Hello friend

We hope you had a wonderful week. This is our last week in Germany. Our time was awesome. It was great to see friends, supporters, and speak in different churches and groups. God was really at work in encouraging people. We are so thankful for that. Please pray for our last few days that we have a few more great conversations and then also a good restart in San Francisco.

A new workout swim against the tide

For this week we have a video blog with the topic swim against the tide. Be encouraged and challenged.

May God bless you richly

Your friends

Markus and Jen

Hello our friend

We hope you are having a wonderful start into this great week. We are enjoying our time in Germany with meeting friends, supporters, family and speaking in groups, churches and info nights. Pray for Gods encouragement for every person that comes and that we see. Thanks for all your prayers.

Are your investments paying off?

One of my friends in the city is an investment advisor and he advises people on how to invest there money so they will do ok when they retire someday. Then they have to make choices in what to invest which can be a hard one as well. It is always smart to think ahead in that area. But nobody can guarantee you 100% for sure that your investment will actually Pay off by the time you retire since so many things affects the world economy. Those made me think of us as Christians. Where are we putting our investments? Are we investing in the Kingdom of God, means are we doing what God is calling us to do with our life, resources gifts and talents he gave us? I feel many times it is so easy to live our life thinking about what we need and what we would like to have in our life here on earth but not think about eternity. We invest our time and resources in things that will eventually go away. I think that is one of the reasons why we have so many people that commit suicide or are depressed and worried because it didn’t pay off. In the bible it talks in Matthew 6:19-21 about how we need to think about where we invest in. Jesus guarantees us that everything we invest the Kingdom of Heaven will be a good investment.

Ask yourself the question how much of your time, resources and gifting’s god gave you are you investing for your own gain and how much do you invest for the gain of Gods Kingdom here on earth? So lets all think how we can invest more of our life into the Kingdom of God. And I’m not saying with that lets all become Pastors or church leaders. Yes some of us are called to do that. But the majority of us is called, as an example to bring Gods Kingdom to people that are living around us, working with us or are doing sports with us, through our resources and giftings. Also through the way we think. If we always have Gods Kingdom in our forehead we will think about and do things that bring His Kingdom to earth.  If we have thoughts for our own good in our forehead or do things in fear, we will live life just investing in our own good and not the good for others. Switch your mindset and actions to think Gods Kingdom, through that you are investing your life into the Kingdom and through that you make investments that will pay off.

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen

Hey our friend

We hope you are having an absolutely fantastic week. Our week will be one of the busier ones with different groups we speak at and an information night. Please keep us in your Prayers that we are sensitive to Gods guidance in all those events. Thanks for all your Prayers!!

Church Family

When we look at the bible and how it often describes family we see a place of safety, growth, discipleship and community. But we also see a place of challenge, conflict and disagreement. When we look at the first church in Acts we see the same things.  I believe that this picture of family needs to be translated into our church life.  When we look at church history we see many times that churches split and started fighting each other because of disagreements in theology. Today we see many people switch their church because they got hurt or offended by someone or disagree with something. But that is not a family, that is more an attitude of getting the best out for ourselves without caring about others. Most of those people will keep switching churches because they will always find something they disagree with. I believe that we need a change of mind. The bible talks about to forgive the one that hurt you and to figure things out with each other. It doesn’t talk about to just leave and give up. If we all start working together in our church community and go with the attitude of love we will show the world the unity of believers that the bible talks about. It will change the way people look at the church if we love each other and speak good about each other.

Let this be a challenge to all of us and let Jesus help us to do it!

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen

Hey our friend

Wow Easter week went by quickly. I (Markus) ended up getting sick with a cold after Jen was sick over the last weekend.  Also Jen went to Pennsylvania for the funeral of Grandpa. Our DTS Students also left for Outreach. Please keep them in your prayers for safe travel and great opportunities to bring the gospel to Italy and Greece. Also keep praying for more relationships into the community here as well as more staff to work with us in North Beach.

What riches hold you back

During the last few years I ministered to many people that most of us would consider rich. Some of them are. I was thinking about the story of Jesus and the rich man and how he asks him how to get to heaven. Jesus told him to sell everything and follow him. After that the rich man left and Jesus was sad. I think many times it is so easy to look at this parable with the attitude of saying that being rich and having money is a bad thing. But I tell you the message in this is not just geared towards money, its geared to everything that keeps us away from God. Are you willing to give him everything? What if He asks you tomorrow to quit your job and with that give up your retirement and health benefits; would you do it? Would you trust him to take those steps? I believe that every single area in our life were we don’t trust God is that area that Jesus called out in the rich man. And all of us have those areas in our life, so the goal is to submit more and more of those to Jesus and trust him. When I went into fulltime ministry I gave up a job and my career to go to a place where I didn’t speak the language and didn’t have the resources for. God taught me in that time a valuable lesson, trust me no matter what, I will take care of you. Jen and I both have been in missions for over 10 years and God took care of us every single month. It teaches you humility and also strengthens your faith. Our father is faithfull and he wants to be a part of every area of our life. So what are the areas you are holding on to? Find those areas and then start to give them to God. It will take you some time but keep doing it and trust me you will start to feel more freedom. If we don’t have to be in control but let the one that knows the absolute best take control we will be less stressed.

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen

P.s. San Francisco, besides Manhattan, is the most expensive city in the nation to live in. However, we believe God has called us to be missionaries in the urban world. Currently we are in need of $2,100 more a month to cover life and ministry costs. During the last few month God helped us by providing some wonderful new monthly supporters. We are now $1000 closer to the amount we need monthly!!  We’d like to offer you an opportunity to join us in engaging a city with a loving God.

This is what we are looking for

4 people that commit to give $200 a month
5 people that commit to give $100 a month
8 people that commit to give $50 a month
8 people that commit to give $25 a month
20 people that commit to give $10 a month

Or you can support us with any amount you would like. This could be monthly or as a one-time gift.  Anything helps. Under this link you can find all the info on how to support us.