IN THIS EDITION

• Internet Evangelism Day Update
• Connecting With God
• Internet Evangelism for the 21st Century
• HIKIDZ.ORG
• Internet and Culture News & Trends

John Edmiston will present a workshop called "Cybermissions: The Intentional Front-Line Use Of Computers And The Internet In Missions". Liberty University professors Daniel Henrich, Harry Sova and Todd Smith who will present a workshop on "Technology Changes and Convergence." The conference is sponsored by Liberty University's MA Communication graduate department. GO

Hi Kidz is a joint initiative between the leading children's ministry organizations Scripture Union, Crusaders and the Grain of Wheat. A wide range of other organisations are also working in association with them to make this possible. An International Team, based in Belgium, has created the pilot version in French and then English. This currently has 14 of the 21 envisaged sections open with some content. Once the English site has been professionally developed there are people from many other countries who are waiting to translate it and develop sites so that it becomes a truly international and global site - Arabic, Russian, Albanian, Portuguese and Spanish just for a start.

Children coming to the site have the opportunity to discover and personally respond to the Gospel. The site also aims to provide many helps to grow in personal faith and have the opportunity to interact through different sections accessed through a home page of a typical boy's room. There are sections on the Bible and Christian life, comics, games, sport, the world, cookery, audio stories, nature, art, literature as well as music, a question box and much more. Children can currently register and join the FREE Cyber-Club and receive weekly animated emails. This reinforces the impact of the site and encourages children's to come back to discover and participate more. Other regular emails are also envisaged for teens, parents, teachers and children's workers who register for them on the site.

Materials are updated weekly. An adults' section, accessed through the adult who can only enter the room when invited, gives information about the site and help for parents.

Within the site, through the globe, there is information about many different countries and projects effecting children in need. Throughout the site there are already resources in over 40 different languages.

The final site is also to cater for special needs children and offer both a "Flash" animated and a "non-Flash" version allowing for visitors to choose according to their connection speed. It is to be managed by a small web management team for each language version who will be able to continually update and develop the website, research and incorporate a wide range of resources and enable children's interaction.

2004 FORUM
At the Lausanne Conference for World Evangelism, meeting in Thailand in October 2004, the children's ministry delegates concluded that the www.hikidz.org website was one of four strategic tools to reach the 2 billion children in the world.

Penny Frank, one of the delegates who is Director of the Children's Evangelism Initiative of the Church Pastoral Aid Society said; "It's so exciting to have a website which children can access, where we know they will meet Jesus! Hi Kidz builds a bridge between the Christian message and children - even those who have no-one to take them to church."

God gave many opportunities to meet and network with people involved in children's ministry and in various forms of media. Other partnerships and synergies are under consideration. As a result, we are seeking to set up coalitions of ministries to take responsibility for the translation and management of the site within key language groups.

Statistics show that the site has already had visits from 94 different countries in 5 continents and as many as 573 visits a day. Only after the next phase of the site has been fully developed will any major publicity be undertaken. The potential is incredible, but we must engage with it together to make this possible.

To successfully reach the children of the world, a project such as this must be seen as a Kingdom project involving and engaging the whole people of God. Ministries, churches and individual Christians need to be using and resourcing this strategic tool and making it the best we can for God. The synergies and media possibilities go much further than a simple website.

We are at a key stage. The low budget pilot version has received encouraging interest. We have many improvements and new services planned to incorporate into the new phase. This requires strategic funding to go forward. We believe God has other key international partners whom He also wants to involve in this project before proceeding. They may be among contacts from Thailand; they may be among those reading this report. Please pray that we might clearly discern God's wisdom, will and timing as we seek to:
· discover other ministries wishing to partner in the project and contribute their skills and resources.
· raise the funding for the redesign and restructuring phase with a professional Christian consultant and developer.
· build up a network of supportive individuals and churches.
· lay foundations for the long term viability of the site and its further development in other languages.

Please pray for us and tell others about the project and this unique resource to reach out to children in a relevant and engaging way. To find out more contact: Harry Bryans, Hi Kidz International - Grain de Blé, 7 & 11 rue de Paris, 7500 Tournai, Belgium
Tel. 0032 69 84 12 37, Fax 0032 69 84 67 36, www.hikidz.org, www.graindeble.org

BBC: Millions Miss Out on Net
Around 40% of the UK will still be without internet access at home by 2025, warns a study by telecoms giant BT. GO

BUFFALO BUSINESS FIRST: American Muslim TV Debuts in Buffalo, NY. GO

CLICKZSTATS: Aging Online Population
Young people may have largely driven the early stages of Internet growth in the U.S., but one survey suggests most recent growth in Internet use has come from people aged 55 and over. GO