[SPEAKER_02]: 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_04]: Welcome back to the Bible for Kids Podcast.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm Trisha Goyer and I'm Mike Naraki and today we're pleased to welcome author speaker and musician Connor Schramm under the podcast to talk about his new book with co-author Jared Noish, Jesus in the outsiders, a story of love and belonging.
[SPEAKER_04]: Like always, we like to start every Bible for kids podcast with a Bible verse, Mike.
[SPEAKER_03]: And today's verse is taken from John 10 of verses 27 through 30.
[SPEAKER_03]: My sheep listen to my voice.
[SPEAKER_03]: I know them and they follow me.
[SPEAKER_03]: I give them eternal life and they shall never perish.
[SPEAKER_03]: No one will snatch them out of my hand.
[SPEAKER_03]: My father who has given them to me is greater than all.
[SPEAKER_03]: No one can snatch them out of my father's hand.
[SPEAKER_03]: I and the father are one.
[SPEAKER_04]: Connor Schramm is an author speaker and musician, Haley from the Cole Perry's of Shashoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshosh
[SPEAKER_04]: as an international educator.
[SPEAKER_04]: He's also a successful comedian who has entertained audiences across Canada married for over 13 years with three children Connor wants to spark imagination and share joy through his art and ideas.
[SPEAKER_01]: Connor, welcome.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, thanks for having me back.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's so good to be here with you.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I went to Montana for 15 years and still can't say
[SPEAKER_01]: There's too many syllables in it for sure.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I love it.
[SPEAKER_03]: I love a good Saskatchewan.
[SPEAKER_03]: I can say Saskatchewan all day long.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm probably saying it wrong.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I live with Saskatchewan Saskatchewan.
[SPEAKER_03]: Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan, oh my goodness.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's a silly song in the works right there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh man, please feel free.
[SPEAKER_01]: Feel free.
[SPEAKER_02]: I want to hear Larry say that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Saskatchewan, there you go.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh man, we got to clip that and I can't ask you right off the top because I've been thinking about this since the last time I was on your podcast.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: You saw, but there was a big hullabaloo on the internet where a creator talked about how on Veggie Tales, there was sort of internal rule and I thought I'd go to you first about this.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: At the Veggie Tales, the vegetables including Bob and Larry and all the characters,
[SPEAKER_01]: were prohibited from talking about their relationship with God and that they could only talk about the kids relationship with God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is that true?
[SPEAKER_01]: Is that something that you guys talk about?
[SPEAKER_03]: Right, right, right.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, because, you know, in reality vegetables don't have personal relationships with God.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, yeah, so we wanted to theologically, we wanted to be very straightforward about that.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, yeah, they want to talk about that, you know, that relationship being with kids in humans and not blur the line with vegetables.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's really good, I actually have the opportunity to ask you myself rather than just watching an random internet video about it and that's right.
[SPEAKER_01]: The whole thing with veggie tales is like you guys really navigated the complexity of, you know, kids would watch veggie tales and then they have to go upstairs for supper and eat their vegetables and just perfectly, just perfectly.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and whatever kids would ask, you know, if they should eat their vegetables, you know, if they're concerned for me for being the voice of a cucumber, I would always just tell them, as long as they're not talking, you know, just feel free to eat them.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's totally fine.
[SPEAKER_03]: So they're talking.
[SPEAKER_03]: I just just pause and thank for a minute.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna, I'm gonna tell my kids the same thing when they ask me, I'm gonna, I'm gonna eat, that's awesome.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, especially not screaming, screaming, do you definitely don't want to eat him if they're screaming?
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm just kidding.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_03]: All right.
[SPEAKER_03]: Let's get back.
[SPEAKER_03]: Let's get back on track.
[SPEAKER_04]: Connor, I would love to hear how you got into writing books for kids and all that entails.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, well, I didn't actually intend to go on this path at all, really.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was really born out of my friendship with Jared and our journey as parents, fathers, trying to play an active role in our kids' social, emotional, spiritual development.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we were just talking about the different conversations we would have with our kids.
[SPEAKER_01]: and one of the values that we both have that we just kind of fell into as parents is just encouraging open dialogue with our kids and really giving them the freedom to ask whatever questions or raise whatever concerns they wanted and letting that kind of lead the way when it came to like family devotions and that sort of thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so based on that, we would have these really sometimes absurd reflections back and forth like, oh man, my kid asked me this and I'm not really sure what I think about it or how would you respond to that?
[SPEAKER_01]: And this whole project, this, uh, Jesus' wicked series really grew out of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I'm very grateful, uh, for Tindale to help us tell these stories and present Jesus in this way.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then it's just become a source of joy for me as a dad because, you know, my kids are very proud to see our family name on the spine of the book on the book show.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you have a new opportunity to connect with kids all over the globe.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's, that's so wonderful.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I was going to ask you maybe to dig into that a little bit more before we get into, you know, this specific book.
[SPEAKER_03]: But just the series, you know, maybe talk about kind of the whole idea behind it and the inspiration to writing the Jesus is for kids series.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so the initial conversation really came out of my son on my part.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Jared has his own story, but for my part, my son was really talking to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: We were watching a superhero movie and reflecting on what it means to be a hero.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was trying to figure out how to frame Jesus' sacrifice in a heroic way.
[SPEAKER_01]: And to bring that perspective into it for him, because I think a lot of times,
[SPEAKER_01]: Bible stories in general stories about Jesus, devotions, children's church, it can be inadvertently targeting girls over boys.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a subjective observation.
[SPEAKER_01]: It might not be true in every context, but in the context I was raised in and the context I saw for my son.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, they're a bit more active, they're a bit more, sometimes they're a bunches, energetic, maybe not as a conversational
[SPEAKER_01]: And so when I said, you know, Jesus is a hero, it was like, what does that mean?
[SPEAKER_01]: What does that look like?
[SPEAKER_01]: And it happened that Jared was having that conversation with his son Clayton as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so that's where Jesus first is the bad guys, which was the first book in our series, came from, which was really talking about Jesus' self-sacrifice and forgiveness.
[SPEAKER_01]: as a heroic virtue, and with Jesus and the outsiders, we get to talk about diversity, belonging, inclusion, and how Jesus creates space for everybody at his table.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's wonderful.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I love the title, Jesus, and the outsiders.
[SPEAKER_04]: I like immediately, I'm like, it's a kids book, but I want to read it because I think, you know, I don't know, that love and me longing, like we all feel like outsiders.
[SPEAKER_04]: And this book focuses on how Jesus treats outsiders.
[SPEAKER_04]: Like they're not the people to tell people that we're doing all the things.
[SPEAKER_04]: How can his apply this message to their relationships?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I think that first of all, that scripture that you read at the beginning of our podcast is really like a perfect summation of how Jesus approaches all of us, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: As a good shepherd, and to Jesus, that means that He is not going to lose a single one of his sheep.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, He's devoted to us.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's devoted to create space for us and safety for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think a lot of times, kids,
[SPEAKER_01]: don't want to be exclusive, but maybe they're naturally drawn to some kids over other kids and then everybody's looking for a place to belong, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And so with this series but with this book in particular, we really try to start every book not by going, hey, we want to tell kids what they should do or how they should feel.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we want to acknowledge what it's like at the start when you're trying to figure it out as a kid.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're trying to figure out who your friends are.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're trying to figure out where you belong, what relationships you belong to.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we want to invite kids to know that first of all, you belong to Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: That he always has space for you at his table.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's permanent.
[SPEAKER_01]: That invitation to you is always available.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then because he's created space for you, you can create space for other people.
[SPEAKER_01]: especially when you might feel a bit of fear or you may feel a little bit of discomfort, you know, human relationships are messy, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And there's some challenge there for I think everybody, not just kids.
[SPEAKER_01]: But knowing that Jesus creates space for all of us means that when I feel belonging, I can extend that feeling of belonging to other people and invite them into my life.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's really what we're hoping that this book invites kids into.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: No, that's so great.
[SPEAKER_03]: And you choose three specific stories to kind of focus on in the book.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's the woman at the well.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's the kiss and the thief on the cross.
[SPEAKER_03]: Can you just talk about, you know, why you chose those and just kind of the how the theme of belonging wraps into those stories?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think for me the first story that really struck me and this was on a personal level before I even had kids was I think I was listening to a sermon one time about the Samaritan woman and I think I might have been driving home or it might have been just in a personal time or reflection.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it just really struck me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, wow, she must have been the lonest person in the world in that moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just how heartbreaking it would be to live out your existence and not have a place among your community.
[SPEAKER_01]: In part because of baby choices you've made, but in another part because of the prejudices of other people.
[SPEAKER_01]: and it really in that moment helped me see in our society we have lots of conversations around immigration and you know being a good neighbor versus like especially with kids, stranger danger that sort of thing and I remember thinking wow it's really important that we acknowledge how lonely people can feel at times and that's really why we start our
[SPEAKER_01]: The next story we needed to touch on because Zeki is also isolated from his community, but it's more so because of the choices that he's made.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's hurting people in his community, and they are very rightly making space from the way he's harming them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then, of course, the thief on the cross has really gone way beyond that, you know, and he has perhaps, obviously stolen from people, he's perhaps as a zealot, killed people, we don't really know.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we know that he has ended up on a cross beside Jesus because of the mistakes he's made.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I just want to get to know that when Jesus says that we belong, it doesn't matter whether you have been.
[SPEAKER_01]: isolated by something you didn't choose or whether you have made the worst mistakes.
[SPEAKER_01]: When Jesus you belong, he means it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Regardless of your choices and hopefully they'll carry that message with them through their life.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh wow that's so cool that's wonderful.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well it is time for a short break so we're going to take a short break and we'll be right back on the Bible for kids.
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[SPEAKER_04]: That's ChristianParenting.org for its last gifts to explore the 2026 mom, stads, and grads gift guide today.
[SPEAKER_04]: The link is also in the show notes.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Chaos happens before the coffee finishes brewing.
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[SPEAKER_04]: From the co-creator, veggie tales, and the voice of Larry the cucumber, comes and all new Dead Sea squirrels adventure.
[SPEAKER_04]: When Michael and Justin are forced to hide moral and pearls identities in a class presentation, they turn to AI to generate odd squirrels stand-ins, Uncle Merge, and Aunt Purge.
[SPEAKER_04]: As things spiral out of control, the boys begin to wonder if the cost of lying is worth it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Don't miss cyberscrolls.
[SPEAKER_04]: book 13 in the Dead Sea Scrolls series, available now wherever books are sold.
[SPEAKER_03]: Welcome back to the Bible for Kids, Trisha and I are speaking with author Connor Schram.
[SPEAKER_04]: Connor, this has been so good and I love, you know, you're talking about the influence of your own children.
[SPEAKER_04]: What about other kids?
[SPEAKER_04]: Has work with other kids or can you get inside from other kids?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so, as you mentioned in my bio, which was very generous of you to share that with people, I have had the chance to work in children's education for many years, and it wasn't my intention, I didn't have a degree in it, but for a time I served as a children's pastor in our church, and then I also led an interdenominational, it was kind of like a pre-
[SPEAKER_01]: Christian ethics class for middle school kids in our community and so it was actually in the public school system but it was put on by our church ministerial group and so I had the chance to over the course of a year teach Bible stories once a week to a collection of great six students and what was really fun about that was I learned just how much I didn't know how to share these stories.
[SPEAKER_01]: with kids who grew up in a Christian context because they're for the very first time, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: You can't just say, you know, you know, you know, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: But I would literally go into a story, and I would think, oh, they've heard this, because I'm thinking about Sunday School, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm thinking, oh, they've heard this story, you know, two dozen times before now, and I'm just going to reach the same thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they'd be like, wait, what, what are you talking about?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, and survive?
[SPEAKER_01]: The lions, are you serious?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, and I'm like, oh, we could do this a fresh, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: The questions, a lot of the conversations that we would have, I'd have kids that would meet me out of the class, because our let period was right after, and they'd have a line up of questions, because it was like this was so new to them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that really informed for my part in the writing.
[SPEAKER_01]: It really informed, I don't want to take anything for granted.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want to treat these stories like, oh, you know, kids, we've been here before you know this.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wanted to hopefully make these stories feel fresh because I think for some kids, this might be the first time they've out the Samaritan woman or Zach, as we call him, Zach he is, but Zach for short, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, that's where we got into it.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's awesome.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, I think, you know, humor is an important thing in the book, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I'd love for you to talk a little bit about, you know, engaging kids with humor, you know, the book is filled with, you know, ninjas and boogers.
[SPEAKER_03]: By the way, is almost as fun to say as Saskatchewan.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're catching, we love funny words, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: We have, like, Moose jaw, Prince Albert.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have also, we have all the funny names of cities in Canada.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you, if you're bored and looking to kill 15 minutes, just look up place names, city names and statue names.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's awesome.
[SPEAKER_03]: Talk about, talk about just, you know, how, because you need to come in.
[SPEAKER_03]: Just talk about a little bit about engaging kids with humor.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think that, you know, from the first book, we very kind of casually in the writing.
[SPEAKER_01]: We talked in the first book about Jesus' commitment to peace, to the way of peace, and to the way of forgiveness.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so in Jesus' first of the bad guys we explain, Jesus could have defeated his enemies any way he wanted.
[SPEAKER_01]: He could have used sharks with laser guns.
[SPEAKER_01]: He could have used a fart cannon, which I had said just kind of casually one time.
[SPEAKER_01]: It made my son laugh and then Garrett mentioned it to his son and his kids laugh and you're like, okay, well, let's put that in there But we kind of thought it probably won't make the cut
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, you always start with like what you want, and then you you figure out a way to you know, and so we put it in there and I will tell you this, the out of out of all the feedback I've gotten, I've gotten handwritten letters from kids all over the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And overwhelmingly, the two things that I hear about is one, obviously the most precious is they say,
[SPEAKER_01]: I really feel like I understand what it means that Jesus forgives people and calls us to forgive people.
[SPEAKER_01]: Obviously, that's the thing that I love the most.
[SPEAKER_01]: The second thing that people care about in that first book is the fart canon.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have all the fart canon, and we even had some groups that are like, we can't stalk this shelf with your book because some of our people are offended by the fart canon, but I think it's laugh.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, as you know, you have mastered.
[SPEAKER_01]: not just through your character, Larry, but it's so important to present the truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's so important to present the truth accurately, but being good-natured and good humored about these conversations is a way to access kids' hearts.
[SPEAKER_01]: in a way that a lot of people neglect, you know, because life is funny and some of this is absurd and we celebrate stories of a God that does some of the craziest things and Jesus doesn't act the way we expect him to and I think he is in a really good way.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think Jesus has a sense of humor and he's in on the joke and
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we never want to be irreverent, but as often as we can, we want to speak kids language, because my kids are talking about boogers and ninjas and laser cannons, and it helps paint the picture for them in a way that they'll remember.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that's a sacred duty to be, it's a sacred thing to be willing to make a joke.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_03]: I love that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I do have to say this because I'm on the call with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, it humor has a way of accessing kids' hearts.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, the number of times my kids will explain that things are either a monkey or an ape by weathering.
[SPEAKER_03]: I hope I wear that as a tail.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just, it's embedded.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, they're going to be 85 years old.
[SPEAKER_03]: And be like, that'll be right there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, that's the whole thing, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: We can use that pension for humor to invite into a deeper relationship with these truths.
[SPEAKER_03]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_04]: I love that.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I know often, you know, we all write books.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, that's what I call.
[SPEAKER_04]: And like we were writing it for the kids, but also like God speaks to our hearts.
[SPEAKER_04]: And chairs are deeper truths.
[SPEAKER_04]: They're like something is, you know, Holy Spirit whispered or whatever.
[SPEAKER_04]: Like, what did God teach you as you are working on these books?
[SPEAKER_01]: I think for me, I really felt an invitation, even though we were doing something that at times was very silly.
[SPEAKER_01]: I felt that it was a...
[SPEAKER_01]: There was an invitation from God.
[SPEAKER_01]: It just felt so precious to me to get to speak to kids about things that were so important.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I never wanted to take that lightly.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the verse that really jumped out at me as we were preparing this and editing, that really framed the whole project, was Jesus said, let the little children come to me and do not hinder them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I felt so convicted about the fact that
[SPEAKER_01]: even good things, even right and true things can be a hindrance to kids, because we are in such a rush sometimes.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll just speak for myself as a parent.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm in such a rush to teach them something, to help them grow, to help them make the right choices.
[SPEAKER_01]: that I can overburden my kids with obligations even if they're good things, you know.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Paul, he admonishes fathers not to be overbearing with their children.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think we're good intentioned as dads.
[SPEAKER_01]: We want the best for our kids.
[SPEAKER_01]: We want them to grow.
[SPEAKER_01]: We want them to make good choices.
[SPEAKER_01]: And yet Jesus says, you know, don't, don't hinder the kids that are coming to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, oh, it's such a sacred invitation to get everything out of the way.
[SPEAKER_01]: that could get in the way of them meeting with Jesus for themselves.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's so precious to me to go, hey, you know what, there might be more to the story.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there might be more that you need to do, and there might be more that you need to figure out.
[SPEAKER_01]: But for now, as a dad, I'm going to try to move as much out of the way as I can for you to meet Jesus and for you to experience Jesus on your own.
[SPEAKER_01]: That feels so special to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: and it really helped frame everything we're trying to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: And even in my parenting now, outside of these books, I just want to get things out of the way.
[SPEAKER_01]: Obviously, yes, there is the time to tell them to each of their vegetables and put their shoes away and all that stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: But as much as I can now, I'm like, oh, man, my parenting has become much more.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's weird to say it this way, but like, subtractive.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm trying to think of ways to get the extra baggage out of the way, especially when it comes to a kid's spiritual development.
[SPEAKER_01]: So hopefully this book is a part of that, and hopefully it helps families do the same thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: And man, and as you think of a child reading this book, is there a prayer, like a takeaway truth, that you hope a child will say to themselves, after reading it, after closing the book,
[SPEAKER_01]: I think, you know, there's a panel, we gave it a full two-page spread because it was so important to us where the same kid who is not invited to sit with her friends at the lunch table, she sits with Jesus at her end of the table.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sorry, I'm getting a little emotional.
[SPEAKER_01]: But that moment is just so precious to me because I think more than anything I hope
[SPEAKER_01]: that kids who read our book would feel like even when other people don't pick me, Jesus picks me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Jesus wants to sit next to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I hope that kids feel that, I hope they feel it really deeply in their heart and their soul.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I hope they carry that with them in every moment of their future that God always has a place for them.
[SPEAKER_04]: I love that.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think of the term
[SPEAKER_04]: Right, and I mean, working with kids, I mean, you have to get their level, but also deepens our own theology, like you know, and seeing Jesus as a child, so is there other ways?
[SPEAKER_04]: I love that example to share it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Is there other ways that seeing Jesus as a child or writing for children has just changed maybe how you pray or how you see God?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I think it's definitely become a theme for us in this series, but I think in that in that sense of approaching Jesus with a sense of play, I think a sense of play leads us to wonder and I think of back to the time I did a little bit of mission's work in the Philippines.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was really, it was really precious, it was a beautiful time.
[SPEAKER_01]: We were on the streets, ministering to people, sharing the love of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the team was wanting to pray with a lot of the parents.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was hoping to pray for parents as well, but I noticed that a lot of the parents had to kind of shoe their kids away.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I felt a deep invitation, a conviction in my heart.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, someone needs to pay attention to these kids.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, at the time, I happen to have like long hair.
[SPEAKER_01]: And in the Philippines, they'll say Papa ESA, which means Father Jesus, and they have a lot of like Catholic imagery of Jesus in the sort of classic.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: But they're pointing me, they're saying Papa ESA, Papa ESA.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I realized, oh, I have this opportunity to play with these kids.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I ended up playing with these kids.
[SPEAKER_01]: We ended up playing tag.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're running around the neighborhood.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, their parents were receiving prayer ministry, and it was a beautiful moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I left that moment and I thought, you know, Jesus was someone that kids were drawn to.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that for us as the adults in the room, whether we're parents or not, I think the the onus is on us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, we want to teach the truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, we want to stand for what's right.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we have to be willing to engage in a sense of play so that our faith has wonder and curiosity and joy and hope.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think all of those things grow out of a willingness to ask questions, yes, wrestle with deep truths, but also have fun.
[SPEAKER_01]: Tell jokes and make sure that we keep our
[SPEAKER_03]: that's wonderful and what a good word to end on Connor thank you so much for coming back on this is really a pleasure can you let us know where folks can find you and connect with you online and find out more about the book
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we are the home base for our books is Jesus is for kids.com.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so that's one place where you can find out more about the series and we'll be sharing more on Instagram, the same handle at Jesus' kids.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so yeah, we're excited to continue.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we have a third book on the way from Tindale Kids.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we're very excited about that too.
[SPEAKER_01]: Wonderful.
[SPEAKER_04]: I love that.
[SPEAKER_04]: And listeners, be sure to follow us on Facebook, and Instagram at the Bible for kids.
[SPEAKER_04]: The Bible for kids is now a 501c3 non-profit.
[SPEAKER_04]: And we'd love to have you join us in our mission of reaching kids with the message of the Bible.
[SPEAKER_04]: Visit thebibelforkids.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 Nuraki.
[SPEAKER_00]: Be sure to connect with the Bible for kids on Instagram, Facebook and at thebibelforkids.com.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible for Kids Podcast is powered by the Christian Parenting Podcast Network.
[SPEAKER_00]: Find out more at ChristianParenting.org.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our show is also available at wayNation.com.