When my kids were young, home PCs were just coming on the scene. We had several computers and a HUGE laptop, almost the size of my desktop now. My husband moderated a Bulletin Board System (BBS). This was in the eighties (Note: The picture of Tim and I came from that era.) 

What’s a BBS? It was the forerunner of the internet. If you were part of a BBS circle, you would leave a message on your computer site and dial out –yes dial out—no cable or WIFI—and send it to another computer that would send it to another and another.

For instance, I ran a message board for women, which connected me with gals all over the world. It took quite a bit longer than today's internet, but they received my message—sort of like a blog—and then replied back. Users could also directly “call” our computer and read messages. Several women would join into the discussion and we wrote online back and forth. I made friends in New Zealand, Australia, Russia, South Africa, Canada, and all over the States.

For over ten years, Tim ran one of the most popular and nicest designed Christian BBS sites on the system. He left downloadable messages and chatted live with people around the clock. It was an incredible ministry.

The “traffic” usually died down around two in the morning, and Tim would then write new inspirational messages, repair the computers and secure the telephone lines. (We had twelve phone lines. We stopped there because we would have to pay tariffs.) I would kiss him good morning as he said good night. As I blog tonight, he’s gone to bed and I’m up late writing. What a switch.

Tim sacrificed a lot of time, expense, and headaches for his BBS ministry. He also put a lot of prayer and love into it. Many nights a lonely teen or a searching man or woman would log on looking for answers to their problems. Tim would text back and forth, leading the person to rely on God.

Establishing this blog and the e-zine has given me a small glimpse of how my husband must have felt all those years. Of course, my task is much easier. I simply have to write what’s on my heart and cut and paste it onto my blog. And I have lots of techies types to help me when I get stuck or have computer glitches.

Tim, on the other hand, was on his own in a technological pioneer era. He had crates and crates of wires, cables, software, motherboards (I think that would be comparable to today’s hard drives)—you name it. We called his storage area under our stairs, his personal Radio Shack.

I’m grateful for the love and support my husband gives me in my ministry. He laid the foundation for it many years ago. Tim taught me to “blog” when he set up my own message board. I guess you could call it a technological spiritual legacy.

Today I sometimes wonder if anyone really reads my words. Then I remember my husband saying about the BBS that he would spread God’s Word, no matter the cost. If the messsage reached just one person, it would not return empty and was worth it.

As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it, (Isaiah 55:10-11).