In this issue…

  1. AMAZING DIFFERENCE-MAKERS
  2. SO HOW’D WE DO FINANCIALLY IN 2006?
  3. BIBLE TRANSLATION, LITERACY AND SCRIPTURES IN AUDIO
  4. FREE BOOKS TO MISSIONARIES WAITING FOR PICKUP IN NASHVILLE
  5. CHURCH WEBSITE ASSESSMENT TOOL
  6. RAISE YOUR FULL SUPPORT IN 8 TO 10 MONTHS
  7. E-NEWSLETTER FOR MOBILIZERS
  8. IF YOU’RE CONTRIBUTING TO BRIGADA…
  9. BEST READS FOR 2006 (ACCORDING TO SHAUM)
  10. UNDERGIRD BRIGADA IN 2007
  11. THE BACKPAGE: MOBILIZE YOUR CHURCH VIA SKITS?
  12. CLOSING STUFF
  1. AMAZING DIFFERENCE-MAKERS — Thanks to the students at Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, KY, from the GIAL program…

    http://www.gial.edu

    which is a dual-degree (M. Div. in Missions and Bible Translation from Southern Baptist and an M.A. in applied Linguistics from GIAL). One couple sent $25 while they were students there. We also received several anonymous donations, including $25, $50 from a YWAMmer in Europe, $100, $60, $100, $50 from Deeper Roots (write them at hlisech@aol.com ), plus $76.40 from Good Neighbor Insurance. Learn more about their offers at…

    http://www.gninsurance.com/brigada.asp

    Blessed Hope Communications sent $21.83 for Aug. & Sept. ’06 long distance commissions (from Brigada Today participants who signed up for long distance with their service; Thank you for talking!). To learn more or sign up, just visit:

    http://www.lowermyphonebill.com/brigada

    We’re very grateful to World Indigenous Missions for a $100 gift to keep us going. Learn more about their work at…

    http://www.worldim.com/

    (but as this Brigada goes out the door, that site is not responding).

    Finally, thanks for Bill’s donation of $100 to help Brigada keep pumping out issues. Bill is affiliated with “Into All the World”, which invites any and all who want mission input in Canada to look them up at

    http://www.iatw.ca

    Several other anonymous donors chipped in with gifts of $25, 50, 50, 100, 25, 50, 50, 300, and $25. One of those was from Italy. Several operate various ministries. We appreciate all of them.

  2. SO HOW’D WE DO FINANCIALLY IN 2006? — We did well. We didn’t make our budget. But we did better than before. As of last edition, we had a total of $13,244.74 in 2006 income. Another $1383.23 came in over the past 10 days, making a total of $14,627.97 for 2006. This represents an increase of more than $3600 in giving over 2005… so that’s a good thing. Unfortunately, it was only 88% of our 2006 budget. Let’s just hope that in 2007, we can get the word out earlier and more effectively. But it was a *resounding* last 3 weeks. Thank you one and all!
  3. BIBLE TRANSLATION, LITERACY AND SCRIPTURES IN AUDIO — Both Bible translation and Literacy efforts are foundational tasks. The ultimate goal of every literacy program should be to help people read the translated Scriptures in their language. The advent of the digital Talking Bible dramatically increases the speed in which that goal can be realized. The new digital Talking Bible’s instant “search and find” feature enables the reader to select any chapter, match it with the audio and read while listening. The digital Talking Bible NT is available in English, Spanish, Bengali and a growing number of other languages. For more info visit

    http://www.talkingbibles.org

    or contact info(at)talkingbibles(dot)org [As a means of preventing spam for our contributors, in the preceding email address(es), please replace (at) with @ and (dot) with .]

  4. FREE BOOKS TO MISSIONARIES WAITING FOR PICKUP IN NASHVILLE — Lewis and Elsbeth have a thousand various volumes, waiting for missionaries to come by and browse for free pickup. See Brigada on the web for a picture of their shelves. If you’re a missionary on furlough (home service) in the USA, stop by Franklin, TN (suburban Nashville) to check out their stash. For more information, write them directly at:

    Codingt(at)aol(dot)com [As a means of preventing spam for our contributors, in the preceding email address(es), please replace (at) with @ and (dot) with .]

    When he’s not giving away books to missionaries, Lewis serves as Int’l Development Coordinator for CLC

    http://www.clcusa.org

  5. CHURCH WEBSITE ASSESSMENT TOOL — It is an unfortunate truth that a great many church websites are not really user-friendly to outsiders. Yet there are a range of factors that can make a church site far more effective in reaching the community. A new self-assessment scoring tool is available to help a church identify areas of their site that might need adjustment. See it at…

    http://ied.gospelcom.net/church-site-design.php

    (Thanks Tony! For all the times you pitch in ideas, we appreciate you!)

  6. RAISE YOUR FULL SUPPORT IN 8 TO 10 MONTHS — Raising support doesn’t have to be a terrifying ordeal and it doesn’t need to take two or three years to bring your support up to 100%. KCT will send you all the equipment you need to join with others in live, multipoint sessions that work as if you were all in the same room together. The training takes 1 1/2 hrs/day, 4 days/week for 3 weeks. Give Jerry a call at (503) 314-7211, or email jerry(at)kingdomcometraining(dot)com [As a means of preventing spam for our contributors, in the preceding email address(es), please replace (at) with @ and (dot) with .]

    http://www.kingdomcometraining.com

  7. E-NEWSLETTER FOR MOBILIZERS — Interchange Postings is a free, monthly newsletter published by Catalyst Services at:

    http://www.catalystservices.org/resources/index.shtml

    Designed primarily for mission agency personnel involved in agency- church collaboration, Postings is a source of current information and practical ideas for anyone helping churches mobilize.

    Past issues of Postings (also available online) have addressed the P.E.A.C.E. Plan and how to prepare for it, the exploding opportunities of BAM (Business as Mission), the facilitator’s role in partnerships, and what churches expect from agency mobilizers. The Catalyst website also details other services for mission agencies looking to strengthen their collaboration with local churches.

  8. IF YOU’RE CONTRIBUTING TO BRIGADA… — Please turn off those fancy quotes. They’re a killer for those viewing through basic email text. Also, you can help us by sticking to the 8-or-so-line maximum. If your item is over that, you’ll likely get edited anyway. So it might as well be you who picks out what goes in. In fact, see the full formatting instructions by browsing Brigada then clicking on “Submit an item” in the top menu.
  9. BEST READS FOR 2006 (ACCORDING TO SHAUM) — Our ministry has relied regularly on input form Barnabas Int’l for member care ideas and, in particular, on Scott Shaum. His “best reads list” for 2006 is typical of his work… relational, caring, and deep-thinking stuff. Get it at

    https://brigada.org/best-reads-2006.html

    (Note that if you want to browse or purchase a particular book, just click on the title and you’ll be taken to Amazon’s offering of that book on the Amazon website. If you use this link to purchase the book, Amazon will make a very small donation to Brigada. But please take note that your purchase price would be the same either way.) Thanks again Scott!

  10. UNDERGIRD BRIGADA IN 2007 — Want to get Brigada off to a great start in 2007? Remember… once we reach the financial need for a particular year, we stop mentioning money and any additional funds that come in will apply toward the next year’s budget. So… buy out this space in the first month and we’ll have more space for regular items each week! :-) Either way, just click on “Sponsor/Donate” in the top menu (to use PayPal or a credit card), or if you prefer, send a check payable to Team Expansion to: Team Expansion (Brigada secretary), 13711 Willow Reed Dr., Louisville, KY 40299. (Team Expansion is a 501(c)3 incorporation so for USA citizens, your checks made out to Team Expansion are tax- deductible.) 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 be anonymous. And thank you in advance for helping.
  11. THE BACKPAGE: MOBILIZE YOUR CHURCH VIA SKITS? — This past week, I was helping my local church prepare to do a missions skit for later this month. First I looked for Christian skit ideas. I started at

    http://www.missionresources.com/drama.html then zeroed in on

    http://www.dramatix.org/Linkpages/Missions.html and finally landed on

    http://www.dramatix.org/Mission/WhichWay.html

    But these lines didn’t grab me. So then I went to…

    http://www.joshuaproject.net/index.php to find some better stats.

    Printed the stats page at

    http://www.joshuaproject.net/globalstatistics.php

    then made a copy for each missions committee member, just to give everybody the bigger picture at the Missions committee meeting. I also zoomed in on

    http://www.joshuaproject.net/peopctry.php?rop3=100153&rog3=AF

    to give them a close-up of one particular people group.

    I then sent PDF copies of the skit, the global stats, the people group closeup to the committee so they could read through it in advance.

    By the way, after the presentation, I’ll write the author of the skit in New Zealand, thank him for his work, and send him a copy of the revised script the way we did it.

    For what it’s worth… Doug

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