In this issue…
1. THANK YOU — FOLLOWERSHIP STUDY MARCHES ON
2. FREE SECURE E-MAIL — WITH A CATCH
3. WEB EVANGELISM NEWS
4. SEARCHING FOR THE BEST EVANGELISTIC VIDEOS
5. THE GLOBAL HOUSE CHURCH MOVEMENT
6. IKOBO FUND TRANSFER UPDATE
7. PLAXO STILL BRINGING PLAQUE TO THE ‘NET
8. WANTED: TWO ENGLISH TEACHERS FOR INDONESIA
9. SPONSORSHIPS AND DONATIONS ARE AN ENCOURAGEMENT
10. ONE OF THE CHEAPEST SPAM-FILTERS OF ALL
11. HELP WRITE THE NEXT “BACKPAGE EDITORIAL”
12. CLOSING STUFF
1. THANK YOU — FOLLOWERSHIP STUDY MARCHES ON — Thanks for your help with the study on followership! At last count, exactly 358 followers had invested the time to complete the survey I’m conducting for the dissertation project that I hope will lead to my Ph.D. The coursework is done. All that remains is this paper. In addition, 248 leaders had stopped by to give feedback on their respective team members. It’s true that we were originally hoping for 500 participants. Tomorrow, I’ll call the Dean at my university and ask her if she’ll allow me to conclude the survey portion of my research. I’m very grateful for all of those who took part. As promised, I’ll keep the information completely confidential and private. Thanks for trusting me with your thoughts and feedback on followership! Once the study is complete, I’ll be sure to post a summary here in Brigada. (By the way, for the purposes of appealing to new followers to take the survey, we’re done. However, the site is still up and running, especially for those team leaders who haven’t finished their feedback on team members. See it at: https://brigada.org/followership
2. FREE SECURE E-MAIL — WITH A CATCH — If you’re on a budget and want free, secure e-mail, a long-time subscriber to Brigada in Asia has had a good experience after several months of testing:
http://web.de
The price is right, but it comes with a catch: the site is in German.
Benefits: (1) Free, (2) Uses SSL technology for both POP3 and browser security, (3) can be configured for POP3 — so Eudora or Outlook or whatever your e-mail program can fetch your e-mail and you can read and reply off-line.
Challenges: (1) The web site is in German, (2) POP3 setup for e-mail is a bit more challenging than “fill in the blank.” There’s a different server for incoming than outgoing. Once you wade thru the challenges, settings don’t change. It might be worth the challenges.
If you need help with the German, and really want free, secure e-mail, this site is a very easy-to-use online English-German dictionary.
http://dict.leo.org
You can click back and forth for any words you don’t know. (Thanks Robert! It’s a great find!)
3. WEB EVANGELISM NEWS — There is a one-day Internet Evangelism Conference in Paraguay on 20 August. DVDs can be ordered for all the sessions of the Liberty University IE conference last April. And the Internet Evangelism Coalition conference is scheduled for 14-15 September in Chicago:
http://ied.gospelcom.net/events.php
The IE Day site also offers a detailed page of content about how to build a church website that will reach out into the community, which you can insert directly into your own website:
http://ied.gospelcom.net/church-growth.php
The 2006 Internet Evangelism Day is scheduled for 7 May:
http://ied.gospelcom.net/index.php
(Thanks Tony!)
4. SEARCHING FOR THE BEST EVANGELISTIC VIDEOS — Ken is at it again. This time he’s searching for the best evangelistic videos around, along with the places to buy them. Got some ideas? Just write him ken(at)tractministry(dot)com [As a means of preventing spam for our contributors, in the preceding email address(es), please replace (at) with @ and (dot) with .] He’ll send you the final compiled list and also post the list at
http://www.Christianvideos.org
(Thanks Ken!)
5. THE GLOBAL HOUSE CHURCH MOVEMENT — In his new book “The Global House Church Movement”, house church historian and practitioner Rad Zdero reports on one of the amazing things God is up to today. He includes stories of spiritual pioneers through the ages who braved opposition from secular and religious authorities to step out and do something new for God. He also includes practical and strategic steps in starting your own network of house churches. To order “The Global House Church Movement”: call 1-706-554-1594 (outside the USA), call 1- 800-MISSION (inside the USA), email gabriel(at)WCLbooks(dot)com [As a means of preventing spam for our contributors, in the preceding email address(es), please replace (at) with @ and (dot) with .] or log on to
http://www.WCLbooks.com
for secure online orders.
6. IKOBO FUND TRANSFER UPDATE — Remember Ikobo, the fund transfer service we mentioned last year? One reader recently signed up and tried to get the $10 referral fee for Brigada. Using iKobo’s live online chat customer service, the Brigada reader was told they no longer support an “affiliate” program, so no donation for Brigada.
iKobo does, however, still allow people to send and receive money in over 170 countries with lower fees than Western Union. You provide funds by transferring money into your iKobo account from your bank account or a VISA card, electronically. If the person is already an iKobo user, the transfer is *instant*. If they’re not already an iKobo member, iKobo assigns them an account and sends them a VISA ATM card, at iKobo’s expense.
Current fees to “Send Money” are US$3 for up to US$60 and $5.00 + 3% for amounts over US$60. The recipient’s VISA ATM card may be used to withdraw the transferred funds from a VISA ATM (for a US$1.99 fee) or use the funds at merchants who accept VISA cards (no fee). Check out:
https://www.ikobo.com/
(Thanks Heather!)
7. PLAXO STILL BRINGING PLAQUE TO THE ‘NET — If you ask me, Plaxo and its peers are none the better over the past year, still causing tons of extra traffic on the already spam-laden Internet. If you haven’t already been hit by one of these Plaxo-appeals, it’s basically an online service to which the user freely exposes his entire Outlook address book. (What are they thinking?) In exchange for this breach of privacy, Plaxo writes everyone on the list to make sure the address is still active. Talk about a waste of time — and bandwidth. My theory is, when you need to write me, just write me. If the email bounces, then you’ll know! Duh. Anyway, for whatever reason, scillions of users have succumbed to this scam, which could be sold off at any time, for a profit I’m sure, and the new owner could simply change the privacy agreement and begin spewing out endless spam to every “confirmed” email address in the Plaxo universe. For this reason, I *never* answer them and I have spam filters configured so I don’t even see them. Call it a hobby horse if you like, but at least I’m in good company. For a sample, read this critical review by a professor in Australia, read this 2004 review, “Very Black ‘Little Black Books'”, in a study of what the author calls ‘privacy-invasive technologies’. This guy is a professor at Australian National University, where he teaches in the Engineering and Information Technology department.
http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/DV/ContactPITs.html#PIA
8. TWO ENGLISH TEACHERS — [EDITED]
9. SPONSORSHIPS AND DONATIONS ARE AN ENCOURAGEMENT — I’ll be honest. It really does mean a lot when people pitch into spur us on here. We use the gifts to offset the cost of secretarial help, webspace, advertising, and more. This past week, we’re grateful to Blessed Hope Long Distance for their $8.82 sponsorship in view of May phone calls from those who have signed up to use their service. (Learn more about them at:
http://www.lowermyphonebill.com/brigada
We’re also grateful to 2 other friends who each gave $25 anonymously. We appreciate you! To chip in or make a substantial donation, just click “sponsor” in the top menu (to use PayPal or a credit card), or just send a check payable to Team Expansion to: Team Expansion (Brigada secretary), 13711 Willow Reed Dr., Louisville, KY 40299. As always, be sure to let us know if you’d like us to promote any particular service or ministry, or if you’d prefer your gift be anonymous.
10. ONE OF THE CHEAPEST SPAM-FILTERS OF ALL — Need a spam filter but can’t afford the $30 or more per year? Just open a Google Group at:
http://www.googlegroups.com
Make yourself the only member and be careful to design the group as…
*** No public website
*** Moderated
*** Anyone can post Give anyone the address. You don’t have to be careful about this one. The GoogleGroups interface is so fast, it’ll make it a cinch to click all the “delete” radio buttons. In the case of *real* email, just click “post” and the group will email your *real* address a copy of the original email. The only downside is, unlike corporate versions (like Spam Interceptor), this service has no “black list” . . . and it won’t “learn” your likes and dislikes. But price is right and the idea is fun to implement.
11. HELP WRITE THE NEXT “BACKPAGE EDITORIAL” — In next edition’s “Backpage” editorial, we’ll be discussing retreats for spiritual renewal. Our goal is to provide something very tangible, practical, and specific for those who would like to get away for a one- or two-day personal retreat. (Even Jesus went to a mountain, alone, to pray.) If you have ideas or specific resources that might help others, please jot a note to this email address: brigada-feedback(at)googlegroups(dot)com [As a means of preventing spam for our contributors, in the preceding email address(es), please replace (at) with @ and (dot) with .] By default, we won’t publish your address. If you’d like folks to see it, however, please mention that in the item and we’ll do our best. Thanks!
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