A Small Update

General information for those that need to know.

A Bit of Housekeeping

  From time to time, I know it is necessary to keep everyone up to date. Even though it is not the most exciting information, I know it does help those who need the information. 

  Me

  For anyone confused on the issue, yes I am a believer in Jesus Christ. No, I am not a Mormon, Jehovah's Witness, or some new ager looking to steer you off course. Yes, I was born in Utah, but that was because my father was a traveling Coal miner, and that was where the work was at that point in family history.

  I am the youngest of seven and grew up in the Pacific Northwest next to Puget Sound. My family was not Christian, so when I accepted Christ, the background religious information that I knew before that was… laughable. I quickly started having spiritual experiences in a Baptist congregation that had no clue how to handle that. So as you can imagine my early years in that congregation were…different. But that was 40 years ago.

  Substack

  The Substack forum has provided a much-needed platform for me to write on. When social media started moving forward I had a lot of interaction on Facebook and I was seeing it as a possible platform for ministry. Then at one point I noticed a large reduction in traffic and knew something was off. I started telling people that I thought Facebook was filtering or hiding my posts. 

  Everyone assured me that this would never happen and that it was all in my head. Eventually, I deliberately pushed out some content that was a bit more confrontational to see what would happen. Not only did no one see it, but suddenly viewership dropped to zero. Nowadays everyone understands shadow banning, and many, many platforms do it. In the years that followed I have tried many, like Gab to find the same results. 

  Substack seems to be the first I have noticed that not only allows you to speak your mind but encourages you to do so while building a platform. Currently, my stack is closing in on thirty articles with a 2 to 1-viewership. That means for every subscriber, I am getting at least double viewership on average. And some posts are running 4 to 1.

  Every time someone with a stack gives me a recommendation, I make a copy, and post it with a link back to their stack. This helps them grow as well. If you go up to the top navigation bar you will see them under, “Current reviews and Comments.” One of the surprising things came from Jorge Parrott of CMM ministries. When I was back east Jorge and I got to know each other. He oversees a large missions support group, 500+ missionaries that deal with people who serve in some of the most hostile places on earth. As a result, I helped ship products for him to some of these places.

  To my surprise, Jorge gave an outstanding recommendation and included one of my posts in his newsletter. This changed things as a third of our subscribers are now missionaries overseas, and one of them is now a paid subscriber. That is huge that someone serving in that environment was willing to use their funds to support what I am doing. Because of this, I now try a little harder to carefully think through what I am writing if this is actually helping people on the front lines.

  I’ve had a couple of people ask how to support this small ministry. Well, there are 3 ways. One you could be a paid subscriber to Substack. Two I have a post office box, it is PO Box 2117 Priest River ID, 83856. Three, follow this link to our book publishing website and use our donation link. Regardless, you should know, that we are NOT a 501c3 tax-deductible ministry. So anything given can not be claimed on your year-end taxes.

  People will make a few comments on Substack, but then later I get emails from them, telling me their stories. So many people have been hurt by the church system, and they want to talk. I have heard stories of people who have stood their ground and lost everything because they would not compromise what they believed. I am not exaggerating when I say everything. Imagine being a parent, so cut off from your family that you no longer know if you have grandkids or that your kids went through a divorce, that’s brutal. 

  If you want to help us grow and you're tight on funds, they do a couple of things for us. #1 Fill out the survey I am posting at the bottom of every post. #2 Share a post you like with someone else. #3 Pray for an increase. We are starting to touch hurting people in a good way.

Other up-and-coming things with Substack

  Along the top navigation bar, you will see a couple of things. “The Legacy Continuum” currently this section is empty, and that would be because of issues on my end. Personal things have cropped up preventing this from going forward. The Legacy Continuum is a tab connected to the Christian Science Fiction series that I and a couple of other people have been working on. This is meant to be a departure away from all the seriousness that I often write about to a far more family-friendly Podcast. If you grew up on older things like radio shows and stuff like that, then you will recognize what we are attempting to do. Hopefully, as time progresses I will be able to speak more on this in the future.

  Down the right side of the page, you will also notice the recommendations section, when you get a chance check out these other blogs. 

  But just under them is the final thing I wanted to draw your attention to. Under “Books” you will find “Breadstone Affiliate Bookstore.” Through an online seller, we have assembled a collection of other Christian authors for you. Unfortunately, this resource only seems to serve the US, Canada, and parts of Europe. But some of the sections include. Christian Life, Christian Teaching, Dreams, End Times, History, Prophetic Resources, Things that Make You Wonder, Messianic, Fiction, Back to Basics, Family, Kids/Youth, Games, Bible, Food, Equipping the Saints, and Christian Poetry. Do check it out, every sale from that website comes from the printer and helps us out a little.

  I am not a fan of e-books as so many authors have had their hard work stolen and resold through Asian vendors. However, I am considering taking our books and turning them into a PDF format for missionaries. This of course would be free, so if you are a missionary overseas and you can prove it, let me know if this something you would be interested in and I will consider making this happen.