The NEW Girls Gone Wise Companion Guides and DVDs hit store shelves this month! I’m excited about these new resources because they’ll help women study the book in a more intensive way–and help even more women go wise in a world gone wild! Just this week, I heard of a small group, a Sunday School class, a high school, and a women’s prison that are all using the new materials to launch Girls Gone Wise studies.

The video team and I had a lot of fun shooting the footage in Canada, Michigan, and Indiana. Here’s a look at the promotional video we put together:

(If the embedded video doesn’t display on your browser Click Here to watch the promo )

Over the next several days, I’ll be posting some sample content from the Companion Guide and DVD, and giving away free copies of these new resources. Help me spread the word by commenting, Tweeting, and Facebooking your friends about the new resources. Everyone who joins the “buzz” will be entered in a daily prize draw.

We’ll announce the first winner tomorrow.

Related posts:

1. Conversation Peace on DVD
2. Girls Gone Wise Video Shoot
3. Official Girls Gone Wise Release Date Today

Remembrance Day is a significant day for me:  It’s not only a day to remember war veterans–it’s also my birthday. So that makes it a day of personal reflection on several levels. You see, I’m a dual citizen. I live in Canada. By birth I am Canadian. But my heritage is German. My father and mother immigrated to Canada after the Second World War. I live in a nation whose citizens spilled their blood for the freedoms I enjoy, but who secured that freedom by spilling the blood of my family of origin.

This year, my thoughts are particularly poignant since I am currently helping my 86 year old father write some of his life memoirs. My dad, who was involved in “Youth for Hitler” as a youngster, was just 17 years old when he was conscripted to fight on the Russian Front. His memoirs include stories of being shot, being captured, being tortured and mistreated in a Russian POW camp . . . stories of sickness, starvation, fleeing as a refuge, smuggling people out from under Communism, the Russian ethnic cleansing of his home city, Konigsberg on the Baltic Sea, and the world-wide shaming and disdaining of German people. My parents were part of the 16 million ethnic Germans who were forced out their ancestral homelands in Prussia, Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. Millions died during the process.

The atrocities my parents lived through during the war were horrific, but the post-war vengeance against Germans was arguably even worse. When Germany surrendered in May 1945, General Eisenhower sent out instructions making it a crime punishable by death to feed Germans. He gave strict orders to US military personnel and wives to destroy or otherwise render inedible leftover surplus food supplies so as to ensure it could not be eaten by German civilians. If you tried to feed a German Prisoner of War, you’d be shot. Millions died in Germany through a combination of disease, exposure, and starvation, produced and compounded by such deliberate policies. My mother and father watched friends and relatives suffer and die because food was deliberately withheld from the German people.

Last month, the United States finally admitted to the post-war crimes it committed against the Germans. On October 31, 2011, in a quiet event at the Marriot Hotel in Washington, US Major Merrit Drucker of the US armed forces officially apologized to the German soldiers and their relatives for the inhumane treatment of German prisoners of war who went through the “Rheinwiesenlager,” where tens of thousands (and some estimate between 750,000 and a million) German prisoners of war perished in US camps. They were mistreated and died after the war had ended!

On my birthday, when I look at the poppy on my lapel, I remember. It’s important to remember.

Lest we forget those who sacrificed their lives for our freedom.
Lest we forget the atrocities committed against God’s people—the Jews.
Lest we forget the sin-bent nature of the human heart.
Lest we forget that there’s more than one side to every story…

Related posts:

1. In Flanders Fields
2. Forget Me Not

True Woman 101 “Divine Design” Bible Study – Coming Soon!

click to download True Woman 101 Sampler

Whether it’s designer handbags, fashions, frames, or décor . . . women tend to gravitate toward designer brands because they’re the highest quality. They’re often the most attractive and beautiful. They’re authentic. They’re true to the designer’s exquisite specifications.

Did you know that God has a divine design for True Womanhood? His plan is absolutely spectacular! If you’re tired of the world’s cheap imitations and knock-offs—or if you’re tired of clichéd advice, shallow caricatures, and cookie-cutter solutions—then this eight-week Bible study with foundational teaching and insight from God’s Word by Mary A. Kassian and Nancy Leigh DeMoss is for you!

Thousands are tossing the world’s brand of womanhood and joining a quiet counter-Revolution. Find out why. Grab some girlfriends. Dig into the heart of true manhood and womanhood, and discover the beauty, joy, and fulfillment of being exactly who He created you to be. Best of all, learn how your life can put Christ and the gospel on display!

Reserve Your Copies – Save up to 45%

Endorsements

Related posts:

1. True Woman ’10
2. Cover Design for Girls Gone Wise
3. True Woman

In just a few hours, I’ll be boarding a plane to travel to the Girls Gone Wise Video Shoot.   We’re putting together a DVD with dozens of short, discussion-provoking video clips to enhance small group study: There will be person-on-the-street interviews, testimonies from various women, table-talk with Kay Arthur, video segments where girls can “hear-it-from-the-guys,” and a few clips where I introduce the study, and wrap things up. I’m so excited!

I’m also excited about the new Girls Gone Wise Companion Guide that Moody is publishing in January. The title says it all. The 128-page companion guide is a “companion” to the book. It will contain short questions and exercises for each chapter, and plenty of space for journaling and personal reflection. We’ve tried to keep the price point low –less than $10—so that it’s affordable. But if girls can’t afford it, they’ll still be able to download and print most of the questions from the Girls Gone Wise website. The teaching in this book is so critical for women today that we don’t want anyone to miss out because she can’t afford the materials.

So please pray for my trip, and that all the various aspects of filming and production will go smoothly. I’ll try and keep you updated, and post some pictures, so you can catch some of the action.

Related posts:

1. Girls Gone Wise Video Book Blog
2. Official Girls Gone Wise Release Date Today
3. Cover Design for Girls Gone Wise

Woman Charged with Sexually Abusing a TSA Security Official:

A woman who groped a female TSA security official to give her a taste of her own medicine is charged with sexual abuse. This reminds me of the time  a TSA official frisked me right up into my privates. I felt incredibly violated. I get angry just thinking about it. It’s unbelievable that TSA officials are allowed to touch people in ways that would otherwise be considered abuse.

The Sex Worker Look is Going Mainstream

Surgery to reshape the labia and other areas of the vagina is picking up fast, say plastic surgeons. Once the domain of sex workers, nude entertainers, nude models, swimsuit models and the occasional woman who needed reconstruction for medical reasons, now women from every walk of life are having cosmetic vaginal surgery. The bulk of them are trying to conform to a idea of beauty most often seen in the porn industry.

Empowerment Stresses Women Out

As women around the world enjoy broader opportunities and expanding roles, they’re also experiencing one other increase in their lives — stress. Nielsen, a leading provider of insights into what consumers watch and buy, recently released findings from a study that identified spending and media habits of women around the world. The study reveals that though women today feel empowered to reach their goals and get what they want, this level of empowerment results in increased stress in their lives.

Natural Family Planning isn’t the One-Size-Fits-All Solution

Ellen Dollar says that while Natural Family Planning (NFP) works wonders for many Christian couples, it shouldn’t be elevated to one-size-fits-all status. She cites the story of Bethany and Sam Torode, who divorced after nine years of marriage, after writing a book arguing that NFP is the healthiest, most spiritually enriching contraceptive approach for Christians.

No Wonder Our Perception of Beauty is Distorted

This is an old Dove commercial. But it still just amazes me how photos of models are photoshopped to create  false, unattainable standards of beauty.

Related posts:

1. Wise ‘n’ Wild Wednesday 08/11
2. Wise vs. Wild Contrast #4: Attitude
3. Wise vs. Wild Contrast #2: Counsel