BIBLICA INTRODUCES E-BOOKS

As the demand grows for digital books, Biblica, formerly IBS-STL, will now be offering e-book through authenticpublishing.com.
"Our passion is to equip the missional community with great content," said Biblica marketing director Mike Dworak on their Web site. "With our e-books, people anywhere in the world have the ability to select a book and be reading in seconds."
This new format will allow Biblica to impact even more of the Christian community. Digital formats will enable Christians to access titles in places where print costs are too expensive or Christian materials are restricted.
"Digital downloads can provide isolated believers with essential resources," according to Biblica's Web site.
These e-books are available in Kindle and MobiPocket formats, as well as PDF downloads. So far, Biblica already has more than 70 popular titles available.
"Although publishers worldwide have reported shrinking book sales during the global recession, e-book sales have been exploding," according to the Biblica.
As they celebrate their launch, Authentic Books is offering a free missions e-book at their Web site: "The Missional Mind," along with a free monthly e-newsletter and an excerpt from the new Operational World missions handbook.
In addition to this, all books come with a satisfaction guarantee, and if customers are unhappy, their books will be replaced for free.
"Digital media is increasingly in demand from consumers who want or need a nonprint book format," Dworak said. "Eventually we plan to have all of our titles available in digital format."
Authentic Publishing is a division of Biblica, and you can visit their Web site at authenticpublishing.com.
Biblica's vision, according to their Web site, "is to transform lives through God's Word by translating, producing and distributing Bibles, Scripture materials and other Christian resources through ministry, distribution and retail channels so people around the world may become disciples of Jesus Christ."
Visit Biblica.com for more information.

OM RELEASES NEW RECRUITMENT DVD

Thanks to Operation Mobilization Asia Challenge Teams (ACT), now you can see what it would be like to serve in Asia. The ACT program offers potential missionaries the opportunity to travel to various locations in Asia and experience diverse cultures and peoples.
A new recruiting DVD recently arrived to educate people about mission programs in Southern and Eastern Asia. The DVD targets individuals between the ages of 18 and 30 years old.
There are three versions of the DVD, and each gives prospective missionaries a taste of Asia. An overview of ACT's one- and two-year programs is contained in the 2-minute version. More detail is included in the 5-minute version, and ACT's 8-minute version gives the greatest amount of detail. This version features interviews and personal testimonies from previous ACT workers.
Teams of 3 to 4 people from different nationalities are placed in locations around South and East Asia. They experience a wide variety of activities, as well as the Hindu, Muslim and Buddhist cultures. Most learning comes from working alongside nationals and serving the local church. Teams are moved to a different location about every 6 months.
Pray that this resource will be widely used and will stir God's people into action. Pray that lives will be changed through this video, and that it will generate prayer and support for ACT's work in Asia.
Click here to watch the 2-minute version, or visit the ACT Web site.

PASTOR STIRS CROWD OF 13,000 AT MIAMI EVENT

Guillermo Maldonado stood in front of his audience, opened his Bible, and shouted into his microphone, quoting the book of Galatians, extolling the ``supernatural power of God.''
He asked his audience -- some in tears and many with arms raised and heads cocked toward heaven -- to ``let your fire come down!''
It would have been a typical service for Maldonado, founding pastor of King Jesus Ministry, a Kendall church that is one of South Florida's largest, except he was speaking to more than 13,000 people at a packed sports arena in downtown Miami.
It was midday Friday, and the crowd -- which came bearing prayer books, notepads and flags representing a dozen Hispanic nations -- had packed into AmericanAirlines Arena for Day 2 of one of the region's largest Christian events.
Before it ends Saturday night, the Apostolic and Prophetic Conference, in its seventh year, will bring eight internationally known ministers to Miami.
Less a conference and more a series of fiery speeches and spiritual rejuvenation, it shows the growth of Maldonado's following, which was only a dozen people when he first began preaching in his living room 15 years ago, and the increasing popularity of Pentecostal forms of Christian worship, which stresses a personal and visceral connection with God.
``All of those who have never spoken in tongues, raise your hand!'' the Honduran-born Maldonado shouted in Spanish as he jumped, punched the air, ran and screamed intermittently throughout his two-hour sermon.
Audience members, bursting with energy, cheered the preacher on, as the English translator by his side told the audience: ``Drink! Speaking in tongues! Be filled!'' before they created a cacophony of sounds.
The 10,000-member church booked the Miami arena for the first time last year after the event outgrew its West Kendall grounds. It is charging a $103 admission to the event, and most attendees so far have come from Maldonado's church.
Yet, with international branches in Colombia and Honduras, a television ministry and his own product line of inspirational books, DVDs, CDs and prayer manuals, Maldonado's reach is wide. A mini-bookstore set up outside the stands was selling his newest book, Jesus Heals Your Sickness Today! for $12.99.
Other speakers Friday included pastor Alan Vincent of San Antonio and Bishop Tudor Bismark of Harare, Zimbabwe. Pastor Benny Hinn of Irving, Texas, who has caused controversy with his international ``miracle crusades,'' during which attendees claim to be cured of sickness and faint backward at the flick of his hand, was also scheduled to speak late Friday night.
Besna Usuaga, 30, a member of Maldonado's church, said Friday that she was excited to see her pastor and others such as Hinn, and to ``feel the spirit in me.'' Usuaga, of Kendall, came downtown with her husband, with whom she joined the church three years ago after years of being a lapsed Catholic. ``But it's not the people who go and preach that you're looking for,'' she said. ``It's the Lord.''
Usuaga is part of a growing trend. While Catholicism remains the dominant faith among Hispanics, a Pew survey released last year shows that 1.3 million of immigrant Hispanic Catholics have joined Pentecostal churches since coming to the United States. Almost half of all Hispanics who have joined Pentecostal denominations were raised as Catholics.
``Some people come to concerts here, some drink, some smoke marijuana,'' Usuaga said while taking a break on the arena's steps. ``But once you are here, once you are inside, you don't need any of that.''

EVANGELICALS CALLS FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM

WASHINGTON — An American evangelical Christian group is urging Congress to approve reforms to immigration laws in a resolution approved Thursday.
The National Association of Evangelicals' resolution, passed unanimously by the group's board of directors, recommends that immigration laws provide a path for the undocumented to eventually gain legal status, place a high priority on reuniting families and reduce backlogs of petitions in those areas.
"This resolution will be an important step forward in evangelical advocacy on behalf of immigrants, many of whom are members of evangelical churches across the United States," said Galen Carey, the association's government affairs director.
The association's president, Leith Anderson, said the process for legal immigration to the U.S. is antiquated, bureaucratic and needs to change.
Anderson told members of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Citizenship on Thursday that Congress needs to provide those living illegally in the U.S. the means to rectify their situation.
The Washington-based National Association of Evangelicals has a 75-member board that represents 40 denominations and scores of Christian organizations. However, it does not include some of the best-known conservative Christian bodies, including the Southern Baptist Convention and Focus on the Family.
The group has taken stands in recent years that have run counter to Christian right views.
It endorsed an anti-torture statement in 2007 that renounced torture and "cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of detainees." Other evangelical leaders have either resisted that view or remained silent on the issue.
The group has also argued that evangelicals have a biblical responsibility to the environment that includes combatting global warming. More tradition-minded evangelical activists believe an environmental focus distracts attention from abortion and gay marriage, or they don't believe in global warming or that human activity causes it.