Dear Praying Friends,

Thanks for praying as we got our official speaking tour started last Sunday. Elissa and I are trying something a little different this time. When possible, we are co-speaking - which is fun!

This week has had some fun family connection times - video calling our boys on Monday for "dinner" (lunch for us, supper for them). Yesterday we spent time with my parents. Today we are celebrating Johannah's birthday with her. There is a sense of, "Oh - we better be sure to get this in" that plays a role in the scheduling. Starting tomorrow, we will have quite a string of travel and engaging people. We are at our home church, at district conference, and then on the road in Pennsylvania and New York for three weeks. Being back in the US and not seeing my parents for 2 months would have been very sad!

Can you please pray for this coming stretch? We have built in some down time as a part of it - but almost a month of living out of suitcases and time reconnecting with contacts from before, meeting new people, and speaking is sure to be exhausting.

Here are some ways you can pray for us:

1. Pray for us to be present. After too many conversations, I can start to check out - which is not fair to the person I am currently speaking with. Pray for me to be fully there.
2. Pray for freshness. We don't want to get tired of sharing!
3. Pray for physical health. A lot of meetings and travel means a lot of time sitting. Pray that Elissa's back holds up, and that we stay healthy as we interact with a lot of people.
4. Pray for our personal spiritual engagement. Pray that as our schedules vary, we find time in structures that are not of our own making to engage our own spiritual practices well.

This week, we will be at Staples Alliance Church from Thursday - Sunday! If you are in the area, we would love to see you.

Blessings,

mike