Now with 7029 participants! Hooray!!!
News and Notes about Brigada, Your Gateway to Missions Networking!
On the WorldWide Web, browse https://brigada.org or http://www.eGroups.com/list/brigada-today
Brigada Today is “the missionary helper newsletter!”
Compiled by Doug Lucas <dlucas@teamexpansion.org>, Louisville, KY
[Pass this issue to a friend! To subscribe, see instructions at end.]

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In this issue….

* FROM THE MARKETING DEPARTMENT
* FUN BRIGADA-FACTS TO KNOW AND TELL
* LEARN HOW TO LEARN, LOVE, AND LINK FOR YOUR PEOPLE GROUP
* NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER
* IN SEARCH OF PATTERSON’S TREASURES?
* WORLD CUP IS ON ITS WAY!
* WEB-WATCH
* ANNOUNCING THE 1998 ANTIOCH NETWORK ANNUAL GATHERING OF CHURCHES
* VERSIONS, PLEASE
* HIT THE TARGET IN SOUTHWEST CHINA
* TB ON THE RISE
* GLOBAL GLIMPSE FROM THE AMAZON
* SOMEBODY NEEDS TO TRY THIS TRANSLATOR
* THANKS FOR ALL THE [VIRTUAL] BIRTHDAY “CARDS!”
* TAKE ISSUE WITH TENTMAKING
* LOTS MORE NEWS BUT WE’LL SAVE IT FOR NEXT WEEK!
* TO SUBSCRIBE TO BRIGADA TODAY

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FROM THE MARKETING DEPARTMENT
(Like there really IS one!) Thanks to all those who put out the word for Brigada. We’ve now shot up above 7000 recipients thanks to your work at spreading the news! Brigada still remains a free service for hundreds of international recipients from the Amazon to Australia, from the jungles and grasslands of Africa to the tropical shores of the Pacific! Thanks for making Brigada’s growth a reality!

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FUN BRIGADA-FACTS TO KNOW AND TELL
In the old days, when boys stood on street corners yelling, “Extra! Extra! Read all about it!” it might take several DAYS to distribute 7000 newspapers. Then cam MAFxc. As of six months ago, they could deliver about 2000 Brigada Todays per hour. Pretty slick when you stop to think about it. Well, now, straight from the Tech. Research Department :-) the latest stats are — 14 minutes and 7 seconds to deliver all 7000 copies!!! Yikes… gulp that’s over 8 copies per SECOND! I can’t even talk that fast, let alone send global messaging!!! :-) If you appreciate these MAFxc guys, please DON’T write them. It’ll only make for more work for them! :-) (Keep in mind that that’s 14 minutes to be delivered to the various spines of the Internet. If your mail is delivered via slower machines, actual results might vary!)

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LEARN HOW TO LEARN, LOVE, AND LINK FOR YOUR PEOPLE GROUP
Catch your JAG training (Just an Advocate for God) at Caleb Project’s Advocacy Training Seminar May 7-9 in Denver Colorado. For more info. write training@cproject.com or check http://www.calebproject.org/rats.htm when you get a spare moment. And . . . okay . . . I might as well confess… I made up the JAG part. :-)

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NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER
For the fourth year, The National Prayer Committee will sponsor THE NATIONALLY BROADCAST CONCERT OF PRAYER, May 7, 1998, 7-10pm (CST), this time at Prestonwood Baptist Church, Dallas, TX. Focused on national revival, this unforgettable evening will be covered live by Moody Broadcasting (312-329-4300) and WCFC TV (312-433-3838) satellites feed broadcasters nationwide. Local Churches are asked to gather with each other for this national prayer meeting. Dominion Sky Angel (941-403-9154) an all-Christian-programming 18″ DDS service (less than $500) will carry it. Available globally on the Internet http://www.gospelmedia.com/, allowing missionaries and others to join the meeting. Info: call 612-853-8461; e-mail 102370.1312@compuserve.com. Now THERE’s a good use for the Internet! :-)

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IN SEARCH OF PATTERSON’S TREASURES?
Have you always heard about the TEE materials used so successfully by George Patterson in Honduras? Bet you’ve always wanted to track them down and give them a try where YOU live, right? Well — what are you waiting for? In one closed Asian country, workers led by God using Patterson’s materials were able to start 23 churches and leave them functioning with their own leaders after only 3 years! Now you can use the very same materials! Included are a Church Planting Guide, a Pastoral Trainer’s Manual, a Student Activity Guide (which is the activity based pastoral training curriculum) and 62 booklets to mobilize new and more experienced workers in all pastoral activities. Patterson established about 100 churches over 20 years. ‘Course, results might vary; read the prospectus. :-) Order yours today from Missionary Training Service, an organization dedicated to the training of workers for the unevangelized world. A complete set for US$95 (plus US$25 for sea mail or US$50 for airmail worldwide).

note [Note: If your order comes to more than US$75.00 including postage, they need you to make out more than one check (payable to the Missionary Training Service). Something about money laundering. :-) Just joking. Actually it saves them some bank fees.] Write them at 18 Aston Way, Oswestry, Shropshire SY11 2XY, United Kingdom or tel./fax them at 01691 653619 within the UK, or +44 1691 65361 internationally. Or you could always just email Ian at coordmts@xc.org. They’ve got a web site at http://www.btinternet.com/~ajg/mtshome.htm

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WORLD CUP IS ON ITS WAY!
The World Cup event begins in three months, June 10 – July 12. Here are some ideas you can try on a local basis, originally suggested by Michael Wozniak mwozniak@rbc.org. You could organize a World Cup Sunday (A special World Cup theme service), a youth soccer tournament at your church (complete with half-time talks and a post-match meal with medals and sportsmanship emphases), neighborhood outreaches to watch the matches together (show a world cup ministry video at half-time!), put ads in the paper that match the theme, create a special outreach service modeled around a soccer motif, do a prison outreach with soccer as a major component, do a literature distribution with soccer as the key topic, pray for those who are involved in all the above on a global scale. Write Michael for more options or details and may the best team win!!! (The USA faces Germany in its opener. Seems like they could have found a tougher team to warm up on. :-) NOT!)

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WEB-WATCH
WebWatch Check out the “WhyChrist?” site at http://www.whychrist.com — Thanks for the work, John!

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ANNOUNCING THE 1998 ANTIOCH NETWORK ANNUAL GATHERING OF CHURCHES
August 27-30, 1998 This year’s gathering will again take place at the beautiful Pointe Hilton Resort at Squaw Peak in Phoenix, AZ. You can meet and network with others who are excited about what local churches can do in world evangelization! Broaden your knowledge about church planting among the unreached by participating in one of the people group tracks. Network with churches and organizations that are focusing on the same or closely related people groups. Antioch Network is a growing fellowship of local churches that are interacting with the challenge to send church planting teams to unreached peoples. Their site is (you guessed it!) http://www.antiochnetwork.org or write
Antioch Network
5060 N. 19th Avenue
Suite 312
Phoenix, AZ 85015
Tel: 602.242.4414
fax: 602.242.0416 AntiochNetwork@xc.org

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VERSIONS, PLEASE
Okay, okay. I don’t want to be prejudiced. :-) From now on, when we refer to software, we’ll TRY to remember to state the platform, be it Windows 95 or MAC or whatever. So if you refer us to something, please try to remember to help us out in advance by providing that information. MAC users unite! :-) (No — I’m one of the 95% who use Win95 — but I’m trying hard not to be ethnocentric! :-))

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HIT THE TARGET IN SOUTHWEST CHINA
Target Ministries reaches out to Minority Peoples of Southwest China. They have just completed publication of a beautiful 2′ by 3′ China Minorities Prayer Map, featuring 10 Unreached People of China including photographs. Also statistics and information on all 56 groups in China are included to with the purpose of mobilizing prayer and giving exposure to the hidden Minority Peoples of China. Price is $3.00 per map plus $5 shipping/order (quantity 1-10) or $6 shipping per order (11-20).
Target Ministries
P.O. Box 636
Singapore 912322
email Kevtarget@aol.com

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TB ON THE RISE
Did you see the AP release this past week about Tuberculosis (Thanks Ed!), “which attacks mainly the lungs, intestines, skin and brain, is a bigger killer than malaria and AIDS combined, and kills more women than all the combined causes of maternal mortality. Every year, between 2 and 3 million people die from TB, including 100,000 children, the Geneva-based UN agency said.” Apparently, it’s epidemic. Better pray for more informed medical/primary health care folks for the area where your unreached people group lives!

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GLOBAL GLIMPSE FROM THE AMAZON
world globe The First International Congress on Church Planting among the Amazon River Populations was held March 10-13, 1998 in Manaus, Brazil. Representing 20 denominations and more than 10 mission agencies from 7 countries, the 158 participants covenanted to cooperate, research, intercede, plant churches, and meet together for the sake of these groups. These 33,000 river villages (90% with no church) include 100 tribes with no Bible in their own language.
(Source: Larry W. Kraft, National Research Coordinator, Vice-Coordinator of the Brazil 2010 Project; AD2000 web page: http://www.ad2000.org/conferences/amazon.htm )
Global Glimpse is compiled most every week by John Hanna, Caleb Project, Littleton, CO.

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SOMEBODY NEEDS TO TRY THIS TRANSLATOR
Okay – who is going to bite the bullet and try this language translation software? Somebody needs to do it on behalf of the 7000 of us to see if this stuff really works. Sounds too good to be true. Check it out at http://www.languageforce.com/%3Ehttp://www.languageforce.com

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THANKS FOR ALL THE [VIRTUAL] BIRTHDAY “CARDS!”
Thanks to those who sent happy birthday greetings to Brigada! We’re now 3 years old!

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TAKE ISSUE WITH TENTMAKING
…an issue of the IJFM, that is! (International Journal for Frontier Missions). They’ve recently cooperated with TIE (Tentmakers International Exchange) to produce the second special Tentmaker issue of the journal, which is expected to be published shortly. This issue will concentrate on Marketplacing the Gospel. Specific articles will cover the Principles of setting up a TM business; Historical Examples of Tentmaking in the marketplace; Case studies of Tentmaking Businesses; Importance of Integrity; Networking, The Coffeehouse of the 90s; Partnerships and Tentmaking; and others. Orders placed before April 10th can receive a 30% discount if ordered through TIE tie@gati.wa.com. The normal price through IJFM is $5.00 plus postage. Current paid up members of TIE or IJFM will receive free copies. That article about Networking features Brigada, I think, by the way.

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LOTS MORE NEWS BUT WE’LL SAVE IT FOR NEXT WEEK!
Tons more items (Whew!) . . . more next week.

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COPYRIGHT — This issue of Brigada Today is Copyrighted © 2001. However, permission is granted to freely redistribute these materials, including those available through email autoresponders, provided that such redistribution is to those who will help the Good News of Christianity to reach the unreached. But please include this phrase: “For a free subscription of Brigada’s weekly missions publication, write <brigada-today-subscribe@egroups.com>.”
IMPORTANT: To copy or reproduce Brigada Today for any other reason is illegal and is not permitted.

DISCLAIMER — Please note that there’s no way we can possibly screen all the text on all the web sites or items we recommend. We try to check them out first… but if we miss something, please don’t assume that the opinions on those sites are identical to those of the Brigada family of networks. “Eat the corn, leave the cob!” ear of corn
For subscription questions or problems, write help@brigada.org.

SUBMITTING CONTENT — To submit content or ideas to Brigada Today, first please get a copy of “Guidelines for submitting items to Brigada” Then, once you’ve composed your item in keeping with those guidelines, send your item for Brigada Today to DLucas@teamexpansion.org.
Thanks to for hosting the Brigada mailing list.
Emphasis is placed on items relating to unreached peoples and challenges faced by those reaching them cross-culturally.

not symbolPLEASE DON’T SUBSCRIBE US TO YOUR LIST — It’s always better to ask before manually force-adding anyone to your list-serve or mailing list. Recently, tons of well-meaning people have been subscribing Doug to their lists. Since he often travels overseas, he doesn’t join many of those, for obvious reasons (like being charged big-time for overseas access). So as a general rule, please don’t bulk-mail us! See the note above if you’d like to submit items for Brigada Today. Thanks for understanding. Bottom line: We will never create Brigada Today items from bulk mail. Bulk mail gets deleted immediately — sorry. Nothing personal. We suggest you apply the same standard to everyone. Ask first!

OPCWARNING ABOUT FORWARDING EMAILS — Please, before forwarding any kind of request (even if it says “please send this to all your friends”), please check to make sure it has a VERIFIABLE ORIGIN, a VERIFIABLE PURPOSE, and a VERIFIABLE CLOSURE (OPC). By following this simple approach, many “email viruses” could be nipped in the bud… at least in the Brigada family. More information about the full Brigada OPC protocol is available. Thank you.

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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
*Brigada Website: Bob Mayhew, WebServant@brigada.org
*Brigada Customer Service Manager: help@brigada.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!