By Ingrid Koss
The first episode of Tales from Cottonwood Trails is now on the air! Episode 1, “The Blame Game”, can be heard on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and many other podcast platforms.
Eli Melsness is the sound engineer and editor for the new program. “I’m always laughing at the content myself," he says. "I hope that families have as much fun listening and learning as I have editing!” Listeners are already confirming Eli's hopes and giving the new program great reviews:
"Awesome! Five Stars! So much to love in this delightful adventure. Every family needs to check this out!” - snowleopard22
Kids will be delighted with the cast of wacky animal characters.They’ll be intrigued by the surprising plot twists. They'll love the laugh-out-loud humour. And while they’re enjoying all of that, they’ll also be learning about Jesus.
Stu Hunnable is the director and producer of the new children’s program. He’s also the father of young children.Cottonwood Trails is exactly the kind of program he wants for his own kids: dynamic media that’s genuinely funny and full of biblical principles.
“Secular programming is a world where God is not present,” comments Stu. “I want the media surrounding my kids to agree with what we’re teaching in the home: that there is a God who loves them, and that they can act with kindness, gentleness and confidence.”
Tales from Cottonwood Trails is the brainchild of children’s storyteller Jordan Evans (shown in the first image, above) who grew up going to Bible Camp every summer. After progressing from camper to counselor, he was asked to teach the daily Bible lessons during chapel time.
“I quickly discovered that kids were more likely to listen if it was a story,” explains Jordan.
He developed the fictional world of Cottonwood Trails. Then he added sound effects and voices for all the characters. Now Jordan has teamed with Square One to create a delightful, warmhearted, and one-of-a-kind children’s program that parents will enjoy as much as their kids.
“The stories and the animals are a lot of fun. But it’s really about teaching the message,” reminds Jordan. “So that, when kids remember the story, they’ll remember the Bible lesson too.”
Meanwhile, Executive Director Shoaib Ebadi sees the premise of Cottonwood Trails as a very Canadian approach to getting along. And a Kingdom approach, too.
“Personally, I appreciate the values of multi-culturalism and acceptance that will naturally come with this cast of characters,” says Shoaib. “By including all these different kinds of animals, kids will see that we can all love one another. We can all live in peace together. And we can all learn from each other.”
Listen to the pilot episode and enjoy some serious fun in the forest! A new episode of Tales from Cottonwood Trails will drop at the beginning of every month.