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This is something that all parents should be doing…building an apologetics library. But books can get pricey so here are few things that I do to build my library without breaking the bank.
                   

1. Mardel Christian Bookstore. That’s the one that’s big here. Check out the store finder here. They have a section of marked-down books that I try to hit on my days off if I have the time. The prices range from $1 to $10. I buy MOST of my books here. There’s a lot of…junk (sorry) in these shelves, but there be gold in 'dem shelves as well. Apologetics is not popular with many Christians, so those books eventually end up on those shelves—I’m assuming. Once I found 4 Cold Case Christianity books for $3 bucks a pop…I bought all of them. I have found many of the popular apologetics books that I recommended in the APP. This past week, I picked up 10 Answers for Skeptics, Fox’s Book of Martyrs, Christianity on Trial, and Tough Questions about Suffering and Evil, all for a total of $10! Check out the picture of part of my library and you’ll see a lot of the books still have the Super Bargain tags on them. Sometime I get a little excited when I see a title I know for $1 or $3 and I go ahead and buy it, even if I already have it. I can always give it to someone down the line. And then it hit me, I can give them away on the  Apologetics 4 Kids facebook page. Stay tuned. Love going to Mardels and hoping to score a good book. 
2. Don’t have a Mardel’s? Try Kindle. On Facebook, you should probably “like” The Poached Egg. Every week, they post a list of Kindle deals on apologetics books. I’ve gotten many many books this way. Most of them are under $5! and the vast majority are only .99 cents! A lot of them are current books, we’re not talking stuff you’ve never heard of before. I’ve even bought several apologetics Bibles that I use at church, (using the Kindle version is a great way to jot down notes.) Download the Kindle APP and start building a virtual library.

 
Anyway, that’s two quick, common sense tips to get you started if you’ve never bought an apologetics book and don’t know where to start. Happy hunting and carry on!

​Wow, you came back for another blog post, you must be bored. Thanks. Last month Dr. Frank Turek was here in Missouri, a little over an hour away at a college and we went to the one night event. This was on a Wednesday. On that Friday, we drove to St.Charles (3 ½ hrs away) for the Exist Conference by Reasons to Believe. This time we took our kids and spent the night in St. Charles to be able to attend several sessions and I got to meet Dr. Hugh Ross and Dr. Fuz Rana.
So why am I telling you this?
Conferences. Think: conferences.
I didn’t. I’d been studying apologetics for a long time, and it never even crossed my mind to look out for conferences in my area. What’s wrong with me? Anyway, what a great way to show your kids that there are really smart people out there that answer religious questions for a living. You can show them apologetics in action. You can assure them that even if you don’t know an answer to a question, there’s a large community of theologians, teachers and apologists that can help. Your kids don’t have to live with unanswered questions which will fester and could become a problem. They’ll know that they can turn to these Christians for answers.
Earlier this year, we also went to our first reThink Conference with the kids. It’s the conference put on by Stand to Reason geared towards students. We made it a mini vacation, drove to Dallas, stayed three nights and had a great time. Kids loved it, they took notes, picked the sessions they were interested in, met two of my apologetics mentors, Greg Koukl and J. Warnar Wallace, and basically stunned us with their interest. Ha! While driving home, they asked when the next one was scheduled. We’re going back next year and taking their cousin and maybe some friends. Like J. Warnar Wallace always says; put it on your calendar. Make a day trip out of it or a weekend getaway. If you can, get a hotel with a pool so the kids can relax after all the training during the day. Your kids will love it and look forward to the next one.
Here are just a few links. Get your calendar out and see if any of these are coming to your area.
rethink Dallas                                                                    
Reasons to Believe
Frank Turek                                                                         
J. Warnar Wallace                                                             
SES Conference
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A quick APP update: I’m working on the new APP, doing the writing and research, but I’ve been distracted by all the hours I’m working and trying to “market” the current APP. If I haven’t mentioned it, I hate the marketing stuff. Blech! I’ve written a few apologists asking for feedback, but I stopped that after the first week. Only one responded and I just felt… yuck… “Dear so and so, could you look at my APP? Purty please?” LOL. No more of that. I’ll just keep making APPs and working on the website. I’ve run a couple of Facebook ads. It’s a cheap way to target a specific audience. Let me know if you’ve seen this pop up as you’re browsing Facebook.

Speaking of the website, (was I?) I’m working on pdf pages that kids and parents can download and put in your binder. As each APP comes out, I’ll have some downloads to go along with material covered in it, I’m a little behind on that. Also, my daughter has asked if we could do an apologetics podcast for kids. One thing at a time.
That’s it. Carry on!