March-April 2009 Update

As you might remember (or not), my team, Broken Phonebooth, is planning a trip to Kenya in May. We will be shooting follow up material (making movies) for the JESUS film. Part of my responsibilities will include taking all the raw footage and copying it to separate, multiple hard drives. We will be shooting everything digitally. There’s no film involved in our shoot. Really.Technology can be a great thing.

I will be in Africa for about two and a half weeks and am looking forward to this trip. It’s been fifteen years since my first trip to Africa where we gave Cindy’s parents our intention to become one in holy matrimony. (I’ll never forget that trip. They went out the next day and bought enough material for the bride’s maids’ dresses to cover the deck of a modern aircraft carrier.) That was a long way to go to meet someone’s parents.

We have so many projects lined up right now, going well into the next decade. One of my current responsibilities is being the project manager for Phonebooth. I am learning to manage all our projects (hence the name) and predict timelines while judging if we can accept new projects or not. It’s an interesting challenge.

We are continuing to heal from our various sicknesses since the holidays. Kyra continues to have a cough but she no longer gags when she does it. Her favorite pastime is tormenting the hamster, Whiskers, she and Tessa got for Christmas.

Tessa is doing well. She took first place in speed at the Awana Grand Prix again this year. She will be eight in July, hard for Cindy and me to believe.

Action Jackson is 15 months and has developed quite a vocabulary. He can say Mama, Daddy, pancake, bye-bye, water, hi, and a lot of other things. He has learned to stand in his high chair, usually signaling that he is, indeed, finished with his meal. We try to keep him belted down but he has discovered how to dislocate every joint in his body, thus enabling him to escape his bonds. Never a dull moment.

Until next time, blessings to you.

February Update

This year promises to be the most exciting year for us yet with Campus Crusade for Christ. There’s so much going on and so much I (Shawn) will be learning. Near the end of last year Cindy and I, after a lot of prayer, decided that the Lord was calling us back to the JESUS Film Project. God has given me a love for technology and how to use it to glorify Him. We both have seen that our ministry with StoryRunners, as much as we love it, was not utilizing my skills any longer.

So much has changed in the JESUS film in the six years we’ve been with StoryRunners. Not only have we seen the film translated into more than 1,050 languages but there is also a new movie that has come from the JESUS film called Magdalena: Released from shame. A new perspective on the JESUS film, it’s the story of Mary of Magdala, also known as Mary Magdalene, and what she may have experienced walking with Jesus of Nazareth during His public ministry. Through her eyes, this film portrays how Jesus values women by focusing on historical accounts of His interactions with them. If you would like a copy please contact us and we will let you know how it can be made available to you. You can visit http://magdalenatoday.com to learn more.

At the beginning of this year Cindy and I have officially transferred back to the JESUS Film Project and are now working with Broken Phonebooth Productions. BP2 is a film production company under the JESUS film. Right now we are working to produce follow-up materials of the JESUS film for Africa and India. We are also heavily involved in producing follow-up material for The Magdalena movie. I am planning a trip to Kenya this spring to help film new follow-up material for Magdalena.

Part of my new responsibilities will be video editing. This is something I have always enjoyed and I look forward to learning the software (called Final Cut Pro). I have already completed three or four projects since the beginning of this year and look forward to getting more involved in it. The JESUS film is also focusing more on oral people groups so our ministry hasn’t really changed. We are just being utilized better and in a more complete way.

We are so excited to be working with the JESUS film again. We are eagerly looking forward to seeing what the Lord will do this year and how He will use us.