20000130 Brigada Today

In this issue….

BRIGADAFEST DRAWS WIDE SPECTRUM OF PARTICIPANTS

Thanks to all those who prayed for BrigadaFest 2000! What a weekend! Dozens of churches showed up, many of whom were serious about planning for reaching unreached people groups. Facilitators from Caleb Project, Team Expansion, Antioch Network, Interdev, AD2000 & Beyond, and many other groups pitched in to help catalyze new ministry around the globe. A church in Virginia is praying to adopt a group in the next 3 months. A congregation in Ohio is asking God to help them enter a new field within the next year. Another in Tennessee actually interviewed a couple during the event itself, praying about adopting not only the couple’s target field, but also the couple themselves! Many participants expressed positive comments on feedback forms… but there’s always room for improvement. We’re already planning next year’s BrigadaFest for Feb. 8-10. Please jot down those dates on your calendar and begin planning now to take part in the biggest celebration this side of Heaven!

EGROUPS FINALLY PAYS FIRST CHECK TO BRIGADA

Long-term readers of Brigada Today will recall that when we switched over to this list- server, eGroups pledged to send checks in exchange for the ads that trail each edition of our mailing. Well, after a full year on board eGroups, they finally paid their first check this past week. The grand total for one year’s ads: [drum roll]

$27. Okay… so we won’t get rich on $27. But at the same time, remember that we didn’t have to ask all 10,000 of us to start paying for Brigada Today mailings, either.

(And that was the path that the previous list-server’s managers wanted us to take.) Kind of helps put things in perspective, doesn’t it.

Anyway, my first inclination was to split the $27 check right down the middle, 10,000 ways even. After all, we’re one big egalitarian family, right?

That would give each subscriber a total of about 1/4 of a cent in exchange for reading those ads for a year. Then, on second thought, I figured… maybe not.

After all — how would I package up all those penny-pie-slices.

So maybe we’ll plow it into web-site fees or something. Anyway… at least you know we’re not getting rich.

WATCH THOSE PRAYER REQUESTS FOR A “VERIFIABLE OPC”

At the end of each and every Brigada Today, we ask participants to think twice before forwarding any emails, whether they are cookie recipes or prayer requests. We suggest that every email should have a “verifiable OPC”. That is, you should be able to verify the origin, the purpose, and the closure date. Lately, seems everyone is relaying these prayer requests about missionaries David Allen or Mike Hutchinson. To check these out, I went to the guy in charge of information systems for the entire International Mission Board (IMB). Turns out that David Allen indeed got better (over a year ago) and Mike was never charged. So why do these requests keep circulating? Because the originators never followed the Brigada protocol of a verifiable OPC… and everybody else seems to just follow suit. So please don’t click on forward until you check the truthfulness and relevance of the particular message. “Just say no!”

For more information, see the last paragraph of this email.

CROSS-CULTURAL BIBLE INTERPRETERS

Are you interested in the possibility, the viability, and the practice of cross-cultural biblical interpretation? Join the new Egroups E-mail discussion list dedicated to the exciting discipline of “Ethnohermeneutics” (cross-cultural biblical interpretation). In today’s climate of pluralism, many think that this is not either practical or possible. What do you think? For more information, contact Jim jagehman@hotmail.com or visit the web site at http://www.egroups.com/list/ethnohermeneutics/. Yikes.

Now if we can just learn to spell it!

TWENTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK, A STAR IS BORN

Friday and Saturday, February 1 and 2, 1980, 500 Christian students gathered in Schwab Auditorium at Penn State to hear Ralph Winter and Greg Livingstone talk about missions. Dr. Winter discussed the missiological breakthrough that he referred to as the Hidden Peoples. Greg Livingstone motivated the students to take great risks to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. By Saturday afternoon, over 70 students had signed up to take the Perspectives class. This was the first time the class was offered outside of the USCWM in Pasadena, CA. Dozens of students began to pray about how God would want them to be personally involved in taking the gospel to the ends of the earth. In response to a specific challenge from Greg Livingstone, four of the students started to make plans to go to Libya. Caleb Project was born! For more information, see http://www.calebproject.org. Congratulations, CPers!

GLOBAL GLIMPSE ON THE POWER OF PRAYER

A team of believers conducted a prayer walk in a village of the Jola-Fogny people of West Africa. They prayed with more than 200 men, women and children in one area. When elders in another area saw how God answered those prayers, they invited the team to come pray for their school children. Classes were dismissed so 360 students could kneel in a circle around the intercessors, who prayed for them while the village’s religious leaders watched.
(Source: Advance newsletter, January 23, 2000, https://brigada.org/advance/adv20000123.html)
Global Glimpse is compiled by John Hanna, Caleb Project, Littleton, CO.

FREE “INTO ALL THE WORLD” MAGAZINES

Want a free copy of the annual Great Commission Opportunities Handbook? Get them now from Bill Bberry4215@aol.com. You simply can’t beat the price on this offer! The magazines for your church, school or group are FREE. All the publisher asks is that you cover the modest “out-of-pocket” Shipping & Handling charges to get these issues to you, and that you request at least 10 copies. Ten great articles (career missions, tentmaking, power of partnership, long-term missionary service, how to be effective in community/missions service, and more) plus Five Comparison Charts (career options, short-term, training, domestic service, support staff). A 52-page magazine packed with useful stuff. E-mail Bill as above, or fax to 626-798-2712. The copies you request will be shipped right away.

FREE SEMINARS ON SECURE COMMUNICATION

From 2/18 to 2/25 in Northern California, ESEND.ORG is offering free seminars on a new and secure way for missionaries and their supporters to communicate. For a schedule and locations please see https://www.esend.org/schedule.html. Have you ever wanted to communicate with your supporters without using coded language? ESend is a website where missionaries and their supporters can come and share securely with each other in near real- time even across the ocean. The sharing takes place in private small groups which it calls “Sending Communities”. A missionary can start a community within ESend and then privately invite their supporters to join. The ESend website features secure web-based email, secure chat (instant messaging), secure topical bulletin boards, secure photo and video postings, secure file sharing, and other secure features. Note that you must have “live” web connectivity to participate.

INQUIRY INTO ISLAMIC FAITH & PRACTICE

Are you interested in sharing hope with people of the Islamic Faith? Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary is offering classes under its Islamic Studies program this summer. The classes will involve an Inquiry into Islamic Faith and Practice, Islamic History and Islamic Movement, And Approaches to Folk Islam. If you are interested please contact the school wmc@swbts.swbts.edu or visit the school’s web site at http://www.swbts.edu by April 2000. You may also call 800-SWBTS-01 in the USA or via Net2Phone or 817-923-1921 ex. 7500.

LIVE ON THE “EDGE”!

Edge3 is a conference of innovation and of extending the church beyond the edges of its walls in the postmodern world. You can connect to innovators with fresh ways to cultivate new leaders, help groups reproduce, do local outreach, do global outreach, and use your career for the kingdom. This conference, known as Spare Not in a former life, grew out of the amazing Church on Brady in Los Angeles. You can join its Pastor, Thom Wolf, now a professor of Intercultural Ministries at Golden Gate Seminary, along with Dieter Zander, founder of the Gen-X ministry at Willow Creek, Dr. Carolyn Bishop, International Director for a consortium of 46 universities & colleges, Dwight Nordrom, starting strategic businesses to reach the unreached, and 50 total presenters and speakers in a fresh interactive format. It’s all happening at Casas Adobes Baptist Church in Tucson, Arizona March 2-4. http://www.leafline.com/edge, co-sponsored by 10 different churches and ministries.

UPDATE ON PROGRESS OF OPERATION WORLD REVISION

Have you been wondering when Patrick Johnstone and company would finish a new revision of Operation World? So have we!

Remember, however, it’s a massive undertaking to write missions updates on a whole world. This past week, Patrick wrote us here at Brigada Today, that his team had “now completed the first draft of 86 countries” there are still 150 to go! We have been aiming to complete the manuscript by the end of 2000, but this may be an impossible goal for us now.” Please pray for him and his staff! Everyone … seemingly everyone is asking for that book.

BRIGADA EXPRESS
Special Report on BrigadaFest 2000

BrigadaFest 2000
Contributed by Chris Bushnell

Nearly 150 unreached people group advocates from 23 American states and several countries met February 3-5, 2000 at Southeast Christian Church. During these 3 concentrated days, facilitators from several mission organizations like AD2000, Adopt-A-People Clearinghouse, Caleb Project, Interdev, and Team Expansion helped church members from various congregations and Adult Bible Fellowships to understand more clearly what it means to “adopt” an unreached people group. As a part of the training process, participants were led through a clearly defined plan for planting new churches in previously untold areas of the world. Special tracks pulled together praying partners and planners for particular groups. BrigadaFest is a joint venture between Team Expansion and Southeast. BrigadaFest 2001 is already being planned for February 2001. Many more participants are expected to participate in 2001 since it will be open to Southeast members and there is more publicity planned for 2001.

In John 17, Jesus prayed, “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me…” (vs. 23). This prayer motivates organizers of BrigadaFest. It is their hope to foster the formation and continuation of networks intent on finishing the task of sharing Christ’s hope and love with a particular piece of the very world Jesus described — the unreached peoples.

Brigada, pronounced “bree-GAH-dah” (rhymes with armada), is the rough equivalent of a “brigade” — in Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, Albanian and even Filipino! Founded January 25, 1995 (but made public on 21 March 1995), the idea is to stand side by side to pass buckets of hope for those most in need of Christ’s eternal message!

To understand the ethos of BrigadaFest, one has to look back a few years to January, 1995. The National Missionary Convention of Christian Churches had asked Doug Lucas (President of Team Expansion which moved its home office to Louisville in 1997) to serve as President of the convention in 1996. In an effort to understand the complexion of the Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, along with their missions outreach, Doug and others called together leaders from across the land. They met in small focus groups of 7-12 people in cities and towns across the country and out of that study came several proposals, among which was a bold new form of missions outreach called PACE. At follow- up prayer and training sessions in cities like St. Louis, Dayton, & Denver, dozens of church leaders came together to lay plans and strategies for a concerted outreach among specific people groups that each church network had agreed to adopt. The concept immediately caught on and now, less than 5 years later, those dreams have resulted in outreaches to places like Bosnia, Italy, Morocco, and many other lands.

Tina Harris, a member of the Couples for Christ ABF at Southeast, led a segment of the Prayer Coordinators track on Saturday morning. Couples for Christ has adopted an unreached people group in a country that cannot be specified for security reasons. Tina serves as the Prayer Coordinator for this project which began in 1996 when Bob Dabney, who was teaching the class, spoke to Southeast’s Missions elder, Russ Summay. Bob had just finished the Perspectives class offered each spring by Southeast. Bob became convicted of the need to adopt an unreached people group. Russ challenged Bob to share that vision with the class and they responded by adopting this particular group. Eric Rouch was appointed the Missions Coordinator for the class and Tina was appointed the Prayer Coordinator. The following year several class members, including Eric and Tina, went on a Prayer Journey to the country. After further prayer and research journeys the first full time missionaries should be on site within the next 12 months. Tina shared with BrigadaFest participants the difference prayer makes – especially when dealing with difficult challenges like countries that are officially closed to Christian mission work.

Tina’s aunt and uncle (by marriage) are members at Cary Christian Church near Raleigh, North Carolina. Ned and Jo-Ann Harris were sent by Cary Christian to attend BrigadaFest. This church (along with the Home Builders class at Southeast) have adopted another unreached people group in a different part of the world. The people of this country have survived a devastating civil war. Jo-Ann has been particularly struck by the incredible oppression of the women in this particular country. Of BrigadaFest she said, “Because of our time at Southeast and BrigadaFest our church’s project was dramatically impacted.” Ned and Jo-Ann operate a management consulting firm and are have high expectations when it comes to well-organized events. “We truly appreciate the incredible amount of thought and planning that went into the BrigadaFest event and notebook. It was a class act through and through. After I returned, though exhausted, I poured back over the notebook. It will help us with planning and implementation for years to come.” Jo-Ann also appreciated the informal sharing time that took place during meals and breaks that allowed her and Ned to glean from the wealth of experience from those who attended the event.

Ned and Jo-Ann were also personally impacted by the event. After seeing a video that depicted the plight of women in her adopted country Jo-Ann said, “I left as a woman on a mission. I will not rest until I have done everything I possibly can to make life better for the women. I will be praying, lobbying my congressman to change policies toward this country, sending aid, going and serving. Nothing will stop me now.”

Back in 1995 Doug Lucas began compiling weekly missions resource sent via e-mail called Brigada Today The email edition is then published on the web by Bob Mayhew. With nearly 10,000 participants, Brigada Today is quite possibly the largest network of its kind. New subscribers are joining every day. To subscribe, send an e-mail to brigada-today-subscribe@egroups.com. To read Brigada Today on the web point your browser to https://brigada.org.

Chris Bushnell is a member of Southeast Christian Church and Team Expansion’s Vice President of Personnel.

TO SUBSCRIBE — To subscribe to BRIGADA TODAY, send email to brigada-today-subscribe@egroups.com.

TO UNSUBSCRIBE — Send email to brigada-today-unsubscribe@egroups.com. (Subject and text are ignored.)
IF IT DOESN’T WORK — Write Don & Judy, our Customer Services Managers at help@brigada.org. Yahooooo for volunteers!!!

COPYRIGHT — This issue of Brigada Today is Copyrighted © 2001. However, permission is granted to freely redistribute these materials, including those available through email autoresponders, provided that such redistribution is to those who will help the Good News of Christianity to reach the unreached. But please include this phrase: “For a free subscription of Brigada‘s weekly missions publication, write <brigada-today-subscribe@egroups.com>.”
IMPORTANT: To copy or reproduce Brigada Today for any other reason is illegal and is not permitted.

DISCLAIMER — Please note that there’s no way we can possibly screen all the text on all the web sites or items we recommend. We try to check them out first… but if we miss something, please don’t assume that the opinions on those sites are identical to those of the Brigada family of networks. “Eat the corn, leave the cob!”
For subscription questions or problems, write help@brigada.org.

SUBMITTING CONTENT — To submit content or ideas to Brigada Today, first please get a copy of “Guidelines for submitting items to Brigada” Then, once you’ve composed your item in keeping with those guidelines, send your item for Brigada Today to DLucas@teamexpansion.org.
Thanks to for hosting the Brigada mailing list.
Emphasis is placed on items relating to unreached peoples and challenges faced by those reaching them cross-culturally.

PLEASE DON’T SUBSCRIBE US TO YOUR LIST — It’s always better to ask before manually force-adding anyone to your list-serve or mailing list. Recently, tons of well-meaning people have been subscribing Doug to their lists. Since he often travels overseas, he doesn’t join many of those, for obvious reasons (like being charged big-time for overseas access). So as a general rule, please don’t bulk-mail us! See the note above if you’d like to submit items for Brigada Today. Thanks for understanding. Bottom line: We will never create Brigada Today items from bulk mail. Bulk mail gets deleted immediately — sorry. Nothing personal. We suggest you apply the same standard to everyone. Ask first!

WARNING ABOUT FORWARDING EMAILS — Please, before forwarding any kind of request (even if it says “please send this to all your friends”), please check to make sure it has a VERIFIABLE ORIGIN, a VERIFIABLE PURPOSE, and a VERIFIABLE CLOSURE (OPC). By following this simple approach, many “email viruses” could be nipped in the bud… at least in the Brigada family. More information about the full Brigada OPC protocol is available. Thank you.

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!