Missio Colonia | Kevin and Kathi in Cologne, Germany

A couple of days ago, I got back from a three day retreat to seek God's face and direction. It was a pretty powerful time. I won't go into detail, but God revealed some substantial issues in my heart that I have never yielded to Him. They have a lot to do with fear and surrender. Please be praying for these things. It turns out that God has been working along the same lines in Kathi as well.

During my time away though, I believe that I heard God assure us that He is working to raise our support and that He will do it a spectacular way. But, right now He is saying that our priority needs to be this soul surgery He's begun. We continue to work on various support raising things, but we believe that we will begin to see real fruit as God opens up these issues in our spiritual walks.

Thanks for your continued prayers. I hope that all of this isn't too obscure. If you're interested in hearing some details, drop us an email, and we'll fill you in on how you can be praying more specifically.

We hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We drove down to Virginia to be with Kathi's family. It was a welcomed distraction from all that's been going on. Now we're hanging out near Mansfield at my aunt and uncle's place with the rest of my family. We really are blessed to have such wonderful family and friends. We are thankful.

I've been praying for some wisdom from God on where to go from here in our support raising. God made it clear that we've been too focused on the wrong things recently. Some spiritual realignment and housekeeping are needed, so I'm planning on taking a spiritual retreat for a couple of days. Please pray that God would be giving me ears to hear what He's saying, and that He would especially be giving us renewed vision and direction in our support raising.

I read on the internet today that a mass school shooting at a Cologne high school was thwarted yesterday. Apparently, they caught a couple of teenagers planning a Columbine-style shooting in a neighborhood school in northwest Cologne. The BBC article is here.

The school is on the other side of the city from our team, so they don't have any direct connection with any of the intended victims. But, I'm sure this is coming as a shock to many people in the city. Please pray that God would use this event to open doors for the sharing of the Gospel. Also pray that the team would have eyes open for any opportunity to help those who have been affected by this tragedy.

Update: I received an email from our team leader in Cologne. He spoke to an acquaintance who lives in the neighborhood of the school. According to him, the two teenagers gave up on the plot a few weeks ago, and it was only discovered by the police recently. He believes the the media sensationalized it. Regardless, many people in Cologne are upset about these events, and it does bring up issues of human fallenness, disintegration of the family, and the problem of evil.

Discouragement is a weird phenomenon mainly because it's so irrational. I know in my intellect that God loves us and He's going to provide for all of our needs. I even know that whatever obstacles or setbacks we are facing now are forging our characters. But, whenever we go a week without much movement my heart automatically starts wondering where God is. My faith really is like shifting sands. Or even better, a house of cards. Or even more poignant, a house of cards built on shifting sands.

I was mad at God yesterday. I'm ashamed to admit it. But, the thought kept on circulating through my heart, How Long O' Lord? I was focusing solely on the circumstances before my eyes, and not looking to the Holy One. Last night God spoke to me through a book. The line in the book was, "Peace, dear child, you do not understand." Be still, Kevin and Kathi. You don't understand what I'm doing, but everything I do is never without a purpose. Please be praying for our hearts. Pray that we would be renewed in our strength and faith.

Today we drove out to Pennsylvania to spend time with a supporting church of ours, St. John's Burry's Church. They had us sing for their offertory and we were able to give a quick update on our progress. I can't tell you how much we love this church. They always show us so much love and grace, and we come away feeling so encouraged. Afterwards we went to lunch with one of their small groups and then spent some time hanging out with the pastor and his family.

In addition to all of this, God raised up another supporter through this time. We also got a lot of good advice from the pastor as well as some good church contacts. God all-around blessed us today through this church. Please pray that God would open the door with some of these referrals.

We had some discouraging news yesterday. A church in our area has been considering supporting our ministry, and they let us know that they're going to pass this year. We had been putting a lot of hope in this possible partnership, so it was really disappointing to find out that they're not going to support us.

But, it also reminded us that our hope should never be in a church or a person. Our hope is in God alone "who is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine" (Ephesians 3:20). We were really discouraged for an afternoon until God brought our vision once again back to Him. He is able and He is willing. We continue to wait and pray in expectation.