Now with 5075 participants!!! Next week: our 2-year-old birthday!
News and Notes about Brigada, Your Gateway to Missions Networking!
[Pass this issue to a friend! To subscribe, see instructions at end.]

——————-
In this issue….

* GREAT RESPONSE TO LAST WEEK’S “UNREACHED PEOPLES CONFERENCES” PLAN
* REGISTER YOUR INTENT TO PRAY!
* IN THE MARKET FOR A LAPTOP? SHOP THE NEW BRIGADA LAPTOP LIST!
* OR MAYBE YOU NEED TO SHIP SOMETHING?
* YOU TAKE THE HIGH ROAD & I’LL TAKE THE LOW ROAD – TO CHINA OR CROATIA!
* WEB-WATCH
* SEE THE CD FROM GALCOM!
* DID YOUR CONGREGATION ADOPT A PEOPLE GROUP?
* REMEMBER THE TROPICAL MEDICINE INQUIRY?
* GOT A COMPUSERVE QUESTION???
* WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT MASKING YOUR PGP-SECURED EMAIL?
* GCOWE ’97 REQUESTS YOUR PRAYERS!
* ANYBODY KNOW OF A CANADIAN BULK MAILER?
* FROM THE HOME OFFICE . . . THE WEEKLY “DID YOU KNOW”???
* NEW PEOPLE CLUSTER MAPS READY FOR YOUR WALL!
* THIS WEEK, PRAY FOR PARSIS
* TO SUBSCRIBE TO BRIGADA TODAY

————————————–

GREAT RESPONSE TO LAST WEEK’S “UNREACHED PEOPLES CONFERENCES” PLAN
Several began the process of obtaining an XC.org address… and others sent encouraging words. “Doug, I am impressed,” wrote Justin Long, from David Barrett’s office out East. “Very. Extremely. Gratified. Thrilled beyond words. Beyond measure. That is the sort of visionary commitment to the least evangelized that we need. And you CAN use my name.” Thanks for the encouragement, Justin and others.

Some of the most helpful input came from John Hanna and Jonathan Marsden, who suggested we begin by setting up place-marker conferences for the gateway people clusters (larger clusters of JP2000 people groups, originally proposed by Patrick Johnstone). So then John Hanna was willing to go to work and parse out email addresses in AD2000 & Beyond files, Envision ’96 records, and his own files. We currently have proposals in the hands of several key people group “critical thinkers” to make sure we’re setting up the right list (of some 126 or so new email conferences). Watch for more info next week!

————————————–

REGISTER YOUR INTENT TO PRAY!
At the request of the AD 2000 & Beyond “United Prayer Track – Praying Through the Window Committee,” the Manna Church of Fayetteville, NC has assumed responsibility to recruit 17,390 churches worldwide to pray, prayerwalk, and plant an indigenous church within each of the 1,739 unreached people groups by December 31, 2000. [No small order task!] The short term goal is to assign and network 10 churches each to pray for each of the 1,739 people groups, hence the figure 17,390. The long term goal is to obey Matthew 24:14 which states, “…this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”

In order to accomplish this long term goal, the Prayer Network Office has been created and is actively recruiting churches of all persuasions to become active participants in this prayer initiative. Individual churches and/or church leaders may obtain more information by contacting Lynn Morrow the Network Center at (910) 864-8882, fax (910) 864-8998, or e-mail 102575.1436@compuserve.com. [This is a great opportunity to reach and touch ‘to Morrow’! :-) ] (If you’ve already registered your interest with AD2000 & Beyond at the Int’l Office or at Envision ’96 at the Adoption Center, you need not re-register. They’re going to merge everything together.) This is a great sign. Local churches getting involved in enlisting the help of other local churches! GREAT stuff! By the way, the folks at this center have agreed to give Brigada Today weekly updates as to how many of the groups have been adopted! Yahoooo!

————————————–

IN THE MARKET FOR A LAPTOP? SHOP THE NEW BRIGADA LAPTOP LIST!
A dozen top notch vendors and shoppers participated in listing options for Brigada readers. Retrieve the file for free by send an email message to hub@xc.org with only the words,
get brigada laptops

in the text of the message. Thanks to all those who got the word out and to those vendors willing to offer special pricing to missionaries in general and Brigada readers in particular.

————————————–

OR MAYBE YOU NEED TO SHIP SOMETHING?
Check out the new shipping info. that came in to Loren (from a previous Brigada Today request for info.). You’ll have a quiver full of companies for requesting bids for your next int’l shipment! Just send an email message to hub@xc.org with only the words,
get brigada shipping

in the text of the message. It’ll come to your inbox in a few minutes!

————————————–

YOU TAKE THE HIGH ROAD & I’LL TAKE THE LOW ROAD – TO CHINA OR CROATIA!
According to Brigada participant Larry, ELIC is looking for 75 more people to participate in one of the most exciting and effective summer short-term opportunities in Asia. They’ll accept teams or individnals. Those involved will participate in a conversational English teaching program with Asian university students. They will also he involved in friendship evangelism among young people who have never heard the gospel before. It’s a seven-week program from June24 to August 19. The only qualifications necessary are: at least one year of college, a love for people, a good grasp of the gospel, and the ability to work on a team. All training and teaching materials are provided. They even offer substantial financial help to make the journey possible. But act fast. The deadline is upon us. Contact Bob Edgar elic@tstonramp.com.

Or maybe you’d prefer a spot in Croatia??? Try Terry Ware terry.ware@usa.net.

————————————–

WEB-WATCH
Check out http://www.expatforum.com/ which provides info. on electricity and appliances, time zones, currencies, best ways to get from 100 airports into town, etc. (Thanks Marti and Caleb Project!) Also, if you’ve been having trouble getting enough responses from brigada-travel-bids, check out http://www.travelocity.com (thanks Chris) or http://travelweb.com (that’s the one that I’ve used a time or two). And then there’s always Microsoft Expedia… but I haven’t had much luck with it . .. something like http://expedia.msn.com/home.

Also, don’t miss CSI’s The Edge at http://www.cyberhighway.net/~buddyr. Find “helpful hints for working among the least evangelized peoples on the face of the earth . . .” like CSI’s Ten Principles, updates on the Tuja of China and Muslims of North India, as well as links back to other Great Commision Christian resources. Thanks CSI!

You might also want to stop by the new Christian Bulletin Board service at http://www.cybercore.net/taholo/htdocs/faith/.

————————————–

SEE THE CD FROM GALCOM!
OApparently, the folks at Galcom International had an overwhelming response to the item on their Missions Data Base CD that was posted in the Feb. 2nd Brigada Today (” BEST DEAL IN THE GALAXY-COM!”) with hundreds of requests for information and orders for the base CD. For those of you that received one, Galcom would like feedback on how to improve it and make it more useful/helpful to “tip of the sword” missionaries and prayer warriors. For those who did not get one, there are still some available. Since the Feb. 2nd item, we’ve rec’d several requests to repeat the information. Once again, as a reminder, these guys have developed a CD missions data base as an aid for informed prayer for the unreached peoples groups and as a reference tool for missions. The current demonstration issue contains the PIN peoples group data base of unreached peoples groups, 22,000 screens of text, 250 pictures, drawings and videos and 50 voice files. It profiles many missionaries and ministers working among unreached people groups. It also has a separate file of people groups designated as “least evangelized”, answers to questions on adopting a people group, current disease outbreak information, information on most known terrorist groups, and address of many world mission ministries. It will run on any IBM compatible 386 or higher and is an excellent reference aid and also a tool for churches and prayer groups who participate in “pray through the window”. The CD sells for $15. To order send request with postal address to: GalcomUSA@aol.com. Thanks to the gang at Galcom!

————————————–

DID YOUR CONGREGATION ADOPT A PEOPLE GROUP?
Have you got a case study to share about how it energized your church missions committee or missions outreach? If so, Verlin would like to know! Write him at verlinande@aol.com and I bet we’ll be able to talk him into compiling the results for us and sending them to us for a later issue? He’s headed to an unreached people group and not everyone believes he’s on the right track to start a project there. He’s specifically looking for the impact on the local church back home… and/or the final accomplished impact on the unreached people group – from adopt-a-people projects in particular.

————————————–

REMEMBER THE TROPICAL MEDICINE INQUIRY?
Well it’s baaaaa-aaaaack… “LOOKING FOR A TOP BANANA TROPICAL HEALTH COURSE?” invited readers to contact Elizabeth Sharplin 75222.402@CompuServe.COM to send her a tip if on any top notch courses in tropical medicine. She came through!!! And so did you! Her thorough listing can be retrieved by sending email to hub@xc.org with only the words,
get brigada tropical

and . . . if you’re headed to a tropical area, you just might be glad you did! :-)

————————————–

GOT A COMPUSERVE QUESTION???
Like… how do we change to a new “personal address” without falling out of sync with MAFxc conferences (short answer: unsubscribe from all MAFxc conferences before you make the change effective!), or do we really have to convert the commas to periods when giving our address to someone who is going to write us over the Internet, … or how to conquer your latest version transition, . . . just write “the Compuserve lady” . . . Sharon Hindle 71712.3534@CompuServe.COM. Thanks for your volunteer help, Sharon!

————————————–

WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT MASKING YOUR PGP-SECURED EMAIL?
See http://www.iquest.net/~mrmil/stego.html or http://www.enter.net/~chronos/cryptolog1.html#Stego. That way you can mask your PGP encryption within an image file and send it without fear! Thanks Joshua.

————————————–

GCOWE ’97 REQUESTS YOUR PRAYERS!
The AD2000 & Beyond folks are asking us to pray for the upcoming Global Consultation on World Evangelization in South Africa this July. “We need international prayer support for GCOWE ’97,” writes Bennie Mostert, a prayer rep. for the conference. “Intercessory networks globally are encouraged to join in praying for GCOWE ’97. 189 Strategic Intercessors are needed for the conference that will be held in Pretoria, South Africa. There will be 9 consultations with 21 strategic intercessors praying at each consultation during the 5 days of the consultation. International intercessors are welcome and needed. All intercessors have to register and will have to pay the full conference fee. People like Kjell Sjoberg, Cindy Jacobs and Roger Mitchell will lead the groups of strategic intercessors. For more info on registration as strategic intercessor, contact Bennie Mostert at nupsa@global.co.za or fax to +27-12-3332169. Registrations must be in before end of April 1997. Prayer networks that want to join in prayer for GCOWE ’97, can send an e-mail or fax number and you will be regularly updated.

————————————–

ANYBODY KNOW OF A CANADIAN BULK MAILER?
Larry Mori 104457.1527@compuserve.com would like to know, for sending out mission news to Canadians the old fashioned “hard copy” way. Note that USA bulk mailers need not respond.

————————————–

FROM THE HOME OFFICE . . . THE WEEKLY “DID YOU KNOW”???
OThis week’s imponderable . . . Did you know that a ‘jiffy’ is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second? Gives new meaning to telling someone you’ll be back “in a jiffy.” Whoosh. :-)

————————————–

NEW PEOPLE CLUSTER MAPS READY FOR YOUR WALL!
You’ve seen the PEOPLE group maps, those brightly colored wall-sized maps showing the task before us. Well now Christian Information Network has 1,000 wall maps specifically designed for “Praying Through the Window III,” featuring the 132 Unreached People Clusters in full color for $6.00 each. This 20″ x 30″ map will help you and your church display and pray for the least reached peoples in the world. To order contact: Laurie 73422.3471@Compuserve.com or call CIN at 719-522-1040. These will be excellent to visually see the new Brigada-cluster-* groups that will be launched starting next week.

————————————–

THIS WEEK, PRAY FOR PARSIS
One contributor wrote that this week, the world over, Parsees will be gathering from early morning to sunset “in rituals at their fire temples, at rivers and seas, and at places of nature.” These special rituals end on March 20th . . . so this Brigada participant asked us to pray for Parsees. To get the whole story, send email to hub@xc.org with only the words,
get brigada parsees

in the text of the email message.

——————-

TO SUBSCRIBE TO BRIGADA TODAY, send email to hub@xc.org with only the following message:
subscribe brigada

(Sure you can quote from Brigada Today! But please tell your readers where you learned about the item, and if it’s not asking too much, include the 3 lines on how to subscribe – see above.)

TO UNSUBSCRIBE, send email to hub@xc.org with this line in the text:
unsubscribe brigada

——————-

BRIGADA TODAY IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE FOLLOWING TEAM OF REGULAR VOLUNTEERS:

*Global Glimpses: John Hanna, Caleb Project, jhanna@cproject.com
*ADVANCE: Mark A. Kelley, Kainos Press, 70420.1057@compuserve.com
*Brigada Website: Bob Mayhew, Brigada Volunteer, mayhew@xc.org
*Technical Development: Jonathan Marsden, MAFxc jonathan@xc.org
*Brigada Customer Service Manager: Revis Ann Massey, RevisAnnMassey@xc.org
*Brigada Coordinator: Doug Lucas, Team Expansion & Brigada, DLucas@TeamExpansion.org
*and many other occasional contributors too numerous to mention!
But thanks for working together! That’s the dream of Brigada!