Written by: Dony & Kathryn Donev

If you feel this message is relevant to your church and missionaries you support, please feel free to forward it around the globe. It is our prayer, that with doing so we will be able to reach more people with God’s Mission of Salivation for the Last Days.

Dear Missionary,

We are writing to inform you of the launching of our new site, WorldMissions.TV. This is a Christian based site, which purposes to give a place where missionaries can inform of their work and remain connected with their churches, families and friends. It is the goal of  WorldMissions.TV to offer an atmosphere where missions’ videos can be watched by millions of people across the globe.

When missionaries make the sacrifice to go to the uttermost parts of the earth they sometimes experience a feeling of disconnect being on the other side of the world, but with the help of this site, missionaries are provided a collective experience. It allows the body of Christ to come together in unity to exalt His mission above all – saving eternal souls regardless of the cost, location, race, ethnicity, language or denomination.

We ask that you join together with us in sharing our unique missional experiences with those whom may never be able to go to the mission field and at the same time to those whom are called to missions or already on the field. It may be because of your uploaded video of enduring through the jungles of Indonesia to preach to a group of people who has never heard the gospel, that a person whom you never spoke with accepts the call for missions; or it possibly will be that your video provides the encouragement needed for a couple experiencing hardship.

Through this site you can share of your trails, your successes, the miracles you have witnessed in order that God be given the glory. We should not remain quite simply because some are in disbelief of the True resurrective power of God. In the words of the old children’s song:

I’m going to shout it from the mountain tops
I want the world to know;
The Lord of love has come to me,
I want to pass it on.

And this is exactly what we are purposing through WorldMissions.TV. When people see the miracles and wonders of missions across the world, there is no other alternative than to cry:

“Holy, Holy, Holy”
“Santos, Santos, Santos”
“神聖, 神聖, 神聖”
“Svet, Svet, Svet”

Sincerely and In His Service,

Dony and Kathryn Donev
Cup and Cross Ministries International, Bulgaria
www.cupandcross.com

Written by: Dony & Kathryn Donev

True Reformation does not start with preaching or theology, although they are both fundamental stones of every process that changes the people of the church. But in order for this to occur, both preaching and theology need a text; and not merely any text, but Divinely Inspired Scriptures – the Holy Bible.

In our humble ministry efforts, we have attempted to provide this text in the form of a new Bulgarian literal translation made from the Nestle-Aland critical edition of the New Testament. The initial work started in 1996 with brief interruptions until 2003 when the framework was completed and the project was successfully launched.

In 2007, we set course with a pilot edition of the new translation including the Gospel of John, which was printed for Christmas. Our team continued with a full edition of the Johannine works, which included The Gospel of John, Epistles and Apocalypse, published for Easter 2008. In 2009, we presented a partial methodology behind the translation at the Logos Software’s annual BibleTech conference in Seattle and at the 2010 BibleTech in San Jose, our team was able to show in an actual work setting the software used to prepare the Bulgarian interlinear text to the Nestle-Aland critical edition of the New Testament. Finally, we were able to publish in print the complete translation of the Gospel of Matthew for Christmas 2010. The printing of Mark and the Lukan Corpus are scheduled respectively for Easter and Christmas of 2011.

Other related project by Cup & Cross Ministries International:
JOHN: Gospel, Epistles and the Apocalypse (New Bulgarian Translation)

OurCOG.org | WorldMissions.TV | ProBible.Net | Bibliata.com | Bibliata.TV

Written by: Dony & Kathryn Donev

Cup & Cross Ministries’ web research team has just released a new internet Bible study project called ProBible.Net. ProBible integrates an extensive Biblical Greek knowledge database of the scholarly b-Greek mailing list. The new website archives in real-time panel discussions led by Greek scholars, university professors and Bible researchers and places them as commentaries to their respective Bible passages. The result is a new kind of integrative online research, which has the original languages of the Bible text discussed in dept by scholars and experts in the field. The best part is that all users can participate in the online discussions via the website or the b-Greek list. The hope of the developing team is to create a fully annotated online study Bible, which includes a commentary to all important parts of Scripture.

Tag: http://ProBible.net

Written by: Wes Allen

My son has Ocular Albinism.  It doesn’t slow him down much, but it does make reading a frustrating experience for him.  I’ve found his frustration disheartening because my son is a very good reader.  He has the ability to give characters voices and can work unfamiliar words out pretty well.

At our church children are given a Bible at a certain age, and our son is receiving his this year.  We assumed that we could get a large print Bible that would work for him, but on Monday we checked out the large print Bibles and found that there we wholly unsuitable for someone with my son’s sight issues.  The font was still far too small for him to read without a magnifier of some kind, and even then the paper was so thin the text on the opposite side could easily be seen – for someone who needs strong contrast, it would have made it impossible for him to read.

Three years ago he would have been out of luck, but the advent of digital readers offers my son a chance to learn to enjoy reading like everyone else in the family (which he desperately wants to do).  So my wife and I resolved that we would look for grants to help acquire an iPad for his use in school, home, and church.  Really, that wouldn’t have been a difficult task.

You may be asking, “Why an iPad?”  For a few reasons:

• It’s backlit.  The e-ink displays are nice, but they are terrible in low light and so the lit screen is a must for someone who has vision issues like my son.
• It’s out.  I would have loved to see what Android and WebOS tablets will come out – but they aren’t here yet and we have a small window to get our son reading for enjoyment.  We also will need it for school come September.
• It’s simple, he took to it immediately.
• It’s got multiple book stores.  iBooks is nice, but the book selection is terrible.  Kindle has a nice book selection but for some dumb reason they limit how big you can make the font.  Kobo isn’t a great experience, but has good font sizes and a good number of books.  B&N doesn’t have their iPad reader out yet, I expect it to be well-designed.
• Even though it’s simple, it’s multi-function.  I can set up a drop-box between him and his teachers and he can have access to lesson notes, reducing the strain looking at the board puts on his eyes.

So, those are some of the reasons.  Like I said we had committed to writing grants to acquire the device, but we didn’t have to wait that long.  In a rare AT&T late voicemail delivery #win, my mother called up shortly after we left the Christian book store and went on to other errands.  She works at a local university so I said, “Hey, while you’re on the line, do you think you could give me some leads on where to apply for educational grants?”  When my mother asked why I was looking I told her about what we wanted to do for our son and why we thought the iPad would work well for him.  She said, “You have a grant.”  I said something like, “Whubhuh?” To with my mother replied, “It’s called ‘Aunt Ann’s estate.’”

My great aunt, the last matriarch of the depression generation for our extended family passed away last year, she apparently left money to her nieces and nephews and my mom was looking for a good way to spend it.  She said, “This is what I want to do with it, go get him one.”

Now, my folks are not wealthy.  It also wouldn’t have been difficult to write a grant for the device, so I tried to balk at my mom’s generosity by nervously chuckling.  She got a bit miffed with me when I did that. Mom’s can do that.  Her offer also wasn’t some sort of impulse purchase (that’s my job).  My Aunt Ann spent her entire life in the service of others, particularly in seeing the elderly empowered rather than set aside in their later years.  She even was invited to a White House dinner once because of her work (I remember readin the invitation).  My mom wanted to do something with the money that would be in line with her aunt had lived – she insisted this was it.

One of the things I will always be thankful for in my family, both nuclear and extended, is the value of education.  My mom saw a way to see that her grandson could strive forward, and she jumped on it.  I’m very thankful.

Below is a video of our son seeing the iPad for the first time on Monday.  Before you watch it let me stress a couple of things:

• This is his iPad.  Yes, I’m a geek and it it tempting to take this with me wherever I go and play with it.  That would be a terrible thing to do with my mother’s generosity.  Yet, it’s tempting – but it’s not mine.  I’ll have to save up money for that.
• While he says, “It has my games” in the video – I have very few games on this (and some are for my wife to play after our son crashes for the night).  He likes “little metal ball” – and it’s good practice for his eye-hand coordination. This is for reading, and if he takes it into his room at night that’s all he will be allowed to do with it. He has a DsiXL for games, it was his birthday present.

So, yes, I will do some reviews on my thoughts on the iPad and it’s uses, but I’m more interested in tracking how my son uses it.  He’s very into the Winny The Pooh that comes with iBooks.  Now if iBooks would only get the Narnia books.  I got him a sample chapter of Eregon, but he said, “No, this is a book where people die – I don’t like those.”

This post originally appeared on Painfully Hopeful

Written by: Dony & Kathryn Donev

The Video Bible project in Bulgarian was originally envisioned in 2008 by the Cup & Cross ministry team as a result of two consecutive endeavors. The first was the finalization of a vision for the Bulgarian Bible on the internet, which began in 1996 and continued in the next decade resulting in the development of Bibliata.com – a web community for Bulgarian and Slavic speaking Christians around the world. The second one was the Bibliata.TV web project released in 2007-2008 after a wide variety of oppositions ranging from purely technical to religious and political aspects.

Once Bibliata.TV had established its permanent place in the internet it grew fast to become one of the most successful interactive media projects in Bulgarian history. Currently, the project hosts over 11,000 original Christian videos uploaded by some 1,200 registered members. It provides a web platform for daily religious broadcast for some two dozen of Bulgarian churches and ministries active around the globe and in 2008 became the home of the Bulgarian Video Bible.

This last ambitious project of the Cup & Cross ministry team undertook the difficult task to recreate the Bible in video format one chapter at a time. Churches, ministers and lay people were asked to record a favorite portion of the Bible as a video and upload it to Bibliata.TV. Currently 6,672 videos are already completed. They can be all seen at: http://video.bibliata.tv/. The anticipated release date of the Bulgarian Video Bible is 1.11.2011.

Written by: Mobile Ministry Magazine

I’ve been sitting on the idea of this post for sometime. To be honest, I’ve really had many times during the past five years where I felt that MMM ended to be let go.

Then tonight, I was visiting with some friends, and it hit me just how important it has been for MMM to be here for the past 5 years. Yes, I can make the suggestion that it was needed for all of you who have come here over the years and gained insight towards life at teh intersection of mobile and faith. But really, it was for me to see just how much God values the gifts that we have, and how those gifts are to be used in the Body.

In the course of 5 years, there has been a number of PDAs, smartphones, laptops, and a few tablets that have passed through here. This site has gone through 5 major redesigns, and countless tweaks. Its been on Blogger the entire time, but took nearly 8 months or so for it to find a stable server to call home.

There have been guest posts by journalists, students, pastors, and evangelists. MMM has been noted at teh BBC and ABC. Its seen life on Jaiku, Twitter, Mippin, and Mobify.Me.

There has been reviews of devices, devotions, themed series, and the content that started it all – the issues.

This has been one heck of a ride. And I know that there are not many websites out there which can say that they have gone for 5 years on no budget. But man, God has shown me and Mobile Ministry Magazine a whole lot of favor.

I owe Sammy at Palm Addict a big thanks for his encouragement to just start this online, and his countless posts letting people know of MMM. Thanks to the host of folks who are represented in the links section – its amazing what your encouragement has meant over the years. And a huge thanks to LJ over at Trailblazin Ministries – dude, I love you in Christ and because of CHrist. THank you immensly for your words of wisdom, encouragement, and straightening up.

Now, there a some people who would say that they saw MMM going this far. There are some who are wondering still how we made it this far. I have no idea except to say that it has been God’s grace. A whole lot of grace.

Lord willing, before Blogger’s FTP service gets shut down, we’ll get another redesign up and then some stuttering of things as the move to another blogging system has been a lot slower than hpoed for. God, I really wish that I could have done a lot of things faster, better, with more clarity of the impacts etc. This site has been one heck of a learning experience, and I hope that for you visiting, reading, or just checking to see if MMM has finally found an editor, that you can understand that we are only moving forward because of the grace afforded to us.

Its been 5 years. And there are over 1700 posts here of stories which talk about life at teh intersection of faith and mobile tech. Wow. Just wow. If God gives this site another decade under my watch, I wonder what the imppacts and stories will look like then.

A new mission statement therefore for MMM: Enabling the story and His-story of the Christian faith through a mobile lens. How this is done has been stated for 5 years, but in this next stage of life for me and this site, we dig into this further. Hope you will come and share your story with us.

This post originally appeared on Mobile Ministry Magazine

Written by: Wes Allen

This week I got to play with an iPad for the first time – let me tell you, it’s a pretty impressive product. I really does look like a big iTouch, but the experience of using it is completely different. In fact, it’s all the computer my wife needs, and I have great hopes for tablets like the iPad to assist those who, while not blind, are severely visually impaired (like my son). Heck, I’d like to have one to use around the house.

There’s something about the iPad’s marketing tactics, however, that’s been nagging at my mind since it was first announced. Yes, the name is…. unfortunate (it might be the rare instance in history where a focus group actually would have improved a product), but I’ve gotten used to the name. What’s been nagging at me about the iPad’s marketing is the proud proclamation that the iPad is “magic.” Geeks like me have jumped all over that word, it seems to be the united opinion that hearing “it’s magic” about the iPad is akin to having someone run their fingers down a chalkboard. I share the sentiment, but because of who I am I started to think, “Why are we reacting to this word so strongly?” I’ve come to the conclusion that we geeks react so strongly to this word because we instinctively understand what this means.

“Magic,” in the Western Context, has come to encapsulate any kind of secret knowledge that’s kept from the uninitiated by a guild or secret society. Those who are not initiated into the guild need this protection because if they used it they’d only end up harming themselves and others. A great example of this view of magic can be found in the Harry Potter series (the ban on under-age wizards) and also in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels (Unseen university exists to keep people from using magic, which can accidentally destroy the world on a routine basis). Geeks understand this, when we drop to the command line and people’s eyes glaze over we get a glimpse of how the uninitiated see our world – “ls -l” might as well be an incantation to a non-geek. We like the fact that we stand between the user and their self-destruction – and it’s one of the reasons why we get so upset when users decide to use the magic, bypass our safe-guards, and then cry out for help when the digital demons come to ruin their day. We refer to this problem PEBKAC. If you don’t know what that means, chances are you’ve been a PEBKAC at some point in your life, you’re not in the guild.

Now, as I said, we’re quite happy being the digital wizards (or, if you want to go religious, “priests”). We stand between the users and chaos and we take pride in that. This is why we hate it when the iPad is referred to as “magic.” First, it offends our sensibilities that the uninitiated would be given the power of our digital realm without having to be taught how to think. All someone who uses an iPad has to know is where to touch and how to type in their password to buy an app – yet, they’ll still get to dance around the tablet like they know what they’re doing. Second, we geeks bristle at the fact that we, who know how to think are are initiated into the grand guild of geeks, are only allowed to use the same limited magic on the iPad that people who are normally PEBKAC get to use. It’s like Apple is saying that there’s another guild that only exists at 1 Infinite Loop, and we aren’t allowed to even consider joining it. So, we get peeved and think, “Who does Steve Jobs think he is, anyway?” What really hacks us off though, is that Steve Jobs isn’t really even considered a geek by the initiated, he’s an artist who employs geeks to merge the worlds of art and digital magic for the PEBKAC peoples of the world. In Steve Job’s world, it’s like we’re unnecessary, his special guild is all the world needs to be protected from digital chaos – and so we get miffed.

The thing is, we know that Steve Jobs still needs us, and he knows it as well. After all, without us where would he get the geeks to create the alloy of his art and our digital magic? So what do we do? We take our guild underground, we “jailbreak” our phones and tablets, and teach others the secrets that are happening under the screen of limited (yet pretty) magic that Steve’s guild offers to the PEBKAC masses. Yes, we know that there are other platforms out there that we don’t need to break into, but the pride of geeks is huge, and so we break into the walls of the iCastle in an act of rebellion. Yet, I think the best of us will eventually find the Artist waiting for us in some hallway of the iCastle with a smile on his face – and before we can attack he’ll say, “Oh good, I’ve been waiting for you. You see, I have this idea….”

It’s like…. magic.

This post originally appeared on Painfully Hopeful

Written by: Sean Boisen

Apparently i neglected to let Blogos readers know that i was speaking at LinuxFest Northwest this past weekend: my bad! My talk was a basic practical intro to Django, the Python-based web application framework, entitled “From 0 to Website in 60 Minutes – with Django“. Since Django is touted (rightly in my view) as a highly-productive way to do web development, what better way to demonstrate that than to actually build a functioning database-backed website in the course of the talk?

It was a pretty ambitious goal, and i had to take a few shortcuts to pull it off (like starting past the boring stuff, with Python/Django/MySQL already installed, and data ready to go). But i think i can fairly claim to have delivered what i promised. We walked through an application that’s been a side-project for the Whatcom Python Users Group, a web version of Sustainable Connection’s Food and Farm Finder brochure. It’s a nice simple learning example, well-suited to tutorial purposes. I’d say there were at least 40 or so in attendance, many the kind of beginners i was trying to focus on. And even though the time slot turned out to only be 45 minutes, I finished with several minutes to spare (in retrospect, i could have gone a little slower).

Slides are here, along with the data you need to follow them on the main page for the talk. I have audio of the talk that i’ll post in the next day or two once i’ve cleaned it up a bit: then it will be almost like being there (though without the ability to make sense of the “skeleton” joke). I was glad to have the opportunity to shine a little light on Django and repay a tiny portion of the debt of gratitude i owe its creators, since it’s been a major productivity boost in my work at Logos.

Here’s another reason why i give talks whenever i get the chance: you always learn more when you teach others. As a concrete example, i was reminded while prepping the talk that Django’s template framework, while primarily designed around HTML generation, is quite general and therefore capable of generating other data formats as well. At work, i’d built up an entire module of custom code around serializing Bible Knowledgebase data as XML for internal hand-off to our developers. Re-reading the Django book gave me the idea of using Django templates to do this instead. In fairly short order, i was able to rewrite my test example, 80 lines of custom code, with a single clean template and 20 much simpler lines instead.

This post originally appeared on Blogos

Written by: Mobile Ministry Magazine

Just a short post, but I did want to recommend the M3: Mobile post which was posted over at the the BibleTech Conference Blog. Not because it points to MMM – though that is humbling – but because of what was realized for a country when something as simple as a mobile was considered as part of the toolkit for a pastor.

Such moments leave me personally without many words. I would hope though, that for any who have stories of their own, that they too would find some consolation in the fact that in its right context, mobile tech is one powerful minstry agent.

This post originally appeared on Mobile Ministry Magazine

Written by: Mobile Ministry Magazine

As just stated on twitter, MMM has just been through a redesign. This is the 3 major redesign, and probably the 20min minor one done since this site was conceived 5 years ago. The importance of this update was to get one last redesign in before moving to another platform – which should have the same design – and to better focus on the mission of Mobile Ministry Magazine (will update the About page hopefully soon).

The New(ish) Mission Statement: Enabling the story and His-story of the Christian faith through a mobile lens.

Its the opinion of this site that how we define and work out living out this Christian faith has significantly changed, in part due to the threads that various forms of technology has given us. With this new design and sharpened focus on the story as it comes from you and your engagements with faith and mobile devices, its the hope that this site will keep that story of our faith out front so that present and future generations can see how His story is continuing to be threaded throughout our lives.

The design is based on lessons learned from the Mag+ Concept Video and Project which had been posted some months ago. Some of the core lessons in this video dealt around not making digital content fit older models of reading, but to develop containers for that content which allow digital technology to take a better advantage of how digital tech is being used – specifically with reading devices. Most of MMM has been in long-form blog postings, themed content, and then interactive elements sprinked throughout. Its the hope that attention to the story instead of the various aspects of “chrome” will come to the front, and then using the tools exposed on the site, you’d be able to see just how much can be done when a story is shared.

I am totally sure that there are issues somewhere and with some posts; but being under a tight deadline and with only access to a mobile device, this step was taken to ensure that a move to a new blog/content management system will follow a similar look, but push that interactive story a good bit further.

As usual, comments are welcome and appreciated – and will be answered with a grateful heart.

This post originally appeared on Mobile Ministry Magazine