Last day of School

Well almost reached the finished line. Today (Monday Dec. 8th) is my last day at the university. The time just flew by, if you ask me it went to fast. During this time here in Canada I fell in love with the people, culture and country and it will be hard to leave all of this behind. But till my departure I still have stuff to do, such as final exams or my farewell party. I'll have just three final exams due to just attending three courses this semester, so that isn't to bad. The most important exam will be the Psychology exam, this because it is the last required course for my degree.

I thank you for your prayer for this last two weeks.

May God bless you

car for sale

FOUND A BUYER 
car no longer available

Are you looking for a car or you know of someone that is looking for a car! So please contact me, I have a car for sale. Find below more information about the car.

Prize	CAD 4'000
Year	2005
Trim	XR
Make	Toyota
Model	Matrix
Kilometers	310'000
Body Type	Wagon
Transmission	Manual
Colour	Blue
Drivetrain	Front-wheel drive (FWD)
Fuel Type	Gasoline

And find here some more information about this car:

Would like to sell my car immediately.
The car has some scratches on the outside as well as inside. It's never been smoked in. It has been mostly driven on HWY's. The clutch was just resently replaced. All oil changes were made with full syntetic oil. A New ignition control modual was replaced 30000km ago. The car comes with 2 sets of tires (Summer and Winter). The car has AC as well as a car starter. The fuel economy is 6.5 l/100km

Please get in touch with me if you are interested. joelinkanada@gmail.com

My last few weeks

Well the end is approaching. Around a month left till my return to Switzerland. But first I want to continue where I left of last time.
Sadly I didn't have the opportunity to take some picture of the Welcome Back Weekend in Camrose. But it was a good time and I had the chance to catch up with Friends and Staff from my time at CLBI. I also had the chance to visit the church that I went to during the last year. It was a huge blessing being back at that church and realizing how supportive they are. As it is tradition at a CLBI Welcome Back Weekend we always play a game of football, current students against alumni students. The longer I'm here in Canada the more I like football and the more it makes fun. And maybe that was why I had the chance to make the first touchdown of the game. As in most of the years the alumni team won the game.
Two weeks later I had the chance to go to a wedding up in Fort St. John, BC. The trip was a pain due to the weather chance starting in Grand Prairie, AB. From that point on it was a fight to get to Fort St. John. The roads were either covered with snow or ice. The wedding on the next day was really beautiful and I enjoyed being there.
Here at the University everything is going good and the first preparation for the finals are starting. I have an other 3 weeks of school left and then two days of finals. After that I'm done.
If you live in the Edmonton area and you are friends with me on Facebook, you'll find an event that I created there with information of my departure date and time of the Edmonton airport. Hope to see you there.

Wish you all the best and till the next post (which I hope I'll still post while in Canada).

Half - time

Wow, it has already been over a month since my last blog entry. Since then a lot has happened. At school everything is going good and I am enjoying my last semester at the University here in Canada. I already now that I'll be missing this beautiful country a lot and that departing from here will not be easy. But sadly I can't stay in Canada, as I already mentioned it in the last post I'll be leaving Canada in December. For the months of February till April I almost have everything scheduled with work and  I'm already looking forward to that. I have the opportunity to see God's faithfulness towards me and His provision everyday new. And for that I thank God and all you who are praying for me. In regards to my future also some stuff have changed. I got an invitation to work for PróSERTÃO in Brazil for the summer of 2015. I received that over while I was still in Brazil and since then I was praying to God to show me his will. Every time that I was about to consider to go to Brazil I just felt that it wasn't the right time and that I should spend some time in Switzerland instead. So after 2ish months I decided to decline that offer and not go to Brazil in 2015. January 2015 will give me more details towards my long time missions work with SAM and MOVIDA. Till then I can say much about my future. My personal plan and goal is to stay in Switzerland till the end of 2015 and to strengthen my roots back home with Family and Friends. Well, this are the informations about what is still to be written in my personal History Book. :)
Here in Canada the summer is holding on a bit longer and giving us an amazing fall. Here a small joke about Canada, You know you're in Canada when your class at University is canceled to play Ultimate Frisbee outside due to nice weather and temperature in October :) . Well this is what happened today. I loved it. Instead of having a lecture we went outside and we were given the homework to read 4 pages in the textbook. How tuff, lol.
This up coming weekend CLBI will be hosting the Welcome Back Weekend for the alumni's of the last 5ish years. I hope to get some picture and then post them for you guys here.
Ok, this would be it for now.

God's richest blessing over you.

First few weeks

My first week of school is already behind me and I'm enjoying it so far. In this semester I'll be attending a Psychology class as well as two Computer Science classes. The Psychology class is the last required class that I have to take for my CLBI degree and the two Computer Science classes I'm taking to give me a full time student status as well as to reach my 30 credits that are required for my Bachelor. So far I'm really enjoying my classes and I'm already looking forward to what is to come.
Here in Canada the weather is being weird lately. On one weekend we had over 20ºC and the following Monday and Tuesday we had snow. Now a week later we have 20ºC again and it looks like we are going to pass the 20ºC mark this week again. Well you have to love Alberta, lol.
In my last Post I asked you to pray for me in regard of my future. This is still a big part of my life. For the month of January I'll "have to" fly out to Paraguay, South America. This because I have an offer to work for a missions organization called MOVIDA. During the month of January I'll be meeting the leadership of MOVIDA and we will get to know each other during this time. The mission is comes from Argentina but during the month of January they will have a youth missions congress in Paraguay and I'll be helping them as well as being part of that congress. The congress is similar to the one in the USA called URBANA.
I ask you to keep praying for this opportunity and that God show me His will and open the doors that need to be open and close the ones that should be closed.

Thank you so much and may God's blessing be upon you!

Looking back to Brazil

Well, now I'm back in Canada and I finally got time to post something again. The World Cup was very interesting. As you might already know Brazil didn't do that bad at the World Cup. In my opinion it wasn't their best soccer, but they reached semi-finals, which they didn't reach since 2002. But to accept this statement that Brazil had a good World Cup you have to forget about the 7:1 against Germany. This was probably the darkest day for Brazil in this decade. It was unbelievable what the German team did that day. How ever, this day is now history and it is a tabu topic in whole Brazil.

After the World Cup everything turned back to normal. During my stay in Brazil I had the chance to do different kind of things or just to be part of things. One of my main jobs was to help with the maintenance of our camp called Rancho da Lua. In the beginning of my stay in Brazil Micha (my brother) and I were asked to help out with the youth ministry. We did this for the first 6 weeks and after that we just helped out when needed. My next big job was to help out PróSERTÃO with their homepage and other graphic work. My time in Brazil was always filled with some kind of work, if not for the Rancho then for PróSERTÃO. During the World Cup our family drove to one of the host cities to watch a game. So we drove out to Fortaleza were Brazil played Mexico. We didn't go into the stadium but we watched the game with 35'000 other Brazilians and Mexican in the FIFA Fan mile. Obviously this was a highlight of my summer, even tough Brazil just did a 0:0 in that game.

After the World Cup work went on as normal. There is always work to do on the Camp and that kept me busy for the rest few weeks. During the month of August a friend from Canada came to visit me and so we traveled a bit through northern Brazil together with my Brother and his girlfriend. This vacation was a long time overdue. We spent a few days on the coast on the beach and after that we went into the Amazon area for an other week. On our second last day up in the Amazon rivers we had the chance to help the Organization PróRibeirinho out with a kids day. After that it was time for my friend and me to leave back to Canada. We left Portel (google maps) Sunday at noon and arrived in Belem (google maps) the next day at 6am. The trip from Portel to Belem was on a ship which meant that had to sleep (at least try) in  hammocks. On monday we had then our bus ride down to Teresina (google maps) and also on this trip we didn't sleep in beds. We arrived Teresina on Tuesday at noon and that left us enough time to pack and get ready for our flight back to Canada which left on Wednesday at 4am.  We arrived Canada Thursday night and finally got to sleep in a bed again, which we didn't had the chance since we left Portel on Sunday. This was probably my craziest trip that I did so far and also the most tiering. 

I'm happy to be back in Canada. I hope that I can finish all my required courses till December and that I can return to Switzerland without having to worry about my studies anymore. I already got my flight booked back to Switzerland, but what I'll be doing exactly after my stay here in Canada is still unclear. The month of January and May are already planned and for the summer I'm already in tough with the Swiss Alliance Mission for a summer job. So in regards to that I ask you for prayer. There are many questions that need to be answered and also many doors that need to be opened or closed.

Thank you and I whiz you God's blessing over you

FIFA World Cup 2014

Now the World Cup has finally started. Till around one week before the World Cup you couldn't notice anything of the World Cup especially in those cities which aren't hosting any games. But now all the streets are decorated and Brazil is surrounded completely by the World Cup (check my Word Cup Pictures that I have made so far).  June 16th my Family and I went to Fortaleza to watch on the 17th in the Fan Mile the Brazil vs. Mexico game. This video clip shows how the Brazilian fans are supporting their team 100%. It is pity that the game just ended with a 0 to 0. It would of been great to experience and to film the cheering of the fans. Now we hope that Brazil will do better in their last game and win it. Nothing is logical in this World Cup, the 2:2 from Germany and Ghana or the victory from Costa Rica over Uruguay and Italy and the nearly the victory from Iran over Argentina. All of this shows, that the unexpected has to be expected. I also hope that Switzerland can fix their mistake from the last game in their upcoming game. Well this is it for now from the World Cup. I'm doing good and I have a lot to do here on the Ranch. Before we left to Fortaleza my brother and I were fixing some washroom doors and their are a lot more to fix or renovate. 
I wish you a great World Cup and may our Lord bless you richly.

Back in Brazil

I'm already back in Brazil for almost 3 weeks again. The trip down here was good and I've landed safe and sound in Brazil. The hot temperature here is still a problem and I'm hopefully getting used to it again. I'm helping out on the Ranch were my parents live as well as helping out the mission PróSERTÃO. Everything is going good and I for sure will never be bored here. One week after my arrival my brother also arrived here in Brazil. I'm really glad to spend this summer with him here in Brazil.
As you know the soccer world championship is about to start here in Brazil and the preparations are going crazy. But here in Teresina you barely notice anything of this. To be honest you barely notice that the world cup is less than a month a way. However, I'm really exited to be here and experience this adventure. I hope the best for Switzerland as well as for Brazil. Brazil vs. Switzerland in the final would be the best. :)
Meanwhile I also got my marks back from my winter term. Check out the picture below. I think I can be happy with this.

Ok, this is all for now. I wish you all the best and God's richest blessings.

End of Semester

Sorry for this delay, but now I finally got time to write the english version of my last blog entry.
I finally finished this semester and got already all my finals behind me. I arrived on Tuesday evening back here in Brazil and I'm enjoying the time here so far. During this last semester at school I had the pleasure to take an English course, a History course and a Theology course as well. In my English class we went through poetry and Shakespeare. Nothing to exiting for me. In History we went through the Western History, this course as well wasn't to interesting due to the History knowledge that I already had from my homeschooling time and due to the fact that the History teacher didn't know how to teach. Not a lot of students were to happy with her. However, there were somethings that I still learned. Theology was probably the most interesting class of this semester. I had the chance to learn a lot and I had to rethink certain perspectives of my live. The trip to Mexico during reading week also tied into this course and it helped me a lot to understand things.
Behind me I have now an interesting and good Semester. Now I'm here in Brazil and can enjoy helping my parents on the Ranch as well as in my dad's missions organization as well as to enjoy the World Cup. I'll be staying here in Brazil till the end of August. Beginning of August one of my friends from Canada will be joining me here and then we will be traveling a bit together with my brother through out the country. This are all the news so far, nothing to exiting right now. I'll keep you updated during my stay here in Brazil. Thanks so much for your support and your interest in my Blog. May our Lord bless you richly and protect you on your way with Him.

Halfway

The time here in Canada is just flying by. I already got all my midterms done and shortly I'll be looking at my finals. I enjoy my time here at the University. The more I spend time here the more people I get to know and the more I enjoy my studies. But this is not going to prevent me of leaving this beautiful country at the end of this year 2014. I'm looking forward though to my last term, cause I'll be staying in the Edmonton area and this will allow me to spend more time with the people from the university. After this term I'm closing my chapter here at CLBI.
Halfway, not just my term but also a big project that I'm doing for PróSERTÃO. PróSERTÃO is in need of a new homepage so I thought that it is time to create a new one. So since December 2013 a friend and I are creating this new homepage and we hope to release it on the 22nd of March of this year.
Well the spring is also halfway here. In the last few days we got some nice weather with temperature in the positive area (celsius scale) and it should stay this way for the next few days. Well I hope it stays like that and that it doesn't drop back into the negatives.

Ok I that's it for my quick update. Thanks for your support.

Quest Mexico

I'm back in the cold Canada. I had a very good and blessed time in Mexico. The trip to Mexico was organized by the University I attend. The purpose of the trip was to open our eyes towards the injustice that's happening in Mexico. It was a very busy week, in which we learned a lot about Mexico and how the US, Canada and Europe are manipulating the Mexican Environment / Economy as well as their Politics. We had the chance to listen to different speakers through out the week, such as University Professors from Mexico or with ex-politicians or with people that are involved in the opposition parties that stand up for the grader good of Mexico. One of the speakers we had the chance to talk to is currently under house arrest due to his activities against the political system. We learned a lot about the reality in which 70% of the population lives in. The population of Mexico can be split into three social groups. We would have the top 10% of society which includes the richest people in Mexico and even the current second richest man alive in this world (from 2010 - 2013 he was the richest man alive). This 10% rule the country and do what ever benefits them. They don't pay tax and they run the country so that they can get richer and richer. Then their is the middle class, which makes 20% of the population. This group pays tax but has barely anything to say. And then we have the largest group which are the rest 70% of the population. This group also has to pay tax but because they live on a minimum income of 65 pesos a day (CAD 5.50) they also don't (can't) pay tax. This group has nothing to say and they have to accept what ever the top 10% decides. What shocked me the most was that the neighbouring countries such as the US and Canada are supporting the top 10% and that this government aren't interested in changing the reality of Mexico. Well Switzerland is as much involved as the US. When the war between the lower class and the upper class started the US supported the upper class with weapons and Switzerland gave them tactical support. According to unofficial data the amount of people that either died or just "vanished" is so big that you can lay the bodies beside each other and that the line is as long as the US-Mexican border, which is c. 2000km long. This war between this two classes is about two major things. First it is a war for the right of the Mexicans and secondly it is about the weapon / drug traffic between the US and Mexico. 

This are just a few information that we got during our stay in Mexico. But an other topic we looked at was about something that I never could of dreamed of, I didn't think it even existed and I think you also never heard of it. It is about "The School of the Americas", a school in the US that in my opinion should never have came into existence. A lot of people think the same way. Read more from the point of view of the protestants here.

Ok, I think this is enough to make it clear to you that I learned a lot and that my eyes were opened to a lot of new things. I always was convinced, that you should get to know a country not from the touristic point of view but more from the real side.

Check out the pictures here >>

If interested check out the Quest Mexico homepage

I wish you all the best and thanks so much for your support

God's plan vs. My plan

Your life never end stye way you planed it. In my last Blog entry I wrote about staying through out the summer here in Canada and working for two months and then the rest of the summer I would go travel. Well this plans have totally changed. One night when I was laying in my bad and suddenly I felt as if something or someone was leading my thought to Brazil. Later that night when I tried to fall asleep I felt like the same power / feeling was now pushing me towards Brazil. Well the next day I got an E-mail from my dad in regard of my future. I responded to that E-mail and asked him if they need any help in Brazil. Short after that he respond telling me that they actually need someone to do the maintenance on the Ranch due that the missionary that does the maintenance is going to Switzerland for a few weeks. I felt like God was leading me to go to Brazil instead of spending my summer in Canada. Thinking now about it, I have to say that I probably save more money flying to Brazil than staying in Canada.
Ok, this is in regard to my summer. A second plan that God has changed in my life was in regard to a church weekend in the mountains. I had the choice of going either to the church weekend or to go to Mexico with King's University. Back at the time when I had to make a decision I decided to go to the church weekend. Soon after I made that decision the application for Mexico also expired and short after this date the church weekend got canceled. So I wasn't going to Mexico because the university wouldn't accept any applications anymore and I wouldn't be going to the church weekend because they canceled it. Well I thought Im going to save money then. But when my classes started this semester my theology Professor told us that they are still looking for a man for the Mexico trip and that they still would accept one application. So I thought well then that is what God wants me to do and I applied. Now I'm leaving for Mexico on February 15th.
The conclusion is that we are not the Lord of ourselves but God is, He has the perfect plans for our lives.

New Year

We are already in the year 2014 and that's why I want to wish you all the best and God's blessing for this new year. I hope you had a wonderful and good switch into the new year and that you had the chance to enjoy your holiday season.
I want to thank you very much for all your support. There is nothing better in this world than to know that I have friends and family that support me in prayer or financially.
My plans for 2014 are that I'll be back in Switzerland for Christmas. I hope to be done with all my classes by the end of this year. For this upcoming Semester I'll be having Theology, Western History and English. After this Semester I hope to help out at a Biblecamp for the months of May and June. What exactly I'll be doing for the months of July and August I don't know yet but I got an invitation from a Pastor in California to go visit him. So I might go down to the U.S and visit some friends. But till then I'll be studying.

Well I think that was it for now. I wish you all the best and much successes for this year