19950827 Brigada Today

News and Notes about Brigada, Your Gateway to Missions Networking!
Now with over 860 Participants!
[Pass this issue to a friend! To subscribe, see instructions at end.]
(That rhymes pretty well, don’t you think?)
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In this issue….

CLOSE-UP ON BRIGADA-PEOPLES

Wondering what those 100+ people are talking about on the Brigada-Peoples conference? Lots!

a) When a church or agency wants to announce an adoption (regardless of whether it happened yesterday or in 1990!), they do it on Brigada-Peoples. Immediately, a mysterious character called “the friendly face” (you’ll have to try it to learn more; I hate to spoil the mystery! ) swoops down out of nowhere, confirms the data, then posts it on the People Group Consultant (PGC) so that others may know of your interest.

b) When a church or agency wants more information about a particular people group (especially when they came away empty-handed on the PGC [though we hope that in the future, that won’t be happening very often]), they ask on Brigada-Peoples and 20 volunteers swoop down out of nowhere and say, “My 2nd cousin attended a funeral once and met this lady whose dog was trimmed by a man who worked with this one church that adopted that group — stand by and I’ll get the info….” You think I’m kidding. (Well… maybe I am a little bit…) But they really do try to find connections there. They try to put you in touch with someone who can get you info. on the group you’re wanting to reach. Like recently, when someone asked for info. on the Brahui in Pakistan. I had to chuckle. “What are the odds ….!??!!” Well into the conference walks Randy Roberts randyr@lfa.comwith a complete description and an invitation to network with several other churches he knew of which had adopted the … Brahui! “They are some of the poorest people in Pakistan, they are in greatest concentration in northern Baluchistan and just had a large portion of the New Testament translated into their language this year,” he says. Yikes. I hadn’t even heard of these folks, let alone prayed for them. Guess that’s why we’ve got Brigada-Peoples.

c) When a church or agency wants to share a testimony of how prayer works or how the particular church or agency went about getting started, they do it on Brigada-Peoples. For example, this story was recently relayed by Brigada-Peoples moderator, Dave Dougherty DDougherty@XC.Org: “This week some of our missionaries from all over East Asia were in Denver for our Home Assignment Institute. I heard a story which really encouraged me and I want to pass it along to you. This couple had been working among the Lantan people of Southeast Asia. They had met much resistance to their efforts to establish relationships and develop friendships in the Lantan village where they lived. Now Steve picks up the story:

“In December 1994, we returned to our home after a two month absence in which our first child was born. Lantan people immediately began coming to our house on a daily basis, looking for work, seeking help with medical problems and asking for help in getting off opium. Villagers began coming from several different villages, some walking as much as six hours to reach our home.

“Through many contacts came informal opportunities to tell people about Jesus–a name they had never heard before. One opium addict had heard from a visitor that Jesus was greater than all the spirits. Upon arriving at our house he asked, ‘Can Jesus help me quit smoking opium?’

God has begun to focus our personal ministry and opportunities after an extremely difficult and dry period of work among these people.”

What made the difference in December 1994? Steve continues his story, “Then this year, in February, we learned that back in October 1994 a church in Minnesota had “adopted” the Lantan people and began praying for their evangelization. Prayer makes a real difference. Keep praying for the Lantan.”

Adopting people groups makes a difference. Prayer makes a real difference.

David Dougherty OMF International

So there you have it. Now — to join Brigada-Peoples, send email to hub@xc.orgwith only the following line in the body of the message text:
subscribe brigada-peoples

That’s it. Get involved. Maybe you don’t have time to read every message. So… few of us do. But scan the subject line… and glance at the message and see if you can help someday. If you can’t, hit the big “D” key and (to quote one of Brigada’s tech friends, Bob Sutterfield) send it to the “bit bucket!” At least you tried. And even though you might be getting 100+ email messages per day, taking 5 seconds to pray for the “Sulung” people or whoever …. well, isn’t that what being a world Christian is all about? So if somebody comes on board and you can’t help, at least take a second and pray.

FROM THE “GOTTA GET THERE” DEPARTMENT

Before you can actually tell someone about Christ, ya gotta get there! And David Householder davidhousholder@xc.orgsays he knows someone who can help. Evidently, Debbie Mortell does bunches of trips for some of the largest missions in the world…. like OM, for example. Evidently saves ’em big bucks. (Course, we don’t know anyone who wants to save big bucks, now, do we.) Try her at Tyrone Travel, 1-800-682-2122. She’s a Brigada subscriber and, hey — we gotta support the home team!

Can you email her? Does a jet have wings? Of course you can! 75113.1476@compuserve.comor fax her the old-fashioned way, with slick paper and all, at Fax 770-487-4089. You can even write her snail-mail at 135 Commerce Dr., PO Box 370, Tyrone, GA 30290. Either way, give her a try and tell her you heard about her on Brigada. Maybe she’ll send you a free fruit basket on your next cruise!

WE’RE NOT RUSHIN’ INTO RUSSIAN

Thanks to those who gave input on Russian language opportunities by subscribing to Brigada-Russia and throwing out the ideas. However, the sparse answers confirm our suspicions that we’re way behind on giving on-site workers the language training opportunities they need!

SO YA WANNA BE IN THE FUNNY PAPERS, EH?

Well here’s your chance.. to write them, not actually be in them, that is. Nate Butler NateButler@aol.com wrote our WebMaster, Bob Mayhew, via the Brigada WorldWide Web page to tell him about a unique conference coming up in the Philippines in January. It’s the First International Christian Comic Book Training Conference. “A group of professional comic book writers and artists (from the U.S., Philippines, and Colombia) will be teaching missionaries, Christian workers, and others how to create, produce, and market comic books to impact their cultures with the Gospel message,” says Nate. Email Nate and ask for the free brochure or see them on the www at: http://www.xc.org/icmc/catalyst/vol12/comics.htm

And you thought funny papers were only for kids!

NO SERMONS?

Not a single taker has responded on our appeal last week for a five-week sermon series for October. Guess that means no one else is planning on preaching one??? See the “ONLY 36 SHOPPING DAYS ‘TIL OCTOBER” note last week… or just send your ideas to DLucas@TeamExpansion.organd by doing so, help a lot of others!

WANT TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT “HOPE FOR EUROPE”?

The 10/40 Window isn’t the only place where networks are forming these days. Check out Hope for Europe, which is “…helping Christians in Europe convey the contemporary and eternal hope of the Gospel.” HFE is an initiative of the European Round Table, co-sponsored by the European Evangelical Alliance and the Lausanne Europe Committee, interfacing globally with the AD2000 & Beyond movement, Lausanne International and the World Evangelical Fellowship. The main office is in Vienna, Austria. “We are in the process of developing a WWW home page,” says Ron Kernahan, Hope For Europe Communications Track Director. For more information, email Ron at 100612.1353@Compuserve.com and help Hope.

WANT A LIST OF BRIGADA CONFERENCES?

Easy. Just send email to hub@xc.org with only the following line in the text of the message:
conferences

… and in five minutes or less, you’ll receive a message back in your inbasket listing all the Brigada forums currently at work. To join one (you must join one at a time — that way you can focus on your major interest area), just send email to hub@xc.orgwith only the following line in the body of the message text:
subscribe [conference]

… where [conference] is replaced by the exact name of the discussion group you’d like to join. Keep in mind that some groups are private (so you might get a kind word explaining it’s ‘by invitation only’) and others are screened (so you might be asked for references, for example, in a conference on a restricted access country).

As an alternative, if you have access to the worldwide web, just visit the Brigada homepage and click on the list of Brigada conferences. It’s easy to join directly from the web page by following the instructions on-screen. Just fill in the email form with the line above.

PEOPLE GROUP CONSULTANT WHRRRRRRS ON!

Thanks for the feedback on the People Group Consultant (PGC). We’re listening! (To use the PGC, send an email message to hub@xc.orgwith only the following lines in the body of the message (if, for example, you’re searching for data on the Khalka Mongol people group):
search Khalka Mongol

The hub computer will email you the results within a few minutes… usually less than five. For other people groups, obviously, replace the words Khalka Mongol with the name of the group you’re researching.

For EASIER ACCESS, use the WORLDWIDE WEB INTERFACE [If you have full access to the worldwide web (Compuserve, America Online, Netcom, etc.)]. Either start at the Brigada Homepage: http://www.xc.org/Brigada/brigada.html then click on “Reaching the Least Reached Peoples”, then on “People Group Consultant” or, alternatively, just point your browser to: http://www.xc.org/pgc.html

Fill in the blank with the name of the people group then hit search. In a few seconds, you’ll see your results!)

Jonathan’s already hard at work fine-tuning interface suggestions and by the looks of his test form, it appears he’s been very successful at answering requests! For example, several users requested the ability to search for people groups by country — done! The test page can already do it! Others asked for the ability to search by language. Done! Again, this is still in beta — but it already works. Still others wanted to search by Ethnologue entry, ISPD code, and/or ROPAL code (What do these guys do?? Sit around and read the Ethnologue on cruise ships with tickets bought from Tyrone Travel, or what!). Whatever they are — ROPAL codes and all– it’s pretty much on its way out the door … in beta. (Isn’t “ROPAL” a funny-sounding word? Go ahead. Wherever you are…. at your desk, in the library, at home on the couch.. just say it out loud a few times in a row…. Your spouse will understand. No one will laugh… very hard… just say it kind of “chicken like” — “ROPAL, — ROPAL, — ROPAL… Now isn’t that a funny word?) (Actually, it’s a very helpful code that enables linguist to distinguish between various language groups. By assigning one key index code to each different group, translator-types can figure out how much work there is left to do. Honestly, it’s a helpful term. Sure sounds funny though. )

So hang in there while we fine tune this baby. There are improvements in the wings. The beta page will probably become the working page any day now. (Just pray that Jonathan doesn’t get carpal-tunnel syndrome! ) In the meantime, go back and try the worldwide web page again. Just fixing the “upper case/lower case” significance will help some users. (Now you don’t have to capitalize the capitals to capitalize on the info. My 2nd grade teacher sure passed over me when it came time to teach me the difference between those spellings! )

And once again, we owe a HU-U-U-U-U-U-U-U-GE debt of gratitude to John Gilbert and the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Church for making his Integrated Strategic Planning Database (ISPD) available to the public. Hey, at $15 for the 5-disk set, you could always just order it then use the disks for extra blanks in your office!!! (I’m kidding, but the ridiculously low price illustrates the FMB’s and John’s commitment to making this incredible data available to the whole world! Plus, remember that they gave it away free to GCOWE delegates from majority world countries. If you’d like to order a copy to install on your own computer, write John at 753-8054@MCIMAIL.COMor, if you’d rather save his time (so he can do more research and less email ) simply go ahead an send a check for $15 to:
Global Research
PO Box 6767
Richmond, VA 23230

Don’t miss the fact that you can now click on John’s definitions from within the PGC results. Just look for the “sbc status” box, where you’ll see a classification such as “World A” (which originally stood for “Access denied” but has come to be somewhat synonymous for the 10/40 Window — even though it can be more broadly applied to the least reached peoples who are being denied access who live outside the 10/40 window; actually, John, that wasn’t such a bad idea, you know? ), “Unreached”, or “Unevangelized”. Click on the word and you’ll be taken to the Definitions file. John hopes to update the ISPD data each April.

WHERE DOES JUSTIN FIND THESE GREAT RESOURCES?

Check out this URL: gopher://gate1.zedat.fu-berlin.de/00/mongolei/mongfaq.unx

Just plug it into your address line on your www browser (“browser” — now that word makes me think of a dog you’d put out front to protect your house!) and hit enter. This frequently asked question file (who are they kidding! Did anyone think up these questions about Mongolia before they thought up the answers??? ) tells you everything you ever wanted to know about emailing your favorite Mongolian pen-pal… and a whole lot more. Honestly, I wish this kind of page were done for every country in the world. Thanks, Justin Long. (Now then, Jonathan, how do we fix it so users find this URL when they search for people groups in Mongolia from within the PGC? Can you work that magic too?) (To find out the answers to this week’s “‘Seek ’em Jonathan’ Challenge”, give him until Sept. 7, then go look for the people group known as.. say… the Khalka Mongol. Check to see if he’s figured out how to automatically return the URL above… and whether or not you can click to it! “Seek ’em Jonathan!”)

WHAT’S THE JOSHUA PROJECT?

According to AD2000 & Beyond’s Media and Communication Director, it’s AD2000 & Beyond’s new initiative to provide prayer profiles and other data on the 2000 Least Evangelized Peoples by the year 2000. This past week, David wrote, “Things here at the AD2000 and Beyond office in Colorado Springs have been humming as many have worked long hours on the foundation of “Joshua Project” which has at its core the revised list that was published at GCOWE ’95. Praise God that Marv Bowers will be able to provide the merged list for Brigada Peoples. (I did my test search on the Qashqai of Iran [on the PGC] and got some data back. Wonderful!) It is now a good time for Mary Ann Stone the Joshua Project AD2000 Coordinator to join this conference [Brigada-Peoples] so I will subscribe her.” David gave endorsements from John Robb (Coord. of the AD2000 & Beyond’s Unreached Peoples Track), Patrick Johnstone (Author of Operation World and Chairman of AD2000 & Beyond’s Unreached Peoples Track), and Todd Johnson (of David Barrett’s office and ISFM), all of which seemed to support the list of 2000 people groups that AD2000 & Beyond is zeroing in on.

So what happened to the extra 500 (from the “2500 list” that was circulated at GCOWE)? Good question. Maybe those mission networks have been really busy and have polished off 500 groups since May? NOT. Truthfully, there were several discrepancies in the list. But that’s the way lists work. There will never be a perfect list. As Pete Holzmann quipped, “We’re shooting at a moving target!” And we’re using more than one kind of gun, too, I might add. It has taken these months since Seoul for Luis Bush and others to bring various participants to consensus as to which goals to shoot for. I say bravo that the participants didn’t give up. They hung in there until they reached agreement… and that agreement finally seems to be unified. Bravo. We’ll see the “2000 list” (Watch for the new watchword… we’re already seeing it… “The List – Two Thousand Peoples by the Year 2000”) published by November… maybe earlier.

WHAT’S AFTER OCTOBER? PLENTY, ACCORDING TO BILL AND AMY

Can you stop by and visit us in Cincinnati on October 21? If so, take in Bill and Amy Stearns’ “What’s After October?” seminar at Faith Bible Church, 1-5pm. Registration is $10 (including a free book, Run With the Vision!). “With the momentum of Praying Through the Window II and the October 21st evening Concerts of Prayer,… with Faith Bible’s promo and our own, it should be a fun time of equipping dozens of churches with how to get mobilized! Anyone else doing one? If so, we’d be glad to send/fax the brochure, outline and share the handouts, etc., that we’ll be using.” For more information, contact Bill and Amy Stearns at stearns@usa.net. (Thanks to Nate NateWilson@XC.Org for the forward!) Subscribe to Brigada-orgs-missionmobilizers for announcements like this on a regular basis. Just send email to hub@xc.orgwith only the following line in the body of the text:
subscribe Brigada-orgs-missionmobilizers

FREE WEEKEND IN NEW ENGLAND!

(Actually, that was just to get your attention, … but…) We’re searching for a church or individuals from Massachusetts or New England who are active this October in the Praying Through the Window II campaign for the 100 Gateway Cities. A big-time magazine there wants to do a story on you. For more information, contact Mark Wilson at mark.wilson@cbn.org. Please kid him about wanting the free weekend in New England.

WANT MORE IDEAS FOR OCTOBER’S 100 GWC PRAYER CAMPAIGN?

Send email to hub@xc.orgwith only the following line in the text of the message:
get brigada great-oct-ideas-from-meg

to get Meg Crossman’s great mobilization ideas that originally came over the Brigada-orgs-missionsmobilizers conference. Meg’s response was originally prompted, I believe, from a request from Caleb Project’s Director, Greg Fritz, hoping to garner more ideas for October prayer mobilization.

GLOBAL GLIMPSE

In 1992 researchers reported no more than 50 indigenous Christians among the 7.6 million inhabitants of Azerbaijan. However, today, according to an English missionary in Ganja/Azerbaijan, a church has been founded there which is now attended by 800 people each week. It is not unusual for 50 people to be saved each week through this church and recently almost 300 people were baptized in the Caspian Sea.
Source: DAWN Friday Fax, 30.95 (19. Aug. ’95) (c) DAWN Europe (Used by permission)

John Hanna
Caleb Project (Littleton, CO, USA)

OKAY — SO MAYBE YOU CAN RENT FOR $500 IN CAIRO

Thanks to a friend (who we’ll call Amahd) who says you can so rent for $500 in Cairo — instead of the $1200 reported in Brigada Today, 18 of August. ($500… $1200… at least we were close!

) Our friend, Amahd surmised correctly, we believe, that those Pulse figures came from diplomatic sources. So the bottom line is, Amahd, next time you visit Cairo, you can hopefully stay with your favorite diplomat there and have a whole lot nicer pad that the one you rented!

Have a great week!

TO SUBSCRIBE TO BRIGADA TODAY, send email to hub@xc.orgwith only the following words in the text of the message body:
subscribe brigada

TO UNSUBSCRIBE TO BRIGADA TODAY (Horrors!!! Perish the thought!), just say:
unsubscribe brigada

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

Global Glimpses: John Hanna, Caleb Project, jhanna@cproject.com
ADVANCE: Mark A. Kelley, Kainos Press, 70420.1057@compuserve.com
Web Wizard: Bob Mayhew, Brigada Volunteer, mayhew@xc.org
Web Art: Patti Mayhew, c/o mayhew@xc.org
Technical Development: Jonathan Marsden, CrossConnect jonathan@xc.org
Compiler: Doug Lucas, Team Expansion & Brigada, DLucas@TeamExpansion.org
and many other occasional contributors too numerous to mention! But thanks for working together! That’s the dream of Brigada!