19990721 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
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In this issue….

WHAT IN THE WORLD IS BRIGADA?

Brigada, pronounced “bree-GAH-dah”, is the rough Russian and Spanish equivalent of a “brigade.” The idea is to stand side by side to pass buckets of hope for those most in need of Christ’s eternal message! Read more (4+ years of back issues) at https://brigada.org.
See recent back issues at http://www.eGroups.com/list/brigada-today.
Compiled by Doug Lucas DLucas@teamexpansion.org, Louisville, KY

FINALLY – AN INTERNET-TO-POSTAL CONNECTION WORTH USING

We’ve tackled this challenge again and again . . . and finally there’s an internet-to-postal service that seems worth the effort. Try http://www.letterpost.com. Seems like they have the right portion of technology, speed, and pricing. They take your electronic text and transfer it to a written letter (for those out of reach of your email, for whatever reason). Let us know how it works for you! Thanks for the tip, Wayne!

FUN FACTS TO KNOW AND TELL

Total assets of the world’s three richest men (Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Paul Allen): $156 billion
Total GNP of the 43 least developed countries, the population of which is 600 million people: $136.2 billion
Number of people who live on less than $1 a day: 1.3 billion

(Source: Dennis sent us these items from the 26 of July, 1999 issue of Time magazine, p. 17.)

MIDDLE EAST TESOL PROGRAM

Want to study “Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages” (TESOL) with a special Middle East focus! Here’s a school that is accredited through the Government Department in Queensland, Australia and the University of the Nations. Graduating students will receive a TESOL certificate. The course is August 30th – September 24, 1999, so you’d better act fast. Cost is $500USD. For more information, write Janine Jes97@galacticomm.org.

WEBWATCH: COMPREHENSIVE SEARCHING

Don’t forget about “Copernic 99” at http://www.copernic.com/ (mentioned previously in Brigada Today). Copernic is a separate program that queries 10 or 12 search pages every time you need a comprehensive search. I still like www.google.com for simple searches (and it seems to always find what I want!), but Chris is right… for more comprehensive stuff, it’s hard to beat Copernic.

PRAYER CARDS MADE TO ORDER

If you need prayer cards, don’t forget about Howard Print Shop. They offer professional quality prayer cards at “missionary prices”. Les clfcebu@iname.com wrote, “I was very pleased with the quick turnaround time.” You can browse their website and see their samples and at the same time, get a quotation right on the web for most standard size prayer cards. Their website is http://www.netusa1.net/~hpsprint/ or you can email Dave Howard hpsprint@netusa1.net. Please let him know you read it on Brigada and maybe he’ll cut you a special deal!

TAKE IN “ISFM ’99” IN VIRGINIA BEACH

The ISFM (International Society for Frontier Missiology) theme this year will be “Issues for the Future of Frontier Missions in the New Millennium”. Join them on Sept. 18th at 7pm through Sept. 20 at the Founders Inn, the weekend before the EFMA, IFMA and EMS conference, in Virginia Beach, VA. Some of the presenters are Dr. Ralph Winter, Carol Davis, Dr. Rick Love, Dr. Bob Blinco and Boyd Morris. Expect great networking, stimulating presentations and strategic prayer and dialogue. If you want to be prepared for the new millennium, join in. Discount registration due by Aug. 20, 1999. Spouses come for free. For information and registration contact Amy AimBarstad@aol.com.

E-MAIL THAT PAYS YOU!

You’ve heard of free web sites, free e-mail, and free lunches. But how about e-mail that pays you cash to use it?? Missionarymail.org is launching the first in a series of services designed to leverage the latest Internet technologies to financially support Christian missionaries worldwide. Through missionarymail’s unique e-mail sponsorship program, you will actually be paid for keeping in touch with your friends, family, and supporters back home.

How does it work? You send e-mail messages just as you always have – except now you send them via missionarymail.org’s forwarding service. They insert a small advertisement from a Christian Internet retailer at the beginning or end of your regular messages. The ads are carefully screened to be appropriate for your constituents and supporters. Christian books, videos, t-shirts, etc. are the products you would typically find advertised in your e-mail. The advertiser pays to have their ad distributed via your e-mail. Missionarymail.org keeps a portion of the ad revenues to cover operations and expenses. The rest is paid to you via check!

For all the details see their web site at http://www.missionarymail.org or send a blank e-mail to their autoresponder at faq@missionarymail.org.

FIND A HOME AT NETZERO

Seems like a lot of folks are finding a home with www.netzero.net. As for me, I tried it and found it a bit too slow and it seemed there were too many system crashes. But many folks (including Dana, this past week) are writing in saying it’s working well for them. . . so maybe it’s worth trying, if you want free web access and email too! (Ad-supported… with a banner always “on top”.)

TIPS FOR INT’L EMAIL TRAVELERS – PART 4

Looking for even more telephone equipment and travel supplies? Keith recommended we try http://www.teleadaptusa.com/ or even their UK affiliate site at http://www.teleadapt.co.uk/. They’ve got a ton of adaptors and connectors, and lots of good (free) advice! Great spot to visit before you leave! Note that when we talk about needing adaptors for phone connections, we’re mainly talking about trips overseas. Within one region or country (like within the USA), you probably will be able to get by with the one main corresponding phone jack for that region or country. Trouble is, when traveling to a different country, those connections and jacks might be very different. So you’ll need to check in advance. What do you do if you can’t locate an adaptor prior to departing? Here’s where those tools come in — the ones we mentioned last week.

First, remember to try every other approach before disassembling the phone connection in your hotel room (or worse, at your host’s home!). If you work in advance, you should be able to pick up an adaptor before departing . . . or immediately upon arriving. If you fail, take out your handy-dandy straight-slot screwdriver and remove the cover plate from the phone connection. On many phone systems (especially non-commercial setups, like in private homes), you should find only one significant pair of cables. In many regions based on American systems, these two wires will be colored red and green respectively. Take your alligator clip adaptor (mentioned last week) and clip one to the red and the other to the green. On the other end, you should have an RJ-11 plug to connect to your computer. (Remember, any Radio Shack or other electronics store should be able to help you find this kind of pigtail adaptor.)

One other glitch that could foul up the works. It’s possible that your dial-up settings are configured in such a way that your modem will listen for a dial tone before trying to dial out. If the local dial tone is a pulsating one (rather than a constant tone), your modem might think you aren’t connected to a dial tone. If you’re running Windows 95/98, press the Start button, then “Settings”, “Control Panel”, then click on “Modem” and select the modem you’re using (probably there’s only one listed). Click on “Properties”, then choose the “Connection” tab. Clear the checkbox for “Wait for dial tone before dialing” and that should take care of it. If you’re using some proprietary dial-up software (like an older CompuServe or AOL software), you could try getting to the “dialing preferences” box and looking for the “initialization string” settings. There might be several cryptic commands in the box. Leave them all as they are, but near the end, right before the “^M”, add “X3” and that might accomplish the same thing if you’re lucky. It’s an old AT command set code that still works like a charm.

‘Course, all of this is assuming that you know which number to dial. More about that next time!

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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!”
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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.
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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!

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!