power over him. Consistently indifferent to fame, money, and worldly “success,” he has always reminded us of the heroes of the Faith , “Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.” (Hebrews 11:26)
His most striking characteristic is that he has no selfish personal agenda. He seeks to find and advance Christ’s agenda. More than any other man we have ever known, he has died to every part of himself. In Paul’s words, he has emptied himself out as a drink offering. From the day of his conversion he gave up all his own interests, ambitions, and desires, to be single-minded in the mission of making manifest the reign of Christ.
People who are products of post-modernism will have a hard time understanding this modest, self-effacing and understated man, sometimes interpreting him as mysterious and enigmatic, for he is of a character that was largely stamped out by modernism.
So who is Geoffrey Botkin? A devoted and gentle father, and a humble Christian gentleman. The kind of man our world has a hard time understanding, but future generations will remember with gratefulness.
What Hath Darwin Wrought?
Posted June 12, 2009, by Elizabeth
The 500th and 200th anniversaries of Calvin’s and Darwin’s births, respectively, have been the subjects much academic discussion and debate this year. Here our father weighs in on how Charles Darwin’s birth revolutionized the course of the last two hundred years — important reading for every young woman seeking to understand her times.
What Hath Darwin Wrought? Britain’s Totalitarian Scientist Class Throws a Party
By Geoffrey Botkin
In Britain, police are bracing for the summer riots. The year 2009 has become the year of runaway unemployment, social chaos, and cultural confusion. The authorities expect the summer riots to get ugly. 
British citizens were supposed to be happy in 2009. They are not. This is an awkward disappointment for Britain’s social engineers, who had engineered a full year of celebratory splendor to honor a favorite son. 2009 was to have been the year of triumph for Charles Darwin — the greatest social engineer of them all.
Ever since Darwin published the idea that the English were one of the “favoured races”, one hundred and fifty years ago, Britons have been trying to make him a national and international hero. This year, Darwin’s 200th birthday year, was to be a great hero-making opportunity. The Church of England planned a formal apology to Darwin for “misunderstanding” his theology. The British Council, the Royal Geographical Society, the BBC, the University of Cambridge and dozens of other agencies, museums, and organizations planned extravagant memorials to Darwin. Each depict him as a historical superstar. Their exhibitions remind the world that Britain embraced Darwin as much more than a mere naturalist. This is a convenient spin. As a naturalist, Darwin was an incompetent observer, and his findings have been discredited.
The reinvented Darwin has great utility as the founding father of modern Britain. This is his official image for the year 2009, even in exhibitions where his own “tree of life” diagrams and improperly-labeled specimens disgrace him. The Natural History Museum, for example, is putting final touches on a £78 million landmark temple to Darwinism, part of their massive Darwin Centre, which opens this fall. They were expecting many proud and happy celebrants. Before the riots, that is.
Go HERE to read the rest of the article.
4 Days Left for Crossroads Conference Discount!
Posted June 12, 2009, by Anna Sofia
Go HERE to register before June 15th for a 30% discount on our “Christians at the Crossroads” Family Conference: $104 per family, $27 per individual, and $6 per college student. We hope to see you there!
Happy Birthday, David!
Posted June 2, 2009, by Elizabeth
We are so grateful to God for our big brother David. From the beginning, David was a rough-and-tumble manly man who had great tenderness and affection for his sisters. He always had a lot of respect for the capabilities of the female mind, and started early introducing us to the wonderful world of military history, just war theory, economics, computer technology, biblical law, jungle snafus and self-defense, and how to tie our shoes. He gave us a great appreciation for manliness and the world of men, always encouraging our participation in his adventures. We are so grateful for another year of working together, studying together, and fighting the good fight together.
David and Anna Sofia on an international trip the two of them took together.
Botkin Girls Interviewed for Chalcedon Podcast
Posted May 26, 2009, by Anna Sofia
We were very honored to be interviewed by Andrea Schwartz for Chalcedon’s Law and Liberty podcast. You can listen to the interview here.
Father’s Day Sale: 50% Off “Father to Son”
Posted May 22, 2009, by Elizabeth
Geoffrey Botkin talks to his son Noah about hard work and the character of the diligent in the DVD series Father to Son.
Our family is pleased to offer you a 50% discount on one of our most significant products ever: a 6-part DVD series on the father-son relationship, titled “Father to Son: Manly Conversations that can Change Culture.” Until June 21st, families can buy sets at 50% off. Click below to watch the trailer:
The set also includes the bonus DVD “How to Talk to Your Sons” and over one hundred pages of discussion material and study guides in easily-printable PDF files.
Go to FirstPacificMedia.com to order now, and take advantage of our 50% Off Father’s Day Sale!
I’d like to prescribe this series for every father in America. Fathers desperately need to turn their hearts to their sons. This series will give them confidence to do it.”
— D. Matthew Clark, M.D.
Announcing the Columbus Ohio Crossroads Conference!
Posted May 14, 2009, by Elizabeth
Come visit our family in Columbus, Ohio this July!
Our home has always been a place of fun, fellowship, discipleship and teaching, and is usually bursting at the seams.
For July 10th and 11th, we’ve rented a bigger living room — the ballroom of the Hilton Columbus at Easton hotel — and we would like to invite you in and get to know you there.
This intimate two-day event is designed to welcome you into our “home” and our family’s life. You will hear from all of us, and have opportunities to ask the hard questions of everyone in the family, on issues ranging from discipleship, to relationships, to the economy, to church life, to dating, to college and more.
A few of the topics we’ll be covering:
* How Christian families can be triumphant in any 21st Century culture
* What does a father-led family look like?
* What children wish their parents would teach them.
* How to tell if your church might ruin your family.
* Why do churches have a hard time defining spiritual maturity?
* What weak churches need that strong churches have.
* The most dangerous sin traps for young adults.
* What is the best way for children to recognize their gifts and become all they can be?
* What to do when your children lead a double life.
* Does the Bible say anything about dating?
* What is courtship supposed to look like?
* What does a lost son, or daughter, look like?
* How to tell when your children are headed for spiritual shipwreck.
* What does a well-educated young adult look like?
* What does the Bible mean by “godly seed”?
* What is going to happen to the American economy and life in the city?
* Why Christians can have hope in the midst of economic depression and judgment.
* What the average dad can do about a weak church or a confused church.
* What does it look like when brothers and sisters love and serve one another?
* Why is it hard for girls to find the balance between flirting and shunning?
* What responsibilities do young women have toward young men? Is it possible for teenagers of the opposite sex to be “just friends”?
* Is college necessary in the 21st century?
* What should be the definition of success for the 21st Century?
* Will today’s home schoolers be more spiritually mature than their parents, or less? And does it matter?
* Why all children must make the honoring of their parents a life priority, and how it looks to honor one’s parents.
Register early for a 30% discount: $104 per family, $27 per individual, and $6 per college student.
Go HERE for more information.
We hope to see you there!
Three Cheers for Victoria Botkin!
Posted May 10, 2009, by Anna Sofia
Happy Mother’s Day to the best mother in the world! Today we would like to honor our mother by posting the tribute that I read aloud to her on my 21st birthday:
I would like to take this opportunity to call to your attention the ones that really deserve the credit for my 21 years of life. I had very little hand in it, I can assure you.
First, my Heavenly Father, Who is the author of my existence and my future – my Sustainer and the Giver of Eternal Life.
And my earthly father, my God-ordained authority and protector.
And the woman that I call “blessed.” A woman who lost her life for His sake and found it, who made her husband great, and was subordinate to him in everything, though inferior to him in nothing.
My mother was God’s instrument to teach me what it meant to be a virtuous woman. Partly through her verbal instruction, but mostly through the silent example of her actions and deeds. Most of all, through the way she executed her duty to complement and complete my father. She is his perfect match and the /sine qua non/ of his greatness. She delights him with her company and conversation, sustains him with her strength, stimulates and sharpens him with her wisdom and intelligence, emboldens him with her praise, bolsters him with her cheerfulness, comforts him with her love, and heartens him with her courage.
Maybe the most significant way that she contributed to his success was by instilling his vision into his children. The things she chose for us to study, the things she taught us were important, the projects she encouraged us to pursue, were all in perfect harmony with his objective for our family.
She is uniquely suited to be the teacher of his children because the qualities that our father wants his family to be known for – dominion focus, ingenuity, creativity, entrepreneurialism, love of learning, a pioneer spirit – are all qualities that our mother models in every thing that she does.
The most important things I learned come from observing her two greatest strengths. First of all, her Humility.
I see her humility in her willingness to be overshadowed by Dad. She prefers to bask in his shadow than to chase after the fame and adulation that could so easily and rightly be hers. I’ve never known a woman who cared about personal glory less, or who deserved it more. She will be remembered with more respect than her contemporaries, who fought with religious zeal for recognition and prestige, and now have no one to rise up and call them “blessed.”
The other strength I would mention is her Courage.
Like a true pioneer, Mother was never affected by the fact that she was often standing alone, being “the only one” faithful in an entire country, and doing things no one else was doing. She never even considered the wave of disapproval that came from all sides for her decision to follow Scripture instead of modern culture.
At the altar, Mother promised to go wherever our father went, and to gratefully share in whatever Providence had in store for him, sometimes respect and appreciation, sometimes persecution and rejection, sometimes a high station, sometimes a low one. It’s her calm and unquenchable energy, her willingness to forego comfort and stability, her ability to adapt gracefully to any situation, that allows my father’s heart to safely trust in her. When a man’s heart can safely trust in his wife, it allows him to be a visionary, an entrepreneur, who can live boldly and dare to do great things.
Last but not least, I appreciate her courage to go through painful labor to bring me into the world. The fact that I’m here to stand before you now is a testimony to that courage. It’s that courage that I especially would like to honor today.
Announcing Our New Favorite Blog!
Posted May 9, 2009, by Elizabeth
Our brother Benjamin has just launched his brand new website, www.BenBotkin.com, a rich repository of commentary on the theory, philosophy, theology, history, mechanics, science, technology and future of music. You will also be able to hear samples of his latest compositions. But don’t waste time here reading about it: go here to check out the site for yourself.
If you have not yet seen our brother Isaac’s fascinating filmmaking blog www.Outside-Hollywood.com, be sure to visit there as well.
The Return of This Daughter
Posted April 21, 2009, by Anna Sofia
Visionary daughter Evangeline McNiel writes an open letter to our readers:
Dear Daughters near or far, at home or abroad,
I want to write to you and share how the simple true message of So Much More changed my life and satisfied my unexplainable longings. A phrase from the book broke my heart and pinpointed my error. The contributor wrote, “I began to understand that my calling was not somewhere out their waiting for me to ‘find it,’ but my calling was to help my dad fulfill his calling.”
As an energetic, go-getter gal, I was always planning projects, taking leadership positions, “making waves” as my seaside university’s motto urged us. But it all left me thinking, “Is this God’s best?”
I come from a homeschool family of six. When my senior year came, our family knew no better course than college. All three of my older siblings attended private Christian colleges, so I when I received an offer for a full-ride scholarship to any university in my state, I counted it a blessing. My father was uneasy, but there was so much hype in the air about my acceptance after months of interviews and essays, I did not seriously consider his premonitions.
My first weeks at the university were fascinating for a people-loving girl who had been homeschooled and homechurched most of her life. Living in the dorms, I had running buddies, surfing friends, a ballroom dance clan, international students—it was exciting. Although many of my friends confessed to be Christians, very few were true followers. I was discouraged by the lack of spiritual and academic seriousness, but I made the best of it. Soon I was class representative, president of the Spanish club, a young women’s Bible study leader, an active member of a local church, part of a Hispanic ministry, a straight A student. It all left me so empty, but the novelty of my new independent life kept me going and my reports home positive. I lived in the “Christian dorm” and had good relationships at church, so I was blind to a lot of what was really going on, until the second year.
My second year I was a house parent (“Resident Assistant”) for 63 students in a co-ed dorm. I am to blame for this ridiculous idea. The summer before, I was doing mission work in Mexico City, so my parents had very little input. My new life was the antithesis of a protected stay-at-home daughter. 
I had to go on night patrol until 3 o’clock in the morning breaking up drinking parties, and going into the depths of a very dark and depraved world. Around this nightmare of a time, I was chosen to represent the school of education for an “Academic Life” promotional booklet. My plans and smile seem so cool and confident, but behind it all I was the most broken, lost and instable as I have ever been. And it wasn’t just me. I felt it in all the girls — the insecurity…the fruit of an unprotected life. “Her focus is clear,” my bio read. I had no focus. I had no idea how to be a good Christian girl. I was lost.
Meanwhile, I read voraciously in search of a real education and deeper purpose. One day I saw a woman from my church mentoring a friend of mine in a local coffee shop. They were reading So Much More. The attractive cover and the words “Visionary Daughters” caught my eye. I will never forget the night I sat on my bed reading that book until 4 in the morning, weeping over it. My heart had ached for a protected mission, a biblically sound mission, an ancient mission. And here it was! What joy! What relief! I was not designed to be an independent woman, but rather part of a man’s life, a helper. And what better man could I help but my dear father?
That next weekend I drove home to present the idea to my family. At first, my parents were surprised at my desire to move home after recently announcing plans to study abroad in Spain and Chile the next year. But at the end of our few days of sharing and crying and much repentance and prayer, my father would have it no other way. I was to come home as soon as I finished my final exams.
I returned back to school and feared what my scholarship director and friends would think and say. My resolution began to crumble when friends reacted in disapproval and even advised me to see a counselor. One day, I was seriously doubting it all as I drove to class when I spotted two bumper stickers that made me angry. “Nice girls never make history” and “Feminism = No more oppression.” Our cars were on the same road, but I thought, Do I want to be driving the same direction as they?
I have passed a joyous year in my father’s house, and our family of 3 adult children is learning how God can use our unity for his glory. My mother is teaching me how to love our family and make home a wonderful place. I help manage meals and hospitality and am beginning to keep the books for the family. My father sends me out to help homeschool families, mentor young girls and share the Gospel with Hispanic women. Vision Forum’s Father-Daughter Retreat and a recent visit to the —– family’s home and Grace Family Baptist Church in Houston sharpened my vision and joined me to like-minded people. If you are a newly returned daughter or if you want to be but you are afraid—don’t be. Have faith in God; He is able to do exceeding abundantly more than you could ever think or imagine.
Evangeline McNiel (r)
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