I'm Really Excited About This One! Mood: bright Topic: Favorite Links
I remember when my parents would join a book of the month or record of the month club for me. I would wait excitedly for the next delivery. I enjoyed the books, records, etc. that I got, but I would have loved this club. KraftyKid is a craft of the month club where you can choose how many times a month that you recieve a craft, what type of craft, even if it's for a preschooler or older child. Everything is sent to you in the mail. No more hunting around for an age appropriate craft and then trying to gather all of the materials. KraftyKid is a Christian company, so you can choose all Bible crafts or regular crafts, and you can be assured that there will be no objectionable crafts that will be sent to you. You can unsubsribe at any time, and they have trial kits that you can order. There are also some kits that you can buy individually if you don't want to join one of their clubs. You can even sign up for their free monthly, printable crafts sent to you by email. We have started to do a lot of crafts as a family, and are very excited about the Family Advent night crafts that we are going to do. I'm thinking about subscribing to one of KraftyKid's craft clubs and having family craft nights all throughout the year! It looks like they would make great Christmas gifts as well. What about for grandma and grandpa for when the kids come for a visit. Or for your favorite babysitter. Or...well, you get the idea. Have Fun!
Has It Been 11 Days Since My Last Post? Topic: Favorite Links
I am so sorry! Not that a ton of people read my blog, mind you, but for the faithful few that do, I apologize for not posting something new lately. Things have been hectic of late. If you want to read some exciting things about what is going on here at Good News Mission, click on our Prayer Letter link to the left and read our latest. All of our prayer letters are written by Sarah, my wife, and I think she does a great job. If you aren't on our email list and would like to receive our Prayer Letters, leave us a comment with your email address, or contact us at tink38570@yahoo.com and we'll put you on the list.
Have you ever heard the expression "If it were a snake it would have bit you?" Well that expression would have fit me perfectly the other day. I receive a homeschool newsletter once a week and one of the contributors is Todd Wilson, a homeschool dad. I had read his contributions before but had not really paid any attention to anything else. Well, I was doing a search for Christian Thanksgiving stories, and what should turn up, but the Familyman Ministries site. Familyman Ministries is a great site primarily for Dads written by (you guessed it) Todd Wilson. There had been a link to his web site in the homeschool newsletter every week, but I had never clicked on it. DUH!
Anyway, Todd's site is great. He has a lot of suggestions on how Dads can spend valuable, Christian, time with their families. One of the things he does every year is have Family Advent Nights during the Christmas season. I liked the idea so much that the Tinkels are going to start the Family Advent Night tradition this year. And, this is all Dad's doing. I'm not enlisting Mom's help for anything. I'm doing all the planning myself. Todd's site lists everything that you need to do, and even sells advent craft kits to go along with it. The NOEL window hang shown above is one of the crafts. The kits aren't very expensive, but our meager budget isn't going to allow us to buy them this year. I have asked a crafty friend to help with that part of the planning. I wanted to let you all know about it in time for you to possibly start the tradition with your family as well. Write and let me know how it went, and I'll let you know how ours went in a future blog.
It's official! We are now Vision Forum affiliates! I have told you about Vision Forum in the past, but now, if you click on Vision Forum any where on our blog and end up purchasing from them, you will not only benefit yourselves by buying good, wholesome family products, but you will benefit us as well. Many of you have supported us financially over the years, and many more of you have pledged to pray for us regularly. Some of you have wanted to support us financially, but have not been able. Now there is a way that you can support us and do your Christmas shopping at the same time! Hopefully there will be other companies that we will be affiliating with soon, so check back regularly. I give you my pledge, that any company that we affiliate with will have family oriented products that you can feel safe in buying. Thanks for all of your help and support.
The other day, I put out the request for others to send in their blogs, and I got an immediate response - from my own son! For those of you who may not know the Tinkel family, we have three children, John Allen - 12, Joshua - 7 and Jacob - 2. I thought that this would be a good homeschool project and John Allen heartily agreed. I was really pleased at how he stepped up right to the plate and got started. So here it is -John Allen's Blog . You can either press on it here, or go to the new section to the left in "My Favorite Blogs". Check it out and check it often. I'm very proud of him and he'll be writing more soon.
Another blog that I am adding, really isn't a blog at all. It's a link to our prayer letters. Most of you know that Sarah and I are full time missionaries. We run a small mission called "Good News Mission" near the low income housing area in the town that we live in. Our town is very small, so it's nothing like the projects in big cities, but, nevertheless, the people here need the Lord just like the people in the larger towns. I will be blogging about what we do and the things that happen around here frequently but check out our newsletters as well. Sarah writes most of our letters, so you will get a different perspective of things . Just click on Prayer Letters to the left under the "My Favorite Blogs".
I'm still looking for other bloggers to send in their blog and give permission to post them. Just send an email or post a comment. Hope you all enjoy the links so far.
Vision Forum Mood: a-ok Now Playing: Vision Forum Topic: Favorite Links
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As I mentioned in my first post, one ofA the goals of this blog is to strengthen families. I can think of no better company that promotes family unity than Vision Forum. Vision Forum, Vision Forum, is a Christian company that not only promotes family values through its books, media, and toys, but also believes strongly in remembering the Godly heritage of our country.
Two years ago John Allen and I had the greatest time participating in the Jamestown400 Treasure Hunt. Vision Forum developed a very elaborate hunt that began with the "Mystery of the Vision Forum" catalog, that lead to secret websites and eventually a physical hunt in the Jamestown, Yorktown, Williamsburg triangle for the top 100 sleuths. Along the way, we had to solve elaborate codes and learn a slew of history that was all intermingled in a complex plot. We loved it! We were blessed to be in the top 100, but were unable to go to Jamestown for the final hunt. They have some type of hunt every year (although usually not as big as the Jamestown hunt)A and this year is no exception. It doesn't appear that this year's hunt is a big one, but we aren't sure yet! There's still time to get involved - why don't you order a free catalog and join the fun.
John Allen isn't the only Tinkel child that enjoys Vision Forum though. Joshua and Jacob love the special promotional videos they have for some of their products. Check out this one for their new remote controlled amphibious tank http://www.visionforum.com/hottopics/blogs/dwp/2008/10/4426.aspxA .A Anyone who wants to purchase that as a Christmas gift for the kids (especially little Timmy!) is welcome to have it drop shipped right to us!
Vision Forum also runs www.Behemoth.com where you can download Christian music, videos, audio books and more. They have specials daily where you can download something for free. Unfortunately, you need a credit card to register. Sarah and I tore up our credit cards a few years ago so we haven't been able to take advantage of any of the freebies yet.
Of course, most companies aren't totally perfect. There are some religious views that Vision Forum has that I don't completely agree with, but those are few and far between and minor. Check out their website and let me know what you think. If you should decide to order, I am hoping to become an affiliate soon, so please use the link on my page before ordering. We could always use the extra money.
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