I don't mean to keep you in the dark. It just works out that way sometimes.
Bible website makeover
I know I'm supposed to write more often. And I want to write more often. After all, I am a writer. But we've had so much going on for the past year and a half. It’s overwhelming at times. Last year we were fighting the website and a system that got royally messed up by the only developer I’ve ever had to fire.
We are just now beginning to get our site back up to speed. But even that hit a glitch. We took it live too soon. Many links were dead, right images in wrong places, and fake placeholder text where truer words belonged.
But we’re nearly finished and almost ready for prime time. Check out The Casual English Bible® (TCEB) and see what you think. If you find glitches and tell me about it, I’ll be grateful.
Essentially, we’ve been building our boat while sailing the internet for the past couple of weeks.
Even so, it's a much more efficient and useful website than we had a month ago. I know because we’re selling Bible maps again.
- The new TCEB pages are easier to read.
- 3D-style Bible maps are easier to find, buy, and license.
- We have new, original music inspired by TCEB’s Psalms.
Second album released
We loaded our first album onto the website a few weeks ago. And on Friday we released our second album. We still have to get that new music loaded onto the website. We’ll embed it into the chapters as a resource, like we did with the first album: “SONGS, Music of Psalms.” But we’ll also sell the music from the second album, “ I Won’t Dance with the Devil, Music of Psalms.” The money we raise helps cover the cost of this website that is still far from covering its own cost.
You'll find 13 tracks on that album. The first song gave the album its title. It was a protest song in Bible times and it’s a protest song today.
My favorite song, though, on Track 11, is about leaving here when it's time to move on to a higher altitude: “It's the Leaving I Don't Know (Psalm 90).” I've been dealing with a lot of death in recent years. I guess that's common for older folks. Family and friends and pets start dying on you.
Catching mistakes in TCEB
A company that proofreads many of the major Bibles from top-tier publishing companies is now test-proofing the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. After that test, we will decide whether to continue on with the project of having them proof the entire Casual English Bible.®
That mission, if we choose to accept it, will take more than we have. I’m going to have to write grants for financial help. I've never written grants before. Proofreading will cost over $50,000. It's a slow and detailed process to proofread something as important as a Bible, or in our case, a Bible paraphrase.
The leaving of my mother
Well, there's one more thing going on, too. Hospice says my mother is transitioning, a polite way of saying she's dying and may well leave any day or any nearby week. My wife, daughter, and I visited her in Ohio last week, about 800 miles from where we live in Kansas City. We spent four days sitting beside her, singing and talking.
Mom has slipped deep into dementia. Strokes blinded her a few years ago. She is unable to speak more than a word or two most of the time. So, I often find myself thinking of Mom.
I know many of you can fully relate to that. It might seem like a distraction. But it feels like the most important thing on my mind.
If you think of it, pray for a peaceful New Beginning for Mom. This has been a long battle for my sister who has been Mom’s caregiver for these past many years. Caregivers, I’ve discovered, eventually go a little crazy and need at least as much prayer as the people they are caring for. By “crazy” I mean “the end of their rope.”
My family in a music video
Dealing with so much death in recent years has gotten me thinking about what it will be like for my family when I leave. I wrote a song about it that released Friday: "It's the Leaving I Don't Know (Psalm 90)." It’s part of our Casual English Bible® Psalm series of songs. Photos in the video are from my family's photo and video library. That makes this song and video downright personal. But I believe many will see themselves in these scenes and in the question behind them.
