I would not have imagined the twists and turns that have been a part of my life for the last three years since I initially "announced" to the world that I was looking to eventually move out of the marketplace as an engineer and into ministry in order to be a Minister to those who are Pastors, Priests, Ministers, and other staff members of our local and regional churches. For those who have not been around from the start, I will provide a little background so that we all are on the same page.
While attending a bible study in 2018, I believe a new calling for my life was revealed. As I prayed and talked to friends and family the idea for Gifts From Heaven became more and more clear. The particular mission statement in my heart was to "bring God's light into a dark world". The idea is to develop and provide a safe place for individuals to receive ministry, with a focus being on church leaders in the immediate community. Eventually the name of the organization became more and more solidified in my mind and in speaking to a friend, who is a pastor and life coach, pushed me to not just sit on it and to begin moving forward. That was 2019 and when I originally launched this website and the accompanying Facebook page. Between work and school, this adventure was placed on the back burner, and then 2020 hit and for most of us, everything seemed to be put on the back burner.
That really isn't the whole of the story. What really paused my vision for Gifts from Heaven was my own disbelief. At the same dinner that my pastoral friend helped get me moving forward, he asked a powerful question that I didn't understand until recently. He asked me "What are you protecting?" He didn't know why that question wouldn't leave his mind, and had the impression that he had to ask me while we were together for lunch on that particular day. I was even more oblivious to what the true answer was. You see, as the days moved forward into weeks, and into months, and into years, I had one "fear" (if you would call it that) in moving into this new calling, and that was leaving the financial security that came with my current work situation. When the momentum of that lunch meeting began to stall, there was only one though in my head, "How will I balance work, school, serving at the church as I am, and maintain my financial responsibility?" Though I prayed for an answer, I never "heard"/received an answer. This is not to say that God wasn't try to show me what I needed to do, just that I was unwilling to change my vision of what this "should" look like.
With the background story being told, it brings us to today. It seems that I have finally adjusted my vision of how I would move out of the marketplace into full-time ministry so that I could hear and see what I believe to be God's plan. This would be the launch of "God's Beacon Ministries" as a YouTube Channel. This is not a non-profit ministry. It is set up as an LLC, and if/once things move along far enough, I will offer products and subscriptions for those who wish to help out. At the current time, I have finished setting up a small "studio" space and on finishing some tutorials for the recording and editing software to try and start this at somewhat of a professional level. Over the next few days I will begin production and will start to upload videos. The plan as of right now, would be that the first several videos will be about the purpose of the channel, a "brief" summary of who I am and why I am doing this, and then a few basic videos on some of the "BIG" picture items relating to Christianity in general. Once everything gets into a good rhythm, the goal is to regularly up-load videos twice a week. As subscribers/viewers increase, I am thinking of a "live" prayer request/praise report once a week from snail mail and e-mail submittals as well as anything that God has placed on my heart for that week. Finally, as I am able to begin to transition into this being my full-time work, we will add an additional video a week as a chapter by chapter work through books of the bible and more in-depth discipleship development videos. Of course, all of this is subject to change as God wills it, as well as the sucess/failure of both of these visions.
In closing, I would like to request continued prayers from those who have been supporting me in this way for years and have helped me remember to keep this dream alive in whatever form it takes. For those who are hearing about all of this for the first time, I would only for prayers of support, encouragement, and protection as I move forward in these endeavors. Thank you in advance for the support and patience.
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