BRIGADA TODAY -- 24 of March, 1995
News and Notes about Brigada
Compiled by DLucas@TeamExpansion.org
[Note: Please forward or pass this Brigada Today to as many people as you think might be able to see a future in it! To subscribe, send email to hub@xc.org with the one line, "subscribe brigada" in the text of the message (without the quotes). Subject is irrelevant. Brigada is free (though you still have to pay your normal email charges, of course).]
IN THIS ISSUE....
NAVIGATION MAP -- Find out what's "down under" the top level...
ANSWER TO LAST WEEK'S PUZZLE: MEANING OF "DAG" -- A fish story
BRIGADA'S FUTURE -- What will God do?
ADOPT-A-PEOPLE CLEARINGHOUSE CROSSES ANOTHER HURDLE -- Marv's here!
NEW ON BRIGADA -- Look who just stopped by to join up!
NEW TO BRIGADA? HERE'S THE CONCEPT -- Networking at it's best...
LOOKING FOR A FUND-RAISING IDEA? TRY ANDREW WOOD'S RIBBON!
MISSIONS TRAINING RESOURCE CENTER NOW ON BRIGADA -- Interview
TOOL OF THE WEEK -- KEEPING OUR PROMISES -- 7 Promises of a PK
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NAVIGATION MAP -- From 58 three weeks ago, to 76 the following week, to 95 last week to 106 today, Brigada (the top level conference in the map pictured below) continues to grow. (We officially "opened for business" this past Tues., March 21st, the first day of spring. One participant wrote that God was bringing new life all throughout his creation, both in nature and online! For that may He be praised, because He alone is worthy.) Below is a chart to point to the conferences established thus far. Each line represents an entirely different conference, with an entirely different set of participants. You can be a member of more than one conference, but to do so, you must subscribe to each conference individually. Subscribing to the top level Brigada conference does =not= automatically get you mail from each of the subgroups. (If it did, you'd go crazy with mail!!! [grin]) Remember that you can determine the name of any conference by starting at the top and left and working over. To subscribe to any of the conferences below, just send email to hub@xc.org with the word "subscribe" followed by the conference name (include the hyphens in the conference name, but lose the quotes in "subscribe"). For example, to subscribe to the first subconference listed, your message would read,
"subscribe brigada-albania-durres"
(without the quotes).
CONFERENCES
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Brigada (106 have subscribed to this top level conference, "Brigada")
|-albania-durres
|-albania-durres-ftf
|-argentina-laplata
|-colombia-bogota
|-ecuador-guayaquil
|-orgs-missionmobilizers
|-teamex
|-peoples-arab
|-kazakh
|-latam
|-prayer-mobilizers
|-prayer-requests
|-projects-brigada
|-cells
|-lex96
|-security
|-pubs-globalprayerdigest
|-missionfrontiers
|-ukraine-kharkov
|-ukraine-kharkov-ftf
|-uruguay-montevideo
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ANSWER TO LAST WEEK'S PUZZLE: MEANING OF "DAG" -- Last week, at the close of the "Interview with Bob and Steve" of Morning Star Technologies, we asked if anyone could guess where the name "Dag" originated. ('Dag' is the name the guys gave to the computer that handles all Brigada conferences.) There were several guesses, but no one came through with the correct answer. As Bob put it, "'Dag' is the Hebrew word used for the "great fish" in Jonah 1:17ff. That fish was God's agent to carry His servant Jonah to a far-off land, to do the cross-cultural ministry God had planned for him. May this modern Dag be so used to enable His workers to carry God's grace to the unreached peoples of the world!"
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BRIGADA'S FUTURE -- We asked Pete Holzmann for his 'take' on Brigada's future. Pete serves as the Technical Advisor to the International AD2000 Leadership and the Coordinator for the AD2000 & Beyond Assessment Task Force. He's been studying interactive technologies for several years now, with a view of how they can best serve AD2000 leadership. According to Pete, "Brigada is one of the needed cooperative efforts for enabling leaders to improve communications among working groups." He then added, "In fact, Brigada will be one way that you can find out about additional AD2000 efforts in that direction." Keep in mind that AD2000 & Beyond is a movement, rather than a tight-knit organization. But what Pete seems to be saying is that he believes God will use Brigada as a key part of the puzzle uniting various global partnerships that form through GCOWE tracks and related AD2000 efforts. Join us in praying that we'll all be good listeners for God's global plans.
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ADOPT-A-PEOPLE CLEARINGHOUSE CROSSES ANOTHER HURDLE -- This past month, the AAP Clearinghouse crossed a significant hurdle. For quite some time now, Marv Bowers, a computer specialist from California, has been intending to move to Colorado to assist the Clearinghouse in scanning in the AAPC People Profiles so that they would be available electronically. Finally, just last week, Terry Riley told Brigada that Marv has succeeded in making the move! The Clearinghouse has =tons= of profiles on paper in filing cabinets there in Colorado. Marv's plans call for a two part plan. Not only will the =thousands= of profiles be converted to an AskSam database for use on a local CD-ROM reader, but more importantly for Brigada's use, the text will be converted to ascii, after which Terry and the Clearinghouse plan to make the profiles available online here on Brigada. You can already practice implementing this approach by downloading our 'test profiles' today! If you're a Brigada subscriber, send email to hub@xc.org (Compuserve users, don't forget to preface this with INTERNET:). In the body of the message, put any one or all of these lines:
get brigada peoples-india-bhumiji
get brigada peoples-india-magahibihari
get brigada peoples-iran-qashqa'i
get brigada peoples-ivorycoast-jula
get brigada peoples-mozambique-ndau
These profiles were manually transferred to ascii by volunteer Brigada participant, Marvin Grooms, who operates the CC/CC Missions Resource Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Thanks Marvin!) That'll give you a small taste of the =thousands= of profiles that should someday be available in this same fashion, if and when Marv is successful! Pray God's richest blessing on him, his ministry, and family. We need his work fast! [grin]
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NEW ON BRIGADA -- Added this past week were several very key participants. Kay Hiramine is Peter Wagner's special assistant. Dr. Wagner's office, in Pasadena, CA, oversees the United Prayer Track for the AD2000 & Beyond Movement. For example, out of that office has come the 'sponsorship' and some of the leadership for programs such as "Praying through the Window" (both in 1993 and now in 1995, with the 100 Gateway Cities). Also added this week was the Sentinel Group's office in Lynnwood, WA. We've been watching their output for quite some time. Those familiar with Sentinel will immediately recall the new city/nation profiles that give prayer needs and key details about a particular unreached area (Thanks to Brigada user Steve Burris, of Fuller Seminary, for sending in samples to Brigada). Their research and presentation is first class. Also added was Phil Elkins -- see more about his work later in this bulletin.
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NEW TO BRIGADA? HERE'S THE CONCEPT -- We hope Brigada can serve the Lord by being a place to meet others who share a common concern for a specific city or people, a forum to search for others who are wanting to be used by God to make a difference. Brigada provides tools to get answers =today= about people, tribes, castes, kindreds, & cities -- and the connections to meet those set on reaching them. Naturally, like any 'new business', we've just opened our doors, so the dust is still settling. It'll probably be well after May (and GCOWE) before we'll be able to see the full extent of how God can use this service. But you can already begin working today! If you'd like to see how, just check out the Albania-Durres conference, or ask Jeff Pike about his Missions Mobilizers sub-group. And the "practice" we get now will help us know how to set up the networks of tomorrow.
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LOOKING FOR A FUND-RAISING IDEA? TRY ANDREW WOOD'S RIBBON! -- Thanks to Brigada user Andrew Wood (who is making a difference in the former Soviet Union today!) for pointing out a useful tool from _52 Ways To Teach Missions_ (San Diego: Rainbow Books, 1994). It's actually a very simple way to garner the participation of a whole department or congregation or even group of congregations. Get some ribbon (heavy gift wrap ribbon works best, 1/2 to 3/4 inches wide). Cut the ribbon into one yard lengths and distribute one or two yards to each class, group, or person you'd like to involve. Each day or week, he/she/the group attaches nickels, side by side, along the length of the ribbon, until the entire yard (or two) is full. Pull together 100 volunteers to collect a yard of nickels and you will have raised $210! If you can find a group of congregations to do a whole 'mile' of ribbon (1,760 yards -- that's a lot of nickels!), you'll have $3696! Try it and let us know how it goes!
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MISSIONS TRAINING RESOURCE CENTER NOW ON BRIGADA -- This week's featured participant is Phil Elkins, recently subscribed from the Missions Training and Resource Center in Pasadena, CA.
Brigada: "Phil, tell us what you do in Pasadena."
Phil: "I am president of the Mission Training and Resource Center in Pasadena, Ca. For fifteen years we have been designing and operating special training programs for missionary pre and in-field needs."
B: "Give us an example of how this Center can assist in actually fulfilling the Great Commission."
PE: "We operate a training center in Central Asia for those planning to work in that area of the world. In Los Angeles we annually conduct an intensive experience based training program for prefield missionaries."
B: "What do you cover? What do your California students do, for example?"
PE: "They live and work among their target field peoples in L.A. and start learning the language skills necessary to acquire language proficiency. They are assisted in developing cross-cultural communication skills, interpersonal relational skills and church planting skills. We also have a process of working on spiritual formation."
B: "Who can participate?"
PE: "We work with agencies, formed mission teams, and local churches."
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TOOL OF THE WEEK -- KEEPING OUR PROMISES -- This past week, someone asked me, "Doug, you seem busier than ever. Does your family ever see you?" Thanks in part to Promise Keepers, I think my family would tell you that they see me more than ever. If you haven't taken a look at the 7 Promises that a Promise Keeper makes to God and his family, take a look at them, as given in the book, _The Seven Promises of a Promise Keeper_ (Colorado Springs: Focus on the Family Publishing, 1994)....
A Promise Keeper is committed to...
1) "... honoring Jesus Christ through worship, prayer and obedience to God's Word in the power of the Holy Spirit."
2) "... pursuing vital relationships with a few other men, understanding that he needs brothers to help him keep his promises.
3) "... practicing spiritual, moral, ethical, and sexual purity."
4) "... building strong marriages and families through love, protection, and biblical values."
5) "... supporting the mission of the church by honoring and praying for his pastor, and by actively giving his time and resources."
6) "... reaching beyond any racial and denominational barriers to demonstrate the power of biblical unity."
7) "... influencing his world, being obedient to the Great Commandment (see Mark 12:30-31) and the Great Commission (see Matt. 28:19-20).
Of course, it's the number 7 that originally caught my eye, but loving my wife and kids -- and investing in them daily -- has become kind of an addiction for me... and a healthy one, I believe. I coach two soccer teams (one for each son), leave a love note =every morning= for my wife, and swap one weekday workday for every weekend travel day spent on the road. I've not "arrived," but God is teaching me a lot about the years of time I wasted without knowing my role and responsibilities as a husband and parent. Only through his grace and power can I write to you today. As a matter of fact, my time is gone. I have to leave right now to go demonstrate Brigada to my sons' Christian School!!! [grin] Have a great week!
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