General

March 29, 2004 Newsletter

Technology. For many people, this word describes a mixed bag of thoughts and emotions. On days when the “Check Engine” light illuminates on our dashboard or our computer screen reads, “A Fatal Error Occurred,” we grimace with frustration. On other days, technology is our best friend and we sing its praises.

The bottom line is that technology is a tool. Tools are not an end unto themselves, but can help accomplish a great deal of work. Any tool that helps connect people with the Gospel is valuable.

History has shown that the Lord can use certain tools to trigger a tidal wave of people being drawn into His Kingdom. Six hundred years ago, one such tool was (and still is) the printing press. Today, we believe another such tool is the Internet.

God is already using the Internet to draw students to Himself. One of Campus Crusade’s many websites – www.EveryStudent.com – was developed as a place online for seeking students to investigate who God is. Take a look at just a small sample of the emails David has received from students visiting this site:

Seeking and Searching

—–Original Message—–
From: ———@hotmail.com
>College: tameside
>Is there a god? and if so i would like you to show me if you have any
>kind of proof! Also where is heaven….is it just make believe passed
>through the generations? and what religion are you? Please write back

—–Original Message—–
From: ——-@devuyst.com
To: david.hand@uscm.org
Subject: question
hello, I’m a 21 year old student from ny state. I’ve just finished
reading the article “Is There a God” and had a couple questions about it.
It is very hard for me to explain what I’m talking about but I feel an aweful emptiness eveytime I think about my life and what has caused me to live the way I do. I, for some reason, can’t bring myself to go on without investigating these things. Thank you for your time and I very much respect and appreciate the website.

—–Original Message—–
From: Paul
To: david.hand@uscm.org
Subject: Get Personal – EveryStudent.com
how can you believe in something so blindly? if I told you that there is this book I found about how your religion was wrong would you believe me? I think not. so why are you so sure that there is a god, because the Bible says so? someone could have made the whole thing up and you can’t prove that someone didn’t. maybe what happened to you, you did you self. how about you give yourself some credit. there is no absolutes in life

—–Original Message—–
From: virgi
To: david.hand@uscm.org
Subject: Get Personal – EveryStudent.com
hi david
i think u are in a wrong illusion.let me tell u there is nothing like god
if so then he is not worthy to be called as god. he is sooooooooopartial.even some men are better then him.i am in a mess and i saw u in www.everystudent.com.
well u too can’t help me , but still iam struggling with god a lot , ineed some help,i don;t understand him .hope u can help me
16 yrs old
iam from india
hope u contact me sssoon

Don’t these students sound thirsty for God? Once again, these are all people who freely initiated with us after visiting a website. What an opportunity and privilege to reach students with such significant spiritual questions!

Did You Know?
• 57,000 people visit EveryStudent.com each month
• Google.com – an Internet Search Engine – receives about 200 million requests a day for information on just about everything.
• By 2005, Web users outside the U.S. are forecast to make up 700 million of the total one billion users.
• Currently, countries in the Asia-Pacific region comprise over 50% of all DSL (high speed Internet) users.
• In 2003, Campus Crusade saw almost 10 million people accept Christ in one Asian country

THANK YOU for your vital prayers! Please keep them coming.

David & Shannon