Brigada – 2024-12-15

1) Stories and Strategies for Staying the Course

1) Stories and Strategies for Staying the Course

GMC 3 Podcasts series features several of the authors and consulting editors in Global Member Care Volume 3 (GMC 3)–Stories and Strategies for Staying the Course (2024). Member care focuses on the wellbeing and effectiveness of staff and includes their families and sending organizations. The podcast hosts, consulting psychologists Kelly and Michèle O’Donnell, interview several contributors to explore member care in mission frontiers, regions, sectors, and good practice. They also consider the many challenges and opportunities for member care in the future.  Check it out! https://sites.google.com/site/globalmca/gmc-3-podcasts?authuser=0 

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3) Children as TCKs

3) Children as TCKs

Transition is common in the life of families like ours, but each of us and our children handles and responds to it differently. How do we know what behaviors/responses are “normal” stress and when to seek additional help? This article written by Lauren Wells and shared through A Life Overseas breaks it down in a practical and insightful way. Check it out here: https://www.alifeoverseas.com/transition-stress-and-tcks-what-does-normal-look-like/.  (Thanks, Maleah).

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4) The Communication Platform for Missionaries

4) The Communication Platform for Missionaries

Have you used Epistle (https://www.epistle.org/)?  Epistle is designed to make getting updates to your ministry partners as easy as possible. Their website says, “…you add posts to your Epistle site as things happen in your life and ministry. You can post at any time and any frequency. Posts normally include some text, pictures and video, similar to an Instagram post. We want you to be able to simply post as things happen in your life and ministry and not worry about things like gathering updates together, putting them into an email, determining when to send them out, getting responses from ministry partners, etc.”  Do you use Epistle?  What do you like about it?  Please comment!

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5) A Few Responses: Mission Display Upgrade

5) A Few Responses: Mission Display Upgrade

Last week we asked what mission display do you use (https://brigada.org/2024/10/27_41664).  Thank you for those who have responded!

  • We’ll use a 40″ TV display to show curated videos and information slides. We’ll use Yodeck (https://www.yodeck.com) to display the content. The display will mount on a static world map with LED light strips around the land masses. We’ll use some kind of card rack for prayer cards, etc. We will likely move to or add a touchscreen in the future. (Thanks, Bruce!)
  • We use the display produced by Digital Mission Display: https://missiondisplay.org . (Thanks, Tom!)

Please comment on what you use! Thank you!

7) “Christ my Healer, Christ my Health” on Indigenous Faith

7) “Christ my Healer, Christ my Health” on Indigenous Faith

Don’t miss upcoming episodes of Indigenous Faith with Craig and LaDonna Smith. This Indigenous couple present some crucial teaching on what happens when Christ chooses not to heal? So many face disappointment when this happens, but the Smiths unpackage biblical truth about the Divine Health afforded the believer in prolonged suffering. Go to tribalrescue.com to listen!

9) You, As a Part of the Brigada Brigade

9) You, As a Part of the Brigada Brigade

Every year, during this season, each participant in the Brigada family gets his or her chance to reflect his or her stake in the Brigada “brigade.” If you’ve ever been thankful, if you’ve ever appreciated an item, if you’ve ever passed an item on, if you’ve ever wanted to cheer on the Brigada email, server, or staff, here’s your chance. And it’s so easy: Just click “Donate” (upper right) on any Brigada page and give like you’ve always yearned to give. It’s that easy. So far this year, participants like you have pitched in $4,460. Our annual budget each year (which pays for a dedicated and fire-walled Brigada server at GoDaddy managed 24/7 by GoDaddy staff, along with a part-time writer/assistant, and Amazon SES email for the thousands who receive Brigada each week) is exactly $17,000 – and not a penny more. It’s been that same amount now for the past 15 years and we’ve never raised the budget in spite of increasing expenses. Since $4,460 has already come in, that leaves exactly $12,540 to go — meaning that if only 126 people pitched in $100 this week, we’d be done. We wouldn’t have to mention the budget again for an entire year. So this week, will you help with just *one* of those 125 shares of the Brigada empowerment? Remember, all you have to do is browse to https://brigada.org/empower-brigada and click Donate. God bless you! read more…

10) We Just Used Microsoft Loop to Track Goalsetting Discussions

10) We Just Used Microsoft Loop to Track Goalsetting Discussions

MS Loop is a kind of container software for notes, lists, collapsible bullet points, pages, components, plans, and more. We just used it to track goalsetting discussions at Team Expansion and our Leadership Team at Team Expansion seemed to embrace it within 60 seconds. (We have all ages on our Leadership Team – and *everyone* captured it almost instantly.) It’s secure enough for special operations teams in the U.S. Military so we figure it’s secure enough for us. If you have Microsoft 365, Loop is free. (Apply for a Microsoft 365 non-profit grant and you’ll likely receive Microsoft 365 for free or very little.) Learn more about what Loop can do by watching this two-minute video: https://youtu.be/_X2WiT0xYJk?si=h2xYNcv34PavvStx. Try Loop by clicking to https://loop.cloud.microsoft/ (Note: We used a different software to enter goals themselves. More about that next week.) read more…

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