As we face the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, urban ministries are facing a great increase in demand for their services at the same time their budgets are being cut.  In a weakened economy facing astonishingly high unemployment rates (6.5% in October, ½ million jobs cut in November) many new people are falling into homelessness and nonprofits are facing the true essence of fear, wondering if they have the ability to continue providing services, gain revenue and receive donations to reach their annual budget and help the world with its resources.  TechMission helps address this great need by connecting volunteers and low-cost personnel to provide millions of dollars of renewable resources to nonprofits.

TechMission's December 2008 Newsletter is now available online. You will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the document.

Now there is a new way to find information on social justice topics with the click of a button! UrbanMinistry.org has launched their Channels section at http://www.urbanministry.org/allchannels with twenty-eight different topics covering different aspects of social justice. Each channel features issue-related resources and media and features articles from our volunteer bloggers.

Would you like to become an editor or blogger on the Christian justice issues you feel most passionate about? UrbanMinistry.org is launching our Volunteer Channel Editor/Blogger program which will enable you to gain exposure to our audience of over 100,000 visitors each month.

The vision of TechMission's UrbanMinistry.org is to help promote social justice and end that segregation by using Web 2.0 technology to connect the urban and suburban church worlds.

I grew up in an alcoholic family. Both my father and my mother came from alcoholic homes, too. Because I grew up in such a very chaotic home, I was running the streets from an early age.

My first drinking experience was when I was just twelve years old. I was "turned on" to pot at age fourteen, and went to jail twice for selling marijuana, hashish, and LSD, before I was eighteen years old.