After his rise to second in command in Egypt. Joseph told his brothers, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” (Genesis 50:20).

Of course, it was his envious brothers that had sold Joseph into slavery in Egypt and after God raised him up, Joseph provided a safe haven for his family when a severe drought hit Canaan.

And nearly 2,000 years later, Paul reworked Joseph’s statement, when he told the Romans that God works all things, including the bad, together for good (Romans 8:28).

And if we fast-forward yet another 2,000 years, we have a modern demonstration of how God still does this today.

LifeWise Academy is a Christian organization that provides a Biblical education to public school students during school hours. It was founded in 2019 based on a 1952 Supreme Court ruling that public schools could release kids during school hours to attend religious instruction with a few provisions, CBN reports.

First, the schools had to allow it, and they were under no obligation to do so. Secondly, they had to receive permission from their parents. Thirdly, it could not be done at the school and the program had to be paid for privately. There could be no government funding.

Since its inception four years ago, LifeWise ministry has grown from two schools to 340 schools in 15 states. It provides full funding for the program, including buses transporting the kids to their bible teaching programs, CBN reports.

In some instances, the buses are running continually through the day transporting children back and forth to the offsite facility.

Not surprisingly, the program’s success has drawn the attention of opponents which according to Joel Penton, LifeWise founder, actually played a role in the growth of the academy.

Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), an atheist organization based in Wisconsin, Madison, actually sent a letter to every public school in Ohio telling them that they were not legally obligated to allow their students to attend LifeWise’s program.

“Public school districts under Ohio law aren’t legally required to authorize release time for students to attend religious instruction off-campus during school hours,” FFRF told the principals in its letter.

Though the intended purpose was to stop schools from releasing the children, instead it also revealed that they could legally participate in the program if they wanted.

“We were asked to make a public comment about them sending this letter, because we heard about it and, of course, we publicly thanked the Freedom From Religion Foundation for investing their time and money to spread the word about LifeWise,” Penton noted.

“Because … when people learn about it, they tend to get pretty excited, and the people, that don’t like it, are a very, very small minority,” Penton added.

With upwards of 90% of the children in some schools participating in the program, not surprisingly, only 20% of the children attending the program actually attend church. This includes one school where over 900 of its 1,000 students attend the program.