Timeline
From Virtue
[edit] Timeline, Story so far
[edit] Discovery
- The book Jesus Wants to Save Christians by Rob Bell and Don Golden is published. the website contains a page named Help save the seven which leads to Fruitofthegarden.com and instructions for accessing a secret message board, where Citizensofvirtue.com is referenced.
- In the facebook group for the book, Savannah Merks wrote a comment on October 2nd, chastising it and linking to her organization at Citizensofvirtue.com.
- Members of the ARG community received an email from Savannah Merks around Sept 29th, containing a press release from Citizens of Virtue, condemning Alternate Reality Games.
[edit] October 1
- After discovering the sites, the initial contents were analyzed.
- Citizensofvirtue.com contains a list of seven virtues, as a part of their new Virtual Virtues campaign - one virtue opened per week started October 8th.
- Four letter in the list of seven virtues are slightly greyed, spelling H E L P
- CoV's toll free phone number is published and leads to voice-mail: 1-888-648-4788
- Passionix is a product supposedly produced by CoV, labeled as 'Self control in a bottle', developed by GalvoKlexam Pharmaceuticals (gkp)
- The CoV Events page lists three upcoming events their Virtu-Volunteers program will be attending:
- Passion, in Vancouver, Oct.6
- Catalyst, in Atlanta, Oct.10
- National Youth Workers Convention, in Sacramento, Oct.10
- Camp Francis is CoV's youth camp, the homepages currently only showing letters from campers.
- Various emails are exchanged inquiring about CoV, revealing addresses contact@citizensofvirtue.com, pastorbryson@citizensofvirtue.com, savannahmerks@citizensofvirtue.com
- Facebook pages are noted for:
- Citizens of Virtue, (non-official) group (Savannah is a member)
- Rob Bell, fan page (Savannah is listed as a fan)
- Jesus Wants to Save Christian, group (Savannah is a member)
- Savannah Merks, profile
- There is a calendar of events page on Fruitofthegarden.com which may list important upcoming events.
[edit] October 2
- Savannah comments in the CoV Facebook group:
God bless you all and remember to check out the Virtual Virtues campaign starting on Wednesday. You can find it on our website! www.citizensofvirtue.com I can't wait for it to begin! It is a far cry from the so-called Christianity found at www.jesuswantstosavechristians.com
- Savannah comments in the JWtSC Facebook group:
Dear Mr. Bell and Mr. Golden, I believe it would do you a world of good to come to www.citizensofvirtue.com. We have a new Virtual Virtues campaign that shows the true meaning of spirituality. Humanism and NOOMAn-ism is not what the Lord intended. I've seen www.jesuswantstosavechristians.com. Do you think religion is some sort of a game?
[edit] October 5
- Trillian receives an unprompted email from Lila Greene at greenthumb@fruitofthegarden.com asking for help finding her nephew Xander Greene. Her signature contains a mini-puzzle/clue which leads to a secret message board
- Real receives an email response from Anna Gimble sharing more about Camp Francis
[edit] October 6
- Mardeaux discovers Xander's band on Facebook - Bridegroom of Blood - which has recently been disbanded, as per a blog entry dated Sept 30th.
- The Passion: Vancouver event takes place. Virtu-Volunteers appear and hand out cards to attendees for each of the seven virtues.
[edit] October 7
- Savannah comments in the CoV Facebook group:
Greetings Everyone! It is so good to see you all here supporting the Citizens of Virtue. Don't forget to tell everyone you know about our Virtual Virtues campaign. It starts tomorrow! Wednesday, October 8th. Yours in prayer!
[edit] October 8
- The CoV Events page is updated with photos from the Passion event.
- Calling the CoV toll free number 1-888-64-VIRTU leads to a selection of extensions, one for each virtue - but each message is 'hacked' with someone pointing people to Fruitofthegarden.com.
- Virtue #1: Temperance goes live. A video from Pastor Bryson plays, discussing the virtue, and the Faithless Fourteen. Various aspects of the virtue's new content seems to be 'hacked' with hidden messages, likely by Xander.
- The Daily Inspiration is updated for October 8.
- A series of notes is played at the end of Bryson's devotional.
- A muted section in the voiceover reading of the TNIV, 2 Timothy 2:20-26
- Odd instruments play throughout the streaming song I'll Find the Way, by "IOOEAA"
- See Puzzles/Faithless Fourteen - the puzzle leads to , with which biola23 then discovered
[edit] October 9
- It's discovered that the endnotes from the book Jesus Wants to Save Christians contains a hidden message.
[edit] October 10
- The Catalyst event takes place, along with the National Youth Workers Convention. Virtu-Volunteers appear and hand out cards to attendees for each of the seven virtues.
[edit] October 11
- Savannah comments in the CoV Facebook group:
I hope you all are enjoying the first of our seven Virtual Virtues. Unfortunately, I've been so busy working on this campaign that I haven't had any time to read your posts! Be sure to keep up with everything going on at the Citizens of Virtue on the website. Oh, and some of our merchandise is now available!
- The CoV Events page is updated with a video compilation from the Passion event.
- Certain community members begin receiving letters in the mail containing a collection of the seven virtues cards that were handed out by the [[Virtu-Volunteers].
- Some CoV Merchandise has been made available, via Cafepress