19991114 Brigada Today

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, Albanian and even Filipino! Founded 25 January 1995, 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.

MISSION MOBILIZER’S FORUM AT BRIGADAFEST

Nate, moderator of the Brigada-orgs-missionmobilizers (BOMM) conference, would like to meet face-to-face as many subscribers to the list as can come to the BrigadaFest! BOMMers will meet during the “Huddle” group time, 8:30am – 12:30pm, Feb. 5th. If you’d like, we could come up with some questions ahead of time and discuss them in an organized way, or we could just bring in some snacks and hang out. Please contact Nate at NWilson@ris.net if you’re interested in a meeting like this and include any ideas for how we could make the most of this time.

YEMEN ADVOCACY AT BRIGADAFEST

A meeting for Brigada-ites interested in the Yemeni people (or anyone looking for an unreached people to adopt!) is being scheduled during BrigadaFest 2000. Please Contact Nate NWilson@ris.net if you’re interested in attending. Because of the sensitive nature of the track, security will be high — so be sure to write in advance.

ELECTRONIC LIBRARY LOOKING FOR PARTNERS

The International Electronic Library, a study and research tool being developed by Dr. David Goodman, President and CEO, with the help of the International School of Theology and Logos Research Systems, is looking for assistance from those who are familiar with resources in the following ten languages: FRENCH, MANDARIN CHINESE, SPANISH, PORTUGUESE, RUSSIAN, ARABIC, JAPANESE, INDONESIAN, KOREAN and VIETNAMESE. Specifically, assistance is needed from those who have electronic expertise, especially with scanning in OCR format or those who know books and can assist us in selecting the best books available in these ten languages for training pastor and church leaders around the world. If this is you, e-mail Wendy at wludo@megsinet.net.

SHARPENING YOUR INTERPERSONAL SKILLS FOR MISSIONARIES

A few of these excellent, biblically-based workshops still have openings. They fill up fast, so if you are interested, act soon. These are sponsored by Wycliffe Bible Translators and International Training Partners. You can obtain more information and sign up by going to http://www.RelationshipSkills.com/workshop.htm. New workshops are added often, so check this Web site from time to time. For information about scheduling a workshop for your mission, contact Ken at kenwilly@mindspring.com.

BRIGADA OPC IS WORKING!

At least that’s what Joseph said, from Newark, Ohio. He’s used it several times in the past few weeks . . . relaying it to others, checking the web sites we mention in the list at the end of the OPC protocol, and helping others get a handle on resisting the “urge to forward” all that virus-mail. Yahooo!

Thanks Joseph!

BET YOUR LIFE ON LIFE INSURANCE?

If you’ve got a great plan, Jeff Jeff@fccstriving.com, would like to know! He asked, this past week, “Does anyone have resources for life insurance for missionaries or people who work in missions and travel a lot? Many life insurance companies will not insure people who travel to third world countries. Please send responses to Jeff@fccstriving.com. Jeff will share the results with the whole Brigada family.

A WEB TRANSLATOR THAT’S MORE THAN JUST FOR FUN

You might be able to get some serious work out of this site: http://babelfish.altavista.digital.com. We’ve mentioned it before (like this past January), but it’s worth mentioning again. It’ll translate a web page to French, Spanish, Portuguese and now German too! Make sure you check the results with a human who speaks that language well though! Thanks for the reminder, Christi!

FULLER ONLINE

Check out Fuller Theological Seminary courses through the World Wide Web! If you sign up now, you’ll receive a special $100 discount rate off current tuition! (Winter ’00 Fuller Online registrations only) Register online by Dec. 17, 1999 at the following location: http://www.fulleronline.org. (Write davemc@fuller.edu to ask questions.) You can begin work towards a degree or earn an entire six course Certificate of Christian Studies online! You could study one of these… ” MH 520 The Historical Development of the Christian Movement, ML 525 Leadership Selection and Training in the Info-Tech Age, MR 520 Understanding Folk Religion, and MT 520 Biblical Foundations of Mission.

EVANGEL 99

Young adults will be challenged to discover how they can become an agent of Christ’s hope and be involved in missions while attending Evangel 99, an international missions and evangelism conference to be held December 27-30, 1999 in Cincinnati Ohio. Evangel 99 will feature times of intimate worship, inspiring speakers, challenging seminars, and meaningful outreaches in the city. Evangel 99 is hosted by several Anabaptist mission agencies and facilitated by Global Disciples, Millersville, PA. For more information on attending, volunteering, or becoming a prayer intercessor contact Michael at (717)872-7404, Evangelconference@ibm.net or http:/www.Globaldisciples.org.

THE “ORIGINAL SHORT-TERM MISSION STORE” OPENS

The Mission Store provides a mixture of information, ministry/travel/safety gear (music gear, mosquito nets, generators, travel kits) as well as a growing selection of rental items for teams to use overseas. Visit the site at http://www.stmissiongear.com and register with the site for periodic updates on products and information. If you do not have Internet access, call 877-236-8295 in the USA or via Net2Phone for a paper catalog (merchandise only, sorry no printed resources), or email The Mission Store at missiongear@aol.com. The Mission Store is missionaries serving missionaries.

WORLDCHRISTIANS HAS 85 LESSONS ONLINE

The WorldChristians website now has it’s 85 lesson accredited School of Mission available on-line in Hindi, Indonesian, Spanish and English, and has the first pages appearing in Chinese. It’s all free, downloadable and ready to use in churches, missions, cells or on a 2 Timothy 2:2 basis. See http://www.worldchristians.org or e-mail Les Norman at support@dci.org.uk.

FREE BIBLE STUDY MATERIALS

Wycliffe Associates (WA) are a group of volunteers who undertake mission support work in UK, not just for Wycliffe but for any mission. One valuable section of their work is the production of short commentaries/study books in easy English on most books of the Bible, for use in a field situation. These texts are offered freely to any missionary or worker who can use them in their own situation – either in easy English or translated into another language. Translation is easier because of the easy jargon/idiom-free nature of the English version. Considerable freedom is given to modify material for local needs. For more information, contact Martin MLloyd3000@aol.com. WA also offer many other services to ANY missionary, anywhere. Check their website http://www.globalnet.co.uk/~wauk or contact wycliffeassociates@iname.com.

YWAM’S NEW SITE ON THE WEB

Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in Elm Springs, AR, USA has a new website available offering training schools, short term outreaches, a newsletter, and more. Check it out at: http://www.ywam.net. If you have questions or would like to email a YWAM staff member for more info. write Renee’ at jer2911@hotmail.com.

CANADIANS TO SPONSOR MISSIONS CONFERENCE

Missions Fest Vancouver takes place at the Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre on January 28-30, 2000. The theme is Celebrating the Advance of the Gospel; speakers include Brother Andrew, Bruce Olsson, Chris Marantika and Roland Syens. Over 100 seminars, 220 mission agencies, youth rallies and children’s programs; join the thousands who will attend, sponsored solely by 138 churches from 26 denominations. See special accommodation rates and programs on http://www.mfest.bc.ca or write info@mfest.bc.ca.

GLOBAL GLIMPSE FROM CHINA

A Christian communicator asked a Chinese pastor for prayer requests about the persecution there. He answered, “Please do not pray that the persecution will end but instead pray that God will give us strength to endure it. Persecution makes Jesus more attractive to the unbelievers and makes Christians stronger in their faith. Please pray that God will grant our vision to see 40,000,000 people come to Christ from 1 Dec 1999 to 30 Jan 2000. For two months, we are asking every believer to win 3 people to the Jesus and each leader to win 5 people.”
(Source: Wolfgang Fernandez of Dawn Ministries, via CMDNet Weekly Update, November 14, 1999, http://www.cmd.org.nz)
Global Glimpse is gathered occasionally by John Hanna, Caleb Project, Littleton, CO.

HEADED TO BURKINA?

AIMS (Accelerating International Mission Strategies) and Shady Grove Church (Dallas, TX) will co-sponsor a missions mobilization conference, called Equipping for the Harvest, in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in November of 2000. The hosts expect broad- based participation from the evangelical community in Burkina Faso and throughout the region. The goals of the conference are: 1) to help mobilize a Burkina-be missions movement which will focus on UPG strategy; and 2) to promote networking between the national and international missions movements (i.e. Burkina-be churches, Mission Agencies, and Western Churches). AIMS wants to dialogue with agencies and churches who are involved in Unreached Peoples ministry in this region of the world. For more information contact Jason africa@aims-usa.org. Check out AIMS on the web at http://www.aims.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!

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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!