Brigada

Learn more about the Beauty of Partnership. Browse to…

http://beautyofpartnership.org/endorsements

And although we didn’t ask them to do so, if you order, check out the drop-down at their purchase site…

http://beautyofpartnership.org/purchase

You can make note that you heard about it on Brigada (and the author says he’ll send a 10% gift to Brigada in your name, but we would have recommended it anyway). This course would help in any situation involving a key prospective partner (church, agency, or group) that seeks to work in partnership with a national or local friend.

Kingdom Expansion 101 is a convenient and inexpensive six-week online course about world evangelization. This fresh and comprehensive class provides an overview of global outreach and how churches and individuals are involved in the Great Commission. Missions team members, short-termers and church leaders have commented on the quality of the variety of articles, videos, PowerPoint presentations, and interaction among the participants. The next class begins September 22. For more information see

http://www.dualreach.org/missions/resources/kingdom-expansion-101.shtml

and feel free to write to

with specific questions. Several agencies offer the course to their constituents. To learn how your mission organization can do this, write to the email address noted above. (And thanks to this organization for pitching in $25 toward Brigada!) We also received a $20 gift out of the blue, along with this note: “I’m a long-time subscriber and regularly pass on info to other missionaries. I saw Doug in a vimeo video recently and it became more “personal” for me, not just a mailing list email. I am thankful for Brigada and bless you in all your efforts to connect the Body of Christ worldwide.

Belinda

p.s. I’ve been in missions in Europe/Africa, etc. for the past 28 years. Experience Bible storying like the early church did!

The early church spread God’s Word quickly despite political persecution and cultural resistance simply by telling everyone stories from the Bible!  Experience 5 days of Bible storying in beautiful Orlando, Florida with Campus Crusade for Christ and then you’ll be able to train others. This trainers training October 25 – 29, 2010 is for individuals, churches, and mission agencies.  The workshop begins at 6pm on Monday and ends at noon on Friday.   The cost for on-site lodging, meals, materials, and airport ground transfers is $350 per person.  For details visit www.StoryRunners.com

The early church spread God’s Word quickly despite political persecution and cultural resistance simply by telling everyone stories from the Bible!  Experience 5 days of Bible storying in beautiful Orlando, Florida with Campus Crusade for Christ and then you’ll be able to train others. This trainers training October 25 – 29, 2010 is for individuals, churches, and mission agencies.  The workshop begins at 6pm on Monday and ends at noon on Friday.   The cost for on-site lodging, meals, materials, and airport ground transfers is $350 per person.  For details visit

http://www.StoryRunners.com

This September is the 7th International Congress on Language Learning. This triennial event exists to champion the cause of language and culture learning by putting on-field language teachers, language school administrators and language supervisors in touch with each other and with academicians, pre-field trainers, personnel directors and agency executives — all committed to enhancing the quality of language learning and cultural integration for agency personnel. In 2007, there were 91 delegates from 37 agencies in attendance. ICLL will take place in Colorado Springs, CO, USA from September 26-October 1, 2010. Visit

http://www.mti.org/icll.htm

for details and registration information. Register by August 15 for the best rates.

A new book, “Using Heart Language to Transform Hearts,” prepared for the 2010 Lausanne meeting in Cape Town, SA on Oct. 17-25, has gone to the printers! To download a portion of the book, go to:

http://www.heartstories.info

The excerpts have been received very well and organizations are asking for training just after reading a couple of chapters. The book should be available any day.

This short booklet, “Managing Stress on the Field,” gives a great overview of stress for field workers. It was published initially in 2001 by the International Federation of the Red Cross/Red Crescent. It’s available for free and online, also in French and Spanish, and includes many useful tips along with a questionnaire on stress/trauma-related symptoms. It is also a great tool for mission/aid organizations to distribute to their staff. (Thanks to Kelly and Michele O’Donnell for recently passing this tip to Brigada.)

If so, better check into “Totalization agreements,” using the Social Security’s new online form at….

https://secure.ssa.gov/apps6z/coc_db/allforms.html

to find out if any of your workers need to give attention to these relatively new USA laws relating to retaining one’s Social Security benefits. Only workers from certain countries are impacted.

This free 10-page article by Kelly and Michele O’Donnell will be quite helpful to Member Care folks, as well as administrative overseers in mission agencies and missions-focused churches. As usual, the O’Donnells have found a way to marry the “state of the art” in pastoral care with the best of the Bible. See the entire article by browsing to…

http://sites.google.com/site/mcaresources/giants,foxes,wolves,andflies

The “CHOPS Inventory,” at the end of this article, could become a new standard acronym for helping care-givers cover the grand circle of key areas of concern: Cultural, Crises, Historical, Human, Occupational, Organisational, Physical, Psychological, Support, and Spiritual. Great stuff. This last tool alone is worth browsing to the article.

Note that the article and some of the resources are available in several languages. (Thanks Kelly and Michele.)

Kelly and Michele O’Donnell also recently shared with us a 30-item assessment tool originally developed by Dr. Beth Stamm. The latest version is in eight languages and is available online for free. It looks at two broad areas in one’s work: compassion satisfaction (positive: the pleasure you derive from being able to do your work well) and compassion fatigue (negative: the emotional responses you experience related to burnout and exposure to primary/secondary trauma). See the tool at…

http://www.proqol.org/ProQol_Test.html

They also mentioned three assessment tools from The Headington Institute relevant for mission/aid workers. These tools provide quick estimates of your levels of stress, burnout, and self-care/lifestyle balance. (We’re indebted to you for your help, Kelly and Michele!)

Thanks to those who give to make Brigada work! We appreciate the $25 from Bruce and $40 from Brian (who wrote, “Keep up the good work! Your information and resources helped me many times in my work as a missionary.”). We’re grateful to these two — and may their tribe increase! :-)

Got a loved one with a birthday or anniversary coming up soon? Can’t think of the right gift? Tired of those plastic gift cards? Give the gift that keeps on giving. Just click on one of the “Donor” links at the top of this page. Both are safe, the one with PayPal and the other with Authorize.net. Neither requires you to open an account with anyone … and neither ever spams you. We can even set up a regular once-a-month automatic withdraw from your checking account or major credit card. Set it up once and rest easily, knowing that you’re regularly helping get Brigada on the way to the nations. Or, if you prefer, just send an old-fashioned check payable to Team Expansion to: Team Expansion (Brigada), 11327 Jefferson Trace Blvd., Louisville, KY 40291. (Team Expansion is a 501(c)3 incorporation so for USA citizens, your checks made out to Team Expansion are tax-deductible.) A gift of any size would help, whether monthly or one-time. If you know someone else who might like to help, just hit reply and tell us about him/her/them. Thank you for your help in fueling the fire of Brigada!

Earlier this week, I had to leave a meeting early. After I left, I understand there was a discussion about the relevancy of unreached people group thinking. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to participate in the discussion. Here’s my chance to make up time. :-) Is your agency or church still concerned with unreached peoples, or do you think the concept is no longer relevant? Here’s my thinking on the matter (below). The cool thing is — you can write your own opinion in the comment box below mine. If I disagree, I’ll just delete your comment. (I’m kidding.) No seriously… you can respond. Tell us what you think:

Regarding unreached peoples and unreached people group thinking:

My take on all this people group thinking is that it’s largely a mobilization tool. I tell people… imagine you’re trying to recruit volunteers to water the trees and plants in the mulched beds at Emerald Hills. We could describe the ones close to the building that get lots of water (if we had water sprinklers, that is). And we would say to the volunteers, “The problem is, there are many trees too far from the building, too far from the sprinkler system. These are the trees for which we really need volunteers.” Now… having said that… when the volunteers come, we’re still going to hop in the golf cart, drive them past a batch of mulched beds, and even get out of the golf cart to feel the mulch. Once we’ve felt the mulch, we can make a final decision about which flower beds we’d like them to water. But talking about the concept of beds *close* to the sprinkler system and beds far away is a useful tool to help prospective volunteers understand why they’re needed. Otherwise, the automatic sprinkler system would take care of all the watering.

[read more of Doug's thinking on unreached peoples at this special expanded BackPage article page:

http://www.brigada.org/upgs ]

It’s not unlike Nehemiah 3, where we get the sense that Nehemiah had assigned certain parts of the wall-rebuilding to certain families. We note that many of the most important “public” sections (like the Fish Gate or such-and-such a fountain) were embraced by particular clans. Only when those clans accepted responsibility for that public area would it be truly repaired effectively. Why? Because nobody lived there, building their house as a lean-to against those walls. So — those walls were “unreached” walls; someone had to accept responsibility for them.

Does any of that make sense?

What’s your response?

To comment or inquire about this item, browse to…

http://www.brigada.org/upgs