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# Leaving the email machine.
- URL: https://www.belonging.house/leaving-the-email-machine/
- Published: 2026-08-28T10:00:54.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-28T10:00:53.000Z
- Description: Your inbox is a form of abuse now. So I started mailing prayer cards with a stamp instead — and it's working.
- Author: Christ John Otto

Thank you for your prayers.

Do you dread your email inbox?

I have been sending an email every Friday since  
September 2006.  
That's more than a thousand emails.

Even in 2006  
email was still a novelty.

Now the email  
is a form of abuse.  
Companies sell your email address  
to anyone who will pay them  
and then bots start bombarding you  
with messages you never wanted.  
At the same time  
email providers  
edit and censor emails  
before you receive them.  
If they think you are suspicious  
they can give you a hard bounce.  
Somehow the sludge gets through  
when the good stuff is stopped.  
And you have no idea.

And sadly,  
the consumer Christians are worse than the others.

This trend is impacting me  
and this Friday Email.  
For two decades we have built an online community  
around my messages.  
And it has, until recently,  
grown organically.  
For about 18 years I gained 2-5 subscribers a week.  
Until,  
as I said,  
recently.  
People are sick of emails.

There is always a solution,  
and in a world of AI driven  
virtual reality,  
real things matter.  
Real things you can hold in your hands.  
In the spring, I stopped emailing the people  
who pray for me.  
I decided to take out my sketch book  
and draw a prayer update.  
I mailed it to 20 people.  
With a stamp.

I went to a friend's house,  
and there it was,  
on the refrigerator.

I went to another friend's house  
and there it was,  
on the coffee table.

Another friend called me,  
and thanked me.  
They keep theirs in their Bible.

Two months into the project,  
I added our regular financial supporters.  
And God started telling people to send me stamps.  
I never asked.  
Stamps are the new toilet paper.

The mailing list is up to 55 people from 20.

And now I found a good printer who can help me out.

I am not stopping the Friday email.  
But I have moved it to our own Domain.  
https://Belonging.house.  
Safelist @belonging.house if you don't want to miss an email.  
If you followed me on Substack,  
you may have noticed I am no longer there.

In September I will talk more about how you can receive  
the monthly prayer card.

There are other changes coming.  
Listen to the Lord  
and do what he tells you.  
Fear not God can be trusted.  
Become a master copy of Jesus  
the Icon of the Father.

Be real.

He Never Fails.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ed/59/ed590bfa-368b-4bcf-b1f2-6ba9ca9abcdb/content/images/2026/08/Untitled---March-24--2026-at-07.09.24-1.png)

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