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.

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

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.

------------------------------------------------

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

Texas road trip

Family's on a road trip from Oregon to Texas.

Here's a video of a gathering at Sweet Tomatoes in Stafford, TX, on July 16, 2009, where we met nearly 50 of friends from our years at Fort Bend Community Church for dinner.

Parents' Golden Anniversary video

We visited family in Taiwan and the Philippines in summer of 2008—it was my first time back to Asia in 13 years. The timing for the trip was my parents' golden anniversary. While there, I put together a 12-minute slideshow of photos using animoto.com. The slideshow had photos of my parents from their youth through adulthood, and each of the nine ABC kids and extended families. There were nearly 200 photos set to a medley of songs from The Sound of Music. My dad is a fan.

The above video is a 3-minute shorter version of how animoto.com takes your photos and music and sets up the photos through animated transitions according tot the pacing of the music. It's pretty neat how it does that.

You can check out animoto and create free 30-second videos. But if you're interested in signing up for a year's subscription, let me know and I'll send you the referral code to save $5.00 off the yearly fee.

Added a new blog recently

I've just started a new blog on sport stacking in Oregon. Click here to check it out.

Nathan's Notes

My friend Steve had started a new church plant and invited me to preach on “The Family and Christian Education.” My wife, our three kids and I joined the small church of over 30 adults, youth and kids as they met in a local Chinese restaurant that had graciously allowed them the use of the facilities on Sunday mornings.

I had selected Deuteronomy 6 as the passage to preach from. It contained the mandate God has for parents, as well as the reasoning, method, and goal of parenting children in the faith.

I knew many of the children there and was very comfortable with them being in the service, even though I was preaching primarily to the parents. But in the back of my mind, I was thinking, How do I make this message relevant to the children and the youth? What about those who are single or the couples whose kids have grown up?

Hear, O Israel: 

The Lord our God is one, 

the Lord is One…

Nathan, my 7-year-old son, had asked for several sheets of paper and a pen before I started preaching. Okay, great! My own son is planning to draw pictures to pass away the time.

You shall love the Lord your God

 with all your heart, with all your soul, 

and with all your strength.

Later as I shared how significant I thought it was that Moses spoke to parents first when he began his sermon in Deuteronomy, I noticed Nathan scribbling hard, hardly even stopping to take any break. I wonder what he’s working on.

And these words which I command you 

today shall be in your heart.

“God does not intend Christian education to be accomplished through a church or Christian school. His plan is for parents to make it a part of their lifestyle.” I tried hard to concentrate on my notes, but seeing Nathan working so hard, being oblivious, was extremely distracting.

You shall teach them diligently

 to your children …

“Moses knew that the people of Israel needed to see beyond their own generation. God’s purpose included their pursuing God wholeheartedly and reproducing this faith in their own homes.” I noticed a couple who was staring at Nathan.

… and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, 

when you walk by the way, when you lie down, 

and when you rise up.

“The key to making sure that faith is being passed on to your kids is to be intentional and yet informal.” My wife Betty who was seated next to Nathan had peeked a glance at Nathan’s papers and was smiling. What’s going on?

You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, 

and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 

You shall write them on the doorposts of your house 

and on your gates.

“The church’s role is to facilitate the equipping of parents to teach their children, and not to take over the task on behalf of the parents.” Nathan had stopped and was looking at me with a satisfied grin. So, he’s pleased with himself? I need to have a talk with him.

When I finally finished the sermon, I have to confess that in my mind I was already working on a new one that had in mind a specific person as audience.

Betty brought Nathan over to me and asked if I was curious to know what Nathan was working on. Of course, I was curious! What’s going on? Then Nathan showed me several pages of notes that he had written down. Nathan had been taking notes from the sermon!

God surprised me that day. He allowed me a glimpse into the kind of man my son would one day be—someone who took God’s Word and his father’s words to heart. My prayer is that we will all become that kind of parent to our kids, in spite of ourselves.

Sightseers in Seattle

Most people remembers Sleepless in Seattle, the Meg Ryan-Tom Hanks movie of the previous decade. The City of Seattle, I'm sure, appreciated the tourism boost the film gave them. Well, count my family and me as one more group of tourists that hit the Emerald City by the sea because of it.


The Space Needle. Seattle's answer to Dallas' Reunion Tower, Chicago's Sears Roebuck, or New York's Empire State Building. We weren't planning on having lunch up there but they were charging an arm and a leg for just the lookout level. So I thought, "Why not get the whole experience?" So we had lunch, kinda expensive, the kind I would only indulge in once a decade.



Betty had lamb, prompting a protest from Nathan, saying, "You can't eat lamb. It's like eating Jesus." Someone remind me to check what his Sunday school teacher has been teaching him. Oh wait, I'm in charge of what's being taught in church to the kids.


While in Seattle, we visited with Ms. Christina Fong and rode the ferry. Ms. Christina showed us some of the sights. including this gorgeous flower. Unfortunately I'm not a flora person so I don't know what it is.

Dear John Letter

I received a "Dear John Letter" last night at a dinner hosted by jack and Lena Y. After reading this, I found myself thanking God for the years He has given me in Fort Bend. Grateful, too, for the privilege of serving Him and being used as His instrument. I usually don't self-publish my press reports, but I did promise Steven's parents I would do this. Steven K. put a lot of hard work into this. Thanks, Steven.

Dear Mr. Frank,

I would like to take the time to thank you for all of your hard work in the Children's Ministry at Fort Bend Community Church. I am now in 7th grade, but I still remember you as one of my heroes. You were always there at Awana to support us and help us with our games, worship time, and memorizing verse. On Sunday during our children's worship, you led us through songs and preached the Word to us. You tried to make the Word fun and interesting to learn about our Savior, Jesus Christ. Thank you for all your help and encouragement. I wish you a safe trip to your next destination where God has wanted you to go and preach the Word. Finally, May God Bless You and Your Family.

Sincerely yours,
Steven Kung

Off to Oregon

Well, it's final. I got a phone call yesterday from Village Baptist Church in Beaverton, Oregon, informing me that the congregation has voted and approved the recommendation to call me as Pastor to Children and Families.

I am excited, as are my family. However, the stress of preparing to move is also getting to us. Betty and I did a quick count and calculated this to be a double-digit move for our family. Here's the complete list of previous moves, so far.

1) Taipei to Manila (July 1992)
2) Manila to Dallas (May 1993)
3) Sied Apt. to Swiss Apt., within Dallas (Sept. 1993)
4) Swiss Apt. to Biltmore Apt., within Dallas (August 1995)
5) Biltmore Apt. to Swissaire Apt., within Dallas (1996)
6) Swissaire Apt. to Gus Thomasson Rd., within Dallas (Oct. 1997)
7) Gus Thomasson Rd., Dallas to Rosemeade Pkwy., Carrollton (Dec. 1999)
8) Carrollton to Sugar Land (Aug 2001)
9) Sugar Land to Missouri City (Oct. 2002)

Lighthouses in Three

Last fall the Yang Ming Transport Company held its 1st International Children's Painting Competition. Thanks to Ms. Jesse, who works at the Houston branch of Yang Ming, our kids were encouraged to submit entries. Anne, Joy, and Nathan decided to send in entries depicting lighthouses on the coast. Here are their respective entries.

Anne's entry.


Elise Joy's entry. Third Place in US regional judging. Honorary Mention in international finals.


Nathan's entry

As can be obviously inferred, Nathan only participated because we encouraged him. Anne and Joy worked on their watercolor paintings quite a bit. Anne's approach is linear and clean. Joy decided to fit in as many details as she could, with a lot of variety. As a parent, you're not supposed to play favorites, and I'm not. But Joy's painting comes across as vibrant and creative. Apparently, the judges felt the same way, because Joy's entry made it to the International Judging phase and got an Honorary Mention honor.

Great job, Joy. We're happy for you.

Budding poet

Surprisingly, Ellie-Joy is showing a knack at writing. She's been writing for her local elementary's "Do the Write Thing" Publishers Party for four years now. What I have found notable are her poems. This is her latest:

MY VERY OWN YEAR
(c) Elise Joy Tan, 2006

Every new year
Brings lots of good cheer. ~ January

Some days the wind blows hard
And twirls the leaves in my yard. ~ February

It's not so cold; the sun is bright;
We have to finish our assignments and write. ~ March

It's been raining this week, raining today;
I'm really glad it's almost May. ~ April

Hooray! School's over, let's have some fun;
Swimming in the pool and lying in the sun. ~ May

Let's go to the zoo, to play and run;
And maybe see an elephant who weighs a ton. ~ June

I'll go watch the fireworks, because it's the 4th of July;
And it'll be beautiful when I see it with my very own eyes. ~ July

School's going to start; I'll need some supplies,
And tell last year's teacher a few more goodbyes. ~ August

Since school's started, I'll get acquainted with the rules,
And always use my leanring tools. ~ September

It's almost Halloween, so say "Trick or Treat."
But in front of a teacher don't say, "Smell my feet." ~ October

It's Thanksgiving now, so be thankful for;
And don't always ask for a whole lot more. ~ November

Jesus is the reason,
For this holiday season. ~ December

Have you ever visited Despair, Inc.?

Super Stacking Event Tomorrow

My kids and I will be participating in tomorrow's STACK UP world record-setting event sponsored by the World Sport Stacking Association. According to Matt Reed at WSSA (World Sport Stacking Association), Guinness has officially titled this record as Most People Sport Stacking at Multiple Locations in One Day. This is part of the 2006 Guinness World Records Week. The goal is to have stackers engaged in stacking activity for 30 minutes anytime during the day or night on November 6, Monday.

I expect this to be a lot of fun, and that (along with thousands of stackers around the world) we'll set a record for sure. Since this is the first try, any number of people should be a record. Unfortunately, don't expect to see anybody's name listed anywhere in that record. The projected number of participants right now is around 79,000 stackers.

I am writing this on my way home from Boise, Idaho, while sitting at the Boise airport. I will go ahead and add two more stackers to the projected number, because I was able to recruit two more youth, Kayla and Caleb, to participate in the event.

MyVideos

Yesterday's appreciation program for me and my family was a blast! The slideshow by Jimmy Chueng was great--only problem was that it had too many pictures of me. Nobody else but me would probably want to sit through that long a show of watching pictures of the same person. 'Nuff said.

Staying on the topic of videos on the web, I recently found this video interview that was made in 2003, I think.

As for my video resume from my last blog entry, I uploaded it in chapters to Youtube today. Check it out.

Video Resume finally done!

Ah, the wonders of functionality when all your applications work together. That's a strong selling point for the Mac system.

It's taken the better part of three weeks, but I have finally finished my video memories DVD of my Fort Bend years. The DVD will serve as both memories DVD as well as video resume.

The process described simply has been like this:

Acquired a Mac Mini (1.6 GHZ, 512 MB RAM Superdrive)

Transferred my Photos Folder to the Mac Mini.

Imported pictures to iPhoto, and imported audio files to iTunes.

In iPhoto, went through the pictures and categorized them (slightly over 7,000 pictures)

In iMovie, selected pictures and put them together in a photo/movie clips montage DV movie, added some transitions and soundtrack from iTunes

In iDVD, created menus and sub-menus, and additional content for DVD-ROM section.

Burn DVD, watch, and go back to iMovie and iDVD to revise (several times)

Design DVD jacket for DVD case.

Have my wife Betty ask me to stop revising and be happy.

Mac Mini, iPhoto, iTunes, iMovie, and IDVD are all trademarks of Apple Computer

Seeing Double

I've been a Kidology member for a few years now, and nothing like this has ever happened to me before. I do want to clarify that I'm not tooting my own horn, but it is a treat to see a reference to yours truly twice on Kidology. First on the Kidology August newsletter, and then on the homepage for the week (at least I think the homepage gets updated once a week).

Here are screenshots from the August newsletter and the current homepage.

Ten Apples A Day

Instead of an apple a day, what if God provides you with ten apples? And what if He asks you for an apple back everytime? Well, I've renamed the object lesson from One Cycle at Last blog as "Ten Apples A Day."

I've posted the object lesson on Kidology. Check it out here.

the last five years; ramblings & memories

disclaimer: i decided to forego the rules of grammar in this post.

5 years, wow! that's nearly a seventh of my lifetime. here are a couple of pennies' worth of reflection on this period of time.

anne finished 5 years of elementary school in one school district (actually 2 schools).
ellie-joy & nathan came to know Christ as Savior during this time.
joy was hospitalized & had surgery
nathan-now six years old, has doubled his weight in five years (from 26 lbs. to 52 lbs.)
betty and i got our green cards.
except for working part-time in different positions at dallas seminary, fbcc marks my longest employment term ever.
attended cpc (children's pastor's conference) 6 times

i'll keep adding as more random, trivial observations come to mind.

Rumor Busters (alternate title: if you want to know what's going on, ask ...)

The Fort Bend Independent School District's website has a section on its site dedicated to clarifying and correcting rumors. Apparently I need to add this section to the blog as well, in order to clarify some of the news and rumors about my resignation from FBCC.

If you hear anything related to our situation and you're not sure about the veracity (truth), feel free to email me for clarification.

RUMOR
I heard that you're leaving at the end of September.

TRUTH
My ministry end-date at FBCC is October 31. I informed the church of this date at the end of July.

I had originally submitted my resignation on June 22, with an effective date of September 30. In that letter, I asked FBCC to consider allowing me to extend my ministry on a month-to-month basis in order to better handle the transition. The Church Council in July asked me for a definite end-date instead. Thus, the date of October 31.

RUMOR
I'm not sure but some people are wondering if you were fired.

TRUTH
No, I was not fired. In fact, when I informed FBCC of my intent to resign, I was asked repeatedly to reconsider and stay.

RUMOR
I heard that because you're resigning, AWANA will be cancelled this year.

TRUTH
There is no decision concerning any changes in AWANA. At present, we are going ahead with the plans to begin AWANA at FBCC on Sept. 8, the Friday after Labor Day. However, there is a real need for volunteers and leaders in AWANA this year. We still don't have a Commander and have many other vacancies in key leadership positions. We need the parents and adults at FBCC to step up and volunteer in order to implement AWANA at the same level of excellence and quality. We are presently approaching some possible individuals to ask them about the Commander position.

RUMOR
Fourth grader: "My parents wants to know the real reason why you're leaving. They said God is not the real reason."

TRUTH
God IS THE REAL REASON. Betty and I have prayed over this decision for several months before we finally decided what to do. Our original commitment to FBCC was 5 years and in fall of 2005, at the beginning of our fifth year at FBCC, we began to pray for God's direction for our future. We did struggle over the timing, knowing that FBCC was already undergoing transition in the English ministry.

RUMOR
Is FBCC not pursuing family ministry? Is that one of the reasons you're leaving?

TRUTH
Family ministry at FBCC is not a reason for my leaving.

FBCC is pursuing family ministry. This is one of the goals for 2006, and is also a major part of the 10-year vision. There are many parents in the church who are responding to the challenge of pursuing family ministry. But this will require a lot of work and is not as easy as it sounds. FBCC is a North American ethnic Chinese church with different generations worshipping under the same roof.

RUMOR
Congratulations! I heard that you already have several job offers from other churches. [08/13/06]

TRUTH
I started sending out my resume to different churches on July 18. The list of churches included several in the Houston area and some out-of-state. Two churches emailed me to ask for a chance to get to know me more. I met with a contact from a local church and talked on the phone with a contact from out-of-state.

There are no offers, and I'm still waiting to see if the churches will contact me further. Also, the hiring process of church pastoral staff is usually a protracted (longer) one compared to hiring for other jobs. In most cases, the process will take the following steps:

(a) The church will communicate by phone or email for more information from the APPLICANT. (b) The church's search committee (or people in charge of hiring) will go over the list of applicants and decide who to consider as a PROSPECT. (c) The church will invite the PROSPECT and family to visit informally and allow key leaders from the church to get to know the PROSPECT in person. (d) The church's search committee (or people in charge of hiring) decides whether to upgrade the PROSPECT to a CANDIDATE. (e) The CANDIDATE is then invited to come in for a formal interview and additional meetings with other key leaders of the church. (f) The church's search committee (or people in charge of hiring) meets and decides whether or not to tender an offer. (g) The church contacts the CANDIDATE with the offer, and the CANDIDATE decides whether or not to accept the offer.

RUMOR
I heard that you're planning to move away from Houston.

TRUTH
Whether or not my family moves is uncertain. I have sent my resume to local churches as well as out-of-town churches. It's too early to tell if we'll end up moving or not.