Hey our friend

We hope you had a great week. One of our highlights this week was a house concert at a friends house. It was amazing listening to them play. We also had a wonderful time at the coffee shop. The last few weeks have been a little bit slow and it might be because of summer time, but please keep praying with us for an increase of attendance

Learn from your Heavenly Daddy

When you read through the bible you see many times how God is choosing people that were mostly not the most educated. Just look at Jesus and some of his disciples. Some of them were fishermen and there family was probably doing that for generations. Fishermen was not a highly educated job at that time,so for them being asked by Jesus a Rabbi to follow him was a huge honor. But along with that Jesus didn’t keep them were they were at, instead he kept teaching them and they kept learning, and more important they wanted to learn. Most of the time he didn’t teach them in a traditional sense of a classroom, but more in the way of showing them how to do it and then have them do the same (Luke 10 Jesus sends out the disciples).

I believe this is something each one of us has to think about. We always have to position ourselves in an attitude of learning. Yes God chooses us the way we are. But to know Him better and also represent him well in this world, we have to learn from Him. We always have to live our life with an attitude and openness to learning something new. It can be through studying the bible, through spending time in God’s presence, reading books as an example on Gods character or by doing something that God called you to do and learning in the process. These are just examples, and there are many more ways but it is important that each one of us keeps learning from our father. Just remember Paul and how he talked to the studied people in Athens and how he used the unknown God as a way to bring Jesus to them. Of course he had to learn about that culture before he went and through that he was able to share with them in a way they understood. I want to challenge you to start looking this week on how to learn more from God.

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen

Hey our friend

We hope you had an amazing week. We had our review and evaluation meeting this week in which each ministry is evaluated. We brainstorm and pray in those times together on how to move forward. It is always a really encouraging and wonderful time. We are also amazed by looking back how much God has done in the last 6 month.

We also had a personal blessing through God last week. The friends from the boys and girls club gave us tickets to a Raiders game, my second and Jen’s first American football game. Through that we could join 2 of our staff who are going regularly. We had such a wonderful time. We are so thankful!

Never once did we ever walk alone

Never once did we ever walk alone
Never once did you leave us on our own
You are faithful god you are faithful

During the worship time on our Staff Retreat we sang Never once from Matt Redman and just by singing the lines I started to feel courage build up in me . How amazing is it to know that our father is always with us. I feel sometimes we say it but do we truly believe it? Do we believe it in the dark and hard times in our lives and do we believe it in the good days when everything goes by plan?

When you read through the bible you see it all the time how god confirmed the truth of how he is with us all the time. Here are some examples:

Deuteronomy 31.8 ESV: It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”
Deuteronomy 31.6 ESV: Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”
Joshua 1.9 ESV: Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Matthew 28.20 ESV: Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Like I said these are only a few examples, but when you read through the bible you notice that it is full of passages that are talking about that God is with us in every circumstance. It doesn’t matter what you are going through, He is with you and has a solution for you. Our God is faithful!! But we also need to remember that this message is not only inclusively for us. Share it with people that go through their lives and don’t even know that there is father out there who wants to walk with them and loves them so much. Sometimes people right next to us like our neighbors need to hear that. Its not just the obvious person that is homeless, but it is often the old man right next to us that lost his wife, it’s the rich man who runs your company and doesn’t have anyone that loves him, it’s the woman that models and has no one to be real with, it’s the Hollywood actor that doesn’t even know who he is because of all the different roles he played. These are just some examples but again this applies to every person that doesn’t know the transforming love of Jesus.

Remember it for yourself today and also share it with someone else.

We and Jesus love you

Markus and Jen

Hey our friend

We had a great week here in San Francisco. Our first seminar last Saturday was a success. It was all about how to live the great commission with bringing hope to people around you. Its exciting to see how god brings things from a vision into reality. Its so awesome!! We have been really moving forward in every area of the ministry which is awesome. Our God is an awesome God!!

Please keep the base in your prayers since the first deadline is approaching on July 25^th. http://www.ywamsanfrancisco.org/miracle/ Also keep praying for Jen and me to find the times of rest in business.

Here is a quick thought for the week for you from a message I heard from Paul Manwaring  and here is the link so you can listen to it as well!!

Look at what you have and not at what you don’t have.

What the German Worldcup soccer team can teach us

Schweinsteiger cares about Messi after win

Sorry that I took a week of from our series Heroes of challenge but I felt God gave me a different topic for this week. During the last month the world cup was going on in Brazil and teams from all over the world came together and played each other. One thing that really stuck out to me was the idea of playing as a team. Many teams in the world cup had many Star players, but a star player can’t do everything by himself. What it really takes is a team, a team that works together and fights together.

That is also a great picture for us as a church. We have people that are great speakers, some are great evangelists, some are helping to support the team. But I tell you one thing, each of those is equally important. Just because someone speaks in the front doesn’t make him more important than anyone else. Without a team he would have no stage, microphone or anything he needs to share. So I want to encourage all of us to be a community that lives by those principles. Honor each other. Never look down on people instead help them up. When we always work as a team things are moving forward even if we don’t have the best in each category. Look at the German team. They had great players but none of them was famous like a Messi or Rondaldo. But in the end they won because they played together as a team.

One last thing that is great about a team is that we can celebrate together and encourage each other. If you are alone, all eyes are on you and if you fail, which all of us do sometimes, who is with you? If you have a team they can pull you back up. Plug into your church and be part of the team!!

God bless you
Markus and Jen

Hey our friend

We hope you had an awesome week. Ours was a blast. We had 3 visitors from Germany, 2 from LA, 1 from Kansas, 1 from Chicago and 1 from Florida. It was wonderful to see each one of them. We also had a big barbecue at our house for the 4^th of July. The great thing was that neighbors, church friends and others came together to celebrate that special American holiday. It opened the door for great conversations.

During our next week we will try to spend some extra time on preparing for the teachings in July. Please pray for time to do that. Also keep the San Francisco YWAM base in your prayers while they are working on raising funds to keep the building and minimize loans for it. http://www.ywamsanfrancisco.org/miracle/

The great commission not the great suggestion

Over the last few days I started to think about the great commission in Matthew 28.18-20 and what that means for us.  When you look up the meaning of commissioning you find out that it means to place an order, with which you get authority to do that order. So the great commission is not just a suggestion, but instead Jesus is ordering us to do it. He didn’t just tell us to do it, but he also gave us authority to do it. I think many times we don’t look at the full picture. I think sometimes we don’t realize that Jesus doesn’t have a plan B. He trusts each one of us to fulfill the great commission because we are His friends. He doesn’t put a guilt trip on us or try to use us against our will. No He partners with us as His friends to change the world. If we want to get something big done, we would make the same choice and ask our friends to help us because we know we can trust them. We know they would get the job done because they love us. Are we using them? No, because we would do the same for them. So the great commission is Jesus asking us to bring the gospel to the people. But in reality, he did the same for us since we are His friends. I want to challenge you to start thinking of the great commission and how you can actively live it. Start with your neighbors!!

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen