History of the freeware Watchwords programs

Contents:

1988 - The Beginning                         
1989 - Lesung                                
1992 - New Circumstances                     
A Variety of Watchwords Programs             
1995 - Translations into foreign languages   
Distribution of the Programs                 

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1988 - The Beginning

How did the Watchwords texts come to be displayed on so many computer
screens, featuring so many platforms?

1988 I (Reinhold Willnat) had the desire to be greeted by the
Watchwords for the day before I would begin with my work. Since I do
not possess any programming skills, I discussed this matter with my
son-in-law, who, at that time was taking a "computer course". He very
much welcomed this task as a helpful exercise for his course. Thus,
the first DOS- program was completed in 1988. I have personally copied
the actual Watchwords texts from the booklet issued by the Herrnhut
Brethren Movement.

10/08/88 Late during the summer of 1988, I already began to copy the
texts for the following year, once again. During that exercise I came
upon a note in the booklet regarding copyright matters. In order to
keep things "correct and proper", I addressed the Directors of the
Herrnhut Brethren Movement, requesting permission to copy the
Watchwords texts. I looked at this matter as a mere formality. I was
sure to be granted permission without delay. After all, it was the
Word of God, that was to be distributed onto computer screens.

10/18/88 In a letter dated 10/18/88, I was informed by the Friedrich
Wittig Verlag (Publishers), that neither the main publisher, nor the
Directors of the Herrnhut Brethren Movement in Bad Boll, Germany, and
Herrnhut (at that time East Germany), wished to see the Watchwords
texts copied onto diskettes. They cited legal, as well as economic
reasons.

10/20/88 In response to that, I wrote a very loving, 2-page letter on
10/20/88 with the key question:

  You surely are not prepared to claim copyright privileges for the
  actual Word of God (Scripture texts), are you?! 

(Note: the German Losung ("Watchwords") booklet contains not only the
daily, actual words of Scripture, but a daily devotional commentary,
as well)

11/14/88 The Directors of the Herrnhut Brethren Movement, on 11/14/88
answered as follows (gist): "This is not possible - our contracts with
the publishers preclude this." At the end of the letter, the following
remark appears: 

  ... is it really worth your while to store all Watchwords texts on a
  diskette, since these texts change daily, and are only brief texts
  for each day? 

12/19/88 My letter, dated 12/19/88, makes the (almost pleading)
request for re-evaluating their answer. They key phrase is:

  ... please inform me on what grounds and in what form you claim
  copyright privileges for the printed Word of God ... 

1/04/89 The Directors of the Herrnhut Brethren Movement answer on
1/04/89 as follows: "... the word "Losung" is protected by copyright,
as well as the combination of the scriptural texts for each day, and
the devotional commentary for each day (as far as 70 years back). With
this letter I receive permission to copy the Scripture texts of the
Watchwords for each day onto diskette for personal use only.

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1989 - Lesung

(Note: in German this is a clever deviation from the protected word
"Losung" and yet, in the end, it means, to some degree, the same:
"Losung" - "Watchwords"; "Lesung" - "Reading")

9/13/89 My letter dated 9/13/89 informs the Herrnhut Brethren Movement
that I

  * no longer use the word "Losung" and now call my program "Lesung"
    
  * no longer use the protected devotional commentary for each text
    
  * distribute the diskette with the copied Scripture texts only to
    those individuals, who have also purchased the Watchwords booklet.
    Thus, no economic loss can be established by the publishers. 
    
11/16/89 The Herrnhut Brethren Movement in a letter, dated 11/16/89,
informs me that they still have no positive response to my request...

After much inner struggle before the Lord I became convinced that, in
this case, I had to obey God more than men! I renamed the current
DOS-Program "LOSUNG.EXE" to "LESUNG.EXE". I did not copy the
(protected) devotional commentary for each text. Many of the daily
Scripture texts became a great source of blessing to me because of the
effect of repeated reading during the course of the day. I also
distributed the program to my brothers (members of my family) and to
some friends. 

It was to be expected: after some time I received kind letters from
people I did not even know. They encouraged me to continue in this
way. I sincerely sought the counsel of the Preacher in our church, as
well of other "competent" individuals. I always received the same
encouraging answer: Go on!

Furthermore, I was asked by an increasing number of individuals (even
a number from abroad) to continue, and to prepare the Watchwords texts
for the following year!

Reading the often heart-warming letters, I was reminded more than once
of the words of Peter and John, found in Acts 4:20: "... for we cannot
stop ..."

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1992 - New Circumstances

9/08/92 On 9/08/92 I submitted my request once again in a two-page
letter to the Herrnhut Brethren Movement

12/29/92 In a letter dated 12/29/92, I was informed that, because of
considerable in-house reorganization, my request had not yet been
considered. With a change in leadership, changes were also made with
reference to responsibilities for (formerly) East and West Germany. I
was told that I could figure on a decision no sooner than 1995!
Furthermore, I was informed, that in the future my negotiations were
to be conducted with the Friedrich Reinhadt Verlag (Publisher) in
Basel, Switzerland.

End of 1992 In the meantime (by the end of 1992) a solid structure had
developed with regard to distribution of the Watchwords diskette. I
shipped the completed program diskettes to the listed "main
distributors", who, in turn, made copies of the diskettes for further
distribution. During that time, LifeNet came to play an important
role. A considerable portion of the distributed Watchwords programs
found their way to many churches, and further to many computer users
via connected mailboxes (bulletin boards). The attached file
"INFO.TXT" informed users about the program. I regularly informed the
Herrnhut Brethren Movement of all my activities.

February 1993 I was able to contact the Reinhardt Verlag (publisher)
in Basel, Switzerland, in February of 1993, and thus came to know
about the association of the two publishers Reinhardt Verlag
(Switzerland) and Hnssler Verlag (Germany).

Spring 1994 In the Spring of 1994, Mr. Markus Hnssler, and Mr. Ruedi
Reinhardt made contact with me in Duisburg, Germany, for the purpose
of clarifying discussions. We were able to exchange initial,
constructive ideas.

9/13/94 After further correspondence, Mr. Ruedi Reinhardt, in a letter
dated 9/13/94, granted permission to distribute the Watchwords texts
for 1995 in the format used thus far. One condition: the program name
"Lesung" had to be changed back to "Losung". No permission could be
granted at that time for 1996, since the publishers were planning on
issuing their own Watchwords diskette for that year. Further in-house
discussions among the publishers had to be completed first.

What joy and what gratitude toward the Lord gripped my heart at that
time! After approximately 7 years, 1995 would, for the first time,
feature a licensed Watchwords diskette. This was the Lords work!
Why already worry about 1996?! For years now I had, time and again,
declared the Watchwords on diskette to be the "business of the Chief
Executive", and now this great God had made it clear, that He stands
behind His Word, and that He wants this diskette distribution!

I published this good news via the mailboxes (bulletin boards) on that
same day, and, on the following day, I received many encouraging
e-mails, which again and again expressed deep gratitude to the Lord.
That was a great day of joy!

10/12/94 A down-to-business correspondence with Mr. Markus Hnssler
followed, in which details of the license were negotiated. In his
letter dated 10/12/94, Mr. Markus Hnssler granted a license for 1995
and 1996 with conditions still in force today. This license was
renewed some times for two years, now up to (and including) the year
2003. As always, the future is in the hands of God! After all, this is
the "business of the Chief Executive"!

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A Variety of Watchwords Programs

Up to now I have only reported on the official means of distribution,
and on my efforts to obtain the license. There was, however, at the
same time a completely different development:

As I already mentioned, I do not possess any programming skills. I
depend on what others are willing to do for me. I was being asked by a
number of individuals about the Watchwords program for other
platforms. "Unfortunately, not yet..." was my answer. Then, in short
succession, I received offers from individuals, willing to create the
following programs:

  * Mr. Andreas Pollack offered a high quality DOS-program, which,
    at the same time, could play melodies of familiar German church
    hymns.
    
  * immediately following, Mr. Andr Wendlandt offered to write a
    Windows program
    
  * These were followed by offers to create programs for OS/2,
    Atari, Psion, PalmPilot, for individual homepages, and for Linux.
    
All I could do, was looking up in utter amazement to this great God.
Seeing, that this was Gods work, to which people were willing to
commit themselves, filled me with deep gratitude!

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1995 - Translations into foreign languages

1995 In 1995 a total stranger called me from the United States. All he
wanted to do was to say "Thank You" for the Watchwords program he had
received from one of his friends in Germany. After a brief exchange of
ideas, followed by e-mail correspondence, he eventually offered to
translate the attached files into English, and to incorporate English
Scripture texts into the Watchwords program (the text is the same for
all platforms: ASCII). Thus, in 1996, the Watchwords diskette appeared
for the first time in German and English. How my heart rejoiced, when
I packaged and shipped the first diskettes! My prayers went with them
on their way. Ever since, Roland Freischlad has been a faithful and
committed fellow laborer.

The Lord has greatly blessed the selfless work of all those involved.
Many letters from Germany and abroad bear this out!

1998 is the year in which I received offers for translation into
Dutch, Spanish, and French. I gratefully accepted! Commitments for
other languages followed, or are in the process of being made.

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Distribution of the Programs

This "stormy" development has by far exceeded the means of
distribution on diskette. It was, therefore, only logical, to transfer
the distribution of the Watchwords to a broader basis. I was
especially glad to see that this need had been known to the Lord long
before I was aware of it. HE had already made preparations to remedy
the situation, by moving Mr. Helmut Steeb (a specialist in Information
Technology) to offer his help and support to me! When I looked at the
very structured suggestions for improvement in the distribution of the
Watchwords programs, I was very glad about the new ideas to which I
was introduced. I noticed that the distribution structure I had
followed thus far, would have led very soon to a dead-end, making
handling of the work ultimately an impossibility! Ever since, Helmut
Steeb is largely responsible for organizational matters.

Several individuals, meanwhile, have offered the Watchwords programs
on their homepages, as well as the "Christliche Informations-Dienst",
CID (Christian Information Service, a German web page), and the
"Christliche Internet Agentur", CINA (Christian Internet Agency,
another German web page). 

It goes without saying that in these activities the devil, the opposer
of the work of God, does not idly stand by. During the fall, when the
Watchwords programs are near completion, I almost regularly experience
technical difficulties with my computer. In the fall of 1998 this went
so far as to come to a complete crash of my system, so that for days I
was without a computer and I had to consider the possibility of total
loss of data. All backup data were on a tape which also was no longer
readable!

But the Lord is always greater and stronger! After some time I
regained my data, and the Watchwords programs were sent (almost) in
time on their way!

What next?

End of 1998 By the end of 1998 it became clear to me, that the
Internet, too, ought to be used more intensely for the Lord. A brief
exchange within my inner circle of friends resulted in support of this
idea, and our own domain, "http://www.losung.de" was established. This
domain, in a way, is the "mother" of the freeware Watchwords programs.
It furthers ministry to the public. Many like to pay a visit to this
web page. All new features and additions of the Watchwords programs
are published there and can be downloaded by those interested.
Additional information and a guest book complete the content.

It is envisioned that each main distributor is informed via e-mail
concerning new features, after which download of the appropriate files
from the internet pages is suggested. With that, the speed of the flow
of information significantly increases, and the cost of postage and
diskettes is reduced considerably.

In the meantime, highly qualified programmers are giving serious
thought to how this medium of the internet can yet be used better and
more effectively for the glory of our great God, and how the Word of
God in the form of the daily Watchwords program can be offered to
people in the most useful way. I myself can look at these ideas only
in astonishment, rejoice greatly in them, and give thanks to the Lord
for making so many gifted people willing to commit themselves to this
task, in spite of their own heavy work load.

It is unavoidable, that in this greatly increased activity of
distributing the Word of God, costs are mounting. But, this too, is
the Lords concern. Time and again, He makes individuals willing,
to contribute to offset the costs of this ministry.

With extra funds from the Watchwords charitable contribution account,
I was able to support the Computermission ("Computer Missions
Organization") in Sinsheim-Reihen, Germany, as well as LifeNet (a
Christian web page in Germany). Both organizations have as their main
goal to reach people with the living Word of God by means of these new
media. Thus far, all of us who have responded to the call of God to
distribute His Word, notwithstanding our toilsome efforts, have
experienced many blessings from God. Time and again, we enjoy reading
the many letters that come to us, telling us about the God, Who
blesses. 

With your contribution you enable, for example, the "Computermission"
("Computer Missions Organization"), to reach many individuals at a
number of trade shows with the vitally important Word of God, in that
diskettes and CDs are being distributed free of charge. Those in
charge at LifeNet allow their infrastructure to be used for this
ministry and take part without pay in various trade show campaigns

  The time of harvest is here. Who will help through prayer and
  through giving? 

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