BRIGADA TODAY -- 24 of Feb., 1995

Compiled by DLucas@TeamExpansion.org

IN THIS ISSUE....

"PLEASE =DO= HIT THAT REPLY BUTTON... -- ... if you'd like to send a message to the folks in your conference. Last week's item, "Please don't hit that reply button," gave at least a couple of participants the mistaken impression that if you reply to a Brigada message in a particular conference, your reply will be sent to Brigada participants throughout =all= conferences. NOT! Each conference stands by itself. If you've subscribed to one, you've not subscribed to all. So if you're a part of the brigada-prayer-mobilizers conference and receive a message from that conference, when you reply, it will go only to the members of =that specific conference=.

NAVIGATION MAP -- Here's a look at what' been established during our month of 'beta-testing'. Remember that you can determine the name of any conference by starting at the top and left and working over. For example, if you'd like to subscribe to _MF_ Online, the conference name is brigada-pubs-missionfrontiers. Tack @xc.org on any conference name to get the conference address. Then, e.g., to subscribe to _MF_, just send email to hub@xc.org with the message
"subscribe brigada-pubs-missionfrontiers". Following each conference in parenthesis is the number of participants as of today, Feb. 24. Obviously, this is for reference only and need not be included in any command or message.

CONFERENCE (#PARTICIPANTS)

--------------------------

Brigada (46)

|-albania-durres (11)

|-argentina-laplata (12)

|-orgs-missionmobilizers (15)

|-teamex (79)

|-peoples-kazakh (3)

|-peoples-latam (to be added this week)

|-prayer-mobilizers (9)

|-projects-brigada (to be added this week)

|-lex96 (10)

|-security (3)

|-pubs-globalprayerdigest (5)

|-missionfrontiers (4)

|-ukraine-kharkov (3)

|-uruguay-montevideo (17)

CROSSCONNECT SENSITIVE TO USER FEEDBACK -- We're finding the folks at CrossConnect to be very sensitive to user input. For example, a couple of new Brigada participants 'replied' to the 'Welcome message' for their conference, thus unknowingly replying to the 'hub' computer, sending a ton of 'command lines' for the computer to go berserk over! CrossConnect listened and responded with new code that automatically sends such unknowing replies to the conference "owner" (the person in charge of overseeing that conference). Thanks Jonathan!

BRIGADA-ALBANIA-DURRES -- At last night's meeting in Louisville, the Northeast Chr. Ch. formalized its relationship with Team Expansion in adopting Durres, Albania, for the purposes of helping plant a new indigenous church planting movement there. The church has contacted David Foglebach in Detroit, a specialist with Muslims there. They will be working with David and Eric Derry to put together a 'first step' project with Albanians in Detroit this summer. This is an open conference in which anyone may participate.

BRIGADA-PEOPLES-KAZAKH -- The December issue of _The Kazakh Partnership_ has been placed in the file area of this conference. The Kazakhs are up and running!

BRIGADA-ORGS-MISSIONMOBILIZERS -- What was only an idea in Jeff Pike's head last week is reality today! Jeff Pike's entire AD2000 committee is now subscribed and ready to roll. Jeff and the others in his AD2000 & Beyond Track are committed to helping mobilize a new wave of missions 'movers and shakers' throughout the globe! Welcome to Brigada!

KHARKOV AND MONTEVIDEO CONFERENCES READY FOR ACTION -- Previously, when Larry Griffin or John Bliffen wanted to send news regarding the outreach in Montevideo, they would send their message via Compuserve to a "group" setting in their WinCim address book. But that meant that every time someone new wanted to be added to their list, they had to make sure to remind each other to update address books manually -- NOT a good use of a missionary's time. But that's a =great= use for computers! From now on, the brigada-uruguay-montevideo conference list will maintain the mailings =for= them, totally automatically. Would-be subscribers can just send a message to hub@xc.org with "subscribe brigada-uruguay-montevideo" in the body of the message, while Larry and John go make disciples! :-)

YOUR INPUT NEEDED -- Next week, we're planning on announcing Brigada publicly. If you have suggestions or comments regarding how or in what way Brigada should expand, send them to DLucas@TeamExpansion.org. Thanks!

CITIES AND PEOPLES -- Over the next few months, and especially following the Global Consultation on World Evangelization and "Praying Through the Window II" this fall, God will be raising up networks of churches, agencies and individuals to form new outreaches to the unevangelized peoples and cities of the world. When that happens, it is our prayer that Brigada will be ready to serve as a piece of the communications puzzle for this vast international array of workers, resources and information. Remember that we're hoping that Kingdom citizens from many majority world countries will be on board, serving side by side with us. Many of them -- =MANY= of them have access to the INTERNET now. Brigada permits them to integrate information and ideas regardless of the specific type of email or INTERNET hook-up they have. It will take =work= . . . but the pay off is increased mobilization and synergy worldwide. We're hoping that for each newly adopted city or people, we can add a corresponding email network on Brigada to provide a forum for that group to share news and brainstorms. This will also provide opportunities for involvement for many workers who otherwise might have stayed in the fringes. Stay-at-home moms, retired persons, and college student-volunteers can collect and distribute information that =everyone= can use. Adopt-a-People Profiles that were once hiding out in filing cabinets can be posted for =anyone= to access =immediately=, at very little cost to the Clearinghouse or the user. With a simple 'send' to one address, conference leaders can communicate with participants all over the world. Pray that God will bless this new vehicle and its future.

NEW CONFERENCES TO BE ADDED -- After receiving requests from several missionaries in Latin America, Brigada will be adding a conference this week specifically allowing for networking and sharing of resources among missionaries in Central and South America. In addition, we'll be adding a new brigada-projects-brigada conference that focuses on the development, staffing and future of the Brigada concept itself!

FILE OF THE WEEK -- Curious about where the name, "Brigada", originated? Download the file that has the answer. It's a great way to learn how to 'get'! Just prepare a new entry in your emailer's address book entitled "Brigada Hub". The address should be

hub@xc.org (Compuserve users should use INTERNET:hub@xc.org). Then send a message to that address with the following text in the message body:

get brigada why-the-name-"brigada".txt

You can use this command in any conference on Brigada. Once again, the format is:

get

Try it... and find out why we're Brigada! Remember to match the exact case on file names! (In most cases, files will be posted in lower case.)

February 24, 1995