Dear praying friends,

Thank you for praying for me, health-wise, over the last couple of weeks. I am still struggling with a cough - which just seems to linger and linger in this long grey German winter.

Thank you for also praying for us as we finish up the details for our gallery/office-sharing space. Let me give you 3 quick prayer requests for that space:

1. Pray for finances to continue to come in!
2. Pray for our programming/community as we begin holding events. It has been really hard to plan because of some of the delays, but we are feeling confident that we can start renting desks and holding exhibits in February.
3. We have 1 wall that keeps giving us problems - as in even with a fibre webbing on the seams, a large seam between the sheetrock repeatedly cracks. Pray for the builders to come up with a creative solution! Along with this prayer request is a lot of other little detail decisions that we need to make to get the space ready!

Yesterday, I walked to a local security company to start a conversation about some of these details (entry control related to office sharing, digital locks, app integration, etc.) and accidentally jumped on the wrong bus to come back to the office (156 instead of 158!) I noticed after a couple of stops, got off, and started walking back to the office. My route back took me through a beautiful cemetery. Everything was still snow-covered and a German lady stopped me to talk about how beautiful everything was. We had a short conversations, she noticed my accent, and asked where I was from.

After the last week in Minneapolis, saying that I am from Minnesota starts different conversations than it did a month ago - so pray for us as we engage in these conversations. We are also grieving - being so far away from a state that we also call home while important issues are being discussed, especially as people who want to communicate and share the love of Jesus and the peace he brings, is hard for us. There is a heaviness, both at home and at work as we watch and read news and process what we are hearing and seeing.

Other prayer requests:

1. Keep praying for health!
2. We are launching a new event next week called "Open Table" and are inviting our growing art community to come and share a meal with us. Pray for us as we launch this event next Wednesday!
3. Caleb is working on his Bacherlor's Thesis. Pray that he has the ability to focus on his writing.
4. We said goodbye to an intern on Monday, and have a German student intern for two weeks that starts on Friday and a 3-month intern from the US that lands on Monday - pray for us as we process the transition in people and personalities!

Blessings,

mike