This last month Europe has had the Euro-Cup. Some of you in the USA may know of a sport called soccer. I think it is right behind water-polo and scratch off lottery tickets in America as far as popularity in concerned. Over here soccer (or fussball) is the top sport. The top 3 most popular sports in Germany are fussball, fussball, and fussball. Last night was the championship game between Spain and Germany. The score end of being 1-0 in favor of Spain. 
The only benefit that came from Spain winning was we were able to get to bed at a decent hour. When Germany won everyone honked their car horns while driving up the road. The Russian and Turkish community did the same.
Unfortunately this is our last week. I can’t believe how quickly the time has went by. During the last six weeks we have been meeting with readers and catching up on friendships we made while on our internship. This Thursday is our last party we will have for the readers. In the previous parties we had games as the main focus. With the last party we have decided to have a grill-out. Germans tend to enjoy visiting with one another the most. The Smelsers had grill parties for their English classes and these grill-outs would last between 4-5 hours. Please ask God to open up opportunities this week for meaningful conversations as we meet with our readers for the last time.
Yesterday we had our English service for the readers. I believe that the total people who attended who were not regular attenders was around 7. Randy’s sermon focused on how life is full of risks. What I personally pulled from his sermon is that since this life is full of risks I should spend those risks on God…. this is a little ironic because this is were we find true security. I led the singing. We sang the first portion of the song in German and the latter half in English. Karl did a really good job leading the communion meditation. After words we spent time eating Amanda’s American cookies (or USA cookies if I want to be technical) while visiting with everyone.
We are ready to come back and work full-time. So I will end this update with a few requests:
That we stay close to the One Who provides everything.
That we are able to work out everything with our forwarding agent issues.
That we gain prayer and financial supporters over the next year.
This next one is for everyone affected by the dollar
That the US dollar would gain some value. I know everyone is affected by how bad the dollar is but I think those who minister in Europe and probably others (too many exchange rates to look up) are hit the hardest. Missionaries right now have to give $1.58 in order to get 1 Euro in return. When we were here 3 years ago I believe it was closer to the $1.40 area. 8 years ago the Euro and dollar were almost even or in other words 1 US dollar could almost get a person 1 Euro. I know God provides but still our dollar needs to gain some value.
Thank you for taking the time to read our update. Have a great week.
Because of Jesus,
The Knapps
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Hey David,
My brother Paul is going to Ozark in the fall. He plans on going for a year and then wants to get into law enforcement. He and you have the same personality. I was wondering, if you’re going to be living in joplin still, if you could hook up with him? He reminds me a lot of you except that you are using your life to glorify God and are devoted to serving the Lord. I think that maybe you could understand Paul in a way that a lot of people cannot and influence him for the better.