The Best of Out of the Box - Challenge 1

Out of the Box 1

Only the Beginning

            Try these alphanumeric brain teasers.  They range from movies to television programs to daily knowledge.  You will even have to look in the box for one answer. Some will be very easy, but don't rush to look at the answers for the others.  They will come to you at the strangest times.  Enjoy this first of several exercises.

Here's a sample:

10        A in the B of R

And here's the answer:         10        Amendments in the Bill of Rights

           

Now try these prepared in similar genre:

2          M for SS

2          RD in a YW

12        AM

52        W in a Y

300      P in a PG

366      D in a LY

2          DD in DJ

4          S in a Y

2          S of R in a B of KRB

Ready for the answers.  Don't check until you have given your mind some time.  Many may come to you when you are thinking about something else or when you think your mind is at rest.

Follow this link to check the answers.

Tom Spence to sign books on Alumni Weekend

Western Oklahoma author and 1974 Mangum High School graduate Tom Spence will be signing his books at El Charro on Friday, 27 May 2016 from noon to 2:00 p.m. 

His newest release is Acceptance of Authority.  This is the book that will change America.   This is the book that will reduce prison populations and increase graduation rates.  This is the book that America has been begging to be written.

Tom will also have a variety of his books published by Tate Publishing.  Two of the most hard-hitting books, especially for those in western Oklahoma, are Throw Away Kids and PoMo Poverty.  In these companion selections, Tom goes beyond identifying society’s problems; he brings us to solutions that don’t wait on the government to fix or ignore the problems.

Tom is an ordained minister in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and the pastor of the congregation in Burns Flat, Oklahoma. 

As a pastor, he returned last summer from his second trip to Africa to train pastors and church leaders in Kenya and Uganda.  He has served as moderator of the Red River Presbytery but perhaps is best known as the guy who gives out wristbands that read:  GOD LOVES YOU – LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

He is a retired U.S. Marine Corps officer that served in all four Marine Divisions, including a tour training reservists.  He has served in Iraq and Kuwait, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, aboard Marine bases on the east and west coasts of the United States, and has a substantial amount of service afloat.  His final tour was as a program manager in charge of maintenance and modifications of Marine Corps ground training systems and simulators around the globe.

Tom served as both student and instructor at the Marine Corps Base, Quantico, Virginia—the Crossroads of the Corps, and proudly boasts that he successfully avoided a tour in the Pentagon for his entire career.  Tom wrote two books specifically about the Marine Corps.  The first was a first person collection of observations and anecdotes titled Sea Stories.  The other was Christianity for Marines.

Tom will also have with him, two unique books with fast moving dialogue where two men—The Conversation—and two women—Going Up—drop their defense mechanisms and actually talk about important things.

Please join Tom on Friday, 27 May 2016, buy a few books, get something to eat, and enjoy your alumni weekend.

Check out this review  and interview conducted by Serious Reading for Tom’s novel set against an end times background—Even the Elect.

Book Signing by Tom Spence

El Charro

 1101 N. Louis Tittle, Mangum, Oklahoma

27 May 2016

12:00 – 2:00 p.m.

Tom's books - Updated March 2015

Tom Spence has been writing with passion for the past few decades.  Recently that writing has moved from traditional periodicals to online publications and more than a few books. 

How do people know about these books?  They are usually not listed in the USA Today or New York Times, so most folks discover them in blogs such as this.

Most of Tom’s books are listed below.

Non Fiction

Throw Away Kids --  https://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-68118-257-5

Acceptance of Authority  --  https://www.createspace.com/5182286

Forced Confessions --  https://www.createspace.com/5136478

Christianity for Marines  --  https://www.createspace.com/3579848

God Loves You  --  https://www.createspace.com/3670043  (Children’s book)

PoMo Poverty  --  https://www.createspace.com/3699396

The Profanity Problem  --  https://www.createspace.com/3610485  (Lesson Plan and Student Handouts)

Acceptance of Authority  --  https://www.createspace.com/3612985  (Lesson Plan and Student Handouts)

Heaven and Hell  --  https://www.createspace.com/3677778

Technology Acquisition and Front End Analysis for the Small Church  --  https://www.createspace.com/3624412

Rebaselining America  --  https://www.createspace.com/3593523

The Best of Out of the Box  --  https://tsw.createspace.com/title/5244630  (Brain Teasers)

Sea Stories  --  https://www.createspace.com/5162252

~

Fiction

Tough Day at the Plate  --  https://www.createspace.com/5175832   (Children's book)

Even the Elect  --  https://www.createspace.com/3879904

~

Scripts

Going Up  --  https://www.createspace.com/4091450

Short Skits  --  https://www.createspace.com/5163365

Salt of the Earth  --  https://www.createspace.com/4094908

Got Oil?  --  https://www.createspace.com/4094801

Ten Talents  --  https://www.createspace.com/3606302

9 Encounters of John 9  --  https://www.createspace.com/3603187

Clipboard Christmas Skits  --  https://www.createspace.com/3615398

The Conversation  --  https://www.createspace.com/5248497

In the Beginning  --  https://www.createspace.com/5159198

Tom also maintains 3 blogs and when so inclined publishes the local newspaper.

The Biased Observer  --  http:/www.biasedobserveronline.blogspot.com/

Tom’s trials, tribulations, and timely thoughts  --  http://www.tentalent.blogspot.com/

This is Oklahoma  --  http://www.thisisoklahoma.blogspot.com/              

Library Inventory

Inventoried the Library today.  Here’s what is available.

Non Fiction

General

God Loves You – A message that our children should hear many times each day.

Christianity for Marines – Following Jesus in a “take the hill” culture.

Social Issues/Self Help

Throw Away Kids – This examines the byproduct of parents who have thrown in the towel on parenting—throw away kids.  These are children who are not loved when they are home and not missed when they are gone.  What are we as Christians to do?

PoMo Poverty:  Finding Abundance in the 21^st Century -  A no holds barred look at poverty in the post modern world and what we as followers of Jesus are called to do about it.

The Profanity Problem:  And what to do about it  -  Vulgar language is everywhere today.  What can we do about it?  This is a lesson plan with handouts.  It may be taught to a large group, but smaller groups and group leaders will be needed for the exercises.

Acceptance of Authority:  Returning to the boundaries of law and ethics – How many problems do we see that go back to rebellion and rejection of authority?  How many times to we try to address some other problem instead.  This lesson is for inmates, trouble and at risk youth, as well as for those who struggle with accepting authority in a culture that frequently reinforces that aberrant behavior.  This is a lesson plan with handouts.

Technology Acquisition and Front End Analysis for the Small Church – Is it time for a new sound system or words on the wall?  What sort of telephone system do we need?  Are our computers good enough?  How much should we spend?  This is a lesson guide for any group that may be considering purchasing anything that involves technology.  How can we not chase technology and just get what we need?

To challenge the mind

Heaven and Hell:  Why people can’t get off the subject and on with living  -  No self-respecting Christian would make a god out of wood or stone these days, but we don’t hesitate to make them out of doctrine and dogma.  Why can’t we just trust God and get on with living?

The Best of Out of the Box – A wit and wisdom workout for those who like Lateral Thinking and mind benders.

On the political side

ReBaselining America:  Setting a foundation of liberty for the next 200 years – This Grand Experiment that we call the United States of America has outlived its life expectancy.  Democratically based governments generally fizzle out or self destruct after 200 years.  Does this have to be the case for the USA?  Can we set a foundation of liberty for another 200 years even in the modern world?

Autobiography

Sea Stories  - When a Marine tells a tale of something unique or hard to believe, it is called a Sea Story.  Here are a few such stories from around the nation and around the globe.

Fiction

Novels and short stories

Tough Day at the Plate – It’s a baseball book for children.  ‘Nuff said.

Even the Elect – As the words that accompany title suggest, this novel is about deception.  It is about deception on a world scale as well as at the most intimate level.  Warning:  This book contains sex, violence, as well as the best and worst of human behavior.  OK, so does the Bible.

First Steps Towards Eternity – Not for the timid reader, that is, if hell, aliens, and life just passing by into whatever is next scares you. 

Drama

Ten Talents – A message in drama to explain the Parable of the Talents.  Easy to rehearse and produce.  Works for adults or children.

9 Encounters of John 9:  A Play in 3 Acts – A message in drama using the 9 distinct encounters of the 9^th chapter of John’s gospel.

Clipboard Christmas Skits – Running out of time to put that Christmas program together?  Don’t have time to get lines memorized?  The year somehow got by you and now it’s Christmas and you are in charge of the program?  Don’t worry.  Just change the mode.  Clipboard Christmas Skits provides simple skits that can be done without memorization.  The clipboard blends into the set or some lines may be read from off stage.  In any case, don’t let the stress monster get you on account of a Christmas program.  Have some fun with your cast and glorify God with a simplified production.

Blogs

Tom’s Trials, Tribulations, and Timely Thoughts

The Biased Observer

This is Oklahoma

Tom’s page on Amazon (includes Kindle versions)