Family Integrity Promotes Father - Son Workshop
Family Integrity, a support group for families, is sponsoring a Father - Son workshop designed for Christians in
Palmerston North for Saturday, October 2. Craig Smith, spokesman for the Palmerston North-based organization, said
Family Integrity is bringing Geoffrey Botkin, a father of seven, from Christchurch to tackle such issues as “The Lost
Tools of Father-Son Discipleship”, “Mistakes Fathers Make in Raising Sons” and “Preparing Sons for Marriage”. “The
workshop promises to be a landmark experience in people’ s lives,” Mr Smith said.
Originally from the USA, Mr Botkin shifted his family to New Zealand about six years ago. Having previously produced or
executive-produced more than one-hundred documentary films, television productions and other media projects, he and his
older sons made some significant contributions to the Family Television Network of New Zealand. As a research
journalist, church pastor, political consultant and lecturer in world views, theology and philosophy, Mr Botkin has
thoroughly researched the issues. Combining that with the fact that he and his wife Victoria have home educated all
their children, Mr Botkin can offer wisdom from both the study of the theoretical and the in-depth personal experience
of the practical.
Pointing out that because most of us fathers have been distracted with pursuing an income or lifestyle “just a little
better” than what we’ve got, Mr Botkin says common mistakes we make include not watching our sons’ hearts and not
shielding them from danger and defilement. Although we fathers are fully adequate to train our sons as potential leaders
and vital contributors to the good of the church, society and the family enterprise, we often simply don’t plan to do
this and by de fault let them be mentored by secular “experts”: teachers, guidance counsellors, society trends, TV and
sports heroes, etc.