Jesus loves children. And He wants to make sure that they are not hindered in coming to Him (Matthew 19:14). In other words, the way to Christ should be cleared for children. As an organisation that seeks to honour Christ, Insight for Living Ministries sees that importance of clearing the way to Christ for children everywhere. To that end, Insight for Living Ministries created Paws & Tales.
In 1995, Chuck Swindoll wrote a storybook to teach biblical principles to his grandchildren. That informal storybook eventually became the children’s book Paw Paw Chuck’s Big Ideas in the Bible, which sold more than 100,000 copies in hardback. From this imaginative beginning, a creative team at Insight for Living Ministries in the USA developed and launched Paws & Tales, a weekly children’s radio drama.
Each half-hour episode of Paws & Tales is designed to teach basic theological concepts to boys and girls from nursery school to primary school. The individual stories follow a group of animals living in Wildwood—a fictional forest village—with a very wise old bear named Paw Paw Chuck, who is constantly teaching the younger animals the importance of living by biblical principles. This engaging series captures the hearts of children, young and old alike, through characters they love and situations they can relate to. With sound biblical teaching, the programmes—some of which have now been developed into an animated stories available on DVD—lay a solid foundation of faith and truth. Currently, all sixty-nine radio episodes and ten animated programmes are available in Insight for Living UK’s online store. While each episode stands alone as a valuable lesson for children, the series works as an effective way to help children form a firm spiritual foundation for their lives.
Children with strong spiritual foundations grow into adults with strong spiritual foundations. This truth drives the ministry of Paws & Tales, in confidence that the impact today will extend for decades as young people grow and contribute to the work of Christ’s church in this world.
