Hi Praying Friends!
Thank you so much for praying for us last week. We had a productive Foci meeting last week. I have no doubt that your prayers contributed to how much we were able to accomplish (even though we did go over the allotted time. :) )
Two big takeaways from that meeting. First, God has been gracious in the 2.5 years since we launched Envision Berlin. There is not a single area of our top 5 (Deeper Life, Presence-Based, Artists & Creatives, Applied Learning, Ministry Hub) in which we do not have active ministries and have not grown in our deliberate programming focused on these areas.
Second, we were able to look at our calendar and intentionally cut some of our coming programs to focus better on the things we have coming - and this was not overly painful (in that there was a not a lot of conflict on the team - we agreed on what needed to be cut and what needed to be focused on.)
Here are some other praises:
- We made significant progress in launching our online store, where books and art prints we are releasing will be available for purchase. It is not ready yet - but hopefully we can have some gift-buying opportunities available for you by mid-November!
- We are finding exciting ways to assist local artists.
- We have a timeline for releasing a book from a Ukrainian author in February - 2 years since Russia invaded Ukraine. Her book contains daily diary entries of her interaction with God and her and her families experience during Russia's invasion.
Some prayer requests:
- In December we will be sending out details about our Year-End Giving Campaign. Our budget for 2023 was 250,000 Euro - and we are doing really well in meeting that. 30,000 Euro of that budget was income from donations (meaning we are self-sustaining for the other 220,000!). We have less than 10,000 to go for that donation target. Our year-end giving campaign will be to close that gap and give us a head-start on next year's giving. If you would like to give in advance... Here is a link!
- Caleb comes back this week from his trip with his band.
- We have had the Envision Site Coordinators from the Holy Land with us this week. It's been great! Pray for them as they finish their time with us.
- Our son, Joshua, heads north for a month of school next week. Pray for him as he packs, travels, and spends time learning!
Thanks for your prayers!
mike
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