FROM: Carey and Lisa (Shimonauff) Kinsolving, Kids Talk About God
“The only mind that understands the things of God is the child mind.”
– Oswald Chambers
Table of Contents
PERSONAL
1) WINTER IN SOUTH TEXAS
2) SPIT SHIRTS
3) THE GOLDEN DRAGON
4) 3:15AM CONVERSATION
5) THE CLOCK KNOWS ALL
MINISTRY
6) HELLO? ANY TRAFFIC OUT THERE?
7) TRAFFIC MILESTONES
8) WANTED: STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS
9) INTERNATIONAL MISSIONARIES
Hello Family & Friends...
We pray this newsletter finds you happy, healthy and filled with the joy of the Lord. We have been very busy, and are so glad to finally have a chance to update you.
PERSONAL
1) WINTER IN SOUTH TEXAS
This is my (Lisa’s) first winter here in South Padre Island, Texas. I have discovered that, aside from the occasional North Wind, the weather here isn’t too indicative of the arrival of winter. It’s often in the 70’s-80’s, and there’s not much rain to speak of, and NO snow anywhere around here. When the North Wind hits, it gets down to the 50’s for a day or two, then jumps right back up.
The one reliable way to tell it’s winter is the arrival of the legendary Winter Texans. Suddenly, the surf is lined with huge fishing poles supervised by wader-clad grandfathers. (Well, they don’t ALL go fishing. We saw one cross-country skiing on the beach!) Grandmothers patrol the sand, amassing bagfuls of shells and walking little fluffy dogs. The parking lot is studded with license plates from Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, etc. This is how we know it’s winter.
Also, the seagulls seem to expect handouts this time of year:
We are trained professionals. Do NOT try this at home!
As I mentioned, the occasional North Wind will smack you upside the head. On February 3, it had been 85 degrees most of the afternoon. (“February 3” and “85 degrees” were NOT typos!) Then suddenly a North Wind kicked in. I don’t say “suddenly” lightly. This was NOT a subtle or gradual thing. We were sitting here at our computers, and there was maybe a light sea breeze outside. Then, WHOOSH! A fairly heavy chair went skidding across the balcony! The temperature dropped 10 degrees in about 20 minutes, and another 10 in the next hour.
2) SPIT SHIRTS
There are a lot of tourist-trap T-shirt shops here on South Padre Island. This is an understatement. Most of them have one of those signs out front where they can hand-insert plastic letters and numbers to make their own changeable message. One shop tried to spell out “S.P.I. T-Shirts” but didn’t use periods or a hyphen, and their spacing is a little off. Every time I drive by that thing, I think, “Who would want a SPIT SHIRT???”
3) THE GOLDEN DRAGON
I (Lisa again) used to wonder how I would tell if/when my in-laws had fully accepted me into the family. Carey’s 96-year-old grandmother drives (yes, she still drives!) a metallic gold 1979 Lincoln Continental – a yacht of a car! This car is SO big (All together now: “How big is it?”), when you park it in the garage, it must be TOUCHING the back wall and NOT crooked at all, or you won’t be able to close the garage door. When you’re trying to find it in a parking lot, you just need to look down each aisle until you see a car that’s sticking out about a foot past all the others.
Anyway, one day close to Christmas, we were staying with Carey’s mom, grandmother and sister in McAllen. Carey was out gift shopping with our car. His mother and grandmother gave me the keys to the Continental, affectionately known as the Golden Dragon, and sent me out shopping. What an adventure! The car gets there 5 minutes before you do. Carey said being allowed to drive it meant I had truly been accepted into the family. Or maybe it was some kind of initiation ritual. “If she can drive it without clipping any stop signs, she’s IN!”
4) 3:15AM CONVERSATION
One night at 3:15am, I (Lisa) was awakened by Carey hollering, “Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!” I jolted awake, expecting to see a burglar climbing in the window, or to be told the house was on fire. I said, still half-asleep, “What!?!” Carey answered with much intensity and drama, “I smell gasoline, man!” I sniffed the air and said, “I don’t.” With even more intensity, Carey said, “I DO!!” with a huge emphasis on the word “DO”. (I was glad he hadn’t said it that way at the wedding.)
Finally, I realized he was talking in his sleep. I laid there a moment, waiting for more and wondering what action/adventure movie he was dreaming. Probably a 1960’s James Bond movie. When he awoke, I told him about it and he thought I was making it up. That’s probably the most we’ve ever laughed at 3:30am!
5) THE CLOCK KNOWS ALL
For Christmas, Carey gave me an atomic clock. (No, it doesn’t run on uranium.) You don’t have to set this clock. It’s amazing. Somehow, it just “knows” what time it is. I guess that answers the musical question posed by the Chicago song, “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?” This clock also “knows” the date, day of the week, indoor & outdoor temperatures, and moon phase.
One day, we were out driving and we saw the moon. Carey thought it was full, and I thought it was almost-but-not-quite-full. We finally said, “When we get home, we’ll consult the clock. The clock knows all.” That settled the issue… and gave us a new catchphrase. Now, one of us will say, “What’s the internal cooking temperature for poultry?” and the other will say, “Ask the clock. The clock knows all.”
Days later, the clock’s outdoor temperature sensor got wet in the rain. Suddenly, the clock no longer knew all. Praise report: the sensor eventually dried out, and now the clock once again knows all.
MINISTRY
6) HELLO? ANY TRAFFIC OUT THERE?
We decided to bite the bullet and try some pay-per-click ad campaigns to increase targeted traffic to the website. It’s quite a process! If we decided to do this for the every aspect of our website, it could easily be a whole full-time job all by itself. Instead, we decided to do just a few, with the goal of selling some Mission Explorers DVDs. The entire video is streaming on our website and may be viewed for free. But if churches want to use it for Sunday School or VBS, etc., they usually need a DVD so it can be shown on a large screen.
We were very excited to receive our first order on January 9. To-date we’ve had 6 orders. At least the ad campaign is MORE than paid-for, and this awesome mission-teaching material is getting into more churches.
We also found out that having plenty of related websites linking to you is very important for getting “free” traffic from the search engines. So we’ve been seeking out the right types of websites to approach for links. We worked very hard to get links on Bible.com, Evangelism.com and ChildrensMinistryToolbox.com, thinking we’d not only be getting some quality links, but also TONS of referral traffic. Actually, referral traffic has been pretty minimal. Our traffic stayed at a plateau of around 75 visitors per day. UNTIL…
7) TRAFFIC MILESTONES
Out of the blue, this website we’d never heard of (teacherhelp.org) found us and gave us several links among their teachers’ resources. This probably happened on January 11. It resulted in:
- January 12: First Day Over 200 Visitors (212)
- January 13: First Day Over 1000 Pageviews (1798)
- January 13: First Day Over 300 Visitors (376)
- January 14: First Day Over 2000 and 3000 Pageviews (3495)
- January 14: First Day Over 400 & 500 & 600 & 700 Visitors (735)!
Now, we’re averaging almost 500 visitors per day! We have a traffic surge each week that starts late Saturday evening and runs over into Sunday morning. Many are using the Kids Color Me Bible chapters as Sunday School lessons!
8) WANTED: STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS
The biggest thing we’re currently working towards is forming strategic partnerships. The goal is for Kids Talk About God to team up with like-minded ministries, churches, Christian schools and Christian-owned businesses. Carey has come up with some detailed proposals that are win-win scenarios. We’ve been sending out several each week to handpicked organizations.
Please keep this in prayer, as it is just now coming to possible fruition. Also, if you think of any ministries, churches, Christian schools or Christian-owned businesses that might be a good fit, we would appreciate hearing from you!
9) INTERNATIONAL MISSIONARIES
We’ve been enjoying the use of some powerful analytical tools that help us examine our website traffic with some understanding. We can see what countries our visitors are from. We can even drill down and find out their state and city.
With traffic from over 100 countries (129 as of 2/16/06) and more than 20% of our overall traffic coming from foreign countries, we finally realized something. We are actually international missionaries! This is true organizationally of course, since we’re under the umbrella of AMG International and have non-profit status through them. But it just seems more “real” now.
As usual, please keep us in your prayers and keep in touch. We love to hear from you and get updates about what’s going on in your corner of the world.
Grace, peace & loads of blessings!
Carey & Lisa Kinsolving
KidsTalkAboutGod.org
Helping Christians Inspire Children
Kids Talk About God
P.O. Box 3846
South Padre Island, TX 78597
956-772-1920
Contact Us
P.S. – Please pray about supporting our ministry. If God leads you to do so, please send checks to: Kids Talk About God, P.O. Box 3846, South Padre Island, TX 78597. We are also now equipped to accept donations via PayPal on our website:
http://www.kidstalkaboutgod.net/Home/SupportThisMinistry/tabid/188/Default.aspx
A giving receipt will come from AMG International, the mission organization under which Kids Talk About God operates.
Financial report: The Kids Talk About God marketing and licensing program is just starting out, and we only have a few paying clients at this point. We are currently receiving $425/month in licensing fees and $70/month in donations. One-time donations for this year have been $1,000.00. This ministry is not yet fully supported. We are trusting God to increase the support so that this ministry He has given us can continue and grow. We are so grateful to the few pioneers who share our vision of helping Christians inspire children.
Links to Previous eNews Issues:
Christmas 2005
(The one with photos of us with our cute twin nephews…)
November 2005
(The one with the "Seagull and the Snake" story...)
September 2005
(The one with the "Kite Boarder Run Amok" story...)
June 2005
(The one with a lot more details about our wedding...)