WEBWATCH INDEX

News and information

US Terrorist attack sites
Iraq crisis sites
Talking to your children about the war

Access-ability - excellent info site for disabled people
Adbusters - radical site opposing corporate culture
AfriCam - go on virtual safari!
Amazon Ferry project - site tracking two Scottish ministers amazing project to help street children in Peru
Arthur Rank Centre - Christian-based support for farmers
Ask A Librarian - e-mail a question, answer within 48 hours
Bartleby.com - classic literature at your fingertips
Bereaved? - inlovingmemory.com helps you remember your loved one
Cancer research - how your PC can help
Christian Herald - the UK's top inter-church weekly
Churches Child Protection Advisory Service
Coins for Care - donates outdated currency to charity
Compassion UK - Christian child development agency
Computers4charities.co.uk - recycle your old PC
Easter eggs - on your PC
e-organiser - your online reminder service
Evangelical Alliance - the voice for UK evangelicals
Faithworks campaign - fair deal for Christian social action
Farm Crisis Network - Christian support for farmers
Festival 2000 - millennium events for all the family
findtutorials.com - free online training in ... everything
Generating Change - help for organisations in keeping long-term workers from burnout and early return home
Globalgang - Christian Aid's youth wing
Idea-A-Day - free ideas from Christian-initiated site
Infoplease - Millions of facts at your fingertips
I-pix - 360 degree photos bring the world to you
Kidsaidssite - click a button, help kids with Aids
Looksmart - search engine with a human touch
Make the cross count - CARE guide to voting, issues and political parties
Melbourne Courier - new Christian-run Australian newspaper
MSN Messenger - new messaging, PC to PC, PC to phone
National Society - RE and assembly material for schools
Networkbirmingham.com - Christian portal for the city
Passion for the Common Good - Darlington churches questions for election candidates
Rural Stress Information Network - help lines and info
Scottishchristian.com - massive Scottish directory
Southwark diocese - help for church treasurers on tax
Tearfund - aid, fair trade and development charity
Techknowledgy - pass on your PC to a developing nation
The hunger site - click a button, feed the hungry
The Imperial War Museum
The Natural History Museum
The Net - Midlands prayer gathering brings in thousands
The rainforest site - click a button, save some rainforest
The Tate Gallery
UK Christian Bookshops Directory - a stab at a full list
UK Self-help groups directory
Upmystreet.com - vital stats on your neighbourhood
Urban legends - when Net prayer alerts aren't all they seem
Visual Thesaurus - a new way of finding words
Vote2001.net - CARE, EA, Oasis and Tearfund election special
Waverley Learning - business and professional training

Help for the days ahead

Following the terrorist attacks in the US, many Christians are focused on praying, giving aid wherever possible, and helping bring hope through sharing the strength of God’s love and security.

These sites may prove useful (do mail us with others we can add to the list):

  • "We have been supporting two web sites, the hunger site and the rainforest site, write Margaret and David Bennett. "If you visit either site and click on a button, they will make a donation of food or land at no cost to you. Please could you check it out for yourselves and maybe tell your readers." No sooner said than done!

  • All the major denominations in Melbourne, Australia, are supporting a new newspaper to be launched on 27 October. Although not a 'church' newspaper, the Melbourne Courier is fully staffed by Christians, and will be presenting local and world news and commentary from a Christian perspective. They claim this as unique: the existence of a general newspaper entirely run by Christians, and aimed at the general public.

  • You may not have fancied the SETI@home project, which enabled your PC to join with millions of others in analysing data in the search for extra-terrestrials, but Intel's new project to harness home computing power in the cause of cancer research will surely have broader appeal. Visit www.intel.com/cure to download your information packet - and put your PC's spare processing power to good use.

  • A BBC Scotland documentary on two Kirk ministers who sailed to Peru to help street children has led to booming interest in their website. Willie McPherson and Eddie McKenna's journey aboad Amazon Hope is featured on www.amazonferry.com

  • If you're after information on self-help groups in the UK, an excellent place to start is the Directory of UK Self Help Groups and Support Organisations

  • Calling itself "the world's first virtual safari" AfriCam provides live web camera snapshots from wilderness areas in Africa and other parts of the world that you can view anytime. For those who want to feast their minds as well as their eyes, the site also features educational field guides and feature articles.
  • A new website has been launched to help the bereaved come to terms with the loss of a loved one. www.in-loving-memory.org has been created by Phil Rennett to fulfil a need that he feels is neglected by the current procedures and events following a person's death.

  • The prayer movement in the Black Country - The Net - has regularly been gathering an average of 2,400 for its quarterly all-night gatherings. Now it's moving around the region for half-nighters - check out the details at www.thenet.org.uk

  • www.christianherald.org.uk - Updated weekly taste of the UK's top inter-church newspaper, with news, features, columnists, a lively letters newsgroup, arts, humour and Christian Events 2000 - the searchable, regularly updated guide to what's on near you.

  • Redcliffe College has launched a new project to help mission agencies retain their long-term workers. It follows research that shows that one in 20 return home early, many for preventable reasons. Go to www.generatingchange.co.uk to find out more.

  • One of the great strengths of the web is allowing specialists to share their knowledge with the rest of us. And it's often available free. One place to go if you'd like to learn something new - or just brush up your skills - is findtutorials.com. It's a veritable goldmine of help and information on everything you can possibly think of in terms of knowhow. Whether it's car maintenance, the arts, gardening, sport, or computer-based skills, chances are it's here. Invaluable.

  • The latest surveys say the UK's a nation of shopaholics, and we know the Bible teaches that it's pointless for anyone to gain the whole world if they lose their own soul, but the commercial drive grinds on. A healthy antidote can be found at Adbusters, which recently celebrated International Buy Nothing Day. Check 'em out for some radical thoughts and actions for a world that increasingly thinks: "I buy therefore I am".

  • When The Netherlands switch to the Euro on 1 January next year, Coins for Care will collect old coins and donate them to a number of charities, including World Vision. The share each charity receives is being decided by an Internet vote at www.coinsforcare.nl The direct URL for the voting form is http://www.coinsforcare.nl/html/doel/doelkiezen2.asp - you can vote for up to three charities, but no more than once from each computer.

  • Here are some of the main Christian non-party political sites offering resources, insight, help and information:
  • Churches Together in Darlington has produced a document, Passion for the Common Good, which is addressed to the town’s parliamentary candidates. The document includes questions on which candidates are asked to prepare a written response. This, in turn, will lead to a public meeting at which the candidates will have the opportunity to set out their reasons for seeking election and to respond to follow-up questions. The document is now available for download on-line at www.durham.anglican.org/news/commongood.htm

  • Most of us will be buying (and maybe receiving) Easter eggs this weekend, but did you know about the ones lurking on your PC? Nothing sinister, these 'Easter eggs' are little surprises left in operating systems, software and all sorts of applications by the programmers who wrote them. Eeggs.com lists hundreds in all sorts of places - they're fun to find when you know the right key combinatons. Let us know of any you find in Christian software ...

  • If you're in the West Midlands, you really should check out networkbirmingham.com - a city site linking together local churches and ministries, as well as providing local events, news and other features. An excellent, Christian-led community portal.

  • More and more churches are upgrading their approach to child protection with the help of the Churches' Child Protection Advisory Service. Their site is the starting place for information and answers to any questions you may have.

  • If you're bored with thumbing through your Roget's Thesaurus, try the Visual Thesaurus It's certainly a novel approach (way in, attempt, method) you won't have come across before (previously, in the past).

  • The Farm Crisis Network - www.farmcrisisnetwork.org.uk - provides a friendly, helpful Christian presence throughout the year
    The Rural Stress Information Network (RSIN) - www.ruralnet.org.uk - gives more general support phone lines
    The Arthur Rank Centre - www.arthurrankcentre.org.uk - Christian-based support for farmers, and administrators of the Addington Fund for pig farmers.

  • The latest in a range of charities who will take your outdated PC and put it to good use, either by recycling or passing on to charities or those in need of one, is Techknowledgy. This charitable outfit collect PCs to pass on for educational use in developing nations, and have a number of schemes taking shape at the moment to make this easier and more efficient. And another one, this time Christian-led is www.computers4charities.co.uk. Check out their sites to see how you can help.

  • A new site from the makers of The Hunger Site has been launched at http://www.thekidsaidssite.com This new page allows surfers to donate free care to children who have been victimised by AIDS.

  • Want to track down your nearest Christian bookshop? Check out Phil Groom's UK Christian Bookshops Directory. It's far from comprehensive as yet, but is a noble stab at compiling a list that encompasses the major chains and the many independent shops. And if you know a shop that's not in there, get them added!

  • If you're after classic literature online, you just have to head for Bartleby.com. It has an amazingly fast and flexible search engine which sorts through thousands of pages of classical texts and reference books, coming up with definitions quotations and much more. A lot of Bartleby's content amounts to old out-of-copyright texts, but it also gives you access to recent editions of Roget's Thesaurus, the King James Bible, Gray's Anatomy and other valuable tools, adding 15,000 pages to its archives each month - and all of it cross-indexed and searchable.

  • With MSN's newest Messenger Service, communication has stepped into the future. Speak to anyone worldwide from PC to PC, dial phones in USA or Canada for free (with more countries to come), transfer files (including Mp3) and use Emoticons when writing text to show your mood. The download is around 625kb and it's free.

  • Here's a Christian-initiated site with a difference: Idea-A-Day is an entirely non-profitmaking bank of ideas. Based on the idea of 'giving away' intellectual property, it consists of a succinct idea - which could be anything from a social invention to a business plan, a useful gadget to a change in attitude - posted every day. There's an archive, you can put forward your own to be included, and idea creators can have their contact details posted if others want to act on their brilliance. Neat.

  • The Internet can be a real boon for disabled people, putting them in touch with others, and providing a real lifeline for those with limited mobility. And that's the idea behind Access-ability - a UK-based site with stacks of features, and a great links page for relevant charities, information points, support and community groups. There's even a US-based Cyber Church you can belong to!
  • Life's so busy these days, it's a real job to keep track of birthdays, taking the car in for an MOT, meetings and so on. If it's all getting too much, you could always try enlising one of the free online organisers like eorganiser.com
    They'll mail you with reminders, help you keep your diary in order and doubtless try to sell you a few things in the process ...

  • Churches wanting to reach their communities need to know as much info about them as they can. At least, that's one prevailing view. So call it pastoral research, or just downright nosiness, but UpMyStreet.com has teamed up with market analyst CACI to launch an on-line geo-demographic profiling service. Called Neighbourhood Description, you just enter
    your postcode, and you get stacks of information detailing the social make-up of your local area, ranging from socio-economic profiles, attitudes, housing, leisure, to food and drink. Purely for prayer, you understand.

  • Urban legends quickly become factual on the Internet grapevine, and Christians are at least as vulnerable as any. Here's one recent story: "Mike Hutchinson, a missionary in West Africa was arrested for accidentally killing someone with his car and will be hanged immediately if found guilty."
    As in so many legends, there is some truth in it. Mike did accidentally hit someone but in the end was not arrested and is now said to be back home in the USA. You can read more about it at http://www.snopes.com/spoons/faxlore/prayer.htm
    It's vital to check out stories before you circulate them for prayer. They could be wrong!

  • Waverley Abbey House, home to CWR, March for Jesus and Pioneer, is gaining a growing reputation for its business and professional education arm, Waverley Learning. Balancing Home and Work is one of a number of programmes offered alongside retreats and courses on leadership, change, pressure and career development. CFN members can check out Director Geoff Shattock's piece in Members Zone Advice section.

  • Are you a church treasurer? Our condolences. Even if you're not, and you know one - point him or her at the Southwark diocesan website. There are handy resources, particularly for CofE churches looking to encourage more tax-efficient giving, covering everything from recording donations to reclaiming tax.

  • Scots free ... www.scottishchristian.com bills itself as Scotland's leading Christian Internet directory, and it's certainly a busy site. More than 500 churches and organisations are listed, and it's a handy bookmark for all things tartan

  • Days out ... Stuck for ideas on where to take the family? Check out the Millennium Festival site at www.festival2000.co.uk You can search by region or topic, and there are loads of ideas. Oh, and if you must go to the Dome - let us know what you think!

  • So it's a rainy day, and you'd love to go to one of London's top museums or art galleries. You can - and stay in the warm. Just clickety-click along to ...
    The Natural History Museum
    The Imperial War Museum
    The Tate Gallery

  • While attention may have shifted to Ethiopia, the effects from the flood disaster in Mozambique continue to be felt. A unique collection of photographs from the flood-hit area are being shown on-line to underline both the damage done, and the hope of survivors and those helping them. And the photos are quite something - hosted on the I-pix Web site, they are series of 360-degree panoramic pictures of the landscape that you can navigateand explore. You can choose from more than 20 amazing scenes, including shots of the people, the relief effort and the waters.And you can donate directly to the MozambiqueFlood Appeal.
    Head for http://www.ipix-eu.com/

  • Ever thought of sponsoring a child overseas? Compassion UK call it "Christian child development", it costs you £15 per month and you can read all about it at http://www.compassionuk.co.uk Among those endorsing their ministry are highly respected pastor and Bible teacher John Stott, and US radical Tony Campolo

  • Looking for information? Here are a few sites well worth a visit:
    Ask a Librarian - You can e-mail a question and get a response within 48 hours.
    Infoplease - Need a fact? Now you've got one. Millions, actually.
    Looksmart - A great search engine which includes a human search service.

  • It's Christian Aid week from 14-20 May, so if you need some ideas for things to do with your youngsters - at home, school or church - check out www.globalgang.org.uk
    It's Christian Aid's site for children and includes a good range of material including educational games. And if you're just after good RE and assembly material for work in schools, make sure you look at the National Society's site - plenty of ideas, and free material you can download    .

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