Good morning, friends. Hopefully most of you have received our latest newsletter (March 2011) via email. We have just started a new service called iContact, and while it does some things well, in other areas it is rather challenging. After spending the past 3 days learning how it all works, and constructing a letter, I’m hoping things speed up in the future.

For now, I want to ask you to keep a few things in mind:

1. The reason we went with this service is to make it easier for you to feel connected to our work here in East Africa. The newsletter should appear instantly in your email, with pictures and links, instead of you having to open a separate PDF file. If you only open emails in plain text format, no pictures or links will appear.

2. The email is not designed to be printed out, although you can print it out but the formatting will likely be messed up. If you want to print, each time I’ll put together a separate PDF file of newsletter on our website and you can download and print out. (Under the newsletter tab to right.)

3. Some programs give grief in trying to view pix or preserve formatting. For whatever reason, Outlook removes much of the formatting that I build into the message (borders around pictures, spacing between picture and words, extra spaces added or deleted, etc.). In Internet Explorer, oftentimes the pictures will not be shown until you click the “view the pictures,” (or something like that) and answer “no” to security warning asking if you only want to view secure information. When you do these steps, all comes across well.

4. I hope to add a sign-up form for those desiring our newsletter soon, both to our website, and to our Facebook page. In the meantime, if you would like to be added to our list, or have any comments about what you think of the new format, or any suggestions you would recommend, please email me:  eric.belz@efca.org

Thanks so much for continuing in the journey with us. Eric