Sharing Truth
In Deuteronomy 11, the Lord, through Moses, urges the people, concerning his commandments: “Fix them in your hearts and minds. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”
This isn’t an “if you like” suggestion. The words are so familiar that they can wash over us. But it seems to me that it is deadly serious.
So many voices are coming at our children from every side. We are so busy. They have other interests. But they are being seduced away…
Could there be anything more important than to help them understand the good news, and what it means for them and us? And I’m not just talking about our own children – we are called to go into all the world… Jesus doesn’t want any of the little ones to perish.
I wish I’d had Dernier books and the discussion questions back when my children were small, and I was a youth club leader. I prayed with them and read Bible stories, but we could have gone so much deeper sharing life stories, discussing issues… and so much more, as we walked along the road together.
Don’t miss out – buy a book today for a child on your heart, download the discussion questions and get talking.
Jo read Rebecca and Jade: Choices at the same time as her fifteen-year-old daughter. She said, “I thought Becca’s journey to finding her own relationship with Jesus was brilliantly covered. The book also gave me a good opportunity to open up the subject of abortion with Abi and we had a really good chat.”
If you want to fulfill your responsibility and draw closer to your children, 1. choose your book, 2. download the questions and 3. get started!
Discussion Questions
Most of our books have online discussion questions now. The latest addition is London’s Gone (with grateful thanks to Brenda Lord for her wisdom and help). Beech Bank Girls questions coming up next! Please pray as we finish up this task, because it takes a lot of careful thought. We need the questions to be suitable for use in a school/non-church environment as well as in Christian families, so we need to be sensitive, as well as making sure we’re covering the vital points in each story.
Caroline used the Deepest Darkness discussion questions when reading the book with her nine-year-old son, Jaidon. She said, “They started some good questions and I was able to answer with examples from the book in a way that helped my son understand and relate to real life. He suffers from low self-esteem and anxieties. I was able to use Abi’s experiences of overcoming her fears, to try to get him to see how he might overcome or build upon small steps like Abi did.”
Good, isn’t it? Let’s pray for Jaidon, and for so many other children like him, who are reading our books today, and finding a gem of truth to draw them closer to God with, or without support.
Prayer Support
Prayer is so vital! When I first set up Dernier, I used to have a wonderful group of people who prayed for Dernier and the work we do, but when I moved house (seven years ago now!), it gradually fizzled out. My fault entirely. I’d really, really like to set up a new email prayer group. Prayer is so key to all we do for the children – there’s a battle on, and we need to fight in numbers! If you’d like to be a prayer supporter, I would be so grateful. Just reply to this email and I’ll set up a new group.
Audio Books
This is so exciting! All our books have now been uploaded to various distributors of audio books, and one by one they should become available within the next 40 days to download online all over the world. This is brilliant, because they can reach a whole new audience – children who don’t enjoy reading, and for families to listen to together. Kids love to listen to stuff on their phones – what could be better than a Christian book? 🙂
At the time of writing, only A New Me, A Pennyworth of Peppermints, Revenge of the Flying Carpet and Beech Bank Girls, Every Girl Has A Story are available, but this list will grow!
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There are two ways you can buy the audiobooks:
1. You can join a subscription programme, such as Amazon’s audible programme. Here’s the link to join (with A New Me in your free month’s trial).
2. You can buy the book alone from Google Play. For example, here’s the link to A Pennyworth of Peppermints.
If you try one out, please do leave a review!
Are You Running a Club or Camp?
If your church is running a camp or club this summer and you’d like to give away books, email me for quantity discounts (just reply to this email). Books keep the message going after the event is over – and whole families might read them. We know of one instance where a mum started going to church after reading her son’s book… and became a Christian after hearing the preacher.
The Dernier Website
I’m in the process of re-vamping the website – would you mind taking a look? Is there anything you like or don’t like? Or that doesn’t work on your mobile or tablet? Anything I’m missing that would make it simpler for people to choose and buy books? Thanks in advance for your help. 🙂 You don’t have to buy from our website, of course! You can buy all our books from Christian bookshops, so if you have one in your area, do support them.
I think that’s it for this month! Thanks so much for all your support and encouragement. Do pass on this letter to a friend – we need to keep “enlarging the place of our tent”. 🙂
Have a wonderful July,
Janet
P.S. In case you’re in a hurry and have skimmed, here are the essentials:
* Some of our books are now available on audio for your kids to listen to on their phones
* You can download discussion questions from our website to help you and your children get the most from the books
* Reply to this email if you’d like to be a Dernier prayer supporter
* Contact me for quantity discounts of books for summer clubs and camps.
And if you were forwarded this from a friend, you can subscribe here. 🙂