19990926 Brigada Today

In this issue….

WHAT IN THE WORLD IS BRIGADA?

Brigada, pronounced “bree-GAH-dah” (rhymes with armada), is the rough equivalent of a “brigade” — in Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, and even Filipino! The idea is to stand side by side to pass buckets of hope for those most in need of Christ’s eternal message! Check out nearly 5 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.

WHEREFORE ART THOU, PRAYING THROUGH THE WINDOW?

Okay. Confession time. I’m sure there must be plenty of publicity going on, somewhere, about Praying Through the Window (this month). For some reason, I’m not plugged in. Are you? Seems like we should be getting some kind of daily prayer reminders via email, right? Christian Information Network is expecting 50 million Christians worldwide to be joining in this prayer effort for the countries of the 10-40 Window. I just don’t know very many of them.

For info, visit their website at http://www.christian-info.com , or e-mail them at CIN@cin1040.net. Now that you know I’m a sinner — I hope I’ll get plugged in for at least the remainder of the month!

REGISTER ONLINE FOR BRIGADAFEST 2000

Now’s the time to register online for BrigadaFest, slated for Feb. 3-5 in Louisville, KY. This very focused get-together will serve as a venue for uniting those who have a vision for reaching specific people groups. We’re modeling it after the Pit-Stops

we’ve been staging in various cities throughout the USA. Here’s what participants have been saying (I’m not kidding; these are actual quotes from participants!): “practical – excellent – great – awesome – very informative – wonderful – very inspirational – refreshing – useful – moving – very emotional for me – good to see how far we have come – let me know specifics – fantastic – met me at our point of need in our process – marvelous – encouraging to see progress of others – effective – enthusiastic – very helpful sharing mistakes – overwhelming – exciting – very positive – super – wow! – caused us to set a time to strive for and develop working plans – gave a scriptural basis & understanding of both the church & its role in mission – outstanding – spiritually uplifting – facilitators were very helpful – very organized – very hospitable – delicious meals – forced me to think & take initiative – exhilarating – wonderful focus upon our God – wonderful team-building experience between our churches.”

If you’d like to take advantage of this event as a venue for your unreached people group get-together for 2000 — and meet in concert with 20-30 other focused tracks, drop me a line at Dlucas@teamexpansion.org and we’ll do our best! We’ll provide the meeting room for your track, along with logistics for meals, housing, secure registrations by web, security, audio-visual equipment, etc. The works! The cost is $60 (if you register before Dec. 20). Register online by going to: http://www.teamexpansion.org then clicking on “Register for BrigadaFest”. Registration is a two-step process. First complete the form, then go to the secure page and pay the registration fee. For more information – or if you don’t have web access to register online – write the Registrar, Angela, at akeeran@TeamExpansion.org. The event is being jointly sponsored by:

Interdev (which has volunteered to lead sessions on partnership development),
Caleb Project (which has offered to lead an Advocacy Training track),
Southeast Christian Church (which has a weekly worship attendance of 12,000+ friendly believers and a passion to change the world for Him),
Friends of Bosnia and a dozen other unreached peoples tracks (so far) from around the globe
Team Expansion (seeking to serve as a catalyst for launching additional PACE Projects), and, of course,
Brigada.

After registering, send a message to brigadafest-subscribe@egroups.com to receive regular updates starting this week. And if you’re interested in interceding especially for the event, send a message to brigadafest-prayer-subscribe@egroups.com where the prayer meeting has already begun! Thanks to Terry BorkTerry@aol.com for serving as a prayer coordinator for the event.

MISSIONS DATABASE NOW AVAILABLE VIA EMAIL

NSM http://www.strategicnetwork.org is expanding its databases with a query-by-email engine. Currently its knowledge (1,950 articles), directory (900 organizations), and initiatives (1,255 entries) databases are available, and others will be coming online shortly. To receive a list of commands send a blank e-mail to hub@strategicnetwork.org. The Network also takes submissions for its knowledge base; they are specifically seeking articles related to mission problems, how-tos, analyses, and resources. You can send articles to kbsubmit@strategicnetwork.org. Visit the web site for more information. Finally, if you’d like to subscribe to their knowledge base, you can send an email to hub@strategicnetwork.org with the single line
subscribe knowledge digest
to receive a daily digest of new knowledge base articles. (Did you subscribe to the Monday Morning Reality Check? The author has moved to the NSM knowledge base and now writes periodic articles through it.)

OLYMPIC IS ALIVE AND WELL?

I guess Olympic Card Company is alive and well after all. (“IT’S TIME AGAIN TO THINK ABOUT CHRISTMAS PRAYER CARDS.”) Their server just must have been temporarily down the day I tried them on the web and then later tried to email them. They’re at http://www.occgrafx.com. Highly recommended for your prayer Christmas cards. You can also check out Creative Plus on the web at http://www.creativeplus.com (or email Brian BT@creativeplus.com ). Folks in the USA can call 800-347-2848.

MOBILIZING COLLEGE AND SEMINARY STUDENTS FOR MISSIONS

The Global Outreach (GO) Conference is a conference for mobilizing college and seminary students in the south-eastern US and is held this year in Eatonton-Madison, GA on October 29-31, 1999. Brent Preston will speak and Silers Bald will lead worship.

Additionally, this year’s Vision Conference kicks off in Montrose, PA on October 15-17, 1999. Vision is the sister conference of GO in the north-eastern US. Roberson McQuilkin will speak and worship is lead by an international team. These conferences are hosted by Global Ambition, a student missions movement.

For more information and on-line registration point your browser to http://www.globalambition.org or write to go99@globalambition.org for information on the GO conference and vision99@globalambition.org for information on VISION conference.

FAMILY LIFE TEACHING/COUNSELING RESOURCES

NYM Ministries (formerly Northern Youth Ministries) offers a growing selection of family life resources at their website, http://www.nymministries.org. These resources were originally developed for First Nations and other indigenous peoples of northern Canada. Short articles and Bible studies on marriage, parenting, recovery and other aspects of family life may be printed from the site and distributed after obtaining permission from David Hertzler at dhertzle@dryden.lakeheadu.ca. The site also lists literature, tapes and videos which may be obtained free or for reasonable prices from NYM Ministries.

INTERCESSORS FOR CHINA 2000 CALENDAR READY FOR SHIPPING

The year 2000 calendar focuses on three areas, Unknown Martyrs, Unreached Minorities, and Urban Masses. It includes historical and up-to-date information about the needs of the Chinese church for directed prayer. Prices for the USA and Canada range from $6.75 for 1 calendar up to $3.70 ea. for 500 or more. Other countries should call or email for more information. Ambassadors for Christ is the distributor for the calendars as well as other literature in the Chinese simplified script. (You can call them for more information about their effective simplified script literature.) Email: calendars@afcinc.org or on the web at http://www.prayforchina.com

GLOBAL GLIMPSE AT THE POWER OF PRAYER

Malawi’s Muslim Yao tribe was one of the world’s unreached people groups, but at the end of the 1980’s some churches began to pray for the Yao and they sent missionaries. Herbert Behrens reports: “Our Yao assistant took us to the local chief emphasizing that I should ask his permission to preach the gospel to the Yao. ‘He will ask you “What is your name, and what do you want from us?”‘. When he did I replied ‘My name is Herbert, and I have come to preach you the gospel of Jesus Christ.’ Pandemonium broke out with all of the elders speaking loudly at once. At last the chief gave permission. Later I learned that 20 years before, an African Christian named Herbert went to this chief and said the very same words. The chief gave permission to preach in the village square. Six people became Christians and were immediately killed by the villagers, along with the first Herbert. The Yao feared that the Herbert whom they had killed had returned from the dead to avenge himself.” The second Herbert Behrens happily goes on to report that 12 Christian churches have been planted in the region.
(Source: FRIDAYFax Vol 99, No. 39, October 1st, 1999, Web FridayFax http://www.cmd.org.nz/ffaxnu.html)
Global Glimpse is compiled occasionally by John Hanna, Caleb Project, Littleton, CO.

TRY THIS CHURCH PLANTING STRATEGY

Local bodies of believers have been started using the “Tri-C” formula of field work: Contact, Convert and Congregate. For one month in the summer, volunteers train and are placed in a Team to work for three weeks on field. After their “Summer of Service”, a trained Pioneering Pastor continues on-site with the results of the saturation evangelistic campaign. A church is planted!

The “Summer of Service” strategy, and training materials available, can be seen at http://www.i-rox.net.ph/churchplanting. Since 1986, the AG church and Berean Bible School at Roxas City have been planting churches throughout the Philippines and in Cambodia. They are sharing the resources that get runs on the board! Training materials in Microsoft WORD format are available on request, from Pastor Rey Calusay at farm@i-rox.net.ph.

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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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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!