I thought you might enjoy a quick recap of a few of the latests goings on in Go Godly. Please remember to keep your hands and feet in the tram car. It’s a ride that takes sudden sharp turns, U-turns, hard stops, and scenic adventures. Enjoy the ride.

Quick recap – 3 years ago God gave me a vision for Go Godly and I obeyed.

Over the past few months, I’ve been busy. Well, God and I have been busy. Without God’s patience, vision, and daily help, I’d be in the weeds crying over my inability to understand anything and everything – because to be complete honest – I AM VERY VERY VERY MUCH IN DEEP DEEP WATER and largely have absolutely NO IDEA what to do next. That may be by design so my head won’t explode.

So, to start God had me outline. I came up with age levels. There are 7 each with 2 grades, starting in pre-K and ending in 12th. Then cute names for the each group. All have to do with “I am the light of the world” and are lights like Tiny Torches or Wise Watchtowers. Next each needed some curriculum content so there were 27 to 30 individual themed activities, questions, learning and bible study items developed for each level – over 300 in total. Each had an award designed for it that could be earned. Each had a number of activities that needed to be completed to earn said award. The littles start with 3 and as they age increases so do the number of items needed ending at 8 total for the oldest level. This would all be inside a video game environment online and kids could go up to little ancient houses read the sign on the door, use a key to open it and explore the house. They could mouse over the teapot and it would whistle revealing an assignment was hidden there. Click and a pdf appears. Do what it tells you. Submit it was completed and your award pops up on your shelf online. Woo hoo!

Except, I was getting ahead of myself. Once the curriculum was done, God pointed out that the land, called “The Kingdom” was actually a 3D role playing game. The price tag on that was around $2 million dollars. So hard stop, cause that provision isn’t coming from my bank account. Several prayers later, I knew it isn’t my job to be concerned about the how. How is God’s department. Obey is mine.

Then came the next revelation – “What if?” my pastor son mentioned one day. “What if when you went into the little house you were in an amusement park or a maze instead?”

Did you hear my head explode? This isn’t new, by the way. God makes my head explode a lot. This was where the wading out into that deep water really began. New list, New mini lands for all the houses. New direction for the questions that will need programming and pop ups and hiding places and….the list is long. Did you know that when giving info to a programmer – not that I have one of those yet, you will need to have a description of the area, where things are, where things are hidden, how the q & a will work from fill in the blank to multiple choice to whatever other fun and whacky thing you want to do. There is a thing called game mapping. Yeah, I know nothing about that thing, by the way, but here we are.

This is where God has really given me some swimmies. I have been on a journey of one thing at a time. It should be noted that logical and analytical thinking isn’t my high suit. I did not do well in algebra. I’m a skip ahead to logical conclusions kind of girl which doesn’t bode well for this portion of the adventure. So, God gave me bite sized portions. We started with the lands. There are around forty. Thinking of 300 just for this phase, knowing there are at least 4 more phases after this one was another head explosion moment. See I think – HOLY MOLY CANNOLI! God KNOWS EVERYTHING there is never a panic moment with God. So, naturally, God pulled a Cher and smacked me and said “Snap out of it!” and showed me the way this is easier. The vision was Disney World. Funny, right? Yes, but it was staring down Main Street USA from the gate. You have the row of stores and then a Castle at the center with a path through it and all the way around that leads to several other lands. It is the map. Within the map there can be 7 areas on the theme each accessible from the entrance, but that only allow interaction for the area for that level. – Sounds complicated. I’m sure it is, but I sort of understood it. Back to the list of lands. And a new spreadsheet.

Now I had all the lands broken into 7 areas each, so there were now 280 areas total which wasn’t quite enough to leave wiggle room and give us growth room so we added more lands and had 63 which if my pre-coffee math is right gives us 442 areas to work in. I was so happy, until I hit the rapids in my deep water. See all those curriculums I wrote originally need to be fixed to fit into this concept. I THOUGHT that was awful but the reality of my limited understanding clearly was underestimated as I hit the rushing water of this adventure HARD. First, I have to select the lands where each level of adventure will happen. Then, create the vision of this whole land and then lay out the map or my best version of that for the level so we know what the avatars can do things that are fun or featured activities in the area, then get that curriculum so it fits in it and can be easily answered or done or walked through by the end user. Since some items are making craft items or even visiting places in real life with their families, all needs to be tied together. My brain hurt.

It should be noted that in all this God has taken the do the hardest part first approach, so the oldest kids curriculums which required the most research and have the most in them to be completed are all being worked through. I won’t lie it is A LOT. I’m plugging away. Meanwhile, God is up to other things and occasionally drags me off to them. As has been the case, the last couple of months.

During this time, he had me write a number of books. All align to the curriculums but can be used outside the game easily and most are on Amazon already. I’ve written so far:

The Littlest Lie – A cute tale about Leif, a pristine piece of paper who needs to stay spotless to live out his purpose, but quickly discovers that one little fib can undo you and only Christ can restore.

The Bee-Attitudes – This book full of clever bees take your kids on a wonderful adventure through Jesus’ Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount teaching them how to “BEE” all God calls them to be.

Under the Bed – This rhyming book about fear uses the unseen scary things we imagine about the world and that space under the bed, and how the light of God can take away all our fear.

God’s Garden – Come visit God’s Garden filled with the most beautiful and wonderful flowers God has created. However, some of them don’t think they are wonderful at all and cannot see God’s perfection within them and instead want to be different, or envy other flowers or are focused on things they think are wrong with themselves or others. God pays a visit and shows them how vital they are and how He doesn’t make mistakes.

Away in the Manger – We all know the song. In this book, the song is taken to new levels with new lyrics and lots of great pictures that can be read or sung as we celebrate the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Hannah’s Hanukkah – This is the first book I ever wrote. Never published it but wrote it long ago for my daughter. Now it is published and this rhyming story shares a day of fun Hanukkah celebrations and why the holiday is so very important. It’s a story about faith, God’s power, miracles, and gratitude. The gifts and latkes are bonuses.

The Super Secret Christmas Project – This wonderful book is filled with activities and adventures for every day from December 1st through Christmas. Set up like an advent calendar, your family can count down every day while keeping the Christ in Christmas. Whether you do every activity or you do a few along the way, the storybook set up allows you to join in the fun or just read about it.

The Moses Trilogy – This three part book series follows Moses’ miraculous life from start to finish. In Moses was a Basketcase, we learn of Moses humble beginnings in a basket in the Nile to his royal upbringing in the family of Pharaoh. In Plagues a Plenty we see Moses return to Pharaoh with warnings about the plagues that would follow if the Pharaoh did not obey God and free the Hebrew slaves. Lastly, we join Moses and the freed Jewish slaves as they wander the desert counting all the miracles they received along the way.

Count Your Blessings – Just finished and will be available soon, this counting story is filled with the story of Noah, a whole lot of animals and a great teaching tool for counting and counting and counting two by two.

A Glimmer of Hope – This one is for adults and was the first published and my first Godly assignment. It is a book about miracles, mayhem and God’s hand in it all. A personal testimony of what God can and will do.

And then….we took a hard turn. Were you holding on? While we are still working on the game mapping integration – I say that like I am actually doing it, but I am doing some rudimentary thing to hopefully outline and explain the vision to a professional with actual talent in this area once we can pay one. Then AI happened. I admit I’m not a fan. I have concerns. Then God showed me a little Youtube video which mentioned that in a very short span of time – like a year – it will most likely be possible to tell an AI program what you envision for a gaming environment and how it should work and it will create the program. REALLY??? This didn’t even pop on the radar of possible solutions 3 years ago. Also, in the mix God has introduced me to a marketing program, a marketing person who I’m probably going to be hiring down the line, and a virtual assistant and a budding artist with a knack and talent for design too.

Then there is my son – the pastor and artist – who did the first what if thing. Yeah, well that is apparently his role. The next “What if” was an interior level game that was just free content that allowed players to do something besides the more cerebral content which is part of membership and also allowed a specialty award system from combining completion of content and fun goals. Great idea. Back to the drawing board – again. That actually was fairly simple.

Watchout – another hard turn. Speaking engagements. I outlined the most recent one which I foolishly thought would be a one and done, but apparently this is an avenue that will be explored more fully in coming months. God is opening up a door and it is all connected so I’m just walking through and awaiting instructions. This also aligns with the portion that I knew was coming which was a podcast or vlog. Another struggle area. Time – there is no time. LOL. God controls time so what am I worrying about exactly? So, to the list there will be – coming soon – DAILY – yes DAILY – although not sure if that is starting at DAILY or getting to it, but 30 minute videos. Do not have them set up. I did LONG AGO start a list of topics, but I have more deets now so I’ll revisit that to see how they align – because I am sure they do.

And there are more books – children’s and adult all lining up added to the spreadsheet of things to do.

Once upon a time, I was so excited and amazed and then overwhelmed and frustrated shortly thereafter. Today though I have hit a rhythm. Although I am in the deep water almost daily when it comes to Go Godly, I’ve learned to not fight the current and just float along until I get to the next dock or island or life raft along the way. There is one coming. Just because I cannot see it means nothing. That is the thing with faith. It’s a lot like deep water. Panic and you will drown from the fear. Try to swim in your own strength and ignore what God is giving you to help and you drown from pride and exhaustion. But, surrender and flip on your back and just float and relax and trust God to get you where you need to be and to protect you in the journey and you will be fine – better than fine – you will be blessed and refreshed.

Gotta admit, there were a few near drownings. Fear and pride both tried to take me down. Wouldn’t they? But, I kept reaching out to God instead of surrendering to it and here we are and I look at all that we have done so far and all that lies ahead and know God is truly doing something so spectacular with Go Godly. Keep us in prayer as we forge ahead. It’s all in God’s timing and God will provide all we need and the wisdom to know what we need as well. Amen to that!!