Hey our friend

We hope you had some time to enjoy this Christmas season in all of the busyness of life. Jen and I are able to enjoy our time here in Germany while missing grandpa. Please pray in this Christmas season for people that don’t have a family and maybe invite some of them for Christmas to be part of your family.

We have only 2 weeks left to reach our goal to be fully funded by January. Please consider partnering with us through becoming a monthly financial supporter. You can do that with $25, $50, $100 or any other amount you would like. Click on this link then choose under monthly giving the amount, under ministry Staff support and write under comments Markus and Jen. Thank you for partnering with us in Engaging a city with a loving God

Be a family

This year Jen and I are spending Christmas with our German family. It is such a blessing to celebrate the birth of our Savior with people that knew us our whole life. Christmas is good news. Christ came into this world to reconcile us with the father and open the door for us to come home. I don’t know if you remember the movie home alone but it has a great scene of reconciliation. Kevin talks to an old man in a church and challenges him to call his son and reconcile with him. The man does, and at the end you see him coming over to his sons house and they hug and celebrate Christmas together.

How many people are out there who wish they could come home but there is no Kevin who challenges them to do it. Many have a family but through disagreements they cut of any contact with them, others might have no family to go to. But Christ came to reconcile and we are called to do the same. Let us live the Christmas message by reconciling with people in our family and if needed forgive them for what they did in the past. God wants to bring redemption and hope in this season. Let us bring it to our earthly families like God brought it through Jesus to us.

We wish you a blessed Christmas.

Markus and Jen

Being in a Family

2 weeks ago we wrote about that we are born into a family, this week I want to look at being in a family. When we look at any family we see many needs. It might be the need of listening to someone or just standing with someone in a hard time. It might be to help clean up a mess.

But it is important that each of us uses there giftings inside of their family. If you have a gift of encouragement, it is your job to encourage people. Of course it is not exclusively yours and others can do it as well, but you are the one who is setting the standard. If you are the practical one use the gift to fix things in the house. If you are the one who is good in gardening, take initiative to take care of that area. Of course never use any of your gifting as an excuse, like I encourage so I won’t help with the dishes. The important thing is, that you bring all of who you are in. Never do that out of duty, but do it out of love for all the others.

Ask yourself this week how you bring yourself in to help your family and in which areas you have to grow. And I am not just talking about your biological family, no I am also talking about your family of believers. Think about it and make adjustments as needed.

Hey our friend

This blog reaches you from Germany. It is so good to be with family in this time of grief. Family is just something really special also with Advent beeing around us. A time to look ahead to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Please pray this week for people in North beach as well as your town that are without a family. Pray that God will put them into a family (Psalm 68.6). Also please pray for our Staff who keep running things while we are gone.

During the last weeks we saw $418 more in monthly support come in. We are coming closer to the goal to be fully funded by January. Praise God. Pray about to join our monthly supporter team. You can do that with $25, $50, $100 or any other amount you would like. Click on this link then choose under monthly giving the amount, under ministry Staff support and write under comments Markus and Jen. You can also support us through checks; find more info on how under this link. Thank you for partnering with us in Engaging a city with a loving God.

Your friends

Markus and Jen

Hello our friend

Our last week was a week of grief with the funeral of my grandpa. Without a doubt he is with Jesus, but he is still missed here. Please keep us and our family in your prayers in this season. Please also keep praying for the ministry in North beach which is ran from our wonderful Staff while we are gone.

We also have some good news. During the last weeks we saw $417 more in monthly support come in. We are coming closer to the goal to be fully funded by January. Praise God. Pray about to join our monthly supporter team. You can do that with $25, $50, $100 or any other amount you would like. Click on this link then choose under monthly giving the amount, under ministry Staff support and write under comments Markus and Jen. You can also support us through checks; find more info on how under this link. Thank you for partnering with us in Engaging a city with a loving God.

Your friends

Markus and Jen

My Opa Heinz, A life lived well

This week I want to remember a man who helped me in many ways to become the man I am today, my grandpa. He was a man who was loved by many people. But why is that? He always gave his best and went the extra mile for anyone. He gave his time, by listening to people and encouraging them. One way he did it was by calling people for their birthdays or by helping them to see hope again. He was never afraid to speak the truth. I remember one situation where a young man wanted to buy cigarettes at the machine across the street and grandpa started to talk to him and told him how bad it was for his health. He also had a very practical side which he used to fix many things in people’s homes. As a young boy I drove with him through Germany and visited many people to as an example help him fix there bathroom. He always had a loving heart for every person that came to him. If someone came to him that had money problems, he would always be the first one to help.

But as important as all those things are, his heart was always to bring true hope through Jesus to people and point them towards him. One of his favourite sentences was: Whatever doesn’t help you after you die was a joke or always think about eternity. Through his loving kindness people could experience a side of Jesus in a practical way. I remember how he always had a huge list of people who he prayed for on a daily base. The thing closest to his heart was to bring people closer to Jesus.

Everyone who knew him lost a significant person. But I can tell you he went to where he wanted to go, to his loving father in heaven.

Grandpa used the giftings God gave him on a daily base. Let us live that way as well. Let us use the giftings God gave us to bring people closer to Him and into the Kingdom. Let us be a friend to the lonely, let us help the ones that need help, let us encourage those that lost hope, let us love people in a way that they get a glimpse of how much they are loved by there father in heaven.

Thank you Opa Heinz for teaching me by living it. You will never be forgotten!!!!

Born into a family

We are moving towards Christmas and I want to focus in the next few blogs on a very important topic, family. When Jesus was born into this world, he was born into a family. The bible doesn’t tell us too much about his family, but I’m pretty sure it was a place where he felt save and loved.

All of us are born into this world, but that doesn’t necessarily apply that all of us are born into a family. Recently I was teaching on the father heart of God and while preparing I ran across a statistic from the year 2012 that said that over 40% of babies born in the US are out of wedlock (means unmarried relationships). But what happens to those children? Many of them grow up without an intact family which often leads them to a feeling of not belonging. I have a wonderful friend who raises the child of his brother, who chooses the criminal life. But in this case my friend took that child in and raises her like his own. It is amazing to see how loved that child feels and how appreciated.

Later in his life Jesus was asked to see his mother and brothers. But His answer was, the people that are with him and following him are his family. That means even if we are not born into a family, we are still a part of Gods family; the family of people that follow him. It is like the situation of my friend, God and his crew on earth (the Christians) take us in to be a part of the family. So when you become a Christian you are born into a new family. It doesn’t matter if you have a wonderful family or if you don’t, you are a part of a bigger family who loves you. If you are not connected with your Christian family make sure to do so, it will help you to grow and belong.

Hey our friend

We hope you had a great week together with your family. We were able to be family last week to 10 people for our thanksgiving meal. It was a wonderful fun time. It took us a long time to prepare all the food, but it came out really good. Please keep praying for people without families in this season that they will find community and Jesus.

This week was also a really sad week for me Markus since my grandpa passed away. We had to fly early to germany to make the funeral. Please keep praying for me and my family. I know he is with Jesus.

Think about to partner with us in bringing family to people that don’t have one. Join our monthly supporter team. You can do that with $25, $50, $100 or any other amount you would like. Click on this link then choose under monthly giving the amount, under ministry Staff support and write under comments Markus and Jen. You can also support us through checks; find more info on how under this link. Thank you for partnering with us in Engaging a city with a loving God.

Your friends

Markus and Jen

Hey our friend

We are getting ready for a wonderful Thanksgiving meal this week at our house. It will be a wonderful time. We probably have to get an extra table to fit everyone.

Our last week was great as well. We were able to honor our students that helped us this fall in North beach by cooking a lunch for them. It was a wonderful time. Please keep them in your Prayers since they have only 2more weeks left till they leave for Outreach.

We have almost 6 weeks left to reach our goal to be fully funded by January. Please consider partnering with us through becoming a monthly financial supporter. You can do that with $25, $50, $100 or any other amount you would like. Click on this link then choose under monthly giving the amount, under ministry Staff support and write under comments Markus and Jen. Thank you for partnering with us in Engaging a city with a loving God.

 Thanks-Giving

The week of amazing food and fellowship is back, its thanksgiving again. When you look at the word thanksgiving you see actually 2 words. Thanks and Giving.

When we look back at how thanksgiving started we see something interesting it was always about giving. When the first pilgrims came the Native Americans gave them and taught them skills on how to fish and grow corn. Out of that the Pilgrims had a great harvest and were able to survive. Out of thankfulness they invited the Native American tribe to celebrate with them the harvest they had that year. So it created this cycle of thankfulness out of giving.

But it is important to remember that the giving always came out of gratefulness. So now let’s see how that translates into our relationship with God. God has freely given everything for us and hopefully we are thankful for it. So if we give back to him in any measure (work, money etc.) we should always do it out of that thankful heart. We should never do it out of obligation or a rule since that would defeat the purpose of thankfulness. So when you give your 10^th it should actually reflect your thankfulness to the father and not out of the fact of performing for his love. My friend Claude said this:

Don’t do things for love, but do them out of love.

And if you think about that is true for giving as well. Don’t give because you have to, but give because you want to and give out of a thankful heart.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving week.

Markus and Jen