Student’s Bible Web Site Reaches around the World

A Bible research Web site created by a Calvin senior is reaching a worldwide audience.

Nathan Beach, a 21-year old computer science major from Ann Arbor, Mich., gets more than 1.3 million page views per month on his site, www.ChristNotes.org. A quarter of those come from people living outside the U.S. in places such as South Africa, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, and more than a hundred other countries.

"I love the fact that it’s a way for me to bless people all over the world—people I've never met and probably never will meet," said Beach, who began building Christ Notes when he was in the eighth grade as a way to learn about Web sites.

Since its modest beginnings, the site has grown into a multipurpose Bible study tool.

Two features of the Web site that get a lot of traffic are the Daily Bible Verse and Weekly Wisdom features, both of which he also makes available in e-mail to subscribers. Currently, more than 75,000 people subscribe to both the Daily Bible Verse and Weekly Wisdom e-mails.

Maintenance on ChristNotes takes up approximately 10 hours of Beach's average week. Every Monday, he posts two new Weekly Wisdoms, which are devotionals offering a Bible-based perspective on living a God-centered life.

"Doing that has helped me grow a lot in the faith," he said, "because I need to do research and read Scripture in order to write the Weekly Wisdoms."

His tendency toward innovation makes Beach stands out among computer science majors, said Calvin professor Keith Vander Linden.

"He's unique in that he's a very strong student in computer science, yet he's also interested in business and entrepreneurship.  I think it's remarkable that he produced something as significant as Christ Notes so soon and largely on his own effort. That's a hallmark of an excellent student in computing."

For the full story, see http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2007-08/christ-notes-org.htm