• Are You Ready To Join Us For A Rainforest Adventure?
• Celebrating How Here We Stand Has Changed Confirmation
• New Akaloo Handbooks—Fill Your Imagination with Wonder
• Lifelong Discipleship—Made Easier With the New Akaloo Disciple Guide!
• What's New for <i>Evangelical Lutheran Worship</i>?

The anticipation is over—it's here, next year's vine-swinging, tree-topping, sky-high VBS! The new theme, Rainforest Adventure, promises to exceed all expectations for a swingtastic time in 2008. Customers who love Great Bible Reef surely will want to make the move from the coral reef to the rainforest canopy.

Here is what is new for 2008:

• The Rainforest Adventure Web Tool Box! Imaginative ideas, planning enhancements and director helps are all online. Take this year's program sky high with this incredible easy-to-use Web tool with online resources including a scheduling tool, desktop wallpaper and screensavers, and five daily newsletters for Rainforest Adventure kids to take home each day. The Web Tool Box also offers your own Web site for registration, calendars, and much, much more!
• Go Green Initiatives. Rainforest Adventure has the overarching theme of taking care of God's gift to us, our fragile environment. VBS is an especially great way to teach our children the importance of their actions in relation to the Earth. Rainforest Adventure has a strong stewardship theme of caring for our planet, program activities that support the environment, and rainforest certification for paper used to create the print resources.

Tried and true favorites:

• Bible story connections throughout! The Bible stories are introduced every day and reinforced through each activity—music, games, crafts, storytelling, drama and science. Adorable Tree Top Critters also serve as a way for the kids to keep the Bible story theme close at hand and ready to share with family and friends.
• VBS tunes! No musicians required—all the music of the rainforest on demand! Kids will be hip-hop-happy listening to the music of God's love. The music CD contains all the songs from Rainforest Adventure plus instrumental tracks to use during sing-along times, and rainforest sound tracks! And it's reproducible—make a copy for each kid!

"Thank you for passing on the wonderful announcement regarding the new VBS program theme. The announcement looked fantastic as I opened it up on my screen. Anyone who took the time to explore this web site surely received a treat. Tell your staff that this is what pastors and lay leaders want to see from a leading-edge church publishing house."
—Pastor David Larsen, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Portland, Oregon

Congratulations, Here We Stand! It has been two years since the launch of this ground-breaking curriculum—and what a journey it has been. In part to celebrate the success of this resource as well as to better understand how Here We Stand customers relate to the product, we posed the following questions:

"How has Here We Stand enhanced or changed the way you lead your confirmation class? Has it changed the life of your congregation?"

The responses were amazing—detailing the specific ways that Here We Stand has moved beyond just being an educational resource. What is truly remarkable is how congregations have embraced Here We Stand—using it to revitalize their ministry and inspire youth to be the next generation of remarkable Lutherans.

"I think the biggest change we have experienced is hearing from parents that their young person wants to be at confirmation! Along the same lines, we have invited (and assigned) parents to attend throughout the year. Following their first visit, we hear comments about how different this was from their own confirmation experience, how much fun it was, how much they learned and again and again wonderful words about the energy of this time we spend with the young people."
—Pastor Deanna Wildermuth, Sharon Lutheran Church, Grand Forks, ND

"What Here We Stand has brought to us at Faith is a much more interactive confirmation program. Our youth are very engaged in the curriculum and find it to be relevant not only to their learning of Scripture and Lutheran doctrine, but also how to act in the world as a young Christian person. I personally feel much more confident when I stand in front of the Church as these young folk are affirming their baptisms—that they really know what that means and will be able to apply what they've learned through Here We Stand as they take their places in the life of the congregation as adult members." —Pastor Bradford, Faith Lutheran Church, Arlington, VA

"We have about 75 participating in confirmation and we had 8 more kids invited by our church youth this year. AND we have had a 99.4% attendance rate the last two years. Parents comment on how they do not have to fight to get their kids to go to confirmation. They love it!"
—Gary Knutson, Christ Lutheran Church, Highlands Ranch, CO

We are so thankful that we are able to provide your congregation with a resource that has such an impact. We also love that you enjoy the time that you spend together and that you appreciate the fun and humorous side of faith formation. Thank you so much for investing the time and care into the youth of your congregation—they are worth it!

Here We Stand continues to grow with the launch of Unit 4: Lutheran Theology and Doctrine on July 16, 2007. Click here to learn more about this exciting new unit and expect to continue to share and grow in your faith!

Akaloo 2 continues the groundbreaking approach to lifelong faith formation by offering congregations new handbooks that will aid them on their faith journey. Challenging, inspiring, and relevant, the handbooks help participants explore their faith.

Combining the importance of the content with fun is the key to successful intentional learning. "More than just curriculum, these books can stand alone. They are books for books sake," said Arlene Flancher, Senior Editor, Youth and Young Adult.

Age specific themes and genres have been chosen—teaching participants about their faith at their level. "These genres are chosen because they are the same as the ones learners are reading in popular literature," said Cindy Paulson, Senior Editor, Children's Resources. "In terms of Akaloo being a life application, it is important to create characters learners can relate to and grow with." The intention is that they will be inspired by these stories and want to share them with their friends and families, further extending the reach of discipleship and faith formation.

The entire Akaloo development staff agrees that there is so much power in giving a book. Let's take a closer look at how the Akaloo 2 Handbooks will help unlock the potential of the entire congregation.

Pre-K—K: Seek and Find Seek and Find invites children to search for hidden pictures. What will they find? God's love everywhere!

Grade 1-2: Josie and Thomas Discover Josie and Thomas Discover depicts the lively adventures of Josie the Camel and Thomas the Bird as they discover new things about the Bible, God, the church, and the world around them. Every page is bursting with illustrations, facts, and questions to inspire and excite kids. Each lesson includes a "What do you think?" journal activity to help kids connect their discoveries to their own lives as disciples of Jesus Christ.

Grade 3-4: The Secret Box of Saint Jacques The Secret Box of Saint Jacques is a detective story that 3rd- and 4th-graders will love. Learners follow the amateur detectives on their mysterious adventures as they discover that each key unlocks its own wonders and faith lessons.

Grade 5-6: Uncle Eleven—LIVE! Uncle Eleven—LIVE! recounts the road tour through graphics and script of a Christian rock band, Uncle Eleven, as they travel across the U.S. giving concerts, avoiding rest stops, and finding faith experiences on the way. Learners follow along with Ben Bennett, the band's lead singer and writer, as he looks for something other than pat, simple answers to questions like, "Who needs God anyway?" and "Does God really care?"

Grades 9-12

Questions for Life: Mark's View Questions for Life: Mark's View takes a journalist's approach to exploring questions of faith. What does the Bible say is right and wrong? Is Jesus really divine? Is my body really a temple? What does the Christian church say about the Bible's contradictions? What do other religions believe about God? Mirroring the succinct style of the Gospel of Mark, Mark's View is packed with on-the-scene reporting that connects events in Jesus' life of faith today.

Questions for Life: Luke's View Questions for Life: Luke's View takes a physician's analytical approach to the questions of faith: Did the stuff in the Bible actually happen? Is God really in charge? Is sin such a bad thing? Why should Christians care about politics? If Jesus saves us, do our actions matter? The Gospel of Luke establishes an orderly account of Jesus' life that continues in the book of Acts. Through informative texts, photos, illustrations, graphs, charts, and more, Questions for Life: Luke's View offers a detailed textbook style to learning more about the life of Jesus.

Questions for Life: John's View Questions for Life: John's View presents a literary approach to faith questions: How do my beliefs and the Bible fit together? Is Jesus really human? Do I choose God, or does God choose me? What good is the Christian church in a world like this? Does the world really need Jesus? The Gospel of John is visual, metaphorical, and poetic. Questions for Life: John's View builds on tone through short stories, poetry, and other creative writing that encourage personal, unique exploration of God's word and work in our lives.

All three Gospel handbooks present the lessons by appealing to the varied interests of teenagers. In the classroom, they will be able to relate to areas that express their interests and grow as they discover different ways of looking at ideas.

Adult: Adult Faith Practices Akaloo laid the groundwork in adult faith formation by exploring the learning and knowledge of faith practices. Akaloo 2 takes this one step further by building on this knowledge and then applying it in the new focus of doing faith. Adult Faith Practices provides step-by-step coaching in faith practices that have guided people on their discipleship journeys over the centuries, such as Bible reading, prayer, worship, and service. Participants might already be doing some of them, but everyone needs help staying on the path. The materials include faith practices to do individually and practices to share with others.

Since its launch, one of the most innovative traits of Akaloo is its ability to morph, change, and grow along with its users. The drive toward intentional discipleship and lifelong faith formation—the core goals of Akaloo—are deeply rooted in the tradition of asking questions to grow in knowledge and experience. Through their questions and suggestions, Akaloo users have provided invaluable guidance on how Akaloo developers can improve the program to make it even more insightful, user-friendly, and inspirational.

This June, a new version of the Disciple Guide was introduced. Fueled by customer feedback, the new Disciple Guide keeps important age-level information and goals, and includes new features like:

Akaloo 2 content—now it is possible to see the complete curriculum—pre-school through junior high as well as youth and adult. Bible references and scripture connections. The ability to view Akaloo and Akaloo 2 separately or together.

"What we intend for the new Disciple Guide is to help people see the value of all the information available to them in Akaloo—utilizing all of the features to their best advantage," said Sue Hinton, Editor-in-Chief of Congregation Life and Learning.

The new guide is the detail, scope, and sequence chart for the entire program. "It's a tool to help people through this progressive learning process. They are moving toward a new way of doing things—which is exciting, but also challenging," said Hinton.

The new Disciple Guide will serve as a doorway to all of the learning and growth opportunities within Akaloo. It will change as the needs and demands of its users change. Additional features already being considered include:

Printable PDF versions of the Disciple Guide Training resources that can be accessed through the Disciple Guide Links to the Build a Lesson tool and other tools within the program

Whether you are new to Akaloo or not, it is important to know that the Disciple Guide will remain the gateway to the program. It is the catalyst of your congregation's faith formation journey—leading all to discover the Bible, experience God, celebrate the church, embrace the world, and become a disciple.

With the success of Evangelical Lutheran Worship, Augsburg Fortress has been working to develop useful and practical tools to make the most of the new worship book. Some new resources are now available, and many more will be released in the coming months.

Visit www.augsburgfortress.org to learn more about these new and exciting resources!