The morning Shelly the tortoise crossed her first threshold — saying yes to her first race. Bongo bounds. Zippy zips. Garingo flies low and theatrical. Shelly walks. Slowly. Each step is HER race — against the part of her that wants to quit. And when the meadow goes quiet from misplaced kindness, the verse Old Timber whispered to her at dawn comes back, in her own voice, and she keeps walking. Anchored in Paul's letter to the Hebrews, chapter twelve, verse one — the cloud of witnesses and the race that is set before us. For kids ages 4-12. Stories of perseverance and the quiet courage of starting from Old Timber and the friends at Shiloh Creek.