Category Archives: Love your Neighbor

Love your Neighbor – Find ways to help!

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Love your neighbor find ways to helpLast week we wrote about giftings and how important it is to use them. Today we want to talk about ways to help.

When we look at Jesus we always see how he helped others. It might have been through dinner for a huge crowd or washing the feet of the disciples. Jesus was always about helping others and he always meets a need that was there.

But how can we help our neighbors or our neighborhood? The first thing we have to do is find out what is actually needed. One of the things in our area is dogs. We have more dogs here than children. Many people have dogs and also full-time jobs. So if you are a stay home neighbor you could offer your neighbor to take their dog for a walk during the day. Another one is a cleanup project. A few years ago our DTS students helped to clean up trash from the side of the streets. It’s a great way to help the area, but also you get to meet your neighbors in a positive way.

Help does not always look the same. Spend some time pondering on those questions.

  1. Find out how you can help and also what is needed.
  2. Set a goal and a time by when you want to do it.
  3. Start doing it, and involve your family and neighbors too if possible!

Hey our friend

We hope you had a great week. We finally had some sunshine again which is amazing!! We had so many great times with our neighbors this week. A paella night, A Louisiana gumbo night and then we had a game night at our house. When you spend time together you get to know each other and for us and our neighbor friends that is a total blessing.  Find a night in your week to have some time with your neighbors.

Remember this week that you are amazing and loved by Father God!

Markus and Jen

Love your Neighbor – Use your giftings

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Love your neighbor use your giftingsLast week we talked about things that can hold us back.  This week we want to write about how we can use the gifts that we have to bless our neighbors.

Jesus as the son of God could have walked the earth and let everybody do everything for him, but he didn’t. He served people through his whole life. If it was through healing (The blind man who wanted to see gets healed John 9), conversations (Talking to Nicodemus at night John 3), encouragement (encouraging Mary that she has value by standing for her when they tried to stone her John 8), prophetic words (sharing with Peter about the rooster Matthew 26.34 but also about how he builds his church on him Matthew 16.18) etc. These are just a few examples of how he used the gifting’s he had. He was always generous with all of them and used each one of them with people around Him.

Each one of us has gifts that God has given us. But now the question is, are we hoarding them or are we using them to make an impact in our neighborhood? As an example: I have the gift of encouragement so one of the things I do is encouraging neighbors and people around me. I remember many stories of how people kept feeling encouraged for a long time from just a little word. You could be a good listener and you could bless people through that. Or you could be a baker and bless neighbors through some home-baked specialties. There are so many giftings that people have and it would take books to write them all down, but the point is to use them in your neighborhood!

Do the following this week:

  1. Find out what giftings you have.
    1. Pray and Ask God to show you some of the giftings he placed in you.
    2. Assess the things you are good in and like to do.
    3. Ask your close friends to tell you what giftings they see in you.
  2. Think about ways how you can use them to bless your neighbors and people around you.
  3. Start doing it by the end of the week and then keep doing it

Hey our friend

Rain in San FranciscoWe hope you had a fantastic week. We are still in a rainy season in San Francisco and let me tell you it rains a lot as you can see a bit on the picture out of our window! But besides the rain, we had lots of dinners and events with people from the community. Just to tell you about a few: a German brunch, a dinner with a friend from a coffee shop, a Community night at YWAM. It was wonderful to be a part of all of those.

One thing that really encouraged me in the last week was the super bowl. Neither Jen nor I are really into sports, but this game was inspiring. One of the teams was at one point 25 points behind and everyone was saying that no team ever came back from being behind 10 points so it sounded impossible. But then the team didn’t give up and kept playing the game and guess what, they ended up winning. So no matter how things look like or what people say, don’t give up!! Nothing is impossible with God!!

We want to wish you a blessed week and remember God is on our side!!

Markus and Jen

Love your Neighbor – What holds you back?

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Love your neighbor what holds you backLast week we talked about the importance of being outside and how it helps you to connect. This week we want to talk about a few things that can hold us back.

Jesus had many opportunities to be hold back in his ministry, the reason he wasn’t was his focus. He knew what the father told him and does tell him every day. He says really clear that he does nothing what he doesn’t see his father do. So that helped him not to be sidetracked. He could have done more since he did not reach every single need that was around, but he didn’t, because he knew what the father had called him to do!

All of us have our priorities off at times in our life. That probably happened to each one of us and that is the reason why we have to assess from time to time to see how we are moving towards the goal. One of the big things I heard from many friends is that they don’t have the time to reach out to their neighbor. Work and activities takes up all of their time. Yes that can easily happen with the overload of stuff we can do in today’s time. But again that is another reason to prioritize. We need to put a value on loving our neighbor. Jesus made it the second most important command!

Another problem I heard was the area of fear and insecurity. What do they think of me if I go up to them? What if they don’t like me? The chances that they don’t like you are a lot smaller than the ones that they do!! Every person wants to be loved. Do you know how you overcome this fear? You face it! I am afraid of heights and when I look down I start to not feel good. But one of my big dreams was to skydive. Those 2 don’t go together very well. So about 10 years ago I faced my fear by jumping out of a plane. Did all my fear go away by that experience? No, but I know now that it is possible to overcome!

So you see there are different things that can hold you back, but that doesn’t change the calling. Jesus still called us to love our neighbor despite all the things that hold us back. So let’s take those action steps:

  1. Pray and assess what things hold you back.
  2. Ask God to help you overcome them and then move forward!
  3. By overcoming them you are able to help others to do the same thing!

Hey our friend

We hope you had a wonderful week!!  An old friend of mine came to visit me from Germany this week which made me really happy!! We also had a wonderful time at our brunch and Haeusser Hangout where we made Pizza together. It is so special to connect with neighbors and become friends with them!  Make 2017 the year of community and the year of loving your neighbor well!!

Thank you for praying with us!!Remember this week that you are amazing and loved!!

Have a blessed week!!

Markus and Jen

Love your Neighbor – Be outside

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Love your neighbor be outsideLast week we talked about the importance of Prayer and how it will help you seeing people the way God sees them. This week we will talk about the importance of being outside.

When you look at the ministry time Jesus did during his life you notice that many times he was outside in public. He was outside because that is the place the people were. That is as well true for our neighborhoods.

In our modern society it is really easy to avoid the outside world. We drive the car right into the garage and from there walk into the house. If we workout we drive to the gym. But what about if you rethink that, and start to workout in your neighborhood?

Jen and I started jogging every morning around our area. During that time we got to meet many new neighbors, just by simply being out there. This works in any neighborhood you live in. We recently visited family in Pennsylvania and got to meet many of their neighbors during our running time. So this is a simple way to do it.

Start this week off by asking you those simple questions and take action!

  1. How can you be more outside in your neighborhood? Sports, walk etc.?
  2. What do you need to change that you can be more outside?
  3. Get started and meet your neighbors!

Hey our friend

We hope you had a wonderful week!! We had 2 meetings this week with different ministries in the bay area. It was very encouraging. At church Jen joined a group that is studying the book now discover your strength together to see what strength God has given each of them. Do you know what strength you have? I think often we focus on the weakness we have, but what about if you develop your strength even more?

The North beach Students are doing well too. They are having a great time at the boys and girls club and with all the things they do in the neighborhood.

Keep praying for the community here and mainly for peace since a lot of people!!

Have a blessed week!!

Markus and Jen

 

Love your Neighbor – Pray

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Love your neighbor PrayI tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does. John 5.19

One of the first things Jesus always did was looking at the father and seeing through that what he had planned. Jesus went many times away to pray. Prayer was his intimate time with the father. It was the times when he got refilled and just refreshed by having time with his father. Another reason I believe he did that for, was to really see how the father sees each person he gets in touch with.  Just think at the different people Jesus got in touch with. Some of them were seen as rejects of society and were not really loved, but he showed them a love they never saw just by being with them. Others were well respected people and they felt his love as well.

When we have Gods heart for people we see them different. We start to see the whole person not just a little piece. We also create a deeper love in our heart for that person if they are on our mind more often. And caring about someone is really key to show hope!

So lets start today and pray for your immediate neighbors.

  1. Ask God in your prayer to help you see them the way he sees them
  2. Pray for wisdom on how to pray for them
  3. Ask God for inside on how to pray for healing and restoration they might need.
  4. Ask God how you can become a great friend to them and how you can show his love to them.

Hey our friend

What a week in San Francisco. Almost every day was full of rain, which in some way is not nice, but in a drought area it’s a blessing. We had some great time reconnecting with everyone and being able to spend time. We also had a great start with the students.

Please join us this week in praying for people that are sick and had to go to the hospital. We had a few people here in our neighborhood like that and I am sure there are some in your area too!!

Thank you for praying and remember to pray for your neighbors! Prayer changes the world!!

Markus and Jen