PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 178: CREATIVE HOSPITALITY

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 178 – Creative Hospitality

Wendy Shaw joins with me again today as we talk about more creative ways of showing hospitality to people in all walks of life. The Shaw family operate by The Triple A. What is it? Wendy also shares how they do family Bible reading in their home. It's great to hear the different methods families use, isn't it? We all learn from one another.

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to the Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello everyone! Well, I have Wendy Shaw with me again. We still have things to talk about together. We were talking in our last podcast about hospitality. I wanted to read this Scripture to you. It’s in the passage in 1Timothy talking about widows. 1 Timothy 5:9: “Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old, having been the wife of one man.”

Now, what was happening here within this church? There were apparently many widows. Young Timothy didn’t know what to do with them all, so he asked Paul. Paul writes back to him and says, “All right. The women who are 60 years of age and over, they are the older women. If they’ve lived a certain lifestyle,” (and we’re going to read the lifestyle) “I want you to look after them. They can be cared for by the church. Now that’s if they have nobody to care for them, because if they have children or grandchildren, they must look after them.”

That is the Biblical principle, that families must care for their elderly. It comes down to children, and if the children are not able to do that, then the grandchildren. Families should take that responsibility, but here there were some who did not even have families. So, he said, “If they’ve lived this kind of lifestyle, I want you to look after them.

1 Timothy 5:10: “Well reported of for good works.” So, we’re going to read about these good works. “If she has brought up children.” It’s interesting that the Bible always puts everything in order. There’s nothing out of place. everything is in order, and the very first thing is, “If she has brought up children.” She’s embraced children. She’s raised children. This was her very first thing.

Now the word “brought up” is the Greek word teknotropheo, from two Greek words, teknon, which is “child,” and trepho, which means “to feed, to pamper with food, to nurture, to suckle.” It’s all about feeding. Interesting, isn’t it, dear mothers, that that is such a big part of our mothering. We’re always feeding. There’s breakfast, there’s lunch, there’s supper. And there’s the in-betweens. And they’re always hungry, so we’re always feeding.

But, OK, that’s part of bringing up children. Don’t despise it. Embrace it. It’s part of your mothering. A feeding anointing, that’s what we have to have as mothers. It’s a beautiful thing to serve our family with food.

But this Scripture carries on. Now we see the progression and the seasons of life of this woman. Because as her family is growing, she is reaching out more to people roundabout her. It says, “If she has lodged strangers.” She’s opened her home in hospitality.

Ladies, I found that my heart was for mothering, which was my number one, because that’s who I am. I am a mother. God created me to be a mother. But out of that, my greatest ministry as I was raising our children was hospitality. I mean, it’s just so wonderful, because there you are. You’re in your home. You’ve got a home. You’re cooking meals. OK, just reach out beyond to bless others. It is such a wonderful ministry you can have. You don’t even have to go outside your door! Goodness me! And you can touch so many lives!

It’s interesting. The other day, we had a guy living with us. He comes and goes, and lives with us off and on, and has done over the years. He was working for someone. It was an older lady. She was looking after her mother who was 100 years old. He was saying, “Yes, but once a week someone comes and bathes her for her so she can get out. She only gets out once a week.”

I thought to myself, “Wow, goodness me!” It’s quite amazing if I even go out once a week, because currently I don’t have a car. I borrowed it to someone, and it never came back. Anyway, so many times I don’t go outside this place. Wow, often more than a whole week.

And yet, do you know, I thought about that. I thought, “Goodness me. I don’t even notice.” I don’t even notice it, because I have so much to do and accomplish in my home. I have so many people coming and going. There are so many people to invite. I have so many on my list that I can never get through the whole list. I can never get lonely or feel that I am not fulfilled. I feel and think I’m going everywhere because I’ve got people all the time. So that’s amazing, isn’t it?

You know, you never have to be housebound. Never in your life! People say, “I’m housebound.” Oh, what a disgusting phrase! I don’t even believe in it. I can be in my home, but I never feel housebound, because the home is the greatest place to accomplish so many things! It’s a place where you can invite so many people that you would never even notice that you’re housebound. So, she opened her doors in hospitality.

It says: “If she has washed the saints’ feet.” That was hospitality too, because back in those Bible days, they walked the dusty roads in their sandals. No woman wants to see dusty feet walking all through her house so they would wash their feet if they came in the door. Often it was the lowly servant who washed their feet. But this woman, maybe she couldn’t afford servants. But she had such a big heart. She washed their feet herself. But that was to show hospitality. Washing feet is just to bring people into your home, to show hospitality.

Of course, if you’re going to show hospitality, you’ve got to cook. You’ve got to feed people. But remember it started: “If she has brought up children.” She’s been feeding children. As you’re raising children, and you’re feeding them, and you’re cooking meals, you’re getting so good at cooking that it’s nothing to cook for a few extra.

Then it says: “If she has relieved the afflicted.” And so, she’s reaching out to those who are needy. You see the picture of a mother. Her mothering keeps extending and enlarging and showing hospitality all through her life. This is the lifestyle, because God says, “If this woman, these women 60 years of age or over, have got no family, and that is this lifestyle, I want to reward them. I want you to care for them and make sure they’re provided by the church.” Isn’t that great?

Wendy: Oh, I love all of that. One thing about washing the feet, it seems like an older tradition, but really, I’ve done it for a lot of my friends, and ones in the hospital, several in their homes. It’s something that the first time was a little bit new, but after a while, you just focus on that other person.

I’ve got a thing for oil, and I just washed her feet, and then rubbed some essential oil into them. It’s just a good way to still serve others, even though it’s an older practice. It still can be modern day.

Nancy: Yes. You know, we were talking about other ideas of hospitality. There’re so many amazing things you can think about. Just be creative, ladies. There are so many people who need encouraging. I remember back in New Zealand days; I remember I got this burden. I was thinking about all the older people in our fellowship living on their own. Oh, I just loved to reach out to them. of course, I would often have older people to my table. But I decided to do something big.

I didn’t keep it to myself. I began to talk to all the other young mothers. I said, “Hey, let’s get together. Let’s see if we can put on this amazing dinner for all the older people.” Then it got beyond our homes. We asked if we could have this big room in the church. We began to put out the invitations. Every older person we knew, we even went to older people’s homes. We invited all these older people. We ended up with about 100 older people.

We all brought this food. You’ve never seen a feast like it. Everyone, all the mothers, we all got together. Well, we cooked in our own homes, but then we brought this food. I looked at this feast, and I thought, “Wow! These older people, they’re just hardly going to dent it. You know, they don’t usually eat very big." You wouldn’t believe it! They scoffed the lot! I don’t think I’ve ever seen such glorious food. It was such an amazing day.

I can remember another day. This was on the Gold Coast. “Oh, well, let’s do something special for the widows.” I often loved to have widows at my table. I believe it’s very important to reach out to those living on their own.

But once again, I talked to some of the other mothers. I said, “OK, let’s get together and do something beautiful for all the widows that we know.” So, we all together thought of every widow that was living on their own. We had it at our home. But we put on this great big luncheon. We just made all this beautiful food and invited them all.

Of course, they were so blessed. Not only did we feed them, of course, but amongst our children there were those who could sing, or recite, or play a musical instrument. We put on this little concert for them and gave a little word to them and little gifts to each one. It was such a blessing.

You can do these things. Sometimes they get bigger. Sometimes I would think of things, and my vision gets bigger than me. So then, I just include others to come in with me and do it together. It’s even more exciting.

Include your children in hospitality. When you have a family over, or you have widows or an older person over, you can not only feed them at your table, but you can bless them. Maybe your children play a musical instrument, or they sing, or they recite, or they’ve been learning memory verses. Get them to do it for them. These people will love it!

Oh, another thing I love is having young married couples over too. That’s a beautiful thing. Oh, I remember. I often do this on Shabbat. Every Friday evening, we keep Shabbat. We are not Jewish. But we do keep the Shabbat meal, because it is the most beautiful meal I think you can ever enjoy as a family, because it is a meal where the mother of the home is blessed.

The father reads Proverbs 31, and he blesses and encourages his wife in front of the family. Then he as the father blesses and encourages each one of the children around the table. It’s just so beautiful. You can read more about it. Go to my webpage and look up the Shabbat meal and read about it.

One night I decided we’d have a couple’s night. It was just the couples on the Hilltop. There were about five couples. We had a glorious meal together. Then it was time where each husband will bless and minister to his wife and say all the beautiful things he can think about her, which is so amazing.

Then the wife can reply and speak to her husband. I’ll never forget that night. everybody was. . . It was such beautiful things that were said. But I remember Charlie. And all of us girls, we always remember this night, because we always say how great it was. All we wished that our husbands had said that to us. But he was talking to Pearl, and of course Charlie dotes on his beautiful wife, Pearl. You all know Pearl from Trim Healthy Mama. I don’t think I know a husband who so dotes on his wife like Charlie does.  He just adores her.

But he said, maybe I haven’t got it perfect, because it was a few years ago. “If I could choose, and I was blessed to live another hundred years without Pearl, but I had the choice of only one day with Pearl, only one day more of my life, I would choose that one day with Pearl.” Isn’t that beautiful?

But I think you used to do things with marrieds too, didn’t you?

Wendy: Yes, we love to encourage marriage. I love hearing all the things you’ve done. It’s so edifying. One thing that we did was to have a marriage dinner. For several years in a row, on February 14, we would invite couples over. We’d try to mix and match the newly married with couples that have been married a long time.

We’d have about five or six couples over. We would recreate our wedding day. We would have a white runner come all the way up our steps and into our house. And have rose petals on there, and have everyone sign a guest book when they walked in. We would have a table with an official wedding cake made from a baker.

We asked everyone to bring their wedding photos, either an album or framed, whatever they wanted to share from their wedding day so that we could all look at each other’s and see the differences that have occurred over the years and get to know a little bit more about each other. Then we would have a five-course dinner.

Our children served us. It was so much fun. We would put together a quiz. Previously, before they came over, we would ask them to fill out this little survey and tell us the funniest thing that happened on their wedding day, or most unexpected, or the most surprising in the end. But like a survey of different odds and ends that people wouldn’t normally know.

Then my husband would put it together in his notes. So, we would all get to find out details about each other’s special days. And then just bless each other and celebrate our marriages and what God has done through each other as we conform to His image, seeing how God uses other people, specifically our mates to shape us. To see all the different blessings that come from that.

That’s one thing that we really enjoyed. If anyone could do anything even similar to that in your own personal special way, we highly encourage it.

Nancy: Yes! As you’re listening to us share some of these things, I know that God will be putting creative ideas in your heart and mine. You don’t have to do it exactly like we’ve been sharing, but just sparks off something creative you would like to do. I think it is a beautiful thing to reach out to married couples, because I believe in this hour, marriages need strengthening.

Oh my, there’s just so many marriages falling apart. I was just thinking this morning, marriage is God’s idea. It’s God’s plan. He’s the one Who designed it. Because He designed it, He designed it to work. It’s not meant to fall apart. It’s only sin that comes in. It’s the work of the devil that causes marriages to fall apart.

Now, I know that maybe I’m talking to some, and you are part of a marriage that did fall apart. Sometimes when one of the spouses just has given into the devil, and into sin, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it, which is so sad. But when we are willing to do it God’s way, it does work, because God designed it to work! But it only works when we do it biblically.

So, we do need to encourage one another in marriage. We don’t really hear very many messages at church on family or marriage, do we? I think we need to hear a few more.

Now, Wendy, I remember you telling me that when you meet an older couple, you always ask them a question. What is it?

Wendy: We have an opportunity to travel throughout the United States and go to many different places. I will seek out the older married couples there. I always ask a question. The question is, “What advice would you give to someone else to tell us how you have been able to keep your marriage going and lasting so long?”

I’ve heard different responses, but generally the few that are the most common are:

One. Communication. Make sure that you are communicating with each other. Work on that.

Number two is forgiveness. One lady, a sweet, sweet lady. I think they were married 60 years. She had said, “Every day I forget what my husband did the day before. So, each day is brand new.” I loved that. I really, really loved that. Remember the good things he did the day before but forget the bad. That’s been really encouraging to me to hear these things, seeing over and over from the couples that have been married so long.

Nancy: I love that. Forgiveness. I think forgiveness is such a big one. People can become stubborn in their unforgiveness. It’s just going to ruin their lives. Not only does it ruin their marriage, but it will ruin their life, and it will ruin their family’s life, and everybody’s life. Because unforgiveness, oh, it’s one of the most destroying things that we can ever hold onto in our lives. We have to let go and forgive. Often that’s the hardest thing to do, but we must forgive.

Jesus said we’re not even going to be forgiven ourselves if we don’t forgive. We have to keep forgiveness in our marriage.

Now, Wendy, what about your marriage? Tell me.

Wendy: Our marriage? We’ve been married 29 years. It’s been great. We met and were married within a year. Kevin is nine years older than me. We are opposites in a lot of ways. That has been something that has been challenging, but also strengthening, because God is made strong through our weaknesses.

Also, what I can see in our marriage is how He perfectly designs couples to complement each other, where my weaknesses are Kevin’s strengths, and what little weaknesses Kevin has, sometimes I’m stronger in. That’s been really fun to see how God uses different personalities to accomplish our goals of conforming to His image.

Nancy: I think sometimes you see couples, one is more outgoing, and one is quieter. They blend together. I’m not quite sure what happened with our marriage, because Colin and I are both outgoing and both strong. But somehow, we’ve managed to keep together as one and love one another more and more as the years have gone by. Even though we’re both strong in our convictions, we don’t even always agree, but as Colin says, “We don’t have to agree with one another. We just have to love one another.”

Wendy: Kevin has a thing that we don’t have to think alike. Just think together.

Nancy: That’s good! So good, isn’t it? Now, there were some other things that we were talking about that you wanted to. . . Oh, yes, we talked on one of the podcasts with Wendy about praying for your children. Some of you have already written in and asked for those links. If some of you want to yet, I’m happy to send them. Just send them to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. I can send you Wendy’s 20 points for praying for your children. I have a list of 23 points for praying for your children. It just gives you some encouragement there.

But you were sharing with me how you have different seasons throughout your life with your children. There’s when they’re little, and you’re praying different things when they’re little than when they’re getting older. Then they get older again, and there are different areas where you’re honing in in prayer. What’s your most honing-in prayer thing at the moment, Wendy?

Wendy: Nancy, I love your. . .  We had similar things on our list, and I love how yours were phrased and worded too. Right out of Scripture. It’s so good to see all the different ways that we’re praying for our children. It’s so encouraging to see all these ways that you can pray.

You make it more habitual. You make it to remind ourselves how essential it is. So, anything we can have in front of us. I take my list I have in my Bible to refresh and remind myself because there’re so many things to pray for.

Right now, I am concentrating on that they would love God’s Word. And they do love it, but I want them to fall in love with it more and more. God’s Word is His love letter to us. I want them to love His love letter. As I am praying for that, I remembered, we have Triple A, we call it. This is a quote from your book:

“The Attitude of your heart will determine

the Atmosphere of your home which will

Affect the actions of each member of your family.”

We have AAA roadside insurance, and this is like our Triple A culture Christ-like insurance in our home, that we are reflecting Christ in our attitude because that says each one of our attitudes affects each other. The more that we love God’s Word and love to do it, then the more that we’re going to be blessing each other, and serving each other, and living the way He wants us to.

Nancy: Amen. I think, another thing, as the children are getting older, they’re getting to go out and face the world. We have to pray so much for them to be strong and to stand. I remember when I was back in Australia, our children were in their late teens, going on to their twenties, out there facing the world. We were very close to the beach, right on the Pacific Ocean.

I used to walk down every morning. It was so great. I could walk the beach. The Pacific waves were pounding in, and nobody could hear me crying out. I could cry out aloud to the Lord to keep them in His will, and in His righteousness, and keep them from evil. Help them to stand strong and cry out for them. I would often do that for an hour, walking along the beach. That was where I prayed when I was on the Gold Coast of Australia. I think you, that’s something on your heart too, isn’t it, Wendy, is praying for courage and strength.

Wendy: Absolutely. Yes, especially, in our culture, as it gets darker, we need to be an even stronger light. I pray for our children to stand up for what’s right and have the courage, even if it means to stand alone. That is something that we have to take the first step in. God gives us the courage when He sees our willingness. It’s not something we can say, “Give us courage, and then I’ll do it.” We have to show God that is what our heart’s desire is, and then He will finish that.

There’s a quote that I read, “Faith is taking the first step, even when you can’t see the whole staircase.” And that’s basically been our life, that we always had to take that first step. And then God says, “OK, now I’ll show you the next step.”

We have been so centered on our following God that sometimes our convictions are different than other people’s, even in the Christian community. And that takes courage to stand alone too. If all Christians are going to see a movie, (and these are good Christians, they love God) we think, “No, this isn’t something that we think we should do.” To be able to stand firm in our hearts, knowing God is calling us this way, and we need to go a different direction.

Nancy: Amen! I am amazed that often many people know my standards of what I would go to see. Sometimes I’ve had, “Oh, well, Nancy, this is a very good movie, and I think you would like it.” I’ve actually gone, and I’ve been disgusted. I can’t believe how low the standard is in the Christian world of what we look at.

We rarely do go to a movie. But sometimes there is something that is wholesome and powerful, and there’s been some good Christian movies that have come out. Did you get to see the last “God’s Not Dead. We the People”? Wasn’t that good? Boy, they were really standing up for homeschooling and it was really very good.

But I love this Scripture. This is in the face of persecution. Daniel 11:32: “But the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits.” That’s the King James version. But actually, when you go to the Hebrew, you find the word “exploits” is not in the original! It just says, “But the people who know their God shall be strong and do.” I like that. That’s just as powerful, really.

Of course, there are other translations that say that “They will be strong and take action.” Some other translations say: “They will be strong and resist.” You know, we’re facing evil. We’re facing wickedness. We’re facing tyranny. Do we succumb to that? No. We stand strong, and we resist!

So, we’ve got to train our children to have this attitude, don’t we? To have this strength in this hour of such deception and delusion all around us, particularly at this time. It’s just an amazing time in our whole world. But I’m amazed at how it seems to be that there are more and more who are now standing up, who are beginning to see what is actually happening, and they are beginning to stand up and to resist.

But we have, as mothers, we are the ones to show our children the way. If we haven’t got strong convictions about what is evil and what is wrong, how are they going to have them? They have to see, in fact, we are to teach our children to discern between that which is evil, and that which is righteous, between that which is clean, and that which is unclean.

It shouldn’t be blurry. We’re raising our children to have that strong . . . they see clearly the difference. And they will stand against the evil. We’re to hate evil. We’re to abhor evil. Romans tells us that word “abhor” actually means “to shudder” at evil (Romans 12:9). That’s a huge thing, because it’s so easy to get used to things, isn’t it? Just get used to things.

We dare not let ourselves ever get used to abortion. We can even forget how terrible it is and that it’s murder. We have to keep strong in our hearts of what it is, so we will never, ever take it lightly.

We must never get used to homosexuality because the Bible says it’s an abomination.

We must never get used to transgenderism and all this evil because it’s so against God. We must resist! We must stand strong, and we must do that which God wants us to do. Amen?

And so, as we have these convictions, then our children will get them. If we’re all fluffy, and we don’t really know . . .  I was reading the other day. Someone asked a Christian a question. It was on an issue, and I thought, “Well, my answer would be, this is what the Bible says, and I’m against it!” But this Christian was saying, “Well, we don’t always know everybody’s circumstances. Really, we can’t take a strong stand.”

Oh, for goodness’ sake! If we can’t take a strong stand against evil, well, where are we going? It’s either one or the either. We belong to the kingdom of God, which is a kingdom of holiness, or the kingdom of Satan, which is a kingdom of death and destruction and evil! One or the other, isn’t it?

Wendy: Yes, knowing God’s Word is knowing God. And the more we know God, the more we know His will and His ways. So, it’s important to refresh ourselves with that every single day.

Nancy: Oh, yes! Which reminds me, we’ve got to stop. We’re coming to an end. We always come to an end too quickly. But you have a special way of reading the Bible in your family. Tell the ladies about it before we close.

Most of you know that we like to read The Daily Light on the Daily Path. Just Scriptures from all over the Bible on a different theme for each morning and each evening. We love that, although now, currently in the evening, we’re going through the book of Revelation, reading a chapter each night. Whoa, we are wowing ourselves every night as we read. Revelation is so powerful, isn’t it?

In fact, I have just read it through a couple of times myself. But somehow, when I’m hearing it aloud, wow! I’m just hearing things that, somehow, I didn’t hear when I was reading personally. Anyway, tell us what you do, Wendy.

Wendy: I love how everyone does the Bible differently for their family time. This is something we’ve been able to do in ours that we have so thoroughly enjoyed. We took the Moody Bible schedule for reading in a year. We’ve done it for the last 16 years. We’ve never missed a day. So, that looks different every day. It maybe not typical of what other people do, but we want to hear His spoken Word every day.

My husband being a teacher, he thought, “Oh, I’ll make quizzes for each of these Bible readings.” So, he came up with 365 quizzes. It’s over 4,000 questions. What it does is just facilitate the understanding that our children have when they’re reading it. Or discussion starters. We haven’t done the quizzes every single year, but it’s really been beneficial for us, and our children love to do it.

That’s something that gets us to read the Bible from cover to cover in a way that really seems to mean more. I’ve noticed that our children will bring up, sometimes stories that aren’t the most popular ones like Daniel in the lion’s den. It’s because they’re so familiar with the Bible. The passages in there, that it’s just part of them. Like God said, His Word never comes back void. So that is a part of them. God can use that in their life later on, whenever He needs to.

I also like, because we can do what’s called “flyover books” my husband calls them. Nahum isn’t something that people go to, to usually start their Bible time. It’s not one of the most popular books, but we get to read through all of those books. They’re all in the Bible for a reason, so we don’t want to miss anything.

Nancy: Amen! You’re giving your children the whole counsel of God. That’s about four chapters every day, isn’t it? That is so wonderful. I love it. It reminds me of a couple of things.

One time Colin and I were ministering in Europe, and we actually got on the boat. We usually fly over to Europe, but we’d been ministering in the UK, and we got a ship from UK to The Netherlands. These folks were there to meet us. We went back to their home. We'd been on the boat overnight. Then we arrived at their home for breakfast.

They had these little children around the table, and they were reading through the whole Bible. They would read through the Bible, and then they would start again. They were up to a chapter on all the begats. I was amazed. Here they were, the father was going through this chapter. “This one begat so-and-so, and this one begat so-and-so.” And he didn’t even leave one out. I was amazed. And these little children are just listening. I thought, “Wow, that’s faithfulness to the Word of God!” So, you would always include all the begats?

Wendy: We did. We probably totally butchered their names’ pronunciations, but we would say them. We were thinking to that person whose name is in the Bible, it’s probably really important to them. I’d love my name in the Bible for part of that genealogy.

Nancy: I know. I remember one preacher saying, “If your name was there, you would read it every day!” Yes. Oh, yes, that also reminds me of the book, Ten Peas in a Pod. Have you read that book?

Wendy: It’s one of our favorites.

Nancy: Yes. Oh, dear ladies, I’ve got this book in stock at here at Above Rubies. You can just go online to AboveRubies.org, and you can buy Ten Peas in a Pod. Well, it was written years ago. But it’s the most amazing story of this father who had a heart to preach. He gathered up his eight children, and they went right through USA and Canada, preaching everywhere, wherever God opened up the door.

But this man loved the Word of God. He was faithful to read it to his family. And it didn’t matter where he was, he would do it. So, wow. I have to confess, ladies, I’ve never got to what he did. But it’s worth reading about. Anyway, can you just hang on a little bit more? I’m overtime but let me tell you what happened.

He would read to his children for one hour after breakfast. Then, after lunch he would read to the children again for one hour. Then after supper, he would also read to the children for another hour. Three hours of hearing the Word of God. And as the children got older, he would encourage them to have their own quiet time, and to have their reading of the Word before they got up for breakfast. So, they were encouraged to have an hour before they got up. That’s four hours in the Word!

Well, consequently, these children grew up totally knowing the Word. Most of them could recite the whole New Testament verbatim, and many chapters of the Old Testament. But there was one thing I read in this book that really was quite amazing. It was the oldest son who actually wrote the book. He has been to our home. We sat together in this very lounge and talked. It was so beautiful to talk with him. I was able to ask, “How has this lived out in your lives?” He was able to share, how in all the family, the Word has produced such blessing. Now they’re having grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

But anyway, he said that many times, they would be staying with Christian families as they were preaching in a certain church. Each time the father would always say to the host and hostess, he would say, “Now I love to read God’s Word to my family after the meal. Would you be happy for me to do this?” And they’d say, “Yes, yes, of course! Yes!” I mean, they were a Christian home.

But then he would also ask another question. “Would you like to join us?” Did you know that the answer was no one ever joined them “Oh, you just go ahead. We’ve got things to do.” And these were Christian homes. Isn’t that amazing?

But that’s always been a great challenge to me. Oh, you’ll love the book. It’s also a great adventure, all their adventures.

But let’s pray, shall we?

“Oh, dear loving and heavenly Father, we love You. We love Your Word. We love Your ways. Lord God, please draw us closer to You, closer to Your heart, closer to Your ways and Your desires, the way You’ve planned for us to live. In our marriages, in our homes, in our families. Draw us more into Your heart and into your ways. We ask in the precious Name of Jesus. Amen.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell * www.aboverubies.org

Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

NEW ABOVE RUBIES MAGAZINE

The new Above rubies magazine, #99 printing. Look out for it coming. If you are not on the mailing list, send your name and address to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we will be happy to send it to you.

 

BIBLE QIZZES FOR EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR

Wendy and her husband are happy to make available to you all the quizzes he prepared for every day of the year as they read God’s Word. There are 365 quizzes with over 4,000 questions. You’ll never run out of questions to help teach your children from every chapter I the Bible.

You can download them by going to:

https://fa15989f-b43a-4c89-aae6-1d95bb78d494.usrfiles.com/archives/fa1598_0d479bc9784948f1a80870767b6daefa.zip

This will download in all browsers except Duck Duck Go. 

TEN P’S IN A POD

A Million-Mile Journal of the Arnold Pent Family

By Arnold Pent III

I mention this book in this post. I know you will love to read it if you haven’t already. I love this book. It is the story of the million-mile journey of Arnold Pent, Jr. and his wife and eight children as they travelled through US and Canada together. The father preached along the way. But no matter where they were, or whoever they stayed with, they never gave up their practice of daily Bible reading and memorization. It will inspire you like no other book to begin reading God’s Word together as a family, but it is also a great adventure

The author of this book wrote it when he was 21 years old and it is still popular today Recently my husband I enjoyed meeting this wonderful couple in our home and he testified of not only the impact of the Word in his own life as a child but in the following generations. This habit is now continuing with his grandchildren.

Go to: https://tinyurl.com/10PsBook

WHAT DO PEOPLE SAY?

“TEN P’S IN A POD should be required reading. I still count it among one of the handful of most important books I have ever read.” 

~ Andrée Seu Peterson, World Magazine Columnist

 

“Your book is a breath of fresh air.”

 

“In a society where the Bible is rarely read, even in Christian homes, this book should be necessary (but enjoyable) reading for EVERY Christian family.”

 

 “How this husband and wife were able to take a family of eight children across both the United States and Canada throughout the 1950s and early 1960s in various old cars is a story worth reading.” 

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