19990124 Brigada Today

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News and Notes about Brigada, Your Gateway to Missions Networking!
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Brigada Today is “the missionary helper newsletter!”
Compiled by Doug Lucas <DLucas@teamexpansion.org>, Louisville, KY
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In this issue….

REAL-TIME, ONLINE UNREACHED PEOPLE GROUP ADOPTIONS

Now you can register your adoption of an unreached people group via the web! This is the fulfillment of a lot of hopes, vision, and dreams from a lot of people! What began as a simple idea (a sample of which was Brigada’s own “People Group Consultant”) is now being realized by the International Office of the AD2000 & Beyond Movement! Bravo!!! Yahooo!

You can record commitments for prayer, advocacy, church planting and networking for any unreached group! Just visit http://www.ad2000.org/adopform.htm. There you can keep the missions community updated on your commitment and involvement. Registration of this data allows for greater ease in networking between those focused on the same unreached people, as well as assisting missions strategists in determining the areas most in need of workers. No need to register again if you’ve already submitted your info. to AD2000. But you’re welcome to use the form to update AD2000 on your plans. Comments or questions about the process? Write Barb@ad2000.org. Bravo AD2000 & Beyond!!!

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! PROPOSED: AN EMAIL VIRUS PREVENTION PROTOCOL

Okay. Uncle! (Enough is enough!) I’m as patient as the next guy or gal (maybe more so, in fact), but I’ll be perfectly content if I never see another “AOL Gold” message that urges me not to open a particular email that’s going to erase my hard drive! Don’t we all have enough email to read without fluff???

And now the latest rage is all the prayer requests, many of which seem to be unverified and undated. So we don’t know if they’ve floated around for 3 days or 3 months! And what’s more, so much of this stuff is totally useless. I mean, how in the world will Walt Disney’s son (Walt Disney never even had a son named “Walt”! As a matter of fact, he never even had a son!) or Bill Gates know if we forward this email 5000 times? And, how will our emails help save Sesame Street, stop nuclear war, or preserve Afghan women? The government isn’t going to impose long distance rates for Internet access, there are no “Good Times”, and even if your email says “guts to say Jesus”, it still won’t erase your hard drive. Neither The American Cancer Society nor ” Valley Children’s Hospital” will donate 3 cents per email (even if the story about the little girl is a sad one — Dave Matthews notwithstanding) for anything you write, Aspartame isn’t all that bad, you don’t have to “join the crew” and you can’t “win a holiday.” Jessica Mydek doesn’t exist, forget “penpal greetings,” and, well, okay, so maybe the Neiman Marcus cookie recipe isn’t so bad…

But all in all, have you had enough of these things??? So here’s a proposal. What if all 9,000 of us covenanted together to never forward these things on again! Imagine what an impact it would have for the Kingdom of Christ! Just imagine the missionaries and all the newly discovered spare time they’ll have, not having to read about kidneys being harvested while we sleep!

So here it is… the newly proposed “Brigada Email Virus Prevention Protocol.” If you send it to 5 other people, you’ll receive a free trip to Mars! (Just kidding about the free trip!) Seriously, let’s try to watch for these key ingredients before we forward email:

VERIFIABLE ORIGIN: Does it have an author and a working email address or web site? If not, don’t forward it. If so, and if the content sounds questionable, then write the source and verify it. If you don’t get a reply or if the site is bogus, toss it. By no means forward it to everyone in Zanzibar!
VERIFIABLE PURPOSE: Will it make an actual difference if I forward it? Think about it: why would 1000 emails help Muslims treat Afghan women any better?
VERIFIABLE CLOSURE: How will we know when it’s complete? Does it have a cut-off date?

So next time you compose a prayer request, or an urgent news update, or whatever, make sure it meets the “Brigada OPC Test” — Origin, Purpose, and Closure. If not, please don’t forward it to me.
There now. Are we done with all those for good? I doubt it.

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR MISSION STUDIES – IAMS 2000

The next IAMS conference will be held in South Africa, January 21 to 28, 2000, at Megawatt Park (between Johannesburg and Pretoria). The hosting Committee will be the Southern African Missiological Society (SAMS). The theme is “Reflecting Christ: Crucified and Living in a broken World.” Discussion in preparation for the conference will take place in the MISSIOLOGY conference http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/8409/lists.htm. For more information on attending the conference itself, contact John Roxborogh Iams@ibm.net http://www.iams.org.uk/.

POLICE IN INDIA RISING TO THE TASK

Thanks to those who pointed me to sources saying that the police in India were trying to rise to the task of protecting believers! (Last week’s item “INDIA AFLAME WITH PERSECUTION“) That’s an answered prayer! (By the way, that item would not have met the new “OPC” test!)

NEW TRIBES CALLS FOR WORLDWIDE PRAYER JAN. 31

Sorry for the short notice… (like “same-day”!) but New Tribes Mission (NTM) is asking Christians around the world to unite in a Day of Prayer (today) January 31, for Dave Mankins, Mark Rich and Rick Tenenoff. These missionaries have been held for 2,191 days and NTM believes (as do we all) that it is time for them to be returned to their families. NTM is calling for prayer that God would intervene in a way that will bring a positive end to this long and uncertain ordeal. Pray for wives, Nancy, Tania and Patti and their families. No email follow-up is necessary. For more information, browse http://www.ntm.org/hostage/index.html.

(Note the verifiable OPC: origin, purpose, and closure!) (Thanks for tipping us off to this date, Dave!)

YOU’VE GOT MAIL!

What a great batch of letters we received following the “Why are you doing missions” (‘back page’ editorial in last week’s Brigada Today)! One mission minister wrote, “…What you had to say really woke me up to the fact that God has given me more than I can think or imagine, and that it had become routine in such a short time. I really feel what you had to say was a gentle reminder that I need to be grateful and humble that God has chosen me to serve in such an awesome task of mobilizing the Church to obey His command. Thanks Doug, and may God Truly Make Your Day!”

ON-SITE ‘UNREACHED’ INTERNSHIP PROGRAM ESTABLISHED

Imagine doing one or two years of your academic studies for missions while on the field! You can do it in HatYai, Thailand at Internship To the Unreached or I. To U. Using the World Christian Foundations as the academic portion of study, and on field experienced workers as mentors and resource people you can get ready to reach the unreached of Southeast Asia. For more information check out their new web site at: http://www.internstounreached.org/ or write Don Davis at drdavis@xc.org.

GLOBAL GLIMPSE FROM BARIPADA

Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons were outside a village northeast of Baripada (Orissa) where they had attended a Bible study program. While they were sleeping in their old station wagon, a mob of 40 people, some armed with bows and arrows, attacked and doused the vehicle with gasoline, setting it ablaze, and beating up any bystanders who tried to rescue the family, police said. Police arrested 49 Hindu radicals suspected of burning to death Graham Staines, 58, and his sons Philips, 10, and Timothy, 8. Of the 200 families in the village, about 30 have embraced Christianity in the last two decades. Graham’s ministry also included assistance for recovered lepers and clean water for schools. His sons were visiting on vacation.
(Source: Associated Press, “Missionary Mourned in India,” By Neelesh Misra, 1/24/1999 DELHI, India. For More information http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/asiapcf/9901/23/india.christian/index.html)
Global Glimpse is compiled each week by John Hanna, Caleb Project, Littleton, CO.

TARGET THE NATIONS DOESN’T COST AS MUCH

Galcom international has reduced the price of the Target the Nations CD to $14. This CD provides specific information about each of the 11,886 people groups that live in the 233 nations of the world. It enables you to pray informed as you intercede for the nations and unreached people groups. Included are tons of missions stats and a directory of U.S. and Canadian world mission agencies working among the unreached. All together there are some 25,000 screens of text, 150 pictures Drawings, and 50 voice files. Order from Galcomusa@aol.com.

CHINA PRAYER CALENDARS FOR THE COST OF SHIPPING

Integrated Resources still has about 3,000 of the “1999 Intercessors for China Prayer Calendars” available. Now they’re asking only for the costs of shipping and handling (donations welcome though). In the USA call 800-729-4351. Otherwise fax to (812) 339-8389 OR order via regular mail Integrated Resources; 4307 East Third Street; Bloomington, IN 47401. Ask for item 7707e. Check out a sample at http://www.ccci.org/china. For more information, write eastasia@telebyte.net.

EVANGELISM ON THE WEB!

Through the courtesy of Gordon Bell, Internet Accessed Ministries has put samples of several GRN evangelism messages online. These RealAudio files are available to anyone with a suitably equipped computer at http://i-am.org/audio.htm. Arabic, Mandarin, Hindi, Russian and Spanish are among the 16 languages currently available, and more will be added soon. About ten minutes of each language is provided, including some music. (Thanks for the tip, Mark!)

GOT A GREAT SOURCE FOR BUYING MISSIONS STAMPS?

Brian brians@cefinc.org would like to know! His mission used to sell stamps to a local collector (hey — every little bit helps!), but now that local collector is out of business. If you’ve got an inside tip, share it with Brian and he’ll report back here later.

CHARITABLE GIFT$

Rogers, Mathis and Associates is a full service financial planning organization, with extensive experience in charitable giving programs. They are working with several non-profit organizations to develop endowments and current gifts. Techniques, such as Charitable Remainder Trusts, Charitable Lead Trusts, Gifts of Life Insurance, Irrevocable Life Trusts, and Charitable Retirement and Estate Plans, can be designed to benefit the contributor, the beneficiaries and the charity. Contact Jim Rogers at jimrogers@uswest.net for a questionnaire that will help determine if your organization is a candidate for these services.

IF YOU HAVE TO FLY, WEATHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT

If your mission work depends on the weather (say… disaster relief or aviation???), check out http://www.weathernode.com/nodeinfo.asp for a great interface! Great tip, Joe!

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COPYRIGHT — This issue of Brigada Today is Copyrighted © 2001. However, permission is granted to freely redistribute these materials, including those available through email autoresponders, provided that such redistribution is to those who will help the Good News of Christianity to reach the unreached. But please include this phrase: “For a free subscription of Brigada‘s weekly missions publication, write <brigada-today-subscribe@egroups.com>.”
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SUBMITTING CONTENT — To submit content or ideas to Brigada Today, first please get a copy of “Guidelines for submitting items to Brigada” Then, once you’ve composed your item in keeping with those guidelines, send your item for Brigada Today to DLucas@teamexpansion.org.
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Emphasis is placed on items relating to unreached peoples and challenges faced by those reaching them cross-culturally.

PLEASE DON’T SUBSCRIBE US TO YOUR LIST — It’s always better to ask before manually force-adding anyone to your list-serve or mailing list. Recently, tons of well-meaning people have been subscribing Doug to their lists. Since he often travels overseas, he doesn’t join many of those, for obvious reasons (like being charged big-time for overseas access). So as a general rule, please don’t bulk-mail us! See the note above if you’d like to submit items for Brigada Today. Thanks for understanding. Bottom line: We will never create Brigada Today items from bulk mail. Bulk mail gets deleted immediately — sorry. Nothing personal. We suggest you apply the same standard to everyone. Ask first!

WARNING ABOUT FORWARDING EMAILS — Please, before forwarding any kind of request (even if it says “please send this to all your friends”), please check to make sure it has a VERIFIABLE ORIGIN, a VERIFIABLE PURPOSE, and a VERIFIABLE CLOSURE (OPC). By following this simple approach, many “email viruses” could be nipped in the bud… at least in the Brigada family. More information about the full Brigada OPC protocol is available. Thank you.

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

Global Glimpses: John Hanna, Caleb Project, jhanna@cproject.com
Brigada Website: Bob Mayhew, WebServant@brigada.org
Brigada Customer Service Manager: help@brigada.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!