Hi praying friends,

One of the really important aspects of our ministry is working hard to establish a sense of presence in our community/communities.

We live in a culture in Berlin where 70% of people have no spiritual belief. For almost 3 out of 4 people, talking about God, the power of God in our lives, the need for a relationship with God is as relevant to their daily lives as talking about a relationship with Zeus or Hermes, or as my colleague Dr. Stephen W. Jones says, it is relevant as asking people to talk daily to their Fairy Godmother.

In this context, people often have to observe before they even have a context to learn. So we find ourselves asking questions like, "If a relationship with God is real - what does that LOOK like?" Or, "If we believe that spiritual community is important, what practices make that visible?"

This impacts how we are present in our community. We are currently hosting our 4th team of the year, and it is interesting how this INCREASED presence in the community is stirring things up. We are having more conversations. People are asking us more questions. We are having philosophical conversations with the clerk at the hotel who has seen us bring 4 of the 4 teams to his business. We are coming alongside our aXcess colleagues in their relationship building with the local community center. We are increasing the conversations we have with the people in our neighborhood as they realize that people are giving up some of their limited vacation time to learn about Berlin, garden alongside them, and support church work in their city.

Presence is powerful! Thanks for helping us be present in this community. Remember, where our ministry center is, there are 40,000 people with only 4-5 churches!

Here are some prayer requests for this week:

1. Pray for us as we wrap up with this team and have a couple of week break before our last summer team arrives.
2. Johannah is coming to visit! Pray for her as she travels. She will fly on the 13th.
3. Pray for our team as we rotate people through vacations in the coming week and try to make all the hand-offs and connections we need to make this week before people go.
4. Pray for strength as we process through all of the teams and the relationships with people who come to see us! Pray that we stay fresh, and continue to communicate with energy and passion.

Thanks for all of your prayers!

Blessings,

mike