Missio Colonia | Kevin and Kathi in Cologne, Germany

I know that I've said this a million times, but I love relationship! We journeyed over to Pennsylvania this weekend to visit with one of our supporting churches - Burry's Church in Rochester. This is the fourth time, I think, that we've visited them since we started support raising, but the depth of our fellowship was really evident this time. It's this kind of relationship that makes us love support raising.

We keep counting down the days. Only about 2 weeks before we drive down to North Carolina for training. We're heading to Indianapolis for a week or so starting this Thursday. Be praying for safe travels and good fellowship.

Not much to report this week. It's because things have slowed down though. We've been so encouraged to see momentum building in our support. We visited Redeemer Church in Twinsburg this weekend, and there we got to connect with some pretty awesome people. It seems like we're adding new supporters every day. It's exciting to watch this journey coming to a close.

Like I mentioned below, we're officially registered for our pre-field training, which starts next month. We got a packet of info in the mail that gives us a better idea of the details such as housing arrangements and what not. It also indicated that we're probably going to have a good bit of homework with these courses. I'm sure it will be great, but I was hoping that I had left that scene behind when I graduated.

We got another surprise the other day. GEM added a few new requirements to the pre-field training that we had overlooked. It turns out that we also have to take a course called "Facilitating Church Planting Movements", which sounds amazing! But, we also found out that this course is three weeks after the core course ends - which means we'll have to go back down to North Carolina at the end of April. Inconvenient, but I'm sure it'll be worth it.

Yesterday we sent in our registration for the Center for Intercultural Training, which is our required pre-field training that we need to take before leaving for Germany. This is a huge milestone for us! It means that we are so close to finishing our support raising and joining the mission field! The training session will start on February 13th and run for six weeks. In the training we'll get teaching and interaction on doing ministry and life in a cross-cultural setting. We'll also be taking a course in linguistics and learning a second language effectively. From what I've heard from others who have gone through this training, it's a life-changing experience!

This past week, we had several people commit to support us in ministry! At one point, we had two new supporters within one hour! We're getting so excited that our momentum is building. It makes us realize that this long journey is finally starting to wrap up! It's been sobering to think that we will be moving from one long journey into another one. But, Praise God! He has been so faithful.

Please continue to be praying for us. We're at 92% now, which is awesome! But, there's still a little bit more we have to raise. On top of that, we have all of the preparations for the training next month. It's going to be a busy couple of weeks.

We reached a very exciting mile marker in our support raising. We add a couple new supporters the past few days, which put us over the 90% point! It's so great to see that number. 90%. Praise God! As of today, we only need $685/month more to finish our support. What's even more encouraging is that we've had some positive feedback from several individuals about supporting us. We're hopeful that this percentage will be bumped up even more in the coming days. Please continue to pray for us. We still have a little more to go, and the challenge the next couple of month will be developing new relationships.

We're back from our Christmas hiatus and gearing up for a busy month. Two weeks ago, we left Indianapolis and head to Ohio to spend time with our families. It was a very rewarding time for both us. Always in the back of our minds was the realization that this will probably be the last Christmas we spend in the States for a while. It was an extra blessing to spend New Year's with Kathi's entire family, which hasn't happened since our wedding three years ago.

We'll have a packed January too. We'll be staying in Ohio traveling around reconnecting with various support churches. Then, we're planning on going back to Indianapolis the first week of February to speak at a few churches. Our hope is that by then we'll be ready to go to our Pre-Field Training in North Carolina on February 13th. Be praying for that in particular. We have to raise just a little bit more monthly support before GEM will release for training. But, we're confident that we'll be able to attend.

So, another New Year's has come and gone. This time was a little different because of the anticipation of what 2009 will bring. We believe that 2009 will mark the year that we finally move into full-time missionary work in Germany. We are so excited. We are so grateful to all of you who have share this journey with us. Next New Year's in Cologne!