I Would Die for You by Brent and Deanna Higgins

ISBN-10: 0800732448 ISBN-13: 978-0800732448 Brent and Deanna Higgins Publisher: Revell Retail: $12.99 What Teens are Saying: BJ was just a year younger than me, and in his short life he had such a full life and could die with no regrets. He had a sense of urgency in telling the story of the gospel and its transforming power to others. He didn't worry about what they thought or if he would be rejected. --T. Buse

(Tulsa, OK) - "It's an honor just to be nominated": familiar words for Emmy and Grammy nominees. Still, Brent and Deanna Higgins never believed the phrase would pertain to their family. Outreach magazine has recently honored the Higgins' book, I Would Die for You, with a nomination as Outreach Resource of the Year.

That nomination, however, came with a great cost. I Would Die for You chronicles the life and death of their young son, BJ Higgins; along with his faith; his passion for missions and his love for God. Compelling excerpts from personal notes, blog entries school assignments and journals reveal his clear calling and enthusiasm for sharing the gospel of Christ. BJ's challenging words and example combine to inspire readers of all ages.

After returning from his second short-term international mission trip at the age of 15, BJ became seriously ill. Six days before his sixteenth birthday, he died. His story lives on throughout the pages of his parents' book.

In spite of the inevitable grief , Brent and Deanna share their son's message of selfless sacrifice through both I Would Die for You and Awe Star Ministries, the nonprofit ministry that coordinated his mission trips. Their prayer? That countless others will embrace BJ's vision and give their all for the cause of Christ.

About the Authors:
As an ordained minister and youth pastor, Brent Higgins continues the faith journey his son, BJ, began a few years ago. He currently serves as Vice President of International Operations for Awe Star Ministries, a Christian nonprofit organization committed to equipping believers for life, speaking to more than 25,000 people each year.

Join us for next Tuesday's Blog Tour Tuesday for a guest article, "The New Normal: Facing Life after a Child's Death," by Marti Pieper, and some parenting tips from Brent and Deanna!

As an accomplished musician and elementary school music teacher, Deanna Higgins opens the next chapter of BJ's missionary work by serving alongside her husband to lead mission trips for Awe Star Ministries. Brent and Deanna now reside in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

A Chat with Brent and Deanna
Describe how BJ became involved in short-term mission trips. How did these trips impact BJ’s faith?

BJ watched other members of our family participate in church mission trips. He couldn’t wait for his turn! When Brent led a team to Kentucky to serve in a school, BJ went along. At age fourteen, he learned of an opportunity to minister in Peru. He served there with Awe Star Ministries two consecutive summers and his heart broke over the world’s lostness. His mission service ignited a passion to see the Gospel reach the nations.

Even as a young boy BJ’s passion for God shone through in his life. How did you see that passion then and as he grew?

In his childhood, his passion sometimes came across as judgmental. When he learned to share out of love, his witness became much more effective. He was bold and unafraid to share the Gospel in any way possible. After his mission trips, his heightened passion led him to spend more time in the Word, in prayer, in fellowship, and worship. BJ could turn almost any conversation to the things of God because he genuinely loved others.

Share the story of BJ’s illness and the time when God called him home.

Three weeks after his 2005 Peru trip, BJ became critically ill. On the way to the hospital, he told Brent, “Dad, I know you’re scared. I believe the Lord will deliver me through this. But if he doesn’t, I’m going home to be with him, and that’s okay with me.” Friends began a blog we still maintain, http://www.prayforbj.com/. It received thousands of hits as people across the world prayed for our son. After a six-week battle with a mysterious infection, BJ went to heaven days before his sixteenth birthday.

How did BJ’s faith journey become the inspiration for the song, “I Would Die For You” written by MercyMe’s lead singer, Bart Millard?

Within a week of BJ’s hospitalization Bart (a friend from the band’s early years) called Brent. Our oldest daughter had posted some of BJ’s journal entries on our blog and Bart was amazed at his spiritual depth. He emailed fans encouraging them to pray. MercyMe grieved deeply when BJ died. Our son’s life and writings inspired Bart to put words to a tune he already had, now the final song on the “Coming Up to Breathe” CD.

BJ’s life and death have touched many people. Which of his qualities and/or experiences seems to impact others the most?

People didn’t realize it was possible to live a life as sold out to Christ as BJ’s. They’re amazed at the boldness he showed when God told him to witness to four Peruvian policemen carrying uzis. As he wrote, he was “mucho scardios,” but all four accepted Christ. His passionate declaration, “I will not be satisfied. I will not let my passion be hid in a bottle” still touches people in deep ways.

As you both continue to partner with Awe Star Ministries, what are your hopes and dreams for this ministry? For this book?

We hope to impact students’ lives, discipling and partnering with them in missions. We long for them to realize that surrender to Christ can occur without crossing borders. God calls us to live a missionary lifestyle within our own culture. Our hope for the book is not that our son be glorified but that God multiply his message. We pray that God draws those who read it to embrace their Savior and live for Him as never before.

Where can readers learn more about BJ and I Would Die For You? Where can they learn more about Awe Star Ministries?

http://www.prayforbj.com/ contains devotionals, complete archives, pictures, and BJ’s own words. Recently, we posted a video of his life at www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRNANk5rI2g. You’ll find I Would Die for You anywhere Christian books are sold. http://www.revellbooks.com/ contains a link for a free companion Bible study. Friend us on Facebook: Brent A. Higgins; Deanna Tucker Higgins.

Visit http://www.awestar.org/ to learn more about international missions opportunities. May God use you to extend BJ’s passion to reach the nations and “raise a revolution” in Him.

***Prize Alert!***
As usual, there are goodies involved! Do we love Kathy, or do we love Kathy?! Anyway, one commenter here will be entered into a grand prize drawing for a fabu mission-minded gift basket!
The I Would Die for You Gift Basket includes:

• 
  I Would Die for You book - autographed



• 
  Rite of Passage Parenting book - autographed (by Walker Moore, Thomas Nelson, 2007)



• Global Passage Creed sticker



• Not Home...Gone Global for Jesus sticker



• Awe Star blue ink pen



• Red Awe Star luggage tag



• Green Global Passage bandana



• 2 Awe Star drink containers



• Blue size L Awe Star 2009 trip T-shirt



• Orange size L God's Global Roadie T-shirt

How to Enter:
Leave a comment telling me where you'd like to go on a mission trip if you had the opportunity. Would you go to another part of the US, or to a an English-speaking country, or to a third-world country? Do you have a particular country in mind, or a specific task like teaching English or building a church? (Personally, I'd like to go to the UK. I'm not brave enough for most of the Southern Hemisphere!)

Extra Entries:

• Second Entry: Tweet this giveaway and leave a comment with a link to the tweet.



• Third Entry: Follow me on Twitter and leave a comment letting me know your Twitter user name. If you're already a follower, just comment with your user name.



• Fourth Entry: Subscribe to 3Stairs and leave a comment letting me know if you subscribed with RSS or via e-mail. If you're already a subscriber, just leave a comment letting me know.



• Fifth Entry: Blog about this giveaway and leave a comment with a link to your post.



• Sixth Entry: Add a 3Stairs button to your blog (grab the code on the far right sidebar over there) and leave a comment with a link to your blog so we can admire it (your blog, not the button)! Again, just leave the link if you've already added the button.

I'll let Random.org choose a winner Sunday morning, June 7, so get your comments in by the night of Saturday, June 6!

Memorial Day - Thank you, Heroes

In grateful memory of those who have given
the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country.

MOPS Book Review: Making Work at Home Work

http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=3stai-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0800732758&fc1=434F3E&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=77756B&bc1=FFFFFF&bg1=FFF5EC&f=ifr&nou=1 There are work-at-home opportunities and companies everywhere you look. There seem to be twice as many books about working from home out there. Believe me, I know. I've worked in libraries and book stores, not to mention reading more of them than I can remember. I've even seen and read books about working from home from women. They happen to be moms. Those books weren't about moms working from home, though.

Can we say frustrating and useless?

Well, we all know I'm a huge MOPS fanatic. Why? Because MOPS helps me. And not just at meetings. MOPS is helping me become a successful work-at-home mom with a new book called Making Work at Home Work, by Mary M. Byers. It's not just a book about working from home. And it's not all about party companies, either. This is a real book about real moms who really work at home. A quilter, business strategist, meeting planner, interior designer, cake decorator, and photographer are among the 125 women who contributed by answering questions like these:

• What's the toughest part of running a business and a family under one roof?


• 
  What unique child care strategies have you used to enable you to work successfully from home?



• What do you know now that you wish you would have known when you started?



• What's the biggest mistake you've mad as an at-home business owner?


• 
  What advice would you give to a another woman who is interested in starting her own work-at-home business?

The book is subtitled "successfully growing a business and a family under one roof." This woman gets it. Yes, we are women business owners. Yes, we want to be successful. Yes, we are also moms who want to nurture our children to be responsible, loving, successful adults. The two are not mutually exclusive, folks. Making Work at Home Work is the first book I've seen or read that understands this foundational principle of women working at home.

If all you do is pick up the book and read the first chapter, you will have gained the value of the purchase of the book.

There are two main parts to the book: Saving Your Sanity and Preserving Your Profit. Saving Your Sanity addresses key issues that must come before profit if any person is to ever be successful in working at home. From understanding your motivation to setting boundaries and handling client "crises," Mary covers all the mental building blocks you need to lay in place before you can truly start on your journey to work-at-home success. If all you do is pick up the book and read the first chapter, "Being Honest: Acknowledging the Difference between 'At Home' and 'Work at Home,'" you will have gained the value of the purchase of the book. Those 7 pages will revolutionize how you see yourself and your identity as an at-home business owner.

Preserving Your Profits gets into the nitty-gritty of money-making. Starting off with "Accepting the At-Home CEO Mantle," Byers covers ten different financial aspects of being an at-home entrepreneur. Questions on equipment? Covered. The dreaded tax dealings? Yup, it's here. You'll even learn how spending just one morning a year planning can make a huge difference in your entire fiscal year.

And as if all that wasn't enough, Mary shares over a dozen recipes from acclaimed fast-mom cooks Trish Berg and Mary Beth Lagerborg! Sanity, money, and food all in one book? It's so worth it, and so are you. It'll be the best $12.99 you've invested in your business this year.

Memorial Day Friday Fill-in

In grateful memory of those who have given
the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country.

1. Moving songs make me cry.

2. It is the sacrifice of heroes that has made me free.

3. My best quality is staunch loyalty.

4. Don't lose sight of the big picture while working on the details.

5. In nearly 10 years, I've gained almost 50 pounds. It's time to lose them all and get healthy.

6. A set of new tires with tread for my car is what I need right now!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to sweet, sweet slumber, tomorrow my plans include church and Sunday, I want to start my next book for review!

We have an apron winner!

Congratulations to GAhome2mom - she'll be getting a full apron like her granny wore sent to her this week! Be sure to stop by and visit her blog and enter the giveaways she's hosting right now!

Thanks so much to all of you that entered. This was the biggest response I've gotten on a post ever! Welcome to the new readers - let me know if there's something you want to read about here. I'm always open to suggestions and ideas.

Armed Forces Day Friday Fill-in

Tomorrow is Armed Forces Day. To all those who have served, and especially to those still serving, I offer you my humble, awed, and eternal gratitude. You are heroes. Never let anyone lead you to doubt that for one trillionth of a nanosecond.

And now for our regularly-scheduled programming...

1. If we had no winter spring would not be so welcome.

2. "The darling buds of May" are a perpetual astonishment.

3. If I had my life to live over I would have guarded my virtue more closely.

4. One can only do so much, but to stop and smell the roses must be done at least once inside of four and twenty hours.

5. If you've never been thrilled by the smell of fresh rain and the serenity of a spring storm, you are not truly alive.

6. To be interested in the changing seasons is to be one always learning.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to Stampin' Up Technique Club, tomorrow my plans include getting to hear Stephanie sing Letters from War for special music at church and Sunday, I want to make a ton of money at our Women's Ministries bake sale!

Apron Porn - But Not *That* Kind!

As promised, here's a picture of me celebrating Wear Your Apron Day:

Please ignore the ridiculous face I'm making. I almost edited it out, but headless pictures give me the willies. Michael cracked some joke just as he was snapping the picture, to which I (appropriately) cracked up.

Anyway, back to the apron:

I got it on eBay a year or two ago and I love it. The fabric isn't Mary Engelbreit, but it certainly has an ME-esque feel to it. Throw in the fact that the binding is plaid, and I'm all over it. Green plaid, to be exact. Oh, aprony heaven! The straps criss-cross over the back, so there's no tugging on my neck. Another great benefit to that is that my rear is covered, which is awesome, because I have a tendency to wipe my hands off on my hips as I'm cooking and most aprons don't cover far enough back were I "clean myself." Don't let your brain go too far on that one - it's a scary, scary place.

So yes, I have an apron, and I wear it. Frequently. And in public, even. And you know what? I don't care if anybody looks at me funny, or points, or even laughs. Know why? Cuz it makes me happy.

And that's all that matters.

It's Wear Your Apron Day!

Did you know that today is Wear Your Apron Day? I learned about it from one of my favorite blogs, The Apronista. Yes, The Apronista, as in fashionista but with cooler prints and more cleanliness. More values could be argued, too, but I don't feel like going there, so I won't.

So how do you celebrate? Easy: wear your apron all day long. Wear your favorite one, or the one passed down to you from your grandmother. Maybe it'll be the one you made from a tea towel. Or the vintage one you found on eBay. It doesn't matter as long as you wear your apron.

I'll be wearing my favorite apron. It's one I found on eBay in my favorite cut and the cutest fabric. It's a goldenrod orange-yellow with bees all over it and green plaid binding. I'll try to get a picture of it to post for you all. This picture from Wikimedia Commons shows the style of it:

Ok, who said that? Did I actually just hear you say you don't have an apron?? How have you made it to this point in your life without an apron??? Never mind. We'll fix it. I have a box full of vintage aprons literally right here behind me.

***Prize Alert!***
I'll send an apron to one of you poor, deprived waifs that have suffered through life without an apron so you'll be ready to celebrate next year. Wear Your Apron Day is always the Monday after Mother's Day, so be sure to mark your 2010 calendar now.

How to Enter:
Leave a comment telling me why you want an apron and about your favorite style (ie: half aprons, full aprons, cobbler aprons, etc.).

Extra Entries:

• Second Entry: Tweet this giveaway and leave a comment with a link to the tweet.



• Third Entry: Follow me on Twitter and leave a comment letting me know your Twitter user name.



• Fourth Entry: Subscribe to 3Stairs and leave a comment letting me know if you subscribed with RSS or via e-mail.



• Fifth Entry: Blog about this giveaway and leave a comment with a link to your post.



• Sixth Entry: Add a 3Stairs button to your blog and leave a comment with a link to your blog so we can admire it! (your blog, not the button)

I'll let Random.org choose a winner next Monday morning, May 18, so get your comments in by then!

Mama's Got a Brand New Bag

I love bags. Purses, totes, wallets, whatever. If you can carry it and it holds stuff, I love it.

I especially love it when it's a laptop bag with a new laptop in it!

Yep, Metropolitan Mama is giving away a laptop. With a bag to carry it in.

Two words: Geek Heaven.

It's a Toshiba Protege M750, which converts to a tablet. The bag to go with it is a Red-hot Mama red small Phantom laptop bag from STM Bags.

Can we say, "I want that!" now?

Friday Fill-in for Granny and Papa

On this date in 1948, my paternal grandmother took my grandfather over state lines and they were married. They had been married two weeks shy of 59 years when she passed away the day after my birthday in 2007. Granny taught me to crochet and my first hymn, Amazing Grace. It was an honor to begin her funeral with it on April 17, 2007. I remember hearing and loving the gentle tink of her wedding ring on the glasses as she washed dishes. I still think of her every time I hear that sound.

1. The first rule of working in an office and getting along is work at home!

2. Gimme more clams! Just make them spendable instead of edible (blech!).

3. When I think of carnivals I think of yummy, yummy funnel cake!

4. The rose my favorite spring flower.

5. Things on my desk include change, meds, jewelry-making supplies, and a gingerbread man shaped bottle of gingerbread scented lotion.

6. Thinking about how much loot I came home with from Box Tops University today makes me wanna giggle and do a happy dance.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to going through my goody bags to see what all I got, tomorrow my plans include celebrating astronomy day with the kids by going to see a free planetarium show about the planets and Sunday, I want to thoroughly enjoy myself at the sewing circle!