Now with 3699 Participants!
News and Notes about Brigada, Your Gateway to Missions Networking!
[Pass this issue to a friend! To subscribe, see instructions at end.]
——————-
In this issue….
* HOW ‘BOUT THOSE BETHANY PROFILES!
* HUB-CAPS
* WANT A GREAT EXAMPLE OF A JOSHUA PROJECT 2000 “TRIP REPORT” VIDEO???
* FROM THE “YOU-FORGOT-TO-GIVE-US-THEIR-PHONE-NUMBER-YOU-DITZ!” DEPT.
* CAN YOU SPELL “TAX-SHELTERED ANNUITIES” AND “KEOGH 401 PLANS”???
* LEARNING LANGUAGES IS A CHALLENGE FOR EVERYBODY…
* THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING….
* JOHN ROBB URGES PRAYER FOR BURUNDI
* FOR MISSION LEADERSHIP
* LIVE FROM NUREMBERG
* ADVANCE SUMMARY
* WANT TO KNOW “THE ART OF GETTING HELP”???
* SERIOUSLY SEEKING SOFTWARE!
* BLITZED BUT SANE
* TO SUBSCRIBE TO BRIGADA TODAY
————————————–
HOW ‘BOUT THOSE BETHANY PROFILES!
If you’ve been watching the Bethany Prayer Center’s web site, you know it’s growing fast! They’re up to 77 profiles reflecting 209 of AD2000 & Beyond’s Joshua Project 2000 people groups!!! We’ve needed these profiles for so long… since they give both the “soft” and “hard” data on the least reached people groups of the world. Now, Rick, Gabriela and their co-workers are churning out the challenges for the forces of world prayer. Go there and see for yourself…. http://www.bethany-wpc.org/profiles/home.html I printed out the whole stack of ’em!!! … at least 2 inches thick!!! Thanks Rick, Gabriela, and the folks at Bethany Prayer Center!!! We’re going to be relying heavily on your contributions at our upcoming Envision ’96 conference! We’ve thanked the Lord for you today!!!
————————————–
HUB-CAPS
as in “recaps about the hub” – (Thanks to Brian Bennetch for the brainstorm about the column name!) – Ever wonder how to use the magic “hub@xc.org” machine – to pass conference messages, “get” files, find out what files are stored in which conference folders? Now you can get answers. Just send a message to hub@xc.org with only the following line in the text of the message:
get brigada help-detailed
All your endless days of searching will soon be over! :-) The help file will automatically be shot out to your personal email “inbox”.
————————————–
WANT A GREAT EXAMPLE OF A JOSHUA PROJECT 2000 “TRIP REPORT” VIDEO???
On March 29th this past spring, a buddy of mine dropped me a quick email note. He was writing about the Amdo people of Tibet. He wrote, “…I have been working feverishly to bring together a coalition of four churches to adopt the Amdo speaking Tibetan people group off the JP2K list. I am leading a team there this summer. More than 800,000 people with no Christians, no churches, no nothing. The more I learn about them the harder it is to sleep at night. God help us. God forgive me for my apathy and slothfulness….” I saved that message. It made me say, “Yikes :-O. What are we doing for these people.” Well Steve Moore went out and did something. He led that trip and more! Now, I’m confident that you’ll want Kingdom Building Ministries’ 10-minute report on the Amdo people of Tibet. It’s filled with the passion of the guy who led the trip! And remember the old saying, “You can’t judge a video by its cover”? Well in this case, you can! Beautiful full-color box. Makes you want to see what’s inside! Get yours at 14140 E. Evans Ave, Denver, CO 80014, Tel. 303-745-8191, or laborers@kbm.org. These folks have agreed to give Brigada subscribers a special discount price of $10 plus the $3.00 shipping and handling, if you order before December 31, 1996.
You can use this video to:
a) see an example of what can be done on a JP2000 trip,
b) see an example of the video you can produce afterward,
c) mobilize prayer for least reached people in general (by using this one as a case study), and, (duh! I almost forgot!)
d) pray for the Amdo people!!!
:-) Can’t beat the price. Thanks Steve! And thank the Lord for the way He’s using you!
————————————–
FROM THE “YOU-FORGOT-TO-GIVE-US-THEIR-PHONE-NUMBER-YOU-DITZ!” DEPT.
Remember those Global people group awareness maps that show the status of the gospel among the world’s least reached peoples? Remember the special deal at the US Center (24×36″ for $3.75 and 36×64″ for $7.75, plus shipping & handling)? Well the good news is, several of you (MANY!) were interested! The bad news is — as many pointed out — the deal wasn’t so special, because we didn’t include contact information! :-( Sorry!!! 1605 Elizabeth St., Pasadena CA 91104. Ph. 818-398-2236 or 818-398-2232. Email gerry.dueck@wciu.edu. Now. Seek ’em. :-)
————————————–
CAN YOU SPELL “TAX-SHELTERED ANNUITIES” AND “KEOGH 401 PLANS”???
Then you’re better off than most of us! Half that stuff isn’t even in my WinWord spell checker! How am I supposed to know how to handle it!? :-) Well now you don’t have to worry how to spell it… or do it anymore. Here’s a solid Christian guy who will take all the confusion out of your retirement and mutual fund investing worries. If you’ve been wondering how to provide retirement for your favorite missionary, or if you are one of those “favorite missionaries” :-) contact Darrell Hooker, 513-745-7047, (USA residents can call toll-free at 800-348-1212), or email cvgdeh@lnc.com. In about 40 years or so, you’ll be glad you did! :-)
————————————–
LEARNING LANGUAGES IS A CHALLENGE FOR EVERYBODY…
… even those big multi-national corporations. If you think money has anything to do with language learning, think again. My buddy in Taiwan (Thanks Marty Andry!) just sent some notes he’s been collecting. They’re all taken from real life examples of the “big boys” trying to cross cultures. Maybe we shouldn’t beat ourselves up too hard. At least we’ve got some company in the “language bloopers department!”
In Taiwan, the Pepsi company accidentally translated their slogan, “Come alive with the Pepsi Generation” to “Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead.” Not good in a traditional religions land! :-) But KFC didn’t do much better. Also in Chinese, the Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan “finger- lickin’ good” came out as “eat your fingers off.” Yikes :-O. And most Latins will remember that when General Motors introduced the Chevy Nova in South America, it was apparently unaware that “no va” means “it won’t go.” Duh. Spanish students learn that verb on their 2nd day of classes! After the company figured out why it wasn’t selling any cars, it renamed the car in its Spanish markets to the Caribe….
Well it’s one thing to be embarrassed… but quite another thing to be really embarrassed! When Parker Pen marketed a ball-point pen in Mexico, its ads were supposed to say “It won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you.” However, the company’s mistakenly thought the Spanish word “embarazar” meant embarrass. NOT. Instead the ads said that “It wont leak in your pocket and make you pregnant.” Now there’s a pen we’ll all want to give as gifts! But the Colgate company will probably be “embarrassed” (in the English sense of the word) for a long time to come. When they introduced a new toothpaste in France called Cue, they somehow forgot that this was the name of a notorious porno magazine. Needless to say, you couldn’t see the dazzle of their smiles for quite some time. But that’s not the worst of it. In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic Water translated the name into Schweppes Toilet Water. Now there’s a real tasty slogan. :-(
Finally, there are the mistakes that can literally cost you your job! Japan’s second-largest tourist agency was mystified when it entered English-speaking markets and began receiving requests for unusual sex tours. Upon finding out why, the owners of Kinki Nippon Tourist Company changed its name. Now who wants to hire the guy who translated that job for the company. “But sir, it was only one little phrase…” Unfortunately, in that case, the one little phrase made all the difference!
So… take heart, language learners. (Misery loves company? :-) ) Just remember, no matter how badly you’re doing, there’s always someone [like your neighborhood multi-national corporation] out there that’s doing even more badly! :-)
————————————–
THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING….
To Dallas! For a special conference on Russia — the Russian Symposium! The goal of the conference? According to George Sparks, who wrote Brigada this past week, “…to shed light on mission methods that have worked well in the former Soviet Union (Eurasia) and where we need to correct. And more importantly we hope to improve strategic alliances, increase and coordinate the monitoring and evaluation of Eurasia evangelization, and increase Eurasia evangelical inter-mission cooperation and prayer.” For more information, contact George Sparks, Co-chair, Russian Symposium At Criswell College, December 6-7, 1996 Dallas, Texas; ph/fax (214) 739-7099; e-mail russiansofe@xc.org mailing address: 5815 Phoenix Dr, #10 Dallas, TX 75231.
————————————–
JOHN ROBB URGES PRAYER FOR BURUNDI
If you’ve read anything about unreached peoples, you’ve probably seen the name, John Robb. He’s the Coordinator of the Unreached Peoples Track for AD2000 & Beyond, the Unreached Peoples specialist for World Vision’s MARC division, and a frequent traveler to points all around the globe to give workshops on how to reach least evangelized peoples. This past week, he wrote with a set of special requests for Burundi. We’ll list them here, as they were provided for John by Burundi church leaders, and ask that you please try to bow for a quick moment of silent prayer….
1. Pray for our leaders that they may acknowledge their inability to lead God’s people without God.
2. Pray that the leaders and human institution will not violate God’s Word as they make decisions that affect individual lives of the innocents and poor people.
3. Pray for the unity of Christians in Burundi.
4. Pray that the Christians be courageous to speak the Truth without compromise.
5. Pray for the desperate victims of the crisis.
————————————–
FOR MISSION LEADERSHIP
The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) and the World Evangelical Fellowship (WEF) will be co-hosting a two-day Mission Leadership Symposium for Canadian Christian leaders from May 5-7, 1997 at Trinity Western University in Langley, B.C. For more information, contact Geoff Tunnicliffe, chair, task force for global mission, Tel. (604) 437-8000, E-mail: 72072.3310@compuserve.com.
————————————–
LIVE FROM NUREMBERG
Many of you will recall that our “European Correspondent”, Kerstin Hack, has been attending a special conference in Germany. Here’s her live update from the conference: “Thanks to all of you who were praying for the Missions conference in Nuremberg, Germany. We had a great time – the Lord obviously is beginning to do something new in our country. The focus was on being willing to go …Reach out your hand and take the staff to deliver a people…(Exodus 4,4), truly loving a people (Luke 7,5), going and ministering not in our own strength but in the power of the Holy Spirit and the fact that local churches are called to get involved in Missions in a much more direct and effective way than before. God spoke to many German hearts of ice that he wants to melt and fill with the love for the cross. In the middle of the conference word reached us about the murder of the Iranian pastor who was known by several of the people leading the conference – this was a shock as well as a challenge to true commitment- who is willing to fill up this gap… In 1977 there had been a first REACH OUT Conference that was a kind of starting point for many ministries and events locally in the Nureremberg area – we hope and pray that this one will prove to be a starting point to much that will be happening all over the world…especially in the 10-40 window… Thanks again for all your prayers…Kerstin” Thank you and all Europeans for the key role you’re playing in mobilizing for the world’s least evangelized people, Kerstin. God bless.
————————————–
ADVANCE SUMMARY
Here’s Mark’s _Advance_ summary for October. If you’d like to retrieve the full text of this month’s Advance, just send email to hub@xc.org with only these words in the text of the message:
get brigada advance.9610
ADVANCE October 1996
THE GOSPEL FOR EVERY PEOPLE — Translation project in the heart language of 100 million people; Algerian schools to teach English as main foreign language; Arabs in Saudi Arabia; language groups in northern India; hungry Filipino hearts; Taliban rebels capture Kabul.
THE PERSECUTED CHURCH — Missionary hostages; Chinese believers beaten to death; Iranian pastor murdered; armed mob surrounds mission compound; Syrian believer to stand trial; International Day of Prayer for Persecuted Christians.
SPIRITUAL FORCES OF DARKNESS — Ritual killings in Nigeria and Kenya; war between Muslim militants; computer library of child pornography; partial birth abortion veto sustained; first legal assisted suicide in Australia.
REJOICE! — 22,000 professions of faith in Chad; 4,426 decisions for Christ in Albania; 300,000 Hmong trust Christ; God at work in Israel.
NETWORKING — Praying for Muslims during Ramadan; Urbana 96; new video portrays believers’ trials in Muslim countries; electronic “Operation World”; book and video support Praying Through The Window III; New Tribes Mission magazine; International Christian Concern Web site; new publication for Generation X believers; China’s official religion policies at Web site.
FRONT LINES — Jesus’ mission.
————————————–
WANT TO KNOW “THE ART OF GETTING HELP”???
Thanks to Scott Grandi, working in Kaohsiung, Taiwan with CBInternational, who forwarded to us a useful look at “the art of getting help”, by Phil Agre. Thanks to Scott, we’ve arranged for you to be able to retrieve a full copy for your own reading. This document shares wisdom about the “art” and “skill” of getting answers . . . whether you’re doing research on people groups …. or resolving a software issue… or whatever. To retrieve it, send email to hub@xc.org with only this line in the body of the text:
get brigada art-of-getting-help
Thanks Scott!
————————————–
SERIOUSLY SEEKING SOFTWARE!
What database software exists for inventorying media resources? The Audio Communications Track (ACT) of the AD2000 Movement desires to compile a searchable database that could be also folded into people group info by the AD2K researchers. It could be a resource used to include ALL evangelical language media. Send your information to Mark Snowden, media consultant, Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board at 756-8785@mcimail.com. (Mark, we’ll count on a follow-up someday, okay??? Maybe a URL of your new on-line database??? :-) Thanks!)
————————————–
BLITZED BUT SANE
Okay — so how do you do it? How do you keep your sanity in a hurry-up, rushed-out, get-up-and-go world??? I think everybody’s in practically the same situation today. Your schedule’s probably no less rushed than mine. I work for a mission organization with 115 full-time team members in 15 countries, serve as president of a rapidly approaching missions convention (did I mention Envision ’96, Nov. 1-3, in Lexington, Kentucky? — you’re all invited to attend… all 3700 of you! :-) See http://www.xc.org/brigada/e96/ for more details), have a wife, two kids, two hamsters, … the whole thing. We moved our International Office this past week… I speak on the weekends, coach both of my kids’ soccer teams (wouldn’t you know they’re too far apart in age to play on the same team! :-( ), normal stuff.
So my question is… how do you keep your sanity??? Well, as one fellow-struggler to another, here’s what’s been helping me these past few weeks:
–a) Remember the Word — When I look in the Bible, I see Jesus talking about seeking first the kingdom of God… and then He’ll work out every detail. (Mt. 6:33) I hear Him say that if we can just remember our calling, He’ll work out everything for our good. . . and more importantly, for kingdom good. (Ro. 8:28) He probably intended for us to live a “still life” … so when life take’s you and shakes you and wants to throw you down on the ground, maybe it helps to realize that He’s the God of peace… peace that goes well beyond our ability to understand it… even when we’re in the middle of challenges. (Philippians 4:4-7)
–b) Surround yourself with quality people — I’m fortunate. My wife’s a tremendous organizer. She can teach Spanish at our local Christian school, volunteer at the crisis pregnancy center, pack lunches, rearrange rooms, move furniture, leap tall buildings in a single bound, :-) … all in a day’s work! And the gang I work with in our mission office… whew! Top quality people. When we moved this past week, you could really see their true colors coming out. Our secretary (Susy)! Wow :-O… she was right in there pulling network cable, winding phone lines, hauling boxes, getting dirty, you name it. The Personnel guy (Chris) sacrificed his very own lower back (!) :-), the Strategic Frontiers guy (Eric) kept us all smiling with his joyful (and ditzy) singing :-), the Mobilization guy (Mark) reminded me of those guys that did the “pump you up” thing on TV a few years ago, and the Strategic Planning guy (Steve) drilled holes until his hands were raw! … you get the picture. If God blesses you with these kind of folks, remember to thank Him!!!
–c) Look at just one line at a time — This is probably the hardest part. Living successfully in our world today requires the ability to live with non-closure. I’m convinced of it. With 48 items… (or 200 items!) on our task lists, we’ll never really see completion of our jobs. So that means we have to learn to be satisfied with not being finished with the whole list… but rather, rejoice when we finish one item. The “In box” isn’t quite empty. The “to do” file is bulging. But then… we need to go home… and invest time with the kids. Coach soccer… or whatever it is in your world. Be with our spouse… be with our kids… be with our Lord. Let tomorrow take care of itself. What we don’t get done, we don’t get done. If we do our best and still get fired from that job, it was probably the wrong job for us anyway. :-) One line at a time. Focus. Invest in the right stuff at the right time.
–d) Read Covey — He’s great. Those 7 whatcha-ma-callits??? Great stuff. “Start with the end in mind.” “Seek to be understood before you try to talk the other person’s leg off.” You know them. Now let’s do ’em.
–e) Re-write the endings to your dreams — Last night I woke up with a start. I dreamed I was presenting at this huge convention… and I looked down on the program and there beside my name was this title that had something to do with missions multi-media. All of a sudden, I realized I had forgotten my computer and the data projector!!! And it said my message would be filled with visuals!!! Yikes! :-O Right then I woke up in a cold sweat. Now of course, my dream is just a fulfillment of my fear that I’ll mess up royally at Envision ’96. :-) But all of a sudden I realized, “Hey… Who says I can’t ‘re-write’ it! After all, it is my dream!” So I laid back down and finished the whole thing! :-) Thank goodness, my laptop was out in the car. And the guys running the large screen magnification had already prepared for computerized visuals! All I had to do was plug in! During the break before my session, I hooked up and… bingo! There was a 40 foot high image of my visuals! I was happy. I was fulfilled. “Success!” See… we can either sit back and be acted upon … or we can seize the day and take charge of our own outcomes… circle of concern versus circle of influence. You can’t always change everything… but change the things you can. You know all that stuff.
Now if we can just live it. :-) Have a great week.
Doug
——————-
TO SUBSCRIBE TO BRIGADA TODAY, send email to hub@xc.org with only the following message:
subscribe brigada
TO UNSUBSCRIBE ( :-( ), send email to hub@xc.org with this line in the text:
unsubscribe brigada
——————-
BRIGADA TODAY IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE FOLLOWING TEAM OF REGULAR VOLUNTEERS:
*Global Glimpses: John Hanna, Caleb Project, jhanna@cproject.com
*ADVANCE: Mark A. Kelley, Kainos Press, 70420.1057@compuserve.com
*Brigada Website: Bob Mayhew, Brigada Volunteer, mayhew@xc.org
*Technical Development: Jonathan Marsden, MAFxc jonathan@xc.org
*Brigada Customer Service Manager: Revis Ann Massey, RevisAnnMassey@xc.org
*Brigada Coordinator: Doug Lucas, Team Expansion & Brigada, DLucas@TeamExpansion.org
*and many other occasional contributors too numerous to mention!
But thanks for working together! That’s the dream of Brigada!
Recent Comments