Tag Archives: Hope

Love your Neighbor the answer

Love your neighbor The AnswerSometimes you can be in a huge crowd of people and still feel alone. This is the reality for many people in our cities and some in the countryside. But now with this Christmas season many experience it even stronger. The feeling of being isolated can make people question themselves if there is something wrong with them. As longer those lies are lingering in their lives as more it isolates them and as less likely they will connect on their own. So isolation becomes stronger and stronger. And as more isolated we are as more lies the enemy can throw at us and the more we believe it because no one tells us the truth.

But there is hope!! Jesus never left us without a solution to any problem. He has the answer to all of them. I believe the solution he would give us to that problem would be to look into the mirror. Each one of us can be the answer. All of us can reach out to a neighbor and be a friend. Just think about it this way: If every person in the world reaches out to their neighbor and becomes true friends with them, there is no more isolation. But not just that, if all Christ Lovers do that almost all people on this planet can see His love through one of us. He can use us to change this world and bring hope through true friendships and family.

We want to encourage you to join the movement. Start today to love your neighbor. If you need tips on how to start read all the old blogs from this year. They will help you with ideas.

Let this Christmas season be a season of family and community for everyone!

 Hey our friend

How is your Christmas season going? Hopefully you have a chance to spend some time to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas. Our time here in SF is going well. We had meetings, a brunch and at the end of the week a Christmas celebration with our ywam bay area family. It was wonderful. But with all the activity we are trying to find those times of reflection. It can be hard to find the time, but it can be done. As we find them join us and find them too!! That way we all will be blessed!

So remember this week that you are the answer to loneliness and isolation in our world!

Have a blessed week and be a blessing!

Markus and Jen

Love your Neighbor

Love your neighbor 1

We (with that I mean many neighbors from our area) are all sitting around the table, stuffed after a good meal when our neighbor friend Carl asks the following question:” What are you thankful for?” As the question made its way around the table many different answers came but most of them had to do with thankfulness for people around the table. “I moved to this area and didn’t know many people for many years. My home and friends were still at the other location I moved from. I used to drive down there all the time to see them. But then I found community here through neighbors and now this place really became home,” He said while looking at everyone around the table.

This is what happens when we do what Jesus called us to do, to love our neighbor. This is why we do what we do. This is why we want to inspire you to do it as well!!  But that is not just to follow a command; no this is also for us. We can find true community as well while we are a family to others. We can be a part in bringing change to our neighborhoods and make them the best places to live. But not just that, no even more important, when we love people well they can see Jesus through us and they will be more likely open to receiving His love too!

So remember in this Christmas season, there are people around you that need a family and you have the chance to be that family they need. Truly love your neighbor!!

 Hey our friend

Wow this last week was a whirlwind. We were teaching the Skater DTS on how to love there neighborhood. It was a lot of fun. We also had a birthday party for Bethany which had a mix of people from the neighborhood as from other parts of town. It was a lot of fun. On Saturday we had a 30 year of YWAM San Francisco Celebration and Fundraiser. Many people came and felt inspired by the different stories they heard from all those years. If you would like to watch the video of the event and be inspired by the stories click this link and you find it as a post under cultivate. Jen and I are doing well too. We had a wonderful date this week were we ate out at a Indian restaurant which was a lot of fun!

So remember to love your neighbor!

Have a blessed week and be a blessing!

Markus and Jen

Love your Neighbor Perseverance and Reconciliation

So what were you thankful for and how does it and is showing in your life?

Love your neighbor Perseverance and ReconciliationOne of the main things in loving and investing in neighbors and our communities is perseverance. It always reminds me of Jesus and how he invested in His disciples over and over again. He never gave up on them and always persevered. But even in his own life he never quit even till the cross he was perseverant to finish well.

When we build true relationships we have good and bad days. Especially in the hard days we need perseverance to keep being committed to each other. When you work through hard things together you will grow closer together. I remember situations where we had hard days with people, but instead of walking out of the relationship we choose to work on it. And the thing that happened was that we got closer and had a deeper relationship with each other.

I am sure that you or somebody you know had a bad experience with a neighbor. You had the choice of shutting off the relationship or fix it. Maybe you still have that separation going on right now and you choose not to persevere. So we want to challenge you in this pre-Christmas season to persevere and do your part to fix it. So make this week’s goal to take the first steps by just doing something nice for that person. Maybe bring over some fresh baked cookies or something else. Start walking into this season with a heart of perseverance and reconciliation since Christmas is the time when Jesus came into the world to reconcile us with the father. Let’s persevere so we get to see how it changes our life, relationships and neighborhoods.

Hey our friend

Thanksgiving is over and we hope you made it back out of the food coma! We had a wonderful celebration for thanksgiving which we cohosted with a neighbor. It was a lot of fun! It showed how our area grows closer together which is amazing! We hope that you also had a great Thanksgiving celebration. Jen and I had a few days off after thanksgiving which was fun. For the next few weeks it will be busier with Christmas coming up so it felt good just to slow down for a little bit.

So remember this week to persevere and reconcile with a neighbor!

Have a blessed week and be a blessing!

Markus and Jen

Love your Neighbor True Thankfulness

Did you start giving out invites and get over the fear?

Love your neighbor true thankfulnessFor the last year we talked about loving our neighbor. When we do that we don’t just loveour neighbor, no we also change our community. When we change the lives of the people we love we change our lives. We make our communities better. We prepare the ground for people to start knowing Jesus and to fall in love with him. The door will be opened for others to really see the goodness of God and for us it will create a better life too. When we have a better community it translates into a better place for all of us. When we think about others first, we will change inside and selfishness and looking out for our own best intrests diminishes. We are changing to a person that becomes more like Jesus and loves more like him.

So loving our neighbor is good from all aspects. It brings more thankfulness in our lives when we see how others change and become more thankful. In a few days we celebrate thanksgiving a big holiday all about being thankful and community. When we love our neighbor and community it will not just be a day of thankfulness for us, no it will be for all the people we loved well and all the people they loved well and so on. Why, because they might have never had community and now through you loving them they found it and that is really something to be thankful for. Out of that they might bring community to there neighbors because they saw what it did to them and how it changed them. So lets keep loving our neighbor and keep making a difference in there lives. Let us be thankful this year for what God was doing in our and there life.

Hey our friend

We hope your week was good. We had a normal week here in San Francisco. We started preparations for Thanksgiving. This year we will host together with a neighbor which is exciting! Pray for a good time of connections and relationship. Jen and I are doing well too. We watched a sweet little dog of friends of ours which brought a lot of joy!

Think about 3 things every day this week which you are thankful for!

Have a blessed week and be a blessing!

Markus and Jen

Love your Neighbor what if no one came?

How did it go sharing your love for Jesus?

Love your neighbor what if no one cameWere you ever worried about no one showing up to events you planned at your house? If welcome to the Club. Many times Jen and I sat in our living room waiting to see if anyone would come to a game night. And honestly 90% of the time our fear was proven wrong. But then when I think back in my life, I realized that this fear started a lot earlier.

It’s a Tuesday night and I am getting ready to prepare the room with 2 friends for an event I was going to host. The invites were out and now I just had to wait and see who would actually show up. This night was important for me, because I was sharing with many about the work I would join in San Francisco and to find people who would partner with me in that. So the pressure was on.

All I felt before that night was God saying trust me. But when it came closer to the time and only the 2 friends sat in the room, that trust came under a big test. Now we have 5 more mins till the event and 2 other people showed up. I was excited. I started to walk to the front door to see if there are more people, but I didn’t see anyone. Now its 8pm, the time the event is supposed to start, and I am really nervous since most of the chairs were empty. I send up a quick prayer and all I hear back is trust me. After I heard those words, the doors open up and people start flogging into the room. Very soon all chairs were filled and we ended up setting up more which then got filled as well. The next thing I see is people standing in the back and an overly full room. It hit me in that moment and brought tears to my eyes, God is always faithful.

So the fear of no one showing up is a real fear. But in reality even if no one comes that you invited, they still saw that you care. And that is the response we got many times from people how loved they feel that we would invite them into our lives. And that is exactly what Jesus would do too!

So if you are worried about thanksgiving and Christmas and this is one of the reasons you don’t want to invite people over, let us assure you it’s worthied to do it anyway!! So get those invites out!!

Hey our friend

We hope your week was fantastic. We had one of our wonderful small groups which was again really encouraging. Also helping out with the kids at the boys and girls club as well as helping at the Italian elderly place is such a blessing for them and for us. If you have some extra time find a place to volunteer in your community. You will be a blessing but in return you will also be blessed!! I also cant believe its only 1.5 more weeks till thanksgiving. Time is flying. Make sure to get your invites out to neighbors!

Remember!! Don’t let fear stop you from connecting with your neighbors and putting on an event!

Have a blessed week and be a blessing!

Markus and Jen