July 30, 2018 (Monday)
I have been working with computers since sometime in the 1980’s when the son of the financial secretary at the church bought himself a new machine and gave his old one to his mother and dad, who gave it to the church for the financial secretary to use in her work. After getting print-outs as reports from a succession of financial secretaries, the thought occurred to me that I could use the computer for sermon preparation. That’s how I got started.
As the computer world expanded, we soon understood that we must enter that world if we are to continue our ministries in our modern era. A designated gift made possible the purchase of computers for four staff members, including the pastor, and we immediately started learning how to use them. We received 
training and were off and running, when, after two years, someone broke into the church and stole them.
We reported the theft to the police and to our insurance company, which generously reimbursed us for our loss. We then purchased new computers, and discovered many improvements had been made in the machines and programs over the previous two years.
We learned that at least one computer had made its way to Houston. It evidently needed the services of an expert and was submitted to a repair firm, which discovered many references to our church on the computer. The firm reported the incident, and the perpetrators were found and brought to justice.
We then installed a security system which called the police whenever it sensed that the church had a new burglar on the premises. Problem was too many calls, because we didn’t understand exactly how to use the system. Several times our worship was interrupted because of unintentional false reports. After a while the rules were changed so that the police were not called until a break-in was confirmed. Looking back, that period could be characterized as a “comedy of errors.”
We made mistakes with the computers, too. I recall one Saturday night when I was 
working feverishly to get a sermon on the computer so that I could print my notes for delivery the next day. (I was taught in the Seminary to have those notes fully prepared by Tuesday, but somehow I never met that deadline at that time). Well, I was new at computers, and about midnight, thought I had completed the process, pressed a key and the whole thing disappeared in a split second! So I started from scratch and went through the process again. I later learned that I could have followed a few simple steps on the keyboard to retrieve the entire thing.
So, here I am, writing blogs on the internet, printing sermons regularly, posting on social media, and completely at home with the newest technology (well, almost).
