While trying to think about what I might write about in this blog, I discovered it can be quite hard to prioritise one’s passions. I should talk about my faith, because my walk as a follower of Jesus Christ is most important to me, around which everything else revolves and has meaning. However, I then risk devaluing other things, such as family, work, education, aspirations and hobbies. All of these things are important parts of who Malcolm Dow is.
The solution is obvious. I’ll write about them all, and more, as each seems significant at the time. So, what are some of the main themes you will find here?
As I have already mentioned, I am a Christian, but it will soon become evident that I do not like the term “Christian” very much, for many of the same reasons I dislike the phrase “going to church”. Not that I discount the value of the Church. On the contrary, it is extremely important to me (after all, my wife and I are pastors!) but the words I have mentioned no longer convey the meanings to the world that they once did. I prefer to describe myself as a follower of Jesus. I don’t “go to church” – this has always been a nonsense phrase. Church is something I am a part of, not a place or building or organisation one can attend but an organism. More of these ideas later.
Another theme I will write about is my passion for effective use of the World Wide Web. Many years ago, when I learned how to build websites, I sought a less expensive way of having a number of sites. The result was the establishing of a small business through which I provide low cost web hosting and design. When I discovered blogging as an efective way of producing easily maintained sites which can more easily attract viewers, I began to generate some income using Google AdSense. This enables me to presently host 50 websites which pay for themselves, enabling me to provide sites for churches and community groups. This was the motivation for the business name Roaring-Mouse.com, derived from Leonard Wibberley’s book The mouse that roared. The idea is power for the little guy, as anyone who has read the book or seen the film by Peter Sellers will realise. The online publishing and web hosting section of Roaring Mouse is Roaring Mouse Publishing. This also focuses on optimising websites for the purpose for which they are intended.
A glance at the range of blogs I own (and there are too many of them, which makes it hard to keep them up to date) will indicate the breadth of my interests, both religious, philosophical, and technical.
I love books and reading. I’ve confessed elsewhere to being a full time student since the age of five (1955), and I have no intention of ceasing to explore and learn new things in a wide range of fields. In my early days I was more of an analyst, but in more recent years I have found the joy of taking all of those bits and pieces of knowledge and synthesising something new out of them. This has been especially true in the prayer counselling and training my wife Diana and I carry out through Williamstown Baptist Church and Beth Tephillah Ministry Centre and Roaring Mouse Counselling. As we try to bring healing to people Jesus teaches us new and more effective ways that bring more peace in a shorter time. It’s exciting, and as Dr. Charles Kraft says, “You can get addicted to the smiles on people’s faces”. You can read more about this in some of my other websites: Prayer Counselling, Listening to God, Intimacy with God and the Healing Prayer Ministries Network.
Then there is the more philosophical side of this, seen in A Reasonable Mystic, Mal’s Meanderings, Controversial Christian, Dark Night of the Soul, Godly Science, and Speak in Tongues. Or, if you just love books, as I do, there is A Book About.
Another of my lifelong passions is amateur radio and electronics, and I have a few websites and blogs under construction about these. I’ve held an amateur radio licence, with the callsign VK3ZDD since the early 1970s, and now hold VK3HL. I designed my first minicomputer long before the PC became a household appliance, and taught propgramming and computer technology at university for many years. Even now i still prefer to build my websites using real code, not the bloated website generating packages common today. One of my blogs, The Blog Works, is intended to help people master blog design and construction and use blogs effectively. The radio and electronics is covered by VK Web, Ham Search, Free Electron, and the Antenna Blog which is being rebuilt at present. The business side of this will use Roaring Mouse Electronics.
There are numerous other fields of interest and related websites which I will write about as they arise. Enjoy!
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