Author Archives: Markus

Are you using the influence given to You

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Hey our friend

Last week was one of those weeks were you just say at the end Thank you God for being so amazing. Jen and I were teaching our Mission Adventure students last week on the topic all in and all out. We talked about relationship with God and how important it is to share it with others. It was awesome to see how God used those times to challenge and encourage the students. On the last day we had them nail all the things on a cross that were holding them away from how god sees them and as well how he wants to use them, like fear, low self-esteem etc. God brought some new freedom to the students, which is amazing. And then God ministered to all the YWAM Staff as well. We had a team from Bethel in Redding here that prayed over each of the staff. Jen and I felt so encouraged and re strengthened. Our father always knows exactly what we need. We also saw one of the people we work with taking one more step towards Jesus which is amazing. Please keep us in your prayers in this week. Your prayers mean a lot to us. Thank you!!

Are you using the influence given to You

I think many times we are asking God for more influence and greater things. But the question should be, God am I using the influence you have given me to the fullest? God all placed us in places of influence. Let me give you an example. Every time I go to the downtown location of YWAM we walk through 5 different neighborhoods. Every time I walk through I start praying and asking God to fill those places with his presence and to touch people with his love. When I see a cop car I usually pray for safety over those officers and also pray for honesty. When we do ministry in the coffee shop we pray for God’s presence over the coffee shop, the same with all the other places we do ministry at. We also pray every morning for the people that live in our building and the neighbors around us. One of the giftings God gave me is encouragement, so I use it to encourage people all over the place. It can be on Facebook, busses, while walking to a place. I still feel that I’m just at the beginning and that there is so much more God has given me influence in. Bu it’s a start.  I want to encourage you to pray and use the influence God has given you for his Glory. Ask Him how to use the giftings he gave you on a daily base. It will change places and will bring more of Gods Kingdom to this earth.

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen

How to get more patient?

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Hey our friend

During the last week we could see again and again the faithfulness of our father and how he has great things for us even in little things. Every time we fly to a place we get a free flight snack like cookies. I (Markus) really love those cookies. When Jen came back from the funeral of her grandpa she asked the steward if he could give her one of the cookies for her husband. He ended up giving her 3 big packages with those cookies. So instead of a little blessing God just went over the top. But that is the way God cares for us. He wants to bless us just because He loves us, but we have to let Him. That is true for every part of our life. I think just looking at ministry and people we can see the biggest breakthrough in people that are willing to let God work in their lives. I saw that in children, adults, homeless, rich, middle class or every part of society.  So it depends on us and how much more we want of God, not on Him, because He already gave everything. Please pray this Prayer with us. Father we pray that you give us, our families, friends, acquaintances and people we minister to a deeper hunger for you so that they can experience relationship with you, your love and blessings in a deeper way. Amen

How can we get more patience?

Jen and I have been doing ministry for over 10 years and one of the most important things we needed in that time is patience. Many times when you work with people things are not going as fast or as planned. But does that mean things are not going at all? No not at all. God is working in those times. So if we want to grow in patience we need to look at the one who is in charge. If we look at circumstances it is sometimes easy to lose patience. Paul wrote to the Corinthians that love is patient, so that means to be more patient we need to have more of Gods love in our life. How can we be more filled with His love? By spending time with Him and also asking Him to give us more of His love so we can love more in true love. But to change our way on how to respond to impatience in our life is not necessarily a quick process; it is taking time to re teach ourselves. It takes us years to learn a habbit, so be patient in the process of re learning.  But as more we practice love in our everyday life as more patience we get as well. We start seeing things out of Gods perspective and who could be a better teacher then Him.  Graham Cooke said it really well:
“…You don’t learn patience in a weekend. You don’t learn patience by being focused on your circumstances. You learn patience by being focused on God in your circumstances.”

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen

What riches hold you back?

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Hey our friend

2013-03-26 17.09.23Wow Easter week went by quickly. I (Markus) ended up getting sick with a cold after Jen was sick over the last weekend.  Also Jen went to Pennsylvania for the funeral of Grandpa. Our DTS Students also left for Outreach. Please keep them in your prayers for safe travel and great opportunities to bring the gospel to Italy and Greece. Also keep praying for more relationships into the community here as well as more staff to work with us in North Beach.

What riches hold you back

During the last few years I ministered to many people that most of us would consider rich. Some of them are. I was thinking about the story of Jesus and the rich man and how he asks him how to get to heaven. Jesus told him to sell everything and follow him. After that the rich man left and Jesus was sad. I think many times it is so easy to look at this parable with the attitude of saying that being rich and having money is a bad thing. But I tell you the message in this is not just geared towards money, its geared to everything that keeps us away from God. Are you willing to give him everything? What if He asks you tomorrow to quit your job and with that give up your retirement and health benefits; would you do it? Would you trust him to take those steps? I believe that every single area in our life were we don’t trust God is that area that Jesus called out in the rich man. And all of us have those areas in our life, so the goal is to submit more and more of those to Jesus and trust him. When I went into fulltime ministry I gave up a job and my career to go to a place where I didn’t speak the language and didn’t have the resources for. God taught me in that time a valuable lesson, trust me no matter what, I will take care of you. Jen and I both have been in missions for over 10 years and God took care of us every single month. It teaches you humility and also strengthens your faith. Our father is faithfull and he wants to be a part of every area of our life. So what are the areas you are holding on to? Find those areas and then start to give them to God. It will take you some time but keep doing it and trust me you will start to feel more freedom. If we don’t have to be in control but let the one that knows the absolute best take control we will be less stressed.

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen

 

P.s. San Francisco, besides Manhattan, is the most expensive city in the nation to live in. However, we believe God has called us to be missionaries in the urban world. Currently we are in need of $2,100 more a month to cover life and ministry costs. During the last few month God helped us by providing some wonderful new monthly supporters. We are now $1000 closer to the amount we need monthly!!  We’d like to offer you an opportunity to join us in engaging a city with a loving God.

This is what we are looking for

4 people that commit to give $200 a month
5 people that commit to give $100 a month
8 people that commit to give $50 a month
8 people that commit to give $25 a month
20 people that commit to give $10 a month

Or you can support us with any amount you would like. This could be monthly or as a one-time gift.  Anything helps. Under this link you can find all the info on how to support us.

 

Easter the time to get rid of fear

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Hey friend

Only a few more days till Easter. This year went by fast again. That is another reason why we have to live our life daily intentional. During the last week we had great conversations with people at the coffee shop. It is always exciting to see God bring change and new revelations to people. We also went to a big community discussion about concerts at the America cup. During that time we were able to see old faces again and connect with a few new ones. God also gave us the opportunity to encourage one of the main organizers for the America Cup.

The last week also had a sad moment with Jen’s last grandpa passing away. She will fly Thursday to Pennsylvania to attend the funeral. Please pray for her and her family in this season of grieve.

Easter the time to get rid of fear

We are only a few days away from Easter the greatest day of victory. But when we look at the days before Easter we don’t see that much victory. Actually we see more fear than anything else. The disciples ran away from Jesus because out of fear. Another disciple even denied Jesus because the fear for his life crippled him. Even Jesus was fearful and asking His father for another way out. What happened? Jesus started to carry all the fear and all evil things mankind did, do and will do on his shoulders. That is a pretty heavy burden. But what did Jesus do in this time of fear, he looked at His Father and not at the circumstances. He knew exactly what would happen, but he also knew His Dad held Him in his hand. Many times it is easy to look at circumstances and become fearful. Look at the disciples as an example. Instead of listening to what Jesus said about him resurrecting after 3 days and believe it in faith they choose to look at the circumstances and live in fear to save their lives. I’m sure most of us would have done the same thing. So what is the solution? When fear comes up in your life, instead of letting it sink in, spend time with God and let Him meet you in that area. Ask Him for an increase of your faith because faith gives you Gods perspective. Also meditate on who God is and remind yourself of the times He came through in your life. And don’t forget, He overcame it all!! That is the good news of Easter.

Have a blessed Easter week

Markus and Jen

He wants alone time with you

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Hey friend

Wow we just had an eventful week here in San Francisco. We had some great times of encouragement and prayer with one of the guys we help at the coffee shop. Praise God. Then last Friday we had the YWAM Community night which was an amazing time with over 100 people. The message was how to fight violence in the hood and bring true hope to the Kids there. Watch it on Markus and Jen News TV and be challenged. Last Saturday we got invited to the Fundraiser for the boys and girls club. Jen and I had a wonderful time with great people, food and dancing. It was encouraging to hear how God is changing lives through the work that is done in the Club. Keep us in your prayers while we do work with the kids in the club. On this link you find some pictures from that event. Oh and we also send out our most recent newsletter last week. Make sure to sign up here to always get the newest one!!

This week Bethany is joining us again on Staff in North beach which is exciting and we also have a girl from Germany join us for a 5 month internship which will be partially in North Beach. Yeah. Please pray for both of them to transition in well.

He wants alone time with you

We are only a short time away from Easter. One thing that always makes me think in that time is the fact that in the week before Jesus got crucified all the people celebrated Jesus and a week after the same people screamed out of their lungs crucify him. One thing that really struck me with that is the fact of relationship. Those people obviously didn’t truly know who Jesus is and what he is about, or they would have never turned on him. But how could they? They didn’t have a true relationship with him. They only knew what he was saying but didn’t truly know him.

If you think about a relationship between a husband and a wife you notice something as well: For them to grow closer together and fall more in love with each other they need times alone with each other. If they would always spend all their time with other people and not invest in each other they would eventually notice that there relationship isn’t as strong as it used to be.

Now translate that to your relationship with God. We need the same thing with him. It’s important to have the corporate times with him and others, but he also longs for the one and one times with us. Some things that are really important for those times are that you put your full attention into that time. That means no phone calls, texts, Facebook updates or any other distraction that takes away from that time. You would not like those things either when you are on a date with your husband or wife and they also hinder from truly getting to know someone. Then just spent regularly some quality time in Prayer with Him and also studying His word.  Set a time aside on a daily base that is your Jesus time. You will see that over time you will become closer and closer with Him. You know it might be awkward at the beginning and you might not know how to fill your time, but after a while you will notice that you don’t have enough time. Also In the example of Jesus we can see that we can’t afford not to have a close relationship with Him. What if the whole world turns against you, what do you hold on to? We want to encourage you to spend alone time with Him to really grow closer.

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen