We think our books are unique in that we add three discussion questions to the end of EACH chapter. It is our hope that parents or grandparents will read along with their preteens and discuss the topics that are mentioned in passing in each chapter.
We love our stories, but we think the discussions kids can have with the adults in their lives is where the real magic might happen.
In future newsletters, we thought we would ask a question from one of those chapters and give our answer … AND … ask you for yours.
In The Heliuna Academy – chapter one – Aimi is on a Peace Corps mission in the jungles of India. At the end of the chapter we ask the question:
Have you ever been homesick?
I (dad) have been to the jungle described in The Heliuna Academy.
I remember traveling by taxi, bus, train, jeep, then 2-wheeler to get there.
For about 5 hours of that trip, we traveled in a jeep that had the temperature set at 55 degrees. I was deep in India and freezing to death. I was also surrounded by my wonderful Indian friends who did NOT stop talking the entire trip. I felt like I was sitting at a table of high school girls talking about a recent trip to the mall.
The one thing that constantly went through my mind during the long, arduous, and grueling trip to the children’s home in the jungle was that after getting there, I have to go back!!
Got there we did.
I looked at my watch and calculated that if by some chance I got word that I was needed back home … home home … in the US, it was going to take me more than 44 hours at the quickest.
It was the closest I ever came to feeling homesick.
Homesickness is the feeling that things would be different if I could get my present experience behind me and I could be with people I love and who love me … at home.
Jesus felt homesick when he was in the garden of Gethsemane. The Bible says in Matthew that he was ‘grieved and distressed.’ The Greek there uses a word that is similar to homesick. Jesus wanted the experience of the cross behind him and he wished he were home again.
Your turn – have you ever been homesick? Hit reply and do tell.
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