Paws & Tales

Goo: Hey, Goo here! You probably know by now that here in the clubhouse, we have a quest each and every month. A quest is a very fun thing to do. A thing to bake with your folks, a thing to make with a friend. Sometimes it's a thing to record so you can possibly make it onto a real Paws & Tales episode, don't you know?

Just log onto pawsandtales.org and head on into the clubhouse for the latest quest. I will see you in Wildwood!

Eric Bazel: This week on Paws & Tales, the thrilling conclusion to Goliath, King of Shadow Valley, and a behind-the-scenes look at Paws & Tales with the creative team of David Carl and Eric Bazel. That's all on today's special episode of Paws & Tales. You won't want to miss a minute, so stay tuned.

Insight for Living: Welcome to the world of Paws & Tales.

Flint: Wild Mountain can be a pretty dangerous place. You stay on the trails and stick with me. There's adventures to be had there, too.

Guest (Male): Come on, CJ, jump!

Guest (Female): It's too far!

Guest (Male): It wasn't too far for me!

Insight for Living: Insight for Living is proud to present Paws & Tales.

Eric Bazel: Previously on Paws & Tales.

Guest (Male): Help me! I need help! Where's the sheriff?

Guest (Male): We don't have a sheriff. What's the matter, friend?

Guest (Male): The bandits have taken all of the children from my village. I need your help. Will you help?

Guest (Male): No.

Guest (Female): What's wrong with you?

Guest (Male): Probably several things.

Guest (Female): If you are too dead inside to go for the children, then you will go for my father. Do you understand?

Chuck: This is going to go bad. I can feel it in my bones. I stood over Flint and Sanders and fought like a tornado. They came from every direction, but I saw them coming, every one of them.

The Owl: What do you seek? The one? You haven't been looking, have you? I love it. You want the one to lead them out, and I want to make sure that never happens.

Mason: Are you a papa?

Chuck: A papa? I'm not sure what...

Mason: You're old and gray.

Chuck: Mason, it's just the ashes.

Guest (Female): Mitten, Sandy, we're going home! Papa Chuck is going to take us home. Thank you, Papa Chuck.

Chuck: Welcome.

Guest (Male): They say you're Goliath. Are you Goliath?

Chuck: Not anymore.

Guest (Male): You killed my father and my brother!

Chuck: I don't know what to say.

Guest (Male): I know what to say. Murderer! Murderer!

Chuck: I'll be paying for my past forever. Maybe I am Goliath.

Guest (Male): For one minute, could you think about someone other than yourself? You are not what you were.

Chuck: What?

Guest (Male): They're bandits.

Guest (Male): How do you know that?

Chuck: I know. Look at me, son. This is where you choose. Leave them be and you have a normal life. Go after them and you're trapped.

Guest (Female): Sandy, he's gone.

Flint: Chuck? No ashes left in the fire. Come on, he's gone.

Guest (Female): What if he comes back?

Flint: He's not coming back.

Ryan: Hi, I'm Ryan from New York. My favorite Paws & Tales character is CJ because he is adventurous. Wait until you hear what happens next on today's episode.

Ned: Hello everyone, Ned the Beaver here for Paws & Tales. Oh, we have such good news to tell you!

Tiffany Rockler: What are you doing in here now, Ned?

Ned: Tiffany, why are you here?

Tiffany Rockler: I just heard that Dave Carl has written the first Paws & Tales book. Am I correct?

Ned: Yes! I mean, only if you want that to be true. Of course it's true! But why are you here?

Tiffany Rockler: I am here to promote the book, of course.

Ned: Really? You want to help?

Tiffany Rockler: Of course. I want everyone to read this book and learn about repentance, and about the mean old vulture that tries to get Stacy mad at the club, and how Crocket and Smidge take care of the men they call the shovels. What could be better than all of that?

Ned: Wow, color me surprised. I didn't think you would be interested in this.

Tiffany Rockler: Ned Cleaver, I am nothing if not a team player.

Ned: Not exactly how I would describe you.

Tiffany Rockler: So, if all you listeners can hear me now, I want you to all go out and get your own copy of The Overcomers, the very first Paws & Tales book ever.

Ned: Amazing, Tiffany! I just did not expect...

Tiffany Rockler: I'm buying 100 copies myself, so the very least you could do is get one.

Ned: Okay, we try not to be mean to the audience. Thank you for stopping by, Tiffany Rockler, on behalf of the very first Paws & Tales book ever, The Overcomers.

Tiffany Rockler: Go right now to pawsandtales.org and buy it. Now.

Ned: Kind of mean right there. Let's stop the tape. I don't feel safe. Stop the tape, Joel.

Tiffany Rockler: We will stop the tape when I say stop tape.

Chuck: It was a long and bitter ride for Cindy and Pastor Flint. They got home early and had a cold breakfast. Both of them were angry and hurt, just shuffling around doing their morning chores in silence.

Flint: I'm going out to the back pasture.

Cindy: Really? You're going to start on the rocks?

Flint: No. It's not possible by myself. I'm just going to check the fences.

Cindy: Daddy, did we lose him?

Flint: No. He chose to be lost. Some folks would rather go back to what they've known rather than go forward, even if what's ahead is better. It takes extraordinary courage to trust God with your future. He just didn't have it in him. Hold on, horse! What's the matter with you? Sorry, guess I scared her.

Cindy: Chuck! What's all over you?

Chuck: Oh, it's just...

Flint: He smeared ashes all over himself.

Cindy: Why would you do that?

Flint: So he could go in and...

Chuck: So I could get these guys. There I was, standing there gray as a ghost. I yanked on the rope I had in my hand and from behind the barn stumbled six bandits, each tied to the rope.

The most interesting thing here, more than the fact that they were all tied up, was the fact that none of them were wearing shoes or pants.

Guest (Male): Oh my!

Bandit: Now was that really necessary? Right in front of the lady. Haven't we been humiliated enough?

Flint: Chuck! You brought them in!

Bandit: This is so embarrassing.

Cindy: Why are they in their underwear?

Chuck: Good question.

Bandit: Oh, shut your trap.

Bandit: I'll do nothing of the sort!

Chuck: They were a little unruly. They kept trying to escape.

Bandit: So he took away our shoes and pants. Can you believe it?

Chuck: It's hard to be a tough guy when you're barefoot and in your tighty whities.

Bandit: It's not that funny.

Cindy: I thought you were gone forever.

Chuck: I almost was gone forever. I was confused and angry. I went back to attack and the owl was there, whispering lies and half-truths in my ear.

The Owl: And there is no one to stop them but you, the mighty Goliath. Kill them. Go down and kill them all. They will never know what hit them, and you will be king of this mountain. Not just over the bandits, but over all who would shame you with guilt.

If you have sinned, you should feel guilt. That's the way God calls to you. You'll never be able to escape your past. They'll never let you.

Chuck: I can't hear you.

The Owl: They'll make you pay for your past forever.

Chuck: If God saves me from my past, I can be thankful. Every time I look back, I can be thankful that He saved me.

The Owl: Oh pish, it doesn't work like that. But you can use your guilt to drive you on to dominate everyone around you. Then they will all fear the name Goliath. You will be free to go where you want and take what you will.

Chuck: I will be king and lose everything that's good in my life.

The Owl: You're not looking at this properly!

Chuck: You've whispered your last lie to me, you bag of filth. Goliath is dead and you will be too if you ever come to me again. Now fly!

I decided to capture them, to bring them to justice in Wildwood.

Cindy: I could just kiss you!

Bandit: Wow.

Flint: Wow.

Bandit: Wow.

Bandit: Oh, shut your trap.

Bandit: I'll do nothing of the sort.

Bandit: I'm just trying to get on his good side here.

Bandit: Goliath, that was lovely.

Bandit: That's it! Take your hands off of me!

Chuck: We'll get them to town. Cindy, could you fix up some biscuits for us? It's been a long night.

Cindy: Of course! It'll only be a few minutes.

Bandit: And some warm milk would be nice.

Cindy: And warm milk!

Bandit: Now you're talking.

Flint: Cindy's biscuits? Don't you think these fellows have suffered enough for one day? Maybe. I know it's hard to believe, but I like her biscuits. They kind of grow on you.

Chuck: More like they harden on you. I know where I belong. I know who God wants me to be, and now I know where I belong. Right here. I'm home.

Flint: Yes, you are. We've known it for some time. You're home.

Bandit: Well, that's just wonderful. He's home.

Bandit: Oh, shut your trap.

Bandit: I'll do nothing of the sort.

Bandit: Work with me!

Bandit: I can't take it anymore!

Chuck: Whoa! I had no idea. That wasn't the end, but it was a good beginning. No one changes overnight, but with the help of Flint and Cindy and others, slowly, I left all that behind.

Guest (Female): You almost didn't make it.

Chuck: You're right.

Guest (Female): Hue wasn't as bad as you were.

Goo: Goo, how rude!

Chuck: She's right. There is hope for Hue and everyone. Lots of folks didn't think I was worth the trouble. I almost believed them. Flint and Cindy, on the other hand, did. They did a lot of praying for me.

Flint: You best be doing the same for Hue.

Guest (Female): Yes, sir. Every day. I will.

Eric Bazel: To order a copy of the Goliath collection, Goliath, King of Shadow Valley, just log onto pawsandtales.org. Goliath, King of Shadow Valley was written and directed by David Carl. Music was by Tim Hosman and our sound designer was Jerry Swafford. Paws & Tales is an Insight for Living production.

When we come back, we'll take a peek into the world of Paws & Tales with the creative team of David Carl and Eric Bazel. We'll talk about why the Goliath series was written, the importance of Shadow Valley, and we'll share some secrets that you won't want to miss about what's ahead for Paws & Tales. That's all coming up right after this.

Isaiah: Hello, my name's Isaiah and I'm five years old. I like to listen to Paws & Tales and you will too. Tune in today.

Tiffany Rockler: Hello lovely listeners, Tiffany Rockler from Paws & Tales here to tell you all about the very new and very fashionable t-shirts now on sale in our store. We have a wonderful Tiffany Rockler shirt with lovely details...

Ned: Tiffany, that is not true.

Tiffany Rockler: Ned, what are you talking about? Of course it's true. If I said it, then it is true.

Ned: We do have new t-shirts, really nice ones, and you should go online and see them at pawsandtales.org. All of our listeners should do that. Yes, yes, there are Goo shirts, so cute!

Tiffany Rockler: Yeah.

Ned: And there are Ned shirts.

Tiffany Rockler: Go on.

Ned: Just no Tiffany shirts, not yet. It's just Goo's shirt...

Tiffany Rockler: Yeah, really nice ones too.

Ned: And Ned shirt, but no Tiffany shirt. Oh boy, here it comes. Bye everybody!

Tiffany Rockler: You all will rue the day!

Eric Bazel: We're back, and we're glad that you're with us. I'm Eric Bazel, the associate producer of Paws & Tales, and I also do some of the audio design for the program. I'm here with the creator of Paws & Tales and the guy that writes and directs most of the scripts, David Carl. Hey, Dave.

David Carl: Glad to be with you.

Eric Bazel: Great. Well, hey, we don't usually do this, talk to the listeners.

David Carl: This is unusual. Actually, I think it's the first time that we've ever taken program time to talk to the audience, but it's very important this time, isn't it?

Eric Bazel: Well, and I also think it's neat for people who listen to the program every week but may not know a little bit of what goes into the program to find out how this comes to be. The Goliath series is a perfect opportunity to share some of those insights. So let's talk about the first episode. It's called Goliath, and it was written a couple of years ago, but we knew at that time that there'd be a lot more story to tell, didn't we?

David Carl: This Goliath series that we have just concluded today is part of the overall story arc for Paws & Tales. Now if you've been listening for any time at all, you realize we are leaving clues. We are building on previous clues. There's a larger story going on.

Eric Bazel: Yeah, that's right. You just said the term story arc. If you listen for any amount of time, you get to know who the characters are, what makes them tick, what's important to them, and where they're headed. As a storyteller, that's exciting because then you can tell a large story over a large period of time.

David Carl: Right. Each episode is a standalone, if you only listen to the one episode, with the exception perhaps of this Goliath, which you need to listen to all five of the episodes.

Eric Bazel: Well, we've been getting a lot of cards, letters, and emails, Dave, from fans of Paws & Tales who tell us from time to time, "Tell us more about Shadow Valley. Shadow Valley is very exciting. What's going to happen next? Talk to us about Shadow Valley."

David Carl: Shadow Valley, to me, is representative of the kind of sinning that you can do where you get yourself in so deeply you can no longer get yourself out by your own power. You need spiritual intervention to get you out of the predicament that you found yourself in.

Eric Bazel: So it's almost like, well to use a big term here, it's a metaphor, right? We're not going to wake up in the morning and find ourselves in a mythical place called Shadow Valley.

David Carl: Not an actual place, but you may well find yourself in a state of sin that you can't get out of anymore. An addiction would be an excellent example of this. You can get yourself so addicted, you're stuck, and you need help.

Eric Bazel: And that's a great point. So if you're a listener and you're reading through your Bible and you come across passages where Paul talks about we're slaves to sin, that's an important phrase. It means that we're trapped in our own little Shadow Valley that we can't get out of. Our sin confines us.

David Carl: Nothing you can do under your own power can change your condition except perhaps to make it worse.

Eric Bazel: That's probably why today is so important for our listeners. Goliath, King of Shadow Valley is a wonderful explanation of how we find ourselves in a world of sin and the knowledge that there is grace, that there is a Savior that we can turn ourselves over to. This series is a wonderful way to maybe expose Christianity to somebody, to share Christ with someone who may not understand what that's all about.

David Carl: Well, and it's the highest hope for this kind of storytelling. So often in a book or a film, what you get is good versus evil, and that's meaningless. Is good a little bit better than evil? Is it a strong 50-50? You're never quite sure who's going to win at the end. That's a false premise.

It's God versus Satan and we're in the middle. But if we can, as Goliath did, give ourselves to the saving power of Christ, the battle may still rage but it's been won.

Eric Bazel: You're right, and Goliath now, Papa Chuck, at the very end of this episode makes a wonderful point. He says to the club, "Look," they were all talking about Hue and Hue's just a bad guy and there's just no hope for him, let's just write him off. Papa Chuck says, "Wait, wait, hold on a minute. We should always pray that change can come, that a person like Hue can change." I think that's a great message for our listeners today.

David Carl: Saul became Paul, and that's as dramatic a change as anybody could ever come up with on their own.

Eric Bazel: That's a great point. Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll's radio ministry, their purpose is in teaching theology in a way that people can understand. In much the same way, Paws & Tales is the same philosophy: teaching theology in a way children and families can understand.

David Carl: It's exactly the same.

Eric Bazel: It's different than what they might listen to on other radio programs or in different kids' products. Why is it different?

David Carl: Well, we're trying to do a larger thing. We're not trying to teach a kid how to alter their behavior. We're trying to teach a kid how to integrate what he believes with how he lives.

Now if you know, if you're a third-grader and you know that there is spiritual evil out there and the Bible talks about this very openly, if you believe that, then things like the Armor of God have a huge meaning. If you really don't believe in spiritual evil, or you think that it happened back in Bible times but not any longer, the Armor of God is virtually meaningless. And there are other huge passages that will ring false if you don't have a worldview built by Scripture.

So I'm not trying to get a child to stop hitting his sister. That's a small thing. It's a good thing, but it's a small thing. What I want them to do is I want them to have 37 reasons to make the good choice, whatever that may be and in whatever circumstance, because it will make God smile, because it will protect me from further harm or evil, it will protect the people around me from further harm or evil. It's a worldview. There's a lot of reasons to do the right thing if you believe correctly.

Eric Bazel: Well, let me ask a tough question then, because we've heard this before. Do you really think a third-grader is going to be able to understand all of this theology that you guys are teaching?

David Carl: I think that one of the things that we as adults often do is underestimate your third-grader. Now anyone who's got a third-grader knows that they can program the VCR, they can surf the internet, they can do things that we cannot do. One of the things they can do very well is look at the world around them and wonder why we're in the situation that we're in.

If there is a God, why are things like this? Is it because God is angry? Is it because God has turned His back on us? These are theological questions.

Let's talk about one of the most important elements in Paws & Tales and it's the one that maybe you wouldn't think of. You think of Paws & Tales maybe as a children's program and we've been saying today it's about teaching theology to kids. But the missing link in all of this is perhaps the most important, and that is parental involvement in listening with their kids.

The most powerful force for teaching sound theology to a child is not the Sunday school teacher. It's not even the good books that you might have lying around for your child. It's not even an excellent children's radio program teaching biblical theology. It's the parent.

The problem is, as a parent, it's a little frightening to think I'm going to sit down while we're serving spaghetti and say, "Son, daughter, family, tonight I want to talk about the way sin works." They're going to choke, you're going to have food all over the floor.

But you can put in an episode of Paws & Tales, for instance, and let us ask the difficult questions, let us answer some of those questions in the episode. When it's over, to have that parent also have experienced that episode and say, "What do you think, guys? Do you think sin results in being trapped? Or do you think if you do it cleverly, do you think you can avoid getting caught?" You can begin a discussion that we have set up for you, but it's after the episode that will make the deepest mark in that child's soul. There's an opportunity for you as the parent to become the spiritual guide of your own child, which is what your child needs more than anything else. We want to arm the parents to be able to do that very thing.

Eric Bazel: That's so true, Dave. We were looking at research from the Barna Research Group just recently that said that parents that were surveyed universally identify their role as building a godly foundation in their kids. But over 70% of those parents said that they felt they were ill-equipped to even do that work with their kids. Paws & Tales is an opportunity for them to help do that work.

David Carl: Well, and what goes on a little bit behind the scenes, so that the parent won't feel badly about it, is I may write the episode, but then I get to go upstairs and I have 20 people up there who are all seminary graduates. I get to sit down and say, "All right, fellas, ladies, how does sin actually work?" They look, they drop their pens and pencils and scratch their heads and we debate and we argue.

There might be half a dozen seminary graduates involved with the creating of any one episode and we are using the resources of Insight for Living to teach these things because the minute your kid comes up and says, "How come I prayed something and God didn't answer my prayer?", you don't want to be caught flat-footed with a question like that. Your options are to change the subject or say, "Go ask your mom." Paws & Tales has an episode, The Princess, that deals with that. That was built by half a dozen really smart people and I was able to compile all of that and turn it into an episode called The Princess, which teaches the beginnings of the questions about prayer.

Eric Bazel: So let's talk about then what Paws & Tales is doing, a very exciting thing that we're launching soon called Tools for Parents. What is Tools for Parents, Dave?

David Carl: Well, in the vein of wanting to arm the parents to become the spiritual guide—there should be several, a Sunday school teacher, the pastor, the youth worker—but the parent should be the spiritual guide for their child. But the average parent can't go upstairs and talk to half a dozen seminary grads like I can. I want to give them the benefit of that.

I want them to be able to listen to a Paws & Tales episode, the Goliath series for instance, and you can log onto pawsandtales.org and read the director's notes, which is a deeper explanation of the concept of the episode, the theological concept for the most part. Then we have questions we call "Questions for Cubs," which is a bit of a misnomer because some of them the parents are going to learn a lot from reading these questions. With the questions come the IFL answers.

Now it would be best if you could have Chuck Swindoll in the living room with you while you're listening with your children and let them ask you a question, you can just turn and say, "Well, Pastor Chuck, answer that one for me." Or you can print out these questions and the answers and I would strongly suggest though that you not just read the questions and then read the answers to your child. Read them yourself so that you can wrestle with them a little and then answer them in a way that's most appropriate for your own children. We want to give you the benefit of the deep resources that Insight for Living has so that within 45 minutes a week you can enjoy a time of speaking theologically with your own children.

Eric Bazel: Dave, tell us again, how can they get the Tools for Parents for the Shadow Valley series? You said that it's on the website?

David Carl: On pawsandtales.org and there'll be a picture there of the castle in Shadow Valley. Click on through that and in there you will find the director's notes and the questions for cubs and however many versions we might be able to create. We can't create the ones for your child. We want you to read these questions, understand the answers as best you can, and then guide your own child toward the God of the Bible.

Eric Bazel: Dave, this is a powerful tool and it sounds like not just for home use, but if you're a homeschooler, if you teach a Sunday school class with kids in it, this could be a fantastic tool for teaching any group of kids, not just your own.

David Carl: We hope so. Whenever we're writing an episode, I'm always thinking of the third-grader and I'm thinking of the parent. I know that they're both listening and there's an experience here just waiting to occur. If you've listened to an episode with your child, chances are they've turned and asked you a question anyway. "I've prayed and it didn't work out the way I wanted it to. Dad, why? Is God upset with me? Did I pray wrong?" So we want to give you something to say to those kinds of questions and we will continue to do that as long as we possibly can because our mission is to help the parent teach the child about the God of the Bible.

Eric Bazel: Next week we'll be back to another great episode of Paws & Tales. But in the meantime, you can get your copy of Goliath, King of Shadow Valley on CD at pawsandtales.org. You can also download those great Tools for Parents. We hope that you'll be listening with your family every week to Paws & Tales. I'm Eric Bazel.

David Carl: And I'm David Carl.

Eric Bazel: Thanks for joining us today in Wildwood.