Early in January, you may have noticed that our website was down for about two days due to some unfortunate events at the business where our web server had been located. Previously, the owner of this business had graciously donated our bandwidth at no cost. On January 9, we were informed that the business was being forcibly closing down and we would need to move our server within the next 24 hours or else risk losing it completely! This meant that the AudioVerse website would be down until we could retrieve the server, find a new hosting provider, and set up at the new location.

It's a long story but through the grace of God, AudioVerse was offline for less than 48 hours and our server is now hosted in a secure location connected to the backbone of the Internet in Los Angeles. Although we now have monthly expenditures for server hosting and bandwidth, God has blessed us with an extremely low rate, around $400 per month. To read the full account of God's providence, please see the longer version below. And if you would like to help cover the costs of hosting, please see our Donations page.

Thank you for your support as we continue to spread God's end-time message through media!

Maranatha,

The AudioVerse Team

The Full Story

Early in January, you may have noticed that our website was down for about two days due to some unfortunate events at the business where our web server had been located. Please allow us to fill you in on some of the details.

Background

For the majority of AudioVerse's existence, our dedicated web server has been hosted free of cost at an Internet Service Provider business in Sonora, California, that was owned and operated by a Friend of the Cause. At the time this arrangement began, nobody knew how far the Lord would take AudioVerse, and that this would end up saving us an estimated $15,000 to $25,000 in hosting and bandwidth costs over the next 4 years.

The Crisis

On Thursday, January 7th, we learned from that Friend that some very unfortunate things were happening at his business, and it would have to close down by the end of that month. Fearing that we would need to move our server on very short notice, our Technical Director spent the next two days intensely looking for a new hosting provider. By God's grace, the field was quickly narrowed down to two good options.

Late on the next day, Friday, January 8th, we heard from our Friend again. He shared that while we would need to move the server soon, it was not necessarily urgent. We decided to continue researching the options and to retrieve the server two weeks later.

With that, our Technical Director turned to the next task at hand, recording the GLOW Rally 2010 in Fresno, California on the coming Sunday. Fresno is only a couple of hours from where the server was located, and many hours closer to it than where he and his wife live. Late Saturday night, January 9th, we heard from our Friend again. The situation at his business had turned from bad to worse, and we urgently needed to remove the server within the next 24 hours.

The Response

So, in the middle of the GLOW Rally on Sunday, our Technical Director slipped away and went to work redirecting all AudioVerse website traffic to temporary web pages off-site that would notify our visitors of the situation. Later that day, our Friend and his family retrieved our web server and drove it down to us at the end of the GLOW Rally.

Immediately the next morning, Monday, January 11th, with AudioVerse's precious little web server sitting idle at his feet, our Technical Director revisited the hosting options and we decided which provider to go with. By 11:00 AM the next day, Tuesday, January 12th, less than 48 hours after the server had gone offline, it was back up and running again in a new home.

The Miracle

Dear reader, God is so good! He knows our needs even before we realize them. As we think back on this situation, we are given fresh evidence of God's most excellent choreography, His perfect foresight, and how desperate He is to help His feeble, sinful servants to proclaim the messages of Bible truth to lands near and far. In this story, we see not just one miracle of His grace, but several.

First, He made sure that the situation at our friend's business was presented with enough urgency to move us to thoroughly research the hosting options on that Thursday and Friday. Having this done meant that by the time the server was in the hands of our Technical Director, he was very quickly able to narrow down the options Monday morning.

Second, God eased our minds about the situation during the Sabbath hours, allowing us to enjoy His rest day and to be collected enough for our team to pack and drive to the GLOW rally that Saturday night.

Third, God placed friends of AudioVerse at the GLOW Rally who made it very easy for our Technical Director to get Internet access on Sunday afternoon for redirecting AudioVerse web traffic.

Fourth, God made the process of retrieving our web server extremely easy. Due to the GLOW Rally, our Technical Director was already 2/3rd of the distance to Sonora from his home. Had the rally been scheduled for any other weekend, retrieving the server would have involved a dedicated 2-day road trip to Sonora and back. Furthermore, the friend who was hosting the server drove it down from Sonora to Fresno, which meant our team didn't have to drive a single mile extra! This minimized the time it would take getting home from the GLOW Rally, which was a great blessing because we were already operating on a tight schedule.

Fifth, and perhaps the most notable, is our new web hosting situation. A few months ago, the Lord brought Elder Jim Ayer onto AudioVerse's Board of Directors. When Jim heard about the crisis, he put our Technical Director in contact with Todd Bandenberg of Pocket iNet Communications. Todd is also a Friend of the Cause, and the Lord put it on his heart to host our server alongside his other servers in downtown Los Angeles, California. This would bring our new hosting costs down to 1/3rd or ½ of what any other service provider would have charged. And it puts our server in a very secure building, right on the backbone of the Internet as it passes through Los Angeles. In fact, we are told that many big-name companies like Verizon and AT&T host their servers there too. For the price, we can't imagine a hosting situation that is more secure, more reliable, and faster than this!

The Need

The only downside of our new hosting situation is that AudioVerse now must pay for its server hosting and bandwidth. However, it means that you, dear reader, can share more directly in the blessing of providing so many Bible-based, Truth-filled messages to thousands and millions of people across the planet. Currently the hosting costs for AudioVerse will range from around $350 to $400 per month. We may also need to purchase some additional server hardware at an additional cost of $2000 to $3000.

The Conclusion

Again, we are grateful to God for lavishing His grace upon us so thoroughly through this crisis. Jesus is coming soon! Heaven knows about AudioVerse and is lending its support in tremendous ways, helping us His weak and erring instruments to proclaim Bible truth in ways we never dreamed we'd be doing!

We also owe a debt of gratitude to our friends from Sonora who hosted AudioVerse over the last 4 years. Gratitude also must go to the hundreds of individuals and organizations whose recordings appear on AudioVerse's websites. By allowing these recordings to be distributed for free on the Internet, stars are daily being added to your heavenly crowns.

We extend our thanks also to Todd Bandenberg for his willingness to host our server, and on such short notice. We realize it is worth much more than we are paying! We look forward to the coming years of working with him, and to seeing the blessings that God must surely bring upon his business for helping us in this way.

We also want to thank you, our website visitors, for your patience through the years as we have learned what it takes to operate a website and ministry such as this, and as we have experienced various technical and logistical issues in the process. Laborers are always few, and the challenges many, but praise be to God!

If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to help cover the costs of hosting, or for our new server, please see our Donations page. Thank you!