Hi there, my name's Leio. It’s just me here - no big company or investors. I've been developing & designing Spirit Notes for a while now & I'm really excited to finally be able to share it with you. Here's the story of how it has all happened.
I have been in Church now for 8 years. I've served in a myriad of teams and had a blast doing so. I thank God constantly; for all the experiences He's allowed me to have (both with Him and serving alongside others) + the Church I've been able to be a small part of. I've learnt so much from the leaders around me and grown tremendously in this period of my life.
During this time I've also been extremely blessed to be able to professionally work with a bunch of amazing and innovative companies that truly are paving the way for the future of technology and our world. I've played small to large parts in a multitude of amazing projects that I am so proud of.
But, I started to feel that God was calling me towards something new. Something that merged these two things.
I am so thankful for all these experiences and the mentors, leaders, family, friends and clients that have brought me to this point now and continually pour into me.
I believe the modern creative Christian needs to be able to find a balance in creating for the world and the Church. Championing forward our society and the God we serve.
As a unified Church we shouldn't be comparing our technology to technology in the world. We should be leading the world through the Church's technology. Christians everywhere deserve high-quality tools, built on strong principles. Tools and resources that help them in their pursuit of God. Creative solutions that empower people to be their best selves and help them champion the people around them.
So, in striving towards this never-ending goal, I began working on Spirit Notes.
Don't undertake a project unless it is manifestly important and nearly impossible.
-Edwin H. Land
Sometimes we strive too hard for the 'idea' of making innovative products and end up with something that just is not very useful - a trap that happens so often. I wanted to create something that was both innovative and useful. Something real people found benefit in.
In Church, I started having an issue where I would go to find Church sermons/notes from over the years and no matter where I looked I couldn't find them. I would think back on all the revelations that had impacted me from moment to moment. Anything I had learnt at Sunday Church, Christian conferences, leadership meetings, small groups, personal Bible studies and every other time someone imparted their knowledge into me. But when I tried to re-visit these later on, I couldn't find them.
I'd either lost a bunch of these (somewhere in a pile of physical notebooks, disorganized digital notes, recordings on my phone, etc) or actually never documented these anywhere because I did not have a way to express everything easily. Even when I did happen to find some, I was frustrated by only having part of what I wanted. Unable to piece together recordings, notes, images, Bible verses etc. I wished that I had a system that kept this all in one place and even encouraged me to want to document it.
I felt even more disappointment when I went to share these revelations and knowledge with others but again, couldn't find them.
In having discussions I realized that this was a problem that others faced as well. I started to realize the massive benefit that could be had by Christians from a systemized & custom approach to storing and expressing Godly knowledge and personal revelations.
The essence was simple - express, organize and share your revelations in a single app built for Christians.
With that I started to map out the core features of the app, even coming back and taking features from unused ideas that God had given me years before this. I kept having discussions with people and over time felt that this was a problem I could try and solve. At the beginning I was not sure I would be able to accomplish such a huge task as a single person let alone without any outside investment, but after feeling God's prompting to move forward I began the journey creating Spirit Notes - the Bible notes app for Christians everywhere.
I've worked for 2 years on it in my free time (outside of my full time job) to get it to the initial 1.0 version. Do not be fooled, an app like Spirit Notes is extremely complex and every small detail you see (or don't see!) needs to be carefully considered. App development is an exhaustive and emotionally draining art. God has worked through me to make it all happen every step of the way.
For me one of the most evident examples of His provision has been the inclusion of the Bible in Spirit Notes.
When I started, I really wanted to have an innovative way to interact with the Bible in the app. I wanted someone to be able to write a scripture in a note as they normally would but actually be able to read it, right there, automatically.
To be able to create this feature I needed Bible translations to use in the app.
This means each translation's publisher would need to:
As Spirit Notes is such a different type of Christian app, at the beginning I was wary if a single translation would agree to any of this.
But, I am ecstatic to say that Spirit Notes was able to gain contracts for rights/permissions with all of the most popular English Bible Translations. Launching with 13 translations in total. I am so honoured that all of these separate Publishing Houses trust and believe in the vision of Spirit Notes. To think that these translations have been passed down through generations and translated/faithfully worded by 1000's of people and now they're able to be housed within Spirit Notes. This truly is humbling and mind-blowing for me.
This is a single example of God's plan during the development of Spirit Notes. His blessing has been so obvious in so many different scenarios that I would not even be able to list them all.
Innovation and creativity require vulnerability. Spirit Notes has been a labour of love for me. It represents for me personally my spiritual walk and my road so far with God to get to this point. There have been many times over the years I had been confused. Unsure what God was doing or where He was leading me. It is so obvious to me now that every single one of my experiences needed to happen for Spirit Notes to be created.
The value of the app is not how many downloads it has. The app is valuable because it exists. It was made and stands on its own to help people. Helping people for me is where the value lies.
I am so thankful for everything that has already transpired and I do not take this opportunity lightly.
Spirit Notes is going to get better and stronger - I hope it helps you do the same for your Christian walk.
