Hear Ye, Hear Ye!

Adam Sabados, the Digital Media Coordinator for Tyndale House Publishers, just sent me an email letting me know about a great new contest from the New Living Translation Bible. Here's the scoop according to Adam:

The New Living Translation is sponsoring a contest that highlights three very important ministries: Wycliffe Bible Translators, Oasis International, and The Dream Center, (click on the link to learn more details about these ministries) and by voting for one of these ministries you’ll be entered to win one of many prizes. To enter, visit the NLT Facebook page by clicking here.

With the Give the Word Bible Contest and Giveaway:


• Ministries win: Each time the NLT Facebook Page reaches a fan count milestone, votes will be tallied and the three ministries will receive cash donations from the New Living Translation and Tyndale House Publishers.

• Everyone wins: Everyone who enters on the Bible Contest website wins a free download of Matthew West reading the Christmas story.

• Daily NLT Study Bible winners: Vote on the NLT Facebook page and you will be entered to win two NLT Study Bibles—one to keep and one to give away. A new winner will be chosen every day.

• Weekly Give the Word Locally winners: Tell us about a deserving local ministry on the NLT Bible Contest website and they could win five NLT Study Bibles and $250 worth of NLT products.

• One Grand Prize winner will enjoy a unique trip customized just for them and their family (or three guests of their choice), to Wycliffe Bible Translators world headquarters and the WordSpring Discovery Center where they will experience firsthand the exciting world of Bible translation. The Grand Prize winner could also choose to donate the value of the trip--$2000--to Wycliffe instead.

Take a minute to click over to find out about the contest and about the three ministries spotlighted and to the NLT's Facebook page. You might even win a prize!

Our Jesse Tree...

This year, the G-Man and I are enjoying a new activity that I hope will become a yearly tradition. After finding Ann Voskamp's blog "A Holy Experience", I decided to put together a Jesse Tree. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Jesse Tree, it is an Advent-long family activity that counts down the days until Christmas with lessons and stories from the Old Testament, each one pointing to the coming Messiah.

From the first day, the G-Man was on board and excited! In fact, it was a struggle for him to do just one story and ornament a day.  He could have done the whole thing in one sitting!  As soon as we started, however, I noticed that the text was written a bit above his 6 year-old understanding. I didn't have to worry, though. As soon as he heard the scripture text (the Creation), he remembered reading about it in one of his Bible storybooks:

He ran to get it and wanted to read that part in his book.  We've continued this each night; I read the scripture text and he reads from his book (so far we've only found one lesson that isn't in his book). He gets to place the ornament on the tree, and to see little by little the reason for the Messiah. 

There are many other sites with information and ornament ideas for a Jesse Tree. Here are just a few:

http://www.crivoice.org/jesse.html

http://www.eriercd.org/jessetree.htm

http://www.shalfleet.net/advent/makeajessetree.htm

Here is a blog post about a Jesse Tree Ornament party that the author attended. There are some great pictures of the ornaments that the ladies made: http://beentherelearnedthat.blogspot.com/2009/12/jesse-tree-ornament-exchange-part-2.html

For a copy of Ann's free book with daily lessons and ornaments to copy and cut out, click here.