Missio Colonia | Kevin and Kathi in Cologne, Germany

We've been studying 1 Thessalonians the past couple of days, and it's been so rewarding in the vision that Paul gives for pastoring and church planting. Reading this book has made us more excited for getting into ministry. Particularly in chapter 2, Paul seems to set forth a progression that is really amazing. He writes, "we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children" (2:7). A few verses later, he says, "For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory" (2:11-12).

There seems to be a progression here. He's saying that initial he loved the fledgling believers like a mother loves her children full of grace, compassion, gentleness and tenderness. There came a time when Paul realized that simple gentleness wasn't going to cut it - that a father was needed. Someone who not only loved but encouraged and urged them onto maturity.

Finally, Paul refers to these beloved people as brethren or brothers and sisters - the goal of any pastor. It's my heart that we get to see people grew so much in Christ that they become true brothers and sisters.

That's just a snippet of how sweet this epistle is.

We met with a local pastor the other day who recently took a trip to Turkey to meet with church planters from around the Middle East. He was talking with one particular native missionary from Iran, and he asked him what he thought about Western Christians. Thinking that he would criticize Western avarice or laziness, instead the Iranian simply said, "Westerners makes things too complicated."

He decided to illustrate his point. They went to a local restaurant, and the Iranian warned the pastor that the waiter would invariably ask them where they were from and why they were here. The Iranian told our pastor friend to answer honestly - that he was American and a missionary. This spawned a whole conversation with the waiter, in which the Iranian finally and simply asked, "Who do you think Jesus was?" This opened the door for this waiter to here about Christ.

In this country, we have so volumes of books on how to do evangelism. In reality, I think God wants us to approach evangelism like anything else - as a child. We make things too complicated. The Gospel, in it's essence, is simple. This story has given us a renewed desire to share the simple faith of Jesus with people.

Things are starting to pick up here in Indianapolis. We have some appointments with some wonderful people, and we've been deepening connections with a few churches in the area. We are encouraged about that. Tomorrow we're heading up to Chicago for a long overdue visit. We'll be connecting with some current supporters and pouring into some of those relationships.

Please be praying for us though. We're fighting impatience and fear because things have taken a lot longer to pan out in Indy. We're seeing movement, but we had hoped to be much further along by now. We only have a few more weeks here in Indiana, so pray that God would be using every moment.

It's been a while since we've posted. Not too much exciting has happened recently. We've been plugging away here in Indianapolis. Although we haven't added many new supporters lately, we've been so encouraged with the thought that we only knew 4 people when we moved here in June. Now, we have so many wonderful relationships around here. Looking at how God's has provided in this way, we're even more confident that he's going to open up our support here.

Of course, every one is talking economic news right now. Surprisingly, we're not terribly worried. It's surprising considering how dependent we are on other people giving and sacrificing their finances. It's not just pious language - we really believe that He holds economies, countries, and elections in the palm of His hand. His mission will not stop with the stock market.

One thing we have been for, however, is the Church. We've been seeing how the Evil One has been using all of the economic doom to cast a spirit of fear on God's people. Please be praying with us that the Church would not be subject to anxiety or worry over money. Pray that people would give not out of their surplus but out of faith.

This weekend we trekked from Indianapolis back to Dellroy in order to celebrate Kathi's birthday with her family. We also had the chance to share again at the Valley View Community Church, which was great. We've been building such a warm relationship with them for over a year, and they've turned into one of our favorite praying churches. After a few more days with the family, we're going to head back to Indy for another support raising push.

One interesting thing that happened at home this weekend was that the remnants of Hurricane Ike blew through the Midwest leaving millions of people in Ohio without power - including us. As of today, Kathi's parent's still didn't have power or running water. We had to shower this morning at the YMCA! But, after three days of not bathing, it was amazing.

For the past couple of weeks, Kathi and I have been fasting and praying for many things including our support right now. It's been a tough time because we both feel like that we just haven't heard from Him regarding where we should go from here. A couple of days ago both Kathi and I started getting the impression that He wanted us to pray for our support in a new, bold way. We're praying first off that He take possession of this ministry and this support raising journey. Then, we're beginning to pray boldly for a level of blessing and provision in our support raising that we haven't experienced in these past two years. We're asking that he open up the doors to our support in a powerful way.

The hope in all of this is that we are praying in God's will. We've had moments in the past few years where we've prayed outrageous prayers only to have them disappointed. But, I think maybe we were praying those out of self and not out of the Spirit. So, we're laying that at His feet. Well, the day after we started praying this prayer we added $125 per month in new support! Praise God! We hope so much that this is the beginning of a torrent that will lead us to Cologne.

Things are going pretty well here in Indianapolis. We've spent most of the time so far just trying to get to know new people and build relationships. We've also made some progress in connecting with a few of the churches in the area. Though it was a hard road up until this week. We had trouble making connections because people and churches were mostly absent toward the end of the summer. We're feeling encouraged though.

Last week we went back to Ohio for the weekend in order to connect with the Valley View Community Church in Sugarcreek. We were able to sit down and present our ministry to the missions committee. We also reminded how much we love that church.

Please continue to be praying for our time in Indy. We're hopeful that we'll see the completion of our support while we are here, but we are at peace with what God has planned for our time.