Hello again everyone! It’s been a long while since I have been able to sit down and write or record anything and so I wanted to take a moment to give you all a quick update.

My First eBook is Coming Soon!

As I mentioned in the last episode of the podcast (episode 14: Is Starbucks Racist? Confessions of a Former Employee released on April 22, 2018) I have started working on a couple of books, and the first one is nearly a quarter of the way complete! The book is titled The Teachings of Jesus: What He Taught and Why It Matters. The book is a 31 day devotional that takes the reader through a collection of quotes from our Savior and works to explain what He meant and how it applies to our lives today. Each day ends with a quick way to pray through and engage with the Scripture that was discussed. I am also working on a companion study guide with study notes, questions, and areas to record your thoughts which you can print out, or just use a phone/tablet/computer, to further consider what Jesus is teaching us. I have a ways to go I am hoping to release it by the end of August or in the beginning of September. I will keep you posted if the time frame changes, but for now that is the plan.

Update on the Blog

As I’m sure you have all noticed, the blog has kind of fallen by the wayside since the launch of the podcast, but I will continue posting as I find I have time and as I receive questions or the Lord lays a topic on my heart.

Regarding Contributions

I have reached out to a number of contributors whom I am hoping to have posts from in the near future. These posts will vary in their topics, so be sure to leave you comments in the section below each post, or reach out to me via the Ask a Question page with your feedback if you have any thoughts on the content.

Also if you are a blogger, writer, poet, songwriter, or just someone with an opinion who would like to contribute to Ancient Abandon, reach out to me in the comments or on the Ask a Question page. I would love to hear what God has laid on your heart.

Update on the Podcast

Let’s wrap up this month’s update with just a couple bits of podcast news:

Regarding the Release Schedule

When the podcast launched the goal was to release an episode every week, and for the first few months this worked out well. However, as time went on and life got busy, it became more and more difficult to keep up with and there have been a few times since the launch that it has been a month or more in between releases. Right now even, my family and I are going through some major transitions that I hope to talk with you all about in the near future, but can’t go into at the moment. With that said, my goal is to at some point get back up to a regular release schedule, maybe weekly but maybe not, but until then I am going to try to release an episode one per month. My hope is that I will be able to better manage show prep, mixing, and recording on time with a lighter schedule.

Regarding the Direction of the Podcast

As I stated in the last episode, I felt like there needed to be a bit of a change in the direction and format of the show. First of all, for those of you who don’t subscribe to the podcast or may have missed it, I mentioned that while I’ve enjoyed the shows that have been released so far, most have basically been an audio version of what I would normally post on the blog. What I mean by that is amount of prep time and research for each episode was equal to or greater than most of the written posts I have put out in the last few years even before the recording time, the audio mixing, the show notes, and the upload time. As a result, it was getting tough to continue producing new episodes on a (mostly) weekly basis and still have things to write about; so what I decided on was to shy away from the more Christian-living/theological topics at large and instead to focus more on the news and social commentary from a Christian perspective. I’m also aiming to do a few interviews in the next few months, but I’ll update you all as that draws closer.

Thanks again everyone for your support and for subscribing to the blog/podcast. I appreciate you guys and ask for your prayers for these things as well as the (potentially) three major life changes that my family and I are currently going through. Again, I hope to share more in next month’s update. Until next time, go with God.

– Dan