19991024 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, Albanian 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.

SEQUEL TO THE ENGEL SCALE . . . “THE GRAY MATRIX”

With all the sequels these days, it’s no wonder Frank Gray has brought one out for the Engel Scale.

Seriously, the ‘Gray Matrix’ is a two-dimensional development of the ‘Engel Scale’ by Frank Gray of FEBC. The vertical axis represents knowledge of the gospel on the Engel scale of -7 to +4 (arranged with -7 at the bottom). But the new horizontal axis is ‘closedness’ to the left and ‘openness’ to the right — or antagonism to the left versus enthusiasm to the right, if you will. This does, literally, add a new dimension to understanding where a particular person or group stands in relation to the gospel. It is very valuable in analyzing the target audience of any form of Christian communication. An explanation is contained within a longer article on radio communication strategy, which also offers insight into other types of communication too. You’ll have to page down several times before you catch a glimpse of the scale.

http://www.febc.org/roles200.html
Thanks for the tip, Tony!

VISIT THE AFRICAN PROVERBS CONFERENCE

The African Proverbs two- way discussion list requests Christians who know of African proverbs to join the list and share them with the group. The owner of the site, Joe Healey, is committed to the value of communicating Christian truth by drawing out truth from proverbs. Check it out at http://www.afriprov.org
Thanks again, Tony!

HOW CAN ONE USE THE WEB FOR EVANGELISM?

Find out on the monthly email Web Evangelism Bulletin, which looks at developments in web evangelism. It also of offers ideas for promoting Christian web sites of all types. It is part of a comprehensive resource site. Find it at: https://brigada.org/today/articles/webevangelismbulletin.html

GRAD EDUCATION JUST GOT EASIER!

Fuller Theological Seminary invites you to earn academic credit right now, right where you live! How? Through Fuller’s two distinct distance learning programs! The first is “Individualized Distance Learning” (IDL). These courses can be studied anytime, anyplace using audiocassette lectures and notebooks, supplemented by readings and some videos. Students and teachers may interact via mail, telephone, email, and fax. The other is Fuller Online (FOL). Beginning immediately, these courses will be offered in ten-week quarters and will require interaction using a computer over the WWW. To find out more about Fuller Online visit: http://www.fulleronline.org To find out more about Individualized Distance Learning visit: http://www.fuller.edu or, either way, email idl@fuller.edu or call toll-free in the USA 800-999-9578. Those outside may use 626-584-5266.

MEDICAL MISSIONS PLUS

Interested in a mission trip that combines medical work with evangelism and encouragement for Christians? Youth for Christ sponsors trips to India and Nepal that might be just what you’re looking for. The trip to INDIA will be held FEB. 17-MARCH 5, 2000. The team will serve in Mysore and Nagpur, where surgeons will have opportunity to work alongside Indian doctors and general practitioners will participate in rural clinics. Surgical nurses are needed as well. A ministry team will also be formed to present music, drama, puppets and preaching. The NEPAL trip will take place MARCH 9- 27. The emphasis will be on rural clinics, serving people who may never have seen a doctor before. For more information, contact Dr. Art Deyo adeyo@yfc.net or Mike Mercer mmercer333@mindspring.com. Teams are forming immediately, so please respond soon!

JOB FORUM FOR TRANSLATORS

For Christian workers with foreign language translation skills, Uniscape.com might be a place to pick up some freelance work. Uniscape.com is positioning itself as a marketplace for translation activities on the Web and invites translators around the world to register their language expertise on their web site. Registration is free to translators as is the use of Uniscape’s translation tools. For more info or to register, go to http://www.uniscape.com. Other questions? Email Seda smansour@uniscape.com.

NEEDS IN JAPAN

There are 20 million online Japanese, yet very few evangelistic web sites in Japanese. If you’re needing a translator for some specific ministries, contact tony@soon.org.uk. Campus Crusade is currently contextualizing and translating their excellent evangelistic POWER TO CHANGE site into a number of languages including Japanese and Arabic. Check it out at: http://www.powertochange.com

PLUG IN TO YOUR NEXT CLASS ONLINE

Intercessory prayer leaders Eddie and Alice Smith were joined by students from dozens of states including eight people from Australia on their first teleclass on the subject “Pastors and Intercessors Working Together.” “This is an innovative way to teach people from the comfort of their home, office, or from wherever they choose to call,” Eddie Smith says. “We even have people from Singapore booked for tomorrow night’s class.” Teleclass lines will carry up to 1,000 participants at one time for these highly interactive calls! For information about future teleclass opportunities send a blank email message with the subject “teleclass” to 75711.2501@compuserve.com.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING FOR Y2K?

Don’t forget the list of sites below for Y2K readiness checks. Practically speaking, many mission organizations are advising their respective missionaries to have at least one and maybe two months of salaries on hand in advance of the calendar change. This is especially true in nations like Ukraine, where non-compliant embedded systems in the power grid might indeed drive power circuits crazy.

For more, check out http://www.y2k.gov or http://www.sba.gov/y2k.
For individual issues, look at The Cassandra Project http://www.cassandraproject.org or http://www.redcross.org/y2k.html or http://www.y2kwomen.com.
If you’d like to check your PCs, look at http://www.pcy2000.org, http://www.pcmag.com/special/y2k or http://www.y2k.com.
You can get 2 free utilities at http://www.on-mark.com and http://www.symantec.com/sabu/n2000/fs_corporate.html.
You can even check your compliance over the web at http://www.mcafee.com/clinic/2000tb.asp

CCDA CONFERENCE IS HAPPENING

The 10th anniversary conference of CCDA (Christian Community Development Association) is slated for Nov. 17-21. CCDA is an association of 6000 individual members and 600 organizations who are committed to reaching the poor with the gospel of Jesus Christ. CCDA conference is great opportunity to learn how to evangelize and disciple the poor and minorities in urban settings. It great opportunity to learn and network. Some of the conference speakers include Tony Campolo, Tony Evans, Irwin Lutzer, Ron Sider, Joe Stowell, John Perkins, Jawanza Kunjufu, Date: November 17-21, Where: Moody Memorial Chapel, Moody Bible Institute, Chicago, Illinois. Check out their web site and register on-line at http://www.ccda.org or write Terry Riley tbriley@wdata.com.

INTERCESSORS FOR CHINA PRAYER CALENDAR

This year 2000 calendar (urging prayer for China) 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 down to $3.70 ea. for 500 or more. If you are outside US 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

HOW MANY ARE DYING PER HOUR?

We recently asked for that stat, and here is the answer! (“ON THE HUNT FOR A STAT“) According to at least one source, the authoritative statistics come from the World Evangelization Research Center, chaired by David Barrett, author of the World Christian Encyclopedia. The web site with the current location of this statistic can be found at: http://www.gem-werc.org/gd/gd46.htm The short answer is, 31.1 million per year, on average, which works out to 85,205 per day, or 3,550 per hour, or 59 per minute, or about 1 per second. Thanks Justin!

TO SUBSCRIBE — To subscribe to BRIGADA TODAY, send email to brigada-today-subscribe@egroups.com.

TO UNSUBSCRIBE — Send email to brigada-today-unsubscribe@egroups.com. (Subject and text are ignored.)
IF IT DOESN’T WORK — Write Don & Judy, our Customer Services Managers at help@brigada.org. Yahooooo for volunteers!!!

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!”
For subscription questions or problems, write help@brigada.org.

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.
Thanks to for hosting the Brigada mailing list.
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!