Cru Digital Ministry

Follow Twitter without using Twitter

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How to see what people are saying on Twitter without using Twitter:

  1. Go to twitturly.com, search.twitter.com OR (my top pick) tweetgrid.com.  Now just type in a search term.  For example, want to see if any people have posted anything on Twitter regarding “home school” – just type it in and – Bingo!  See the results pop up in real time.  You’re seeing what people are posting on Twitter regarding this topic at this very second.
  2. Subscribe to the RSS Feed of a particular Twitter user.  You can use online services such as Google Reader (which works with your Gmail acct) to do this or just subscribe to it using Internet Explorer or some other web browser.  I use Flock and love it!

Once you have subscribed to the RSS Feed, then you really don’t have to bother with Twitter.  Just follow the RSS updates.

More details . . .

Maybe you’re not ever going to jump on the Twitter Bandwagon. As for me, I’ve jumped on – I’m not addicted but I like it – and after a brief learning curve have found that Twitter actually has definitely improved my communication in the online world.

So, you may not even really know what Twitter is. Don’t feel bad.  It is newer than Facebook and it can be a little hard to understand.  Let me just say however, if you have a mobile phone which can send/receive text messages – better yet, if you have a mobile phone with web access – then Twitter will probably become much more powerful and useful to you!

The beauty of it is that a Twitter update – called a “tweet” – is a simple status update message posted by anyone with a Twitter account and it MUST be simple text; NO MORE than 140 characters.  Talk about getting to the point! Some people call it micro blogging.

See an excellent explanation of Twitter here on Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter
According to them, in February 2009 Twitter had a monthly growth of 1382%, followed by Facebook with an increase of 228%

Here’s why VP of Global Campus says Twitter works for him:  http://www.onleadingwell.com/2009/07/10/why-twitter-works-for-me/

Anyway, big news media outlets such as FoxNews and CNN now post breaking news updates on their Twitter Feeds.  Ah, now there’s another term I’d like to zero in on:

Let’s say you don’t give a rip about Twitter but you’re interested in hearing the latest updates from FoxNews, ESPN, Apple Computers or even . . . David Hand!

All you have to do is go to Twitter, search for the person, company or service you’re interested in and then find their page.  On the page you should notice a little RSS Feed icon =  .  This is the key to retrieving the Twitter updates coming from this particular person or company.

Also, I haven’t tested it, but Tweetbeep.com has an email service especially for Twitter Feeds.  They can send you an email once an hour if there the feed has been updated.

Family

A Few Small Fish

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Joey and Michele Womble
Joey and Michele Womble

“A Few Small Fish” is the title of a music CD just released by a good friend of ours – Michele Womble. Joey Womble (husband of Michele) and I were good friends at Georgia Tech and we’ve kept in touch over the years. The Lord called Joey and I into His Service at about the same time. He led Joey to a frigid place – Novosibirsk, Siberia – to help build and strengthen the church there. He and Michele and their family have been there about 17 cumulative years now.

After Shannon and I listened to the songs, here is what I wrote:

The first song – A Few Small Fish – captures what I feel sometimes in ministry:
“And sometimes the work seems long – and sometimes it seems so hard . . . and I can’t see how what I am – could ever go very far – could make a difference for You

But You fed the masses with broken bread and a few small fish – You’re still feeding the masses – with broken bread”

It’s the idea that Jesus IS the bread that is so core to “doing” anything for others (and for Him). He’s not waiting on me to deliver a miracle; just wants me to believe in Him as the miracle and take faith steps to deliver The Miracle.

“Hard to Enter” is a good song to – helps me preach the gospel to myself – very needed reminder.

You can download music clips from her album here: http://michelewomble.com/music.html

Family

Prayer for Prodigals

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Douglass Family

Dr. Steve Douglass and his wife Judy (above) lead the world wide ministry of Campus Crusade, but have a family too. They adopted their son Josh (at far left) after he had been in several foster homes. He had some “baggage”. Josh struggled to make good life choices, and Judy prayed continually for him as only a mother can. Now Josh is grown up and married, but Judy still prays for him. Recently she built a web site to enlist others to help pray. Then, she realized many people are facing the same issue of having a family member who needs lots of prayer. The web site has prayer requests for many people, but only their first names are used.

View the short video interview with Judy Douglass to learn more about the site or just click the image below to learn how you can participate in Prayer for Prodigals:

2009-07-Prayer_for_Prodigals

Family

Christian Thoughts on Poor Economy

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We need to give you an update on our ministry financial support status.  But before we do that, here’s some Biblical perspective a friend shared with us a few months back when the news media was all over the crisis in the economy.  This is so good:

God is sovereign. His goodness and mercy never goes into recession!

As I read the newspaper and all of the economic ‘highlights’ every day, I thought of headlines I don’t think we’ll ever see…

  • Fed Adopts Biblical Prinicples; Pays Off National Debt
  • President Leads Nation in Fasting and Prayer / Calls on People To Change Their Wrong Habits
  • IRS Agent Confesses to Bilking Taxpayers / Promises to Pay Back Every Dollar Fourfold.

That may seem humorous at this moment, but all three of those are direct from the Bible.

In Deuteronomy 28, God promised that if the nation followed him, they would be debt free and lend to other nations.

In Jonah 3, the king of Nineveh heard Jonah’s proclamation of doom and immediately fell to his knees in prayer and repentance, calling on all the people to do the same.

And in Luke 19:8, Zaccheus-a tax collector-met Christ personally and promised to restore 4x over anyone he defrauded.

It can be hard to filter out truth from the news, especially because the news media seems to thrive on the bad news more than the good news.

In light of that, here’s another headline:

  • God announces global stimulus package: Follow Me and have all you need.

The great news is that God is still in charge. His portfolio has not changed.

That’s good stuff to remember. Especially as we look at our financial needs for the remainder of 2009. The key however – as promised in God’s Word – is to make Jesus the focus. He is the Provider and He loves to give! He wants us to ask, seek and knock for our monetary needs.

Will you join us?

As we mentioned in a financial update at the beginning of the year, we need an additional $1,100/month to stay healthy in ministry in 2009. What we’re really asking the Lord is to provide at least 14 new financial partners who can give monthly or annually to meet this need.

In addition, we have a special one time need of approximately $1,800 which we just blogged about. Your gifts make a huge difference!

You may give a gift online. If you need further instructions or prefer give by check, see here: https://give.ccci.org/pages/Contribution_By_Mail.html