20050911 Brigada Today

In this issue…

1. A CALL TO PRAYER FOR TUNISIA
2. SEND GLOBAL INTERNATIONAL AIRTIME
3. GO EQUIPPED (TENTMAKER TRAINING)
4. FOOTSTEPS MAGAZINE
5. LET’S PRAYERFULLY LEARN ABOUT THE MUSLIM WORLD!
6. ONLINE ENCOURAGEMENT GROUP FOR WOMEN MISSIONARIES
7. WORD TO THE WISE ABOUT UB BULB PURIFICATION OF H20
8. FEEDBACK ON GOOGLE “GMAIL”
9. TO THOSE WHO PARTICIPATED IN THE SURVEY ON FOLLOWERSHIP: THANKS
10. HAVE SOMEONE SEARCH THE WEB FOR YOU!
11. RETREAT IN AFRICA
12. LOOKING FOR CONTACT INFORMATION ABOUT THAT CHINA OPPORTUNITY?
13. JOB OPENING AT INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN CONCERN
14. WE’RE GRATEFUL FOR THE HELP AND SPONSORSHIPS
15. CLOSING STUFF

1. A CALL TO PRAYER FOR TUNISIA — There are more than 10 million people in the country of Tunisia, North Africa, with only about 300 following Jesus. This is a country rich in Christian history, but in real need of spiritual breakthrough today. Now you can join many others in praying for the Muslims of Tunisia. Caleb Project has produced a DVD on Tunisian Arabs, along with an accompanying Prayer Guide. The DVD shows the situation in Tunisia today, and includes a special interview with two leaders of the Christian Church in Tunisia. The Prayer Guide is a full-color booklet created to help Christians know how to strategically pray for Tunisian Arabs. The prices for these products are: $20 for the DVD; $2.50 for each Prayer Guide. For more information, or to place an order, please send an email to amanis(at)cproject(dot)com or call 303-459-5351. [As a means of preventing spam for our contributors, in the preceding email address(es), please replace (at) with @ and (dot) with .] For more information on Caleb Project, log onto http://www.calebproject.org
2. SEND GLOBAL INTERNATIONAL AIRTIME — Here’s a service that allows missionary families here in the U.S. to keep in touch with their loved ones serving on the foreign mission field. They offer outstanding rates to anywhere in the world with clean, quality connections and can be used with any cellular or land line phone. Find out more and read other missionary testimonials at their website. You can even try it out for free! Look up rates to anywhere in the world. Click to: http://www.global-airtime.com or contact Andy cytechnologies(at)earthlink(dot)net toll-free in the USA 888-683-0653. [As a means of preventing spam for our contributors, in the preceding email address(es), please replace (at) with @ and (dot) with .]
3. GO EQUIPPED (TENTMAKER TRAINING) — Here’s an organization that offers courses that are just 5 days long but contain an entire 2 week curriculum. Global Opportunities has increased their training programs in both numbers and locations. There is still time to register for the October 12-17, 2005 LTN Tentmaking Course in Pasadena CA at the US Center for World Mission. See them on the web at http://www.globalopps.org or write them an email at goequipped(at)globalopps(dot)org.
4. FOOTSTEPS MAGAZINE — Here’s a magazine for development workers around the world. TEARFund, UK’s evangelical NGO, produces this periodical with ideas for community development projects and support. It is particularly designed for a national Christian who may also be a second-language English speaker, and is equally useful to the mission community. Current and all back issues are available online in PDF format, and it is also available in printed form by post. http://tilz.tearfund.org/ (Thanks Tony!!!)
5. LET’S PRAYERFULLY LEARN ABOUT THE MUSLIM WORLD! — Perhaps you’ve already heard of the 30 Days Muslim Prayer Focus which coincides with the annual Muslim fasting month of Ramadan: Oct 5 to Nov 3, 2005. This annual international mobilization (since 1993) calls Christians everywhere to pray for, learn about, and reach out to the Muslim peoples of the world, so that they may at least have an opportunity to consider God’s grace revealed in Jesus Christ, and that we may live peaceably and respectfully side-by-side. You can order the current prayer booklet from: http://www.ywam.org/prayer/30daysmuslim.html
6. ONLINE ENCOURAGEMENT GROUP FOR WOMEN MISSIONARIES — Are you a missionary woman on the field that could use some encouragement? “Oaks of Righteousness” Yahoo Group has been formed with you in mind. The members there hope you will find a safe place to walk this missionary journey with women on the same path, share life’s ups and downs, and prayer for one another. Just click on the following link http://groups.yahoo.com/group/oaks_of_righteousness/ and then chose “join group.” For more information please contact the group moderator at latviagirl1(at)yahoo(dot)com [As a means of preventing spam for our contributors, in the preceding email address(es), please replace (at) with @ and (dot) with .]
7. WORD TO THE WISE ABOUT UB BULB PURIFICATION OF H20 — Mark wrote this past week with an important caution about using those bulbs to purify water. (See the 2005/09/02 BRIGADA TODAY). Apparently there are issues being considered when regular, stable electricity is a problem. Just a word to the wise . . . that other purification techniques might be more effective when your electricity isn’t as dependable. (Thanks Mark!)
8. FEEDBACK ON GOOGLE “GMAIL” — We continue to receive lots of responses to our items on Google’s “Gmail”. Frankly, judging by the passion of some of our readers, there must be something to this Gmail craze. (I think I’m going to have to check it out myself! :-) ) Perhaps one of the more studied responses was that of Justin: “While it is true that it’s difficult to secure gmail, its not impossible. First off, once you have logged in to gmail.com, then you can go to https://mail.gmail.com/mail/ (just adding the “s” after http) and the server will preserve the secure link for all of your connections thereafter. Granted that initial blast through is unsecure. One way to deal with this is to login, then once you see the “Loading” immediately close the browser, then reopen and go to the secure link. Once you’ve logged in, its a long time before your logged out anyway.

“But the far easier way to secure mail is simply to download mail in Outlook or Outlook Express or some other email client. The way Google Mail is set up, this is completely secure, done over an SSL link (and not working any other way). Granted you don’t get the web-based features of google search, but the great thing is that you get google’s spam protection and the ease of your typical email client. And depending on what client you use, you can integrate something like MSN Search or Google Search on your desktop, and find emails that way.”

Thanks, too, to Bob, who referred us to a study paper on the topic, from a Christian computer conference a couple of years ago. Find the PDF of the paper at: http://tinyurl.com/cf2qf

(Thanks Justin and Bob — and thanks to all the others who have written in on this topic!)
9. TO THOSE WHO PARTICIPATED IN THE SURVEY ON FOLLOWERSHIP: THANKS — Thanks once more to the 358 people who took part in the survey on followership, and to the 283 corresponding supervisors who came alongside to give comments on their respective team members. Last week I met with the Dean of my doctoral program and received the go ahead to begin the data analysis phase of the project. Again, this kind of project would have been impossible without the many great friends here at Brigada. These participants came from 192 different nonprofit organizations scattered literally all over the world. The survey instrument has been used previously on corporations in the public sector, but this is the first time its been employed to this extent among nonprofit mission agencies, humanitarian organizations, and churches. [Note: One interested reader recently wrote (postal mail) for more information about the project but neglected to enclose a return address. We’ll be happy to send more information it he or she will simply let us know where to send it.] Thanks again for your help and participation. Now to the number-crunching.
10. HAVE SOMEONE SEARCH THE WEB FOR YOU! — A site http://www.internetmissionsresearch.com was recently launched which proposes to do research for missionaries. This is in response to the growing amount of information on the web which is not searchable by ordinary search engines. This so called “deep web” contains up to 500 times as much information as the “surface” web. Primary documents, such as journal articles can often be found only by querying their respective databases one by one. It is hoped that providing a human powered search facility for missionaries will enable them to spend less time searching for and more time with quality materials. For more information see the website or contact Clarence at cbos(at)execulink(dot)com. [As a means of preventing spam for our contributors, in the preceding email address(es), please replace (at) with @ and (dot) with .] This is a volunteer service and “space” is limited, so please be patient if requesting a search.
11. RETREAT IN AFRICA — Check out http://www.limpopo-lipadi.com for a reportedly excellent opportunity to acquire shares in a 32000ha Game Reserve in Botswana… Churches, individuals or companies can buy shares in this untouched, untamed, malaria-free part of Africa (about 450km northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa)… Since it is 100km from the nearest town… and has its own conference facilities… it makes for a wonderful retreat venue… church group break-away… or missionary resting place… For more information email jacques(dot)debruin(at)gmail(dot)com and ask Jacques any questions about the Reserve or go to http://www.limpopo-lipadi.com/contactus.asp and complete the form (tick “Jacques de Bruin” in the “Referred by” field as reference).
12. LOOKING FOR CONTACT INFORMATION ABOUT THAT CHINA OPPORTUNITY? — Oops. The original item didn’t contain the contact information (“GREAT COMMISSION COMPANY OPPORTUNITIES IN BEIJING” in last week’s Brigada Today). For this and other issues that come up following the initial publication of a Brigada Today, you can always go to the web edition to see if the contact information (or other edit) has been added/edited there. We posted this contact within a few short hours of the initial emailing of last week’s issue. And in fact, for any current issue of Brigada, just click to: https://brigada.org and in the first paragraph of text, find a link or two to the current issue.
13. JOB OPENING AT INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN CONCERN — International Christian Concern (ICC) has an opening for a Chief Operating Officer (COO). ICC is an international human rights org. in the Washington DC area that serves the persecuted church. They are looking for a detailed individual with international experience as well as previous management experience. The COO that can manage their headquarters staff, provide general leadership, and coordinate field operations. You can see more detail at the following URL, which “wraps” because it’s so long: http://www.persecution.org/newsite/jobopenings.php?PHPSESSID=e6d7a26e78 11171f37942d5cbe94bd86 If you have trouble reassembling this link, just click on this smaller link which we created for ICC at tinylink: http://tinyurl.com/9dbps They are asking that all applicants apply through the web. If you don’t have web access you can email your resume and cover letter to icc(at)persecution(dot)org [As a means of preventing spam for our contributors, in the preceding email address(es), please replace (at) with @ and (dot) with .]
14. WE’RE GRATEFUL FOR THE HELP AND SPONSORSHIPS — Thanks to the anonymous donor who gave $25, and to Dial-Abroad, which sponsored us with a $129 gift as a result of those who use Dial-Abroad’s service in July. (To learn more, visit: https://brigada.org/phone.html and choose “Dial-Abroad”. In addition, thanks to Andy for sending $10 and his encouraging note, ” Thank you for your efforts in getting our website out to other Missionary organizations and Missionary families via your Brigada Today newsletter. We have gained several new customers because of this. May the Lord continue to bless you and your Missionary news organization.” Learn more about Andy’s company, C Y Technologies Inc, by clicking to: http://www.global-airtime.com or by dialing 888-683-0653 in the USA, toll-free. This weeks’s gifts put us over the $8000 mark for 2005, a tremendous victory and a great milestone on our way to the goal of $16,576. We’re almost halfway there. Would you be able to make it official by providing that last $300 to bring us to 50%? If so, 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. If you *do* know of someone who might help with these expenses, please feel free to relay this update to them. And thanks for any support you can give.