The biggest news is that our church now has its very own domain! Yes, after two and a half years on Geocities, Tripod, and other free services, we have finally updated to our very own domain at ficotw.org. The letters of our domain name are the initials of our church, hence First International Church Of The Web becomes ficotw, and the .org part represents our status as an organization. This is a big step for our church, and is something I've been praying for since our church first started way back in February of 1997. A very big hug and Thank You to the good folks at the Teddy Bear Monastery, who, on an entirely voluntary basis have paid to register our new domain as well as all the hosting fees and everything! They've done this out of their sincere love of our church, and have my deepest gratitude. How about visiting their wonderful Christian web site and let them know that you appreciate their support of our church as well, okay? Oh, and please update your links to our new domain, since I'm not sure how long the Geocities site will remain up. I do know I won't be updating the Geocities site, since one massive web site is enough to keep up with, but I won't be taking it down any sooner than I have to, either. Still, if you have links to the old site, do please update them.

I am also very pleased to announce that our church's own banner exchange network, the Jesus Is Lord Banner Exchange Network is a wonderful success, with many of our members participating, as well as other mainly Christian websites.

Jesus Is Lord Banner Exchange

Since our last newsletter, another new feature of our church is a page called our Free Virtual ISP Services Page. As readers of our past newsletters know, it's been a habit of mine to bring to the membership's attention many free services I've found available on the Web. Well, I've collected these together and placed them on the ISP Services page as a service to our members. Here you'll find links to sources of free internet access, free web site hosting services, free e-mail services, free newsgroup access, and other services as well. If you're interested in any of these, simply click on the link or banner above.

Many of you have contacted me and told me how much you'd like to help support our church, but simply cannot afford to do so for one reason or another. This is something I completely understand, as we all have budgets we must live within, and we all have other financial obligations which must be met. For this reason, I've put together a Church Fundraising And Income Opportunities Page. Basically, this is a collection primarily of free affiliate programs which I have personally checked out and can verify that they do work and do pay actual commission checks to their participants. By participating in these programs you can not only earn money for youself and your family, but by registering for them through the links on that page, you'll also earn money for our church! And if affiliate programs aren't your cup of tea, you'll even find a program or two that aren't affiliate programs at all, but ways to earn money by simply surfing the web. I'll be adding new programs as time goes by and I'm able to check out other programs for their validity and integrity - I won't recommend anything that I haven't personally tried myself. Of course, no member of our church is required to participate in any of these - I offer them only as a way to help yourself, and help our church as well.

I am also very pleased to announce our church's participation in a wonderful program called The Hunger Site. This program is a way for you to donate free food to the hungry people of the world, at absolutely no cost to yourself! A simple click of the mouse is all that's required for you to donate up to a cup and a half of one of the world's staple foods (such as rice, corn, wheat, beans, etc) to hungry children and adults around the world. The donation itself is paid for by corporate sponsors, and you're allowed to make one donation a day, every day. I think this is a truly great program, and I'm very pleased to have their banner placed on our church's front page, and our bulletin board (one of our church's most visited pages). I also encourage everyone with a web site to consider adding the banner to their own sites. The more sites that participate, the more donations will be made, and by everyone participating we can make a difference. Why not go ahead and click on the banner and make your first free donation right now?

And speaking of the bulletin board, many of you have contacted me and asked, "What happened to the church's bulletin board?" Well, since our last newsletter, the service that was providing the old bulletin board seems to have completely dropped off the face of the planet. I don't know if it folded, went to a pay service, or what, but the bottom line is, one day it was there, and the next day it was gone. Since then, we've reestablished a working bulletin board at another service provider, and you can get there by clicking HERE. The bulletin board is where the real fellowship of our church takes place, with people posting messages to the church and one another, threaded discussions on a variety of topics, prayer requests, personal updates, and it's the first place I announce newsletters and other new additions to our church web site. You'll find a wonderful group of people there, people who want to share fellowship with you, so be sure and visit it often. I'd also like to thank everyone who posted birthday greetings to me on the bulletin board recently - they really did mean a lot to me, and I thank each member who said "Happy Birthday, Dave!".

Before we go, I'd like to ask all members of our church to join me in prayer for the many victims of natural disasters and other violence around the world. From Turkey to Los Angeles, from China to Littleton, from Greece to Indonesia, and many, many other places as well, we truly live in a tumultuous and violent time. Please keep all victims and their families and loved ones in your prayers. Pray also for an end to the violence of our times - may the Love of Our Lord shine into the darkness of our times and into the hearts of those that hate. May His Peace and Love heal those who are hurting, and enlighten those who are following the wrong path. Truly, the signs of the End Times are everywhere for those with eyes to see. Only through Our Lord Jesus Christ is there salvation for our world. Amen? Amen!

Well, that's going to do it for this edition of the newsletter. I do apologize for the break in the regular issuing of the newsletter, and please know that I am going to try and get back into a more regular schedule for them. In the meantime, remember that I Love You, and you remain in my prayers at all times. Thank you for reading the newsletter, and your participation in our church. God Bless You!

Yours in Christ,
Brother Dave

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