Live Higher
The mission of The Bowman Initiative is to elevate people in their faith, family, and finances by releasing revelation from the Word and cultivating a deeper walk with the Holy Spirit.
“The Lord will make you the head, not the tail…
you will always be at the top, never the bottom.”
Deuteronomy 28:13 (NIV)

What is the Bowman Initiative?
In our house the Bowman Initiative is best symbolized when Sam and Debbie bump fists and say, “We are an effective team!” Our hearts desire is to share our stories of how we have seen God consistently turn our tragedies into triumphs. We want to encourage people to take the initiative to fully commit to the exciting journey of applying God’s principles in tough situations and learning how to partner with the Holy Spirit to turn things around in every challenge of life whether in faith, family, or finances.
Samuel Lee Bowman
Samuel Lee Bowman is a husband and a great-grandfather, businessman, entrepreneur and teacher. His undergraduate degree in psychology is from Huntington University and he holds a Masters degree in Christian Ministry from Christian Leadership University. He is producer of the award winning Granpa Cratchet show. His forty-five years of business experience give him the unique ability to share powerful stories and principles of how to overcome adversity, and win in both business and life. He was awarded entrepreneur of the year by the Tipton Economic Development Commission. His passion is to help people develop a real, working relationship with the Holy Spirit. His specialty is creating turn arounds. His wit and humor help people laugh their way to breakthrough.
Sam’s mission is to help people who are sick and tired of dead, dry religion find an exciting adventure with the Holy Spirit; in faith, family, finances.

Because Granpa Says So That’s Why!
Because Granpa Says So captures the life, wit and wisdom of Granpa Cratchet, the world’s most unknown famous character, created by Samuel Lee Bowman. Granpa is the most successful free-on-grounds, family entertainment show in the history of fairs and festivals. His award winning show has been presented more than half a million times worldwide at fairs and festivals over the past forty plus years before three generations of kids. Granpa has appeared on every major television network and for national TV specials with country icons such as Barbara Mandrell. This hilarious book contains six hundred Granpa jokes, one-liners and stories from the good old days. It captures the hysterical history of how it all happened, with photos, plus Granpa’s quizzes about agriculture, animals and life on the farm. It’s a great book for grandparents to read with their grandkids, especially if you know Granpa from your local fair.
Debra Susan Bowman
Born in California and raised in Indiana, Debra Susan Bowman served forty plus years as an intensive care nurse. She currently substitutes for nurses at local schools where she meets and encourages teachers and children. She has been married to Sam for thirty-four years. She is now a great-grandmother. She is blogger of awesomegrandmothers.com and author of The Summer Of Paintless Toenails; losing a son, gaining a grandson to help people deal with loss and difficult situations. She is leader of the fall women’s retreat to beautiful Brown County Indiana and is a member of Harmony Church, Leisure, Indiana.
Debbie’s mission is to help women face life’s tough issues head on and win by comforting, inspiring, loving and encouraging them into a deeper walk with each other, in the Word and with the Holy Spirit.
The Summer of Paintless Toenails
Baby boomers have a problem! There is a generation of kids who can’t raise their kids. Millions of grandparents have sole responsibility for raising their grandkids. If you are looking for hope and wisdom on how to help your kids and grandkids, this is the book for you.
The Summer of Paintless Toenails is the story of one awesome grandmother who is not only surviving but thriving as she works to save her put together family ravaged by drugs and death.
Here’s what you get:
- A Hard Knock Knock: What to do when policemen come to the door
- Into the Blender: How Sam and Debbie put together two families and survived
- On That Distant Shore: How a supernatural vision helped Sam survive
- The Life We Choose: How to help without creating dependency
- Falling off The Bicycle: 18 Tips for sharpening grandparent skills
- Connections: How to thrive by creating vital relationships
- Recovery Room: 10 Tips on how to recover – from a forty year I.C.U. veteran
- The Rest of the Story: 14 wisdom insights on how to find rest in the storm

Grandpa Cratchet
Granpa Cratchet is the children’s ministry of The Bowman Initiative. He was created in 1971 for the Heart Of Illinois Fair in Peoria. At that very first event a talent scout saw Granpa’s performance and invited him to become part of building an agency. The demand was so big Granpa became his own corporation in 1972 and investors helped build forty pieces of equipment. In 1993 seven traveling units played a hundred and five fairs all across the United States and Canada, appearing in over four thousand shows during seven hundred and fifty days to millions of kids. Granpa became and still is one of the most successful on grounds free entertainment acts in the history of the fair industry.
Granpa’s business mission is to produce high quality, affordable, turn-key, fast paced family entertainment for fairs and festivals.
Granpa’s personal mission is to help mom’s and dad’s raise whole, healthy and happy kids in a socially safe environment by teaching family values and life lessons through fast paced, highly entertaining shows, rooted in the good old days of yesteryear.
Contact Us
Debbie and I are committed to lifting you and your congregation higher in your relationship with the Lord and walk with the Holy Spirit. If you have any questions about our blogs or books or would like to have a conversation about our teaching and encouraging ministry please feel free to contact us.