Quest Mexico

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

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

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

Check out the pictures here >>

If interested check out the Quest Mexico homepage

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

God's plan vs. My plan

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

New Year

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

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

Grades

I just got my grades back for this last term. The average GPA is 2.68 which is around a B-.

I think I can be happy with my grades. Thanks again for all your support. As I promised I still will write a article on forgiveness. 

But till then I wish you a blessed Christmas season. 

The finals

The season of the final exams is here. I'll be writing my first two finals tomorrow the 10th and then I'll have an other one on the 12th and the last on the 13th. Thanks for keeping me and the finals in your prayer. I'll post as soon as I know the results how I did.

Thanks and enjoy your advent season

Be blessed 

Almost break-time

This next week it will be my last week of school and then I'll have a week of final exams. It is crazy how fast this time past by. If I look back to the day of my arrival in August it just seems as if it was a month ago. How ever, I don't mind that time is flying by. As mentioned before I'll be writing my finals in the week of the 9th till the 13th of December. So far I'm doing good at school. This week I got an A+ back in a project that I had to do for Education. So far this A+ was my highest grade.
At work everything is going really good as well. Throughout this time I got the opportunity to talk to a few of the CLBI students and I had the chance to share my testimony with them. It is interesting how my life and all what I experienced with God fascinates the students. Many of the students didn't experience God in the way that God has revealed himself to me. So the fact that I can share all of this and help them with my story is quit challenging but at the same time also really encouraging. Right now I'm too learning new things in my spiritual life. An with each step I'm taking and learning I also can pass it on to others. I could talk for a long time about this and go into details about what God is teaching me but this would take to long, but I'll talk about it an other time. How ever one thing I want to say,  forgiveness is way more complex then I thought.


Well this is it. I don't want to keep you long away from your duties. Thanks for your time and support. May our LORD continue to bless you.

Future

It's already been two weeks since my last post and a lot has happened in my life. I had an exam that I had to write and I got exams back. The first exam that I got back was actually a paper and it was an English Literature paper in which I got a "C". For my first paper I can be satisfied with it. According to my Professor the context was actually around a "B" or an "A" but the whole point of building up a thesis and opening sentence / closing sentence is what brought me down. Today I also got my English Literature Mid-Term back. In this exam I got a "B" which I'm really glad for. I also got my first Education paper back and also there I did a good job. The grade is a "B/B-". Last week I had to hand in my second Philosophy paper and write an exam as well. I'm still waiting for both results. Right now I'm working on my novel paper for English Literature. I'm writing about Mary Shelly's novel "Frankenstein". And I'm writing a Sociology paper together with two of my classmates on poverty.
Now to the topic about my future. I was never really sure when I'll be going back to Switzerland. Well now I know. I'll be staying in Canada till the end of 2014. This is due to courses that I couldn't get in at King's and because in this first semester I was quite overloaded and this just with four courses. It would be really hard to do 5 courses during the next semester. So I decided to split my second semester into two semesters. This way I can take more courses and also courses that interest me more then what I'm taking now. And I can still keep supporting the mission PróSERTÃO in Brazil.