- TRAINING IN CHRISTIAN MICROENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT & MICROFINANCE
- NOT TOO LATE TO HELP BRIGADA OR GET INSURED FOR SHORT-TERM TRIPS!
- RESOURCE TO ENCOURAGE MISSIONARIES
- HOW TO DO ONLINE RESEARCH: “WISE UP TO THE WEB”
- FIND OUT WHERE THE FLIGHTS ARE… AND WHERE THEY’RE GOING
- COUNSELING AROUND THE KITCHEN TABLE
- THE CENTRAL MEETING PLACE: THE MBALANTU PEOPLE
- WITH GREAT APPRECIATION
- IF YOU USE HOMEBUILDING TO BUILD HOPE AND OFFER CHRIST…
- THE BACKPAGE: SPEAK TO THE HEAD MAN
- CLOSING STUFF
- TRAINING IN CHRISTIAN MICROENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT & MICROFINANCE — The Chalmers Center for Economic and Community Development will conduct its next Christian Economic Development Institute (CEDI) on July 31 – August 5, 2006 at the Jumuia Conference and Country Home in Limuru, Kenya, located outside of Nairobi. This training institute is sponsored by the Anglican Church of Kenya along with Five Talents International. It is appropriate for anyone doing outreach or ministry among the poor in the Two-Thirds World – pastors, church planters, church members, ministry staff, missionaries, and relief and development workers. The institute provides training on practical, church-based strategies for ministering to the poor without creating dependency. Specific topics include how to implement a relief or development intervention for your community without doing harm, how to promote rotating and accumulating savings and credits associations, how to partner with microfinance institutions, and how to offer small business training to low-income entrepreneurs. Prior financial or economic experience is not required to attend the training. The cost for this CEDI is $550 USD and covers room, board and tuition. To register for the CEDI, visit
http://www.chalmers.org and click on the Limuru, Kenya link located under the Christian Economic Development Institute heading.
- NOT TOO LATE TO HELP BRIGADA OR GET INSURED FOR SHORT-TERM TRIPS! -– It’s not too late to get travel medical, evacuation and trip insurance for summer short-term mission trips! PLUS, when you purchase insurance from Insurance Services of America on Brigada’s website, your purchase will help to support Brigada’s work with the missionary community! Coverage is available for any international need – short-term trips, career missionaries, trip cancellation, short-term teams and term life insurance. For coverage details, rates and the online applications of the Brigada sponsored plans, go to
http://www.missionaryhealth.net/brigada.htm
Insurance Services of America has agreed to help support Brigada from sales that are made on this link, so when you purchase on this site you will be helping to support Brigada! (It’s working! See below.)
- RESOURCE TO ENCOURAGE MISSIONARIES — A Bible study guide called, “Finding Strength for the Journey,” provides a tool for member care or personal encouragement. One missionary writes, “I have been able to relate to it more than any ‘stateside’ Bible study.” Author Janice Lemke drew from experiences as a missionary when writing this series of thirty studies that explores topics such as perseverance in hardship, dealing with depression, handling conflict, and benefit from trials. For Brigada readers, they’ve discounted the price to $5.00, plus shipping. There’s a bigger discount ($4.00 each) for orders of 20 or more. For more information contact
cjlemke(at)cs(dot)com [As a means of preventing spam for our contributors, in the preceding email address(es), please replace (at) with @ and (dot) with .]
- HOW TO DO ONLINE RESEARCH: “WISE UP TO THE WEB” — Want some free tips on doing research on the web? Check out:
- FIND OUT WHERE THE FLIGHTS ARE… AND WHERE THEY’RE GOING — Just click on over to
It contains a fantastic quiver of tools to track commercial and private flights. (Thanks to Mark and the Courier Journal for this tip.)
- COUNSELING AROUND THE KITCHEN TABLE — A new resource is available to help women working around the world as they counsel and help other women. Muriel Cook, a long-time missionary in Taiwan, and her daughter Shelly Cook Volkhardt, have just released Kitchen Table Counseling, a resource that takes the fear away from addressing difficult problems and empowers women to reach out to those around them. The book focuses on guidelines for kitchen table counselors and then provides help with specific issues. One of the most helpful pieces is the Topical Scriptural reference index that counselors can return to as they help others. Soon you’ll be able to visit
http://www.kitchentablecounseling.com
to interact with the authors, schedule speaking engagements and purchase the book.
- THE CENTRAL MEETING PLACE: THE MBALANTU PEOPLE — These people of northern Namibia in Southern Africa build Owambo homesteads, which are circular, near spirallic arrangements of homes. The labyrinthine passages may weave in and out to confuse a stranger or an evil spirit, but all they all lead to the central meeting place, the olupale. Continue to pray that the center of these homesteads will one day welcome the Holy Spirit into their presence and that all will come to know the Good News of Jesus Christ. Pray that there will be no need to confuse strangers as the Truth is heard. Continually lift up the Mbalantu, an unengaged people, before the Lord. Encourage others to adopt the Mbalantu people for prayer by visiting
http://www.forgottenpeoples.info
or contacting those who are trying to reach them at lynchdp(at)iafrica(dot)com [As a means of preventing spam for our contributors, in the preceding email address(es), please replace (at) with @ and (dot) with .]
- WITH GREAT APPRECIATION . . . — Thanks to the anonymous donor who gave $10, with this note: “Thanks for all you do with Brigada! I wish I could send more, but I know every little bit helps. PS. I enjoyed the “mole” story!” Mark, that $10 meant more than you know! We’re running in the red this month, and $10 can mean a *lot*! Thanks! And thanks to Good Neighbor Insurance for the $183 they sent in recognition of folks like you who bought various kinds of insurance from them at:
http://www.gninsurance.com/brigada.asp
Thanks, too, to two different groups from College Heights Christian Church (Joplin, MO), and several other individuals, who bought trip cancellation insurance from ISA, resulting in a special gift of $306.31 from them to Brigada !!!! Please … next trip you take, consider their policy at:
http://www.missionaryhealth.net/brigada.htm
Just think — the more secure you become, the more you help Brigada!
- IF YOU USE HOMEBUILDING TO BUILD HOPE AND OFFER CHRIST… — Here’s a like-minded organization that would love to learn from your experience. They’re heavily involved in doing exactly that — building hope and help for the homeless. For example, they’re building dozens of homes for those who lost everything in New Orleans. If you have experience or ideas, please drop them a note at… rebuildneworleans(at)crossroadsmissions(dot)com See their website at:
http://www.crossroadsmissions.com
Crossroads Missions is based in Louisville, KY. They are partners with Team Expansion and Brigada and will be moving soon to Emerald Hills. Learn more about Emerald Hills at…
- THE BACKPAGE: SPEAK TO THE HEAD MAN — Most of us have watched enough missionary movies to know the importance of checking in with the “head man” in a village, prior to trying to start any work there. The same principle applies in our daily jobs. And the funny thing is — in a weird sort of way — I believe it applies in both directions across the organizational chart. See if you agree.
I serve as the president of an agency with just over 300 full-time missionary workers. It’s set up in such a way that I coach just 4 workers (heads of departments). They, in turn, lead sub-team leaders in their respective divisions. If a sub-team *member* on one of those sub- teams comes directly to me with an issue… say… regarding a sub-team leader, I have a choice: I can a) try to fix it by going to the department head that I coach, b) try to fix it by going directly to the sub-team leader, or c) briefly mentor the sub-team member on how to fix it solo. The correct answer? You probably already guessed: I believe it is “c”. I have to apply the “go to the head man” rule — in reverse. I have to mentor that worker on the importance of going one-on-one with the sub-team leader to work out the issue. Then I let the process take its course and trust the respective leader to work it out.
Imagine… if I go to the department head (the one that I coach), he first of all feels a bit embarrassed and ashamed that I became involved in an issue in his department — one of which he probably wasn’t even aware. But what’s worse, he now has to go to his sub-team leader and explain that this issue came to the president’s desk. He has to ask all about it . . . and the wild thing is… maybe the sub-team leader didn’t even *know* about it. So now the sub-team leader is mad at the sub-team member and all this is in *addition* to the original presenting issue. By this time, perhaps the *process* has become bigger than the original issue. By now the problem is bigger than life because people have emailed and met and phoned and… well you get the picture.
So I’m convinced, after having made more than my share of errors on this part of the game plan… I have to say to the sub-team member, “Have you discussed this issue with your sub-team leader?” If the answer is, “Well … no.,” then my answer has to be, “Well trust me — that’s where this needs to start. If, after sharing it with your sub- team leader, you feel you can’t work it out, then explain to your sub- team leader that you’d love a chance to talk it through with your department’s head, with the sub-team leader present. If you still can’t resolve things, ask them if we can all meet — the four of us. Until you’ve taken those steps, trust me … you don’t want me to barge in like gangbusters to try to fix this.” Does this process sound familiar? I have found that it functions equally as well in the workplace as it does in Matthew 18:15-17. True — the passage deals with sin. But in everyday management and problem-solving, I have found it to function well in teams. Next week… what to do if the problem is with someone in a different department or team.
Recent Comments