And…for those who aren’t interested in producing a film, but are willing to help spread the word about the contest, we’re offering a great giveaway package. You can check out the details on how to enter the drawing for the giveaway on the Lights, Camera, Action! blog post. I’m really excited about this and hope that you all have fun being a part of it as well!

In addition to this, I’m holding a giveaway for several copies of the DVD. Check out this post for a list of ways you can enter to win your own copy!

1. So, it turns out that there aren’t enough interesting things about me to fill up 25 spots, so I’m embedding in the list below a random item of interest about each member of my immediate family. Can you identify which items should not be attributed to me? Extra points if you can identify the family member to which they should be attributed!

2. I used to turn the stove burners on until they became red hot and then light paper towels on fire and quickly throw them into a prepared cup of water before the fire reached my fingers.

3. One of my parents’ former classmates served as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations.

4. During a slow political season one year, we had only one sign in our yard. When a neighbor girl asked what it was for, I convinced her that we had buried our uncle in that spot.

5. I once won a coloring contest and received a brand new bike as my prize.

6. A group of friends and I were playing around on our bunk beds at camp one year and I accidentally hit the window with my elbow and shattered the glass.

7. I love shoes and have a growing collection of over 90 pairs.

8. One morning, as I was getting ready for the day, Mom commented that I looked a little out-of-it. I promptly passed out and then tried to reassure her by saying, “It’s okay, Mom, I’m ready to die.” An ambulance arrived at our house a little while later, but I was doing considerably better and was able to continue with the day’s activities.

9. I quit eating sweets/desserts six years ago to attempt to develop more discipline in my life.

10. I received my first piano lesson at the age of two.

11. While riding in a van with a group of kids one time, I snuck under the seats in front of me and tied together the shoelaces of one of the boys. Then I laughed hysterically when he tripped and fell trying to get out of the van once we arrived at our destination.

12. I started running my own business when I was seventeen years old.

13. When I was little, I pretended that the coffee table was a diving board and I was diving into a big pool of water. Several hours later, I had a nice set of stitches where my chin used to be all one piece of flesh.

14. A couple months ago my fingers got burned pretty badly because I forgot I had turned the burner on when I tried to readjust its position on the stove top.

15. I’ve followed a regular morning workout routine since I was seven years old.

16. I once stapled my finger with a heavy duty stapler because I wanted to see if it would hurt. (It did.)

17. A practical joke backfired on several friends and me when the car into which we dumped large quantities of packing peanuts sucked them up into the engine and caused serious problems. That turned out to be the most expensive practical joke I’ve ever pulled…

18. One of my favorite travel experiences was taking a white water rafting trip through the Grand Canyon.

19. Nicole and I spent a night in my car at the back of a grocery store parking lot in San Diego because we didn’t want to pay for a hotel room.

20. Several years ago, I won an essay contest and received a new Dell computer as the prize.

21. While attempting to show off on a 4-wheeler one night, I accidentally went over the edge of a small ravine, flipped the 4-wheeler, and busted the handle bars. It took my friend and me several minutes to convince the rest of the group that we weren’t teasing them by the time we walked back across the property and relayed the story to them.

22. I ended up with an eyeful of Elmer’s glue one day when I was shaking it and peering into the uncapped bottle to figure out why the glue wouldn’t come out.

23. The first time I jumped into a mountain lake, I was completely unprepared for the frigid temperature and started hyperventilating. The lifeguard on duty had to jump in and rescue me.

24. I was once arrested and spent a night in jail for participating in a pro-life protest in which a group of people sat in the driveway, blocking access to the abortion mill.

25. I got lost when I was driving by myself one day and ended up on a deserted, unmaintained mountain road with no way to turn around. (Don’t worry, I eventually found my way back to civilization…)

So there you have it. Everything you never knew you didn’t know about me, right? Did you figure out which ones belong to other members of my family? Leave your answers below and I’ll post the answers in a few days. Have fun!

The Guardian News is a great newspaper that was launched earlier this year by Jeff and Emily Davis. I have been very impressed with the quality and content of the paper and it is a great way to stay up-to-date with what’s going on in the homeschool community in Kansas. (Not to mention that they kindly offered to publish a press release about my forthcoming book, Pajama School, in their most recent issue! ) At just $20/year, the subscription price is well worth it! If you are interested in subscribing, you can find additional information and a subscription form on their website.

Just this week I finished reading a massive, generally excellent book by Paul Johnson titled, A History of the American People. A number of times in the history of our nation, God has tested a new President (or allowed him to be tested); sometimes the President has “passed” and sometimes he has “failed.” Most recently, I think most would agree President Bush “passed” the test in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. (I dread even imagining if Al Gore had been “the leader of the free world” when this happened.)

It could be argued that the test for our next President has already begun, although the feverish, final days leading up to the election have muted its coverage, that being the unprecedented financial collapse and ongoing crisis, which many leaders in our government seem to think they can fix by misspending tax dollars on a scale so great as to be almost incomprehensible.

In my mind there is a direct connection between this latest crisis and 9/11. In Deuteronomy 6 the Lord warns of a phenomenon that could happen in the hearts of His people and has happened many times since throughout history – forgetting God after a season of obedience that ushers in a prosperity which God Himself gives to those who believe in Him and keep His commandments. Just two or three generations after this warning was given, we see in the book of Judges that prosperity gave way to idolatry, and God had to judge His people to get them to return to Him. It could fairly be said, I think, that the World Trade Center symbolically represented the true god of our nation – the accumulation and hoarding of wealth and worshiping the comfort, entertainment, and luxuries which money can provide. And God destroyed our god, using as He sometimes does, enemies more evil and God-less than the ones being judged. Sooner or later, depending on the severity of their judgment, the Israelites would cry out to God for deliverance. But after 9/11, the no-atheists-in-foxholes type pronouncements of a higher power and of the United States being a great nation died down quickly, and there was no national acknowledgment of our idolatry and manifold sins nor of the justice of God’s judgment and there was certainly no call for repentance. So God judged us again, and right in the middle of an election campaign; how rude of Him to interrupt us in this way! One wonders if He may have wanted at least some of those looking for a messiah to recognize that He can create problems beyond any savior’s ability to solve! (As an aside, I suspect Mr. Obama, many more of whose supporters than Mr. McCain’s seem to be worshipers, is keenly aware of his finiteness, but it serves his campaign’s purposes not to let this dirty little secret out – that he can’t fix everything and he knows he can’t – until the election is over.)

Reading through the history of the Israelites (Joshua–Esther), when God brought crises, sometimes the king and the people cried out to Him and He delivered them, sometimes they tried to buy their way out, even selling off items of value from the temple, and this always had a bad outcome. Since God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, I don’t think our effort to buy our way out of this economic mess, which I believe God has brought upon us in judgment, is going to be any more effective for us than it was for the Israelites.

What will be interesting to see, if Mr. Obama wins, will be the reactions of two distinct groups within his camp. (1) Those who are secular to the core and want payback immediately if not sooner for their pet causes – sexual perverts (same-sex “marriage,” homosexuals in military), pro-aborts (FOCA–Freedom Of Choice Act), liberal media (“Fairness” Doctrine), environmentalists (reduce carbon emissions no matter the cost), etc – if he doesn’t come through for them and/or doesn’t remain consistent with their expectations. (2) Those who have been so influenced by his color or mesmerized by his style that they were willing to ignore or compromise on issues of substance. Among these are millions of basically moral black people and, among non-blacks, some gullible Christians and millions of churchgoers and other “good” people who think they’re Christians. If Obama presides in accordance with his historical record of opposing the Biblical position on almost every moral issue, how long will it be before these moral people become disenchanted? And how angry will they get when they realize they have been betrayed, that they have been, as Vladimir Lenin would say, “useful idiots,” discarded now that their usefulness is over? As an example, we need only look back a few years to 2006, though it had been building since 1994, when Christians and conservatives who had been wooed by the Republican party from the beginning of the “Contract with America” and every two years afterward, then promptly ignored after each election, finally decided enough was enough and abandoned the GOP by the millions. My suspicion is that Obama’s “useful idiots” will not be nearly so slow to catch on and far less patient!

One other aspect to elections we have been pleased to discover is that there are alternatives beyond the two the media and the two major parties typically present as the only ones (in logic I think this is called a false dichotomy – thinking you have to choose A or B when there are more options available): voting for candidates from other than the two major parties and/or not voting for anyone for some offices.

Our philosophy is to vote for the person whom we think is the best candidate for an office, regardless of party or elect-ability, unless he/she belongs to a party whose stated position on any moral issue is immoral. (Unfortunately, at this point in history, this means we don’t vote for Democrats.) For this election, for President we voted for Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party (if you’re not familiar with the CP, you might enjoy visiting their website (www.constitutionparty.com) and seeing how closely their platform comports with Biblical and constitutional principles). For most positions in our state or locally, we voted for Republicans, but for some offices we didn’t vote for anyone.

Reading about [names withheld] and knowing their Godly heritages, I wonder if they felt they had to vote for either Mr. McCain or Mr. Obama and, of the two, they preferred Obama. Certainly they would be in good company, as millions of God’s people are voting for Mr. Obama today. But as Christians, if Mr. McCain was not a desirable choice, would it not have been better not to vote for anyone for President or to vote for someone like Chuck Baldwin who, although he won’t get elected, requires no compromise of any of our sacred principles? Food for thought for next time, perhaps!

As we pray for the elections that are less than a week away (and in fact are taking place right now through advance voting) let’s cry out to God on behalf of California and our brothers and sisters in Christ who are in the thick of this battle against the rulers of darkness masquerading as wealthy corporations and social elites.

Obama: In the World and of It

Hearts are still thumping from Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) rock tour through Europe, but back home the trip has prompted more than a few uneasy Americans to wonder what, exactly, the Illinois Senator is running for. The man campaigning for President appears to be more consumed with becoming world sovereign than leader of the United States. These days, it’s easy to become confused about Obama’s agenda as nations trip over themselves to throw out a welcome mat for the unconventional nominee-to-be.

Using his uncanny ability to touch hearts without ever touching on policy, Obama has perfectly choreographed the trip through Europe’s progressive hotspots, where his biggest selling point seems to be his ability to distance himself from the nation he’s vying to lead. In his speech yesterday, the man whose campaign is already calling him president spent more time apologizing for America than he did representing it. With the crowd cheering and cameras flashing, Obama talked of “hope” and “change.” He spoke of disarming America of nuclear weapons and addressing climate change. He dreamed of a nation “where every language is spoken,” and every culture leaves “its imprint”–an America that puts global citizenship ahead of its moral identity.

As David Brooks said in today’s New York Times, “When John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan went to Berlin, their rhetoric soared, but their optimism was grounded in the reality of politics, conflict, and hard choices… Reagan didn’t call for a kumbaya moment… Obama has benefited from a week of good images. But substantively, optimism without reality isn’t eloquence. It’s just Disney.” The problem, of course, is that a lot of Americans live in a Disney world.

If you haven’t yet heard about Inspiring an Entrepreneurial Vision – A Christian Family Training Seminar, then you are out of the loop! Caleb Hayden and his family are organizing the event and it looks like it will be a wonderful time of learning and fellowship with other entrepreneurial families. Wade Myers of New Venture Lab is the featured guest speaker and he will be joined by several other local entrepreneurs to inspire and equip attendees to successfully build their own businesses. Our family is planning to attend and we are really looking forward to it!

Our family just spent last week in Branson for the Defending Your Faith Christian Apologetics conference hosted by Answers In Genesis. The week was occupied with a visit by Nadine to celebrate her birthday, a picnic under the stars, a couple rounds of miniature golf, lounging in the sun by the pool, playing tennis, reading books and sitting through inspiring sessions at the conference.The three main speakers were Ken Ham, Doug Phillips and Voddie Baucham and every message was wonderful! Through this conference I was challenged, in part, to embark on a study of A Biblical Approach to Marketing. So far, it’s been fascinating and amazing to see what the Bible has to say about this area! Thankfully, Naomi has taken on the task of reporting about this trip in more detail, so you can view commentary and pictures on her blog.

Last Saturday, we finally held the much-anticipated Music Olympics festival that our local music teachers association has been planning for months. It was a great day of competition, fun and games that was an overwhelming success, thanks to visionary committee members, adventurous teachers, motivated students, committed parents and numerous corporate sponsors. I have lots of fun pictures from the Team Competitions, Ensemble Play-Offs and Game Carnival. Perhaps I can talk Naomi into doing a blog post for this too…

And with less than two weeks until the August 5 primary, we can’t escape a mention of the upcoming elections! I found out several weeks ago that I have an opponent in my race for Precinct Committeewoman, so I had to do a little more work than usual this year – sending out letters and setting up a website to help inform the voters in my precinct (btw, if anyone reading this is a CSS expert, perhaps you can help me figure out why the alignment for the main body text is distorted in Firefox 2, but fine in IE and FF3…). There are a lot of great candidates running this year, but I’ve been most actively involved in the campaigns for Pete DeGraaf and Don Myers. They are both wonderful, godly men and we are praying for their success! Remember to vote on August 5!

“Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: so shall I talk of thy wondrous works.”

Psalm 119:27

This verse is my latest challenge and inspiration. I think Psalm 119 is my favorite chapter in the Bible – it is just beautiful. As I’ve been meditating on this verse, I’ve been impressed with the realization that when we understand God’s ways, we will have a perspective that allows us to see God working in the daily events that transpire. And when we see how God is working, we will be able and compelled to talk of them to everyone around us. As best as I can tell from studying the Hebrew roots and looking up cross-references, God’s precepts seems to be those commands and examples which instruct us, especially in the face of false ways and when others try to lead us astray. Contrasted with the word, intercept, it would be that which directs a course of action ahead of time, rather than that which alters its course partway.

God has given us precepts to help us know how to do things His way. Commands and biblical examples may both fulfill this purpose for us. So I have been inspired anew to dig deeply into God’s eternal Word, mining from it that which will help me chart the course of each day so that I may continually talk of His wondrous works!

HOUSE

Voted Yes: Dillmore, Faust-Goudeau, Flaharty, Garcia, Goyle, Loganbill, McLachlan, Sawyer, Swenson, Ward

Voted No: Brunk, Huebert, Kelsy, Landwehr, Masterson, McLeland, Myers, Pottorff, Powers, Watkins

SENATE

Voted Yes: Betts, Goodwin, Schodorf

Voted No: Donovan, Journey, McGinn, Petersen, Wagle

A huge thanks to those Legislators who have served faithfully on our behalf and have stood uncompromisingly on this issue!