Dear praying friends,

Let me start with the really good news first - last week our colleagues had a visa appointment. While we were there, I asked if there was anyone I could talk to about our visa appointment and heard that our application had been cleared by the Bundesagentur für Arbeit. Later in the week, we got our appointment for next Wednesday, December 17th! What a relief.

And the visa application for someone who wants to do an internship and is applying through US channels seems to be progressing as well. This is all very, very good news.

Also exciting: this week, the ceiling panels for the gallery space arrived, the desks for the office-sharing space showed up, and we are close to ordering a kitchen (it is more complicated than I thought it would be!). Before IKEA agrees to install the kitchen, they have to send someone out to measure our space, and then they can redesign it with the "real" measurements (don't tell our architect who spent hours measuring every nook and cranny with a laser...) Only after that happens can we order a kitchen, and then we are 4-6 weeks out for delivery. Craziness.

Other updates on the project: yesterday, we went through the gallery space, which they hoped was finished, and they were very picky about some of the mistakes we were seeing. They were a little frustrated because it set their plan back at least another day (maybe two) initially, but they worked hard today to correct them, and the project leader on site constantly tells us, "there is always a solution." He is great to work with, and they worked hard to solve the problems we were seeing today.

Several of us also hung up the track lighting system for the gallery, and we ordered the gallery lighting.

And hey, before this update gets any longer, I want to circle back to why we are doing all of this. Why are we investing time, money, and energy to make sure a gallery looks great and is a welcoming place for artists?

A little over 4 years ago God gave us a vision of him clearing the ground in Weißensee and planting a Sprig (from Ezekiel 17) that would grow and become a tree that would provide a place for the songbirds to sing and people to rest. Since then, we have been pursuing this vision God has given us, and have been striving to become a creative community, rooted in Christ, embodying transformatative hope for humanity.

Part of that has always been having a place for artists to come and know that they are valued, and we have dreamed for a long time of having a place where artists could exhibit their work, and we could create together. This space will make this possible, and we will be able to invite even more people to be a part of the community we are building.

For us, this is an amazing continuation of what God has been doing, and we are really excited to see how God uses this as we look for ways to keep inviting people into community (and keep watching and coming along side Jesus as transformation takes place.)

Thanks for praying for us!!

Here are a few other requests:

1. Pray for visas to keep moving forward!
2. Pray for our son Caleb as he works on his Bachelor's thesis.
3. Pray for Joshua as he considers next steps in his job.
4. Pray for Johannah as she makes a job change in Nashville.
5. Pray for us with holidays approaching - it is always hard to be away from family!
6. Pray for our building project to be wrapped up by Christmas!

Thanks for your prayers,

mike