Sometimes bad news turns into good news, like the old saying, “If you got a lemon, make lemonade.” That adage doesn’t apply exactly but recently we did have a problem turn into a very good thing.
An error message appeared on our website for listeners (www.awazehaq.com) while Jonathan was on a visit to Pakistan. The error appeared when our representative there tried to show Jonathan something which could be improved. At first Jonathan wrote it off to a poor Internet connection. However, the same error message appeared after he returned to States.
It turns out that our hosting company had “upgraded” the software on their servers and the changes broke our site. It became necessary to re-write the website from scratch as there was no salvaging the old code (something we had been wanting to do anyway but didn’t have the time or resources. The crash forced us to make the changes in spite of our limitations.)
Fortunately, technology has made a lot of progress since we built the first site. Back then there was no standard way to display Urdu script and browsers did such a poor job of it that we had to display Urdu writing in the form of pictures rather than text. Not only was it inconvenient to post anything, text could not be re-formatted. Nor was the site searchable. In the new site, Urdu text is displayed as text which means that it can be re-sized and searched. Another huge change is that the new site is mobile friendly. This means that people can easily view it on their smart-phones. This should make it far more accessible to people in Pakistan and India.
People cannot only listen to our Internet streaming station from the site, they can also listen to specific programs in the series of their choice. They can also read or download the literature we have published.
As one visitor remarked via the new contact form: “… As for the study on the books of the NT for new believers, I think the studies presented at awazehaq as radio programs on the epistles like Romans and others is very good… Thank you for your kindness and having His heart to reach Urdu speaking people with the Gospel of Christ.”
In addition to making our Urdu content far more accessible, the new site has made it possible to provide a great deal of information in English. Many will find our Tutorial section of particular interest. There are articles on a wide variety of topics such as the basics of how to pray and study the Bible, all the way up to starting new congregations.
Another area of the site which is of interest is the expanded ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ section. People can also read or download many of the scripts for our expository series on various Bible books.
Please pray that the new site will prove very helpful in bringing people to a greater knowledge of Christ!
