My Return Eastward

First of all: I would like to apologize for the extended time period without any sort of update. I hope that nobody thought I was dead, although that could have been a possibility.

Secondly: I have returned to Ontario and I am back living with my parents for a period.

The third and by far coolest thing I must say: I have a titanium collar bone! I'm only a few bones, a different metal alloy, and a set of sweet claws away from being Wolverine. Ok, so it's titanium instead of adamantium and it's only a single plate and eight screws in my shoulder but it's still pretty freakin sweet.


In order to explain this metal plate I will need to take you back to Banff. As you may have read in my last post, I went snowboarding in Banff. It was awesome. The mountains were gorgeous and the snow was wonderful. I was curving and gliding down the mountain when suddenly a larger drift of snow came up over top of the front side of my snowboard as I was trying to stop. Angry at the mountain, I decided to dive shoulder first at it in order to steal my revenge. Sadly, my organic collar bone was far too fragile to withstand the shear force of my assault and shattered into 4 pieces.


*SNAP*

I stood up, feeling slightly strange but still wanting to do some more snowboarding. I was about three quarters of the way down the run and finished up. As I was gliding over more snow drifts I felt as if my shoulder was bouncing up and down. "That can't be good.", I said to my friend. As I made it to the bottom of the run I wondered if I should get some medical attention. It was about this time that I began to feel dizzy and took a seat.

To make a long story short, I broke my collar bone snowboarding and needed surgery. The next day I went in to the hospital with a useless, feeble, shattered, and organic collar bone and left the hospital with a shiny, mighty, and new collar bone reinforced with titanium. It then occurred to me that I would not be able to carry a pack and therefore my hitchhiking ministry trip would need to be postponed. Luckily my friends that were in Calgary were already planning to drive back to Winnipeg shortly after. Hitching a ride with them I then stayed with my good friend Adrian Miller until my parents were able to pay for me to fly home.


"Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"-- yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." (James 4:13-15)

Even though it seems that God did not have a trip in store for me that was as long as I had planned, this was definitely a beneficial and valuable adventure. Through an interesting turn of events my injury actually caused the group of friends I was with to stay longer in Banff and even saw one of them make a commitment to Christ. I also would like to believe that I was a witness to some of the nurses at the hospital. I had a few chats about missions work and Bible college with a few of them and I am sure that God used those conversations for His glory. God also taught me quite a few valuable lessons through my injury and through the shortened trip. I hope to share and expound on these lessons that I have learned through my blog as I have time to reflect in the coming weeks. If the Lord Wills, we will live and do this or that.

As I sit here in Ontario I have about a month to go before I start work at Christian Horizons Conference Centre in Paisley I have realized that I not only have about a month to relax and regain my strength, but I also have about a month to read the Bible, read some books for next year's courses, think, and connect with God.

Shalom,
Matthew Peter

We've made it to Calgary!

So we hitched a ride with some friends all the way to Calgary. They were already headed that way with a moving van and told us they had space for Jeremy and I. It was a fairly uneventful thirteen hour drive across the prairies. I have been told that that is the toughest stretch to hitchhike on my journey and we were thankful for the ride.

After getting to Calgary we've been staying in the houses of a friend of our friends. They are moving things out of one of their houses and were trying to keep the other house clean because they are trying to sell it. They are a fairly large family with plenty of kids running around. We've spent the majority of our first day here in Calgary helping them move, cleaning some stuff up, and playing with the kids. It's definitely been a fun time. Things seem fairly chaotic for them at the moment and it's great that God's given us the opportunity to help them out and a safe and free place to stay here in Calgary. The kids are incredibly cute, the family is nice, and it's very good exercise helping the family move the furniture and things.

Calgary is a very beautiful city. As we were driving into town today the first sight to catch my eye was the skyline. It's a fairly modest skyline, not an insane amount of tall buildings, but it was definitely a gorgeous view. Then suddenly the mountains came into view. It wasn't a perfect view, it was fairly hazy, but my first glimpse of the mountains was very impressive. Seeing the mountains is definitely a big thing on my list of expectations on this trip and I'll be able to see them even closer up on Monday as we head for Banff.

As I write this blog I am without internet access in the house they are moving some stuff out of. It's a fairly nice place and we even have a very faint but very beautiful view of the mountains!

Sunday we did some more moving, I was up around 7:45 to unload another van load before church. We then spent more of the day after church traveling with the kids towards the mountains and towards the new place the family is moving. It was the most incredibly beautiful place I have ever seen. With the mountains as a backdrop there were ranches in among the mixed tree forests and picturesque views. As we drove into the town that is about three minutes from the ranches, we discovered that there is a biker meet every weekend. The parking lot was filled with hundreds of gorgeous bikes! The mountains, the horses, the steel horses, the fun crazy kids. Overall the day was fabulous.

We'd like to thank everyone that has been praying for us so far! God definitely has been protecting us, especially during the long hours we've spent on the road so far!

Shalom!
Matthew


PS Tomorrow I'm going snowboarding in Banff...

A New Leg of My Journey Begins

Hello everyone that may happen across my blog.

I know my blog isn't very popular and I haven't written much in it since I've started, but over this summer I plan to use it much more for a particular purpose. Sharing with everyone the ups and downs, wins and losses, successes and failures of my new project. Hitch-hiking ministry.

I plan to spend the next month hitch-hiking with a friend to Vancouver and back. Before any of you ask any of the questions that I very well know you are thinking right now, (Why are you hitch-hiking when you should be working to make money to pay for Bible College? Hitch-hiking is dangerous, why risk your life? That sounds dumb, hitchiking to Vancouver, why would you waste your time and money?), let me explain to you the vision that I believe God has given me:

I have been hitch-hiking before. Two years ago I travelled from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Charlottetown, PEI and back, a normally eight hour drive, with a friend named Micah Church. We slept on a picnic table one night and the majority of the trip's budget was spent on a hotel room in Charlottetown another night because I chickened out on the idea of spending the night in the street. A decision that I've regretted.

During my travels I've realized that the biggest reason that someone will pick up a hitch-hiker is to have someone to talk to on long drives. This is the biggest reason any truck driver will pick up a hitch-hiker and I believe the majority of people that actually do pick hitch-hikers up, pick hitch-hikers up for this reason. Even if this is not the case, most people are willing to strike up conversation on almost any subject with a hitch-hiker, long drives alone can become very boring.

Hitch-hiking is a relatively cheap method of travel. If you are willing to spend the occasional night sleeping outside, camping, or staying with a friend the only real expense is food, and even that can be done cheaply.

Putting these two things together, it makes for a relatively cheap ministry for two young college students to participate in. I believe that this is a particular ministry that God has put in my heart. I have always had a love for traveling and a love for traveling as cheaply as possible and I believe God has given me these passions for particular reasons. I also believe that this summer ministry is one of those reasons.

Of course, there really can be no formulaic method of discussing God when I will be picked up by such a wide variety of people. I also don't want to scare anyone off or offend anyone that is kind enough to offer me a ride, but as it is written in Matthew 10:7, "As you go, preach this message".

As I said, I plan to spend the first month of summer on this project but I also plan to spend the rest of the summer working at Christian Horizons Conference Centre. I'll be able to make some money during my time at CHCC but I will still be relying on student loans and more importantly, God, to provide the rest of my tuition.

I would not have decided to pursue this project if I didn't feel it would benefit God's kingdom. After plenty of prayer, I feel that this particular ministry is God's call on my life at this moment. I still would like to ask anyone that happens across my blog to pray for me and my friend and fellow journeyman, Jeremy McDougal. Jeremy was one of my roommates through my first year at Steinbach Bible College and he will be traveling with me. I would ask that you ask God to protect us and provide the things that we will need on this journey and after this journey.


We begin our journey with a ride from Winnipeg to Calgary from a friend early tomorrow morning.

God Bless
Matthew Peter Rempel

On the Mount of the Lord, He Will Provide!

Today I decided to try wearing the hiking boots I picked up at the MCC for $4. Since I am planning to do alot of walking today on my journey, I decided I should try them out and go for a walk. They were awful, they did not fit and they were starting to hurt my toes. That's when I decided I needed to buy a pair of new hiking boots.

I recently worked in the kitchen and the library here at SBC and had about 60$. Perfect, I thought, I can get a nice pair of shoes that will treat my feet right. The shoes I buy at MCC are great, but they start to hurt my feet if I have to walk long distances. So me and two friends started walking to the Superstore to see if we could find a pair of cheap shoes. I wasn't too excited about getting shoes from the Superstore, but I desperately needed new shoes. Just as we were leaving the parking lot of the school, my friend Audrey spotted a Mark's Work Wear House gift card.

I was not expecting there to be any money whatsoever left on that card, it looked as if it had been sitting in that parking lot all year. It was covered in mud and caked in dirt. I still decided to investigate Mark's because I could not find any men's shoes at superstore except for a few pairs of white skate shoes that were hardly suitable for walking any distance. Why you would want a pair of shoes that have absolutely no support, water resistance, or durability is beyond me and so I continued on to Mark's.

The lady at the till informed me I had $16 left on the card. This $16 dollars came in mighty handy because adding 10 more dollars to my budget increased my selection from a pair of thin hiking boots or a pair of crocs to about six or seven different pairs of nice hiking boots.



On the mount of the Lord, He will provide!

I was able to find a gorgeous pair of durable, comfortable, and waterproof hiking boots. Exactly what I need for the days to come.

Damn Rich People

"Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter." (James 5:1-5)

I've often read this passage and thought, “Those rich people, I loathe them, I hate them.” The other day when I sat down to read this passage when it hit me. I am rich. I am an oppressor. I am a slave driver. I buy clothing, food, and other things from places and I have not even thought about where they come from.

I don't think many people in Canada and the US realize this, but we are the rich. We are the ones that this piece of the Bible is talking about. We are the rich ones who should be weary. We are the ones who keep back the wages of the laborers and should be worried. We are the ones who live in luxury and self-indulgence.

Those living at the poverty line in Canada, which is somewhere around $10,000 a year are still within the top 15% of the richest people in the world.

We hold back the rightful wages of workers when we support or shop at stores or restaurants that treat their workers poorly. The laborers that make the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, the computers we use, and the food we eat, they are working for us. They are workers under our employ. If we buy clothes made in factories that pay fair wages and create good work opportunities, we are their employers. If we buy clothes made in sweatshops by children who are paid very little, we are their employers. If we buy clothes that are made by slaves, we are the slave drivers.

In Canada and the United States, we live in luxury. Most of us have three guaranteed meals per day. Most of us have a bed to sleep in and a roof over our head. We have computers and free access to the Internet. Many of us have cars to drive and travel. Many of us even take regular vacations and trips. This is luxury.

No smart company would hire employees without an interview or without a resume. They won't just hire anyone, they want to know if they are good workers or if they will be reliable. In the same way we should investigate where our products are coming from. If we are hiring these workers by purchasing their products and employing them in a fairly direct way, we should think about the situations they are living and working in. Are we providing them with a job that pays fair wages? Do they have access to some sort of health care plan? (We in Canada don't worry about this one as much, but imagine the part time workers in the United States who can't afford health insurance when it isn't provided by their employers.) Is this really the best working environment for them? Is this their only choice in terms of employment? Can we make their living and working environments any better? Where is my money going? What percentage is actually getting to the workers?

This is something that God has really been speaking to me about lately. How can we say we love God and love people but treat them this way? I am putting people in compromising situations by buying products from places that don't treat their workers fairly. I am that unfair boss that I always complained about when I worked for that large department store chain. I am the manager that is refusing to give a raise to my single mother employee. I am a rich oppressor. I am a slave driver.