Hey our friend

We hope you had a really blessed week. Today I have a special prayer request for you. One of the first friends we made in the neighborhood has cancer and it seems that he has only a few more months to live. Please join us in Prayer that he will accept Jesus in the time he has left. We saw great things happen in his life over the last few years so keep praying that God will help Him in making this life changing decision. In 3 weeks we will leave for Germany to meet up with family, friends and supporters. Pray for a fruitful time over there while sharing and reconnecting and also that we get all the needed preparation done before we leave. Also pray for good connections for Jen since it will be the first time for her being in Germany.

This week we will have a staff training week with all the YWAM San Francisco Staff. Pray for good learning and fun together.

 Love changes Perspective and helps to overcome

Over the last 10 years being in ministry I saw this statement being true many times. Many times I worked with people and have had a hard time understanding why they would not change. Many times they kept making the same bad decisions over and over again. That was a pattern that kept happening over and over again. In those times I asked God for more of his love for the situation as well as the people. After I did that I got a deeper understanding and through that a love for them. Most of the time the situations didn’t change right away, but I was encouraged to stay on track and not give up on them. I just loved on them despite their circumstance. Because of doing that I experienced many changes in people’s lives and after a while saw them overcome whatever was holding them back from changing.  Again it is not easy and it is a love that you have to ask God for on a daily basis, but it is worth it. The second thing it does, it builds community. If you truly love on people they are close to your heart and you care about them. That’s a reason why you want to spend time with them. Through spending time with them and having them being a part of your life you are inviting them into your community. Through that, you will see more of a long-term change. Many people fall back into whatever their stronghold was if they don’t have a loving and supporting community around them. We are not made to be alone, we are all made for relationship. And out of a loving relationship we are growing because we have others look into our life and help us to see the blind spots and help us to break free from them. If you have a hard time reaching out to people and find people to love, read again over our 10 week series how to make true friends and change the world. Make it one of your goals for this month to find someone to love on and help them to grow through that.

Have a blessed week and know that you are loved and show it to someone else.

Markus and Jen

Hey our friend

First of all remember today that you are amazing and loved!! And if you don’t believe that we want you to watch this video. Its really important to know this truth to understand Gods heart.

We had a great week here in San Francisco. All ministries we did were moving forward and we were able to see God at work. It is awesome to be a part of the things he is doing in San Francisco. 2 of our good friends got married last weekend, which was a wonderful time. And then we had a friend come visit for a day from Germany.

Next week we will have a staff teaching week ending with a retreat for all the YWAM San Francisco and Bay Area Staff. Pray that God will speak to each of us individually as well as all of us together as a team.

Change your thinking

During our coffee shop bible study I noticed a guy across from us. I found out that he helped the bible study attendant with some errands during the day. After talking to him for a while I noticed how he looked like as if he is in a lot of pain. He told me that he got hurt in a bicycle accident a long time ago and since then has problems with his shoulder and neck. I asked him if I can pray for him and he let me. After I prayed I asked if something changed. He told me that the pain went down by 50%. So I prayed again and asked him again and he told me that the pain went down to 20% of his original pain. I saw on his face how impacted he was that Jesus started to heal him.

I’m sharing this story with you to challenge you in your thinking. If we have a mindset of God that he did miracles in the bible but not today, we will not go up to people and pray for healing with faith that God will actually heal them. But if we believe that God is still at work today in every area of life we need to change our availability. I could have missed that moment and just focused on the bible study but this man would have missed out on God touching his life. The great thing was that it actually impacted the man in the bible study as well. I want to challenge all of us to be always ready for God to move and give us a new task. I know that it is easier to believe in a God that is not at work in those areas then at one who is, because it requires action on our part. But this world is in desperate need for answers and help, and God has the answers and wants to give it to them. Let us be good messengers and bring all of what Jesus was speaking about into this world! Lets change our thinking and trust a God that makes the impossible possible today!!

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen

 Hello friend

We had a wonderful week here in North Beach. We finished our work with the Elderly place for the summer since they have a break till September. Also our wonderful interns are leaving this week. They did such a great job with all areas they were involved in. Please pray for their transition back into school and job search.  We also were able to connect more with the community through joining a monthly lunch at a place in the Neighborhood. It’s awesome how God uses opportunities like that.

Are you hungry

I think all of us are hungry for something. When you are hungry for food and ate a good portion you will be satisfied and probably don’t want any food for a while. At least that is the case for me. But that is different with God. When I spend time with Him either praying, worshipping or just sitting with Him, I feel filled but on the other side I am hungry for more.  Another interesting thing about hunger is our focus. When we are hungry all our focus is geared towards what we are hungry for. Its hard to focus on something else or think clear when we have a real hunger. And that is the kind of hunger we need for God. One way to get that hunger is to keep filling ourselves on what he is doing today (testimonies) and put our focus and time on Him. When you focus on something or someone, it is hard to take your eyes off of that. That is the same with God. If we spend as much time with God as we spend on other important things in our life, we will grow closer to Him and we get hungry for getting to know Him more and see more of Him in this world today and become more of a light in this world.

Think about how can become more hungry for Him personally.

God bless

Markus and Jen

Hey our friend

We hope you had a great week. We saw God deepening relationships we have and also bring along new ones. We also celebrated my (Markus) Birthday last Saturday and went to a drag race which was awesome (here is a link to the photo album). I also felt really loved since many of my friends wrote or called me for it. Thank you that meant a lot to me.

Are you living by your limits or by His

Over the last year I was reading a lot of books about different ministry leaders and missionaries. One thing that stuck out to me is that they didn’t put limits on what God can do. Many times we try to figure out things or take on projects based on our capacity and strength. But the thing is, if you do that with God projects, you don’t need God to show up since you will be able to achieve it. When you look as an example at Moses and the task He gave him you see that it took some serious faith and trusting that God will show up. He had no way to get Israel through the water without God. But God showed up and split the sea. Or Noah, everybody thought he was crazy to build a ship in the middle of the country. But God showed up again and saved his family through it. But all of them had to take a step of faith that required them to believe that God has no limitations. We want to challenge you to think about the areas in your life where you put limits on God. Pray about it and ask God why you put those limits there and ask Him to help you breaking them. Ask God what he wants you to do if there are no limitations. God wants to do great things through your life, Let Him!!

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen

Hey friends

During the last week Jens’ Mom and sister came out for a visit. It was really good seeing them again. We also spoke to a local small group about getting involved into the work we are doing in North Beach. Pray that God will speak to people in the small group about what they can do to impact the community. Thanks for all your Prayers. Oh and I am excited for this Saturday which is also my (Markus) birthday. My wonderful friends bought me tickets to go to a drag race. Yeah!!

 Are you taking Authority?

This morning in worship God gave me a picture of how we are and what authority we have. Think about a King in the prime time of Kings and the authority he had. When he said something it was done for him. If he told someone to conquer another Kingdom or to bring him dinner, it didn’t matter what it was, it got done.  He took his authority and made things happen.  But then if you would have been the Son of the King and you would ask for something to be done that your father asked you to make sure it gets done, people would listen to you since you are the son of the King and since you carry his authority.  If he would have been the same person with the same giftings, but he would have not the title of a King son nobody would have listened to him.

So now if you look at God and His Kingdom you will see that He literally has authority over everything. So nothing in this world can stand against Him. And God called us sons and daugthers of Him. So that means if He calls us to do something nothing can stop us, because we have the authority from our father. I mean literally nothing can stop us besides the fear in our life. The enemy can’t,  demonic powers can’t, people can’t, so literally no one can stop us. But how do we receive that authority to fight that fear? Only through faith. And faith is believing that God is at work through the things we are doing in His name even if we don’t see the results right away. We have to believe that God called us. And no matter if you know the clear calling for your life or not, we all have the calling Jesus gave us go and make disciples. A little story from here to make you think.

Charles was a man I met at local meeting of Christian business man. Every week he invited another man who didn’t know Jesus to the meeting and to church. Many times he got rejected from the man since he didn’t want to go. Charles didn’t stop. He spend time with the man and invested in him with no seen success but he kept using the Authority God has given him. That went on for a long time. Charles never gave up. 3 months ago Charles passed away. 2 days later when the man found out that he died He understood what Charles was sharing with Him about Jesus and Gods Kingdom and he knew that Charles went to heaven. The man gave his life to Jesus and changed. The thing is, Charles never saw the outcome on earth of using the authority God has given him, but it didn’t mean nothing happened.

We are at the end of this blog and I want to leave you with this: If we step up and replace the fear in our life with faith nothing can stop us. Use the authority God has given you!!

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen