By Pastor Victor Chen

This past summer, twelve children in our church ages 4 - 14 successfully completed the Summer Reading Challenge! Each child submitted a written response to me indicating what they enjoyed the most about the book they read. 

The books I recommended were fictional works written with a Christian worldview. Here were the books I recommended to be read:

Kindergarten and younger (Read by parents to child)

“You are Special” by Max Lucado

“The Lightlings” by R.C. Sproul

1st through 4th grade

“The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” and remaining books in “The Chronicles of Narnia” by C.S. Lewis

5th and 6th grade

“On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness” and remaining books in “The WingFeather Saga” by Andrew Peterson

“The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien

7th and older

“The Fellowship of the Ring” and remaining books in “The Lord of the Rings” series by J.R.R. Tolkien

It was once said that every household had two books in their home —the Bible and “The Pilgrim’s Progress”. My hope is that more families would be blessed by reading through “The Pilgrim’s Progress” in their homes today. In light of that, here were the book prizes I awarded to each child according to their ages:

”Little Pilgrim’s Big Journey” (Lithos Kids)

”Little Pilgrim’s Progress Illustrated Edition” (Moody Publishers)

”Pilgrim’s Progress” (Crossway)

I was pleased with how many children in our church were involved in the Summer Reading Challenge in 2021. Here was the message I shared with them on specially created bookmarks by Irene Mar:

Congratulations on completing the challenge! May the Lord grow your love for reading so that you would love to read His Word and know Him more!

Because He First Loved Us,

Pastor Victor

 Blessed is the man

  who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,

 nor stands in the way of sinners,

  nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

 but his delight is in the law of the LORD,

  and on his law he meditates day and night.

 Psalm 1:1–3 (ESV)