Brigada Today
22 of March, 1996
Now with 2193 Participants!
News and Notes about Brigada, Your Gateway to Missions Networking!
[Pass this issue to a friend! To subscribe, see instructions at end.]
In this issue.... 
BRIGADA THIS YEAR!!!
Literally one year ago yesterday Brigada "opened
its doors!" The goal? "... to create a forum, an "op center", a tool-box
that could pull together the people, the resources, and the networks to aid
in completing the task of reaching specific cities and people groups with
the love of Jesus Christ." We weren't the only network asking those
questions... so God heard not only our own prayers but those of many others!
They were like many streams flowing into what has become one powerful river
(to use an analogy from the AD2000 & Beyond Movement) -- and guess what!
The river is rushing!!! Literally one year ago, we asked, "What if a
congregation or individual wanted to actually go to one of these 100
Gateway Cities from the October, '95 prayer emphasis? What if there were
two, or three, or more? How would they ever meet? How could they pray for
one another and share strategies, ideas, and joint plans -- so that we won't
all have to duplicate effort and 'reinvent the wheel' during mobilization?"
And guess what!!! Literally one year TO THE DAY, AD2000 & Beyond's Int'
Office has come through with seemingly the primary fulfillment of that
question (Don't miss "AD2000 & BEYOND'S MOST EXCITING CONTRIBUTION YET!"
below!). Have we accomplished our goal? Thanks to God's power, we're at
least on our way!!! If you're a "Perspectives" student today and you need
info. on an unreached people, today you can drop a note to Brigada-peoples.
You can check and see if a conference has already been established for your
group. (See "LOOK WHO'S TALKIN'!" below.)
What can we expect from Brigada for the coming year??? We're praying that
more networks for specific least evangelized people groups will form up.
We'll have to face the ever-challenging security question (currently
resolved only by recruiting human volunteers to serve as 'filters' by
handling front-door mail in non-sensitive countries). We're praying for all
the more resources for seeing the world through "global" eyes. (For
example, within the next 60 days there's a very significant resource
coming out that will help you see the world by people groups -- but it's
all very "hush hush" until it's ready for release.
So stay tuned and
start clearing a 3 foot x 5 foot wall space somewhere in your office, study,
family room, or kitchen!!!
I wish we could email ice cream to you today... or at least cake. But
alas, Bill Gates hasn't quite gotten that
worked out for us... YET! So
instead, we've decided to forego the mess (who wants ice cream all over
their phone jack anyway!)... the fancy celebration, . . . and in
characteristic Brigada style, get back to work!!!
But
please do join
us in prayer just now... and ask God...
"Dear Lord, thank you for the people of Brigada. Thanks for their
cooperative spirits! Most everyone has switched on their email networks in
spite of already busy schedules... with the sole purpose of trying to
further the cause of worldwide evangelization. Assist them with their time
management. Bring them closer to fulfillment of their individual visions of
reaching the peoples of the world. And enable them to serve with boldness
while they love and care for their families! Give us wisdom, skill and
resourcing for additional "discoveries" and tools online, so we can continue
to work more and more closely together, with less and less waste and
duplication. Help us to find the information we need, and the people to
whom you would lead us... and when you do, we'll give you the glory. Thanks
for the promise of spring, your resurrection, and the rest of 1996! Thanks
for making a way for us for the future! And thanks for your great wisdom
and holiness. We place our total lives in your hands! We are yours! Take
us and use us for your will and your kingdom!!!"
LOOK WHO'S TALKIN'!
One of our ideas for this anniversary issue was to
list all the
Brigada conferences and say a word about each. But then we
remembered that you can do that automatically, if you choose, with the
command "conferences"! The result is a little Brigada "chart" with all the
conferences and their purposes -- little one-line descriptions to help you
get a better handle on "the big picture" and how each conference fits in.
So if you want to zero in on the 45+ conferences in the Brigada family... as
well as the many other email conferences hosted by MAFxc, just send email to
hub@xc.org with only the word, "conferences", in the text of the message
(without the quotes). The hub computer will take care of the rest. When
Brigada formed up a year ago, there was one and only one conference... and
MAFxc (or CrossConnect, as it was known then) had 100 or so other email
groups. Now there are scads !!! And by the way, if you'd like to see the
people of Brigada, send the word "who" (without quotes) in the message
above, on the second line. But be ready for a list of 2200+ participants to
come bombarding back into your email inbox!!!
AD2000 & BEYOND'S MOST EXCITING CONTRIBUTION YET!
Wow!
Exciting
stuff! Just got this in from the Communications Director at the AD2000 & Beyond Int'l
Office: "Would you like to see a World-Wide Web site that contained
unreached people profiles of hundreds of groups including nice color
photographs? So would we and we need your help. Go to the "mini people
profiles" found for 1,700 least reached peoples under Joshua Project 2000 at
http://www.ad2000.org and you will see that the last field of information
contains a blank for "Links to more Information, Profiles or Photos." For
example you will find a link to a beautiful profile on the Uzbeks produced
by Caleb Project. If you know of a WWW electronic profile or photograph for
any of the peoples listed please send that address (URL) along with the name
of the people group it matches to
Dan@ad2000.org. You will see the link
added within a day or two." What's more, they're going to try to share
links for more information, too, where available. For example, see the page
on the Yanadi (if the Yanadi page you look at doesn't contain a "more
information contact", see the experimental page at
http://www.ad2000.org/peoples/jpl764a.htm ). Simply by clicking on the
contact, you can jot a note off explaining how you'd like to get involved!
David, Dan and Lee have worked so hard getting this project launched... and
our hats go off to them!!! So -- they're askin' for it! Load them up with
your adopted peoples from the Joshua Project 2000 list! And please do not
ask them to list email addresses for individuals residing within creative
access areas! Obviously, they'll want to be sensitive with secure names and
addresses, so no need to even send them. Instead, find someone stateside
who will serve as a "point person" to answer non-sensitive, general
questions and serve as a kind of "foyer" to filter serious inquiries.
Congratulations AD2000 & Beyond office, staff and leadership, and Lee (and
Dan) in particular!!!! (By the way, if you'd like to help Lee with these
projects, he's willing to brainstorm about how you can volunteer. Write him
at
lee@rmii.com.) Thanks Dave, Lee and Dan!
LEARNING THE FIVE PILLARS AND MORE
Islam is advancing worldwide! What
can you do about it? The Zwemer Institute of Muslim Studies is ready to help
you understand Islam. Zwemer offers Muslim Awareness Seminars for churches
and small groups interested in learning how to minister to Muslims and study
courses, at college and graduate school levels in all areas of Islamics. If
you, your church, your mission organization, college, or graduate school is
interested in learning how to approach Muslims in America or around the
world, contact the Zwemer Institute by fax at (803) 781-1126 or by e-mail
Dr. JimRomaine at
jromai19@winusa.com. Thanks Jim!
CATCH A STORY
Bill (and Amy) Stearns, noted missions
mobilizers/authors, wrote this past week with this request: "I'm doing a
book for Ralph and Roberta Winter on the spin-off influence of the US Center
for World Mission. It's one thing what goes on at that campus (35 acres of
visionaries!); it's another what God has done through that outfit's impact
across the globe--such as through Perspectives, resources, regional offices,
people who were once on staff, etc. Got any fun stories about what God has
done through and in people/events that are even very indirectly connected to
the influence of the Center? Appreciate your input!" Send these stories to
Bill at
73502.3126@compuserve.com.
NEW ON THE WEB
Congratulations to Create International for having
finished their new web site at
http://www.iinet.net.au/~createit! Thanks
to Calvin Conkey,
ConkeyCreate@XC.Org!
PALESTINIANS SEE JESUS - THIS WEEK'S GLOBAL GLIMPSE:
As many as 1
million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip may have seen an
Arabic-language, prime-time broadcast of the Jesus film Dec. 23 when it was
aired by the Palestinian Broadcasting Corp. However, in Egypt, evangelical
Christians are continuing to be severely persecuted and even killed for
their faith. Three Christian booksellers face seven years in prison for
selling imported Christian audio and video tapes.
(Source: "Advance," March,
1996. Contact Mark Kelly at
70420.1057@compuserve.com or 8992 Midway Rd.,
Richmond, VA 23229. (c) 1996, Kainos Press.)
Global Glimpse courtesy John
Hanna, Caleb Project, Littleton, CO.
PACK UP YOUR BAGS AND GET ON THE FAST TRACK TO THE UNREACHED
Join
Youth With A Mission (YWAM) and Wycliffe Bible Translators as they team up
to offer the "
Missionary Training Programme" in Harpenden, England. This
entry way for a career onto a frontier field with either agency starts
September 8, 1996. The first four month phase begins with intensive
classroom training and small group dynamics. You will get a foundation of
missionary discipleship and skill development. The next 16 months will be
on the field of your choice--serving and learning along side veteran church
planters and Bible translators. After that--who knows--you and your team
may pioneer a church or get the Bible translated among an unreached people!
For more details send a message to
hub@xc.org with only this line in the
text of the message:
get brigada mtp
or contact the MTP at
100101.2565@compuserve.com. Thanks Jeff Pike!
CHRISTIANS AS SALT AND LIGHT
MAP International's 14th triennial
International Conference on Christian Health Ministries (ICCHM) will be
held June 1-5, 1996 on St. Simons Island in Georgia. "Christians as Salt &
Light in Global Health" will focus on global issues that impact health in
today's turbulent world: health and human rights, low-intensity conflict,
reconciliation, short-term mission, the stewardship of creation, AIDS, and
medical ethics. A variety of speakers will be featured. For more
information, contact Anamaria Lazo, ICCHM Registrar, at
A-Lazo@mapint.mhs.compuserve.com.
HOW DO YOU SPELL 'UNREACHED'???
That's been one of the toughest
questions ever, down through the years. (We just received another inquiry
on this subject this week, in fact!) Most recently, at least for the
purposes of the
Joshua Project 2000 project, missions researchers have
concluded that a group would be unreached if the percentage of great
commission Christians within it number somewhere less than 5%. But at the
same time, they realize that in some large groupings, 5% is a lot of
believers!!! So no model is perfect. At best, it's probably just a way of
seeing the relevant needs among all. Because when you get right down to
it, a soul is a soul no matter where that soul lives, . . . close by, or
far away! And by the way, new data will be released next month that will
more effectively tell the story. Thanks to John Gilbert and many others,
we'll finally have a scale, of sorts, that will tell us how large the
force for evangelism is among that group and how much response has risen up!
So keep praying for the least evangelized, no matter where they live!
TO SUBSCRIBE TO BRIGADA TODAY, send email to
hub@xc.orgwith only the
following message:
subscribe brigada
TO UNSUBSCRIBE (But we're just getting started!!!! ) send email to
hub@xc.orgwith this line
in the text:
unsubscribe brigada
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!
22 of March, 1996
| "If you've been asked to lead, you've been asked to serve." |
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| Doug Lucas DLucas@TeamExpansion.org
| Phone: +1 (513) 244 8149
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