Now with 2243 Participants!
News and Notes about Brigada, Your Gateway to Missions Networking!
[Pass this issue to a friend! To subscribe, see instructions at end.]

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In this issue….

* DON’T FORGET TO RESERVE WALL SPACE!
* NEEDS AND OPPORTUNITIES!
* WE GET MAIL
* CREATIVE PLUS PLUS
* GLOBAL GLIMPSE FROM MALAYSIA
* WANT A LIST OF BRIGADA CONFERENCES?
* DID I EVER TELL YOU YOU’RE MY HERO?
* TO SUBSCRIBE TO BRIGADA TODAY

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DON’T FORGET TO RESERVE WALL SPACE!
You’ll need 3′ x 5’+!!! This thing is going to be BIG. I mean, for the moment, at least, forget about that color print of the soccer player from Successories. (It’ll break your wallet anyway.) We just received a draft copy (in full color) today at Brigada Today. “WOW” just doesn’t say it. We’re not supposed to say any more for now. Wow. Revolutionary.

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NEEDS AND OPPORTUNITIES!
Don’t forget to check into brigada-job-shop to find out about mission opportunities and needs around the world! For example, one recent inquirer was looking for individuals with skills in computers, administration, and sound/studio engineering, all to work in conjunction with translation and outreach to a Central Asian least evangelized people group. The funding arrangement for this particular opportunity? “Some support raising may be required with financial assistance from a partnership of churches at work among this people group.”

For this particular opportunity, the inquirer was “RUN”, P.O. Box 3312, Virginia Beach, VA 23454, tel: 804-416-1139; fax: 804-416- 1142, e-mail: 76171.1463@compuserve.com.

But more are available on job-shop. To subscribe, send email to hub@xc.org with only this line in the text of the message:
subscribe brigada-job-shop

To look at previous postings, add this line to the same message, as line two:
get brigada-job-shop TOPICS

(Note: Make sure you put the word “TOPICS” in upper case.) This file will come back in your email in-basket, listing the various messages posted and referencing on-line archive files that you can “get” in the same way you retrieved TOPICS. For more information on how “get” works, send email to hub@xc.org with only this line in the text:
get brigada help-detailed

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WE GET MAIL
Thanks to those who write to share testimonies and case studies. (We used to try to answer each and every one, but it’s beginning to be a little more tough these days; thanks for understanding that it’s really nothing personal! :-)) Especially interesting are the examples of the way readers are using Brigada Today and the tons of resources that many colleagues are developing these days. Here’s a recent note from a teacher in Missouri. Maybe his testimony will be encouraging to those developing today’s videos, books, and other resources. It might also give ideas to other teachers and leaders:

“March 23

Dear Doug: I am a recent subscriber to BRIGADA. I enjoy the short articles and pertinent information it contains.

I teach the missions track of our Christian instruction program at Christian Outreach School in Hillsboro, Missouri. This year we are spending the entire semester on the 10/40 Window and the need for us as Christians to have direct involvement through prayer, finances, and physical presence. We are using the “Praying Through the 100 Gateway Cities of the 10/40 Window” book at the start of class. When scripture memory test are given, the students are awarded an additional 5 bonus points if they can correctly identify the appropriate gateway cities for the day.

We are focusing in on the study of Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism as the three major religions of the 10/40 Window. Our primary source book has been _Tell it well — Communicating the Gospel Across Cultures_ written by John Seamands. I also received the conference chat regarding how best to reach Muslims provided by BRIGADA. Thanks.

The reason I am sharing this with you is I want you and the readers of BRIGADA to know that the lives of these rather indifferent Christian youth (at least indifferent at the beginning of the semester) are being transformed into globally aware minds of the future. Our class is exciting and is something the students look forward to coming to each session.

I guess that’s all I have to say for now. Just wanted to let you know that we are trying to make a difference in the lives of some very special people.

Blessings.

RANDY BUENDORF BALL World Missions Assistant Executive Director”

[end of Randy’s note]
Thanks Randy!! God bless you, your class, and all the others like you who are working side by side to rally forces for the last frontiers!

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CREATIVE PLUS PLUS
Brian Tenny, of Creative Plus Photocrafters, Inc., says a big ‘thanks’ to all those who have asked for more information about color prayer cards featuring your picture (or that of your family). You can now write him directly on the Internet at cr8vplus@vnet.net to request a bounceback form message asking all the right questions to permit the folks at Creative Plus to make you look great in print! Thanks Brian! (If you get desperate and happen to live in the USA, you call also call toll-free at 1-800-347-2848.)

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GLOBAL GLIMPSE FROM MALAYSIA
600 Christian churches have been started in this mostly Muslim country since 1992, according to a representative of Malaysia’s National Evangelical Fellowship. Twenty-two churches and organizations are involved in church planting there. Despite this rapid growth, there has been very little effect to date on the Muslim Malay majority.
(Source: (C) Religion Today, National & International Religion Report, March 4, 1996. http://www.goshen.net/NIRR )
Global Glimpses compiled by John Hanna, Caleb Project, Littleton, CO.

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WANT A LIST OF BRIGADA CONFERENCES?
Get it automatically by sending email to hub@xc.org with only the word “Conferences” in the body of the message text (without the quotes). (Note that there will be several non-brigada conferences listed as well.) Each conference will also be briefly described.

Want to see the files that are stored in your conferences file area? Just add the following line to the same message:
filelist brigada

Replace the word “brigada” with the conference in which you’re interested… are just use the command to see the files stored at the brigada “root” directory.

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DID I EVER TELL YOU YOU’RE MY HERO?
My evenings for the past 2 weeks have been hectic. Christopher, our 9-year-old, asked me to upgrade my soccer coaching certification to the next higher level and the only class remaining this spring was being hosted in a town 90-minutes away. But the travel has given me lots of time to think. Somehow I got to thinking about some of the great goal-scoring I recall seeing. Have you ever watched a happy Brazilian or Italian striker immediately after scoring a power shot to the far post? Wow! The celebration is fantastic! The guy usually runs around back behind the goal, slides to his knees, raises his arms in ecstasy, and shouts war hoops to the crowd. I guess there’s something undeniably gratifying about doing something that an entire stadium full of people would rejoice about.

Then I thought about all the full-time field workers, laboring day in, day out, scoring daily spiritual victories. I was haunted by the images. You seldom get a chance to run behind a goal and slide to your knees. You don’t see confetti pouring down from the crowd. And probably few people give you standing ovations.

Yet, tell me which victory will be remembered the longest (I’m talkin’ hundreds of years here):
a) a widow in La Plata, alone in a hospital room, finally rests comfortably because “that nice man came and prayed” with her again…
or
b) some guy from Ireland heads in a ball in the 18th minute in the ’94 world cup.

Well, if you haven’t already guessed, I’m lobbying for “a”, because for eternity, it won’t be all about the great big public victories or even the famous sports hero salaries. But that one lady, or that broken-hearted widower, or that little girl with the birthmark, or the tiny boy with the missing tooth… those needs, those lives, those futures, they will last forever, in eternity….. And you, brushing shoulders with them in Sunday School, Bible study, or on that call — you are the one changing lives in the last frontiers.

So today, on-site workers, I salute you. I can’t email the crowds, I can’t fax the cheers or screams. But I can tell you that angels are rejoicing with tons more vigor in Heaven over the one soul that found out about Christ last through your ministry. You’re the hero in my book.
Doug

[Taken from a note to Team Expansion missionaries serving around the world, via the weekly email message, “Heartbeat Online”. To subscribe to the conference, send email to hub@xc.org with only the following line in the body of the message text:
subscribe brigada-orgs-teamex

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TO SUBSCRIBE TO BRIGADA TODAY, send email to hub@xc.orgwith only the following message:
subscribe brigada

TO UNSUBSCRIBE (You cahn’t be sehrrious dahling!) send email to hub@xc.orgwith this line in the text:
unsubscribe brigada
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BRIGADA TODAY IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE FOLLOWING TEAM OF REGULAR VOLUNTEERS:

Global Glimpses: John Hanna, Caleb Project, jhanna@cproject.com
ADVANCE: Mark A. Kelley, Kainos Press, 70420.1057@compuserve.com
Web Wizard: Bob Mayhew, Brigada Volunteer, Mayhew@xc.org
Web Art: Patti Mayhew, pmayhew@discover.net
Technical Development: Jonathan Marsden, MAFxc jonathan@xc.org
Brigada Customer Service Manager: Revis Ann Massey, RevisAnnMassey@xc.org
Brigada Coordinator: Doug Lucas, Team Expansion & Brigada, DLucas@TeamExpansion.org
and many other occasional contributors too numerous to mention! But thanks for working together! That’s the dream of Brigada!