Midmorning With Aundrea - June 29, 2020 (Part 1) [ENCORE PRESENTATION]

(Part 1 of 2.

Originally aired June 5, 2020) A Facebook group called "A View from My Window" has encouraged followers to send pics from their own homes.

And author BJ Hyman recommends books for young adults in today's "As the Page Turns".

And we speak with travel guru Kelly McKellar about the upcoming reopening of Walt Disney World in Orlando!

>>> guys, my 2 it is proof that summer has arrived.

Vacation bible school is an important part of the lives of local children.

Churches throughout the region are usually gearing up for vbs this time of year, but measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus means many churches are looking at a new way to carry on the outreach.

Wcbi's allie martin has more.

Meadowood baptist church in amory is hosting vbs and on a typical year they would have hundreds of kids at church.

But this year has been anything but typical, because of covid 19, so the church is doing virtual vbs.

Nats there are worship songs, and bible stories .

Nats but the audience is watching from home this year.

"a friend of min from first baptist in yazoo city told me about his church doing virtual vbs, he talked with me and i thought, we could do that too."

Steve reynolds is the family and children's pastor at meadowood.

The church will start holding in person services for the first time since the covid 19 shutdown this sunday, but they felt it was too soon to bring a large crowd of children in for vbs, so it is going virtual this week.

"we have vide every morning with worship rally , bible study, missions, arts and crafts and we gave out backpacks that have their student book and all the crafts for the week they would need."

About three weeks ago, reynolds and a team of volunteers began videotaping segments for the vbs, titled "concrete an cranes" the vide segments premiere daily at 9 am, following the vbs schedule.

It has been a lot of work and has allowed reynolds and the team to expand their video production skills.

"the coronaviru has forced us to learn new things, i've never been one to edit, but this year i've learned to edit and video and do things i never thought i would do or could do."

The virtual vbs allows youngsters to ask questions, and the church will follow up.

"we have a spo coming up on the screen, leads them to our website if they made a decision or would like more information, they can click on that, hopefully we will see results from that."

Activity backpacks for concrete and cranes vbs are available at meadowood baptist church.

Vbs runs virtually through friday.

In amory, allie martin, wcbi news.

Reynolds says those who miss the vbs as it airs can watch each episode on the church's facebook or youtube sites.

Most of us have spent the past few months stuck at home, but others have been traveling the world -- through social media.

A facebook group called 'view from my window' has inspired members to submit photos from home.

And as nancy chen shows us, even as restrictions are being lifted, the page's community is still creating connection... amid a global shutdown, these windows to the world were flung open&taking members of the popular facebook group "view fro my window" on journey - through photos.

"i have a canal jus on the left&so, this is amsterdam."

?

It's the creation of barbara duriau, a belgian graphic designer living in amsterdam.

She started the group back in march, and its popularity skyrocekted to more than two ámillioná members.

She says she's received hundreds of thousands of photos from 160 countries.

"by the time w were approving one post - one photo - ten photos were arriving at the same&it's oh whoah whoah whoah whoah!!"

Some of the images are breathtaking&othe rs more mundane.

Josh bancroft- wilson lives on a quiet street in reading, england.

"i thought, oh, i'l post mine as well because mine's just rubbish in comparison.

I thought it would be funny, and loads of people started saying, oh, i'm actually glad that not everyone's got an amazing view."

Retired teacher carolyn nowlin of indiana says the group has given her wanderlust... "oh, it's made a rea bucket list for me!"

&and she looks forward to the photos each day.

"i think it's grea to be able to see what other people are doing around the world, how things are really going, what a small world we live in, actually."

The public page isn't accepting new submissions or members.

But duriau is still sifting through the backlog and posting new photos.

"it's the reality o the world, and the world is made with all of these kinds of views."

Bringing these views into focus from all around the world without leaving home.

Nancy chen, cbs news, new york.

Duriau has a kickstarter campaign to ultimately create a book, a website and a traveling exhibition.

It has raised about $115-thousand dollars so far.

Time to add to your summer reading list.

Today - books for young adults.

If if you are looking for books to share with the young adults in your life, local author bj hyman is here this morning wit some suggestions.

Here's "as the pag turns."

Bj hyman: bj hyman here.

Today, i'm going to talk to you about some young adult books.

I've got three of them that i'm going to mention today.

The first one is called swing, and it's by kwame alexander and mary rand hess.

It's about two young men that are in high school that are looking for love and "cool."

Th begin listening to a podcast geared toward women so that they could understand women better.

Noah, who is the one that insists on being called swing, finds a set of old love letters at one of the shops that he finds his jazz records and everything, and the letters speak to his heart on how he feels about his secret crush that she's been his friend for a long time, but he has never been able to tell her how he feels.

So he begins adapting the love letters and sending them to her secretly.

Now, this story is beautiful and crushing in so many ways.

It's also as lyrical as the jazz that he loves and about finding your own cool in who you actually are, the things that make you who you are.

Bj hyman: the second book that i'm going to talk to you about is called the hundred dresses by eleanor estes.

This book was a 1945 newbery honor, so it an older book, but it's a very good book.

The story centers on a polish- american girl that is being bullied for the deadly combination of being polish and also extremely poor.

She wears this one, very faded blue dress every single day to school, but she tells her tormentors that at home, she has a hundred beautiful dresses in her closet.

The end of how you find out her 100 dresses, how they're revealed, is at once heartbreaking and beautiful, and it shows the incredible spirit of even the youngest of our society and the gift that she gives to even the ones that tormented her.

Bj hyman: the third book and the last book that i'm going to talk to you about, it's actually a very popular book, but if you've never read it, it's a really good one to read.

It's called holes by louis sachar.

It was a 1999 newbery medal winner.

It follows a story of a young man who is sent to a detention center out in the middle of the desert in texas for a crime he didn't actually even commit.

It touches on themes of homelessness and illiteracy, arranged marriage, racism, and it takes so many threads that all seem unconnected and it pulls them all together into this very finely woven, beautiful tapestry of a story.

You find in the end that even the seemingly meaningless things that you've read through the book have meaning and value, and it shows you that life, even sometimes those meaningless things, have meaning and value.

Bj hyman: so those are my books for this week.

As always, you can fiu can find my books on amazon.com, and if you have any questions or you want to talk to me about books or anything else, email me at bjhyman2112@gmail .com.

Until next time, happy reading!

Stay with us.

We're zooming with kelly mckellar next.