19990912 Brigada Today

Now with 9395 participants!
Doug’s just in from Kosovo!
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….

WHAT IN THE WORLD IS BRIGADA?

Brigada, pronounced “bree-GAH-dah” (rhymes with armada), is the rough equivalent of a “brigade” — in Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, and even Filipino! The idea is to stand side by side to pass buckets of hope for those most in need of Christ’s eternal message! Check out nearly 5 years of weekly back issues at https://brigada.org. See recent back issues and links at http://www.eGroups.com/list/brigada-today. Brigada Today is compiled by Doug Lucas DLucas@teamexpansion.org, Louisville, KY.

WHERE DO YOU SEE BRIGADA LINKS?

Simple. Just copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://www.egroups.com/docvault/brigada-today/Links?autocreate=1 In case you’re at another computer and don’t have that link book marked, just remember that you can click to: https://brigada.org then click on “Other Mission Web Sites” Add your mission org. or resource page there today! It’s compiled “real-time” so you’ll see your link there immediately after adding it. Please be sure and try to pick out (or create) an appropriate folder. I’ve got to make time to do some reshuffling to get that page organized!

NOW YOU CAN READ SECRET AGENT REPORTS

Well… practically. Just point your browser to http://www.stratfor.com/ and you’ll see what I mean. Rick, a faithful Brigada participant since our first month of operation in January 1995, tipped us on this page. They list hotspots, global intelligence centers, and all kinds of world news. In fact, they reported the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia just 15 minutes after it happened! Great stuff Rick. Thanks.

PGP GETS EASIER

Yahooo!

Thanks to Rod for tipping us off on the fact that there will now no longer be two PGP versions required by law! Check out the news at: http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?990916.encrypto2.htm The bottom line is that everyone can upgrade to PGP 6.5.1 with PGPnet now! You can always go to http://www.pgp.com for more info. Thanks Rod!

BILINGUAL KIDS

Susan is compiling resources and information on bilingualism and wants suggestions for resources as well as contact with people raising bilingual kids or bilingual kids themselves. Send information to sberke@cplace.org. When she’s all done, we’ll post a copy of her report here in Brigada as an autoresponder. Thanks Susan!

GOOD BOOKS, GOOD PRICES

O.M. Literature, part of Operation Mobilization, sells Christian books and Bibles at discount prices around the world. They stock ACMC missions books and tapes and are the North American distributors for STL and Paternoster Press in the UK. You can’t check them out on the web yet, but if you are looking for a specific title call 800-733-5907 (US) or 1-770-554-5827, or e-mail Tom tom@omlit.om.org and he’ll be glad to help. They are non-profit; all income finances the work of O.M. and other missions around the globe.

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM REPORT READY FOR PICKING

The U.S. Department of State has just released its annual report on religious freedom mandated annually by the International Religious Freedom Act, signed into law by President Clinton in October 1998. Russia Intercessory Prayer Network has posted hyperlinks to all the reports on countries of the Former Soviet Union. You can access these reports by going to: http://www.ripnet.org/99USreport.htm Thanks to the folks at the Russia Intercessory Prayer Network for the work they’re doing! See RipNet at http://www.ripnet.org

PREPARE TAIWANESE FOR MISSION WORK

Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in Taiwan runs three schools to prepare local Taiwanese and international students for short term and long-term missionary work. The basic training course is called the Discipleship Training School (DTS). It is a 6-months course divided in two parts: First three months is the lecture phase, then the next three consists of travel and missionary work to other nations. DTS2000 starts April 17 and runs through October 1. It’s outreach will take you through the jungles of Papua New Guinea and trekking across the great outdoors of Australia, from Cairns in the North all the way down south to Sydney where the school will be concluded with a mega-outreach at the Olympics. More than 20.000 Christians are expected to arrive to present the gospel to the multitudes that gather together for this sports event. Interested? E- Mail: ywamtp@ms24.hinet.net or check out their web page at: http://www.ywamtaiwan.org

FREE OFFICE SUITE FROM SUN MICROSYSTEMS

Sun Microsystems is offering it’s StarOffice software suite free for personal and commercial use. According to Peter, it contains a quality word processor and office software and is available for download (65MB) at http://www.stardivision.com or http://www.sun.com/staroffice. Alternately, you can obtain a CD for under $10 (US) and have it shipped within the USA. The low-cost CD is a limited-time offer. StarOffice is available in English, German, Portuguese and several other languages. It runs on Windows 95/98/NT, Linux and a few other operating systems. Thanks Peter dsouza@panix.com!

BIBLE STUDIES IN TELEGU

All the 85 missions-oriented studies from conversion level to leadership from the http://www.dci.org.uk website have been published in Telegu. The book is at Indian rupee prices and is in Narsapur, India. Also available in Hindi from Nagpur. Inquiries can go to lesnorman@dci.org.uk who will pass on a fax number for India.

MORE Y2K RESOURCES FOR YOUR MISSION

Thanks to Bryan (our summer Info. Tech. intern at Team Expansion) and Georges (in Ukraine!) for tipping us that both the USA and Great Britain have released reports on being in other countries during the Y2K rollover. There is general information and advice as well as lists of problems specific to individual countries. You can read the latest at: http://travel.state.gov/y2kca.html (US State Dept.) http://www.fco.gov.uk (Britain Foreign & Commonwealth Office) Thanks Bryan!

WEBWATCH: IMPACT TEAMS’ SITE FOR KIDS

Impact Teams International (ITI) has launched a site geared for kids at http://www.impactkids.org called “Kids In Dire Situations. You’ll find helpful information about their ministry, as well as opportunities, prayer requests and more.

SHARPEN YOUR INTERPERSONAL SKILLS

Cypress Bible Church is hosting the “Sharpening Your Interpersonal Skills” Workshop, November 1-5. Cypress in located in a NW suburb of Houston, Texas. The SYIS workshop was developed by Dr. Ken Williams of Wycliffe Bible Translators. Please visit their website for more information on the workshop, http://www.RelationshipSkills.com. To register for the workshop contact Wayne at wcone@cbcintl.org.

STUDY KAZAKH ONLINE

Indiana University and partners are developing language learning modules in Azeri, Kazakh, Turkmen, and Uzbek for delivery through a world-wide web-based language site: the Central Asian Language Network, CenAsiaNet. The first Kazakh module is now available. Yahooo!

Because this module is based around lengthy segments of high-quality video, it is recommended that you visit the site equipped with at least a 56k modem. This material can be accessed at http://www.cenasianet.org. Thanks for the tip, Kerry!

CARGO OCEAN TRAVEL FOR MISSIONARIES

David ddale@one.net is interested in finding out about cargo ocean liners that can board missionaries for international travel. If you know how to find out about schedules, fares and contact information, please e-mail him with this information. We’ll ask David for a report, then make it available here in Brigada! Thanks David!

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

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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!”
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!