[SPEAKER_02]: Christian parenting.
[SPEAKER_03]: Welcome to the Bible for Kids Podcast with your hosts, author Trisha Goyer, and author and co-creator of Veggie Tales, Mike Noraki.
[SPEAKER_03]: 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_03]: 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_04]: I'm Mike Naraki.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm Trisha Goyer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Today we have two special guest Terry McKinley and Crystal Bowman.
[SPEAKER_00]: But before we introduce him, we like to start every Bible for Kids Podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: What's a Bible verse?
[SPEAKER_00]: So Mike?
[SPEAKER_04]: Today's verse is from Psalm 19 one.
[SPEAKER_04]: The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love that Terry McKinley is an award-winning best-line author of more than a dozen children's books, including Emma's for Manger, A.S. for Arc, and Bold and Blessed.
[SPEAKER_00]: As a mother of two young children, she's deeply passionate about helping kids understand God's love for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Crystal Bowman is a former preschool teacher and best-selling author.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's written more than 100 books for children, women, and families.
[SPEAKER_00]: With more than 3 million copies sold internationally, her work includes 2 dozen books for the I can readbrand and the best selling little blessing series.
[SPEAKER_00]: Together, this mother-daughter duo co-created the Art Daily Bradford Kids series and continues to develop excellent resources for young hearts.
[SPEAKER_04]: Terry and Crystal welcome back to the podcast.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for having us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's always a joy to be back.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_04]: And found out just before we went on the air together that Trisha wrote her very, very first book with you, Crystal, which is so exciting way back in, say the year.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the dark ages of 1999.
[SPEAKER_04]: Last century is where it was.
[SPEAKER_01]: The last century, yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, that really makes us feel all.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was a project we did for focus on the family.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, and can you use the cell?
[SPEAKER_00]: I sell them at my homeschool conferences.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, hundreds of years of that, it's out there and it was a work for higher projects.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, I do.
[SPEAKER_01]: My best selling books usually at a work for higher.
[SPEAKER_04]: So sad.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, like I said today, we're going to party like it's 1999 on our podcast.
[SPEAKER_04]: So Terry and Crystal, you work as a mother, daughter duo on these books, which is really cool.
[SPEAKER_04]: How has writing with a family member impacted this series in your books in general?
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think it's been a really
[SPEAKER_02]: great working relationship.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know a lot of times they say family and business don't mix, but when it comes to our writing it's been a really positive thing because what we've always really appreciated is the way we can be completely honest with each other since we know each other so well and it's pushed us to make our writing even better because we can be direct about the things that we want to see improved and the ways that we think we can grow the manuscript and I think
[SPEAKER_02]: Also, we kind of make this joke a lot too.
[SPEAKER_02]: We have to keep it in balance because at the end of the day, we have to have things giving dinner together as well.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so we can't let it become too much of a disagreement, or too much of a main focus in our relationship where it overshadows the fact that we are, family.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, what better joy could I have as a writer than to bring my daughter on board?
[SPEAKER_01]: It actually started, oh, how long ago?
[SPEAKER_01]: I think our first book was 2015.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was working on a picture book for Tindil and I kept sending it to her for some feedback and she was so insightful.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have different signs of the brain.
[SPEAKER_01]: I always say together we have one brain because I'm more left brain and she's more right brain.
[SPEAKER_01]: And she just adds that spark to it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And she probably gets tired of me saying this, but I'm the cake and she's the frosting and the filling and the sprinkles.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think that's why I'm worked together so well because we have different strengths.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when she was giving me feedback on the picture book that I was working on, my editor at the time said, wow, what's happened to your writing?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's really,
[SPEAKER_01]: It just has a little extra something to it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I said, well, that extra something happens to be my daughter.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, let's get her, let's get her name on the next book.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the next book we wrote was my mama and me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that was Terry's first book and it was a picture book, but it was like a devotional for mother and child.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was a winning combination, you know, we've been writing together ever since.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's great.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, and just having that directness and that honesty is so important, because you want somebody to, you know, to be critical, but have it be constructive.
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, it doesn't do any good, just, you know, somebody, oh, what do you think?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: It was great.
[SPEAKER_04]: Right.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, what do you mean, you know, did you really think it was great or, you know, the problems?
[SPEAKER_04]: Right.
[SPEAKER_04]: Just having just knowing enough about each other to be constructive and to actually make things better is wonderful.
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love that.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll see you as for creation, as we need one, and take us through the creation story using the alphabet.
[SPEAKER_00]: So how did that come to be and how have you experienced God through His creation?
[SPEAKER_02]: So, this is the third book in a series of alphabet books that we've written together.
[SPEAKER_02]: The first one being Emma's for Manger, which is a Christmas book in the second R's for Risen, which is an Easter book.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the origin, I actually have to give credit to my husband, because we were sitting in a church service on Christmas Eve, and they were reading some type of children's content for part of the sermon to the children, and he leaned over to me and said,
[SPEAKER_02]: I think you should write something because I think you could do a really great job with a Christmas story.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so, after the service, I probably shot a text to my mom, I can't remember exactly our first conversation, but it grew from there, and you know she is basically the authority when it comes to rhyming Christian children's literature.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so she absolutely wanted to put it into that genre and I really had to say a lot of it's been the Holy Spirit to just the way that it's come together through being able to telechronological story and alphabetical order and so and she gets a lot of the credit for the way that it's been organized and put together and we had so much fun writing that book and then the risen one especially felt very special and different.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so as they've been well received, they've continued to ask us to grow the series and we've looked at different ways.
[SPEAKER_02]: We can do that.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm sure my mom has some additional thoughts to sprinkle in there, but that's kind of the back of the screen.
[SPEAKER_02]: You're the sprinkles.
[SPEAKER_04]: You're the sprinkles.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's right.
[SPEAKER_01]: She has that mistake cake.
[SPEAKER_01]: Terry is so correct and that her husband had a lot to do with this because he he felt that the kids were not really engaged and he said I think you and your mom can can do something that's more engaging and so I you know I thought about Christmas books and of course how many come out every here and I also thought about alphabet books but I thought you know it has to be something unique
[SPEAKER_01]: in order to get someone interested in it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so my idea was to write a Christmas alphabet book that tells the story and chronological order.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we spoke to the editor, one of the editors at Tindale.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I said, what do you think about this idea?
[SPEAKER_01]: And she said, well, we really love this idea.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you have to prove that it's possible.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we did, and I think what's unique about these books first of all is that they do tell the story in chronological order and is for major ours for residency as for creation, but we don't use the typical nouns for the alphabet words.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, we do have some nouns, but it's not all,
[SPEAKER_01]: We want them to be a little bit of a surprise.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, we get really creative with them.
[SPEAKER_01]: So they're nouns.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're verbs.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're adjectives.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're adverbs.
[SPEAKER_04]: Interjections?
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, I don't think so.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I'm creation.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have Z as for Z, like.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'd be a little bit there.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, and for us, it's just a really fun challenge.
[SPEAKER_01]: But again, I have to echo Terry mentioning her husband because his name should actually be on ours for a reason.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think he
[SPEAKER_01]: the alphabet words.
[SPEAKER_01]: He just gets so into it and he goes, oh, you know, and so he's, you know, so anyway, and I guess that I bring that up because that gets back to doing it as a family, you know, our husbands or kids, everyone is, you know, it's so excited to see this happening and, but yeah, Terry's husband is, um,
[SPEAKER_01]: He's gold star.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll tell you.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's he's he's so passionate about our work and his contributions are actually quite significant.
[SPEAKER_01]: So
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, that's wonderful.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, and the alphabet is such a great organizing structure for that, too.
[SPEAKER_04]: And then also just for memory for kids, you know, it's just a good place to hang, you know, kind of a structure on.
[SPEAKER_04]: And then feel like you're, you know, kind of putting the whole alphabet together.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's just, you know, just really a great idea.
[SPEAKER_04]: Could you read a few pages for us, or maybe, you know, just as much as you'd like?
[SPEAKER_04]: And maybe talk about a little, do you have a favorite page in the picture book or do you?
[SPEAKER_04]: each have a different page that you particularly enjoy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, we actually don't have the book yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if I'm not going to have the library, please remember, I knew, yeah, right.
[SPEAKER_01]: I knew that this question was coming, so I didn't take a picture of a couple of, yeah, I don't have this one in front of me, but we started out with A is for alive.
[SPEAKER_01]: Our God has always been alive.
[SPEAKER_01]: He lives eternally.
[SPEAKER_01]: He always is, he always was and he will always be.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's because that's the beginning, that's the beginning of everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that is for A and then B is beginning, B is for beginning.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then C is really important.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm so glad it ended up being the title.
[SPEAKER_01]: C is for creation.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Holy Spirit moved about God's son was present too.
[SPEAKER_01]: the story of creation is wonderful and true.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we have the Trinity by the letter C. We already have the Trinity.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then, Terry, did you have a letter you wanted to do?
[SPEAKER_01]: Cause I have two more.
[SPEAKER_02]: I was just looking at some of the illustrations.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the two, as far as illustrations go, I mean, they did an excellent job, and it just ties together the whole series really well.
[SPEAKER_02]: But the two that stuck out to me, the most was P is for powerful.
[SPEAKER_02]: They were just, we're talking about the powerful creatures in the ocean and the way the artist put.
[SPEAKER_02]: the animals kind of swimming through the letter P. It was really really special.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then ironically my other favorite one is H's for herbs and the reason that's ironic is because I have a black thumb and cannot grow a plant to save my life.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's something about the way she drew these little potted plants and sprinkled them across the letter H. It just looks really warm and inviting.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so those two stuck out to me the most as far as the layout and the illustrations to kind of connect with the reader.
[SPEAKER_02]: But Mom, why don't you go ahead and continue with the other spreads?
[SPEAKER_01]: I also had H's for herbs.
[SPEAKER_01]: The land and sea were now in place, then God gave this command, let herbs and flowers, plants and trees start growing on the land.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the reason I got so excited about that one is because we found the word herbs in the Bible.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because every page has a Bible verse, and we try to get the alphabet word in the verse when it works.
[SPEAKER_01]: And fortunately, we have all these translations we can look up and in the, in the new King James, it says, let, let the earth bring forth grass, the herbs that yield seed and the, let's see how my glasses and the fruit tree that yields fruit.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think that one, I got so excited about because we actually found the word herbs in the Bible and then the other one,
[SPEAKER_01]: V is a really hard letter and we don't know where how are we going to do this and I was stumped.
[SPEAKER_01]: I had no idea, but it was after Adam had been created, the woman had not been created yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I said, well, how can we do something with, you know, at this time in the story, it's where Adam needs the animals.
[SPEAKER_01]: I satirious from yours, I'm stumped, I don't know what to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now Adam had a great big job naming all God's creatures by CUNY's Penguins, Bears, and Frogs when all their special features.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's one of the, because we want it, we always want our stories to be biblically accurate, but we also want to add some fun and whimsy and creativity.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think this, and we watch some of the letters to be a surprise, this one will definitely be a surprise.
[SPEAKER_04]: I was going with Vikunas or Velasa Raptor.
[SPEAKER_04]: I couldn't do this.
[SPEAKER_04]: And you have such a nice flow to your rhymes, too.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think you should do a spoken word rap along with this.
[SPEAKER_04]: It'd be great.
[SPEAKER_01]: My mom's favorite genre of music.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, rap gives me panic attacks.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, you'd be it.
[SPEAKER_04]: You got the flow.
[SPEAKER_04]: It is time for a break.
[SPEAKER_04]: We're going to take a short break and we'll be right back.
[SPEAKER_04]: Struggling to keep kids focused during church.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Welcome back to the Bible for Kids podcast, Trisha and I are speaking with Mother, daughter, author, combo, Terry, and Crystal.
[SPEAKER_04]: Bowman, sorry, I should put the last name there, Bowman.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I love that so much, and I love, you know, you talked about herbs within the Bible, or in Britain they say herbs, herbs in the Bible.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, how did you come up with the different Bible verses?
[SPEAKER_00]: Did you come up with the verses ahead of time, or as you're working on the rhymes?
[SPEAKER_00]: How did that work?
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a really good question, so it's kind of,
[SPEAKER_02]: a lot of back and forth in the way that we develop the flow and the pattern of it.
[SPEAKER_02]: It usually starts with the letters.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the most important thing to us as Christian writers is that we stay as true to the scriptures we possibly can because it's our heart to point people to God's truth.
[SPEAKER_02]: So we try to look at the story we're telling whether it's Christmas Easter creation and we look at the
[SPEAKER_02]: chronological flow of it and then we try to start with the letters first.
[SPEAKER_02]: So what can we put for A, what can we put for B, for C?
[SPEAKER_02]: But every once in a while, we might come across a verse that we really like and use that first and develop the content from there.
[SPEAKER_02]: But typically, it goes in the order of letter
[SPEAKER_02]: content verse.
[SPEAKER_02]: My mom's really good at structuring everything and putting the outline together for the manuscript so you might want to ask her a little more specifically her special formula but as far as when we worked on it together that's the pattern be take.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah I think she explained it really well but we also when it works we try to get action get the alphabet word in the Bible verse and most of the time we can make that happen.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's like I get so excited when I found herbs and then it wasn't in that verse.
[SPEAKER_04]: Is I Kona?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was not in the Bible important.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: We had to get this Spanish edition for that one.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the thing that I love about including the Bible verses is that it shows the reader, you know, especially the adults, but you know, where this is found in scripture.
[SPEAKER_01]: And
[SPEAKER_01]: The thing with creation versus is that that's not just genesis.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, there are creation versus through the whole Bible.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, there were a lot of verses to choose from to fit with our story because, you know, creation is all through through the entire Bible.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think kind of piggybacking off what she said earlier about introducing the trinity by the third letter.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think we get really excited, but we can show that the Bible is a continuous story and that we see Jesus throughout the Bible, Old Testament, New Testament.
[SPEAKER_02]: We see God as creator throughout the Bible, Old Testament, New Testament, and just being able to enlighten our readers to some of those little nuggets that are in the scripture of how it is one continuous story that Jesus and God are telling from beginning to end.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's wonderful.
[SPEAKER_04]: And we love to ask our authors this question and, you know, especially, you know, being mother daughter, writing pair, this is so interesting.
[SPEAKER_04]: What drew each of you to writing specifically children's book, writing in general and then children's books, you know, more specifically.
[SPEAKER_01]: I actually wrote my very first poem when I was 10 years old.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I, our teacher gave an assignment.
[SPEAKER_01]: She said, you know, write a poem, but we were studying poetry and write a poem about something you enjoy.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I knew right away, because my greatest joy in life is our summer cottage.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I just wrote this rhythm and rhyme poem.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wrote about four or five verses and turned it in.
[SPEAKER_01]: thinking nothing up at thinking that anyone can sit down and do this.
[SPEAKER_01]: My teacher was a little surprise because I didn't always turn in the best work.
[SPEAKER_01]: And she said, she turned it back to me and gave it back to me and she said, Chris, she said, this is really, really good.
[SPEAKER_01]: She said, you have a real gift for writing in rhythm and rhyme and I'm going, oh, what thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I
[SPEAKER_01]: But through the years, you know, as a teenager and a young adult, I still, I would just write them for fun sometimes for gifts or whatever.
[SPEAKER_01]: But then I ended up teaching preschool and after I graduated from college and those were the days before the internet.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I couldn't just go online and find a poem to fit, you know, to fit the theme or the unit and so, or a story.
[SPEAKER_01]: And, or a song, and so, you know, I was in Michigan and on a winter night, I'm not going to get in my car and go to the library.
[SPEAKER_01]: I said, I'm not going to do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I started writing my own material.
[SPEAKER_01]: I started writing stories and poems and songs and I would, you know, bring them to school then and share it with the kids and the teachers.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, see, where are you getting this stuff?
[SPEAKER_01]: And I said, well, I'm just making it up.
[SPEAKER_01]: Can't you do that?
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was not really, you know, so I guess it was there.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I never really recognized it as something that God had uniquely gifted me until those preschool days.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I stayed home to raise kids.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then my first opportunity to write for publication was through sound event.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've been writing for 35 years and I just it just I can look back to that 10 year old girl and see that God put that in me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then it just threw the years, you know, that I grew so that's wonderful.
[SPEAKER_04]: And now you're 45.
[SPEAKER_04]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Terry, you grew up, I'm going to book signings, because my kids have also grown up, and I'm doing this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I've written three books with my son Nathan, World War II.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's awesome.
[SPEAKER_00]: Being punk books.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I love it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And how did that impact you seen what she was doing?
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think, obviously, my journey is a little bit different because I kind of grew up in her world and would help her set up her book tables and make change and do all that kind of stuff.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I think,
[SPEAKER_02]: Just seeing her do something she loved really hadn't impact on me.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think that's one of the way ways the Lord works.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, you see a lot of times where families end up following in each other's footsteps.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we mentioned earlier, I'm a Spanish teacher, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: So I just have a love of communication.
[SPEAKER_02]: I always have my mom said I would talk to people at the grocery store and just make friends wherever I went.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think I've just always had that voice in me of wanting to communicate and as a Christian, just wanting to share God's love with people and seeing my mom enjoy what she did.
[SPEAKER_02]: It kind of put a spark in me and going back to 1999, I remember having a floppy disk that was my very own that I would write stories on, growing up on the,
[SPEAKER_02]: old desktop computer and I initially started majoring in communications and journalism and ended up taking a different route but it was just always something that I found a lot of creative release in and then as my mom said when I got older I started partnering with her and editing her work and that just kind of
[SPEAKER_02]: grew the love of writing from there and then especially becoming a mom getting to share truth about God's word with children is a very big deal to me just as we're raising up this next generation and such a different culture and different time to be able to equip them with the word of God from a young age.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think it's kind of what drives my writing now.
[SPEAKER_04]: So that's wonderful.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I have to add that when she was a young girl when I started writing and would do some
[SPEAKER_01]: If I had her with me, I got a lot more attention because she was so cute and she was so bubbly and tall.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, would talk to the end.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was really helpful to have her with me.
[SPEAKER_04]: So yeah, growing up in the family business, that's wonderful.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, it is time again for a short break.
[SPEAKER_04]: So we'll do that and we'll be right back on the Bible for kids.
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[SPEAKER_04]: So, Tony Christo, you both launched the R Daily Bread for Kids Brand.
[SPEAKER_04]: Can you talk a little bit about that and what's been the most rewarding part of developing those materials for kids?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, so that's just been an absolute dream opportunity that only the Lord could have opened the door for that.
[SPEAKER_02]: A lot of it goes back to my mom's history and the industry of knowing a lot of different people in the Christian publishing world and they approached her about starting that line and
[SPEAKER_02]: we're interested in having more than one author develop it because their content is always multi-author based for the our daily bread material.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so she mentioned to them that we had been working together and they were excited about the possibility of a co-partnering and authoring that.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was probably some of the hardest work we've ever done, would you agree with that bomb?
[SPEAKER_02]: devotionals and present different content in a new way.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was probably the hardest we've worked on anything but also the most rewarding.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think for me, the part that's been the most humbling and absolutely just, you know,
[SPEAKER_02]: It's all God that can do these things as seen that it's been translated and other languages and gone out across the world because my mom always says she's not the type of person who wants to travel to a remote country and that's not really what she's gifted in.
[SPEAKER_02]: She feels like she's a missionary in that sense where her work is able to go and minister to people in a way and she would never be able to set foot in.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so just to see that we're a part of this greater story where the Lord is taking what we offer him and then multiplying it, I think that has been absolutely humbling and just my favorite part of being a part of that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Really just the organization itself is such a great
[SPEAKER_02]: outlet for getting the gospel out, and they have done so much work on their part to further their mission, and we just kind of get to jump into the way that they have laid that out and paved the road and be a part of what has gone before us.
[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's got to be exciting for you, Terry, just as a Spanish teacher, you know, to see that go out in Spanish.
[SPEAKER_04]: I would imagine.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, we actually have a copy of this Spanish translation of it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I have it in my classroom.
[SPEAKER_02]: My students get really excited when they see it, and that's so humbling.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, just because that's the lens with which I teach Spanish.
[SPEAKER_02]: I teach at a Christian school, and we're able to talk about how that's part of the feeling, the great commission in loving our neighbors as ourself is to learn another language
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, that's wonderful.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was going to ask the crystal with three million copies of your book sold internationally.
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you think resonates most with families who read your work?
[SPEAKER_01]: My number one goal in writing and I know Terry, what agree with this too is to point people to Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's why, you know, we love working with Tindale.
[SPEAKER_01]: We love you know, working with their daily bread because everything is
[SPEAKER_01]: and our daily bread for kids, all the devotions are based on scripture.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of them are based on actual Bible story, some of them are just based on Bible verses, but I have a real passion to keep today's kids in God's Word and Mike, I know you do too, and Trisha, but we gotta reach this next generation and help them
[SPEAKER_01]: see that God's Word is alive and active and that it's not outdated.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's, you know, we can learn history from it and a lot of it is culture and history from a long time ago, but yet God's Word is still relevant to today and with all the struggles and issues that kids face today, when I think back to my childhood, we had so much innocence.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, we didn't have to have
[SPEAKER_01]: These thoughts put into our head because the world was so much safer.
[SPEAKER_01]: My parents didn't have to warn me about, you know, certain things because it was a safer world.
[SPEAKER_01]: We would go out and play for five hours and come home when the street lights came on, you know, today, you know, you, I mean, that's not safe for children anymore.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I just, I want to
[SPEAKER_01]: who he is and his character and how he's their rock.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, he's their friend.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's that, you know, they live in a really tough world today, even in the private schools, you know, it's tough and that God is their source of strength and their source of hope.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's, you know, that's the message we're trying to get out there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_01]: I do have a really fun story.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm on Bible City Fellowship online.
[SPEAKER_01]: This year we had five gals from Kenya that were in our group and it was so awesome to have them.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, here they are across the world and there are sisters in Christ and they see Jesus the way we see him and it's just so cool.
[SPEAKER_01]: And one time we got on in one of the moms
[SPEAKER_01]: Our daily bread for kids, our second one, the second volume 365.
[SPEAKER_01]: She said, my friend gave me this, and I told her, I know the author, and she said,
[SPEAKER_01]: How do you know the author?
[SPEAKER_04]: That's so wonderful.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you know, and I think, you know, we have no idea where books are going.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, there are dozens of languages and that's all in good hands.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I love how once and a while God gives us just a little peek into where some of these books are ending up, just I think it's just to bless us and to remind us
[SPEAKER_01]: you know, your work matters.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I also think of our books as like the little boy who gave his bread and fish to Jesus, just put it in his hands and then he will multiply it.
[SPEAKER_01]: He will do far more than what we are capable of doing on our own.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, amen.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, and I know it's always exciting when, you know, a project launches because you put so much work into it, but certainly you've, you know, done this before and you'll probably do it again.
[SPEAKER_04]: You all have anything else that you're working on now that we can look forward to in the future.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, let's see.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have another preschool devotional we're working on and then our daily bread has
[SPEAKER_01]: Seas for creation, like Terry said, it's the third one in the series, and one of the editors joked and said,
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, we only have, you know, 23.
[SPEAKER_01]: 23 more to go.
[SPEAKER_04]: So D is your next project.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think that's going to happen.
[SPEAKER_02]: So maybe your listeners can give us some ideas for the other letters to explore.
[SPEAKER_04]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think you can see us for Zoo for the Noah's Ark or something.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: There you go.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_04]: And X is for Zylophone.
[SPEAKER_01]: All the instruments because X is always where I love them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's where we take a little freedom as we do EX.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I'm not, if Zylophone or X-ray doesn't naturally fit into the text, that's not going to use it.
[SPEAKER_04]: I have to crowbar down here.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's easy in CS for a creation.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have exist.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't remember the verse off the top of my head,
[SPEAKER_01]: To show God's glory, you know, wonderful.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a good little tearing crystal.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much for being here today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Where can our listeners find out more about you guys in your books?
[SPEAKER_02]: So our books are available through Tindale and Art Daily Bread's website.
[SPEAKER_02]: They're also available on christianbook.com and amazon.
[SPEAKER_02]: Barnes and Noble is carrying some of them as well from what we've recently heard.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then as far as connecting with us, the best way to do that is through my mom's website.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'll let her tell you about that.
[SPEAKER_01]: My website is currently being revised, so hold off a couple of weeks and then, but it's just my name, crystalbowman.com, crystal with a C, and then B-O-W-M-A-N.com.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm also on Facebook, I'm not super active on social media, but I am on Facebook and I see Trisha there once in a while.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we love to connect to our readers.
[SPEAKER_01]: We love to connect to their readers.
[SPEAKER_01]: So wonderful.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we really appreciate y'all having us today just to get to talk with y'all about our work.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we know just what a blessing this podcast is to your audience in the way that you're equally passionate about getting God's word out to children.
[SPEAKER_02]: And just thank you for all that you do to raise up the next generation of Christ's followers and let us be able to be a part of that.
[SPEAKER_04]: Terri, you're still.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you both so much.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's an honor having you on and being able to share your work with our listeners.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, this honor, the honor is ours.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, listeners, be sure to follow us on Facebook or Instagram at the Bible for Kids.
[SPEAKER_04]: The Bible for Kids is now a 501 C3 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_04]: We'll see you next time.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks for listening to the Bible for Kids Podcast with Trisha Goyer and Mike Nurekki.
[SPEAKER_03]: Be sure to connect with the Bible for kids on Instagram, Facebook, and at thebibelforkids.com.
[SPEAKER_03]: The Bible for Kids Podcast is powered by the Christian Parenting Podcast Network.
[SPEAKER_03]: Find out more at ChristianParenting.org.
[SPEAKER_03]: Our show is also available at waynation.com.