Newsletter

September, 1997

Dear Friends and Support Team,

Since school began earlier this month we have seen a noticeable upswing in the number of log-ons at the C.I.M. web site. This is encouraging to us because of our desire to reach the inquiring minds of students. With this increase we have also seen a corresponding hike in our email. Recently, we have been corresponding with an atheist from Stanford U. who wants to debate us about everything at our website. We have had letters about the occult, Satan, the unpardonable sin, Islam, cremation, etc. Keeping up with our email is becoming a difficult task.

Recently Cecil Price®, our Research Associate, wrote a letter describing C.I.M.'s ministry to some of his supporters. I would like to share portion of it with you since this is also your ministry.

Christian Information Ministries International exists to provide helpful information about the Bible and theology and the Christian faith to believers and others interested in an informed Christian worldview. While the staff seeks to assist individuals with specific information requests, an internet web site is available to the world 24 hours a day. Interest in this computer site continues to grow. Currently, the site is visited by 10-14 people per hour adding up to a range of 240 to 340 log-ons per day, or 1600 to 2300 visits a week worldwide. While some regulars check our data periodically, we are seeing about 500 first time visitors per week.

Our tracking indicates that most interest comes from colleges and universities. Yet, individuals, Christian organizations, companies, news organizations, and military personnel, download information each day. Some noteworthy names include: Chevron, Sony, Xerox, the Mayo Clinic, the World Bank, and NASA. We have had requests from all 50 states and Canada. In addition, we have had log-ons from over 100 countries. We are encouraged by the traffic from Middle Eastern and former communist countries. Recently, we have begun to see log-ons from the continent of Africa.

Your support is appreciated. Currently, we are still running behind from the summer slump. Continue to pray for us. Pray for wisdom as we answer dozens of inquiries per week.

The insert this month is in a different format. We felt the movie, Contact, was significant in that it attracted a lot of attention, and was openly billed as a message movie. The movie is based on a book of the same name by author Carl Sagan. Sagan was trained as an astronomer but spend much of his life as a tele-evangelist for his worldview of naturalism. He was a darling of the media and was ubiquitous on TV. He wrote many popular books on scientific themes and was a constant crusader against religion. He is probably the best known for his series on the Cosmosthat appeared on public television. Sagan died last spring and did not live to see the release of the movie. Feel free to make as many copies as you like and share it with friends and college students.

Have a great Fall (My favorite time of the year!).

For Christ and His Kingdom,

Bill Crouse, President