Brigada – 2024-03-31

Be on the lookout for LinkedIn contact requests that look completely genuine, but are actually phishing attacks. *Don’t* click the links in the email; instead, go straight to LinkedIn using your browser, and see if that person shows up in pending contact requests. If not, the email is likely from somebody phishing for access to your account! (Thanks Janice!)

Brigada has been featuring refugees lately. Well, next year at EMDC, the plenary speaker will be Patrick Johnstone (Operation World), author of Serving God in Today’s Cities (2015), and Serving God in a Migrant Crisis (2016), found here.

http://www.gmi.org/products/books/gmibooks/serving-god-migrant-crisis/

There are also 16 pre-EMDC Training Tracks.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QK_xmdh9G_vIxeyVfTpZu5ut4q_MDeWeMnUXbti4v-Q/edit

Following EMDC is the Mobile Ministry Forum Consultation.

http://mobileministryforum.org/mmf-consultation-2017/

Write
info@emdcon.org for our site and join us in The Netherlands in April, 2017

You may be heading to your Home Ministry, returning to retire, or transitioning into a new phase of life and ministry. This specially designed debrief week was created to give you and your family a time and opportunity to work through transitions, reflect upon and process losses and grief, identify and manage stress, process the joys and challenges of field experiences. Check out

http://cit-online.org/adult-program/courses/ for more info.

And Mission Next delivered. See it at…

http://missionnext.org/

The cool part is — they were delivering before we even asked! : ) They have close to 100 member mission agencies contributing opportunities. They’re “headhunters for the Harvest,” so to speak. If you’re in the market for an opportunity, check them out. (Thanks Robert!)

The question has generated a TON of response. See the original exchange at …

https://brigada.org/2016/10/16_19118

We also have another very well-composed response that was sent to our inbox. We’re trying to get clearance to use it even as we speak. The bottom line — there were some passionate proponents that, in certain cases, it might actually make sense to rely on language gifts of well-established national partners. But in general, even in those cases, the risks of misunderstandings in partnerships with locals will always be higher for those who don’t take the time to learn the majority-spoken language of the area. I think we are hearing a portion of the Brigada family saying, “News of the death of learning the heart language has been severely exaggerated.”

The question about searching for the best online platform for distance learning for cross-cultural workers and churches has generated a great amount of content too. See it here…

https://brigada.org/2016/10/23_19159

But, to me, there’s no clear winner YET. A lot of these sites seem very expensive for what they offer (streaming videos and quizzes, in consecutive order). To me, they’re shooting themselves in the foot by charging so much. At the same time, we know that everyone has to pay the bills somehow. But we keep searching for a great product with great potential — and there are literally hundreds of sites already out there, waiting to be tried. Surely there’s something. We’re actually waiting for a site based in SE Asia right now, hoping — expecting — that God might deliver JUST what we’re imagining.

You know, it seems that a lot of people talk ABOUT spiritual warfare, but a lot FEWER people describe exactly how to DO it. Dean Trune recently spoke at a Prayer Weekend at Emerald Hills. His session is available via the More Disciples podcast here (for free)…

http://moredisciples.com/2016/10/18-spiritual-warfare/

Seems like there would be TONS written and explained about this. But these days, is it just my imagination, or has talk about spiritual warfare kind of waned a bit from the 80’s and 90’s when it was so popular. Can you point us to some great sources to follow up on Dean’s talk? (If so, please just click “Comment” following the web version of this item.)

If you’ve read Brigada very long, you know we’re always on the prowl for a great deal at Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) software. The org where we work is making a go of CiviCRM — and it indeed has a lot to offer. But honestly, we would never attempt this without a full-time I.T. guy. It’s just too much work (like pulling TEETH sometimes — and just as painful). So what’s a body to do when there’s no “Greg” around to help with I.T. issues? First, ask the security question. (For more on this, see the “Last Bit” item below — #14.) But if security isn’t a haunting factor and if the end-user license agreement makes sense to you, one ‘hit’ we’ve been hearing about lately is Hubspot CRM…
http://www.HubSpot.com

First, make sure you’re looking at their CRM product (as opposed to their marketing or sales software, which are different). The great thing about their CRM product is that it’s essentially completely free. Forever. All your users, free forever, with up to 1 million data entities (contacts, companies, deals and tasks). So think about it — unlimited users — and not just for a one-month trial. It’s true, to integrate with email, you’ll need to be using Gmail or Outlook. But even if you aren’t (using one of those two products), you can still use their forwarding address feature and the blind copy feature to integrate and record emails in your database. And guess what: no ads. Ever. I’ve read their privacy policy. They have agreed never to sell any personal information. So you’re never being marketed. Ever. They do send marketing information from time to time — but you can opt out of that just like you do any other email. So bottom line, could this be the CRM for which we’ve been waiting? They have a web app, along with corresponding digital device apps. I’m trying these out on the side right now and they look good, for free especially. See what you think.

This Thanksgiving, would you consider making an offering gift to Brigada? If you can, please do what you can to come up with $100. Then on November 14th, just 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 through Team Expansion is tax-deductible. If you’d rather give online, just click “Donate” in the upper right corner at brigada.org . In advance, please hear us when we say, “Thank you!” And God bless!!!

Wow. Lately, I’ve been thinking about how much of a hassle it is that we have to prep and mitigate so many security issues. I mean, think about it. We’ve added untold millions of dollars to airline security, and a crazy amount of money in BUILDINGs. But another impact is the daily thought we put into people-security. The people who work in sensitive areas, putting their lives in harm’s way for the Kingdom. And think about how much we have to worry about CYBER security. We fear that someone will intercept our emails. (My credit card has been compromised twice in the past 30 days… so I’m currently on my 3rd card in a month.) Today I needed to send payment for an event we’re staging in SE Asia. I can’t simply email them the credit card information. I was SUPPOSED to fax it (because a fax is still safer than email. Now why is THAT still the case. I sent my first fax back in 1986.) But the fax machines wouldn’t talk. I suppose ours here in Louisville spoke English and couldn’t understand Thai. So either way, what did I have to do? I had to encrypt a PDF with a password. Tomorrow (which starts at 9pm tonight, Louisville time), I’ll have to call them with the password verbally — so it’s not sent with the PDF via the internet.

Security is a hassle. I’m not sure what we can DO about it. We are probably just venting. Do you need to vent any about security? : ) If so, click “comment” following the web version of this item. Thanks for any empathy you can feel. : )