In this issue…
1. DISTANCE LEARNING ON CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
2. SEND GLOBAL INTERNATIONAL AIRTIME
3. HEALTH INSURANCE FOR UN-INSURED SHORT-TERM WORKERS ON GULF COAST
4. VOLUNTEER REPS WANTED FOR TALKING BIBLE SUNDAY MOVEMENT
5. NEW KATRINA BOOKLET BY CAMPUS CRUSADE OFFERS HOPE TO SURVIVORS
6. DRAW THE E-SWORD
7. MISSIONS MOBILIZATION LITERATURE IN ITALIAN?
8. MISSION CONFERENCE IN ATLANTA
9. THE ESSENCE OF LIFE AS HIGH-TECH, LEAST-REACHED
10. MISSION DISCUSSION FORUMS
11. GREAT DEAL ON CRITICAL SOFTWARE
12. LEARN TO PLANT CHURCHES IN JAPAN
13. GLORY TO GOD GAMES GIVES ALTERNATIVE TO MONOPOLY
14. WE GET HELP FROM…
15. THE BACK PAGE: LEARNING TO LOVE OUR PLANET
16. CLOSING STUFF
1. DISTANCE LEARNING ON CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT — The Chalmers Center for Economic Development at Covenant College is now taking registration for its winter and spring 2006 distance learning courses (January – May). These courses provide training on how to facilitate Christian community economic development in poor communities and are email-based with instructor feedback on weekly written assignments. Prior financial or economic experience is not required to participate. The strategies and programs taught are practical, church- centered, and community-based, and they do not require large operating budgets. The Chalmers Center courses will help you understand the needs of the poor, the design of an intervention that is appropriate for Christian economic development in your context, and how to use economic development as a means of outreach. Three courses are offered – The first lays the goals and strategies for Christian economic development in low-income communities. The second gives an overview to Christian microenterprise development and microfinance. The third teaches the basic principles of Savings and Credit Associations (SCAs) as a ministry tool. To find out more about these courses or to register, visit the Chalmers Center web site at http://www.chalmers.org and click on “Email Distance Learning Courses” then “Learn more” or call 706-419-1805 (US) or by email at chalmers(at)covenant(dot)edu [As a means of preventing spam for our contributors, in the preceding email address(es), please replace (at) with @ and (dot) with .]
2. SEND GLOBAL INTERNATIONAL AIRTIME — Here’s a deal that allows missionary families here in the U.S. to keep in touch with their loved ones serving on the foreign mission field. Outstanding rates to anywhere in the world with clean, quality connections. 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. See it all at
http://www.global-airtime.com
(And thanks for the partnership gift of $10, Send Global!)
3. HEALTH INSURANCE FOR UN-INSURED SHORT-TERM WORKERS ON GULF COAST — A plan offering $50,000 / $250,000 of medical coverage for American and Canadian hurricane relief workers is available online at http://www.overseashealthinsurance.com . Scroll down the site to “Trip Protection” and click on “Buy This Plan Online” to get a quote. The premium comes in at around $1.00 a day. For more information contact jeff(at)gninsurance(dot)com or call 480/813-9100. [As a means of preventing spam for our contributors, in the preceding email address(es), please replace (at) with @ and (dot) with .] Toll free in USA: 866/636-9100. Or visit http://www.gninsurance.com
4. VOLUNTEER REPS WANTED FOR TALKING BIBLE SUNDAY MOVEMENT — Talking Bibles International (TBI) is seeking Volunteer Representatives nationwide. TBI trains these volunteer reps how to contact local churches and how to help churches in their area observe a Talking Bible Sunday. Millions of Christians living in oral cultures need Talking Bibles because they cannot read a printed Bible. The goal of this movement is a Talking Bible Sunday in every church to help provide a Talking Bible in every language for every person who cannot read. To learn more visit: http://www.talkingbibles.org or email harvey(at)talkingbibles(dot)org. [As a means of preventing spam for our contributors, in the preceding email address(es), please replace (at) with @ and (dot) with .]
5. NEW KATRINA BOOKLET BY CAMPUS CRUSADE OFFERS HOPE TO SURVIVORS — Campus Crusade has produced an evangelistic mini-magazine for hurricane survivors, offering hope, understanding, and Good News. You can read it online in full at: http://KatrinaHigherGround.com and also order copies of the printed version there. It’s tastefully done and definitely seeks to help them understand the “whys” of human tragedy while introducing them to the author of human history.
6. DRAW THE E-SWORD — How much would you pay for an interactive Bible study program that offered the King James Version, Strongs, and your pick of several add-on resources in various languages which all work together interactively? What if you could add on dictionaries, word studies and lexicons, commentaries, maps, and even classic works on Church & Hebrew history, etc. What if I were to tell you you could have it all for free!? Well now you can. The name of the program is E-Sword and the provider is Equipping Ministries Foundation in Franklin, TN. Check it out at http://www.e-Sword.Net (Thanks for the tip, Dennis!) With dozens of different translations, seems like it has just about everything but New Int’l Version. If you can live without the NIV, you’ve found a goldmine. But either way, there’s great value there.
7. MISSIONS MOBILIZATION LITERATURE IN ITALIAN? — Here’s a Brigada participant looking for missions mobilization literature or missions news in Italian. They’re willing to include magazines, newsletters, literature, Internet News, etc. If you know of some, write Maurice mauricea(at)coscom(dot)net [As a means of preventing spam for our contributors, in the preceding email address(es), please replace (at) with @ and (dot) with .]
8. MISSION CONFERENCE IN ATLANTA — Register now for an exciting fall mission conference, “From Everywhere to Everyone: The New Global Mission”, October 20-22, 2005 in Atlanta. There’s a Georgia Pre- conference networking event Oct. 19-20. Read more at… http://www.globalmissionconference2005.com/ or call 800-720-4PFF for more information.
9. THE ESSENCE OF LIFE AS HIGH-TECH, LEAST-REACHED — Justin Long’s written a good summary at http://www.lausanneworldpulse.com/10_05/long.php See the contrast and witness several penetrating questions. By the way, you can also see Justin’s bi-monthly magazine on missions momentum at: http://www.momentum-mag.org
10. MISSION DISCUSSION FORUMS — For more than 15 years there have been mission and missiology discussion forums on the FamilyNet BBS network, that have linked people interested in missions worldwide. There have now been changes in these forums and the organizers welcome old and new users to join. See: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/philtheo.htm Or e-mail Steve Hayes at hayesstw(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 .]
11. GREAT DEAL ON CRITICAL SOFTWARE — Tom found a great deal on a whole batch of software to protect your PC. You can get Norton Systemworks 2005 and Norton Antispam 2005 in a retail bundle for $79.99 and after 2 mail-in rebates your cost will be $4.99. It’s the best deal he’s found this fall. You have to buy it at CompUSA today and mail in the rebate forms by tomorrow, Oct. 8th, to get the rebates. See the ad he found here or just start at COMPUSA http://www.compusa.com and search for the product. (Great find, Tom! Thanks for sharing it!)
12. LEARN TO PLANT CHURCHES IN JAPAN — There is still time to register for the Japan 2005 CPI Conference, November 8-11 near Mount Fuji and Tokyo. This is the largest church planting conference in Japan each year dedicated to gospel-centered renewal and church planting multiplication. This year there will be 7 learning tracks on church planting and renewal coupled with 9 focused intensive electives on vital signs for healthy churches. The leaders have asked that if you cannot come, could you please pray for this national event. Information is at the CPI website http://www.jcpi.Net.
13. GLORY TO GOD GAMES GIVES ALTERNATIVE TO MONOPOLY — Have you seen Glory to God Games at: http://www.Mission316.com It’s worth a look. I’m serious. Check out games like “Salvation Challenge” and “Jesus loves kids”. View the video intro. See if it doesn’t bring a smile to your face when the guy tells you that if you land on such-and-such a square, you’ll have to give $100,000 to missions. :-)
14. WE GET HELP FROM… — Several folks have endeavored to help produce Brigada Today by providing sponsorships or donations. This past week, we received $100 from folks who described themselves as “appreciative subscribers.” Well now we’re appreciate for *them*! These funds encourage Brigada by under girding costs like webspace, secretarial help, and a small amount of advertising and promotion to help get the message out about Brigada’s resources. If you were subscribing to a monthly magazine, you might be charged $18 per year or more. For that, you’d get 12 issues, one per month, with lots of slick pages that were at least 50% covered by ads for things you didn’t want. By contrast, Brigada Today gives you *weekly* news, with timely and critical items, a free website with every single issue archived all the way back to January 1995, and guess what — you don’t even have to opt out of the bathing suit issue!!! Take a stand today to support a future with Brigada Today by clicking on “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. Thanks for any support you can give.
15. THE BACK PAGE: LEARNING TO LOVE OUR PLANET — By God’s grace (and with the help of a few streetsmart advisors), our organization has picked up 61 beautifully-wooded acres on the edge of greater metro Louisville, Kentucky. When we first acquired this land, I’ll admit that I was thinking mostly about new office space for our overcrowded staff. Well that’s still on my mind today as we move into the phase where we hope to build a new home office and retreat center. But I’m kind of pleasantly surprised at some other added discoveries along the way. First, I’ve come away with a greater appreciation for our planet. The city of Louisville enforces tons of codes and restrictions, some of which seem silly and over-regulated at first glance. But as we’ve been moving through each phase of the infrastructural development, I’ll have to admit that I’ve come to appreciate the wisdom for some of the practices at which I had earlier scoffed. When I saw black smoke from a burn barrel on our property, I’ll admit I was a bit disgusted at the pollution we were introducing into Louisville’s already troubled sky. (Thus the burning restrictions.) When I saw garbage in the ravines on our property, I began to see the wisdom behind the “no dumping” rules. Once I saw the silt that washes off of newly excavated ground, I realized the importance of silt fence around construction sites. The list goes on and on. I think it’s unfortunate that many of today’s “best practices” are misunderstood as being the domain of tree-huggers and New Age “mother earth” worshippers. (It’s always a shame when the good of many get labeled as the monopoly of a few.) The truth is I’m just starting to understand how caring for all of the creation on our planet goes hand in hand with caring for all of the created ones on our planet. And once we start caring about things like conservation and “green practices”, it’s very easy to make the transition to care about the integrity and well-being of forgotten peoples in faraway lands.
So call me a tree-hugger if you’d like. Yes I’ll admit that the thread about our property, at arborday.org, is now the most-viewed and most- replied thread in the history of the Arbor Day movement. And — guilty as charged — we are even enforcing the burn permit regulation on our 61 acres. But in the end, if organizations like the BBC have noticed the need to care about creation: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/programmes/tv/state_planet/ why is it sometimes hard for those of us who claim to love the creator? (By the way, if you’d like to see pictures of our land and some of the approaches we’re taking to keep it “green” :-), log on at: http://www.teamexpansion.org and click on “Emerald Hills” in the top menu. Check out the photo galleries and maybe you’ll see why I’m learning to love the land.
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