Does Anyone Else Remember The Story Keepers?

 

The Story Keepers is a children’s cartoon produced by Zondervan and Focus on the Family that ran from 1995-1997. I have vivid childhood memories of watching this show Friday mornings. It follows the adventures of Christians in first century Rome as they dodge the authorities to share the gospel.

I was surprised to learn that there were only thirteen episodes. For whatever reason, when I was a kid, I thought there were so many episodes I would never see every single one.  Although it is shorter than I remembered it was by no means incomplete. These thirteen episodes tell a complete story and end on a four-part Easter special. 

The animation for the present of 64AD is more goofy and fun, but the animation changes to different more elegant and artistic styles when it is focusing on a gospel story being told. For example the parable of the good samaritan is very angular and has dark earthy tones while the story of the calming of the sea is more fluid and uses blue and cool tones. 

Rome 64 AD

The first handful of episodes are more goofy and campy than the later ones. The animation also increased in quality the longer the show went on.  I think it took them a little bit to find their style, but even then I enjoyed the earlier episodes despite how absurd (or maybe because) they were.

The characters don’t fall into the boxes and tropes that I usually see in Christian fiction. Ben the Baker, our protagonist, and his wife are fostering several children whose parents have gone missing during the great fire of Rome. These children have a differing range of optimism and they aren’t always happy and hopeful that they will see their parents again. Some like Marcus, the youngest, are absolutely confident that their parents are out there waiting for them, while others like his older brother, Justin, are not. 

The Christians are not portrayed as being perfect and happy all the time, they disagree with one another,  they make mistakes because they are prideful and refuse to listen, sometimes with huge consequences.  Also, they struggle to be completely true to their faith. In the first episode, Tacticus, a sympathetic guard, advises Zak, one of Ben’s foster-children awaiting execution, to just proclaim Nero as a god because he has seen many Christians do so and their lives were spared.

Words cannot describe how much I despised this man. 

Not all non-Christians are super villains. The only two completely unsympathetic pagan characters are the major villains Nihilus (yes there was a villain named Nihilus this show is not very subtle in that regard) and Nero.

However, they are evil because the latter is a narcissist with a god-complex and the former is an unscrupulous follower of said narcissist. Although I hated Nero and Nihlus, it’s in the best way possible; they are entertaining and take over every scene they are in. Did mention? Nero is played by Tim Curry.

My favorite character is Tacticus who *spoilers* eventually converts to Christianity. However, he does not hear one gospel story and immediately asks to be baptized. He starts as an honorable man before he converts, and it takes the course of the series for him to believe in Jesus. I appreciate this more as an adult than I did as a child because in real life, most people who change their beliefs take time, and are not bad people before and after they make this change.

All episodes can be watched for free on YouTube here. If you have kids, I especially recommend you show it to them. The Story Keepers is up there with VeggieTales as one of the best Christian children’s shows ever produced

Who Killed Jesus?

 

An almost universally agreed upon fact by both Christian and secular scholars is that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified under the orders of Pontius Pilate in the early first century likely around 30-33 AD/CE.

But what caused Jesus to be crucified?

Who killed him?

 The short and literal answer is the Romans who carried out Pilate’s orders. It does not matter if Pilate attempted to wash his hands of the act, he was still the one who bent over to the will of the mob. He may as well have been the one to drive the nails into Christ’s hands and feet.

However, since  the fledgling days of Christianity many have pointed their finger at the Jews. It was the religious authorities of the first century who were unhappy with how Jesus was teaching and handed him over to the Roman authorities.  Never mind that Jesus and most of his first followers were Jews, in many unfortunate cases, Christians have attempted to seek revenge against them. 

At the end of the day, arguing over who is responsible for Jesus’ death and seeking “justice” for him, is completely missing the point and purpose of his sacrifice, and ignores the hard truth.

I, Melanie, killed Jesus.

 It was for my and the sins of everyone who ever lived that he died, but this is by no means a reason for despair or to attempt to harm oneself or seek out punishment. 

My mother once told me, we should not be doling out justice for Jesus or avenging his death.  Our salvation did not come without a price, but it is also important to remember what the sacrifice gave us. My mother also told me, if I were to look up at Jesus from the foot of the cross he would not say. “Look what you did to me.” 

His words would be, “I did this for you.”

It was not Pilate, but it was my sins who condemned thee to death. -St. Alphonsus Ligouri 

Top 5 Favorite Romance Novels

Top 5 Favorite Romance Novels                                                      

5. The Heiress and the Chauffeur, Vol. 2 by Keiko Ishihara  

  I am trying to avoid plot specific events because I don’t

want to spoil what occurs in the first volume. If it wasn’t  

for my sister urging me on, I would never have gotten around          

to reading volume 2 of this series. Don’t get me wrong the first

one was good. However, it could have been better, but it could have been a lot worst. I gave it three stars. Anyway, thanks to my sister I would have missed out on a delightful romance manga. There are areas in need of development. For instance, the main character’s relationship with her best friend. My sister told me Ishihara wanted to develop it more, but her producers were worried it would take the focus away from the romance. All in all, The Heiress and the Chauffeur is a breezy read. However, that isn’t to say this story doesn’t have some heavy moments of family turmoil.

*Content* As mentioned above there are moments of family turmoil and I wouldn’t recommend it to someone who might have a chaotic home life as it could be triggering. There are also mentions of past injuries, and violence, and some very sensual moments. 15+

4. The Fairest Beauty by Melanie Dickerson

     My nostalgia glasses were on when I decided

to put this book on this list as it is the first non-middle

school book I read for fun. It is a historical retelling of

Snow White with a strong Christian focus. (It is set in pre-

reformation Europe) Something that really attracted tween me to the protagonist, Sophie, was her issues with letting go her past with the duchess, the fill in for the evil queen, but Gabe, the fill in for Prince Charming who isn’t a prince, encourages her to let God heal her. I like how both Gabe and Sophie better each other because of their relationship even if there was one plot point at the end which I found to be too convenient. (There is a reason this isn’t at the top of this list).

Content There are some frightening chase scenes and brief descriptions of violence, wounds, death, and minor sensual content 14+

3. First Date by Krista McGee

     A modern retelling of Ester where Queen Ester is Addy,

a normal Teenager, King Ahasuerus is Jonathan, the president’s

son, and they are in a reality show where the prize is going to prom

with Jonathan instead of becoming the new queen. McGee pulls this

off almost flawlessly. There are legitimately funny parts (especially Addy interacting with the other contestants) and I found myself laughing out loud many times. The romance is pretty sweet as far as teenage romance goes, but it isn’t just “I like you. You like me. Let’s take cute selfies together”. Another positive element of this book is the author doesn’t forget the protagonist interacts with people other than the object of her affection. I was not only interested in how Addy's and Jonathan's relationship was developing, but also the relationships the protagonist had with the friend she made on the game show, her uncle, and legal guardian, and her parents who although have been dead for years (not a spoiler) and how their deaths still touch her more than a decade later.

Content There are some scenes of bullying and intense flashbacks in this book, but they aren’t super explicit. It would probably be good for 12+, but I wouldn’t give this to sensitive 12 and 13-year-olds. ie., I wouldn’t give this to middle-school me. (I read this book in high school).

2. Miki Falls: Summer by Mark Crilley

     First things first, Mark both wrote and illustrated

this book by hand so I have to give credit to that because

the artwork of this graphic novel is amazing. Yet another

piece where I’ll have to avoid plot specific events to avoid

spoiling the first one. This is the second out of four books

of the Miki Falls series. Unlike The Heiress and the Chauffeur, I had full intention of continuing with this series after I finished the first volume, Spring. However, I still find Summer to be a stronger entry than Spring as I found the latter to be more of an introduction. Summer builds on what I learned from Spring and does a very good job of showing the story as this is a graphic novel. The frustrations that the two protagonists, Miki and Hiro, have with their relationship and all the problems arising from it. I am now entering some spoiler territory here so if you haven’t read this book yet I recommend skipping to my number one Romance novel. The ending of Summer drove me to read the next book even more than Spring because...

He found the arrow!!!

Content Some scenes of relationship problems and mentions of death and the fear of death. And some sensual content 13+

1. Small Town Girl by Anne H. Gabhart

       I first read this book when I was in my Junior year

of high school where my sister and I were trying to share

my local library’s only copy. This is the second book in

Gabhart’s Rosy Corner Series the first being Angel Sister,

which is also amazing, but as the title suggest the love in

that story isn’t romantic. Unlike the other two sequels I reviewed, I don’t have to avoid plot specific events because this can be read without ruining much of Angel Sister's story. The main characters, Kate and Jay, have a lot more than their relationship in mind. For the most part, they are concerned about the WWII and the other people involved in their lives. The plot is heavily focused on the characters and it works perfectly with the diverse personalities of the people occupying the world of Gabhart’s Rosy Corner series. 

Content There are scenes of family turmoil, mentions of the deaths of loved ones, a scene where a character receives unwanted sexual attention, accidental violence, the strain war places on people, and some sensual content. 16+.

*Note* Top 5 Wednesday is a Goodreads group where blogger/vloggers post about a bookish topic every Wednesday. You can check it out right here. https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/118368-top-5-wednesday