Tag Archives: neigborhood

The danger of Comparison

Leave a reply

“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

Build up your Courage Part 2

Leave a reply

Build up your courage Part 2Last week we talked about how you can build up your courage by reminding yourself about Gods faithfulness in your own life as well as in the lives of the Psalm writers. This week we will share a few more ways that helped us.

When you have a big vision for something it often takes time to achieve it. I remember many times were I was thinking how is this all going to work out. Yes I saw little things happening, but the little things were not totally at the point of making the whole vision happening. So I spent lots of time in Prayer and got encouraged from God to keep going. So Prayer really pushed my courage to a new level.

Another thing I learned to build up courage is to celebrate little achievements along the way. When  you set little milestones along the way that can be achieved and you start celebrating each one of them you will see how it will give you a boost in courage. As an example: Your big goal is to bring hope to your neighborhood. Start off with setting little goals to achieve the big one. Bring hope to one neighbor by encouraging them. After you have done that, celebrate that milestone with a little reward (Chocolate, a movie, ice cream etc.).

2 Steps:

  1. Spend time in Prayer this week and let God give you courage and perspective!
  2. Second split up the way to your big goal in little goals and each time you reach one of the smaller goals celebrate with something little!

Hey our friend

20160425_130754-COLLAGEWow what a week. The Cities conference was amazing!! We had about 34 cities from places like South Africa to India, Mexico and the US represented by about 100 conference attendees. We all felt encouraged to hear from all different places about what they do and share with them about what we do. Many people were inspired and encouraged about the aspect of building community. Again what a wonderful conference week!

Have a blessed week and remember to keep building up your courage!!

Markus and Jen

Love your neighbor Part 13 Be a hope Giver

Leave a reply

love your neighbor part 13In this blog series we want to show you that it is actually really easy to make an impact where you live. We hope you start to see that more by reading this series!

About 1.5 years ago we started an Encouragement Group at our local Coffee Shop. The purpose of the group is to encourage people and bring hope. Its been amazing to see what it does to all the people in the group including us. We normally start with a time of sharing how our week went and then we go into a time about sharing some things that encouraged us during this week and brought us hope. At the end people can ask for encouragement. It totally changes the outlook on life when you have someone speak hope into your life.

I also saw that a lot at the place where we live. Encouraging a neighbor in their dreams and speaking hope into them changes perspective. When you look at things from a perspective of hope you are more likely not giving up. When you look at things from despair, chances you give up are very high.

So how can you do it? When someone shares something with you that is not hope giving share something that’s opposite. Give Father God’s perspective on things. Example: “I saw in the news today that the economy is struggling again. I might lose my job.” Instead of agreeing share about new jobs being created every day and how God kept that person for a long time in that job even in hard times. Walk them through a time of seeing truth again. Help them to get a switch of perspective by looking at things from an angle of hope. Hope is something that is really needed in todays time.

  1. Start listening to what you say and see if you look at things with hope or despair.
    1. If you look at things with despair, ask God to help you change your perspective and look at things with hope.
    2. Ask God daily for an opportunity to speak hope into a neighbor or someone else’s life. Do this till it becomes a normal thing that you just do automatically.

Hey our friend

We had a great week here in San Francisco. We hope yours was wonderful too. After the Block Party things slowed down a little bit which was really nice. We went to a thank you dinner from the Italian community center and spoke at a school that empowers people to bring Jesus into their workplace. We also had friends visiting from Germany which was amazing!! We had a really good time showing them around San Francisco. Its always so nice to see friends from our home places.

Our DTS students also started well in North beach. Keep praying for them and all the work that is going on here. Thanks for all your prayers!

Over the last few month we lost $287 in monthly support through changes of circumstances in peoples lives. So at this point we need about $1560 more in monthly support. We want to ask for your help in sharing with people you know that have a heart for missions and would be interested in joining our support team. Of course if you are not a part of it you are welcome to join as well! When you click on this link you find out more how to do that. Thank you for all your help in this area.

Walk through this week as someone that brings hope to neighbors and people in your life!

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen

Invest in your neighborhood Part 2 Strategy

Leave a reply

strategyWE hope you had some time to look at the different areas in your neighborhood in which help is needed. This week we want to write about on how to be strategic in moving forward in those areas.

  1. Time: This is a really important point to plan a successful strategy. Think about how much time you want to invest each week. Plan realistically and don’t forget the areas that already use time in your planning(Family time, Church, Hobbies, Rest). Also think about how long you would like the project to go 1 year, 5 years etc.
  2. What do you need? In order to have a good strategy you need to realistically asses the things you have and the things you need. As an example, if you start helping out at a project that already exists you don’t need a lot. Or if you start picking up trash in your neighborhood all you need is some gloves and a trash bag. But if you are tackling a bigger thing, you might need more people and resources. Also think about if you can work on this project together with your family. Ok start thinking about what you need!
  3. Come up with a plan! Now you are at a point in which you have planned for resources and time but you haven’t come up with a schedule. To move things forward it is always important to have a plan, since often things that are not planned moved back on the priority list and eventually are forgotten. Write in your calendar the times that you want to do the work. Write down what you plan to do in those times, as an example: Thursday April 30th 5-6pm Prayer time for the new project, 6-8pm Work on the project, pick up trash on Ellis street.
    As more detailed you plan, as more you can make a difference. But really important, planning should always come out of praying. It is really important to get Gods heart and His plan! We often saw how God gave us different strategies then we planned during times of Prayer.

And now it’s time to start! Have a wonderful time coming up with a strategic plan!

Hey our friend

We hope you had a wonderful week. We had an event with a local neighborhood association we are involved with. During the evening the new President was elected and different other board members for various roles. Jen is still part of the board in her role as the social event planner. Please pray that we can keep being a blessing in every part we are involved.

May God give you a strategic week! Remember that you are amazing and loved!!

Markus and Jen