Hey our friend

We hope you had a wonderful week. We had the North Beach festival this weekend and Jen was helping out at one of the booths. We also had our first Wednesday night Prayer walk to which we invite churches and Christians from the neighborhood to join us in praying for the community. We do it by walking to significant places and pray there.

Also some good news from the YWAM base in the Tenderloin. The owner gave us some more time to find a way to purchase the building since he really wants to sell it to us. Pray along with us that God will open up the right doors for us in that situation. Under the link you find daily updates on where we are at with raising the funds for it.

A lesson from a vulture who thinks he is human

During our trip we went to a museum which had an exhibition about birds. Some volunteers came to present different birds which each had some problems which would not allow them to survive in the wild. One of them was a vulture who was left as a baby and raised by a farmer. The interesting thing that happened was that the bird started behaving like a human and was scared when he was around other vultures. It was interesting to hear that even a bird would be influenced by his environment and starts to take on characteristics of it.

I believe the same happens to us as people. Every day we get influenced and shaped by circumstances, people, media etc. and each of those often makes us more like them. Many times we don’t even notice it right away. As an example: When I did my Mission school 10 years ago I watched only 2 or 3 movies in the whole 6 months. After we got back from our outreach the new Matrix movie was out and we went to see it. While watching it I was horrified by the violence it showed. Before it never really affected me as much. So everything you do in life influences you. Either way positive or negative. That is another reason why it is so important to have our focus on God and be shaped by Him. We learn about His standards by reading his word and spending time with Him and when we know his standards we can start to positively influence the environment around us. We want to challenge you to think about the things that influenced and influence you and how it changed your perspective more towards or more away from God. When you did that pray and ask God for the truth in areas you had the wrong thinking!

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen