Dear praying friends,

I came into work today and started to get our gallery set up for an event tonight. I thought it would take an hour - boy was that a mistake!

First, I moved the table and chairs - and discovered how dirty the floor was underneath, so I got the broom and swept. Then I decided I might as well clean our dog's hair off the entry-rug, so I got the tool that scrapes it off and the vacuum. Then I started setting up the rest of the chairs, and for some silly reason I whacked one of the chair seats with my hand and discovered how dusty it was... so then I had to get the vacuum attachments and vacuum the chairs - but the filter on the vacuum was clogged... You ever have days like that?

When I finally got everything set up (the story goes on, but I won't bore you with the details), I came back to my desk and discovered that my computer was in the middle of restarting after downloading an update.

I sure wish I could download an update sometimes and just get a new operating system. Well, I would want a non-buggy update, and since I have been spending a life-time working out the bugs in the operating system I have, I might as well just keep working away at it.

Potentially good news - after trying hours of search terms to try to find ways to help our interns get long-term visas, we may have found a solution! It is going to take some time and there are a lot of details still to be figured out, but we think we might have a way to move forward that the German government will not be confused by!

Some other prayer requests:

1. Our new colleagues are getting settled - yay! Please keep praying for Joel and Kate. They start language school tomorrow.
2. We have a give-back couple (Frank and Irene) who arrived earlier today and are getting settled in an apartment. They will be with us for a month. Please pray for their time!
3. Please pray for us to find some supporters to help us with the renovations of our new space. It looks like the renovations are going to cost us about $75,000.00. We are really excited about what this space will do for us on two fronts: First, it will give us a great gallery space, and second, it will give us some co-working/studio space for artists that will serve a real need in Berlin as well as help us generate some income. More details to come!

Thanks for praying!

mike