Possessed Technology

Another week is just beginning. The past couple days have kinda been crazy in the Braisted household. We got an e-mail from the office on Thursday night saying that I needed to put together a video. Friday morning, Will, Tim and I went to shoot the video in a town named La Mosca, which means "The Fly." We got all the footage we needed and it was going super smooth. I got home to start working on the video and I go to plug in the video camera to start downloading footage and...nothing. It wouldn't recognize that the devise was plugged in. I had done this at least 100 times last year when I was working on all the presentations for the teams. Never any problems. So we tried the video camera in Will's laptop...nothing. We tried the camera in my laptop...it worked...sort of. Ironically, my laptop has a program called iDVD (I have a Mac laptop). Well in iDVD, you can only burn to a DVD, no problem, except...my laptop doesn't have a DVD burner. I had called the MAC people and they said, if I had bought my laptop 6 months later, it would have had a DVD burner. Why the HECK would you put a DVD program on a laptop that isn't capable of burning DVDs? Back to square one.

So at least we new the tape and video camera worked. So we tried it again. Nothing. So Will brought over his video camera to do it in the program that he has done videos on. He forgot his charger in the states. His video camera didn't work. So we frantically called other missionaries to see if they had video cameras...one did, she left it in the states. AHHH. So we found another video camera, the same one Will had, used the charger, plugged in Will's camera, we're SAVED! Nope...wouldn't work. At this time, I had already cried at least 3 times by this point and was now laughing at the situation. Nothing else I really could do. Was this Satan? It had to be. Does he crawl into computers? What on Earth would cause three laptops and 3 video cameras to not work the way they had worked just a couple months previously?

So we grabbed another laptop. Nothing. NOTHING WORKED! We had nearly given up. Then all of a sudden like the crazy devine spark of fire, Will just plugged the camera in and it recognized it. No way. We had done the same thing 15 times before and it didn't work, now it did. I wasn't going to question it. All this time I had been praying to God. Not to save me (like I would have prayed in the past) but that He would show me his purpose and that it would only grow my Faith in Him.

Long story short (ha!), we got the presentation done. God swooped in. We still have no idea what happened to our "technological items" on that dreary Dominican night, but God found one more way for me to totally put my trust in Him, no matter what the outcome.

I want to do more videos like it. It kinda brought something out in me. I never really liked cinematography before, but I really like doing the whole script and camera thing. So if you're interested in seeing the video...check it out on youtube. On the side of our blog, there's a link that says, "La Mosca Video." Just click.

More updates to come.

1st "Belly Pic"

Well, I promised many of you updated belly pics to see the progress going on on a physical level. I think I'm quite brave for doing this for all of you, but here is the first. This is me at 17 weeks. From now on, it will be on the "month markers." So look for another belly pick in 3 weeks for the 5 month marker.

We're in the DR!!!

Ultrasound at 15 weeks...baby Braisted with his back turned to us



baby Braisted's possible "boy parts" :)



baby Braisted's profile



baby Braisted's little foot

Hello everyone!!! We just wanted to give you all a little update. We have been in the DR for a week and a day and we are in our new apartment with internet and all! Praise the Lord. We had a rocky first couple days here with several problems dealing with plumbing and such, but all is well in the Braisted household.

It is great to get back to line-drying clothes, water outages and hearing Spanish in the streets. Mike has already gotten into the swing of things with planning the upcoming Sports weeks ahead. We have a baseball team in February and the IWU Men's Soccer team in March. Both Mike and Will are working on weekly schedules for our current Dominican Sports' Staff...something that is very new to all of them. It will help to keep some accountability and establish some leadership skills.

I have completed our first Winter publication newsletter that should be mailed out in February to those who currently support us financially. I will also be busy trying to capture some of the new ministries that are going on here, via my camera! It's been a little bit of an adjustment for me, getting used to being pregnant and working. Our apartment is on the third floor, so anytime I need to go do anything...I get a MAJOR workout! It's been a little tiring but I'm determined to not let pregnancy get in the way of work. This little baby is going to have to adjust to the crazy life a missionary, so it might as well start in the womb!

Thanks to all of you who prayed us here for a second time. Although we will only be here for 3 months (I have to go home at 7 months of pregnancy) every minute we get to spend here is a blessing.

2 MAJOR prayer requests:

1-Northbrook Church- Please be in prayer for my parent's home church who are considering supporting our ministries here. They could support up to half of our budget which would be amazing.
2-There is also another organization who could potentially donate as much as $50,000 to our ministry. It would be a one-time gift and would not support us again next year, but it could help in DRAMATIC ways.

Thanks so much for all of your support.

Rough Weekend

Happy New Year! Hello All. It's been a while since I had pictures to post up here so I just posted a pic of some of the neighborhood kids in the DR with Mike and I.

Just wanted to give a quick update on my (amanda) health. Sunday morning I had to spend about 6 hours in the ER hooked up to an I.V. of fluids and anti-vomiting medicine. For 48 hours prior, i was unable to keep any food or fluids down and became dehydrated and very weak. I am doing better today and haven't vomited since the hospital stay, so praise Jesus for his provision.