Fifteen Hundred Miles of Valuable Time

How many minutes do you spend in the car in one week? during holidays traveling to family and friends? in one year?

After we had our third child, we no longer flew to our annual Lake Powell, Utah trip. At the end of the first day of our almost 1500 mile trek, I felt distraught. Everyone was in their own world with headsets and cd or mini dvd players. Although we were physically together, it felt like each person was in their own world. And only two plus more days to go. "No more!" I declared at the end of the day. We were in this together. The next day-not without some initial rauccous complaining- I set new travel ground rules. No more long headset days. Instead we would read books together. We would listen to cds and watch dvds as a family and discuss them, etc. This was the beginning of learning and exploring as a family, turning minutes and miles in the car into insightful discussions, important learning, and special memories.

Together, we listened to and discussed many of the audio episodes of Adventures in Odyssey.  https://app.adventuresinodyssey.com/ Years later when I was preparing a talk for a MOPS group, "Pay it Forward, Top Ten Tips for Passing the Torch of Truth" I asked my then 20 something year old son what was influential in the growth of his faith. One of his answers was Adventures in Odyssey. "It helped me to see how to apply God's Word into action in real life- often difficult scenarios in everyday situations."

Together we expanded our imaginations as we read books including C.S. Lewis Chronicles of Narnia, Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House Series, etc. (Read about more book ideas here: https://karensuemurdy.blogspot.com/2023/11/a-gift-that-lasts.html ) 

Together we  repeatedly listened to a 12 minute history time line set to music and talked through what happened when and where in  history. Although our youngest was home schooled for a few years- the reason we got started with the timeline- it was a learning experience for all us. (For the first time in my life, I finally understood history and how it all fit together!) Everyone in our family had some history ah ha moments.  

Together we laughed our heads off with comedians like Tim Hawkins and Bob Smiley and books like Phyllis Reynolds Naylor Boys vs Girls series. And some times after hours in the car, we all were just stir-crazy silly.

Together, we worked on memorizing Bible verses. I picked verses-often by looking at the Lutheran Study Bible from Concordia Publishing House, which lists theme verse in the commentary at the beginning of each book of the Bible. Using index cards with a ring clip we put them in the order of the Biblical books.When we were in the car, we would review several verses. (I did not start this until my youngest was in middle school, but wished I had begun when my oldest was young.  Also, I would have added who wrote the book of the Bible and when it was written.) A great overview of the Bible. A great way to strength memory. A great way to write God's word on your heart. 

Calculate the minutes and hours you have with your family while you are on the road. (In Janesville, the farthest place in town was about 15 minutes away. In Austin, the farthest place in town is about an hour away; the closest is about 15 minutes. Crazy.) 

Minutes and miles of valuable time to TALK, LEARN, and LAUGH together. 

A Gift that Lasts

Is it my imagination or does "Black Friday" come sooner and sooner each year...long before the old fashioned version of the day after Thanksgiving? HA! 

As Black Friday approaches-whatever day that may be for you personally-here a few fun suggestions of great books if you are buying presents for children, families, or those young at heart. 

Recently my boys again told me, "Mom, please make sure you have the Phyllis Reynolds Naylor books to read to our kids some day!" On long car rides, when they were younger, I read the Naylor Boy/Girl battle series. We laughed our heads off together at the adventure of the shenanigans of a family of four Hatford boys living next to a family of three Malloy girls.  (Dare I admit, reading these books made me thankful for my four boys over three girls?!) There are 12 books in that series. I found this interesting tidbit from Goodreads, "Though Phyllis Reynolds Naylor grew up during the Depression and her family did not have a lot of money, Naylor stated that she never felt poor because her family owned good books. Her parents enjoyed reading stories to the children and her mother read to them every evening 'almost until we were old enough to go out on dates though we never would have admitted this to anyone.'" 

One Christmas, my sister told us about Max Lucado's, You are Special. Once we read that, our library expanded with many other books written by him-all well loved, read and reread. 

Here are some of our top picks from Max Lucado:

You are Mine

Because I Love You

Small Gifts in God's Hands

Jacob's Gift (A Christmas one.This one gives me goosebumps every time.)

Other Christmas favorites:

The Very First Christmas by Paul L. Maier (Love the questions of the boy, Chris.)

The Legend of the Candy Cane by Lori Walburg

Books by Arnold Ytreeide we could not put down. After I read a few chapters to my family- from these exciting adventure books of fictionalized characters set in true Biblical accounts-I had to cheat... When I put my kids to bed, I pulled the book back out to keep reading ahead. We read the ones from around the birth of Christ in November and December and the ones about Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection during Lent and Easter. Here are some of the titles of  Advent ones:

Jotham's Journey

Bartholomew's Passage

Tabitha's Travels

A final "must have" in every home is The Treasure Tree by John & Cindy Trent and Greg & Norma Smalley. An engaging story of four characters needing to work together utilizing their different personality types to find the treasure. 

What are some of your favorite books to read as a family?

READING-A GIFT THAT LASTS A FOR A LIFETIME!

Some of our favorite family memories are reading together! 

Read aloud to your children. 

Make books readily available in your home.  

What are some of your favorite books?

This Black Friday hunt for book specials and use for a lasting gift.

Speaking of September, heading back to school and new books, here is a lovely summary of our incredible family mission trip this spring! A special thanks to Concordia Gospel Outreach for the many delightful books they donated!

(Originally posted at http://sites.cph.org/cgo/field-stories-comayagua-honduras.asp May 2015 written by Barbara Shippy.)

A Wisconsin Family Shares the Gospel and God’s Love in the “City of Refuge”

It’s a long way from Janesville, Wisconsin, to Comayagua, Honduras, especially when you’re a family of four traveling with two hundred (and one) pounds—four suitcases packed to the max—of medical supplies and Spanish Arch Books, coloring books, and Bible stories.

In early March 2015, Karen Sue Murdy, her husband David, and two of their four sons, Daniel and Sam, traveled from wintery Wisconsin to lush, green, hot Honduras for a weeklong mission trip in the City of Refuge.

The City of Refuge began as an orphanage and a bilingual school for abandoned and orphaned children. The City of Refuge has grown to include accommodations for missionaries and visiting mission teams, a medical clinic, a bakery, farmland, a retail center, ponds, soccer fields, and even a water park—all of which are used to help the City of Refuge be self-sustaining. By renting out the water park and the soccer fields, using proceeds from the bakery, and teaching children how to grow food, the City of Refuge is providing hope and a future for those they serve—the children, the widows, and the poor.

Before the Murdys left for Honduras, Karen Sue reached out to the full-time missionaries at the City of Refuge to ask what materials they needed most. In addition to medicine, the greatest need was Spanish books. While the orphanage had received “tons and tons” of English books, they were in desperate need of books in the people’s native language.

There to help out in the medical clinic and to spend time with the children in the orphanage, Karen Sue and her family immediately went to work interacting with the children and treating patients, using the supplies they carried with them all the way from Janesville, Wisconsin.

Concordia Gospel Outreach donated a variety of Spanish books, including Arch Books and coloring books, for Karen Sue and her family to use on their mission trip to Honduras in March 2015.

David, a physician, and Karen Sue, with her background in medicine as an exercise physiologist, worked together in the clinic to treat high blood pressure, pneumonia, allergies, joint ailments, and many other conditions. Daniel and Sam spent a lot of time interacting with the children in the classrooms and coloring with them in the Spanish coloring books that shared the message of Jesus Christ.

And while the Murdy family had to rely on their actions to be a witness of Christ’s love, the Spanish books donated by Concordia Gospel Outreach were essential to helping them share the Gospel message in the language the children and adults understood.

“It was a very exciting day when the books arrived from Concordia Gospel Outreach,” says Karen Sue. “Going over there, we wondered what impact we could really make not being able to speak much Spanish at all.”

But Karen Sue said the impact of the Spanish Arch books, coloring books, and Bible stories was immediate and wide-spread, among both the children and the adults. She recalls some of the most memorable moments being a forty-five-year-old woman reading the story about Jesus’ resurrection to her mother and a young girl reading stories to the other children.

A woman reads Libros Arco: Mi libro de Pascua (Arch Books: My Happy Easter Book) to her mother while waiting at the medical clinic in the City of Refuge.

Karen Sue said her boys commented on how the people they witnessed to had seemingly nothing, especially compared to life in the United States, and yet those people were so happy. She said the experience gave her children a new perspective on life and reminded them that what really matters is your faith and the importance of sharing that faith with others.

“For us, it was so awesome to have the books,” says Karen Sue. “Because even though we couldn’t speak the language, I knew the books had the message I wanted to share, and it was in the language they understood.”

Karen Sue sits with children at the orphanage and reads through some of the Spanish books donated by Concordia Gospel Outreach.

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For City of Refuge, and for many other organizations operating in Spanish-speaking countries, there is a great need for Christ-centered Spanish materials to use in the mission field. Concordia Gospel Outreach is able to send the Gospel all over the world because of the generous support of our donors. Every penny of every dollar you donate goes toward sharing the Gospel with someone who might never know Jesus. We encourage you to partner with us in this important work.