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.

I think God allowed us a good amount of family time on this vision trip. Looking back now I realize how important this was for us to talk, pray, and finally decide that Cape Town is the next step in our journey.

From Cape Point, South Africa

We didn’t get photos of all of them, but I just wanted to post them and show what new missionaries look like. From multiple countries, with multiple different personal styles, and a heart for using all means available to communicate the gospel.

Only one of the students in these photos is from the states … all the rest are from multiple countries in Africa and Korea.

One thing that attracts us to Media Village is the ability to encourage media leaders from all over Africa and Asia.

Click to see album on Picasa.

From Media Village Students

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

… actually, its is hard on big people as well.

We have good news. It seems our vision trip has done its job – we have vision. Not in a light from the sky, but in the clear matching of the callings of our hearts with the passion and direction of the work here in Cape Town.

We connected with the leaders and the team here. We can see Media Village taking on new heights in the coming years and it would be a privilege to be part of it. They believe we would be key players in the ministry taking the next steps and expanding its already wide reach. We can see our family growing up in this place with the influence of students and among the large contrasts of need and opportunity found here in Cape Town.

Thank you for your prayers.

Here’s a map of our route home:

Map of our travel home

According to Associated Press, South Africa ranks in the top most dangerous countries in the world. The problem … the big problem … is the gap between those who have plenty and those who do not.

Actually, that statistic is derived only from the amount of murders per capita, which is really only one way to measure safety. We have felt safe our entire visit. Like any big city, you avoid certain places and, which is more unique to Cape Town, you stay in at night.

Graham, who has lived here all his life, has never been mugged or assaulted.

School of Photography Student Introduction Video

Already, Kara and I have had great chances to dig into their stories and connect with them.

Media Village does this incredible thing, where it brings in teachers from all around the world … professionals in their craft … and have them teach the students at the highest level. One of the Korean students actually graduated film school in New York and said he is amazed at the curriculum in place here at Media Village.

The new site is located inland, on the edge of the city where land is cheaper.

Due to a financial scandal this property went up for auction around a month ago, and Graham won the auction. (Media Village has been wanting to move for over there years with many unfortunate delays outside of their control.) The property is perfect, actually developed as a training facility and guest house, it is practically ready to move into.

On the other side, Graham purchased the building on faith, without the money in hand, and put his own house up as collateral. Which if God doesn’t provide the funding for the new property, Diane and Graham could lose their house of 15 years. This is the level of commitment we have found in the two of them. It is a beautiful thing of faith to witness. I think so often the risk of faith in following God can be diminished and placed in subordination to rationality. Do I trust God to come through enough to put all the equity of my house on the line?

I have to say, so many of the people here have stories of faith that have brought them here. Our new friends Carol and Klakson sold nearly everything they had in Kenya to come here. Being a missionary from the States is difficult, but being a missionary from Kenya, where most of their families are in poverty and the church has no money to support them. They sold things they owned, borrowed money, and sold their house to come her and disciple young people and to learn media production to impact others.

It is this kind of ministry that is growing here at Media Village. I believe Kara and I see the possibility for a great partnership.

We promised some fast turn video clips of our travels, so don’t judge the quality, these are raw … we’re just giving you a snapshot of some of the stuff we are seeing.

We traveled through the central plain of Cape Town to the communities of Crossroads and East Philippi where Beautiful Gate has established their work. We’ve included more about this ministry on a page in our South Africa section of Teamwynn.com, so I’ll just include a few highlights.

We saw the nursing suite there where they take care of the orphaned HIV children. This station served the children brought to live inside the walls of Beautiful Gate. The model for loving these children is wonderful, but they have said they would not do it the same way if they could start over. Though it has helped many children, they instead have adopted a method of placing the child back into the community, and paying a local mother or grandmother to raise the child. This keeps the community in tact (a key thing in Africa society), gives the child a community, and puts the money back into the community. Win, win.

Needless to say we loved the philosophy of the ministry.

At the back of the Beautiful Gate compound, we saw a soccer field full of people. Local teams played against each other, and dozens more sat around the side lines talking and visiting.

Imagine living in a community, where your house is too small and dark to stay inside all the time, the streets outside are dirt and dirty with trash. There are no parks. No open spaces to play. But then here in the center of it, this outreach placed a big, grassy field for soccer and invited you to come enjoy it. Isn’t that a beautiful thing. It’s it like a small picture of God’s grace.

Kara connected with the director of the facility and chatted about the best way to come and volunteer as a nurse. He clapped his hands together when he first heard Kara was a nurse that was considering helping. They are so understaffed for these skilled positions. There are a couple roads she could take with transferring her licensing.

Off the record: For Kara, I believe, the question is not could she do what she wants in compassion work, it is rather how much, how soon, and with how many needy ministries in the area.

They were all asked to stand up and share their names, where they are from, and what they hoped to gain out of the school. One student after another introduced themselves. A few students were from the States. But the majority of students came from Africa (Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Kenya) and Asia (Korea, Philippines).

I was struck with two things during worship. The first was the beauty of hearing God’s young people from around the world worship together. The second – a less spiritual observation – how similar they dressed.

Actually, I joked with Kara that they dressed better than we did in our early 20’s.

Hair cuts, T-shirts, and torn jeans made them visually like one group. I guess why I mention this is my on-going amazement at the global culture developing because of globally shared ideas via media and internet.

It is possible for these students from three different continents to choose similar dress styles, because manufacturing is globalized, style and fashion opinion is globalized through media, and ideas of youth and youth culture are globalized. A Korean student doesn’t grow up only influenced by Korea. Nor a U.S. student by just the U.S.

There is so much cross media and thought sharing that I felt like I was looking at a room full of world youth, not just a list of represented countries.

I feel this is a new era … one never possible before the internet.

We found this out the hard way, when we visited the famous Boulders Beach, just up the coast from Media Village, where there is a colony of African penguins.

Good thing it was a short drive, because poor Kara only lasted about 12 minutes, before her allergies attacked her. We knew she was allergic to birds, it just never occurred to us that penguins are like … well … birds.

Her nose and eyes weren’t fooled.

This raw video highlights the lighter side of our trip. In addition to site seeing, we’re doing a lot of talking and praying; we’re meeting people and Graham has graciously driven us all over Cape Town. We visited Beautiful Gate and the future home of Media Village, but we’ll save these for a future post.

For now, enjoy this raw video from some of the wild life we saw in the neighborhood today.

P.S. It’s amazing where God takes Kara and I as we follow him. We never planned to be in the neighborhood of such beauty … it is amazing how he provides these things along the way.

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

You see them in almost every parking area, along streets where people visit shops, at the doors of the mall (and those guys are packing machine guns).

As Kara and I are talking though what it will be like to move our lives over here, we are considering the safety issue. I don’t think we have experienced enough of the crime environment here to speak like we know the issues, but we had considered other locations for ministry that would have presented much more obvious challenges as far as making a life.

What questions should we be asking about this stuff? Leave a comment on our blog if you have a thought.

It is estimated that 27,000,000 people are enslaved worldwide. This is more than double that of the early American slave trade. Most of these individuals are girls between 5 and 15 to be used for sex.

Media Village launched NewArrivals.co.za. Playing off the de-humanizing term for a new group of girls smuggled into a country for the sex trade: “new arrivals”.

In addition to the site, they are producing a series of videos to educate and powerfully bring a voice to this issue. They have so far produced a High Definition, very emotive piece displaying girls, child soldiers, and babies being brought into the country like luggage on an airport conveyor belt.

This is exactly the kind of work we would like to be part of. Using the tool of media to work as the hands of Jesus in society. Take a look at the site NewArrivals.co.za

Luckily, there is a cross walk, equipped with a light and everything. So we pushed the button. The red crossing man turned green, much quicker than it does usually in the states. Then to my right I heard the squeal of brakes. Not car brakes, but bicycle brakes. Dozens of them.

Now I called this road a main road, but it was actually only two lanes, with hardly a shoulder on either side. But as I looked right, I saw 40 cyclists … very serious … in stretched shorts and shirts, and the lead biker was hitting his brakes and signaling for everyone else to stop as well.

“No, Danny, keep going,” shouted one of the others in the lead.

Of course, keep going, I thought. There were thirty-nine cyclists behind him, all in a rhythm, all with momentum, and all going to stop on this little two lane road for one guy and a baby in his arms? But Danny was committed.

He brought his bike to a stop, and half a dozen other bikes in the front with him. The rest were doing the same, like a slinky closing up on itself.

I wasn’t quit ready for this. I mean, sure the light went green, but I had my little guy in my arms. I wasn’t just going to jump into the street and trust traffic to stop for me. I don’t know the rules here in South Africa. In most places in the world the pedestrian doesn’t have the right of way.

Then one of the fellas in the front — who sounded like the one who shouted, “Danny, keep going” — shouted again, but this time at me, “Just … for you.”

The pack of bikers now all coming to a stop and Danny staring at me and grinning. “Just for me?” I echoed.

“Just for you!”

What do you know, not two minutes from the front door of Media Village, on my first steps out into South Africa, and I was already making friends.

Having a fantastic time. Thanks for your prayers.

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

Map Generator

It’s sad we’re going to miss the Cable Awards, but we feel God was looking out for us. We’ve now got two days to decompress from everything we’ve been working through the last month, i.e. selling out house, packing the pods, moving into our friends basement, moving again last weekend, etc., etc. Kara is sleeping at the moment and I think that is symbolic. God knew we needed a couple days to stop moving. I wish we had the wisdom to have planned it for ourselves.

We’re getting close to organizing our emails to keep everyone in touch. It’s been awesome to hear from friends who want to keep up on this adventure. Even for you who are reading this … ya … you. Of all the blogs and all the other things you could do with your time, if you are reading this line right here, I want to thank you. Sincerely.

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.

Mason's Old Room

This is one of the first steps getting our world in order, and making ourselves ready, if God is willing, to move as missionaries to Africa.

First things first. Our trip is a week and a half away.

We will be spending all our time in Cape Town, South Africa. We’ll be getting to know the ministries we are visiting, seeing if it is a fit for us to do long term ministry with them.