I'm connected to LA VIDA Education in Nicaragua in a few different ways.  First off, my church has been supporting the ministry financially, prayerfully, and though work trips for the last few years.  Secondly, as of last week, SnapShot Web is powering the ministry website.  Finally, my family has decided that we will be supporting LA VIDA with our Christmas Giving this year.

If you are still looking for a way to give a meaningful gift this Christmas, check out LA VIDA Education and see what you can do to help provide educational resources and extracurricular programs to schools and communities in Nicaragua.  

Check out this testimonial from a SnapShot User at Hayward Wesleyan Church.  Also be sure to take a look at their Youth Ministry Website and their Church Website.  You may get some great ideas on ways to take your own Church Website to a great new level.  Here's what Jeremy has to say:

I don't know about you, but I use the internet for almost everything. My personal and profession email, calendar, contacts, web searches, pictures, videos, etc are all online. If I need to know something, I google it. If I need a video clip, graphic, activity idea, inspiration for a teaching lesson, etc, I go online and search for it. Translate that to my local ministry context with youth and children: when people want to know what time an event is, or a Release Form they forgot to pick up at church, or how much an event costs, or what is my child learning about, or what music is my child singing, or who are these weird people at Hayward Wesleyan Church and why do they enjoy ministering with youth and children so much... they go to the internet.

Before we purchased SnapShot Web, we had a custom built website that wasn't very good. And when I say "we" it wasn't the youth and children's ministry, it was the church's main website. By the time the website went live most of the pics were outdated, content was no longer relevant (because it was outdated), and we didn't have a convenient and timely way to update content and events as needed. It wasn't user-friendly at all.

Enter SnapShot Web.  I discovered SnapShot Web through Simply Youth Ministry resources. I was drawn to the idea that we (in-house) would be able to create and maintain a website and its content ourselves without having to learn about CSS, HTML, Web Hosting, FTP, etc from scratch. SnapShot Web provides the container, the portal, access to all the features you might need, and the ability for the end-user to create and maintain and update content as needed. They also provide many tools and videos and ideas and suggestions about what is possible and ways to learn about making things not only look great, but also usable and interactive for the average visitor to our site. I have thoroughly enjoyed the freedom to create our own content and make the website our own in a very simple, easy and intuitive manner. I can't tell you how easy it has been to create and maintain an online presence for our youth and children and their parents in our community.

One of the things I really enjoy about SnapShot Web is that I can update content ANYTIME and ANYWHERE there is a web connection. I don't have to be on a special computer with special software attached to a special server. I can be literally anywhere and update and upload content as needed.  I can also embed videos from YouTube and Vimeo (virtually anywhere) on our website. Upload and link PDF documents for forms. Graphics and pictures and links are a breeze to do. Connect the site with Facebook, etc. It's been fun to upload and share curriculum and ideas and content with the world (via the internet), so not only do our local church community benefit from the connectedness and information, but the entire church community benefits from some of the things we do and share with everyone. I think it's fun doing that and the website has really helped with that. I can't imagine how much our current website would cost if we had to hire a firm to generate the current website we have... and we have created that!

My sister just got back from India.  She was there for just over a month working on a movie called Not Today.  It's a movie that will highlight the devastating issue of human trafficking.  It's a movie that has a great cast and crew, an important message, and is generating a good amount of recent press (and I'd say all that even if my sister weren't involved.)

Here's a quick blurb about the plot from the movie's website:

At SnapShot Web, We pride ourselves on going above and beyond helping you make your church or ministry website into something beautiful, effective, and amazing.  We love to support you as you manage your SnapShot Website.  We'll often get a phone call or email that begins with "So sorry to bother you but..." It's never a bother.  Helping you is what we love to do.  We see it as a great gift and joy to get to support you and your ministry in this way.

Occasionally we will have a SnapShot Web user that doesn't ask any questions.  This sometimes means that she or he is not working with their site much.  It sometimes means that they are comfortable with the most basic setting and they will leave their site as it is.  And it sometimes means that they are a super-user - so gifted at working with the SnapShot Web tools that they may have things they could teach us.

Grace for Africa - a beautiful ministry with a stellar website.  They are committed to sharing the love and grace of God with the people of Africa.  They have some amazing things happening.  The recently gave us some specific and flattering feedback about how they are using their SnapShot Website.  Kellie Barrett from Grace for Africa had this to say:

 There are a lot of great things about SnapShot but what I love most about this site is that...

1. It's completely what you want it to be. If you want to choose from their templates - you have a lot of great ones to choose from; if you want to make your own design you can do that too.
2. Any question you have regarding your site will be answered within minutes! Absolutely any questions and like I said I do not have experience in site design so most of my questions seemed very elementary and yet they were answered clearly and efficiently.
3. It's SO easy to learn the ins and outs of the site. The support team is there always but there are also video tutorials explaining every module/option on the site. Very very user friendly!

There is a Ministry at Milligan College called Youth In Ministry.  They have had a SnapShot Website for quite a while and they have some great things happening.  Here's what they had to say when we asked them about the latest happenings:

Our ministry is called Youth in Ministry or YiM for short. We partner with...

We met Matt Swider at the Simply Youth Ministry Conference in Chicago a few months ago.  He wanted to get his youth ministry set up with a stellar website but he quickly admitted that he was far from web savvy.  "No problem," we told him.  We set him up with a site and he was working on it the next day. 

Here's what's really cool... Matt has a student in his ministry that has some great design and web skills.  This student took one of the SnapShot Web templates and started making custom tweaks to make it his own.  You've got to check out the finished product at www.helenavoltage.com.  While you are on their site, make sure you take a look at their staff page (rollover the images to see some great effects) as well as their photo galleries. 

Well done guys.

Incarnate Consulting is made up of proven, veteran youth workers who have been in ministry for at least 10 years. The "whole church approach" that they use includes helping a church develop a vision for kids in their church and community, finding the right people to do the job, and helping to develop a strategy for reaching and keeping kids. Their ministry is designed for churches who want professional ministry but can’t afford it or churches wanting to save as much as possible for when the right person comes along.

They have been using their SnapShot Website for almost 2 years and with just about an hour and a half every week working on the website, they’re able to make regular changes to directly help youth workers, including games, talks, and seasonal blogs that create a jumping off point for their members to use at their churches. With the SnapShot Web tools and support, they have set up a site that's easy to navigate, clear to read and full of valuable information.

In His Eyes Ministries is about bringing God's perspective into the everyday lives of women.  The ministry offers a variety of resources in print and in person in order to develop authentic discipleship relationships.  The ministry is run by April Motl.  She a fairly new SnapShot Web user.  We talked with her recently about her experience with her new SnapShot Website and here's what she had to say:

Over the past few years I have tried six previous methods/services to create a website and I finally have a site I am really happy with.  Snapshot's design tools were simple to use and the appearance of the site was fairly consistent across different web browsers- something that has always been a bit of a nuisance.  The design tools offered a level of creativity/freedom I was very happy with, but did not require a ton of technical knowledge. 

Make sure you check out April's ministry and her new website at www.inhiseyesministries.com.

It's Day 4 of the 90 day Bible Project for First Student Ministries.  A few years ago, I decided that I wanted to read through the Bible in a year.  It was a good year.  These guys are doing it in 90 days.  They've done the math and they say with just about 45 minutes and 12 pages a day, they can pull it off.  I love it.  What a amazing feat.  Their encouraging the students in their ministry and their families to join them.

Not only that but they are cataloging the journey on their website.  Each day at midnight they put up a new video, a new key verse for the day and a link to to a new resource that will help people in this adventure.  Each week's message at their program night will focus on the scripture reading for the previous week.  Check out their site to follow the daily updates. Check out their sweet video archive.  Join them if you dare. 

Check out this SnapShot Website that's being used for an upcoming movie project with an amazing cause.  Go to www.nottodaythemovie.com and watch the videos that they have on their home page, check out some of the recent blog posts, follow them on facebook and twitter, and see how you can be involved.

The movie will draw attention to the horrific issue of human trafficking by telling the story of a college student who travels to India for a summer trip with a few friends.  He finds himself in a situation that will change his life forever.  He meets a young girl and her father, Dalits by birth, who are facing starvation and plead for his help.

Anyway, we came across this recently and couldn't help but share it with you.