Thank you! I've always enjoyed hearing the story of how you and your husband met, and your life before that in the traveling music ministry. I kind of stumbled into apologetics when I discovered the religion forums on myspace back in 2007. I was fairly new in my Christian walk at the time... I had found a young man who played a really smashing rendition of Mason Williams's Classical Gas on YouTube, and he had a lot of critics that he was having a hard time dealing with, so I was encouraging and supporting him there, and then found him on myspace also. On myspace I could see people had friends, and being as I was really kind of new to the whole online chat experience, had wondered, how do you even make friends on a site like this??? And then I discovered the boards. A whole new world opened up to me!
You may recall that they had a religion and philosophy section called, well, it was affectionately known as the RnP. It had three subforums, two of which were for religion, and that's where I found my home for almost four years, speaking mostly to a large variety of unbelievers: agnostics, atheists, secular humanists, wiccans, polytheists, people who claimed to be satanists... you name it, they were all there trying to make me go away right from the start LOL. I found it incredibly engaging, and I was immediately hooked. I was there to the very day that all the boards were deleted and went away after the site was sold to be reclaimed for its original purpose of connecting musicians with other musicians.
After that I went to CARM, for almost the same amount of time. Matt Slick runs that site and he actually joined Christian Chat at one point, but didn't stay for long... anyway, he had a really wide variety of forums there for all types of Christianity, including those that deny the Deity of Christ, and there was also a full forum for atheists, agnostics, and secular humanists, and that's where I spent the majority of my time there.
Sometimes I think it would benefit a lot of Christians online if they spent time speaking to such people... I know I certainly learned a lot. After my almost eight years of speaking almost exclusively to them online, I tired of it, and that was when I found CC. I am surprised I had never found it before when I searched out such things. Any who, that did not really answer your question...
Yes, I am on the wet west coast now, but I was born and raised in southern Ontario, which I left in my early twenties, hitch-hiking out west with two of my friends, a trip which took us five days; that is as fast as taking the train LOL. We had amazing rides all the way! In fact, we were given a start by being driven by other friends to the western side of Toronto, and as we were unloading our gear (knapsacks and guitars) from the car, way across the greenspace, like at least a couple of hundred yards away, a car stopped alongside the edge of the highway and waited fover us. And I cannot remember if it was outside Jasper, Banff, or Golden, we walked along the highway for about a mile to get past all the other people hitch hiking, and then a vehicle came along and picked us up at the end of the line! Eh, I am not making a case for people to hitch hike, no, not at all. I would discourage it. However, I hitch hiked a lot in my youth, it being just one of many, shall we say, high risk behaviors in which I partook. I will also add that my trip out west was the very last time I ever hitch hiked.
I did used to read a lot. I found a good book extremely difficult to put down. When my siblings might be squabbling over what to watch on the television, I would go to my room and read. It isn't that I did not enjoy watching TV. I just didn't enjoy fighting, or any type of confrontational behaviour. Rading was a great escape.
You may recall that they had a religion and philosophy section called, well, it was affectionately known as the RnP. It had three subforums, two of which were for religion, and that's where I found my home for almost four years, speaking mostly to a large variety of unbelievers: agnostics, atheists, secular humanists, wiccans, polytheists, people who claimed to be satanists... you name it, they were all there trying to make me go away right from the start LOL. I found it incredibly engaging, and I was immediately hooked. I was there to the very day that all the boards were deleted and went away after the site was sold to be reclaimed for its original purpose of connecting musicians with other musicians.
After that I went to CARM, for almost the same amount of time. Matt Slick runs that site and he actually joined Christian Chat at one point, but didn't stay for long... anyway, he had a really wide variety of forums there for all types of Christianity, including those that deny the Deity of Christ, and there was also a full forum for atheists, agnostics, and secular humanists, and that's where I spent the majority of my time there.
Sometimes I think it would benefit a lot of Christians online if they spent time speaking to such people... I know I certainly learned a lot. After my almost eight years of speaking almost exclusively to them online, I tired of it, and that was when I found CC. I am surprised I had never found it before when I searched out such things. Any who, that did not really answer your question...
Yes, I am on the wet west coast now, but I was born and raised in southern Ontario, which I left in my early twenties, hitch-hiking out west with two of my friends, a trip which took us five days; that is as fast as taking the train LOL. We had amazing rides all the way! In fact, we were given a start by being driven by other friends to the western side of Toronto, and as we were unloading our gear (knapsacks and guitars) from the car, way across the greenspace, like at least a couple of hundred yards away, a car stopped alongside the edge of the highway and waited fover us. And I cannot remember if it was outside Jasper, Banff, or Golden, we walked along the highway for about a mile to get past all the other people hitch hiking, and then a vehicle came along and picked us up at the end of the line! Eh, I am not making a case for people to hitch hike, no, not at all. I would discourage it. However, I hitch hiked a lot in my youth, it being just one of many, shall we say, high risk behaviors in which I partook. I will also add that my trip out west was the very last time I ever hitch hiked.
I did used to read a lot. I found a good book extremely difficult to put down. When my siblings might be squabbling over what to watch on the television, I would go to my room and read. It isn't that I did not enjoy watching TV. I just didn't enjoy fighting, or any type of confrontational behaviour. Rading was a great escape.
It's funny how you mention risky behavior. I think of how God kept us in all our travel. We went to so many places we had never been. Pulled up to the church and stayed there over night. No protection, just a big German Shepard who's name was Zorro. lol
I'm sure I probably have been in the part of Ontario you're from. I never made it out west though. I have always wanted to see that part of our country. People have said it is beautiful. It's on my bucket list for sure!
I remember reading a lot on Carm. I read a lot on apologetics also. That was before I heard of Josh Mc Dowell or Lee Strobel. I have several of Lee's books. I agree with you about talking to unbelievers and engaging with people about faith. It really does cause you to dig into the Word and know what you believe and why you believe it. My cousin is an atheist. He won't speak to me now, but I had given him Lee's books. I hope he still has them and pray one day he will come back to the Lord.
Wow, I wish I could play guitar like that! Amazing! I know what you mean about a whole new world online. When I joined CC my hubby didn't want me to use my real name, he was very skeptical. I invited him to read along but he just wanted me to be safe.
I do understand your love of reading, my mother is a reader and she passed it on to me. I can't read as much as I use to, I think I probably need glasses. My pride won't let me just yet. lol Thanks for sharing about your life! I knew it would be interesting!
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