20040229 Brigada Today

HOW TO SAVE ON INTERNATIONAL CALLS — Learn how other missionaries save on international phone calls at https://brigada.org/phone.html

A portion of your long distance bill will help keep Brigada going out the door and onto your screen! The phone company will be “in your corner,” helping you be all the more effective at an all-the-more-reasonable price!

HOW TO HELP SPONSOR OUR BRIGADA SECRETARY — Maybe your church could pitch in… or your organization, if you’ve ever benefited from any item in Brigada? Your partnership gift of $10, $100, or $1000 or more would help sponsor our Brigada secretary for 2004. So far, we have $1673.60 toward the total needed for 2004, which is $16,021 — to completely underwrite the cost of all administrative help for Brigada. (Doug’s compiling is donated free. Brigada participants are asked only to help by covering the cost of his secretary at: https://brigada.org/donate.html Choose to make a one-time gift, or use the “subscribe” button to be reminded each month of a smaller gift of $10, for instance. Your call. Thanks for your partnership to keep Brigada going out the door and onto your screen!!!

NEW WEBSITE HAS GOOD NEWS AUDIO LINKS FOR 1,000 PEOPLE GROUPS — We are good at using the web to TALK ABOUT people groups. Now a new website has been launched with the goal of TALKING TO members of every language group on earth. Visit and link to this great new site: http://www.EveryTongue.com – EveryTongue Good News Recordings – Over 1000 links to on-line Good News recordings to which you can click and listen. 72% of the world can find Good News at this site in a language they can understand. On this site, you will also find a list of hundreds of recordings that are on cassette but not yet on the web. If you can help get these languages onto the Internet, go to the site and volunteer. Take a look at the site’s focus country of the month where Good News web pages are being made for every people group in one country — a great model that could be done for any country. The makers of this site have met members of very obscure people groups via the Internet and believe they can get Good News to members of almost every language group on earth.

UNREACHED PEOPLES CONSULTATION — This is your last chance to register for “Transformations,” an Unreached Peoples Consultation sponsored by AFMA in partnership with AIMS, CBN, and Regent University March 15-18, 2004 at Regent University in Virginia Beach, VA. Learn how to create functional strategies for unreached people groups and plan short-term trips that will have a long-term impact from ministry professionals working in China, East Africa, Ethiopia, India, and Indonesia. Don’t miss your opportunity to hear how you can reach the thousands of people who die every day without ever hearing the name of Jesus Christ. The cost is only $169. Register today by calling AIMS at (757) 226-5850. You may also e-mail aims@aims.usa-org or log on at http://www.aims.org

SHORT TERM MISSIONS RESOURCES ON THE WEB — http://www.stmnetwork.ca is a website devoted to equipping people for short term missions. Over 1 million North Americans will be part of a short-term missions trip this year. If you are looking for resources, a trip database or general STM help check out http://www.stmnetwork.ca North American callers can dial toll-free: 1-866-999-1STM. International callers can dial (403)813-5765.

MK SCHOOL IN ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN IS RECRUITING TEACHERS — Tien Shan Educational Center (TESC) is receiving applications for the upcoming school year beginning August 26, 2004. TESC – K – grade 12 is an English speaking school, meeting the needs of missionary children from nine countries. Presently they are seeking staff for the following positions: Primary teachers for Grades 1-6; Secondary Science teacher (JH Science and HS Chemistry & Physics); Secondary Math teacher (Algebra 1 & 2, Pre-Calculus, Calculus); Secondary Language Arts teacher (HS English); Primary & Secondary School Physical Education teacher. For more information or an application please write Craig tienshan@pactec.kz or Joahna tssecondary@pactec.kz

MULTICULTURAL TEAMS COURSES AND WORKSHOPS — These are offered by the author of “Building Credible Multicultural Teams,” Dr. Lianne Roembke, and have been significant in charting or correcting the course of many teams, leaders and members. The following workshops and accredited courses (*) are being offered in 2004 (facilitator training available): Fuller School of Intercultural Studies – Pasadena, CA* – August 2-13 contact: sis-acadprogdir@dept.fuller.edu Columbia Int’l Univ – Korntal, Germany* June 28 – July 9 (in German) contact: CCrouse@aem.de Workshop in Korntal, Germany (in German) – Dec. 13-17 contact: smf@aem.de Inquiries on Facilitator Training: LRoembke@aol.com
http://hometown.aol.de/LRoembke/homepage/weiterbildung.html

DETAILED MISSION OPPORTUNITY INFORMATION — You likely know a few people who are considering going on a summer mission, or longer. A great resource to refer them to is http://www.ShortTermMissions.com. The website offers *complete details* on 1,000 one week to three year opportunities from 50 organizations. Quickly find a match with a search by country, length, date, and keyword. Note: Most of the opportunities are with US mission agencies.

ABSTINENCE EDUCATION FOR DEVELOPING WORLD BELIEVERS — Equipping Leaders Internationally is pleased to announce the launch of an abstinence education materials Internet website at http://www.eliprojects.org. The target audience for this website is youth workers, church leaders, and parents in the developing world, who have few printed resources, but want field-tested educational materials which will address sexuality and other areas of potential risk for youth. Now these materials will be available to them through this “virtual library” free of charge. More materials which are written by and for the developing world, as well as additional materials from premier organizations in the developed world, will continually be added. For more information or to submit materials please contact vnurtmi@eliprojects.org.

MORE OPTIONS TO FILTER SPAM — We continue to battle spam, don’t we. With some PC experts beginning to talk about email being “broken”, we’d *better* get to work fixing it! :-) Have you noticed two good solutions sound nearly alike?
http://about.mailblocks.com/ and
http://www.mail-block.com/ They appear to be unrelated, but very similar products and both are said to be working great. I use Norton Antispam right now, but kind of regret buying it, when I compare to these two solutions. Don’t sit around deleting 100 emails a day, most of which are trying to sell you on enlarging certain things and energizing others. Get a good antispam solution and start feeling some relief from the stress! :-) (Thanks to all who give input on these kinds of things, like Scot, Sheryl & Corrie!)

USE “THE PASSION OF CHRIST” AS A MEANS OF OUTREACH — We recently reported a dearth of resources for cross-cultural outreach relative to the movie, “The Passion of The Christ.” Well thanks to “Wes” who pointed us to these…
http://www.TheLife.com – for use with non-Christians
http://www.sharethelife.com – full of ideas for Christians to use So there *are* some resources out there! In fact, thanks to Ken who recently compiled a whole *listing* of such links for us!
http://www.christianvideos.org/passion_of_Christ.html

TRAINING FOR OUTREACH TO DEVELOPING POOR — Do you minister to the poor in the developing world? If so, training that you need is available now via email-based distance courses. Learn the basics of microfinance and microenterprise development as tools to help the poor and build the local church. Certification is offered for those who complete these courses, their live training and a ministry plan. See
http://www.chalmers.org for details about the courses, costs and schedule.

COMPILED: INFO ON FUND-RAISING FOR “REPEAT” SHORT-TERMERS — Remember out guy, Kevin, who was going to compile information on repeating short-termers? Well he did! (Thanks Kevin!) Here’s his expanded report:
+ Fund raising for “Repeater short term mission trips”
– The question asked was, “HOW DO YOU FUND REPEAT TRIPS? — Southway Community Church now has several small short term mission teams (Music development and TEFL) that minister out of country several times each per year. Because these teams involve the same people each time and therefore the same donors, they are finding that the funding tends to drop off. Does your church have this kind of repeat mission trip? How do you fund them?”
– The following responses are given without attribution because I didn’t ask for permission to use names. None of the following ideas are mine, I only edited and arranged them.
Kevin Paszalek Southway
Community Church
Houston, Texas USA
pastor at southway.org (replace the word “at” with the @ sign and remove the space on either side)

+ Cost cutting
– Have you considered having fewer trips per year, but each trip be longer duration? I’m sure a majority of the cost is airfares.

+ Participants pay some proportion
– If a person wants to go on a Short Term Mission trip he (or she) must be approved by the missionary committee and is responsible to pay 25% of his (or her) cost for the trip. The STM person making the trip will receive a tax deductible receipt for this portion of the money contributed as well the other donors If a person wants to take a second STM trip, no matter if it is to the same country or to another country, the person is now responsible to pay 50% of his costs. If a person wants to go on a third trip he must pay 75% of the costs himself. If a person takes 4 or more trips he will be responsible for paying his own expenses and donations from others is neither encouraged nor discouraged, however, the person is not allowed to “solicit” funds through the church.

+ Fund raising events
– I do a Thai Chicken Curry Lunch right after church at other churches in the area as a fund raiser. I split the money raised with them to support their youth missions. I can talk about the mission I’m doing, give a door prize, and support their youth missions program at the same time. I give private small group Thai cooking lessons-this is my best fund raiser aside from straight donations. So far I’m netting about $250.00 on each class (about 6 hours of time), plus there are a lot of happy people eating Thai food. They aren’t even “church” people…they come from the health club, friends, the beauty salon, etc. to take the class.

+ Don’t do yearly trips with the same people to the same location.
– Go somewhere else. I know that a mission agency opened up into Africa, from being exclusively central American focussed, since a donor wanted to give to the type of work, (microenterprise) but wanted to influence Africa) Who’s to turn [down] $250,000? Off to Africa they went.
– 2. Get new people on board. Bring in fresh blood, and their new donor team. You expand the number of committed people to your particular overseas ministry. Fund the team as a team rather than as individuals, so that the pot for all pays for everyone.
– My suggestion is to consider not doing several repeat trips a year but maybe only one and look for other opportunities.
– Google “donor fatigue”

+ Add new people to the team
– Our church does have one trip that we have done three consecutive years and it has worked very well by adding and dropping people but always having a few that are repeats to form a core.
EXPLORING YOUR MISSIONS OPTIONS — Are you sensing God’s call to commit your life to cross-cultural missions, but you have more questions than answers? TEAM’s “Explore” Workshop may be just what you need! “Explore” is a three-day opportunity to gather good data on your spiritual life, life experience, education, health, values, and calling. It concludes with a personalized debrief in which you set personal goals. They also create a personalized written report for you and your church. Experienced missionaries guide the sessions, and most workshops are sponsored by local churches. Find out more and check the schedule for your area by calling 1-800-343-3144 (North America) or checking at
http://www.teamworld.org.

ONLINE EASYENGLISH BIBLE PORTIONS FOR LEARNING DISABLED PEOPLE — Download freely 10 Biblical items (Psalms & Gospels; prayers from the Bible and Drama scripts) in their growing and popular Accessible EasyEnglish series. Just click on ‘AEE’ on their home page http://www.easyenglish.info Many people also use these materials for beginners learning English. More details of AEE and our other products from Martin Lloyd at martin@easyenglish.info

MISSIONARY MENTORSHIP CONFERENCE CALL – On March 18 at 8:30 PM EST Elijah Company will have a unique conference drawing principles from the life and work of Amy Carmichael, one of the greatest missionaries of the 20th century. Her soldierly commitment and unwavering faith has set the course for many in missions. For call number, access code and content outline write to mentorship@elijahcompany.org or call (757) 639-2906. To get to know other Elijah Company services see http://www.elijahcompany.org

THE BACK PAGE: EXECUTE THE LONG PROJECTS TOO — I’m really enjoying the opportunity to work on my doctoral dissertation these days. I’m trying to invest each Tuesday and Thursday toward that end, but I’ll confess it’s often difficult to put aside the urgent for the important. Someone needs a report on this or that, deadlines calling, phones ringing, people visiting… And in the thick of the battle, sometimes I put off the really big stuff, partly because it’s more rewarding to finish something smaller.
But have you noticed that many of the most rewarding things in life come only after a zillion substeps… incremental improvements or subgoals on the way toward completing a major project. Imagine trying to build a nuclear submarine, the Washington Monument, or even learn to play the soprano saxophone (something else I’m attempting these days in my “spare” after-work time). It happens because we take tons of little “baby steps” (watch an edited version of “What About Bob” for a good laugh on that :-) ).

So what about your work? How do you manage to accomplish the really long-term objectives? Here’s a suggestion that’s as obvious as the nose on your face: break it up in bitesized chunks. For my dissertation, that means, “I’ll try to get 5 more pages done today.” (If I get 2 between emails or phone calls, then sobeit; at least it’s forward motion!) For the sax, it’s even simpler: 30 minutes, 3 times a week. That’s about all I can usually eek out. But hey… why do we humans get in such a hurry, anyway? :-)

How ’bout your projects? What do you have that’s really big … that you can break up into chunks… and just view it “one line at a time?” I bet once you did, you’d find it energizing to know you’re making progress again. And hey… one line at a time is okay. Just “enjoy the journey, as much as you would the destination,” and suddenly, that big project isn’t as bad as it once was, right?

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