Ascension Day, a birthday, and the "Frost Saints"

Hi praying friends!

Sometimes reading the German news is just confusing - especially when you know the words being used, but you start seeing them in new combinations! The last couple of weeks the weather has been unseasonably cold (right after they shut the heat down in our building, which, by the way is back on! The repair is done and the temporary water heater parked outside our bedroom window is now gone!)

Apparently, there is a German phrase for this - Eisheiligen (frost saints.) Other new German words this week: Schwefelregen (sulfur rain) - describing the yellow rings around the puddles that form when the pollen count is especially high and the rain washes the pollen out of the air. What a combination of experiences this week! Yellow ringed "sulfur rain" puddles and the "frost saints" sending us cold weather. 😆

We also had a national holiday yesterday for Ascension Day, which is commonly also Father's/Men's Day in Germany, and this year coincided with Elissa's birthday! We went to a museum and made our own peroggi's with our boys and their girlfriends. It was a great day.

Thanks for continuing to pray for my mom as she heals! Please also add Elissa's parents to your list. Elissa's mom has an appointment soon to look at what can be done with some of the struggles she is having with her heart, and her dad developed a kidney stone this week.

Please also for our ministry! Next week a team of 9 comes from Crown College to spend 10 days with us. During their stay we will close an exhibit and start to turn the gallery around for the next exhibit (which launches in June). We will also be welcoming a new intern in the next 2 weeks!

Please also pray for me this week. I have pitched in to help a local church when their musicians were unavailable a couple of times, and this week I got a call from another church asking if I could help them out on Sunday. I had put on my personal growth plan for the year that I wanted to go to some open mics and perform some songs that I had written, but so far have not managed to (a) write songs I am confident enough to do that with or (b) work up the courage to go out! This is not quite that, but does allow me to grow in my confidence as a musician playing in front of strangers, and helping communities of faith in the city I love. Pray for these new chances! Here is what is REALLY exciting about this for me. Both of these churches are in the neighborhoods we define as where we want to have our presence, and neither of these churches existed 3 years ago. Friends... how amazing is that!?!

Getting long, so let me sign off with a short list of prayer requests:

1. Pray for the Crown Team as they travel.
2. Pray for our team as we get ready to host them.
3. Pray for our parents and their health challenges.
4. Pray for new opportunities to engage in communities of faith in our neighborhoods.
5. Pray for us as we engage with our local neighbors and artist friends - we have gardening initiative, our Open Table, and an exhibit closing coming up in the next 7 days!

Thanks for your prayers,

mike