Sports. Videos games. TV. School activities. With all the stuff competing for our kids' attention, how can we nurture their faith on a daily basis? What's the secret of raising kids who love the Lord? Lorne and Norma Hunter know first-hand how busy life can be. They're the parents of five hockey-playing sons, aged 17 to 30. Together, they work the family farm in Shaunavon, Saskatchewan and travel across Canada and the US singing southern gospel music. Norma shared with us how even in the midst of hockey tournaments, farming, and singing, Christ has always been the centre of their home.
Each of your five sons has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. How did you and Lorne nurture their faith?
I think it started with both of us coming from homes that loved the Lord. My dad was a Sunday school superintendent. In the small town he grew up in there was no evangelical church so he would take his children and nieces and nephews 57 miles away to attend church. Later, he and my mom started a Sunday school in their town hall. From there they commissioned to start a church, which is still thriving after all these years.
My husband and I are both fairly strict disciplinarians and there were a lot of things in our life and our home that we just decided we would do, no questions asked. You don't ask, “Do I have to brush my teeth?” You brush your teeth. You don't ask, “Do I have to go to Sunday school?” We just do these things. Our boys played hockey at the junior level and higher, into semi-pro. When we were at hockey tournaments on a Sunday, we would go to the church closest to our hotel. Our sons knew that no matter what we did in our life, the Lord was the most important.
We grew up in praying homes. My mom was a prayer warrior and I knew that she prayed for me all the time. I prayed for my kids long before I had them. Lorne and I were told we would never have children. I had endometriosis and the doctors removed cysts, tumours, one ovary, and part of the other ovary.
Long before we ever conceived, we prayed. When I did get pregnant it was such a miracle and we just prayed for the salvation of these boys. I don't know how prayer works but I know God commissions us to pray so we offered these babies up to the Lord as His, long before we ever looked into their little faces.
And we continue to pray for them daily, pray the blood of Jesus over them, and we put the armour of God on them, every day. Our sons always knew that we were praying for them. We prayed for everything. Any little thing that happened, we prayed.
How did you get started singing as a family?
We had a program in our church called Awana, a Bible memorization program. As the passages got longer they were harder to memorize so I put the verses to music and the boys would sing them.
J.J., our oldest son, was asked to sing the scriptures in church to show how music helped us to memorize. Then we were asked to sing in church as a family. I played the piano and Lorne sang the choruses with the boys. From there, we were asked to sing at a pro-life event and an Awana jamboree. When we started singing we had just the two boys, aged two and four, and I was pregnant with the third.
After that, we started receiving invitations to sing at fairs. I remember Lorne and I kneeling beside the bed, saying, “Lord, I don't know what you're doing here with the singing. We feel so inadequate, but we want to be obedient. If you bring the songs and the venues, we'll sing.” And it was amazing, the doors just started opening.
You all seem so natural on stage, as though you've being performing for a long time.
Because the boys were in school and we farmed, it was actually only in the summertime that we sang. The oldest three boys left home at 15 and 16 to play hockey. But they came home for seeding and we'd sing at festivals and jamborees through July and August. That's all we sang for years, until three years ago when we started going more full time.
J.J. was with the Edmonton Oilers organization for over five years. On his last two-year contract, he was playing his second exhibition game when he injured his shoulder. He had surgery, and was out for most of the season. Our second son, Dusty, was playing semi-pro hockey with the San Angelo Saints when he suffered an eye injury. It took most of his sight in that eye causing him to quit hockey. Our third son, Luke, was playing in Kansas City when he also suffered a severe eye injury. So that ended his hockey career. Brock, our fourth son, suffered four concussions and had to come home.
The Lord made it clear to our sons that playing hockey at the junior/professional level wasn't where they were supposed to be. But hockey has given them a great platform with young people.
Music and the arts was my life and sports was Lorne's. And so we made a pact when we had these boys that Lorne would support me 100 per cent in music if I supported him in 100 per cent in sports. Before they could go to hockey practice, they had to practice the piano. They all play two instruments. So that's how the music and sports came into being. God brought together two extremely different people together, with extremely different passions.
Was it hard to let your sons leave home at such a young age?
I remember standing at the window and sobbing as each drove off. Lorne and I would walk outside and watch them drive down our long lane and we waved until we couldn't see them anymore. We prayed that the Lord would protect them and keep them strong as they were so young.
How did they handle the tough, competitive hockey world at that young age?
When they went away from home we sent them to a Christian boarding school so the first step away from home wasn't so harsh. They did their training in Calgary during the summer with Lorne's brother, a former ski Olympian, “Jungle” Jim Hunter, who has a training program for athletes. Because they were farm boys and worked hard, they were strong. Jim coached them through the summer so they would go to camp very fit.
My father taught me to “plant your flag early” and Lorne taught that to our sons. Let people know right away that you believe in the Lord. If you let people know right off the bat, they often times will keep you accountable. If you don't let them know, and you're wishy-washy, it's easy to be torn and pulled. So we prayed that our boys would plant their flags early.
Our oldest son, J.J., had the neatest thing happen to him. He was playing in the WHL with the Kelowna Rockets. The pastor of one of the Kelowna churches was the chaplain of the hockey team and he let the local paper know about this farm boy from Saskatchewan who was joining the Rockets. The paper interviewed J.J. and it showed up on the front page of the sports section. The article said that J.J. was a born-again Christian, so he didn't even have to plant his flag. God did it for him. That was an incredible thing.
I think when your oldest brother is strong and stands for something that has a big influence on the younger brothers. We're a pretty open family and we do an awful lot of talking. Lorne always did this high-low thing around the dinner table. What was the best thing that happened, what was the worst thing that happened. So our kids have always shared their hearts. And when J.J. shared how God had helped him and kept him accountable, that had a big influence on his brothers. They looked up to him. He was in the WHL, which was a big deal.
It's remarkable how the Lord takes these things and weaves something wonderful.
I was privileged to attend a concert you gave in White Rock, BC, and J.J. gave the Gospel message in a powerful way. He seems to be a natural preacher.
We always have daily devotions and from a little wee boy, J.J. would say to His to his dad, “Me do devotions.” So he'd take the book, and say, “And the Lord God says!” and “We need to pray!” So even as a young boy, J.J. had a very tender heart to God and to prayer. We would pray over anything that happened.
God has given J.J. an ability to share with others. About four years ago, J.J. was convicted that his sanctification walk would not be one of works—“If I read my Bible hard enough, if I pray enough.” When are enough good deeds enough? The Lord really took him on a journey and he came home and shared that with us. The whole family has been on a journey of making sure that Christ is our focus, and not to get waylaid by all the do's and don'ts. You come back to what matters most—Christ, salvation, and the cross.
What words of encouragement do you have for parents who may feel that they missed the mark in some way and are struggling with their kids? Is it ever too late to restore broken relationships?
It's never too late. There's never a hole too big that we've dug that God isn't deeper.
There have been many, many times when we failed the boys, when we said to them, “Son, I'm sorry, I really blew it here. Would you forgive me?” When you're willing to be honest with your kids that has an impact on them. There's something incredible about transparency.
I was very heavy as a young girl. I was laughed at and made fun of. The Lord was my best friend. When I married Lorne I had to learn to drive a tractor, a combine, a sprayer and do all these things I had never done before. I was a very broken person who desperately needed the Lord in every area of my life. I had no self-confidence. I would pray, “I can't do this on my own, but with Christ's help, I can.”
When you're willing to admit that you're anything but perfect and only by the grace of God is anything good in your life, then somehow God uses that.
I remember going into the boys' rooms when they were sleeping and kneeling by their beds and weeping. If I had been hard on them that day or was grouchy, I asked the Lord to forgive me and asked Him to help me to be a better mom. I feel like I have so few answers because I have failed miserably.
But you were authentic with your kids. You were real. And your kids could see that your faith was real.
My husband would say two things as far as discipline. Don't threaten if you're not going to carry it through, because that will teach your kids that you're a liar and it's okay to lie. Second, if you're going to punish them, make them feel it. Don't be a laughing stock in their eyes; make them understand that there are consequences. If a child touches a burner, he won't go back because it really hurt. Make the punishment hurt. But it doesn't have to be physical punishment. With one of our sons the worst thing we could do was take his bike away. Lorne was authentic with our sons. I remember him saying to the boys, “I'm sorry. Will you forgive me?” They highly respect their Dad.
And it's evident when you're on stage performing that you have these strong relationships with your sons.
I hesitate to take credit for anything, because Lorne and I recognize who we are and all our failures. I look at the family and shake my head and think in spite of us we have these boys who are trusting the Lord.
It's just the Lord. He takes our broken pieces and messes that we make and weaves together something beautiful that we can't even imagine. I'm so thankful for that and that it doesn't depend on us.”
To read more about the Hunter family, visit their websites, www.thehunterfamily.ca and www.hunterbrothers.com.
To order their southern gospel CDs, “It Takes Faith” and “Been a Long Time Comin” call us at 1.800.663.7639.
