Israeli Police Storm Jerusalem Shrine
AP reports, "Israeli police stormed the compound of one of Jerusalem's holiest sites on Friday after hundreds of Palestinian worshippers threw stones at security forces, police said...The compound - known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif - is one of the most sensitive spots in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The shrine, site of the biblical Jewish temples, holds the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosques."

Companies Work on E-Mail Identity System - AP
"With a simple adjustment in your e-mail software, you can pretend to be anyone...To close that loophole, Microsoft and Yahoo! Inc. are each developing systems aimed at authenticating senders of e-mail. America Online Inc. is testing a third...Issues to be worked out for all three systems include how to properly send e-mail from cybercafes, hotels and public Wi-Fi hotspots and how to preserve privacy when using anonymous re-mailers, which are used by whistleblowers and others to intentionally mask the origin of messages..."Some of the things people are used to doing, they won't be able to do it in quite the same way."

China Indicts 2 Unofficial Church Leaders
AP/Yahoo News reports, "China has indicted two leaders of the unofficial Protestant church for allegedly obtaining state secrets amid a deepening crackdown on worship outside government controls, an overseas monitoring group said Wednesday."

Company mulls bringing 'Passion' to Israel - Jerusalem Newsire
Today, 2000 years later, nearly two billion people on earth classify themselves as Christians - followers of Jesus Christ.

Programmer Sets Up Mask for File-Sharers - AP
Wyatt Wasicek was so outraged by the recording industry's legal assault on users of free music-downloading sites that he decided to ride to the rescue. He created a program called AnonX that masks the Internet address of people who use file-sharing programs such as Kazaa.

Devotional Resources at Gospelcom.Net
Find over 35 Gospelcom.net devotionals for kids, teens and adults, provided by its various alliance ministries (Back to the Bible, Children's Bible Hour, International Bible Society, God's Love in Action, InterVarsity Press, Luis Palau Evangelistic Association, RBC Ministries, Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Youth for Christ and many more). Enjoy "A Word with You," "Christian Quotation of the Day," "Daily Bible Booster," "Daily Wisdom," "Devos and Gutsy Acts," "Editorial Caribe Devocional," "Keys for Kids," "Morning and Evening," "Our Daily Bread," and many other devotionals that will strengthen your Christian walk.

In China: Censorship, Control over Net Users - Amnesty
China is exerting ever-greater control over Internet usage, including arrests and prosecutions of those providing information about the country's SARS epidemic, stated Amnesty International in a report released today. The report also refers to U.S.-based tech companies that are selling Chinese authorities the means to impose Internet censorship.

Swiss woman seeks pardon for aiding Jews during World War Two - WLOX, MS
Most people would now consider Aimee Stitelmann a hero for helping Jews escape to Switzerland during World War Two. :: Wow, what an inspiring story.

Cuba Tightens Its Control Over Internet - AP
Cuba tightened its controls over the Internet on Friday, prohibiting access over the low-cost government phone service most ordinary citizens have at home.

This Car Can Talk. What It Says May Cause Concern - NYT (sub)
OnStar is one of a growing number of automated eyes and ears that enhance driving safety and convenience but that also increase the potential for surveillance.

Consolidating the Christian Blogosphere - IFC
If you like to keep up with what the Christian blogging community is saying, browsing the Christian blogosphere just got a bit easier: The Blogdom of God is a meta-blog that aggregates new posts and content from Christian blogs all over the Web.

The Twelve Voices of Chistmas
Back to the Bible (BTTB) invites you to hear Dr. Kroll's The Twelve Voices of Christmas on its Web site. "The Twelve Voices" is an audio reenactment of the stories of twelve people who were witnesses to the coming of the Messiah. Hear the powerful retelling of the impact that Christ's birth had on these well-known individuals and hear the voices of disclosure, disbelief, blessing, preparation and more. Enjoy this popular Christmas feature as you reflect on the real meaning of Christmas.

Tiny transmitters give retailers, privacy advocates goosebumps
USA Today reports, "Say hello to RFID: radio-frequency identification. If you don't know about it already, you're going to. Because, depending on who you ask, RFID technology is either a giant can of WD-40 on the wheels of commerce and inventory, or a spawn of the evil military-industrial complex that (still) plans to enslave us all."

Send Free Bibles To Persecuted Christians
Right now, 200 million Christians are living under restriction and persecution for their faith in Jesus Christ. Most do not even have their own copy of the Bible. Now there is a unique new way that you can provide your suffering brothers and sisters with a portion of God's Word at no cost to you. By visiting The Bible Site on the Internet you can click a button that will send a scripture portion to a persecuted Christian, funded completely by sponsors of the site.

Reading the Ancient Bible Online - IFC
Is it possible to read the Bible in its original languages online? What do you need to read the Bible in its original languages? Where online can the original texts be found? IFC has gathered links and resources to help you start exploring online Bible texts in Greek and Hebrew.

125 Christian Meeting Halls in China Shut - AP
Authorities in an east China province have sealed off 125 Christian gathering places since July, cutting off 3,000 believers from their places of worship, a human rights organization said Thursday.

Ukraine moves to tighten control of Internet - AFP
The Ukrainian parliament passed the first reading of a bill banning publication -- including on the Internet -- of anything that promotes terrorism, the overthrow of the state or damages an individual's reputation.

Encryption revolution: the tantalizing promise of 'unbreakable' codes - AP
Code-makers could be on the verge of winning their ancient arms race with code-breakers. After 20 years of research, an encryption process is emerging that is considered unbreakable because it employs the mind-blowing laws of quantum physics. This month, a small startup called MagiQ Technologies Inc. began selling what appears to be the first commercially available system that uses individual photons to transfer the numeric keys that are widely used to encode and read secret documents. Photons, discrete particles of energy, are so sensitive that if anyone tries to spy on their travel from one point to another, their behavior will change, tipping off the sender and recipient and invalidating the stolen code.

Lifeway & 'Left Behind' boost evangelism with end-times aids - BP News
LifeWay Christian Resources is partnering with the creators of the popular "Left Behind" series to help individuals and churches use the apocalyptic thrillers as tools to share the Gospel. The evangelistic strategy, called "Share Eternity with Someone Today," is available to download for free at LifeWay.com.

Religion Journal Focuses on International Missions
ReligionJournal, a Christian Internet news service, focuses on international missions news as it reports the latest in evangelism and world missions. Read the "Evangelism & Missions Report" about missionaries in Africa, anticipating a renewed Gospel interest following President Bush's visit there. Learn how evangelicals are "on the move" in Romania and about prayer-walking in Chicago. Enjoy a Christian Aid report from India, Bible League news around the world, news on the International Charismatic Catholic Renewal Services and a highlighted story on Top Chretien's major French Christian presence on the Internet. Subscribe to receive Religion Journal's weekly headlines news and keep updated on what God is doing in His world today!

International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church Day
There are many Christians being persecuted all over the world in places like Egypt, India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Latin America, Cuba and France. Join with millions of Christians all over the world on November 9th, 2003 in celebrating the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.

Startup Says Quantum Crypto Is Real - Light Reading
Light Reading yesterday announced it's shipping what appears to be the first security system based on quantum cryptography. Quantum cryptography goes a step further than electronic cryptography through its employment of a stream of photons, the quantum properties of which determine the key. The fun part is that if an intruder observes or intercepts the transmission, those properties get changed -- an unavoidable principle of quantum mechanics -- meaning the sender and receiver can tell if anyone is eavesdropping. Perhaps more important, the key can't be copied or faked.

American Tract Society - BOTCW
American Tract publishes attention arresting evangelistic literature and interactive Christian cd-roms, as well as growth, discipleship and witnessing resources for the local church.

Priests to train on Temple Model - Isreal Today
For several months, Jewish experts have been working on a replica of the Third Temple in the blazing heat near the Dead Sea. The Jewish community of Mitzpe Yericho, between Jerusalem and Jericho, is home to the model, which is built on a 1:1 scale. Covering an area of 25,000 square meters (269,000 square feet), it will function as a training site to prepare priests (kohanim) for service in the Third Temple in Jerusalem.

Group lobbies for domain buyers' privacy - ZDNet
Individuals and small-business owners should be able to buy domain names without being required to divulge their mailing address, phone number and e-mail address, an international coalition plans to say in a letter Tuesday evening. Currently, the Internet Coalition for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) broadly requires that such details be made publicly available through the "Whois" directories. That policy enables spammers, direct marketers and identity thieves to loot the directory for personal information about domain name owners, the coalition's draft letter to ICANN charges.

Take A Whirlwind Tour of the Bible
Does the prospect of ever becoming familiar with the history and characters of the Bible seem daunting? Whirlwind Bible Tours(WBT) understands--and they've taken it upon themselves to give Internet visitors a fast-paced, humorous tour of the major people and events of the Bible. You will receive "a whimsically humorous and brief overview of the Bible" with these intriguing learning categories: "Earth: The Early Years"; "My World's Fallen and I Can't Get Up"; "Moses: the Great Escape"; "War and Peace (Repeat)"; "Decline and Fall of the Israeli Empire" and "Jesus People: The Early Years." If you're the sort of person who doesn't know his Jeremiah from his Jehoshaphat, WBT's light-hearted overview of Bible basics may be right up your alley! Parents will want to check out Discovering the Bible [Microsoft Word document], a coordinating Bible quiz developed for a 7th grade class by Geoff Roberts-Thomson of "Community and Religious Education" in Melbourne, Australia.

Defeating Fascism, Again - National Review Online
"Fascism, the subject of my first 15 years' professional study, is used so often as a term of general opprobrium that it has been gutted of all serious content in popular usage. More's the pity, since fascism is back, big-time, and it would be worthwhile to try to understand it in order to drive it back under the slimy rocks where it was hidden for much of the last half-century."

Audio Treasure - BOTCW
Free download site for the Bible narrated in mp3 audio format. World English Bible and King James Version.

The Needs of Europe - Gospelcom
'Modern' 'advanced' Europe is often overlooked as a mission field. Yet as a continent, it is largely secular, post-modern, post-Christian. At least 14 countries in Europe contain less than 1% evangelicals, with many under 0.5%. These are figures we normally associate with Islamic 10-40 countries.They are achingly bad. Numbers of Christian young people within these countries are even worse. Of course we are not suggesting that the Internet is an instant solution. But the high level of Internet usage and penetration, especially by the young, suggests that we should be specifically looking at ways to use the Internet in the languages of Europe for cutting edge evangelism, including specific outreach to young people.

China Christian Church Activist Detained
AP reports, "An activist for China's unofficial Christian church has been detained after investigating the destruction of churches by authorities in eastern China, human rights groups say."

Search Engineering - Gospelcom
Although a search on Google for 'Jesus' will bring up mainly good material, it is sad to note that a search on 'Jesus resurrection' gives a number of skeptic pages in the top 10. Christians need to learn more about 'SEO' - Search Engine Optimization - and how to get pages into the vital top 10. A good page ranking is the result of lots of hard work. It does not just happen.

Growing Internet prayer site 'adopts' 140,000 U.S. troops
In response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, retired Baptist minister Cornell Haan and businessman Bill Hunter, founded the Presidential Prayer Team as an Internet venue to pray for the president, his Cabinet and the nation. Since then, it has broadened its focus to the military and their families as well as members of Congress and issues. They are among the 140,000 troops "adopted" for daily prayers by the Presidential Prayer Team. With a reported 1.6 million daily hits, the Web site is one of the biggest efforts merging technology with traditional prayer, religion experts say.

China Arrests Church Leader's Adviser
AP reports, "The legal adviser to an imprisoned leader of China's unofficial Christian church has been arrested along with a prominent church activist and his wife, international human rights groups reported Friday."

India Blocks Almost All Yahoo! Forums
AP reports, "A government ban on an Internet discussion group run by an obscure separatist movement has ended up blocking access to popular, unrelated Yahoo forums in nearly all of India...But for technical reasons, Indian Internet service providers were unable to block just the Kynhun site - and had to shut down every Yahoo discussion group...The Indian government occasionally blocks Web sites it finds objectionable, including one for a Pakistani newspaper during India-Pakistan fighting in 1999." :: It is worth noting how vulnerable to Internet is to national control. I wonder how realistic it was to imagine Buck's underground webzine or Zion's website would be immune to GC censorship when the web of today is so easily controlled by governmental authorities?

Southern Baptists Applaud Mel Gibson "Passion"
The Jesus Journal reports, "Mel Gibson's representation of the sufferings of Jesus Christ in the upcoming movie "The Passion" surpasses all earlier efforts by cinematographers, according to Southern Baptists who were invited to view a rough cut of the film in Dallas."

Passports and Visas to Add High-Tech Identity Features
The New York Times reports, "Technologies that scan faces and fingerprints will become a standard part of travel for foreign visitors next year, and for all travelers in the near future." :: Are we ready for the return of the infamous phrase "Your papers, please," at checkpoints? A day when people are not allowed to buy or sell without official identification seems not so remote when the day of not being able to travel without official identification is so close at hand.

Ham Radios Came to Rescue in Blackout
AP reports, "When technology failed on a massive scale last week, some old-fashioned broadcasting stepped into the breach as ham radio operators took to the airwaves to reach emergency workers.For millions of people in the Northeast and Midwest, the Aug. 14 outage took access to e-mail and the Internet with it. Landline and cellular telephones were jammed by a crush of calls. But the ham radio, which came into being in the World War I era, connected firefighters and police departments, Red Cross workers and other emergency personnel during the most extensive blackout in the Northeast since 1977." :: I wonder if Trib Force members should be trained in the use of ham radios?

Training for Internet Evangelism
Until now, just about the only available training for Internet Evangelism has been informal self-study and learning-by-doing. Now, with the launch of a formal 12-week Distance Learning course in Web Evangelism, offered by the Asia Internet Bible Institute, you and your TF team can sign up for professional instruction on how to use the Internet to share the Good News.

Temple Mount Secured for Jewish Holiday
AP reports, "Police prevented dozens of ultranationalist Jews from entering a contested holy site Thursday...The hilltop, once home to two biblical Jewish Temples, is now the location of the Al Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third-holiest shrine. Thursday was the annual day of fasting and mourning for the destruction of the Temples by invading armies." :: This report is a bit late, but I did want to note it. Activity on and around the Temple Mount is always prophetically important.

Google News Alerts
This is just a quick aside, but those of you who follow the news (and you would not be here if you didn't) may be interested in this new service from the good folks at Google. All you have to do is give them a topic you want to follow, tell them how often you want to get an alert, and then give them your e-mail address, and they will then alert you everytime your keyword is mentioned in online news.

Believer Murdered, Pastor Clubbed in South India
Christian Aid Mission reports, "Hindu extremists clubbed a Christian believer to death in Karnataka state recently, beat another pastor till he was unconscious, and then hindered relatives from conducting Christian burials. Even though Karnataka itself does not yet have an anti-conversion law, the presence of an anti-conversion law adopted last fall in neighboring Tamil Nadu-and similar laws in four northern states of Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Gujarat and Arunachal Pradesh-is thought to have lent a permissive atmosphere for such violence."

Stealing The Internet
The Tom Pain public interest journal reports, "The Internet as we know it is being hijacked, warn two leading digital democracy defenders. If telecom giants have their way, Americans will soon be paying for net use by volume, and every move will be part of a grand marketing scheme." The marketing bothers me, of course, I hate pop up ads as much as the next guy, but what really worries me is the monitoring that is required for advertisers to set rates and for businesses to assess the value of a web property. They have a monetary interest in knowing who is visiting a web site, and when, and from where. It will be increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to surf the Internet anonymously. The tools that corporations use to monitor the Internet can also be used by governments, both benign and totalitarian.

A New Era for PGP
ZD reports, "Speaking at the Black Hat security conference in Vegas, PGP pioneer Phil Zimmermann says the dark times are over for the encryption software." This may be merely an interesting tech article for those of us in the West, but for missionaries working in repressive countries like China, Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Arab and Islamic world, the privacy of e-mail communication may be a matter of life and death. If your church is sending missionaries to places where the enemy rules, make sure they are equipped with the latest in e-mail security software.

Keychain Drives Store Files Smartly
AP reports, "In our rich media world of digital music and photography, flash memory has replaced the floppy disk as king of portable storage. The market is now flush with a bazaar of key chain storage devices that use it." Portable memory for your Trib Force, and who knows, perhaps those Saudi customs officials won't know your keychain contains a Bible.

Secret Networks Protect Music Swappers
CNN reports, "They are the country clubs of the file-sharing world, exclusive Internet networks that require knowing the right people and having a wealth of content on your hard disk to get into the clique." I wonder if this strategy would help missionaries sharing the gospel in countries that repress Internet communication?

Biblical Studies Foundation
Here is a great resource that came to me from the Christian Website e-mail list that I'm on. According to their recommendation, "The Biblical Studies Foundation is a non-profit organization founded for the purpose of distributing sound, evangelical Bible study materials in electronic format so those with small personal libraries or without access to a local Bible college or seminary library, etc., may have access to sound biblical studies from their home.

New GPS handheld hunts for customers
ZD Tech News reports, "Garmin, a maker of global positioning system devices, has begun shipping its first PDA. It hopes to create a new niche for the slumping handheld industry." :: Every on-the-go TF team should probably get one of these. Or not. I know, I love tech toys, but sometimes a good map works just as well, right?

Senate pulls plug on computer dragnets
According to this report from ZDNet Tech News: "The U.S. Senate votes to cut off funding for a computer-surveillance program that would comb credit-card bills and other private records to sniff out suspected terrorists." TIA RIP?

Video cameras will monitor plane passengers  
According to this report from WorldNetDaily: "Airline to keep customers under constant surveillance, record faces." Think about how much of the LB series has to do with flying, pilots and airports, all of that would have to be reconsidered in light of new surveillance technology.

Funding for TIA All But Dead
According to this Wired News report, "The Senate inserts a provision to a key bill that denies all funding to the Terrorist Information Awareness effort. It's a move that would make it much more difficult for the Pentagon to try to establish its massive data-mining spy network." Big Brother loses one, amazing.

Cell Phone Calls Flying High
According to this Wired News report, "A Colorado company is working on a device that would let airline passengers use their cell phones during flight. But, as on the ground, cell-phone calls in yet one more public place could ruffle feathers. By Elisa Batista." Buck would use this all the time I bet.

New Kind of Snooping Arrives at the Office
According to this New York Times report, "Employers have stepped up their surveillance of employees, often using stealth techniques to peer deep into their computer use. :: I looked into this some time ago and found that this is all perfectly legal, you should assume that you have no privacy at all in the workplace. Many people use their office computers for personal business because the connections are often faster than what you have at home. What you need to realize is that your company IT manager is probably keeping a log of all employee Internet activity. This includes e-mail as well as sites visited. So, you can see, that if companies can do this in the United States, how much more can governments hostile to the spread of the gospel (like China, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Nigeria, etc.) do to monitor the Internet activity of citizens. It is only a matter of having the righty spyware.

Evangelistic tool gaining popularity
With its own Web site at www.evangecube.org, the Evangecube has become so popular that Sheets said it "will be the primary evangelistic tool used to share the gospel with people at next summer's Olympics in Athens, Greece. Sheets' goal is to go to 100 countries. In each country, he hopes to visit 1,000 churches and in each church train 100 Christians to share the gospel, thereby equipping 10 million Christians with the Evangecube, who will in turn give one billion people a chance to hear the story.

Start-up streamlines e-mail encryption
ZDNet Tech News offers this report on a service no Trib Force team should do without: "Voltage's method offers a slight twist on current practices: The public key derives from the sender's e-mail address, eliminating a step in a sometimes daunting process." This approach sounds like it may be easier to use than PGP. Of course, PGP is still free and this will be a fee based service, so perhaps only those more financially blessed TF's will use it.

Another Tool for Big Brother?
Here is an interesting report from Wired News: "A surveillance camera that can track and analyze the movement of individual vehicles in a crowded city is being developed for the Pentagon. Despite assurances that the camera is meant only to protect troops in the field, civilian authorities will probably want to use it, too."

Disorganized Resistance?
"Organized resistance has many drawbacks. These drawbacks have seldom been
discussed by the opposition. We believe that the only effective resistance is a
completely disorganized, decentralized, and leaderless opposition." So, is this what Buck and the gang were up to? I think they were more organized, or at least they tried to be.

Urban Tracking
According to USA Today: "WASHINGTON ?The Pentagon is developing an urban surveillance system that would use computers and thousands of cameras to track, record and analyze the movement of every vehicle in a foreign city." Well, I guess Big Brother really is watching.

Iran Blocks Reform, Porn Web Sites
Here is another report on Iran's effort to control what their people see on the Web, this from CBS News: SciTech.

Iran blocking access to sex sites on Web
This CNN - World report provides yet another example of how a government can control the Internet. It makes me wonder if the GC could have blocked Tsion's web site.

Wireless Net may aid poor nations - CNN & Reuters
Wireless Internet technology may help poor nations leapfrog into the future if they can get assistance to harness the new technology, said U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Wireless Internet access has "a key role to play everywhere, but especially in developing countries and countries with economies in transition," Annan said on Thursday in a message to a U.N. conference on the rapidly growing phenomenon known as Wi-Fi. :: TF members operating in poor countries should be prepared to help local believers establish wireless networks and take full advantage of the new communication tools.

Urgent Prayer for North Korea Requested in Wake of Nuclear Threat
A special day of prayer for North Korea is being organized by AsiaLink Ministries and a number of other ministries including Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Open Doors (UK), Jubilee Campaign, and Release International. "Our desire is to see thousands of churches and believers around the world impacting one of the world most closed and repressive regimes -- communist North Korea -- in a worldwide Day of Prayer on Sunday, June 29, 2003," said Rev. Dale Hiscock, executive director, AsiaLink Ministries. "The communist government has sought to decimate the church and repress Christianity with great ruthlessness. As a result of a lack of information, the situation of the church has remained a mystery and the church worldwide, outside Korea, has forgotten the need to pray for these most persecuted of our brothers and sisters.”

HOW TO PRAY FOR IRAQI CHRISTIANS
Open Doors Ministry recently had opportunity to encourage Iraqi Christians and assure them of the prayers of millions of Western Christians in the war aftermath. A Chaldean Catholic nun, Sister Margaret, said, "Your prayers have made all the difference for us." This ASSIST News Service report also includes prayer needs from the Iraqi Christians. Pray for the swift stabilization of the country; for wise administration; for the safety of visiting Christians; for hope, revival and a new moral culture. Pray against a spirit of fear, Shiite extremism, identity wars, and other desperate needs. Open Doors, founded in 1955 by Brother Andrew, faithfully serves the Persecuted Church; visit its Web site to review the ministry now reaching out to approximately 200 million persecuted Christians worldwide.

Should Christians Convert Muslims?
This weeks edition of Time Magazine examines the question of evangelism efforts directed at Muslims, this is a must read for your TF: Not for a century has the idea of evangelizing Islam awakened such fervor in conservative Christians. Touched by Muslims' material and spiritual needs, convinced that they are one of the great "unreached megapeoples" who must hear the Gospel before Christ's eventual return, Evangelicals have been rushing to what has become the latest hot missions field. Figures from the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts, suggest that the number of missionaries to Islamic countries nearly doubled between 1982 and 2001—from more than 15,000 to somewhere in excess of 27,000.

Palm Sunday?
Lend a hand and put the gospel in your palm, your Palm Pilot that is. Bible+ bible reading software for Palm OS PDAs, announces the immediate availability of The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language for Bible+. "I'm honored to receive rights to distribute The Message," said Yih-Chun Hu. "Peterson's lucid translation is very readable, and makes you want to read on and on." This is exactly what Eugene Peterson was aiming for when he wrote this contemporary translation: "I hope that when readers find the poetry, the stories, the prayers, the songs in this Book in their language---the sort of language in which it was written---they will read it from cover to cover, nonstop," says Peterson. The Message for Bible+ is licensed through PalmGear for only $15, a $25 print value. You are encourged to try before you buy: the translation can be browsed on BibleGateway, and Bible+ is freely available on PalmGear.

Students flock to cyber cafes
This Express India report is a reminder that even in countries with a small Christian population, the Internet can still be a powerful means of reaching and teaching.

Software simplifies e-mail encryption — somewhat
So, let's say your trib force sends a lot of e-mail. How do you know that your communication is secure? Could hostile GC agents be intercepting your e-mail? This USA Today report suggests that one simple way to secure your e-mail is to use a program like PGP. If you are not doing this already, it's time to start.

Writing a PDA Friendly Web Site
This About.Com report suggests that with the Palm VII wireless Internet, cell phones that offer Web access, and other pocket sized computers, it is getting more and more important to think about how your Web site displays on the palm sized computers and internet devices.

Alarm at Pentagon's Email Snooping
This report from The Guardian suggests that the age if Big Brother is here and about to get a lot more intrusive. It makes me wonder how well a trib force could really evade GC forces in the modern world of 21st Century government surveillance?

A Question for All Bloggers
Jim at Right Thoughts blog has an idea for protective web hosting. He explains it better than I can, but the idea is simple enough, if you are the type that might run afoul of the PC police and their lawyers, he promises not to cave. In his words, "My pledge will be simple: I will not shut you down on any threat of a lawsuit. I will not regulate your content. If the lawyers come a'knockin, I will "accidentally" lose all your personal information with one click of the delete key. In short, I will be a human digital shield, only I won't run away when they start shooting." He is looking for input from the blogosphere on this idea. Ever wonder who Tsion's ISP was? How come the GC couldn't just force the ISP to shut him down? Maybe he had protective web hosting.

Can my PDA go on-line via a mobile phone?
The PC User Help Page answers this question. Can't you just see Buck using his PDA to access the net via his cell phone in a crisis? Cool tech toys for your Trib Force.

Christian Evangelist Stabbed to Death in Bangladesh by Muslim Extremists
Barnabas Fund and Religion Today report that a Christian evangelist became Bangladesh’s first martyr in modern times following attack by at least seven Muslim extremists armed with knives. Just after midnight, early in the morning of April 24, Hridoy Roy was returning home after showing a film version of Luke’s Gospel. As he approached his house seven or eight people attacked him, stabbing him seven times. He died instantly. Hridoy Roy was a Bangladeshi evangelist and regularly used to put on the film, known as the Jesus Film. He is believed to be the first martyr in Bangladesh in modern times, if not ever; local believers feel that he will not be the last. They are in a state of deep shock, mourning and great fear following this tragic attack. In Islamic law (Shari’ah) conversion from Islam to another faith (apostasy) is punishable by death. This is a deep-seated tradition among Muslims and those who do convert, if not killed, are often subject to beatings and having their possessions and family taken away from them. This is the fundamental reason for the antipathy that most Muslims hold towards those who try to proselytize in their communities. It goes a long way towards explaining why they are sometimes willing to take such draconian measures to make sure that none of their community will be corrupted.

Globalreach, New Site for Evangelism Debuts
Global University's Center for Evangelism and Discipleship presents Globalreach, a new Web site to provide free evangelism and discipleship materials worldwide. Globalreach will initially provide materials in English, Mandarin (simplified), French and Spanish, with Mandarin (traditional), Arabic and Bengali to be added shortly. These courses are currently being used in 178 countries, and have been translated into nearly 150 languages. A user may "Discover God," "Discover Christian Life" and "Discover Christian Service." Many courses are in audio, video or online interactive format; print courses are available in PDF format. Ministries and individuals may use the courses for any language group; all users are asked to provide feedback and let Globalreach know how the materials will be used. To link to a specific language page on the site, please contact the webmaster.

Zantaz Introduces E-Mail, Instant Message Monitoring Service
This TechWeb article on the latest in technology for monitoring employee communications, including e-mail, instant messages, and file attachments is a timely reminder that in today's world, big brother, or big boss, may be watching. So fire up your PGP and hit those keyboards.

Wireless Wares Take Center Stage At N+I
Interesting article here from TechWeb on new wireless products. Don't let your Trib Force team leave the safe house without the latest gadgets. Just be sure to check those security features, you never know who may be listening.

Blogging Phenom Goes Cellular
NewBay Software, a Dublin, Ireland-based startup, is offering FoneBlog, a software system for carriers that extends the practice of Weblogging, or "blogging," to cell phone users. With the software, consumers can create and maintain personal Web sites from any messaging-enabled phone. :: This News Factor report demonstrates that you will soon be able to update a web page from anywhere. Human rights workers witnessing state brutality can now report live from the field, missionaries can file real time reports of persecution, and civil libertarians can stay one step ahead of big brother, for a while at least.

China Blocks Internet 'Blog' Site
China has blocked an Internet site used by more than one million people worldwide to post on-line diaries, known as blogs, users and its developer said on Wednesday. :: This CNN report reminds us that even the freewheeling Internet can be tamed by a government bent on oppressing the people.

Secret Document Outlines Anti-Church Campaign in China
A confidential document entitled “Work Plan of the Baoding Municipal Public Security Bureau to Prohibit Christian Illegal Activities” calls for specific action against unregistered house church Christians in Hebei province in the months leading up to the Communist Party Congress in November last year. The document states the aim of the repressive campaign, “to protect legal [religious activities] and to prohibit illegal ones; to resist infiltration and to strike down criminal acts … and to ruthlessly strike down all cult activities masquerading under the banner of Christianity.”

Even 'Erased' Hard Drives Hold Info
So, you think you cleaned all your personal files from that old computer you got rid of? Two MIT graduate students suggest you think again. Over two years, Simson Garfinkel and Abhi Shelat bought 158 used hard drives at secondhand computer stores and on eBay. Of the 129 drives that functioned, 69 still had recoverable files on them and 49 contained "significant personal information" — medical correspondence, love letters, pornography and 5,000 credit card numbers. :: This AP report certainly gives missionaries operating in closed societies more reason than ever to take care in how they use computers.

Chinese Internet Dissident Put on Trial
Human Rights in China reported Wednesday that police in Shanghai have sentenced the leader of an underground Christian church to 18 months in a labor camp.

Christians Begin to Fight Terrorism on Knees
Prayer movements across the country are rallying support for a major prayer effort intended to keep the United States safe from terrorist attack. The Homeland Security Prayer Initiative urges Christians to unite in 91 days of concerted prayer, through April 1.

Defense Tech
I'd like to call your attention to a web page I recently discovered. It is a web log, or blog as they are called, that deals with the future of the military, law enforcement, and national security.

Indian Pastor and Missions Team Beaten by Mob in Goa
An Indian pastor and members of a team from Operation Mobilization (OM) India were savagely beaten by a mob on the evening of November 18 in a small town in the state of Goa, India, after showing a film about the life of Christ.

Jesus Freak Phenomenon
Bethany House announces the launching of Jesusfreaks.net, a Web site to challenge and inspire "Jesus freaks"of all ages and to promote prayer for the persecuted church worldwide. Learn about the best-selling Jesus Freaks books by dc Talk, including the most recent "Jesus Freaks, Volume 2: Stories of Revolutionaries Who Changed Their World--Fearing God, Not Man," that includes bios on Bonhoeffer, Luther, the Booths, Mother Teresa, Corrie ten Boom and more. Read book excerpts, discover the inspiration behind the books by dc Talk, watch a video interview with the band, sign up for an e-newsletter and order the books online. Find also a prayer map and many other useful resources for supporting the persecuted church on November 10, 2002, the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.

More than 350 Churches forcibly closed in Vietnam
By the end of September, 354 of 412 churches had been forcibly disbanded in Dak Lak province alone. By mid October, about 50 Christian pastors and elders in this province had been arrested or had "disappeared." It is expected that the remaining 58 churches in the province will soon be closed. This latest move against churches in Dak Lak is the most severe persecution since 1975, when churches were closed and church leaders put in re-education camps for years. Local Dak Lak television is reported by many to have broadcast "Ceremonies of Voluntarily Renouncing Christianity" and has shown pictures of Christians "voluntarily" giving their Bibles and songbooks to be burned. "All the Christians I met greeted me with tears, asked me to pray with them and then hurried me on my way lest something untoward happen to me," said a recent visitor to the area. "Even some sympathetic government officials received me with tears, recognizing the overwhelming sadness of what is happening." He added, "Many of the churches in Vietnam are praying night and day for this 'national tragedy.' Please pass this sad news to churches overseas as well so that they may participate in earnest prayer, beseeching the Lord to deliver us from this distress.

Churches Around The World To Observe Day Of Prayer For Persecuted Church
Churches around the United States and the world will focus on support of suffering Christians on Sunday, Nov. 10, during the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP). On that day thousands of church congregations from all denominations will join in prayer for the Persecuted Church. IDOP is one of the largest prayer events in the world and has been observed since 1996. A total of 10 Christian agencies collaborate to sponsor the event. “In my many talks with persecuted Christians around the world, I always ask them what can we in the West do most to support them in their walk with the Lord,” states Terry Madison, president/CEO of Open Doors USA. “And . . . number one on the list is prayer. They want us to pray with them and for them. But not just one day a year!”

PGP 8.0 Beta Released
James Evans writes "With a release date seemingly scheduled in December, the new PGP Corporation has today released PGP 8.0 Beta. It features Smart Card functionality, Unicode support, Novell Groupwise support, among other things.

New Google News
Google has launched a news searching service. Although still in beta form, it pools over 4000 news sources, ranking them for freshness, credibility and popularity. Because ordinary webpages don't get into any search engine database very fast, this sort of ability to search for fresh news is highly useful. Mission executives needing the latest international news will appreciate this service.

Chinese Internet Censorship Extended to E-mails
As e-mails containing certain keywords have begun to bounce back to Chinese senders, activists have realized that Chinese government capabilities to restrict access to information on the Internet are considerably greater than they had previously assumed possible and represent a significant violation of personal privacy, reports a Hong Kong daily.

Religion News Blog
If you're interested in keeping up to date with news and developments from the world of Christian apologetics, the Religion News Blog (RNB) is a resource you'll want to visit regularly. Every day, news stories and events related to religions and cults around the world are updated to help Christian apologists, professionals and researchers keep current with religious news and happenings. The RNB even features a free religion news ticker you can add to your own Web site. Visit the RNB daily and keep current with worldwide religious news.

Persecution Project Intervenes to Rescue Displaced Christians
Persecution Project Foundation completed an emergency relief intervention in Western Upper Nile (W.U.N.) initiated on Sept. 1 in response to desperate appeals from church leaders. Persecution Project's emergency relief mission involved seven flights and the distribution of more than 70,000 pounds of lifesaving supplies for the new IDP's (internally displaced persons).

North Korea Tops Open Doors' World Watch List
For the first time, North Korea has replaced Saudi Arabia as the country where Christians are most severely persecuted, according to the "World Watch List" released on Aug. 12 by Open Doors. The semi-annual World Watch List ranks countries according to the level of persecution Christians face for following Jesus Christ. :: This Religion Today report is submitted for your persecution (Matthew 24:8) files.

Open Doors Offers Training for Persecuted Church Leaders
From ASSIST News Service -- Training Christian pastors to help lead and equip their congregations. That is happening all over the world thanks to Open Doors with Brother Andrew, a ministry to the Persecuted Church. Most pastors in the United States have ample opportunities to obtain the training and tools they need to lead effectively. But in many countries where Christians are being persecuted for their faith, church leaders struggle to get vital training in the Bible. :: "Delivering God's Word is critical, but backing it up with solid teaching and instruction is vital in supporting and strengthening the Church," says Open Doors USA President Terry Madison. "Persecuted pastors and church leaders need to be equipped with the right resources to lead their congregations. They need instruction so they can teach others. This year Open Doors is training over 100,000 pastors and lay leaders in countries like Sudan, China and India and all over the world." :: In several African countries, a course known as the Timothy Training Institute is being used to train pastors. It is based on 2 Timothy 2:2 which instructs us to entrust Biblical truth to "faithful men who will be able to teach others also." Many of the students who have completed the course, which is held for one week each month 10 months out of the year, are now tutoring others. :: Currently working in 60 countries with 23 international offices and over 300 staff worldwide, Open Doors with Brother Andrew delivers Bibles and other study materials, provides literacy training and pastoral training and advocates on behalf of those who are persecuted for their faith in Christ Jesus. Open Doors will celebrate 50 years of ministry in 2005. To partner with Open Doors call 949-752-6600, go to its USA web site at www.opendoorsusa.org or write Open Doors with Brother Andrew, PO Box 27001, Santa Ana, CA 92799.

China Reported To Crack Down On Internet Dissent
China's government is using old-style crackdowns and new-fangled cyber-tactics to stifle dissent on the Internet, the Rand think tank reported on Monday. :: This Reuters report is submitted for your persecution (Matthew 24:8) files.

Philippines Seeks to Rescue Hostages
AP reports the Philippine military flew its U.S.-trained counterterrorism unit to a southern island Saturday to help rescue four captive Jehovah's Witnesses.

Guerrillas Behead Two Preachers in Philippines
According to this AP report, Muslim guerrillas in the Philippines have beheaded two Christian preachers in a violent response to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's claim that the rebels were on the run and almost defeated.

Raising Awareness of Persecution
It's difficult for many Christians--especially in the West, where full-scale religious persecution is not a pervasive problem--to realize that for many believers around the world, the decision to follow Christ often comes at great cost. Persecution.org is a non-profit organization devoted to tracking and reporting on incidents of persecution around the globe. Among other features at their Web site is a comprehensive list of countries where Christians are persecuted for their faith, along with facts about each nation and suggestions for how you can help spread the word about religious persecution. If you have an interest in missions or in the plight of the worldwide Christian church, this site will prove useful and informative. Source: Internet For Christians

Pakistan's Christians Plan Protest
Pakistan's religious minorities--notably Christians--plan a protest Thursday against the growing number of attacks and other rights violations targeted at the country's Christian population.

Fearing More Attacks on Christians, Pakistan Seeks Militants
Pakistani officials are searching for members of an Islamic militant group who may be planning more attacks on Christian targets in Pakistan. :: This New York Times report highlights persecution in Pakistan.

The Bible and the Apocalypse
Time Magazine is devoting a cover story to Bible prophecy. It is not unusual for Time to consider religious matters, they have done previous cover stories on prayer, on Jesus and on Biblical archaeology. Of the national news magazines, I would say that Time has shown the most interest, and the most balance, in covering religious issues. So, I heartily encourage you to read this article while keeping in mind that it is from mainstream media. Still, God is very cool to use this forum to give people a heads-up on events.

For Chinese Missionaries
On Monday, China closed all the Internet cafes in Beijing, the capital of China. There was a deadly fire over the weekend in one Internet cafe, and the communist government has used that as an excuse to close all of them down. As you may know, Internet use in China is heavily regulated, monitored and censored and now public access is virtually cut off in that city. It is not a country with a lot of personal computer owners, after all. And, even those who have the luxury of a private PC must face the net filtering imposed on ISPs by the central government which delete politically suspect sites, including non-registered religious sites. However, as with anything, there are ways around Internet filtering. A company called Peacefire.org offers free downloads and details methods for circumventing filtering software. It may be of use for those operating in closed societies.