This post is my 100th blog!

I toot my own horn because when I started, I wasn’t sure I would get past 10!  I began this blog in September as a project for a class on Writing Beyond the Sermon at Western Theological Seminary. In addition to writing seven devotionals for the Reformed Church in America devotional booklet Words of Hope (which, by the way, appear in the July, August, September issue which is now available),  we were challenged to create a blog and post  steadily during the semester.  I took this class as a credit class rather than auditing it to motivate myself to actually do the writing; I’ve learned there’s still a lot of the achiever mentality in these old bones.

Since I took the class to learn one way to bring the Adult Discipleship Department at my church into the age of social media, I created my blog for members of my congregation and others who have taken or are taking our Apprentice class based on the books of James Bryan Smith (Good and Beautiful God, Good and Beautiful Life, Good and Beautiful Community).  Many of our participants ask “what’s next?” after they finish Apprentice so I wanted to help remind them of their journeys of transformations and the soul-training exercises that brought them into the presence of God.  As the months passed,  I found I couldn’t resist sharing books I had loved and quotes that had energized me as well as some personal posts in the “My Journey” section of the blog.

I did pretty well with regular posting while the class was still in session, but when the class ended the challenge really began.  But I was determined, and by post #30 I had begun to establish a “rhythm” and enjoy the writing.  I had also found “my voice.”  After several months, I found the courage to buy my own domain name from Word Press.  I also asked a friend and colleague to work her graphic design magic and make the blog more attractive.

So, now  Word Press tells me that I have written 100 posts! In addition to that statistic, I learned that we have had 3,448 views and  72 comments to posts.  We have had at least 5 views from the US, the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany. Australia, India, the Russian Federation, the Philippines, South Africa. Slovenia, Togo, Mexico, and Switzerland (and fewer  than 5 views from 18 other countries which probably  accounts for the 1, 083 spam comments!) The blog is now followed by 35 people.  (In case you are not aware of “following” you can enter your e-mail address on the right hand side of the blog and then receive an e-mail each time a new blog is posted.)

Tomorrow we begin the journey to the next 100 blogs. Thanks for coming along on the journey so far!  I hope to share my thoughts with you again!