How are your invite lists going? Did you come up with some neighbors to invite? Trust us you will be blessed!!

Recently I watched this episode of little house on the prairie which was about a lady that moved into town and she was a bit strange. Many people right away stayed away from her. But 2 of the main character decided to befriend her. Through that friendship others started to accept her as well and that opened up the door for her to help people with giftings she had. But before she could help anyone she had to be accepted and be a friend. And also people first had to meet her before the opinions could change about her.

In all neighborhoods we have a person that is not as accepted or might look strange to us. But many times we judge just by what we see and not even knowing the person. The truth is we all have a first impression of people which often forms the way we look at them. It can either come from what someone said about them or it could come from something we observed. But if we don’t truly know them, we rob ourselves from the special things they have to give and we also rob them to not being able to be fully alive in what God made them to be. So it’s important to get to know everyone around us and be a friend to them, even if our first thinking is not to.

This week we want to challenge you to find that person in your community and start to get to know them. It makes a difference to them and to you. You might be the first one!!

Hey our friend

Fall season is on us and with that we had a big temperature drop in San Francisco. From one day to the next it dropped 30 degrees. That sadly let to me (Markus) first getting a pretty bad cold and then Jen started feeling it as well after a few days. Please pray for quick recovery for both of us. On Friday we had a special hike we planned with our encouragement for a long time and Jen was able to go. Everyone had a really good time and good conversation. It so wonderful to see how investment in relationships can be such a blessing and how true friendships come out of it.

So don’t forget to find the person in your community that’s different. Also another reminder to invite neighbors to thanksgiving and Christmas.

Have a blessed week and be a blessing!

Markus and Jen

We hope you were able to start using your in between times!

One thing we learned over the years is that we have to start early with invitations for holidays. Its 2 weeks before thanksgiving and Jen starts to hand out invitations to many of our neighborhood friends to our thanksgiving meal. After all the inviting we end up with a very full table and apartment. Everyone who came had a wonderful time together and many of them shared how it felt like family. Through early planning most people could come since they did not have plans yet.

I know we are still over 1 month away from thanksgiving, but as all of us know time flies. So why don’t you start making a list of neighbors you would love to have join you for thanksgiving. Then create an invite with an rsvp date and hand it out. Also with the invite ask your neighbors what side dish they would like to bring and to let you know as well with the RSVP. Jesus send his disciples ahead to plan the Passover meal so they were preparing things. He did not just show up, no He planned for the event. And let us all do that too!

So instead of just celebrating with your blood family Thanksgiving or Christmas, invite your neighbors to become family too. Set time aside this week to start planning and to get out invitations. Trust me you will be blessed!!

Hey our friend

We hope your week was great! We had a wonderful time traveling with family. It was really refreshing! After we got back we were invited to a really special birthday party of one of our neighbors with a theme of the 20s. So we all dressed up to look a bit like in that time. Jen of course did an amazing job with her outfit! I was also able to help friends from church to come up with a budget and create a business plan. Im excited to see how God will use those businesses to bring people closer to Him!

So last reminder set time aside this week to make invites for thanksgiving and start to invite your neighbors you know and also start planning a bit for it!

Have a blessed week and be a blessing!

Markus and Jen

We are praying that you felt the love that God has for you and that you are able to have a greater love for yourself!

This weeks blog is a video blog and to find out what a starfish has to do with loving your neighbor you have to watch it!!

Hey our friend

We hope your week was fantastic! Having a dinner or other meal with someone makes such a huge difference and we saw it a few times again in the last week. It just connects you on a different level since everyone is more relaxed and can focus on the person right in front of them. We really love those moments. The only problem is that you should probably exercise a little bit after. But guess what, we do that too and it’s also a wonderful way to connect with other people in the community. We also had a lot of admin work going on this week. Please keep us in your prayers in this coming season to hear clearly from God what things to get done and what not. Thank you!

Don’t forget this week to start doing something small to make a difference!

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen

So to follow up with last weeks blog, how did you start with being more incarnational in your community?

When we read over the verse in Mark 12.30 -31 we notice that there are 3 things Jesus is saying. First of all he is saying love God! Yes that is the key thing to all of it. Secondly he is saying love your neighbor, that is something we talked about for the last 9 months. But then he is saying one more thing on how we should love our neighbor? We should love him as ourselves. So to be able to truly love our neighbors we have to love ourselves.

Recently I heard a really good message on that topic from our Pastor. He was talking about how we can only truly love others if we also know how loved we are. Sometimes we think it is prideful if we say good things about ourselves, but the reality is its actually admitting to what God is saying about us. Think about the story of the prodigal son especially towards the end. The son comes home and the father tells him to leave and never come back. No of course not, we all know that he he runs towards him, puts a robe over his pig smelling body and hugs him. So even if we mess up and have failures in our lives God still loves us. So if he does we need to do that too! When we accept that love from him and live in it and start seeing ourselves the way God sees us and also love ourselves, we will even leave a greater impact on others. We show them through our faults and failures that we can still love ourselves because our father loves us. And what greater thing do we have to offer to people then the love of Jesus and that they are truly loved.

So with all this writing we want to encourage you to look at your own life and see where you talk bad about yourself or where you don’t like yourself. Ask God to help you to love yourself. It will make a huge difference for you, but also for your neighbors.

Hey our friend

We hope you had a great week! Last Sunday Jen and I were preaching on finances and trusting God in every area of our life at a church in the bay area. It was a wonderful time. We also had a community night at the YWAM Base in the Tenderloin which was a real encouragement too. Its always nice seeing our family. Speaking about family, next week family from Germany is coming to visit!! I am so excited!!

Don’t forget this week to start asking God how he sees you and how you can love yourself more!

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen