The "Video Devotion" Experiment

Our church canceled Sunday services yesterday.  That...never happens!  We often cancel evening services when the weather is bad, but we usually have a "if you can make it, come on" approach when we have snow, etc. 

I live several miles outside the city limits on a rural highway.  It's one that takes a back seat when it comes time to plow.  So when the weather looks bad, I have on occasion spent the night in my office so I can be sure I'm there on Sunday morning. 

That's what I did this weekend.  The forecast was for 6+ inches of snow overnight, ending with freezing rain about church time. So I slipped and slid in on Saturday to spend the night.  But I watched church after church cancel services in our area, and our leadership decided it might be wise for us to join them.  So, for only the third time maybe in 11 years, we canceled a morning service. 

But here I was.  It was already after dark on Saturday.  Already several inches on the ground.  Did I mention the part about plows not getting to our house until much, much later.  So I went ahead and spent the night, figuring it would be safer in the daylight hours, and hopefully a plow might get out our way by Sunday afternoon. 

So, what to do with my time?  Well, I have this fun laptop with a camera on it.  I've only used it to Skype with my daughter in Germany.  So I decided to play around with the video camera and do a short "devotional" that I could then post on our church Facebook page.  You know, in case anyone else was snowed in, and missed church, and was really, really bored.

That's what I did.  And while it wasn't a big deal, something I just threw together and recorded, and less than 7 minutes long; still, folks were genuinely kind in their reception.  Facebook tells me it has "reached" slightly more folks than we even have on a typical Sunday morning.  I don't know what that means.  Only about half of that number shows up as "viewed", but anyway. 

I've gotten some nice comments, so I thought I'd go ahead and post it here as well.  Again, it was just a little message for our folks.  Not anything superbly profound.  But if it's an encouragement to anyone at all, well, praise God.  So here it is, the great "video devotion" experiment.  Hope the visual doesn't frighten anyone too badly!