Hey our friend

We hope you had a great week! We started our week of with a vision meeting to see where we are at and what we have to do to move to the next place. It was a really good time to evaluate. We want to encourage you to do that with your own life and with the goals and vision God has given you.  It will encourage you in moving forward but then also show you the great things God already did.

All other works in the neighborhood are also moving forward. We feel that God just increases our favor with the community and gives us deeper understanding of the people who live here.

Thank you so much for all your support of us and the work here. You are truly a blessing and many things would not be possible without you.

Heroes through challenge Part 3

One of the stories in the bible that always fascinates me is the Story of Joseph, and how he didn’t give up even with the biggest challenges.

As a young boy he was the favorite child of his dad (Genesis 37.4-5). So his brothers were not too happy about that. But then he had a dream of how the things he was doing was putting him above what his brothers were doing (Genesis 37.5-9). Eventually his brothers got so angry with him that they decided to kill him, but then through intervention from one brother choose instead to sell him into slavery to Egypt (Genesis 37.12-36).

As he arrives in Egypt he keeps serving to the best of his ability, ends up having a high servant position (Genesis 39) and ends up in jail with being falsely accused of raping the wife of Potiphar. Still he stood and didn’t give up in this challenge. He kept serving God in the jail and ends up through interpretation of dreams to interpret the dream of Pharaoh and with that becomes the second highest man in Egypt (Genesis 40-41). Through his position he starts controlling the food supply and saves Egypt and eventually his family through a big drought. His family ends up coming to him to buy food and he sees how the dreams he had as a young boy became reality.

But one thing that stuck out to me was the fact that even with all the challenges he faced, he was able to forgive people that hurt him. He was never holding a grudge against any of his brothers. God saved a nation through one man who walked through the challenge and didn’t give up. It’s something for each of us to learn that whatever we go through not to give up and never build up a hate in us towards others even if they did us wrong. Let us always move forward in whatever God has called us even if we face challenges. God is with you, never forget that!!

Markus and Jen