20000213 Brigada Today

In this issue….

WHOA – BRIGADA STUFF JUST GOT EASIER

Our volunteer tech-guy, Bob, has been burning the midnight oil again. This past week he completed a major switchover which makes it a lot easier to get Brigada autoresponder files. To get a full list of what’s available, including a description of contents and size, just send an email to brigada-info@brigada.org. To get any Brigada autoresponder file, from now on just write to <filename@brigada.org>. In addition, Bob’s rewriting the code for the search engine so it’ll be all the more rapido! Thanks a ton, Bob!

BRIGADA: WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

We found Jonathan, the guy who had challenged us to grow to 10,000 participants. Come to find out, he’s hard at work in a 10/40 Window nation, trying to assist an organization in developing Internet communication there. Why am I not surprised? He was glad for the Brigada family, but wasted no time to challenge us to develop a greater and more proactive platform for each of the remaining least-reached peoples. He also urged us to discover a way to measure the involvement of each Brigada participant… with the implication being that 10K readers does not equal 10K mobilizers. My biggest regret is that last time he challenged us to a goal (in ’95) he was here, helping us implement it. This time he’s in the 10/40 Window, involved in implementing MISSION! Don’t get me wrong… I’m glad for that… but how in the world do we make sure there’s a “live” email or web forum for each remaining unreached group! Yikes.

That’s a tall order. I think I hear Penny calling me to supper.

Let’s stew on it for a week.

GATHER AT THE GATHERING

You’re invited to Antioch Network’s Annual Gathering of Churches, July 26-29, 2000, at the Mission Palms Resort in Tempe, Arizona. Hear keynote speakers Floyd McClung, George Miley and Luis Bush. Learn about five stages of engagement that Antioch Network guides its churches through to increase involvement among the unreached. The cost is $135.00 for the entire four days including two lunches and a dessert hour. For more info, see http://www.antiochnetwork.org or write Gathering@Antiochnetwork.org. Antioch Network sent three representatives to BrigadaFest — so now it’s time to send Brigada folks to Tempe!

GET PAID FOR SURFING THE WEB

It just keeps on getting crazier and crazier. For example, Brigada participant Christopher reminded us this past week about all the spots where you can now be paid to surf the web. Among them are:

It’s hard to believe . . . but it’s true!

DON’T GET TENSE WHEN YOU MAKE TENTS

Check out the new 2K file linking you to resources and info. for those involved in tentmaking — working their way to witness to the nations. To get it, just send a note to tentmaking@brigada.org and Bob’s new autoresponder will email you the file for free!

ARE YOUR “SHIELDS UP” TO INTERNET INTRUDERS?

So did you hear about all the “denial of service” (DoS) attacks this past week? Big commercial sites like Amazon.com were brought to their knees, apparently by a bunch of zombie-like robot servers. And get this — one writer said it was such a simple attach that a 15-year-old kid in Iowa could have orchestrated the whole thing. How safe does that make you feel? It was the ultimate “return of the body-snatchers”, except the vandals were relentlessly attacking ebay and buy.com instead of the citizens in the county next door. So… with that as a backdrop, did you ever wonder how vulnerable your server (or your laptop) is to internet vandals? Check it out for free at Gibson Research Corp’s “Shields Up!” http://grc.com. The author has designed a page with special web-bots that will actually try to penetrate your PCs defenses — while you watch! It’s actually kind of spooky. I went there thinking that I was okay. I pushed the button and within minutes, the page had extracted all kinds of private information, including my name and the name of the network at our office. Who knows what a real intelligent (and malicious) hacker could have gotten! This was a mere robot! So I started reading the fine print and … yikes

… it was over my head. But I started trying to follow the author’s step-by-step directions, changing a properties setting here and there, then rebooted and came back to the page again. Guess what — the second time that robot was clueless. Score one for the humans! Yahooo!

So it’s worth some investment of time I guess . . . if you don’t want to be violated.

BOOKLET FOR MISSIONARY USE

THINK ON THESE THINGS is a booklet now available to missionaries for ministry purposes. (CBN has used this booklet in the past for US follow-up.) Sharing Christ Ministry (SCM Inc.) provides the booklet (88 pages) free with only a small handling charge. It’s a month-long “non-believer to believer progression” devotional (31 topics) — a way to share Christ that includes a one-year through-the-Bible reading plan. You can get it

printed with your ministry’s information,
contextualized to specific language and culture,
printed in the local language.

Available in English, Spanish (“soon”!) and Russian (June ’00).
Contact John flasecretary@aol.com at SCM for more info. (Thanks for the tip, Mark!)

TURKEY CONSULTATION

The International Turkey Network is hosting a Latin and North American Consultation on Turkey March 2-4 in Phoenix, Arizona. General sessions, Workshops and Work Groups will be led by seasoned leaders from the Turkish Church and worker community. For program details and registration information contact JaysonKK@aol.com.
Deadline for registration: February 25. Better work fast!

WHAT DO THE MOSQUES OF ISA BELIEVE?

Jim JimAyars@aol.com wants to know. He’s doing some research on the group, which has been labeled a cult by Muslim nations. If you’ve got some inside info, he’d love to hear about it. He’ll file a report with us when he’s done — and we’ll release any info. which won’t put others at risk.

MONGO SUPPLY OF BOOKS IN OTHER LANGUAGES

Lewis clciouk@aol.com is talkin’ books… big-time… in other languages. For example, need books in English, German, Chinese, or Polish? He’s gotcha’ covered at:

German	http://www.rb-online.de/clm
Chinese	http://www.hkstar.com/~clchk
Polish	http://www.pik-net.pl/clc/
English (UK)	http://www.clc.org.uk

If your language isn’t listed, don’t fret. Lewis is a dedicated Brigada participant. He’s agreed to take personal responsibility for getting catalogues for other languages into the hands of interested Brigada participants. Can you believe it? And he’s got the tools at his disposal, too. After all — he’s based at the CLC’s International Office in Sheffield, England. So… and name your language… and write our guy Lewis! Thanks Lewis! What a guy!

NEW INFORMATION SERVICE FOR MISSIONARIES FROM THE UK

March 1st sees the launch of OSCAR (an acronym of ‘the One Stop Centre for Advice and Resources’), a web-site billed as The UK Information Service for World Mission’. OSCAR is a collection of links to UK information and resources that relate to missions and missionaries, all brought together on one site. There are two main sections: an opportunity index and a service index. The opportunity index includes information about mission organisations [sic

] and areas of work whereas the service index includes information about UK-based mission support services. Word on the street is that the developer (“Mike”) is a former MAF pilot who understands UK missionaries and knows what he’s doing. Look for this site to go places. Check it out at http://www.oscar.org.uk and register your interest online or write info@oscar.org.uk. He’s apparently going to develop an email interface as well.

BARGAIN-BASEMENT CHRISTIANBOOKS

If you’ve been putting off your purchase of Christian books until the next big sale, ChristianBook.com says wait no more! They have apparently lowered prices on 4000 products for a blowout sale at: www.christianbook.com/html/static/bargainctr.html?promo=3601&ad=4220

MINI-ACTS 29 TRAINING COURSE!

The next scheduled missionary preparation course by Emmaus Road International is May 4 to June 2, 2000. In an intensive four week total immersion in the second culture community of Tijuana, Mexico, missionary candidates learn and practice principles of living and ministering cross-culturally. The course integrates the advantages of three learning centers: the classroom, the community, and the Christian home. For info, write emmaus_road@eri.org.

GET A TORCH KIT AND LIGHT YOUR WORLD

Want to use AV media but can’t afford to get started? Now you can. Get a Ken Anderson Films and InterComm “Torch Kit” — 2 pound lightweight Radmar filmstrip projector, an extra bulb, 110 to 220 power converter, 15 to 17 filmstrips, with the English script to these filmstrips. (These English scripts may be translated to the language the Christian or missionary is trying to reach.) This kit is portable, easy to use, and will work with AC, a car or motorcycle battery. Plus they’re affordable: $300 including shipping. For more info, write lanejill@sprintmail.com. (Thanks Ken!)

TRY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC’S FREE ONLINE ATLAS!

If you ask me, Jon’s found a real goldmine! Check out National Geographic’s free mapmaking machine! http://www.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine. It has cool satellite views with geopolitical boundaries and cities overlaid. Spice up that next report with a map of your area of interest! Thanks Jon!

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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!