Focus on the Family Close Out Letter

I wanted to thank you for allowing me to sharing this information with the families that receive your newsletters and read your message board. For several years I have shown families the video series that Focus on the Family has produced called That the World May Know with teacher Ray Vander Laan. I believed in the solid family values and rich insights that Ray shared through this video series, and became an online merchant for their Church/Teacher Packs. The fact that Dr. James Dobson's life forever was changed after a trip to Israel with Christian high school history teacher, Ray Vander Laan, was also how I felt after touring Israel about the same time as Dobson and Vander Laan were there. Seeing the archaeological sights, and understanding the teachings of Jesus within the culture of the First Century, forever changed my life, and this video series was a way to show Arm-Chair Tourists the Holy Land through the eyes of Early Believers.

So for several years I sold the series never dreaming that it would be discontinued! But it is! Focus on the Family approached me to be their close out agent for them, and I wanted your readership to be one of the first on-line groups to know that this excellent series in the packages designed for churches and teachers, will no longer be available as I have promoted it in the past. Gone are the wonderful easy to read Leader's Guides that were designed for those of us who need the larger print! And they have also discontinued the beautiful colored overhead transparency pictures of Israel, diagrams, time lines, and illustrations! The sets have been sold to Zondervan and they have been reconfigured completely. Those of us who have used these original materials with our own classes can testify to the high quality of the material, and I wanted your families to know that there are a limited number of these available from us at our website. www.haydid.org

As the Head Graduate Assistant in Undergrad Theology I have used this video series with all its wonderful parts for the past two years, and plan on using it this year again. I conduct training with the other graduate asistants that work with me, and the result is that after two showings of these videos and using the material, all the graduate assistants generally purchase their own copies! They can see the value in owning it for their future role as teachers of the Bible.

That the World May Know is divided into 5 Sets. Sets #1 and #2 deal with Old Testament Topics and each lesson includes a 20-30 minute video lesson that can be expanded by using the Leader's Guide and the overheads to as much as 3 1/2 hours of excellent teaching on archaeology, history, culture, and geography of the Bible. Relevance is always applied to our walk today as Christians in the lessons, too. So we can see that what was true long ago is repeating itself today in our very lives.

Sets #3 and #4 deal with New Testament Topics. Here is where Ray Vander Laan really shines! He discusses Jesus as a Rabbi and shows us many things that we as Christians overlook when we read the text! He discusses the prayer shawl, the role of the disciple with their rabbi, and just exactly what the Pharisee and Sadducee believed and how the political realm of Herod could be compared to Jesus' role as King. In Set #4 Teacher Vander Laan shows us onsite Jesus' last week within the Biblical festival of Passover. The powerful video of Roll Away the Stone will touch everyone's heart!

Finally Set #5 is not part of That the World May Know, but is a set done by Ray Vander Laan in Turkey/Asia Minor. This last series is about the Early Church in Asia Minor and teaches much on Emperor Worship, Paganism, Gnosticism, and shows us places where Paul and John would have taught. He takes us to Laodecia, Ephesus, Sardis, Pergamum, and Caesarea Philippi. This set was developed without the transparencies and the Leader's Guide is not written for the older people, but you do get a free Participant's Workbook which was something that Zondervan developed. We used them at ORU last Spring with our students.

Last but not least, I have developed with the help of Peggy Jones, Fill-in-the-Blank video viewing worksheets for Sets #1, #2, and #5. They are a great help in keeping people awake during the video viewing, as well as centered on the main points to be discussed. We will have the worksheets by January 1, 2004 for Sets #3 and #4. These sets are also available for purchase on our website.

So, do you have to buy everything? No! You can pretend that you are at a garage sale and just buy that portion that you want. Many pastors have purchased these sets to use with their high school Sunday School classes, and I have even seen them used effectively as Vacation Bible School material, as well as evening Bible Study Group material. I will tell you that Last Spring, I used just three video lesson in an entire semester because there was so much to discuss from the Leader's Guide! There are 32 video lessons in all five sets, so you could build an entire Christian school around the series, too! The possibilities are endless.

Now for the bad news: There aren't alot of full sets left to buy. Series #2 over the Old Testament is very very limited. There are only about 100 copies of the Leader's Guides left and about 1/10th of that in overheads. Once they are gone, I can get the videos and the Zondervan Leader's Guides, but no overheads will be available. The sale ends Sept. 1, 2003. To encourage you to get all five sets, Tom and I are discounting everything greatly! You can save approximately $287 if you purchase the entire set! And for those that want Set #5, we have discounted it from $80 to $70 only until Sept. 1, 2003. It is not normally on sale any place online! But we want you to save money, and to include all five of these series in your curriculum if possible.

How young of a student can understand these videos? My grandchildren were watching them at age 8. Now I will admit that there were some videos that we did not allow them to watch, and Dr. Dobson is great about posting notice on the screen about that, too. But please be a good parent and preview all videos before showing them to your children. That's just good sense, especially if you plan on teaching a lesson afterwards.