Now with 6218 participants!
News and Notes about Brigada, Your Gateway to Missions Networking!
On the WorldWide Web, browse https://brigada.org
Compiled by Doug Lucas , Louisville, KY — fresh back from Envision ’97 in Tulsa, OK.
[Pass this issue to a friend! To subscribe, see instructions at end.]

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In this issue….

* FINALLY!!! BRIGADA-HOY READY FOR BUSINESS!
* WHERE IN THE WORLD DID WE GET THE NAME, “BRIGADA”???
* THE SKY IS FALLING! (NAT’L GEO. FOR LESS!)
* VIRTUAL PIT-STOPPING
* GOOD NEWS FOR CENTRAL ASIA LANGUAGE GURUS
* NEW 10/40 WINDOW REPORTER COMING YOUR WAY
* GLOBAL GLIMPSE ON PRAYER
* HOW DO I FIND OUT ABOUT ALL THE BRIGADA NETWORKS?
* HALFWAY THROUGH – ARE YOU ‘PRAYING THROUGH THE WINDOW’???
* WANT TO MEET A FEW DOCTORS WITH A PASSION FOR THE UNREACHED?
* WHAT WILL WE DO ABOUT THE BOSNIAS?
* TO SUBSCRIBE TO BRIGADA TODAY

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FINALLY!!! BRIGADA-HOY READY FOR BUSINESS!
Okay – so it took us awhile. You thought we’d keep saying, “mahn-yah-nah” forever, eh? Well maybe it wasn’t exactly “ya” but . . . at least it’s finally up and running! Subscribe today by sending an email to hub@xc.org with only the words,
subscribe brigada-hoy

and you’ll be ready for the first edition of Brigada-Hoy just as soon as it’s released! Be sure to spread the word to your Spanish-speaking friends! The Spanish version will contain the same resources as the English edition (so there’s no need to subscribe to both unless you just want to practice the ole’ “es-pahn-yohl” :-)), but my hunch is that it’ll also eventually feature some Latin-American specific stuff as well. You know how these Brigada things tend to grow. :-) Thanks to the entire Brigada Hoy crew, with Alex Morales amor@xc.org at the helm! (Boy am I glad that wait is over! :-)) Don’t forget to send your “Spanish-language specific” items directly to Alex!

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WHERE IN THE WORLD DID WE GET THE NAME, “BRIGADA”???
Brigada (Bree-GAH-dah) — It goes back to 1942, when Stalin, then leader of what used to be the USSR, banished some 200,000 Crimean Tatars from their homes on the Black Sea. They were not permitted to return to their homeland en masse until the early nineties, when the Soviet Union broke apart. Unfortunately, since their homes had been confiscated by others, the Crimean Tatars were forced to rebuild entire settlements during the cold winters of 1990 and 1991. While living in Crimea, I saw dozens of Crimean Tatar families working together in what they called, in Russian, “brigadas” (Russian for “brigades”), helping one another build homes in rapid fashion.

They found, through experience, that working together produces synergy, i.e., the output is greater than the sum of the inputs. As Bill Taylor writes in Kingdom Partnerships, “… One draft horse can pull four tons. If you harnessed two draft horses together, they can pull twenty-two tons.”

To reach our world today, we need just this kind of “brigada” and just this kind of synergy! And by the way, the same term is also good in Spanish! :-)

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THE SKY IS FALLING! (NAT’L GEO. FOR LESS!)
Now you can get the sky … and everything else . . . for less! Last week’s item reported a better price on the National Geographic CD compendium (” THOSE YELLOW RECTANGLES FOR EVEN LESS!”) and now we hear from our sleuths that you can even beat that price! So the sky . . . and everything else that Nat’l Geographic has pictured down through the years . . . is falling in price! $149 is the best price we’ve heard… at Price/Costco. Unfortunately, we’ve also heard some disappointment from at least one reader who thought the quality would be parallel with the quality of the print version . . . and in his opinion, it did not. This reader reported that the pictures are “postage stamp sized” and that if you enlarged the layout, the text became fuzzy… At the very same time, another reader wrote, saying, “It’s 30 CD-ROM’s total, hybrid (runs on Macs and PCs) with every photo and article and ad they’ve ever published. It has an excellent search engine. Great stuff! I could hardly pull my kids away from it, though they had homework to do.” :-) So — maybe keep the receipt handy and perhaps NG would refund your money directly if you don’t like it? Despite the questionable report, I’m still saving up my pennies hoping to get this one by Christmas. Even with fuzzy text, it still seems like there would be a ton of reasons to own 108 years of National Geo.! :-)

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VIRTUAL PIT-STOPPING
Couldn’t make it to Pit-Stop Raleigh? Fret no more! :-) Now you can be there virtually. :-) Order the audio tapes and pick up a at least a sense of what’s going on. Order from Cary Christian Church by mailing your check or money order to Pitstop, 1503 Walnut St., Cary, NC 27511. (Tel. 919-467-9159 or email psraleigh@aol.com for more information). Cost is $5, including shipping and handling to any USA address (price is slightly higher for international orders — email for info). The entire 4-tape set is $20, or get Session 1 (Opening service with mini profiles [project-by-project updates on PACE] and message by Dr. Ajai Lall of India — a case study in how Dr. Lall is reaching his area of India), Session 2, “PACE, A path to the Future” and “Building Your Prayer Base”, or Session 3, “Activate Your Church for the Master” and “Commit to Planting a Vibrant New Church” or Session 4. “Enlisting Networks of Love,” Where do we go from here?” The last tape includes the illustrations on finishing (including the “Iditarod Trail” illustration). Pit-Stop Tulsa just occurred this past Friday . . . and the next “live” Pit-Stop on schedule currently is set for Lincoln, IL, April 24-25. For more information, email hub@xc.org with only the message,
subscribe pace-events

to be placed on a free list for the latest info or just read the web at https://brigada.org/pace.

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GOOD NEWS FOR CENTRAL ASIA LANGUAGE GURUS
If you’re learning (or wishing you could learn) a Central Asian language, then it looks like life just got a bit easier. The Dictionary of Turkic Languages, Routledge. 1996 just hit the market. The web site http://www.imagins.com/MM/DTL.htm has more info. This new multi-language dictionary covers eight major Turkic languages: Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tatar, Turkish, Turkmen, Uighur, Uzbek. (361 p.) It’s hardback, providing two thousand “headwords” in English, translated into each of the eight Turkic languages. Words are organized alphabetically in English. Original script and Latin transcription are provided for each language. For ease of use, alphabetical indices are also given for the eight languages. But here’s the really cool news . The CD-Rom version with native speakers pronunciation is to be released in 1998. I’m holding out for the multi-media version! :-) Thanks to Lee for the tip!!!

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NEW 10/40 WINDOW REPORTER COMING YOUR WAY
… if you subscribe, that is. The Christian Information Network wrote this past week to announce the release of The 10/40 Window Reporter, a quarterly newsletter dedicated to the countries, people and events of the 10/40 Window. (The Christian Information Network provides ministry information and resources pertinent to the 10/40 Window.) Those interested in receiving the newsletter may email the Christian Information Network at cin10_40@compuserve.com or call CIN toll free at 1-888-772-9104. They want your complete name, phone number and mailing address. And by the way, CIN also asked Brigada participants to submit information for possible publication in The 10/40 Window Reporter. Items of interest must [obviously] be related to the 10/40 Window and would include events such as conferences, corporate prayer journeys and verifiable newsworthy information. If you’ve got a tip just contact CIN, Attn: The 10/40 Window Reporter editorial staff, 11025 State Highway 83 North, Colorado Springs, CO 80921-3623, email cin10_40@compuserve.com.

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GLOBAL GLIMPSE ON PRAYER
Right now in the month of October millions of Christians around the world are uniting in prayer for specific unreached people groups. Organizers are expecting 30 to 50 million believers, perhaps from every country, to participate in Praying Through the Window III. More than 1 million prayer calendars have been distributed in 10 languages, many of which were used as originals for printing or copying. The prayer guide book giving detailed profiles and prayer requests has been translated into at least 12 languages and is available in print, on the World Wide Web, and through e-mail. Furthermore, invitations to participate have been delivered by mail, radio, and Christian television in many countries.
(Source: Christian Information Network, (719) 522-1040 CIN10_40@compuserve.com and http://www.calebproject.org/ptw3).
To receive the prayer profiles by e-mail send the following message to hub@xc.org
subscribe brigada-pubs-globalprayerdigest

Global Glimpse is compiled each week by John Hanna, Caleb Project, Littleton, CO.

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HOW DO I FIND OUT ABOUT ALL THE BRIGADA NETWORKS?
Not a problem. Just send a simple email message to hub@xc.org with only two words on the first line of the message:
conferences brigada

You’ll receive a list of the names of dozens of email-activated conferences. Those labeled, “brigada-connections-…” (as well as the exception, brigada-travel-bids) are special. You can write them without “joining” by just sending a message to the conference itself (for example, or . (Write the former to request a quote for a particular air fare itinerary from dozens of cooperating travel agents; write the “connections” crews for leads on particular clusters of least reached peoples.) All the other conferences (e.g., brigada-peoples, brigada-cities, brigada-pubs-globalprayerdigest, brigada-pubs-missionfrontiers, etc.) have to be ‘joined’. But it’s not hard. Just send a note to hub@xc.org with the word “subscribe” in front of whatever conference grabs your attention. For example,
subscribe brigada-peoples

Some conferences, like brigada-peoples, are more like free-flowing information/networking sessions. Others are basically mailing lists for emailed journals or newsletters. Each conference is different — but the “welcome message” usually spells out the format. In all cases, just “copy the mail” for a while to get the hang of it — and maybe that’s safest protocol prior to jumping in head first! :-) Happy hunting!

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HALFWAY THROUGH – ARE YOU ‘PRAYING THROUGH THE WINDOW’???
If you’ve lost your book (I misplaced mine this past week at Envision ’97!) don’t forget that you can get the ‘digest’ version at http://www.ad2000.org by clicking on PTWIII tools. Granted — it might not be as attractive as the printed version with pictures, but hey — for virtual prayer-walking, you can’t beat it! :-)

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WANT TO MEET A FEW DOCTORS WITH A PASSION FOR THE UNREACHED?
How ’bout a few hundred then! :-) Now you can … on November 7-8. That’s when Southeast Christian Church will present its second annual medical mission conference. This year the conference will open Friday night with an upbeat praise and worship service with a theme of “The Primacy of Prayer”. Saturday morning will present lectures from short term and career physicians and nurses presenting the joys and the obstacles of their work as well as a lecture on Culture Shock and Bivocational Mission Work. Saturday afternoon will consist of break-out sessions concentrating on specific medical and dental disease processes; and how to set up medical mission work in your own church as well as how to become a team leader. Nurses will receive 5 contact hours and physicians will receive 5 hours of C.M.E. credit. There is no fee for this course. (Can you believe this? Something related to medicine and it’s free???!!! :-)) For more information, download the details by sending an email to hub@xc.org with the only line in the message being,
get brigada medmissionsconf

Or, contact Stephanie Garling at 502-451-5317 ext. 4725 or write: Southeast Christian Church, Missions Committee, 2840 Hikes Lane, Louisville, Kentucky 40218. If those two approaches don’t work for you, you can also email TinaBruner@compuserve.com.

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WHAT WILL WE DO ABOUT THE BOSNIAS?
Our mission has just been asked by the Antioch Network to find a church or churches to “adopt” one of 32 cities in Bosnia which have been war-torn, raped, and destroyed. (What an incredible burden it creates when people can’t get along!) So where will we go for more information? First, I’ll send a message to brigada-peoples@xc.org and say — “Where do I find info. on Bosnia?” Then I’ll hope for the best.

(Note: If I weren’t already a member, I’d join first by sending a message to hub@xc.org that read simply,
subscribe brigada-peoples
. . . then wait for the welcome response.) If some of my buddies there can’t point me to several options, I’ll be very surprised. I’m hoping to receive 5-10 good email contacts that can help me learn more about the situation there… maybe some web sites, some good books, articles, and journals. Next I’ll write the 5-10 people with very specific questions… “What part of Bosnia should we try to approach?” “How can a church/agency partnership make the best contribution?” “Where do we learn the language(s)?” “What are the risks?” and most of all, “Who can I contact that would help us learn more?” With this simple beginning, we’ll get started trying to learn about Bosnia. Thank God for the unselfish resource people working the brigada-peoples conference. Thank God for Christian unity. Now we roll up our sleeves!

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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, webservant@brigada.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!