Short Term Team season has begun!

Dear praying friends,

We have a short term team currently on the ground with us - 8 students from Crown College and their Campus Pastor. It's fun to have people from our alma mater visiting and to have the chance to pour into their lives.

This marks the beginning of our teams season! It is a little different this year than normal, we have had some cancellations and have tried to scramble to fill the empty spots, but not always successfully. So - we have a team now, another one in June, and then a team in August and October.

We do enjoy having teams - as full as our days get! It is fun to share our city with them, minister with them, learn more about them, and introduce them to practices and thoughts that we hope help them fall more in love with Jesus. Teams are one of my favorite things!

Teams also mean that everyone's load increases a little. Pray for us as a team as our margins and rest levels shrink. For example, last night after giving a city tour and bringing the team back to the hotel, for somereason I put my house keys in our store-room, and if I didn't have a tracker with a noise alarm on it, I probably would not have found them for weeks. 🔑

We are also closing an exhibit tonight with an artist's talk that I will be holding with the artist. It is always a huge honor (and responsibility) to hold that space. Some artists struggle in these events to share, but this artist is not really one of them - so my biggest job is to ask questions and let her speak! Pray that it goes well. Artists often get nervous in these situations, so pray that everything goes really well tonight!

Speaking of getting nervous, I still get nervous when I play my guitar in front of people I don't know, but it went well on Sunday. Thank you for your prayers!

We have some fun publishing projects moving forward, like a Zine, a new book from Stephen, and a graphic novel. Pray for us as we keep those things advancing in the middle of our other tasks.

Friends, thank you so much for holding us up in prayer. We need them!

A quick list of closing requests:

1. Pray for health and stamina for us and the short term team visiting us.
2. Caleb is still waiting to hear back about his thesis to get a date to defend it. Pray that comes in quickly. It is hard for him to make any future plans until that is finished!
3. Pray for the ongoing fundraising challenges we are facing. We still have a God-sized task in front of us!

Blessings,

mike