Showing results by author "David B. Smith" in All Categories

Katrina Saxby wasn’t even planning to trade her on-track academic life at Pacific Union College for a year in northern Thailand. But the call of God was clear and so she said yes. Now she’s got to teach English, start up a high school choir, launch the newsletter, be a substitute preacher when a bus breaks down, dispense dating advice to teenage girls, and fret about the growing reality that one of the Thai teachers might be falling in love with her.

Bucky Stone’s dream mission trip has turned into a nightmare. He’s 9000 miles from home, hopelessly lost on the streets of Bangkok. Panic screams at his senses, making it difficult to think. He’s got no money. This adventure happened before T-Mobile cellphone plans that work in Asia, so he can’t call his pals for help. He can’t speak a word of Thai. And he’s running out of time and options. Somewhere in this huge steaming city with its traffic jams and go-go bars is a group of Christian friends he’d give anything to see again.

Crack! The malicious pitch leaves Bucky in excruciating pain. It’s only the first day of practice, and already his baseball season’s over. But a broken arm is just the beginning of his troubles.

"Outcast on the Court" is the third action-packed story in the Bucky Stone adventure series. After a cheating scandal threatens to blow up his friendship with fellow athlete Dan Litton, Bucky is able to reconcile with Hampton High's superstar basketball forward. And Coach Litton reluctantly agrees to allow the two players back onto the JV squad. But all the other Panthers don't think much of the Jesus freak addition to the roster. Despite his interest in God, Dan has a lingering problem with booze. The team's best shooting guard has a drug habit no one else suspects.

This volume represents one of my favorite career challenges: creating this radio adventure for the Voice of Prophecy ministry. Our broadcast team always envisioned the national audience reached by our scripts: thoughtful Christians and seekers longing for a better life empowered by the gospel. Paul’s epistle to the Philippians is among the richest of scriptural gifts to the world! Believers everywhere have been encouraged by his exhortation: “I can do ALL THINGS through Christ who strengthens me.

Bucky Stone Adventures is 10 exciting stories all packed with home runs and buzzer-beater three-point hoops, along with flirty text messages, a kidnapping scare, bank robberies, and even a mission trip to downtown Bangkok where our hero promptly gets himself lost in the big, bad city. There’s plenty of humor and teasing, but in the end a young man’s faith has to give him a path forward when there’s a cheating scandal in history class or impossible-to-forgive grudge on the basketball court.

Hey, it’s not that hard for a cop to solve crimes if he can time-travel back a week and apprehend crooks before they even walk into the bank. Detective Aaron Mathews, the iPod’s new unsuspecting victim, sniffs around to track down its former owners, and begins to realize God is demanding a whole lot more of him than just lucky junkets to Atlantic City. His hard-boiled agnosticism begins to thaw as he witnesses the Columbine killings up close, and is sorely tempted to undo America’s first mass shooting.

Travel to a world where love stories unfold, shattered dreams are rebuilt, and a memorable cast of characters live out and grow in their Christian faith. The brand new Rachel Marie series takes you far away to Bangkok Christian School where rookie teacher Rachel Marie finds herself intrigued by the winsome Vice Principal Kuhn Khemkaeng, a nominal Buddhist. She’s being simultaneously wooed by expatriate Nigel Blaine, a TV journalist dripping with decidedly secular charm.

During the golden days of American pulps, hundreds of masked avengers were created to battle evildoers around the globe. The Black Bat, Moon Man, Domino Lady, and the Purple Scar, to name only a few of these amazing pulp heroes. Now Airship 27 Productions introduces to pulp listeners brand new pulp heroes cast in the mold of their 1930s counterparts.

The earliest known prison memoir by an African American writer—recently discovered and authenticated by a team of Yale scholars—sheds light on the longstanding connection between race and incarceration in America. In 2009, scholars at Yale University came across a startling manuscript: the...

From mid-August to mid-September 1863, Union major general William S. Rosecrans's Army of the Cumberland maneuvered from Tennessee to north Georgia in a bid to rout Confederate general Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee and blaze the way for further Union advances. Meanwhile, Confederate reinforcements bolstered the numbers of the Army of Tennessee, and by the time the two armies met at the Battle of Chickamauga, in northern Georgia, the Confederates had gained numerical superiority.

A cancer diagnosis robs the two Gray gentlemen – Big Ethan and Little Ethan – of a bride and beloved grandma. Unable to cope with Seattle’s jagged memories, Pastor Ethan gratefully embraces an invitation to move to Thailand and lead Bangkok Christian School's affiliate worship center, United Christian Church. Soon enough the story has a thumping soundtrack as Noah Charoenkul drafts the aging rocker to be his keyboardist for praise music at school and church.

Resurrected Love is yet another dramatic love story set in exotic Thailand where Buddhist harmony and Christian miracles flow in co-existing streams. And sixth-grade kids the world over are very fond of teasing their beloved American teacher when they suspect Miss Giske has a new fan.

What do Bob Uecker and Sandy Koufax have to do with your success as a Christian? What on earth do Dodger Stadium and Boston’s “Green Monster” left-field wall have to do with heaven? And is Kirk Gibson’s miracle homer in the ’88 World Series–“High fly ball, into right field, she is . . . GONE!”–a foretaste of the joy we will experience at Jesus’ second coming? Bible writers often used the ordinary things of life to illuminate their lessons about eternal life. James spoke to us about ships’ rudders and olive trees. Paul wrote about soldiers’ armor and training hard for the OIympic Games.

It takes adept multitasking for Ratana to thrive as a third-year med student who also does church concerts throughout Bangkok. Then one more thing threatens to explode her frantic schedule at Chulalongkorn U. His name is Jaidee: a heart-melting two-year-old orphan who needs a new mommy.

Here in "Of Fleeces and Faith," I have a great time exploring from the fascinating Old Testament story of Gideon and his tiny little band of 300 warriors. He asked for a sign; in fact, he asked for three of them! God said yes, but is that the best way for a follower of heaven to proceed? Always wanting more proof, more proof, more more more?

9/11 tragedies and Auschwitz can’t be overruled without the “butterfly effect” causing even greater havoc. When high school senior Jordan Wickam gets a mysterious bootleg iPod that flips back his calendar exactly seven days, he piles up a greedy fortune betting on horse-racing exactas. Then on the night of the senior prom, he’s abruptly forced to decide: Do I play God?

It amazes me that, even though some of Hollywood's classic films are half a century old, most of the college students I teach have seen the best of the best! Steven Spielberg's wonderfully inventive Back to the Future came out in 1985, but just about everybody has seen Marty McFly rev the DeLorean up to 88 mph and jet his way back to Mill Valley High where his mom and dad need his help in order to fall in love.

I have many dear friends whose youthful experience in the church was fraught with anxiety over “I’ll never be good enough” and the warning that nineteen out of twenty kids are doomed to stay forever out of heaven. Okay, you too? On the cusp of college graduation and my new gig as a teacher in an Adventist school, two rescuing lifeboats floated my way. I began reading stuff by C. S. Lewis and also a pastor named Morris Venden – ironically my mom’s cousin!

If God picked up His paintbrush and painted yet another new world into existence, a warning could be blazed across the sky. Don’t let madmen build nuclear bombs. Drugs and divorce can really hurt. Try to avoid a repeat of 9/11. And, Queen Lady, stay away from that apple tree! But what if a network of unstained worlds was already out there before the mess began on Earth?