Joshua Mark Goossen

1979-2001

Joshua Mark Goossen was born on June 25, 1979 in Morden, MB to Ted & Mary Goossen and grew up with them in Winkler where he accepted Christ as a child. In 1985 the family moved to Cranberry Portage in northern Manitoba where Joshua began to develop talents in music and art. He was baptized in the summer of 1996 at Simonhouse Bible Camp and joined the Grace Church in Cranberry Portage. He enjoyed spending summers at Simonhouse and was known as a popular and humorous friend.

After graduating in 1997, his musical talents flourished at Bethany Bible Institute, and later in Saskatoon. At the end of 1998 Joshua was received into the Eastern Orthodox Church, being deeply impressed by its spiritual insight. In 1999, following a trip to the Middle East he began teaching guitar and studying music at university. It was in the fall of that year that Joshua began to show signs of what was to be later understood as schizophrenia. He moved to this parents’ home in Winkler in the spring of 2000 and spent the last year of his life both at home and as a patient at Eden Mental Health Centre.

Schizophrenia slowly began consuming much of the humor and youthfulness Joshua had been known for and it became an ever-intensifying battle for him to maintain control over his mind. Yet instead of despairing, Joshua turned earnestly to the God revealed in the Holy Scriptures and the lives of the Orthodox saints, where he found both spiritual strength and a deep understanding of his sufferings. His struggles enabled him to profoundly love and understand his fellow patients and the many others whom he knew, blessing them with his art, music and prayers. In the end, after fighting it courageously, the sickness broke Joshua and he ended his life on April 26, 2001.

He leaves to mourn his parents, brother Jonathan (& Cindy), sisters Jodine (& Kimbal) and Sara, nephew Jacob, grandmothers Helen Goossen and Sara Dueck, many relatives, countless friends and beneficiaries of his self-emptying love. Glory be to Jesus Christ.

May his memory be eternal.

“Absent from the body – present with the Lord.”