Word of Promise - Audio Book Review

The Following is an Audio Book Review for the Thomas Nelson Book Publisher website. Thomas Nelson provided me with a complimentary copy of this audio book for reviewing purposes, and I have actually had this book for a VERY LONG TIME, and am beyond way overdue on this review. To be honest, I sort of forgot it existed until I was cleaning out my office and found the cd's and remembered I'd already reviewed it,but never posted it, so....without further ado:

The book:

The Word of Promise: Next Generation New Testament Audio Youth Edition. Finally the entire New Testament is ready for the wired generation! Now you can get into the Word as never before with this highly dramatized recording of the New Testament. The accomplished cast includes Sean Astin as the Narrator, AnnaSophia Rob as Mary Magdalene, Marshall Allman as Paul, Emily Osment as Mary, Mother of Jesus, Cody Linley as Jesus, Jordin Sparks as Elizabeth, Corbin Bleu as Peter, and many others. Set includes a bonus Behind-the-Scenes DVD with cast interviews, recording sessions, and more! Get the kids something that will be uniquely theirs!

The Word of Promise is a New Testament Audio Bible, dramatized by an all−star cast of actors, including Jim Caviezel as Jesus, with Marisa Tomei, Louis Gossett Jr., and many more. This audio Bible is produced with state of the art audio technology, including sound effects and an original musical score. This is a new experience in audio Bibles like none before. Take a listen today!


My Review:

Tell me, how does one review an Audio Bible? I mean, it’s not like I can dissect the story lines and criticize or praise them. That just feels wrong. It’s the Bible! As I sit here staring at a blank page I’m beginning to question the wiseness of my choice of “The Word of Promise: next Generation” as my review book of choice for Thomas Nelson Publishers. It seemed like a good idea at the time, after all, I’m a fan of audio books, I’m a Christian, and I’m a youth leader, this seemed like the perfect project to delve into. But doing the actual review? Well, that’s been a bit more challenging.

Yet, here’s the thing, I absolutely loved this audio book. I think the idea is ingenious, and the execution was fantastic.

The Word of Promise: Next Generation is the New Testament in Audio, the Youth Edition. From the Thomas Nelson Publishers website: Now the entire New Testament is ready for the Wired Generation.
Today's youth ingest media at a faster rate than any previous generation. And they can't get enough! The Word of Promise: Next Generation - New Testament is the perfect way for young multi-taskers to absorb Scripture. This ambitious recording makes the Word accessible to more kids than ever before.

This audio book is not just an out-loud reading of the Bible, it is an all-out dramatization of the gospels and stories we, as Christians, have grown up listening to. Dramatized by an all-star cast of some of hollywood’s most promising up and coming young stars, it is enganging, entertaining, and inspiring. Narrated by Sean Astin (of Lord Of The Rings fame), and starring Cody Linley as Jesus, Jordin Sparks as Elizabeth, Corbin Bleu as Peter, and Anna Sophia Rob as Mary Magdalene, among others, it is an inspired and engaging retelling of the one book we should hope all our youth have a chance to read (or hear), regardless of their faith. The actors do a wonderful job of capturing the emotions and nuances of the stories, and a soundtrack of Hollywood special effects adds just the right amount of atmosphere and realism to pull the listener into the world. Wind, water, birds and background noises which serve to make the telling not just a reading, but a living prayer.

As a youth leader myself, I was excited to get my hands on this audio book because I wanted to see if it was something I could utilize with the group of teens at my church. Would it be enganging enough, interesting enough to play for them at meetings, to have them hear a bit of “the word” and not lose their interest? In this day and age of technology, flashiness and blockbuster movies, it is easy for a book such as the bible, written in language not entirely accessible to the “texting” generation, to come across as boring, irrelevant, and not at all something our teens have the slightest interest in delving into. So as youth leaders, we are constantly looking for new ways to introduce the teens to the bible. This, in my opinion, is a fantastic option.

I’ll be honest, I myself am guilty of the lack of attention span necessary for traditional bible reading. And being an avid reader, if I can’t do it, then I can easily see how a teenager who doesn’t like to read can easily be distracted. But I took this audio book on my mp3 player with me everywhere, and whether I was on the elliptical at the gym, or stuck in traffic in my car, I was able to follow along and get pulled into the words. Some of the stories that perhaps had not always made sense to me or “reached me” on paper, suddenly came to life and grabbed me. I was there, with the characters, and it was a beautiful thing.

I am very much looking forward to utilizing this audio book as a learning and prayer tool with the youth in my group.

The book comes with a plan to read the entire new testament in 40 days. It is a plan I plan on somehow incorporating into some sort of bible study with the youth, and one I believe they will not only accept, but enjoy and embrace.

If you have young kids, tweens, or teens in your house or group, I highly recommend this book to you. And even if you don’t, check it out for yourself, you won’t be disappointed.

Picture It Outside of the Box - 5 - Shoot Up A Tree

It's been a few weeks since I've done one of Secret Agent Mama's "Picture It Outside The Box" challenges...but here I go.

This week's Challenge is "Shoot Up A Tree", and it is...basically what it sounds like.

Shooting UP at a tree is actually something I love to do...you get such interesting perspectives when you do that.

I have several photos in my files like these:

So, it was hard to pick just one...But for this challenge, I decided to go with this one:

How about you? Wanna shoot up a tree?

NaBloPoMo 2010 - DONE

And here we are. November 30th. The end of National blog Posting Month, and I DID IT. I posted every day this month.

I'm pretty excited about this, because my poor blog had been so neglected lately, and now it's alive again!

AND even better, I've got my blog mojo back.

They say it takes 21 days to break or make a habit. After 30 days of posting daily...hopefully, this is the beginning of a new habit.

Perhaps I won't post every single day from now on, but if I can at least post most days, I'll be thrilled.

So...on to December then!

Congrats to all the other NaBloPoMoers, and also to those who attempted it, even if they didn't fully complete it.

GO US!

Popinjay - Fake

I spent this weekend working a Catholic youth retreat. I have been involved with these retreats since I went on one myself 19 years ago...NINETEEN YEARS. Wow...

Preparations for this retreat began months ago. It involves a lot of time, sacrifice and hard work. It involves a lot of prayer. It involves a lot of love.

Every year, as the preparations are happening, there is a mixture of anticipation and "why do I always do this to myself?" ;-) But I know why, I always know why.

I spent the weekend with my closest friends, my faith family, and with an amazing group of young kids. I'll tell you right now that whatever society wants us to believe about teenagers today, they haven't looked hard enough at these kids. They haven't given them a chance. I work with youth a lot and again and again I'm reminded that "kids today" are amazing. They are intelligent, and caring and loving, and amazing.

I spent the weekend with God.

I came home recharged, filled with love and awe, and hope.

There was nothing Fake about this weekend...

Except for the tattoos...

Those were fake. ;-)

Pop on over to Michelle's to see what kind of fake things others are picturing this week...

Blog Redux - 200 Things Part 2

As promised, 50 more things about me: (a reminder, this post was originally written in 2007, any updates are in parenthesis)...enjoy!

51. I have had the good, the bad, and the ugly of jobs in my life. I'm glad at I'm at a "good" one right now.


52. My first job ever was the same as most teenage girls, I babysat. I babysat a little girl who's name I can't remember, but I remember her parents were named Robert and Roberta...


53. I also babysat Damian himself. A next door neighbor who was so wild that it's a wonder he didn't kill himself or anyone else during his childhood. Seriously, he was out of control.


54. I have since found out that Damian had entered the Army and is now an upstanding member of society, doing fairly well for himself. I'm glad to hear that, I always thought he'd end up in jail for arson.


55. Damian's father hired me one summer to help "clean" his house. I spent the better part of three months trying to find the floor in his office, which was buried under about 4 feet of paperwork. I never did reach ground level.


56. He was a college professor, a freakin' genius, but eccentric is putting it mildly. Still, I liked the guy.


57. My first real job, where taxes were actually taken out, was at McDonald's.


58. My boss at McDonald's was a little rat guy who everyone hated, but since he worked days and us "high school" kids worked nights, we didn't have to deal with him that much. We had a lot of fun working there.


59. After McDonald's I got a job working for a record store called Coconuts Music and Movies. I was a shift manager, and really enjoyed the perks of that job.


60. My cd collection is upwards of 500 cd's, but most of those are from all those years ago when I worked at the music store. Record label reps gave me a lot of free music while I worked there.


61. I quit that job when I found out my manager (another rat like little bastard) was keeping from his employees the truth that the store would be closing in a few weeks, and they'd all be out of a job. He had a bunch of college kids trying to pay tuition working for him, and I felt this was inconsiderate, so I told him to take my job and shove it.


62. That was the only time in my life that I quit a job without another job lined up.


63. The very next day I walked around the mall asking for applications and was hired on the spot at a book store.


64. I loved my job as shift supervisor at the bookstore, and boy, those perks were even better for a book lover like me.


65. My manager at the bookstore, is, to this day, one of my favorite bosses ever.


66. I kept that job through college, while working work-study jobs, and temp jobs during the summers.


67. One of my temp jobs was for a company that "scored" standardized tests for elementary and high schools throughout the country. Our job was to sit and read the responses to the "essay" portions of these tests and give them a "grade" based on a scale.


68. Besides being boring as hell, this was one of the most depressing jobs I ever held, because it was trully sad to see how undereducated some parts of our country are. When you can't distinguish a 9th grader's essay from a first grader's essay, you know something isn't quite right.


69. When the bookstore I worked for went out of business, I got a part time job at a lawfirm in Boston,where I was promised a full time position upon graduation.


70. I worked at that firm for about 2 years after graduation, doing a semi-paralegal, but mostly "office manager" type job.


71. There was a whole lot of controversy with that firm when half the lawyers and paralegals up and left in the middle of the night one night, taking their case files with them, and opening up a new firm.


72. I was not in that department, and was therefore, left behind. However, the day I came in to discover everyone had flown the coop, was also the day I was coming in to give my notice, because I had gotten a new job.


73. My boss at that firm was the coolest guy ever, and I've used him as a reference for every job I've had since. He keeps asking me to come back and work for him.


74. My next job was as a paralegal in a firm that represented mostly landlords and property management companies, and we handled all their eviction work.


75. Horrible as it sounds, I loved that job. Evicting people isn't so bad when you realize that their share of subsidized rent is about $8 a month, and they'd rather spend that on getting their nails done or buying designer jeans.


76. I had great relationships with our clients, and enjoyed how much responsibility this job offered me. But my boss was crazy with a capital C...she once threw a stapler across the room, missing me by mere inches, because there were no staples in it.


77. I lasted at that job for about 3 years before I realized that if I stayed any longer I was going to go crazy myself, so I quit.


78. My next job was as a paralegal and yet another Boston firm, but nothing very exciting ever happened at that job. I was mostly a glorified file clerk. A very overpaid, glorified file clerk.


79. I left that job both because I was bored silly, and because I didn't want to work in Boston anymore. That's when I came to "The Firm". ("The Firm" was the job I had when I wrote this post...I no longer work there, I now work as an executive assistant to the president of a credit union, a MUCH BETTER job).


80. At one point, about 2 years ago, The Firm almost went under, and more than half our work-force was laid off. If you haven't noticed, I've closed down 3 business already, and was afraid my curse had followed me here. (The music store, the book store, and the firm where half flew the coop). But thankfully, we're still here. (I was eventually laid off from my job because their financial troubles continued, but I just recently heard that they are still in business, and doing fairly well for themselves again).


81. I also had a direct sales job for about 3 years, working for The Body Shop at Home. I really loved that job, but quit a few years back, because I just don't have the networking capabilities needed for something like that anymore.


82. Now that I've completely bored you with my employment history, let's talk about something more fun. How about boys?


83. I was a late bloomer, not having my first boyfriend or kiss until I was in high school.


84. High school was tough for me, in a lot of ways, including "boys", but now that I look back on it I realize I actually had more fun than I realized I was having at the time.


85. I think I bloomed fully when I arrived in college, and was pretty popular with the guys all through that time.


86. I would honestly say I've been in love with three men in my life, although I think only one of them REALLY loved me back. Well, maybe two...maybe not.


87. I have now been single for at least four years. And by single I mean I could probably count the number of dates I've been on in that time on the fingers of one hand. (I've now been single for a lot longer than four years...let's not dwell on the exact numbers...lol)


88. I don't have a problem with that. (um...maybe a tiny little problem)


89. After my last break-up, I needed some time to focus on myself, and on becoming a better version of me, so I took what I called at the time a "self-imposed dating hiatus".


90. I didn't expect the hiatus to turn into a cancellation.


91. Life in the last few years has been wonderful to me, and I've rarely missed the drama that comes with dating and relationships.


92. But sometimes, I do.


93. The only regret I have about not being married yet, is that I really wanted to be a mother by the age of 30.


94. I wasn't ready to be a mother at 30.


95. I do hope to get married one day, and am ready to allow that whole dating drama to enter my life again...maybe.


96. I now say I want to be a mother by the age of 35. (I wasn't ready to be a mother at 35, I'm 35 now...)


97. I don't think I'll be ready to be a mother at 35 either. (nope)


98. But if I am, and I'm still single, I have every intention of seriously looking into adoption options. I've always wanted to adopt a child. (I've been thinking about this a lot lately)


99. Even if I'm married and have kids of my own, I will adopt a child. It's something I've always known I would do one day.


100. In the meantime, I love playing with other people's kids. And the best part is, you can give them back when diapers need changing, or scoldings need giving.

Reading this post again made me realize a few things...one of which is, I can be pretty funny when I'm talking about myself...

Maybe next weekend I'll give you the 2nd half of my 200 things...