- PLEASE HELP ME THANK GOD FOR THESE PARTNERS
- THE HOME STRETCH: CAN YOU HELP US BREAK EVEN? ($6600 TO GO)
- PREDICT THE RISE AND FALL OF AIRFARES
- WHAT MAKES JOHN’S GOSPEL SPECIAL?
- LEGAL & TAX INFO FOR RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS
- SKYPE USERS SOMEWHAT AT RISK
- DO YOU OR SOME MISSIONARY YOU KNOW NEED HEALTH INSURANCE?
- ANOTHER WAY TO SAY TESOL
- BRING HOPE TO POST-TSUNAMI THAILAND BY TEACHING ENGLISH
- THE COLOURED OF NAMIBIA
- MERRY CHRISTMAS BRIGADA FAMILY!
- THE BACKPAGE: IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE
- CLOSING STUFF
- PLEASE HELP ME THANK GOD FOR THESE PARTNERS — Whoa! Several Brigada participants have stepped in to make a *huge* difference in the last week. We dared you to step up to the plate. Praise God for the Missions Prof at Johnson Bible College, Brent, who gave $40 of his own money. Learn more about them at:
Join us in thanking Russian Language Ministries, now known as Institute of Strategic Languages and Cultures, who sent $100. See them at:
http://www.russianlanguage.org
One anonymous worker at StoryRunners gave $250!
I wish so much you would visit their homepage and learn about this newest ministry of Campus Crusade to help reach Unreached People Groups of the world using oral strategies — storying. Most of those unreached groups, we’re told, are orally-based cultures.
One donor gave $50 in honor of his Missions Pastor, Mark Struck, from Autumn Ridge Church, Rochester, MN. Mark, sounds like you’re loved! Another partner, an African Inland Missionary worker, gave $200! (Amazing) Other anonymous donors gave $20, $500, and $50. And the Central Wesleyan Church in Holland, MI, gave $500. (Makes we want to go visit there.) Another Michigan-ite gave $25 as a gift of love. Thank you all so very much.
- THE HOME STRETCH: CAN YOU HELP US BREAK EVEN? ($6600 TO GO) — We had $9244.74 last week. Today we have $11,054.74! Now here’s the challenge. How many folks will step up to the plate in these final 6 days of 2006 to give even $25 in honor of their missions minister… or $50 in honor of a missions-minded senior minister that they love and appreciate. We still need $6600 – in just two weeks. :-( Here’s the way our chart as of today, compared with what we were praying for:
1 to give 1000 — (Nobody has taken this dare yet) 5 to give 500 — 3 down, 2 to go 8 to give 250 — 2 down, 6 to go 10 to give 100 — 6 down, 4 to go 20 to give 50 — 9 down, 11 to go 50 to give 25 — 7 down, 42 to go
Remember, if you’ve no money to give, no worries. That’s the beauty of Brigada. Whereas other services might grind to a halt if you stopped paying the bill, Brigada just keeps on going… because others step in to help. What you have to ask yourself is this: Through Brigada, have you ever gotten a lead or a resource or a product that you appreciated? If so, now’s your chance to step up to the plate, say thanks to the Lord, and help somebody else who can’t afford to give. There are several ways to give. You can just click on “sponsor” in the top menu (to use PayPal or a credit card), or if you prefer, send a check payable to Team Expansion to: Team Expansion (Brigada secretary), 13711 Willow Reed Dr., Louisville, KY 40299. (Team Expansion is a 501(c)3 incorporation so for USA citizens, your checks made out to Team Expansion are tax- deductible.) 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. We only have 2 editions after this one left in 2006. Lord willing, both the 22nd and the 29th will come out this week. We’ll have to average about $3300 per edition to reach our goal. Right now, that seems like the hardest thing in the world. If you could help, we’d so greatly appreciate it.
- PREDICT THE RISE AND FALL OF AIRFARES — That’s what Nick says you can do at:
Check it out! (Thanks Nick!)
- WHAT MAKES JOHN’S GOSPEL SPECIAL? — John the Apostle was a man who was very close to Jesus. His understanding of our Lord’s mission was deeper and more life-changing than that of the other apostles. In his account of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus he gives us unique details not found anywhere else. To find an excellent commentary on this book go to
Click on “What’s New?” and at the top of the list then choose “John tells the Good News about Jesus.” This is in EasyEnglish Level B, using a 2800 word vocabulary.
- LEGAL & TAX INFO FOR RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS — The latest issue of Nonprofit and Church Legal Trends Memo is online. The focus this time is new laws and regulations taking effect. Included are notes on tax- free contributions of IRA’s to non-profits, increased penalties for excess compensation to insiders, recapture of tax on contributions of non-cash property, new limit on contributions of clothing and household items, new recordkeeping requirements for nonprofits, increased penalties on overstated appraisals, new filing requirement for small organizations, and new inflation adjusted items for 2007 (including the standard mileage rate). What’s more, the author now informs us that a part of each paid subscription will go to Brigada. How ’bout that! :-) Check out more at
http://www.npchurchlaw.com or email info@npchurchlaw.com
The author asked that we make sure we type “Brigada” in the “How did you hear about us?” field.
- SKYPE USERS SOMEWHAT AT RISK — Apparently the news about a worm being circulated via Skype was a bit overblown. Turns out it was only a *trojan*, meaning that Skype users do receive notice that someone is trying to upload a file (presumably an unsolicited file). Only users of Microsoft Windows XP are at risk. Read more at news.com by searching for the terms, “Skype worm”.
- DO YOU OR SOME MISSIONARY YOU KNOW NEED HEALTH INSURANCE? — Jeff suggests we check out
http://www.talent-trust.com [edited]
It is, according to Jeff, a Christian health-insurance organization with a lot on the ball.
- ANOTHER WAY TO SAY TESOL — Thanks to those who responded regarding our item about ESL, TESOL, etc. (Item #5, “YOU SAY “TOMAHTOE”, I SAY “TOMAYTOH” (DO YOU SAY TESOL OR ESL?),” from Nov. 17th edition of Brigada Today). I was particularly interested in Lydia’s response. She suggested dodging both — and using “EFL” (English as Foreign Language) instead. “The confusion when TESOL is used,” Lydia explained, “is if the teacher is TEACHING English to speakers of other languages or teaching HOW TO TEACH English to speakers of other languages. In my experience, TESOL is usually used for the second, as is shown when we offer TESOL seminars, where people learn how to teach English. And then ESL or EFL is used when they are then doing teaching. There is a lot of confusion though, and in my research I have seen that often they are used interchangeably, which tends to spread the confusion.” I propose that we try to adopt Lydia’s approach. To me it makes the most sense. TESOL, to me, should apply when we’re describing someone presenting a course on how to teach English, and “EFL” should apply to the practice of actually teaching the English. For what it’s worth… :-)
- BRING HOPE TO POST-TSUNAMI THAILAND BY TEACHING ENGLISH — Big doors are open now at Step Ahead Training Center (YWAM Relief & Development)in beautiful Phang Nga, Southern Thailand. The horrible waves of Tsunami were followed by waves of God’s love that poured into this very unreached region. Yes, much has now improved, but many Tsunami survivors still want to improve their employment opportunities in the recovering hospitality market of Khao Lak, by building up their English skills. That desire opens the door of relationship and your chance to show God’s amazing love. Learn more at
- THE COLOURED OF NAMIBIA — “Three Years and Counting!” — God has been calling people all over the world to pray for the unengaged peoples of Namibia for more than 3 years now! Is God working among the Herero, Mbalantu, Nama/Damara and the Namibian Coloured peoples? Organizers of this prayer movement have responded with a resounding, “Yes!” However, there is still only a limited on-going evangelical presence among these four groups. So keep praying for God to give Christians in South Africa and Namibia a burden to take the Gospel message to those who haven’t heard. Pray for Godly wisdom for everyone involved in the effort. Adopt them for prayer yourself by visiting
http://www.forgottenpeoples.info or
write forgottenpeoples(at)telkomsa(dot)net for more information. [As a means of preventing spam for our contributors, in the preceding email address(es), please replace (at) with @ and (dot) with .]
- MERRY CHRISTMAS BRIGADA FAMILY! — Thanks to Brigada participant, Ron Berrus, the Member Care guy at ABWE
for writing this meditation — just this past week — and for sending it to us for use with the Brigada family:
The Wonder of Christmas
rsbThe Almighty became an infant
The Shepherd became a lamb
The Judge took our sentence
The Lord became a man
The Invisible became visible
The Eternal stepped into history
To make us His own again
Amazing beyond explanation
Too marvelous for words
That God could become man
That God would become man
That God did become man
That God became man forever
To make us His own again
We owed a debt we could not pay
He paid a debt He did not owe
We spurned His word, His law, His love
In spite of all He came to save
Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us
Taking our form, our sin, our cross
To make us His own again
We ran... He reached
We sinned... He died
We left... He came
We fell... He lifted
We rejected... He accepted
We condemned... He forgave
To make us His own again
A window of time
A door of hope
An offer of opportunity
To believe the promise
To receive the Savior
To bow the knee
To be made His own again
- THE BACKPAGE: IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE — During the wrap-up of our recent planning conference at the mission I serve, I showed clips from “It’s a Wonderful Life,” starring Jimmy Stewart. Remember the scene where Jimmy Stewart’s character is about to leave to go travel the world, but elects to stay because he feels a debt to all the customers at the “Savings & Loan”? As I showed the clip, I challenged our staff to ask themselves how we could build all the more trust with our missionary family, with the donors that made the work possible, and with one another. I asked the group how we might increase others’ trust in us during 2007.
What about your own organization or church? How ’bout putting on your thinking caps and asking some of those tough questions too. What principles… what foundational pieces do you feel your staff might be able to address during the coming year? What are the missing pieces that might help your constituency trust you more? Those fundamental truths might be more important than any task or to do item, yet we all seem to be so easily distracted by the tangible. The *intangible* stuff is so hard to embrace. In 2007, let’s do some embracing. :-) Merry Christmas 2006 – from all your Brigada family!
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