20000903 Brigada Today

In this issue….

SENDING MONEY OVER THE NET?

Try PayPal. https://secure.paypal.x.com/refer/pal=DLucas%40TeamExpansion.org It’s hands-down the simplest way to exchange money with a friend, whether new or old. You can support your favorite missionary using it, collect rent in the USA while living overseas, pay for items you see promoted in Brigada Today — without having to always fax your credit card! And now if you deal with verified PayPal users, your transaction is guaranteed!

WANT $20 AND A FREE INTERNET BANK ACCOUNT?

Look no further. Click to Compubank and get free domestic wiring, free bank accounts-via-the- Net, and even free bill-paying! No hidden fees. http://www.compubank.com/cbe_appl.htm?AFFINITY=10024547 Get $20 just for signing up. Totally secure… FDIC insured. Sorry — it’s for those with USA addresses only. But for those who know German, see the next item. At least it’s a start, even though online bill payment isn’t available yet.

ONLINE BANKING IN EUROPE

Franz in Austria responded to our request for leads on free international Internet banking. He recently opened an Internet banking account in Germany — http://www.first-e.com/de/kunden/freundschaftswerbung.php3 — and is excited about the quick customer service. The account is without fees, currently the bank pays 5% interest on a daily basis. Automatic bill payment is not yet available, but templates can be saved. This free online account is also available for people living outside of Germany, preferably in the European Community countries. German language skills are necessary, it seems, to register online. If someone signs up online and returns the required paper work within 28 days to first-e, Franz will get a bonus. (The referral number “00805” must be used in the sign-up process by following the link to “Wo haben Sie von uns gehort? – Ihre Empfehlung”). You can also request information about the services of first-e by writing to info@first-e.com. In addition, the OSCAR web-site has info. on other services offered in the UK. See those at: http://www.oscar.org.uk/service/finance/banking.htm.

GREAT BOOK BUYS

Thanks to Dan (at AD2000) for reminding us of http://www.bestbookbuys.com/. He wrote, “For example Getting Sent recommended in the latest Brigada could be found slightly used at www.half.com for $8.44 (including shipping) or brand new at www.ecampus.com for $10.35 (including shipping). Half.com is a great site for used books, kind of like a no haggle eBay. I have bought a number of slightly used Saxon math school books and had very positive experience.” Thanks Dan!

ENVISION 2000: HUNDREDS OF MISSIONS EXHIBITS

Some of our earliest Brigada participants might recall that it was really Envision ’96 which fostered the original people group research that gave birth to Brigada Today. Now you can be a part of that legacy by attending Envision 2000, which includes the 53rd National Missionary Convention of the Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, Windows 2000 (NMC teen convention) and the Tennessee Christian Teen Convention, will meet Nov. 2-5, 2000 in Knoxville, Tennessee. The college/adult sessions will be at the Knoxville Convention Center, Holiday Inn Select Downtown and Hilton Hotel while the teen sessions will be at the Knoxville Coliseum and Hyatt Regency Hotel. Approximately 3,000 are expected at each location. The college/adult convention will include over 100 workshops on all aspects of mission endeavor. There are nearly 300 exhibit spaces taken at the convention center and no more are available. A few exhibit spaces are available at the teen convention. All downtown hotels are full, but over 400 rooms are available in several suburban motels. Theme is “Preparing God’s People” with a special emphasis on one-to-one or one-to-a-few discipleship. Extensive information is available on the web at http://www.envision2000.org and for the teen convention on the web at http://www.tctcgo.com or by calling 800-972-1137 in the USA or via Net2Phone or e-mail wbirney11@aol.com.

IF YOU LIKE INSTANT MESSAGING, TRY MSN MESSENGER 3.0

I’ve never quite gotten into the swing of instant messaging. Maybe it’s the fact that I’ve never liked being jangled out of concentration when I’m working on an article or project — so the “paging” effect of instant messaging gets on my nerves. Or maybe it’s my memories of all those ham radio appointments I used to keep. You know . . . be there within 10 minutes of the scheduled time or you miss your buddy? So can you believe it? I don’t even keep an ICQ number. But Microsoft’s MSN Messenger has finally caught up, it seems. So those who do like instant messaging should probably take a look . . . a free look. Microsoft has teamed up with Net2Phone to offer PC-to-phone features that rival (if not superceded) dialpad.com and all the others. The interface is clean, the action is fast, and the technology works! Give it a try — http://messenger.msn.com.

PLAY YOUR MEDIA FOR FREE

Maybe you no longer have to buy RealNetworks’ stuff. Just get Microsoft Windows Media Player 7 (WMP). It’ll handle practically ever format imaginable, including most audio (ASF, MIDI, MP3, WAV and WMA) and video (ASF, AVI, and MPG). Notice the conspicuous absence of formats by competitors — Apple, RealNetworks, a2b and Liquid Audio.

Typical Microsoft. Still, it’s worth the time to download it for free. http://www.microsoft.com. Much more usable and friendly.

SUPPORT-RAISING 101 UPDATE

If you’re having trouble finding copies of Getting Sent, by Pete Sommers (IVP, 1999), and Funding Your Ministry (Whether You’re Gifted or Not) mentioned in a previous issue of Brigada Today, try Patty suggests trying http://www.dawsonmedia.com.

PLEASE DON’T AUTO-SUBSCRIBE

More and more my friends and I are finding ourselves automatically subscribed to email conferences (like eGroups.com). Please use sensitivity with these new-fangled communication tools. Before subscribing — ask!

TRY A XEROX COLOR PRINTER FOR FREE

Ken (Dir. of Info. Tech. for the Evangelical Free Church Mission) says Xerox is offering a network color printer to qualified organizations at no charge through its FreeColorPrinters program. According to Ken, this is a no-risk offer of a Phaser 850 high-performance color network printer with extended memory and paper handling, 3 years of service and support, and free black ink for life (over $4,300 US in value). All they ask is that people use the printer and purchase their ink from Xerox. At any time, the printer can be returned — no harm, no foul. Yes, there’s a hook – – it’s a very cool printer, and people fall in love with it. So they end up buying quite a lot of toner eventually . . . but hey . . . it’s still cheaper than all those trips to Kinkos.

So Ken figures, hey… take a look at the program — what do you have to lose!

http://www.freecolorprinters.com. He also asked that you use program code 24710154. If you do, I think someone in his office might get a free Handspring Visor.

GREAT PHONE RATES OVERSEAS

Thanks to Eric (with whom I share an office, by the way) for pointing us to GlobalCall for international phone rates. Come to find out, from the USA you can dial UK for 10 cents/min., Australia for 11 cents, France for 12 cents, and just about everywhere else for a good price too. Come to find out, when I looked at the fine print, GlobalCall is actually a subprogram of IDT — the same long distance card I’m already using. They’ve given me great service… and you can hook up your credit card so that when the value in your account falls below $25, your credit card automatically recharges things, so you never miss a minute. These are the same people who bring us “Net2Phone” as well. And guess what — even though I could tell you my account number and get a $5 referral fee for anyone who signed on, I’m going to resist the urge so that you won’t think that referral fees have become the driving force around here.

Sometimes, it’s enough to tell you that it’s a good deal, just for the sake of you finding a good deal.

HUNGER SITE STILL FIGHTING HUNGER

They tell me that the guy who invented the hunger site http://www.thehungersite.com has gotten rich off of it . . . and all the while, he’s donated more than 8000 tons of food to the less fortunate. Every time you click on the site, you give a cup and a half of rice, wheat, maize or other staple by the UN WFP. Check it out! (Now — how can we breed this kind of creativity among the Brigada family!

My wife is handing me references to this site out of her well-known ladies’ magazines!)

CONFERENCE ON CHURCH-PLANTING IN JAPAN

On October 10-13 the JEMA Church Planting Institute will hold their National Conference in Gotemba near Mt. Fuji. CPI has grown in five years from 27 at the first conference to 260 last year. Last year was the largest church planting conference in the history of Japan. CPI includes people from over 60 organizations and 18 different countries sharing the vision of gospel-driven indigenous church planting movements. This year conference numbers are already over 180 and registration closes on Sept 29th. This year there will be three training tracks, over a dozen electives on ministry in Japan, regional groups, worship and prayer, a resource center and a lot of networking. There are couple’s housing, childcare, Japanese speakers, manuals and translation.

Organizers write, “Please pray for this conference. Please come if you can. Please pass this information on to others you know that may be interested in what we are doing for the kingdom in Japan. For more information please see http://www.JCPI.Net. or contact John at JMehn@compuserve.com.”

WORLD CONVENTION OF CHURCHES OF CHRIST AUDIO FILES AND TAPES

With the arrival of the year 2000 the World Convention of Churches of Christ (Christian – Churches of Christ – Disciples of Christ) turns seventy! The first World Convention was held in Washington DC, USA in 1930. The fifteenth World Convention was held August 2-6 in Brisbane, Australia where we celebrated both this 70th anniversary and the beginning of the new millennium – not so much by looking back, as by looking forward! The 10 Main Speaker sessions can be ordered on line below and posted to you as cassette tapes or downloaded in REAL PLAYER format following your payment. https://bne039v.webcentral.com.au/vs3908_secure/wccc.htm

MUSIC TO REACH UNREACHED PEOPLE GROUPS

Would you like to help a group develop indigenous Christian songs? Consider taking a week-long course at CITI in N. Carolina (Oct. 23-27 2000, April 16-20 2001). The focus is on empowering a community to make culturally-appropriate Christian music, and to use it effectively in evangelism, worship, and church planting. You do not need to be a musician to benefit from this course. Some attention will be given to music of each student’s geographical interest. See http://www.citi.org or write PaulNeeley@netscape.net.

DO ME A FAVOR – CHECK THAT CHAIN LETTER

Hey gang… do us a favor… please check that chain letter before re-sending it to 50 others! To find out if a particular accusation is true (about Harry Potter books or the FCC or a virus or Madelyn Murray O’Hair or anybody), verify it first by checking with one of the following sites — For Real Virus Warnings — Symantec AntiVirus Research Center — http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/index.html For Virus Hoaxes — Truth or Fiction — http://www.truthorfiction.com or Urban Legends Archive — http://urbanlegends.com

A ton of other verification sites are available by retrieving our autoresponder on Brigada’s OPC protocol. For a free copy, send a blank email to: opc@brigada.org

YOU CAN STUDY RUSSIAN… BUT APPARENTLY ONLY VIA MICROSOFT

Several wrote us saying they couldn’t raise the folks at RLM — http://www.russianlanguage.org. Our web volunteer, Bob, finally solved the problem. Apparently they’ve designed the site to run only using Internet Explorer as the client. All other browsers get a “404 file not found error.” Please forgive any inconvenience . . . and please let the folks at RLM know if you don’t have a Microsoft browser: rlmoffice@juno.com is the email address.

JOIN IN ON NOV. 12: INT’L DAY OF PRAYER

If you’re interested in joining in on Nov. 12 for the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church, write IDOP@iobox.com for materials and ideas.

TAKING AIM AT NEW FRONTIERS: ISFM CONFERENCE 2000

There is still time to register for the International Society for Frontier Missiology (ISFM) Fall 2000 Conference. Speakers will include Todd Johnson, Ralph Winter, Paul McKaughan, Bob Blincoe, Earline Voss and Dave Ro. The dates immediately precede the EFMA Conference and will be at the same location. This will take place at the Simpsonwood Conference Center near Atlanta, GA and will begin Sunday, Sept 17 through Monday Sept 18 (The EFMA Conference begins Monday evening, Sept 18). Cost for the conference, room and meals range from $70 – $130, depending on accommodations. For a brochure and registration form, contact Dave Flynn David.Flynn@uscwm.org or call 626-398-2336.

CROATIA: TRAINING OPPORTUNITY

Starting January 14, 2001 YWAM Croatia will launch another Discipleship Training School. Exciting and challenging teaching awaits. Possible outreaches include Tanzania, Slovenia, Greece or Romania. Students earn 22 credits towards the further study with University of the Nations. Cost: Lecture phase: $1.800,00US, Outreach $1,200.00-2450.00 US depending on the location. Apply via the web page. For more info, contact Jasna Petrovic at ywam-croatia@zg.tel.hr or go to http://www.geocities.com/croatia_ywam

MORE ON CONFLICT RESOLUTION

Jack, our attorney friend from Dallas, recommended Peacemaker Ministries as a strong contributor on conflict resolution. Check them out at http://www.peacemakerministries.org. According to Jack, they’ve got some excellent stuff on conflict resolution, conciliator training, mediation, etc. Thanks Jack!

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BRIGADA TODAY IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE FOLLOWING TEAM OF REGULAR VOLUNTEERS:

Global Glimpses: John Hanna, Caleb Project, jhanna@cproject.com
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