Author Archives: Markus

Pray and Go

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pray and goA little while ago Jen got a sticker from her cousin with the words “you are beautiful”. Recently she remembered that sticker and she asked her cousin to send her a few more. Her plan was to give them out to women in the community and to encourage them through it. So one Wednesday all of us sat in the Park together with a friend ready to go and give out the Stickers. My job was to pray for them while they are out. Before they left we prayed and God gave our friend a picture, a word, a place and a specific person. So they all went to the location and found many women there. But one of them God pointed out to our friend. After walking up to that lady and sharing the word and picture she got, the lady starts to cry and share how that word really confirmed something she just asked God moments earlier and it also showed her that He is right at her side. The combination of sticker and the word from God made a huge impact in the life of that lady. And it was not something hard to do.

What about you and I and all of us Christians start doing that on a daily base, think about the impact it will leave! What about we pray and tell people something that God really wants to tell them, how impactful will that be in their life? I believe to change our communities and to bring the love of God and hope, each one of us has to step up and do their part!

  1. Pray and ask God to show you who to encourage and how
  2. Be bold and go for it and don’t be discouraged if you sometimes get it wrong. The effort alone often shows people how loved they are!

Hey our friend

Memorial Day BarbecueWe hope you had a wonderful week! Ours was great with many moments of bringing hope to people and to just love them. Our Barbecue for Memorial Day was awesome. We had 11 friends here at our house from our neighborhood. Its awesome to see how community can happen when you create a space for it! We also had a YWAM community night on Leadership and on Saturday some of the YWAM Staff went to Santa Cruz for a beach day. It was wonderful.

Start this week with asking God for specific encouragement for people and also for boldness to step out and share it!

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen

I am has a dream for you

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I am has a dream for youRecently the story of Joseph came up in our daily bible reading. One of the first things we hear about him is that God gave him dreams. Both dreams where about his family and how they would bow before him. If you think about that, it sounds in a way like a pretty prideful dream. But when you see it play out in the rest of the story you notice that it actually isn’t prideful. Through all the hard times Joseph walked through in the years before the dream became a reality, God used him to save many people. And all the way at the end of the story his whole family bows before him, in respect of the man who stood in front of them without even knowing that it is Joseph.

The same was also true for David. In his case it was not a dream but an anointing.  He was chosen as king many years before he actually became King. But God used the years in between to get him ready for this position. He waited in the process, but he knew where he was going.

When you look at more recent times you heard that really famous line “I have a dream” from Martin Luther King and how it changed society. He lived the dream God placed in his heart. It empowered many people to get better education and to live a different life.

God has dreams and visions for each one of us. When I look back to the times when he spoke to me about San Francisco and later about the things we are doing now I thought it is not possible. But now looking at it and seeing that most of it already became reality is giving me courage and encourages me.

We want to encourage you to ask God to speak to you about vision for your life. You might be living it right now, or you might still be looking for it, but He has a vision for you. It could be for certain people, a place etc. You living that dream or vision will change the world forever!

Hey our friend

We had a great week here in San Francisco. We had a lot of office work to catch up on and lots of people time. It was wonderful to have my brother visit from Germany. We had a great time with him as well. We also had a Pastor family who are friends from Pennsylvania here for a visit to see what we are doing here. Its awesome to see how God gives us open doors daily to encourage people and to love on them. All we have to do is choosing and doing it.

Pray this week and ask God for a vision or a dream for your life!

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen

Life or death what do you choose?

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The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. Proverbs 12.18

life or deathA few years ago I got into a random conversation with a stranger, which then ended up being a conversation of hope. I was able to speak hope into the life of this person in a moment of deep despair. 2 Years later I randomly saw this person again and this is what they said: “The words you spoke to me kept going around my mind and encouraged me and helped me to keep moving forward till today and they are still in my memory.” What we say really affects people.

Many times words are said way too easy without thinking of what consequences it would have. But then often words that should be said are not ever said. I think one of the challenges in today’s society is how we talk about others. What words are we using when we talk to and about people in our life? That counts for any person, church, place etc. we talk about or with. One thing that is really key, is for us as Christians to model how we talk with and about others. Are our words uplifting? Are they building the person up that we talk to? Or are they bringing the person down and giving them a wrong perspective of who they truly are?

Let us spend time this week to honestly evaluate our words and see where we need to improve. Let us live like Paul says in Ephesians 4.29: Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

Hey our friend

We hope you had a super wonderful week. Last week my brother visited us from Germany which was a huge blessing. It always so good to see family. We were able to go with him to a wedding in Seattle which was a lot of fun. Remember this week your family and reach out to them.

Walk through this week evaluating your words and if needed improve them so they bring life!

May God bless you

Markus and Jen

The danger of Comparison

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“Comparison is the thief of joy” Theodore Roosevelt

the danger of comparison“My youth group is smaller than the youth group in this other church. I’m worried people in my church start looking at me as a failure.” I heard this sentence or similar ones many times during my years of working with youth Pastors in YWAM. And often it was true, the other church really had a bigger youth group. But are numbers the indicator of success? Many times I noticed that those smaller groups were actually way more connected and often more in love with Jesus then the bigger ones. But again this is not always true either.

One of the big lies the enemy tells us that we have to compare ourselves to others to see our value and our place in life. But reality is when we do that we will always fall short. There will always be someone that is better than us in a specific area. But the reality is, God made each one of us unique, so comparing ourselves takes away the impression God wants to bring to this world through us. We try to become someone we are not. We idolize somebody else because we think they have it more together then us. But when we live the way God made us to be without comparing ourselves to others we actually live a life of more freedom. Not just that we model something to others, but we also give them the freedom to be who they are. I remember a long time ago I was spontaneously dancing with a friend who didn’t like to dance, and when I dance I don’t really care what people think and just have fun. When I did that she was able to do the same and since that moment she loves dancing without fear. Not just that I was totally myself in that moment, but through that I helped her to become totally herself.

I want to challenge and encourage us to take an honest look at our lives and see where we compare ourselves to others. After we know the area we need to ask God to show us how he made us to be and then start living in that.

Hey our friend

We hope you had a super wonderful week. With many different events the week flew by so fast. On the 12th we celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary which was really awesome!! Marriage is such a wonderful thing! Jen also helped this week to plan our YWAM summer Staff retreat which will be awesome. It is exciting to see what God is doing here in the city and how he brings hope to different people just through being in there life. Make sure to be a friend to your neighbors. You will be blessed!!

Don’t forget this week to not compare yourself.

May God bless you

Markus and Jen

Hope and patience

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But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. Romans 8.25

hopeWe live in a society where everything needs to be instant. We want things we order being delivered in the least amount of time, projects we work on need to be done quickly and companies need to be worth billions in a few years. But reality often looks very different. Many times it takes years of patience and not giving up reaching the goal. Often it is not the instant gratification, but it is the hope that keeps us moving forward.

It is the same in your community. You will not bring change if you are not willing to be patient and to stay. If you want to build true relationships and earn the right to share about your faith or anything else you need to be patient. Our community needs to see our faith in action and not just hear us talk about it. But again this requires patience and also hope. Are we hoping that our communities are changed and are we having patience to wait?

I want to challenge us to let God give us a vision for our communities that is greater than us and then to have hope for it to happen. And if you already have a vision stay on track with patience. Don’t give up hope even if things don’t look great. Keep moving forward. Let me remind you God didn’t part the red sea before Moses arrived, He did tell him what to do when he was there!

Hey our friend

We hope you had a fantastic week. What’s new in your life? Last week we shared with a small group about how to be more involved in their community. It was awesome to see how many people got encouraged and challenged through it. On Friday we had a Cinco the Mayo themed game night with neighbors and friends. It was as well a wonderful time. Its amazing to see what can happen when you create a space for community.

We want to encourage you this week to remember to live in patience with an hopeful expectation.

May God bless you

Markus and Jen