Dear praying friends,

Thank you for those of you who sent such nice replies last week.

One of the things I appreciate most about this prayer list is knowing that each week we will have hundreds of people praying for us, and we have always been humbled to see how God has used your prayers to do what we thought was impossible. It has been truly humbling!

I also know that this is a place where we can be honest and let you know what is happening!

Here is the down-low, unvarnished "what's up." It has been an exhausting sprint since we came back in September. We came back to needing to start renovations soon on a space we had rented in the Spring, facing sudden walls in visa applications for interns staying for more than 3 months, projects that had been parked because our on-the-ground teammates had been facing a lot of unexpected challenges with no one else with them to provide relief, and we were pretty worn out after a long home assignment.

And yet - things seemed to be going really well. We had just started to let people know about the new project, and before we even got back had been promised a large donation. In October, another large promise. Before we had agreed on bids, two parties had promised almost all the money we needed for the renovation. We had invested so prayer time into this, that we really felt God had answered our prayers! With very little cash in hand but promises of giving, we agreed to start the building process - and moved forward, full-steam ahead!

In hindsight, I probably should have waited until the giving came in, or at least a percentage of it, or I could have waited until more people had committed to be on board, so that all of my eggs did not lie in just these two baskets. But I didn't. I have never, in 25 years of ministry, had people promise such large gifts - and I really thought that this was the way God was answering our prayers. Like I said last week, my confidence that God was asking us to trust in his abundance and not ask for money felt like it was being answered by people promising gifts that matched our budget so closely. I was so excited to tell the story of how God had provided all we needed before we even signed the contract, and maybe only needing to ask for prayer to cover potential overruns.

But, for reasons I don't know, those gifts have not come through. We know that things happen, and that many people are tighter than they probably thought they would be when the promises were made. Regardless, right now we have a beautifully outfitted gallery and office-sharing space and a large negative balance in our project account.

For the last week, I have been so stressed about this that I broke out in stress hives (now gone) and have been constantly fighting incredible anxiety and feelings of inadequacy.

Can you please join us once again in praying for a miracle? I would love to get this completely balanced out before the end of the fiscal year (end of June). I have no idea how that can happen - maybe the people who promised money will give? Or maybe God will lead new people to give? It seems like God is going to need to lead new people to give, but I don't know who that might be.

One of our interns has been working hard on a video for us to send out. Here is a link to that:

https://youtu.be/pOsgTUDQyu4

I have the settings set so that only people with the link can access it, so if you feel led to share it with anyone, please do! In the next couple of weeks, we will start sending the video directly to some people and churches we know (more than just to this list), and explain the story.

That makes me nervous, because it feels like I will be eating a lot of humble pie, but I am also eager to see how God provides. I still can't shake the sense of assurance he gave us at the beginning that he would provide, but I hate that feeling of stress when things went so differently than I thought.

Can you pray for a miracle with us? I am trusting God to provide (even as I fight through my own doubts.)

Blessings,

Mike