Dear praying friends,

In Germany, we have already “fallen back” for Daylight Savings time. For the early risers, like myself, it means a little more daylight at the beginning of the day. If you are a night-owl, like Elissa - the feeling of lost daylight is pretty profound. It is already getting dark at 5pm now. Those lost hours of daylight are pretty profoundly felt on our team!  Over the next month, our daylight hours will shrink, and night time hours will increase. In December, the night in Berlin lasts almost 17 hours. Can you pray for emotional resilience? Those long hours of darkness and short hours of daylight can be really exhausting.

Do you know what's strange about that for me? Instead of using the rhythms of darkness to establish reasonable sleep patterns - I find myself almost fighting against it. Counter-intuitively, I have been staying up LATER. Almost as if I am fighting against the shorter daylight hours by creating my own artificial light.

I am currently reading Chris Hall's latest book, "A Different Way: Recentering the Christian Life around Following Jesus." I am thinking (again) about the patterns I want to continue to establish in my life that cause me to be more "real" and less "artificial." What patterns are you looking to establish in your life? What are some of the hindrances you are facing?

Here are some praises and prayer requests:

1. Johannah is in her new apartment! Pray for her as she gets settled.
2. Joshua's birthday is coming up on Sunday! Our last "kid" will become an adult-child. Crazy! He is also heading out of town for school that day. Pray for him as he travels.
3. We are coming up quickly on some deadlines for projects. Can you pray for us as we play a little bit of catch-up?
4. Pray for our house church as we meet on Sunday.

Thanks for your prayers!

Blessings,

mike