[SPEAKER_04]: Christian parenting.
[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the Bible for Kids Podcast with your hosts, author Trisha Goyer, and author and co-creator of Veggie Tales, Mike Nuraki.
[SPEAKER_00]: If instilling biblical values and kids is important to you, this podcast will give you the resources, wisdom, and hope to do just that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now let's join our hosts, Trisha, and Mike for this week's episode.
[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome back to the Bible for Kids Podcast.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm Trisha Goyer.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I'm Mike Nurekki.
[SPEAKER_05]: Trisha and I have the pleasure of welcoming the creative team behind the new book series, Pray Pows.
[SPEAKER_05]: And it's a mother-son combination of Jonathan Hooper and Christy Hooper.
[SPEAKER_05]: And they're here to talk about their new book when we pray what do we say?
[SPEAKER_02]: And like always, we'd like to start every Bible for Kids Podcast with a Bible verse, so Mike?
[SPEAKER_05]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_05]: Now, I hope I don't mess this up because I have this in my brain as the King James version.
[SPEAKER_05]: Don't even look at our show notes, Mike, just say, yeah, okay, all right, here we go.
[SPEAKER_05]: Pray like this.
[SPEAKER_05]: Our father in heaven may your name be kept holy, may your kingdom come soon, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, give us today the food we need and forgive us our sins as we have forgiven those who sin against us.
[SPEAKER_05]: and don't let us yield to temptation but rescue us from the evil one.
[SPEAKER_05]: All right, I did it.
[SPEAKER_05]: I did it.
[SPEAKER_02]: You didn't say your memorise one.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's right, exactly.
[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe Larry needs to say their memorise.
[SPEAKER_05]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_05]: Larry praising King James.
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, but this is such a perfect first for today.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Jonathan Hooper is a designer and writer with a love with theology and a heart for serving the church through technology and creativity.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's the co-founder of Velora, a smart Bible app and by night he performs as a jazz pianist which is so cool and he lives near Cleveland, Ohio with his wife Lauren and the three girls.
[SPEAKER_05]: And Christy Hooper is a wife, mother, and grandmother, and the creator of the Pray Pows Characters.
[SPEAKER_05]: As a graphic designer, illustrator and photographer, her work has appeared on many products, including for focus on the family and American greetings.
[SPEAKER_05]: She lives in Hudson, Ohio, where her passion is teaching young children about Jesus in prayer.
[SPEAKER_02]: So welcome, Jonathan and Christy.
[SPEAKER_02]: We would just love to hear what's happened in your neck of the woods.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Christy, why don't we just start with you?
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, sure.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you so much.
[SPEAKER_04]: And thank you for that scripture.
[SPEAKER_04]: That was really perfect for our book.
[SPEAKER_04]: And it just really gets me excited about our new book that we're so excited to share with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, thank you so much for having us.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's great to be with you.
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, my goodness.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, before we jump into the book, can you tell us a little bit more about how prep house came about what sparked the idea for these characters, Kristi?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: So that would be definitely for me because these characters, I started brainstorming literally 25 years ago.
[SPEAKER_04]: So that's a long time ago.
[SPEAKER_04]: So it's I could give you a long story or a short story because it's been a lot of years, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: so I'll give you more of the short story.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think I was originally compelled to come up with these characters about the time when I have three sons, so Jonathan's the oldest, and Colin is our middle son and Ryan is our youngest, and I remember when they were about, I'd say, Jonathan was eight or nine, and Colin was five or six, and then Ryan was still in diapers.
[SPEAKER_04]: He
[SPEAKER_04]: They're starting to, you know, they're a school, they're starting to venture out, they're going on play dates.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I know that's not realistic, but when your children are babies for some reason, you feel a little bit like you have more control.
[SPEAKER_04]: I know that's not true.
[SPEAKER_04]: But for me, that's the way it is, and I've talked to other moms who feel this way.
[SPEAKER_04]: So I was kind of getting into that stage where I felt just a little more anxious and vulnerable about them going to school on their own and being out in the world a little bit.
[SPEAKER_04]: And so I kind of was thinking about that and about that same time, coincidentally, I went up to say goodnight to the boys and I remember specifically what I went into my son Colin, my middle son's room and we I knelt down to pray with him, which I tried to do with him each night if I could.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I remember he said, Mom, because sometimes I think about what would happen if something happened to you, like even if you died and he said, and I cry and I cry,
[SPEAKER_04]: he said, and I can't stop crying.
[SPEAKER_04]: And it just melted my heart.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I remember normally I would have said, oh no, no, don't worry.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, let's pray about that.
[SPEAKER_04]: And let's not worry about that kind of thing.
[SPEAKER_04]: But for some reason, because I had already been, I'm as little anxious too about where, whether I would always be there for them.
[SPEAKER_04]: I, I said, well,
[SPEAKER_04]: If that did happen, if something happened to me and I couldn't be with you, what would be like the one thing that you think that I would want most for you that would be your the most important thing in your life, what would be the main thing if I weren't there and he said to get my stuff done.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I'm like, what, to get old and maybe I know I'm like to get your stuff done and it was just a real all home of it for me because I remember thinking, wow, I have been a successful mom nag, but I have not been successful, but you know, teaching him what's the main thing.
[SPEAKER_04]: And so it was really at that moment where I felt compelled to come up with a creative way to teach the boys how to have a real lasting trusting prayerful relationship.
[SPEAKER_04]: with Jesus.
[SPEAKER_04]: And so that's kind of where it started in a nutshell, and then there's much more after that.
[SPEAKER_04]: But that definitely would give you the introduction that we think.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's wonderful.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: And Jonathan, how did you get roped in?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I'm the oldest of my other two younger brothers.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I grew up, of course, as many did in my generation with the characters called Veggie Tales.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if you heard of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: But unlike other kids in my generation, I also grew up with these characters called the Pray pals because my mom had come up with these characters as a way of helping teach my brothers and I as well as some of the kids in our church classes, how to pray.
[SPEAKER_01]: My mom would make puppet shows and as I was older than the younger kids, I would help her write some of the shows and write some of the scripts, the scripts and the various creative things that mom would do with these prey pals.
[SPEAKER_01]: She would be cookies that look like the prey pals and so I just feel like I've grown up with them and they're just a part of the family.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so when she came to me a couple of years ago and had this idea to revive the prey pals and maybe see if we could reach a broader audience with them and refresh the stories.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was really excited because I've always enjoyed creative writing, especially poetry and this sort of thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's not what I do professionally.
[SPEAKER_01]: In terms of, my background is mainly in graphic design, but I've also worked on church staffs, as communications director,
[SPEAKER_01]: in that, and I love theology, as you mentioned, I love reading old theology books, and so the opportunity to infuse that with creative writing, with these characters that I have grown up with, and I've seen the way they've benefited me personally, as a child growing up in my relationship with God, and now having been able to see how they're already benefiting my own kids, and my brother's kids, the grandchildren generation of the prep house, as my mom has shared them with them as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just couldn't be more excited to be involved in the project and bringing them to life for broader for even more families to enjoy.
[SPEAKER_02]: I love that.
[SPEAKER_02]: So let's talk a little bit about the characters popping you rainy, airy, and yesy.
[SPEAKER_02]: Is that a Dutch pronounce day and write?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, yes.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, I see me like talk about why you chose these specific characters and how do they help teach the different elements of prayer?
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, I definitely remember coming up with them and I'll give you a little bit of a backstory.
[SPEAKER_04]: So as I was praying about trying to come up with the way to teach my sons to pray and a more, and you're more accurate or theological way or I right away thought of obviously you go with what Jesus, how Jesus taught us to pray right and how.
[SPEAKER_04]: Blessed are we that Jesus taught us how to pray, where would we be if we didn't have the Lord's prayer?
[SPEAKER_04]: So that was definitely where I wanted to start.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, then just as God does everything, I just praying about it, happened to be at the rec center one day, exercising next to this gal.
[SPEAKER_04]: when this was already on my heart and we started chatting and we realized that she was a freelance writer for focus on the family and I was a freelance illustrator and we thought, wow, how what a coincidence, you know what this is when that's.
[SPEAKER_04]: What exactly, I'm like how did this be?
[SPEAKER_04]: How this has got to be an answer to prayer and as she had been praying probably about something very similar to.
[SPEAKER_04]: And she also had worked for the National Day of Prayer and she had been on staff with them.
[SPEAKER_04]: She was very familiar with their publications.
[SPEAKER_04]: So we got together.
[SPEAKER_04]: We put our heads together.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I remember one specific day we met at Borders bookstore.
[SPEAKER_04]: And we did that drop and pray where we dropped down in the ground.
[SPEAKER_04]: And this was more something that she did more come to believe in.
[SPEAKER_05]: to stop dropping prey like they tell you to do when there's a fire.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, and it was a little different for me and I was like, oh, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_04]: I haven't done this, but that's how she was.
[SPEAKER_04]: And that's how she lived her life.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I was so blessed to run into her.
[SPEAKER_04]: Ruby became great friends of ways to learn.
[SPEAKER_04]: So we put our heads together, and in the Christian book aisle, and sat on the floor and prayed, you know, we want to do something together because we feel like we have some talent and some energy and such, and we each had boys, and anyway, so it was really that where we started thinking about the
[SPEAKER_04]: the four themes of the Lord's Prayer, the praise repent, ask and yield.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I do remember discussing that one point in the beginning, we were thinking about dinosaur characters because between the two of us, we had five songs.
[SPEAKER_04]: So kind of, you know, we talked about that, but then I started thinking, well, prayers go up in the air, right?
[SPEAKER_04]: And you, you send your praises, little children,
[SPEAKER_04]: And so they definitely, I think should be characters that are in the air.
[SPEAKER_04]: So I started thinking of prayer, PR, AIR, and for a while I had them name prayer pals.
[SPEAKER_04]: So definitely, that's where it came up.
[SPEAKER_04]: But the four actual characters, Poppy Rainy, Ari, and Yesy came to me in one sitting within a few minutes.
[SPEAKER_04]: I was sitting on my couch, and I remember just thinking, well, how about Poppy the bubble?
[SPEAKER_04]: He was a he now in our book, He will be a she.
[SPEAKER_04]: But he was more, he was kind of like an old man type character, like a wise type character, really fully guy, you know, kind of guy.
[SPEAKER_04]: And he was bursting with praise.
[SPEAKER_04]: He had so much praise, he didn't know what to do, and he was afraid he was going to pop.
[SPEAKER_04]: So the other characters had to say, poppy, poppy, get your praise is out, you're going to pop, get him out, get him out.
[SPEAKER_04]: So that was kind of like his, you know, his bio, I guess.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: And then for rainy repent, I thought of a rain cloud because what better type of character for repent than a cloud that can be gray and can also be white and fluffy, right, and he can also pry tears of lament when he's repenting.
[SPEAKER_04]: So that's where.
[SPEAKER_04]: Rainy came from, I kind of pictured him like an E.R.
[SPEAKER_04]: character, kind of a guy that's a little big for his age, a little bit insecure, but he's got a good heart and he's trying to do the right thing.
[SPEAKER_04]: But sometimes he gets jealous and sometimes he, you know, actually starts to storm and scares people and then he realizes, I don't know, I've made a mistake and he has to learn to repent and then when he does, he gets light and fluffy again.
[SPEAKER_04]: He's a white, it becomes like a white
[SPEAKER_04]: And then for, yeah, for every area is a little balloon and I picture her as like a little three year old girl.
[SPEAKER_04]: So she's full of questions.
[SPEAKER_04]: Like what three year old child is not like asking constantly and Jonathan can tell you because his youngest is three.
[SPEAKER_04]: and they never stop talking.
[SPEAKER_04]: They never stop asking questions.
[SPEAKER_04]: And so that's kind of the idea for Ari.
[SPEAKER_04]: But it wasn't really until more recently that I realized that this could even, she could even go deeper because Ari is, she's full of air.
[SPEAKER_04]: And but she doesn't know, she's too young to know what's in her.
[SPEAKER_04]: and let's just like we are full of the Holy Spirit, but we can't see it, it's hard to understand, but we have to ask every day, give us this day, our daily bread, give us the Holy Spirit, give us what sustains us, what keeps us going.
[SPEAKER_04]: And so that's kind of the area's little story as she's always asking questions, but she's always saying, and make sure I stay up in the air because I don't understand this, you know, so sustain me.
[SPEAKER_04]: and then for yesy he's kind of like every um group of characters and he's a little devious one right like he now that was originally what i thought but in our book he's not quite that way but he's more of like a teenager dude guy and he wants to fly as high as he can in the air in the sky because because he wants everyone to see him and he you know wants everybody
[SPEAKER_04]: He wants to get as high as he can, but then suddenly the wind may stop and he'll fall and break his frame and realize that he wasn't really, it wasn't about him, right?
[SPEAKER_04]: It was about God and what he's doing to lead him.
[SPEAKER_04]: So he has to realize the yield to God and that he's always attached to a string, whether he likes it or not, but that's actually a good thing.
[SPEAKER_04]: And he has to learn kind of the
[SPEAKER_04]: Like kingdom come, I will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
[SPEAKER_04]: And that's where we get the yield.
[SPEAKER_04]: So that's basically the characters, the way I was thinking of them and not show.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, that's a great, well, and you know, just following that acronym, it's just so easy for kids to remember that and to visualize that.
[SPEAKER_05]: So I love that.
[SPEAKER_05]: And we're going to get into after the break, we'll get into diving into a little bit more about how the book is structured.
[SPEAKER_05]: But we're going to take a short break, and we'll be right back on the Bible for kids.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome back to the vibe of our kids, Mike and I are here with Jonathan and Christy Hooper.
[SPEAKER_05]: So we're talking about the prey characters, PR-A-Y, and the book is centered around the PR-A-Y method, which if you break that down as praise, repent, ask, and yield.
[SPEAKER_05]: And it occurred to me, you know, like, I've used something called the ax method before, and it's like, this is just easier words to remember.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know, I'm gonna make a call like that.
[SPEAKER_05]: I know, yeah, adderation, pet, confession, thanksgiving and supplication.
[SPEAKER_05]: Those are all really hard words.
[SPEAKER_05]: Let's just go with PR-A-Y.
[SPEAKER_05]: This is so great.
[SPEAKER_05]: it's pull out the easier synonyms.
[SPEAKER_05]: How is the book and this concept pattern around the Lord's Prayer?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, well, of course we didn't come up with the PRA-Y pattern, but we did recognize that it actually maps on to the Lord's Prayer quite nicely, so the Lord's Prayer is actually bookended with praise.
[SPEAKER_01]: It starts with our Father and Heaven Hallowed be your name as you read earlier.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then ends with, at least in Matthew's account, it ends with your kingdom come and a scribing kingdom power and glory to God in this celebration of praise.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then in the middle, you have yielding, that I will be done, you have asking, give us the Stair Daily Bread.
[SPEAKER_01]: as well as asking for other needs and types of ways that God can bless others.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then there's repentance, and forgive us our trespasses, as well as lamentation for the ways in as impacted the whole world, those who stand against us, deliver us from evil.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it deals with the sin that's within our own hearts, as well as outside of us that's impacting us.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the Lord's prayer is shown in the book, if you
[SPEAKER_01]: skin through it, you'll see it four times after each of the four characters are introduced, and each time a different line is emphasized.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I think that's helpful for parents and caretakers readers because you can pray through it every time if you want to, if you have enough time and if you're childless patient enough,
[SPEAKER_01]: And that helps with memorization, because you'll read through the Lord's Prayer four times for the one book reading, but you can also skip over that without guilt if you're on a time.
[SPEAKER_05]: And if you want to make sure you don't mess up the reading of the NLT, you know, if you want to go away with that King James version stuck in your head.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because kids can just enjoy it as a story as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's our thinking behind it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I love how you have that foundation on the Lord's Prayer.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think we kind of get away from like memorization.
[SPEAKER_02]: And you know, why do you think it's important for kids to learn the Lord's Prayer on a young age?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think it is, it's important to memorize it of course for all Christians, but it's also important to really internalize it because it teaches us the whole gospel.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the whole life, the whole Christian life is wrapped up in the Lord's prayer.
[SPEAKER_01]: You recognize your need for a Savior, repent of sin, you receive Christ as your King and rest on Him for salvation.
[SPEAKER_01]: You trust Him to supply all your needs, and then you glorify Him with thankful praise forever.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's all summed up right there in the Lord's Prayer.
[SPEAKER_01]: And what a gift that Jesus gave it to us in that way, as a model, not only to teach us how to pray, but as an expression of the whole Christian life.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's why it's so central.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's something that you don't really ever move away from.
[SPEAKER_01]: You just continue going deeper into those core principles of being a Christian and communion with God.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I would have to say, too, that even for adults, I use the PRAY why sometimes just to keep my focus on the same thing because I tend to be creative and my brain, when I'm praying, I go, I'm all over the map, so to speak.
[SPEAKER_04]: And it just is a really nice way to just keep you focused on the right things and also you can be confident that if you do pray those things, you have prayed the way Jesus taught us to pray, right?
[SPEAKER_05]: that's great.
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, and the book invites kids to pause and pray together while reading.
[SPEAKER_05]: And so can you talk a little bit about why it's important for kids to learn to pray their own thoughts?
[SPEAKER_05]: I know, you know, the, you know, the liturgy and, you know, kind of recitation is also really beautiful, you know, but talk a little bit about, you know, praying, learning to pray your own thoughts.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, of course we've all experienced top prayer can become wrote and I love reading pre-written prayers like the value of vision or just praying through the Psalms and that can be wonderful, but we also have to be on guard against just formalism and just going through the motions.
[SPEAKER_01]: And particularly for kids, when they realize that prayer is not just us reciting something, even when they listen to their parents pray, they might think that we're just reciting something or certain scripts.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're just sort of doing this routine.
[SPEAKER_01]: But when they realize, no, they can actually bring their own thoughts in their own words, no matter how simple and voice their express their feelings to God and their ideas and petitions around the framework of the Lord's Prayer,
[SPEAKER_01]: then they get a sense that prayer is a real conversation and it has to come from the heart.
[SPEAKER_01]: that's something that I love the Puritans and they were always very concerned about keeping the heart and making sure that our factions forgot our our our strong and that we're not just falling into those formalistic patterns.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so that's what we're excited about with the prepouses is that yes you're learning the the exalted language of scripture in the Lord's Prayer itself which is wonderful but you're also just getting these the characters themselves help you to remember and
[SPEAKER_05]: through those petitions of the Lord's Prayer, yeah, and how important relationship is in all of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_02]: I love the balance of it because it's like fiction and fun, but it has like engaging rhymes and colorful illustrations, but then the gospel is a subject.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like we want kids to understand the gospel.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh my god, has given us and we don't waste a prey back.
[SPEAKER_02]: Why was that important for you guys to keep the gospel at the center of this book?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, that's really important.
[SPEAKER_01]: There was one of our concerns with reaching out to publishers, we thought, well, even if we get a big publisher that's interested, that would be great.
[SPEAKER_01]: But what if they want to sort of make it more broad, theological, and just appeal to a broader audience, make it less explicitly Christian?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, that's what we've loved about the good book company as I've really pushed it in the direction of centering and on Jesus, making it clearly gospel-centered.
[SPEAKER_01]: And my favorite part of the book is after you go through and meet all the characters, you learn why we pray in Jesus' name, and that I found these to actually be the hardest stances to write, because I'm writing them in the Limerick style, and I'm trying to convey the theology of Christ as our high priest, interceiving, and it's good to stop it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I think it came out well.
[SPEAKER_01]: I said in all the prayers we pray Paul's pray.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's one thing that's the same each time we pray in any way We pray in Jesus' name Jesus is the one who brings our words to heaven's throne.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Father hears the smallest prayers We pray through Christ alone and I thought that was really important to include so that children learn that the That Jesus is the reason why we can have this wonderful prayerful relationship with our Heavenly Father
[SPEAKER_01]: and that it's not just a sentimental thing, it's not just positive thinking, talking to the God you hope is there.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're talking to your Heavenly Father, that you know is there through Jesus, who isn't heaven now, seated at His right hand, making those prayers acceptable.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's really I think what's so exciting about the books to me is I can see age two all the way up to older people you know older age because there's just so many facets to it and there's activities and things so I think it's just it's the type of book that I'm hoping will you know even the care takers and parents will want to read over and over because there's so much to learn in them wonderful well it is time for a break so we'll take a short break and we'll be right back on the Bible for kids.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome back to the Bible for Kids.
[SPEAKER_02]: Mike and I are here with Jonathan and Christy Hooper.
[SPEAKER_05]: So I remember back to the time when my kids were really little.
[SPEAKER_05]: They're in their mid-20s now, but just praying, and preview of my son, who's very fidgety, and he tended to create action prayers, like the more action could be in a prayer, the better.
[SPEAKER_05]: And so he'd pray for people flying over volcanoes in a helicopter that they would be safe.
[SPEAKER_05]: And that type of thing is a huge thing, but we always love that.
[SPEAKER_05]: But teaching kids to pray can be challenging.
[SPEAKER_05]: What's one core problem that the book will help solve for parents and care takers wanting to teach their little ones how to pray?
[SPEAKER_04]: I think the one thing that it's all, it could help solve right away is just where to begin, you know, where to where to begin and how to start helping them to pray prayers that are like we've said before like they are their own words, you know, and then I think that caregivers once they, you know,
[SPEAKER_04]: They're teaching them the Lord's Prayer, but also on a very fun and repetitive way, you know, the way that repeats that where the children can just learn and learn, there's just never any ending to what they can learn through them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and when we were a conceding where we wanted the pre-post to go and what type of prayer to focus on, we thought about how there's two sort of different ways that you'll pray.
[SPEAKER_01]: You'll pray throughout the day, and the short little bursts whenever you need help, like I pray.
[SPEAKER_01]: Help me do okay on this podcast interview.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're like arrow prayers that you shoot up.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's one thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: But then there's the time when you sit down
[SPEAKER_01]: what do I say?
[SPEAKER_01]: Where do I start?
[SPEAKER_01]: And so with kids, typically, that's before meals and before bed and
[SPEAKER_01]: That bedtime moment for me is the time when I'm the most exhausted and often frustrated by the shenanigans that happen in the process of getting everyone ready for bed and really hard for me to get my heart into the right place, to pray with the girls in a way that's heartfelt and biblically balanced.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll tend to fall into the rut of repetition.
[SPEAKER_01]: This thank you for this day, bless grandma, bless the dog, bless her, so and so and
[SPEAKER_01]: help the people flying over the volcano in the helicopter.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, exactly.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just sort of repeating myself and and that's okay sometimes, but the prep house help bring that balance to prayer.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so with my kids, they like to be the prep house, so one of them will be poppy, one will be area rainy.
[SPEAKER_01]: and whoever's potty will tell a god something that they love about him and then the next person will say something that we need to say sorry for today and so on and we're doing that without even having the book in hand and so I think it will be even easier once we have that physical book and they can engage with the characters more visually to bring that into their bedroom and anywhere any time where you want to sit down and think
[SPEAKER_01]: what do you say when you pray?
[SPEAKER_01]: And then what you don't have that book, now you have the framework in mind, you have the easy pray acronym.
[SPEAKER_02]: So good, I love that, because it's not just, let's pray for the things we want, like one, homeschool day, my daughter, every morning, she pray for a puppy, every like every, just loves a puppy.
[SPEAKER_02]: I love the talks about all the different elements of prayer.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then you're right, like those times in the evening when we're like, let's just get these kids in bed,
[SPEAKER_02]: My third oldest was probably about five or six.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm like, let's just do a popcorn prayer.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like everyone just say a sentence or two.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm like, oh, this went, my second oldest went, my third oldest, it's like quiet.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm like Nathan, are you gonna pray?
[SPEAKER_02]: And he's like, I forgot the rules.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, yeah, there's not rules, but it's giving them something to understand.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's something that they can follow.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I would love to talk to you about the writing of the book.
[SPEAKER_02]: So now that Nathan that was five of the time is 31.
[SPEAKER_02]: We've written three books together.
[SPEAKER_02]: Mother's Sunday, I've done that before.
[SPEAKER_02]: What's it where some of the languages that you face in writing?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, the biggest challenge for me was how to express deep theological truths with vocabulary that children can grasp and enjoy, and that's not going to bore them, as well as within that rhyme scheme that I committed to, that I committed myself to A-A-B-B-A, so now I'm working with all it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Framework.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: as well as adding layers of depth while also preserving the simplicity of my mom's original characters and what makes them so instantly sweet when you hear the concept, that's something we didn't want to lose that, especially because there are metaphor and there are a pneumonic device.
[SPEAKER_01]: So they have to maintain a certain simplicity in order for the metaphor to really stick.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if they got too over-complicated, then you might lose that simple clarity.
[SPEAKER_01]: And our editor, Katie Morgan, has been a huge help in developing these stories in a way that achieves a really interesting and I think unique balance of theological depth with simplicity and fun.
[SPEAKER_01]: She just understood right away from her first message reaching out to us after we sent our proposal.
[SPEAKER_01]: She really got the idea and was excited about it and was not interested in changing the
[SPEAKER_01]: but has been really a great help in developing it further and as we spoke to earlier, infusing it with more gospel centeredness, making Jesus the center, and that's going to come out even more in the forthcoming books in the series.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're really excited to go even deeper with each of the characters and each of the concepts around prayer and and take those to another level with more Bible references.
[SPEAKER_01]: But for now we've had this initial book that introduces all of four
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're about to.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's awesome.
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, did you have it?
[SPEAKER_05]: Was there a point in writing the books that stands out?
[SPEAKER_05]: It's like a favorite moment or just a kind of a poignant time where it's like, oh, this is really great to be working on this book with my son or with my mom.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, we've had a few.
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like it's all been a high point.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think I would say when we first had the idea of including the little boy as the center, the thread through the narrative, because as my mom spoke to earlier, they were just the four-pray pals.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were no other characters before.
[SPEAKER_01]: And working with Katie and working with my mom, we somehow ended up with this concept of having this little boy in his room who's wondering about
[SPEAKER_01]: This is something that I see in my kids.
[SPEAKER_01]: They just have this interest in the sky and where does your balloon go and it floats away?
[SPEAKER_01]: Does it go up to God?
[SPEAKER_01]: We think of God as being up there and I think that that's not a wrong way to think of God because he's high and exalted above us and our prayers go up but how do you know your prayers reach him?
[SPEAKER_01]: Do they just float away like the balloon and
[SPEAKER_01]: and pop at some point, or discard actually here and as you respond.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so that little boy, this is an Easter egg that's not in the book, but I'm calling him Neil after my brother's son, he's the only, he's the only little boy in the generation of my kids, like it's generation.
[SPEAKER_01]: And
[SPEAKER_01]: So I like the name Neil because he's kneeling in prayer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Nice, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I have to brag on Neil too.
[SPEAKER_04]: I have to brag on little Neil too, because he has to be, I think of all my grandchildren, the most focused on these characters.
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, they all are, they all love them, love them.
[SPEAKER_04]: but he really, you know, wants to hear this, we have little songs that we wrote and he wants to hear on before bed.
[SPEAKER_04]: And he, even he was of course he's a genius as you can imagine as all our grandchildren are.
[SPEAKER_04]: But that's true.
[SPEAKER_04]: It was he was still too when he was, when I would say what's the next character?
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, Poppy is, you know, what's the next character and he knew them in order?
[SPEAKER_04]: and kind of had the basic concept.
[SPEAKER_04]: So that was a real, that's been a high, there's so many high points for me with this process, but especially just after all these years of having them in our house and not really knowing exactly where to go with them and but wanting something to happen, it just was a real high point to watch it finally come to be and working with Katie,
[SPEAKER_04]: Morgan was amazing and she worked well with Jonathan and then Mike Henson, our illustrator.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm gonna have a background in illustration.
[SPEAKER_04]: So seeing what he did with the characters was just made me cry.
[SPEAKER_04]: I was just so excited.
[SPEAKER_04]: He's a good designer and a very good illustrator and he just he makes it a little funny and just just very compelling for children.
[SPEAKER_04]: So that's definitely
[SPEAKER_01]: You brought a lot of humor to the character design while keeping them sweet and relatable to kids.
[SPEAKER_01]: But there's just this punchiness about his style and I can just tell he's a funny guy.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll have him met him yet, but I look forward to when I will meet him.
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, it's just so wonderful.
[SPEAKER_05]: You guys Jonathan Christie, thank you so much for being with us here today.
[SPEAKER_05]: Can you let our listeners know where they can connect with you and find prey pals?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, so you can find prepalls wherever books are sold as they say, but you can go to the good book company website and pre order the prepalls now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Also, from now until April 1st, if you're listening to this before the book comes out, you can join our special review team at prepalls.johnathonhooper.com.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is sort of an insider team that we're building where you can get a pre release digital copy of the book.
[SPEAKER_01]: Plus, some printable resources and crafts and behind the scenes content with myself and my mom leading up to the launch.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, and we all be asked is that you leave an honest review on April 1st on the big launch day, which we're super excited about, as you can tell.
[SPEAKER_01]: Wonderful.
[SPEAKER_02]: I love it.
[SPEAKER_02]: So thank you so much.
[SPEAKER_02]: And listeners be sure to follow us on Facebook or Instagram at the Bible for Kids.
[SPEAKER_02]: The Bible for Kids is now my 501c3 non-profit and we love to have you join us at our mission of reaching kids with the message of the Bible.
[SPEAKER_02]: Visit thebubbleforkids.com to explore our store, donate, or learn more today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for listening to the Bible for Kids Podcast with Trisha Goyer and Mike Nurekki.
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