ok, been here a while and this is my first contest, so please go easy on me
About our site:
http://www.praisecafe.org Established in October 1999 as
www.stand318.com we were the online arm of a local university's Christian-based ministry started by a group of my friends. Both the brick-n-mortar group and the online were/are fairly cutting edge, ministering mostly to people who don't normally attend a church somewhere or those who just weren't being reached by the methods their parents and grandparents liked. In the last year our name has changed, but we're still the same JesusFreaks
For content we have a photo gallery powered by imagefolio, it's ubb-integrated and allows members to create their own gallery as well as chronicle our events, meetings, and trips:
http://www.praisecafe.org/imagefolio/imageFolio.cgi We also have space for an ezine:
http://www.praisecafe.org/thelink/cgi/ultimatebb.cgi?category=2 a couple of blogs:
http://www.praisecafe.org/thelink/ultimatebb.php?category=1 and a
kickin online radio station:
![[Linked Image]](http://www.praisecafe.org/radio/pj_badge.gif)
(click that badge in the right column at our site to launch it).
The central part of our site is our forums:
http://www.praisecafe.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php We believe everyone should have balance in their lives - spiritual, physical and social, so we try to keep topics varied. Our
general topics forum is one of our busiest, we discuss movies, music, and books in our
\'word on the street\' forum, we share poetry and creative writing in the
wow forum,
prayer requests , private forums for men and women to discuss more
private issues
, and
even a
forum for Bible study 
.
Our last 2 forums is where I post our 3 topics that probably best represent the content of our site.
What it means to be single and Christian - a topic that ended up stretching 14 pages, we talk about singleness, sex, dating, etc... topics that are usually glossed over, if ever talked about, in Sunday School
What makes you, You? - websites can be fairly impersonal, one of the best parts about online communities is that we can interactively reveal parts of ourselves to make others realize they aren't as uniquely weird as they thought:
quote:
Originally posted by Sapharina:
Ok, I know this topic hasn't been visited it a while.... but NOW...now I really understand WHY I love you ALL SO MUCH!!!! Y'all are ALL weird...JUST LIKE ME!!!
:p
God Can\'t Love Me - a more serious topic, we all have times in our lives we feel like if God is real, He hates me.
quote:
[qb]My friend told me about God. How can God love me? I don't even love myself. If God is love, how come I hurt so bad? Why am I so confused. My friend said God will forgive me...I can't even forgive myself. God must hate me. All these things are going wrong in my life. I don't even think God is real. And even if he's real, why would he care about me? Alot of people tell me I'm beautiful, but I hate myself. I look in the mirror and hate what I see. Once I even thought about killing myself. I tried, but then I stopped. Can God love someone who thinks like that? I don't even think God can help me.[/qb]
We dealt with hate, child abuse, abandonment, and perfect love. We don't have all the answers, but there's more than a few willing to look for them when someone needs them.
Bonus topic:
Men are NOT from mars - how do we deal with each other as men, women and humans?
quote:
Originally posted by UnconventionalKrisChen:
If absolutely nothing else, please continue being yourself here. This is a safe place of warm caring people. We'll offer support if we can and a boot in the butt if you need that.
quote:
[qb] Originally posted by UnconventionalKrisChen:
Just want to say I love y'all and I'm so glad that God brought me here. Half tongue in cheek I sometimes say one of two things about the human situation. a) "The only thing wrong with this world is people." b) " I hate people." Coming here renews my faith in mankind constantly. [/qb]
Thanks for the opportunity to show our site off, win or lose, grab a cup of coffee and join us in silly or serious discussion
