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Last night at approximately 7pm eastern time I got to enjoy the sight of my playgroup's home, GXE Games of Pompano Beach, FL stock up on their 1st shipment of Redemption product. GXE Games is a secular hobby shop that my local playgroup has found to be their home. Other hobby shops would not allow us to even play there knowing it's a Bible based game and that some of us would witness to their customers.

It's a shame that one of those stores who turned us away have a solid customer base of younger children. GXE is mostly an atmosphere of younger adults. One of the reasons we play there is to just be available to a non-believer, to be a light and a witness. Also to breakdown the crazy idea & notation that some non-believers have of a game based on REAL people, real places and historical events to be weird versus other versions completely devoid of reality. It's saddening to see how much the enemy has blinded the lost.

Anyways, I was on my way to church and remembered that my brother had said the store should be carrying Redemption cards by Tuesday. It was Wednesday evening and I was in the area so I decided to stop by briefly since I had a small window of time available. First thing I did was buy some water in the café and then went to their gaming supply section and register. There I saw Alex, one of the owners and we said hi. I asked him if they got their Redemption product line and he replied that it could literally arrive any minute that Gary, the other owner, had just left to go pick it up.

I really didn't want to wait around too long so I bought some 4 pocket binder sleeves and then headed for the café to leave. Just as I turned the corner Gary blocks the hallway with his hand truck along with three large boxes. I laugh in gladness knowing I'm the only person in my playgroup to witness this. Gary rolled the hand truck across the gaming room up to the counter where the register was and began to open the boxes. The funny thing was that he opens two large boxes that only contained 1-2 products in them. Brushing away all the packing paper and Styrofoam peanuts, Alex finds two Redemption combo booster boxes still perfectly sealed in plastic.

Alex appeared to enjoy cautiously popping open the plastic wrap with a sign of content on his face. After all, this is his store which he works another full-time job just to fund GXE. It's a labor of love for the man. After removing the plastic I could sense his satisfaction in adding a new product line to support his local customers. Alex enjoys what he does.

Afterwards he continued to fold back the lid of the box in half, vertically to display the words, "Redemption". I grow anxious considering I should of left the store 5 minutes ago, yet at the sametime I looked forward to actually having a selection of Redemption products to choose from and make a purchase from. A soon reality compared to a mire imagination six months prior. Alex finally unwrapped & opened both combo booster boxes on top of the counter with packaging taking up most of the space and turned the displays about-face towards me. The moment I had been waiting for, I selected an Apostles, Kings and Patriarchs boosters and stacked them. I can still hear the ruffle of the plastic in my ears.

Alex actually wasn't sure of their set retail price at the moment and asked me what do they normally go for. I told him a dollar, just kidding! Making sure you're still paying attention. I told him straight up, $3.00. He told me three for nine bucks, I open my bi-fold, brown leather wallet and throw down a Hamilton ($10 bill) onto the glass counter-top. Then I grabbed my change, boosters packs, bag and water bottle, and said good night to Gary and Alex and then left the store.

So that was the night GXE Gaming stocked their shelfs with Redemption supplies. What's cooler is knowing everytime someone notices the new product line, the headline, "REDEMPTION" crosses their mind. It's a seed sown, whether they realize it or not, God is reaching out to them. Even if it's as innocent as a collectible card game that tells a story. A story of how a loving Father "Redeemed" a lost world back to Himself through a Man called .... Jesus.

Awesome story!  Thanks for sharing!

That is epic! Thanks for sharing! I love to see that! Its hard enough to get Christian shops to stock it.

Great!  Nice to see another door opened.

More importantly, the door stayed open when he started to walk through it. 

God will certainly bless your efforts as a "good and faithful servant." 

Quote from: SomeKittens on July 29, 2010, 09:59:55 PM

Great!  Nice to see another door opened.

More importantly, the door stayed open when he started to walk through it. 

God will certainly bless your efforts as a "good and faithful servant." 

haha, right so that it didn't smack me in the face? Need those from time to time.

I've always been glad that Redemption is one of the few Christian product lines with material as good or better than the competition (Testamints, I'm looking at you). It may have some severe balance problems (speed and TGT, I'm looking at you) but I think the structure of the game and the next set will combine to put it above MTG in terms of gameplay.

N.T. lost soul, */4 LS, Female LS, Altar of Ahaz, and Judas' Plot.

considering only 2 of those lost souls are valid since the fem can still be sog'd, that leaves at the bare minimum 12 lost souls that CAN be sog/nj'd in a normal t1 game. altar of ahaz is useless (like 99% of top decks dont use humans, captured ark, or don) and while i do agree judas plot is an amazing card, its only viable for crimson.

If the game were as unbalanced as you said in your last post, then why are you playing it?  I think you are exaggerating, or else not being honest with yourself.  Either it is a bit unbalanced but still quite fun and playable, or else it to too unbalanced to be fun and playable.  If it is the former, then stop exaggerating.  If it is the latter, then stop playing.  

i love when people say this, because i've only heard this on this board about 2934903840932 times already. i dont know, why DO people still do things despite the things they do having flaws? is this even a legitimate rebuttal by now? can you name a single ccg that doesnt have a flaw? yet why do we still play them? can we ditch the 'if you dont like it, dont do it' attitude because we are all pretty capable of figuring out there are many, many, many reasons people still do things that have hiccups in them?

Guys this has been moved to another topic with a similar name.

Oh, I see the problem. It was moved to Open Discussion which is restricted by age. Sorry. I forgot about that.

Thank goodness I f5'd before posting.