Trip Flavors

Every trip we go on is colored or flavored by our family read-alouds. This trip we loaded up on cassette tapes (one of the perks of having a 2004 car--it still has a cassette player!) a CD, and books to enrich the trip. There are big ol' books written, plus scads of little articles, on why it is good for a family to read together, and we agree! It gives us harmony, and lots of similar little jokes. That first book, Family Sabbatical, was a fun fiction by Carol Ryrie Brink, the same lady who wrote Caddie Woodlawn. Now this book is not so good that someone could get saved reading it, or dedicate themselves to the mission field or anything. This is just good in the sense of warm fuzzies, lots of laughs, and a close family who reminded us of ourselves. The Dad gets a year sabbatical leave from his teaching job, so the whole family goes to France where he can do research, the mom can write a novel, and the 3 kids try having a French governess for awhile. From now on, if anyone calls, "My child!" we'll all instantly remember a French castle and a doll down a hole, for example, and Abyssinia has become a family joke word for "I'll be seeing you" thanks to George (Shorges) in the book. Beyond Survival, the middle book, was not a family read aloud, and should not technically be on here at all, but it's in the picture and is worth explaining. That book gets my creative juices flowing in all things homeschooling. It is inspiring, while also being a fun read. I haven't read it to the family, but they have heard me tell a few stories from there at the dinner table. The third book is the best in the eternal sense of being a GOOD book, helpful not just to amuse us, but also edifying and inspiring and challenging to a sacrificial life of leading others to the Lord. It is Peace Child. We have seen the video of it, and want to see it again, but the kids and I had never read the book. It does have some EXTREMELY gross little parts as we have to learn about this degraded culture in New Guinea, but to see the Lord touch the hearts of these impossible looking people, is a wonderful story. Don Richardson tells the story in such a way that we care and are glad when the headhunters turn to the Lord and away from cannibalism. Our car was not functioning for most of the 2 weeks we were away. We got it back on Friday, and then headed for home, and our choice to listen to was Lords of the Earth, also by Don Richardson. We have this on cassette, and it's a little bit too beloved. It's worn out, but we could hear enough between squeaks to remind us of how good that story is. For people to die for Christ, and then have their killers surrender to Jesus because of an "accident" is such a good story. (Ariel, if you're reading this, Peace Child is part of the guinea pig thing!) If anyone wants a copy of Peace Child or Beyond Survival www.christianbook.com would have it. Family Sabbatical is probably way out of print, but http://www.abebooks.com/ is my usual place to look for out of print books. We just found it at the CAFDA book shop in Tokai, and for locals, your best bet is just to borrow our copy. :-) While we're enjoying books from New Guinea, I'll mention Otto Koning's ''sermon'' CD's again, The Pineapple Series for sale at iblp.org That is our family FAVORITE SERIES OF SERMONS IN THE WORLD. On this past trip, a lady was asking me to recommend good videos, and I love having good videos recommended to me, so I'm going to make an effort to recommend and blog about our family favorites.