Ron Graham’s Report
— for Jan-Feb-Mar 2015
This page reports my voluntary ministry activities for the information of those who take a special interest in my work.
Dear Brethren... This report covers the first quarter of 2015.
Preaching at Bundaberg
During January, February, March, I presented 22 Sunday lessons in Bundaberg. These included 13 sermons, and 9 Bible class studies. The sermons followed no rigid theme, but were all designed to encourage and strengthen, and provide insight into trials.
Bible Classes
In the Bible classes we completed the series "We Beheld His Glory". After that, we studied the parables of Jesus.
Website simplybible.com
What's New
In the quarter, I added 9 new pages to the simplybible.com website. These included two new lessons, and seven pages of Encouraging Bible Verses. The verses are text on beautiful images created by Susanne for facebook. On simplybible.com each image and Bible reference is included in the sitemap which Google uses to index pages.
Faster page loading
Behind the scenes, I did a lot of work designed to speed up page loading by reducing the number of requests to the server. This mainly involved three strategies. First, I grouped several small separate images into single images on which the small images became “sprites”. Second, I combined six javascripts into two, which was not simple but I managed it. Third, I combined three stylesheets into one, which was also tricky. This work has made the site more modern and efficient, but also much easier to manage.
Website Usage
The figures for page views over the quarter were very pleasing. For January 96,486; February 77,436; March 112,449 (source Awstats). That's about 3,100 page views per day on average —and 700 per day more than last quarter. I was expecting less than last quarter. Anyway let's see what happens next quarter.
Overseas Outreach
Whilst the website has its largest audiences in English speaking countries, it also has users in India, South America, African nations, Europe, Asia, and the South Pacific.
Facebook Pages
Susanne has contunued to work on the facebook pages. One of those pages is facebook.com/simplybible and with her attention to the page it has registered much more activity. The page is nearly up to 600 “likes”.
Thank You Again
Again may I say how much I appreciate those who keep on helping me in the Lord’s work. “Without you, I could not do it.”
Love and best wishes in Jesus.