Hey our friend

We hope you had a wonderful week. Jen and I got really blessed with a trip to South Carolina. Last year a good friend from the neighborhood passed away and he told his son that he should do something special for us so his son flew us out to his home in South Carolina. It was an amazing time with also remembering this wonderful friend. Thank you friends for that wonderful time.

While we were gone everything else just kept moving forward. One of our Staff started to give Computer classes for seniors in a local neighborhood center. Through that we are able to connect with more people and also bring hope to some of the elderly by connecting them for some to their far away family by email.

Invest your most precious gift, your time

When Jesus talked about to love our neighbor in Mark 12.31 it was not just a good advice, not it was a command. So in a practical way that means: To love someone we have to invest in them. If you want to see an outcome in anything you are doing you need to invest into that area. If you think about your finances, if you put all your money in a box under your bed you will not have any gain. But if you invest it you hopefully will see a gain. The same is true for relationships. When you spend time with family or neighbors and invest in them as an example by encouragement, bringing them closer to Jesus, help them with garden work, just spending time with them, you show in a practical way that you care. You are showing them by your action that they are loved. Over the years I met many fathers, but I have to say the best ones where the ones that took time out of there busy life to spend it with their child. Sometimes it doesn’t even matter what you do in that time, just you showing up already makes the difference.

I want to challenge you this week to make your most precious gift available to further the Kingdom, your time. Pray this week and seek God on how and who you should invest in. I promise you none of that time will be wasted.

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen

Hey our friend

We hope you had a great week. After a wonderful time in Pennsylvania with seeing family and celebrating at the wedding we started into a great week back in San Francisco. During this world cup season we often get the opportunity to connect with more people through our coffee shop work. Its awesome how little conversations will often leave a lasting impact. We also saw progress in many other areas of the ministry. Please keep praying for our training in July. We still have to finish up some more teachings and details.

Our Winter 2014 DTS North Beach Team.

We also celebrated the graduation of our Winter DTS school. We were for them but also sad to let them go. Please keep praying for them while they transition

Also some good news from the YWAM Base: We got into a purchase agreement with the owners!! Yeah praise God. Now we have to work on raising 3.2 million dollars for the rest of the cost to keep going with all the ministries. That sounds like a lot of money, and it is, but more the 12.000 people helped out or worked with the ministries of YWAM San Francisco since its beginning. So if each of them gives $270 we are there. Help YWAM San Francisco in this journey by praying, giving and sharing of the need with others. You can find more info here on how to support:  http://www.ywamsanfrancisco.org/miracle/
or share directly the posts from the YWAM Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ywamsanfrancisco

Thank you for all your help with this.

Love your Neighbor

When we think about missions we often think overseas work or going on a short term mission trip. That makes it sometimes so easy to say that we can’t do that since we have a full time job or we cant afford to travel some other place. Many times the language issue is there as well. But guess what, there is a way. Jesus himself gave us a really good guideline which makes it possible for each of us to do missions: love your neighbor.

Some of us will say: It is hard to love our neighbor because they did something we didn’t like. Maybe some say we haven’t even met all of our neighbors. Others might say I don’t have time. But the truth is Jesus called each of us to be part of the great commission.

So how can we love our neighbor? Maybe through a simple word of encouragement, a helping hand when they need it or a dinner.

Think about it this week how you can love your neighbor. We have also written a 10 week series last year which can give you some more tips. Here is the link to the final part of the series which gives you links to all of the topics: https://markus-jen-news.com/lets-look-back-to-look-forward/

Be encouraged and challenged!

Markus and Jen

P.s. I saw this clip a little while ago and it shows how loving someone is making a difference

Hey our friend

We hope you had a wonderful week. We had an exciting week here in San Francisco. We had the last official meeting of our church small group at our house and will have a graduation dinner tonight (Monday). Please keep us in your Prayers in this season since we have many breakthroughs happening but also need to make decisions which things to pursue and which ones to let go. Thank you so much!

Water brings life to dead places

The other day Jen and I were on a road trip. We were driving on Highway 5 which goes inland through a desert area. It gets pretty boring after a while.  But then we started seeing the beautiful green orchards contrasted with the dry desert. It’s amazing to see how the color green is just so refreshing. But that contrast made us also think of a spiritual parallel. If you look at the green areas you notice, that the areas that were watered were growing and alive. But the areas that weren’t were totally dead and dry. When we think about our relationship with God we see the same thing. If we are connected to Him the source of all life we are growing, if not we eventually end up deserted and looking dead. John 7.37-38

But one other thing that really struck us was the fact that if you put water on something that looks dead it can turn into something beautiful and alive. So if you think about people that are around you, maybe even family members, or situations that looked bad, and you feel like giving up on them, remember that just a little bit of living water can bring them back to life. Remember that story in Ezekiel 37.1-10, it gives a great picture of how God can make an army out of dry bones. God is using each one of us to rise up that army by helping to bring people into the Kingdom. Just imagine this: A leader of a biker gang becomes alive by receiving Jesus. Now imagine the impact he can make in his gang. He is already in this environment and he is well established. He has authority in that group that no outsider has and through that he is able to bring the gospel into this environment. Now more people are being saved in there and more people are coming back alive.

I want to challenge all of us to really pray and ask God about the areas in our life that are more looking like a desert and how they can come alive again? Also let us ask the question how can we bring living waters to people around us that are more in a desert?

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen

Hey our friend

We hope you had a good week. Ours was a bit frustrating, because it took us longer than planned to get over our sickness. I guess you can never really plan things like that. We also had a meeting this week with all the YWAM Leaders of the bay area. It is so good to hear from all the other ministries and how God is moving in the bay area. Please keep YWAM and all the ministries they are doing in your prayers.

An elephant teaches us about wrong learned things

The other day I read an article on how they train elephants for the circus. It was actually really sad. One thing that stuck out to me was this: As babies the circus ties up the elephant with a chain around the leg that is attached to a rod that they hit in the ground. A big elephant could easily rip out the rod and run away but the little ones aren’t strong enough. So they keep pulling and pulling till they learn that they are not able to get away. Now when they get older and stronger you can tie that strong elephant up with even a small string and the same rod and they will not run away. Why, because they learned as a child that they are not strong enough to break away from the chain and it is so a part of them that they totally believe it.

I think that is also a very true picture for each of us as Christians. At one point in our life we started believing something about ourselves which isn’t true like I’m not good enough, I’m a bad speaker, people don’t want to hear what I have to say etc. . Then we start believing those things. So then if God calls us to do something in that certain area, we tell him we can’t because of the lie we believe. But the truth is that we can do all things through the one who gives us strength.

When I was younger I was bullied for many years and I stopped believing that I have value or that anything I have to say would help and encourage people. With that experience I stopped believing in the gifting of encouragement God has given me. So when he told me in YWAM that he will use me to encourage others and speak value in their life, it seemed impossible since I still believed the lie of my past. After God addressed the lie and broke it of my life, he showed me how to use the gifting in a powerful way by encouraging many people. But I still had to make a choice to believe him. Over the years I grew stronger and stronger in that gifting and I hear almost from every person I meet with how they felt encouraged and loved.

I’m sharing this with you to show you that our God is greater than any stronghold in our life and any lie you might believe. He can use you in mighty ways when you start to break off the lie. I want to challenge you to think and pray about this week which lies you believe about yourself and how you limited yourself from becoming truly who God made you to be. Also ask the question in which area you are already stronger but you don’t believe it because of things you learned in the past (elephant and chain).

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen

Hey our friend

Wow we can’t believe it how fast our time in Germany went by. We got back Saturday and start back in San Francisco today. We were so blessed by seeing family, friends and supporter. It was also amazing to see how God encouraged people during our visit and or different speaking times. God is amazing. Please pray for us this week as we start going back to ministry in the city. Thank you so much!

Experience vs. Knowledge

In today’s time it is really important for us as Christians to have knowledge and experience. As an example if you have a car and you know everything that it can do or all the features it has that doesn’t make you a good driver. But you still need the knowledge since otherwise you might sell the car some day and realize that it had many features that you didn’t know about. But you become a good driver by driving the car and experiencing through that how it handles and works. To get more knowledge of God we can read our bible and study different books about who He is, but that only means that we have knowledge of Him. To really know Him you need to experience Him and spend one and one time with Him. This translates also into ministry. To be able to share our faith with others we need to learn how to do it. You can take a class, talk to your pastor, or the best way let the Holy Spirit teach you. But then you still need experience, and that only comes by doing it. If you look at Jesus and His ministry you see the same principle. He gave the disciples knowledge but then he got them into action. Go and share your faith with your friends and coworkers since you have something special that can change their lives forever.

Have a blessed week and know that you are loved

Markus and Jen