19990425 Brigada Today

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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.]

In this issue….

USE YOUR NEW BRIGADA CONFERENCING INTERFACE

If you have access to the web, don’t miss some of the new tools at your disposal at the Brigada Conferencing interface. Check out the “database” area to read the starter Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) file, or register in the Voluntary Brigada family database. You can also fill out a form about your particular service or resource. And this is just ONE new tool at the conferencing site, currently at: http://www.egroups.com/wdb?listname=brigada-today (then click on “database”)

PLAN NOW TO ATTEND BRIGADAFEST 2000

Last month, we had the privilege of staging a conference in Washington, DC, for those working in Bosnia or with Bosnians somewhere in the world. One thing we learned — these networking events can mean a lot to individuals who are trying to understand and make a contribution toward a particular unreached people group. One delegate from Texas wrote (a day or two after the event), “…The conference was all we hoped for and more. It was exciting to be in a room full of people — all of whom had a heart to take the gospel to the Bosnian people. Every speaker had a message that was meaningful to us. We came away affirmed and encouraged in our call to go to Bosnia. It was definitely in God’s plan that we attend the Friends of Bosnia conference.” Next year we’re hoping to stage a similar conference, but this time, instead of focusing only on one people group, we’re going to try to provide a venue where several such conferences can all happen in a simultaneous, parallel way. The first will be Brigadafest 2000, to occur in Louisville, KY, Feb. 3-5. Please consider marking Brigadafest on your calendar . . . and more detail will unfold as the year goes by. We’re hoping this event can make a major contribution toward unlocking doors to reaching the unreached worldwide!

REACHING STREET CHILDREN

“Crisis on the Streets: A Ministry Guide for Taking the Street Out of Street Children” is available free of charge from Action International Ministries. A small donation of US$2 or $3 for postage would be appreciated. Contact 75362.2516@compuserve.com or write
Kim Jenkins
Action International Ministries
P.O. Box 398
Mountlake Terrace, WA 98043 USA.
(From “Advance!”, which is offered free of charge; to subscribe, send an e-mail to subscribe-advance-newsletter@xc.org.

MODELED PRAYER EXPERIENCES

Praying for Kosovo & other disaster situations. http://www.ozemail.com.au/~sjhop/pe-intro.htm This is an experience in praying for the people affected by disaster situations such as Kosovo, or natural disasters such as drought, floods, hurricanes, fires etc. Also contains information resources for those concerned with the effects of drought and floods on the people of the world, and the environment. Charlie sjhop@ozemail.com.au also seeks news and resources for those reaching out in emergency situations.

CAN’T ACCESS BRIGADA FILES?

Right. You can’t. We’ve transferred our entire mailing list (including all subscription rights) from the XC.org hub over to eGroups.com, since xc.org was going to start charging us for services. What does that mean? It means that for the immediate future, you can’t access “old” Brigada commands by emailing <hub@xc.org>. Instead, you’ll have a new email interface, . . . which we’ll intoduce over the coming few weeks. So . . . stand by… For the time being, if you have access to the web, all those “get” files are available by starting out at https://brigada.org Please pardon any temporary inconvenience!

VISTO GIVES MORE FEATURES

Trying to backup files over the Internet? Try http://www.visto.com. According to Tim, it just might be better than http://www.myfilesonline.com for people with multiple PC’s (home and work, etc.) because it comes with a free synchronizer that you can use to sync up your e-mail inbox, internet favorites, Outlook (etc) calendar between multiple PC’s and PDA devices.

HOUSECHURCHES: A GROWING PART OF DISCIPLING THE NATIONS

Interested in receiving a free email listing of house church resources, including information on an excellent book called HOUSES THAT CHANGE THE WORLD? Contact Grace gracew@idmail.com. She’s very interested in becoming connected with house churches, and especially those in Canada.

WANT TESL INFO?

Then skip our previous (incorrect) reference. Point your browser, instead, to https://brigada.org/today/articles/webmission.html#english-help

SHARE INFO. ON REACHING CHRIST THROUGH THE CITY!

Find those engaged in targetting mega-cities with comprehensive strategies for church planting. Write info@projecttaipei.org. “I could certainly benefit from interchange with these fellow minsters to ‘The Urban Frontier’.”

PRAYER AND POEM E-MAIL

If you would like to receive a weekly prayer email with 3-5 current mission prayer requests, send a message to mertaka@everybody.org with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line. Praying recipients on the email list are the source of the prayer requests. Each email also includes a recent poem or parable written by Mert Hershberger, the editor of the list. Archives can be seen at http://www.everybody.org/mert.

FREE PRAYER RESOURCE

Lydia Prayer Fellowship offers free “1Tim2 prayer for those in authority” prayer cards. Bookmark size Bible cards list names of the U.S. President, his Cabinet and Supreme Court members. There are 12 scriptures to encourage prayer; 6 for political leadership and 6 for spiritual leaders. Cards come in packs of 100 and 1000. Send the need, number of cards you desire, and a postal address to tryna@bahl.com.

IRS AND “FORMSWARE”

The Internal Revenue Code requires tax exempt organizations to comply with any requests by anyone for copies of their application for tax exemption (Form 1023) as well as their three most recent annual information returns (Form 990). But if the organization has made the documents widely available, then they are relieved of these obligations. “Widely available” is defined to mean posting on the Internet. The IRS has just issued final regulations clarifying this new disclosure law. The regulations were printed in the Federal Register on April 9. The bottom line is that all tax exempt organizations may want to consider posting the required documents on their web site or another web site that is essentially a database of the required materials in order to avoid both the hassle of dealing with requests for documents as well as some pretty stiff penalties in case of non compliance. A summary of the regulations can be downloaded from The Legal Trends Memorandum web site: http://members.aol.com/jbstraus/page/index.htm Click on “New IRS Disclosure Regulations Issued April, 1999” under the “Special Reports” heading.

HOW TO HAVE A MAJOR IMPACT GLOBALLY?

Learn how to minister to the Internationals in your area July 19, 1999 to August 27, 1999 at YWAM, Roaring Branch,Pa. USA David & Vicky Scott, instructors, Kona, HI. A 6 week intensive course will equip you to teach conversational English to non-English speakers. A certificate from U of N will be awarded upon successful completion of the course. Phone: 570-673-3338, e-mail: 103074.3726@compuserve.com

TO SUBSCRIBE — To subscribe to BRIGADA TODAY, send email to brigada-today-subscribe@egroups.com.

TO UNSUBSCRIBE — Send email to brigada-today-unsubscribe@egroups.com. (Subject and text are ignored.)
IF IT DOESN’T WORK — Write Don & Judy, our Customer Services Managers at help@brigada.org. Yahooooo for volunteers!!!

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!”
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.

PLEASE 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!

WARNING 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.

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!