Real Time Believers Retired
Today marks the end of an era in my online activities and personal ministries. Seven years ago today - that is, May 20, 2007 - I registered the domain name www.realtimebelievers.com, bought a hosting plan, and set up a relatively simple phpBB forum as a temporary home for the displaced users of the Real Time Faith message board.
Real Time Faith (RTF) was the lively and global online community for Adventist teenagers connected with the Real Time Faith Sabbath School lessons and promoted in the Guide magazine. I had joined RTF in December 2002 and was asked to be a moderator the next month. For six and a half years, I worked with Adventist youth from all over the global, answering their questions, studying the Bible with them, always pointing them back to Christ, and doing my best to be a godly role model.
In May 2007, suddenly and without much forewarning, the owners of Real Time Faith decided to close down the message board. There was no place for the hundred youth to turn to online, so I created Real Time Believers (RTB). My intention for the new forum was to be simply a temporary home until a new online community for Adventist youth was created, as there were rumors that the North American Division was planning such a thing. Eventually, they did reveal Adventist Youth Space, an interactive community built on the Ning platform and currently gone. The youth of RTB, however, did not transition over to the new site. They preferred the environment of RTB. As the years passed, fewer and fewer new members signed up and the site went quiet as the older members went off to college, graduated from college, married, and continued living their lives.
Meanwhile, I used the RTB hosting plan to create a Christian blog called UNashamed. I kept the RTB forum accessible for awhile, just in case any of the old users wanted to pop in to say hello or reminisce by browsing old posts. Though the forum unofficially closed back in 2012 due to diminishing activity, today is the day that Real Time Believers officially retires. The domain name has expired and the purpose of the site has changed significantly. A bittersweet moment indeed!
All of us RTBers will take with us many fond memories, and I will keep the forum, as if, available for existing members at http://unashamedblog.com/forum. It was an honor and a privilege to mentor Adventist youth from December 2002 until 2012 using the medium of an online community. It was a beautiful, powerful ministry that touched many lives and enriched my own walk with Christ; however, it is time to look to the future and new endeavors that Lord has in store.
And to any RTBers who may somehow find this post:
To my dear RTBers,
Whether we ever have the opportunity to meet in this life or if we will have to wait until Christ’s coming, I pray we can spare a moment of eternity to gather underneath the branches of the Tree of Life, perhaps dangling our feet in the River of Life, and reminisce on the time we shared first on RTF and then on RTB. If I have in even the smallest way touched your life for the better, than I am truly and deeply honored, but I want you to know that you have influenced my life greatly and left a mark on my heart that will never be removed nor forgotten. Thank you! May you always find peace, comfort, and strength in the Lord, no matter the challenges you face, and please remember that, no matter how lonely or alone you may find yourself in this world, you always have a friend in me. And remember, “I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13)
Your sister in Christ,
~Jacquelyn