Summer has finally arrived here in Holland. We had some beautiful days when my, Rodney's, parents were here in April, and a few others since then, but it has mostly been rainy up until a few days ago. In fact, last Wednesday, the temperature got into the upper 80's, which may not seem like much, but it was very humid.

Sarah

First of all, we would like to thank you all very much for your prayers, cards and e-mails for Sarah. They were all very encouraging.  Sarah is doing very well in spite of a mild ear infection right after her surgery.

To read more about her, you can visit her tumblelog: sarahblevins.tumblr.com

Lisa

She is a typical, happy, independent 4-year-old. She loves school and has lots of friends here at Heidebeek to play with.  As I wrote in the update right before the surgery, we were going to bring Lisa to a friend's house to spend the night.  To find out how that turned out, visit Lisa's tumbelog: lisablevins.tumblr.com

Speaking

I, Rodney, have (had) a lot of speaking opportunities lately. Here is a short overview of where I have spoken and where I will be speaking:

• In a church in Deventer (a city 45 minutes form where we live) on the subject of "Trials and Testing".
• At the Heidebeek Staff Evening on the subject of "Apologetics: Defending the Faith"
• I have been asked to give a workshop to young people on the subject of "Hearing God's Voice" in the GoFest that will be held here the third week of July.
• I am speaking in a School of Worship (SOW) in Romania from August 3rd through the 8th on the subject of The Tabernacle of Moses and applying it to the life of a worshipper.

CRIT 2008

I just realized that that I never shared about the Communication, Information Technology and Research (CRIT) Consultation in Argentina in April.

CRIT 2008 was hosted at the Ituzaingo YWAM centre, (Buenos Aires, Argentina) from 13 – 19 April 2008. There were 42 participants from various parts of the world, including a good number from various Latin American countries.  Some highlights of this particular CRIT event were: Relationship-building, Vision-casting, Empowering & Encouragement, Discussions of YWAM Communication issues (regional and global), Prayer, Worship, Working Groups, Tango Dancing, BBQ etc…  (Argentina is famous for it's BBQ.)

On day two we divided up into five working groups: "Mind the Gap", Value Communication, Multiplying Communicators, Communication Teams and the YWAM StoryWiki Website.  The last one was the one I was involved in and walked away from CRIT as the co-leader of the group of 6 people from three different nations: Chile, Argentina and USA.

In short, we want to set up a website which will be a user-friendly depository for YWAMers to tell their stories in many languages and perspectives from any place in the world.  I'll be sharing more about that in the coming months as more develops.

I have also been invited to sit in with the Global Communication Team convened by YWAM's International Chairman, Lynn Green, which will be meeting in Harpenden, UK in October.  Whether or not this will be a permanent position remains to be seen.

Website Changes

We have completely re-designed our website again. The idea was to make it better organized and to show several things at-a-glance. The first thing you'll see is our latest update. You can click through to see the rest but clicking on the title or the "read more" link underneath the excerpt.

Secondly, underneath the update, you'll see a glimpse of 15 of the latest photos we've posted to flickr. You can click on a thumbnail to see the large version, or you can visit the whole gallery at http://www.flickr.com/photos/theblevins

Thirdly, on the right-hand side of the page, you'll see a couple of menus, one of which is called Prayer&Praise. We're using a twitter account to quickly post prayer needs and praise reports in between our regular updates. If you'd like to follow these, you can either see them on the website or follow us on twitter.

I have also been more regular in updating Lisa's and Sarah's blogs. I am using a Tumblr account for them because it is easy to update simply by sending an e-mail. Their blogs are still reachable at lisablevins.com and sarah-blevins.com, but the new addresses are lisablevins.tumblr.com and sarahblevins.tumblr.com. In the future, I hope to integrate them so that you can read everything at their normal blog addresses. Thank you once again for reading our news. We hope to be more regular in the future with updates.

Blessings,

Rodney, Jolanda, Lisa and Sarah