Dear praying friends,

This morning I am writing to you from our living room table in Berlin - surrounded by the mess of both our suitcases being unpacked and the boxes from our son moving back in. Out the window is the sunlight, filtering through the trees, hitting the apartment building across the street in a familiar way that only those who have returned to a place they used to live can probably identify with. It's a memory that was not quite a memory. It would not have come up if someone had asked me about our apartment, but it "feels right" seeing it again.

Our teammates picked us up from the airport yesterday, the daughter of our upstairs neighbor welcomed us as we were carrying in suitcases, a colleague had dropped off brownies, our son cooked us dinner, the upstairs neighbors came down with a plate of homemade cake to welcome us back and tell us that they missed us (and to tell us that the plumbs on the cake were out of their garden, from their own tree!), and another neighbor stopped us for a chat as we were taking our dog out for a walk. What a welcome home!

Now, for the work of getting resettled! I am off to the grocery store as soon as I send this, and the rest of the day we will be unpacking boxes and suitcases and trying to figure out how we want everything to be arranged.

Please pray for:

1. Quick settling in!
2. Our new teammates, Joel and Kate, who will be arriving in 12 days!
3. Our team, as we readjust to working together in the same country and get ready to receive new teammates, interns, and a short term team in the next 6 weeks.

Thank you for praying for our safe travel. All of our bags even arrived unscathed!

Blessings,

mike