As this year begins to wind down, I am nearing the completion of most of what I set out to do in 2021, thanks to God’s providence and the support which you have made available to me.
To be quite honest, I bit off more than I could chew this year. After finishing the writing of Obeying the Gospel a year ago, I knew there were a number of things I needed to take the time to do before beginning to write Walking in Christ. Many of these things were tedious in nature, and several had to be done a little at a time, seven days a week for the entire year. A couple of months ago, I hit the wall (as the long distance runners say) and my strength failed. But I adjusted my attitude, prayed about it, and have been able to keep struggling on. As I write this, I am at least within sight of the finish line for this work.
Here is a listing of some of the things that will have been accomplished by the end of the year, Lord willing.
- Writing/revision of the “excerpts” for all of the 2,373 pages/posts on the WordPoints website.
- Finalizing the website page for all 208 installments (4 years’ worth) of the weekly DFBS lessons.
- Complete revision/improvement of all 366 pages in the hard copy edition of Obeying the Gospel.
- Setting up all 366 posts (and selecting photos) for Obeying the Gospel on the WordPoints website.
- Recording of 366 audio tracks for Obeying the Gospel with post-production and uploading to all social media.
- Complete cleaning/optimization of the SQL database for WordPoints.com.
This is a boring and geeky list, I know, but it was back-end work that had to be done. When it is finished here in a few weeks, I can wipe my brow and say, “Whew, I am mighty glad that is done!”
In addition to these items, of course, there has been the never-ending work of keeping the daily emails going out to subscribers, correspondence with readers, website maintenance, etc. I try to keep these “support” activities to a minimum, but as the website has grown in size and reach, there has been no way to avoid the 24/7 administrative work that goes with it. I do not complain about this, since every blessing has its cost, but I sometimes wonder if readers understand the amount of my time that this kind of routine work requires, on top of my actual writing.
I am eager to tell you of some of the ways individuals and congregations are making evangelistic use of Obeying the Gospel. Early next year, I will try to devote at least a part of one report to sharing this good news. I look forward to a weekend meeting in January at Southside in Pasadena TX as they kick off their Obeying the Gospel theme for 2022.
Sadly, Dee Bowman, to whom Obeying the Gospel was dedicated, has passed from this life to his reward. His loss is grievous to many, but it directly impacts my work. More than any other individual in recent years, Dee kept me going. Without the doors of financial support that he opened for me — not to mention the many phone calls in which he said, “Gary, have you written anything today?” — my writing would have ground to a halt. So I miss him greatly. But he would want us to carry on. I am just glad I was able to get Obeying the Gospel into his hands before he died.
If the Lord wills, I hope to tell you in my next report that the writing of Walking in Christ is well underway!
Gary Henry — WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com
