NEWS RELEASE - 11/18/2008
For Immediate Release                       Contact: Marianne C. Ferrans
                                                                            1-877-483-3431
Press Release
Source: www.SimplyChristian.org

A letter from our founders: Simply Christian® prepares for the future. Tuesday November 18, 5:45 pm ET

CRANBERRY TWP. —  November 18, 2008:

Dear Friends of Simply Christian,

Marianne and I wanted to take this opportunity to share with everyone the reasons for a couple changes coming to Simply Christian.   During this past year we have spent a great deal of time in prayer concerning how best to maintain the long-term viabilty of our small volunteer ministry.  As you may know the idea of Simply Christian began about 7 years ago while Marianne was helping teach Sunday school.  Our simple idea has now reached churches across the country by mostly word of mouth and technology like Google.  We have seen the OSS used by churches and families in all 50 states and several foriegn countries.  As a very small, all volunteer ministry our reward has been knowing that we've helped churches and families establish a fun, safe christian educational website that can augment a church's or family's Sunday school teachings. 

During our 7 years we have been able to continue to raise enough funds to allowed us to bring the OSS to everyone. Today it is clear that our nation is facing and will face economical challenges in the coming months.  At the same time, technology is ever changing and in order to keep up with the ever changing technology advances we also must continue to find ways to cover our changing technology costs. 

In the past, there have been recommendations to fund the OSS via adverstising.  Most website efforts today are monetized via advertising.  We have never felt that advertising is an appropriate means of raising funds for the OSS.  The OSS is a children's site and we will not subject the children visiting our site to adverstising.  There have been suggestions to charge a monthly fee.  In fact we tried this for a short time a number of years ago, but while praying about this approach we often felt God calling us to search out all other methods of rasing funds. 

In order to prepare for the challenging times we all face and to insure we can continue to bring the OSS to everyone, beginning almost immediately, the OSS will be available in two versions (i.e.,our original weekly updated OSS anda new standard OSS).  The weekly updated OSS is the version everyone has always been using.  It will continue to be updated weekly with new lessons and new and different activiities.  In order to gain access to the weekly updated OSS we are going to ask that our "friends" provide a small donation during the new sign up process.  The new standard version of the OSS that will be updated only 4 times a year will be made available to everyone, free of charge, from our Simply Christian website. 

Why change now?  If we do not plan and adjust our funding efforts for our ministry now we may not be able to continue with our ministry over the long-term. Being volunteer ministry we are not in a position to operate with a deficit. We hope our friends will understand, this is not a path we choose easily.  Only after much thought and prayer do we believe that after 7 years now is the time that we must ask our friends for their support so we can continue to 'Help Connect the Next Generation with the Word!'.

It is our hope that the combination of donations from our friends who use the weekly updated OSS, our church partners and our corporate sponsors will allow us make the OSS available for years to come as well as explore future possibilities for the OSS.

Thank you for your support in the past and your faithfulness to our Lord.

In Christ,
Ken and Marianne Ferrans
Simply Christian Co-Foudners

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About Simply Christian®:
Simply Christian® is a small, volunteer, nonprofit organization dedicated to helping churches and families connect the next generation with the Word!  Through a combination of education, consulting, providing some Internet related services, and the Online Sunday School™ we help churches augment and further their Sunday school program.

For more information visit www.SimplyChristian.org or contact:

Simply Christian
Marianne C. Ferrans
1-877-483-3431