A precious Wednesday Weekly Wintercessor (pardon the redundancy as all of you are precious) sent a link about the former Baptist Hospital in Gaza: A-Shifa hospital in Gaza might close down if int'l suspension of aid continues.

Also, be sure to check the end of this page for great insight to the upcoming "Da Vinci Code" stuff along with a great site at http://www.worldmapper.org (be sure to read the bottom of this page for an explanation of the site).

Speaking of contributions, if any of you wireless users could help me with a step-by-step wireless troubleshooting guide, I sure would be appreciative!

The International Prayer Center of Jerusalem will be celebrating the Day of Prayer and Fasting on Saturday, June 3, a day before you do. Here are some details along with internal links on ordering free material: ‘Day of Prayer and Fasting’ June 4 to focus on Egypt’s peoples.

Fear factor slows the Gospel in Egypt. 

Pastor Nihad was shucking some corn Sunday morning when he gave a message from Luke 24:13-53, especially how vv. 27, 44-45 tell of the main focus of the Bible! Sure wish you could've been there!

"Even as our country is split about the involvement in Iraq, the film makes it clear that we face an evil masked in righteousness, one that deserves our commitment for our sake as well as the world’s" is part of review found at "United 93 is powerful, but be warned."

+ Scott had been going through times of uncertainty and coveted your intercession that things "go back to normal"...oh, my - how quickly He responded! Wednesday was one of the most 'normal' days I've had in a long time, and I appreciate your intercession more than you can imagine!

+ You joined us in praying for the Easter party that would be held at the Garden Tomb. The ladies who would be attending most probably had never been to the Tomb or had clearly heard what Jesus had done for them. We prayed that the ladies would make large faith steps towards Jesus... Shirin writes, "Thank you for praying. The Lord protected the whole event. Forty-some non-Christian ladies learned why Jesus died on the cross and how He arose on the third day. An invitation to pray to accept Jesus was given and I am still waiting to hear if any ladies responded."

+ Shirin and some co-laborers would be going to the Girls Home to start a vegetable garden and do a craft, so you joined them in praying that gospel seeds would be planted in the girls' and staff's hearts...Shirin writes, "Your prayers were felt, thank you. We started off shorthanded, but God provided other people to step in and help. We continue to be faithful in telling the girls and staff about God's love for them and let the Holy Spirit do the rest."

<T H I S  W E E K><

<>< Scott will be working with our landlord on various computer projects and asks that "Omar" be found ready to receive Jesus!

<>< Please join us in praying that we can finish up with all our medical appointments in the next week or so.

<>< Jasmine asks prayer for her friends' safety at school. She says they fall down a lot, and it bothers her.

<* Pray for the Southern Pushtan Afghani of Afghanistan.><

CALENDAR UPDATES

<If you're not receiving our bimonthly snail-mail newsletter, let us know so we can send it to you!><

26-28, Pray for the salvation of family members who don’t know Jesus as Savior.

* No news yet, so we continue to pray. Thanks for joining us!

29, Outreach Easter party to bring many men, women, and children to know the Savior

* Shirin writes, "Thank you for praying. Many men, women and children heard God's plan of salvation for them. We continue to pray that what they heard will draw them to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior."

30, Jasmine’s last month to be 6!

* Wayne Watson's "Watercolour Ponies" had me teary eyed today. 

1-2, Pray that our final few weeks will be focused and productive.

* Hmm, the more we do the more there seems to do :-(

Bible Q & A

by Tom Lovorn, Th.D.

Q Do you believe the DiVinci Code movie and the recent translation of the Gospel of Judas will affect Christianity negatively? Pat Stawarz, Prince George, VA

A I have not read The DiVinci Code because I don't want my money supporting blasphemy. Neither will I pay to see the movie coming out this May. The reviews I have read say Dan Brown's fictitious novel has just enough actual people and events to confuse the casual Bible reader. As I understand it, supposedly DiVinci knew some secrets about Jesus that the Church of his day didn't want revealed. Therefore, he coded them into his paintings and writings. Brown's book perpetuates the theory that the early followers of Jesus knew he wasn't divine because he lived among them marrying Mary Magdalene and fathering children by her. Brown attempts to rewrite history saying that Emperor Constantine pressured the Council of Nicea to declare Jesus to be the Son of God because his subjects needed a cause to rally behind. He fails to mention that writers in nearly every decade since the latter part of the first century published their belief in the deity of Jesus and even laid down their lives rather than recant their faith.

The Gospel of Judas, along with other Gnostic writings such as the Gospel of Mary and the Gospel of Thomas, has been around since the second Christian century. The earliest reference to it is dated about 188 A.D. However, an ancient copy of it was recently translated and received much publicity. Gnostic writings were not authored by those named in their titles, but were written years later by members of the Gnostic sect who claimed to have secret knowledge God had revealed to them. This short book claims that Judas was not the traitor the Biblical gospels portray, but rather a hero who did Jesus a favor. Supposedly, Jesus asked Judas to set him up for crucifixion so that he would be free from his earthly body to continue his work unhindered. If he did that, Jesus promised him a great reward.

Do I believe these will affect Christianity negatively? No, because the truth will ultimately win out. Isaiah 40:8 says, "The grass withers, the flower fades: but the word of our God shall stand for ever." Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21 all quote Jesus as saying, "Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away." He also promised in John 8:32, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Christianity has weathered these attacks throughout its entire history. John wrote warnings in his first and second epistles that many deceivers would try to pervert the truth. True believers will not be shaken by these latest Satanic attacks.

However, I am concerned that many people who are not properly grounded in God's Word will be led astray by a movie that stars such all-American heros as Tom Hanks and is directed by "Little Opie" Ron Howard. True believers must know what we believe and, as Peter wrote in 1 Peter 3:15, "be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you."

(You are being sent this email because you are an acquaintance of Dr. Tom Lovorn, 13300 Georgetown Dr., Petersburg, VA, a retired Baptist pastor who writes a weekly column in the Progress-Index newspaper of Petersburg, VA. You may copy and use this column for personal or group Bible studies or sermons. Comments and additional questions are welcome at website www.tomlovorn.us.)

WORLDMAPPER: THIS IS ONE SITE YOU HAVE TO VISIT -- The University of Sheffield and Mark Newman (at the University of Michigan) have pulled off a *major* coup. How in the world they were able to come up with such a cool tool I'll never know. And how they can do it for free is beyond me. In the old days, this would have cost $29 as a book to sit on your coffee table. It would have been read by a few thousand people, grown obsolete quickly, and been fairly useless in a short number of years. By contrast, remember the name, "Worldmapper". I wish I'd been able to pull it off. I'd have no trouble raising funds for our secretary *or* some publicity.

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WORLDMAPPER: SEE THE GLOBE IN A WHOLE NEW LIGHT -- I've seen a few static books like this before. So it's not necessarily a *new* idea. They're called cartograms, otherwise known as density-equalising maps. They're beautiful, colorful and expensive. I can't paste them into a Powerpoint very easily, nor can we replicate them very adequately -- or legally. But in the space of about 1 hour -- the time it takes for Brigada Today to make its rounds to 10,000 people around the globe, we can *all* see the globe in a whole new light at worldmapper.org. That's the site. So although it's not a new idea, these guys have just implemented it better. Have a look: http://www.worldmapper.org ______________________________________________________________________

WORLDMAPPER: USE THE TOOLS, EXPLORE, LEARN -- Basically, Worldmapper is a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest. The creators hope to continue to add data throughout 2006. My hunch is, they'll continue for a long time to come. Click on the thumbnail labeled, "Land Area", to see a fairly traditional world map. Look at the PDF poster at the bottom of the linked page. Print it for free at your office or in your home. (Proper copyright data is conveniently posted at the bottom in small print.) You can also choose to view Excel data (either smallish or generous), which you can save on your own hard drive, all free of charge. You can even read technical notes about the data. But the cool parts are yet to come. On the "Total Population" map, the territories are resized based on *people* instead of land mass. Again, all the data is provided below. Want to paste a graphic into your Powerpoint? You're in luck. Right-click on the map, choose "Save Picture as...", save the PNG file on your drive, then in Powerpoint (or whatever you use for presentations), just "insert|picture file" and paste it in. Done. If you're using the material to teach a class, "fair use" might be all you need to use that graphic. If you're using the material for any other reason... say... a profit motive, write to info(at)worldmapper(dot)org and see what you can negotiate. Again, the authors promise in advance that non-profit use will usually be granted. With each map there's a cool block of explanatory text at the right. Very cool. Tells the story in a nutshell. Sometimes the text is *very* cool. On the poster, it's nice enough to use as a *placemat* at your next missions banquet. Write for permission, then find some generous businessman with a color printer and a laminator. Bam. You're in business. Today there are 56 maps. Someday there will be 500. Mark my words: this site is a happening place. :-) So who can connect with them to get evangelical Christianity mapped. :-) Don't forget -- you heard about it on Brigada.

* When you quote or paraphrase material from Brigada, please include this phrase:

"For a free subscription to Brigada's weekly missions publication, write brigada-today-subscribe@googlegroups.com and/or visit Brigada on the web at www.brigada.org."