19990815 Brigada Today

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News and Notes about Brigada, Your Gateway to Missions Networking!
On the WorldWide Web, browse https://brigada.org or http://www.eGroups.com/list/brigada-today
Brigada Today is “the missionary helper newsletter!”
Compiled by Doug Lucas <DLucas@teamexpansion.org>, Louisville, KY
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In this issue….

WHAT IN THE WORLD IS BRIGADA?

Brigada, pronounced “bree-GAH-dah”, is the rough equivalent (in Russian, Spanish, and even Filipino!) of a “brigade.” The idea is to stand side by side to pass buckets of hope for those most in need of Christ’s eternal message! Read 4+ years of weekly back issues at https://brigada.org. See recent back issues and links at http://www.eGroups.com/list/brigada-today. Brigada Today is compiled by Doug Lucas DLucas@teamexpansion.org, Louisville, KY.

CATCH THE WAVE AT THE LINKS PAGE

Hey – You’ve got to stop by the “links” page at http://www.egroups.com/docvault/brigada-today/Links ! Get a load of the way the folders have helped organize the pages. We’ve begun to organize pointers for Education, Missions, News, Shopping, and Travel… with more categories and sub-categories on the way. Little by little, we’re trying to transfer all the links from the “root listing” into the hierarchical format. It’s going to take a while!!! Want to help? Check out the setup, then jump in and help us reorganize! We could use a hand! Also, please help us add sites that would be useful for the whole Brigada family!

THIS YOU GOTTA’ SEE! – UREACH.COM

I’m thinking that Jon just might get the “Find of the Year” award!!! This Ureach.com stuff is GREAT! He referred us to http://www.ureach.com and … trust me… this is one site you’ll want to visit! If you’re overseas without a web connection, you might want your forwarding agent or friend to set you up. Here’s the way it works. UReach.com gives you your own personal 800 number, then proceeds to set up access to your own personal email address (yourname@ureach.com), voicemail (toll-free in the USA), faxes (also toll-free), address book, and calendar from the phone or web. Jon even found an MSNBC.com review so you’d know it’s legitimate… at http://www.msnbc.com/news/269291.asp. And guess what else: You can set it up so it automatically forwards faxes, for instance. So here’s the way you could work it. Get eFax (at www.efax.com) and set up eFax on your computer. Then get uReach and set up faxing to forward all faxes to your eFax number. Now you have a fax number (that’s toll-free to anyone in the USA) which automatically forwards your faxes to eFax which then automatically converts them to compressed graphics and emails them to your email inbox wherever you are in the world! You click on the attached file and the eFax viewer lets you see them and print them and… shazam!

You’ve got free faxing . . . all in exchange for glancing at a few ads!

What’s more, you can then forward the fax (via uReach) to other fax numbers if someone else needs to see it! All for free! And think about the voicemail possibilities! Say you’ve got web access, but you’re in the Balkans or wherever. Your Mom can call a toll-free voicemail number (as long as she doesn’t talk over 30 minutes per month!

), leave you a message, which you will then listen to over the uReach web site for pennies per minute… or less. No more of this $1/minute+ calling and getting an answering machine stuff, just to leave a message. I love it!!! So — Jon — thanks for being on the prowl!

YOU’VE GOT MAIL: ELETTER !

Here’s another great deal! (Two in one issue! Can you believe it???

) Every-once-in-awhile we get an inquiring Brigada participant who wants to know if there’s any affordable way to send an email from overseas that gets mailed as a letter in the USA. We’ve talked about some possible solutions. Over the years, we’ve looked at a couple of solutions, including CompuServe’s service (which was like . . . $1/page or whatever). Well now there’s eLetter! Just visit www.eletter.com and check it out. You upload the file via your browser, specify the address(es), and bingo — your letter is sent automatically! What’s more, you can upload a mailing list and have eLetter send out your monthly or quarterly report! There’s a small fee… about 25 cents per letter plus normal postage fees. But it’s very reasonable, considering they’re providing paper, envelope, printing costs, folding, stuffing, and postage/handling. They let you try a free sample (to mail a letter to yourself). Check it out! You’ll love it!

WE GET SUPPORT FROM…

This week, we got support from Richard at RMJ Services, Inc, tel. 734-941-8120, fax 734-941-8127, email rmjservices@juno.com. RMJ handles trucking and ocean freight to send missionary goods, Bibles, literature, and relief goods wherever you want it to go. RMJ can ship from ports like Baltimore, Miami, Chicago, Houston, Toronto, Seattle and even LA. PLUS, you’ll get full risk insurance from Lloyds of London and fully licensed customs clearance. If you need airfreight, ocean carriage, or trucking, please try RMJ and don’t forget to thank them for their support of Brigada!

HERE’S A GREAT DEAL FOR INTERNET CONNECTIVITY

Okay… so let’s say you’re tired of getting busy signals or slow throughput from your current Internet Service Provider. If you live in the USA, here’s an offer you’ll like! Call Mindspring at 1-888-MSPRING anytime between now and September 30, 1999 and sign-up for a new MindSpring account. They’ve got great customer support, fast throughput, and points of presence (POPs) all over the USA in just about every city imaginable — plus cheap toll-free access for rural areas too! And they’re hooked up with a service that lets you do “global roaming” called GRIC so… just about wherever you go in the world, Netcom is there! To get this special deal you need to say “I’d be happier using MindSpring” to the sales representative. Get this! They’ll credit your account with $60 — $10 credit per month for the first 6 months! That means for six months, you’ll get unlimited Internet connectivity for $10/month!!! Yahooo!

Even if you drop out at the end of the 6th month, you’ll still have gotten the very best deal in town! Mindspring has one of the top rankings for log-on rates and they’re very dependable now that they’ve converted their entire system to new software. Besides… for $10/month, how can you lose! That’s the same price you have to pay CompuServe for just 3 hours per month!

CORRECTION ON ENGEL SCALE

Last week’s item 7 on the Engel Scale should have been this URL instead of the one given: http://www.revivalnet.net/churches/lwcf/evang.htm

Sorry… but the version with the typo was the one provided to us! This URL is correct though. We apologize for any inconvenience.

CAMBODIAN CONFERENCE YIELDS MEDIA PROMISE!

The Media Potentials in Cambodia Consultation was held in Phnom Penh Aug 5-6th. 18 representatives of mission organizations working in Cambodia attended. Very important was the molding of a long-term cooperation effort on the part of two main evangelical denominations in regional media production. The schedule calls for immediate production of original Khmer songs and karaoke music videos for video compact disk (VCD) distribution. VCDs reflect a leap in technology over VHS cassette as a medium for entertainment and education in war-torn Cambodia. Plans are to establish an automatic dialogue replacement studio (ADR) by the end of 1999. For more information, contact the project consultant, Dan, at Mediaprof@bigfoot.com.

CHILDREN OF WAR – INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER

The Children of War – International Day of Prayer is a movement of God’s people on the behalf of the millions of children throughout the world who face the everyday terror of armed conflicts. Prayer warriors throughout the world will intercede through fasting and prayer, calling upon God to one way or other rescue these children from the depths of despair. The date set for the Symphony of Prayer is Saturday, November 20th, 1999. For further information contact Raymond (CEO of “Mission Twenty Eight Nineteen”) at Eaglesor@gte.net or browse http://www.geocities.com/Augusta/Fairway/6458/index.html

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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>.”
IMPORTANT: To copy or reproduce Brigada Today for any other reason is illegal and is not permitted.

DISCLAIMER — Please note that there’s no way we can possibly screen all the text on all the web sites or items we recommend. We try to check them out first… but if we miss something, please don’t assume that the opinions on those sites are identical to those of the Brigada family of networks. “Eat the corn, leave the cob!”
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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!