Hi praying friends,

Thank you very much to those of you who wrote last week with what you were hearing from God - both in your own life and ministry and regarding our rental situation. We spent time as staff last week praying and listening to God, reading your feedback, and decided to take the faith-filled risk of renting the new space!

We are really excited about it. This space will increase our footprint from rougly 2400 square feet to just over 3600 square feet. We will be able to have larger art exhibits, a larger gathering place for events and our growing community, increase our library and education offerings, open a small shop to highlight our books and art-prints, and have increased office-sharing and even studio-sharing space - which will bring in some income, but also put us in more deliberate contact with our community.

This will increase our financial burden. We will need about $2,000.00 a month for the rent and utilities for the space, and an additional $30,000.00 to get the new space outfitted. In addition to that, the value of the dollar in comparison to the Euro has really sunk since December. One dollar was almost even with the Euro - at 1 dollar to .97581 Euro. Now, the rate is 1 dollar is .88043, which has real practical implications for us - the money that people are donating purchases 9% less than it did in December. I will give you some more practical fundraising things to pray about soon (including giving you some pictures of the new space!). But all of this is leading to my Easter thought!

Friends, we live in a gap - what one German songwriter named Albert Frey called the "Zwischenzeit". Frey writes that heaven and earth meet in Jesus on the cross and laments the fact that although we belong to God, we are still here - and recognizes that we suffer in this space and time in-between. He then invites us to step into this rift with Jesus.

The cross is such a beautiful story of death being conquered and of the penalty of death being paid - confirmed by the powerful resurrection of Jesus. And yet, we still live in this in-between time. And this Easter, I am choosing, once again, to step into the rift of this time with Jesus, understanding that I am in this world, but not of this world, belonging there, but living here. Instead of just accepting that, today I am choosing to embrace it. How can I stand in this rift with Jesus, and incarnate his peace to those around me?

Longer than normal - I know! We are wishing you all a meaningful Easter.

Pray for us as:

1. We travel to see family and have family traveling to see us - it is a privilege to be able to see them.
2. Johannah gets ready to move at the end of the month.
3. Joshua leaves for another school block and takes important tests.
4. Caleb chooses the topic for his Bachelor's thesis (that is a thing in Germany!) and finds an advisor and another professor to help advise and grade the project.

Thank you for your faithful prayers!!

Blessings,

mike