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16-June-1998 
GA98049 
 
    PresbyNetters Testify 
 
    by Houston Hodges 
 
CHARLOTTE, N.C.--It showed in the opening prayer:  "Weaver of the web from 
creation which links all together, you knew our personal profile before we 
had a URL. You never respond with a 404.  Keep us connected to you, on-line 
to our hearts, in the net Christ cast into the world, in whose screen-name 
we pray. Amen." 
    Thus this year's PresbyNet dinner began, Tuesday night in the 
Convention Center, with opening prayer by long-time PresbyNetter and Iowa 
pastor Christy Ramsey. Prayer terminology was more to be understood by 
cyberPresbies than ordinary folk. Eighty people ate well, met one another, 
and testified to the positive benefits of computer communication in their 
lives.  Some were long-time PresbyNetters, one a member for but a single 
day; others told of benefits from e-mail or resources gleaned from the 
World Wide Web. 
    Here were some of the responses: 
     --"I'm far from a lot of people, this connects me." 
     --"Getting the news of the PCUSA very quickly." 
     --"After my hair got gray, learning to use a computer pleased me." 
     --"Finding out the weather in Charlotte." 
     --"I live in high altitude, low multitude." (Wyoming) 
     --"I transmit from high altitude, high multitude." (Empire State 
        Building in New York City) 
     --"I can connect from my car." 
     --"Incredible resources for sermon preparation." 
     --"I'm very isolated in Utah... obviously." 
     --"I can have conversations of faith with all sorts of people." 
     --"I've written to my mother more in the past year than in the 
        previous ten." 
     --"My paraplegic friend can get on the Internet with one finger." 
    And there was another sober claim, without elaboration:  "Presbynet 
saved my life." 
    After each person had spoken, the evening's program was concluded; the 
group separated, perhaps to meet each other next through their computer 
screens. 

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