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Missionary Monday: H. Stover Kulp

3/30/2015

Harold Stover Kulp started out his adult life being a pastor and a teacher. But the Church of the Brethern sent he and Albert D. Hesler to initiate missionary work in the Northeastern State of Nigeria, located in Garkida, in the year 1922. He served there until 1963, where upon his retirement he headed back to the states.

While in Nigeria he
- built up a flourishing mission program with lots of congregations
- started writing the Bura and Margi languages/
- published Primers.
- translated scriptures
- established schools
- set up a leprosarium

When they first arrived in Nigeria Hesler became very ill and needed to be sent away to recover. Upon his return they made several buildings so that their wives could join them. Kulp married twice. His first wife Neta died during childbirth and his second wife was named Christina.

Through offering kindness and simple medical treatment the Kulps' open their hearts to the people and lives were changed.

Review and Giveaway: The Grace of God DVD

3/29/2015

FlyBy Promotions recently sent me the DVD Grace of God for me to review. I have to tell you this. Usually Christian made movies leave me feeling like "ah, it was okay, but they could have done a much better job of it" with that leaving you feel blah about the whole movie.

THIS MOVIE on the other hand I enjoyed. :) I have no clue why Dove.org recommends it for ages 12 and up because I would have zero problem watching this with my nine year old. :)

Here's the story synopsis: Having lost his faith many years ago, Detective Bill Broadly is called to investigate the disappearance of the local church’s collection plate. As he questions its various church members, rumors swirl as more congregants learn about the theft. When one unexpected church-goer confesses to stealing the funds, the confession resurrects Broadly’s views on God, and helps him see that through faith and belief there really is rebirth and redemption.

Simple enough story line eh? :)

But throughout this story you see redemption at work.

A mom helping her daughter.
A ex-con doing what is right.
A Private Investigator seeing a different perspective.
A Pastor admitting his faults.

Of people getting over their "I'm better than you" attitudes and realizing a singular truth. We are all sinners together.

Having everything work out in the end makes it all worth while of course. I have a STRONG dislike for movies where the bad guy wins or story lines are left undone. Don't you???

Product Details:
Title: Grace of God, a Story of Easter Traditions.
Received: one DVD
Publisher: Parkside Pictures.
Director: Kevan Otto
Viewing Time: 99 minutes
Reviewed for : FlyBy Promotions.
Where can you buy it? CLICK HERE. (good for USA) sorry Canadian folk, I can't figure out where we can buy it. BUT you can enter below for a chance to win it for yourself. pretty cool eh? :) AND A link to get in Canada on VOD.

"Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”): Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway. Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.

Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway. If you have won a prize from our sponsor Propeller / FlyBy Promotions in the last 30 days, you are not eligible to win. If you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification.”

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: the beauty of grace

3/29/2015

The Beauty of Grace: Stories of God's Love from today's most popular writers. This is a book edited by Dawn Camp. What can I say about this collection of stories?

Some of the authors included in this anthology are Kayla Aimee, Lisa Jo Baker, Ann Voskamp, Bonnie Gray, Jessica Turner as well as many more. There are 51 stories in all.

These stories are arranged into the following sections:

Purpose
The Big Picture
Surrender
Trust
Lessons Learned
Hope and Encouragement
Worship.

I have to admit, I chose to review this book as I was curious to see if it would be a book that would draw in me, that would help me to see God in unexpected ways. This anthology was overall disappointing. Many of the stories just seemed to be that to be, stories and people yapping. BUT a few of the stories were to me gems to hold on to. :) When Jennifer Dukes Lee said in her story "I Saw You, Jesus". It made me consider how I see people. How sometimes we simply don't see him in the people around us because we aren't really looking. Her cry (which I echo) is this "Lord, I want to serve you, just like You served. I want to serve you, but how often have I missed you...?" For this story alone I am glad that I picked up this book. :)

There were other gems, but this is the one I remember best.

So.. do I recommend that you get this book?
YES.
Why? Because you may discover the same gem, or perhaps one of those "yapping" stories will be the one that YOU need to hear. For we all don't need the same story do we? We aren't all the same story.

And that's how God works.

He has people yap at each other, and we hear different things. Different "yaps" speak to our hearts and that's indeed a very good thing. :)

Product Details:
Book Title: The Beauty of Grace: stories of God's love from today's most popular writers.
Received: Hardcover Copy
Editor: Dawn Camp
Pages: 201
Publisher: Revell
Reviewed for: Nuts about Books

Calling all Canadian Travellers

3/25/2015

A bunch of us Canadian Homeschoolers are having fun doing monthly posts and generally a giveaway with them. It's fun! Anyways, this month we are doing a giveaway called "Discover Canada". Along with this a bunch of us are writing about taking a virtual field trip across our different provinces. So please, if you travelling through Canada for whatever reason, check out these posts. :)

NOW I promised you a giveaway. If you click on the image below you will be taken to the giveaway page. :) Do note: This giveaway is ONLY for Canadians. :)

click on image to go to giveaway please. :)

Review: Easter Stories

3/24/2015

I was given a chance to review this book called "Easter Stories: Classic Tales for the Holy Season".   This book is a treasury of read-aloud tales selected for their spiritual value and literary integrity.   It contains stories written by C.S. Lewis, Hans Thoma, J.W. Ooms and 24 others, 27 stories in all.

I read some of these stories with my lad and some for myself.

I have to admit this, I could not get into these stories.   It's not that they are poorly written or that the characters are lacking in development.   I suppose it was that I knew they were trying to make a point, and I lacked in comfort about how they were making the point.   I didn't understand the point that some of the stories were trying to make.

Others it was fairly easy, like the story with the two men...one had a poor spiritual heart, worrying about money and how to get on in life, and the other who was more concerned about caring for people.    The latter got rewarded, the former did not.    That story was very clear.

I don't know that I would just read this stories in the days/weeks before Easter. I would be more inclined to spread them out throughout the year and use them as a taking off point for discussion.   Helping children to internalize the truths of scripture as they sort through what the point or moral of the story would be.

I know that there are many people who have thoroughly enjoyed this anthology of Easter stories.   I'd advise to you take a peek at it in your local store and see what you think. If the stories speak to you, take them home and enjoy them with your family. OR take a chance and see if you can win yourself a copy.   :)   No risk and all potential gain.

Enter the contest at the end of this review. )

It was compiled by Miriam LeBlanc with the woodcuts being done by Lisa Toth. It has 370 pages. Published by the Plough Publishing House.

Open to Canada and USA only. thank you.

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Thinking Tuesday: Siddhartha Gautama

3/24/2015

Siddhartha Gautama, over time, became known as Buddha.   Before he came on the scene Brahmanism was the major religion of India. He challenged it's teachings using philosophical reasoning.

"Gautama, although revered by Buddhists for his wisdom, was neither a messiah nor a prophet, and he did not act as a medium between God and man.   His ideas were arrived at through reasoning, not divine revelations, and it is this that marks Buddhism out as a philosophy as much as (perhaps even more than) a religion.' (p31)

Gautama used philosophy as his method to search for truth. His early life was marked by self-indulgence, and he noticed suffering in the world around him. He noticed that people used self-indulgence to alleviate the results of suffering in their lives and thought there must be a middle ground between the transitory pleasure of self-indulgence and self-mortification (where people suffer in order to be happy).   Their must be a middle path he reasons.

He discovered what he called the Four Noble Truths
The truth of suffering.- suffering is an inherent part of existence
The truth of the origin of suffering.- the cause of suffering is desire
The truth of the ending of suffering - Detaching oneself from cravings
The truth of the path to the ending of suffering - following the eightfold path rids desire

click image to go to source IEET

The eightfold path is a code of ethics. A prescription, if you would, of how to attain a good life and happiness. If you follow the eightfold path you will eliminate suffering from your life and will have attained the state of Nirvana. It will be as if your life has simply blown out like a candle (and you break the cycle of rebirth/reincarnation).   The cycle of life is live, die, reborn, live, die, reborn UNLESS you follow the eightfold path and achieve nirvana. Nirvana, as he described it, as simple an eternal existence that transcended any sort of sensory experience.

My thoughts:

I found this short study on Buddhism enlightening. I never quite understood what they believed in.   I find it disturbing how it's so works oriented. Live this way, fight against your desires, and you will have no suffering. I also now understand the confusion people have in calling it a religion or simply just a way by which you live life.

I find it horrible how Buddhist thought has gotten into some circles of Christianity.   If you love God enough and do what he wants you to do you will live a prosperous life.

God doesn't promise us a life without suffering. What he promises us is that he will never give us more than we can endure, through his grace.   God calls us to seek HIM first.   That is how we can keep our desires under control.

Seek God, not the lack of desire. :)

Review: Fierce Convictions

3/23/2015

"The Extraordinary life of Hannah More - Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist." This book about Hannah More is a detailed and carefully book about the life of Hannah More. Wow... what an interesting read.

Hannah More was a lady born in a time when women was just starting to come into their own in regards to being able to do things.   Able to write, influence society, form clubs, help each other on the way. Poet, playwright, educator, sister, friend, philanthropist, and more. Hannah More was a lady to be reckoned with.

In this book you learn well the details of Hannah More's life. How the society around her worked and how she functioned within it. How she became determined to help make a difference. She lived as part of a close-knit family of five sisters.   She is very much a lady that you would want to hold up a heroine for other young ladies to emulate.   When Hannah made friends she held to them fiercely, some of her friendships being unlikely, but long lasting.

I have to find I have mixed feelings about this book.   I loved reading about Hannah More, but I found the book very slow to read. It was SO filled with detail and written less like a story and more like a "let's teach you the details about Hannah More".   It felt like a college textbook. :)   But reading about the life that Hannah led, learning about policies that ran her life, I have to tell you.. it was fascinating.

Hannah was not a woman of good health, and yet she gave her all to her friends, her family and the issues that were important to her. Reaching out to the world and making a difference.

Isn't that what we all want for our children.? That desire to make a difference because God calls us to do so.   She was a woman indeed of fierce convictions that was inspired by her faith in God.   I would have loved reading this book as a young woman in college, the hope it gives for the future if a person is determined to stand strong for what one believes in.

So I have to say GOOD book. A book to be savoured and read read in a one big glup.   to ponder, and question and delight in.

An excerpt from a poem about slavery

To vindicate the pow'r in Heaven ador'd,
To still the clank of chains, and sheathe the sword;
To cheer the mourner, and with soothing hands
From bursting hearts unbind th' Oppressor's bands;
To raise the lustre of the Christian name,
And clear the foulest blot that dims its fame.
As the mild Spirit hovers o'er the coast,
A fresher hue the wither'd landscapes boast;
Her healing smiles the ruin'd scenes repair,
And blasted Nature wears a joyous air.
She spreads her blest commission from above,
Stamp'd with the sacred characters of love;
She tears the banner stain'd with blood and tears,
And, Liberty! thy shining standard rears!
As the bright ensign's glory she displays,
See pale Oppression faints beneath the blaze!
The giant dies! no more his frown appals,
The chain untouch'd, drops off; the fetter falls.
Astonish'd echo tells the vocal shore,
Opression's fall'n, and Slavery is no more!
The dusky myriads crowd the sultry plain,
And hail that mercy long invok'd in vain.
Victorious Pow'r! she bursts their tow-fold bands,
And Faith and Freedom spring from Mercy's hands.

The author
Karen Swallow Prior is professor of English at Liberty University. She is the author of Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me and contributes to Christianity Today , The Atlantic, and Relevant magazine, among other publications. She lives in Amherst, VA.

Product Details:
Received: Hardcover copy
Book: Fierce Convictions: The extraordinary life of Hannah More - Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist
Author: Karen Swallow Prior
Pages: 254 of biography, extensive footnotes and reference pages following
Publisher: Nelson Books
Reviewed for: BoolLook Bloggers.

Missionary Monday: Henry McDowell

3/22/2015

Henry McDowell was a missionary from the Congregational Church to Angola. He was an African American missionary among a people who believed in black magic. The people of Angola, near a mission station at Galangue, were black people who were ruled by Portugal. It was a reputation of being a difficult area in which to do mission work.

Henry ministered along with his wife Bessie. She wrote songs such as "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing". Here's a video I found. :)

It was indeed a dangerous area to work in, but Henry was able to show the people that he truly cared about what happened to them. A boy was poisoned for working for him, Henry convinced the people of the village that he did indeed care for the boy and wanted him to live, He was able to help the boy and show that he was friends to the people of the Galangue area.

Together with his wife Bessie and another missionary, Henry helped to develop a thriving program of schools, churches, and agricultural work. He worked there from 1919-1936. He went on to pastor in the States. He returned to Angola with a new wife Ruth (Bessiei had passed away) in 1947.

Sources:
Dictionary of African Christian Biography.
Black History Month.

A Virtual Trip Through Ontario

3/20/2015

I have to admit, my province of Ontario is such a large place, it's hard to pick the must see and do places, and so much depends on the kind of things you are interested in. :)

If you like museums, in South-Western Ontario we have a number of museums, large and small that you can visit. Places like the Elgin Country Military Museum in St. Thomas. First seeing Jumbo and then moving on to the museum.

Throughout small town Ontario you will find all sorts of small museums. From agricultural ones to local town ones. Historical gaols and homes of scientists.

If you wanted to take in some of the bigger sites of Ontario, we do have plenty of them. If you come to London in the middle of July you can have the joy of taking in the Home County Music Festival in London. :) The International Plowing Match in the fall, and various fall fairs that scatter the countryside, including the Western Fair.

If preferring the more natural setting you could take in one of the many parks. The Pinery Provinical Park is a very popular camping and swimming attraction. With it's numerous trails and clean beach it's a great place to relax in the outdoors.

The more conventional attractions would include Marineland and Game Farm, Ripley's, Dundurn Castle. You could take in the Pioneer Villages that scatter the province, such as Fanshawe Pioneer Village.

Of course, you could just come to just head up north. Frogs, bugs, water, fishing, Science North, the Big Nickel, clear night skies. Lots of walking trails and the fun of blueberry picking. It's a grand place to visit. You might have a chance to pan for gold.

As you can see, this beloved province of mine is filled with a TON of things to do. From Pine forests to woodland lots. Busy cities to quieter towns. Nature, museums, major attractions. Visit this province, love the world it brings you too. :)

Five Minute Friday: Real

3/20/2015

Five minutes. Free writing, no need to edit. Taken on a Friday. A group of people reflecting on one word. It's rather interesting sometimes where it takes us. :) This week the word is REAL. People are asked to keep it real by stopping to encourage the person who linked up before them. Sometimes this happens, and sometimes it does not. I don't know why... I do encourage that if you take part, be an encourager.

450 pm.   3, 2, 1 START

Real, Oh my, where can I go with this word today?
On a day when I am tired due to lack of sleep and a very busy day before.
Hmm..
This morning I linked to an article on facebook about how children suffer if they aren't in two parent, one male, one female households.
A person I know disagreed with me for posting it.   Equating all relationships as being equal.
The article wasn't about that.
It wasn't about lack of love between two people (regardless of who they are). It wasn't about the love of parents for their children regardless of the relationships they may or may not be in.
It was about the lack that children feel when they aren't in the homes of their birth parents... of parents who love them dearly and raise them well.     Wasn't talking about abusive relationships.   Just about how children suffer ALL THINGS BEING EQUAL if they aren't raised in a household with one man and one woman.   Different genders bring different things to relationships.   THAT is what the article was about.

Yet that point was missed in the holding to the agenda that ALL relationships are considered equal and to think a person is lacking something just because it's either same gender or a missing person is ridiculous.

It isn't ridiculous.
It's part of the whole being real thing.
Of recognizing even in this politically correct, label driven, equality demanded world that we live in, that people miss out if they see even in equality there are differences to be celebrated in the different genders and an awareness needed that those differences are to be valued and not dismissed.

THIS is one of the Real things for me this day.

What is real for you?

455 p.m.   STOP.