Win a Free iPod Shuffle... at the cafe

Come be with us at 9 a.m. Saturday... for "Urban Community Tech Day"... focused on serving our inner-city friends, by helping neighbors cross the digital divide. [affiliated with "Faith, Hope & Love Week"]

We'll be giving away an iPod Shuffle and other door-prizes.

[Special thanks to SimDesk Indiana, for sponsoring today's prizes & costs.]

• Smaller than a pack of gum, it's just over 0.3" thin and weighs only 0.8 oz.
• 512MB* internal flash memory stores up to 120 songs (128 Kbps AAC)
• Supports MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible, AAC, Protected AAC and WAV formats

Other door prizes to be given away:

• Free Breakfast Combo (4 prizes)
• Free Rib-Tips Dinner (1 prize)

All Participants on Saturday will get:

• Free Email
• Free Internet Access
• [Free Wi-Fi available]
• Free Continental Breakfast items
• Free 'Digital Backpack' Training
• Other Free items provided by participating organizations.

"Urban Community Tech Day" will help 'cross the digital divide'

• by helping neighbors obtain internet capabilities
  [such as Free Email, surfing and other computer skills]
• by helping neighbors connect for jobs-search, training & resumes.
• by helping churches, cafes & community-centers set up an urban tech mission in their neighborhood.

Free Registration starts at 9 a.m. Saturday, July 29th...
at the Unleavened Bread Cafe (30th St and Central Ave).

Door-prize drawing will be from among registered participants... and must be present to win. All children under 18 must be accompanied by an adult, to win.

***************************

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED !!! Can you surf? Do you have an email address yourself? Then you're qualified to help! [If possible, email us ahead to let us know you can help. But don't let that hold you back -- the main thing is that you come on Saturday morning and be ready to help others.]

Also, the 'Prayer On The Move' Trailer will be onsite that morning by the 9 a.m. Registration time. Come visit. See this specially-equipped trailer, and meet others who are regularly praying for our city.

The event is hosted at the Unleavened Bread Cafe, in conjunction with the TechMission [free] training program conducted there every Saturday morning.

Everyone is warmly welcome... and volunteers are appreciated any Saturday morning.

Judy O'Bannon features 'Community Buiders East'

Everyone at the cafe knows Dan Gushee, the cafe ministry's board-chairman. What you may NOT know, is that as a result of a Bible study at the cafe, Dan 'connected' with Mark Stout, and quickly became friends in urban ministry.

Good things come from 'connecting'. [And the cafe is just the place for it!] The following story demonstrates this principle...

Recently, former Indiana First-Lady Judy O'Bannon featured Mark & Dan on her public television show... "Communities Building Community".



[View Video]

And here's a link to 'Community Builders East'... helping rebuild inner-city homes in the Brookside Park area.

[Visit Community Builders East]

'Urban Tech Day'... Sat., July 29th

"Urban Tech Day, Saturday July 29th... is a day focused on serving our inner-city friends, by helping neighbors cross the digital divide... and the related economic ramifications.



This day of service is a part of the metro-wide 'Faith Hope & Love' initiative. Community residents are invited to come for breakfast and learn to surf the internet, get a free email account, and even start a free website of their own.

A special 'Internet Safety' presentation will be given to help community residents prepare their children and teens for this rising new problem.

Door prizes will be given away.

Urban Tech Day is sponsored by SimDesk Indiana -- 'Where Opportunities Come To Life'. The event will be hosted at the Unleavened Bread Cafe (at the corner of 30th Street and Central Ave), starting at 9:00 a.m... til noon.

Urban churches and community centers are specially invited to come learn more about the TechMission program to help their neighborhoods 'cross the digital divide'.

How do I upload a document to my blog?

One of our key people just asked... "How do I upload a document to my blog?" [example: a .pdf flyer for instance]

Two considerations...

• #1. Since the document is fairly sizeable, it needs to be uploaded (somewhere) onto the web.
• #2. Then your blog really just somehow needs to 'point' to the uploaded document, so that your readers can just click on something on your blog, to go directly to the uploaded document.

Ok, dealing with #1 -- the Uploading.

• Upload it to WHERE? This is a biggest issue, because unfortunately, Blogger doesn't currently provide server-space somewhere to house your document. Perhaps our readers here will leave a comment re their favorite place to house documents online. And in the near future, we're working on a solution, especially with 'SimDesk' (SimIndiana.com), sponsors of our upcoming 'Urban Tech Day'. But right this moment, there IS NO good answer, other than our standard response... "Ya gotta KNOW somebody" (who's got server space and are willing to help you).
  
  But then, that's a pretty good affirmation to our basic philosophy at UBbloggin -- "It's not WHAT you know, so much as it is WHO you know... and thus our focus on building great relationships... for this life... and the life to come."
  
  Ok, fortunately... you know ME. And I've got (some amount of) space on the IndyChristian.com server, and am willing to help those who collaborate well in the cause of Christ. Email me your document and I'll see what I can do.
  
  And for those of you now coming aboard BEHIND the scenes via CrossroadsConnection.com... there's an ability to attach your files to an entry there inside CC. But the neat part is that the attachment can be seen PUBLICALLY... by anyone. And that's the way I cured this person's issue. I attached it to a blog-entry inside CrossroadsConnection.com. [read on]

Now... dealing with consideration #2... what to do at your blog, to 'point' to the now-uploaded document?

• The easiest way is just write a phrase and hyperlink it to the document. Example... "Click here for detailed diagram".
• But personally, I often prefer creating a little teaser pic of some kind to add a little pizazz... and hyperlink the PIC so it'll take folks to the diagram document when anyone clicks it. Creating a little thumbnail pic of the larger document or picture... is a separate issue... for another day though. Stay tuned here at UBbloggin.com.

Blessings!

Technology Education Vehicle

[Gerald/Damita... Wanna put in a requisition for one of these?]



"The Orange County Rescue Mission is committed to providing long-term solutions to homeless and impoverished families who desire to change their lives.

[continued at Blews.Network]

LITTLE GUYS FOOTBALL!

Yes, it's that time again!
Time to outfit our young men to play some football, instead of trouble. A friend of the Cafe, Gerald Alexander, has taken on the big job of coaching some neighborhood kids on the Eastside of Indy - but he is a Big guy & we know he can handle it. He already has 2 teams, of 14-18 players, 9-11 years old.

These are kids from single family & low income homes, so they are in desperate need of uniforms & equipment. So we are sending out this plea for your help in outfitting these little guys so they can have some fun, learn some discipline, and have an alternative to the gangs & streets!

They begin practice in June, with their 1st game coming in August. They are in need of the following: Helmets, cleats, mouthpieces, pads, cups, balls, jerseys, shoes, etc.

Anything you can bless them with would be greatly appreciated. Or if you know of someone who would like to sponsor a team, please contact Gerald Alexander @ 412-8382.

Thanks in advance & be Blessed!

Bloggin' Together For The Gospel

Wish I'd have been there to see/hear this...
I can only imagine... LOL...

[continued]

[Also visit Together For The Gospel]

[Also visit Challies.com -- live-blogging it all]

One Year Bible Blog

"Your Word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path." Psalm 119:105

[continued at OneYearBibleBlog.com]

CoffeeHouse Ministries

[Thought you'd all be interested in this new site here in Indy... and is operated by a Christian friend of ours....]



"Coffee House Fellowship Ministries is a forum for men to discuss issues relating to life and faith and how these impact our daily lives. We are dedicated to building men into effective leaders, husbands, and fathers through critical thinking and mutual fellowship.
We are based in Indianapolis, Indiana, and meet bi-weekly... [continued at CoffeeHouseMinistries.org]

***********************************
[IndyChristian Ed. Note: As more & more such ministries and coffee-house Bible study groups show up on the radar screen here around Indy, we're mapping them and linking you to them at NeighborhoodCafes.com. Know of any others? Email us.]

1000 Mentors?

"A journey of a 1,000 miles begins with one step."

Our journey to help raise up a 1,000 mentors for at-risk kids in Indianapolis schools... took another step this morning. We helped Pastor James Carter start a web-site and procure the domain-name "1000 Mentors .com".

The concept emanated from last year's Transform Indiana discussion series, "Breaking Out of the Jail Cycle". Many among the ministry network are involved in various aspects of prison ministry'... during and after incarceration. And others, like Pastor Carter, concluded that God was calling them to try to help stem the problem as far 'upstream' as possible. Help impressionable youth.

One of the forum panelists, Olgen Williams from the Christamore House, told the crowd... "The number one determinant as to the likelihood of a youth ending up in jail someday... is whether he failed to finished school."

Pastor Carter resolved to do something about that, Lord willing.

So when he heard IPS Superintendent Dr. Eugene White put out a call for mentors to come alongside at-risk IPS students, he knew what he wanted to do. He wanted the (big-C) 'Church' to provide 1,000 such mentors. A tall task, to be sure.

The Transform Indiana ministry network has joined in the effort, and brought in the founder of "Kids Hope USA" to speak at a monthly TI networking meeting. And a number of the TI networkers are helping Pastor Carter get underway.

One 'step' was to help James get a web-site started.

And that's one way we can help.

How to create a hyperlink...

This morning, one of our bloggers said, "Ok, I know how to log in, write something, hit the Publish button... But how do you make those hyperlinks in your blog?"

Ok, fellow bloggers... LOL... Here's a start. Here's how you can create a hyperlink, so you can effectively 'point' folks to other great sites, articles or webpages.

After you've logged in to Blogger.com, and started creating or editing a blog-post...

1. Write something.
2. highlight something you wrote (which you'd like to see turned into a hyperlink.)
3. Click the tiny little 'hyperlink' icon (which is just above the white text-box you're writing in.)
4. When the little dialog box appears, type in the URL of the site you want your hyperlink to go to.
5. Click 'Ok' in the little dialox box.

La Voila! Here's what I decided to link to, to show you MY FAVORITE PIC on the world WIDE web !!!

[More next week. Y'all come.]

How To Get George Bush To Read Your Blog!

We need to soon build a cafe-blogging segment on...

"How To Get George Bush To Read Your Blog!".

(...or anyone else.)

Sure, he COULD accidentally get bored some day while vacationing at the ranch, and just HAPPEN to type in your blog url. [Or so could anyone else.]

But that's not likely.

So the question is... How should we quickly go about getting our blogs seen?

We'll answer that in upcoming blog-posts, probably by going and searching out best-practices that someone else has already compiled for us. Then we'll link you to THEIR best ideas.

[And btw, we know some bloggers that George respects.... so just MAYBE....]

But at the very least, we'll start compiling some tips & tricks in the meantime. Like... go try to get your blog-url added at the following blog-searching sites:

• UBbloggin.com -- Ask them (oh, I mean us) to add your url in the 'Begats' section.
• IndyChristian.com -- If you're a Christian blogger, maybe you'd qualify for the Who's Who of Indy Bloggers. Email Neil.
• IndyBloggers.com -- Aggregator associated with IndyChristian.com. If you get aggregated there, you'd automatically also be seen wherever THEIR site is aggregated. Eg... ChristianHeadlines.com's Indiana News & Blogs page.
• Email IndyChristian's listed Who's Who of Indy Bloggers... and maybe they'add add you.
• BlogIndiana.com -- a secular list of Indiana blogs.
• Ask your church to add your link. LOL -- Yeah right **rollingeyes**. Maybe not yet, but sooner or later you'll see an openness by churches to reflect the nature of the Church... as the PEOPLE... not the centralized meeting place... or the staff... or just the leaders. So hang in there in the meantime, encourage them to start thinking that way. If we're ever to totally impact our neighborhoods and culture, it'll be by WORKING TOGETHER as a networked tapestry of driven Christians. They'll add you one of these days. Trust me. Btw, though... here's a start... here are some progress IndyChurches(.com) at least doing some blogging.
• Go join a 'blog alliance'. There are a number of Christian alliances shown at IndyChristian.com. And there are many more.
• Consider your favorite activities, ministries, hobbies, etc.... Chances are, they considering a blogsite, and might soon even be aggregating blog-feeds like YOURS. Ask them to add your link to their site.
• Other ideas or search-engine links for bloggers?

Now in the meantime, take some time and consider... "If not George Bush, who WOULD I like to read my blog?" [That is... what's the purpose of my blog anyway? How could I change the world a little, or a lot, if I published my best stuff here? Or how could I change the world by networking people to other people who are working to change the world for Christ?]

SimDesk Saturday, March 18th... 12:30pm

We're welcoming a returning friend this week, as she represents SimDesk, and will be talking with several of our geekier friends (**LOL**) about helping us sponsor a Tech Awareness Day in the inner-city this year.

So y'all come, if you're interested in how we can work together to help folks cross the digital divide, in neighborhoods across the city.

Say hi to Donny...

Welcome our newest blogger...

Donny G. Jackson, Sr.

The Kings Kids....

Remember us talking about our new friend Rachel? She likes being called 'Antoinette'... especially now that she's starting a cleaning business blog.

This morning at the cafe...

[Hey, what's this? A WEDDING reception is taking place this afternoon... for our friend Beverly. Wishing you the very best!]

We'll try to blog some more a little later, but here's one link we wanted to put up today... ReformU.com is an addictions program with a couple of locations right here in Indy.

• Soul Harbors Church, 317-638-0533
• Eagledale Baptist Church

We'll try to get some more info on them and perhaps include them at WhenYouNeedSomeone.com -- the needs-based Christian site for the city. Stay tuned.

*******************
Later... Ok, we're back... blogging another key piece of Saturday morning's 'connection & internet-training'... We added a link to a new friend who just arrived in Indy... Eric's bivocational pastor... Floyd Miles, who is... get this... an eminently qualified addictions counselor among other things. Welcome, Floyd! Hope you like Indy as much as we do.

Why do we do what we do?

Why? Because we enjoy making friends at the cafe. And because some of us are kind of geeky. LOL. So we enjoy helping our friends get a little geeky too. Well, at least enough to learn some of the basic internet skills together. Learn to find stuff you want. And importantly, learn to find WHO you want to find... ie, friends that love you too and will help find stuff, etc. And the list goes on.

But even if we helped people acquire great computers skills, or find great jobs, or learned to surf for answers about how to fix their homes so they could be warm, dry and well-fed all their life... til they died... and fell off into an eternity in hell... THAT WOULDN'T BE VERY NICE OF US !

So a big part of the answer to 'Why do we do what we do?' is....

...because many of us have received the most valuable gift known to mankind, and we're willing to 'love our neighbors as ourselves'... that is... share it with you too.

Jesus has done sooooo much for us, it wouldn't be right not to share it.

If we ourselves enjoy peace with God Almighty, now and forever.... then surely we're not REALLY loving our neighbors as ourselves if we don't pass along that 'good news'... of how you too could have eternal life.

So let me ask you... [click to continue if interested]

Far-flung Friend of the cafe... Ken Bussell

Remember Ken? [see his comment] He's now out in Oregon ministry... worshipping, administrating... and blogging.

Today at the cafe...

The place was buzzin' today again... a meeting going on in the back room, and doing internet training out in the front of the cafe. Another new young lady joined our networking group this morning. [Welcome Rachel!] And James & Thomas were back with us again this morning, and the normal crowd. So the group continues growing...

And that's the essence of the theme here... the more the merrier. 'Teams' and 'networks' can help people success more often than 'Lone-Rangers'.

Example: Today Rachel asked... "How could I use the internet for job-hunting... or starting a cleaning business?" A perfect question. And something that a network can help with. Thus the need to keep networking further & further.

[continue discussion at CEO Indy.com -- a jobs blog]

Video-bloggin'

Hey the cafe's new video is now available via the web !

A special thanks goes out to Dave Streit, at Tabernacle Presbyterian Church. We praise God for you, Dave, and for all the fine folks at Tab who are actively involved at the cafe and other urban ministries throughout the city.