My Story

One Sunday morning in June 2021, while waiting for mass to begin, an unbidden thought arrived: "Create a board game based on the 12 Apostles."

 

I considered it briefly, then mass started and I forgot about it.

 

The following Sunday, the same thought returned, more solid, more forceful this time. I took notice, gave it passing consideration, and moved on.

 

On the third Sunday, the same words came again. This time, it felt like a metaphorical knock upside my head. It got my full attention and I distinctly remember thinking "oh, you're talking to me" — and I said yes. Three is a number that carries unmistakable weight in Scripture. It felt fitting that it took three tries to get me to look up and say yes.

 

That Sunday, I began what would become a three-year journey to create Dispersion: The Great Commission of the 12 Apostles.

 

I had always loved strategy games, particularly ones that rewarded skill over luck. But I had never designed one. There were many moments in developing Dispersion when a mechanic, a rule, or a point system would simply not work and I'd have no idea how to fix it. I learned to wait and ask the Holy Spirit for help. Invariably, within hours or days, a solution would arrive fully formed. The solution was not something I had reasoned my way to, but something that felt given to me. This happened more times than I can count.

 

Remarkable doesn't quite cover it.

 

While working on Dispersion, I began to feel directed toward other games, including one based on apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I had no idea what the Apparition game would be. For three months, there's that number again, I prayed for direction.

 

Then one morning, without warning, the entire game was deposited into my head. Mechanics, game board elements, card types. All of it, at once. I stopped what I was doing, grabbed a yellow legal pad, and filled three pages of notes. Today's Apparition game is nearly identical to what I wrote down that morning.

 

So what is Higher Calling Games, really?

 

It's two things. First, it's a reminder to listen: to the thoughts that arrive unbidden, to the promptings that return more than once, to the callings that ask something of you. Let your heart confirm what your mind receives. Act on it when you believe it will make you and the world better.

 

Second, it's about games as a gateway: a way to invite players into stories of faith, history, and meaning that they might not otherwise seek out, and to lead them toward higher, soul-fulfilling callings of their own.

 

Like the farmer who built a baseball diamond in an Iowa cornfield after hearing unsolicited words, I strived to build what was asked of me.

 

I'm looking forward to the "and they will come" part.