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.

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.