Missio Colonia | Kevin and Kathi in Cologne, Germany

Yesterday we took our first step in reaching out to the local community here with the Gospel. We both saw that this county has a large young adult population who are almost entirely unchurched. We realized that these people work hard and then they go to the bars. So, in order to reach them, we have to go to where they are at. With that said, we've decided to start going to a local bar to build relationships and hopefully tell people there about Jesus.

The bar we chose is in the county seat some fifteen minutes away. It has a small diner attached, so yesterday morning we had breakfast there. We spent the time praying over the place and talking with our waitress about things they have going on at the bar. We decided that this would make a great weekly event - our own prayer breakfast. Hopefully, in the next week or two we'll take the big risk and start going out to the bar itself. Please be praying for us.

We have some modest good news with our support raising. We added a few more supporters this weekend, including the First Presbyterian Church in Carrollton. With these new supporters, we've finally caught up to the falling dollar. While we are still at 58%, we are now no longer playing catch up, so that feels good.

We've also been learning more about how to pray in our support raising. We never really thought about it, but we are starting to believe that there are spiritual forces that are against us raising our support (not that we're anything special, but there is a general opposition to missions work). We've been seeing that there is a spirit of anxiety over money and sometimes outright materialism that is hindering true generosity in the Church. We have started to pray that God would cut through that opposition and open up supernatural generosity and faith in the people and churches we meet with.

This morning we spoke at Alpine Bible Church in Sugarcreek. It was such a refreshing experience because they were so welcoming and encouraging about what we'll be doing in Germany. They actually gave us their entire adult Sunday school time to speak. Afterwards we went out to lunch with their missions committee too. We're looking forward to really building a relationship with them. The good news is that there were several people who were interested in supporting us. Praise God!

Like our time in Chicago, we felt God leading us to share more than just what we're going to do in Cologne. We really sensed that He wanted us to put a challenge to people to see the harvest that God has prepared and to really take part in what He is doing. We're starting to really understand that our time right now just isn't about raising money.

Please continue to pray for us. We had a few discouraging moments this past week, and we really had to pray through them. Please pray that God would give us strength and perseverance, and that Satan would not have any stronghold of discouragement or unbelief in our hearts.

It has been a busy last few days. We are completely bushed. On Thursday, we had a packed day of appointments with supporters and potential partners. Yesterday was spent driving back from Chicago. Then, this morning we had to get up early to work at the YMCA all day. We're looking forward to our day of rest tomorrow.

The trip to Chicago was really productive. We went into it with little planned, but we ended up meeting with a lot of people. We also had some surprise leads that will hopefully pan out into some major support. We are praying that the fruit of this trip will go a long way to getting us to Germany.

One of the most encouraging things that came out of this past week was to see several of our current supporters really begin to go to bat for us. My friend Brian, who recently finished support raising for Crusade, said that the turning point for their support came when their supporters took ownership for the ministry they were a part of. I think we're starting to see that. We had several friends and supporters this trip grow in their burden to help us get to the field. They are working now to connect us with churches and individuals within their sphere of influence. We hope that this will serve to multiply our efforts towards finishing this journey. Please pray that God would open up these new contacts and connections.

Last night Kathi and I were down in the Chicago speaking at a young adults group called The Neighborhood. The awesome group was co-founded by a friend of ours, Tony. He was able to arrange for us to speak for a good chunk of time. They were all so encouraging and receptive to what we had to say.

What was really encouraging was that we felt God leading us to speak more so about His call to all of us to participate in His great work of redemption. We weren't sure how this would go down. Usually, we just give our little support spiel, but God burdened us with the need to challenge people with the call of the Gospel. We hope and pray that He was able to use us there last night.

We were also greatly encouraged because we were able to connect with a few other potential supporters. It was such a wonderful and fruitful evening. Now we are back up in the suburbs, and we have a full schedule the next two days meeting with current and possible supporters. Please continue to pray especially for these meetings and for our travel tomorrow back to Ohio.

Man, we are so bad. I'm sorry that we haven't posted in such a long time! The holidays came out of nowhere, and before we knew it we were knee deep in traveling, shopping, and working. We did have a wonderful Christmas. Now we're back on the support raising trail, and we're hoping that we'll have a amazing January.

We're actually on the road right now. Yesterday we drove up to Chicago because on Wednesday we're going to be speaking at a young adult's group in the city. This group was co-founded by our friend Tony, and he's guaranteed for us a receptive audience. Please be praying for this opportunity. We feel led not only to talk about our ministry, but to challenge these men and women to see the harvest God has prepared in the world. Pray as well that God would raise up for us new supporters through this trip.