Book Club: Book Review of Jesus Freaks

 

I received a FREE copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to write a positive review, nor was I compensated in any other way. This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please see my Terms of Use and Disclosure Policy page. Thank you.

My husband handed me the original publication a few years ago when I was asking for help researching men and women who were missionaries and served the Lord. When I saw that there was a revised and updated edition of Jesus Freaks available to review from Bethany House Publishers, I was very excited. This was the perfect opportunity to revisit the book for myself and share its meaningful stories with others. Jesus Freaks, written by dc Talk and The Voice of the Martyrs, tells the stories of those who stood for Jesus – the ultimate Jesus Freaks.  

In the 414-page paperback book, readers are welcomed by messages from Michael Tait, Toby McKeehan, Kevin Max, and The Voice of the Martyrs. Don't worry if you are not familiar with dc Talk – I wasn't beyond the fact that my husband and stepson listen to their music and are fans – this book will still be very meaningful for you. The book asks several questions in the beginning: 

• Is Jesus worth it? 
• Why do you follow Jesus? 
• Did they have to die? 
• What about the persecutors? 

These stories are answered in the stories of individuals who found themselves in prison, tortured, or executed for their faith in Jesus. Stories are shared from the Apostles to people living in the recent past of 2018. In fact, there is a chronological listing in the back of Jesus Freaks, so you can see when each story took place in relation to the others. Scattered throughout Jesus Freaks are numerous quotes from the individuals whose tales are shared as well as from the Bible. 

Who Are The Voice of the Martyrs? 

The Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) is a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to serving persecuted Christians worldwide. I first became familiar with them after purchasing from an online Christian site when I was able to receive free access to some of their literature. VOM was founded by Pastor Richard Wurmbrand, whose story is shared within Jesus Freaks, in 1967. The mission continues to this day by providing practical and spiritual support to Christian families who are or have been persecuted. Jesus Freaks provides a wonderful look into some of the individual lives of people who have been helped or whose families have been helped after their loved one was martyred. 

In the back of Jesus Freaks, readers will find the names of countries where Christianity is being persecuted to this day. There is helpful information, including a general overview of the nation, the major religion in the nation, which groups or organizations are responsible for the persecutions, what it means to be a follower of Jesus in that nation, as well as whether or not the Christians there have access to Bibles. Part of the ongoing work of VOM is to provide access to Bibles in these nations.

My Thoughts 

I really enjoyed being able to read and review Jesus Freaks. While the stories are often sad, they are uplifting because the people are truly demonstrating what it means to follow Jesus. They are able to learn important lessons about loving everyone – even those torturing them. I know I read many stories where the individuals did not think they would have the strength to maintain their belief in Jesus but they did. God gave them the courage and power to remain faithful. And in many cases, their faithfulness, their preaching even in prison, led others to Jesus, too. What a wonderful message to read!

I would recommend Jesus Freaks. I found it to be very inspiring and I made many notes of Bible passages I wish to reread as well as some stories that I want to revisit, too. I only have two criticisms. In the book, it mentions the snake that bit Paul as being poisonous. Snakes are not poisonous, they are venomous. This is a small point. The other problem I had was with the actual design of the book. The pages are not uniform which makes it difficult to flip through the book. I understand the idea behind the design – the original version of the book is like that, too – but I would have preferred a normal paperback-style book. However, these two small things do not change the fact that I will reread the book and share its message with others.

Wordless Wednesday: Gettysburg of the Past

In this week's Wordless Wednesday, I want to share photographs from a trip to Gettysburg, PA, in the late 1990s. Don't be surprised if you visit the town and these sites and attractions are no longer there or that they have changed drastically! 

If you want to read more about Gettysburg, be sure to check out my posts on the battle, Chamberlain, Pickett, and my first Wordless Wednesday: Gettysburg post.

Wonderful Blessings of God

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please see my Terms of Use and Disclosure Policy page. Thank you.

How has the Lord blessed you? I often find that God has blessed me in so many ways when I start counting blessings. I recently discovered an old 2017 calendar upon which I kept track of one thing for which I was grateful each day during the year. As the end of 2020 is approaching, I thought it would be nice to do something similar for 2021. The only change is I want to try to focus upon ways in which God has blessed me each day. It might go without saying that I will be grateful for those blessings, but I like taking a different approach this coming year. 

What were some of the things I was grateful for in 2017? 

In 2017, we had two little toddlers and a teen. It would be the year we received a new washer and dryer (after more than two years without a working washer in the house) and my Aunt (who turned 90 that year) and Uncle helped us by giving us food several times a year. While we were struggling, we still had days when we made crafts, played in the snow, enjoyed homemade cookies, and celebrated birthdays. 

What were some of the things that I wrote down? 

• Breakfast food for dinner 
• Hot chocolate
• My daughter's laughter 
• My husband helping me clean the television/gaming system wires 
• Walking with my son to the library 
• A teen who can mow the lawn 
• Naps 
• Old hockey equipment fitting our older son 
• Children who eat their dinner 
• Time to read
• A good night's sleep 
• A warm house  

How did God bless me in 2020? 

We have had a lot of struggles this year – from needing to replace our refrigerator (we are still waiting for this because there are some key measurements that make getting a new one difficult and there is low stock due to the closure of factories earlier in 2020) to having to replace our furnace. These are both huge financial hurdles to running a smooth household but when I think about it I am blessed that we have a somewhat working fridge and were able to purchase a smaller fridge for the basement.

We have also been struggling with family stress and issues. My mom has been living with us for a while now and things are not easy. She has had declining health problems which impact the rest of the family. We are trying to show her the love that we have for her by taking care of her. We want to demonstrate and share with her the love that God has for her. Even with all the problems that are creeping up because of her failing health, she is a daughter of God. God loves her. I love her. 

I reviewed a wonderful book of prayers – Warfare Prayers for Women – in which there are several prayers that I have been trying to read on a regular basis. As in prayer, "For a Parent with Dementia," there are days when I feel like I don't know my mom anymore. She does things that seem odd to me and she can't explain why she is doing what she is doing. I regularly ask God to: 

"Show us how to deal with her situation and keep her safe. Lord, we need a solution. Please guide us to a doctor or social worker who can convince her of what is best for her remaining years. I love her dearly and am saddened by her regression." (144) 

I am blessed because even though my husband lost his job (more financial strains), he has been home to help alleviate family stress. He has been a tremendous support to me while we are homeschooling our three children. I can almost always count on him to help with a science experiment from our son's astronomy course. 

A science experiment where our children would spin the bottle with the
water in it and then flip it to see an example of a hurricane-like storm.

Homeschooling our three children has been a wonderful blessing. I have seen our younger two children grow and our oldest expand his knowledge. The other night at dinner, our oldest was explaining that his younger brother is learning things he never learned in public school. This was after he remarked that he was dumb and I said jokingly, "I am glad that I am only responsible for three years of your education." I am glad that we are able to homeschool all three our children now so that they can receive the best education for them. While it is not possible to close all the gaps that our oldest feels he has in terms of his public schooling, I can share with him the tools and places where he can find the information he needs. That he recognizes the gaps says a lot about him and his self-awareness.

God's Love 

I am so blessed that even through all of our adversity I can still remember that God's love is always there for me. I could compare it to the waters of Earth. The oceans cover the entire globe and they are so vast. God's love covers everyone and He is more vast than those beautiful oceans.

Wordless Wednesday: England

I have recently started going through the photo albums my mom kept from our many vacations together before I graduated from college. If you have been reading my blog for a while, you may know that I am a fan of the history of England. In fact, I have shared several posts on Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. I had the chance to visit England in the late 1990s. Here are a few of our photographs, scanned and edited. 

Favorite Homeschool Curriculum and Resources of 2020

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please see my Terms of Use and Disclosure Policy page. Thank you.

We had the privilege of reviewing many different homeschool curriculum and resources during this past year while being members of the Homeschool Review Crew. One of the traditions of the Homeschool Review Crew is to select their favorites and award them a Blue Ribbon for such topics as favorite math curriculum, favorite science resource, or favorite elective. While our family has not reviewed every product and vendor that was reviewed by Crew members this year, we did review quite a few and selected our favorites. 

Language Arts-Related Favorites 

There were many awesome language arts resources reviewed by Crew members this year that we also count as our favorites, including: 

Reading Eggs – Both our younger children love working through the various parts of Reading Eggs such as Math Seeds and Reading Eggspress. They have enjoyed the addition of Fast Phonics, as well. Even though we did not write a review of Reading Eggs this year, it is no surprise that it was chosen for more than one Blue Ribbon by Crew members. 

The Boxcar Children Early Reader Set – With reviewing this early reader set perfect for younger children – we were introduced to the Boxcar Children series. We have since purchased one set of the books and checked out several more from our library to read. I love that the stories are simple and easy to read aloud. 

Mathematics-Related Favorites 

It was very easy for our two younger children to pick their favorite math curriculum/resource. They both agree that they love CTCMath. In fact, our daughter asks to work on her CTCMath on a daily basis (although she does add in an extra TC to the name). In addition to the complete online math curriculum of CTCMath, our youngest also said that she loved working on the materials from Page A Day Math,    which made me very happy as practicing math facts to work on math fluency is important. 

One of the projects from Let's Go Geography

History-Related Favorites 

As a history major and former history teacher, I love it when the Crew reviews history-related curriculum and resources. We started the year off reviewing SchoolhouseTeachers.com and then reviewing Let's Go Geography, which was a wonderful addition to our homeschool year. Then, we spent time reading about C.S. Lewis and his place in history, learning about elections, then the American Civil War with Home School in the Woods, and finally spending time with a family favorite – Drive Thru History®. 

Let's Go Geography – While our second grader has spent the majority of the time completing the lessons of Let's Go Geography, his sister was able to join in all of the different fun crafts. I really like the fact that both our children can work together on this geography homeschool curriculum. 

Home School in the Woods – We have used a number of resources from this great company over the years. I love how they truly bring history to life for those using these homeschooling resources. For example, they provide period crafts and recipes in addition to readings and projects to complete. 

General Homeschool Resources 

There were also a number of wonderful resources that were reviewed by Crew members that I found to be valuable additions to our own homeschool this year. About the time that I joined the Crew Admin team, we received a subscription to Super Teacher Worksheets and then My Teaching Library. I have been incorporating materials from both these sites into our younger children's homeschool day on a regular basis ever since. 

Super Teachers Worksheets – From seasonal worksheets to grammar and mathematics, there are so many useful resources for our homeschool at Super Teachers Worksheets. We have incorporated mostly grammar into our second grader's homeschool day along with some fun coloring sheets for our kindergartner. I love the ability to search for items easily with their menus. 

My Teaching Library – I have been able to find so many great resources to use with all three of our children, from a study on Beowulf, which our senior read at the beginning of this year, to monthly skills workbooks that I am using with our two younger children. I love that I can find seasonal worksheets to include in their homeschool day. It makes our weeks fun and exciting. 

A few of the worksheets from My Teaching Library

Complete Curriculum 

There were several products that really stood out for our family in terms of complete curriculum. We were chosen to review My Father's World: God's Creation from A to Z  as well as Focus on Fives from BJU Press Homeschool with our kindergartner. Both these curriculum have really helped our daughter blossom and develop a love of learning. And for our younger son, I have been using materials from Homeschool Easy for grammar and mathematics, but they have a complete curriculum for grades 1 to 5 with reading, social studies, science, and writing. 

God's Creation from A to Z – We were blessed with being able to review the complete kindergarten curriculum from My Father's World. This meant we added a great number of children's books to our homeschool library, as well as were able to incorporate important religious instruction into our homeschool day. I am eagerly awaiting starting the Christmas unit after Thanksgiving – it looks like so much fun! 

Focus on Fives – This has been such a fun curriculum to use in our homeschool. I love how we have been able to incorporate the holiday-themed lessons from the last Teachers' Guide – such as the one on Easter and now Thanksgiving – into our homeschool day. And our daughter loves her 'bunny homeschooling.' 

Other Favorites 

There were several other family favorites that I must simply mention. From fun games to learning a new language, we have added a lot of cool resources into our homeschool day. 

Geography and mathematics have been studied in our homeschool, courtesy of two fun games from Byron's Games. Our entire family has enjoyed playing both Continent Race and Math Sprint this year. I love that we have two more board games that we can play – and they are educational, too!

Memoria Press – I have been circling the Prima Latina in the Memoria Press catalog ever since we started homeschooling. I really wanted to learn Latin alongside our younger children (our oldest took French in high school, like I did). So, I was very excited when we were given the chance to review the complete set! I love the organization of Prima Latina. It has been an excellent addition to our homeschool journey. 

A Fun Homeschool Year 

With all the bumps of 2020, we have been blessed with many great homeschool products to review in our home. The companies have been very gracious to share their wonderful resources with the Homeschool Review Crew, so we could review them and share our thoughts and opinions with you. I know that over the course of the past two years of being a Crew member, I have found several companies that I will be patronizing in the years to come. 

If you are curious about who was awarded Blue Ribbons by the Homeschool Review Crew, I urge you to visit their post. While you are there, don't forget to check out the other Crew's posts as they share their personal favorites from this homeschool year.