In this issue…

  1. NEW TOOL HIGHLIGHTS COUNTRIES AND PEOPLES OF THE WORLD
  2. THE BEST SERVICE CONTRACT/WARRANTY FOR YOUR VEHICLE
  3. WEB-WATCH: GOSPEL MISSIONARY UNION
  4. ISLAMIC STUDIES IN ASIA 2003
  5. MORE TIME THAN JUST A COUPLE WEEKS OVERSEAS
  6. FREE TENTMAKING JOURNAL DOWNLOAD
  7. ONE MORE IDEA FOR TRANSFERRING FUNDS
  8. FULLY-DEVELOPED SKIT: A TALE OF TWO ARMIES
  9. BEAUTIFUL FEET
  10. READ HOW MUSLIMS INTRODUCE ISLAM TO OTHERS
  11. LIFE INSURANCE FOR MISSIONARIES
  12. IN THE MOOD TO GET RID OF SPAM?
  13. WOULD YOU HELP US ADD TO THE SUBSCRIBER LIST?
  14. CLOSING STUFF
  1. NEW TOOL HIGHLIGHTS COUNTRIES AND PEOPLES OF THE WORLD — This past week, I had a chance to preview a terrific little tool soon to be made public. With a focus on seeking adoption for every remaining unreached people group, this mission-encyclopedia CD can only be described as one of a kind! It has unique one-page profiles on every country and every people. I know that might sound like “old hat”, but these are beautiful *and* telling. What’s more, get this: the designers have obtained complete copyright releases for the whole CD full of data. If you were to buy a complete set of “Culture-grams”, they might set you back $100. Or you could get the map set in “Facts On File”… and the maps alone would run about $149. (This tool has *beautiful* maps… with full color vector graphics that print out in *stunning* detail at *whatever* size you need. If you bought “Background Notes”, they’d be $59… but no one has them on digital form, and if they did, you wouldn’t have copyright release to copy and paste them into your documents and brochures. If you managed to get digital copies of the CIA World Factbooks, they’d be at least $69 – $79… but get this… *All* those resources and *more* are included on this CD. And these profiles are clear and concise one-page summaries with 59 indicators. And would you believe there are 17,000 of them? I’m not kidding! If they were a penny a profile, that alone would be $170. Imagine your church’s next missions banquet. Just take the list of countries where your church is working, then print out country profiles (or people group profiles) for each of those focus areas. Have someone laminate them and — presto — full-color take-home memento placemats that serve as a permanent prayer reminder. Got a missions prayer night service coming up? Just print out the relevant profiles and you’ll instantly have a snappy hand-out. Or simply copy and paste a copy of the relevant country map into your new missions brochure — a map for each missionary, showing where he/she is laboring! And these are *all* released for reprinting. At times, that’s been the frustration with other profiles — copyright protection. These are “deliverables”!!!

    Here’s the amazing part. The creators of this resource are *talking* about offering it first through Brigada, for a $20-off price of $49. After two or six or 10 weeks, it’ll go on sale for the rest of the evangelical world… at $69. When will it become available? Probably about two months from now. Start saving your pennies. Your agency or church will want at least one copy of this tool!

  2. THE BEST SERVICE CONTRACT/WARRANTY FOR YOUR VEHICLE — If you have a furlough coming up… or you travel and recruit missionaries at colleges, or you have any other reason to put tons of miles on your vehicle in the USA, and you’d like to hang on to it for a while, then you might want to consider purchasing an extended warranty for it. These “service contracts” turn out to be a good deal if the transmission fails or the engine blows while the warranty is in force. We recently conducted a study of about 100 different companies offering these warranties. Based on feedback from many participants and many reviewers, such as http://autowarrantyreviews.org , we concluded that the best warranties currently came from http://www.warrantygold.com . They consistently offered the lowest prices for the best coverage, yet still came away with the best marks for customer service, quick claim handling, and solid appreciation from clients. What’s more, they’re willing to cut deals for missionaries and mission agency staff. They can sell warranties on new or used vehicles, at practically any mileage level. To get a quote for your vehicle, check out: http://www.warrantygold.com . Get the best quote you can, then call them at 888-580-9889, ext. 4765 (in the USA or via Net2Phone). That should put you in touch with Shane. Tell Shane you’re being referred by Doug Lucas of Brigada/Team Expansion and he should be able to give you the best price, plus maybe get you an additional $50 discount from the sales manager, Bob Henfey (ext. 4749). You should see my stack of research notes… and …. no doubt about it, the best deal *and* the best warranty came from these guys. If you don’t believe it, just check out that http://autowarrantyreviews.org site. That site consistently lists Warranty Gold as the #1 warranty in the country. Check ’em out.
  3. WEB-WATCH: GOSPEL MISSIONARY UNION — Check out GMU’s new website: http://www.GMU.org They used Computech Business Solutions as their host: http://www.ctbsonline.com and they’re now high on a unique web site content management tool called Site Commander. Check ’em out!
  4. ISLAMIC STUDIES IN ASIA 2003 — The 6th annual Institute Of Islamic Studies will convene April 07 to May 30, 2003, at Asia Pacific Theological Seminary, Baguio City, Philippines. Earn up to 9 graduate credits. Take these classes: *Course 1 “Introduction to Islam”: Week 1 – Historical Background (Dr. Ken Ferguson); Week 2 – Contemporary Issues (Dr. Stuart Robinson); Week 3 – Folk Islam (Dr. Rick Love). *Course 2 “Apologetics in Muslim Contexts”: Week 4 – Answering Islamic Objections (Rev. Ezekiel Joshua); Week 5 – Bridging from Qur’anic Material (Rev. Harry Morin). *Course 3 “Approaches to Islam”: Week 6 – Practical Approach (Rev. Joseph Cumming); Week 7 – Women’s Issues in Islam (Dr. Miriam Adeney); Week 8 – Contextual Approach (Dr. Phil Parshall). *E-mail <apts@agmd.org> or <michael.langford@agmd.org> or call (63)(74) 422-6977 or Fax (63)(74) 442-7068 or log on at http://www.apts.edu/ The registration deadline is March 01, 2003. </michael.langford@agmd.org>
  5. MORE TIME THAN JUST A COUPLE WEEKS OVERSEAS — Modeled after the pattern of Luke 10:1-2, 2003, this will be Mission to Unreached Peoples’ third year of the Luke 10 Program. Going out two by two, Luke 10 is an internship program where students can experience and minister in different countries for 3-10 months, beginning in August, 2003. Countries of travel include China, Turkey, Thailand, Nepal, India and many others. Learn about missions, then use your individual gifts to minister and share the Gospel to the Unreached. To learn more, contact Beth at Mission to Unreached Peoples, at 1-888-847-6950 or 206-781-3151 or by email at <mupinfo@mup.org> Mission to Unreached Peoples website is http://www.mup.org .
  6. FREE TENTMAKING JOURNAL DOWNLOAD — “GO World”, the journal of tentmaking published by Global Opportunities is now available as a free pdf download. The subscription-only hardcopy circulation is 5900 and growing. Each issue contains tentmaker stories, articles on tentmaking and missions, a country profile, and is sure to stimulate your missions thinking. Log on at… http://www.globalopps.org (Thanks Tim!)
  7. ONE MORE IDEA FOR TRANSFERRING FUNDS — Remember our original request for funds-transfer tactics? (Item 4 in the Dec. 27th, ’02, Brigada Today, entitled, “HOW DO YOU WIRE YOUR FUNDS?”) Brian came up with one additional idea this past week. His idea reminds me a lot of the technique used by many Somalis throughout the world (or so I hear). Just find someone trustworthy in the US (college student, pastor, etc.) who still has family in the target country. In the USA, the donor gives funds to that person, and the family back in the target country “gives” me money, by passing it along to the intended recipient in the destination land. Brian writes, “We’ve used this to help the family get some of their finances out of the home country (especially Christian families).”
  8. FULLY-DEVELOPED SKIT: A TALE OF TWO ARMIES — Here’s a skit to illustrate the entire Church’s role in Jesus’ campaign to bring the nations to worship at His throne: http://www.everypeople.net/?whichPage=green/two_armies.php (Thanks Mike!)
  9. BEAUTIFUL FEET — Thanks to Brigada participant, Mike <mike.green@saesolved.com>, who wrote this past week to say, “In Romans 10:14-15 beautiful feet are the answer to “And how can they preach unless they are sent?” They propel the body of Christ, carrying the Good News to those who have never heard. Those who send are the beautiful feet, the glorious underpinnings of Jesus’ Church’s mission to enable some from every nation to call on Him. Clearly it is not a foot, but the mouth, which preaches. But the Holy Spirit sings that the feet are beautiful. Let those who God has made the feet that send those who are the hands and heads rejoice that He calls them beautiful.” Read more about Mike’s line of thought at: http://www.everypeople.net/?whichPage=green/beautiful_feet.php
  10. READ HOW MUSLIMS INTRODUCE ISLAM TO OTHERS — Are you curious to see how a Muslim presents Islam to prospective converts? Check out this website: http://www.journeytoislam.com/ Get your “Flash” plug-in primed on your web browser! This is an elaborate site!
  11. LIFE INSURANCE FOR MISSIONARIES — Does anyone know where you can get term life insurance for missionaries? If anyone has any suggestions, send them to <jkb@pobox.com> and she will compile a list for a future issue of Brigada Today.
  12. IN THE MOOD TO GET RID OF SPAM? — Big news. Who isn’t. Yikes… My 13-year-old gets 35 – 40 unsolicited commercial emails/day. I can’t even imagine how many *you* get. You can take a look at: http://www.junkbusters.com/ or if you operate an ISP, check out… http://www.brightmail.com/ for anti-spam software. And if the spam is pornography, and it’s got you hooked, try doing some reading at sites like: http://www.xxxchurch.com (Thanks Robert!) for help on that. Either way, this is a problem we’re going to be dealing with for a long time to come… unless somebody gets busy and invents a magic wand! :-)
  13. WOULD YOU HELP US ADD TO THE SUBSCRIBER LIST? — This week we hit 12,809 subscribers. ‘Course, at any one time, something like 5000 of those addresses are “bouncing” … and many are “bad for good,” if you know what I mean. But we still had a net gain over last week. (So if you invited others to participate, Thanks!!! Hats off to you!!!) Would you do us a favor? Since we have no marketing budget (for the most part, we don’t have *any* budget; just check out our “sponsors” page at: https://brigada.org/sponsor.html. So… since we don’t have a marketing budget, can we hire you as a volunteer? Would you invite your personal mailing list to subscribe? Just send them a note like this:

    “Hey… have you ever heard of Brigada Today? Each weekend, it comes to my inbox filled with tons of resources, ideas, and mobilization news about Missions and unreached peoples — and helps for the people involved in making missions happen. Try it! Just send a note to: brigada-today-subscribe@yahoogroups.com And … by the way… your address is secret with them. They pay YahooGroups so there are no ads in the email… and they never release your address to *anybody*, even at gunpoint! They’ve been sending these newsletters out weekly for something like 8 years! See their back- issues at: http:/www.brigada.org (click on “Index of back issues”) Check it out!”

    ‘Course, you could write up your own item too… but it would sure be great to get our numbers up a bit by next week, when we cross our official 8-year anniversary. Thanks for your help!!! Doug

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