20000416 Brigada Today

In this issue….

CHRIST IS RISEN – HE IS RISEN INDEED!!!

May Resurrection Sunday be a blessed day in the lives of you and those you love! While serving in what used to be called the Soviet Union back in 1991, my family and I were struck by the greeting our friends used on Easter Sunday. “Christ is risen,” someone would say. The “official” answer was “He is risen indeed!” On this Easter weekend, 2000, we pray for peace on earth… and that all those on this earth would finally have access to the peace that can come through knowing Jesus Christ as savior and redeemer.

JUST FOR FUN: EASTER EGGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW YOU HAD

Okay… so what do mission-types do in their spare time on Easter weekend? Well, at least one (in Northeastern Ohio, USA) collects surprises for us!

Walle wrote this weekend to provide us with a whole basket full of what are commonly called “Easter eggs” — special features in the programs you’ve been using all along, “features” you didn’t know you had!

You’ve got to see these to believe them. What do they communicate? One thing for sure. Some conclude that these programmers have a sense of humor. Others say they have too much time on their hands.

Still others say it just contributes to the “code bloat” that we already complain about when we see software coming on 4 CDs! No matter how the eggs crack though, I guess these programmer guys and gals type on their keyboards way into the night, coding the zillions of lines of programming… so when they’re nearly done, they want to leave a kind of “secret passageway” into a trademark or a special picture or special credits or whatever. It’s like finding a “trap door” in your computer! Walle’s collected a whole batch — and links to still others. If you’re interested in that sort of thing, get his 4K list of items in Windows 98, Excel, Internet Explorer, Netscape, and more, just send a note to easter-eggs@Brigada.org. Okay, okay . . . I know… it’s kind of silly. But hey… being a missionary-type isn’t all work and no play!

Thanks Walle!

REGISTER FOR THE GREAT COMMISSION CONNECTION

Become a part of a worldwide movement of The Holy Spirit, in a fast track fulfillment of the Great Commission, co-laboring with Southern Baptist International Mission Board, Campus Crusade for Christ and others. Send your name, church, people group, para-church ministry, or individual registration. Receive from Sharing Christ Ministries, the Great Commission Package, Contact Sharing Christ Ministries at flasecretary@aol.com, at 904-615-1411 or visit the website at http://www.sharechrist.org.

LAY PERSONS AND MISSIONS PERSONNEL

Campus Crusade for Christ is continuing to ask for assistance with a leadership research project. They need a large number of people to fill out an anonymous on-line survey to help test the questionnaire items. You need not be a missionary — laypersons are welcome to participate. The web address in last week’s Brigada did not work for all e-mail clients, so please use http://home.ccci.org/cccsurvey/index.html. The more people who fill it out, the better, so pass the word! The survey will be available until May 5. Those who participate will be able to see some of the results online.

WEB-WATCH: TRACTS IN SOUTH ASIAN LANGUAGES

Ever notice the way the web has “leveled the playing field” for start-up ministries, right along side the “heavy hitters” in a particular industry? For example, visit http://www.multilingual-southasian.com if you need tracts and booklets in Tamil or some other South Asian language. How would we have ever heard about these folks without the web? But do they have to be a big shop to have an online catalogue for global marketing? Not any more. The Internet has opened their shop for global business!

NEW LAW PROTECTING KIDS ON THE WEB

Interested in learning more about the new law that went into effect April 21, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)? Sharon shindle@ptd.net pointed out that we can click on http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/coppa.htm for more information. Thanks Sharon!

FOR THOSE SEEKING INFORMATION ON ISLAM

Keith wrote this past week to recommend “Call of Hope” and its two associated ministries. They carry materials in the largest twenty Muslim languages, with hopes of providing Muslims (and those sharing with them) more information about the person of Jesus and His hope for mankind. He spoke very highly of Call of Hope, Germany info@call-of-hope.com, http://www.call-of-hope.com; and The Good Way, Switzerland, info@the-good-way.com, http://www.the.good.way.com, and Light of Life, Austria, response@light-of-life.com, http://www.light-of-life.com.

NEW PRAYER NETWORK

Netprayers is the new Christian prayer network at http://www.netprayers.org (English) and http://www.netprayers.de (German). Netprayers wants to encourage Christians to pray more and pray with more joy — and with the pace of their site’s development, I’d say they stand a good chance! Lots of resources there… and more coming all the time. The goal is to “strengthen the body of believers to the glory of God.” Netprayers wants to “provide a pool of resources for the praying Christian.” You will find news, tips and hints, resources and articles on prayer on our website — and it’s all done very attractively, too, I might add. A country almanac will start soon. They also support different prayer sites on the web, such as the lighthouse movement, NPPN, etc. For more information, contact Achim blackstein@netprayers.de. This site must originate in Germany. Great work Achim!

TRY A MOTORHOME ON YOUR NEXT HOME SERVICE!

Okay… so now you’ve heard everything, right?

But I’m serious. I received a note this past week from Marco marco.defelice@tin.it. He’s a strong believer in missionaries using motor homes during their furloughs (or, as some say these days, “home service”). He wrote up his views and we’ve put them into an autoresponder. Just write motorhome-service@brigada.org if you’re interested in getting his 6K document. I realize that this way of thinking will fit in best in a Western setting . . . but we figure over half our readers are from the West anyway… so we offer this item without apology, in case others find motorhome-service as fulfilling as Marco. Interested? Send the email & get the article.

NOT TO LATE [BUT ALMOST!] TO LEARN ABOUT HINDU PEOPLES

The Institute of Hindu Studies and the India Center for Mission will be conducting a 10 hour Hindu Awareness Seminar on April 28 from 6 – 9 p.m. and 29th from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. at the U.S. Center for World Mission in Pasadena, CA. If interested, call (626)398-2314 or email ihs@uscwm.org for more details.

CHRISTIAN COMICS TRAINING COMES TO EASTERN EUROPE/CIS

The ROX35 COMIX training schedule for 2000 includes 1 day seminars in both Romania and Ukraine. These introductory courses will cover Writing & Scripting, Cultural Considerations, Storymapping, Illustrating from a Script & Visual Storytelling, Comics & Communication, Editing/Art Directing, and Comics as Part of an Overall Evangelism Strategy. (It is not a drawing course.) Christian writers, artists, and publishing executives will benefit from these seminars. The trainer will be Nate Butler, a 20+ year veteran of the cartooning and comics industry (Archie, Marvel, DC, Muppets, etc.). For registration information on the Romania seminar please contact: Lorri Compton at EEMTI 101567.2064@compuserve.com. For the program in Ukraine please contact: Igor Agapov institut@emmanuel.freenet.kiev.ua. These will be the only ROX35 trainings in this area in 2000, so all interested ministries and individuals in Europe, CIS, or the Middle East should plan to register now for one of these events. The ROX35 web site is located at http://www.rox35.org or send email to ROX35@rox35.org.

WHO WANTS TO BE A KNOW-IT-ALL?

These days, you can find out a lot if you know where to pose the question. The web has opened up a world full of information. Check out http://www.abuzz.com, where you can pose questions to a circle of users. The answers are sent via email. Then there’s http://www.askme.com, where you ask “experts”, who answer you directly. These seem better than http://www.knowpost.com, where some answers can seem pretty useless.

THE BACKPAGE: HOW CAN WE USE THE WORDS “ETHNIC CLEANSING?”

The more I see of so-called “ethnic cleansing” in Bosnia & Kosova, the more ridiculous I view the concept. How in the world can any one man or ethnic group be so presumptuous as to think that another man or ethnic group deserves to be wiped off the face of the planet merely because of heritage or language. In about 10 days, I’m scheduled to leave for a country in East Africa where literally hundreds of thousands of tribal people have been murdered in the name of clan in-fighting. I’m reading everything I can get my hands on . . . but again, I’m stymied. What is it about the parts of humanity who claim to have the corner on which other parts of humanity to eliminate? I mean… there certainly are folks with whom I would disagree… but it never occurs to me to burn their house down in hopes they’ll move to a different country!!!

So then I got to thinking… How much more acceptable is it for me to sit back and let those kinds of injustices go on in our world today! Is it any wonder that various national leaders have recently been rising to the task of sending in troops to put a stop to ethnic-based rape or torture? I’m afraid we as church leaders have, for too long, left these questions up to political leaders. We’ve somehow divorced ourselves from the core of the conflict. We’ve remained ignorant at best… or apathetic at worst… to “big-picture” problems involving such national movements.

So when I land in this East African nation, I’m going to be asking… what piece can I play… what [even small] part could I contribute… How could the organization with which I serve be involved in healing even one small community rift… if God would allow.

Somehow it seems that if all of us asked those questions, in all the different parts of the globe in which we live, the world would somehow be a better place.

I won’t be happy until the term “ethnic cleansing” is relegated to the history books, rather than being prime-time on the evening news.

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