It has evolved by the grace of God. About 20 years ago, I returned to an old hobby of making Catholic rosaries. I had made them in grade school, again in high school, and again about 35 years ago for a church project that lasted about six months.
Suddenly I had a lot of Rosaries and started giving them away at some wood craft shows that Vennie, my wonderful former wife, and I use to attend each winter in Florida.
I was flabbergasted at the response. These were middle class adults. They were disconnected and welcomed the rosaries. Many of them wanted to make a small donation to pay for the materials. I accepted these donations with the assurance that the money would be put back into Rosary – making materials.
Maybe God was whispering in my ear, maybe I just had a dream. All I know is that I saw a need – not for a religion, but for a connection to our God. Once the idea for a website came up. I was somewhat overwhelmed. I kept thinking about it, even dreaming about it. Finally, I did it.
I was making about 30 rosaries per week. Pretty soon I was overwhelmed with rosary requests from both individuals and missionaries. In November of 2011, a local rosary making group joined the effort and started donating their rosaries. That group continued in their efforts for several years. They were my greatest sponsors. They provided me with many hundreds of rosaries and materials to make rosaries. I got to where I was able to send 600 to 900 rosaries a month to individuals as well as foreign and American missions. Shipping has always been my biggest limiter since at this time, I was bearing most of the shipping expense.
Finally in 2014 I had to stop. I moved to Florida after separating from my former wife, developing arthritis in my thumbs, and simply unable to foot the cost of rising postage rates and the dropping off of rosary donations. I continued on a small scale until my rosaries ran out. While this was happening, I developed two websites. St. Joseph’s Shop and St. Joseph’s Blog. Then catastrophe happened. I decided to transfer my websites from the old lenux to the new version using Cpanel. In the process, I did something terribly stupid and totally lost my 6 websites. I also found out I had no clue how to run Cpanel. Disgusted with myself, I just let everything go to pot for almost four years. Finally I have been inspired to start again, but with a different more affordable approach. I have started by learning Cpanel and slowly making a start by building a combined website that I hope will have the best of St. Joseph’s Shop and St. Joseph’s Blog.
I am just going to go for the ride and see where the Lord takes me. So many people have responded positively to my past efforts – I decided to continue expanding my efforts and get back on track.
Lord willing, Everyone who visits St Joseph’s Blog will find it uplifting and thought provoking. Feel free to send me your ideas, suggested links, and anything else that will make this site more useful and personal. I named this original project St Joseph’s Shop at my Vennie’s suggestion, because I often call on St Joseph to help me and enjoy working with wood. This project has taken on a second (or third) life of it’s own. It has really changed direction this time. Since I have a pretty good computer background, I can keep it going, but I am not sure where it will end up. May God continue to whisper in my ear and may I continue listen, for we are the hands of God.
Why St. Joseph’s Blog Exists? 