Quakeranne.com "The Lord bless thee and keep thee...." - Numbers 6:24 Questions for Quaker Anne Quaker Anne Home Christian Spiritual & Plain Essays Quaker Monastery Spiritual Retreats The Quaker Kitchen Learn about life on a farm! Click here to read Quaker Anne's Children's Stories Stories include: How Bees Make Honey A Chicken is Born A Haircut for Sheep A Baby Horse is Born A Baby Goat is Born Lassie Saves a Lamb Sharing and Broadcasting the Good News From conservative Christian churches, to progressive Evangelical Christian groups and even the Vatican, there has been much encouragement given lately to Christians of all denominations from their religious leaders to evangelize and promote the Kingdom of God by means of modern technology. This applies not only to Christian organizations, but especially to each and every Christian individual. I hope our experience in exploring ways of sharing and broadcasting the Good News through modern technology can be of some use to others, at least an encouragement to venture forth into uncharted waters! We started by creating web sites with educational information and personal testimonies based on the only thing we had to share - the experiences of our lives - which we share from our point of view as Christian Quakers. Our farm site is one example: (www.QuakerFarm.com), Then this, my personal ministry site, (www.QuakerAnne.com), and another, our children's stories - as found on this site, Quaker Anne's Childrens Stories, which is an ongoing series of stories about life on a farm. But, as time went on, we realized that video was something that needed to be explored and learned as well. It was a medium of expression that might be more appealing in format than just plain writing and still pictures. This presented a bigger challenge than simple web site design because we had absolutely no experience to draw from and did not know anyone who did. This was the exact same thing we went through when we started learning web site design years ago...right from the bottom up, we had no resources but books from which to learn. So, it felt like we were starting all over again. Actually, when we first started learning how to create a video, I tried to use a video camera (in 2008), and found it very confusing. Then the video editing programs were even more over my head so, feeling utterly discouraged, I put it all on the shelf for months and just told myself I was not up to the task....just too old for this, leave it to younger people to tame and harness technology. I begged the Lord to remove any inspiration for anything more. But, the potential for Christian outreach could not be ignored and our Lord did not extinguish my creative energy. The leading would simply not go away. So, we learned slowly and took it step by step until we had a little something to offer. So, we started theQuakerKitchen project (www.TheQuakeKitchen.com) and then QuakerGreen (www.QuakerGreen.org). What all of these have in common is that information is delivered in the shelter of an environment which is safe from the intrusion of worldly advertisement. As stated on the QuakerGreen site: We have created this web site to provide people a place to visit and view videos and resources without having secular advertisements and worldly video recommendations imposed upon them - the content of which we have no control over and many of which can be offensive to Christians and especially unsuited to children. We are running this site with no commercial ads what-so-ever for that reason; this site is an alternative viewing/dedicated space to our presence at popular social network sites such as youtube and facebook. I guess it comes down to this for me, and I said this years ago on our children's stories page... we must put forth a witness of our Christian faith, no matter what faith group we belong to. There is so much information (massive amounts) on the Internet that is not wholesome - that every little light of good which we can offer online is a precious thing, especially as it relates to our lives lived in the faith we hold dear. I quote this from the Quaker Anne page: Proclaim thy faith! Use the Internet to offer up your own inspirational stories because you have them, we all do. Each of us needs to use the power of the Internet for the cause of good and share our love for Christ. There is no better way to take advantage of the information highway than to bring glory to God. Whatever we have to share, no matter how small it may seem to us personally, it is the use of our time and talent in the advancement of the Kingdom of God that is the important thing. The measure of its value or brilliance is not the issue. With the Internet being the ultimate information highway, none of us need be a Divinci or a Thoreau because whatever we have to offer may be of value to someone out there in a way that nothing else ever could have been. When we exercise ourselves of the talents we have to offer in the service to God through Christ's leading...we answer that call of the Divine that speaks from the depths of our being to be expressed through our human experiences, as we are called by God to do, as disciples of Jesus Christ. Putting our hearts and hands to work for the Kingdom of God is the commission of our lives as Christians. In Service to Christ; Quaker Anne Dona nobis pacem 4th month 2010