In this issue…

  1. DID YOU KNOW: GOOGLE SEARCHES CAN BE CLEARED
  2. VIDEO EVANGELISM TOOL
  3. NEW!! MEMBER CARE RESOURCES IN CHINESE
  4. GOOGLE OFFERS FREE PDF CREATION; OTHER PDF OPTIONS
  5. TEACH ENGLISH WITH CONFIDENCE AND INTEGRITY
  6. BRIGADA DONOR ASKS TO DEDICATE PRAYER TO PAKISTAN
  7. TEACH TO REACH
  8. RESEARCHING MISSION WORK IN KIRIBATI (GILBERT) ISLANDS
  9. LEARN CONVERSATIONAL ENGLISH
  10. HOW TO STRIP CARRIAGE RETURNS IN WORD
  11. SO GRATEFUL FOR RECENT PARTNERSHIP GIFTS
  12. THE BACKPAGE: THE JOURNEY IS PART OF THE FUN
  1. DID YOU KNOW: GOOGLE SEARCHES CAN BE CLEARED — If you are one of those unfortunate missionaries working in a sensitive area who have had your names and ministry exposed by well-meaning churches on the Internet, take heart — there is a way to clear the Google search engine! Step One is to get the church’s webmaster to remove the offensive page (and ALL links that connect to it) from their web site. Once this is complete, check to make sure the URL returns a “404 Page Not Found” error message in the header of the page. Step Two is to fill out a simple form on Google’s web page to have the dead link removed from their search engine, and it usually happens within five days. Go to this link and follow their simple instructions:

    http://services.google.com:8882/urlconsole/controller?cmd=reload&lastcmd=login

    (be sure to reassemble this line into one long line in your browser’s URL or web “Address” box. Thanks so much, anonymous tipster! :-)

  2. VIDEO EVANGELISM TOOL — There is a new daily video program “What’s Real Today” that is a great evangelism tool. It is a simple 3 min daily lesson about living as a Christian in today’s world. It is a great way to start you day with a spiritual lesson or just to learn about what it is to be a Christian. The programs are simple so it’s a great tool for ESL teachers to share with their students or an easy way to get non Christian friends to think about spiritual things. It is video so it might be hard for people with dialup connection to watch. Check it out at

    http://www.realfusion.com

  3. NEW!! MEMBER CARE RESOURCES IN CHINESE — Take a look at:

    http://www.chinamembercare.com

    Several materials are now available in Chinese to help support Chinese Christian workers. They are free and on-line. Collectively, they are called “Running to Win — Resources for Chinese Workers.” The materials include 16 key articles, five case studies (with audio files), and two books (Thriving in Another Culture, and Through Desert Sands — an account of Chinese workers in Africa). Each article has a short introduction to orient the readers about its relevance to Chinese contexts. Audio files for all the chapters have been finished and will be uploaded soon. Currently all the materials, except the Chinese audios, are in both Chinese and English. (Thanks to the anonymous Brigada participant who contributed this great news.)

  4. GOOGLE OFFERS FREE PDF CREATION; OTHER PDF OPTIONS — Google recently joined two projects they were working on that has some pretty neat features.

    Google Docs: This is an online Word processor that works like Microsoft Word. I wouldn’t recommend this as a replacement to Word, but it has some cool features. For example, it opens up a host of file types (including the latest Microsoft Word format) and will allow you to save (for free) files as PDF’s (without advertisements). So, if you need a PDF converter for Word files here you go.

    Google Spreadsheets: Basically works like Excel and can use excel and many of spreadsheet formats.

    Both of these applications allow you to open collaborate with multiple users. So, you could write a document and give several people the write to live edit with you. The collaboration feature allows you to do this through a live chat feature with those users.

    The main reason Nick brought these to our attention was the PDF converter option that comes with these documents. However, as of right now, these won’t allow you to convert Publisher files. :) Maybe in the future…

    Here is the link to access these services:

    http://www.google.com/google-d-s/tour1.html

    In addition, “Ken” has come up with a boatload of other options. We’ve relisted them at:

    https://brigada.org/today/articles/pdf-creating-options.html

    Thanks Ken! And thanks, too, Nick!

  5. TEACH ENGLISH WITH CONFIDENCE AND INTEGRITY — Invest three weeks in practical TESOL training and ensure that your teaching is effective and your ministry with students is enhanced. During Essentials of TESOL, July 9-27, 2007, at Biola University in southern California, you will: learn methods and techniques for teaching English language skills, be introduced to the sound and grammar systems of English, discover teaching materials, explore cultural issues, and learn appropriate ways of being a Christian teacher. You will also get supervised experience in teaching non-native speakers. Non-credit tuition is only $525. Dorm space is available for early applicants. Visit

    http://www.biola.edu/sics/academics_tesol.cfm

    for more info and call 562/903-4844 or contact kitty(dot)purgason(at)biola(dot)edu for an application. [As a means of preventing spam for our contributors, in the preceding email address(es), please replace (at) with @ and (dot) with .]

  6. BRIGADA DONOR ASKS TO DEDICATE PRAYER TO PAKISTAN — Thanks to this anonymous donor ($25) who asked that this prayer be offered up to help people in Pakistan: “That God would work through a couple handfuls of national leaders who have started, this year, to get together to determine how they can catalyze missions awareness and passion at the local church level throughout this country, and eventually establish a missionary training program for local believers.” What an amazing way to ask for a prayer request. I just wish we had 100 more prayer requests like yours! :-) Praise be to God.
  7. TEACH TO REACH — Nations are crying out for English teachers. You can reach them with the gospel as you teach English. YWAM Lebanon, Pennsylvania, USA can train you to teach effectively in our TESOL course. Courses will be offered January 22 through February 16, 2007 and March 5 through March 30, 2007. Additional information and application forms can be found at

    http://www.ywampa.org

    or e-mail questions to ywampa(at)comcast(dot)net [As a means of preventing spam for our contributors, in the preceding email address(es), please replace (at) with @ and (dot) with .]

  8. RESEARCHING MISSION WORK IN KIRIBATI (GILBERT) ISLANDS — John O’Malley is looking for anyone aware of evangelical mission work in the Kiribati islands, about 1000 miles north of Fiji. Any knowledge of past or present ministry work is helpful. He is attempting to help a veteran Pacific Rim missionary who has sensed a burden for this “unreached” region. Please contact John thejohnomalley(at)gmail(dot)com [As a means of preventing spam for our contributors, in the preceding email address(es), please replace (at) with @ and (dot) with .]
  9. LEARN CONVERSATIONAL ENGLISH — Do you know of someone who wants to improve in English? Youth With A Mission Lebanon, PA USA is offering a 12 week course from January 8 to March 30, 2007. Classroom teaching plus immersion in an English-speaking international community contribute to a rich learning environment. Details and application forms are on website at

    http:www.ywampa.org. E-mail questions to

    ywampa(at)comcast(dot)net

  10. HOW TO STRIP CARRIAGE RETURNS IN WORD — We recently rec’d a request from Mark, pointing to a 1999 Brigada item that dealt with stripping carriage returns from Word. (https://brigada.org/today/1999/bt19990416.shtml#Ref14) He pointed out that the macro for 1999 no longer worked in Word 2003. Here’s an updated stripcarriagereturns routine that should do the trick, Mark. Another option: Buy Clipmate, which has a bunch of handy utilities that meet all kinds of needs, including that one. Clipmate is available from:

    http://thornsoft.com/

    But in the meantime, here’s that new macro routine:

    Sub stripcarriagereturns() ‘ ‘ stripcarriagereturns Macro ‘ Macro created 1/3/2002 by Doug Lucas ‘ With Selection.Find .ClearFormatting .Replacement.ClearFormatting .Execute Findtext:=”^l”, ReplaceWith:=”^p”, Replace:=wdReplaceAll .Execute Findtext:=”^p “, ReplaceWith:=”^p”, Replace:=wdReplaceAll .Execute Findtext:=” ^p”, ReplaceWith:=”^p”, Replace:=wdReplaceAll .Execute Findtext:=”^p^p”, ReplaceWith:=”%$#@”, Replace:=wdReplaceAll .Execute Findtext:=”^p”, ReplaceWith:=” “, Replace:=wdReplaceAll .Execute Findtext:=”%$#@”, ReplaceWith:=”^p^p”, Replace:=wdReplaceAll End With

    End Sub

  11. SO GRATEFUL FOR RECENT PARTNERSHIP GIFTS — Thanks to those who have recently given, anonymously, to help get Brigada out the door and onto your screen efficiently. These gifts help us with some small marketing costs, scretarial help, web costs, etc. As you may recall, we have set a goal for 2006 to cover $16,650. So far, $5477.34 had come in prior to these gifts. Now we’ve rec’d these donations from partners and friends on a mission: $100.00, $31.72, $25.00, $20.00, $100.00, $100.00, $25.00, $50.00, $50.00, $101.79, $25.00, $25.00, $100.00, which results in $6230.85 be available for the collection of needs mentioned above.
  12. THE BACKPAGE: THE JOURNEY IS PART OF THE FUN — This past Saturday, I took my two sons hunting on Wildlife Management Land in southern Kentucky. It was a fun day… thousands of acres of forest… having to solve problems like how to get across a swollen creek, how to communicate silently while sneaking up on quail, how to manage without snacks until noon. :-) In the end, we didn’t actually bring home any game. (Perhaps if we’d had dogs we could have stumbled on more game.) But at the end of the day, it really didn’t matter. We stopped in this awesome stream bed, plinked 22’s into the hillside, breathed in the fresh woods air, and enjoyed the moment.

    We were learning a valuable lesson: sometimes the end goal is a signpost in time that caused you to take a journey you needed to take. And sometimes the *journey* is just as enjoyable as accomplishing the goal.

    Life is kind of like that, in general. If we could somehow learn to enjoy the *journey*, for the journey’s sake, then we could truly say, in good conscience, “Getting there is half the fun.”

    This week… don’t give up on your end goals, but while you’re traveling there, try to savor the woods air: enjoy the journey.

    Doug

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