Transitory Psychosis

Here is a brief update of the situation at Randall House as a results of the extensive flooding of the Nashville Metropolitan area. This statement was prepared by Randall House CEO Ron Hunter.

“Nashville recieved historic record flooding this weekend and Randall House was flooded along with many others. The flood effected our [printing department] press where $2.5 million dollars of equipment, printing in process, and paper inventory is kept.

Today, Monday, we are assessing the damage and beginning cleanup. Please pray over the next few days that our equipment weathered the flood waters.

Please pray for three of our Randall House family who may have suffered the personal loss of their homes and/or contents of their homes.”

All our Randall House families are safe. Please pray for us today as we are indeed short staffed and please continue to pray for the RH families and all those effected by the Nashville flood of May 2010.

Finally, a moment to breathe. Things have been hectic of late, to say the least. In addition to the normal end of quarter busy-ness at work, the push to get everything to printing. I have squeezed in a major kitchen floor replacement at home (I didn’t do the work, but we dealt with the chaos), a 1300 mile driving trip to a funeral, and a 36-hour visit from my son. The floor is done and everything is back where it belongs, the urgent projects have gone to press, and my son left this morning. Now I have a few minutes to blog.

Don’t get me wrong, not all of the recent rush has been bad. I love my work. The funeral was a triumphant send-off for a faithful servant of God and had the side benefit of allowing me to see a number of friends and family members I don’t often get to visit with. The visit from my son was brief, but most enjoyable. I love that guy, even if I still don’t understand much about what he does for a living. Nevertheless, it has all been a bit crazy.

What’s next? Tonight we get ready to leave again. Tomorrow we’re off to Dallas, TX (Frisco, actually) for the D6 Conference–a gathering of over 1500 people who are committed to helping parents pass the baton of faith to their children. It promises to be an exciting few days. If you happen to be there, stop by and see me. I’ll be manning the 411 booth, providing information to conference attendees who have questions about what, where, and when. If you want to know more about the conference, go here.

I’ll try to update this blog from the conference, but I’m looking forward to it. After it’s over, I’ve promised myself a long nap.

Back in October, I asked you to contribute some funny stuff for the first edition (Spring 09) of FUSION magazine. People responded with some really good items! That issue of FUSION is now at the printer and I can’t wait for you to see it.

Now it’s time to do it again! When the spring issue “hits the streets” (sounds real journalistic, doesn’t it?), it will include an invitation for people to send us their funny stuff. Unfortunately, the summer issue will be well underway before spring is distributed. So, we need some more material until then.
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I just realized I didn’t follow through with my promise to explain how you can be a part of the new Fusion devotional magazine. Here’s the info.

One of Fusion’s unique features will be the inclusion of a little humor. This won’t be a major part of the magazine, just a couple of pages. What we’re looking for are humorous tidbits in two categories: family and church. We’re not interested in phony-baloney Internet stories or things that have been published elsewhere. We’re looking for YOUR humorous experiences at home or at church that we can share with others.

Here are the guidelines:
1. The story must be true–we’re looking for real life stuff.
2. You must have permission from the person(s) involved to share the story in print. (We may ask you to confirm that you have that permission.)
3. The story must be previously unpublished.
4. You must limit your submission to no more than 200 words.
5. Your submission becomes our property upon submission and we can use it in all print or digital media.

Below are some examples:

Church-related: Once when preaching the funeral of a man I did not know, I intended to tell the congregation, “God can soothe all your hurts.” Instead, I said, “God can hoot all your certs.”

Family-related: A friend’s five-year-old grandson had apparently heard his mother’s corrective voice one too many times. When she scolded him again, he angrily declared, “Mom, you’re about to get on my last nerd!”

Now it’s YOUR turn. Remember that event that made you laugh, the one you love talking about to your family and friends? We want to hear about it! Send it to me in an email at jonathan.yandell@randallhouse.com

Come on, you know you want to! So don’t wait, do it today! Feel free to share the opportunity with your friends, family, neighbors, church, etc. Let’s have some fun with it.

Besides the impending births of two more grandchildren, I’ve been focused on a birth that will happen between now and then–Fusion magazine.

Fusion, the newest addition to the CLEAR family is due to drop in spring of 2009. Fusion will be Randall House’s new devotional magazine for adults, replacing CLEAR Living. The focus of Fusion (how’s that for a Ford company allusion–think they’d pay for that?) is on integrating truth, faith, and life. It will include the best features of Living–daily devotional studies for each week that coordinate with CLEAR Sunday School/Bible Study curriculum or can stand alone, an evangelistic article, and D6 Family Links. But it will contain much more.
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I’ve got some BIG news to share! If you haven’t heard yet, Randall House is sponsoring its biggest event ever—the D6 Conference, September 23-25, 2009. This national conference for pastors and church leaders will equip them to mobilize parents to fulfill their God-given role as Deuteronomy 6 (D6) parents by passing the torch of genuine Christian faith to their children and teens.

The D6 Conference speakers include some of the best known Christian leaders of our day: George Barna (author of Revolutionary Parenting), Dr. John Trent (best-selling author), Dave Ramsey (national radio personality), Fred Stoeker (co-author of Every Man’s Battle), Jim Daley (president of Focus on the Family), and Darren Whitehead (Director of Next Gen Ministries at Willow Creek Community Church).
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So what did you do yesterday? Chances are, it was more fun than what I did. I spent a little over five hours with a group of very creative editors brainstorming a new name for our devotional magazine for adults, CLEAR Living. Come spring of 2009, that’s almost tomorrow in publishing time, CLEAR Living will undergo some MAJOR changes. In fact, the changes we have planned are so big we sense the need for a new name. In reality, it will essentially be an entirely new magazine in everything from size to format.
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I’ve found it rather interesting to listen to people describe my job as an editor to others. Usually, it starts with something like, “Jonathan writes all the curriculum for Randall House.” When I explain that I don’t write it, I just edit it certain age levels of it I really get some strange stares.

After explaining my job a bit to one guy, he said, “Oh, that’s good. I pictured you sitting in an office with a visor on your head and wearing a white shirt with black elastic bands on the sleeves staring at paper all day, looking for missing periods and commas.” That’s not exactly it. So let me try to explain the role of an curriculum editor, which is somewhat different from a book editor.
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I knew that headline would get your attention. No, I’m not referring to menopause—not even the alleged male version. I’m referring to my position at Randall House. My role at RH has changed a bit. After a little over five years as Teen Curriculum Editor, I have been given a new role: Senior Editor of Teen and Adult Curriculum.

This increases my responsibility from seven products to eventually about 20. Thankfully, I have help—two associate editors, Jacob Riggs and David Jones, and the continued (but not exclusive) services of editorial assistant Tanya Shallahamer. Together, we will handle the editorial work for all RH Teen and Adult products.
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It didn’t surprise me, but it did sadden me. It was just one sentence in an article about how some UK college students are refusing to create Facebook profiles in protest against having their personal information shared with others.

The author, described as a “student writer” went on to say, “And it’s not just current students that are turning the other cheek.” Then the writer described how even some graduates are refusing to join the Facebook crowd, even though its a great way to keep in touch with fellow grads.
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