How did you start to be interdependent with your neighbors? In the longterm you will notice that it will deepen your relationships.
This week we have another video blog with the topic small things bring big change. We pray it encourages you!!
Hey our friend
We hope you had a great week. We had a great little vacation and feel refreshed through being out in nature. It is awesome how God gives us a relaxing time when we need it. Its just important to listen to Him about that so He can guide us.
This coming week we planned quite a few things here in San Francisco. Pray with us for a good start after the vacation!
It is a real blessing to know you!! Have a blessed week and don’t forget to do 5 little things for people in your neighborhood!!
This week we have a video blog which we recorded during our book writing trip. Enjoy!!
Hey our friend
How was your Easter weekend? Did you have some neighbors over for a meal? Ours was great we watched the movie Risen and also had a nice lunch with neighbors. This coming week we will be on a vacation which will be nice.
We hope the testimonies encouraged you to step out in your community. This week its about Easter and how your testimony can encourage people.
This week will celebrate one of the most important holidays in Christian history, Easter. We all know the story of Easter and how Jesus came to open the door for reconciliation with the Father and to set us free from sin. Easter is celebrated widely in the church, but a lot of people outside of the church don’t even know about that deeper meaning of it. For many it’s a celebration of the Easter Bunny and finding gifts. But we forget about the greatest gift we get on Easter. But this is a great way to connect with people. Why don’t you invite someone over to your house for Easter for a meal with your family and share naturally during conversation why Easter is important to you.
We wanted to see the Son of God movie for Easter but instead of watching it alone we invited our neighbor friends to join us. It opened up great conversation and helped people to see Jesus in a new way and even understand Easter better. It’s simple, but it those simple things bring the love of Jesus to people because you invite someone in your life and in the same way through showing his love you show them the one who loves them even more. It doesn’t have to be a sermon, just share your story and what Jesus means to you.
Ask yourself why Jesus and your faith is important to you and how it changed your life.
Think this week who you could invite over for Easter dinner and then do it.
Hey our friend
We hope your week was wonderful!! Our week was great with a big birthday celebration of a friend and our wonderful times in the neighborhood it went by so fast. We also had our first session for our love your neighbor class at our church. It is exciting to see how the vision starts to spread. Our students took of for outreach to Italy and Greece and will work with refugees in those countries. Keep them in your Prayers.
We also want to wish you a blessed Easter time!! Remember He is risen and that is what our hope is built on!!
How were you able to take care of your neighbors last week? We are sure however you did it you were a blessing!!
This week we just want to share 2 stories with you about how much of a blessing it is to love your neighbor and how much it changes lives. A few days ago I got a free ride from Lyft and I used it to go into the woods to go for a hike. On the way there I encouraged the driver and I found out we live really close to each other. So I invited him to our game night the day after. He was moved by the invite and came. He had a great time getting to know the other neighbors that came and played his first bingo game. Each guest brought a small silly gift as a prize for the bingo game. So when it was his turn to win he picked one of the prices and it included a fortune cookie. He opened it and everyone asked what it said because he seemed really moved. He didn’t want to share first but then he did. It said today you will find what you were looking for. Then he said he was looking for family and he felt like family with all of us and it was something he wanted for a long time. All of us around the table were moved by it too. And it was a simple invite.
For Thanksgiving, we hosted a big meal at our house and invited our neighbor friends. Many people came and our apartment was full. We had friends from all over the neighborhood and all the different places we are connected to. We also had the full age range as well as all different walks of life from rich to poor. During the dinner time, Jen asked everyone to share about what they are thankful for. The common answer was this moment with people, sitting around this table and talking and spending time together. Someone said it was the first meal at a table with a family since home 3 years ago, another said they would have eaten at a restaurant but his mom convinced him to go and he gave us a hug later with tears in his eyes saying thank you so much. And again it was a simple open home.
We hope those 2 stories inspire you to invite your neighbors over and become friends with them. We all need a place to belong so let us create those places!!
Hey our friend
We hope your week was great!! We got back from our writing trip last week on Tuesday and it was a successful time. God really inspired us during the time. When we got back we had a neighborhood watch meeting and also a wonderful brunch. It was awesome!! We feel so blessed by all of our neighbor friends around us and our heart is to inspire others to love their neighbors too. So let’s do it!! This will also be the last week before our DTS Students leave for Outreach. Please keep them in your prayers!!
Thank you for all your prayers. You guys are a blessing to us!!
How did your encouragement time go during the last week? We hope great!! This week we want to write about how God takes care of us through community
From the beginning of the bible to the end we see how much God saw that need for community. It started with Adam and him being alone. Then God made Eve so Adam had a community and a helper to support each other. When we look at Jesus and his disciples we notice how they took care of each other. Each one of them had a role and through fulfilling that role everyone was helped as well. It made them able to function as a community and made them able to do all the things they were doing. You see that later on in Acts as well. The early church shared everything with each other and through that people thrived.
Jen and I have been in YWAM for a long time and every month God took care of us, and how did He do it? He did it through a community of people. Each one of them has a part in helping us to walk out what God called us to do. So God doesn’t just let money rain down from heaven, no he uses community to take care of us. The same is true for a job. It doesn’t matter if you run the business or if you are a worker in it. Whatever you do you need people to buy what you make and you also you need people that work together with you to make the thing happen. Again God is providing work through a community of people.
What about our neighbors? Again God wants to take care of them too through community. That is why Jesus said that the second greatest job is to love your neighbor as you love yourself. So God is calling us to be in community with our neighbors. He wants to take care of them through us. We are His hand and feet that bring change. So when we love our neighbor all those things are put in Action and change their lives and our lives. And then another thing happens, our neighbor starts loving us back and then we have a community.
So what is God Asking of you?
Who does he want to take care of through you and bring community?
Ask Him this week to show you how he took care of you through different communities and how he is using you to do the same!!
Hey our friend
We hope you had an amazing week!! We are still on our writing trip. We are getting back this Tuesday night. This coming Sunday we start teaching a 5 week class at our church to empower and encourage people to love there neighbors too. Please keep us in your prayers for this class as well pray for a good attendance.
Let 2017 be year were we all start loving our neighbors in a deeper way and in return being loved back by them!!
How did you start to be interdependent with your neighbors? In the longterm you will notice that it will deepen your relationships.
This week we have a video blog which we recorded during our book writing trip. Enjoy!!
We hope the testimonies encouraged you to step out in your community. This week its about Easter and how your testimony can encourage people.
How were you able to take care of your neighbors last week? We are sure however you did it you were a blessing!!
How did your encouragement time go during the last week? We hope great!! This week we want to write about how God takes care of us through community