I don’t spend much time on our family website explaining the ministry which I lead. It is quite an exciting ministry, one that promotes the Kingdom of God in a profound way, and one that depends largely on donations from good people who want to be a part of it. Please read the following and consider making a donation…

Training Minds Ministry hosts debate camps to train young people and their parents in the art of persuasion. Specifically, TMM has successfully trained students competing in the National Christian Forensics & Communications Association (NCFCA), the only nationally recognized home-school extracurricular activity. Our key verse is 1 Peter 1:13: “Train the mind for action,” a mandate for Christians to strengthen the muscle of the mind. I believe there is no better academic activity than debate to train young people how to think, speak and persuade. If you ever have the chance to see the outcome of our training camps, you would see that we are raising up a generation of the sharpest thinkers in the world. Visit our Debate Camp Website to see what we’re up to!

Last year the ministry hosted five debate camps (Oregon, California, Colorado, Texas and North Carolina). A total of 234 students and 100 parents went through five days of rigorous training. Our 2006 camps led 1/4 of our attendees to Nationals and, once they got there, another 1/4 made it to outrounds. We have yet to see the outcome of our 2007 camps, but I expect another successful year. Why so confident? Because I truly believe in the training we are delivering, and I have a burning desire to keep the ministry going.

There are two ways for which you can help. First, you can participate in training your own children for action. Training Minds Ministry’s website has some downloads and articles that explain how to compete in the NCFCA. Our camps are being planned right now for the 2008-2009 school year. I know, that seems a long way off, but to pull off these national camps, we need to bring things together now. Our main camp in Estes Park, Colorado, is over Labor Day Weekend. Write it on the calendar and come for some great training!

Second, you can become a partner in making all this happen by giving to our End-of-the-Year Camp Drive. While we have expenses throughout the year, we apply all our donations from now till December 31 directly to next summer’s main debate camp. Since our camps are not publicly funded, the per-student cost for our 5-day camp is over $600/student. While this is a competitive price compared to most summer camps, this is too much for many families to afford. Last year we raised enough to bring the overall cost for students down nearly $200. Praise God! This made Debate Camp an affordable option for families.

Your donation is literally sponsoring students’ tuition to this most worthy training camp. You will be partnering in bringing up a new generation of rational, biblical, profound speakers and thinkers that will be future policy makers and culture changers. The Jeubs really, really believe in this program, and we want you to join us in this vision.

For the record, I do not take a salary from Training Minds Ministry. All efforts on my family’s part goes into making Debate Camp affordable for home schoolers. Likewise, your donation will go directly into the cost of Debate Camp. Consider 100% of your donation going to the provision of coaching and training, truly taking part in 1 Peter 1:13’s mandate. Few ministries can make such a claim!

Please visit Training Minds Ministry’s Donation Page and take part in “training minds for action.” Thank you for your prayerful consideration!

Help support this great work!
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Happy Thanksgiving, from the Jeubs! 

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever! – 1 Chronicles 16:34

Welcome Priscilla Love Jeub, born to Chris and Wendy Jeub at 2:24 a.m. on November 18, 2007. Priscilla joins her 13 brothers and sisters as the 14th Jeub!

Mom Jeub had her toughest and longest labor ever. Starting Friday morning, Wendy had contractions that appeared to lead to birth shortly thereafter, but then stopped several times later in the day. Wendy kept returning to heavier and heavier labor after sleeping Friday night. The final stretch of consistent, patterned labor started at 4:00 Saturday. For over ten hours, Wendy worked with the contractions. The final 2-1/2 hours consisted of pushing, longer than any of her previous births. Wendy is now sleeping a well-deserved sleep! (Be sure to post a comment below congratulating her on her fine job)

Priscilla couldn’t be healthier. She weighs 8 lbs 4 oz, 20″ long (an average Jeub in size). She took to breast feeding nearly immediately and ate for the first four hours of her life. She is a beautiful pink color. She is quite the blessing!

-The Jeubs
Alicia, Alissa, Cynthia, Lydia, Isaiah, Micah, Noah, Tabitha, Keilah, Hannah, Josiah, Havilah, Joshua, and Priscilla.

Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus. They risked their lives for me. Not only I, but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them. (Romans 16:3-4)

The Jeub Family took home five trophies last week at the 15th annual AWANA Pinewood Derby. It was the greatest derby event we have ever had!

Ken Mellott, the local newspaper’s sports photographer, wrote an article for the Tri-Lakes Tribune that made it to the front page (“Big family reaps big rewards on derby circuit“). Ken did a marvelous job explaining how we made an assembly line of cars. Winning was on all our minds as we carved away and detailed the cars, but the experience of working together was what it was all about.

Truth be known, Ken is a retired Air Force who had all sorts of Pinewood Derby ideas. He was the “expert dad” he mentions in the article who came over to our house and helped us polish wheels, sandpaper axles, and weigh the cars down to a 10th of an ounce. Thank you, Ken, for your enthusiasm and your help! As Micah said in the article, it was our best derby year ever.

Here I am, standing outside with my lovely tummy.  I have had a wonderful pregnancy and am really looking forward to that glorious end with a new sweetie in my arms.  The children and I are busy finishing up Chicken Pox and cleaning up the house to get ready for the new bundle of joy.  We have no idea what gender the baby is and it will be a wonderful surprise.  Your prayers are always welcome and apprecatied as the day comes closer.

May God bless you and yours,

Wendy Jeub

Last week we received an email from a mom who read Love in the House. The chapter on practicing good behavior touches a nerve with many parents, for it provides solutions to some typical points-of-pain in parenting. Here’s her email…it made our day:

Hi! I just ordered your book off Amazon last week, and read the entire thing the evening it came. I loved it!!! Thank you for the ideas you put forth. I’ve got three kids (so far), ages 5, 4, and 1. I’m hoping that God will open my husband’s heart to more, but I’ll be satisfied with whatever decision my husband makes (it took me a long time, many prayers, and a lot of self-searching to be able to say that with honesty!)…

My daughter, the 4-year-old, is a huge drama queen. She cries big crocodile tears at the drop of a hat, and bedtime has always been a huge struggle. After reading about how y’all “practiced” bedtime, I decided to try it, because nothing else has ever worked.

OH MY!!! It was wonderful!! We practiced 3 times one day while my husband was at work, and he nearly dropped his teeth when bedtime came around that evening. I told the kids to get their PJ’s on and get in bed, and that we would be up in a few minutes to give kisses and say prayers, and she looked at me (with a big grin) and said, “Yes, ma’am, I’d be glad to,” and went scampering up the stairs.

I really think you could have knocked my husband over with a feather! I had to laugh at his reaction. He was so impressed that he wants to read the book now. No, really, that wasn’t my plan all along or anything …

So I just wanted to say how much you have encouraged me, and I think the wisdom the Lord has given y’all is wonderful! I get comments from people about the number of kids I have … and I only have three! As a young mom, it’s easy to get discouraged; thank you for the little pick-me-up. Or was it a kick in the britches? Well, thank you for whatever it was. I’ll be telling all my friends about your book because I loved it so much.

In Christ,
Brea Stewart

All day Saturday we attended the Colorado Junior Speech Tournament. Approximately 100 kids and their families gathered in a Colorado Springs Christian Church to compete in this small, yearly tournament. It is run totally by NCFCA students who compete in the “big league,” and the competitors are between ages 5 and 11. We had six of our kids (Isaiah, Micah, Noah, Tabitha, Keilah and Hannah) compete. We had the most children from any one family.

None of our kids broke to the finals, but that’s okay. We barely had enough time this year to memorize our speeches. Though we weren’t as prepared as we would have liked, we had a great time fellowshipping with the other families and observing the other speeches. The program of speech and debate, of which the ministry I lead centers on, is a great program for home-school families desiring to train their children for a greater purpose in life. The skills learned are second-to-none.

One of the reasons we weren’t as prepared as we would have hoped is that we just finished sending 9 kids through the Chicken Pox. Along with work and Wendy’s 9th month of pregnancy, we only had so much time for practice. Lydia was the only one without the Pox, for she wasn’t exposed until we returned from elk hunting. That was 14 days ago, so guess what happened? When we returned home last night, she had pox all over her body. According to medical professionals, the most contagious time is right before breaking out in pox. So, we exposed lots and lots of people!

Funny, last year at this time we had Whooping Cough. Everyone stayed away. This year we have Chicken Pox, and everyone wants to come over and play Twister with our kids. Our midwife brought her son over last night and did a housecall for Wendy, and he and Lydia shared the same straw from a drink.

Anyway, here’s a good capture of Hannah (5) doing her speech from Junie B. Jones:

A friend of mine and partner in ministry, George Escobar, is revving up to release a ground-breaking video. As leader of Advent Film Group, George has pulled together a crew of Christian students and film leaders to create a movie: Come What May. This movie is about a moral conflict a champion debater faces, and his struggle to choose what it right. Watch the trailer…and I’ll be posting more information as the movie becomes available!