Now with 2555 Participants! Yahoooooooooooooo! We crossed the 1/4 mark on our goal to reach 10,000!
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….

* IN ROUTE TO 10,000
* JP2000 VIDEO IS A WINNER!
* FOLLOW-UP TO “HAVE YOU SEEN THE FIREWORKS???”
* CLUSTERS UPON CLUSTERS OF PEOPLES
* FOLLOW-UP ON “MAP ORDERS CONTINUE TO POUR IN”
* MAY ADVANCE SUMMARY IS IN!
* MISSIONS IS ALIVE AND WELL IN THE CHURCH… REGARDLESS OF SIZE!!!
* CALLING ALL SMALL ENVELOPE MISSIONS STUFFERS
* SOMETHING FISHY
* GLOBAL GLIMPSE FROM CHINA
* HEADED TO CENTRAL ASIA??? DON’T MISS THIS CHANCE TO TRAIN!
* MORE OPPORTUNITIES TO TRAIN TO MEET MUSLIMS
* STILL MORE OPPORTUNITIES TO TRAIN TO MEET MUSLIMS!!!
* WE NEED A TEST SUBJECT!
* WISH I COULD GO…
* TO SUBSCRIBE TO BRIGADA TODAY

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IN ROUTE TO 10,000
Looking back, I found this item in Brigada Today on the 25th of August, ’95:
FROM THE “LET’S GET SERIOUS ABOUT VISION” DEPARTMENT — Ya know, I always thought that if a person was highly technical, highly skilled, highly process oriented, then they would probably be pretty scared about bulging growth. Not so with Jonathan Marsden, who manages the technical end of CrossConnect [now MAFxc] and, as such, helps with Brigada technical projects. When I asked him this past week about how he felt about Brigada growing past the 800 mark, I was surprised to hear him say he wasn’t satisfied. “I won’t be happy until we have 10,000 people on board, with hundreds of conferences about least reached people groups and cities all over the world.” Wow . When I grow up, I want to be like that. :-)


Well Jonathan, we’re now officially 1/4 of the way there, having passed the 2500 mark this past Saturday morning…. but it’s taken us nearly 14 months!!! So I say to all our Brigada participants, if you’ve got ideas on how we can speed up the process, please pitch in and help! Brigada operates on a shoe-string budget… (basically nothing! That’s right.. we have a very clear personnel policy on salaries: Nobody gets paid!!! So that means that you make as much money as anybody else in the conference! :-) ) If you can think of someone who might enjoy a Brigada conference or Brigada Today, please let them know!!! “Word of keyboard” is our only plan! We’ve never printed a brochure and there’s no such thing as a Brigada phone number! The subscription instructions are always appended to the end. Thanks and… let’s head toward 10,000!

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JP2000 VIDEO IS A WINNER!
…at clarifying the simple objectives of the Joshua Project 2000 emphasis! You just can’t find a better resource to introduce your church, your mission, your supporters, your Perspectives class, your Sunday School, your Missions Fair, anything to the JP2000 thrust. It’s a 13-minute overview of the JP2000 concept, complete with interviews with key mission leaders like John Robb, Patrick Johnstone, and Luis Bush. Also included is footage from meetings such as GCOWE ’95, the Launch, and the Himilaya event. I used it this past Monday night in Lexington, KY, with a Perspectives class there and they were instantly informed and ready to roll! Many asked for order information… The publisher, Procla-Media Productions, normally gets $14.95 for all their videos. But John Fries wrote this past week and said that he’d give “Brigada enthusiasts” $5 off! (Do you qualify??? :-) ) So if you’ve been trying to explain this concept (that’s kind of hard to get your arms around), grab your $9.95 and run, don’t walk, to John at 76651.2032@compuserve.com — but don’t forget to tell him you’re a Brigada enthusiast or you’ll apparently have to cough up $5 more! :-) Compuserve users could actually send their credit card numbers direct to 76651,2032 — but the rest of us better fax him at 719-380-0936. By the way, the $9.95 includes shipping and handling costs to any USA destination! John, thanks for the deal! :-) John’s tel. is 719-380-0505 if you’d rather talk to real live flesh and blood. And if you’d rather invest in paper (thereby killing off some of our Brazilian brothers’ trees and our future global air supply! :-) ), printer’s ink, and 32 cents minimum, you can even order it from his old-fashioned paper mail address:
PO Box 26479
Colorado Springs, CO 80936

This project involved AD2K Media guy as coordinator (how’d he find the time, what with the baby and all?? !!!) and the Carltons from Caleb Project (the same folks who brought us Light the Window). Man am I ever glad they’re not Jehova’s Witnesses or we’d all be passing out those colorful little leaflets! :-) By the way, did you know there was a special form to complete if you’re planning on doing a JP2000 trip? Request one from Mary Ann Stone — maryann@ad2000@org. To hear occasional announcements like these (relating to JP2000) and thereby subscribe to the Trumpet, send email to hub@xc.org with only this line in the message:
subscribe ad2-jp2-announce

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FOLLOW-UP TO “HAVE YOU SEEN THE FIREWORKS???”
By the way, if you visited http://www.xc.org/Brigada/today/bt960322.html and couldn’t find the fireworks, you might be using a browser that won’t cooperate with the program! Our web wizard, Bob Mayhew, has informed us that these “animated gifs” (wouldn’t that have something to do with peanut butter come to life???) are only viewable to people with Netscape 2.0 or better. So the rest of you’ns better upgrade or you’ll be left out! :-)

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CLUSTERS UPON CLUSTERS OF PEOPLES
Last night, a church considering a JP2000 project to Kuwait City asked me to find them some relevant info. on the Net. After a brief stop at Altavista (where I was asked which of the 20,000 pages on Kuwait did I want to bounce to! :-) ), I stopped by AD2000’s newly updated pages on JP2000 peoples and was amazed that they have the people group clusters (AKA affinity blocks AKA strategic peoples AKA gateway peoples) already done!!! Take a look! Patrick Johnstone was right! Makes it tons easier to organize a consultation on a particular family of people groups. Start at http://www.ad2000.org and select JP2000.

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FOLLOW-UP ON “MAP ORDERS CONTINUE TO POUR IN”
They still do! But last week, we forgot to give the toll-free number for the new distributor! If you’d like a $6.95 map (24×36 inch) or the larger billboard sized version at $9.95 (3×5′), order from 800-866-3621 if you’re in the USA. Others can still contact:

Foreign Mission Board, S. Baptist, Customer Service
PO Box 6767
Richmond, VA 23230
Voice: 804-219-1507; Fax: 804-254-8970
E-Mail: 0002050296@mcimail.com

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MAY ADVANCE SUMMARY IS IN!
To get the May ADVANCE, send email to hub@xc.org with only this line:
get brigada advance.9605

Here’s a summary of what you’ll receive. Thanks Mark!!! — ADVANCE: Praying for unreached peoples and persecuted believers Summary of the May 1996 issue

THE GOSPEL FOR EVERY PEOPLE — Cambodia church growth; gospel radio broadcasts to the Gorontalo and Banjar people in Indonesia; Bhutan easing restrictions on Christian worship and evangelism; Irian evangelists in isolated Indonesian villages; Ngbakas in Zaire learning to read; pray for believers in Liberia.

THE PERSECUTED CHURCH — Missionaries still held hostage; monks in Algeria abducted; Nigerian believers to be tried; believers in southern Sudan left homeless; pastors in Liberia murdered.

SPIRITUAL FORCES OF DARKNESS — Germany’s right-wing extremists; the deceptions of death; same-sex marriages.

REJOICE!– God’s spirit moves in Tashkent, Uzbekistan; Nigerian military donates to Scripture distribution; China’s “Christ County”; extremist grip on Iran weakened; cell groups multiply in Quito, Ecuador; 6,000 decisions for Christ in Honduras.

NETWORKING– audio tapes in tribal languages; new book on unreached peoples of China and Tibet; biweekly summary of news about the worldwide church.

FRONT LINES — Mankind’s rebellion.

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MISSIONS IS ALIVE AND WELL IN THE CHURCH… REGARDLESS OF SIZE!!!
Thanks to our “European Correspondent,” Kerstin Hack (AIMS – Germany; 100711.2622@CompuServe.COM), for submitting this update on a church in eastern Germany doing tons of good stuff in Albania! Way to go Kerstin! And way to go Mr. Reinhold and company!!!

“Doing big things for God – Relief goods worth 1 Million $US for Albania!” Even before the wall came down God spoke to the pastor of a Methodist church in Wismar, Eastern Germany that He wanted him to be a blessing for Albania. After the wall came down in 1989 he and his church got involved with YWAM’s and the Assemblies of Gods work in Southern Albania. The church organized dozens of trips with lorries filled with relief goods, medicine, seeds, bibles etc. They organized Bible studies in Albanian villages, Youth camps and they dream of sending someone to the area permanently, but haven’t found the right person yet. The city government of Wismar supports their work and many non-christian businessmen, families etc. help with money, clothes and in a practical way (unemployed dock workers filled in all customs papers, others packed boxes). Factories also gave them many “left overs” – things that were not attractive any more once western goods flooded into East Germany – e.g. 60.000 brand new exercise books. They made use of every available opportunity in order to bless Albania. Over the years the value of the relief goods they brought to Albania accumulated to 1.6 Million DM (~ 1 Million $ US) and even more valuable – people got to know the living God. Wanna know the size of the church? 25 people attend the services. If you want to know more about what they are doing feel free to contact pastor Frieder Reinhold at 100547.3144@Compuserve.Com.”

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CALLING ALL SMALL ENVELOPE MISSIONS STUFFERS
That’s right. Here’s a guy looking for small envelope stuffers dealing with various aspects of world missions. “I intend to put them into thank you envelopes of those who support our mission,” says Dan Henrich. “Any ideas of a source? I would prefer NOT to do my own!” Understood DanHenrich@xc.org. Who can reply directly to him and put him onto a source? Dan, can you let us know what you find out?

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SOMETHING FISHY
Thanks to Rick Stacy for this idea on how to make stationery out of your boring ascii email! Wow … now if he can just find us a way to make the fish appear in different colors! :-) Thanks Rick!

<>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <><
[PUT YOUR ORG’S NAME HERE]
<>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< ————————————– GLOBAL GLIMPSE FROM CHINA
In China, more than one thousand people were secretly baptized in a house church recently. The director of an international mission agency received a video of the baptism. At dusk, the people arrived at a private house in ones or twos. When everyone was present, baptism in a tiny basin in the small garden began, and continued until the early morning hours, at which time everyone disappeared the same way they arrived. 1188 people had been quietly baptized.
Source: (C) DAWN Friday Fax, 96-16, http://www.tecc.co.uk/jesusa/dawnindx.html
Global Glimpse is compiled each week by John Hanna, Caleb Project, Littleton, CO

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HEADED TO CENTRAL ASIA??? DON’T MISS THIS CHANCE TO TRAIN!
The Central Asian Study Center (CASC) offers a 10-week intensive prefield training and orientation course especially for you! CASC is a unique place where workers acquire or upgrade skills to facilitate their efforts toward planting indigenous churches among the Muslim peoples of Central Asia, the Caucuses, and western China. Curriculum includes language skills acquisition, studies in Islam, CA peoples, history and culture, issues of Muslims evangelism, contextualization appropriate to CA and church planting. CASC is held in the Middle East in a Muslim environment and led by experienced field leaders. CASC meets each summer and fall. For more information contact Dr. Jim Romaine at jromai19@winusa.com.

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MORE OPPORTUNITIES TO TRAIN TO MEET MUSLIMS
Check out Lincoln Christian Seminary’s summer intensive courses on Islam: “Evangelizing Sufis and Folk Muslims” (June 3-7) and “Church Planting in Muslim Contexts” (June 10-14) will be taught at the Chicago Center for Urban Mission. Contact Dr. Robert Douglas (formerly with Zwemmer) at rcdougla@prairienet.org or call 217-732-3168.

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STILL MORE OPPORTUNITIES TO TRAIN TO MEET MUSLIMS!!!
(Hey… are we beginning to understand the challenge there or what? :-) ) Contact The Summer Institute of Muslim Studies for info. about their sessions on “Intro. to Islam” or “Muslim Evangelism” — Call toll-free at 1-800-554-5669 or fax 719-573-5398 or tel outside the USA at 719-573-5395. No email address listed. Maybe you’d better go to Chicago. :-) Just joking. This training would teach you through the school of hard “Knox”… Knox Theological Seminary to be exact! With Don McCurry (who has trained Christian workers in more than 60 countries!). Good stuff.

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WE NEED A TEST SUBJECT!
Some would-be speaker of Spanish, French, German, Italian, Latin, Russian or English (for Spanish speakers) needs to try this course out and give us a report! These folks advertise that if your language ability doesn’t increase “by leaps and bounds” within 60 days, send the software back and you’ll get a “no questions asked” refund! Gotta have Windows (3.1 or higher) or MAC… available with a cassette on diskette ($30) or with built-in sound on CD ($50). In the USA, 800-332-8851. Elsewhere, write them at “Transparent Language”, PO Box 575, Hollis, NH 03049-9961. (And what a deal… if you reply now, you get “New BodyWorks 4.0 absolutely free! :-) ) Seriously, if you’re willing to be a “guinea pig” (are there really pigs in Guinea???), order it and let us know you’re going to be trying it out. Some 2 months from now, we’d like to hear all about your newly acquired yazik !… or idioma… or whatever…

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WISH I COULD GO…
… to the ACMC National Conference, July 17-20, in Wheaton, IL. The schedule is filled with tons of great sessions like, “Adopting a People Group: The BIG Picture”, “Networking for Effective China Ministry”, “Giving Children a Heart for the World”, “Using the Internet for Global Ministry”, and main sessions by Stuart Briscoe, Erwin McManus (from The Church on Brady) and others. Plus all day long on July 17th, they’re hosting a “Mobilization Consultation”. Maybe we’ll shut down our plans for Envision ’96 in November and move everyone to Wheaton in July??? Naahhhhhhhhhh :-(, better not. But still wish I could go to Wheaton! For info, contact ACMC directly at 76331.2051@compuserve.com or fax them at 708-260-0285.

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

TO UNSUBSCRIBE 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!