Privacy Policy

Last updated 10/12/2026

The short version

We are a church, not a business. We collect personal information only when you choose to give it to us — when you fill in a form, request prayer, sign up for something, or give online.

We do not sell your information. We do not share it with anyone outside the church except the service providers listed below who help us operate, and we do not use it to advertise to you.

If you would like us to delete anything we hold about you, email info@livingwatersda.org and we will.

The rest of this page explains all of that in more detail.

Who we are

Living Water is a Seventh-day Adventist congregation located at 4201 Guilford Dr, College Park, MD 20740. We are part of the Potomac Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

This policy covers www.livingwatersda.org and any forms or services linked from it.

If you have any question about this policy or about information we hold, contact us at info@livingwatersda.org.

WHAT WE COLLECT AND WHEN

Information you give us directly

When you fill in a form on our site, we receive what you type into it. Depending on the form, that may include:

Your name
Your email address
Your phone number
Your postal address
What you are asking about, or what you would like us to pray for

Information collected automatically

Like most websites, our site records basic technical information when you visit — the pages you view, roughly where in the world you are connecting from, and what kind of device and browser you are using. This is not linked to your name, and we use it only to understand which parts of the site are useful.

We do not collect payment information

Online giving is handled by AdventistGiving, who process card and bank details directly. We never see or store them.

What we do with it

We use the information you give us to:

Reply to you
Pray for the requests you send us
Contact you about something you asked to hear about
Keep a record of your involvement in church activities you have joined
Understand how people find and use our website

We do not:

Sell, rent or trade your information to anyone
Share it with other organizations for their own use
Use it to target advertising at you
Send you email you did not ask for

Prayer requests and pastoral conversations

Prayer requests submitted through our website are read by the pastoral team.

If you mark a request confidential, it is seen only by Pastor Neil Chelliah and is not shared with the wider prayer team or read aloud in any gathering.

We treat these with the same care as any pastoral conversation. There is one limit we are required by law to observe: if a request discloses abuse or neglect of a child or vulnerable adult, or an immediate risk to someone's life, we may be legally obliged to report it to the appropriate authorities. We would tell you if that happened wherever it was safe to do so.

Children and young people

We take particular care with information about anyone under 18.

We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 through our website. Registration for children's programs is completed by a parent or guardian, and the information given is used only to run that program safely — including allergy, medical and emergency contact details where a parent has provided them.

Children's information is not used for any other purpose, is not shared outside the ministry team running that program, and is kept only as long as needed.

If you believe a child has given us information without a parent's involvement, contact us at info@livingwatersda.org and we will delete it.

Photographs and video

We sometimes take photographs or video during services and church events, and may use them on our website, on social media, or in printed material to share what our church community is doing.

If you would prefer not to appear, email info@livingwatersda.org and we will not use images of you. You can ask us to remove an image already published at any time, and we will.

For children, we ask parents to complete a photography consent form before any child appears in published material.

Who else sees your information

We use a small number of outside services to run the church's website and ministries. They handle information on our behalf and only for the purposes we set — they are not permitted to use it for their own.

Wix: Hosts our website and the forms on it

AdventistGiving: Processes online giving

MailChimp: Sends our newsletter

Planning Center: Holds membership and group records

Google Analytics: Anonymous website usage statistics

We may also disclose information where we are required to by law.

Cookies

Our website uses small files called cookies, stored by your browser, to keep the site working properly and to understand how it is used. You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings; some parts of the site may not work as well if you do.

How long we keep things

We keep information only as long as we have a reason to including items such as online forms for prayer requests, contact information, and Next Step forms. Membership and giving records are kept as long as required for church administration and tax reporting.

You can ask us to delete anything sooner.

Your choices

You can, at any time:

Ask what we hold about you — email us and we will tell you
Ask us to correct it if something is wrong
Ask us to delete it
Unsubscribe from any email we send, using the link at the bottom of it
Ask us not to photograph you, as described above

We will not treat you any differently for asking.

Links to other sites

Our website links to other places — social media, giving platforms, other Adventist organizations. Once you follow a link, you are on their site and their privacy policy applies, not ours.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy we will update the date at the top of the page. Material changes will be noted on the website.

Contact us

Questions about this policy, or about information we hold:

Living Water Adventist Church

Pastor Neil Chelliah

4201 Guilford Dr, College Park, MD 20740

info@livingwatersda.org

(301) 541-8363