Monthly Archives: November 2016

A 4 week Christmas challenge Week 1

4-week-christmas-challenge-week-1Over 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

 

Thank you

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things. Philippians 4.8

thank-youEach year this special holiday comes around which in its name encourages us to be thankful. It is so easy to look at things in our life or the world that would make us upset and makes us ungrateful. But when you are ungrateful it can really affect your life in a negative way. In the moment you focus on the bad things in your life it starts to affect every part of you. But the opposite is true as well. When you look at the good in life and start being thankful for it, it affects you in a positive way. When you look at the verse above in Philippians it gives you a guide on what you should put your focus on.

I remember a time in our life where we started every day by saying 5 things we are thankful for. It was amazing to look at it and see how it affected my attitude and the way we looked at things. It was little things like being thankful for the parrots that are really loud and joyful in front of our window or that we are able to worship God freely. Thankfulness did not just affect us, it affected other people in our life as well. When we saw people they noticed that we were happier and in a way that was contagious and helped them to be happier too. As well it opened the door to share about how thankfulness can really change you.

SO we want to encourage you to make a change in your life in this thanksgiving week!

  1. Find 5 things daily in your life that you are thankful for and speak them out.
  2. Say thank you to someone that did not expect it maybe in a store or restaurant or at work?
  3. Start to focus more on things like it says in Philippians 4. Instead of reading just negative news, read things on what god is doing in this world.

Remember this week He is faithful like no one else ever will be and that is a huge reason to be thankful!!

Hey our friend

Thanksgiving week is here!!  Have you thought about inviting someone who doesn’t have family to go to, to your Thanksgiving Celebration? Maybe one of your neighbors?

We had a wonderful week in San Francisco. We hosted a small group at our house which was a lot of fun. It was all about spending time in God’s presence. On Saturday we were invited to a bingo event at the boys and girls club which was a great way to connect with more people from our neighborhood! It is actually a really great way to meet people in your community by going to events that are hosted in your area like police meetings or fairs etc.

Pray this week with us for increased thankfulness in our and your own lives as well as the lives of people that are connected with you and us! Also pray that each person will have a place to go for thanksgiving and let us be the family that open our homes to people that don’t have a chance to go home or might not even have a family or place to call home.

Happy Thanksgiving week!

Markus and Jen

Inspire

inspireOne thing about Jesus that fascinates me is how He inspired people. He healed people and His disciples got excited about that. He walked on the water and Peter starts to walk on the water. He preached to the people the good news and the disciples later on did the same thing. What is it about the fact that people tend to step out more if they see others do it? They feel inspired and their faith gets a boost.

When we started doing our neighbor brunch we invited many different neighbors that became friends over time. Recently one of them said that they would love to host a brunch at their house and then another one said the same thing. They saw that it isn’t too hard to host and how wonderful it is to connect through it with others. Now instead of having one brunch location we have 3 places that could potentially host it. If we coordinate it right we could have brunch 3 Saturdays out of the month were neighbors could connect and build relationship. But again it started by people seeing it, being inspired and getting excited to do it themselves.

You see it’s easy to do, and now it’s your turn! Get started with something easy that brings your neighbors together and then inspire them to do the same.

Ask yourself this question:

  1. What things can I do that would bring my neighbors easy together? (Game nights, brunches, barbecue, themed dinners or just have them over)
  2. Plan it and keep the focus on simple. Don’t cook a 5 course meal, make something everyone can make.
  3. After you run a few events Inspire neighbors and encourage them that its easy and that they can do it too!
  4. Make sure to pray for everyone who comes before they come and after they leave and then watch how your community starts to change!

sunrise-on-our-hill

Hey our friend

Wow less than 2 weeks and Thanksgiving is here. Time flies so fast.  Have you thought about inviting someone who doesn’t have family to go to, to your turkey feast. Maybe a neighbor?

Our week in San Francisco was a good one. Our weather is a bit off right now and we still have some kind of summer temperatures which is really not a bad thing! Last week we also had a YWAM Fundraiser which we helped a bit to get ready for as well a day of Prayer for the different ministries. Of course all the other things were going on too.

This week we really want to encourage you to pray with us to pray for healing over relationships that were hurt during this election. Pray that forgiveness will be spoken and healing can happen! Thank you for praying with us!!

Have a blessed week!

Markus and Jen

 

Love one another

34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13.34-35

love-one-anotherDuring the last week we had a big event going on in San Francisco called “Love SF”. It was a powerful week with 24.7 worship and Prayer for 8 days combined with outreaches all over town. For that event many churches from the city as well from other places in the US worked together. It was amazing to see how much love was shown to each other and I don’t even know about the impact it made on the city.

When you read the statement Jesus made you notice the need of us to live that way. People will not know us by the things we do or the miracles god does through us, no they will know us through the love for each other. This is what the world is longing for being a part of a community that truly loves each other. But how can we become more like that? Here are a few ideas on that!

  1. We have to look at the things that unite us and not the things that separate us
  2. We have to be quick in forgiving each other and help each other to grow
  3. Let’s speak live and encouragement into each other even if we don’t feel like it.
  4. Let’s do things together so we grow closer together. As an example let’s do a city wide event together with all the churches instead of each one doing their own thing.

Let us change our cities together with the love of God

Hey our friend

We hope you do well!! Last week we had a celebration for Reformation day at our place. We watched the movie Luther and all of us got really inspired by him. His little action changed the world forever. What is the little action God calls you to do? We also had many Prayer events going on with Love SF this week as well as dinners with our neighbor friends. It was a really good week.

Join us in Praying for unity in the Body of Christ to see our world changed and bring greater hope! Thank you for praying with us! You are a huge blessing!!

Have a blessed week!

Markus and Jen