Author Archives: Markus

What the German National soccer team can teach us

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Hey our friend

We had a great week here in San Francisco. Our first seminar last Saturday was a success. It was all about how to live the great commission with bringing hope to people around you. Its exciting to see how god brings things from a vision into reality. Its so awesome!! We have been really moving forward in every area of the ministry which is awesome. Our God is an awesome God!!

Please keep the base in your prayers since the first deadline is approaching on July 25th. http://www.ywamsanfrancisco.org/miracle/ Also keep praying for Jen and me to find the times of rest in business.

Here is a quick thought for the week for you from a message I heard from Paul Manwaring  and here is the link so you can listen to it as well!!

Look at what you have and not at what you don’t have.

What the German Worldcup soccer team can teach us

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Schweinsteiger cares about Messi after win

win team Sorry that I took a week of from our series Heroes of challenge but I felt God gave me a different topic for this week. During the last month the world cup was going on in Brazil and teams from all over the world came together and played each other. One thing that really stuck out to me was the idea of playing as a team. Many teams in the world cup had many Star players, but a star player can’t do everything by himself. What it really takes is a team, a team that works together and fights together.

That is also a great picture for us as a church. We have people that are great speakers, some are great evangelists, some are helping to support the team. But I tell you one thing, each of those is equally important. Just because someone speaks in the front doesn’t make him more important than anyone else. Without a team he would have no stage, microphone or anything he needs to share. So I want to encourage all of us to be a community that lives by those principles. Honor each other. Never look down on people instead help them up. When we always work as a team things are moving forward even if we don’t have the best in each category. Look at the German team. They had great players but none of them was famous like a Messi or Rondaldo. But in the end they won because they played together as a team.

One last thing that is great about a team is that we can celebrate together and encourage each other. If you are alone, all eyes are on you and if you fail, which all of us do sometimes, who is with you? If you have a team they can pull you back up. Plug into your church and be part of the team!!

God bless you
Markus and Jen

Heroes through Challenge Part 1

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Hey our friend

20140713_161004We hope you had a wonderful week. We definetly did with Germany winning the Worldcup!! What a wonderful day!! We had a great neighbor’s brunch this weekend and lots of great events during the week. While listening to a message of a wonderful friend and also our wedding pastor Don Neff I got reminded of the greatness of God (if you would like to hear or watch the message click on this link and click on the James Part 3 message). He talked about how we should remind ourselves daily of how big God is. That will strengthen our faith in our circumstances or in whatever He calls us to do. This is a great reminder for all of us. During the last 2 years the ministry kept growing from month to month and without knowing that a big God is with us it would have been a real challenge to take on some of the tasks. But God was faithful in each one of them. SO whatever He calls you to, go for it he is right at your side and nothing is too big for Him. This is also something we need to be reminded of with the YWAM Base and all the fundraising that is going on. But again what are 4 Million Dollars for a God who created the earth and all his followers on this earth? http://www.ywamsanfrancisco.org/miracle/

Heroes through Challenge Part 1

Many times I saw people evangelize with saying when you become a Christian life will be just perfect. They don’t use the exact words, but the message they give is that one. I don’t believe that is totally true.

When you become a Christian not everything is going to be magically perfect, but you start walking with a perfect father who is with you in all of it.

Over the next few weeks I want to look with you at the lives of different people in the bible who went on that journey. I want to start with Moses. For that I want you to read the book of Exodus to get his Story.

The life of Moses didn’t start of well. All male Kids that were born around that time were killed, because they were seen as a threat to the Egyptian society. His life was saved by a great move of his mom, which brought him to Pharos house as an adopted son. He started growing up in a culture which was not his own. When he was older he saw the injustice that was done to the Israelites by the Egyptians and he stood up and killed one of their guards. He stood up for something but that got him into trouble and he had to flee for his life. He lived in the desert away from all the luxury he had before in the Kings palace. Many years later God speaks to him and asks him to go back to the place where he committed the crime and challenge Pharaoh to let all the Israelites go. When you look at that Moses was able to protect one person through his acting out, but God already had a greater plan to free all of them. After a long discussion Moses finally went back after asking God for a helper. He challenged Pharaoh with plaques till he let the Israelites go. But now Moses had to deal with a whole crowd of people who were just set free but just kept complaining. Moses kept going aside circumstances, because he knew God was on his side. But how did he know that? He spends one on one time with Him on a daily base. Moses life was a challenge till the day he died, but he decided to walk with God and God helped him through all of them.

So now when you look at the life of Moses and see the challenges he faced you see that being a Christian isn’t making everything easy. But then when you look at the relationship Moses (Exodus 33.11) had with God you see that it was worthied. God walked with him through every situation and Moses became closer and closer with God after each of those times of challenge. Look at your life and look at the challenges you are facing because you are a Christian, and then look at your father in heaven and how He walks right at your side and how He is with you in all of it.

Have a blessed week.

Markus and Jen

The great commission not the great suggestion

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Hey our friend

20140702_132806We hope you had an awesome week. Ours was a blast. We had 3 visitors from Germany, 2 from LA, 1 from Kansas, 1 from Chicago and 1 from Florida. It was wonderful to see each one of them. We also had a big barbecue at our house for the 4th of July. The great thing was that neighbors, church friends and others came together to celebrate that special American holiday. It opened the door for great conversations.

During our next week we will try to spend some extra time on preparing for the teachings in July. Please pray for time to do that. Also keep the San Francisco YWAM base in your prayers while they are working on raising funds to keep the building and minimize loans for it. http://www.ywamsanfrancisco.org/miracle/

The great commission not the great suggestion

Over the last few days I started to think about the great commission in Matthew 28.18-20 and what that means for us.  When you look up the meaning of commissioning you find out that it means to place an order, with which you get authority to do that order. So the great commission is not just a suggestion, but instead Jesus is ordering us to do it. He didn’t just tell us to do it, but he also gave us authority to do it. I think many times we don’t look at the full picture. I think sometimes we don’t realize that Jesus doesn’t have a plan B. He trusts each one of us to fulfill the great commission because we are His friends. He doesn’t put a guilt trip on us or try to use us against our will. No He partners with us as His friends to change the world. If we want to get something big done, we would make the same choice and ask our friends to help us because we know we can trust them. We know they would get the job done because they love us. Are we using them? No, because we would do the same for them. So the great commission is Jesus asking us to bring the gospel to the people. But in reality, he did the same for us since we are His friends. I want to challenge you to start thinking of the great commission and how you can actively live it. Start with your neighbors!!

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen

Love your Neighbor

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Hey our friend

We hope you had a great week. After a wonderful time in Pennsylvania with seeing family and celebrating at the wedding we started into a great week back in San Francisco. During this world cup season we often get the opportunity to connect with more people through our coffee shop work. Its awesome how little conversations will often leave a lasting impact. We also saw progress in many other areas of the ministry. Please keep praying for our training in July. We still have to finish up some more teachings and details.

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Our Winter 2014 DTS North Beach Team.

We also celebrated the graduation of our Winter DTS school. We were for them but also sad to let them go. Please keep praying for them while they transition

ywamAlso some good news from the YWAM Base: We got into a purchase agreement with the owners!! Yeah praise God. Now we have to work on raising 3.2 million dollars for the rest of the cost to keep going with all the ministries. That sounds like a lot of money, and it is, but more the 12.000 people helped out or worked with the ministries of YWAM San Francisco since its beginning. So if each of them gives $270 we are there. Help YWAM San Francisco in this journey by praying, giving and sharing of the need with others. You can find more info here on how to support:  http://www.ywamsanfrancisco.org/miracle/
or share directly the posts from the YWAM Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ywamsanfrancisco

Thank you for all your help with this.

Love your Neighbor

When we think about missions we often think overseas work or going on a short term mission trip. That makes it sometimes so easy to say that we can’t do that since we have a full time job or we cant afford to travel some other place. Many times the language issue is there as well. But guess what, there is a way. Jesus himself gave us a really good guideline which makes it possible for each of us to do missions: love your neighbor.

Some of us will say: It is hard to love our neighbor because they did something we didn’t like. Maybe some say we haven’t even met all of our neighbors. Others might say I don’t have time. But the truth is Jesus called each of us to be part of the great commission.

So how can we love our neighbor? Maybe through a simple word of encouragement, a helping hand when they need it or a dinner.

Think about it this week how you can love your neighbor. We have also written a 10 week series last year which can give you some more tips. Here is the link to the final part of the series which gives you links to all of the topics: https://markus-jen-news.com/lets-look-back-to-look-forward/

Be encouraged and challenged!

Markus and Jen

P.s. I saw this clip a little while ago and it shows how loving someone is making a difference

How to get better sleep

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Hey our friend

We hope you had a wonderful week. We had a great week here in San Francisco with some amazing conversations which challenged and brought hope to different people. One situation was really encouraging. A few years ago I (Markus) encouraged a man in the coffee shop. I haven’t seen him since then. Last Monday we watched the world cup game and he was there. After the game we ended up talking and he shared about how he is still thinking about and being encouraged by the conversation we had years ago. Sincere Encouragement can touch people’s lives for a long time.

Last weekend we went to the wedding of Jens Mom in Pennsylvania and were also able to see family during that time. Thank you God for times like that.

Please keep praying for the situation at the base. Things are moving forward with everyting and we are closer to figure things out. Yeah!! Please keep praying with us for finances.  http://www.ywamsanfrancisco.org/miracle/

How to get better sleep

20140619_093533Living in San Francisco showed me more clearly how many people have a hard time sleeping. This can be caused by many different things. It could be stress, not enough exercise or just no time to process things. One thing I also noticed is that people stimulate their minds pretty much till bed time with video games, tv or computer stuff. I learned for myself that I need some time to wind down at night to get some good rest. I heard the saying that with the things you fall asleep with you wake up with. And I believe it is true. It is crucial how we start our day but also as crucial how we end it

I want to give you some tips, that I learned myself over the years, to start and end your day right.

  • The number one thing to start and end your day right, is with a God time. It can be a time in his presence through Prayer, soaking or reading his Word. Meditating on a scripture is something that helps as well. It is also important to finish our day with brining God the things that went wrong during the day and by giving him our burdens. Both of those are very crucial, because it sets you up for your sleep and for your day.
  • In Jewish tradition the new day actually starts with sunset. Look at the start of the Sabbath, it started Friday after sunset. So it is important to set ourselves up for the new day when it starts and that would be at sunset the day before. If you look at the Amish way of life you notice something similar. Every night before they go to bed they read and pray together. They are also praying for the new day that is coming up and bring before God the day that passed. So it is important to change our mindset by setting ourselves up to start our day right when it actually begins, the night before.
  • Another practical thing that was really helpful for me is not to use any electronics at least one hour before bedtime and not first thing in the morning. When you use electronics first thing in the morning or last thing at night it will stimulate your mind and get you back into work and stress mode right away. If you avid that and give your body time to get ready you will eliminate lots of stress.
  • A good thing to relax your mind is to read a relaxing book. Something that is easy to read and doesn’t stimulate your mind.
  • For some people it also helps to take a bath or have a hot cup of herbal tea. The main thing is to get your mind off the day and relax.

Try out those tips and see if it helps you. If you have other tips, write them in the comment section so it can help others.

Have a blessed week and may God bless you with good sleep from now on!!

Markus and Jen