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Tea and Talk with Friends - is a wonderful afternoon read, although one could spend hours pouring over each line of poetry. It is incredible that so much deep thought can be transcribed in so few words. Anyone with log and appreciation for relationships of all kinds will enjoy the heartwarming stories told by both authors.

Mountain Mutts - El cuento de Joy (Spanish version)Mountain Mutts-Joy's Tale is an award-winning picture book for children ages 4-11. Parents and teachers will appreciate the universal themes of friendship, death, tolerance, helping others, and the excitement of learning to do something difficult.Winter, Spring, and Joy are the names of the dogs in the story. Words along with colorful photographs bring the dogs and the mountain setting to life showing the pain of loss Spring feels when Winter dies, Spring's emotions when a new puppy comes into the home, and how puppy Joy ultimately wins reluctant Spring's friendship.Stephens is an award-winning author and photographer living in the mountains with her husband and dogs. https://julie-stephens.com/

The sacred stories of the Holy Scriptures are of immeasurable value. They carry the message of the Good News, that God sent his only Son into the world to be our Savior. These sacred stories contain intrinsic power within themselves to convey their message directly into the heart. Handle carefully, they are alive and give life!Telling the sacred story begins at home, for the child's first teacher is their parent and their first textbook is the Bible. "Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 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. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that the LORD swore to give your forefathers, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth." (Deuteronomy 11:18-21) As the body of Christ the Church also shoulders the responsibility of teaching these truths. In some traditions the baptismal service includes a question to the congregation, "Will you who witness these vows do all in your power to support these persons in their life in Christ?" The answer is clear and strong, "We will!"The sacred stories are not being told to our children. The prophet Hosea writes, "my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge." (Hosea 4:6) Only a single generation sustains the transmission of our faith and it is our responsibility to tell our children. Our Lord said, "...when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8) Our purpose is clear; our mission is right; we have been given the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us, therefore we cannot delay. Tell the Good News! The Kingdom of God is here and now! Change your mind and believe the Gospel. Amen."Bible Plays for Children" provide another way communicating the sacred stories to our children. Hearing the story or reading the text has tremendous value and cannot be diminished in any way, however acting out a story takes the message even further into the heart. Children learn by imitation and are innately capable of role-play. A child with a toy truck becomes a firefighter or with a small doll assumes the role of a caregiver or with a simple stick becomes a major league baseball player.In the time and space provided by most churches for Christian Education there is a unique opportunity to communicate with our children the sacred stories of Scripture. Within the environment of a normal classroom, simple props and imagination can transport the child to a manger in Bethlehem, Jesus feeding the 5000, being with Lazarus in the grave and knowing that Jesus is no longer in the tomb but alive again and forevermore. The capacity for learning while acting out the story cannot be overemphasized. It is a powerful teaching tool. Children learn by doing.

Mountain Mutts-Joy's Tale is an award-winning picture book for children ages 4-11. Parents and teachers will appreciate the universal themes of friendship, death, tolerance, helping others, and the excitement of learning to do something difficult.Winter, Spring, and Joy are the names of the dogs in the story. Words along with colorful photographs bring the dogs and the mountain setting to life showing the pain of loss Spring feels when Winter dies, Spring's emotions when a new puppy comes into the home, and how puppy Joy ultimately wins reluctant Spring's friendship.Stephens is an award-winning author and photographer living in the mountains with her husband and dogs. https://julie-stephens.com/

The San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado are among the least known and least visited of the Colorado Rockies, yet they are thought by many, especially those who live here, to be the most beautiful and serene. It is against this backdrop that Candy Beebe and Julie Stephens present Mountain Devotional. In a time that American Christianity seems focused on large churches seating thousands, the authors take us along on quiet adventures far from crowds and traffic and even roads. Centered in the USGA-designated most remote country in the lower 48 they lead us toward a sense of prayer and peace that Jesus must have felt when he climbed, often alone, toward a special experience of the Holy.While Jesus was hardly a 'mountain man' in the modern sense, his attraction to them almost reminds one of John Muir's well-known quotes, "The mountains are calling and I must go." What called Jesus to these special places? And may it, if we listen closely, call us as well?Often, Jesus led his disciples to a mountain. At the conclusion of his earthly ministry they went on their own to a mountain "...to which Jesus had directed them." There they encountered him.In this devotional, though they may at first seem to be simply about a bear or rocks or birds or sky, we too may encounter the Lord himself. That is the purpose, after all, of Mountain Devotional.Ed NettletonLake City, Colorado May 2013