We brought information about a new tool called MissionHub that is beginning to be used within Campus Crusade for Christ to connect students to local ministries, and to make sure that every interested person is contacted by student leaders.  One of our team led a session on “Using Social Media to Accelerate Your Local Movement”.

Others from around the world brought information about the tools and strategies that they’re using to reach people and build communities online.  It was inspiring to hear about the ways that God’s name is being lifted up through web sites, blogs, apps, film, and video.  We strengthened connections and made new ones.

Please continue to pray that we can make the most of the tools and relationships that God has given us.  If we can figure out how to work together better, we will accelerate the fulfillment of the Great Commission even more!

And please pray for the people of Thailand and our Campus Crusade for Christ staff there.  Since late October, deadly floods have invaded Thailand, forcing Thai CCC staff to postpone ministry activities in order to help displaced people. Though native to Thailand’s heavy rain season, many of these staff members returned to find their own homes damaged, and in some cases, totally destroyed.  If you would like to help them financially, please see help.ministrynetconference.com.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Each year Open Doors releases the World Watch List, a detailed analysis of Christian persecution worldwide. In this free resource, countries are evaluated and ranked according to the severity of persecution that occurred in the past year.

Check out the list at http://members.opendoorsusa.org/worldwatchlist/ and pray for Christians in these countries!

It was especially nice to slow down after a full month. Keynote’s Vision Event went sooo well. If you weren’t able to watch Karl’s live broadcast you can see it now at www.keynoteconnection.org.

The weeks before and after that event also saw us hosting Tom and Harro, two CCC Australia Interns! They just released an iPhone app to help others share the gospel. They took the most widely used booklet for understanding who Jesus is, Would You Like to Know God Personally?, and made it available through the iTunes store (since it’s the Australian version, it has slight differences from the American booklet).

Similar to Have You Heard of the Four Spiritual Laws, Knowing God Personally is the perfect tool for helping people understand how to have an intimate relationship with God. People can download the application free of charge. Harro grins, “It’s a God thing because we didn’t advertise it. We placed just one wallpost on Facebook and it took off from there. The first week the Lord allowed us to have 350 downloads from 31 countries.”

We had them come in to brainstorm ways we can use modern media to communicate the Gospel in more creative ways (and do programming). Keynote’s New Media Labs has been working on God Tools, another app for iPhones (and soon for Android phones). God Tools offers several Campus Crusade for Christ gospel booklets and the great articles from EveryStudent.com. If you have an iPhone or iPad, you can download Knowing God Personally and God Tools for free from the app store.

This month we’ve also had a number of conversations that reminded us just how challenging it can be for most of us to know how to clearly communicate how to begin a relationship with God. Even long-time believers find it hard to know what out of the whole Bible and their lives to focus on when talking to someone who doesn’t know God.

Simple outlines of the Gospel can be a big help.  Whether you get an app for your phone, carry a paper copy with you, or use some other method, the important thing is to be ready to share, in a simple way, what God says. I find that just getting the 4 points in my head (and keeping them there) can make it so much easier to know I’ve clearly shared what’s important when I have limited time. When in doubt, just read through the booklet with someone!

Most important is praying and trusting God to work in people’s lives. He’s the life changer and he can use all of us as we step out in faith to share our own stories of God in our lives. You don’t have to “do it perfectly” for God to use you to share His love with someone. We’ll be praying for all of us to trust God and reach out this Christmas season.

It was a wonderful evening celebrating what God has done, is doing, and will do through Keynote!

Among other resources, they offer DVDs that contain the JESUS Film in many languages.  For example, the “All Nations ‘JESUS’ DVD: Middle Eastern Languages” contains the film in 16 languages: Arabic, Bengali, Bosnian, English, Farsi, French, Hausa, Indonesian, Kurdish (Behdini), Kurdish (Sorani), Punjabi, Russian (Central Asian), Somali, Turkish, Urdu, and Uyghur.

Check out this wonderful ministry at www.reachingthenationsamongus.org.

Keynote’s New Media Labs (which includes Karl) has developed an official Campus Crusade for Christ iPhone app. God Tools puts classic resources like Knowing God Personally, Satisfied? and the Four Spiritual Laws booklet directly onto your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. The app also includes a searchable library of questions from EveryStudent.com, and, for a limited time, a mobile version of Soularium, A Dialogue in Images. It’s available for free in the iTunes store. If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, give it a try!

We’re already trying to figure out how to improve it and create similar tools for more kinds of mobile devices. Please join us in praying for this effort!

Summer Project Students Preparing to Tour

The Keynote Summer Project students, who have been here since June 7, are in their final week of rehearsals before going on tour. The four Keynote bands, along with the Impact Movement’s Level 3:16, will take the gospel to prisons, military bases, and other Campus Crusade for Christ summer project locations.

You can watch the dress rehearsals live online at www.keynotesummerproject.org/live on July 4, 5, and 6 at 7pm Eastern (the time is approximate — doors open at 6:30 with bands performing around 7)

Please pray that the bands would be ready and that God would use them to change lives for His glory!

You’ll be able to watch at www.keynote.org/blueskynine/live

Do you desire to have an online ministry?? LifeWidget.com, a new online ministry tool, is a dynamic library of life-giving resources for your online world. LifeWidget.com is a resource developed to help you share Christ with the people in your life, specifically your online community. Like art on your wall at home, widgets (mini websites contained in a small box) add color and interest to your website or blog. Whether videos, podcasts, other blogs, or a daily picture, they are great spiritual conversation starters and a fun way to offer hope and help to your readers. LifeWidget.com offers widgets that help your friends know God, grow in their relationship with Him, and develop their life skills. Many of the widgets keep up with the fast paced world we live in by updating their own content so that you don�t have to!

The widgets are easy to install; it takes less than two minutes. Watch this video to see how easy it is.

Whether you already have a website or not, help by�

• Spreading the word � LifeWidget.com is a great resource for your friends, churches, and other ministries; let your blogging friends know about it.
• Sharing your favorite websites with us � Do you frequent blogs that encourage your walk, or know of other tools that would be helpful to others? Let us know, and we transfer them into widgets for everyone to share. Send your ideas to lifewidget@gmail.com.
• Praying� Our desire is to see LifeWidget become a valuable resource for the entire online Christian world. Join us in prayer as we ask God to use LifeWidget to build up His Kingdom.

We�re always adding new widgets to LifeWidget so check back often.? You can also follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/lifewidget or sign up for the newsletter at www.lifewidget.com to be the first to hear about the newest widgets.

Be sure to also check out www.MediaForMinistry.org, a new blog filled with tips and tutorials devoted to helping you maximize your online presence through social media and other online tools.

Karl and Ryan

I�m excited to let you know that the Information Technology team is now a team of two! Ryan Menzer was the percussionist for blue sky nine and was ready for a change. Everyone agreed that he would be a great fit in IT, and it�s working out well. He�s already finished some projects that I hadn�t been able to focus on.

Even with Ryan, though, we know that there are more computer needs at Keynote than the two of us can handle. Our plan is to train a person in each Keynote team or department to be the �level 1 tech� for that team. Please pray that we can communicate clearly and encourage people throughout this process. Please also pray that I lead and teach Ryan well.

In addition to being Keynote�s IT Director, I�m also part of a new team called �Keynote New Media Labs�. Our purpose is to help other Campus Crusade for Christ ministries use the Internet more creatively and effectively. We are starting to build a library of resources at www.mediaforministry.org. We�ve also helped the ministry at the University of Iowa create a new web site so that students, leaders, and even alumni and parents can stay more connected:

One of the staff from Iowa wrote this to Sam on our team: �to say thank you doesn’t even begin to express how thankful I am to what you have done for us. The site looks amazing and you’ve given us the tools to maintain it as well. Sam you have been so giving and helpful to us! Thanks for setting us up for a huge win on our campus in reaching students more effectively online at iowa!�

Please pray that God would lead us to the best tools and strategies, and that we would be able to connect people in the wide world of Campus Crusade for Christ who are also developing new ideas.

Personally, Liesl has had a hard time as the allergy doctor has made major changes to her diet. No more dairy, sugar, vinegar, or a bunch of other things. We�re hoping for health benefits eventually, but for now it�s been very difficult with no apparent benefits. We appreciate your prayers!

Watch an introduction video below, and find out more at www.opendoorsusa.org.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Once you hit the play button the video begins automatically. If you would like to skip around during the video, you�ll need to wait until the entire video loads (you can see a progress bar below the video).? Otherwise you should be able to view everything normally.

Enjoy learning about what God is doing in and through Keynote!

Vision Dinner online

Keynote’s Vision Dinner is going to be an awesome time to hear about what God is doing around the world and what is going on at Keynote.

You can watch it online for free on Saturday at 7:30pm at Keynote Connection.? I”ll be producing the webcast, and I’d love to have you see it!

If you don’t know what this is about, start with our post called Saving Lives with Umbilical Cord Blood.

I’ll just tease you with the last paragraph:

Today there are many who doubt that there is just one gospel. That gives them the warrant to ignore the gospel of atonement and justification. There are others who don’t like to admit that there are different forms to that one gospel. That smacks too much of “contextualization,” a term they dislike. They cling to a single presentation that is often one-dimensional. Neither of these approaches is as true to the biblical material, nor as effective in actual ministry, as that which understands that the Bible presents one gospel in several forms.

Campus Crusade has also recently expanded the number of discipleship materials available in the Training and Growth section of www.ccci.org.? Check out the Transferable Concepts and other classic CCC resources.

While you’re at www.ccci.org, read about the exciting happenings from summer mission projects around the world.

You click to purchase the downloadable version of the book at the normal price, then enter the monthly coupon code before finishing the purchase. The purchase page shows that you’ll be charged nothing, and it’s been working well for me for many months!

Of course, they also have tons of great books available for purchase!

If you haven’t been to Campus Crusade’s main web site at www.ccci.org lately, check out the new design. I think the team did a great job.

You’ll find:

• Fresh new look
• Over 100 country profiles
• Training for spiritual mentoring
• Bold photographs, riveting stories
• Improved search and navigation
• Locate ministries near you
• Tools for evangelism
• Conveniently manage your financial giving