If you watched the super bowl this year, especially the commercials, you saw in a lot of them a strong theme of fatherhood. I also noticed that  being a father theme was also advertised on some billboards here in the city. Why is there such a focus on fathers in this season?

Because it reflects the need in our society. Over many years the role of fathers and family didn’t have a strong value in many parts of society. But many people are longing for good fathers and family.

So this actually opens up a great opportunity for us as the Body of Christ / church. The world is asking for fathers and community and we have the opportunity to give it. How? Lets get involved in the lives of the people around us. Let’s be friends with them and start investing in their lives. Let us invite them into our lives and show them how our father means it well with us. In the bible it talks many times about God the loving father. Let’s bring that loving father that that the world is looking and longing for to them.

Start this week to invest in a person in your school, workplace, neighbors etc.

http://youtu.be/Un6uP6cykgo

Hey our friend

We hope you had a wonderful week. Jen and I are on vacation this and next week. Please keep the ministry and North Beach in your Prayers while we are gone. Thank you for being part of our life.

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen

For the last 2 weeks we talked a lot about the planning part on how to get involved into your community, but this week it’s time to start!!

Now you have a plan and you are ready to go, but remember those few points:

• Making a difference can take time. Plan more for a marathon, not a sprint. Many people go into it with the expectation of immediate results which then can bring discouragement and quitting if the result doesn’t show up as expected. So go into it with the right expectations.
• Commitment and Passion. I heard it many times that people went into something because of passion. Don’t misunderstand me here, passion is really important, but passion without commitment doesn’t lead to success.  We all know that there will be days were we are not passionate and if we have those for a while we easily give up. I often saw how people started something but then gave up in the middle of it, just because the passion was not as strong anymore. But if you are committed you will make it through those times and see the light at the end of the tunnel!
• Keep following Gods heart in the process. How? Keep spending time with Him in Prayer and keep listening to how he is guiding you in your efforts. He will keep giving you courage and ideas on how to move forward.

Have a lot of fun while investing in your neighborhood!!

Hey our friend

We hope you had a wonderful week. During the last week we had times with our wonderful Pastor friend, moments of sharing with a visitor about the ministry and reconnecting with friends we meet through our game night who moved away. It is a blessing to be connected with people and see more and more community build. Join us in praying for people that don’t have a healthy community, that God will give them one and that all of us can give one as well.

During the last weekend we were blessed to celebrate the wedding of our friends Kevin and Lilia. I (Markus) felt really honored to be in the wedding as a groom’s man. We had a wonderful time.

Thank you for being a part of our life. We are blessed to know you!!

God bless you

Markus and Jen

During our time living here in North Beach we started to see what is needed in our community. One thing was safety. So we joined a neighborhood watch group to help our community to become more safe. Since that group started people started watching out for each other and it also gave us the opportunity to meet more of our neighbors through the meetings.

We also met up with different non profit organizations and checked with them how we can help out. Through that we got connected with youth work and work with the elderly. Both of them really needed help in the  work they are doing.

All of those opportunities took a little bit of research, but it was fairly simple to find out. During the first few months of the work here in north beach we walked every single street and prayed over it to see Gods heart for the area. It really helped us to get a clearer perspective on what is needed as well.

But how can you start in your community? Start by thinking about what your neighborhood needs and talk to people in your neighborhood to hear their input. After that, check in with local non profits, churches and other local places to see if they need help or hear from them what is needed. Start writing all the things down, so you can look at them later.

Get ready, now its time to get started with research!!

Hey our friend

We hope you had a wonderful week. Our week was very eventful with a game night, an encouragement group, a staff day and a bachelor party for our friend Kevin Tsui. At some of those events we saw again how important it is to find out what is needed in the community and then to bring it.

We are praying that God will give you a fantastic week with lots of moments of encouragement! Remember that you are amazing and loved!!

Markus and Jen

We live in one of the biggest tech cities in the world and we see daily new products and services coming out of it. Technology can be a blessing to us or a curse, it just depends how we use it. If we get stuck on Facebook or other tech related services and spend all of our off time on them, tech can become a curse to us. But on the other side Jen and I use Facebook to communicate with friends all over the world and also use it to share about what God is doing here in San Francisco and encourage others through it, then it is a blessing.

Last summer I (Markus) started an experiment in which I canceled my cell phone service. The reason I did it was to live in the opposite spirit of the city in which everyone is always on their cellphone and through that never totally present with the person that is right in front of them. When I started in August with it, I realized after a few months that I can still get all the work done but I am able to have deeper conversations with people without distractions. The other thing I started to do was setting times aside where I was working on or with technology, through that I was able to have better control over the times technology is used.

So you see technology can have a huge impact in our life and can take control of many areas. It’s the same as when Jesus talked about money and about how money in itself is not bad, but the love of it is the problem. The same is true for technology.

Ask yourself some of those questions:

What outcome does it have in the long run, when I start to use a certain new technology?
How is technology a blessing to you and how a curse?
How can you use technology to be a blessing to others?

Hey our friend

We hope you had a wonderful week. We had many moments of ministry during this week which was a real blessing. It is amazing to see how God uses little things to impact people deeply. Little words of encouragement, little gifts or little moments of your time. We want to encourage you to do something little daily for someone in your life.

Thank you for praying with us over this Easter time for people in San Francisco and the rest of the world to really get to know there loving father.

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen