20010722 Brigada Today

In this issue….

NOT MUCH HYPE ABOUT “GODSMISSION.COMMUNITY”

I would have thought we’d be hearing lots about the big-time gathering that the Billy Graham Center is hosting in Orlando, Sept. 20-23. Supposedly, some 1500 leaders (80% of the leadership of the missionary force in North America) are headed there… including those gathering for the EFMA and the IFMA conventions. But instead, at least from where we’ve been sitting, there has been a pretty strange silence. Speakers include Tom Houston and others. Other groups like ACMC, Willow Creek Int’l, WEF, and Intent are rallying there too. To learn more, click to: http://www.godsmission.com or email gmc@wheaton.edu.

MISSIONPREP TRAINING IN TORONTO

Two important training events coming are to town. SYIS (Sharpening Your Interpersonal Skills) will be held in Toronto, Canada from October 1-5. This interactive Workshop for Missionaries by Ken Williams’ International Training Partners is intended for mission personnel wanting to increase their knowledge, attitudes and skills in relating to others. A 216 page workbook is provided, in which each topic includes key articles, a Bible study, a self-assessment, and opportunities for growth. Limited space is available so register now. In addition, Language Acquisition Training is slated for October 14-26. This is a proactive approach to learning a new language. You can evaluate your learning strengths & weaknesses, learn the principles and skills of language acquisition practice with native speakers of your target language, and actually begin to grow in your target language, all in the space of two weeks in what some say is the world’s “most multicultural city” – Toronto. For more information contact Robert at 416-284-5645 or email him micanada@interlog.com. For more information see http://www.timcentre.com/missionprep

WE GET MAIL: HOW DO YOU SAY “FORMER SOVIET UNION”

Whoa… We got a lot of email expressing opinions on the “former Soviet Union” issue. TAKEN TO TASK OVER THE TERM, “FORMER SOVIET UNION”.) The opinions came in all over the board but the general consensus was . . . it’s not an easy task to describe such a complex world! In the end, it seems the consensus is… we have to use several terms. No one term adequately describes the vast mosaic that used to be the USSR. Several Brigada Today participants wrote from within ___ (whatever you want to call it

) to say that they totally understand and that “former Soviet Union” is an understandable compromise (though probably still a compromise). Others urged switching to several terms — like Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, etc. “Russian Speaking Republics” wasn’t at all very popular, for obvious reasons. (Some are trying to lose that language.) So… it’s a naming jungle out there! For those who need to go in print with descriptive terms, we encourage you to be sensitive… and for those reading the terms, we urge you to extend grace! It’s not an easy task.

MAIL FOR YOUR CONTACTS

The folks at SOON Gospel Literature produce an evangelistic easy-English paper and an associated evangelistic Bible correspondence course. They are mailing the free paper worldwide to about 100,000 contacts at any one time, using the help of 1000 volunteer mailing groups throughout UK. There is currently spare capacity to send the paper to additional addresses, and SOON’s team is happy to take referral addresses from any organization such as a radio ministry as an add-on to their own follow-up. SOON is particularly appropriate for Africa and Asia, as well as any TEFL situation. To see online samples of the paper, go to:
https://brigada.org/today/articles/olympic.html

To discuss the handling of addresses, email: tony@soon.org.uk. Free copies of the paper in easy-English, French, Swahili and African Portuguese are also available to any Christian group to use for local distribution.

COMMUNICATION RESOURCES TO REACH ALL PEOPLES

Create International now offers both their popular Video People Profiles (documentaries on specific unreached people groups) and Evangelistic films in VideoCD format as well as the original VHS tape format. VideoCDs can be played on both DVD players and on most computers with a CD player. Also, in an effort to make these resources more accessible they have reduced the price of these presentations by 25% across the board and now you can order all of their resources at their new website at: http://createinternational.com/VideoWebPage.html or http://createinternational.com/ev.html.

In addition to their video resources, Create International also produces PhotoCD-ROM disks. Their all-in-one photoCD offers over 300 of their most popular images of unreached peoples along with sample video clips, images of work among UPGs, indigenous music, and more. Their new offer includes customized photoCDs of 50 hiRes images such as: Peoples of China, India, Africa, or Indonesia. Check it out and choose the region or country which interests you, http://createinternational.com/UPGPhotoCD.html. Order online and save 20% off the normal price.

FIND CONTEXTUALIZED RESOURCES

“Indigitech”, is a new website developed by Create International for both education and dissemination of contextual evangelistic resources. It is their desire that Indigitech become a bridge between fieldworkers and contextual resources which are now available. It includes many links to video, audio, tract, and webevangelism resources as well as offering free downloadable materials. Please make use of this vital Internet tool at: http://createinternational.com/indigitech/.

SIRCAM TROJAN “WORM” (VIRUS) SEEMS RAMPANT IN CHRISTIAN CIRCLES

The “Sircam worm (kind of like a virus)” seems rampant in Christian circles. I’m not sure why, particularly, except for the fact that maybe we’re more trusting of people we know… and since the trojan contains its own SMTP engine and automatically composes emails to the user’s address book entries, it seems that friends are the biggest victims of the Sircam “worm”. For some reason, McAffee antivirus software seems a bit less effective at handling it. Not sure why. Either way, there’s more information at: http://www.sarc.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.sircam.worm@mm.html

Notice that if you can’t afford Norton Antivirus 2001 (which is very effective against this and most other viruses), there are instructions at the site above on how to remove the virus manually. There are also instructions on how to recognize it.

Want to make your PC less vulnerable to attacks from these kinds of viruses or worms? Unhook the Visual Basic script tool. Most individuals probably don’t need it anyway. Just open My Computer, then open Control Panel, then open Add/Remove Programs. Then click on the “Windows Setup” tab. This gets you to Windows features that you can either add or remove. Highlight “Accessories”, then click on the Details button. Scroll down the list of features, uncheck “Windows Scripting Host” Click OK to save changes, and close out each dialogue window. With Windows Scripting Host uninstalled, those silly “Trojan horse virus programs” won’t be able to run Visual Basic Scripts.

They’re rampant… so be careful… It truly is a jungle out there!

SEE THOSE FONTS ON YOUR PC

Have you noticed how your PC slows down as you add zillions of fonts (some of which you never use anyway?). Get this free viewing utility, then weed out the ones you don’t use. “FontViewer 2” scans the files on your hard drive then tells you which fonts you actually use. Pretty handy! It then highlights the files you don’t use, allowing you to remove them . . . at least for the time being. It runs under Win 95, 98, ME, NT 4.0 or 2000. Just head on over to: http://www.pcmag.com/utilities to get your copy… for free! Tell ’em Brigada sent you!

WHAT’S THE BEST PATH TO AN INDIGENOUS CHURCH?

Is it your goal to start a church that can stand on its own? How do you get there? Beginning next week, we hope to do a series of “BackPage” editorials on the best path to developing a church that can stand on its own, i.e., become indigenous. Send your best ideas to DLucas@TeamExpansion.org and please make the subject read, simply, “STAND”. We’ll publish a series of quick reports here… then make a compilation report available as an auto-responder. Thanks in advance!!! (Please be sure to make the subject line, “STAND”. It’s the only way we can be sure that all the great contributions will be included! Thanks!)

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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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