20050724 Brigada Today

In this issue…

1. FINAL 7 DAYS TO HELP DOUG WITH PH.D. DISSERTATION
2. DISTANCE LEARNING COURSES ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
3. TRAIN AS A STRATEGIC COORDINATOR
4. LAUSANNE PAPER ON POSTMODERN AND ALTERNATIVE SPIRITUALITIES
5. A CONFERENCE FOR THOSE WHO HAVE A HEART FOR AFRICA
6. A HARSH LIFE: THE NAMIBIAN COLOURED Of NAMIBIA
7. MISSIONARY TRAINING CAMP
8. INVITATION TO FREE E-MAIL ACCOUNT GMAIL
9. EMERCY’S SHORT TERM MISSIONS TOOLBOX IS NOW AVAILABLE
10. TEACH TO REACH
11. BACK PAGE: LIVING IN CHANGING AGENCIES, OR NOT
12. CLOSING STUFF

1. FINAL 7 DAYS TO HELP DOUG WITH PH.D. DISSERTATION — These are the final hours to help Doug with the dissertation project for his Ph.D. degree on followership. The questionnaire helps each individual determine his or her “style of followership” and the results are 100% confidential. “You have my word as your Brigada Today compiler since the very beginning, in 1995, that you won’t be added to any list. No one will call. No one will even email.” Remember that anyone working (or even volunteering in a major way) for a non-profit organization, mission, orphanage or church is eligible. If you aren’t sure you’re the right person to take the survey, please take it anyway. If you can convince 100 people to take it (from your mission or church), and get 50 of them to participate, we’ll be forever grateful. Staff persons in Christian schools, staff people in local churches, resident moms and dads in children’s homes, .. they’ll all be considered for the research. It takes just 5 minutes. This is the final opportunity being offered to Brigada Today participants. Just click to: https://brigada.org/followership After taking the survey, the research asks a few basic questions of your team leader or supervisor, again — in the strictest confidence. “Following this week, we’ll go to the university with the numbers and see if they’ll allow the project. We had set a goal to find 500 pairs of followers and their respective supervisors. We’re roughly halfway there.” :-( Final chance… please take those 5-minute surveys by August 17. Week after week for years, you’ve been reading Brigada. Here’s a chance to give something back — without having to spend a dime of your hard-earned cash. Your responses will be used exclusively as research data for this one project. Please help today. There is obviously no fee involved. This is homework. Are there 375 people out there (out of our 10,000 reachers) who would please pitch in? If so, thank you in advance. https://brigada.org/followership
2. DISTANCE LEARNING COURSES ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT — Receive training from the Chalmers Center on how to facilitate economic development among the poor. Here is what Robin and Mike McMahan, Mission to the World missionaries to Ecuador, said about the training they received from the Chalmers Center: “The [Chalmers Center training institute] revolutionized what we were doing. It gave us useful tools and allowed us to help people financially and spiritually without creating dependency. We would definitely recommend the [Chalmers Center training institute] for anyone who is working among the poor.” The Chalmers Center will offer the first two of the courses from the training institute in distance learning format this coming fall. The distance learning courses are email-based with instructor feedback on weekly written assignments. They will help you understand the needs of the poor and how to determine the design of an intervention that is the appropriate program and strategy for Christian economic development in your context. To find out more about these courses or to register, visit the Chalmers web site at www.chalmers.org. Or, you can contact the Chalmers Center by phone at 706-419-1805 or by email at chalmers(at)covenant(dot)edu [As a means of preventing spam for our contributors, in the preceding email address, please replace (at) with @ and (dot) with .]
3. TRAIN AS A STRATEGIC COORDINATOR — The Strategic Coordinator Seminar is about planning and implementing evangelism, business and church planting among your favourite segment of society. It’s an intense 3-week seminar (13 November-2 December 2005) led by veteran missionaries experienced at implementing people- and city-transforming strategies. In the seminar you will create a working plan for the evangelization of your focus population; be it gothic youth in London, indigenous peoples of Australia, an unreached people group in Africa or a mega-city in Asia. If you want to see your church take a more active role in evangelizing your focus people through prayer, going and sending out missionaries; if you are a missionary who desires to see more prayer, people and finance on an international level directed towards your focus group, then this seminar is for you. Contact the Registrar: info(at)ywamperth(dot)org(dot)au or telephone +61 8 9328 5321 or fax +61 8 9328 1324 or log onto: http://www.ywamperth.org.au Please note that the organizers have asked that you be sure to mention the fact that you read about it in Brigada. :-)
4. LAUSANNE PAPER ON POSTMODERN AND ALTERNATIVE SPIRITUALITIES — One of the more lengthy and significant Lausanne papers from the Oct. 2004 meeting in Thailand is now available. Lausanne Occasional Paper No. 45, “Religious and Non-Religious Spirituality in the Western World (“New Age”), is available in PDF format at http://community.gospelcom.net/lcwe/assets/LOP45_IG16.pdf or in booklet format. For information on ordering the 90 page booklet contact John Morehead at johnwmorehead(at)netzero(dot)net
5. A CONFERENCE FOR THOSE WHO HAVE A HEART FOR AFRICA — Gather in Longmont, CO Sept. 16 & 17, 2005 for the Best Hope for Africa Conference. This will be a time of prayer for the continent and networking with other native Africans and American workers. Pastor Andre Lottering of African Ministries Network will be the keynote speaker as the group seeks to catch God’s heart for His emerging church in Africa. For more on this free conference, contact Willy Rumenera at rumenera_willy(at)yahoo(dot)fr or Melody at VineLife Community Church at 303-449-3330 ext 101.
6. A HARSH LIFE: THE NAMIBIAN COLOURED Of NAMIBIA — J. is in his late 30’s. He lost his wife to sickness some time ago. He alone takes care of his six-year old son. J. is unemployed and lives in a town with only a couple of businesses. As he lay on his bed on the ground outside his tin shack, he listened to the Gospel. He chose to ask Jesus into his heart. Now there is hope in a harsh life. Pray for the Lord to build prayer support for the Namibian Coloureds, an unengaged people group. To adopt them for prayer or for more information, please visit http://www.forgottenpeoples.info or email swacsc(at)iafrica(dot)com
7. MISSIONARY TRAINING CAMP — This training camp is by sponsored by Elijah Company from October 27-30 in Virginia. Many have already been trained and are now in overseas work. A special free conference call will be conducted August 11 at 8:30 PM est. The 45 minute conference will share about the training and other tips regarding preparation to go. A former trainee wrote “Missionary Training Camp has given me the steps I need to take to get to the field and the directions regarding how to take those steps.” Write to elijah(at)elijahcompany(dot)org for details of training or conference call. See their web at http://www.elijahcompany.org or call (757)226-3507.
8. INVITATION TO FREE E-MAIL ACCOUNT GMAIL — Frank, a Brigada subscriber from Frankfurt, Germany, invites other subscribers to the GMAIL e-mail service. This free mail service is part of the Google- Family, and comes with a huge free space of more than 2 GB, almost no ads – only low-key text ads at the side of the page. It offers a unique system of sorting, with labels instead of folders, that is very flexible and easy to use. The menu language can be chosen from about twenty main languages, including Russian, Chinese and many others. From his own experience, Frank can recommend GMAIL as a useful tool. (And by the way, in case you were wondering, he receives NO goodies from gmail for his recommendation). Please write to him at: frank(dot)e(dot)martin(at)gmail(dot)com [As a means of preventing spam for our contributors, in the preceding email address, please replace (at) with @ and (dot) with .]
9. EMERCY’S SHORT TERM MISSIONS TOOLBOX IS NOW AVAILABLE — Emercy is now offering the Toolbox on CD (Mac or PC) with a number of resources for short-term team leaders. The CD includes templates for team member applications, meeting outlines, member handbooks, fundraiser ideas, passport applications, stock photos, and clip art. This resource is helpful for short-term team leaders who are just getting started and don’t have the time to create everything from scratch. The CD also includes a comprehensive planning worksheet in Excel that allows you to calculate your trip expenses. You can purchase it for $19.95 from Emercy’s website at http://www.emercy.org or by calling 877-875-4483 (205-409-4197 for our international readers). You can also email info(at)emercy(dot)org
10. TEACH TO REACH — Nations are crying out for English teachers. You can reach them with the gospel as you teach English. We can train you to teach effectively in our TESOL course. Courses will be offered August 29 through September 23 and October 3 through October 28 at Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, USA. Additional information and application forms can be found at www.ywampa.org or e- mail questions to ywampa(at)comcast(dot)net.
11. BACK PAGE: LIVING IN CHANGING AGENCIES, OR NOT — In last week’s Brigada Today, we addressed the shifting sands of culture and time and pointed out how mission agencies seem to be shifting too (along with churches and the actual missionaries themselves). One reader commented on the fact that indeed… technology no only made the world smaller, but also seemed to build a higher level of expectation for accountability and perhaps even power in home offices of mission agencies around the globe. In the opinion of this particular Brigada participant, this immediate communicative ability enables area directors to become (or at least *want* to become :-) ) much more involved in decisions. At the same time, it seemed important to another reader to forge on despite some of the downsides of immediate communication. “The mission agency should be viewed as a valuable partner in the mission enterprise. Nothing is to be gained by being at odds with the agency, and just as a matter of fact, we are enjoined by Christ to love each other. That includes mission agencies in my book.”

So here are 5 tips for navigating the sea of change with your home office and agency.
*** 1) Determine what is the “main thing” you’re supposed to be doing, then do it well. Make the main thing the main thing. If you’re supposed to be raising up a new church, set up a plan to do that. As they say in soccer, take the shortest path to the goal. If, on the other hand, you’ve been hired to oversee a building or facility, don’t get sidetracked working on cars in the back lot. Keep the main thing the main thing. Your agency will notice your attention to the key objective and you’ll be loved for your loyalty to the purpose. Can you see how this simple concept overcomes technology, travel, and treasure.

*** 2) If you have areas of disagreement, gently speak about those with the person(s) influential enough to help you resolve those issues. But don’t talk with outsiders, don’t gossip, and don’t whine or grouse to peers. Change the things you can, then leave the rest to the Lord.

*** 3) If your agency is unable to change to meet your expectations, decide if those unresolved issues are big enough to merit resigning. If they aren’t, then let go of them and get on board. If they’re so big that you’re miserable and you can’t let go of them, then resign and move on. But don’t live your life in that in-between stage where you stay with an agency even though you’re miserable about it. Love it… or leave it. You’ll be happier either way you go… and your productivity will improve when you’re working for an organization you love.

*** 4) Somebody has to pay for services. Either your agency takes a slice of the support you raised, or they raise the support for you, then just hire you… but either way, somebody’s donating or sacrificing somewhere. Realize that those services have value. Be grateful for them when they’re helpful. If none of them are helpful, then rather than become bitter about it, go to step 3. :-) But either way, don’t sit around and complain about the “administrative overhead” cost — if at the same time you’re benefiting from it! Somebody has to pay somewhere.

*** 5) Figure out what are the key administrative and/or communicative expectations, then find a way to make them happen. Everyone will be happier. If your home office expects a weekly update from the field, budget 30′ on Monday morning, first thing, to write it. Turn off the phone, keep the office door closed, and churn it out. Putting it off… or worse yet… not doing it at all… sends a signal that you aren’t placing value on the expectation (or those expecting it). In the end, this translates to #3, again. Let’s face it: every day, no matter what job we hold, there’s paperwork. Nurses have more forms and reports in hospitals. I.T. workers even have more paperwork in information technology these days. So the way I see it, we just figure out what we have to do and make it happen… and quit complaining. Everybody will be happier.

So there are 5 tips. For what it’s worth. Because it’s a jungle out there… and your work brings life to those who need it.