This Little Prayer of Mine Book Giveaway

This Little Prayer of Mine is a children's book that Insert Title Here is giving away in April. The deadline is April 5, 2010. Post a comment and tell me why I should mail you a free copy of this new book.

Happy posting.

Blog Tour: Don't Let Me Go

And the winner of the contest to convince me why you should receive the book is…

On the cover it states, “What my daughter taught me about the journey every parent must make." Don’t Let Me Go by David Pierce is a heart warming memoir of a three year period the author and daughter’s relationship grew by climbing 5 mountains and running 2 marathons. Pierce and Chera tackle these adventures after she reads a wilderness adventure in which 8 people die on Mt. Everest. This book inspires her to want to climb a mountain and take her father along for the journey. In Pierce’s mind he hesitates, but doesn’t want to let his daughter down, so he agrees.

This book reminds me of Donald Miller’s Through Painted Deserts. It is about sharing a story and through the story life lesson’s are learned and shared. I literally laughed out loud while reading Don’t Let Me Go. As a father to be, I can only imagine (now) thinking similar thoughts and just his description of being sore, throwing up, and falling down are right on the money.

It is an easy read-down to earth story from a Christian point of view that can be as “deep” or “easy” as you want it to be. This book explores deep aspects of life including your relationship with your children, wife and with God. I had a hard time putting the book down because the adventures on the mountains are very exciting. I was inspired by Through Painted Deserts to go to the Grand Canyon (haven’t convinced Kari we should hike to the bottom yet), but the thought of climbing a mountain has now been planted in my brain as well. Maybe my son will want to take some adventures…we’ll see.

...And the winner of a free copy of Don’t Let Me Go by David Pierce is...Keith, Nicole and Cassie. Keith, I am not sure you will read it, but it is a good read. Nicole, I am sure after you read it, we could ship it to Cassie, so everyone wins!

Thanks for the participation…stay tuned for another upcoming book giveaway in early April.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. God Bless.

It’s Been a While – Moving Begins and Other Stuff

I had Friday Movie Pick: Race to Witch Mountain half written, but didn’t complete or post it:

A little known director (to me), Andy Fickman is at the helm of Disney’s revamp of Race to Witch Mountain. Originally released in 1975 by Disney, I remember watching Race to Witch Mountain as a kid. When I saw the preview for this movie, I knew immediately what it was and leaned over and told Kari, “This is a re-make of Witch Mountain, sweet!”

That is as far as I got. Let me know if you saw it and what you thought about the film.

Last Monday my mother came and got my baseball cards and other odds and ends to store at her house. When I was growing up, I think my mother got as excited as I did about baseball card, so she was happy to “store” them and threaten to sell them!

This weekend, my in-laws gladly accepted our Christmas tree, ornaments and three of my large framed pictures to “store.” I hung two Monet’s and one Van Gogh for my mother in law (with her help) on Sunday and they look great.

This week we are focusing on going through our earthly treasures and deciding what is necessary, what is to be given away and what is trash. I inherited the “pack rat gene” from my mother and it is a huge thorn in my side. It is becoming easier and easier to let go of things as I get older, but I have been moving stuff around for a long time. It is refreshing to let these things go, but sometimes I try to keep silly things and I have to remind myself not to keep it.

We have set a move date: April 3rd – April 5th. If you are interested in helping out, e mail me here.

Don’t forget about the book giveaway; I have a few good reasons to giveaway Don’t Let Me Go, but I think a few other reasons could win me over (I do accept free food and gift cards). No seriously, I am about halfway done with the book and I am enjoying it so far.

I hope everyone had a great weekend. God Bless.

Blog Tour Book Giveaway

Next week I am going to be reviewing David Pierce’s Don’t Let Me Go.

“I’m growing up, Dad—what are you going to do about it?” David’s fifteen-year-old daughter Chera announces to her father.

"What my daughter taught me about the journey every parent must make."

Here’s the deal: I have a copy of Don’t Let Me Go to give away, but I have no contest. So here’s the lame contest: just tell me why I should mail you a free copy of this book in the comment section. That’s it…Deadline is March 19th, 2009 at noon, Central Standard Time.

Go.

Winner Announcement!

After reviewing the video submissions for the Churched Book Giveaway and struggling over which one was the best…drum roll please. The winner of the first ever Book Giveaway @ Insert Title Here is Cassie, the author of Pacific Northwest: The Saga Begins.... I would like to thank everyone who participated in this experiment/event. Check out the winning video:



Don’t forget: Churched Book Review and Camping 101 will hit Insert Title Here this week.

And the Winner Is…TBA

I know many of you are on the edge of your seats; texting me; just dying to know who the winner of the Churched Book Giveaway is…And to be honest, my co-judge has not been able to view all the films because I have not given her all the links yet.

So, tonight, at an undetermined time the winning video and winner of Matthew Paul Turner’s book Churched will be released (in stores now). Check back soon for the winner and Churched book review (this week).

Till than, Happy Monday.

Pennies, Nickels and Dimes

By 1929, an economic downturn known as the Great Depression hit worldwide. I remember hearing stories from and about my grandfather living through this time period (he was born in 1917). I always remember when we went shopping, we stocked up on non-perishable items. I have always found myself doing this and sometimes I will tell Kari while we are shopping, “grab one more of those, just in case.” She pointed this out one day in the store and I thought about how I was raised.

I don’t have extreme fear of this current economic crisis and can only hope we don’t see anything near the Great Depression, but have you ever imagined yourself in that time and place. Meals were skipped, many times they earned pennies and many lost their life savings in the blink of an eye. If these few conditions listed didn’t change your lifestyle, you didn’t survive.

I work in an office that is at a constant temperature of 70 degrees. The lights are always on. Plastic cups are disposable. Paper is often times wasted by the ream and thrown into the trash can, overlooking the recycle bin.

All the way from our apartment to cooperate America, I think we are about to see changes in how we spend money. I thought the changes would come with the $4.00 gallon gas, yes, there were some changes, but I think now, we are about to see lifestyle changes similar to those found in the Great Depression. Instead of walking past that nickel or dime on the street, people will start picking it up. I know personally, we have already started to adjust to whatever the economy might hold in store.

Whether is is a temporary dip or a depression, “what do you really need to survive,” might need to be your question, instead or “what do I want?”

More to come. Stay tuned to Insert Title Here and don’t forget about the book giveaway; tonight is the deadline.

4 More Days Left on the Book Giveaway

With several submission; the competition is close, but I think there still might be a video out there that could win it all. If you don’t want to participate, you can buy your own copy of Churched here.

One more time…I am looking for the funniest and most outrageous video online. It can be posted on any video hosting site (youtube, yahoo videos, myspace, etc.), but must have the capability to be embedded. A panel of judges (probably Kari and I) will narrow the videos down to a top 5 and from the top 5 the readers get to vote which one is the best video. The links must be e mailed to me at jeremyhellums@gmail.com reference Churched Book Giveaway in the subject line. Please don’t post links as comments. Any links posted as a comment will be disqualified. You can submit more than one link and if there is a duplicate link, it will be based on who submitted the link first. There is no purchase necessary. Remember the contest ends Midnight Friday, October 10th, 2008.

God Bless.

$700 Billion Reasons to…

I am not going to spend too much time on what I would do with a bailout package and why there shouldn’t be one, etc, but really does our federal government really need to prevent this? I know that businesses fail daily and don’t effect the economy as much as this might, but if you pick them up, dust them off and say “its ok, here’s $700 billion dollars,” what lessons are learned? I had a buddy tell me that he had heard if they divided that money up among all the Americans we would all be getting a check for $33,000. Sign me up!

Soul Ink is over(cue the tears) and I am sad. What an amazing series of sermons and media. Romans 12:9-21 is a call to live counter what many of us have been taught; basically love everyone NO MATTER WHAT and try to create peace wherever you go. It has been such a wonderful time of growth for me and I am looking forward to what God has in store for October.

Knight Rider was everything I imagined. I was a little disappointed that I was unable to watch it in HD, but I don’t pay for those channels, so I can’t complain too much. I enjoyed the show setup (from a plot stand point) and am looking forward to the developing plots to learn more about the new Michael Knight. KITT is awesome. I won’t spoil the show for anyone, but KITT does so much more than the previous KITT. Oh, and KITT is still a smarty pants! Kari and I had our buddy Alan over to watch the show and enjoyed some good eats and conversation.

Milano homecoming was great. The Eagles rolled over their opponent, thinking about it now; I don’t even know who they beat. It was a good game though. It was great to hang out with the in laws and my nephew Daniel. He is getting so big.

Reminder: I am looking for the funniest and most outrageous video online. It can be posted on any video hosting site (youtube, yahoo videos, myspace, etc.), but must have the capability to be embedded. A panel of judges (probably Kari and I) will narrow the videos down to a top 5 and from the top 5 the readers get to vote which one is the best video. The links must be e mailed to me at jeremyhellums@gmail.com reference Churched Book Giveaway in the subject line. Please don’t post links as comments. Any links posted as a comment will be disqualified. You can submit more than one link and if there is a duplicate link, it will be based on who submitted the link first. There is no purchase necessary. Remember the contest ends Midnight Friday, October 10th, 2008.

God Bless.

Upcoming Blog Tour and Giveaway

I read a few blogs; mainly the ones on my list of links...Recently I took a recommendation from a friend and checked out Matthew Paul Turner’s blog. This guy is a riot. Turner is a blogger, speaker and author of The Coffeehouse Gospel and Provocative Faith and several other popular books. On October 7, 2008, Turner is releasing a new book entitled Churched: One Kid's Journey Toward God Despite a Holy Mess. I am currently reading his new book and will be posting a review soon.

So, why am I telling you all this? I am giving away a copy of Churched. “How can I get a copy of this new book,” you might ask?!? Here are the contest rules:

I am looking for the funniest and most outrageous video online today. It can be posted on any video hosting site (youtube, yahoo videos, myspace, etc.), but must have the capability to be embedded. A panel of judges (probably Kari and I) will narrow the videos down to a top 5 and from the top 5 the readers get to vote which one is the best video. The links must be e mailed to me at jeremyhellums@gmail.com reference Churched Book Giveaway in the subject line. Please don’t post links as comments. Any links posted as a comment will be disqualified. You can submit more than one link and if there is a duplicate link, it will be based on who submitted the link first. There is no purschase necessary. Rules are subject to change. Let me check with my lawyer…Ok, I think we covered all the rules. I am looking forward to your submissions. (Oh, rules on voting to come later...one more thing, special thanks to Nicole)

God Bless and have a great weekend.