Sunday, October 03, 2010

Precious Moments and Jonah

Sam Butcher is well-known as the creator and artist of the beloved Precious Moments characters with their raindrop-shaped eyes. My family and I are fans of his work and creations and we have visited the Precious Moments Chapel in Carthage, Missouri a few times, although we only own a few of his pieces. I do own two of his Bring the Little Ones to Jesus, made especially for Child Evangelism Fellowship. This piece features a mom with Bible in one hand and sharing the Wordless Book in her other hand to her two children.



What is not as well known is that Sam Butcher, before he achieved fame with the Precious Moments creation, was for many years an artist and a local director with Child Evangelism Fellowship. He drew many of CEF lesson visuals and came up with his Jonathan and David designs (precursor to Precious Moments.
Sam Butcher also drew visuals for a lesson on Jonah. I will be posting on this lesson on the Jonah 101 blog.

Saturday, July 03, 2010

Moving forward into the future

This is my first weekend AV (after Village). It's been good to spend some time with the girls this afternoon, as they help me sort through my "stuff" (books, media, files, resources, etc.).

Planning to take in a Jonny Diaz concert tonight with the girls. Haven't had the opportunity to attend concerts on Saturday night for awhile, so this is a treat. We got free tickets from KFIS The Fish yesterday.


Jonny Diaz is known for his song More Beautiful You, a song that communicates to a generation of young girls the truth that their true beauty is designed by the greatest Designer of all and that they are truly wonderfully and fearfully made. The song helps them discern the truth behind the false standards of beauty that our culture promotes. Count my daughters, ages 12 and 15 respectively, as fans of this song and its message. It's pretty encouraging for them to hear this truth from someone else (aside from their parents) as well.

Here's the first verse and chorus. You can look up the full lyrics at Jonny's blog. If you do look up the lyrics, take the time to read the blog comments. They're well worth my time.

Little girl fourteen flipping through a magazine
Says she wants to look that way
But her hair isn’t straight her body isn’t fake
And she’s always felt overweight
Well little girl fourteen I wish that you could see
That beauty is within your heart
And you were made with such care your skin your body and your hair
Are perfect just the way they are
There could never be a more beautiful you
Don’t buy the lies disguises and hoops they make you jump through
You were made to fill a purpose that only you could do
So there could never be a more beautiful you



Sunday, June 27, 2010

Letter to Village family

I wrote the following letter to Village families this weekend, but ran out of copies. So I'll reproduce it here as well. This will answer some of the basic questions people are asking. I am planning to resume blogging on a regular basis, so this would be a good place to check up on our situation.


Feel free to post any comments or questions.

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June 26-27, 2010

Well, this is it. My last weekend of ministry at Village as Pastor to Children & Their Families.

Thank you so much for the privilege of teaching your kids during our time of ministry at Village Baptist these past three years. We have enjoyed getting to know most of the children and the parents and volunteers at Village.

We do leave with heavy hearts. June has been an emotionally intense month for me. We will miss the smiles of the kids, worshiping with them, and engaging them in conversation each week.

Some of you have asked what our plans are. I am looking for either a next venue of ministry or considering a regular vocation outside of ministry. God willing, we plan to stay in the Beaverton area and allow our children the stability of finishing the schools where they are at.

We are not planning to attend Village on a regular basis beginning in July. Instead, we plan to visit and check out the different churches in the area. We moved to Oregon because of Village, so I have been here almost every week, with few exceptions. We’ll finally have the chance to see what the body of Christ outside of Village is like. That’s exciting.

Please lift us up in your prayers, and feel free to contact us if you have the desire to do so. Should you be willing, we look forward to continuing the friendships and relationships we have started here and beyond the walls of this church.

We also plan to be at Village’s Family Camp in August. So we’ll get the chance to see many of you there.

In Christ,

Frank & Betty Tan