Update on Hanukkah book

We are working on our next Messianic children's picture book, Hanukkah is Great. All the paintings for Hanukkah is Great are now completed!  Wow, did our artist, Christine McParland, do a great job on them!  The next step is getting each of the 19 paintings scanned and put on a disc.  Each scan must be done in two steps, due to the size of the paintings, and will cost $55 each.  But once we get this done, our layout person can actually lay out the text and pictures on the pages and we will have a sample book to send to a few people who might consider endorsing it.  Perhaps we will be able to market it better if we have some very reputable Messianic leaders to endorse it.

There is such a need for Godly picture books for children!  When our sons were young, we noticed how the secular, well-done picture books would usually outshine the simpler Christian picture books out there.  Now that we are doing books, we have a clue why.  The upfront costs of getting beautiful, detailed paintings for each scene (involving fees for the artist and scanners, including much time and work for the people working on the book to coordinate and oversee these processes) are very high, and it's very hard to sell the books at a reasonable price and still break even.  That's why we need to fund-raise, sell advance copies, etc.  As far as we know, we are the only publishers of Messianic children's picture books.  We appreciate your prayers and possibly your support, that this project would be funded so all the steps can be taken to get 1,000 copies printed (another $6,000 approximately).

Donations can be sent to the Messianic Family Publishing, 553 Irving Place, University Park IL 60484.  Please make any checks out to Shalom Ministries - this is a tax exempt 501(c)(3) organization.

We are also offering a big sale for anyone who buys an advance order of a case of 20 books. We would sell a case for $250, which is only $12.50 a book.

Here's a picture of the artist, Christine McParland, with a few of the beautiful expressive paintings! 

Welcome to AMHE Blog!

Dave and Betty Weinberger, founders of Association of Messianic Home Educators in 2004, have been so appreciative of the help of our two sons through the years.  But as many of you know, our oldest son Lael graduated law school in 2010, and got married to Sarah last summer.  They moved to Idaho, as Lael was offered a one year clerkship for the Idaho Supreme Court.  It's been a blessing to them, but we have dearly missed the help of Lael and Sarah. Meanwhile on the homefront, Joel is approaching his senior year at the Chicago College of Performing Arts, majoring in violin performance.  He has been super busy studying, practicing, teaching, and conducting.

And now two blessed weeks of this summer have arrived. Joel is home with most of his summer commitments done.  Lael and Sarah and baby Chaim (hurray!) are back in Illinois so Lael can now continue with graduate school.  They are waiting for their apartment to become available and are living right in the area for two weeks!  Needless to say, we've been very happy to enlist their help again.  And that's how this new blog has been born. Thanks, Lael!   It will make it easier for us to keep you informed on Messianic, Homeschool, and Israel happenings.  It will also make it easier for us to keep you informed and involved in the continuing drama of publishing  of our next children's picture book, Hanukkah is Great.

We hope you enjoy the blog and welcome! Stay tuned for more entries!