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News and Notes about Brigada, Your Gateway to Missions Networking!
On the WorldWide Web, browse https://brigada.org
Compiled by Doug Lucas, Cincinnati, Ohio
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In this issue….
* PIT-STOP DENVER SETS THE PACE FOR LOUISVILLE!
* NOW YOU CAN “INTERNET PHONE” A NON-INTERNET USER!
* BRIGADA MISSIONARY FAMILY SAYS THANKS!
* BIBLE DISTRIBUTION IN CHINA NOT KEEPING UP WITH CHURCH GROWTH
* COOL TOOLS
* ADVANCE READY FOR RETRIEVAL
* NEW CONFERENCES LAUNCH!
* REMEMBER THE OVERSEAS READERS
* FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED WHEN YOU “PRAYED THROUGH THE WINDOW”
* GLOBAL GLIMPSE
* DOES PGP REALLY RAISE YOUR PROFILE?
* ON THE HUNT FOR LINDA O’FLYNN
* WATCH THOSE ATTACHMENTS
* GOT ANY VIETNAMESE BOOKS?
* HOW ‘BOUT AN INTEREST IN EVANGELISM THROUGH LITERACY/ELEM. ED?
* BRIGADAFEST ’98 – PRAY THAT LOCATION WILL BE APPROVED
* TO SUBSCRIBE TO BRIGADA TODAY
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PIT-STOP DENVER SETS THE PACE FOR LOUISVILLE!
What a weekend! Folks came from points in Canada, Florida, Texas, Kansas, Minnesota… seemingly from all over! Many had heard about Pit-Stop Denver through Brigada, . . . others through brochures, others by word of mouth. Each of the 10 congregations met in general sessions and in small groups to focus on developing their own strategic plans to launch a love affair with an unreached people. Greg Fritz (Caleb Project), Steve Moore (Kingdom Building Ministries), Eric Derry and Doug Lucas (Team Expansion), and others shared ideas, planning approaches, and case studies on reaching the unreached with the PACE approach. Everyone present received a notebook full of tools and a diskette stuffed with templates and info. If you missed Pit-Stop Denver, never fear!!! PACE Pit-Stops are coming to Louisville, May 30-31! For more information, write Bill Reynolds at: 76152.2375@compuserve.com or see https://brigada.org/pace. Join those who are making a difference. And . . . yes . . . the rumor is true… one group (headed by Bill Lewis of “Into all the World” ministry, Ontario) is even planning a “prayer safari” to the Afari! :-)
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NOW YOU CAN “INTERNET PHONE” A NON-INTERNET USER!
I remember when Penny and I (have I told you about my beautiful wife Penny??? See her picture by clicking at http://www.teamexpansion.org/mhty.htm used to try to call back to the USA via ham radio from Montevideo, Uruguay. (I’m KB9ZAW now; at that time I was N4HHU in case any of my old 1982 buddies are listening.) If you’ve used ham radio, you’ll no doubt identify with the fact that, though those phone patches sounded like “Donald Duck voices” at times, they were very comforting and reassuring. I talked with my Dad in the hospital in Indianapolis, IN nightly during his hospitalization with a heart attack in 1983. When it came to personally touching base . . . or hearing someone’s voice. . . there was nothing like ham radios and phone patches…. until now, that is.
Now – enter Net2Phone. Using Net2Phone, you initiate a phone call by logging onto the Internet, then calling up the free Net2Phone application, entering your phone number (as if dialing it from within the USA), then hitting the “enter” key! It’s easy! Through the magic of the Internet, Net2Phone’s connection with a long distance service (that they own) starts automatically dialing and connecting to your desired number… anywhere in the world! So the person on the other end of the line no longer needs a computer to talk to you!!! Hello grandma!
It was Wayne Penner wpenner@nutecnet.com.br writing from Cuiabá, Brazil, who first brought it to our attention. Wayne stated up front, “The connection is not 100%, but the price compensates the lack of quality for overseas users.” The price is unbelievable. 1am-7pm (EST) – .15, 7pm-1am (EST) – .10, and 800 numbers – Free! (Do you realize that overseas users would never again have to chide me for not giving an alternative to toll-free numbers??? :-) Because from now on, with Net2Phone, they could call them direct for free from anywhere in the world????) Sound too good to be true? It did to me too. So I decided to check it out. I went to http://www.net2phone.com like Wayne suggested (he doesn’t work for them by the way! :-)) and downloaded the software. Actually it isn’t a big download by today’s standards. Within a few minutes, it was installed and with a few clicks on some help screens (provided) I pretty much figured it out. A few clicks later, I had dialed the toll-free number of our mission office and was talking through the laptop from the Internet to our secretary’s voice! (Actually, it was her recorded voice on voice mail; But Susy still sounds happy with the love of the Lord even on voice mail!!! :-)) Bottom line? If you’re overseas and you’d like to make free toll-free calls, give this software a try.
You can also use your credit card to pay $25 at a time to buy what Net2Phone calls “Debit Cards” to call anywhere in the world. Naturally, if you’re calling from a foreign location to within the USA, it’s much cheaper — probably 10 cents/min. or so normally. If you’re calling from Algeria to Afghanistan, it’s still cheaper than trying to use normal long distance… probably $1.20/min. or something like that.
The caveat: You must have a multi-media computer with a modem/mic set-up. In other words, you must be able to speak to your laptop and hear through the speakers. But just about anything you buy from the current market will let you do that.
So… happy phone-patching. From Uruguay, Penny and I never had it so good! :-)
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BRIGADA MISSIONARY FAMILY SAYS THANKS!
Remember the family that wanted to hear back from us as to a location that they should target to find the “least reached people on earth?” Their request spawned the “final frontier” file that is now posted in the Brigada archive. The guy wrote this past week, “Dear Doug and Brigada Family, I downloaded the Brigada file “finalfrontier” like it was a Christmas gift and I was five years old. Inside was info better than my favorite GI Joe. Thanks for doing this labor of love and thanks to the 33 people who took the time to share their wisdom. From your list my wife and I have narrowed it down to two peoples you suggested. Now it will be somewhat up to the mission agency we will be going with, but they have shown great interest in sending us to the “final frontier.” I was encouraged to read the passion with which the 33 respondents advocated their people groups. I will keep you posted on our progress. We have to sell our house and stuff and hope to be on the field by the end of the year. (Don’t worry we have much experience moving and have lived overseas on four occasions so we think we can meet that deadline.) Our support is all in. Praise the Lord. Blessings, John Missionary Doe” Wow. Exciting. So … your “finalfrontier” file is making a difference at least in this one family’s life. They read it, took it to the bank, and are pursuing your recommendations. Thanks Brigada family! And thanks John Missionary Doe! We’ll count on hearing from you again! You’re like… our “living link missionaries!” :-)
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BIBLE DISTRIBUTION IN CHINA NOT KEEPING UP WITH CHURCH GROWTH
Thanks to Justin Long for updating us on Bibles and church growth in China. This past week, he wrote, “…Many evangelicals estimate the Christian population to be 40 to 60 million; yet at a maximum only 20 million Chinese believers presently own a Bible of their own. So despite the successes, the reality is that more than 20 to 40 million Chinese believers still do not own a Bible and have little access to one. Millions more spiritually interested seekers who want Bibles have even less access. Worse, current Bible distribution is not even keeping up with the growth rate of the church: according to the World Christian Encyclopedia (David B. Barrett, ed.), 2.5 million new adherents are being added to the Chinese church yearly (over 1.8 million through conversion alone). At this rate, Dr. Barrett estimates the Christian church in China will have more than 90 million members by the year 2000 (and perhaps sooner). Without a massive increase in current distribution rates, only 33 million believers will have access to a Bible: 57 million will go without. The largest house church group in China is a case in point. With 5 million adherents, 8,000 itinerating evangelists, and 200 missionaries in training, this movement adds more than 500,000 converts each year, and needs 630,000 Bibles annually…. Without Bibles, cults and false teachings will continue to be major problems. Many inquirers feel unable to make decisions for Christ. This highlights the urgent need for continuing supplies of Bibles from all sources….
(15 April 1997, Contact: Justin Long, Global Evangelization Movement/World Christian Encyclopedia,
Phone: (804) 355-1646, Fax: (804) 355-2016, Email: GEM@xc.org, Web: http://www.gem-werc.org
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COOL TOOLS
Ever heard of “For Missionaries Only?” They do tapes and books for missionaries (and others concerned for world ministry). Call them at 800-272-2442 or fax them at 509-548-6585. They seem to have it all! Acappella, Maranatha, Hosana/Integrity, Steve Green, GT & the Halo Express, Christmas music, . . . the works! Most CDs are $4.75, and Cassettes are $2.75, videos $8 average. Great prices. Great titles.
Or… headed to the mission field and you’d like to take you entire library in a CD-ROM pouch??? Contact Logos Software for a catalogue. Just write newswire@logos.com or check out http://www.logos.com. Or call them at 800-87-logos or fax 360-675-8169. They’ve got zillions of electronic books, commentaries, etc., Bible handbooks… and on-line Bibles. Fast. Handy. Small. Lose the 4-inch thick books and put dozens of them on one CD!
And Jerry jerryk@bf.org has finished the list of sources for ordering Bibles! (Thanks for following through, Jerry!) Thanks to the whole Brigada family for joining in on responses. To get Jerry’s new list of places you can order all kinds of Bibles, send email to hub@xc.org with only this line in the text of the message:
get brigada bible-sources
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ADVANCE READY FOR RETRIEVAL
Get the May Advance today by sending email to hub@xc.org with only this line in the text:
get brigada advance.9705
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NEW CONFERENCES LAUNCH!
In a flurry, several new unreached peoples conferences have launched in the wake of the People Cluster Conference in Pasadena and the Brigada family here listening to appeals for help! For example, brigada-peoples-punjabi just came on line for the Punjabis on the Brigada network. The Joshua Project 2000 lists 15 unreached peoples under the Punjabi Gateway Cluster. These total to more than a 108 million people worldwide with most of them living in South Asia! The brigada-peoples-punjabi conference will help interested individuals, churches and agencies send out or receive reports, prayer requests and learn of new ministry opportunities related to the Punjabi peoples and to network with others engaged in ministries to the Punjabis. To join this conference send an email message to hub@xc.org with the following line in the *body* of the message (subject ignored):
subscribe brigada-peoples-punjabi
Thanks to Joel and all other willing workers for helping with these “billboards” for prayer and mobilization! Some secure conferences have also been launched — but are private, unadvertised and “by invitation only.”
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REMEMBER THE OVERSEAS READERS
This past week, a Brigada Today participant from the Philippines wrote to remind us to remember those who are working/reading these updates overseas. When we describe conferences (she referred to the “Mentors Conference for Church Planters”) or programs, we need to always try to factor in contingencies for an international audience. It starts by providing more than just an 800 number… but it finishes by making sure that we think through the fact that we’re now a global community in this mission enterprise thing! Thanks to all for your patience as we struggle to learn how to do that!
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FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED WHEN YOU “PRAYED THROUGH THE WINDOW”
CIN now has available WindoWatchman II! This is the book with reports from prayer journeyers who participated in the Praying Through the Window II initiative in October of 1995. Get your copy of WindoWatchman II for $14.99 plus Shipping and Handling ($4.50 in U.S.). Just send a check to the
Christian Information Network
11025 State Hwy 83
Colorado Springs, CO 80921
All orders must be pre-paid by check or credit card. You can telephone in your order on our toll free number 1-888-PRAY-104, place your order on our fax machine (719)548-9000 or e-mail them at 73422.3471@compuserve.com. Remember not to ever send your credit card number across unencrypted internet email. To learn more about encrypting messages, see http://www.pgp.com.
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GLOBAL GLIMPSE
Mansour Hussein was killed by a shot in the head in a Christian book shop in Arbil, Iraqi Kurdistan. He was discovered by a co-worker on his arrival in the book shop. Mansour was an evangelical believer, a Kurd from a Muslim background. He was bold and fearless in the witness of his faith. Fellow Christians in Arbil say that there is little doubt that he died as a martyr testifying to the truth that is in Jesus. Mr. Hussein leaves a wife and an 18 month old son.
(Source: Elam Ministries, UK, April 22, 1997)
Global Glimpse is compiled each week by wonderful and wild John Hanna, Advocacy Director, Caleb Project, 10 W Dry Creek Circle, Littleton, CO 80120, USA; 303-730-4170, fax 303-730-4177, http://www.goshen.net/calebproject , jhanna@xc.org.
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DOES PGP REALLY RAISE YOUR PROFILE?
We’re taking a survey. Are there any documented real specific cases where we known that using PGP raised someone’s profile overseas? If so, send them to jhanna@xc.org. Maybe we just suspect that it would raise? He’ll report back to us. Confidential contributions accepted.
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ON THE HUNT FOR LINDA O’FLYNN
Those still trying to find Linda O’Flynn’s Perfect Image PC Service perfect-image@juno.com would do better using, http://www.inworks.net/comm/image/image.htm as the URL. Linda tells us she inadvertently gave us the wrong URL the first time around.
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WATCH THOSE ATTACHMENTS
By now you’ve received 69 warnings about AOL4Free.com, so you don’t need me to tell you about it again. Just remember to ‘watch those file attachments.’ This executable gives you more for your money… or should we say, less. Execute it and apparently it starts its dirty work of erasing files (if it can find “deltree.exe”). :-) Nasty little Trojan horse. For more info. see http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/index.html. Thanks to John Rogers BCCYanadi@xc.org and everyone else for forwarding the warnings… Bottom line – don’t ever click on any executables you didn’t request from a reliable source. Opening up text messages is still harmless .. and if you have Office ’97, you could also open up WinWord “.doc” files without fear. Those still using previous versions of Word should beware that Word macro viruses are blossoming this spring. :-) Take heed… or hide!
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GOT ANY VIETNAMESE BOOKS?
Inquiring minds want to know. Or at least Mike does. He’s looking for commentaries and other theological books in Vietnamese. If you know of any good sources please contact him at vnbooks@fcmr.com.
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… OR HOW ‘BOUT AN INTEREST IN EVANGELISM THROUGH LITERACY/ELEM. ED?
In that case, David Curtis DCurtis@mail.lewiston.k12.id.us would be the next email address you’ll need. He’s got a passion for evangelism through literacy and Christian education training to elementary-aged children, beginning in Africa and beyond. Wants to facilitate the writing and production of good books for that use… and sounds very passionate about the whole thing.
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BRIGADAFEST ’98 – PRAY THAT LOCATION WILL BE APPROVED
Tomorrow the dates/location go before a committee in Louisville, KY, for consideration for BrigadaFest ’98 (see last week’s Brigada Today, HOW ‘BOUT A BRIGADA FAMILY REUNION????). Pray that the local church there in Louisville will approve the proposal so we can start making solid plans!
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TO SUBSCRIBE TO BRIGADA TODAY, send email to hub@xc.org with only the following message:
subscribe brigada
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unsubscribe brigada
At https://brigada.org on the web, you can see tons more.
(This issue of Brigada Today is Copyrighted © 1997. However, permission is granted to freely redistribute provided that such redistribution is to those who will help the Good News of Christianity to reach the unreached. 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.
IMPORTANT: To copy or reproduce Brigada Today for any other reason is illegal and is not permitted.)
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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!
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