God speaks

Today marks six years since the homegoing of our dear brother in Christ, Art Dappen.  We hope this article of his will be a blessing to fellow christian parents.

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Many people want God to speak. He speaks when there is a need to. But he doesn’t speak when there is no need.

I have seen fire extinguishers in buildings to be used in case of fire. Normally there are words written on the outside of the extinguisher to explain its use. An employee isn’t paid to stand there day after
day, saying to those who pass by, “Look, this is a fire extinguisher in case there is a fire. It works like this.”

An employee is not necessary. A simple written sign is sufficient.

Likewise, God has already spoken by his prophets and by his Son almost everything that he needs to tell us. There is no need to repeat it again.

What the prophets wrote is sufficient. And since the Word of God is eternal, there is no need to revise it or change it.

One day John Paton, a missionary to the Islands of the Pacific, was building his house on the island of Aniwa, and needed some nails and tools. He grabbed a piece of planed wood and with a pencil wrote a few words on it. He handed the wood to the old chief Namakei, asking him to take it to Mrs. Paton, who would send the things they needed. The chief looked doubtful and asked, “But what do you want?” The missionary replied, “The wood will tell her.” The chief was angry, thinking that the missionary was making fun of him, and demanded, “Has anyone ever heard wood speak?”

But after much persuasion the chief took the wood. He was amazed when the woman looked briefly
at the wood and then gave him the things without being told what they needed. The chief brought back the things, and made eager signs that he wanted an explanation. The missionary looked at the wood and read the words in the island dialect, and informed the chief that in the same way, God speaks to us in his Book. There God has written his will, and when anyone reads it, they can hear God speaking in the Book, just as Mrs. Paton had heard her husband speaking in the wood.

This incident awoke in the poor chief a great desire to see the Word of God printed in his own language.

He began helping the missionary to learn the words and expressions of his dialect with much enthusiasm.

And when at last the missionary began to translate portions of the Scripture, the joy of the chief was unbounded. (John Paton, Missionary Patriarch, reprinted Vision Forum, 2001, p.320.)

This story repeats itself in hundreds of places around the world. The people who live in darkness see a great light when they hear the Word of God.

It’s not for nothing that we are preparing our children at home. It’s not for nothing they are copying the Bible. The businesses, companies, and rich employers are waiting for us to send them our children to do their work. But there are other people who are waiting for something millions of times more important. For whom are you preparing your children to work?

Electricity is arriving in many tribes, and soon afterward the televisions. It is a shame that the electronic message of materialism is arriving before the Word of God. Jesus Christ is calling his disciples to
arise and go. We are in a race, and we must get there first with the gospel. ✞

Blessed to be a blessing!

It is the eve of the eve of CocoaConf, and we are bustling here, ready for a wonderful several days in cool Columbus, Ohio!

(But is Columbus ready for us?)

We are once again seeing the Lord bring together a lot of details for us in this upcoming event, and it reminds us of the ways in which he brought things together for our family's homeschool conference activities. Things really get cooking for us in June!

Our calendar filled up
(not unlike our nasal passages)

...must be conference time!


Deadline intertwined with deadline,
forming a springy, bouncy trampoline on which to bounce -- boing!

As every man hath received the gift,
even so minister the same one to another,
as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
1 Peter 4:10

Our purpose for going to the homeschool conferences, offering Christian literature and occasionally speaking, is to meet new people and help build up other families. In the process, we gain a lot of encouragement ourselves! If the Lord tarries, we still have many homeschool years to go. We can claim no credentials, but we just have a desire to share what the Lord has been teaching us.

This year we expanded our conference coverage by a whopping 33% by adding a new conference to our schedule!

It takes everyone working together to get our tribe out the door!


Sarah is getting pretty good at thinking through our lists in advance. That saves a lot of headaches!


It's a bus thing....mapping out the storage plans for the seat storage.


Producing copies of the booklets at our table. Some are articles we have written, most are by others. Many of them were written by our friend, Art Dappen, who went to be with the Lord in 2006. His family had a ministry based in Mexico, and so the articles were all written originally in Spanish for Christian parents in Mexico.

Folks perusing the Associacion Amos 5:24 table
at the El Hogar Educador conference in Mexico

The Dappens had literature tables at the homeschool conferences in Mexico, and folks could select from the various titles at their table. Through this and other ministries, they met and encouraged countless Spanish- and English-speaking families.

Art Dappen had the discernment to see the educational idolatry which was supplanting the discipleship emphasis in Christian homeschooling. What began, for most families, as an exodus from a godless institution has, in many places, evolved into a sure-fire attempt at getting kids into better universities (and at a younger age!) and high-paying careers.

We once thought Art's view was prophetic. (After all, he preached against television in Mexican towns that didn't even have electricity yet!) But we have since discovered that there were many similar voices pre-dating Art's!

We are currently working on an abridgment of a work by William Cowper, written in the 1780's, which offers many of the same Bible-based arguments against institutional schooling offered today! Cowper pointed out the educational elitism of his day! We were amazed.

John Bunyan, the "uneducated" author of Pilgrim's Progress, was spurned by the educational elite of his day, who insisted he must have plagiarized his best-selling allegory. However, because he didn't know languages, and had read almost no other book than the Bible, their accusations were pretty weak!

Anyway, we saw the tremendous potential in sharing like this at homeschool conferences, and when the Lord moved us north in 2006, we took the opportunity to do likewise. Since we don't sell anything, we have lots of opportunity to just talk with parents without them feeling some pressure to buy. It is so neat to hear what God is doing in the hearts of so many young families!

Producing the literature involves significant time folding and stapling, which allows us to employ some of the dominant skills in our family!



Hannah inventories each document so we can figure out how much to print of each.



We have a collation station.


As we have read and learned through the years, we have seen it is important to share what we are learning with our children, so they understand why we do things so differently from the norm. The Bible offers a better norm! We discuss the articles and love to listen to audio messages regarding the Bible and family issues together. (If they appear bored at first, we just keep on anyway until it clicks! It's just like teaching them to like healthy food instead of Cocoa Puffs!)

Through this exposure, our children are becoming discerning about the things they hear.


Sammy employs a special crease-forming tool, technically known as a teaspoon.


Piles and piles of paper!


Collation celebration!


All boxed up and ready for the road. Now, to find a safe, dry place in the bus...



The, um, open and spacious floor plan of the bus (read: unfinished) gives us flexibility to bring whatever we need from home, from tents and sleeping bags, and folding tables, to the mint condition sofa sleeper we find on the side of the road!


We are getting a little more organized with each conference, and we LOVE that we have plenty for everyone to do. It becomes a family effort. From printing, to proofing, to matching socks, to burning CD's, to Gorilla-gluing the covers, to folding and stapling, to scooping ice cream. Everyone gets involved.



Just getting the clothes packed takes a few weeks!


We lay out everyone's wardrobes in the den, and Sarah checks off everyone's list to make sure we don't run out of socks or anything. Non-stop laundering is employed during this phase — just like every other day!

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Throughout the year, we pray for our homeschooling brothers and sisters to press on and be encouraged in the Lord. We pray that the things we have been privileged to share, things which the LORD has shown us and helped us in our j o u r n e y, will be a blessing and produce good fruit in their families.

We are up against a formidable enemy who wants to destroy families from every angle. But if we stay in God's Word, and teach our children to do likewise, the enemy is no match.

"...Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts."
Zechariah 4:6

More good stuff!

As we have often observed, moving around all over the place has allowed us to meet many precious people from all over. Then, as we continue in our pilgrimage, we meet others who we wish we could introduce to the previous folks, and sometimes that works out.

So, after we left Wisconsin for the first time, we went to the Texas border. Moving to Texas really changed us a LOT in many ways. And it was there we met dear friends who worked in Mexico. These folks were acquainted with a dear brother, now with the Lord, from Wisconsin! How we wished we would have known of him while we still lived in Wisconsin, but it was only by moving to Texas that we heard of him!

However, during our 4 years in Texas, the Lord orchestrated things so that we still had work connections in Wisconsin, and finally, wound up re-re-locating up there. While that was a HARD HARD thing, to leave the doorstep of Mexico, it allowed us to become better acquainted with the family of this man. We were blessed to be able to go up to northern Wisconsin a few times a year for really good fellowship....and to meet others ... and I suppose it will continue.


Here is our dear sister, Sharon, with her late husband, Glenn Conjurske, who went to be with the Lord in 2001, which was the year we moved to Wisconsin the very first time (but didn't know of these folks). She is a sweet and hospitable lady, and we greatly miss taking over her humble abode!

Anywho, this departed brother left a legacy of wonderful exhortation and encouragment, and we just found much of it is on the web. In particular, we would direct you to a wonderful message called "Casting Nets Into the Sea". I can't give you a direct link to that message, but you can find it listed here. We find this message a great complement to the booklet we offer called "How Your Children Can Have Success" Glenn's messages are available for listening on your computer or downloading.

Hope you can enjoy these soon!

Part 3: A funny thing happened on the way to St Louis....

"Go to now, ye that say,
Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city,
and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:

Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow.
For what is your life?
It is even a vapour,
that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
For ye ought to say,

If the Lord will, we shall live,
and do this or that."
James 4:13-14

Again, we continue with our testimony of "the long, dark escrow of the soul" which began here and continued here.

(This is a lengthy prologue, before getting back to our story....)

It was 1997.

It was our second day of our first trip to southern Mexico.

We had risen extra early that morning, because a delay on our first day cut our travel short. The drive to our final destination required a total of 24 hours on the road, but we had only gone 6 hours the first day.

As we approached mid-day on our second day of travel, we felt optimistic that we were making good time. Soon we entered a little town, the name of which I cannot recall. Traffic slowed, and smiling soldiers advised us we would have to stop for a parade.

We shifted to park; the van was still running, the air conditioner working hard against the heat and humidity. We waited a few minutes, as the temperature in the van slowly rose. Without the van's forward motion, our air conditioner was no match against the tropical heat of mid day.

We looked out the windows for clues that traffic would soon begin to move. No such clues.

Our tour guides, Uncle Bob and Aunt Jane, whom we were following, got out of their pickup truck and opened the tailgate. They began to make lunch. Right on the road.

For as far as we could see, the other stopped travelers were emerging from their vehicles, visiting, stretching their legs, or walking to the gas station to buy sodas.

Now this town was really a crossroads for several regional highways, so there were hundreds of vehicles stopped that day. I suppose if you could see the town from above, the vehicles would form a big asterisk, with its tangents steadily growing longer...

Eventually, we realized that the "parade" was actually a protest against the government! The townspeople, assisted by the soldiers, had secured a captive, yet inattentive, audience. Somewhere many yards away, we heard people with bullhorns. But on the highway, it was time for lunch, or a walk to the restrooms, or a game of tag for the children...

We were able to get to a phone and contact our hosts, who informed us, "Don't worry, they'll probably be done by dark."

So, back at the van, we ate our lunch. We watched and marveled at all the other content trapped travelers. Nobody complained. There was no outrage, no horn honking. It was as if we were in a different world, where people realized that things like this happen. There were no assurances that you'd arrive at your destination at a certain time. We were starting to realize the wisdom of a basic piece of advice that the missionaries always offer to first-time visitors to Mexico.

"You have to be flexible."

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Believe me, it takes much less time to read these long posts than to relive the actual events! We thank the Lord for the lessons we learned through this time of waiting for Him to show us His will!

As we finally entered escrow at the end of August, we had the feeling that it would not be long until the family would be moved down to St Louis. So we began to allow ourselves the mental gear-shifting that that would entail:

1. We'd start packing boxes. Packing up things that were non-essentials would help eliminate clutter, except, wait, where do we put the boxes? Hmmmm....
2. We'd start un-Kleining the house. Kleining a house can mean many things: painting walls tangerine or purple, installing two sets of triple bunks in each bedroom, hanging parasols of wet mittens above the dining room table, or planting three dozen tomato plants in the backyard. We knew enough about home-selling to realize it was time to un-Klein. Having a couple of vintage wringer washers, or a couple of school buses, in our front yard, affected a style of decor which did not seem to attract the average homebuyer.
   

However, we didn't get too far into these tasks before our loan officer called with some news...

Now, these were the early days of the mortgage crisis, and lenders were really cracking down on any signs of impending foreclosure...the most obvious of which is a late payment. A late payment? Why would we have a late payment? We had never had a late mortgage payment.... that is, until right before we set out to purchase a house during the early days of the mortgage crisis!!

We had always made timely payments using our bank's online payment system. It was a no-brainer. However, on one occasion, the mortgage payment amount fluctuated. Dave noticed that the system just paid the set amount. So, to ensure we always paid the amount due, Dave utilized a payment feature that would make the system pay whatever the "amount due" was for each month (rather than the same amount each month)

However, the first month he used it, it bombed and read the amount due as zero. No payment was made at all.

The bank promptly notified us of the missed payment...at our previous address in Texas (where we lived when we got the loan for the house!). Of course, mail forwarding didn't work after 3+ years in Wisconsin. (Don't ask me why they wouldn't think we'd be living in the house for which we got the mortgage, but they did not. )

So, by the time Dave discovered the error, we had been staked out by private investigators, checking to see if we were still in the house! When Dave realized the glitch, a phone call to a friendly bank representative at that time, way before our escrow began, seemed to have cleared all this up. Our bank recognized it was an honest computer error, and they assured Dave it would be rectified.

However, none of that was not showing up on our credit report, which our loan officer promptly informed us. To any lender, our name was mud. Because of the massive amounts of loans in foreclosure, our computer error had made the sirens go off, we were assumed to also be on the brink of foreclosure, etc. A few phone calls to our lender to try to get to the bottom of this availed nothing.

It was like peeling a big FDIC insured onion.

We explained this to our loan officer, and she told us not to worry, just wait until the next month's payment hits our credit report. At that time, she would pull a current credit report, and things should be fine.

So we waited.

We began getting strange letters from various sources, giving offers of help to avoid our pending foreclosure. Ug. Apparently, word was getting out.

At this point, we began to realize that we had better put a hold on packing, and just be flexible, and let the Lord show us what to do. Of all the times for us to have a computer error like this, He had allowed it to be right during the loan approval process. There was nothing we could do. We realized it was no accident as far as God was concerned. Maybe this was the Lord closing the door on the move to St Louis. Maybe He had a better plan.

In the meant time, Dave's weekly commute to St Louis continued. Daily, we battled keeping content and being patient. We could do nothing to move forward but wait for the next month's timely payment to hit our credit report. But we had much less assurance that we would be moving at all. Un-Kleining was on hold, because the Kleining was essential for daily living.

The house in Wisconsin needed many things to accommodate our family size, but we knew that we needed to ensure we had resources for closing and moving expenses...IF we moved to St Louis.

The garden and grounds, garage, etc. needed to be decluttered to make the house more attractive to buyers, since we would not be living in the country any more...IF we moved to St Louis.

(But if the St Louis deal fell through, then all that "clutter" would come in kinda handy...)

This was really a time of wrestling with the circumstances. But there was really nothing to wrestle with. We simply had to wait.

So, we returned to the reality of when you have to wait, you just have to keep doing what you are supposed to do. We got up in the morning, we had devotions, we prayed, we did chores, we cooked, we ate, we studied, we worked, we shopped, we had campfires, we got together with friends.

For some time, our friends knew of our possible move to St Louis...pending the sale of our house, pending the purchase of a place down there...pending.... Weeks went by with no news. "We may be moving, we don't know yet." When introducing ourselves to people we learned a pretty succinct way of describing ourselves:

"We are from Wisconsin and we may be moving to St Louis,
if the LORD wills."

During daily devotions, we often sang a song recorded by Steve Green that has become a Klein favorite:

I don't have to have the plan in hand
I don't have to have the end in sight
All I need to do is follow You,
wherever You lead,
and do what You've asked me to.

Trusting in You with all my heart
Following You all my days
Whether I can or can't understand
I'll acknowledge You in all my ways.

Though I am pressed on every side,
I am not in despair
My faith in You will carry me through
Though I may not see where You're leading me...

We would sing that song everyday, and just smile at each other, because the words rang so true! We knew we were on a ride.... with the Lord. He would do what was best.

So, we just left it with the Lord. And for a while, it did not seem like it was going to happen. We continued to get ominous junk mail, the days went by without a word from our loan officer. Dave's weekly commute made him weary.

Nearly every day, we had family discussions about the contingencies and possibilities. But it came down to waiting. That was what the Lord was teaching us. We often told the kids, "It really does not seem like we are going to get that house in St Louis." We said that because we knew the value of them learning to be flexible. It is so important in life! We all needed to remember that. The main thing was being where God wanted us. Wisconsin was fine for us, and we knew the Lord would make it work somehow. If the Lord did not want us to move, we did not want to move either.

On one day, it was Rebekah's birthday, we were all enjoying a lovely fall day at the state park, playing volleyball and making sandcastles. As we did nearly daily, we were chatting about things related to the move. We kept everyone aware of how Daddy's job was going, what he was doing, and the latest on the house and loan. Again I told the children, "I really don't think there is any way we are getting that house in St Louis."

Just then, I got a call on the cell phone. It was the loan officer.

"Your August payment finally hit, and your credit report looks great.
You are approved.
I know you are getting the loan."

I was soon on the phone to Dave who was in St Louis and gave him the latest update. At that moment, it seemed we were "go", but we knew there were some more details to be taken care of first. We figured it would be wise to still say, "If the LORD wills..."

We tentatively thought we would be looking at the end of October, give or take...

Since it was mid-September, we thought the end of October was pretty tentative.

But it was not tentative enough....!

The story continues here.

Hospitality

A favorite Klein family past-time is discussing the many happy memories we have of time spent with the many friends the Lord has blessed us with. Traveling and meeting people has taught us much, but one lesson that is basic is that of the importance of hospitality.

This lesson did not come instantly for us. Years ago, any time we expected to be away from home overnight, we planned to find a motel along the way. Staying with a host seemed too much of an imposition, especially as our tribe expanded. And getting a motel room (or two...or three... depending on the fire codes), allowed a certain feeling of privacy. For example, only a few anonymous neighboring motel guests would hear the occasional FRANTIC pounding on the bathroom door.

But, in 1999, something changed our perspective, and we had the chance, out of necessity, to experience hospitality first hand: We took our first trip to southern Mexico.

The two day (24 hour) drive through the interior was briefly interrupted by an 8 hour respite at a hotel (that is Spanish for hotel ). But the 8 or so days at our destination was at the home of our missionary cousins...all 800 or so square feet of it!

That first trip, which combined a week long stay, 10 or so extra people, lots of pasta, toilet paper, canned green beans, and bushels of extra dirty laundry not only introduced us to a new culture, but the necessity of hospitality.

If an afternoon rain comes, you run to the roof,
snatch up your laundry, and hang it inside your house!

In the States, it is so less common to stay in the home of your friends, but in Mexico, its nearly a certainty. Mi casa es su casa! Though we felt a little under and on foot, we were told that they had actually hosted a couple of dozen folks at one time! The idea of sending your guests to a hotel was thought pretty strange and certainly unnecessary.

Limonada....the pause that refreshes!

The intimacy that comes with hosting a family (or being a guest) is something that is not natural to many of us as Americans. But we noticed that with time, we really preferred the togetherness. Also, we began learning ways to try to be better guests (including, but not limited to: bringing large cookware, extra toilet paper, and extra food!). We tried to demonstrate our appreciation. And before we left, we all wished we could return the favor!

We were much more sensitive to parenting gaps, too! "Please get off the table!" Ug!

The perfect plate-less thing to serve for a big gathering:
tostadas topped with guacamole!

After the first few trips to Mexico, when we were back at home, we realized one hindrance to hospitality was in the layout of our house. Our house was not really designed for offering hospitality. The dining area was small, the rooms were not very open. From visiting various homes, we began to get ideas that would make our home more open. For example, we sold our couches and coffee table, cut and finished a pass-thru in the wall which connected the kitchen and living room, tiled our "living room" and set it up appropriately as a large "everything" room. Since we generally had people over for a meal anyway, the couches weren't as practical as places to serve a meal.

If you only remove one serving from a dish of tamales, you have a tamal.

The world tells us we need to have a showpiece home, classy decor, and gourmet fare to offer our guests. But our experience as guests was that it was the fellowship and love that really made a visit become a precious memory. (Though we never had any complaints about the food either!) Knowing that we were welcomed, having time to get to know others, gathering around for devotions and songs and prayer, that was the most comforting thing about our time with friends! Running out of hot water or places to hang the laundry added to the camaraderie and fun!

Why is it that helping to clean someone else's kitchen is so much more fun???

We also found that the extra cleanup and meal preparation time made for good chances for the children to work with others and enjoy true teamwork. Many opportunities for mischief are avoided when everyone is occupied with something helpful or potentially yummy to do!

We Klein girls love to learn new home organization tips and recipes
from friends.

If we'd have not had these expressions of hospitality, many of our travels would have been robbed of the best memories we now treasure. So, we are thankful for what God has taught us, through something that initially made us feel pretty awkward.

And besides all these important benefits and lessons, we have realized we have saved tons of money through the hospitality of our hosts! Many of our travels would not have been possible if not for God's provision through other's hospitality!

Taco soup: an offer you can't refuse!

We are thankful for the many wonderful examples with which our family has been blessed. They have helped us realize the need to learn a foundational part of Christian character, and a foundational ingredient in real Christian fellowship: hospitality!

The Education of Kings -- the story behind the book

Putting the collated pages inside the scored and folded cardstock covers.

Applying glue to the edges of the pages.

Carefully alligning the glued pages into the covers.

Compressing the glued books until they are dry.

This evening, we are gluing pages into cardstock covers, and then wedging the untrimmed books under heavy dictionaries until the glue is dry. Tomorrow, we hope to find a local printer to trim the outside pages, giving them less of a "home published" look. We are preparing for next week's homeschool conference near St Louis, Missouri.

Here is some of the story behind this important book which we carry at our literature table at homeschool conferences...

Our family's first venture into home-printing/publishing came several years ago, upon meeting Art and Linn Dappen. At the time, we lived in Edinburg, Texas, a stone's throw from the Rio Grande.

Prior to Edinburg, we lived in the city of Madison, Wisconsin. Dave had a contract with the state of Wisconsin. But the opportunity arose for Dave to take a job which he could do entirely from home. We felt this was our opportunity to move to Mexico, with Dave working from home in Mexico. After some research, though, we learned that the type of computer connection Dave's work would require, at that time, was extremely expensive in Mexico. So, after prayer and house hunting, we found a house in Texas fairly close to Mexico, and Dave worked from home. The location at the border opened many doors for us, both to see more of God's work in Mexico, and to meet some very special people.

Among the many we met were Art and Linn Dappen, missionaries in southern Mexico. Their family has been one of many which the Lord has been using to build up the church in Mexico, through training children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. The Lord has brought them through amazing things and taught them so much.

Our first meeting with the Dappens was when their family came to our home to stay for one week! The ten family members brought all their clothing in ONE huge duffel bag! Still relatively new at the traveling-with-a-big-family game, we were in awe!

Anyway, they were in our home for maybe 30 minutes before we realized we had known each other for years! Well, no, but it felt that way. Our hearts were knit together instantly.

Returning the favor: one of our visits to the Dappens' home in Mexico

Art had been writing newsletters and articles to build up Mexican families for many years. At the annual Mexican homeschool conferences, his family had a literature table, offering free booklets. Art was often invited to speak in the sessions.

After that first visit, our house at the border became a regular stop for the Dappens when they came out of Mexico about every 6 months. We received all their packages, shipped from family from back home in Washington. The timing of their visits coincided with the two annual Mexican homeschool conferences; they would normally prepare their literature during this time. They had these awesome booklet staplers...kind of a cross between a normal stapler and a giraffe. We were anxious to help, and they patiently showed us the meticulous way they put them together. They eventually purchased a photocopier, which we housed for them.


Most of Art's writings were in Spanish, but he did occasionally create English versions (some of which you can find here) to send to friends in the States. After we had seen some of the articles he had assembled for Mexican families regarding copying the Bible as education, Dave encouraged him to translate them into English. Art was very interested in doing so, when time allowed. Life was so busy for their family.

But things did slow down for Art. About six months before his homegoing in November of 2006, he became very ill. Initially, it looked like the Lord was calling him home then and there, but he did recover some. During his last trip to our home, in August of the same year, still pretty weak, Art decided to make use of his down time in doing the translation work.

He selected some of the articles he felt would be the most beneficial, settled in a quiet room in our home, and began translating the articles, recording them on audio cassette. He put a lot of effort into this process. Because of his frequent coughing spells and difficulty sleeping, it is amazing to think of the huge job he accomplished. We know the Lord helped him.

The cassettes were then given to our son Ben. Ben carefully transcribed each tape, adding punctuation and separating paragraphs as best he could. Then, he printed out the transcription of the first six or so articles, and gave them to Art so he could make any corrections or clarifications. Art was pleased with Ben's initial transcription work. But before Ben completed all the transcriptions, the Dappens had to head back to their home in southern Mexico.

Well, at this time, we knew it would be our last visit at the border. Dave's work from home had all dried up. His previous client in Wisconsin still wanted him -- but he had to be in Wisconsin. So, we were scheduled to move back to Wisconsin right after that August conference. That was kind of a heart-wrenching time, although we felt it was the Lord's clear leading for us to head back north.

Our move to Wisconsin kept us busy for some time, moving in, fitting us all in a very small house, etc. We got busy with other things, and regrettably, we put the transcription project on hold.

Well, on November 9, 2006, we received a phone call that Art had gone to be with the Lord. As the reality sank in, we realized we had left something undone.

A memorial service in the States was scheduled for a month after his death. As we prepared to take the trip to Washington state, Ben jumped back into his transcription work. We got tips from our friends, the Richardsons (also in Mexico) for gluing books together. Our desire was to bring copies of the book to the memorial service. We had never done a "paperback" before, so it was pretty rustic and imperfect, but done with much love.

For the cover on the current book, Art's son Bobby later supplied us with a photo of Art's copy of the Bible...his last page was written the day before his death. (We later put together an audio version of Education of Kings, read by Bobby, which you can find here.)

The title, "The Education of Kings" came from the scripture Deuteronomy 17:18, 19. Before Israel had a king, when they were still pilgrims in the wilderness, God told them, one day they would have a king, and that king was to make a copy of all the law (given through Moses), and read it every day, so that he would obey the law and not seek vanity. Art saw from this, in God's eyes, this was the epitome of "education". Who needed to know more than the leader of God's people? And where was he to look? The law of God, of course. Art saw how modern man has set up his own high places, relegating the Bible to mythology or merely literature. Even professing Christians have placed many things before God's Word.

It's interesting that educators have valued "copywork" for centuries. But God thought of it first.

So, the book. It's a compilation of essays. It can be read in any order. In some places, the translation is still a bit rough, as Art never completely went through all the transcriptions. It's not a perfect book, by any means. It is certainly not the 67th book of the Bible. But we feel strongly that much can be gained through the insights of our dearly missed brother. We saw the fruit of lives ordered by attempting to keep God's Word at the forefront, of boasting not in self, but in the word of the Lord.