People have asked how "The Pilgrim's Progress Audio 
Dramatization came to be. Here is the story.

	Four words that were to change my life forever.Here ís the story: As per 
my custom I was in my son Benjamin's bedroom reading bedtime stories. 
Night by night I had been reading to him from one of the world's all-time 
most famous books. When we reached the end he uttered those 4 fateful 
words. "Read it again, Daddy" Nothing has been the same since.

	Let me take you back a few weeks to the beginning. For about 12 years 
I had been engaged in a Christian drama ministry called "Company One." 
I was the playwright and director for the group which was centered in 
California's Napa Valley. We toured churches and Christian schools sharing 
our original scripts with our own unique style of performance.

	I was also an elder of a small but vibrant church and one afternoon it was 
my privilege to help one of our elderly members.Her name was Mrs. Graves 
and we were moving her into a smaller apartment. She was to downsizing 
and offered me the choice of severalbooks from her library. Perusing the 
shelves one title caught my eye. A book I had heard about since forever but 
had never had the opportunity to read. "Aha!" thought I. "A great book to
 read to Benjamin, my seven year old son." I took the famous book home
 and we eagerly began to read. Well, it wasn't 5 minutes before my little 
trooper began to have some serious attention deficits. His eyes began to 
wander about the room and little fingers began to play with little toes. Not a
 good sign, Dad. What ís the problem here? The story was great, the reading 
was passable and the characters were interesting to listen to, unless perhaps 
300 year old English was a bit of a problem for a little 7 year old. 
Aha! That was it!

	The book had been written over 300 years ago and the language was old
 English from the 17th century - the time of good old king James. Poor little 
Benjamin simply couldn't understand it.Solution? Simple enough. Having 
had a bit of training as a dramatic reader, I decided to try glancing ahead 
and see if I could convert old English into new on the fly. Back to the beginning 
we went. This time I was translating oulde Englysh into everyday English 
and - voila! The eyes lit up again and all interest in toes was lost.We read every
 night and soon finished Part I. On we went to Part II and it was not long before 
we came to the final joyous victory scene where husband and wife are 
reunited in heaven (a scene that still tends to bring tears to one's eyes)."That's 
the end, Benjamin," I said.  And then came those classic words out of the mouth
 of a babe. "Read it again, Daddy!" And so I did.

	This was my introduction to "The Pilgrim's Progress" by John Bunyan. A book
 that has stood the test of centuries and been the best-selling allegory ever written
 until the recent advent of a series of "spiritual" novels of a far different character.
 (- Send a donation of any amount to cover postage and I'll send you a revealing
 booklet on the dangers of "Harry Potter." - P.O. Box 430 Dobbins, California 95935)

	So how can 4 words be so life changing? Here's where the story begins to get
 interesting. I began to think thusly: If my little man could be so enthralled by a 
modernization of this magnificent classic, surely other children would be equally so. 
I would make it my mission to make this character-building classic available to
 today's boys and girls. Thus it was that day by day I began to type out my 
modernization of "The Pilgrim's Progress." It was my simple intent to read it onto
 tape and give out copies to young friends of our family. No big plans or dreams. 
Ha! Little did I know what God had in mind.

	At last the time came to record and I began looking into equipment and recording
 spaces. Long story to short is that we set up a small 8 track recording studio in what
 had been Benjamin's room. Then, during tryouts for an upcoming drama I found 
the perfect voice for the narrative portions of the book. Great! Now I only had to 
concern myself with the character voices.Then came an unsolicited letter from a man 
named Kirk Van Buren. He was a young Canadian who had just recently become
 a Christian. As part of his conversion he had surrendered his goal to become a 
professional actor. Then, he somehow heard about my Christian drama work and
 was wondering if perhaps his talents could be used for God. Could they ever! 

	And so it proved. Kirk was remarkably talented and took on the voice of Christian, 
the lead character. Now I had the narration and the lead covered and I would take 
all of the other voices. But, Kirk knew some people with talent, plus my drama
 team was willing to participate and before long my one-man-show had turned into 
77 different actors portraying well over 100 characters. I finally ended up with a 
few choice parts such as Worldly-wise-man, Giant Despair and Atheist. This was 
all done back in the mid 80s when digital recording and editing was just beginning 
to appear. It was still beyond our budget so we taped onto analog tape and edited 
with a razor blade. Sort of nostalgic, actually. 

	Two years later we had a finished product. By now things had grown so much 
that we had commissioned some excellent period music by composer Jeff Wood. 
We had also recorded our own custom sound effects. By the time we were done we
 had created the most complete and realistic dramatization of "Pilgrim's Progress" 
ever. But now what? Here we were with a finished production but with no way to 
duplicate or market it. We were maxed out on borrowing money for equipment, 
music, and just plain living expenses. We had put our drama ministry on the back 
burner for two years so there was not much income from that quarter. So far as we
 could tell we were standing in a dead-end alley with 6 master tapes in our hands 
and no way to move forward.

	To make matters worse, during the later stages of production we had been faced with 
frequent and time consuming equipment problems; almost as if we were under attack
 (which I believe we were). On one particular day I was in San Francisco getting another
 technical problem solved. That is when God decided it was time to step in. He began by
 impressing an acquaintance to make a phone call. When I arrived home that night my 
wife, Linda, told me that a friend named B__ F____ had phoned to inquire about our 
ministry. Linda had given him a full report and the conversation ended with a mention 
of possible help (whatever that might mean). A few days later, unsolicited and seemingly
 from out of nowhere there came a check for $10,000! God had impressed B__ F___ to send
enough money to get us back on our feet and over the hump. Totally amazing! It gives 
me chills to this day.

	Within weeks the tapes began to go out and the letters began to come in. Letters about 
what a great blessing the recordings were to adults and children of all ages. Lives changed, 
new hope and courage imparted to the discouraged, to the report of at least one suicide prevented. 
The list of blessings went on and on and we began to realize that God had used a child's
 voice to speak those four empowering words - "Read it again, Daddy."