This is Christmas week and also the week for our last challenge!! Wow 4 weeks went by fast!

Growing up in a beautiful small town in Germany made me value the special Christmas Eve service. Every year we would go on Christmas Eve and every person would get a candle. During the service the Christmas story was read and we sang Christmas Carols. Before the last song was sang a few people went to the front of the church and lit the candle they got on the candle on the Altar, but not for themselves, but to use it to light up the candles of everybody else in the church. It’s a beautiful picture of community. People that sometimes don’t even know each other share that flame with each other. It’s a beautiful picture and also the challenge for our last week.

Like we share the light of the candle with each other, let us share the good news of Jesus with the people you prayed for by inviting them to our Christmas church service. Yes it can be hard sometime to invite someone to church, but in the same way Christmas is a great opportunity to do that. Make sure that you go together and sit together at church so they have you on their side. Also introduce them to others at the church. When you do that you give them a sense of belonging and show them the love of God through the love we have for each other!

We wish you a merry and blessed Christmas!! Enjoy this German Christmas song that is played at the end of most Christmas eve services when the candles are lit!

Hey our friend

Wow Christmas is almost here or might be here depending when you read this blog! We had a wonderful week here in San Francisco with Christmas carol singing in our local park and after that praying for the local businesses. It was a wonderful time. We also celebrated Christmas with the North beach staff and also our game night group. Both were wonderful !! This week will be a bit slower , but we want to spend extra time to pray for people in our community that don’t have family and might be isolated to find community. Please join us in this for the people here as well as the people in your area!! Also don’t forget your person that you plan to have over for Christmas. Pray for them this week that they would feel the love of God through celebrating Christmas with you!!

Remember this week Emmanuel God came to us and He is with us.

Have a wonderful blessed week

Markus and Jen

Wow we are in week 3 and I feel so much time passed! Where was God using you to bring peace? How did it go? We want to encourage you to write those things down in a journal so you can look back at it someday! Also don’t forget to invite that person God put on your heart to your house for Christmas!

Each year about 2 Billion Christmas cards are sent out just in the US alone. That is a lot of Christmas cards. Do you remember getting an unexpected Christmas card? How did it make you feel? I remember cards I got from people that I haven’t seen forever and it made me feel so loved. Jen and I brought a Christmas card to every person we have relationship with on this hill we live. We want each one of them to know that they are loved and special to us and God. I remember the first year we did that we had some amazing responses and friendships were started through that. So to really get to know your neighbors this is a wonderful way to start.

1. If you can, print a card with you and your families picture on it. Its more special than just using custom cards, but they work too, since we are already close to Christmas this year! Better a custom card then no card.
2. Bring something along with the card maybe some home baked specialty.
3. Pray over each Card that the person will feel the love of God through it!
4. Deliver them personally and bring them to all the neighbors around you, Co workers and people who God puts on your heart.

Be excited to see what God will do through it!!

Hey our friend

I think this week had the most Christmas parties we went to in the amount of 7 days. WE had a German Christmas party for our german speaking group, a YWAM Christmas party for the YWAM Bay area family, a Neighborhood Christmas party for all the people from the neighborhood association which we are a part of and then we ended with a church Christmas party. But all of them were awesome and a great way to connect with people. We also just had a great week in general. We were baking tons of german sweet bread “Hefekranz” to give to our neighbors along with the Christmas cards.

Please pray with us in this Christmas season that every person will have a place to celebrate Christmas at. Pray that every person will have an opportunity to hear the reason for the season! Make sure to share it also with people in a way they understand so they can experience the love of God! Let God guide you in the how, since each person is different.

Have a wonderful blessed week

Markus and Jen

P.s. This is totally unrelated, but I just saw a Trailer for a movie made about one of my favorite books, The Shack. It’s a story about a man who meets with God, jesus and the Holy Spirit after going through a really hard time in his life. If you haven’t read it give it a try!! Make sure to read further then page 80 since the first 80 pages are a bit slow. But here is the trailer to it.

How did your first week go? How did the Christmas story impact you personally? Where you able to think of someone to invite to your house for Christmas? If not yet do it this week, it’s not too late!!

So now we are writing about this week’s challenge. Jesus is also many times called the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9.6). Peace is something needed in every century of time. But how do you bring peace? Many tried it and some with more success than others, but nobody ever brought total peace. But talking just about worldwide peace can be really overwhelming and we would not know how to bring that. But each one of us can do it on a small scale in our own life as well our surroundings. How can that look like?

It can look like reconciling with someone we had a clinch with for some time. It can look like showing Jesus to someone who has been hurt by the church in a way they can receive it, love. It can look like helping others to reconcile by being the middle man and get them talking again. It can look like us brining encouragement and perspective into circumstances instead of bringing more negativity.  So lets start on a small level.

1. Pray and ask God to show you how you can bring peace in this Christmas season. Be open to anything the things up there are just some examples.
2. Ask God also how to specifically help a person instead of just using our own understanding. Sometimes God uses something we would have never thought of or makes no sense to us.
3. Check your heart and see if there is someone you still have a crutch with and fix that relationship through reconciling.

Lets bring peace through the Prince of Peace into this world!!

Hey our friend

Wow the Christmas season is in full swing. Through being involved in many parts of the neighborhood we are part of or host about 10 Christmas parties. That will be a lot of celebration. Pray that all of our clothe will still fit with all that good food!! Last week we joined a local art walk which opened up the door to connect with many people out of the community. We also had a great brunch at our house which was like always wonderful. We love the little communities all those events created.

Thank you for praying for our health! Jen and I feel a lot better!! If you have some extra time this week join us in praying for people that have a hard time in this Christmas season. Just recently I ran into a person at the store who told me with sad eyes that she has no more family and no one left. There are many people out there that feel the same way. So lets pray for them and again we just want to encourage you to invite someone to your Christmas party!! You will make their Christmas time so much better!!

Enjoy this wonderful week and remember that you are a part of the family of God!

Markus and Jen

Over the last few years I was thinking about how Christmas is such a huge holiday with such a big meaning for us, but many times the focus is not really on the core of it. The focus is often on gifts, decorations, family time, warm feelings and good food. None of this is bad, but it is a side product and it is important to keep our focus on the true reason for Christmas, the birth of Jesus! Just think about it this way, you plan this amazing birthday party with great food and such a fun time. All the guests celebrate and have a wonderful time but not even one of them talked to you or wished you a happy birthday. How would that feel?

For the next 4 weeks we want to challenge all of us to bring the focus back on Jesus and also show others who He is in a non-conventional way.

Week 1: Start reading the Christmas story and start thinking about what it means to you personally. How did it affect your life when you became a follower of Jesus? Who was the person or what was the moment that led you to Him and how did it happen? Also start thinking about who in your neighborhood doesn’t have anywhere to go for Christmas and would love to have a family or a place to celebrate at. Maybe invite them to your Christmas celebration and show them just by inviting them the love of a loving father who wants them and that piece of the Christmas story! Also when you figured out who that person is, start praying for them too!!

Ok I think this is enough of a challenge for week 1!! Have a good start with it!!

Hey our friend

Thanksgiving went by and we had 14 people celebrating with us. We maxed out our apartment and ended up borrowing tables and chairs from a neighbor. But it was an amazing time. You can start joining us in Prayer for a house on this hill since we are really running out of space. It will definitely be a miracle since houses are hard to find and very expensive here. But guess what God is in the miracle business, just remember back how it looked impossible to get an apartment here and God provided for that! We want to challenge all of us to extend our faith and believe in a way that we need God to show up!

Jen and I got over a cold during the beginning of last week but we got better by the time the big Thanksgiving celebration came around.

Thank you for praying with us for people in our community as well as in yours!! Keep praying and asking God specifically how to pray!

Have a blessed week!

Markus and Jen