Hi praying friends!

So - we celebrated Elissa's birthday on Sunday - a wonderful day! As a proud momma, she felt the day was extra special when her birthday and Mother's day combined. Our boys stayed home all afternoon to spend time with her.

This week a German National Holiday - Himmelsfahrt (Ascension Day) falls on Thursday. Most schools also give their students (and teachers!) the Friday off, creating a nice, long, 4-day weekend. These holidays centered on religious holidays not celebrated in the US are always interesting to me. Here is one unexpected aspect of working overseas in an international organization. Although in theory everyone wants you to enjoy the holidays of the country you are in, in practice that does not always work well. People tend to be less gracious about you celebrating a holiday that is not on their calendar. For some reason, we are bumping up against that more this year than others.

Here are two opportunities for you to help us with some projects if you are interested!

First, we are working on publishing a book this year written by a Ukranian friend of ours. We are in the editing process and need some people to help give feedback. If you are interested, sign up for the mailing list here! https://awardiary.envisionberlin.com/

Second, we are still selling limited prints from our last exhibit. If you have someone in your life that appreciates art, and you want to help support a Berlin artist and our ministry by gifting them a print - here is a link: https://envisionberlin.com/product/print001/

Here are some prayer requests for the coming week:

1. An intern and a resident show up this week (tonight and Sunday) - please pray for them as they arrive!
2. We start onboarding for them next week AND welcome a team on the 24th. Pray for us as we enter this exciting season of ministry.
3. The closing of Jan's exhibit went great last week - pray for us as we finalize preparations for the next exhibit - which starts on June 8th.

Thanks for your prayers!

mike