Parish Update: Late November 2014

For those of you praying with us about our needs, the “new” car is working fine. With the amount of donated funds left after making the purchase, the first thing we did is buy brake pads for all wheels and new rotors on the front. My son and I did the labor; between the two of us we were able to figure it out without a repair manual. We also bought three new tires and we ordered a second key. This thing has a finicky electronic key that’s quite expensive and requires an even more expensive firmware loading of the specific code for this thing or it won’t start the engine. Security is inconvenient and expensive.

Otherwise, we surmise the Volvo has plenty of life left in it. To be honest, it’s primary purpose is for my wife’s job. If she can’t get to work, we might get to enjoy the blessings of being homeless. I’ll still ride my bicycle most places that I go.

I’m praying and giving God time to speak to my spirit about this online parish. In the past few days I’ve tried to explain my part in this. The previous post was to lay the ground for a new request from you, dear readers. If you have a desire for virtual fellowship and communion, insofar is it can take place online, I would like very much if some of you would make some noise here.

Some of you do know each other and have been chatting, at the least. This is good; may the Lord enrich your fellowship. Some of you already have a good fellowship in meat space and that’s wonderful. You are welcome to hang out here and pick through anything interesting. For those of you who are otherwise isolated from fellowship, it’s not a good thing. If all you want is a passive role, that’s fine. Nobody is going to press you. It’s always voluntary, but you cut yourself off without getting involved in some way.

Rather, I wanted to encourage as much interaction as possible. This is for your blessing. When you make a comment on a post, others become alerted to your existence and something of your character. If you are subscribed, you probably don’t see the comments unless you make it a point to click over to the blog. (You probably don’t see any updates or edits I might make, as well.)

Right now I don’t have any better way to do this. I’d love to have a forum or something with more interactive opportunities, but I am not in a position to do that. I have moderated and played admin on forums in the past, so that’s not the issue — I don’t possess the means to offer the service anywhere. For now, this will have to do. So if you want more than a regular dose of my brain spew, please comment and let folks know you are here. Regulars should make it a point to click through on links other readers leave in the comments or even just a “Like” click where it leaves an icon of their passing through.

Get the know each other. We are a unique community, not simply because of my weird rants, but because I know of no other place on the Net that touches on these issues in quite this way. I’ve tried to join several other different forums and such, but always felt out of place. Those of you who have contacted me through this blog have generally been much more like home-folks.

That I maintain some form of control is simply because the world still has a surplus of people who suffer a highly inflated sense of entitlement. I’ll do my best to keep the moral riff-riff out, but otherwise this is your place, too. Make yourself at home.