The house rules for goodeveningfriends.com and everything under it — the Kingdom Journey companion, the Family Tree, the community rooms and the live room. Short, plain, and meant to be read. Using the site means you agree to them.
Ownership. This website, its name and marks (“Good evening, friends.” and the two-line mark), and everything on it that we made — the lessons, the writing, the maps and the trail, the study pages, quizzes and flashcards, the family tree, the music and sounds, the design and the code — are the property of Entreprises Royales Du Congo, the company behind this ministry, unless a credit says otherwise. All rights reserved. Nothing here is offered under an open licence.
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Use of the site
You are welcome to read, watch, walk the trail, take the quizzes, keep notes and take part in the rooms for your own personal, non-commercial study. You are welcome to link to any page, and to quote a short passage with a credit and a link.
You may not copy, republish, re-upload, translate, sell, scrape, mirror or build a product on the lessons, the study pages, the companion, the images we made or the code, in whole or in part, without written permission from Entreprises Royales Du Congo. You may not use automated tools to harvest content or members' information, interfere with the service, or try to get around a lock, a screen or a limit.
You must be at least 13 to create an account. An account is personal: one person, one place on the road, your real name or a name you answer to. We may change, pause or close the site, or any part of it, at any time.
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Community conduct
“Let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.”Matthew 5:37
This is a Bible study, and it is a journey we walk together. Everyone who keeps these rules is welcome on it — believer, seeker, sceptic or critic. Disagreement is welcome; put it in the open, where everyone can see it, and say it with respect. Questions are welcome. Pushback is welcome. What is not welcome, anywhere on this site:
attacks on a person rather than an idea — insults, mockery, contempt, threats, harassment, or singling anyone out;
profanity, slurs, sexual content, nudity, violence, or anything a child should not see;
spam, advertising, fundraising, recruiting for other platforms, or repeatedly posting the same thing;
impersonating any person, the teacher, or the ministry; sharing anyone's private information;
trolling, baiting, derailing, or using the rooms to campaign against the faith this site exists to teach — you may disagree with what is taught, on the page where it is taught, in good faith; you may not use the site as a platform against it;
anything unlawful, or anything that infringes someone else's rights.
Moderation is at the teacher's discretion. Messages, pictures, profiles and reactions may be hidden, edited for safety, or removed; accounts may be restricted, suspended or removed — with or without notice, and without the obligation to explain. Pictures posted by members are screened before anyone else sees them and may be declined. Participation in the community is a privilege the owner grants and may withdraw; there is no right to a platform here. We may keep a copy of removed content for safety and for the record.
If you see something that breaks these rules, flag it from the message itself. If it concerns you personally, write to us.
“If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.”Romans 12:18
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What you post
What you write and share on this site — messages, reactions, pictures, the “Bars” you collect, the notes you choose to share — stays yours. By posting it here you give Entreprises Royales Du Congo a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to store it, show it to the people the room is for, moderate it, quote it, and — for anything posted in a public room, in the live chat, or as a Bars line — to use it in the ministry's own material (for example a short video built from the week's Bars), with the name you show on the site. If you would rather a particular line not be used that way, write to us and we will leave it out.
You promise that what you post is yours to post, that it does not break the rules above, and that any picture of a child is posted with a parent or guardian's consent. Private notes and quiz scores are yours alone and are not shared. Private messages to the teacher are read by the teacher and any admin he appoints, and may be answered in the open if the question would help everyone — with your name left out unless you say otherwise.
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Credits & third-party works
Scripture quotations are from the Bible. Paintings, engravings, drawings, photographs and maps that we did not make are shown under their own licences — public domain, or a Creative Commons licence — and each one carries its credit on the picture and on the Credits & sources page. Outside sources for history and language are named on the same page. Their rights remain with their owners; our licence to you does not extend to them.
YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, Blue Letter Bible, ScriptureMark and Wikimedia Commons are separate services with their own terms; we do not control them and are not responsible for them.
If you believe something on this site infringes your copyright, write to us with the page, the work, and how you own it, and we will look at it promptly.
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Disclaimer
The lessons are Bible study, offered in good faith by a teacher who prepares before he teaches. They are a person's understanding of Scripture, of history and of the Message; where a question is open, the page says so. They are not professional advice of any kind — not legal, medical, financial, psychological or pastoral counselling — and they are not a substitute for your own reading of the Bible or for the counsel of people who know you.
Historical dates, archaeology and outside sources are given as careful, best-effort scholarship, and scholarship moves. We do not warrant that everything on the site is complete, current or free of error, and we may correct or change it without notice. The site is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind. To the fullest extent the law allows, Entreprises Royales Du Congo, the teacher and anyone who helps run this site are not liable for any loss or damage arising from the use of the site, from anything posted on it by members, or from anything you do or decide on the strength of what you read here.
Nothing on this site creates a membership, a church membership, an employment or a fiduciary relationship, and nothing here is an offer or a solicitation of any kind. Any gift toward a specific project is voluntary and, unless stated in writing at the time, not refundable.
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Privacy — the short version
You sign in with Google. We keep what you give us and what you make here: your name, email address and (if you keep it) profile picture; your phone number only if you ask for the daily scripture by text; your preferences; your quiz scores and notes; your messages, reactions, Bars and any pictures you post; and when you joined and were last here. It is stored in Google Firebase (Firestore) under our account, and used only to run the site, to send you the updates you opted into, and to keep the community safe.
We do not sell your information and we do not share it with advertisers. Email and text reminders go only to people who opted in, and you can turn them off any time in My Journey. The site uses your browser's local storage for your preferences and a session marker; there is no advertising tracking. Our hosting provider keeps ordinary server logs.
You can download everything you have saved, and delete your account, from My Journey. Deleting removes your profile, scores, notes and sign-in. Things you posted in public rooms may remain as part of the conversation's record; write to us and we will remove your name from them or take them down.
We may update these terms; the date below changes when we do, and continuing to use the site after a change means you accept it. These terms are governed by the laws of the jurisdiction in which Entreprises Royales Du Congo is organised, and any dispute will be heard in its courts. If a court finds any part of these terms unenforceable, the rest stands.