{"id":834,"date":"2013-05-02T05:17:12","date_gmt":"2013-05-02T10:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.odysseyscoop.com\/blog\/?p=834"},"modified":"2013-05-02T05:17:12","modified_gmt":"2013-05-02T10:17:12","slug":"press-release-acts-a-call-to-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.odysseyscoop.com\/blog\/2013\/05\/02\/press-release-acts-a-call-to-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Press Release – ACTS: A Call to Service"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adventures in Odyssey, Tyndale and Good Goers Call Kids to a \u201cSummer of Service\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"ACTS:<\/p>\n

A Call to Serve (A.C.T.S!) campaign makes serving fun with prizes including an Adventure-Based Mission Trip\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

April 29, 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

Colorado Springs, CO. \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0Adventures in Odyssey<\/a>, Focus on the Family\u2019s kids\u2019 radio drama, is joining with Tyndale House Publishers,\u00a0Good Goers<\/a>\u00a0and Christian bookstores across the country to call children to live out their faith this summer through the A.C.T.S.! challenge and contest.<\/p>\n

Starting in June, the A.C.T.S.! Summer of Service Challenge will encourage kids to complete 12 hours of service over the summer\u2014on their own or with their family or church. Service logs will be available in over 400 participating bookstores throughout the summer, beginning in June. All kids who participate can download a free AIO episode, and kids can also return to stores to collect stickers of favorite Odyssey characters for each hour served.<\/p>\n

The challenge sponsors hope that A.C.T.S.! will help children learn the value of giving their time, talents, and abilities to help people in need. The challenge will also remind kids that service is much more than just \u201cdoing\u201d \u2013 it\u2019s anytime you put someone else\u2019s needs above your own.<\/p>\n

“We want to remind kids that they have a part to play in God\u2019s story, and serving is an easy way for everyone to take part in that,\u201d said Jesse Florea, editor of Focus on the Family Clubhouse magazine, AIO\u2019s official magazine. \u201cThe challenge is a fun way for kids to learn about serving, but the end goal is that kids will deepen their walk with Jesus Christ through serving Him.\u201d<\/p>\n

AIO\u2019s goal is for 4,200 kids to sign up to serve, for a total of 50,000 hours of service.<\/p>\n

Webcast Launch Party and Video Contest Kick Off Campaign<\/p>\n

<\/strong>Adventures in Odyssey is kicking off the campaign via a live launch party webcast on May 22 at 3:30 p.m. MT\/5:30 p.m. ET that will include the big reveal of the contest\u2019s grand prize trip location. Two of the show\u2019s actors, Chris Anthony and Katie Leigh, will also talk about their favorite AIO episodes. Viewers can watch the webcast online at\u00a0whitsend.org\/acts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

From July 1 \u2013 Aug. 16, kids ages 8-15 can also enter the A.C.T.S.! video contest by submitting a two-minute video that shares how they serve and why they would like to be one of the first official Adventures in Odyssey Ambassadors. Many participating stores are hosting special recording events, and kids who record their video in stores will receive an AIO prize. An updated list of participating stores and video upload instructions can be found on whitsend.org\/acts.<\/p>\n

From the videos received, 100 third place winners will be selected to win a $25 Adventures in Odyssey product prize. Of those, 24 finalists (12 boys and 12 girls) will have their videos posted for online voting from Sept. 1-15, and two grand prize winners (one boy and one girl) will be announced on Sept. 25 through an AIO webcast.<\/p>\n

The grand prize winners will receive an all-expense paid Good-Goers Adventure-Based Mission Trip with a parent to serve orphans and enjoy a day of rafting in an overseas location. As the first AIO Ambassadors, the winners will also be featured on bonus material for AIO Volume #58, the AIO podcast, and in\u00a0Clubhouse<\/a>\u00a0magazine.
\nFor more information or to register, visit\u00a0whitsendblog.org\/acts\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To coordinate media interviews, please email\u00a0Nina.Coppola@fotf.org<\/a>\u00a0or call 719-531-3386.<\/p>\n

About Focus on the Family
\n<\/em><\/strong>Focus on the Family, which reaches about 238 million people in 130 countries, is a global Christian ministry that helps families thrive. We provide help and resources for strengthening believers in their faith and sharing the gospel; building resilient marriages that reflect God\u2019s design; equipping parents to raise their children with a thriving faith; advocating for the preborn, orphaned and life at every stage; and engaging the culture through a biblical worldview. Visit Focus atFocusontheFamily.com\u00a0<\/a>or on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Twitter<\/a>. You can also follow the Focus PR team on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

About Tyndale House Publishers
\n<\/strong><\/em>Tyndale House Publishers, founded in 1962, is the world\u2019s largest privately held Christian publisher of books, Bibles, and digital media. Tyndale has published many New York Times bestsellers. The largest portion of its profit goes to the nonprofit Tyndale House Foundation, which makes grants to help meet the physical and spiritual needs of people around the world. Tyndale was founded to publish Living Letters, which later comprised part of The Living Bible, a contemporary paraphrase of the Bible that became a global publishing phenomenon. Tyndale now publishes the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT), the translation of choice for millions of people.<\/p>\n

About Good-Goers
\n<\/strong><\/em>Good-Goers is a mission trips program established to further the work of The James Fund, founded in 2003 as a charity of Family Christian Stores to support that care of widows and orphans. The James Fund sponsors mission trips around the world with Family customers and staff and has given more than $2 million to ministry organizations and projects.<\/p>\n

Related Information:
\n<\/strong><\/em>You can view the Official\u00a0Adventures in Odyssey\u00a0<\/em>Podcast’s official announcement<\/a> of the launching of the contest here. It’s going to be an exciting summer of serving opportunities! Visit the official ACTS website<\/a> to learn how you can get involved this summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Adventures in Odyssey, Tyndale and Good Goers Call Kids to a \u201cSummer of Service\u201d A Call to Serve (A.C.T.S!) campaign makes serving fun with prizes including an Adventure-Based Mission Trip\u00a0 April 29, 2013 Colorado Springs, CO. \u2013\u00a0Adventures in Odyssey, Focus on the Family\u2019s kids\u2019 radio drama, is joining with Tyndale House Publishers,\u00a0Good Goers\u00a0and Christian bookstores […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,55,22],"tags":[207,206],"class_list":["post-834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-contests","category-news","category-official-podcast","tag-a-call-to-service","tag-acts-contest"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.odysseyscoop.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/ACTS_logo.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2kCCw-ds","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.odysseyscoop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.odysseyscoop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.odysseyscoop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.odysseyscoop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.odysseyscoop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.odysseyscoop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.odysseyscoop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.odysseyscoop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.odysseyscoop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.odysseyscoop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}