Back home in Germany we celebrate the 4 Sundays before Christmas, called Advent, by burning a candle for each Sunday on the Advent wreath and by preparing our hearts for Christmas and the good news that came with it. Each of the candle symbolizes something different and we will write about the meanings for the next 4 weeks.

The first candle on the Advent wreath stands for hope. A hope that is promised in Isaiah 11.10 but then also repeated in Romans 15.12-13 (The Message Translation).

There’s the root of our ancestor Jesse,  breaking through the earth and growing tree tall, Tall enough for everyone everywhere to see and take hope! Oh! May the God of green hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope!

Hope is something so desperately needed in a world where we see so much hopelessness. People that had to flee their homes because of war, poverty in so many third world countries and hard to find jobs for young people in certain countries, to name just a few of them. In many ways Jesus was born into a world with not much hope for his people. The Romans were ruling the country and the Israelites, and people were hurting under the big taxes and ruthless leaders. So the world didn’t look much different then, then today.

But wait, it actually looks different today: When Jesus was born the world was still waiting for someone who brings hope. The Israelites were still waiting for the Saviour promised in Isaiah. But today he is there for us. God send his son so we can actually be set free. That is true hope. When we put our life focus on Him, we can find true hope. But lets not stop there, lets share this hope with a hopeless world. Share it with the people around you. Share about the one that gives you hope. We want to encourage you with the lyrics of this song to do that this week. Share this week with someone about the true hope bringer!!

https://youtu.be/haHT0SdKnxY

Hey our friend

We hope you had a fantastic week. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal with friends from our neighborhood. It was a true blessing. We also had a visitor, our cousin Tina which was awesome!! It is amazing to see how  a dinner that brings hope can change the lives of people. It gives a total different outlook on situations. Lets pray for each other that we receive hope and bring hope to others.

First of all thank you to all who support us in our work here through Prayer and finances! You are a huge blessing to us! May god bless you richly!

We have a request for you! To do the work we are doing we depend 100% on support. Over the last few months we lost about $287 in monthly support through changes of circumstances in people’s lives. So at this point we need about $1410 more in monthly support to be fully funded and about $9,550 more to reach our full budget for this year. We want to ask for your help in sharing with people you know that have a heart for missions and would be interested in joining our support team monthly or with a year end donation. Of course if you are not a part of it you are welcome to join as well! When you click on this link you find out more how to do that. All donations are tax deductible. Thank you for all your help in this area.

Speak into all your and your friends hopeless situations, life and the true hope of our Father.

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen

When we found out about the attack in France the other day we both were shocked and we started praying for the families that lost someone as well as our friends from France. But tragedies like that also shake you up in a way that makes you think about what you are thankful for in life. And this weeks blog video is about that. We hope it encourages you!!

Hey our friend

We hope you had a fantastic week!! Here we had a neighborhood game night with one of the big neighborhood organizations. Jen helped to plan it and it was hold in a local restaurant. It’s a great way to create community and bring people together. Think about ways to do that in your area! Maybe a game night could work. Jen also had a meeting with the city’s neighborhood watch captains. After our time in Redding we felt really refreshed from all the business of the last few months.

We also want to wish you a blessed Thanksgiving with family and close ones!

First of all thank you to all who support us in our work here through Prayer and finances! You are a huge blessing to us! May god bless you richly!

We have a request for you! To do the work we are doing we depend 100% on support. Over the last few months we lost about $287 in monthly support through changes of circumstances in people’s lives. So at this point we need about $1460 more in monthly support to be fully funded and about $9,800 more to reach our full budget for this year. We want to ask for your help in sharing with people you know that have a heart for missions and would be interested in joining our support team monthly or with a year end donation. Of course if you are not a part of it you are welcome to join as well! When you click on this link you find out more how to do that. All donations are tax deductible. Thank you for all your help in this area.

Start this week to tell people you are thankful for them and tell them why!

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen

In this blog series we want to show you that it is actually really easy to make an impact where you live. We hope you start to see that more by reading this series!

One of the big issues in todays time is time. We are all rushed for time. We try to save time wherever we can at work, while driving at home etc. Then an interesting thing happens, we are more stressed and we need downtime to refill. So then we use that time, and probably more than we would have needed without the stress, to relax in front of the TV or by looking at Facebook for the 10^th time.

What about we just go on a normal healthy pace?  What about if we don’t over commit? What about we keep an open night each week to spend time with neighbors?

Relationships will cost you something and one of those things is time. If you don’t have time in first place how do you want to build a relationship with your neighbor?

Its important that we set time aside but to do that, we have to first do a few things:

1. For the next 2 weeks observe and see where you waste time and where you go too fast. Also see if you are overcommitted in things. Write everything you find out down.
2. Ask yourself why you do that and how you can practically change it. When you do that you are able to change.
3. After you found extra time start setting time aside for relationships with neighbors.

You can do it!!

Hey our friend

We hope you had a wonderful week! We had a workday at the YWAM Base to get things ready for the fundraiser in November. Many hands are needed to get everything done in time. We also had an opportunity to show love to people in our community just by being there for them. Its powerful to just being there for someone and even small actions speak loudly!

First of all thank you to all who support us in our work here through Prayer and finances! You are a huge blessing to us! May god bless you richly!

We have a request for you! To do the work we are doing we depend 100% on support. Over the last few months we lost about $287 in monthly support through changes of circumstances in peoples lives. So at this point we need about $1560 more in monthly support to be fully funded. We want to ask for your help in sharing with people you know that have a heart for missions and would be interested in joining our support team. Of course if you are not a part of it you are welcome to join as well! When you click on this link you find out more how to do that. Thank you for all your help in this area.

This week is a beginning of a healthy life pace with open time for relationship!

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen