How was the response to your cards? Were people surprised? Whatever the direct response was, you are bringing hope!

When you read through the gospels and follow the journey of Jesus you notice that he touched people either on the way to somewhere or by just asking them to join him in whatever he was doing. Through that everything he did came natural. He invited people into his life and they joined in. When he was preaching to the 5000 he didn’t plan this big event, people just tagged along when he was sharing and a big event came out of it.

So as an example. It’s a Thursday night and we have nothing planned. So we decide to go out for dinner, but instead of going alone we invite one of our wonderful neighbor friends to come with us. It was very spontaneous and it worked out. We had a wonderful night together talking and sharing a meal together. We wanted to eat out anyway but now we could bring someone along. At the end of the night we both said to each other how much that neighbor became like family to us.

Of course this is not just dinner but pretty much any activity you do. Instead of going by yourself invite your neighbor to join you. And this is not a onetime thing, make it into something that you just do. Also don’t be discouraged if people say no, sometimes our schedule is just busy, but invite them again!

Our challenge for you this week is to invite a neighbor to something you do!

Hey our friend

We hope you are doing great! Sometimes in life you meet neighbors that just become like family. That’s how Jen and I feel with many people that live around us. Its just wonderful!

Our week in San Francisco went well. I (Markus) was sharing at a church in Santa Cruz as well as at a business man meeting. It was an encouraging time. The rest of the week went really well with our Haeusser hangout themed for the celebration of Cinco the Mayo. It was a lot of fun. Those special holidays are just a great opportunity to connect!

Ask God daily this week how much He loves you and when you are filled with His love show it to others?

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen

Small things are so wonderful and so easy to do. How did it go for you in the last week? How could you bless people through little acts of kindness?

This week our blog is about how to make an encouragement card. Be inspired!

Hey our friend

How was your week? Hopefully great!! We had a good week in San Francisco. During the week we had our quarterly bay area meeting of all the YWAM Ministries from here. It was a wonderful time! Jen also had an art class with the kids at the boys and girls club. She made dog collars with them to hand out to neighbors and bless them through it!

How can you bless your community this week?

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen

We hope the testimonies encouraged you to step out in your community. This week its about Easter and how your testimony can encourage people.

This week will celebrate one of the most important holidays in Christian history, Easter. We all know the story of Easter and how Jesus came to open the door for reconciliation with the Father and to set us free from sin. Easter is celebrated widely in the church, but a lot of people outside of the church don’t even know about that deeper meaning of it. For many it’s a celebration of the Easter Bunny and finding gifts. But we forget about the greatest gift we get on Easter. But this is a great way to connect with people. Why don’t you invite someone over to your house for Easter for a meal with your family and share naturally during conversation why Easter is important to you.

We wanted to see the Son of God movie for Easter but instead of watching it alone we invited our neighbor friends to join us. It opened up great conversation and helped people to see Jesus in a new way and even understand Easter better. It’s simple, but it those simple things bring the love of Jesus to people because you invite someone in your life and in the same way through showing his love you show them the one who loves them even more. It doesn’t have to be a sermon, just share your story and what Jesus means to you.

1. Ask yourself why Jesus and your faith is important to you and how it changed your life.
2. Think this week who you could invite over for Easter dinner and then do it.

Hey our friend

We hope your week was wonderful!! Our week was great with a big birthday celebration of a friend and our wonderful times in the neighborhood it went by so fast. We also had our first session for our love your neighbor class at our church. It is exciting to see how the vision starts to spread. Our students took of for outreach to Italy and Greece and will work with refugees in those countries. Keep them in your Prayers.

We also want to wish you a blessed Easter time!! Remember He is risen and that is what our hope is built on!!

Have a wonderful blessed week!!

Markus and Jen

How did your encouragement time go during the last week? We hope great!! This week we want to write about how God takes care of us through community

From the beginning of the bible to the end we see how much God saw that need for community. It started with Adam and him being alone. Then God made Eve so Adam had a community and a helper to support each other. When we look at Jesus and his disciples we notice how they took care of each other. Each one of them had a role and through fulfilling that role everyone was helped as well. It made them able to function as a community and made them able to do all the things they were doing. You see that later on in Acts as well. The early church shared everything with each other and through that people thrived.

Jen and I have been in YWAM for a long time and every month God took care of us, and how did He do it? He did it through a community of people. Each one of them has a part in helping us to walk out what God called us to do. So God doesn’t just let money rain down from heaven, no he uses community to take care of us. The same is true for a job. It doesn’t matter if you run the business or if you are a worker in it. Whatever you do you need people to buy what you make and you also you need people that work together with you to make the thing happen. Again God is providing work through a community of people.

What about our neighbors? Again God wants to take care of them too through community. That is why Jesus said that the second greatest job is to love your neighbor as you love yourself. So God is calling us to be in community with our neighbors. He wants to take care of them through us. We are His hand and feet that bring change. So when we love our neighbor all those things are put in Action and change their lives and our lives. And then another thing happens, our neighbor starts loving us back and then we have a community.

1. So what is God Asking of you?
2. Who does he want to take care of through you and bring community?

Ask Him this week to show you how he took care of you through different communities and how he is using you to do the same!!

Hey our friend

We hope you had an amazing week!! We are still on our writing trip. We are getting back this Tuesday night. This coming Sunday we start teaching a 5 week class at our church to empower and encourage people to love there neighbors too. Please keep us in your prayers for this class as well pray for a good attendance.

Let 2017 be year were we all start loving our neighbors in a deeper way and in return being loved back by them!!

Have a wonderful week!!

Markus and Jen