Missio Colonia | Kevin and Kathi in Cologne, Germany

Yesterday morning Kathi and I drove up the road from our home and attended a small country Methodist church called Baxter's Ridge. They had offered to allow us to speak that Sunday in order to share our vision for ministry with the church. We arrived early to check out their Sunday school classes, which were small and familial. In the actual service there were no more than sixty people in the sanctuary. Kathi and I spoke for about 15 minutes, and the response to what we're doing was so wonderful.

As we were mingling with the congregation after the service, an elderly woman approached. She introduced herself and told us that she was German. She had been born in the 20s and lived in Germany during the Third Reich. After the war, she moved to the United States. This 90-year old woman shook our hands letting us know she was thankful for what we were doing. God continues to place reminders along the path to show us that what we are doing is so important and lives and souls hinge on it. We are not up to the task, but He is able.

After the service, we had a potluck in the church basement. Seriously, you can't go to a Methodist church without a kickin' potluck. The pastor came up to us while we were eating to let us know that the church was going to support us monthly! This was completely unexpected. This tiny country church of barely 25 families is sacrificing to see the work of the Kingdom done. That is so beautiful to us!

We added our second church to our support team yesterday when we found out that the Burry's Church in Rochester, Pa decided this week to support us! This was the same church that we visited a few weeks ago in our insane travel adventure. Kathi and I are really excited about this one. The church seems to be very vibrant and have a deep heart for God's mission in the world. We're looking forward to connecting with them more before we head over to Germany.

As a consequence of this new addition, we have now broken the 30% mark in monthly support! Hurrah! Another psychological road mark reached! Even more encouraging is the fact that our pace has been steadily increasing the past two months. Continue to pray for all of the provision we need to be in Germany soon.

Within a span of 24 hours, we put over 1000 miles on our car! When all is said and done, we ended up totaling almost 2000 miles during this support trip. But, it was all worth it. Our time in Toledo and Detroit was great because it allowed us to reconnect with some close friends as well as to share our vision for Germany with them. The visit with the church in Pennsylvania that we had on Monday went really well too. And even though our time in Chicago wasn't specifically for support raising, we would able build our relationship with many people who are our friends and supporters. Thank you again for all your prayers this past week and a half.

We're now less than two months away from the summer pre-field training session. We still believe that we'll be able to leave for Germany in October. But, we'll have to raise more than 40% of our support in the next eight weeks. It's definitely a tall order. Please be praying for that because it is with your prayers that this will happen.