Rufus and Ryan Go to Church by Kathleen Long Bostrom Book Review (FlyBy Blog Promotions)

I read Rufus and Ryan Go to Church!, in exchange for honest review from Flyby Blog Promotions. The book was written by Kathleen Long Bostrom and illustrated by Rebecca Thornburgh. The book was published by Candy Cane Press/Ideals Books.  I received a board book in the mail for review. This post does contain Amazon affiliate links and images.

About the Book:

Rufus and Ryan is geared towards pre-schoolers. Ryan is an adorable little boy, while Rufus is Ryan's stuffed monkey. The books are short reads too. The book would make a great gift for birthdays, holidays, and Easter. The book will also teach kids about going to church and what behaviors are appropriate for this setting. The book is 7.99 on Ideals Books. It is also 7.19 on Amazon for the board book and is Prime Eligible. The paperback is 19.59 on Amazon and is not Prime Eligible.



Rufus and Ryan are also featured in Rufus and Ryan say their prayers, also available on Ideal Books and Amazon.

About the author:

Kathleen Long Bostrom is a published children's author. She writes for the Christian and trade market. Kathleen has a Masters in Christian Education, in addition to a Doctorate in Ministry in Preaching. Kathleen and her husband has three adult children and live in Ililnois. 

About the Illustrator:

Rebecca Thornburgh started illustrating children's books in 1996. As of today, Thornburgh has illustrated over 100 books. Rebecca's watercolors have been featured in many of Ideal's titles, including The Story of Christmas. Rebecca lives in Philadelphia with her husband and two daughters. 

My Review:

Why I chose the book:

I wanted to review this book because I just started going back to church in 2012. I had not been previously since 2010 except once or twice. In two years, I had given birth to my two year old, in addition to having my oldest move from Georgia to Texas to live with me. I had to start going back to church, if not for me, for my children. I had to find the right church for my kids. I had three requirements: a nursery for my baby (who was almost 1 at the time); a special needs program for my oldest; and transportation to get to and from church. I don't want my kids with me in the sanctuary. They need to learn with people their own age and disability. Not to mention, they don't act right. Kalen likes to knock pens out my hand. Brad can't sit still. He also tries to run around. I have had issues with a church before that did not have a SPED program, and did not like Brad making a bunch of noise in church. When I had Brad for the weekend, I had to decide between staying at home or taking Brad to church and risk being asked to leave. I didn't even think about the pastor, but luckily, I found a great church with an excellent Pastor and assistant pastor. I googled churches but all the ones, who had special needs programs was too far away. I needed a church within reasonable distance: 30 minutes or less. I passed by my current church all the time, to go to Wal-Mart and a few other places. I have no idea what caused me to email the church, but I did. They met all my requirements and then some. The church is less than 5 minutes away from my house. Great special buddies program. The nursery program is awesome. The transportation leaders are amazing as well.

Back to the book:

In the book, Rufus and Ryan are going to church. The church is full of people, from the old to the young, including a stuffed monkey. The book teaches kids to be quiet and be still, which is something my nephew needs to do :-). When I went with my mother to church, my nephew crawled under the seats and just would not be still. In the book, Ryan listens, sings, and prays. The book will be a great read to the kids, grandkids, and other kids, in the neighborhood. Also great for church nurseries as well.

10 Tips for bringing a child to church

FlyBy Blog promotions provided an attachment with 10 tips for bringing a child to church. The tips included:

1. Attend a child-friendly church. A child-friendly church invites children to attend worship services. It also may have children's services during worship. Find a church, which includes children in worship or has a separate program for children, so you can worship (Stacie's tip). Find a church, which will not be bothered by noise and commotion, with having younger children in the sanctuary. 
2. Bring your child to church on a day besides Sunday Morning. Make an appointment with the church office. Get a tour of the church. Find the Sunday School rooms, bathrooms, and sanctuary. Let your child sit in the pews, flip through the bibles, flip through the song books, etc. Explain the communion table, baptismal pool, and pulpit. For example, my church does communion on the first Sunday of each month. If the church is doing baptisms, it is done after the opening prayer of the 11 am service. 8 am service does not do baptisms. Both services perform communions. 
3. Take home a bulletin and go through the service at home, if applicable. Explain the times to sit, stand, kneel, sing, pray, and listen. If the Lord's prayer or other regular prayers are used, write down the words and let your child (ren) practice at home. Explain and Practice the tithes and offering as well. 
4. Play Let's go to church at home. Help your child be more comfortable in church. I remember playing church and school when I was a child. 
5. Read the bible and pray at home (which I need to do more of). Find an age-appropriate bible at home. Encourage your child to ask questions. 
6. Sit near an aisle, where you can make an exit, if needed. I definitely believe in this tip. I sit near the end of the aisles, just in case I get paged for either children. If your child has to go to the bathroom or gets overstimulated, it will be easier to walk out versus moving down a row of people. 
7. Be prepared with a worship note book and or bag. Bring pencils, colors, paper, coloring pages, etc for your child to play with. 
8. Teach basic church etiquette. Speak to people before and after services. Teach kids how to shake hands and greet other people. Show and let your child put away the hymn books and bibles after services, if applicable. 
9. Get to know the pastor. Introduce your kids to the pastor and participate in other church activities. 
10. Don't give up. Your child may not be comfortable in worship at first. Give it time. Attend church on a regular basis. I gave up with bringing Brad with me to church. I chose to stay at home instead. Now, I take him with me. He goes to his class, Kalen goes to his class, and I go to the sanctuary and my class. 

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July 7th, 2013

Today has been a rough day mentally and physically. Saturday Night, Kalen dropped my phone in the toilet. It happened quick. One minute I was sending photos from my phone to email, and the next, my niece telling me she saw my phone in the toilet and she fished it out. I cracked phones before, but never had a water logged one. Immediately put the phone in rice. The rice was already in a bowl because my great niece dropped my niece's phone in the toilet a few days before. My niece had to get a new phone.

I could not access my camera, my photos, my texts. The number and letter system was messed up. I typed in 1, i got 1234. Couldnt get my contacts, but could log on the internet. I stayed up all night because my alarm on my phone, so I would not miss church. Got dressed. and then realized, my church does confirmation calls for transportation before showing up. Tried to turn on the phone. it came on, but my carousel was down and my contact list would not show up (since it is a part of the carousel. Insight: use brad's phone to check my voicemail to see if the deacons left a message. nothing.  went up stairs and back to bed. slept until 3 pm. I was tired. got up and cooked some eggplant and salad. did some cleaning. now working on a book review. im so behind right now.

I finally turned on the phone this evening. My contact list was back temporarily. I wrote on a piece of paper all my contact names and numbers. Wrote down my appointments.  I also checked the photos and videos, it was working again. quickly, i turned the phone off, put my sd card back in my phone, and copied all the photos and videos to the sd card. some may be duplicates, but i was not willing to lose two years of memories.

I did go on Boost Mobile last nite, after remembering I have phone insurance. I filed a claim and my new innuendo will be here in a few days. Had to pay a $25 dollar deductible. Glad I had money on my card .Maybe they will send an android by mistake :-)

Responsibility

Just watched a wonderful sermon on responsibility from Andy Stanley @yourmove on twitter.

Some of the points he made was:


Irresponsibility leads to conflict
People blame someone else for things they (you) should be responsible for
When you are about to place blame, listen to the blame conversation you give others and yourself.
When placing blame, determine how much of the responsibility pie is your fault
Are you responsible for your slice of the pie?

The responsibility pie: Andy showed a slice of pie on the television. He was saying when you and another are fighting, such as your spouse, the spouse gets the majority of the blame. Problems will never get fully resolved because you are placing all or most of the fault on someone else. You have to determine what you did to cause the problems as well, otherwise the problems will continue to escalate, get worse, never reach resolution.



Stacie

Morning Frustration

Found me a good church a few weeks back. Has a good special ed program. Nursery. But church van is starting to irk me. First visit. My mother took me and picked me up. Next visit church van. Called and confirmed pick up time. Last week no call no show. Same this week. What's the point of calling for
transportation if no one going show up?


My mother decided to take me to church real quick. The church will provide a way back home, if someone needs one. On the way to church, my mother saw a church van and decided to follow the van to see if it was meant for our house. Keep in mind, the church 10 minutes away and I am almost late. Each van has a list of passengers for pick-up. Instead of honking to determine, she decided to follow the van. The van was meant for my house, (Thank you Jesus). And she did follow it all the way back home. I was very very frustrated at this point. A) No confirmation call from the church. B) Mother said she would take me, but then turned around. C) I hate being late anywhere. I have to walk to the nursery. Sign the kids in. Then Go to church. D) I missed last week because the bus did not show up and it may show signs of a future pattern. 


Anyway, the bus driver was very understanding. He did not know why no one showed up last week. He said he will be my regular driver for this neighborhood. He gave me a time frame for future pick-ups. I got into the church finally, the choir was singing. and then the solo artist (George Something) sung one of my favorite songs (Smokey's Norful's I need you now). The song made me cry and filled my spirit. Not everything will go according to plan or routine. Life has its deviations along the way, but I can not let it frustrate me all the time.