Stripes on the beach

November was a red-letter month in that I saw the publication of two books.  Two!  And one of them is a real book.

The real book is called La iglesia latinoamericana: su vida y su mission (The Latin American Church: Her Life and Mission). I coordinated the three person editorial team (with Alberto Roldán and Chuck Van Engen) of this book of essays from 11 Latin American scholars. It’s published by Certeza, a Protestant publishing house in Buenos Aires.  It’s been a long and arduous process, but I’m pleased with the result.  The book is academic and in Spanish; if these are not barriers, please look it over!  (I may blog later on some of the essays, including my own.)

The other book, which is even more “real” (in the velveteen rabbit sense) is published through Bapa Creations Unlimited.  You’ve probably not heard of it. It’s my very own (and very unofficial) publishing house.  “Bapa” was Alandra’s word for Grandma a few years back. I publish these books around Christmas time, usually in runs of three (one goes to Rwanda, one to Springfield, and one stays home with me).

This latest creation couldn’t be farther from the volume published by Certeza. Rather than academic in level, its destined readership is a three-year-old autistic boy named Peter. The English is pretty straight forward.

One of Peter’s fixations is stripes. He sees them everywhere. A few weeks back when Hal and I were at the coast, I took a walk one day and, like Peter, I saw stripes everywhere. So I took out my camera, and a new book was born.  Following are various scenes from Stripes on the Beach.

 I went to the beach

and what did I find?

Stripes, stripes, stripes

of every kind.

Wavy stripes in the sand

Ocean stripes

(otherwise known as waves)

swimming to the shore

Sea grass stripes

Shadow stripes

Drift wood stripes

Sky stripes

(otherwise known as clouds)

moving in the wind

Sea shell stripes

Long legged shadow stripes

Bird legs stripes

Wooden bridge stripes

Fuzzy hat stripes

Crooked tree trunk stripes

Stripes in the grass

Stripes in a fence

Venetian blind stripes

And last of all, here am I!

I've pudding on my face

and stripes on my clothes

and it's just about time to close

this book.

Bye bye, stripes! Bye bye, beach!