Nine people viewed my post questioning the lack of fellowship here on this platform. Not one comment resulted. A few more days of nothing and I will consider this platform worthless. Scripture encourages us to fellowship and commune with others. That's not happening here. i had higher hopes.

I've been on this platform only a few days, but I have observed something rather disappointing. Now I know it takes time to form and develop relationships, but what I see is akin to walking into a new church, staying for the entire service, and not have one person greet you, or even acknowledge your presence. In our travels, Patsy and I upon finding ourselves in a new city have experienced this too many times. Our take? Were we to be living in that city, there's one church we would not consider making our church home.

I've done a bit of browsing around a few places on this platform, including looking at the public feed. I have seen zero conversations between members. A few comments on posts which for the most part are one or two word comments. That's not conversation. I've made a few posts which could be material for conversations. Not one comment on any of them,

So is this platform going to be a fellowship of fellow Christians, or is it just going to be a board for sharing memes and other non-personal content?

Patsy and I have been married eight years. Before we met, we had both been widowed. She had been married 43 years to her late husband. I had been married 50 years to my late wife.

The story of how the two of us met, fell in love and married is a testimony of God's grace and favor. During the time we've been married, we have served in ministry to the widowed community we lived in in Texas. We also served in marriage support ministry (we still do) offering premarital counseling to couples soon to be married, or to the very newly married. We also have ministered to couples who were experiencing troubles in their marriages.

When we moved from Texas to Arkansas in 2021, we became involved in ministry to the addiction recovery community. The area in Arkansas where we lived has a major meth addiction problem. There are quire a few Christian ministries serving the recovery community there. She and I taught Bible classes at some of the recovery houses, and both of us engaged in much one on one support to those within the recovery houses.

Upon moving to Arkansas, we began attending a particular church. There we were asked to form and lead a seniors ministry group. We did that until later when we felt that God was leading us to make a change. Then we moved to another church. This one was heavily engaged in the addiction recovery ministry. This church was growing and God was doing some wonderful things there. Lives greatly changed, and the bonds of addiction broken for many.

Something happened, and I won't go into the details, but the church was suddenly abandoned. We had no pastor and we lost the building. It seemed that the intent was for the church to close, and for the attendees to find other churches to attend. But both Patsy and I, and several others felt that God was not through with the ministry of that church

Both of us felt that this was what God had put us there for. I was able to get the non-profit corp. signed over to me, and took on the role of lead pastor. But we had no place to meet. and a goodly number of the former members had moved on to other churches. Every week we scrambled to find a place to meet. Renting whatever venue might be available for that Sunday. We had no equipment including no sound system for praise and worship time. We had nothing

But God provided. We borrowed sound equipment and even folding chairs. We had different ones help us conduct our praise and worship time. And I brought the Word God had for us that day. Soon we were offered the use of an American Legion hall for Sunday mornings. The fee was very good as our numbers were small, and in that community, offerings were very small as well By the way, this American Legion hall had no bar so that was a plus.

During that time we were able to slowly accumulate a few pieces of sound equipment. We also had a family join who had been experienced praise and worship leaders. They were musicians thus we now had instruments.

Later the opportunity came for us to move into an abandoned church building. The building had not been in use for over five years. It had everything we needed in the way of chairs, a small fellowship room, and Sunday School rooms. It was ready to use for services. No longer did we have to go early every Sunday morning to the AL hall to set up for service and then take down following service.

Now we had a six month lease and a regular place to meet. But we knew that God had bigger plans. In November of 2025 we were able to move into a much more capable church building. At the same time, since the couple who lead our praise and worship had been former church pastors, and Patsy and I knew that our time there would soon come to an end, we appointed them associate pastors. In January of 26, this year, we turned the church pastorship over to them. This was in preparation for our planned relocation to Florida.

So now, here we are. We have connected with a wonderful church here in our city. We are not involved in leadership. What the future will bring, God only knows. But we will serve as He leads and what doors He opens, we shall see.

Ridge City Church has come so far from the beginnings when we had to find a different place each Sunday to hold services. To renting a local American Legion hall for a few months, to a six month rental of a worn out old church building which had not been in use for five years. To where the church is now. A building capable of handling the ministry activities and to being accessible within a neighborhood where locals can actually walk to church.

A building is not the main thing. You don't have to have a building to have church. But, it does make things a lot easier.

For about two years, Patsy and I served as lead pastors in a small church in the city we were living in at the time. the church had been, well, just just way the church was abandoned. Patsy and I knew that He was not finished with the ministry of that church, so we picked it up, literally from nothing and rebuilt it from the ground up.

The church grew from the restart where we had often less than twenty people on a Sunday morning, to seeing attendance grow to around one hundred on most Sundays. We were able to see a vibrant and anointed praise and worship team, a children's church ministry, and a great youth ministry. And we moved from an old rented too small church building to one with much more opportunity for growth and for service.

Of course we did not do that all by ourselves, even though at the beginning, it was rough going, and every pastor who has built up a church from nothing understands that well. God sent us great team members to help carry the load. In January of 2026 we were able to turn the pastoral position over to our associate pastor, allowing him and his wife to take the church to the next level. Our work had been accomplished so it was time to turn over the reins and step aside. That was when we moved from that city to our current home in Florida.

I just now joined the platform. My wife Patsy and I recently moved from Paragould, AR to North Port, FL. While in Paragould, we pastored a local church until this January when we turned the pastorship over to our associate pastor. This was in preparation for our move to Florida.

Patsy and I were both widowed. I after 50 years of marriage to my late wife, she after 43 years of marriage to her late husband. But God allowed us to meet, fall in love, and now we have been married eight years.

God has done wonderful things in our married life. We have been involved in ministry within the widowed community while we were living in Texas (before our move to Arkansas), ministry to not only young couples newly married or soon to be married, but couples going through troubles within their marriage.

A big part of our ministry while in Arkansas was to the faith based addiction recovery community. Now that we are in Florida, we know God has a work for us here. We're just waiting on His leading.

We are both retired. She from many years working in an administrative role with the Salvation Army, and I after a long career in the medical electronics industry. We enjoy travel, ministry activities, and I am now a published novelist.