How did your week go and especially how did it go to share Jesus with people? After we had a worship event in San Francisco at the beginning of July something changed and conversations about Jesus came more easily. Pray that God will open doors into your community!
Today we want to share a few testimonies with you how a few people that took the love your neighbor class at our church started to love on their neighbors.
So one person had a heart for music and they asked some musician friends if they could play in the backyard of his house. He set it up nicely and started the barbecue. Soon people showed up and enjoyed the music. The concert was a success and different people came including some neighbor kids. So God started to create community through this person.
Another person put on a barbecue as well and invited the whole apartment building to join and help to organize it. All the work for the setup got done because many helped together. Everyone came and had a wonderful time spending time together and getting to know each other. It was a big success and again it created a place for more community and getting to know each other to happen, by one person stepping up and getting others together.
One last testimony comes from a more upper-class neighborhood. One of the things that people had in common in that neighborhood was that many people had dogs. So that person decided to have a brunch called doggy brunch. All the dogs played in the backyard and the people ate together and connected. Each of them had a good time connecting and loved the time they had. This is another example of a person stepping up and through that, God worked to create community.
We want to inspire you through those testimonies to be a part of a movement of people that love their neighbor. God wants all of us to be the answer to loneliness and isolation wherever we live. God wants to use us to bring people together and to love our neighbor. It looks different wherever we are, but the idea is the same; be a true friend to the people around you!
Hey our friend
We hope you had a great week! We are still in Pennsylvania till Tuesday so this is a pre-written blog. Please pray with us in this time that many people are inspired in a new way to love their neighbors and with that see communities and neighborhoods transformed by the love of Jesus. If you could also keep us in Prayer transitioning back into San Francisco!
We will return to San Francisco August 1st.
Don’t forget this week to love your neighbor!!
Have a blessed week
Markus and Jen
This weeks vide blog is about sharing the One we care most about! Be inspired!!
We talked about many things hospitality can do and one last one is it can bring healing. Over the years we had so many deep conversations over dinner that brought healing to people. Sometimes it is the simple act of actually sitting around a table together with other people that brought healing from loneliness and isolation that that person experienced for years. It amazes me how much a little meal can change a person’s life. When you invite someone into your life and you create a safe place for them, they will be open and God can start to bring healing from hurt and lies the enemy placed into their lives. John 21:15-19 shares the story of Jesus and Peter after Peter denied him 3 times. It was right after a meal that Jesus asked him if he loves him. That conversation brought up hurt and shame in Peter because of breaking his promise to Jesus that he would never deny him. But Jesus rebuilds the trust with a few simple questions over a meal. So that time that just started as a meal set up Peter to become the man Jesus would build his church on. So a simple conversation can destroy lies and bring healing.
One of the things many people are longing for is a place of belonging, a family. When you provide hospitality in your home you invite your neighbors into family. I remember a thanksgiving meal at our house where we went around the table and had everyone share what they were thankful for and the answer was pretty much the same for everyone that came; the feeling of family around this table. When you open up your home and invite neighbors in it is different than if you go out to a restaurant, You invite people into your home and your family. So hosting a dinner can change the perspective someone has about family. Some people might have never had a loving family, but now experience being loved. Some people might have never received an invitation to a home, but now they are sitting at the table eating dinner together. In Psalms it talks about that God will put the lonely into families and we can all have a part in that by offering hospitality. But its not just a great thing for the neighbor that joins you, its also a blessing for you. Our lives are so enriched by neighbors being family to us too. Home doesn’t end at our fence anymore but it spills over into many other houses around us!
This week we want to write about how hospitality can create a safe place for people to be open. Many times in our today’s society we talk bad about other people if they are not around. Proverbs 11.13 says that a gossip betrays a confidence but a trustworthy person keeps a secret. When you host dinners or brunches or other events at your home, make sure to stir the conversation away from the gossip of others. It might be hard first and feel awkward, but it then creates a safe place. People see your heart and see that you don’t talk bad about others so if they want to share something with you, they can because you won’t slander them either. So you created a safe place for everyone to be open and real. And that is true for yourself as well. You now have the opportunity to share as well because you also feel safe.