davidbowerkingwood

 Global Media Outreach

A New Phase Begins

Oh, happy day, after 46 years I finally graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary. I had not even dared to dream such a thing was possible and now, by God’s grace, I had finally completed what I had started in the early 60’s, I completed my studies at DTS and graduated!

Global Media Outreach

It was to be almost three more years before the second major event of my retirement unfolded; one Sunday in January of 2012 there was an announcement at church of a new program called Global Media Outreach; a call went out for volunteers and I decided that sounded like something I could do so I volunteered for the program.

I took the training required and was admitted to the program a few weeks later as an online missionary; since then I have worked continuously in the program and GMO reports I have reached over 3,400 people and received over 12,200 replies. I have the joy and privilege of working with people all over the world as they seek to know Jesus Christ and grow in their faith; it has been a remarkable experience!

What has been a particular joy has been the small group of people who have shown a strong interest in Bible study; there are some I’ve been working with now for several years who have shown remarkable spiritual growth. This is a rich opportunity to have an impact for the Lord in spite of my age.

Life from a Christian Perspective

Another area where I invest a substantial amount of time is my weblog, “Life from a Christian Perspective.”  I started writing my weblog in July of 2011 and have, to date, published 338 essays which cover a broad range of topics all generally related to either my life or the Christian life.

By 2011 I was feeling a certain sense of loss as I realized that I had never had a deep spiritual conversation with anyone in my family as a child growing up. I had no clear confidence that my father was even a Christian and while I had some confidence that one of my grandfathers was I had questions about the other.

I decided to make sure that everyone in my family knew exactly where I stood on the deeper spiritual issues of life and decided to write it all down as a legacy for my family. While I knew that our children had all received Christ as their personal Savior I felt I was remiss in not having had those same deeper spiritual discussions with them that I was missing in my own childhood.

My wife had suggested I write a blog but my immediate response was to deny that I was a writer; it did however spark my curiosity about writing a blog and within two hours I had written and published my first one, “A Starting Point“. Since then I have published one on a regular basis and have even come to enjoy the whole writing process, especially with a word processor on a computer!

Facebook

What may be a possible third opportunity is developing as this is being written. Another avenue for outreach has belatedly come to my attention, called Facebook. I have discovered a huge number of Christians who use Facebook as a means of discussing the gospel of Jesus Christ and have enthusiastically joined in.

Through Facebook I have had the opportunity to meet many brothers and sisters in Christ who regularly visit and correspond with one another. It would please me if I could find myself in a position to help some and what is interesting, being 85, in some societies, is a positive thing as there is a respect for age not generally found in the United States.

While I have a fairly clear picture of what the opportunities with Global Media Outreach are I am still largely in the dark about the opportunities with Facebook. My goal is to help Christians discover and more fully implement in their lives the blessings and joys they can have by faithful obedience to God’s commands; at this point I do not know if Facebook will help in the pursuit of this goal.

There is a tremendous amount of interest from many people in many nations in discussing the Christian life and the challenges the world, the flesh and the devil present to all Christians. Time will tell how, and if, this will all develop into an additional teaching ministry and it appears, once again, I’m in for another journey of discovery.

I just checked and I have 165 friend requests and have been working diligently over the last several days to process as many of them as I can as quickly as I can. I can truly say I have no idea where this is all going but it may be filled with opportunity to have an impact for our Lord which I never dreamed possible; we live in interesting times.

I have discovered that the three opportunities that have helped shape my retirement have a symbiotic relationship; each feed off the others and provides some sort of a mutually beneficial resource for the others. Things are still in a developmental phase but show promise.

My Free Time

While I devote the majority of my day to the three opportunities listed above and my responsibilities as “the man of the house”; I still try to find time to indulge my hobbies; i.e. my interest in computers, reading, and home theater/music.  I’m not only a fan of ballet, opera, and symphonic music I also enjoy action movies and science fiction movies. I have been an audiophile since I discovered high fidelity around 1951 and have enjoyed high quality audio and video for many years.

My music/movie system does an exciting job of recreating music and video and provides hours of pleasurable listening for me. It has been fascinating to watch the development of home audio and video equipment since the mid 1950’s; we’re living in a whole new world now with digital technology creating new possibilities of beauty and performance excellence. I had discovered classical music by accident as a child and it became a part of my life. (Music and Movies at Home)

Mystery Solved!

For many years I wondered what the last of my life would be like; now I know and can confirm with complete sincerity; there’s no place on earth I’d rather be than at home with my beloved wife doing those things the Lord has entrusted to my care!

Grow old along with me!

The best is yet to be, 

The last of life, for which the first was made:

Our times are in His hand

Who saith ‘A whole I planned,

Youth shows but half; trust God; see all, nor be afraid!

Robert Browning, 1812-1899