It’s a chilly Monday morning. My hands cradle the coffee cup as I try to calm my nerves. I’ve repeated this process dozens of times, yet I can’t stop the pounding in my heart when the alarm goes off at precisely 9:30 am. It is time to go to jail.My name is Amber, and this is my testimony. In the last thirteen years, God has taken me on an incredible journey, and it would be remiss of me not to share it with you. This one is for the girls. If you are finishing up high school or feel immobilized and are waiting for the next step in your life, I want to encourage you as you begin the next chapter.Let’s start at the beginning.It was 2011, and I was seventeen years old. It was graduation year for me. Like any proper homeschooler, I grew up conservative, where there was a particular mindset for young women and girls to be running a household and raising a family by the time we reached our twenties. Well, that wasn’t the case for me.I grew up in the country and learned to work hard and diligently alongside my family. I am so thankful for the knowledge I’ve acquired from them, but, as time marched on, I was no longer satisfied waiting at home. Please don’t misunderstand—my family is amazing. I could go on all day about how awesome they are and how much I enjoy them. But, that would be my parents’ life. I needed my life to start. I needed to graduate.With my future looking a little different than I expected, I shared with my parents the restless and unexplainable urge I possessed to do . . . something with my life. I wanted it to be something meaningful that would impact not only me, but others as well.Then Costa Rica happened. I wasn’t planning for it, wasn’t even looking for it. But I was looking for something, and God provided. A family friend from long ago contacted my older sister and me to see if we would be interested in joining them on a week-long mission trip to Costa Rica. I was beyond thrilled; it was an answer to prayer and to the unshakable voice that wouldn’t let me go. I had already done extensive traveling, and my passport was ready for another stamp. I didn’t yet know that it wasn’t going to be the stamp or the gorgeous countryside that was going to change my life.That week in Costa Rica was indescribable, so I won’t bother with details. I will tell you that my brief experience there taught me more about Jesus and his love than anything else ever had. The time flew by too quickly, and I found myself leaving reluctantly. I told the woman who operated the home to give me a call if she ever needed more help. But at the time there wasn’t a need, and that just about broke my heart.I returned home and went about life again, including back to my job as a substitute teacher. But the yearning I felt had only grown stronger, and I needed a change. I just didn’t know where to go. I had no clear direction, no plan, just a feeling that wouldn’t go away. And then, as he always does, God provided. I received a call, and man was I thrilled to see that the caller ID was a Costa Rican number! The woman on the other end asked if I was ready to come back, this time staying for the summer.I’m sure you can guess my response. I told my parents about the call and all they said was “When do you leave?” The answer? Two weeks. I halted my teaching position and happily put all my savings toward a ticket that would carry me to where I would spend the next three months of my life.My time in Costa Rica was not something that could be considered good by normal standards. The days were long, making more rice than I cared to see in a lifetime and exhausting my social battery with needy people. There were late nights cleaning the kitchen after the kids went to bed. Cold showers and earthquakes. And then there were the times when I sat in my room at night and cried, trying to process what the children confided in me and what they had gone through.But God doesn’t have normal standards. When I felt at my lowest, he comforted me. When I couldn’t go any further, he carried me. When I couldn’t find the words, he spoke through me. I learned things there—in my weakness, in my uncertainty—that I could never have learned at home. It was hard.And it was good.I ended up going to Costa Rica two summers, and while I can’t share every lesson I learned there, I can share one: God never wanted me to be comfortable. Because if I were comfortable, I wouldn’t have gone to Costa Rica, and I wouldn’t understand the depth and the power and the beauty of Jesus and his love to the degree that I do now. And I probably wouldn’t have received a phone call from Debi Pearl, asking me to come work full-time at NGJ.And I certainly wouldn’t be on my way to jail.Yes, we’re back to that now. It is present day, and I’m anxious. I drive until I make the final turn into the Perry County Jail and go through the familiar process: park, sign in at the door, make small talk with the secretary, try in vain to quiet my nerves. I approach the looming security doors and pray earnestly to God to soften the hearts of the women inside. I ask him to calm my heart, give me the words I should say, and shut my mouth so I don’t say something I shouldn’t. You see, I’m here on a mission: to share Christ with anyone who will listen.I go through the final door, heart thudding as it clangs shuts behind me, leaving me alone inside. I continue praying as I move about the room, setting up, getting my Bible, and waiting. The women begin to file in and, of course, there are nearly twice as many as usual. The CO locks the door behind them, leaving me with a room full of women waiting to hear what I have been preparing throughout the week to share with them. If you know me at all, you know I’m not the kind of person to lead even two people in a conversation, let alone spend an hour sharing the Word with almost ten.I take a deep breath, open us up in prayer, and start the review of last week’s lesson. We are going through Romans right now, and everyone knows the first two chapters are a little rough to get through. Just as God intended, they let you know soundly and thoroughly that you are a sinner and worthy of hell. But, as we begin to read through it, my hands shake with excitement!“But now . . .” we read in Romans 3:21 “. . . the righteousness of God without the law is manifested . . .” This is shouting material! As I lead the girls through this miraculous gift that the Almighty has given us, I realize that I don’t feel scared and unworthy anymore. My body vibrates with excitement as I share Jesus and his blood!My encouragement to you is this: fill life with growing experience. Pursue something challenging and meaningful and come away more confident and closer to God because of it. Take advantage of whatever amount of time you have as a single woman and learn to love life and live it. God gave us this life and I fully believe he wants us to thrive in it, not just exist, waiting for something that may never happen.Seek the Lord for guidance. You will find a lot of things that don’t work. Keep trying! We spend our lives anticipating the big moments, not realizing we measure our lives by the inconsequential ones—waiting to finish school, waiting for a husband, waiting for babies, waiting for them to grow. As you wait in those moments, fill that time with something meaningful. Grow, touch people’s lives, make an impact for God’s Kingdom.God has a plan for your life, and it won’t look the same as others’. Following Jesus has been the most incredible journey, and I wouldn’t be able to do the things I do if it weren’t for taking that first step. Jesus wants us to wait on him, this is true. But he also wants us to seek him.Girls, we all start somewhere. But are we going somewhere? Whether you are just finishing high school, in the beginning stages of dating, or you are still waiting for your life to start and don’t have a clue, don’t waste the time you have now.Spend it wisely.

When we look around us at average young men today, are we seeing strong, capable MEN?What we ARE seeing is the fruit of parenting in the last couple generations. And it’s looking to us like there is a dearth of manly young men.Soon after my husband and I were married, we had a vision: that when our boys became adults, they would be men. Not weak or silly man-boys, but men who had a work ethic. Men who wanted to make things around them better. Men who understood how things work and who could fix things. Men who believed God’s Word as their guide for truth in this world.We didn’t have all the answers. We didn’t have a plan. But we knew that what they learned and experienced at a young age would shape what they perceived about who they were and where they were headed. We desired for them to grow up to be men who were empowered for leading a godly and successful life. Not men who would think laziness and self-centeredness was okay.How did that play out in the way we, as parents, guided them?By default, we knew they’d be under Mama’s care during the day for the most part. But we also knew that the goal was to eventually spend more and more time with Daddy to learn manly ways from him.So, starting at a young age, Mama gave them little responsibilities in the home. They helped with daily duties, which made them feel needed and important. They were sure the family couldn’t function without them.And when Daddy had evening and weekend projects, he would include them in little ways, and thus they learned that teamwork is the norm in our family.As they grew up, they would be expected to carry a bigger load in the home and join Daddy in the heavier, tougher jobs outside. Mama didn’t coddle them when joining Daddy might mean enduring a little extra cold or heat. They were learning new skills and gaining much self-worth and confidence by accomplishing big-boy jobs.We observed that if boys were hanging with Mama for the majority of the day and not in the presence of Dad regularly after the ages of 6–8, they tended to be “softer,” to pick up more feminine mannerisms, and in general were more lazy.But when they spent as much time with Dad as possible, or even were shown by Dad how to do a manly project and were given the responsibility of seeing it through, they carried themselves in a much more mature and manly way.We discovered that when boys have responsibilities and know someone is counting on them to show up, they tend to think about how they can do better rather than shirking duties or just wanting to always take the easy road. Mama can do so much to help them in this by not doing more for them at a young age than she should. It’s easier to just do it rather than take time to teach, but they will grow up to NEED to shoulder responsibilities. Then, instead of only thinking of themselves or having fun and being lazy, they will look for ways to improve life for themselves and those around them.The way we passed the responsibility of raising boys from Mama to Daddy worked well for our family dynamic. This may look different for your family, depending on your situation or lifestyle.Just know that the end goal is young men who don’t shrink from work when it needs to be done. Young men who handle themselves in a mature way rather than with excessive silly or goofy mannerisms. Young men who seek out ways to apply themselves to learning and developing skills.And this is better done when boys have manly examples, or at least adults who will push them to be better rather than protecting them from the hard knocks of life, which are simply opportunities to establish maturity that leads to manly, dependable men who will make good husbands and leaders someday! You can find Brenda on Instagram@ www.instagram.com/brenda.k.martin  

When I was a young sailor, I was all about the adventure. Go new places? Sign me up!Foreign country? No sweat! Sleep in cramped berthing at sea with a couple thousand other guys? Yeah, not so much. But jet noise and sonobuoys and dropping bombs and searching for mines and foreign lands and—well, you get the picture. Simply stated, it was glorious! And when that career ended, I soon found myself running around foreign countries in the middle of the night in the name of “technology development.” That’s what we called it anyway. Then, because I’m a slow learner, I began to realize (at 60) that maybe it was time for something different. Seeking the freedom of others was no longer my calling. It was time to find another line of work.By that time I’d been a Christian for 40 years. Through it all I’d always known I was safe as long as the Good Shepherd thought it best. I always expected and counted on his provision for my safety, but I never took it for granted. What I didn’t expect was that as I grew older, I would grow to value something even more from him, and that was the warmth of the Good Shepherd.When shepherds gathered their flocks by night into a safe place, the only way in and out was through a door where the shepherd would stand watch. His presence was the door. And Jesus owned that responsibility when he said in John 10:7, “. . . Verily, verily I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.” At times the shepherd would lie down to rest or sit and care for an injured or orphaned lamb who could feel the warmth in his hands. And while the shepherd was guarding the flock, those lying with him could feel the warmth from the shepherd’s lap. At times when a lamb would run off, the shepherd would seek and recover that lamb, then take his shepherd’s rod and smack a front leg of the lamb so it couldn’t walk. Then the shepherd would carry that injured lamb tucked into his garment at his bosom where it could feel the warmth of the shepherd’s heart.The hands of the shepherd are required for these bovid animals that can find trouble and injury without looking for it. And such is often the case of a Christian. We live in a world that is cruel, ravenous, and destructive. The god of this world is our enemy, a thief who seeks to “. . . steal, and to kill, and to destroy . . .” (John 10:10). Living in America, it feels like I’m in the Promised Land. For the most part, life is easy. But let’s be honest—all of us have taken our share of beatings, right? Oh, but those warm, healing hands of the Good Shepherd tend to our wounds, pour on the healing salve, and then embrace us until we can stand.As the shepherd sits in the doorway, he’ll take an orphaned lamb and lay the animal across his lap where he’s sitting to comfort and calm the animal. They share intimacy that starts with the heat from the shepherd’s legs. This is the place of his greatest strength. And as the fearful, traumatized lamb warms, it realizes the shepherd is the source of strength and the lamb has none. The warmth of the shepherd teaches the lamb trust. And it learns from the warmth of the shepherd it is safe and that, indeed, everything is going to be okay.At the ripe young age of 64, this lamb has learned that the best place for me is right near the heart of the Good Shepherd. As a young Christian, I had the rod applied to my legs and God held me close to his heart while I healed. As an old man, I understand that it’s the heart of the Good Shepherd that makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me beside the still waters.The adventures of a young man allowed me the opportunity to preach the gospel in places I’d otherwise never have gone or known. I have no regret seeking those adventures, nor would I ever discourage it in others. However, I’ve learned that the greatest adventures emanate from the heart of the Good Shepherd. That the closer I am to his heart the better I can hear and feel his heart, and that it beats for me, directing me for his glory. There is warmth in his heart for the wounded and the warrior. There is warmth in his heart for those who’ve experienced the worst this world can offer. And there is warmth in his heart for the aged who near the promise of heaven and long to see his face. Ben and his wife, Karen, are founders of Onward for Christ, an organization dedicated to teaching young people how to be soul winners. OFC’s annual Rocky Mountain Outreach 2024 will take place June 1–9 in northwest Colorado. For more information, visit their website https://www.onwardforchrist.org/rocky-mountain-outreach. They are now accepting applications (Deadline May 19th, 2024) for RMO 2024. Please spread the word!

Sometimes it seems as if the only constant in life is that everything changes.Let me explain; in 1994, my Dad finished To Train Up a Child. I remember walking to the mailbox down our long gravel driveway to see how many letters we received. I remember mom laughing in disbelief the first time we got over 10 letters in one day! Everything changed. That year we decreased the size of our garden because Dad did not have the time to serve God in this new ministry and sell tomatoes. We cleared out the sunroom that we used to store garden supplies and spent more evenings folding newsletters. Everything changed. It took a lot of faith for Mom and Dad to upend their comfortable life and choose service over certainty.I remember when the letters started flowing in and asking heavy questions, and I remember the weight of my parents answering them and seeking God for wisdom to say the right thing. Not much had changed for us kids. We swam in the creek on hot days, had a big garden, worked on the tractor…we grew up. Everything changed. Somewhere along the line, we stopped being kids. Rebekah, Gabe, and I ended up traveling the world. We helped missionaries in Albania, tribes in New Guinea. We even got to pray on the banks of the Sea of Galilee! It was amazing. But everything changed. My sister got married, then I got married to a girl I met at a missions conference. Life was perfect, but life was different, because everything changes.Mom and Dad continued serving the Lord. Dad preached in the prison every week, traveled at times, and never stopped disciplining families. We finally got the Good and Evil printed and saw it begin to be used by God. If things would just stop changing you could finally get good at your given task and not stress so much.Instead, everything changes. I ended up working in Hawaii. We got involved with a local church and, as my parents taught me, I helped as much as I could.Eventually, the pastor asked me to take over the church.It was terrifying. It was exciting! It required me to trust God without a safety net. Still, everything changes .After 5 years pastoring in Hawaii and many tears of joy and sadness, my Dad called and asked me to come home and take over No Greater Joy. For 30 years it had been the task that God had set him to. One that he carried out with poise and acuity. However, everything changes. At 78 he is tired; he doesn’t have the energy to accomplish all that he feels like God needs done with the resources he’s gathered. And so, God has called him to make another great leap of faith. To sit down. Because everything changes. As David gave Solomon the resources he needed to complete the temple of God, my Dad, and those before him, have gathered the resources for us to reach the world for Christ. My friends, it is our turn! The Good and Evil is now in nearly 80 languages. We are printing many thousands every year in places like Pakistan and India. As the moral fabric of America collapses, godly families stick out like sore thumbs. We are going to need each other. We have grown up in a generation unchallenged, and untested by the suffering that is endemic of the Bride of Christ. Yet, everything changes. As I read the letters that come in every day, I can’t help but reflect on how much they have changed from the ones that were so heavy on my parents 30 years ago. Pornography has ravished the Bride of Christ. It is with tears that I report that the church in America has been defeated by the lust of the flesh. The wholesome homeschoolers are wholesome no longer. Sodom is in our homes. Still, there is hope.Our Redeemer lives!!That never changes! Saints, we need each other.Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. Hebrews 10:25 As the world tears itself apart from immorality that only brings pain, we need to encourage one another and be about our Father’s business. As we strive to reach the world for Christ, pray for us. Join us. Be obedient to the commandments of Christ and preach the gospel. So many of us feel inadequate to the task that God has set before us. You may feel like you will never measure up to the enormous task that is set before you. Saints, I’m not asking you to accomplish the whole thing; just take the first step and see. Everything changes, even you. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews 12:28-29

Excerpt from To Train Up A Child-30th Anniversary It has been 30 years now since my dad wrote the first edition of this book. At the time, I was 15 and my brother was 17. I am now 45 years old, and my two sons are 15 and 17. It is unbelievable how fast time has flown by! I remember at 15 when my dad wrote this letter to my brother and me. We were embarrassed that people would read about us one day getting married. We said something like, “Dad, we don’t need that!” As it turned out, I took his advice, and I met the love of my life at a missions conference down in Texas. In January of 2001 we said I do, and we still do.We have raised our kids the way I was raised, in a house full of love, laughter, and service to the Lord.As I sit down now and read my father’s letter to his sons, it is with different eyes than when I was 15. The world has gotten darker and judgment has gotten closer. My sons must navigate a world besotted with pornography and gender fluidity that was not part of the common vernacular when I was their age. As we reprint this book after 30 years, I will write a letter to my sons, but it will be printed alongside the one that my dad wrote to my brother and me. Because of the trail my dad blazed, the one that I followed, my sons are not starting from scratch. I invite my sons to tread our path as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11:1. “Be ye followers of me, [and Big Papa] even as I also am of Christ.” To Jacob and Gideon PearlBoys, as I try to put down some sage wisdom that will enrich your life, I must recognize how much you have enriched mine! If I had not experienced being your father, I would never have known how much life I had missed. You two, and your two sisters, have truly been the grace of life that your mom and I have experienced together. There is nothing I am as proud of and that gives me more joy in this life than to see our babies walk in wisdom. You have seen the fun we have, the laughter and the joy of all of us working together. I need you to know that Satan wants to take that away from you before you ever get the chance to experience it. Intimacy with this world will deny you intimacy with God and with your future wife. The world you are maturing in hates you. I don’t want you to live a life where you must be suspicious of everyone around you, but, unfortunately, the unmitigated evil available on every cell phone has created a world full of predators. They don’t look like craven, sin-stained minions of Satan, boys; there are snakes in the grass that look just like you. It is the unfortunate reality of our modern world that you must constantly be on guard. Whether you’re camping with friends or going on a mission trip with other church members, you need to be ready to say no and to flee the sin on so many screens. Not being evil is not good enough; you need to be good. You need to take responsibility for your own actions and recognize that in spite of the fact that you live in a modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah, it is your responsibility to choose virtue, goodness, and life. Satan will constantly offer you easy, attractive, seductive fruit, but understand that partaking of this world’s wickedness is rejecting the goodness that God has in store for you. Protect yourself! Choose to seek first the righteousness of God in all things and don’t go with the flow. The antidote to this reprobate world is not to stand against sin; it is to stand up for righteousness. There are a lot of sinners that hate the sin they live in. That will not inoculate you from the filth—Jesus will. Talk about God and his goodness with all your friends and the people you work with. Talk about his words and share them with the people around you. Take responsibility for your actions, good and bad, and make restitution when it’s necessary. Express often to those around you how thankful you are to God for all that you have and don’t have. You won’t be popular with the worldly crowd. That’s okay; be a man! Don’t get pretty hair and fancy jeans. Instead, get hands calloused from helping the people around you. You will be peculiar. However, as you serve the Lord with your whole heart, no matter what your hands are busy working on, God will direct your path. There is nothing more exciting or more terrifying than walking by faith. Abraham had a goal that was totally unattainable in this life: he looked for a city that God hadn’t yet brought to this planet. And yet by spending his life pursuing the goal that God had given him, Abraham got rich, gained a family, and gained favor with God and men. He raised camels, rescued kings, and met Melchizedek. You can’t plan a life that abundant—but God can! Trust him, follow him, look for him in everything that you do, and then rejoice at HIS successes. Jesus didn’t come to keep you from having a full life; he came that you would have an abundant life. Trust God. Trust that the pursuit of his righteousness is more satisfying by far than any fruit offered by the god of this world.In this world that loves divorce, blame shifting, and quitting the fight, be the kind of man that others can depend on. Be responsible, be kind, be quiet when there isn’t something edifying to say. Be good men! Don’t be passive, apprehensive, timid men. Grab life by the horns and wrestle it into the dirt.Be a servant—a strong, manly, godly servant of Jesus Christ. I recommend that you take your grandfather’s advice when it is time to seek a wife. It is good advice that has served me well. But don’t make seeking a wife the central pillar of life. Set audacious goals, pursue those goals, and serve the Lord in everything you do. Be thankful and grateful; be full of love and compassion even while you are driving big trucks and climbing tall trees. When you find that woman who is more interested in where you’re going than how you look on the way, you will have found your help meet. My sons, life is exciting! I hope I get to see you wring every joy out of it, conquer every hill you find in your path, marry a woman who makes your heart race and pushes you to be even more. But if I don’t, and if you don’t, I want you to know that my family has been the best adventure I’ve ever had! I love you boys, and no matter how dark this world gets, family is the best gift that God ever gave mortal man. You only get one life; rise up and live it to the fullest! There is truly no greater joy than to know that my children walk in truth. Now, go read Big Papa’s letter to me . . . https://nogreaterjoy.org/shop/to-train-up-a-child-30th-anniversary/