#My2020PatreonChalleng update for 23 JAN 2020

It has been a long day.  I have been thinking about what to blog today.  Making a planned schedule changes a lot of things.  I want to decide on topics that relate to #My2020PatreonChallenge.   I haven't decided what those topics would be... yet.

I have tentatively made Tuesday and Wednesday sales related... things like making listings, creating products to sell, etc.

This week I spent hours at PRINTFUL making new designs for my ETSY integration with them. I had lots of problems with my computer later in the evening and couldn't get several efforts done.

I may have lost one design/listing and have to do it all over again.  It's a hard learning curve to work so long on a design and have it get messed up on upload.  The design was fine on my computer, but not OK when it went to Etsy.

Today I went back to ETSY for hours and checked my listings, revised and updated almost all of them, and made posts to PATREON and Facebook (the only site available at the time).  I am getting an idea of a workable schedule.

Sunday - planning
Monday - Patreon updates
Tuesday - sales activities
Wednesday - sales activities
Thursday - blog updates
Friday - Sabbath prep and whatever I can fit in
Saturday - Sabbath rest and whatever I can do in the evening

This is just the beginning effort to get everything checked and done.  As I actually face the needs of my days, the "schedule" has to change to deal with them.  :-)

What did I list?

A new mug design.
A new long-sleeve t-shirt design.
A new sweatshirt design.

I ordered my logo cup as a sample from PRINTFUL and it is on its way - according to my email notification.  :-)   I tried out the process already with a mug.  This time I ordered the 15oz mug instead of the 11oz .  I haven't decided on which shirt design to order yet.  I can't afford to buy all my designs, but that is a goal for the future.

I had a great design on a black large eco tote, but it got lost in the computer issues.  I also tried to transfer my t-shirt design to a different style t-shirt and couldn't get that to work.  I tried making a design on the blanket they have.  I just wanted to see what it looked like with words.  Interesting, but not a job for their software.  I have to wait until I get a better computer and the ADOBE software to really explore my design options.  I am praying for a quick and positive answer from GOD!  :-)

One of my pages at Facebook is called Prayers.  I originally set it up to go with ACTION PRAYER at Working Together  (work2gather.us) but have passed through a valley on how to get it going.  A recent experience has focused me on public prayer for people who would never know someone is praying for them and others.  Today I entered another post about my process and thoughts.  It shared something (in bold below) that has had me thinking since I wrote it.

23 January 2020
about noon my time

I am almost ready to start posting... I just need to decide my format - a pattern to keep up, if there can be one. I know there are millions of news stories I could pray about, tons of post topics to pray about, and my own goals and experiences to pray for... but this new direction I am going in needs to be focused on sharing my prayers for people GOD has placed on my heart. That is very different. I have been praying for some of these people for many, many years but they don't know that. Public prayer is hard. Public prayer for people who may hate, oppose, dislike, disagree with, and become angry about is much harder. I think prayer is the first step in reaching people, it is like bringing them into GOD's attention. I hope everyone finds heaven, but I know so many will not... and that means their eternity will be in hell and in the Lake of Fire. It's hard to know that.

In Christ, Deborah Martin

The world believes that GOD is a myth, that faith has no meaning.  I have always wondered how GOD reaches people when their lives are so "successful" in their eyes.  The Bible talks about the "rich man" and what happens.  As I have noted their lives, prayed for them, and wished I could do more, the words of the Bible always become attached to our world's existence.  It leads me to keep wondering what "success" really looks like.

It's a difficult issue to even think about.  Each one is a living person just like me and you... but their reality is so different.  Some have been trying to find their place in our world their whole life.  We can't change the place where we come from, the lives we had no control over... we can only make a decision to be saved today, and go on from there.

These "rich" people fight the same battles we do, but at a different level.  Being homeless showed me the same battles exist at every financial level, and in every kind of people - including Christians we think are so much higher on the spiritual ladder than we could ever be.

With my focus on the End Times and how we will survive, the things of the world are going to be hard to leave... and may cause that Great Falling Away we read about in the Bible.  I had hoped to be so much further along with Working Together than I am, but this is the reality, today.  I wanted to create a place to go to when Christians had to make that big decision, when life became something they never expected it to be.

We, in America, like to think we can pray and GOD will always provide what we want.

The fulfillment of prophecy and our idea of GOD's provisions are not quite the same.

Being poor and homeless taught me many things I never would have considered before.

Whatever happens with my PRAYERS page, I hope GOD is able to reach some of the souls I say are looking for love in "all the wrong places."

Pray with me when I begin posting there.
Maybe GOD will hear and help them to find Him.

In Christ,
Deborah Martin



NOTE ::  I am looking into Affiliate Marketing as an income option, but I currently DO NOT post any kind of affiliate links.  When I decide on this, I will be sure to let you know.  Deb

Thursday, 26 July 2018

This has been a strange day... lots of thinking about GOD and how He works in the world... now and always.  I discovered someone in the Christian community died unexpectedly, linked to some properties that really share the differences between the big bucks and poverty, read some articles on success and finding your way to it, and thought a lot about what it means to be a Christian in our times.

I was listening to Christian radio in the background this morning and barely caught a special announcement with the name Tony Evans and pray for everyone in the family... I thought, Oh no, someone has died.  When I finally found the related information as I searched different places, I discovered it was one of his relatives that died, and discovered how many of his family are in the news.  It took forever to find an article that even mentioned how she might have died (a possible heart attack), and when I checked back tonight there was a mention that she died in her sleep.  The fact that she is dead at a young age is really a painful reminder of how fragile our lives, and dreams, and souls are.  No matter how she died, she is gone, forever.  Her family is gaining a large blessing at GoFundMe... I hope it helps.

I flipped through an online article of photos about the 25 richest people or families in America... many of the names I didn't know about, others were interesting because I discovered how things went with the generations that follow the ones that make the wealth they enjoy.  There was one man who died without a will, so the kids went to court.  I would think that a wealthy man would have a Will.  Poor people don't have anything to fight over, and can't afford a lawyer, so Wills are not the main concern... surviving another day is the main concern.  I think they were all billionaires, but I can't remember that detail.  I mostly remember the family details.  In this list the Walmart family was number one, with Alice Walton noted as the richest woman ever.  I looked at the photos of her, and of pretty much all of the ones that showed the people mentioned, and wondered what life meant to her.

We think that money is the answer to every misery, when we don't have it.  In my own quest for funds to build Working Together, I wonder what would happen to me when I built it.  I also flipped through a photo article about all the people who were destroyed by winning lottery millions.  I guess I don't see that happening to me because I have a purpose in life and the money would just let me reach my purpose.  I guess it would be the "other" people who might mess up my plans.  One man had a brother who hired a hit man to kill him so he could inherit the leftovers.  Some went back to their real lives once the money was gone, others killed themselves because of the pain it caused their lives.

Money is not just a problem with the wealthy... I have seen that people will kill a person for their Social Security checks, or just because they THINK they have money in their purse or wallet.  Usually drug addictions are involved in poverty crimes... I think they call them "poor on poor" crimes.

The Bible has the answer to this problem, too... I like the part where there is a "prayer" to not be rich or poor....   (I had to search for it, but I finally found it!)

[Proverbs 30:7-9 KJV]
https://www.blueletterbible.org/

7 Two [things] have I required of thee; deny me [them] not before I die: 
8 Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: 
9 Lest I be full, and deny [thee], and say, Who [is] the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God [in vain].

I have always thought about this in my life, especially in the harder, homeless, poverty-related tragedies we faced.  I don't know about the wealthy, but I see how their lives are affected by the money that makes their meaning in life... and the tragedies it causes them.  Finding that place in the middle seems to be important.

The other part where the Bible warns about money is the need to choose between GOD and money...about the love of money being the root of all evil.  (1 Titus 6:10 KJV)

For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows

https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/1ti/6/10/s_1125010

It will be interesting to see how this post publishes with these copy and paste efforts...  :-)  This must be at least one of the "things I learned today."

I haven't really decided yet how I feel about multi-million dollar properties... they are all quite different and yet the same sometimes... maybe it is the type of properties that become the same.  I looked at expensive California properties after linking to an article about the Hearst history... Malibu, Venice, Santa Monica, downtown LA, and I don't remember where else.  Then I discovered more at YouTube from a link... Oregon, Texas, Montana, and ??? (can't remember).  I don't know how to value that kind of property financially, yet... so I don't know if the prices are reasonable or just a seller's dream.  I did think, again, that it would be better to build my vision than to remodel these structures... kind of.  The water and electricity and other things like that matter, but the housing is often not right for what I would want to use it for...

The bottom line is going to be how much GOD provides for the task.  Once I know, then I can work out all these details.  And if I die without getting there, it won't matter anyway.  

It was a long day, and I need to end this post.  I am still thinking about all these parts of life, and money, and death, and meaning, and GOD, and dreams.

Until next time,
In Christ,

Deborah Martin
work2gather.us

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May we find our way to the future with GOD as our strength and provider and guide.
Amen.