The Hidden Message by Lois Walfrid Johnson

The Hidden Message, book 2 of Adventures of the Northwoods by Lois Walfrid Johnson was copyrighted in 1990. This Christian historical mystery was published by Bethany House Publishers has 142 pages and is for children 8-12.

Kate, Anders and Erik decide they need to solve the mystery of Josie’s family’s missing steer and Erik’s family’s canned goods. They discover it is their prime suspect, Stretch, but they never knew he did it because he was hungry. New brother and sister, Kate and Anders, need to help Mama while Papa during the winter of 1906 in rural Wisconsin. Kate and Anders along with Erik begin to suspect Stretch of taking the canned goods when Kate sees him with blue hands. Papa once told Erik that you should always believe in someone until proven otherwise. Anders and Kate both take that into consideration, but Kate has problems with it, because Stretch left her in the frozen lake to drown. Kate lies to her mother about almost drowning and she is send to her room every afternoon for a week. She sneaks out and little sister, Tina, tries to follow and almost falls out of a tree. Kate tells her mother, who forgives her. Now she just needs to ask God for his forgiveness. When they are visiting the Berglund’s and Kate sees the extra food in their cellar. They get Big Gust and go to see Stretch, who admits to taking the food and the steer, because his father left. Kate forgives Stretch as God forgave her. Kate, Anders and Erik learn to forgive and God is on their side. They need not fear when he is with us.

Lois Walfrid Johnson is well known and has a won a Gold Medallion for her series Lets-talk-about-it. She has written some pre-teen devotionals, which are bestsellers. She has a husband and three children and lives in rural Wisconsin. She included acknowledgements in the back of the book to all those who help and were there for her.

There are three clear issues in this story; God sent His Son to save us, believe in someone until proven differently, and God forgives us. I thought these were important to everybody, because we all need to be reminded about what God has done for us. We can so easily forget in this busy world what life should be about and this book show us what we should be thinking about. It is nice to be reminded that our sins are forgiven and not to worry any more.

I did not like how Kate did not always listen to Anders. She should listen to him because he has lived in the area longer, so he knows the area and the people. I liked how Kate took the time to learn special organs songs for Tina and Papa.

I would recommend this book, because we all need to remember to forgive others and that God is with us. It is always fun to read a good mystery.

Christian Carnival ii

Welcome to the March 11, 2009 edition of Christian carnival ii.

I hope everbody enjoys this wide variety of posts. I know I did. If there is a post you find especially interestesting, please comment on it. I would like to thank all of those who sent in posts. I enjoyed reading all of them.

Minister Mamie L. Pack presents No one and Nobody posted at The Life I Now Live.

Raffi Shahinian presents Incurvat-us: Sin and Systems posted at parables of a prodigal world.

Bible SEO presents The Parable of the Great Feast - Luke 14:15-24 posted at Bible Study Exposition Online.

FMF presents Free Money Finance: Contentment: Serving God Through Simple Living posted at Free Money Finance, saying, "Biblical key to managing money."

bryan presents Can't Win For Losing posted at EnglishBibleStudiesBlog, saying, "This blog is good."

Rodney Olsen presents Obedience posted at The Journey - Life : Faith : Family, saying, "Is obedience an outdated concept? Should we still require obedience from our children?"

christiantwopointoh presents Why Do You Believe? posted at Christian2.0, saying, "Take a minute to examine the motivations fueling your belief. Discover the power in knowing Truth."

Yolanda Lehman presents I'M STANDING IN THE NEED OF PRAYER posted at Ain'ta That Good News?!, saying, ""I'm Standing in the Need of Prayer" offers a life changing and impactful epiphany regarding the importance of attending to our own relationship with Christ, rather than judging others."

ChristianPF presents God’s stimulus plan posted at Money in the Bible Christian Personal Finance Blog, saying, "God still has a plan for our finances!"

Insurance Toolbox presents How to Get a Free Copy of the Bible Fine-Tuned Finances posted at Fine-Tuned Finances.

Jennifer in OR presents Parakeet Morality posted at Diary of 1.

Diane R. presents Who Should Be Teaching Our Church Youth? posted at Crossroads: Where Faith and Inquiry Meet, saying, "Who are teaching our youth in church youth groups? Are they perhaps a tad too young?"

Hopeful Spirit presents Affirmation of Faith posted at On the Horizon, saying, "A true story about a signed received . . . of faith, belief, and hope."

Annette presents True Woman - how to control your tongue posted at Fish and Cans.

Jim DeSantis presents 5 Ways To Keep Your Marriage Healthy posted at On Line Tribune Marriage Matters, saying, "When you are married or even in a long term live-in relationship, sometimes it's hard to understand what is going wrong, and it takes only the most basic advice to clear the fog of confusion. Try these 5 ways to keep your marriage or relationship healthy."

andriel presents The Emerging Ecumenicism: "We're Ready to Believe You!" posted at ReturningKing.com.

Mark Olson presents Confession posted at Pseudo-Polymath, saying, "In which Confession is considered."

Casey presents http://blog.thelimitless.com/2009/03/10/a-relevant-gospel posted at http://blog.thelimitless.com/, saying, "I believe to present the Gospel effectively, the church must present it in a way that is relevant to the person hearing it. For 2009, that might no longer be in stuffy sanctuaries, or evangelistic crusades."

Ken Brown presents Love, Life and Loss on Patch Adams posted at C. Orthodoxy, saying, "Rediscovering the power and danger of unconditional love in a classic movie."

Tiffany Partin presents You Can Lead A Horse To Water posted at Fathom Deep: Sounding the Depths of God.

michelle presents Ecclesiastes 3 posted at Thoughts and Confessions of a Girl Who Loves Jesus..., saying, "I am in a season of growing in ministry. I am preparing to go to Nicaragua on a mission trip to share the Gospel with children. I am so excited! I can’t wait to see what the Lord will accomplish on this trip!"

Jeremy Rooney presents Articles - I Dare You to Move posted at yourchristianvoice.

Jeremy Pierce presents Obama's Defense of Embryo-Killing posted at Parableman, saying "This is a look at President Barack Obama's statement defending his change in policy regarding embryonic stem cell research from the Bush Administration's policy."

Martin Roth presents Christian Counseling Services - helping you improve your marriage posted at Christian Counseling Services.

Weekend Fisher presents Blessing, Promist and the desires of God posted Heart, Mind, Soul and Strength, saying, "Do the beatitudes reveal an insight into what God himself desires? Weekend Fisher considers the question in Blessing, promise, and the desires of God."

Rey from the Bible Archive reviews The Watchmen with a suggestion that despite the sex and
violence, Christians should still go watch it.

Trent Cotton presents The Enemy Behind the Lines- Self-Reliance: at Christian Men Christian Warriors.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of christian carnival ii using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.
Technorati tags: christian carnival ii, blog carnival.

Noah's Ark by Christine Deverall

This Noah’s Ark was written by Christine Deverall and illustrated by Richard Deverall, James Deverall and Chris King and is part of the, Bible for little people series. It’s copyright is 2002 and is published by Grandreams Books Limited.

Noah’s Ark is a cardboard book with the spine on the top of the book. The story line is as basic as it can be written. It is so basic that it leaves out the parts when Noah sends out the raven and also the dove, which I think adds to the story.

I do like that it shows that if you listen God will tell you what you should do and that God will keep you safe. The illustrations are well drawn. The animals are shown in pairs and Noah and his family looks peaceful. Sometimes the text does not match the pictures.

Overall this is a wonderful book and my children enjoy having it read to them.

Prayer of the Week- Thank you

Dear Lord,

Thank you for this day you have given me. Thank you for the food on the table, the clothes on my body and the roof over my head. Blessing after blessing you have graciously bestowed upon me.

Forgive me my sins and help me to remove the log from my eye so that I may help others. Lord, please watch over those who are in financial dire straits, those who are homeless and hungry. Protect the innocent and encourage those who have been discouraged. There are many who are hurting and in need. Comfort them this day and give to them hope of a better tomorrow.

In your name Lord Jesus we pray, Amen.

I hope you gain from the prayer from my guest, Jon

Ice Cream Crunch

½ cup butter (melted)
2/3 cup brown sugar
½ cup nuts
1 cup coconut
2 cups rice chex

Pour butter into the mixed ingredients
Soften ½ gallon ice cream
Line 9x13 pan with 2/3 of the mixed ingredients, add softened ice cream and sprinkle rest of mixture on top. Freeze.

Long Shot by Sigmund Brouwer

Long Shot by Sigmund Brouwer is book two in the Watch out for Joel! Series. It was copyrighted in 2002 and published by Bethany House Publishers. This Christian fiction 28 page book is for beginning readers ages 6-8. My three-year-old and five-year-old enjoyed having it read to them.

Joel, age seven and Ricky, age 13 are visiting their cousin, Lisa (13). Lisa and Ricky build a large slingshot and knock out a bull while trying to get a rock into the pond. Lisa’s father returns when the bull is tied to the tractor and conscious. Lisa wants to build a large slingshot to shoot rocks into the pond. When the slingshot is ready they use a rock that hits Old Black, a bull. Lisa decides she is going to tie Old Black to the tractor. After they tie up Old Black he wakes up and Lisa’s dad comes home. Lisa and Ricky tell what happened and her dad will untie Old Black. Lisa and Ricky learn from her father that they should never try to hide mistakes. Joel, Ricky and Lisa need to tell the truth and ask for forgiveness. Their parents can always help them.

Sigmund Brouwer is an award-winning author, who holds writing camps and classes for more than 10,000 kids each year.

The illustrations by Tammie Lyon are fun and realistic. My children and I enjoyed all of the illustrations.

The theme of the book is taken from Proverbs 12:22, honesty. The theme is first talked about in the front of the book about the being honest. At the end of the story there is a lesson about honesty and discussion questions that can be talked about as a family.

This book shows all of us we should be honest. If we are not honest the lies will catch up to us. As young children we can always count on our parents to help and support us.

I liked how this book repeated lots of phrases so a young reader can have words reinforced. It did not like how Lisa and Ricky treated Joel as if he knew nothing. They did not need to keep repeating, “what do you know?”

I would recommend this 6x9” paperback book to everybody. It is a fun, exaggerated way to teach about honesty.

The Story of Jonah by Alice Joyce Davidson

The Story of Jonah was written by Alice Joyce Davidson and was illustrated by Victoria Marshall. It is an Alice in Bibleland Storybook and was published in 1984 by Grolier Enterprises Inc. The book is 31 pages.

In this story Alice is a little girl who goes to Bibleland, where she learns the story of Jonah by being a casual observe in his life. This book does a wonderful job of telling the story about Jonah. Alice learns three important things from her time with Jonah; we must obey God, God is everywhere and God has mercy, pity and forgives. She and Jonah both learned about God’s mercy and forgiveness and we must remember that we need to have those too.

The illustrations were realistic. Children reading the book can see how many times they can spot Alice in the story. I did not like how Jonah had the same look on his face in almost all the pictures. It was also a very interesting fish that swallowed Jonah.

My 4-year-old and 2-year-old both enjoyed this book. The fish was a favorite, but I think that the rhyming of every other line in each verse kept their attention.