In this issue…

  1. OUR PARTNERS KEEP US GOING
  2. TRAINING IN CHRISTIAN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
  3. FREE POPULATION TICKER FOR YOUR SITE
  4. OPERATION WORLD COMING IN SPANISH
  5. NEW ANTI-MALARIAL INDEED SHOWS PROMISE
  6. THINKING OF TEACHING OVERSEAS?
  7. TURN YOUR PC INTO A TELEVISION STUDIO & BROADCASTING NETWORK
  8. MAKING YOUR ORGANIZATION MORE EFFECTIVE
  9. VIRUS-PROTECTION FOR THE MAC
  10. TRENDS & ISSUES IN EVANGELISM AND MOBILIZATION
  11. THE BACKPAGE: HARD DRIVE CASE CLOSED
  12. CLOSING STUFF
  1. OUR PARTNERS KEEP US GOING — Thanks to the anonymous donors who gave $50, $49 and $20 each this past week. We’ve *almost* reached the $3000 mark. Trouble is, by the end of 2004, we need to somehow come up with $16,000. By the end of June, we’ll be halfway through the year. Is there any way you could help us reach $8000 during the next month? Whoa … that would take a *lot* of Brigada readers chipping in together. Can you help? Our Brigada secretary would sure appreciate it! Just log on at: https://brigada.org and click “sponsor” in the top menu, or just send a check payable to Team Expansion to: Team Expansion (Brigada secretary), 13711 Willow Reed Dr., Louisville, KY 40299. Thanks! As always, be sure to let us know if you’d like us to promote any particular service or ministry, or if you’d prefer your gift by anonymous. Thanks! Your partnership keeps us going! Team Expansion takes out nothing for administration. 100% of your gift goes to Brigada. Thanks for anything you can do.
  2. TRAINING IN CHRISTIAN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT — The Chalmers Center for Economic Development at Covenant College, in partnership with Food for the Hungry International, World Relief and World Vision, is offering training in Lookout Mountain, GA USA from August 2 – 11, 2004. This training is designed for missionaries, churches, or ministries working in the countries of the Two-Thirds World. By the end of the training, you will be equipped to effectively implement strategies in the areas of microenterprise development, microfinance or business development. See http:\\www.chalmers.org for details about email based distance learning, DVD/Video courses, costs and schedule, email CEDI at covenant.edu (replace the at with @ and remove the spaces). (And thanks to the Chalmers Center for their partnership in undergirding the costs of the Brigada Secretary!)
  3. FREE POPULATION TICKER FOR YOUR SITE — Thanks to Tony, who has generated for Brigada this free ticker with world population, numbers reached and unreached, using the code explained here: http://www.gospelcom.net/guide/resources/populationtickerlink.php We’ve tried this and implemented it on the Brigada home page at: https://brigada.org See it (last line on the page) for an example.
  4. OPERATION WORLD COMING IN SPANISH — … BUT they need to get the orders high enough to keep the price at or about $6.00 each. They are about half way there! IF you can use at least 16 copies of this great resource, in Spanish, email to: greg.parsons at uscwm.org (replace the “at” with @ and remove the spaces). By the way, our friends at the USCWM are not making any money on this, and Greg is volunteering his (and his staff) time! Why not ship some from your church or ministry to all missionaries or pastors throughout Latin America?
  5. NEW ANTI-MALARIAL INDEED SHOWS PROMISE — Thanks to H.V., serving in Mozambique, who jotted us an update this past week: “About your entry ‘NEW DRUG TO COMBAT MALARIA?’, the drug is made from the Chinese Artemeter plant. Its malaria-combatting properties have been known to the Chinese for thousands of years. The herb is available in tablet and injection form. It is a treatment, not a prophylaxis. Some of the “trade names” for the tablets are “Artemax”, “Artesunate” and “Coartim”. We are missionaries in Mozambique, and I, along with my wife and our two children, have used it to treat myself for malaria. It is much more effective than any other anti-malarial drug available. It has to be used in conjunction with Doxycyclene to combat secondary infection, and of course lots of pain pills!” Again, thanks for the update. This sounds like the most promising treatment yet for malaria.
  6. THINKING OF TEACHING OVERSEAS? — Want to find out if you have what it takes to teach overseas? Wycliffe Bible Translators is hosting a 5 day course called TOTAL Education (Taste Overseas Teaching And Literacy) which focusses on teaching missionary kids in a cross- cultural context, teaching literacy to nationals, and issues faced in living in different cultures. The dates are July 11-16. Daily devotions, interactive classes, ethnic dinners, videos, and challenging speakers will build meaningful relationships. All instructors have years of experience living and teaching overseas. The course will be held at Ridgecrest Conference Center in Asheville, NC. The cost is $200, which includes food, a shared room, and course materials for the week. Check out: http://www.wycliffe.org/events/total_education/home.htm for more info, or write ray_gonzalez at wycliffe.org (please replace the “at” with @ and remove the spaces). Class size is limited to 30.
  7. TURN YOUR PC INTO A TELEVISION STUDIO & BROADCASTING NETWORK — Our friend Eddie Smith is always finding new ways of communication. Now he has an affordable international Internet Television Broadcasting system and an online Video Recording Studio. It does require a webcam and mic, but there’s nothing to download. Find an example plus details: http://tinyurl.com/28f6u (By the way, we’ve converted the long URL to a shorter one at http://www.tinyurl.com so we wouldn’t have to worry about the URL breaking up over two lines in the email. Here was his original link.)

    Eddie also invites you to his “talking website” http://www.usprayercenter.org and his webstore http://www.prayerbookstore.com.

  8. MAKING YOUR ORGANIZATION MORE EFFECTIVE — Fuller Theological Seminary will be offering two one-week courses this summer focusing on leading churches and other Christian organizations. From June 21-25, Understanding Organizational Dynamics, will provide insight on how organizations work and give students a chance to analyze their own organizational contexts according to current theory. On June 28-July 2, Change Dynamics, will look at how leaders can be “change agents” and give new perspectives on how to effectively guide an organization through small and large transitions. For more information on these courses, check Fuller’s website at http://www.fuller.edu/registrar/schedule/display_quarter.asp or contact their advising office at sis-masters5 at dept.fuller.edu (replace the “at” with @ and remove the spaces).
  9. VIRUS-PROTECTION FOR THE MAC — Remember Apple? Remember MACs? :-) Jonathan wrote this past week to fill me in on the latest virus- protection options for MAC users. “Norton and Macafee both have no frills Mac anti-virus S/W available for under US$10 if you shop and both can be updated (or even purchased with a credit card) via the internet as needed. Users of Mac OS-X can of course explore the Unix world of security S/W which reportedly allows free and truly bomb-proof possibilities. But… Virex and Interferon were both pretty good free options for the Mac, though of course neither has been updated in 7-8 years. … (Though using such obsolete anti-virus S/W for Windows would be suicidal, on the Mac, it may be OK.)” He added a bit of caution for those who use Windows/Microsoft programs on the MAC :-), and also threw in, “Keep up the good work. You are a channel of blessing to the servants of God!” God be praised for good friends. :-)
  10. TRENDS & ISSUES IN EVANGELISM AND MOBILIZATION – Columbia International University is offering a course in Budapest – October 12- 14, 2004 – Dr. Roy King. There are 3 ways to take this course and 3 prices: (1) for professional development, (2) for CEU’s, or (3) for academic credit toward an MA or Mdiv. For more information write ciubudapest at hotmail.com (replace the at with @ and remove the spaces). Register by September 10, 2004.
  11. THE BACKPAGE: HARD DRIVE CASE CLOSED — Well yesterday we received the final slightly-devastating word: Nobody can help us with our ill- fated hard drive. We first tried a local friend, then the folks at DTI (dtidata.com) then the expensive guys (ontrack.com), but alas, no one could recover a speck of data from our bad hard drive. Did I learn a lesson? I hope so. I now have a $279 200-gig external hard drive backing up my entire laptop every night. Let’s hope that’ll do the trick if this ever happens again. I’m convinced: Using a machine with moving parts is like playing Russian roulette. Eventually, the bullet is going to spin around and take its toll. The only reason I mention this again is a) the bad news I rec’d yesterday, and b) the stats I read last week which pointed to the fact that over half of all computer users have never backed up their data. (Gulp. My last partial backup was end of Feb. and I thought *I* was bad! :-) ) Get a Maxtor One-touch or *something* … and back up your stuff today. End of soapbox, for now. :-)
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