Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to you. May this time of the year be a blessing to you.

The year is almost over again. About a year ago I returned to Switzerland from Canada. And during this year I had the chance to work and reconnect with friends and family. But with the end of this year the end of my stay in Switzerland is coming to an end too. As I mentioned it in the last blog entry, I got accepted by a swiss missions organisation. My working contract with them will start February 1st of 2016. The next few steps will be a trip to Brazil on the 4th of January 2016, where I'll be translating a group of students from CLBI (Canadian Lutheran Bible Institute). I'll be in Rio till beginning of February and then I'll be returning for an other 3 weeks to Switzerland before I head out to Costa Rica. If you're wondering why I'm not flying directly from Brazil to Costa Rica, then this is because by flying back to Switzerland I'm saving about CAD $1200.00 on air fare.
So on the 24th of February I'll be heading out to Costa Rica for a year. My first goal will be to learn as fast as possible spanish. The work that I'll be doing after I'm not 100% sure yet, I'll let you know as soon as I get there and they tell me more, but what I already know is, that I'll be helping the Costa Rica team out in the multimedia area. Well this are all the informations to my missions work that is coming up.
During my trip to Brazil, I'll keep posting and keeping you updated on what I'll be doing. If you are interessted to support the work I do in any way, please get in touch with me.

May the LORD bless you and guide you on your future path.

On the way into missions

Right now there isn't a lot that I can post, thats why I haven't written anything for a while. But every week I'm posting on the right hand side a Song of the Week, may those songs inspire you.

But when I post something, then usually with a lot of new informations. Since my last post lots of decisions had to be made. I booked my flight to Brazil. I'll be leaving Switzerland on the 4th of January and I'll be returning back on the 1st of February. Once more God provided for me, I didn't have to pay a cent for this flight. I also already booked my flight to Costa Rica. I'll be leaving Switzerland on the 24th of February. Not long ago I got noticed that I'm officially now a missionary of SAM (Swiss Alliance Mission), I have to say though that I think that I'll be full employed be them when I start my journey to Costa Rica. Well this were the informations in a time lapes. Let me break it down now.

January - Rio de Janeiro
During my stay in Rio I'll be helping out Movida with the preparations for their youth missions conference in Rio. Their is a group of students from the same bible school (CLBI) I've been to in Canada that will participate in the conference. I'll be translating for them and be their host during their stay. After the conference their is a small internship part which the students also will take part at. This internship will also take place in Rio.

Costa Rica
The last preparations for my trip to Costa Rica are happening while I'm writing this. The goal of my trip to Costa Rica are 1st to learn Spanish and 2nd to get to know Movida and their CIMA (youth missions conference) better. If everything ends up as planned right now, I'll be coordinating and looking after the interns from SAM and Movida in the Sertão area of Brazil. Now because Movida is mostly known in the Spanish speaking area of South America it is also important that I learn Spanish.
My return date is not set yet, but what I know is that I'll be returning to Switzerland ca. at the end of January 2017.

SAM
Since last week I know that I'm officially part of SAM even though it's "just" as an intern yet. My resume and application where made though for the lang term missionary status and sometime after my internship in Costa Rica it will be just a matter of time to switch my enrolment from an intern to a lang term missionary. There are still a few last preparations to be made.

Well thats all the informations I have for now. Actually one more, my email address joelinkanada(at)gmail.com is no longer in use. To find my new one check my contact informations.

Gods blessings,

My next steps

So it's been awhile since my last entry. But I didn't have anything exiting to write in the last few months. I hope though that you still will be reading my post, because soon I'll be posting some interesting stuff again.

But let me write first a bit what just happened with me. From August 1st to the 6th I was part of a youth missions conference (CIMA) here in Switzerland. We were about 90 participants from all of Europe and some of the US as well as from South America. And we had a good number of Staff and speakers that also came from all across the world. All this diversity made the conference so interesting and all the talks and fellowship was so great and such a blessing for all of us. We had the chance to exchange our experiences with God and what He has done in our lives as well as in our communities. We also had the chance to go out into the streets of a city and talk to people about God's redemption plan for us and pray for and with them. Beside all of this the conference was also impacted by the music and the messages and we had the chance to worship God in many languages. We had more then 10 languages represented at this conference. At the end of the conference two teams we sent out for a missions trip. One went all the way to Turkey and the other stayed in Switzerland and Austria. Well, if you are more interested in what happened you can check out the services on Youtube. They have all been recored and are now available for you on the Movida Schweiz channel. (if you just understand english I recommend to watch the videos from Mike Johnson)

Well now to what is to come in my life. During the CIMA I had the chance to talk to the leaders of Movida. They as well as I am exited for the time I'll be working with them. So I'll be flying down to Brazil in January for the CIMA there and after that I'll be returning somewhere at the end of January to Switzerland and a few weeks later I'll be leaving Switzerland to go to Costa Rica. Now you might wonder why I'm going back to Switzerland if I'm so close to Costa Rica already, well that has to do with the price for the plane tickets. I'm saving this way over $1000 and I enjoy flying so it doesn't matter for me. For the month of March I'll be learning the Spanish language and beginning in April I'll be working 100% with Movida in Costa Rica. I'll be staying in Costa Rica till the end of January 2017. What will happen after my time in Costa Rica, I'm not sure yet. But this is still far away either way I'll keep you post as soon as I have more details.

Thanks for reading and may God bless you richly.

post - Paraguay

It has been a while since my last post. After I returned from Paraguay to Switzerland I had the chance to work during the months of February till mid April for ImmoGarden. I enjoyed it a lot and I learned a lot of new skills.
Since my internship through CLBI with PróSERTÃO in Brazil I'm actively helping them out. This means that during the day I worked for ImmoGarden and at night I would do the work for PróSERTÃO. My work for PróSERTÃO included mostly IT work and graphic designing (I have to say though that I have no education in those area at all, so it is all amateur work). After my visit to Paraguay I got asked to help Movida Brasil out with some of there internet work. Now because I want to work together with Movida in Brazil I considered it and confirmed them, that I'll be helping them in that area. So this gives me quit a bit of work, that I can do in my "free time". Starting in June I'll be working 60% for ImmoGarden with the possibility of getting up to 80%. The remaining 20% I want to dedicate completely to missions. Currently I'm talking with SAM (Swiss Alliance Mission) to get an employment for missions.
Right now I'm in the USA. Now some of you might be asking what I'm doing here. Well just holidays. I returned to Canada on the 20th of April for may Bachelor graduation. I graduated from CLBI with a Bachelor in Applied Christian Studies. So this trip to Canada I combined with a trip down to the US, this because it might be my last chance for a long time before I start with overseas missions.  So here in the US I'm enjoying the beauty of this country as well as visiting and catching up with some friends that I haven't seen for a long time.
Well this is enough about my holidays, if you want to check out some pictures I took, then you'll find them on Facebook or Instagram.

Thanks for your interest and God bless you.

Quick Look Back to Paraguay

Finally I got time to write about my trip to Paraguay. I have to say, that my time in Paraguay was great and I enjoyed it a lot. As I already mentioned in my last post I left a week prior to the conference and I stayed a week later. In the last three days prior to the start of the conference I went to the location where the conference would be held to help with the last preparations. We had little time and a lot to do and this lead to it, that most of the volunteers would work till 3am. On the last night prior to the start I also had to stay till 3am up and help with the last prep work.
During the conference I was a participant / volunteer / PróSERTÃO "missionary". It was great being able to sit into the seminars of the speakers and listen to what they had to teach but it was also great to be a help where help was needed. And if I had some time left I would stand at the PróSERTÃO booth and try to help out there. So as you can see it was a very busy week during the conference but it was great and it was worth it. I had the chance to get to know a lot of new young people from 10 different countries from across the world, who are passionate to reach their people and have a heart for mission. It was very encouraging and as well a blessing to see this revival amongst the youth of South America.
At the second last night I was asked to represent the Sertão in the prayer session and to lead it as well.  So I showed a video clip to start of this prayer session (video below but just available in German or Portuguese - watch it even though you might not understand anything).


This video and the reality of the Sertão have impacted a lot of people in a way that we (PróSERTÃO) got a few interests that want to come to the Sertão to do an internship or for a short missions trip.
After the conference I offered MOVIDA to help them with the take down. So they thought that I can be of great help back at the office in Asuncion. So I went back to Asuncion just to figure out, that the 20ish boxes aren't back from the location yet. So they put me on standby. While waiting for the boxes my new friends from Asuncion showed me around the city and surrounding area. This way I had the chance to be a tourist for a few days and to get to know more of the culture and the country. Well the boxes eventually arrived, but they arrived during my last afternoon in Paraguay. So I decided that it wasn't worth it anymore to drive downtown just for 2-3 hours. So I couldn't help MOVIDA with the clean up in the office but I had the chance to spend time with Paraguayans and this way to get to know an other culture.

Now I'm back in Switzerland and I'm working in Maintenance. I'm glad to be back in Switzerland and to spend some time here. Now I have to pay of my school depts and make a decision in regards of missions. So I ask you to pray for me as I'm making this decision. Ok, I think that's it and I can thank God of a great and blessed time in Paraguay. Thanks so much for your interest and your support.

May God's protecting hand be over, around and before you and may you be filled with His blessing.

New Year

With much delay I wish you a Happy New Year and God's riches blessing for this upcoming year. I hope you started well into this year and that you already could make some great memories.
As I already mentioned last year I'm for the month of January in Paraguay. I landed after a long and tiring trip in Asuncion, Paraguay (capital city of the country).
I got the chance to stay in Asuncion for three days with an American Family as well as I had the chance to get to know the office of MOVIDA Paraguay. The last preparation work for the CIMA Conference is running. After those first three days I got into a bus to drive across the country to the Paraguayan and Brazilian border. Here I'm staying with a swiss farmer / missionary family for three days. Today I'll be leaving here to go to the city where the CIMA will be held. There I'll help with the last preparations. So far I'm enjoying my stay here and I'm looking forward to what God has all planned for me.

The Temperature here is really hot, it is almost if not hotter the Piaui. Yesterday, Sunday, I had the chance to go to the Iguaçu Falls. It is incredible to see all this water falling down the cliff. I was once more amazed by God's mighty creativity and power.






I hope, that I can keep you post during the Conference. I wish you God's riches blessing over your life.