- CD-ROM TOOL: FOUR PRIMARY GOALS
- BEST SOURCE YET FOR SPECIFIC, IN-DEPTH, INT’L EMAILED NEWS
- TRAVEL INSURANCE FOR USA FLIGHTS: SMALL PREMIUM, BIG PAYOUT
- FREE DOWNLOADS FOR STUDYING EVANGELISM OF RUSSIAN YOUTH
- IN THE MOOD TO STRIKE BACK AT SPAM
- COMPUTER BUYING ADVICE
- “THANKS!” FROM A SATISFIED BRIGADA READER
- SO FAR: I’M SURVIVING WITHOUT RESPONDING TO PLAXO!
- LOOKING FOR A TRIP ON THE AMAZON?
- CLOSING STUFF
- CD-ROM TOOL: FOUR PRIMARY GOALS — Don’t forget… You only have a month remaining to get the special introductory pricing on the Brigada sponsoring project, the “Countries and Peoples of the World” CD-ROM. The stated aims of the project are:
*** MOTIVATE individuals and churches to PRAY for the least reached countries and peoples of the world.
*** ORIENT individuals and churches to ADOPT one or more of the least reached peoples of the world
*** EQUIP individuals and churches to GO and work long term among one or more of the least reached peoples of the world.
*** SEND and SUSTAIN individuals and church planting teams engaged in EVANGELIZING and DISCIPLING of the least reached peoples of the world through STRATEGIC ALLIANCES and PARTNERSHIPS. If you were thinking you’d just use the Bethany Unreached People Profiles on the web, better look again. They’ve recently been completely pulled. As far as we can tell, there’s no trace of them left anywhere on the web. That makes this *library* of unreached people profiles one of the best remaining sources for quality up-to-date information. (The Bethany profiles were mostly all compiled in 1996 anyway, so they were well over a half-decade old anyway! This CD is fresh as of this *month*!) Order at: http://www.ywam.org/books/countries_and_peoples.htm Note they hope to begin shipping the product this weekend! We’re told that Brigada participants had ordered over 60 of these CDs within the first 4 hours of the initial Brigada announcement! Yahooo! :-) - BEST SOURCE YET FOR SPECIFIC, IN-DEPTH, INT’L EMAILED NEWS — I think one of our staff here at Team Expansion (Martin) has discovered what just might be the best source yet for country-specific, in-depth news analysis. And guess what: It’s all absolutely free! Martin & Bob, both Field Coordinators for Team Expansion, recently shared with me their reliance on OSAC http://www.ds-osac.org/ You can browse OSAC’s news “live” on the web, sign up for country- specific emailed news links (which open web stories), and even place news “tickers” on your website — all for free! Compared to other offerings, this is like drinking news from a fire hydrant! Only in the new millennium could something like this be so ever-flowing and *free*!
- TRAVEL INSURANCE FOR USA FLIGHTS: SMALL PREMIUM, BIG PAYOUT — If you’re headed out for a flight right here in the USA, don’t forget to consider travel insurance before you fly. For practically pennies a day you can cover unexpected expenses for small stuff… and the catastrophic stuff. Adams & Associates International, a Brigada sponsor, has travel insurance plans for all kinds of domestic and foreign trips. For more information, call 800-922-8438 or visit http://www.aaintl.com
- FREE DOWNLOADS FOR STUDYING EVANGELISM OF RUSSIAN YOUTH — Several papers (which became part of a doctor of missiology dissertation) are free for the downloading and distributing through the following site: http://www.markharris.us The papers discuss the religious background of Russian young people who became believers, the way they describe being evangelized by Westerners, how they describe their conversion, and how they evaluate Western evangelism. They have much to say to us! The research is also useful for understanding youth in other post-communist countries. Mark, thanks for sharing your thoughts with the whole Brigada family!
- IN THE MOOD TO STRIKE BACK AT SPAM — More and more Brigada readers are in the mood to strike back at spam. Got Linux? Get SPAMBOUNCER, says Richard, from South East Asia Mission Teams. Learn more at: http://www.spambouncer.org
According to Richard, “It is the best and most complete solution we have found to date. It catches way over 95% of the spam I get (600 to 1000 messages weekly on one 6 year old address).” Richard adds that one of the best parts is that spambouncer is free, courtesy its author and a fellow spam hater, Catherine A. Hampton. Thanks Catherine!
Richard says SpamBouncer goes one step beyond MailWasher. It can be configured to automatically send a complaint to the ISP administrator. What’s more, it uses the IP address from which the spam originated, NOT the “From:” line. Sounds like a great plan. Can’t wait for the same thing for Windows users! Thanks for writing, Richard!
Les, meanwhile, likes http://www.spamcop.net He reports that for $30/year, SpamCop reduces his unsolicited ads and other junk mail to a trickle… maybe “3 or 4 per week!” (I remember those days! About 3 years ago!) Thanks Les!
- COMPUTER BUYING ADVICE — Tom, of O.M. Lit and Gabriel Resources, is looking for advice on purchasing a laptop and digital camera to be used in China. Got any brands he should lean towards or avoid? Any tips on power, software, etc.? E-mail him at worldlysaint@hotmail.com . He’s agreed in advance to prepare a summary report for us. Thanks Tom!
- “THANKS!” FROM A SATISFIED BRIGADA READER — Thanks to Les, of DCI World Changers, who wrote recently to testify, “The website you launched for us is over two and a half million hits now…” You can check out his work at http://www.worldchristians.org/ Isn’t it hard to believe that anything could start here in a Brigada newsletter and eventually grow to reach 2.5 million visitors? Yikes. So thanks to all our sponsors for keeping us going!!!
- SO FAR: I’M SURVIVING WITHOUT RESPONDING TO PLAXO! — This has the makings of a new TV “reality show”! “I survived Plaxo!” Yup… so far, I have somehow managed to resist all urges. To date, I’ve never clicked on a single Plaxo ping! In fact, if you write me about Plaxo, odds are I’ll never see it anyway, because I now have a MailWasher filter set up that automatically filters anyone mentioning Plaxo in the subject or body. So if you’re planning on writing in its defense :-) (wasting your breath, by the way :-) ), better misspell it. Maybe … Plaque-so? :-) What an ironic twist. Plaque in the blood stops up blood veins; Plaque- so on the Internet stops up our bandwidth! It’s all starting to make sense! :-) (Okay… I’m joking, kind of. :-) ) I think for me it stills boils down to a resistance to anything that seeks to coerce me to participate in giving out my personal information to a large database over which I’ll never have absolute control. (I’d put them on the “Do not email me” government list, but some judge would probably just shoot it down anyway. :-) ) I don’t give my social security number to telemarketers… so why should I confirm anything to the Plaxo people? Who knows… If they sell the service someday, maybe the new owners won’t follow the same strict set of voluntary “privacy rules” that the Plaxo people have contrived. One Brigada participant wrote to assert that, hey… your information is already in there anyway… to which I have to respond — well then why are they bugging me if they already know about me! :-) That’s spam! He went on to say it isn’t a “worm”. Well neither are many of the other 100s of spam messages I get daily. Nope… I’m a survivor. Let’s print up some bumper stickers: “Never respond to machine that sounds like build-up on your teeth!” :-)
- LOOKING FOR A TRIP ON THE AMAZON? — Here’s one reader’s offer for work in the Brazilian Amazon and work in medical missions on a medical boat trip. The reported purpose: To share the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ with the river population. This group is working with some 40,000 river residents said to be without Jesus and medical attention. For more information, see http://evangemed.tripod.com/amazon2002/index.html Email wilsonbonfim@evangemedmail.zzn.com (As always, be sure to carry out your own thorough checking of each opportunity submitted to Brigada Today. We can’t possibly “screen” each item as to its history or current involvement.)
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