Joel Chanaca

Growing up, surrounded by pets and the "big woods" of the Pocono Mountains PA, I felt connected to God through His creation. The Bible says that even the invisible things are seen in what He has made visible so that no one has an excuse. This was evident in Christ's parables as He was God in the flesh, having created everything, He was always talking about environmental or everyday things to explain spiritual truths. My family was very involved with camping, fishing, boating, living off the land, as well as other activities that brought wholesome values to young lives.

My passion for God's creation led me to want to work protecting our resources for future generations to come, and create more opportunities for families to have similar experiences to the ones I had growing up. My work with wildlife law enforcement has allowed me to use my talents to increase opportunities to help people and preserve our resources. When people gather to enjoy nature and have the opportunity to have a healthy experience, they learn the importance of stewardship of the environment. However, we should not worship nature but worship its creator. We don't save the planet because it is our "mother," we protect it. After all, it is our source of sustainability and we were given authority over it. In Genesis, God puts us in charge of the earth and every creature. Proper use of natural resources can help young people learn important lessons early in life. If a young person spends time in the outdoors, they can have new passions emerge that fill gaps in their life that would otherwise be filled with something else. Maybe someone gets more excited about going camping, boating, or fishing than going to a liquor store to drink and drive or engaging in an activity that leads to criminal behavior. Working with natural resource law enforcement allows me to plan public outreaches like youth fishing rodeos. These events are exactly the type of events that allow families to come together and have wholesome experiences. I also have plenty of opportunities to catch people violating state and federal laws against "poaching." Many of these offenders allow me to walk them through a process of seeing the bigger picture of how they are impacting our resources. The books in the family values series are often pointing toward relationships with people, family, and the environment we live in.

When I lived in Pennsylvania and worked on the colonial farm, I loved the food, fellowship, and all the aspects of living off the land. There wasn't a grocery store,but we worked hard and ate well. There was a sense of belonging and being a part of something bigger. I have written a book, "The Quiet Valley and the HayLoft Cat," that shares more about my time there. This book will be published soon. Everyone had important jobs at Quiet Valley and unique skills. This made me think about the recreational activities we enjoyed and how people lived before certain technologies emerged. We had clean fun. I am sure that becoming a game warden was rooted in being outside, working outside, and seeing wonderful sights all around. I loved martial arts, music, scuba diving, surfing, art, and then, took criminal justice classes while in school. I started working for police departments and finally was fortunate enough to be hired as a warden.

I always see the picture of creation in my head. I see God wanting a family and making us in His image. I see Him shaping the world and all the things in it. He loved the thought of us as individuals. He spoke it and made it happen. Everyone's fingerprints and DNA are a signature of being a unique individual. His word is full of scientific truths that ring true even though scientists and doctors believed and taught otherwise for a season. Doctors thought bloodletting was a good idea as they drove the life right out of patients but the Bible says "The life is in the blood." Now they give blood to save lives. Is it any wonder that God let out His lifeblood to offer us His spiritual transfusion? I see how perfect He is and how we failed. I know my failures in life and the times I didn't choose the right way to handle a problem. I see He made a path for salvation for anyone who believes by faith. It is a gift. People have an inherent knowledge of right and wrong. Our entire society is built on what is acceptable and what is wrong or, even, punishable. If morals and laws didn't exist, there would be nothing to say about what is acceptable. I take the value of lessons learned from successes and failures and use them to identify with the people with whom I work. In the criminal justice system, you have all types of situations that need attention. You have lots of civil complaints that haven't risen to the level of a criminal act, and for those issues, a law enforcement officer needs to be a counselor. You have people that are down on their luck and need a place to stay or a meal, so you work like a social worker in those situations. You run into more serious situations and have kids being neglected. Then, you become a parent in the place of a failed parent. You have people that didn't understand the law and crossed the line. Some of those result in a fine or a trip to jail. Sometimes, in my job, I see the worst of people on the planet. They are always committing the same crimes or graduating to more serious ones and it seems they never learn. If the people you are dealing with will listen, you can help them. If they are unwilling to listen to what you have to say, they have to deal with the full force of the rule of law and all the consequences that go with it. Is that any different than God trying to save all of us and how we respond to Him? Most people are willing to listen and make corrections to their behavior. Many of them are first-time offenders and apologize for their conduct. I believe more are helped than refuse assistance. The truly troubled people you can only do so much for, and you have to become a guardian. If you want to be a successful law enforcement officer, you have to know when to lecture/warn, explain/fine, or cuff and transport. Any of these people may ask for life guidance at any stage of the interaction.

I wrote in school and it was a rewarding part of my education. I remember helping my father write some content for some educational projects he was producing. "Patches" was written long ago, so when my father wanted to start the company and wanted to make it the first book, I thought it would be awesome!

I wrote the Patches story when I was in grade school. It was a class project. I still have the original paper in typewriter print. At the time I wrote the story for school, Patches was a stray calico cat that was stealing someone's socks and bringing them to us. My dad did not want any pets at that time. We had numerous ones when we lived in PA. With Mom now working, he thought it impractical to have one in SC. Patches was bringing us gifts to "buy" her way into our lives. She had no idea she was "stealing," but something inside of her brain thought she was impressing us. Well, she was right! It was pretty amusing to see what she would bring next! I did have a face-to-face conversation and told her that stealing was wrong. She was just a crazy, awesome friend who we finally did adopt.

The book is 100% true. We thought about making it a children's book for over 30 years. After we finally published it, I started writing about other unique pets we had over the years. Two of them were Hunter, our English Setter bird dog, and Cricket, another of our kitties. Hunter, our bird dog, was directly connected to natural resources and eventually my career choice. These furry friends impacted our family greatly. They are an example of unconditional love. Pets are quick to forgive and extremely loyal. It only makes sense to share remarkable stories of how they helped shape our lives and showed us just a piece of how God loves us despite our failures.

We all have a role in the company. My dad makes certain decisions after receiving input from the rest of us. Most of the time, the solution is quite obvious when the best idea is presented. I have fought for certain aspects not to be changed. We have agreed that the author always has the final say.

Thankfully, my parents are retired and can work on the content most of the time. When I write, I usually sit down with my phone, type out the whole story and send it to them with key points, lessons, and the main idea. I send it over and often retype it after a few hours and send the new one, and so on. They may get seven copies before we discuss it. They usually edit and reply, knowing most of the story's content firsthand, and grow it, from that point. Then, of course, we hire an illustrator and do the formatting. Finally, come the last reviews, promotions, and the launch.

We hope that people will let God's amazing creatures into their lives. If they save a life by adopting a pet, that pet will bring more love into their lives. We have several different types of books that aren't about pets. Some other books have unique situations that teach values and things such as how to deal with bullies. We want them to learn and use important life lessons to move forward. I think people from many backgrounds and cultures can find something to identify with in reading our stories. We have included people of other races in our books, but feel that all of the books have universal themes.

The "Family Value Series" is full of love, learning, persistence, honesty, kindness, patience, caring, fellowship, and companionship. Writing and sharing these books helps us reflect on these family values in our own lives. These stories help other families reflect on situations in which they can see the wonder of God's works in their own lives. Everyone enjoys a good, wholesome story.

The South Carolina coast has one of the largest artificial reef programs and structures available for fish habitat. I started an artificial reef program with leftover concrete from a local company. We had numerous deliveries of leftover concrete turned into reef cones and delivered to their new marine environment. We now have Black Water Dredging offering free barge transport and Squeaky's Towing offering free transportation to the barge. I have planned around eight youth fishing rodeos in the Myrtle Beach area with hundreds of families enjoying outdoor time with their children. Partnership with the local Solid Waste Authority led to two handicap-accessible docks being placed on site. Apart from numerous administrative duties handed down by the state, I am still patrolling and working with the DNR GIS division on an app that has been released to the department but has plans for having a public use feature. The app contains fishing piers, public wildlife viewing areas, boat landings, USCG aids to navigation, and some safety features to assist in emergency response to incidents. I cleaned the entire county of approximately 30 abandoned or derelict vessels with the help of many awesome local volunteers. I am working to remove several more recently shown up after our last hurricane. Some are solely from owner neglect. The fiberglass breaks down from wear and tear and deposits harmful fibers into the water, getting into fish and shellfish and creating pollution issues.

Loving one another and caring for what God has given us follows the greatest commandment or instruction for happy living. Unless you become as a child, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. God also makes it very clear when it comes to dealing with children. If you should ever hinder a child from coming to Him or cause them to stumble, it is better to have a millstone hung around your neck and tossed into the sea. Let's face it, children are important. God has given us children. He gave us His son too. Impacting children early on sets the stage for who they will grow up to be later on. Providing parents with content that gives a base platform to build upon is a logical place to start. You reap what you sow, and farmers count on it. The same thing happens with people when you instill good values in them from an early age. The Bible says if you train up the child in the way they should go, even when they are old they will not depart from it. We want good seeds planted and a better harvest later in these precious lives. One seed planted yields a plant with more fruit and seed in the end. Changing just one person's life has a ripple effect, with countless people being impacted. We would love to know that we could be some part of that with wholesome books that have good life lessons.

Each new outdoor activity created new interests for me. It started with walks in the woods, looking at every creature. My Grandmother had a neighbor who was a dive instructor. He was able to instruct me and I became SCUBA certified. I loved watching diving shows on TV! Living in the Myrtle Beach area gave me access to surfing, freshwater/saltwater fishing, diving, and other marine hobbies. Some of the members of the Church I attended would often gather for many of these activities. I taught martial arts through college and enjoyed it greatly, but my passion was to work as a game warden.

I have written several other books that are in development now. One is about a cat named Cricket who, as Patches, insisted on adopting us. Another is about a hay loft cat at Quiet Valley. I have written one about Hunter, an English Setter we had while in PA, then another about Blaze, another English Setter from SC.

We joined in early 2023. We have loved the AllAuthor experience. You have done a great job celebrating our books and promoting our platform. Thanks, and God Bless!