For The Temple

Heirloom Audio Productions

A Review

We love all things G. A. Henty and with that comes loving all things Heirloom Audio Productions.  They do a wonderful job bringing his books to life in the form of audio-dramas.  The newest release, For The Temple, proves just as wonderful.  We received a copy through The Homeschool Review Crew and couldn’t be more in love.  Included in our package in the mail is the two cd audio drama.  We also received a download copy of a study guide to be used alongside.

About the Product

We received this in physical format, but a digital download of the audio drama is available.  I prefer physical so we can listen in our van on our way to get milk.  It’s an hour drive each way so this really helps to make the time fly by.  

Our study guide that we received to go with this is however a download.  I’m not normally big on downloads, but this one is super easy to open and view as well as print.  That’s big for me.  I don’t have a lot of computer skills with unzipping files so to just be able to click download and print is so nice!

The study guide is 51 pages long and contains three sections on each chapter/tract of the audio drama.  These sections include listening well, thinking further, and defining words.  

A lot of the same cast is back in this audio drama that we’ve heard from before.  My kids love that they recognize some of the voices and I love listening to them too.  This story is 2-1/2 hours long roughly and for ages 6 and up.  As always we listen to this as a family which means I also have a five and 2 year old listening.

The Story

This story is set back in Bible days.  Our main character is John who works in a vineyard.  He’s a Jew and war is coming to Gamala.  As a Jew they are being persecuted and their temples over run and destroyed by Romans.  John is supposed to be becoming engaged or betrothed and then married to a girl named Mary.  But before that can happen he must make a stand with others to save the temple in Jerusalem.  While fighting for his life and his faith John must come to several personal realizations.  He also learns about someone named Yeshua.  

This stand is one John thinks long about actually.  He meets a man named Josephus who admires his bravery and encourages him to join his army.  

While defending the temple in Jerusalem over 2000 people are crucified who flee the safety of the city walls.  John must make a choice.  Does he continue to stand and fight for the temple even as the people are hungry and without food or does he listen to the voice within telling him this is not the time?  

Eventually John decides that it is time to quit.  He and others escape through a tunnel called Hezekiah’s Tunnel.  But that’s not the end for John.  He and another called Jonas are waylaid on their way home by slave traders who sell them to the Romans.  John has a secret up his sleeve from a Roman commander who he did NOT kill(sounds like a line from The Christmas Carol about tiny Tim who did NOT die).  This allows him to secure freedom for himself and Jonas.  

After they are granted their freedom they head home.  John does marry Mary but he has this yearning to learn more about Yeshua and travels to the Dead Sea.  

What We Thought

We loved the story and the history behind it.  I loved being able to engage my children in discussion and use some of the questions and discussions within the study guide.  For those we just did everything orally.  I always love getting the recommended books from the library for my kids to read more about the time period as well.

As you may have noticed we’re book heavy people.  We all love to read and read a lot.  Our process for using Heirloom Audio dramas is to listen to them all the way through first.  This normally happens on a long drive or two. 

Next we listen to it with the discussion questions in mind.  I often stop the production so we can talk about key points and how they make us feel or what we think we might have done in that situation.  This is also the time that I take to ask the kids if they didn’t understand any words and ask them to possibly define so of the harder words that I’m not sure they’ve heard before.

After we’ve listened to it that second time we bring out all the books.  I leave them in a basket in our living room and everyone picks up and reads as they can.  It’s not a hardship to get my kids to look at them because they love new books.  I get any and all books recommended in the study guide plus I also grab books related to the setting or time period in the drama as well.

While we are not Jewish my husband has ancestors who were.  Because of this we do observe several of the Jewish feasts and days.  This makes this audio drama just a bit more special.

We really enjoyed this one and give it all the thumbs up.  Now back to studying about Bible times and the occupation of Israel by the Romans and what that meant for the people.

Learn More

Learn more about For The Temple by visiting the main blog post over on The Homeschool Review Crew blog.  At this blog post you’ll find all the blog reviews for For The Temple linked up.  Read them all as we all have different opinions and thoughts.  You can also find For The Temple and Heirloom Audio on facebook, twitter, and instagram.