We opened this forum about May 18th or so.  It is not really "new" in concept.  We have had one for years, but on May 5, 2012 our webiste was struck by our thugs.  The managed to totally destroy our old forum.  We had installed an update on the old forum software that contained a May 5th time code,  and it destroyed all our backups, which were redudant.  The sofware would not function right again, even with a fresh install, so we acquired a new software package and started over.

On May 5th, the thugs also fried our main drive on our server and the drive had to be replaced.  Fortunately we diid not loose any backups to the front site, only the forum was affected thru the corrupted update.

The "Old forum" had been closed to new members except by referral.  I decided to open it to new members who read at abundantHope.  But you MUST submit an application in which you explain why you want to join, who you are and what your purpose is. Most people send several paragraphs, some have sent long files of several pages.  I need to have a sense of who you are.  People that are not motivated will not bother to write a mission statment/introduction.  AH is a mission based organization of service.  Please see the other post in this section for instructions and the email address you are to send your application to.- Candace