The Works of God

I kind of doubt anyone will really notice the changes, however!

Several months ago a friend pointed out that the tagline, ‘the volunteer disability ministry blog of Bethlehem Baptist Church,’ wasn’t really true.

I could see her point.

More than three years ago we decided to start a blog for the disability ministry at Bethlehem.  At the time it was mostly going to be focused on prayer requests, news from church and the like for BBC folks connected to the disability ministry.

Since that time, The Table (Bethlehem’s own social network) has become a reality and has its own disability group, Brenda Fischer has created and recruited volunteers to oversee a regular prayer ministry, Hope Keepers (for women experiencing disability in a child or spouse) launched, and the church has its own space to make evident the disability ministry at BBC.

I also moved the blog to its present platform, changed the name and mostly write about whatever I feel like.

So, the purpose changed, and the audience changed.  It is time other things changed as well.

Functionally, I’m not changing anything. I still plan to write on the same issues of disability, the Bible and the culture.  I still plan to put up resources that are God-centered and Bible-saturated.  I hope to encourage more posts from Jan Lacher and Chris Nelson and others.

It has never felt like a chore.  Nor do I feel like we’ve covered everything, even in our little niche which is disability and the Bible.

The website needs a good going-over as well after more than two years.  There’s content from the ‘old’ blog that should be brought over, the links to Facebook and Twitter need to be tweaked, dead links need to be purged and good materials need to be added to the resource pages.

But I need to ask for patience on all this as it may take a while.  This blog lives in the margins of my life – over lunchtime, early in the morning, etc.  I enjoy it and I hope it brings glory to God, but my family needs me.  It is one of the reasons I don’t reply to comments very often.  I know good bloggers are supposed to do that, but I just can’t. I read every comment, however, and am grateful every time someone takes the time to do so.

So, whether you first read those sorry posts back in the summer of 2008 or just joined us last week, thank you for being part of our exploring and resting and trusting in what God has to say about disability, disease and suffering.  I’m grateful to be part of this community with you.

As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing with you,

John

He established a testimony in Jacob
and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers
to teach to their children,
that the next generation might know them,
the children yet unborn,
and arise and tell them to their children,
so that they should set their hope in God
and not forget the works of God,
but keep his commandments;
(Psalm 78:5-7 ESV)