The Girl Who Stole an Elephant

Brief overview: 

Chaya steals from wealthy people to give to those in need, but when she takes it a step too far she sends her friends on a treacherous adventure through the Sri Lankan jungle.

Recommended age range: 8-12

Strengths: 

• Story moves at a quick clip to keep readers engaged.
• Great way to learn about a different culture for young readers.
• Chaya is a compelling, intriguing, and likable character who makes kids want to trek alongside her.
• An entertaining narrative well-suited for fiction and enables middle-grade students to take a wild ride with a spunky character. 
• My 10-year-old son enjoyed reading this together because of how different Chaya and the storyline is from him/his life.

Additional Notes:

• Topics potentially worth unpacking with your child from this book: 
• Chaya steals from the rich to help the poor and this is held up as a good virtue throughout the book. She doesn't change her behavior even when there's no obvious need by the end. 
• Parents don't seem to play any role in being a place of wisdom and support in this story.
• The friends sometimes lie to try to protect others.
• While done in a kid-friendly way, political upheaval becomes key to the second half of the story.  
• I expected the elephant would be more central to the story.
• Author Nizrana Farook has more Sri Lankan-based adventures with different characters if you enjoy this one.

Overall rating: 7 (out of 10)

What Does the Bible Say About Church Membership?

One in four adults who regularly attend church often mix attending online with in-person.

Twenty-three percent of churchgoers bounce from church-to-church—and Millienials (ages 25–40) rank highest in this church-jumping habit.

While this may seem like a modern take on church membership, this could reveal a misunderstanding of the God-designed way church should be lived out—the potential outcome when church membership isn’t rightly valued.

Our views on church membership—whether we realize it or not—impact our role in magnifying God’s name to the world.

When we understand our role and responsibility to a local church, it’ll be reflected in how we live.

If we scan the Bible, we won’t find any mention of church membership. But what we do have is a pattern of rooting ourselves in biblical community with a local body of believers to magnify God woven throughout the pages of Scripture.

The church is a melting pot of people coming together from all backgrounds, economic statuses, ages, and ethnicities with the common denominator of Christ.

When Christians who have no reason to invest into each other’s lives beyond Jesus, intentionally care for each other and people outside the church—even in small ways—this magnifies the gospel.

The local church exists to glorify the Lord in everything and church membership is how believers labor together to accomplish this.

But to understand the value and challenges of being a church member, we must first understand its nature.

Read the full article on Living By Design.