Sep 30, 2026 · 23 min · 10 segments
Send us Fan Mail In this episode, authors Gail Veitenheimer and Jen Weaver discuss their children's book series, The Mystery of the Missing Falls…
Valerie FentressHost
Gayle VeitenheimerGuest
It sounds like you've really kind of worked in this charismatic, you know, personal relationship in the liturgical side of church.
What made you guys want to have those, you know, different views? Because I know a lot of times in Christian communities, there are lots of people that are in all those different fields.
And so even within Christianity, what kind of spurred you guys to walk in that conflict in a sense?
I grew up just behind 57 of denominations as my Southern Baptist dad and my Lutheran mom tried to figure it out.
And our children were raised pretty much in non-denominationals, but two have converted to Catholicism.
And so my childhood, we were all over the map, mostly non-denominational as I grew older, but Baptist all over the place.
And we wanted to create these stories that any Christian family could could pick up and say, OK, not only is this a good read that I know is going to reflect the values of our home with no unwanted surprises, but it's also going to be an easy conversation starter for me to talk with my kids based on scripture, based on God's character and nature and what we see in the word.
And so we wanted to reflect the beauty of all sorts of different personalities and walks of life and denominations.
And so it's been fun to explore that together and see how there might be something that is strong for one person and not as strong for another, but that God grows us all as we're walking through life as his followers.
I love that dynamic that you've brought to these characters because I think kids come across, you know, even so many people in their own schools and neighborhoods that are, you know, one might be Baptist, one might be Assemblies of God, one might be, you know, Catholic or Lutheran.
And they, you know, giving them the chance to kind of walk with these characters and to kind of experience, okay, they're not so different.
It's like, no, we, there are very, there are differences, but there is a very core connection.
And so it's in our culture that seems to want to ostracize and make divisions.
It's good to see books that are kind of showing that Christianity is not as divisive as a lot of our culture is right now.
It sounds like you've really kind of worked in this charismatic, you know, personal relationship in the liturgical side of church.
What made you guys want to have those, you know, different views? Because I know a lot of times in Christian communities, there are lots of people that are in all those different fields.
And so even within Christianity, what kind of spurred you guys to walk in that conflict in a sense?
I grew up just behind 57 of denominations as my Southern Baptist dad and my Lutheran mom tried to figure it out.
And our children were raised pretty much in non-denominationals, but two have converted to Catholicism.
And so my childhood, we were all over the map, mostly non-denominational as I grew older, but Baptist all over the place.
And we wanted to create these stories that any Christian family could could pick up and say, OK, not only is this a good read that I know is going to reflect the values of our home with no unwanted surprises, but it's also going to be an easy conversation starter for me to talk with my kids based on scripture, based on God's character and nature and what we see in the word.
And so we wanted to reflect the beauty of all sorts of different personalities and walks of life and denominations.
And so it's been fun to explore that together and see how there might be something that is strong for one person and not as strong for another, but that God grows us all as we're walking through life as his followers.
I love that dynamic that you've brought to these characters because I think kids come across, you know, even so many people in their own schools and neighborhoods that are, you know, one might be Baptist, one might be Assemblies of God, one might be, you know, Catholic or Lutheran.
And they, you know, giving them the chance to kind of walk with these characters and to kind of experience, okay, they're not so different.
It's like, no, we, there are very, there are differences, but there is a very core connection.
And so it's in our culture that seems to want to ostracize and make divisions.
It's good to see books that are kind of showing that Christianity is not as divisive as a lot of our culture is right now.
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