Now with 5709 participants!!!
(. . . and as of this issue, over 500 pages of resources since we began in March, 1995!)
News and Notes about Brigada, Your Gateway to Missions Networking!
On the WorldWide Web, browse https://brigada.org
Compiled by Doug Lucas, this week writing from Kenai, Alaska
[Pass this issue to a friend! To subscribe, see instructions at end.]
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In this issue….
* GCOWE SUMMARY REPORT
* PREGNANCY SURVEY REALLY DELIVERS!
* HOW ONE CHURCH HANDLED ITS PUBLIC “ADOPTION” CEREMONY
* CSi (COMPUSERVE) GIVES YOU A SECOND CHANCE
* CALLING ALL UNHAPPY KALLMART USERS
* HOT TIP — PGP 5.0 NOW AVAILABLE INTERNATIONALLY!!!
* GOT QUESTIONS ABOUT PGP? SEE THE PGP FAQ
* BUT I’VE NOTHING TO HIDE — WHY USE ENCRYPTION?
* HOW TO CONTACT YOU FAVORITE BRIGADA MODERATOR
* WEB WATCH
* GCOWE PARTICIPANT ALMOST KILLED
* FINISHERS AVAILABLE ON-LINE
* CALLING ALL NON-WESTERN CHURCH PLANTER TRAINERS
* FREE UNLIMITED INTERNET ACCESS FOR CHICAGO???
* THAT MESSY NEW BRIGADA “GRAPHIC” LOGO
* WANT TO STUDY STRATEGIC CHURCH PLANTING?
* REACHING YOUR CITY – THROUGH PRAYER
* 101 WAYS TO CHANGE YOUR WORLD
* EMERGENCY SITUATIONS REQUIRE EXCEPTIONAL RESPONSES
* TO SUBSCRIBE TO BRIGADA TODAY
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GCOWE SUMMARY REPORT
(/) Wondering what’s been happening in South Africa at GCOWE 97? Well here’s the report, written anonymously via an interview with a delegate who is working in a very closed part of the world and actually attended GCOWE under a pseudonym. Here we go! “Thank you to the Brigada family for your prayers during GCOWE 97 this past week in Pretoria, South Africa. It was quite inspirational to give God praise in a room of 4,200 people reported to be from 135 countries. Personally I don’t like conferences but I left happy that I had made over 10 key ministry contacts that are usually very hard for me to make since I live and work in a very restricted part of the Muslim world. One of these new contacts with a politician who attended the Business Executives sub-consultation may very well lead toward the placement of workers in a currently very closed country. I attended the Mission Executives sub-consultation and I was concerned it would be yet another inspirational time with little work done. My fears melted away when Luis Bush handed us all a copy of the new book compiled for GCOWE by the AD2000 and Beyond Movement called the “Global Guide to Unreached Peoples.” The book was the catalyst for arranged small group work over the next two days in groups by regions of the world. When the results were tallied on the final day 390 previously unengaged groups from this unreached peoples list now had agency leaders who had adopted them as peoples to present to their organizations in hopes of sending new church planting teams. I was encouraged by this but more optimistic when it was reported that the leaders in the African National Initiatives sub-consultation had taken on 222 of the peoples in Africa still without known church planting teams. Since these were mostly African leaders adopting peoples in their own countries I am quite optimistic that something will come of this commitment. Luis Bush reported on the last night that now 90% of the 1,739 peoples in this book (though some data not shown for security reasons) now have names and addresses registered indicating a church planting movement in their midst or at least a commitment to mobilize a team of church planters. Though this “Global Guide” book will not be for sale to mission leaders who did not attend GCOWE for another month or so I heard that the Southern Baptist International Mission Board had already ordered 150 copies to give to all their regional leadership.” Now we’re talkin’! That’s the kind of “nuts and bolts” tangible outcome that we’ve all been waiting for! Bravo Luis Bush! Bravo GCOWE 97 delegates! And thanks to the anonymous interviewee!!!
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PREGNANCY SURVEY REALLY DELIVERS!
(/)Well, I guess you could say that this particular baby was a real hit! :-) In fact, it almost seems like Brigada participants were breathless waiting for this inquiry to come along! :-) Seriously, remember last week’s item, “HERE’S A SURVEY YOU’VE GOT TO SEE TO BELIEVE” ??? Dr. Dale Carroll (who is very much a “he” and not a “she” as we reported; yikes; Sorry Dr. Dale! Will you ever forgive me? :-)) reports over 100 immediate responses to the request for those who were pregnant or delivered or miscarried overseas. He hastens to add that all reports will be considered very confidential and that snail mail addresses will be needed so he can send out the actual survey. He’ll be ultra-careful to guard identities and roles for those in sensitive countries. If you’re interested in participating or learning more, contact Dr. Dale Carroll at TravDoc@compuserve.com, The Pregnant Traveler, 983 Miners Road, St. Joseph, MI 49085, phone 616-428-4996 (fax–616-428-0977). Dr. Carroll has agreed to make available an abstract for all Brigada participants to “get” as soon as the project is completed. Thanks!
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HOW ONE CHURCH HANDLED ITS PUBLIC “ADOPTION” CEREMONY
Have you wondered exactly what other churches do when they hold these “adoption ceremonies” for unreached people? Find out on brigada-peoples by sending a note to hub@xc.org with only this line in the text of your email (Note that if you’re not a member of Brigada-peoples, you’ll have to join first by using the “subscribe” line listed first):
subscribe brigada-peoples
get brigada-peoples church-people-group-adoption.001
If you’d like to unsubscribe, just send another message later that reads,
unsubscribe brigada-peoples.
Thanks to Eric Derry for bringing this file to our attention!
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CSi (COMPUSERVE) GIVES YOU A SECOND CHANCE
Okay. So I admit I’ve ragged some on Compuserve (CSi). But they deserved it. :-) Now before you write me [again] and jump me for criticizing them, note that I used past tense — “deserved.” Maybe they’re turning over a new leaf… or realizing their wicked ways. :-) Recently, they’ve picked up some improved features… For example, you can now send and receive binary files — graphics, documents, spreadsheets, and the like — seamlessly over the Internet. You can also personalize your e-mail address, turning your User ID number into a name. With a click here and a click there, you can transform 70006,101 into JSMITH. Oops! Don’t like that Personal Address anymore? Now you change it so JSMITH can become J.SMITH or Jim_Smith. All of these features are part of CompuServe’s new mail system and are part of CSi’s ongoing commitment to bringing you the very best e-mail. To take full advantage of these rich features, you must use CompuServe’s new mail system. To learn about this and switch to new mail if you haven’t already done so, GO NEWMAIL. Thanks to Sharon, our official Brigada Compuserve Help Specialist, at 71712.3534@CompuServe.COM, for sending this tip! And for those CSi loyalists who have written, I promise to stop raggin’ on CSi. :-)
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CALLING ALL UNHAPPY KALLMART USERS
Have you ever used “KallMart” as your long distance calling or callback service? Were you unhappy because you felt they overcharged (based on their claims)? Sharon Gardner wants to know. She’s head of CrossLink Communications, a Christian based company that helps missionaries select the dialback company best suited for their international calling patterns. Their mission is to help those in full time ministry conserve their resources by finding cheaper ways of staying in touch with the “folks back home”. At one point, they had apparently used KallMart as one of their offerings. But no more. There have apparently been too many complaints about calls costing more than what KallMart promised, fees being assessed, etc. As a result, CrossLink is currently trying to get KallMart to resolve these problems and give refunds. (CrossLink does its best to keep their clients from being defrauded.) Sharon wrote Brigada this past week, “If ANY missionaries have a complaints against KallMart, we encourage them to contact us with the details, even if they are not a CrossLink customer. We will be happy to “plead their case” along with our own customers. There is strength in numbers.” So… write Sharon at CrossLink Communications, 9216 Independence Loop, Austin, Texas 78748, USA, tel. 512.292.3308, FAX 512.282.5877, crosslink@earthlink.net.
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HOT TIP – PGP 5.0 NOW AVAILABLE INTERNATIONALLY!!!
As far as we can tell, this is a Brigada Today exclusive, thanks to a hot tip from TC! (Thanks TC! As long as there are people like you around, Brigada Today will be valuable for the nearly 6000 subscribers who receive it each week!!!) PGP version 5.0 is now available internationally via anonymous FTP at ftp://ftp.ox.ac.uk:/pub/crypto/pgp/pc/windows95. (PGP is a program that allows you to encode your email so no one can read it except the person to whom you’ve sent it. For this process to work, both the sender and receiver need to be able to use PGP.) What this means is that international users no longer have to wait for all that OCR/source code/re-write stuff that we all thought would have to happen first. If you’re in the USA, you can get PGP version 5.0 at http://web.mit.edu/network/pgp.html and if you’re outside the USA, you can get version 5.0 at ftp://ftp.ox.ac.uk:/pub/crypto/pgp/pc/windows95 today! Thanks TC!
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GOT QUESTIONS ABOUT PGP? SEE THE PGP FAQ
Thanks to Rod who refers readers to http://www.pgp.net/pgpnet/pgp-faq/ for answers to frequently asked questions about PGP. Also, don’t forget http://www.ifi.uio.no/pgp/ or http://axion.physics.ubc.ca/pgp-begin.html if you want to learn more about what might be the world’s best encryption program. And remember that the freeware version is available at http://web.mit.edu/network/pgp.html for Win95/WinNT users. Win 3.1 users start at http://axion.physics.ubc.ca/pgp-begin.html then go to http://www.seattle-webworks.com/pgp/. Rod writes, “From here, advice is given on downloading and configuring PGP262 and the AEgis Pretty Good Privacy Windows Shell. Since PGP262 operates from DOS and looks a bit strange, a shell makes PGP much easier to use.”
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BUT I’VE NOTHING TO HIDE – WHY USE ENCRYPTION?
I felt the same way. Then this Brigada participant approached me one day and asked me why I should ever expect others to start using encryption when I didn’t’ use it myself. He used the logic that PGP’s author uses, “What if everyone believed that law-abiding citizens should use postcards for their mail? If some brave soul tried to assert his privacy by using an envelope for his mail, it would draw suspicion. Perhaps the authorities would open his mail to see what he’s hiding. Fortunately, we don’t live in that kind of world, because everyone protects most of their mail with envelopes. So no one draws suspicion by asserting their privacy with an envelope. There’s safety in numbers. Analogously, it would be nice if everyone routinely used encryption for all their E-mail, innocent or not, so that no one drew suspicion by asserting their E-mail privacy with encryption.” Made sense to me. So I bit the bullet and started trying to learn PGP262. Yikes. It wasn’t easy. So I began using a “shell” program and it got lots easier. Now with version 5.0, it’s easier still — in fact, now it’s almost like fallin’ off a log! So my commitment is that if anyone is willing to write me using PGP, I’ll always return the reply in the same form. So will you take the dare and use PGP? Today, with this new version, there are no more excuses. And there are versions for everyone, including MAC users. :-) Want more info? Get Rod’s latest help file by sending a note to hub@xc.org with only the following words in the text of the message:
get brigada pgp-info
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HOW TO CONTACT YOU FAVORITE BRIGADA MODERATOR
You can write the moderator of any Brigada conference by emailing <owner-conference@xc.org>. For example, if you sent a note to owner-brigada@brigada.org, you’d get Revis Ann Massey, who serves voluntarily (ie., as a labor of love) as the Customer Relations Manager for the nearly 6000 Brigada Today readers. If you write owner-brigada-peoples@xc.org, you’ll get Dave Nesmith, of Global Mapping, who serves as the moderator for Brigada-Peoples. Write owner-brigada-pubs-missionfrontiers@xc.org and you’ll get Rick Wood himself, the Editor of Mission Frontiers at the US Center. These moderators serve the community of the saints because they have a passion for the lost around the world. Treat them with deep respect — because they give their all! If you dare ask them to execute a personal favor for you (like manually unsubscribing an old email address that you can no longer access), please let them know how much you appreciate their ministry!
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WEB WATCH
Want to make the most of search engines? Gill says to check out http://searchenginewatch.com/.
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GCOWE PARTICIPANT ALMOST KILLED
Did you hear about Pete Holzmann? He’s the Interactive Task Force Coordinator for the AD2000 & Beyond Movement. He wrote Brigada this past week with this: “Don’t know if you heard, but I was hit by a fast-moving car here in Pretoria last Friday afternoon. Smashed leg, smashed windshield, two flips through the air and dead (no pulse no breathing) for a full minute after landing far away. And I’m only one of several people involved in tragedy here. Satan’s fighting. BUT GOD is performing miracles, turning every bad situation into victory! I’m doing great, and each problem has been turned around for His best! I could list a whole page of God’s blessings in my accident. (Just a few, besides the fact that my pulse/breathing started again :-) … it happened 5 minutes from the best hospital in Africa; car had unusual bumper that caused my leg to break in a “good” place, and flipped me up rather than running over me and crushing me; no brain damage (did my hat protect me? I don’t remember :-)); I’ve had time to realize some good lessons from the Lord, perhaps with wide application; others were motivated to give my presentations, which helped them turn out well; I’ve had lots of opportunity to be Christ’s light in others’ lives here at the hospital; What a JOY!!!” So how did this happen? Pete summarized, “So I looked both ways before crossing the street. But when someone yelled “look out!” I had to react; no time to think. And my reaction was exactly wrong: I looked to the right instead of the left [because Pete’s orientation was USA, but drivers use the other side of the street in South Africa?], and ended up almost dead. Literally.” What has he learned from all this? “In new situations (x-c ministry, a changing world, “tentmaking”, new friends, new paradigms, new locations, etc etc), if we have time to think about our situation we usually do OK. But when we must react without thinking, we often make terrible mistakes! Some conclusions (lots more than this…): In new situations, give yourself time. Absorb the “new” quickly so that you’ll react well. Don’t assume you’ve adjusted to the new just because you feel like you fit in: will you react properly in an emergency?” Thanks for taking a lemon and turning it into lemonade, Pete! Pete’s homepage is http://www.xc.org/pete. He’s one very busy guy at Pete@XC.Org.
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FINISHERS AVAILABLE ON-LINE
(/)Remember last week’s item, “HOW DO WE GET THEM ‘FROM HERE TO THERE’???” Well don’t forget that you can access the Finishers Project online at brigada-projects-finishers by sending email to hub@xc.org with only these words in the text of the message:
subscribe brigada-projects-finishers
According to “Finishers” leadership, “The Finishers Project is a movement involving leading mission agencies to give mature candidates (35 to about 55) the information and challenge necessary to consider an assignment from the Lord somewhere in the missions infrastructure – before the conventional retirement at 60 something. The method to accomplish the task will be to hold “Urbana”-like conferences for second-career people.” Sounds like a super idea. They’re planning their first major face-to-face conference in Chicago, September 17-19, 1998. For more information, join the on-line brigada-projects-finishers conference today!
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CALLING ALL NON-WESTERN CHURCH PLANTER TRAINERS
Wade Robertson writes, “Are you a Non-Westerner with cross-cultural church planting field experience and with some good frontier experiences to share? Have you ever wanted to visit historic Scotland, a land from which many pioneer missionaries were sent in former generations to the ends of the earth? Do you want to be part of a team training a new generation of missionaries for church planting in the 10/40 Window? You may even challenge someone to join your team! At the moment our staff are all from western nations, but we want those we train to benefit from staff with a greater diversity of backgrounds and experience. You could have a really valuable input through the insights you would be able to share both in and out of the classroom. The opening is for Aug 31st 1997 to 19th December and you would need to find staff fees of about L175 per month. Interested? Contact Wade Robertson 100556.60@compuserve.com for more details.” This is a great sign for all of us. . . globalization, internationalization, . . . it looks more like Revelation 7. :-) Thanks Wade.
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FREE UNLIMITED INTERNET ACCESS FOR CHICAGO???
Somebody has to try this to find out if it can be true. In a tip from Gene, it looks like you can email info@freeaccess.net and sign up for unlimited internet access if you’re in the Chicago area… for free!!! We’ll look forward to hearing back from someone on this one. If you’re willing to try it, write us with your results at DLucas@TeamExpansion.org and please make the subject line read,
CHICAGO ACCESS
and we’ll get to the bottom of this hot tip!
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THAT MESSY NEW BRIGADA “GRAPHIC” LOGO
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| _/| ‘__| |/ _ \/ _’ |/ _’ |/ _’ | | |/ _ \ / _’ |/ _’ | | | |
| . \| | | | (_| | (_| | (_| | (_| | | | (_) | (_| | (_| | |_| |
|___/|_| |_|\__, |\__._|\__._|\__._| |_|\___/ \__._|\__._|\__, |
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Okay. So the new graphical Brigada logo at the top of each issue is totally unreadable in your email client??? Sorry about that. Well I’m a missionary, not an artist. :-) Actually, to see it, you’d have to set the default font to something “fixed” like Courier New (as opposed to proportional, like Times Roman). If you don’t like it, just ignore it… (after all, it’s only five lines! :-) ). However, if it’s really in your way and you’d like it cut from all future issues, please send a message to hub@xc.org with only this line in the message:
subscribe brigada-vote-c
The “c” in this case stands for “cut”! :-) Here’s your chance to speak out! :-)
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WANT TO STUDY STRATEGIC CHURCH PLANTING?
You’re in luck. The Center for InterCultural Studies (CICS) has a course for you! :-) August 20 to October 3, they’ll run a 5-week training course to help new and veteran missionaries understand the cultural context of their people group and how to develop a relevant cross-cultural ministry strategy. Tuition $600, Lodging – $ 25 per week, Instructor – Dr. Richard G. Lewis. For more information, contact: Center for InterCultural Studies (CICS), 71035.704@compuserve.com or look at their website at www.ixctraining.com. Wow — that’s a great price on housing. I think we might sell our house and just move in at their Center! :-)
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REACHING YOUR CITY – THROUGH PRAYER
Did you hear about the Reaching Your City Conference, July 17-19, 1997, Norwalk CA, at Southern CA Community Bible College, 12400 Studebaker Rd, Norwalk tel. (562) 868-0072??? Well now you did! :-) Hear John Robb and a zillion other prayer and unreached peoples specialists — and the registration is just $25 if you do it in advance. Write Prayercntn@aol.com for more info.
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101 WAYS TO CHANGE YOUR WORLD
You thought we’d list them all here? Why should we, when Geoff Tunnicliffe has done so in his new book by that name! :-) Revis Ann, our Customer Relations Manager just finished reading it. She reports, “Easy to read and practical. He gives one idea per page of ways to get involved in world missions. The goal is to encourage grass-roots involvement in missions. The special offer for Brigada Today participants is $4.50 U.S. (plus shipping costs) when purchased directly from:
Geoff Tunnicliffe
International Teams
5059 SE Marine Drive,
Burnaby, B.C. Canada V5J 3G5
72072.3310@compuserve.com
Tel.: 604-437-8000
Fax: 604-437-8089
You can also try 1-800-708-5550 toll free if you’re in the USA or Canada.” By the way, Revis Ann tell us he lists Brigada in the Internet Resources in the back!!! So — everybody should order this book! :-) Thanks Geoff and thanks for reading it Revis Ann!
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EMERGENCY SITUATIONS REQUIRE EXCEPTIONAL RESPONSES
Not long ago, Eric Derry brought the following story to my attention, originally from Chicken Soup for the Soul by Mark V. Hansen:
In 1989 an 8.2 earthquake flattened Armenia killing over 30,000 in four
minutes. After the first tremor, a father rushed to the school where his
son attended only to find the structure totally demolished. As he looked
at the ruins he remembered the promise he made to his son: “No matter what,
I’ll always be there for you.”
The father went to the corner of the building where his son’s classroom was and began digging. For the next 37 hours he searched through the rubble. Many people tried to stop him but to each he replied, “Are you going to help me?” No one did.
Then on the 38th hour he screamed his son’s name and a voice came back. “I’m here! It’s me Father.” Fourteen scared, hungry and thirsty children emerged out of the devastation.
I think what strikes me the most about this story is the father’s incredible determination. It’s probably not uncommon for parents to make amazing sacrifices during these kinds of emergencies. But this guy took it to the max. He dug and dug and dug and then dug some more. Obviously, his love for his son motivated him beyond the norm.
In our work in world missions, we have been called to do some outlandishly difficult tasks. Sometimes, those tasks require all the gusto we can manage to pull up from our inner being. We need to be like the father in the story… and when you stop and think about it, we get to pull people from ruins for a living! Every person — one at a time — that we can snatch from the fires of Hell is just like the little rescued boy in the story above… only instead of helping them regain their earthly lives, we’re helping them climb to eternal life.
So today, when you walk out the front door and enter the street or path where you serve, don’t lose sight of the reason you’re digging… and . . . may you have many happy rescues!!!
Doug
Writing this week from Kenai, Alaska
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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
At https://brigada.org on the web, you can see tons more.
(This issue of Brigada Today is Copyrighted © 1997. However, permission is granted to freely redistribute provided that such redistribution is to those who will help the Good News of Christianity to reach the unreached. But please tell your readers where you learned about the item, and if it’s not asking too much, include the 3 lines on how to subscribe — see above.
IMPORTANT: To copy or reproduce Brigada Today for any other reason is illegal and is not permitted.)
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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. Kelly, Kainos Press, MarkKelly@xc.org
*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!
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