When I started Strategic Digital Outreach in the Fall of 2004, I would never have imagined that we would be involved in publishing a book. But here we are, three-and-a-half years later, and we have recently helped our friend and advisor Dave Dias publish his first book, Irene’s Journey Of Faith.

Readers of this blog may remember an earlier post in which we shared about the disease Irene Dias has contracted.

Here is the description of the book we are using on Amazon and other websites:

The inspiring story of Irene and Dave Dias and their courageous battle against a rare, incurable and terminal disease, Primary Amyloidosis. Although the suffering they face is severe, this is not a story of despair, but of an incredible faith and even more of an incredible God who sustains His followers with lavish grace, extravagant kindness, and unrelenting love. Compiled from selected blog entries at IreneDias.com, this devotional recounts the story of the initial diagnosis of the disease, Irene’s long hospitalization, the eventual stem cell transplant, Irene’s release from the hospital, and Irene and Dave’s ongoing challenges and victories.

If the challenges you face are frightening ....
If your circumstances seem hopeless ....
If your life is falling apart and you don’t know where to turn ....

Irene’s Journey of Faith will encourage you and strengthen your faith in the God who promises to uphold you no matter how difficult and painful your life’s journey may seem.

I would strongly encourage the readers of this blog to visit Irene and Dave’s website, IreneDias.com (this link will take you to a page from which you can either purchase the book or proceed to the blog to read its entries.

Here is the ninth session in our multi-part video series on internet evangelism.

In this session, we look at another passage which demonstrates the need for Christian community as a foundation for outreach — 1 Thessalonians 1-2.

I was looking for a book on Amazon today and noticed several Listmania! lists devoted to the church’s use of technology:

Church and Technology Books, by Tim Fisher
Audio Recording Picks, by Devin B. Hedge
Preaching in a Postmodern Media Culture, by Carsten R. Jensen
Life Online, by D.J. Chuang

If you know of any other Listmania! lists or individual books devoted to the church’s use of technology, feel free to mention them in comments to this post.

As I was checking my email today, I was confused by a few emails that looked like this:

I couldn’t remember ever hearing of a blog or website called BlogInterviewer, but it looked like the type of email you receive when you have subscribed to a blog post’s comments (often after or as a result of adding a comment). With a bit of a bad feeling, I visited the blog in question.

BlogInterviewer is an interesting site. With a tagline of “A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Web’s Best Bloggers,” BlogInterviewer presents interviews with a variety of bloggers. They describe themselves this way on their About Us page:

BlogInterviewer.com is a website devoted to discovering the most interesting bloggers on the Internet and their reasons for sharing their thoughts with the world. You as a user have the opportunity to vote for your favorites and bury the blogs you don’t like.

Dave Dias is a great friend and advisor to Strategic Digital Outreach (you can read more about Dave on our About page). Recently, Dave’s wife Irene was diagnosed with a rare, life-threatening disease known as Amyloidosis. Without treatment, average life expectancy would be 18 months. With treatment, six years. For more information, visit IreneDias.com.

If you have a moment, I know that Irene and Dave would greatly appreciate your prayers.

I’ve known Rich Tatum for several years. I first met him when he was the webmaster for the Assemblies of God National Headquarters and I was participating in an email list for Assemblies of God ministers in Northern California and Nevada. Somewhere along the line (I’m not exactly sure of the timing), I started doing some freelance web design for the Northern California and Nevada District of the Assemblies of God, and that gave us some more common ground to talk about. At some point, he left the Assemblies of God headquarters to start working for Christianity Today. We’re both sometimes participants in an AG mailing list or two. Over the years, we’ve kept in touch directly from time to time, usually talking about web design, working for Christian organizations, some theology, etc. We’ve never met face-to-face, so we’re virtual friends.

Four months ago, Rich was laid off from his job at Christianity Today. Since then, he’s been looking for a full-time gig while also doing some freelance web development. Rich is a gifted communicator, writer, teacher, trainer, and strategist with a great amount of insight into today’s technology. If you’re looking for someone with these skills, I would encourage you to take a look at Rich’s resume as well as his LinkedIn profile. If you’re not currently looking for someone with these skills, why not pass Rich’s information on to those you think might be looking for someone like Rich?

Also, for a fascinating read, take a look at The Sharpe Logs, transcripts of Rich’s IM and email conversations with Kathi Sharpe, an ex-Wiccan now converted to Christ, over a year-long period. A great example of how the internet can be used to influence a person’s initial decision for Christ and to disciple or mentor a newly-converted Christian.