Tag Archives: hoffnung

Love your Neighbor – Be positive

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Love your neighbor Be postiveWhere you able to start some conversations last week to move towards friendship? Trust us you will be blessed through it!!

Jesus was amazing in the area of positivity. He always saw the positive for people and in people. When he told Peter that he will be the Rock that he will build his church on I’m sure Peter wasn’t that convinced about it.  He just failed Jesus big time and I don’t think he could believe that something so positive could come out of his life. But Jesus insisted and when we look back he builds his church on Peter.

All of us are always bombarded with the negative of the world and also the things that we are not good at. It’s very easy that those things can bring us down. But in the same way, the opposite is true as well.  When we speak positively it can lift people up. You see it with Peter and how the truth changed him. So when you have a conversation with a neighbor and it involves a lot of negativity about life, share something uplifting and positive. It is amazing how a little thing can change the outlook for the rest of the day. It can be something little as I am so thankful for the sunshine.

How to get started:

  1. Fast from negativity. For 1 week let everything you say positive and uplifting.
  2. See how your attitude towards life is changing.
  3. Share something positive with your neighbors or coworkers. It can be anything that is uplifting to you.

Hey our friend

We had a wonderful week here in San Francisco. We had our North beach small group and had many people come over for dinners. Again those things really bring deeper relationship and you get to know each other so much better. I (Markus) also had a board meeting this week where I serve on the finance committee.  It’s encouraging to see how God is using the gifting’s he placed in us. What gifting’s did He place in you? When you know them you can see more how God is using you! I love how Peter talks in 1. Peter 4.11 to use the giftings God has given us to bring Glory to Him. Let us keep doing that!!

Remember this week that you are amazingly gifted and talented!

May God bless you

Markus and Jen

Love your Neighbor – Use your giftings

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Love your neighbor use your giftingsLast week we talked about things that can hold us back.  This week we want to write about how we can use the gifts that we have to bless our neighbors.

Jesus as the son of God could have walked the earth and let everybody do everything for him, but he didn’t. He served people through his whole life. If it was through healing (The blind man who wanted to see gets healed John 9), conversations (Talking to Nicodemus at night John 3), encouragement (encouraging Mary that she has value by standing for her when they tried to stone her John 8), prophetic words (sharing with Peter about the rooster Matthew 26.34 but also about how he builds his church on him Matthew 16.18) etc. These are just a few examples of how he used the gifting’s he had. He was always generous with all of them and used each one of them with people around Him.

Each one of us has gifts that God has given us. But now the question is, are we hoarding them or are we using them to make an impact in our neighborhood? As an example: I have the gift of encouragement so one of the things I do is encouraging neighbors and people around me. I remember many stories of how people kept feeling encouraged for a long time from just a little word. You could be a good listener and you could bless people through that. Or you could be a baker and bless neighbors through some home-baked specialties. There are so many giftings that people have and it would take books to write them all down, but the point is to use them in your neighborhood!

Do the following this week:

  1. Find out what giftings you have.
    1. Pray and Ask God to show you some of the giftings he placed in you.
    2. Assess the things you are good in and like to do.
    3. Ask your close friends to tell you what giftings they see in you.
  2. Think about ways how you can use them to bless your neighbors and people around you.
  3. Start doing it by the end of the week and then keep doing it

Hey our friend

Rain in San FranciscoWe hope you had a fantastic week. We are still in a rainy season in San Francisco and let me tell you it rains a lot as you can see a bit on the picture out of our window! But besides the rain, we had lots of dinners and events with people from the community. Just to tell you about a few: a German brunch, a dinner with a friend from a coffee shop, a Community night at YWAM. It was wonderful to be a part of all of those.

One thing that really encouraged me in the last week was the super bowl. Neither Jen nor I are really into sports, but this game was inspiring. One of the teams was at one point 25 points behind and everyone was saying that no team ever came back from being behind 10 points so it sounded impossible. But then the team didn’t give up and kept playing the game and guess what, they ended up winning. So no matter how things look like or what people say, don’t give up!! Nothing is impossible with God!!

We want to wish you a blessed week and remember God is on our side!!

Markus and Jen

How to train your caring muscle

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How to train your caring muscleIn the city of San Francisco dogs outnumber children. I don’t know another place where people love their animals so much. Jen and I both really love animals but the level people love them here is above us. But how do you understand and care more for things that people around you care so much about. Immerse yourself into their culture. So recently Jen went to a class to volunteer at a local shelter in which the people shared passionately about the animals and why it is important that we care. When she came back she had a greater understanding and heart for people that love their pets so much. All it took for her was to get immersed into the things people care about here and to understand why they care about it.

The biggest dog we have ever seenWhen you do that it changes your heart towards people. From a value system based on what we think is important to a value system that values what is important to others. Of course with that also be wise, pray and don’t go against your biblical believes.

We want to challenge you to increase your caring muscle by looking at your community and see how you can care more about the things they care about!

  1. Find out what your community cares about
  2. Hear someone speak on that who is excited about it.
  3. Get a heart for it and connect through that with the people in your community

Hey our friend

We hope you had a fantastic week!! This week we had a lot of meetings. A board meeting at YWAM, a meeting about a prayer event for San Francisco and our usual Staff Meeting. As much as most of us are not excited about meetings, they are needed to get things done and also catch up on the process. You also get to know sometimes great people which otherwise you would have never met. I have to remind myself of that when I am in them. We also had a Visitor from Germany which was awesome!!

Start this week with training your caring muscle!

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen

Life or death what do you choose?

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The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. Proverbs 12.18

life or deathA few years ago I got into a random conversation with a stranger, which then ended up being a conversation of hope. I was able to speak hope into the life of this person in a moment of deep despair. 2 Years later I randomly saw this person again and this is what they said: “The words you spoke to me kept going around my mind and encouraged me and helped me to keep moving forward till today and they are still in my memory.” What we say really affects people.

Many times words are said way too easy without thinking of what consequences it would have. But then often words that should be said are not ever said. I think one of the challenges in today’s society is how we talk about others. What words are we using when we talk to and about people in our life? That counts for any person, church, place etc. we talk about or with. One thing that is really key, is for us as Christians to model how we talk with and about others. Are our words uplifting? Are they building the person up that we talk to? Or are they bringing the person down and giving them a wrong perspective of who they truly are?

Let us spend time this week to honestly evaluate our words and see where we need to improve. Let us live like Paul says in Ephesians 4.29: Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

Hey our friend

We hope you had a super wonderful week. Last week my brother visited us from Germany which was a huge blessing. It always so good to see family. We were able to go with him to a wedding in Seattle which was a lot of fun. Remember this week your family and reach out to them.

Walk through this week evaluating your words and if needed improve them so they bring life!

May God bless you

Markus and Jen

The danger of Comparison

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“Comparison is the thief of joy” Theodore Roosevelt

the danger of comparison“My youth group is smaller than the youth group in this other church. I’m worried people in my church start looking at me as a failure.” I heard this sentence or similar ones many times during my years of working with youth Pastors in YWAM. And often it was true, the other church really had a bigger youth group. But are numbers the indicator of success? Many times I noticed that those smaller groups were actually way more connected and often more in love with Jesus then the bigger ones. But again this is not always true either.

One of the big lies the enemy tells us that we have to compare ourselves to others to see our value and our place in life. But reality is when we do that we will always fall short. There will always be someone that is better than us in a specific area. But the reality is, God made each one of us unique, so comparing ourselves takes away the impression God wants to bring to this world through us. We try to become someone we are not. We idolize somebody else because we think they have it more together then us. But when we live the way God made us to be without comparing ourselves to others we actually live a life of more freedom. Not just that we model something to others, but we also give them the freedom to be who they are. I remember a long time ago I was spontaneously dancing with a friend who didn’t like to dance, and when I dance I don’t really care what people think and just have fun. When I did that she was able to do the same and since that moment she loves dancing without fear. Not just that I was totally myself in that moment, but through that I helped her to become totally herself.

I want to challenge and encourage us to take an honest look at our lives and see where we compare ourselves to others. After we know the area we need to ask God to show us how he made us to be and then start living in that.

Hey our friend

We hope you had a super wonderful week. With many different events the week flew by so fast. On the 12th we celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary which was really awesome!! Marriage is such a wonderful thing! Jen also helped this week to plan our YWAM summer Staff retreat which will be awesome. It is exciting to see what God is doing here in the city and how he brings hope to different people just through being in there life. Make sure to be a friend to your neighbors. You will be blessed!!

Don’t forget this week to not compare yourself.

May God bless you

Markus and Jen