One of my closest friends, Archie Jackson, moved with his wife Rebekah to California where they have started South Bay Church with two other couples.

To help raise awareness and generate support, in donations, prayers or both, I held a 24-hour blog-a-thon, which I called the “Arch-a-thon” on the weekend of August 16-17, 2008.

But it is not too late to contribute or add them to your prayers.

To read all of the posts associated with the Arch-a-thon, click here. (They will list in reverse order, but that’s the way it is.)

To read Archie’s guest post at my blog, click here.

Of my friend, I can say this: I’m a better man and a stronger Christian for having known him, and there are far too few people in the world about which something like that can be said.

If you have donated or said a prayer for them, I cannot thank you enough.

If you are interested in donating cash, please read the instructions below to do so at the church’s secure support site. If all you can give is a prayer for them, I would greatly appreciate that time as well.

So would Archie and Rebekah.

TO DONATE: Here are easy instructions on how you can donate for the Arch-a-thon. Go to the new South Bay Church’s giving site here.

Please note that the link takes you specifically to the support page for Archie and Rebekah.

You can also donate to the church itself, or you can donate to the other two couples who are also part of this new venture by clicking the appropriate link on that site’s sidebar. My purpose here is to raise money specifically for the Jacksons, which is why I am linking to his page.You’ll see several donation levels there, but the first one is labeled, “** Give a Specific Dollar Amount **.” That link will allow you to choose whatever amount you are able to give.

When you click that link, you will be taken to a new page that will allow you add the number of $1 units you want to make up your donation. In other words, if you want to donate $25, then you would place the number 25 in the quantity box for that $1 donation. If you want to give $20, then put a quantity of 20 into the $1 box.

Then you’ll click the “Add this to my cart” button.

Simple, right.

You can also choose to make this a recurring gift. That is, you can specify that this is a one-time deal or that this could be a monthly gift for however many months you choose. That’s up to you and what you feel that you are able to do.

Remember, any amount at all will be greatly appreciated.

Then click the “Go to checkout” button. This will take you to a page where you enter your billing information. You can donate through electronic check, credit card or Paypal.

You can also choose whether to subscribe to the new church’s newsletter.

You’ll then be taken to a confirmation page, where you can also type out a little comment or special instructions. It would be nice, though in no way is it required, if you could mention that you learned about them from my blog.

Then click the button at the lower right, which will take you to the final confirmation page. Confirm that everything is correct and you have done something very special for two people who are special to me.

And I can’t thank you enough.