Hi Praying Friends,

This morning as I prepared for our morning prayer, I looked at my watch to see what the date was (I seem to forget from day to day!). The first number I saw on my watch was an 8 - the correct date. It had a strange circle symbol after it (8°), though - and as I took a second glance I realized that I had checked the temperature first (in Celsius, thank goodness!)

A small moment of God again breaking into my world and asking me, "Mike, are you sure what you are measuring is what you should be measuring? You can get the "right" answers from the wrong measurements."

What we measure has been on my mind recently for several reasons:

• We have a strategy/vision call with our national office leadership this afternoon.
• Budget season for our German non-profit has started.
• We are getting ready to launch our year-end giving campaign.
• We are setting up a new CRM system, and I have to decide which fields get included for people, organizations, etc.

All of these tasks involve some level of measurement - and yet our vision in Envision is to discover and develop the next generation of missional leaders. Certainly some aspects can be objectively measured (how many people, tangible next steps, programs completed) but sometimes true spiritual development is impossible to objectively measure - or the lessons learned are finally applied years down the road. So how do we measure if we are accomplishing our mission? (This also applies to our church planting efforts among former East Germans.)

Can you pray for us as we continue trying to shine the light of Jesus in an unreached community? Pray for us as we also invest our lives in developing the next generation of missional leader. Pray that God keeps directing our eyes to what He wants us to measure.

Some other prayer requests:

1. Elissa and I are taking part in a prayer/introduction retreat to the Northumbria Community this weekend. We have been using their resources and want to get to know them a little better before we talk about some potential to work together in the future.
2. Our book project is moving forward, looking ahead to a February release. Two requests here: We will be launching a Kickstarter like campaign soon to help raise funding for some of the production costs. In total, we will be trying to raise 6,500 Euro. Please pray for the funds to come in! We will also be meeting with the author next week. She has been writing a daily post from Ukraine since Russia invaded, and we have had to do some heavy editing to present her social media posts well in book form. Pray that there is excited agreement on an end format!
3. Josh is off at school again for another couple of weeks. Pray for him while he is away!

Thanks for your prayers!

mike