19991205 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! Founded 25 January 1995, 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.

HOW DO I MERRY CHRISTMAS THEE? LET ME COUNT THE WAYS

Actually, we now have more than 100 [ways to say Merry Christmas in different languages]! . . . thanks to Jake! Get a copy of Jake’s multi-lingual Christmas greetings file by sending an emailed note to: christmas-greetings@brigada.worldchurches.org. Last year, we finally put together some 30+ ways to say Merry Christmas. Now, thanks to Jake’s advance work, we’ll be much closer to meeting our goal of having Christmas truly happen in every land!

GLOBAL GLIMPSE: TESTIMONY FROM THE BALKANS

“What a testimony that this year, this small group of people — we Evangelicals make up only 0.2% of Albania’s population — cared for 15% of the refugees that came from Kosovo. And that this little baby church has sent missionaries to Kosovo. Several Kosovar pastors who survived the torture were with us. It is a blessing that we see ourselves as one church. It is also a testimony that outreach happening to minorities, both here and in Kosovo are at the hands of Believers.”
(Source: Field Report from Eastern Mennonite Missions, 19 Nov, 1999 http://www.EveryPeople.net/Kosovarhome.php3?UseOrder=36 )
Global Glimpse is compiled by John Hanna, Caleb Project, Littleton, CO.

ALMA TRAINING CENTER SET TO OPEN

The ALMA missionary training center is set to open in Paraguay on January 12th, 2000. The vision of ALMA (America Latina Misiones Al Mundo) is to serve as a Christian community that will help to mobilize, train and prepare Latin Americans to have an active role in helping to fulfill the Great Commission especially in those most unreached areas, both in Latin America and to the ends of the earth. The ALMA training program is designed to provide a complementary balance between classroom studies and practical ministry training. If you would like more information about the ministry of ALMA you can check their web site at http://www.A-L-M-A.org or e-mail: danielcool@a-l-m-a.org. The website is both in English and Spanish. Interested students may fill in the preliminary application form on line, or send for the email version. The staff at ALMA would appreciate BRIGADA readers forwarding this announcement to their Latin American mission-mobilizing friends.

ANOTHER CALLBACK SERVICE

Okay – we’re going to try to run another item about callback services, in case there are still some folks out there who haven’t tried them. (The condition: that nobody gets a kickback.

There are just too many kickback plans among our 10,000 member constituency. We’re preaching to the choir.) Try GlobalTel International. Call from the USA to these countries for these “cents/minute” rates:
Germany for 13.5,
Hong Kong – 15.5,
Israel – 18.5,
Japan – 16,
Mexico – 28.5,
Norway – 13.5,
UK – 12.5.
The same rates apply if calls are made from these countries to USA. For rates between any two other countries in the world, go to: http://www.globaltel-callback.com/rates.htm.

There is no cost to open an account with GlobalTel. There are no statement fees, no monthly minimum charges and no per call surcharges. The only cost is the actual phone calls you make. Rates are good 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Other features offered are secure on-line sign up, the ability to check your account information and calling details on-line and the ability to use your computer to trigger a callback over the Internet. This service can also be used as a non pre- paid calling card when traveling in North America. The current rate when calling within the USA is only 11 cents per minute! For more detailed information about this service, go to: http://www.globaltel-callback.com

We’re greatly indebted to Billy williams@kcn.ne.jp for tipping us off to this service. Thanks Billy!

SPANISH MISSIONS COURSES AND SERVICES

The electronic page “Pueblos” is offering three new Spanish courses in World Missions along with other valuable resources. During the last two years Pueblos has had students from all around the world. Check it out at http//www.pueblos.org and for more information, Miguel merivera@coqui.net. You can also read a Spanish version of Brigada Today there — “Brigada Hoy” — along with the connection to several organizations throughout the Hispanic missions world.

NEW WEB SITE TO REACH MUSLIMS

A new web site has been completed to reach out to Muslims. It highlights materials available to Muslims, free of cost, which point them to the Savior. They can hear two parts of an audio drama online, read several contextualized articles, link to an online correspondence course, order materials and email their prayer requests. This web site is being operated by India based, Beruma Ministry, at http://www.geocities.com/beruma1. Email your feedback and inquires to Beruma1@yahoo.com.

INTENT’S INTENT

Intent (U.S. affiliate of Tentmakers International Exchange), is seeking to bring together individuals interested in Muslim ministries for regional Islamic Training Coalition Roundtables to formulate a consensus regarding the minimal competencies required to serve effectively as a Kingdom Professional (tentmaker) in an Islamic context. Attendees should have experience and/or expertise in one or more of the following: Missiology, Islamics as an academic specialty, Street practitioners in Muslim evangelism, Experienced missionaries among Muslims, Mission executives in organizations involved in Muslim ministry, Staff from specialized training institutes focused on Muslims, Staff of specialized research institutes with relevant expertise, Specialists in the design of continuing professional education. ITC Roundtables are working sessions. There are no fees, but attendance is limited to 15-25 people. If interested, write Larry Kendrick, ITC Director and Gary Ginter, Intent Chairman at Lskwinusa@juno.com, or call 708-763-8186 in the USA.

BOOKS FOR YOU AND YOUR MUSLIM FRIENDS

Now you can read your way to understanding your Muslim friends. Try these books…

The 99 Beautiful Names Of God by Dr. David Bentley (of Zwemmer Inst), available from Wm Carey Library, P.O. Box 40129 Pasadena, CA 91114 626-798-0819 or 1-800-Mission. An excellent add-on to your morning time with the Lord. Listing each of the 99 names in both Arabic and English, the comments which follow give the Biblical meaning of these names, as well as deeply thought through theological insights.
Ethnic Realities On The Church: Lessons From Kurdistan By Bob Blincoe, U.S. Director of Frontiers and “Friends of the Kurds.” Insights from his work with the Kurds in America. From Wm Carey Library.
Muslims And Christians At The Table by Bruce McDowell (of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia), and Anees Zaka, Founder of Church Without Walls. Published by P & R.(Presbyterian & Reformed) Publishing, P.O. Box 817, Phillipsburg, NJ 08865 contains a wealth of helpful information.
Free at Last? The Gospel In The African-American Experience by Carl Ellis, of Project Joseph (also a Board member of Westminster Seminary/ Philadelphia), published by Inter-Varsity Press.

FREE ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE

Thanks to Terry, based in Spain, terryware@bigfoot.com for sleuthing out some free antivirus software for all those who, for whatever reason, prefer not to buy from Norton or McAffee. Check it out at http://antivirus.cai.com/cgi-bin/ipe/connect.cgi. Terry says they’re publishing updates almost daily to keep up with new viruses being detected. Way to go, Terry!

CHRISTIAN COMICS/CARTOON RESOURCES

The comics training and consulting ministry ROX35 Media, Inc. maintains the Christian Comics International (CCI) web site as an additional ministry service and resource. They have just added a new “Mailbag” section with answers to the many questions they receive about Christian comics. Also, they have revived the Christian Comics Catalog with almost 50 comics and cartoon books, in English, Spanish, Japanese, and (soon) in German, which can be ordered right on-line. The CCI website is located at: http://users.aol.com/ChriCom/ or write ROX35Media@aol.com.

FITS THEM TO A TEE

The International Electronic Library is requesting directories of seminaries, Bible colleges, pastors’ training institutes and schools offering TEE (theological education by extension) in developing countries. If you are aware of any such directories, please write Wendy wludo@megsinet.net.

WEF MISSIONS COMMISSION’S DECLARATION OF IGUASSU

Under the auspices of the World Evangelical Fellowship Missions Commission, 160 mission practitioners, missiologists and church leaders from 53 countries, met in Foz de Iguassu, Brazil on October 10-15, 1999. The purpose of the meeting was to reflect on the challenges and opportunities facing world missions at the dawn of the new millennium. The consultation produced an important document entitled “The Declaration of Iguassu.” It is available for review on the WEF web site: http://www.worldevangelical.org.

STILL PREPARING THOSE PRACTICAL Y2K PLANS?

Hmmmm. Nothing like waiting ’til the last few minutes of the millennium!

Anyway, maybe you’re in luck. Here’s a new site in Calgary to give you ideas… http://www.c-f.net/y2kplan.htm

MISSION TRIP TO HAWAII (NO KIDDING!)

Commit Ministries is offering a rather unique short-term opportunity to High School and College age students desiring to serve in a meaningful capacity this Summer. Commit is recruiting this team to help facilitate successful Vacation Bible School programs for needy churches on the outer islands of Hawaii. The program begins with training on the island of Oahu, July 6th and the student team returns home on August 14th, a total of five weeks. The cost per student is $2185 which includes RT airfare from just about anywhere in the US, most meals, camp style or better lodging, Interisland airfare, ground transportation, VBS training, and debriefing. Contact Jeff commit@juno.com for more details.

FREE ARABIC LANGUAGE SCRIPTURE IN BIG NUMBERS

The “Injeel ash- sharif” is an Arabic translation of the New Testament that has been circulated for several years. The translator, an Egyptian Christian, has now finished the Old Testament to this translation.

The “Sharif” translation is different from other existing versions in several ways. First, it is written in simple Standard Arabic, so that even minimally educated people can benefit from it. Secondly, it is the only Arabic translation written to speak to Muslims in their own language. Other translations use ecclesiastical terminology and literalisms that can be either confusing or offensive to this audience. Thirdly, it is written using vocabulary which will be understood in the broadest range of Arabic-speaking countries, from N. Africa to the Gulf. Bible translators who have compared the existing versions have found this version to be the clearest, most natural, and most accurate translation in Modern Standard Arabic.

The Sharif, 4th edition, OT and NT, is due to be printed Christmas time. The publisher is offering up to 100 copies for free. You can get 200 if you’re willing to pay shipping costs. This edition promises to be quite an improvement over the last edition. If you’d like to take part, the publisher/translator insists on getting the following info, since the last time many addresses were incomplete and/or there were problems with delivery:

Name
Postal address for Dec99/Jan2000
Email address
Telephone
Fax (if available)

You can send your order to chicadelic@hotmail.com. Thanks!

UTILIZING ARTS/ETHNIC ARTS IN CHURCH PLANTING AMONG MUSLIMS

Grace gracew@idmail.com requests your help! She is looking for stories about how the arts/ethnic arts have been or are being utilized in church planting among Muslims…arts such as visual arts, for example…If you know of such stories, please contact Grace with the information. If it is something that you would be willing to share in an upcoming Ethnic Worship & Arts Focus newsletter and in Brigada Today, she would be careful to observe issues of sensitivity. Thank you!

GET YOUR FAXES FOR FREE

Just check out http://www.faxwave.com to see the details. Whenever anyone faxes to that number, it is sent to you via email attachment; all for free. As calls to the US are cheaper than to Europe generally, it should save people sending to you, and if you have your email forwarded, the fax will follow you all over the globe.

MORE FREE SERVICES

For an entire list of more free services on the Internet (including uReach.com and many more), write to free-online@brigada.worldchurches.org. You’ll receive a complete list of free or low-cost services on the Net!

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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!