Last Post

Hallo everyone. This will be my last post on Blogspot. To keep following me please visit my NEW website - www.joelroggensinger.com

Thank you and hope seeing you on my new website again.

God bless

Will I ever arrive?

Sorry for the longest silent treatment ever.

The last post I wrote was about Croatia and the missions trip I did to that beautiful country. I ended the last post by saying, that I had a job in Switzerland. Well I really enjoyed working for that company and I had a good time with my co-workers. I worked there till the beginning of July. After that I was involved in different volunteer jobs for our partner organisation MOVIDA.

Well now I'm already a few weeks in Brazil. I departed October 3rd with a few minutes of delay direction Frankfurt, Germany. In Frankfurt I didn't have to much time till I my connecting flight to Recife, Brazil departed. I was already sitting in my seat when a Flight Attendant came up to me and asked me if I would be ok switching seats so that this mother could sit together with her aprox. 6ish year old daughter. At this point I didn't know where he would be taking me but I agreed to switch the seat. On this response he asked me to follow him into Business Class. ():

Never have I received a Upgrade to Business Class and I was even happier to know that this flight from Frankfurt to Recife was about 9h long. Now I was sitting here in the first row looking forward for this flight. But about 5 minutes after we started rolling towards the runway we already stopped again and the Pilot gave an announcement saying that there was a technical error on one of the engines. Luckily Condor had an other airplane standing around so that we were able to leave about 1.5h later. It was a very pleasant flight in which I got spoiled by the Crew and the service of the Business Class. 

But the trip wasn't over in Recife. I still had a connection flight from Recife to Teresina and now with almost 2h delayed my chance of making the connection was almost 0. But here as well Condor surprised me. They already had contacted to ground crew who was waiting for the passengers with connecting flights. Now because I was in the first row, I also was able to leave the airplane really quickly. I went really fast through Immigration and my luggage even arrived on a separate carousel. At Customs no one was looking so I was quickly out and already back at the Check-In for my connecting flight (this by the way is normal in Brazil if you have a connecting flight, you go through Immigrations and Customs and back to the Check-In counter of the next airline). As I arrived the counter I noticed that I had about 10 minutes before departure time. The agent looked in the system and because of the Condor ground staff who already warned the other airline of my delayed arrival he was able to still check me in. So I dropped my luggage and ran to the security to proceed to the gate. I arrived at the gate just in time to be the last one to board. After such a beautiful and relaxing flight I suddenly came into such a stress.

Even though I had such a great cross Atlantic flight I arrived exhausted but on time in Teresina. And to my surprise my luggage also made it, even though they just had about 10 minutes to get that luggage from the Check-In counter to the airplane.

Now I'm in Brazil and slowly and as good as possible getting used to the high temperatures (+- 40C).

Croatia

Sorry, I had this text written in German but forgot to translate it into english :(
Well I'm back in Europe for almost 3 months. I returned on the February 22nd to Switzerland. 4h later the Missions Team from CLBI (Bible school in Canada) that I led to Croatia arrived in Switzerland as well. On February 23rd our training started for the trip to Croatia.
The team that went down to Croatia was made up by 11 members that originated from 7 different countries / nationalities.
After one week of training in Switzerland we left for Croatia on March 1st. During the three weeks in Croatia we visited three different cities. We started our journey in Cakovec were we played with the kids from the gypsy villages and we were able to share some stories and songs with them. For me personally it was rather hard but also encouraging to see and hear that the missionaries are already working for 14 years

with the kids but see little fruit. In all this time "only" one family became christian. For me that shows dedication and perseverance. It was hard to see that our sisters and brothers in Christ are serving for 14 years to the people of Croatia but sadly don't see a lot of change. But at the same time those missionaries are a huge encouragement to me and I believe to many others as well. This because they are showing what it means to persevere and suffer for Christ. They were demotivated but who can blame them, but they didn't give up and exactly their perseverance is what encourages me.
The second stop we did in Split, where we mainly worked with Campus Crusade and with Reto Center (Drug and Alcohol Rehab). Something we learned here is probably that it isn't easy to talk about your faith with the Croatians. We got challenged a few times during the street evangelism that we did. But what gave me hope was that we encountered young people at the university that are seeking and looking for something better and bigger in their lives.

The third and last stop of the trip in Croatia was in Knin. It is a small city that was battleground during the civil war and till today is shaped by it. I notices fast that there was a spiritual darkness over the city. We had the privilege to work together with the only evangelical church in town. This little church is already in Knin for 15 year and they "only" have 14 church members / goers. They were already thinking about closing the church. But during our time with them we had the chance to evangelize for 4 days on the main square. We danced, sang, shared stories and distributed Bibles and other books and we had the chance to talk to different people. The Missionaries and the church didn't think that what we are doing will be well received and that we will receive a good feedback from the people. But to their surprise a lot of people stopped by and talked to us and took some books with them. This led to the decision to not close the church. The following Sunday two new people joined the service that no one of the church new before and 4 others that the church was already in touch but they never made the step into the church. Something that I just got know at the end of our stay in Knin was that two of the church members took a week of work just to be with us. One of them joined us with his kids on the square and the other spoiled us with different goodies that he made himself just for us. Both of them were a great blessing to us.
I was able to learn a lot out of this trip, not only from the culture and from the Christians in Croatia but also in my leadership position I was able to learn more and grow more. I'm God thankful for this experience and for the testimony that our brothers and sisters in Croatia are. Myself and them as well are really thankful if we keep them in our prayers. The life of a Christian might not be directly connected to persecution but the cold harts doesn't make life for a Christian easy.

Now I'm back in Switzerland and I'm working temporarily in a fabric that makes industrial floor cleaning machines. I'm thankful to God for this opportunity that he gave me.

It is done

Sorry for the late update. :(
I have some hectic and intensive days that my team and I had before the CIMA. But for a few days already I can call it done. This post I want to divide into three parts. I want to start with the time I had while my parents where here.

Time with my parents
My parents arrived two weeks prior to the CIMA here in Costa Rica. They used this time to visit a Swiss organisation that works amongst the natives of Central America and to enjoy some free days. I had the chance to spend New Years Eve and the first few days of the new Year with them at the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica.
January 2nd we started with our last preparations for the international CIMA. Also my parents helped out where ever they could. And I can say in the name of the whole team that we where thankful for their help. During CIMA we barely had time to hang out and talk. Most of the days I was working till the the first few hours of the day. But still I had the chance to find some time to quick talk to them and catch up with them.
On the same day as CIMA finished they returned to Brazil.

International CIMA 2017
CIMA was a roller coster for my emotions, strength and thoughts. But I don't want to scare you here.

Let me start from the beginning. About in November we realized, that we probably are not going to reach our goal of 600 participants. That meant, that we set our new goal at 500 participants, which again also influenced our Budget. We had to cut in every area the budget as much as we could. We had a few financial supporters but not enough to cover all the cost. The opening day finally was here and so was the rain. This ended up in mud slides on the road that connected the capital city with the city where the CIMA was held. This led to the delay of participants, speakers and exhibitors. This all was a big chaos but already in the second day we had most of it under control and we noticed that our main hall was full of participants. We counted the list of registered people more then once and we were surprised. We had more then 600 participants. On the last day we had about 600 participants, more then 50 speakers and about 40 pastors and some exhibitors. This meant that at the end we had about 700 people at the CIMA. This was a huge answer to our prayers. We thank God for this!!

During CIMA most of the Team and some volunteers were constantly running around and organizing things. About half way through the CIMA a lot of us started feeling the lake of sleep and all the pressure, including myself. I reached a point in my life that I've never been before. I was physically, emotionally and mentally tired. My batteries were 100% empty and it was probably the worst time for me to be so tired. I had to rest and completely relay on my team and over all on God. Why the worst time you might ask, well it was the second last day of the CIMA. A lot of the participants needed information about their missions trip. Everyone wanted an immediate answer to their questions. We also had to set the teams together and to get some last minute things done. We needed every single person of my team during this time. I'm really thankful for my team that supported me during this time and gave me the opportunity to take the rest needed to operate again.
All of us still had the chance to listen to the speakers and their messages and we were all really blessed by them. During most of the time I also was translating the main sessions from Spanish into English. January 15th most of the teams left on their missions trips and also here I'm thankful to God because we didn't have any incidents with their departures. The week after

CIMA was still filled with a lot of work and no rest was in sight. My team and I traveled to the near by locations where we had teams doing their missions trip. We went to visit the teams and record some interviews of the participants. Well this was more or less the international CIMA 2017.


Thanks of keeping me in your prayer.

Past / Present / Future

Time is just flying by. It's already been a month since I informed you the last time. Well not a lot has happened but still I want to inform you a bit on some work I'm doing. I want to talk about my trips, graphic designing and about my job starting February.

Trips
I always have to go on trips for one of two reasons. The main reason is to promote MOVIDA and our event CIMA. Almost every weekend we are traveling to visit different churches where we can talk about MOVIDA and CIMA. Not to long ago I was with 3 co-workers in the northern part of Costa Rica to do exactly that. I had the chance to talk to a pastor about the possibility of doing a missions trip to his church.
The second reason a lot of times is combined with the first reason and this are trips to other countries to renew my visa. Every 3 months I have to leave the country to renew my visa. This gave me the chance to visit El Salvador, Nicaragua and next month Panama. Most of the times this trips will be combined with promotion in different churches and also with our "CIMA Days", which I talked already in a previous post about.


Graphic Design
Because I understand a bit of graphic designing I got asked to do those graphics that have to do with my work area (missions trip) on my own. In the picture on the right you can see some of the many works I've done. Besides the graphic designing I also created the whole CIMA website (check out the website).
A lot that I have learned now in graphic designing I've learned from my co-worker Bon Fernandez (Bon's Website). He is a professional graphic designer that completes work for christian organisation in South America as well as in Europe.


Work February and onwards
A few days ago I booked my return flight to Switzerland, which doesn't mean that I'll be staying in Switzerland. What I want to say with that is that I arrive on the 22nd of February I'll be arriving in Zurich but already on the 23rd I'll be heading to the headquarters of MOVIDA in Switzerland to go from there on a missions trip to Croatia. You might remember that already this year I had a group of students from my old bible school in Canada with me in Brazil. Well those three went back to Canada and suggested to keep sending teams. So they they got in touch with me again and this time I'm taking them together with MOVIDA to Croatia. If you are interested as well you are more the welcome to come. You can find information under unter http://cimaintl.movida-net.com/en/europe/
This trip will go till the 22nd of March. After that I'm for know in Switzerland till October. In this time I would like to work for 3 months in car mechanics again. July and August I would like to help MOVIDA Switzerland with the CIMA in Switzerland. This website I'm working on right now. Also I would like to attend my next module in Korntal (Germany) for the course Intercultural Coaching. And then when everything works out I'll be flying to Brazil.

Well this were some information of my work. This days we are expecting a hurricane to cross Costa Rica, which is probably the most exiting thing happening right now.



Thank you so much for your interest and your support through prayer.

Culture and theft

Unfortunately it has been too long since my last post. For this post I want to talk a bit about my trip to Nicaragua and also about the different Cultures that we have here in Central america.

Ticabus

The trip to Nicaragua was mostly good. Three of us left on the 7th of October with Ticabus (Bus here in Costa Rica and also kind of national pride - comparable to Air Canada or American Airlines) to Managua, Nicaragua. The bus might be the pride of Costa Rica but to be honest it was my worst trip ever (see picture). The space between the seats were less then 20cm and after a 9h drive my knees were red and in pain. Lesson learned, never again go with Ticabus. Then on our drive back we returned with Transnica from Nicaragua and the trip was like this (see picture). Ok enough for the buses, but if you are ever traveling through Central america I suggest you to avoid Ticabus.
In Nicaragua I had two main things to do. One was to talk at one of our events and the second was to visit two Pastors to talk about the possibility of them hosting one of our missions trips. I had three days to visit both Pastors but one of them lives at the Pacific coast and the other at the Caribbean coast. The plan was

Transnica

that I would do that by bus but that was almost impossible due to the little time I had. So I rented a car and in those three days I drove just over 1000km. The trip across Nicaragua was really beautiful and a highlight of this trip and I can look pleased back to this part of the trip. It looks like that the meetings were successful and that we are going to have two more missions trip to Nicaragua. But exactly on this trip I also got robed and this not by any "normal" criminals no it was directly by the police. To explain what happened I have to give you some background information. On this whole trip I encountered once in awhile a police barricade which was set up with some cones. This meant for me to slow down and drive around the cones. So as I was returning from El Rama (see map) I can to an intersection just outside of Managua. I stopped and noticed that the police has set up some cones in the middle of the street. Well as experience has shown I thought that I had to go around them. What I didn't noticed was that the cones were set up to indicate a lane and that all the traffic that was coming from where I was coming was suppose to drive between the cones into that lane. Well as indicated I thought that I had to go around once more, which I did and which I wasn't suppose to do. The police then informed me about this and told me that I had to pay USD110 :( Because I did't have any time to fight that and I didn't want to loos the documents of the rental car I had no other option then to pay the ticket. As I left the "crime scene" I noticed that the officer never gave me a receipt for the money I gave him, oh well, those two officers are now almost a minimums wage richer (minimum wage is about USD 130). Yes, this are USD110 that I will never see again

Now a few words to the culture. I had the chance so far to visit El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica and I heard a lot from Panama. Of all this countries Costa Rica is unfortunately the country that has the least night life and infrastructure. Well what do I mean with that? El Salvador as well as Nicaragua have a night life, you can go downtown or go to the promenade and have fun. Well in Costa Rica most of the city closes down by 10pm and nothing happens after that. And if we look at the capital cities San Salvador and Panama City have way the better infrastructure then Costa Rica. I'm still trying to figure out why Costa Rica is so expensive and why they think they are the greatest in central america. Don't get me wrong, Costa Rica is a very beautiful country and it has a lot to offer. I event think it is the best place to come to as a tourist but sadly I can't find and see to much of an own culture. I talked before of the food here, El Salvador has the Pulpusas and the Nicas have according to them invented the Pinto (rice and beans for breakfast). Yeah the verity of their food culture isn't the greatest. Really typical here is to have rice and beans three times a day. You can image how I might feel. Every chance I get to eat something different I'm looking really forward too.
A few words to the people. According to my experience* I find the Ticos (Costaricans) way friendlier and helpful then the Nicas but I would put them equal with the Salvadorians. As already said, I haven't been yet to Panama and can't take a stand to that yet. All three countries have one thing in common though, they are very influenced by the United States. For example does El Salvador use the US Dollar and the other countries have a lot of things that can be found in the US as well and remind the people of the US.

I think this is it for now. Thanks again for your interest. If you have any questions or just want to send me an email, then just get in touch with me. My contact information you'll find under Contacts.

God's richest blessing over you

*This few lines are my personal experience. Other people might have experienced this countries different and might learned different things. I don't want to confuse or hurt anyone here. This are just the things I learned so far about this countries.

14 weeks

14 weeks left. Just 14 weeks left till the CIMA in January starts. Work is advancing and soon the whole registration stress and the trip books will start. I'm personally doing good even though sometimes the ashes from the volcano bother me.

Yes we have an active volcano close by (40 km if you drew a direct line). Last week he erupted and due to the ashes they had to shut down the airport. My eyes were in pain and breathing was also not easy. Now the air is clean again but depending on the direction of the wind we might smell some sulfur in the air and everything might be a bit covered in ashes. It's kind of interesting to experience this, so far the coolest part of it were the earthquakes. The strongest was 5.3 on the richter scale but to be honest it also was about 140km away from us but still, to suddenly feel the earth shake underneath your feet is quite impressive.

Ok, my last post has been awhile. I traveled a bit in the last months and there is more to come. After my trip to El Salvador I was quick in Switzerland for my best friends wedding. It was a great surprise for him. I also used this trip to attend the annual meeting of MOVIDA, in which we discussed a bit what they expect from me and where they could see me in the next few years. I'll talk about this more as soon as everything is confirmed.

View from the office on the day of eruption

I'm now about 3 weeks back in Costa Rica and I'm already getting ready for my next trip. Together with 3 other missionaries we are heading to Nicaragua for our last promo tour. What exactly will happen I don't know yet. I just know so far, that I'll have to give a mini seminar about transcultural missions.
In the last few weeks I was busy with getting the last locations ready for the mission trips that we are offering in January. I have some new once confirmed and some others I'm still waiting for an answer. Also we have confirmed two trips to Europe. One will be in Spain and the other in Croatia. This two trips will be a month long during the months of February and March. I'll have the chance to join the group that will be heading to Croatia.

While I was in Switzerland some people asked me how I was personally doing. To be honest I'm doing good but I also am noticing the non-stop work that we have. We almost work between 6 and 6.5 days a week and the close we get to CIMA the more we have to get ready and finish up. I'm surprised by those missionaries that are doing this for years and can keep up with this pace. I'm looking forward for a little brake next year. I'm also attending a church here even though it's not that often that I attend due to work I still love the change that it gives me the times I can go. It's always refreshing to be around the youth of that church and to do stuff with them. But beside that I'm doing pretty good.

Well this are the News for now. If you have any questions about CIMA and / or the trips to Europe then let me know. Find my contact information here >>

Thank you so much for your interest and your support.
May God the Almighty bless you richly!

Trip to El Salvador

After 10 days of intense work in El Salvador I'm finally back in Costa Rica. But I want to start at the beginning, August 5th.
On August the 5th a co-worker and I flew to El Salvador on a 10 day promotion tour. We left about 5:30am and landed about 7am in El Salvador. We were welcomed by some MOVIDA friends who drove us from the airport to Santa Ana. On Saturday we already had the first visits to do. We visited a youth service and a small group. Also I got asked to preach in a church on Sunday. Those who know me, know that this is not my strength and that I don't like to do that what so ever. But accepted the challenge and I prepared a message.

Just before I had to preach my co-worker asked me how I'm doing and normally I would answer, that I'm nervous and that I'm not feeling well. But this time I told her, that surprisingly I was feeling really good, even though it was my first time preaching in a church. This statement made her nervous. I eventually preached about missions and our responsibilities and this based on the story of Zacchaeus. According to the feedbacks I got I believe that my message went well.
During the week then we were working towards the event on the upcoming weekend. This week is the main reason why we went to El Salvador in the first place. MOVIDA organises several events through out the year called CIMA Day. This event gives the youth the opportunity to experience one day of CIMA. This way they can understand a bit what they can expect in January but also those that can't go in January can learn more through the Seminars and Workshops about the mission of God.

On Saturday, August the 13th we had our event and I had two main rolls during this day. First I represented the Experience-Program, which we are offering in January after the conference. My goal was to promote the mission trips and motivate the youth to consider this opportunity. My second roll was to lead a seminar. The theme of it was "How can I get involved with missions". I had about 15 participants and also here I believe it was a good turn out. The whole weekend was from our end a success. We received many good feedbacks and even invites to come back next year.
Well now some general information. If you read my first post about Costa Rica you might remember that I talked about the food and how the Costa Ricans eat a lot of Rice and Beans. Well the El Salvadorans have their Pupusas (check link and picture). In El Salvador they eat this dish several times a day. If I would have to choose now between the rice and beans or the pupusas, then I chose the pupusas.
The next information is, that during the preparations for the event I had a small accident. I got asked to cut the tickets for the event, which were 300 tickets. I was doing this with one of those paper cutter, now this one didn't have a protection and due to the amount that I was cutting I got into a routine which led that I forgot my finger. This ended in me cutting off the tip of my finger. Now it might sound really bad but I don't think it was that bad. I did have to go and get two stitches but the finger is healing really well.
Again I want to remind you, that once in awhile I'm doing Facebook live. So check out my Facebook Page and watch the videos from El Salvador (Link is on the top right on my blog).

Well this were the information about El Salvador. It was a really beautiful experience and I made some new friends. The people there are really welcoming and open and they gave everything to make us feel at home. Also you can find pictures on my Instagram (Link on the top right corner of my blog) about this trip.

Thanks so much for your interest and your support.

There's enough work

So now I have quick time to write an other post. The last few days I was really busy but I think it's better for me to start at the beginning. As mentioned in my last post we had a group of three girls coming for a missions trip. For the last week of their trip, which was also the last week of July they where here with us in San Jose. Due to my ability to speak German, English and Spanish I got asked to help them out with translation. One of the occasions was at a youth service in one of the churches here in San Jose where the girl from Switzerland shared her testimony and where I was able to translate for her. An other place we visited was a High School and an other youth service at a different church. If you ask me of my opinion on how this trip ended and of what I heard was that this trip was a success. One of the participants understood through this missions trip what missions is all about and is now open for missions. Our goal from MOVIDA's end is it to mobilize and motivate youth for missions and this surly happend. Right after this missions trip our Volunteers retreat started. This retreat needed a lot of attention and so also a lot of energy. Due to a holiday on the 2. of August we didn't get the Monday off after the weekend. And so it ended up that we worked hard during the week, then the weekend and ending with a slow Monday.

Now you might say, that I had the 2. of August to rest, which would be right but because I had visitors I decided to show them the volcano, which I have seen now for the forth time. After the volcano we went and visited an other place called the La Paz Waterfall Gardens. This trip there was so beautiful. You didn't just see the waterfalls but also had the chance to go through a zoo and see the animals that live here in Costa Rica. Some of them we also had the chance to touch. Yes, so this day wasn't really restful either, where I could of restored some of my energy. It came as it had to come, I started feeling weaker and weaker, now this was my fault and I don't want to blame anyone here.

Slowly I'm coming back to my full strength now. But I'm also already standing before then next busy week. On the 5. of August I'm flying for 10 days to El Salvador where we will have an intensive time filed with meetings and preaching. Now if you know me you also know that I don't like what so ever to preach and I'm not the best in it too and that's why I ask you for your prayer. But as Paul wrote in the New Testament, God is strong in our weakness.

So this is it. I don't know how much internet I'll have in the next 10 days but if I get some, then I probably quick do a Facebook live stream. So keep post and follow me on Facebook.

Thanks so much for your interest and your support.
God's richest blessings over you

Don't miss Out

After two weeks and two CIMA-Days since my last post I'm getting close to half time of my stay here in Costa Rica. This brings up some mixed feelings. On one hand I'm looking forward to return to Switzerland and reunite with Family and Friends but on the other hand I also made some good new friends here that I will have to leave behine and whom I most likely will not see that fast again.
I want to look back quick a bit on the past few weeks. I want to start mid June, were I had the chance to meet a Swiss/German missionary Family called Mosimann. They are serving here in Costa Rica with an organisation called LiL (Light in Latinamerica). I really enjoyed getting to know them and to hear more about what LiL is doing here in Costa Rica and I hope that one day I can visit their trainings fasility.
In the last two weeks of June we had our second MAC (Mission Adventure Camp) groupe with us. Personaly I didn't spend any time with then but I had the chance to quickly meet the people that came from Europe (3 Germans and 1 Swiss) and in a few days our last MAC trip will start. During the second MAC I was at our first CIMA Day here in Costa Rica, which I talked about in my last post and we also had our first CIMA Day in Panama. But I was just at the one here in Costa Rica. Combined we had about 200 youth attending this event. The next CIMA Days are coming up and we have a lot to prepare for.
In the last two weeks there wasn't a lot happening, this due to the summer break. Our Director went with his Family on a vacation and left me for two weeks as his replacement.
Well and what is coming up? As already mentioned, in a few days the third and last MAC group is arriving. This group will be the smallest that we had this year. Because I know 2/3 or 2 out of 3 of the participants I will be spending a part of their trip with them and sharing this experience. After this MAC trip we have our Volunier weekend, which we have about 60 people signed up for. For this weekend we will have the Voluntiers from Panama and Nicaragua joining us, which means that at least I will meet for the first time most of our Voluntiers.
I hope that after this weekend I'll get the chance to write an other post with some pictures. I'm saying this because 5 days after the weekend I'll be leaving for a 10 day trip to El Salvador. This trip will contain promoting CIMA and the organisation as well as connecting with new Churches and Pastors.

Talking about CIMA, I want to invite and challange you to be part of this awesome and life changing experience in January of 2017 here in Costa Rica. The International CIMA 2017 is a great tool, which teaches young people to find out about their God given gifts and talents. You'll be joining people from Centralamerica, South and North America and Europe on a week long experience that will not just change your life but will affect the people you return to.

CIMA Day

It has been a while since my last post. But the main work that I have been doing in the last few weeks wrapping up the Website project, which is done now (as promised here is the link International CIMA 2017) and I also was getting ready for our first CIMA Day. Now if you don't know what CIMA Day is, it is basically one day of CIMA like we will have it in January. This way we can show the churches as well as the youth what they can expect in January. This first CIMA Day was held in the southern part of Costa Rica this last Saturday and this upcoming Saturday we will have our first CIMA Day in Panama. I was part of this last CIMA Day and I helped out were ever they needed me. At the end of the day I also had the chance to speak and talk a bit about the missions trips that we are offering after the conference in January. During the whole day I was at the booth for the missions trips to informed those who where interested and we also offered some games where they could win something. We offered them something that they could win instantly and we have a price that we will give away at the CIMA in January. For this main price the participants needed to fill out a quiz and have all questions right to qualify for the draw in January. This has to be a bit hard because we have a sponsor who is giving USD 70.00 to the winner so he/she can use it for their missions trip. That's why I thought of a quiz to figure out who should get this money. During this weekend I also figured something new out, I started to live stream through Facebook. This means that people that were online at the same time could watch through a live stream what I was doing here in Costa Rica. It is a live stream that Facebook later on saves to my Facebook page, this way you still can see what a was doing this last weekend (watch the videos on Facebook).
On our way back we stopped by the beach for a couple of hours.
When I got home and I got out of the car my phone fall of my hand unto the asphalt, this causing part of the touchscreen not to work any more. But this wasn't the end of the day. Later in the evening I transfered all pictures to my laptop but when I tried to look at them my laptop showed me an error message. I googled for solutions and I tried to fix this problem. Well that led that my laptop ended with the "Blue Screen of Death". This ment, that I had to do a system restoration.Through this I lost all my programs on my computer but at least I was able to keep my files. Now my laptop is working again but since I bought my laptop at the end of last year I learned that I made a huge mistake. Never again will I buy a Windows laptop, even it might be half the price of a Mac but at least the Mac doesn't come with the problems that Windows brings along.


This was once more a small update of what I experienced and what I'm up to this days. There is still a lot of work and work is going really slow.

Thank you for reading and for your support.
God's riches blessing


PS: We are still looking for people that might be interested in participating in a missions trip at the end of July to Cost Rica. Please get in touch with me if you're  interested or if you know of someone.

Found new Family

I ended my last post with a prayer request and that’s why I want to open up this one with thanksgiving.
Meanwhile I have found a church that I really enjoy and that’s why I thank you for your prayer. It might surprise you what kind of church it is but I’m actually attending a Biker Church called “Soldiers for Jesus M.C.” (Motorcycle Club). Their goal is it to reach out to the Biker community. While only man can be members of the M.C. there are many other people that attend the church. The church has a lot of families and young people like me who have nothing to do with Bikes. I really enjoy this church because they made me feel like I’m part of it even though I was just visiting. Another thing they did that so far I never experienced was that on my second visit I also had birthday and one of my friends that came along told them that it was my birthday and in short notice they organized a birthday party, which also was my only one that day. So I never experienced that, that “strangers” would organize and celebrate a birthday party with me. As mentioned, I really enjoy this church and feel like I’m part of them.
At work things are going good. Out of the ca 20 locations for a missions trip we have 8 confirmed and another 4 in the last few steps to be done. We still have a lot of work in front of us and not a lot of time. Sometimes this week I should be publishing the website, which will be something less that I have to worry about. As promised I’ll let you know as soon as the website is online. If you know someone that is interested in doing a missions trip to Costa Rica this summer, then please get me in touch with them. We are still looking for people.
wo more things that I had the chance to experience the past few weeks. First I experienced my first earthquake and about a week later my first volcano eruption. Now if you’re thinking if I’m safe, then I can affirm you that there is no need to worry. The earthquake wasn’t that strong and the eruption not that big as well as that the volcano isn’t really close. However, the city of San Jose was covered in ashes and it smelled really strong of sulfur. Well this was it for now. Thank you so much for your interest and may God bless you richly.

Impressions from Work

Sadly it has been already 3 weeks since my last post. Why "sadly" you might think, well that's because I've intended to post every 2 weeks a new post and not every 3 or 4 weeks. But as I already mentioned in my last post the work has started. I'm very busy with working on the website, which still is not quite ready, this because we are missing some details (confirmation of major speakers etc.) but I'm also very busy with looking for different Churches and Organizations that are willing to host a group of young people who want to do a missions experience. At this moment we have locations in Costa Rica, Panama and Brazil confirmed. I'm really happy about what I'm doing. Yesterday my Team welcomed 2 new team members who want to help us with this challenge.
At the beginning of this month we welcomed a group of students from Cornerstone Bible School in the Netherlands here with us. They came to be part of our MAC (Mission Adventure Camp). It was great to get to know them and to see who God is working in their lives. On their free day I had the chance to go with them to the volcano Poas. To be standing on top of a volcano is quite impressive. Also the temperature difference between San Jose and the volcano is quite interesting, while San Jose had about 30°C on top of the volcano we had max. 15°C. The average temperature on the volcano is 12°C and a lot of the times you don't even see the volcano due to the clouds that cover it. I was fortunate enough to have had a beautiful day while I was up there.

Now something more personal related. When I first got to here I started attending the church of the family I'm staying with, but when the Movida director returned from Europe he asked the new missionaries, which is an American and me to look for another church. The reason behind it is, that out of the 9 Movida missionaries 7 go to that church and he would like to see us going to different churches so that we can represent and promote our work in those churches. So now the American missionary and me are looking for a new church. So if you have time today to pray about this I would be really thankful.

Ok, that's about it. I hope I can write in about 2 weeks again so that you don't have to wait that long for my next post.

God's blessings over you!

And the work begins!

After almost 3 weeks since my last post a lot has happened. Meanwhile the director of MIVIDA Costa Rica has returned and we had our team meeting during which we split up our responsibilities for this upcoming year. I was made responsible and man in charge of the Experimentas, which is the practical part that happens after the conference. This is a very important part of the conference. The vision is that the participants of the conference wouldn't just hear and learn theoretical parts but also would apply what they just learned. For this we offer a short missions trip. My job now together with my team to get in touch with different Pastors and Organisations who are willing to host a group of young people to experience God's hand on work. For this upcoming Conference which is an international one we are looking to offer trips to India, Senegal, Brazil, Albania, Costa Rica and the surrounding countries. Well you might think now that this is a lot of work and a huge responsibility. Well I can't and will not deny this. It is a lot of work and a huge responsibility. The goal is it to have as many participants to do such a trip. In MOVIDA's experience so far they figured that about 30% of the conference participants join a missions trip.   So I'm really thankful if you could keep this in your prayers. Thank you.
Beside this work I also am working on the website for this conference. Sadly I can't post the link yet because the website is not quit done yet but you'll be one of the first to know when the site is ready.
So now a few words to my privat life. During easter break the city of San Jose was totally abandoned. There was no one here, the streets where empty and most people where somewhere on the beach or in the mountains. On Good Friday I had the chance to join a few missionaries to go to one of the volcanos and to go to the hot springs, which are heated by the volcano. That day the volcano was covered by clouds but the springs where so nice. They had pools with hot water (so hot you couldn't go in) to the cold water pools. We had the opportunity to spend a really nice and relaxing day there. On our way home we stopped by a place that is known for their tree art (the way they cut trees). The garden of the catholics Church was very beautiful and with good reason the town is known for their trees but at the same time the catholic Church was having something like a parade. What I didn't noticed right away was that this parade was like a funeral. And surely enough they were bringing Jesus in a cuffing down the street. This whole picture of the parade was so messed up that I wasn't sure if I should

take this picture below and now even I wasn't sure if I should post it. But eventually I figured that to understand what is going on here I would have to post it. We are not used to such things in Europe or North America.

Ok, so now you're updated again. This upcoming Saturday I'll have a meeting with my Team in which we will plan and set our goals for this upcoming year.
Thank you so much for support, it means a lot to me.

God's blessing upon you!

First Insight

It has been almost three weeks since I landed in Costa Rica. Each day I learn something new about the Culture, Language and the Country. Costa Rica is very much influenced by the US. I can find here a Walmart like in the US or in Canada and the shelfs are full of stuff imported from the US. I would say that up to 90% of the products come from North America. So that's why I had the chance to enjoy the other day a Canada Dry, which I didn't know belongs to the Coca Cola Coop. Also when you walk down the streets it reminds me a lot of Canada. The Semi-trucks are imported and many cars just look like they come from North America as well. So as you can see Costa Rica has besides the landscape and the economy a lot of similarities with North America, this is true at least for San Jose. Now Costa Rica is also a very touristy country and that's why you find a lot of tourists, especially from North America and Germany in the streets of San Jose. This I think might also explain why San Jose is so US oriented. Well so much to the country, or more like to San Jose because I haven't seen yet a lot of the country. The Culture is not a lot different than other cultures in South America, so not much new things for me. Also the food isn't much different the Brazilian food. A lot of Rice and Beans and Meat (in my last post I wrote that I eat rice and beans every day for breakfast and that’s so far true except for one day). What was really surprising for me is that Costa Rica has filtered water coming out of the tap, not like other countries of South America such as Brazil. This is probably the only major difference between Costa Rica and Brazil. The language is coming along more or less. The fact that I speak Portuguese is a pro as well as a con. Many times I used Portuguese words in my Spanish and because some words are so similar the Costa Ricans don't correct me, so I think that I'm speaking Spanish but where in reality I'm actually still using a lot of Portuguese.

Marcus and Guiselle

I also noticed that when I call people in Brazil that I start using Spanish words in our conversations, so it isn't as easy as I thought but it's coming. It reminds me of the first few months in Canada when I started learning more and more English.
Ok, now a few words to my host family. I live here with a family that has two adult kids. Both of them are married and have their own family now. One of them is actually the neighbor and the other just lives a block away. This couple has an easy life style and not a lot but what they have they are sharing with me. This again teaches me once more to have a humble attitude in my life.

Ok, enough for now. Thanks again for your interest and your support. If you have any questions or would like to know how you can support me, then send me an Email. (contact information you'll find under contact)

God bless you

Three countries in three weeks

About a month ago I wrote about CIMA in Brazil and at the end of my post I mentioned that we didn't know where we would be heading on the 25th. Well it ended up that actually no one knew about us and that no one had any work for us. So the Pastor that we were working with offered us to stay for the last few days with him and keep helping him and his ministry. This time ended up being a huge blessing for all of us.
The last few days prior my return to Switzerland we enjoyed some free time downtown Rio. So we had the chance to go to the Jesus statue and to visit some beaches.

Back in Switzerland I had to start packing and say goodbye to my friends and family. I had three weeks left in Switzerland which one I spent skiing in the mountains. It was good to be back even though it was just for a few weeks. This way I got the chance to talk to friends and family and to say my goodbyes to them.
On the 24th of February my trip to Costa Rica started. My flight went to Frankfurt, then over Santo Domingo (Dominican Rep.) to San Jose Costa Rica. At 5:30am I arrived in San Jose and a missionry from Movida picked me up. Now I live with a local family which doesn't live to far away from all the other Movida missionraies. It is good to live this family and to learn this new Cultur first hand. Something that I have to get used to is their breakfast. The picture on the left is what Costa Ricans eat all day long. So that was my breakfast. It for sure will not be easy but I'm happy to learn this new culture and language


Well this is it for now. I'll post more in a few weeks again as soon as I have experienced more of this beautiful country. Thanks for your interest and support.

CIMA Brazil

Well finally I found some time to write a bit. I'm already 20 days in Rio de Janeiro and I had the chance to experience and learn a lot so far.

I arrived on January 4th in Rio. A volunteer worker of Movida (partner mission of the Swiss Alliance Missions) picked me up and took me to stay at her place until the CIMA (youth missions conference) started. In this 3 days prior to the CIMA I had the chance to help her with the last preparations for the CIMA. What I didn't know at that time was that this volunteer and friend of mine lives in one of the many slums of Brazil. Now to be fair there are different levels of slums. You have the less organized once, which are those that we hear and see in the news and there are the more organized slums. So I was staying in one of the more organized slums.

On January 7th we were ready to take all the material to the location where the conference would be held. Now on the same day I was also picking up a group of Bible School Students from CLBI (Canada) at the airport. So I stayed in Rio to welcome the students where on the other hand my friend which I was staying with left with the truck to Teresopolis (location of the CIMA conference). After the truck was ready to leave I returned to my friends house to pick up my stuff and head over to the airport. On the way to the house though I walked by a young man that was standing at the side of the road with a machine gun around his shoulder and a radio in his pocket. At least after I walked by this young man I realized that I was in middle of Rio in a slum.

After I picked up the team from Canada we took the bus to head out to Teresopolis. And on January 9th with about 250 youth from almost 10 different countries the conference started. The conference was great and all the conversations and encounters with other youth and speakers was of great blessing. My main duty during the conference was to translate the speakers into English and to translate the Canadian team into Portuguese. With the help of todays technology (translation equipment) it was really easy and handy to translate all the speakers. Even though I had some people thinking that I was going crazy because I was talking into a "turned off" mic and wanting me to be quiet everything went well and the people that needed translation had a good experience as well.

This are more or less the information’s about CIMA, the rest of CIMA went well and as already mentioned it was a blessed time of worship and hearing God's message.

After CIMA was done the practical part started. I'm still translating for the Canadian team. We are now stationed at a missions house of a Megachurch of Rio. This ministry works with kids and youth of the lower society of Rio. We had the opportunity to start right of by helping at a Bible Camp for those kids. We were asked to lead Devos and to plan the afternoon activities. This time at Camp was great and also of great blessings for both sides. The way we were a blessing here we also experienced how the Brazilians bless us and everyday I have humble myself and see how open they are. It breaks my heart to see how little they have and how much they give us.

Starting January 25th we will be located at a new place. Where this place is and what we will be doing I don't know yet, but as soon as I know I'll update you. As soon as I'm back in Switzerland I will upload pictures that I took and let you know. If you want to see some instant pictures that I talk with my phone, then check out my Instagram account.

Thank you so much for your support through prayer (new prayer request are posted under "Support")

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.