Laying Some Groundwork.

Well, many of you might know that I am preparing for my journey east. Last year I traveled west but I think this year God is calling me to travel east. I'm headed back to Ontario to work at Christian Horizons Conference Centre for the summer.

My dream for the hitchhiking ministry is partially what motivated my hitchhiking to Ontario. I want to be able to spread God's love as I travel, as corny as that might sound. As I've been praying and trying to prepare mentally for the trip I've realized something about ministry that I should have realized long ago.

Everything needs a solid foundation.

As I am packing, I'm laying a sort of foundation. I'm trying to pack everything I need and get everything ready for the trip. I've also realized that I need to lay a mental and spiritual foundation. I need prayer. I need to talk to God about these things. I think that was something that I failed to do adequately the last time I attempted hitchhiking long distance.

With about a week to go before I hit the road I'd like to ask for your support in prayer. Please pray for me and my friend as we are about to embark on this journey. I will try as best I can to update you guys as I am travelling as well but I can't promise anything seeing as I might be out of cellphone range and I might not have any access to the internet along the way. Thank you.

Shema!

This is a message I shared in SBC's chapel today, you'll have to excuse the writing style. It's written as if I was speaking it, obviously.

Well, does anyone who was here last semester remember what our theme this year is? Know the Word! Know the word, the word of God, the Bible, as well as Jesus, the living word.

Deut 8:3-4 says this:

And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.
And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

As the Israelites were wandering in the desert, God was leading them. He was leading them with a pillar of fire and a cloud, but He also led them by His word. God had spoken to Moses through the burning bush and later on top of Mount Sinai He gave Moses the ten commandments. The people are reminded, in Deuteronomy 8 that they would never of survived if He had just provided them food, they needed to hear the words of God and follow the direction of God to make it through the desert.

Here, the word of God is emphasized.

Now, we can hear the word of God and not be fully impacted by it. The Hebrew word, Shema, does better justice to what God wants us to do with His word than the English word, hear, does. God doesn't just want us to hear His word, He wants us to SHEMA His word. Shema carries more definition than the English word hear.
You can very well hear the words I'm saying but not be paying attention. You can hear the noise coming out of my mouth but not actually listen. It's almost like Charlie Brown. If any of you have ever watched Charlie Brown and remember the teacher whenever Charlie was in class. “Waaaaah. Waaah waah waah.” The teacher is speaking and we can hear that the teacher is saying something, but Charlie Brown isn't LISTENING. The word Shema carries the added definition of listen.
Now, the word “Shema” carries even more definition than just listening. Because we can sit and listen to a sermon, listen to an inspiring preacher, listen to me ramble, listen to professors in class, but do we actually put it into practice? We can listen and completely understand what someone is trying to say, we can completely understand the theory, but do we actually let it impact our lives? Does it change the way we live? Are we obedient to the words? We need to be obedient to God's word. We need to let it impact our lives, we need to let it change the way we live. If we aren't obedient to God's word, what use is hearing it and listening to it? The Israelites understood this, at least for a time, and it's reflected in their language. The word Shema also carries the definition of obey. Now, I've been talking about letting God's word impact us but it goes even further than that. We can not just sit passively and “let” the word of God impact us. We need to take the words of God and put them into action. This is obeying God's word. We need to obey God's word in our actions. We need to Shema God's word. We need to hear, listen, AND obey God's word. This often takes direct action.

We can also read this in James, James 1:22 says:

Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

We can NOT just be hearers, or even listeners of God's word. We MUST be doers, we MUST Shema God's word.

Let's give this a try.

James 2:14-17 says this:

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled,"
(Kind of the equivalent of saying, I'll be thinking of you, or I'll be praying for you. Not that prayer doesn't have power, but sometimes we just say it to get out of some sort of moral obligation.)

Saying these things without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?
So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

This verse is telling us that we can't just hear what God tells us, we can't just listen and understand that God wants us to help each other where we have the ability to help each other. We can't just know that we have what our fellow student, fellow Christian, or fellow person needs and leave it at that. God is calling us to take action, God is telling us that we need to provide for one another when we are able.
I know that this isn't always the easiest thing to do, putting faith into action. I struggle with this very same thing. Often times what I need is a good swift kick in the butt to focus on God, serve him and obey him. I sometimes need a kick in the butt from someone who is willing, to remind me to put what God is telling me into practice. If that's what you can do, and that's what I need... haha

But what I do know, is that we can NOT just know the word, God is telling us that we need to SHEMA his word.

New Years!

I didn't have a very exciting last day of 2009 but it was a fun one all the same. I spent the final hours of the previous year taking pictures around Owen Sound, Hanover, and Walkerton, and then hanging out with my nephew. It doesn't quite hit the calibre the ending of 2008 gave me, with my adventures in Times Square, NYC, but it was good all the same. Here are some samples of the last few pictures I took in 2009.


Ice Inukshuk in Hanover, Ontario. Put up for the Olympic torch route.



Downtown Owen Sound!



I didn't take this picture last night, but it was an incredibly cute shot of my nephew...

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.

Guns and Love

How can guns and love go together? How can we kill people we are called to love?

Jesus calls us to love all people like he loves us. This includes, specifically, our enemies. How can killing someone be remotely close to loving them? I pray for the people of all nations; civilian and military, that they may see the light and love that is Jesus Christ.

What kind of image are Christians propagating when they are killing people? They are not only harming people that they are called to love in direct conflict, but other people see Christians killing and don't want to be a part of any Christianity that says killing is ok.

A lot more value needs to be put into the power of prayer rather than the power of man's killing machines. Trust in God that he will answer our prayers to save our enemies. We are not called to fight with earthly weapons to save souls, we are called to fight with spiritual weapons such as prayer.

Thanksgiving?

Woo... Tis me blog debut...

This is perhaps too late a thought to be applied to Thanksgiving this year but maybe it can be something you look back to when we come upon Christmas, Easter and hopefully Thanksgiving of the coming year. As I was reading through the Old Testament, I came across an interesting verse.

“Ask all the people of the land and the priests, 'When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted? And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves? Are these not the words the Lord proclaimed through the earlier prophets when Jerusalem and it's other towns were at rest and prosperous, and the Negev and the surrounding foothills were settled?” (Zechariah 7:3-5)

This verse really jumped out to me. This was God's question to His people in the Old Testament and I think it can also be applied to Jesus' followers today.
In the Old Testament times and even within modern day Jewish communities they have certain months that are designated for feasts. We as Christians also have similar dates designated for community and family meals. When we get together for feasts, potlucks, Thanksgiving dinners, Christmas get-togethers, Easter meals, and all those other events, are we doing it for God? Are we meeting together to worship God and to get closer to Him? Or are we simply getting together for ourselves.
Now, there is nothing wrong with family gatherings or meeting with friends during that time but we should be doing these things for God and not only for ourselves. If we are only doing these things for ourselves we are not fulfilling what God wants us to do. We are either bieng greedy about our purposes or we are simply going through the motions of meaningless rituals.
I don't think that it is enough to simply pray before a meal, or pray once or twice during our gatherings. We need to be doing much more. We need to, within our hearts, our minds and our actions direct our focus to God. When we meet together for Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, or any other event we need to make God the focus. As Christians, should we not be doing these things, as we should be doing absolutely everything, for God?