20010624 Brigada Today

In this issue….

FINALLY CAUGHT UP

Can you believe it… finally caught up to date on Brigada Today! It’s about time! Lately, it’s been “Brigada last week“! Please forgive the “batch processing” for these last few editions. We’ll try to avoid it … but, among other things, I’ve been overseas leading a prayer journey with my family and . . . well . . . a guy can only do so much, right? I’ll try harder.

A WEALTH OF LEAST REACHED PEOPLES DATA

The first phase of the Joshua Project II website is open for business. The Joshua Project II team is a group of four former AD2000 and Beyond staff who are committed to “highlighting the least reached peoples of the world through information sharing and networking.” Following are some items currently accessible at: http://www.joshuaproject.net.

READ GENERAL LEAST REACHED PEOPLES INFORMATION

Read an overview of the Joshua Project II initiative. Read an article explaining why there are various total people group counts. Compare the various peoples lists and see a timeline of their development. Register your least reached peoples ministry activity / commitment.

SEE THE ORIGINAL JOSHUA PROJECT LIST

View the current status of the original Joshua Project list. View or download various segments of the original Joshua Project data. View people profiles from the original Joshua Project list.

DIGEST THE NEW JOSHUA PROJECT II ALL PEOPLES LIST

Download a comprehensive list of all 16,300 peoples by country. View people group lists for every country of the world. Participate in the Joshua Project II global survey. Discover interesting facts about people groups. For example, which relatively small country has over 900 people groups and which major country has only 7 people groups? Download the complete Joshua Project II Peoples information set.

THE NEXT PHASE OF THE JOSHUA PROJECT II WEBSITE

In the near future, the JP II team will work hard at…

Making the data in the downloadable files available interactively on- line. This will allow, for example, a country can be selected and all the peoples in that country will be displayed. Then selecting a people, a people profile will be displayed including non-sensitive work-among information.
An on-line more automated survey mechanism.
A location to log your mission activity by linking your mission organization / church / denomination with a particular people group. This will be a web-based database, eventually with pre-made and user- defined queries allowing datasets such as the top 25 least reached groups, the 20 peoples most needing adoption, the largest groups without the Scriptures.

Thanks loads to Dan and the others at JP II. This could end up making a very significant contribution to the Cause. (Thanks, too, for those helping them make a go at this… like Caleb Project!!! Yahooo!)

RELIGION-IN-THE-AMERICAS (RITA) WEBSITE LAUNCHED

IDEA Ministries of Santa Cruz, CA, has created a new website with information about all religious groups (Christian and non-Christian) known to exist in the Americas (48 countries) plus Spain and Portugal (a total of 50 countries). The website has a search-engine that allows the user to search by country, religious tradition (for example, Buddhist or Baptist), denominational name and a classification code on a variety of databases. For a preview, see: www.prolades.com. Way to go Clifton Holland and IDEA!

COMPILING A LIST OF ALL FEEDING PROGRAMS

Emmaus Road International is looking for a list of feeding programs in needy areas. From “soup kitchens” to orphanages. Statistics say that hundreds of thousands die each year from lack of nutrition. ERI would like to learn what we ARE doing. Please submit to their e-mail address Emmaus_Road@eri.org a contact address with basic details: country, type of feeding program, ages included, need for expansion. Example: (contact e-mail address), Ukraine, weekly soup kitchen, all ages, expand to daily. ERI will send us a full report in a couple of weeks… so have at it!

NEW RESOURCE FOR REACHING MUSLIMS

The book All That The Prophets Have Spoken is a Muslim-sensitive edition of John R. Cross’ book for unbelievers “The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus” (which has been used of God to help thousands to understand and believe the Gospel). According to reviewers, “It strings together key stories of Scripture to present the message of the prophets – clearly, chronologically and compellingly – as it gently helps Muslims over their most common stumbling blocks.” It is scheduled to come out in Arabic, French, Albanian, and Turkish. Check it out at http://www.goodseed.com/books.html GoodSeed International’s web-price: $11.96. Two-case price: $7.50 per book. For those without web access, email info.us@goodseed.com.

MORE ON COMMUNICATING WITH MUSLIMS

Roland Muller has released the second book in his trilogy about Muslim Evangelism. Called, Tools for Muslim Evangelism, it is based on Muller’s study of successful gospel communicators in the Middle East. Learn more at http://www.rmuller.com or email canwi-pr@cgocable.net.

CALLING CHURCH WEBMASTERS

‘Churchsite Chat’ is a new two-way email discussion list for all church webmasters and site administrators. It offers the chance to dialogue about any issue relating to constructing or maintaining a church website, with a particular emphasis on effective communication and how to use church pages to reach non- Christians. Also very welcome are those considering or planning a church site, and site administrators who use church template-site providers. To subscribe, send a blank email to churchsite-chat-subscribe@web-evangelism.com.

WHERE DOES ONE LEARN SPANISH ONLINE?

Jed jedsnyder@rcn.com is trying to find a way to learn Spanish over the internet — relatively quickly. Of course, the ideal is learning on-site, but that having been said, let’s help the guy at least get a head start. In fact, maybe it’s time we did an autoresponder on all tools for learning other languages. We could toss in tape sets from Berlitz, Sybervision (or Intelliquest — they’re available toll-free in the USA or via Net2phone at 800-275-6940), as well as CD resources like Rosetta Stone and others. Would you send all your best sites and sources to Jed and he’ll compile the list for us and we’ll post it here in an autoresponder in a couple of weeks. Thanks Jed!

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