19980614 Brigada Today

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News and Notes about Brigada, Your Gateway to Missions Networking!
On the WorldWide Web, browse https://brigada.org or http://www.eGroups.com/list/brigada-today
Brigada Today is “the missionary helper newsletter!”
Compiled by Doug Lucas <DLucas@teamexpansion.org>, Louisville, KY
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In this issue….

FORGET TO BUY YOUR DAD A FATHER’S DAY CARD?

Never fear! Blue Mountain is here! Lee (from the Missions Dept. at Parkland Chr. Ch. in Tacoma) recommends http://www.bluemountain.com for all your greeting card needs! He even sent one to us here at Brigada (Thanks Lee!!!). So I promptly hit the site to put together a romantic card for my wife. Two ladybugs later, I was enjoying the attention of my charming spouse. Quite effective, it was. Thanks Lee.

The cards are free, presumably a gesture of good will so you’ll want to buy their paper kind (like in the entry-way stores at Cracker Barrel Restaurants). In the USA, it’s Father’s Day today (my wife and kids got me new shin-guards — yahooo!

) so if you’ve clean forgotten your papa, just put together a virtual card at Blue Mountain (but don’t count on it being quite as impressive as shin-guards

RENT-A-RIDE FOR YOUR NEXT FURLOUGH

It’s been a while since we asked for the best deals for furlough (or, “home service” as we like to say now) transport. If you’ve got a favorite rental dealer or leasing service, please send a note and a testimony to Paul Bostrom pbostrom@shizuokanet.or.jp. He’s very motivated — since he has to rent beginning July 3rd from Portland for his own furlough. (Please send a cc: to <dlucas@teamexpansion.org> in case Paul’s email gets unplugged during his furlough!). Please make the subject line something like, “RENT-A-RIDE” so we’ll not miss it. We’ll put together a compilation and feature it in an upcoming Brigada Today.

HOW MANY BIBLES ARE PUBLISHED PER YEAR?

Here’s a missionary in Tanzania who would like to know if anyone has a record of the number of Bibles published in any given year. If you’ve got a lead or an answer, please send it to DLucas@TeamExpansion.org. Thanks!

DON’T FEATURE YOUR MISSIONARY’S PERSONAL INFO…

If your church or agency has a web site, Stan and others offer a word/warning to the wise: Don’t feature your missionary’s personal info (address, tel. number, etc.) on your site. Many feel that this could seriously compromise the missionary’s security. This is especially true in creative-access countries where open mission work would not be welcome.

IN HONOR OF THE WORLD CUP

Brian suggests you might want to play virtual soccer during half-time today . . . http://www.intel.com/home/football/index.htm?iid=mail+oc6& is the URL you’ll want to try. Looks to me like a great way for Intel to sell upgrades for its chips, though. The emphasis is DEFINITELY on faster processor speeds. Still . . . give it a try and see what happens! After all, with all the commercials during half time, time is one thing you’ll have on your hands!

WAITING TO CREATE YOUR OWN HOMEPAGE???

Wait no more. Brian also came up with a great URL to speed along your start-up. Try http://www.intel.com/cpc/create/multimedia/index.htm?iid=mail+oc6& to get free software AND a free site (GeoCities) where you’ll be able to try your hand at your own webpage. Take a whirl for fun, for family, for friends, for furlough planning, for whatever you decide! (Thanks for the tip, Brian!)

HOW TO ZAP YOUR LAPTOP ON YOUR NEXT FLIGHT

Thanks to “KW” for this piece of [what could be] laptop-saving info. Apparently, two air travelers recently got more than they bargained for on a flight to Belgium on Sabena Airlines. They were laptopping along on their tray tables, seated in the bulkhead row where seats contain the tray tables in the armrests. During the flight, both their PCs began to experience problems, and eventually both laptops totally crashed. Apparently, the tray tables were magnetized so they wouldn’t make noises while stored in the armrests. The magnetized trays corrupted the hard drives of both laptops! Yikes!

The aircraft was a new Airbus 340. Apparently, other manufacturers are aware of the potential nightmare and have elected not to use this “feature” in their designs. If you know a higher-up at Airbus, you might want to spread the word. Maybe that’s what Hell will be like . . . rows and rows of airline seating with magnetized tray tables that erase your laptops. Arrrrghhhhhh! Get me outa’ there!

GLOBAL GLIMPSE FROM IRAN

Iran is very closed to traditional Christian missionaries, but Christian radio is making an impact. Thousands of response letters from all over Iran have been sent in. “Daniel,” an Iranian Muslim-background believer and the radio producer, says that even though the majority of Iranians profess Islam, most are searching for the truth and can find it in Christ. In a related story, through the month of May thousands of Christians from every time zone around the world made a “prayer wave” daily petitioning the King of the Nations regarding Iran’s peoples, cities and deep physical and spiritual needs.
(Source: Mission Network News, June 8, 1998, http://www.gospelcom.net/mnn/news-06-08-98.html )
Global Glimpse is compiled each week by John Hanna, Caleb Project, Littleton, CO.

FROM THE “OOOPS DEPARTMENT”

Oops… Last week’s item, “GOT A WINDOWS/CE DEVICE? GET NIV CEBIBLE!” carried an error. The new NIV Windows/CE Bible is NOT searchable. Rats.

Thanks Chris!

NEED ENCRYPTION? TRY MIT

Chris wrote this week to make us aware of a service that MIT runs encryption on the fly. If your host country allows encrypted message and you would benefit from this service, maybe MIT is for you! E-mail help@nym.alias.net to get the latest instructions on how to set up an encrypted e-mail forwarding service. Chris wrote, “We have this set up so that our missionaries can publish an e-mail address for supporters and other non-security-aware individuals. Mail sent to the address is automatically encrypted with PGP and forwarded to your REAL address where you can then decrypt it. You can encrypt mail with A public key and send it to the encryption server where it is then decrypted and forwarded on to the address you supply in the first line of the message. This has been a very good solution for our missionaries wanting to get mail from friends but having some real security concerns.” Remember there are at least a couple of concerns with this service. First, your host country might not appreciate or allow encryption. Secondly, it might raise, rather than lower, your profile. Third, the message they CAN’T see might attract more attention than the message they CAN. Fourth, you never know who is maintaining or administrating the server at MIT (could be someone who happens to be from your host nation). So be careful out there. Still… many are using this kind of service with good results so if it works for you, by all means give it a try.

FROM THE FILM-FOGGING DEPARTMENT

The debate continues on how to best protect your film from fogging during overseas X-ray exams (we’re talkin’ airports here . . . not doctors’ offices!). Dennis, a Director of the Photo Schools at the University of the Nations in Hawaii photo@uofn.edu recommends trying for visual inspections by putting your film in clear film cases (Fuji, for example), bagged in clear freezer zip-lock bags. Not every country will allow it, but Dennis says he “prays a lot” and gets no film fogging since he’s instituted this approach.

AND NOW A WORD FROM A SPONSOR

This just in from Parkland, who recently helped sponsor the new year at Brigada: “Parkland Christian Church, Tacoma, WA, is still receiving E-mail and phone calls to thank us for the check that we sent to Brigada. These notes of Thank You were from one line up to 1 1/2 pages. These messages were from all over the world. I can’t began to express the feelings that were expressed by members of the Missions Department at Parkland over these messages. These messages made our day. Everyone was elated. You could have turned the lights out in our meeting room, and the brilliance of how everyone felt would have still made the room daylight bright. We spread the messages out on the table and prayed for everyone who had taken a few minutes to say Hello and Thank You and, we also prayed for the entire Brigada Family, for we are all one big family. Some people told of not getting snail mail, or having it received, and already read by someone, but the E-mail came through loud and clear. Most of the people told of how they valued receiving their weekly Brigada Today, and how they poured over it. Even though many articles did not and were not for their mission, they valued the articles as helping someone else. When an article contained something that was “for them” they were thrilled. The Missions department of Parkland Christian Church would like to tell everyone who sent messages, “Thank You!” We appreciate the time you took to send them. Some day we will all meet in Heaven, and we can tell you ‘Thank You’ face to face. May God Bless each and everyone of this great Brigada family.” (From Lee Higley, Chairperson, Missions Dept, Parkland Christian Church. Thanks Lee!!!)

[Are you putting together your missions budget for 1999? If God leads you to sponsor the Brigada family of networks, we would offer thanks to Him. Your gift would continue to help make Brigada a free service to all and you and your ministry or business would be featured as a sponsor on the Brigada web page and in Brigada Today. If you’re not the person who puts budgets together, feel free to pass this Brigada Today along to the people who do!]

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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
Brigada Website: Bob Mayhew, WebServant@brigada.org
Brigada Customer Service Manager: help@brigada.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!