19990620 Brigada Today

Now with over 9100 participants!
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
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In this issue….

BRIGADAFEST IS COMING

Please join us in a prayer for BrigadaFest 2000, slated for Feb. 3-5 in Louisville, KY. (Thanks to Terry Bork, who worded this prayer, for her work as a prayer intercessor for this event.) “Father God, You are an Awesome God, a Merciful God, a Loving God, a God Who cares, a Giving God; for You gave Your Only-begotten Son, Jesus, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. Father God, we ask for souls for the kingdom. We ask for the nations, we ask for the Unreached People Groups. We beg for their salvation. We stand in the gap for them. Father God, You can make all things possible. Help us to take the first steps to accomplish the possible and You do the impossible in our lives. You bring people to us to share the Gospel with; you soften their hearts to receive the Gospel. We continue to lift up to you the Brigadafest Conferences and all the “tracks” that will meet there, such as Friends of Bosnia. Bring those you would have to be there and empower us to do the impossible through your Holy Spirit. We ask all of these things in Jesus’ Name, Amen.” For more information about BrigadaFest, send a note to brigadafest-subscribe@egroups.com.

FREE INTERNET VOICEMAIL

Where does our sleuth “Tim the Tech- Toolman” find this stuff???!

I have a buddy named Tim (who also has a big heart for missions) who tries to dig out the latest and greatest high-tech gadgets for Brigada Today readers. He’s done it again. Get a load of what he’s dug out for you this week — and remember, you heard about it here in Brigada Today! Just go to http://www.excite.com and set up a “My Excite” page (you’ll have to register). Then look in the top-left and click on “Check your mail.” When you get there, click on “Help” in the left column and then click on “VoiceMail help.” The wizard will help you set up an account… it suggests your phone number with area code as the account number. People pick up their phone, call 1-888-Excite2 … and speak or say your account number (then listen to a short ad) … then are told to either say their message or start their fax. Their voice message shows up in your Excite Mail inbox almost immediately. There’s also a fax service — with the downside being you can only receive 10/month. The upside is that senders get to dial the toll-free number . . . so it’s toll-free faxing to you! Another serious drawback — these services only work in the USA. (Those outside the USA can still enjoy eFax though — see next item.) So… bottom line… for those in the USA, you’ve now got a 10-faxes-a-month- for-free TOLL FREE fax-to-inbox tool, and a nationwide toll-free voice- mail-to-inbox tool! Yahooo!

NET2PHONE NOW HAS NET2FAX

Several Brigada participants have written to thank us for recommending Net2Phone (first recommended in the May 2, 1997 edition). Well enter Net2Fax! http://www.net2phone.com/net2fax (If you have trouble getting it set up, you can always write net2fax@net2phone.com.) Jason wrote this past week that he’s “been using Net2Phone for awhile (thanks to Brigada!) and just tried out Net2Fax. It worked great! Sent a fax to the U.S. from Brazil for 10 cents! I think this is one answer for those who’ve been trying to find a way to send faxes via the internet.” Sounds great. Don’t forget about efax, which allows you to receive faxes via your email inbox. Our whole office has now switched to the service so we can all have “personal” fax mailboxes for free (ad- supported, one click and it’s gone). So… no matter where you are in the world, your one fax number is still good and you get the fax the next time you log on to your email (first recommended in the March 26th ’99 edition). For more information about efax, hit http://www.efax.com. You must have access to the web to set it up.

WEBWATCH: KNOWLEDGE BASE AT YOUR SERVICE

Check out http://www.strategicnetwork.org, operated by the Network for Strategic Missions. Their mission? “Provide a direct link for the prayers, talents and resources of the Body of Christ to cutting edge opportunities in the 10/40 Window. We utilize our web site to enable strategy coordinators and advocates to create communities of Christians who share a heart for the unreached and gather together in common cause to see the 10/40 Window evangelized with the Gospel and served with the compassion of Christ. We invite Christians who advocate for specific countries and people groups to utilize our tools to freely host forums. Finally, we collect, annotate, index and provide information about world missions in searchable databases, including our knowledge base, initiatives database, and directories.”

GLOBAL GLIMPSE ABOUT A YEAR FROM NOW

June 10th, 2000 — Jesus Day will be the largest millennium celebration of the Christian world. Jesus will be the center of attention as millions of grassroots Christians gather together outside church walls to honor and worship him as we mark his 2000th anniversary. The celebration will include a Dedication, Children’s prayer, a Great Commission statement, and music including the Millennium Chorus by Graham Kendrick. “As we enter the third millennium, God offers the Christ-Child, the Millennium Child for the healing of the nations.”
(Source: Gerald Coates, March for Jesus, via Ad2000’s Announcement www.ad2000.org. For more information visit http://www.gmfj.org/mfj_jesus_day.html or www.grahamkendrick.co.uk.)
Global Glimpse is compiled by John Hanna, Caleb Project, Littleton, CO.

ENCOURAGE LOCAL MUSICAL STYLES IN WORSHIP

The book, Developing Indigenous Hymnody, will help you evaluate the local musical system and encourage the growth of appropriate psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. This book discusses contemporary issues in hymnody development, suggests fifty key resources for personal study and provides a listing of over 550 published items on this topic, indexed by geographic region and major subject. Both musicians and non-musicians will find this resource to be understandable, extremely useful and priced for the limited budget! Contact Dianne RDQuay@compuserve.com for more information.

JUST “IN CASE” YOU HAVEN’T ORDERED YOUR CD

WorldChristian News & Books distributes material for each “Praying through the Window (PTTW)” event at great discounts. So you can order PTTW books, videos, CDs and new maps at heavy Brigada-type discounts. Just write to wcn@xc.org (or call toll free in the USA (888)WCN-NEWS) or hit their site http://www.ywam.org/books/bks_ptw.html. They’ve got the jeweled case version of the PTTW CD for just $9.59 each (20% off list price) and they don’t make you prepay! Just place your order by email or phone and they’ll invoice you in the shipment of your product! Yahoo!

FOR THOSE LEARNING TO SPEAK

“Language Learning” is a free electronic newsletter providing helpful tips for learning foreign languages. Incorporating linguistic principles of second language acquisition with practical insight gained through years of language teaching and language learning, this newsletter is designed especially for those who have a strong desire to learn another language but who aren’t quite sure how to best go about it. Distributed twice a week, “Language Learning” will include tips that are directed toward all kinds of learners, from those in formal programs in a country where the language is spoken to those studying on their own in a country where the language is not spoken. To subscribe to this free newsletter, just send a blank e-mail to language-learning-subscribe@onelist.com.

“IT’S NOT WORTH IT”

Several Brigada participants wrote in response to last week’s item regarding anonymity (“IN THOSE ANONYMOUS TIMES, WHO DO YOU CHOOSE TO BE?“). One Christian worker wrote, “An excellent and timely reminder on anonymous times. Character is everything. I am currently in the midst of dealing with a moral failure where a friend/coworker gave into the flesh during an anonymous time. He is loosing his job, reputation, but due to brokenness not his family. It’s not worth it!” We agree — so let’s all remember — a word to the wise…

FREE ENCRYPTION VIA SSL AND THE WEB

So, have you checked out Hushmail http://www.hushmail.com? Could be pretty useful if they can get the bugs worked out of it. One Brigada participant has already recommended it for “patient early adopters.” Apparently it’s set up so you log onto a secure site via your browser, then send email via that page that is sent in automatically encrypted form to other account holders. The whole thing is supposed to remain free. Check it out as an option to PGP — if you don’t want to mess with public/private keys.

CHRISTIAN VIDEO CONVENTION

ICVM.com… Christian video… now that sounds like fun. If producing videos is your thing, or script writing, or videography, or filming your Sunday Church service, you are invited to attend the annual International Christian Visual Media (ICVM) convention in Orlando July 6-10th. There is a fee. Check out the details at http://www.icvm.com or write ScottHuber@ntm.org.

MEMBER CARE IS READY TO CARE FOR YOU

The MemCa member care resources web-site has moved! You can find the new site at http://www.membercare.org. The site exists to serve you as a networking resource. The growth of this resource depends on your participation. We invite your suggestions and contributions of content for the site. Send comments or content material to MemberCare@xc.org.

LOADS OF TESL RESOURCES

You can retrieve loads of resources on Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) by sending an email to: teslresources@brigada.worldchurces.org This is a 41K file. Thanks to Ken for the fantastic job he has done assembling all this info!

SAVE A TON ON TRAVEL

Wow…

Ken has also assembled a tremendous piece of work on travel. To get his 19K file on travel, including the biggest list of discounted travel agencies I’ve ever seen, just send a note to: travel@brigada.worldchurces.org Remember if you have updates for Ken, please email them directly to him. Thanks!

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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>.”
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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!”
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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!

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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!