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