Laugh-A-Long Books is thrilled to tell you that Today I Found God just won the Christian Small Publishers “2012 Book of the Year” for ages 4-8.  We couldn’t be happier.  What an honor!

This year, over 3,000 people helped pick this year’s winners– we are so grateful to all the readers, booksellers, and publishers who voted for Today I Found God and helped make Today I Found God a multi-award-winning Christian Children’s book.

Most of you remember back in 2010, when Today I Found God won the Moonbeam Chidren’s Book Awards ”Gold Medal” for Best Religious children’s book of the Year.    And now we have another prestigious  national award.. it’s hard to believe, but when you have God on your side, nothing is impossible.

We’d like to thank Christian Small Publishers for this amazing honor and recognition.  Nathan Wondrak’s amazing illustrations continue to “wow” young readers and industry leaders alike, and thanks to everyone for all your prayers and support.  We are truly grateful.

Thank You!

St. Maximilian Kolbe Catholic Church

We arrived at St. Max early Sunday Morning before the 7:00am Mass and met Maryann Kleinman at Kolbe’s Village Gift shop.   It was like meeting an old close friend.  She radiates such warmth and compassion and friendship that it’s impossible not to like her.  We can’t say enough nice things about her.  She is the new manager of Kolbe’s Village Gifts and has completely turned the shop into a first-class Catholic gift and resource center.   If you’re in Southern California please make sure you stop by Kolbe’s Village Gifts… all purchases go to help the Parish’s many ministries and out-reach programs.

We have to admit we couldn’t resist buying a couple of beautiful gifts for our home.

There is such a happy yet Holy vibe at St. Maximilian Kolbe.   All the parishioners are so upbeat and friendly and the Priests and Deacons are all smiles.   It feels like Home.

Between masses- accompanied by a bunch of colorful balloons,  Greg got the chance to read Today I found God to the young parishioners outside in the courtyard.  The courtyard at St. Max is very picturesque– like a Mediterranean Village.  The children were mesmerized and entertained by the books playful rhymes and whimsical illustrations.   Everyone had a lot of fun!

When he was done reading, the kids got to explore a real miniature castle in the courtyard set up by the Habitat for Humanity.  St. Max Parishioners were gathering volunteers to help build houses for the homeless.  The castle was magnificent and extremely detailed… Baby Douglas loved it.

Of course, the star of the day was LuLu.  Kids can’t get enough of her– how many other dogs do you know that are the star of a book?

In the end, we sold a lot of books, made a lot of new friends, and now have a new St. Maximilian memory.

To sum it up succinctly, our day was–
Awesome to “The Max!”

Southern California here we come!

One year after moving from Thousand Oaks, CA, the Laugh-A-Long Pack is heading home for a quick visit with family and an afternoon at St. Maxilmilian Kolbe Catholic Church.

If you’re in the area, stop by the St. Max Gift Shop on Sunday after any of the Church Services and hear Greg read Today I Found God as well as perform parts of his hilarious new children’s show– “Experiments for Saints-in-Training.”

ST. MAXIMILIAN KOLBE MASS TIMES (Sunday)
7:30am
9:00am
11:00am

It’s great to be able to share God’s love with your family, so bring everyone to St. Max on March 11th and let’s follow the call together!!!

PS- Here’s a little Team Long Trivia– Sean Marie and Greg were married at St. Maximilian Kolbe Catholic Church in 2005.  We love St. Max!!!

 Greg will be in-studio and “In-Person with Dina Marie Hale” –Portland’s own uplifting Live Catholic Radio show.

Not only will Dina Marie and Greg talk about Today I Found God, They’ll also have fun talking about Greg’s event-filled spiritual journey these past 3 years.  It’s been a wonderful 3 years full of ups and downs and science-defying miracles. 

If you are in our hometown,Eugene,OR-you can tune in live at 8:00am on 94.9 or 100.5.  In thePortland area just tune into 88.3.

 If you don’t live in Oregon, you can listen to the live stream online.  Just click on the link below to listen to “In-person with Dina Marie Hale” at 8:00am on KBVM on Monday Feb. 27^th. 

LISTEN TO KBVM

 It’s a 40 minute interview, so if you don’t hear the whole thing, we’ll post it soon after.

You’ll be hearing us soon…

God continues to guide and direct us to places we never thought we’d ever go, and do things we never thought possible for us to do—and now, after a year of planting our roots in Oregon and deep in God’s Word, with a firm foundation set, we are ready to bring forth our message of Hope, Happiness, and Heaven.

Get ready World, Here we come

Hal-hal    Ha-la-luuuuuuuuuu!!!!!!               (The Hallelujah Howl)

Follow the Call!

We’ve been invited to tour the KBVM-FM Catholic Radio Studio and meet with Radio Personality Dina Marie.  In case you don’t live in the Portland Oregon area, you can visit their website at:  www.kbvm.com.  Our conversations with Dina Marie over the phone have been fun and filled with spiritual inspiration.  We look forward to meeting her

We will also be visiting The Grotto- The National Sanctuary of our sorrowful Mother.  This gorgeous 62 acre Catholic shrine and Botanical Garden is a serene place perfect for solitude, peace, and prayer.  We plan on taking a few moments out of our hectic tour to slow down and give some time to God in prayer.

Next, we’ll be visiting all the Christian bookstores in the Metro Portland area- Gifts of the Spirit, Crown Book and Gifts, Powell’s Books, Queen of Peace, and Heaven on Earth.

It’s an action-packed schedule, but we plan on having fun and letting the Holy Spirit guide us with  joy-filled hearts.

If you’re in Portland, give us a call and let’s meet at the Grotto for a group silent prayer.  Hope to see you there!…

The day that Sarah’s brother, Brian, fell off his bike, he ran inside the house screaming. He was so upset he didn’t even think about shutting the door. As their mother put a band-aid on Brian’s leg, Milkshake spotted the open door and jumped outside.

When Sarah saw that Milkshake was missing, she ran out to find him. She looked in the garden, under the cars in the driveway, and even in the neighbor’s yard, but she couldn’t find Milkshake anywhere.

She was starting to get worried. Where was Milkshake?

She stomped back inside to yell at her brother for leaving the door open, but before she could even open her mouth, she heard a familiar, “Meow“. She quickly turned around and ran to the backyard and looked up– and that’s where she finally saw Milkshake. He was up in the branches of a tall tree. He was stuck and couldn’t get down.

Sarah ran inside and told her mom, but Brian was still crying, so her mom told her that she would just have to find a way to get Milkshake down all by herself.

“I wish I had a trampoline,” she thought as she walked back outside. “Then I could jump up and grab him.”

But she didn’t have a trampoline. The only thing in her backyard besides the tree Milkshake was stuck in was a fort her father had built for Brian last summer. Sarah looked at the fort and suddenly got an idea.

She unhooked the safety ladder from the fort and carried it over to the tree. She then connected the ladder to the tree with the safety wire. She remembered how her father always says, “safety first,” so she double-checked to make sure the ladder was hooked up to the tree the right way. When she was sure everything was OK, she took a deep breath and stepped onto the ladder’s first rung. Her hands started to get sweaty.

She swallowed hard and climbed up to the second rung. Her heart started to pound loudly.

“Don’t look down. Don’t look down,” she said as she forced herself to climb up to the third rung.

Her knees started to shake. Sarah wanted to go back down the ladder, but the sound of Milkshake crying helped her be brave. She made her wobbly legs climb up to the fourth rung.

Sarah had never been this high up before. She was so scared her teeth started to chatter. Her hands were sweaty, her heart was pounding, and her knees were shaking.

“I can’t do it,” Sarah started to cry. “I’m scared. I wanna get down.” Hot tears rolled down her face.

“Don’t be scared, Sarah.”

“Who said that?” Sarah asked, looking all around.

“I did. It’s me—Jesus Christ.”

“Jesus? You’re here? But I don’t see you; where are you?”

“You invite me in your heart when you say your prayers, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Well, that’s where I am—in your heart. That’s where I always am.”

“Always?”

“Always.  I’ll always be with you, and I’ll always love you. That’s a promise.”

“I know that promise, but sometimes I forget.” Sarah whispered.

“It’s easy to forget things when you’re scared.  Always try to love God; love your neighbor, and love yourself. You can do that, can’t you?

“Yes.”

“Well, then you can do anything—because God is love, and when you have love in your heart, there’s no room left in there for anything else—especially not for fear. So if you remember to always love God, you will never be afraid again. Never, ever, ever.”

“You’re right,” Sarah said excitedly. “I just realized I’m not scared anymore. Look, I’m not shaking. Thank you Jesus.”

“You’re welcome,” Jesus laughed. “Now climb this ladder.”

“I’d love to.” Sarah smiled and quickly climbed up to the fifth rung– and what do you know– there was Milkshake. She did it.

Sarah reached out her hand, freed Milkshake’s stuck tail, and gently picked him up. She then slowly climbed back down the ladder to the ground. Milkshake began to purr.

Sarah quickly carried Milkshake back inside the house. She put him down by his milk bowl. He deserved some milk after that big scare.

She yelled to her mother, “Mom, Mom, I did it. I climbed up the tree and saved Milkshake. I was scared, but Jesus helped me.”

“That’s great,” Sarah’s mother said, coming downstairs.

“I did it! I did it!” Sarah sang as she danced around in a silly circle.

“Yes you did,” her mother agreed. “And you know what else you did?”

“What?” Sarah asked.

“You forgot to shut the door.”

OH NO!

Milkshake had done it again…
____________________________________________________________________________

Learn-A-Long Lesson

Are you afraid of anything? Maybe you’re afraid you’re going to fail a big math test. Or maybe you’re scared of snakes and spiders. Sometimes my family is afraid we won’t have enough money to pay our bills. No matter how big, tough, or brave we try to be, sooner or later we find ourselves scared about something.

I don’t like to feel scared. Do you? Well, I hope you don’t, because Jesus tells us we don’t have to be afraid—EVER! That’s right. Jesus says we should always trust God to take care of us. All we have to do is love God and think about our love for Him throughout the whole day. If we are always thinking about our love for Him, He promises He will take care of us and lead us to safety.

It’s not easy to think about how much we love God all the time. Sometimes we get too busy with talking to our friends, or watching TV, or thinking about things we want to do this weekend—we get so busy with ourselves that we forget God.  Once we begin to think about ourselves more than we think about God, we lose the peace and joy that His love brings. And once our thoughts leave God, they always eventually end up thinking about something that worries us and makes us scared.

The cure for fear is loving God!

When you find you are scared- maybe of heights, maybe of a bully, maybe of not finding something you lost- just start to remember how much you love God. Ask Jesus to help you love God more. Soon, you will realize that your love for God has melted your fear. You won’t fear heights, but will soar to even greater heights. You won’t fear bullies, but you will bravely show them you love them no matter how mean and hurtful they try to be. You won’t fear not finding what you lost because you have just found the greatest possession in the whole world—you found LOVE!

Sarah’s “Cat”astrophe Bible Verse

1 John 4:16 & 18

“God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear.”

Eugene is gorgeous- Its nickname is “The Emerald City” because everything here is so green and lush.  It rains here more than it does in southern California, but thankfully we have the light of the Son shining in us all the time- so things are bright here no matter what.

Now that Team Long has “followed the Call” to Oregon it’s time to GET BUSY!  We’re back in the saddle and giddying-up for an action-packed summer.  God led us here for a reason and we hope Oregon is ready to Laugh along with Team Long.

Stay tuned for more updates as Laugh-A-Long Books brings a ton of fun to Oregon.

Waiter, Waiter! there’s a frog in my soup!
Yes Sir, the fly’s on vacation!

Waiter, Waiter! There’s a crocodile in my soup!
Well sir, you told me to make it snappy!

Waiter, Waiter! Will the pizza be long?
No sir, round.