Dear friends,

Greetings! This is the year-end newsletter of Apologetics Index. In this letter we share some news, statistics and other facts about our online and offline ministry.

This has been one of the most interesting and exciting years in the history of Apologetics Index. We've seen growth in every area of ministry, have seen lives changed for the better, and have experienced God's rich blessings. We have also suffered a major computer crash, dealt with some other crises, and have somehow made it through the year on a shoestring budget.

That said, we are looking forward to another exciting and fruitful year, in which we hope to expand both our online presence and our offline ministry. In this lengthier-than-normal newsletter we'll address the following topics:

• Introduction
  
• Websites Overview
  
• - Apologetics Index
  
• - Religion News Blog
  
• - CultFAQ.org
  
• - GraceAndMercy.org
  
• - HouseChurch.nl
  
• Feedback and Results
  
• About The Ads
  
• Offline Ministry Overview
  
• Our Ministry Philosophy
  
• Website Facts and Figures
  
• Financial Situation and Needs
  
• Prayer Requests
  
• In Closing
  

Our sites are doing well, both in terms of number of visitors and lives impacted (as measured, as best as possible, via feedback received).

Compared with last year, traffic to our combined websites has increased by 61%, to an average of 17,234 unique visitors a day. The bulk of this traffic is received by Apologetics Index and Religion News Blog. Our web hosting company has assured us they could handle such traffic, but that turned out to be incorrect. In March, both main sites suffered several outages, some lasting for days.

The search for another hosting company was challenging. Inexpensive services abound, but they offer either too little space and/or too little bandwidth, and/or too little 'mysql' database capacity.

We eventually settled on two so-called 'reseller' accounts at midphase.com, a hosting company that has pleasantly surprised us throughout the year with its fast, friendly, and effective customer support - along with excellent hosting packages. Instead of reselling space and traffic, we use the full capacity of these accounts - located on semi-dedicated servers - ourselves.

However, this move meant a big step of faith for us. Those who know us, know that Janet and and I live on one, limited income. Hence our budget simply cannot bear the monthly expenses associated with these reseller accounts. Fortunately, the kind support of a number of Christians and non-Christians(!) has enabled us to pay for these ministry-related expenses - at least through the end of this year.

We have recently begun to refer to the Apologetics Index 'family of websites.' Most people are familiar with our primary sites, Apologetics Index and Religion News Blog. New sites added this year are: CultFAQ.org, GraceAndMercy.org, and HouseChurch.nl. Early next year we will be adding SpiritualAbuseFAQ.org.

In the following pages, we will share specific information about each of our websites.

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