Many times I read the story of the Lady at the well in John 4. I love how Jesus brought change to that lady. He did everything needed to get her attention and to help her find freedom.

The first thing he does he talks to her. Jesus broke the boundary of talking to a woman and then also a Samaritan one. Both of them were looked down on in that society Jesus lived in, a Jew would never talk to a Samaritan and especially if she was a woman. But Jesus didn’t care about culture, he cared about the person.
Second he talks to her about a solution, a way to freedom. He tells her about the living water He has that can set her free from a inner thirst for more. Jesus is first giving a solution before he addresses the problem.
Third he calls out her problem. Jesus talks to her about her husbands. From the beginning to the end of that conversation Jesus always showed love but also addressed the area in her life that has to be dealt with
Fourth He reveals himself. Jesus tells the lady that he is the Savior she is waiting for. That causes the lady to run back to the town, share her testimony about Jesus and cause through that an excitement in the town that the whole town came along. That day salvation started for many people in that region. And why? Because Jesus put value on one person that nobody valued.

So when we look at that story we see how Jesus brought people into the Kingdom. It was mainly through love and caring for someone in a powerful way. He didn’t judge, but shared the truth. He didn’t create fear, but instead gave a solution. He didn’t care about his status, instead he choose to love no matter what.

I want to encourage each one of us to share the good news about Jesus with people but to do it in a way that people can understand and also see that he is really the best thing that can happen to them!

Hey our friend

We hope you had a wonderful week. Jen and I both got better from a pretty bad cold we caught. We also had a meeting with all the bay area works. It was good to see everyone and hear what God has been doing in all the different places. Our DTS Students are doing well in North beach and have a wonderful time at the boys and girls club. Keep praying for them to be able to encourage many of the kids at the Club!

Lets ask God this week to open the door for us to share the good news with someone in our lives!

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen

Growing up I heard many times said that Satan was the Angel that was in charge of Worship. When you look at the bible you find a verse in Ezekiel 28.13 that talks about it, but it is not super clear. So true or not that he was the worship leader in heaven, think about it, why do so often things come up when we try to worship God? They come up, because it will keep our focus away from the one our life is really about. The one that has all the answers, the one who wants good things for us. When we worship, our focus moves away from us and instead focuses on our loving father who knows who we truly are. Satan is trying to keep us away from that since it would mean more trouble for him. Imagine, any Christian on this planet truly knows the love the father has for them, how would Satan keep intimidating them?

We want to encourage you to start this week of making worship an essential part of your life. May it be in the car, your bedroom or wherever you feel comfortable! We promise you, you will not regret it!!

 Hey our friend

We hope you had a wonderful week. Here in San Francisco we are having lots of rain in this season which is really helping with the drought that is going on here for years. Sometimes it can be easy to complain about something like rain because it hinders us in the moment, but then forget that we need the water in our everyday life. Thank you God for providing rain!

Please join us this week in Prayer for our new students that arrive. Pray that they will get a clearer picture of what God calls them to do with there lives.

We wish you a blessed week and a great time in Worship!!

Markus and Jen

Back home in Germany we celebrate the 4 Sundays before Christmas, called Advent, by burning a candle for each Sunday on the Advent wreath and by preparing our hearts for Christmas and the good news that came with it. Each of the candles symbolizes something different and we will write about the meanings for the next 4 weeks.

The fourth candle on the Advent wreath is also called the Angel Candle or the Candle of Love. What do you think when you think of the word love? Maybe a Hollywood love story where a couple walks down the beach together into the sunset. Or maybe a pair of shoes you just recently bought. The word love is used in so many ways but rarely in its true meaning.  But what is true love? Paul describes it in 1. Corinthians 13 the passage used in so many weddings. It talks about a sacrifice and giving up some of our own rights for someone else. It doesn’t even mention that feeling of butterflies which we only connect with love. One of the most famous and most quoted bible verses speak about true love, John 3.16.

For God so loved the world that he send his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Again a verse that talks about giving and sacrifice. When we think of Christmas and what love God has brought to us we actually see true love in Action. He cares so much about each one of us that he put the most precious thing on the line, his son. He did it so we can be reconciled with him. But the thing is he had no guarantee that people would actually take the amazing gift he gave them.  What if only one person on the planet would have chosen to believe in Jesus? Do you think God would still think it was a worthy cause? I believe he would. And that is the love that is shown to us at Christmas. A love that sacrifices, heals broken things, reconciles and many more.

1. When you reflect on this love for you personally, read the verse above and replace world with your name and let it go to your heart.
2. After you did that replace it with the name of someone in your area that doesn’t know Jesus yet and start praying that they will experience that love of the father and make a decision for him.
3. And now take an action step and live your life with such a sacrificial love with every person out there. Mother Teressa was asked once what she finds when she gave all the love away. Her answer was More love!

Remember Jesus came at Christmas time to save the world, he didn’t come so each of us can have some extra ties and socks in there closet! So let us live our lives with love in action.

Hey our friend

We hope you had a wonderful week. Wow only a few more days and Christmas is here. We are excited to celebrate with our neighbor friends. It will be an amazing time. During this and the last week we wrapped up most of the things so Christmas can come. We baked cookies together and blessed many neighbors with a Christmas card and a little plastic bag filled with homemade cookies. Its sometimes the simple things that can truly make a difference.

Also we want to say thank you to all who support us in our work here through Prayer and finances! You are a huge blessing to us! May god bless you richly!

We have a request for you! To do the work we are doing we depend 100% on support. Over the last few months we lost about $287 in monthly support through changes of circumstances in people’s lives. So at this point we need about $1410 more in monthly support to be fully funded and about $8,850 more to reach our full budget for this year. 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 monthly or with a year end donation. 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. All donations are tax deductible. Thank you for all your help in this area.

Start this week with a lifestyle of sacrificial loving of people right around you.

We wish you a blessed Christmas week with your family. We are blessed to have each one of you in our life!!

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen

Back home in Germany we celebrate the 4 Sundays before Christmas, called Advent, by burning a candle for each Sunday on the Advent wreath and by preparing our hearts for Christmas and the good news that came with it. Each of the candle symbolizes something different and we will write about the meanings for the next 4 weeks.

The second candle on the Advent wreath is also called the Bethlehem Candle or the Candle of Preparation. The time before Jesus was born was a preparation time for His family. They had to get ready to go to Bethlehem while being pregnant. If you think about the preparation it takes to go on a journey today, imagine that 2000 years ago without cars, busses planes etc. Traveling was a hard thing in that time so you had to be prepared for everything since you couldn’t just pick up things you forgot easily.

What about us and our journey with God? Advent is a time of preparation for our personal journey with him. Getting ready for Christmas doesn’t just mean to get all the gifts, bake all the cookies and clean the house. No preparation also means preparing our hearts. How do we do that? We do it by spending time with Him. It could be by meditating on scriptures from the bible, praying, spending time in silence in His presence or any other things that you do to spend time with Him. When our heart, mind, soul and spirit focus is on Him Christmas will be a different celebration. All the things we normally do at that time become secondary and the true reason why we celebrate Christmas is becoming the number one.

We want to encourage you this week to get ready for Christmas by preparing during your times with him.  Start reading the bible stories that lead up to Christmas. If you have the chance share the special things you got out of those times with a friend or maybe also people that don’t know Jesus yet.

Hey our friend

Wow this week was a whirlwind. I Markus was speaking at a Christian business man meeting which was a great time. Thank you God! Then we had a game night and a brunch at our house as well we celebrated early Christmas with our YWAM Bay area Family. It was a week of Christmas celebration and speaking. It also always opens the door for great conversations about our love for Jesus. Use this time to do that!!

Also we want to say thank you to all who support us in our work here through Prayer and finances! You are a huge blessing to us! May god bless you richly!

We have a request for you! To do the work we are doing we depend 100% on support. Over the last few months we lost about $287 in monthly support through changes of circumstances in people’s lives. So at this point we need about $1410 more in monthly support to be fully funded and about $8.950 more to reach our full budget for this year. 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 monthly or with a year end donation. 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. All donations are tax deductible. Thank you for all your help in this area.

Spend every day this week some time with Him to prepare for Christmas.

Have a blessed week

Markus and Jen