Dear Praying Friends,

Several years ago in Germany some news circulated that Meta (who owns Facebook) was going to start using messages sent in WhatsApp (which they also own) to generate ads - so many of my friends switched from WhatsApp to Signal (or a variety of other apps.). Suddenly, my life communicating with people got harder! Our church group had some people who used WhatsApp but not Signal, and others who used Signal but not WhatsApp.

Since then, it seems like it has only gotten more complicated - we have messages in Discord (which we use for our Envision communications), our Gmail for Envision Berlin, Outlook for Envision, Teams, Messenger, Messages, WhatsApp, and more I cannot even remember. Did you ever imagine that communicating would be so hard?

Years ago a retired Alliance missionary (Hi Henry!) talked about a weekly email that he sent out with prayer requests, and I "stole" the idea from him. For those of you who are new on this list - this email will land in your inbox on Wednesdays, and it is a quick chance for me to update you on what we are doing and where we can use prayer!

After 8 great days in South Dakota (visiting 3 different Alliance congregations who are working hard to make an impact in their communities), we are briefly back in Minnesota before we head to the Milwaukee, WI area tomorrow. We will be at Crossway Church. If you are in the area - send me a note and I will let you know what our calendar looks like!

Here is how you can pray for us:

1. Pray for safe travels - we have lots of time in the car ahead of us!
2. Pray for communication load (which inspired this email theme!). When we spend a lot of time in person with people, we fall a little behind in other communication streams. Pray for us to catch up!
3. Pray for our team in Berlin - they have entered the season of gray - where it seems like the days are too short and the sun is seldom seen.
4. Our son Joshua has several tests and presentations this week for school. Please pray for him!

Some of you are new to this list - and you may not know much about our story. Here is a list you can sign up for that will give you an email a day for the next 5 days to get to know us a little better!

Blessings,

mike