Let me first say that I hope the first day of March is as lovely where you are as it is here in Augusta, Georgia. If not, I'm sorry to hear that, but hang in there, spring is on its way, or, for those members in the southern hemisphere (hello Australia and New Zealand!), fall is on it's way for you! The next few months are absolutely my most favorite time of year, and I hope it proves to be a happy time for you, as well.

Well, I have a little web site news to share with everyone. I had received several comments about the length of time it takes for our website to load. Well, I finally learned a few things about graphics, and have changed some .jpeg images to .gif images on our front page, and it has really made a difference in the loading time. I also made the same changes on the International Alliance Of Web-Based Churches page, and that one's loading a lot faster, too. Sorry it took me so long to figure out the differences in the two formats, but better late than never, right?

There has been some concern also about the mailing list for the church membership, as well as some folks wondering why the mailing list isn't posted on the web site somewhere so that members can contact each other, and I'd like to address both issues together. First off, your e-mail address, as well as any other information like phone numbers, home addresses, etc., are held in the strictest confidence. I will never give out any of this information to anyone without your explicit approval. In fact, when you receive your newsletter notification, you should only see two addresses on there, mine, and yours. I always use the bcc feature of my e-mail program, and will continue to do so (in fact, I wish more people would do so, might cut down on some of the spam I receive). This is the same reason I don't post our church mailing list anywhere on the site. While I know that our own members would only use these addresses for proper purposes, our church is open to the public, and not everyone is so hesitant to use addresses for spamming purposes. So, again, your information is held in the strictest confidence, and I will always do my best to respect and protect each member's privacy. Of course, if you'd like to let other members know your e-mail address, so they can reach you for whatever reason, then the church bulletin board remains the best place for you to do that. And, as I've mentioned in earlier newsletters, many of our members stay in touch with each other through e-mail, icq, instant messenger, and other ways over the internet. We are, after all, a fellowship.

Membership continues to increase, and I fully expect by our next newsletter to be able to announce we've reached 300 members. Of course, the best way for this to happen is for you, the members, to help spread the word about our church. You can do this by posting a link on your web site, in your e-mail, or even simply by word of mouth. Hey, why not forward our church home page to somewhere on your own mailing list? You never know, maybe they'll get saved! Praise God!

Well, I have a few prayer requests I'd like to pass along, and ask each member to pray on. First, several of our members have lost loved ones lately. My heart truly goes out to them and their families. Won't you pray for them also, and pray that God's peace will be with them during their time of loss? Also, here in the United States, we've had some terrible weather in some places due to El Nino, and many of our members live either in or near those areas. Please keep them in your prayers, as well as members in other countries around the world who are also affected by this particular weather phenomenon. I'd also like to thank everyone who responded to our church's call for prayer for peace during the recent time of military and political saber-rattling. God truly does answer prayers. Amen? Amen!

Well, that's it for this edition of the church newsletter. As always, please remember to join our church fellowship chat session on Monday evenings from 8pm to 10pm Eastern (check the time zone information page on our site to see how this relates to your own time zone), if at all possible. It's held in our church chat room, and if anything happens to that room, we use the java-based chat room for a backup. And don't forget about the bulletin board, prayer request message board, and testimonial message board on our site, as well. After all, fellowship is one of the best features of our church! Until next time, you remain in my prayers at all times. May God's richest blessings rain abundantly onto you all. God bless you.

Yours in Christ,
Brother Dave