I launched this website a few weeks ago to lend voice to what our hearts were trying to communicate.  Often the heart is as awkwardly indefinite in words as it is overpowering in feeling. The closest I could come to what our hearts have been saying is what I’ve written in the dedication on the home page: “We are committed to reconciling the alienated, freeing the oppressed, embracing the misfit, and serving those who reconcile, free and embrace.”

I write “we” because it is a communal vision – shared by Kim, my partner-for-life, and to varying and growing extents by our four wonderful teenagers. That vision is shared by others as well. And we hope through the reach of the internet to find those kindred spirits far and wide, men and women and young people who know that we are not destined to hide in our own oases of pleasure, but we are designed to bring all people into a far higher purpose than we can presently imagine. We live with the truth that the Creator is not wishing anyone be left behind – figuratively or literally.

So, as I test the characteristics of this shared heart and vision, I am experimenting in this laboratory called hnkconnect.com. The internet is a mix between the printed media and the airwaves of the last century – it has the best of both. Written or printed words can be read and reread as long as they last.  The media of the airwaves can go farther and faster and are certainly more immediate, but they can lack permanence unless recorded.

As with the older media, there is really no way to know for sure who or how many are “listening” to our website.  But the internet does provide more immediate response if people are listening. And we hope that happens in the near future as people start talking back to us and eventually with each other.

So bear with me as I experiment with style and format, with web pages and blogs and links.  I have no idea where this all is headed, except that I know for sure that the anchor is that vision of the heart expressed in our dedication.

Years ago I was very concerned about certain injustices I saw in our world.  The only thing I knew to do was to research the problem and write about it. So I did. I got a Ph.D. and a ministry career in the process.  I’ve done more than write over the years, but I sense that the methodology is coming full circle.  Eventually I hope to publish.  Books and articles pay and in this world we live in, pay has value.  But also publishing gets the message out in ways that websites and blogs do not yet.  We’ll see.  This is a world in fast-change mode and we’ll keep experimenting in this lab to see where the changes take us.

Meanwhile a big thanks to Jon Harstaad for creating the design and format of this website and for the guidance he and others continue to provide.