Wanna Run a Great Redemption Website?

Redemption (I’m talking about the Collectible Card Game [CCG], not God’s work in our lives). If you don’t know about Redemption, you haven’t clicked my card link to the right (the picture of Booth). The link will take you to our club’s web site (The Bangor Rescue Squad) where we advertise how you can get 2 special Salvation Army promo(tional) cards for the game.

I’ve been playing Redemption almost from the beginning of the game’s creation by Cactus Game Design (somewhere around 10 years). Their intent was to create a good card game based on the Bible that might draw people away from Magic the Gathering and other similar card games which have questionable content. They succeeded, coming up with a very playable game that’s challenging and fun.

So I’ve been playing and collecting for a long time. At first, while they were getting a player base established, it took a couple of years to release a new set of additional cards (booster packs). Now new sets are coming out roughly every year. So far 7 boosters have been released. With each new set released, there are 100+ more cards to collect and incorporate into your playing deck(s). To date, I’ve collected all the available cards except 4! Not to mention lots of duplicates! So when I put together a deck, I have pretty much every option available.

Now that’s fine except for these issues: 1) I’ve spent boatloads of money on these cards. Granted a little at a time, but it adds up nonetheless. I’m now feeling rather convicted spending more and more money on new cards when there really are better things I could put my money into. 2) I play Redemption with our youth and young adults (in our club and some from other areas). Most of these can’t afford to purchase cards like I can (can I really afford them?), so I feel convicted again having so much when they have so little (many have quit playing because they just can’t keep up). Now I do give away a lot of my cards to help others build their decks, but there’s no way I could afford to supply more people than myself in new cards! 3) I currently have tons of cards (almost literally!). I can no longer keep them in one case, but have multiple boxes to store them in. I have cards all over the place! This is just getting out of hand, when I’ve been thinking a lot lately about living a much simpler life with less "stuff." Again, conviction. 4) My club members have all lost interest anyway. We haven’t had a meeting or played a game in over a year! And I’ve still been collecting. Yep- you guessed it- conviction.

Here’s my conclusion to my conundrum: I’m going to stop collecting, playing and sell my cards off on eBay. That’s not an easy decision, but the more I think about it, the more convinced I am that it is the right step for me.

That’s not to say I’m turning against Redemption- not at all. I still think it’s a great game and has a wonderful track record of Christian witness.

Know anyone who would like to run a great Redemption web site? I'm seriously looking for takers. www.gotredemption.com