Dear praying friends,

I can hardly believe that it is already Friday!! Last week, on Thursday night, we opened our first exhibit in our new gallery. Below is one picture for you to get a little glimpse into how it looks!

We had a good number of guests and some good conversations about Thomas's works. It was a special evening, and we love the opportunity to have a place wher ewe can highlight artist's works.

For the exhibit, the table and chairs were not in the room - and I still have locked in my mind the image of one of the guests leaning for a long time agains the pillar staring at some of the works. He then went and sat in the window, continued to contemplate the image, and listened to the music from the musicians playing.

That's exactly the atmosphere we wanted to create for this exhibit, an invitation for people to come, to pause, to contemplate. It was a special night.

This week has been a lot of interrupted bookkeeping for me. It's my least favorite part of the job, and it seems like the work keeps growing! The more we do, the more important this aspect of the work is.

Here are some prayer requests for the coming week:

1. The gallery being finished and an exhibit being up means that we have open gallery hours. Elissa has been convering a lot of those this week, and it has been fun to have people coming into the space. Not only is our gallery new, it is a bit of a phenomenon to have a gallery in this neighborhood again. It is fun to interact with our neighbors about that!
2. Public transportation is on strike today and tomorrow. That has a way of changing how we get around. Pray for safety as we bike and walk even more than normal!
3. We are still having some problems with getting visas for long-term interns. This morning I had a friendly email exchange (that directed me back to a lawyer) that was also helpful. Pray for us as we continue to seek solutions.
4. One of our interns is working on a couple of videos about the gallery that we are excited to share with you. Pray for him as he works on those!

Thanks for your ongoing prayers!

Mike