For The Temple - Crew Review

I love adding Christian audio drama to my daughter’s listening time and so I was thrilled to receive the 2-CD set For The Temple from Heirloom Audio Productions for our listening pleasure. Heirloom Audio Productions is passionate about bringing Christian history to life with top-shelf talent such as Brian Blessed (Star Wars), Jolyon Coy (Beauty and the Beast), Julian Rhind-Tutt (Oliver Twist), and George Blagden (Les Miserables). Each production features an original musical score and sound effects. It’s like an audio movie for the mind!

The story begins on the eastern shore of Galilee during the years of Roman occupation. Mary gets into a boat, only to get John to join her for a secluded moment to discuss their arranged marriage. While John and Mary row out to sea, dark clouds gather over the farm. As the wind grows stronger, they are taken father from the shore, until they are pulled to safety by Josephus. Josephus could use a man like John to stand in alms. John wants nothing more than to live in peace and grow the finest grapes in Israel; but he decides to join Josephus. Josephus send John and Joab to Tiberius to search out the people’s allegiance only to discover Tiberius’s allegiance has been overtaken by the Romans. The Romans attack and Joab is fatally wounded. A young man named Jonas helps John escape. They lay in hiding for days, listening to the Roman soldiers destroy the city. On the fifth day, they are awakened by a trumpet, and the Romans marched away. The next morning, they walked through the ruins of the city and gathered what was useful and then marched back to John’s home. As the story unfolds, a leader is born. John gathers and trains an army to fight the Romans. Then, John receives word that the temple is in grave danger. On one of the darkest days in the history of Israel he will make a decision that could save the temple or destroy it. You will need to listen to the audio drama for its conclusion!

I also received a study guide for this audio theater presentation. The sets of questions begin and end as the narrative takes new turns, and each may cover from four to eight minutes of the audio drama. Each set of questions has three parts, Listening Well, Thinking Further, and Defining Words.

The Listening Well questions ask your child about what he heard and what he remembers. The Thinking Further questions ask your child to think a bit – to look up something mentioned in the story, to draw conclusions from the character’s actions, or to speculate about the intentions, mindset, and character of John and his friends. The Defining Words section gives your child an opportunity to enhance his vocabulary. You will need to use a dictionary for some of the words. But my favorite part of this study guide is at the end. There are three brief Bible studies that help you and your child get a better understanding of some of the biblical themes that are woven into the narrative.

Put God back into history with these award-winning CD's and ignite a passion for history and Christian character in the next generation. Visit the Crew Blog to read what the Homeschool Review Crew has to say about the audio theater presentation For The Temple from Heirloom Audio Productions.