Guess what’s just beside the Brandenburg Gate in the center of Berlin?
(Think of it like the Washington Monument… )

Would you please pray for the “open house” that will be held in House Nazareth on Saturday?

The Ploners and Peddicords will be hosting about 150 friends and neighbors and showing them the remodeling taking place. (Sister Ursula and several of the other nuns are also planning to be there; it will be the first time for them to see the house after the start of remodeling.)

Specifically, please ask the Lord to open up further personal contact to the business, professional, and academic community through this time: it will be held from 10:00am – 2:00pm Berlin time. (Subtract 6 hours for Eastern Standard Time; 7 hours for Central; 8 hours for Mountain; 9 hours for Pacific).

Also, please pray for the visit of Pete Stewart and John Beery, key members of the Philosophia leadership team from today until Wednesday next week. They’ll be praying and planning with the Berlin team about the next stages of remodeling and also about how to best discover the necessary financing for the next stages of the Berlin project!

One final prayer request. On Friday, the German team will play against Argentina. Please PRAY that the upcoming match will be very fairly referreed. It may seem a bit odd to ask you to pray for a soccer match, but Germany has a unique history and the World Cup has grabbed the imagination of the country. There have been several games involving other countries in the past week that were won or lost through very bad referee decisions.

Why is this important enough to pray about? Historically, one of the strategies that the devil seems to use in Germany is betrayal and unfairness. These themes were manipulated and twisted by Hitler to created a deep sense of alienation and offense in the German people, emotions which the Nazis used to generate resentment and hatred against the “outside world” before World War II. Whether the German team wins or loses in the upcoming match(es), I think it is EXTREMELY important that the games be perceived as fair and even-handed.

God is not just the God of church services and stained-glass windows. He is also Lord of the soccer pitch! He wants us to pray about every aspect of life, especially when it can affect the future of a nation as strategically important as Germany. (The New York Times recently published an article on the captain of the German team; it gives some background on how complex the issue of sports is in modern Germany.)