Hey our friend

We hope you had a great week. Send us on update on how you are doing and how we can pray for you.

We had lots of great things going on here in San Francisco. We had a great meeting with our small group and a wonderful time with our encouragment group. We had a new person come which was awesome. Please pray with us for more people to come to connect with each other. We also had a neighborhood exploration tour with 20 Pastors from the city in which a Pastor shared with us about how he reaches the people in his community. It was an encouraging networking time. Thanks for all your prayers and financial support. You are a blessing in our life!!

You make, all things, work together for my good

During my week I try to have times of worship. Sometimes I just put worship songs on and just worship God. The other day God just started to speak to me through the lyrics of the Jesus Culture song your love never fails. I felt a bit overwhelmed with the amount of work that was ahead of me and all things that were going on with the ministry (mainly good things). So when the song started playing I let the lines sink in and started to feel encouraged.

It spoke about different stories in the bible to me like the prodigal son (Luke 15.11-32) in this part:

Nothing can separate, Even if I ran away,
Your love never fails.
I know I still make mistakes.
But You have new mercies for me every day.
Your love never fails.

God always has his arms open to run back into. Even if we fail at times Gods love doesn’t change or fail. He still loves us the same. He is still the same loving father.

Then it goes to the Chorus:

You stay the same through the ages. Your love never changes.
There may be pain in the night but joy comes in the morning.
And when the oceans rage, I don’t have to be afraid.
Because I know that You love me

It is amazing how it reminds us of the consistency of God and how it will never change. That is a great reminder for every person that struggles with transition. God will be the same. And then the next part about how pain can happen or how we can be in hard seasons, but we still have to remember that there is an end to that as well and that we can have joy again. Gods love never changes. It reminded me of the story where Jesus slept in the boat in the middle of a huge storm (Matthew 8.23-27). But it was OK for Him since He knew the whole time that His father had everything in His hands.

This was just the first part of the song but can you see how rich it is and how it can encourage you in such a deep way. When you look at the Psalms in the bible you see the same thing. Songs written to worship God, connect with Him and to challenge or encourage the reader or singer of them. So if you go through a hard time or when life is great get some encouragement by worshiping God through worship songs or Hyms or by reading out the Psalms. Next time you are in church focus on the lyrics and see how God wants to encourage you.

We wish you a blessed week with the final line of the Song.

You make, all things, work together for my good.

Markus and Jen

Hey our friend

We had a good week here in San Francisco. We started a new work at the coffee shop, an encouragement group. The first time we were able to encourage a total stranger and help her to see more hope in her life. Please pray with us for more people to come that need encouragement.

We also got invited to the fundraiser for the boys and girls club with all of our students. It was an amazing time.

Soon we will send out our Newsletter which will share a bit more about our last few months. If you haven’t gotten our newsletter in the past, but you would like to get it, sign up here under this link. Be encouraged while reading!

Staying true to your faith even in danger

We all heard the story of Daniel in the lion dent in the book of Daniel chapter 6. It was told many times in Sunday school. The focus was always on the fact how God saved Daniel from the lions. But there was something else that stuck out to me when I read it recently, the part of how the people set him a trap and made the King sign a law which made it illegal to pray to anyone else then the King. What did Daniel do after he heard about that law?

But when Daniel learned that the law had been signed, he went home and knelt down as usual in his upstairs room, with its windows open toward Jerusalem. He prayed three times a day, just as he had always done, giving thanks to his God. Daniel 6:10 NLT

Daniel knew the God he was serving and had a deep relationship with him.

In times of trouble and danger he knew where he could find help. But not only that Daniel never walked away from his faith even it would mean death. He stood strong. But through that god was able to even strengthen his faith more with showing up to protect him from the lions. I think sometimes it is so easy to take the easy way out of situations and compromise our faith. But through that we are actually robbing ourselves from experiencing gods love in a new way and especially growing deeper in our relationship with him. I believe we should all ask ourselves daily the question: Do I live my faith in a way that it can really cost me something?  Where is my relationship with Jesus at and do I know and believe that true love he has for me? The only way we would do something like Daniel is if we truly know and believe that whatever happens we are in the loving arms of our father. Spend time with your daddy in heaven this week and fall more in love with him.

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen

Hey friend

We hope you had an amazing week. Ours was wonderful. We could take a part in a book release in our neighborhood and through that connect with more people in the neighborhood. We also did our Prayer time in the Park. Every Tuesday we pray over the park in our neighborhood and invite Gods presence which encourages and brings transformation into the lives of people. Do the same and pray over local parks and Playgrounds in your area and invite God to bring transformation.

Loving Him and receiving His love brings truth

When you look at different race drivers you notice that the main goal in their life is to win. They are almost addicted to winning. Some drivers literally need to prove every race, that they are the best, otherwise they don’t feel being good enough. This feeling of having to proof something and not being good enough translates into many other areas as well, not just racing. It can be business or friendship or pretty much every area of our life. But where does that come from? I think there are different roots to this issue like people not being affirmed by their parents in who they are.

But many times that issue is connected to a deep believe of being not good enough. Many times people try to proof that they are good enough by showing it with their success. But the truth is we will never be able to satisfy this feeling in us. If you look at the most highly successful people, they are still not satisfied; they are still striving for more to bring that proof.

The only way to deal with this issue is to start believing that we are truly loved not because of what we do just because of who we are. God is the only one that can bring a total satisfaction in that area. But how do we get to a place in our life that we can have that?

We have to be desperate for God and make Him the number 1 priority in our life. How does that look like?
First we need to set your priorities right. As an example if you have only a few minutes of time set aside per day, to spend time with God, you need to change that. Your relationship with Him is the most important thing in your life.
Second we need to wait for Him. When you look at the Psalm writers and how often they talked about on waiting for God you see the importance in it. Are you willing to wait for Him till you fall deeply in love with Him? It is important to wait. I believe in waiting we are showing God that we truly care about Him. If you are going on a date with your significant other, you would be willing to wait for them even If it takes time and the reason is because you love them. This is not about God playing with you; this is God seeing how desperately you really want Him.
Third spend time in His presence. When you are waiting for Him and you start feeling His love, spend time. His love will transform you. You will get a deeper understanding and knowledge of the fact that you are loved but you also will fall deeper in love with Him. As more you fall in love with Him, as more your value system will change.

As more you love Him as higher you start putting Him on your priority list.

I know that all of this can be a challenge since time is one of our most valuable things in today’s time. But I promise you that it will be worthied. Use this time of lent to focus on the love God has brought to you by sacrificing His son and make Him your number 1 priority.

Your friends

Markus and Jen

Hey friend

We had a great week in San Francisco. We were able to have people over for hospitality and were able to encourage them. We also host a small group at our house to help people to achieve goals that God put on there heart. Moving forward in our faith is often easier if we have others that encourage, pray with and stand with us in our growth to move forward. We want to encourage you to find a small group at your church which helps you to grow.

We also celebrated the birthday of our new Staff George and the graduation of our Fall DTS Students. They did such an amazing job with helping out in North Beach. Pray for them while they transition into a different kind of mission and that God will remind them of the tools they learned on reaching out to others to do so in there community.

Declare truth

John 1.1-3

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.

A little while ago we found out that California is going through a drought season since over the last years we never had enough rain. It’s a pretty serious things since a lot of food is growing here. So a little while ago, God put on the heart of a friend of mine to read a Psalm before the offering. The Psalm didn’t fit in any way to the offering, but at the end it talks about rain and how the writer asks God for it. So God put on the heart of my friend to make a declaration for rain. The next day it started to pour down rain against all weather forecasts.

Now we can say it was just a coincidence, but I don’t believe it was. I believe that the words God put in our hearts and that we speak out have power. If you think about the bible verse above you see that everything was made by the word. God spoke things out and they happened. The Prophets spoke out things and they happened. Jesus spoke out things and they happened. They apostles spoke out things and they happened. I think you get what I’m trying to say. Just think about this: you tell yourself every day that you are useless and some people make comments in the same direction you start believing it. So your words that you speak have power to shape you negatively. The same is true if you keep speaking out the promises God gave you or speaking out the truth about yourself. Look at the ministry we are doing. For a while we didn’t see many results, but we kept speaking out the Promise God gave us and kept believing. Now we see it more and more come through.

We need to declare truth over ourselves. Declaring truth forms beliefs and beliefs start to change us.

If we have doubt, we don’t believe what god says about us, or if we have a calling and don’t believe it we have to keep declaring truth about the situation. I want to challenge you to declare truth over your life this week. Speak the truth over your circumstances. As an example you have a hard time believing that you are loveable, speak out the truth that you are Gods beloved. If you feel you are an evangelist but you are afraid of speaking, start declaring over yourselves that you are a speaker and that your words make a difference. Start this week to declare truth. God sees you so valuable and has a great plan for your life. Start believing it by declaring it daily.

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen

Hey friend

We hope you had a wonderful week. Our week in San Francisco was awesome. We had great opportunities to move forward with the ministry and see the lives of people being transformed. We see every day again and again how God cares about His children, and we are called to do the same. When we do that it transforms people and we have many testimonies of that.

We also had a ministry evaluation meeting with all the bay area ministries. It was an encouraging time.

God cares about the things we care about

One of my (Markus) big dreams was to race with someone on a racetrack. That is not the most spiritual thing, but it is something that really brings me joy. So a while ago I became friends with someone through sharing about the ministry who really loves cars. The other day he called me and said Markus we are going on the track to race. You can’t believe how much joy that brought to me. I loved going fast over the track. It was just amazing. This event made me think about how much God actually loves us. He knew how much I love fast things. So while being in His calling and doing the work He called me to do He opens the door to fulfill a dream of mine. It was nothing that would change the world, but it was Gods way of saying Son I love you.

God cares about the things we care about.

Jesus talks in Luke 11.11-13 about how a father would not give his child a snake if the child asks for a fish. God really cares about each one of us. But how deep in our core do we believe this truth? In which areas do we believe it? Do we only believe it for so called spiritual things or do we believe it for every area of our life? A good father doesn’t put conditions on the love for His children. God will never put conditions on the love he has for you. True love doesn’t have conditions. Even if you don’t follow Him he loves you. I’m sure it is breaking his heart to see how one of his children is walking away from the best he has for it. But he will never stop loving this child. It is a radical love. I’m not saying that life will never throw a curveball at you, and that things cant be hard, but in all of it God will always love you.

Remember this week that God has good things in store for you.

With that have a blessed week

Markus and Jen

P.s. Here is a video of 1 lap on the racetrack. And another great story, God enabled me to pray and bring hope to 2 people during the day at the track. He can use us anywhere.