Exloring Life Eternal

Internet Evangelism Day
http://www.internetevangelismday.org

From their Newsletter - April 2006

Statistics
* Global Internet usage by language
http://www.glreach.com/globstats/index.php3

* Overall user figures
http://www.clickz.com/stats/web%5Fworldwide/

* Countries where Internet access is monitored
http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id%5Frubrique=273&referer=&des=Enemies%20of%20the%20Internet

* CyberAtlas - country-by-country figures and projections
http://cyberatlas.internet.com/big%5Fpicture/geographics/article/0,,5911%5F151151,00.html&referer=&des=CyberAtlas%20Internet%20use%20projections

* People Groups - a worldwide database
http://www.peoplegroups.org

The net now has ways tool to reach into the hardest nations:
http://aibi.gospelcom.net/missions/cybermissions%5Ftarget%5Fnations.htm

Including those in the 10/40 Window: http://home.snu.edu/~hculbert/1040.htm

See the case-study on effective web outreach in Poland:
http://guide.gospelcom.net/resources/poland.php

TRENDS
* Global Change - this mega-site provides views on the world situation from Christian future-watcher Dr. Patrick Dixon.
http://www.globalchange.com/main.htm

* Research links - a detailed analyses of the effect of the Internet on the church and evangelism, plus web evangelism conference reports.
http://guide.gospelcom.net/resources/research.php

* Christianity Today - culture and world events, w/ commentary.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ctmag/

* Future Church - Tom Hohstadt's occasional newsletter on the way the church is changing.
http://www.futurechurch.net/

* Christian Futures Network
http://www.wnrf.org/cms/christian.shtml

Full story here:
http://guide.gospelcom.net/resources/world.php

MONGOLIA - GOD CREATED OUR MELODIES
from: SIM International (http://www.sim.org) - Spring 2006

Mongolia's young church is praising God using authentic Mongolian
music - thanks largely to two of its earliest members. Purevdorj
and his wife Amartungalag have written 25 Christian songs, compiled
three albums of contemporary Mongolian Christian music, and will
soon release the third album of their own music. Purevdorj has
also translated more than 120 praise songs into Mongolian from
English and Korean.

All over Mongolia, in small house churches and in large city churches, believers are singing their songs. "When people use our music to worship God, that is, of course, the greatest joy,"
said Purevdorj.

But they especially want to compose songs that sound Mongolian. "We are Mongolians, so we have Mongolian melodies inside us. God created them, so he would like to hear them," said Purevdorj. Adds Amartungalag, "We want to write songs with a Mongolian harmonic."

Both of them hold music education degrees and are professors at Union Bible Training Centre in Ulaanbaatar. He teaches contextualized theology and biblical ministry, while she teaches worship and song leading. They started the Christian Songwriters Fellowship of Mongolia to encourage others working in worship ministries. They also organize annual concerts of Mongolian Christian musicians and release compact discs of the performances. Last year, they focused much of their attention on writing songs for Sunday schools, and they are working on a Mongolian songbook.

"Without becoming Christians, we wouldn't imagine our lives as happy," Purevdorj said.

A related story on how the two came to Christ:
http://www.sim.org/categorylist.asp?fun=6&sid=1250

Pray that more Mongolian praise songs will be created to help
the people of Mongolia enjoy and praise God.

Source with photos:
http://www.sim.org/categorylist.asp?fun=6&sid=1257

“If my life is motivated by an ambition to leave a legacy, what I would
probably leave is a legacy of ambition. But, if my life is motivated
by the power of God’s Spirit in me and the awareness of the indwelling
Christ, if I allow his presence to guide my motives, that’s the
only time I think we really leave a great legacy. I hope I would
leave a legacy of joy - a legacy of real compassion.”

James Bryan Smith
“Rich Mullins: An Arrow Pointing to Heaven.”
Nashville, TN: Broadman and Holman Publishers, 2000, end page.

Rich Mullins: A Reflection of God’s Reality, 1955-1997

As a Christian musician, singer, and songwriter, Rich Mullins
ministered to audiences around the world, had more than 90 song
recordings, and was nominated for more than ten Dove Awards by
the Gospel Music Association. “Awesome God,” one of Rich’s worship
songs, is still sung in churches across America. Yet, when fans
asked him for his autograph, Rich signed two words - Be God’s.

Rich had a passion for South America, Native Americans, and needy
children worldwide. The proceeds from many of his musical tours
went to support ministries that served these groups. Rich desired
to bless Native American children with the love of God and give
them opportunities to explore the arts. Leaving the music scene
in Nashville behind, he returned to college to pursue a degree
in music education. Rich spent the final two years of his life
living among the Navajo in Arizona. He taught music to the children
on the reservations and demonstrated the love of God to their
families. When he died in a car accident in 1997, some of the
children from the reservation attended his funeral. They sang
“Jesus Loves Me” in their native language, a song that Rich had
taught them.

SOURCE:
Caleb Project
“Eternal Impact - Discover Your Role in God’s Worldwide Purpose.”
(Littleton, CO: Caleb Project, 2005, workbook pages 32-33)
<http://www.calebproject.org/store/product%5finfo.php?products%5fid=2529>

EGYPT: MISSING WOMAN CONTACTS FAMILY FOR HELP
Compass Direct - http://www.compassdirect.org
February 23, 2006

Missing for over a month, a young Christian woman has telephoned her relatives and reported being imprisoned in a Cairo apartment while facing pressure to convert to Islam.

Last seen in the village of El-Saff, 30 miles south of Cairo on January 3, Theresa Ghattass Kamal briefly contacted her aunt on January 24. She told her aunt that she had not yet succumbed to her unknown captors’ demands that she become a Muslim, her brother Sa’eed Ghattass Kamal told Compass. Her phone call contradicted earlier police statements that she had converted to Islam voluntarily and did not want to see her family again.

Further investigation by Sa’eed Kamal revealed that no official
records of his sister’s conversion existed at Cairo’s Al-Azhar
Islamic center. [T]he origination point of the 19-year-old woman’s call [was a] house as “a dangerous place, full of fundamentalists.”

Full story with picture:
http://www.compassdirect.org/en/newslongen.php?idelement=4225