Brigada – 2024-04-14

I admit, one has to be selective about which associations and clubs to join. But MissioNexus continues to step up its game, making significant contributions in writing, researching, reporting, and fostering collaboration. For example, in a recent article on the MissioNexus website, Kurtis Amundson wrote about children and youth. Find it here:

https://missionexus.org/rise-up-church-for-children-and-youth/#myaccount

Of course, if you aren’t a member, it might not have seemed very helpful. But if you were a member, you’d learn that “In the West, the actual amount of time our churches have with our kids is very small. With the busy, scheduled lives of kids these days, it’s only getting smaller. It’s been estimated of the 113,880 hours in a child’s life between birth and 13, the average kid consumes a minimum of 25 hours of media a week, for a total of almost 17,000 hours. In retrospect, even if a kid spends 2 hours a week at church every week, the church still gets less than 1,400 hours.”

We rest our case. : )

Setting aside just one day for the unreached might not seem fair. After all, Jesus told us to make disciples of all nations. Those were his marching orders. If 1/3 of the world truly still lies outside His call, shouldn’t the unreached merit at least TWO days? : ) Still, maybe having at *LEAST* one day isn’t such a bad idea after all. Don’t’ miss it — May 20, 2018.

https://dayfortheunreached.org/

Kent Parks has a solution:

https://www.lausanne.org/content/lga/2017-05/finishing-the-remaining-29-of-world-evangelization

His solution involves disciple making movements. If the past 10 years is any predictor, Parks just might be on to something. Check out the article for more detail.

…a $25 gift from a long-time Brigada reader. God bless you for your faithfulness!

Want to partner with Brigada to speed the day of his reappearing? Just click “Donate” at www.brigada.org, or mail a check payable to Team Expansion (Brigada), 13711 Willow Reed Drive, Louisville, KY 40299. Team Expansion is a 501(c)3 incorporation so, for USA citizens, your gift to Christ by writing a check to Team Expansion is tax-deductible. Thank you, in advance, for your partnership!

I’m (Doug) on the road, writing my part of this edition of Brigada from East Africa tonight. It has poured rain much of the day here. The internet is spotty. And slow. Downloading a PDF sometimes resembles waiting for a pot to boil. I pretty much have to go start on the next item because, if I sit there and watch the little bar graph crawl its way across the bottom of the screen, one centimeter at a time, I can easily begin shaking my head in disbelief: How can my fast internet back in the USA seem so… “average” to me? I regularly hit around 100 MBPS in Louisville. Here, on the road in East Africa, I’m lucky to hit .68. Back at the house, graphics just zip. Here, I’m so thankful for a clean Brigada page with no ads. Have I become an internet snob? Of course, it doesn’t help matters that the electric was off for half the day yesterday, or that we haven’t had any water here for the past 7 hours. So — whether that means not being able to flush the toilet, or whether I’m already thinking of the fact that I have to be ready for my next flight tomorrow at 7:30am (with no shower or shave), the bottom line is, these are not new problems. Many of our Brigada readers LIVE like this. One worker here worked for 4 years living in a thatched-roof hut with no hot water at all… in fact… no *PLUMBING* period nor electricity EVER. Yikes.

Of course, I’m thankful for blankets. And I’m grateful for the shower I had YESTERDAY. It was even hot!

But should I confess that my town is one of two towns identified first for Google fiber, citywide?

Sigh. Please forgive me. Times like these inspire me to deeper and greater respect for all those workers who REGULARLY work off internet with these speeds. I’ll try my best to be grateful — and not careless in my attachments. I’ll also be very thankful if you choose to read Brigada. And we’ll stick to our guns, with no ads, and a clean page. We appreciate your service to unreached peoples, the church, and to God. May He bless you in a special way tonight.

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Copyright — This issue of _Brigada Today_ is Copyrighted 2018. However, permission is granted to freely redistribute these materials, including those available on the Brigada website, provided that such redistribution is to those who will help the Good News of Jesus Christ to reach the unreached. To copy or reproduce Brigada Today for any other reason is illegal and is not permitted.

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Compiled/Edited by Doug Lucas and Tina McCormick, Team Expansion
Brigada online has more graphics and links at https://brigada.org

In this issue…
1) New Swahili Christian Radio Station On the Web from Tanzania
2) Searching for a Conference Meeting Site in Europe: How?
3) Send Them Out Better-Equipped
4) Where Will You Go for Intercultural Studies Degrees?
5) Where Do You Go for Trip Cancellation Insurance?
6) Type in Kingdom, Then Type a Period, Then the Word, Training
7) Get A Free Country Safety Report
8) Traveling with a Big Family?
9) Never Been to “Passion?” So, Go “Virtually”
10) Snag a Free Copy of “Tortured for Christ” by Richard Wurmbrand
11) Which are the World’s Most Miserable Economies? Surprised?
12) We Searched for the Best Calendar Plug-in for WordPress
13) We’re Grateful to…
14) The Last Bit: Tribute to Billy Graham’s Impact on Missions
15) Closing Stuff

Do You Speak Swahili? … know someone who does? Now they can listen to Christian radio online any time they want — Radio Uhai or Radio Life.

https://elastic.webplayer.xyz/uhai/

Here’s the parallel Facebook site:

https://www.facebook.com/RadiouhaiTabora

Suppose you had a friend who was looking to stage a conference in Europe in 2019. Suppose he was searching for a retreat center that would hold 200 people — rooms, food, meetings. But suppose he didn’t have the budget for a big-business hotel. Where would you send him? Shouldn’t an org like O.M., YWAM, or GEM or SOMEONE have a big enough retreat center in a place like Austria, Czech, or Poland? Where would you send him? (Please just click comment following the web or app version of this item. And, by the way, he thanks you profusely.)

It costs a lot to send out and care for people in overseas ministry. In view of that, how can we increase the likelihood that our sent-ones will have an effective and productive experience? Mission Smart: 15 Critical Questions To Ask Before Launching Overseas (by David L Frazier with Equipping Servants Int’l) was written for overseas ministry candidates, church leaders, and mission agencies to discover the right people who know their callings, have been confirmed, can thrive overseas and be effective in cross-cultural ministry. It addresses serious gaps in the mission mobilization process and offers fresh solutions for seeing less missionary attrition. Learn more at…

http://www.esionline.org/book

Here’s the Amazon link to get your copy.

https://www.amazon.com/Mission-Smart-Critical-Questions-Launching/dp/1492339261