Missio Colonia | Kevin and Kathi in Cologne, Germany

We've been in Germany now a little more than a week. We're so thankful that we've been able to take it easy the last few days. Surprisingly, there hasn't been too much we've had to do in order to transition. So, we've spent the past few days exploring the city and getting to know our new home. It's been such a strange feeling - both foreign and familiar at the same time.

One of the things we've come to terms with the last few days is the reality that we have gone from being "insiders" to "outsiders". We are now ones who don't fit in, who don't belong. It's a strange feeling and one we didn't expect. And, in many ways no matter how good we integrate or learn the language, we will always be outsiders. It's humbling.

How do you minister to people who see you as outsiders? It's a tough question that we don't know the answer to. We know though that Christ was the ultimate outsider, and he cut through those boundaries by taking on our nature and identity. Love and the Gospel make those barriers disappear. It's just figuring out how that works in the nuts and bolts of life. That's going to be the challenge of the next year or two.

We made it to Cologne! It required about 24 hours worth of traveling, but we finally arrived on Thursday evening. We are so thankful that everything went off without any hiccups. We made all of our connections including the big flight from Detroit to Amsterdam. Now besides a bit of jet lag, we're settling well.

The only real "mistake" we made in the whole operation was the failure of our grand plan to avoid jet lag and get immediately in sync with European time. The plan was that we would stay up the entire night before we left with the idea that we would be so tired when we got on our flight that we would fall right asleep. Then, the trans-Atlantic flight would arrive in the morning local time, and we would awake nice and refreshed.

Well, we did stay up all night on Tuesday, and we were very tired when we boarded our plane for Amsterdam. But, we didn't come close to going asleep on the flight over. So, not only did we not sleep on Tuesday night but we also lost all of Wednesday night. With the failure of our jet lag plan, we're now trying to get our rhythms matched up!

Well, we board our plane for Germany in 37 hours! What a whirlwind! We are so grateful to all of the people we've been able to meet with during our visits to Columbus, Dayton, Indy, and Chicago. It has meant the world to us that you took the time to encourage us and minister to us! Thank you.

So, now we are on the precipice of a new adventure. I can hardly believe that this day is finally here. We are so excited that we get to share all of this with you. All of you who have prayed for us and supported us have made this possible.

Please be praying for traveling mercies the next few days. Our flight leave Chicago-O'Hare on Wednesday afternoon. We'll have a short layover in Detroit and then a much long one in Amsterdam before we arrive in Duesseldorf on Thursday evening. Please be praying that all of our transfers and arrangements go smoothly.

When we finally get settled in Germany, we're planning on posting some more pictures to the website. In the meantime, if you have Facebook, you'll be able to follow our steps along the way.

Please know that each of you means so much to us. We wish that we could have spent time with everyone individually before we left. You will be in our hearts and prayers in the coming weeks.

So, the next time that I write, it will be from Cologne, Germany! God bless all of you, and thank you for being with us through this journey! May there be many more adventures and victories to come!

We wanted to let everyone know about the progress of the Cram Farewell Tour! We spent Tuesday and Wednesday of last week in Columbus hanging out with friends. We are really thankful for Randy & Sarah Surface for hosting us and organizing a get together while we were there. After that, we went to Dayton to spend a few days with my family, which was wonderful. Right now we are in Indianapolis visiting friends, supporters, and churches.

The last few weeks have been such a whirlwind for us. It was amazing how we went from the slow crawl of support raising to this breakneck pace in an instant. We're grateful for how smooth everything has gone so far, and we know that God's hand is in all of this. But, the extreme pace has made it difficult to really let the enormity of this time to sink in. As we travel from place to place, I don't think it's really hit us that this will probably be the last time we see these people for a long time. It definitely hasn't sunk in that we are moving to another country in a week!

We're hoping that in the next week we'll be able to take some time to rest, pray, and meditate on all of the things that God has done in the past few months. He is so amazing!

On Monday our shipping container arrived for the loading of all of our stuff. It was a little nerve racking at first. The driver arrived about an hour and a half early, which had us scrabbling to get ready. But, other than that everything went off without a hitch. We were able to get all of our things into the container in the allotted two hour time limit.

As I write, all of our worldly possessions are probably waiting for ocean voyage at some port in New Jersey. It'll be in transit for about 20 days and it will arrive in Germany right after we get there later this month.

Yesterday, we left our home in Dellroy and began our Cram Farewell Tour through Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Last night we spent with friends in Columbus, and today we're hanging out with my family in Dayton.