e-BibleGroups was envisioned as a way to provide meaningful Small Group Bible Study for 21st Christians whose life style prevents them from meeting with a conventional group. The founder of e-BibleGroups, Ray Handisides, says; "While I was an Elder at 1st Presbyterian Church in Newhall, California a variety of programs for Adults in the Congregation were produced . We realized that there were a number of people who could not attend the study groups." To overcome this problem 1st Presbyterian started looking for on-line studies that could be used using the Small Group model but meeting in Cyberspace. In this way all restraints of time and space would be removed and people could study when they wanted, wherever they were. Finding no studies available that would fit the required model studies and the web facilities were developed from the ground up. This form of Small Group has proved very successful. Ray Handisides adds; "With the proliferation of on-line societies, such as Myspace, Flicker, Facebook and YouTube, we should be using the internet and its capabilities for the glory of God." A decision was made to make these studies available to others in the Christian community and so in February 2007 e-BibleGroups was launched.

Ray Handisides grew up in New Zealand in a Christian home and at an early age dedicated his life to serving Jesus Christ. In his younger days he was involved in leading the Youth Group in the Methodist Church he attended. He studied Television Engineering at the Auckland Technical Institute and Central Institute of Technology. Early in his career he moved into the Training Department of the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation and was responsible for the training of Television Engineering and Operations.

After 10 years of being involved in Adult Education in New Zealand he look overseas to continue his career. He spent time in Saudi Arabia and Papua New Guinea as a Training Advisor to the International Telecommunications Union, a division of the United Nations. In 1980 he moved to California to work for the Ampex Corporation, a manufacturer of professional television equipment. He was responsible for designing developing and running training classes for engineering and operations staff of television facilities around the world. Following this he work as Training Manager for two other companies before moving into marketing and sales

During all this time Ray has continued to be involved in Adult Education in churches in California. He is currently a member of First Presbyterian Church of Newhall, where he is an Elder and is responsible for Adult Education. He has attended classes in Religion at De Anza College and has completed studies at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary to attain his credentials to become a Commissioned Lay Pastor.

Of this venture Ray says, "In running programs for our church in Newhall I became aware that there were many people who wanted to become more involved and learn more of what it meant to be a good disciple but didn't have the time. When we started a Small Group program people expressed an interest in attending but with their busy lives and work travel commitments they were unable to commit to the time needed. God led me to read Genesis 1 and showed me that he created everything and so was a creative God. I also found that we were created in God's image and so we should be creative. This lead me to look more creatively at our Adult Education program. One of the things that came out of this was to start this online ministry using the internet to form Small Groups and remove the time/space constraints so many people have. God has now lead me to able to take this ministry outside of Newhall and make it available to Christians worldwide. I hope you become as blessed by this ministry as I have been in creating it."

In November 2007 Ray decided to take early retirement so he could spend his time full time in ministry. To allow this to happen Ray and his wife Sue moved to Nashville, Tennessee and are now active members of Priest Lake Presbyterian Church where Ray runs Adult Ministries and Sue is the coordinator of Priest Lakes Appalachian Ministry, Project J.O.Y.

Ray has used his unique God-given talents as an Adult Educator and Engineer to bring this ministry to you.