Paws & Tales

Gooz: Hey everyone, Gooz here for Paws & Tales. I think it's time for you to become famous, and I have just the plan to get it all rolling. Pop over to pawsandtales.org and download one of the radio scripts we have there.

Record yourself on your parent's phone reading it like you're a real actor. We have several scripts for you to choose from. Then, just have your parents go to pawsandtales.org and head on into the clubhouse and upload it there.

We'll use some of them inside an actual episode. So, record it serious or record it silly. We're going to love it either way. Get your radio script at pawsandtales.org and let's start your new career as a radio announcer to the world.

Guest (Male): 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 Basel. That's all on today's special episode of Paws & Tales. You won't want to miss a minute, so stay tuned.

Pastor Flint: Welcome to the world of Paws & Tales. Wild Mountain can be a pretty dangerous place. If you stay on the trails and stick with me, there's adventures to be had there too.

DJ John: Come on, DJ John! It's too far!

Cindy: It wasn't too far for me!

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

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

Pastor Flint: 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?

Pastor Flint: No.

Cindy: No? What's wrong with you?

Pastor Flint: Probably several things. 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.

Marquee: I have never seen anything like that in all my days, and I'm glad you're on our side.

Chuck: Look at me, Marquee. Did they say it like, "He's not the one," or was it, "He's not the one?"

Marquee: 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.

Sandy: 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.

Sandy: Mitten! Sandy! We're going home. Papa Chuck is going to take us home.

Children: Thank you, Papa Chuck! Thank you!

Chuck: Welcome.

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

Chuck: Not anymore.

Cindy: You killed my father and my brother!

Chuck: I don't know what to say.

Cindy: I know what to say. Murderer! Murderer! I'll be paying for my past forever. Maybe I am Goliath. For one minute, could you think about someone other than yourself? You are not what you were.

Pastor Flint: What? They're bandits.

Cindy: How do you know that?

Pastor Flint: 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.

Cindy: Daddy, he's gone.

Pastor Flint: Chuck? There are no ashes left in the fire. Come on, he's gone.

Cindy: What if he comes back?

Pastor Flint: He's not coming back.

Gooz: Gooz the beaver here. Did you know that we have a big blank wall in the clubhouse that needs to get filled up? So, how about this? Parents, take a photo of your child listening to Paws & Tales wherever they happen to listen.

It could be comfy places, funny places, you know we'd love to see them. And I will personally post these photos on that blank wall for all to see. Got some tape right here. Just send them into pawsandtales.org. This is so fun.

Pastor Flint: It was a long and bitter ride for Cindy and Pastor Flint. They got home early and had a cold breakfast. Both of them are angry and hurt, just shuffling around doing their morning chores in silence. I'm going out to the back pasture.

Cindy: Wait, are you going to start on the rocks?

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

Cindy: Daddy, did we lose him?

Pastor 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 any in him.

Chuck: Whoa, hold on, horse. What's the matter with you? Whoa. Sorry, guess I scared her.

Cindy: Chuck, what's all over you?

Pastor Flint: Oh, it's just—

Marquee: He smeared ashes all over himself.

Cindy: Why would you do that?

Marquee: 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.

Marquee: Oh my.

Guest (Male): Was that really necessary? Right in front of the lady? Haven't we been humiliated enough?

Pastor Flint: You brought them in. He brought them in. This is so embarrassing.

Cindy: Why are they in their underwear?

Chuck: Good question.

Guest (Male): Oh, shut your trap. I'll do nothing of the sort.

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

Guest (Male): 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.

Guest (Male): 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.

"And there is no one to stop them but you, the mighty Goliath. Kill them. Go down and kill them all. They'll 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."

I can't hear you.

"They'll make you pay for your past forever."

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

"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."

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

"You're not looking at this properly."

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. Not a fly! I decided to capture them, to bring them to justice in Wildwood.

Cindy: I could just kiss you. Wow. Wow. Wow.

Guest (Male): Oh, shut your trap. I'll do nothing of the sort. I'm just trying to get on his good side. That was luck. That's it! Take your hands off of me! How many times have I told you?

Chuck: I'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.

Guest (Male): And some warm milk would be nice. And warm milk. Now you're talking.

Marquee: Cindy's biscuits? Don't you think these fellows have suffered enough for one day?

Chuck: Maybe. I know it's hard to believe, but I like her biscuits. They kind of grow on you.

Marquee: More like they harden on you.

Chuck: 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.

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

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

Guest (Male): Oh, shut your trap.

Hugh: I'll do nothing of the sort.

Guest (Male): Work with me.

Hugh: I can't take it anymore! Move over! Stop shoving!

Chuck: I had no idea.

Pastor Flint: 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 Chuck left all that behind.

Gooz: You almost didn't make it.

Chuck: You're right.

Gooz: Hugh isn't as bad as you were.

Cindy: Gooz! How rude!

Chuck: She's right. There is hope for Hugh 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. You best be doing the same for Hugh.

Gooz: Yes, sir. Every day, I will.

Chuck: Okay.

Insight for Living: To order a copy of the Goliath collection, Goliath: King of Shadow Valley, just log on to 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.

Guest (Male): When we come back, we'll take a peek into the world of Paws & Tales with the creative team of David Carl and Eric Basel. 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.

Gooz: Do you know what's the biggest problem? I guess I don't. What to wear. I get so excited about going to school that I don't plan stuff out very well. I wore my shirt on backwards last week, don't you know?

Here is one of our newly made Paws & Tales t-shirts. It has the Paws & Tales logo on the front so you'll never be confused and wear it backwards. It would be so great if people could just go on to pawsandtales.org and order one. Gooz, I think you're a genius.

Eric Basel: We're back, and we're glad that you're with us. I'm Eric Basel, the associate producer of Paws & Tales, and I also do some of the audio design for the program. And 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 Basel: 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? We have a very special, special episode here with what we're referring to as the Goliath series, and we just thought that this would be the opportunity to explain ourselves a little bit.

Eric Basel: 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 kind of find out how this comes to be. And 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 just are have 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 that we are leaving clues, we are building on previous clues, there's a larger story going on.

Eric Basel: Yeah, that's right. Well, 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. And 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 four or five of the episodes.

Eric Basel: 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's very exciting. What's going to happen next? Talk to us about Shadow Valley.

David Carl: Shadow Valley to me is it's 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 Basel: So it's almost like 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 Basel: 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. 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 Basel: That's probably why today is so important for our listeners. Goliath: King of Shadow Valley is a wonderful kind of 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. What, is good a little bit better than evil? Is it a strong? It's always about 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 wage, but it's been won.

Eric Basel: You're right. And Goliath makes a wonderful point—Goliath, now Papa Chuck. Papa Chuck at the very end of this episode makes a wonderful point. He says to the club, look, they were all talking about Hugh, and Hugh's just a bad guy and there's just no hope for him, let's just write him off.

And Papa Chuck says, "Wait, wait, hold on a minute, we should always pray that change can come, that a person like Hugh can change." And 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 Basel: 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. And 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 Basel: 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'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. And 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 in whatever circumstance, because it will make God smile, because it will help protect me from further harm or evil, and 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 Basel: 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. And 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.

Eric Basel: 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.

David Carl: 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.

And 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."

Eric Basel: And they clear the table and run away.

David Carl: You're going to choke. Food will be 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. And when it's over, to have the 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?"

And you can begin a discussion that we have set up for you, but it's the 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. And we want to arm the parents to be able to do that very thing.

Eric Basel: Well, 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. So 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. And I get to sit down and say, "All right, fellows, ladies, how does sin actually work?"

And they drop their pens and pencils and they scratch their heads and we debate and we argue. And we have a combined 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. And your options are to change the subject or say, "Go ask your mom," but 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 nature of the beginnings of the questions about prayer.

Eric Basel: 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: the 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.

So 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 on to pawsandtales.org and read the director's notes, which is a deeper explanation of the concept of the episode, the theological concept probably for the most part.

And then we have questions, we call them "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. And 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, 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 children. 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.

But 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 Basel: So, 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 will 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 as you can, and then guide your own child toward the God of the Bible.

Eric Basel: 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. And I know that they're both listening and there's an experience here just waiting to occur.

And 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 Basel: 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." And we hope that you'll be listening with your family every week to Paws & Tales. I'm Eric Basel.

David Carl: And I'm David Carl. And thanks for joining us today in Wildwood.