Missio Colonia | Kevin and Kathi in Cologne, Germany

On Thursday we finished up the last remaining training session we needed to prepare for our departure. It turned out to be the best part of all of the training! All of the instructors, sharing from their own experience, cast a vision for how multiplying churches can reach the entire world. It help reinvigorate our excitement and passion for building His church in Cologne. It also taught us that many times it's our own structures, programs, and ideas about church that create the greatest hindrance to churches reproducing. Because of this time, we have an greater passion for the maxim: The Simpler, the better.

We come away from this time feeling very renewed in our call to Cologne. God used the time to renew our hearts for the people there. Not only that, but we now feel "released" to start this new phase in our ministry. We have now completed all of the initial requirements from GEM we need to leave. The only things that still remains is the last $400 per month to be raised. It's such a small thing. We're confident that God is going to do some awesome things in the coming weeks to open the way for us to leave!

We had a very stretching experience in our church planting class today. As part of our preparation and training, we drove to Asheville (about an hour away), and dividing up into pairs we prayer walked around the neighborhoods of the city. It was meant to be a lesson in "spiritual mapping", but it turned to create some amazing opportunities to connect with non-believers there.

Another student named Bobby and I were paired up and assigned a neighborhood on the north side of the city. When we got our assignment sheet, the description of the area read "inter-racial, drugs". Hmmm. Not a promising start to the day. The label turn out to be a bit of an exaggeration. The neighborhood was very quaint and had a interesting mix of poorer established residents and rich newcomers.

When we arrived in our area, there really wasn't much activity. We walked around for half of the time simply praying and asking God to give us His heart for this neighborhood and people. We prayed that He would raise up workers for this place and that He would overcome any spiritual darkness or oppression. After about an hour, we came across a group of women planting an herb garden in a vacant lot. We struck up a conversation with them and chatted for about twenty minutes. Unfortunately, we weren't able to open up spiritual things with them (they were kinda chatty), but it was great to simply listen to them and show Christ's love for them in a small way.

The most important thing I took away from this time was lesson that God meant our faith to be public. It was always intended that we would be put on display for the world to see. Instead of this, I tend to keep to my private Christian sphere. I'm really excited to use prayer walking in Cologne. I'm hopeful that this will open up some amazing encounters with the people in our community.

Yesterday we made the eight hour trip down to North Carolina again! We're now back at the Center for Intercultural Training. On Monday we start the last section of our pre-field training. This time it's going to center specifically around developing church planting movements. We're really excited about this session because it addresses exactly our hearts and passions for seeing the church grow in Germany. They're going to talk about not how you plant a church but how do you sustain a movement of church planting over a long period. We think that this is going to be so helpful for our ministry in Cologne.

This past week, we decided to "unplug" from the support raising work. Last week we found ourselves on the verge of burning out. It was a clear sign that God wanted to slow down a little bit and take some Sabbath rest. So, on Monday we headed to western Ohio - sure, not the most logical choice for a vacation. Actually, a friend connected us with a ministry in Lewisburg, Ohio that has a large house and grounds that they offer to full-time ministers for free as a place to renew. It was an amazing experience. We didn't do much besides read and spend time in prayer and in the Word, but the mere act of deliberating taking a Sabbath was so needed.

We realized that God has such a unique purpose for the Sabbath. It's not just about providing a time of physical and spiritual rest. Taking a Sabbath is an act of faith in itself. By disengaging from your work, you're saying to God that you are entrusting that work to Him. You're saying that you have faith that He is the real sustainer and provider for your ministry/work. It sounds weird, but stepping back to take a Sabbath this past week has been one of the biggest stretches of our faith in a while. We were so thankful for the lesson.