20000116 Brigada Today

In this issue….

BRIGADA TURNS FIVE YEARS OLD!

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 (but made public on 21 March 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 5 whole years of weekly back issues (Count ’em!) 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. The email edition is then published on the web by Bob Mayhew mayhew@brigada.org, bless his soul.

Want to celebrate Brigada’s birthday? There’s no better way than to come to BrigadaFest, Feb. 3-5. For more information, go to http://www.teamexpansion.org and click on BrigadaFest info.

VIDEOS/FILMS OF UNREACHED PEOPLES

What an incredible index! Once I discovered the work that AD2000 & Beyond had done on their new unreached people video index, I started begging them to make it available to the world on the web. Lo and behold, within 10 days, they cranked it out for all to see! I love it! And as far as I know, you’re hearing it first right here in Brigada. Just head on over to the AD2000 web site at: http://www.ad2000.org/adoption/Resrc/Video/Index.htm for a listing of hundreds of videos/films from both Christian and non- Christian sources (including the American Anthropological Association). The entries feature specific peoples, or peoples related to those on the Joshua Project 2000 list. A printed version is included in “Building Networks”, available for $12 from info@ad2000.org. AD2000 & Beyond extends special thanks to researcher, Pete Eyster! And we all extend thanks to Lee, Dan, Tom, Barb, and all the other folks at AD2000 who have worked hard to put resources like this at our fingertips!

PEOPLETEAMS: A NEW SWITCHBOARD FOR UNREACHED PEOPLES INFO

I’ve been poking and prodding to find out more about PeopleTeams.org (featured last week, “FREE WEBSITE HOSTING SERVICE“). I must admit — I’m pleasantly surprised and encouraged. As it turns out, the service is maintained by a staff of some 40 individuals who all share a passion for unreached peoples. Five are focused specifically on web- based services and another dozen or so laboring just to keep servers running at top speed. As I said last week, this service is being sponsored by a major Great Commission Christian group — and I can vouch for its character — but the agency is choosing to remain as anonymous as possible for the general public so that it can provide this service as a free switchboard for the unreached. So the bottom line is that someone, somewhere has given sacrificially so you can have an ad-free environment in which to host your unreached people group network, or at least point people to it. So check it out at http://www.peopleteams.org. Just click on “Request a Free Website.” Mark my words — this thing has potential. And by the way — they’re running FrontPage server extensions, so you can publish using those.

… OR STRATEGIC NETWORK OFFERS COMMUNITIES

Check out the Strategic Network on the web. It offers a series of “toolboxes” which allow you to publish information on our site about your people group. This includes a complete content management system for publishing newsletters, prayer requests, web links, knowledge base articles, photo catalog, documents (some password-protected), up to 99 message bases (which can be open, restricted or closed and can be integrated with e-mail mailing lists), bookstore, and more. Plus, they have an e- commerce system coming which will enable people to contribute funds toward specific projects. They have the JP2000 list integrated into their site and offer free space for anyone who wants to moderate a forum on a specific region, country, people group, or issue (you can create your own issue-based forum–i.e. persecution, or missionary training, etc–in our forums area). For more information, check them out at http://www.strategicnetwork.org. Additionally, they also offer free hosting for agency splash pages, private password-protected workgroup areas, free email list service (now in beta), and much, much more… Their goal is a community area for people interested in serving the least-evangelized peoples of the world. Their method is “to promote our members rather than themselves.” To see some of their sample communities in action, check out: http://yemen.strategicnetwork.org, http://tibet.strategicnetwork.org, and http://japan.strategicnetwork.org.

RED LIGHT, GREEN LIGHT (NEW VIDEO)

Check out this great new video by Good News Productions. It features interviews with 2 beginning missionaries talking honestly about their hopes, their doubts, their tough decisions, “What did it take to get you to go?”, humor, candid testimonies, video footage from around the world. For more info, write gnpi@gnpi.org or, if calling from the USA or via Net2Phone, call 800- 457-GNPI.

MISSION COMPUTER SPECIALISTS TO MEET IN AUSTRALIA

Since 1989, Christian mission computer specialists have been meeting in the USA at the International Conference on Computers and Missions (ICCM). Now, for the first time, an ICCM is to be held outside the US, in Australia. Computer and Internet specialists from Christian Mission offices in Australia and the Pacific region will meet in April 2000 in Melbourne to exchange ideas and learn new technology. ICCM-AU 2000 will be held on the weekend before Easter, April 13-17, 2000. The conference is open to both fulltime staff and volunteers involved with supporting computer systems for Christian missions and/or communicating via the World Wide Web. Participants from outside Australia are welcome. ICCM will still be held in the USA in June 2000. Contact iccm-au@crosscape.com.au You can also see http://www.iccm.org/.

SCRIPTURE GIFT MISSION – AFRICA

Scripture Gift Mission Africa http://www.sgm.org.za, part of SGM International, exists for the purpose of publishing Scripture portions in a culturally acceptable way, reaching as many people of the world as possible. SGM publications feature carefully selected verses on different themes intended to introduce the message of the Bible. SGM works primarily in major languages, but has a particular concern for smaller language groups as well. As a result, every year SGM has the privilege of publishing the very first Scripture portions for several language groups. If you, or people you know of, are conducting outreaches and missions work in Africa then consider using SGM material. SGM material is given free to those who ask for it. SGM has many local offices or depots in African countries. Contact Manie Lombard at saf@sgm.org for more information.

A PICTURE’S WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

Mark Kelly reports in the latest Advance, “A church in the Ukraine conducted an evangelism project that included an exhibit of paintings in a local cultural center that portrayed the life of Jesus. Visitors were given a guided tour and a Bible and were invited to church. Missionaries were excited to discover that among those drawn to the exhibit were Crimean Tartars, an unreached people group that lives on the Crimean Peninsula. Workers were able to sow gospel seeds among this unreached people group, answering questions about who Jesus is and giving away Bibles. Thank God for surprising these workers with this opening for the gospel. Lift the Crimean Tartars to the throne of grace and pray that God’s spirit would move in power among them.”
(To subscribe to Mark’s free sister publication, send an e-mail to subscribe-advance-newsletter@xc.org.)

MISSIONARY ALERT EGROUP

Christian Missionary Alert has been created so that missions and missionaries can alert each other to emergency situations and events worldwide. This would include concerns such as: natural disasters, political unrest, persecution outbreaks, epidemics, terrorist threats and activities, etc. If you or your mission board need this kind of information and would be willing to share emergency information that you are personally aware of in your area, the group’s organizers invite you to join this network of missionaries who are concerned for one another’s safety and well-being. To subscribe, send a blank message to cmalert-subscribe@egroups.com.

J3:16 TRACT INNOVATION

Caribbean Christian Publications has produced quality color tracts for downloading at http://www.impacto.org/j3-16. The idea is that these FREE one-color tracts can be downloaded (PDF format), opened, viewed and printed using Adobe Acrobat Reader (free from http://www.adobe.com). Once they are printed out they can be copied (front and back of a 8.5 X 11″ paper) on photostatic copiers and distributed at will. Many have already done this. In fact, one Venezuelan said copying on demand was more financially feasible than going out and stocking up on already printed tracts. Available in English, Portuguese and Spanish. Look for French soon. For more info. write John jmhatton@cinmail.net.

AUDIO SCRIPTURES IN REAL AUDIO AND MP3

Audio Scriptures International (ASI), founded in California in 1989, now has its beautiful Portrait of Jesus arrangement of Scriptures from the Gospels and the “God’s Powerful Savior” arrangement from Luke available from its web site in 85 different languages. At http://www.audioscriptures.org you can listen to these in Real Audio or MP3 player in whatever language best communicates for the listener. Many have said that these arrangements are to the audio world what the Jesus Film is to the visual. ASI also has its most recent recording, the new translation of the New Testament in Albanian posted in Real Audio and MP3. The entire Bible in Chinese Mandarin and in Russian is scheduled to become available in Real Audio soon. ASI has entire New Testaments available in audio in some 200 languages and individual books in another 125 languages. You can find all of these listed in their web site catalog.

MISSIONS SONGBOOK/CD: “LET THE NATIONS REJOICE”

The latest edition of “Let the Nations Rejoice-Worship songs declaring God’s Glory” is ready for shipping. This compilation of missions songs celebrates the global reign of King Jesus and challenges the Lord’s people to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Appealing to churches from liturgical and traditional to contemporary, the collection gathers together powerful mission hymns and choruses from across the English-speaking world. Accompanying the 32-song resource is a CD of 15 of the tunes, recorded by a team of well-known Christian artist “musicianaries” with a global heartbeat. The recording is like a double CD in that it starts with the fifteen fully orchestrated tracks and concludes with a second version of the fifteen songs just with the instrumental parts for small churches or soloists needing backing tracks. For ordering information email Dennis dennis.brightman@usa.om.org.
(Thanks to Rick of Missions Frontiers at the US Center for World Missions for the tip!)

GLOBAL GLIMPSE ON CHILDREN OF THE JESUS FILM

Children are the focus of a new video being produced by the Jesus Film Project. Director of the Jesus Film Project, Paul Eshleman, says this is one of their top three projects for the year. “In February we will be releasing the new story of Jesus for children. It’s the adaptation of the Jesus Film. We went back and recreated sets just like they looked in the original film and we followed six children from ages six to 12 through the story as they watched Jesus feed the 5,000 and raise the daughter of Jirus from the dead.” It will be released in English first and then translated into other languages next year. The Jesus Film has been one of the most successful tools for evangelism ever.
(Source: Mission Network News, Jan 17, 2000, http://www.gospelcom.net/mnn/news-01-17-00.html)
Global Glimpse is compiled by John Hanna, Caleb Project, Littleton, CO.

WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT AIDS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA?

Jan Jana@irn.pdx.edu is seeking information on missionaries, mission organizations, and other non-government organizations that are assisting those with AIDS, working to prevent the spread of AIDS, and/or caring for AIDS orphans in Sub-Saharan Africa. She’d appreciate a summary briefing of your work. She needs the information by Friday, 18 February 2000, so as to prepare a report for her church’s Global Action Committee. She requests that you put “AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa” in the Subject Line. She’ll prepare a compilation for us to post here as an auto-responder file. Thanks Jan!

FREE MISSIONS MAGAZINES

You simply can’t beat the price on these Berry Publishing offers. Bill Bberry4215@aol.com is offering Into All The World (the annual Great Commission Opportunities Handbook, 52 pages long), and Short-Term Missions Today (84 pages long) to churches, schools, mission agencies and other groups. He only asks that you cover the “out-of-pocket” shipping & handling costs of getting these issues to you and that you request at least 10 copies total (mix & match is fine). To order, contact Bill at the email address above or write Bill Berry, Publisher, PO Box 40519, Pasadena CA 91114 or fax him in the USA at 626-798-8582. He pledges immediate shipment.

INSTITUTE FOR CHURCH MISSIONS LEADERS (ICML)

Looking for a seminary level course for local church missions? Now you’ve got it. It’s happening June 4 – 8 at Grand Rapids Baptist Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Organizers call it practical and in-depth, aimed at helping local church leaders develop a Strategy. Presenters will share 30 hours on Biblical basis, purpose, vision, values, strategic planning, policy development, current issues and trends, and the role of church leaders in missions. The cost is $355 including registration, materials, lunch and snacks, and lodging on campus. Participants can garner three hours of graduate credit for an extra fee. For more information, contact David 102100.2020@compuserve.com.

MEDIA SYMPOSIUM IN NASHVILLE

Did you know there’s a Divine Conspiracy to employ your skills as a media professional and impact world cultures as yet unreached by the Gospel? And you thought it would take a seminary degree or a clerical collar or at least a passing grade in Sunday School. Not so! Or you thought it would take years of jungle survival and language training or crocodile-wrestling expertise. Not so! MediaPOST presents a Nashville Symposium for media professionals. Learn how you can do something significant with your God-given talents, your media skill set, in a cross-cultural setting. Come join them at The Foundry in Nashville on Thursday afternoon, January 27th. The excitement begins at 4:30 pm and goes to 7:30 with a break for catered food. Get the full details at http://www.mediapost.org/symposium.html.

BECOME A TESOL TEACHER WITH MUSLIM STUDENT PRACTICUM!

This 4 week intensive course will be held in the Southern Philippines, with on-the-job-training among Muslim students at a local university. The dates are April 24 – May 20, 2000. The cost can’t be beat–only 400 US dollars which includes board, lodging, books, resources, teacher’s fees, and registration cost. 10,000 RP Pesos for Philippine citizens. The course will equip you to teach conversational English to non- English speakers. A certificate from the University of Nations will be awarded upon successful completion of the course. For more info. email Jurene pjmbreid@jmf.org.ph or write: QCCPO 1415, 1154 Quezon City, Philipppines, or call (Philippine #): 011-6349-411-1784.

READY FOR A FILM CHANGE?

Are you ready to change the world through film? Has God given you a passion to impact the movie industry? Do you desire to learn about directing, writing and production? Then the School of Digital Filmmaking (Com #232) is for you! The next school starts the end of April 2000. For questions or comments write svp@uofn.edu or visit their web page at http://www.uofnkona.edu. Master the art of visual story-telling to communicate the message of Jesus Christ!

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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!”
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.
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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!