Tag Archives: Neighborhood

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 – A deep need

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Love your neighbor a deep needHow was your time last week? Where you able to do things together with your neighbors?

This week we want to share about a deep need that we saw for so many years. Many people in our cities and our world are longing for it, but often can’t find it. The need for community!! Again when we look at the example of the life of Jesus we notice that he build a community around him. He took the first steps to invite people in. He talked to his later disciples and they followed him. They must have felt his love to a degree.

So what does that mean for us? If we want community we can’t just say I want community, we have to do our steps. We have to go up to our neighbors and build relationship. We have to be the ones that invite them into our live and not expect them to come to us. Over the last few weeks we gave some first step tips for that, but it is not a structure system. Relationship has to be build natural. But you have to make an effort. I give you an example. I went out for a run in the morning and while doing that I ran into a neighbor. I said hello to him every time I saw him and after a while we started to talk a bit more. After talking a bit more we invited him to our house for a game night. It was a simple way of building a friendship with someone. So it gave me something to look forward to doing my runs in the morning seeing my friend and for him it did the same thing. It also probably motivated and challenged us to have someone else that is exercising out there.

Take this week some simple steps towards becoming friends with people. I don’t know how it looks like for you in your area, but if you take an effort you will find out.

  1. Think about how you started your other friendships and then start building it with neighbors.
  2. Invite some neighbor into your life by saying hey and getting to know them.

Instead of looking for community be the one who brings community!

Hey our friend

We hope your week was great!! We had a wonderful brunch and a game night at our house. We also got the chance to connect with different neighbor friends which is awesome!! All of us also really enjoyed watching The Shack movie together. Invite a friend and go together to see it. Also make sure to bring tissues when you see it.

Have a blessed week and remember that God is not done with you!!

Markus and Jen

Love your Neighbor – Do things together

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Love your neighbor Do things togetherDid you get a project together in the last week? What was it in your area?

One thing that really stood out to me about Jesus was the fact that most of the time he did things together. He walked with his disciples ate with them and did tasks with them together. That brought a great sense of togetherness.

When you look at a neighborhood and neighbors in that context, how do you think it could look like there? As an example if you go grocery shopping don’t go by yourself, go together with a neighbor. All of us have to go grocery shopping and usually it’s a good way to connect while driving there. Instead of using 2 cars, use 1. It doesn’t just save you gas, but its also good for the environment. It creates an immediate sense of community.

Here is an action step:
Before you go grocery shopping this week, talk to your neighbor that you know the best if they would like to go together!

Hey our friend

We hope your week was amazing!! This week we had a team here from Colorado that wanted to learn about how they can love their neighbors. It was a wonderful time. We also had our half yearly Evaluation meeting which was this time hold in San Francisco. It was an encouraging time. This coming Friday we will watch the Movie the Shack together with our Encouragment Group. Make sure to see it. It comes out March 3rd.

Thank you for all your Prayers and support. You are truly a blessing!!

May this week be a week of Hope!!

Markus and Jen

Love your Neighbor – Find ways to help!

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Love your neighbor find ways to helpLast week we wrote about giftings and how important it is to use them. Today we want to talk about ways to help.

When we look at Jesus we always see how he helped others. It might have been through dinner for a huge crowd or washing the feet of the disciples. Jesus was always about helping others and he always meets a need that was there.

But how can we help our neighbors or our neighborhood? The first thing we have to do is find out what is actually needed. One of the things in our area is dogs. We have more dogs here than children. Many people have dogs and also full-time jobs. So if you are a stay home neighbor you could offer your neighbor to take their dog for a walk during the day. Another one is a cleanup project. A few years ago our DTS students helped to clean up trash from the side of the streets. It’s a great way to help the area, but also you get to meet your neighbors in a positive way.

Help does not always look the same. Spend some time pondering on those questions.

  1. Find out how you can help and also what is needed.
  2. Set a goal and a time by when you want to do it.
  3. Start doing it, and involve your family and neighbors too if possible!

Hey our friend

We hope you had a great week. We finally had some sunshine again which is amazing!! We had so many great times with our neighbors this week. A paella night, A Louisiana gumbo night and then we had a game night at our house. When you spend time together you get to know each other and for us and our neighbor friends that is a total blessing.  Find a night in your week to have some time with your neighbors.

Remember this week that you are amazing and loved by Father God!

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