West Virginia Christian and TheBible.net

 

Jody Apple

Thanks to the hard work of Albert Farley and a host of excellent writers and contributors, West Virginia Christian has been reaching the mailboxes of grateful readers for eleven years. Our hope and prayer is that it continues for many years to come.

Ten months ago the paper increased its readership well beyond the Ohio Valley. Again, thanks to Albert's hard work, issues of West Virginia Christian now appear online at TheBible.net. You can access WVC issues from March 2004 forward simply by logging on to the internet and entering this URL: www.TheBible.net/wvc. That web address is the permanent home of West Virginia Christian Online. Lord willing, both past and future issues will be added to the site.

It's great to have a copy of WVC by your bedside to read every night; WVC Online provides additional benefits. You can now copy and paste articles and use them in church bulletins or email them to friends. Copy and paste them into your word processor and use them for Bible classes or in home Bible studies. Copy and file them electronically for future study. Have you misplaced an issue? If that favorite article by your favorite writer was published since March 2004, it's online now. This permanent, accessible repository of WVC articles will prove to be a valuable resource for years to come. Though the actual paper goes to 2500+ addresses, it's possible for thousands more, even tens of thousands, to read the paper online.

There's more: In addition to reading WVC Online, you can access hundreds of audio files, and hundreds of articles, numerous reference materials, discussion forums, news updates, Bible texts, and more by using WVC's host, TheBible.net. TheBible.net also features hundreds of articles for children written by Mark McWhorter; McGarvey's Commentary on Acts and The FourFold Gospel, Nave's Topical Bible Studies, Easton's Bible Dictionary, and other reference works.

TheBible.net hosts an online school: the Internet School of Biblical Studies. ISBS provides Christians (non-Christians too) the opportunity to study God's word wherever they are, whenever they choose. Sound brothers and sisters in Christ use articles, lesson materials, audio files, books, discussion forums, and more to teach more than a hundred students each term through ISBS.

This writer has solely financed TheBible.net since its inception. Though it already represents a considerable investment in time, energy, and finances, it has a long way to go to be the best tool possible. Future plans call for an increased role for Internet School of Biblical Studies by expanding our faculty to 50 faithful Christians, adding courses through streaming video, and expanding our enrollment to 1,000 students or more per year.

I encourage you to support TheBible.net. It is not only worth every cent invested in it, but it is also one of the most cost effective good works in the Lord's kingdom. TheBible.net and the Internet School of Biblical Studies have no full time staff, only volunteers. No one makes any money from this effort; everything we provide is free.

We are raising $6000 to allow us to (1) purchase new software and hardware, (2) lease our own dedicated server, and (3) pay for technical support (graphic and programming) for the next year. Our goal is to raise that $6,000 by January/February of 2005. One third has already been raised. These funds will allow us to convert and upload audio and video courses created by World Video Bible School (with their express permission) for online use. Imagine thousands - even tens of thousands - of souls all over the world watching sound Bible teaching as a result of these efforts.

Upgrading to our own dedicated server will increase our data capacity by a factor of 80. We will be able to host 80 times the audio, video, text, and graphic content that TheBible.net currently hosts. I've estimated that just half of the server space will hold 800-1,000 hours of streaming video. Can you imagine having 1,000 hours of easily-accessible gospel preaching and Bible study? Our new server will also allow us to drastically increase our audio files. Currently, we have more than 300 audio files online; our new server will allow us to host thousands more.

We need your help, and we desire your prayers. For more information go to www.TheBible.net/support, or email me at jody - at -TheBible.net. Funds are being accepted by the Media Church of Christ (Attention: Wesley Ewing, Treasurer), 423 South Jackson Street, Media, PA 19063. All records of finances and activity, are online at TheBible.net/support.

 

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