http://vimeo.com/13164645

If you can’t see the video go here http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/eAH9B8JxQZiz0LAu

Our sympathies go out to Mandela and his family with the loss of his great granddaughter.

In addition to the games, we know a number of Christian groups in South Africa are using the chance of hosting the World Cup to advance the gospel through a number of outreaches. Even our group at Media Village is using one of it’s media creations on the networks to raise social awareness of the human trafficking issue.

Here’s the piece:

Yikes.

These guys don’t mess around. I’ve worked for them for nearly 5 years and I had no idea what we put people through.

So the next step is to wait for approval of our application from an approval committee. If we are approved, then we can come to the June appointment class. This class begins with us going before a board to be approved officially, and then we will be presented to the mission as new appointees.

Is that crazy? It’s like we’re joining the elks club or something. I don’t think there are any secret handshakes necessary, but I’m not 100% sure.

She’s a great mother, a dedicated wife, and a woman with a God-sized calling on her heart. Myself and the boys are so thankful to have her.

It is an incredibly exciting time to be into media.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7o7BrlbaDs

Global Partnership from The Global Conversation on Vimeo.

This is a Google report for the search term Christian Missions. Not a pretty picture.
Full missions report.

Sawyer Alexander

So here is the story. Kara woke up around 4:30 in the morning on Saturday, Feb 20th, and noticed she was having real contractions, not just the Hicks. She wasn’t sure how serious to take it, because of a few false alarms as few weeks earlier. But around 8 she said let’s get the hospital. 

As soon as I walked in after parking the car, she was grinning ear to ear … “6 to 7 centimeters.”  For those of you who haven’t done this birth thing in a while, that is medical jargon for “the baby is coming.” And compared to having Mason, who took nearly 20 hours of hard labor before reaching 2 or 3 centimeters, we were already nearly at the finish line.

Kara did beautifully. No medicine. She didn’t even discuss it.

In what felt like a fairly short 4 and 1/2 hours, she was giving birth to Sawyer Alexander. He was healthy and beautiful.

A few hours after birth they noticed him grunting a little and then a nurse witnessed him stop breathing for around a minute, so they took him down to be monitored in the ICU. Over the night they extracted some “goo” from his stomach which they thought might be causing some choking. All the doctors are positive towards his health, but hey will be holding him for a few days to get back a few tests.

I’m no medical person and have no education to back my firm confidence that he’s going to be just fine … but I’m confident and excited.

We’ll update later. Thanks to everyone praying. This was such a different delivery and for that we are so thankful.

Kara’s last day at work is tomorrow and then she begins the “Stay at home mom” season of her life. We’re very excited. We’ve been working towards it for a while.

One hour, two hours … sure, no problem. But four days? Shesh. I’m baked.

Note: If this kind of stuff looks beautiful to you. You’re a geek. I might love you, but you’re definitely a geek.

Graham

If you have never put a working partnership together, you would be surprised how much thought needs to be put into the collaboration, so that it works for everyone.

We are so thankful to Suzanne Smith, Duncan Sprague, and Jeff Denlinger for taking time out of their day to meet with us. Kara and I are feeling more confident than ever that this is the next step God wants us to take. Now we need to get into the process of appointment and support raising. We’ve already had to start giving those anxieties over to the Lord, you can be sure.

We seriously believe this was because of everyone praying for us. Thank you so much.

Please, continue to pray for God to give us wisdom and show us His heart.

I’ve already met half a dozen students, and I have to say it is very exciting place.

Here is the description from the Facebook Event page:

“For the past three months 21 students have spent hours learning the skill of producing media pieces. Some have told stories, all have produced a Public Service Announcement, a music video and worked on a short documentary. Their work has been creative and displayed an amazing level of commitment to excellence.

While the students work at shooting and editing, Media Village Productions continues to produce work for local and international clients. Cable Awards showcases some of the best work produced by Media Village Productions in 2009.

Cable Awards 2009 will surprise and encourage you to see what can be achieved when passion and perseverance come together. Be there and be inspired. Booking is essential.”

Facebook Event Page

Rodger and Lynne’s shark blog

Please, pray for this. We are hoping for a vision trip, but are afraid of how hard this is going to be on Kara and her pregnancy.

We’re still waiting to close on the house … wouldn’t mind prayer about that.

We’ve moved into the Sprague’s basement until we get back from South Africa and can find an apartment.

Cape Town, South Africa

I don’t know how much we have said, but we are planning a trip to Cape Town, South Africa, to learn more about potential future ministry there. Today, after a crazy long game of tag with the travel agent, we finalized our tickets: Chris, Kara and Mason. September 23 through October 12. We’ll travel through Detroit to Amsterdam straight down to Cape Town.

Mason will hate it.

We’ve already resigned to the inevitable difficulty of taking a 14 month old on a trip that could be more than 30 hours in transit. We’re young enough to do it, and expect to regret it later.

The ministries down in Cape Town have been very energized about our potential coming. We’re hoping to find a place for Kara’s gifts and my own. Check out the tab at the top of the site called South Africa. You can explore the two different ministries we’re going to visit.

http://teamwynn.com/Downloads/First Swim Lesson.mov.zip