Messages from Emily Park
Just FYI, the 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 Hosanna Planning Committees went to Emily Provincial Park this past weekend for the annual pre-year end retreat that Arthur likes to hold. Not everyone could make it but we had nine of us there and Pastor Matthew Gunn to give us four messages over the course of the three days. I’ve worked with Matt before (when we went to Longlac on a STM last year for two weeks) and he has shown himself to be nothing short of an earnest, although more than slightly awkward, minister of the Word of God. Here are the messages he had to give to us while we were there:
- Sink Holes and Farming
Sink holes are formed when underground rivers dry and leave cavities that eventually collapse, sucking in structures on the surface such as homes, buildings, and cars. When a person’s outer world (including things such as social life, occupation, friends, family, etc…) crumbles, it is up to his or her inner world (the private space left to yourself) to hold up and sustain the person. A person that has not taken the time to cultivate this private world will be left with an atrophied pair of legs to stand on. It is thus important to diligently work the soul’s fields and constantly develop a strong character and inner person of integrity. - Journals and Silence
We are constantly bombarded with sounds, voices, and distractions, what Matt refers to as the Conspiracy of Noise. A person requires silence and solitude to him- or herself to properly develop themselves. It is in taking time away from everything else that one finds the voice of God and also who they really are. By withdrawing from the world, much like Moses who went to be with God on Mount Sinai, one becomes better in tune with God’s will. Conversely, being saturated with worldly surroundings, like Aaron the brother of Moses, one grows weary of contending for one’s faith and will eventually compromise to anything (for example, see Aaron and the Golden Calf fiasco). Putting our thoughts and meditations down in text, carbon or otherwise, is important for retrospective reflection and tracing growth patterns. IMO a Christian’s journal could and should testify to Christ’s work throughout and throughin their own lifetime, much like the four Gospels of the Bible tracing the physical comings and goings of Christ during His time with the first disciples. - Driven or Called?
Christ does not take everyone who comes to Him, but He does welcome everyone called to Him. Some people will work and strive and push for what they claim to be the glory of the Kingdom of God, and yet they lack the very thing which would give all their works meaning: Christ’s invitation. A church can hold as many programs, services and functions as humanly sustainable (or otherwise) and yet be completely godless and empty. A person without rest becomes a restless person in more ways than one. He who is called understands the temporal nature of their office as a steward to God’s work (especially called leaders) and is thus persistent to the end of their term as well as unreluctant to pass on their responsibilities to the next called stewards when the time comes. Called people also differ from driven people in that their identities do not become mingled with their occupation–who they are in light of Christ and not in light of their work is always who they are in reality. - Rest Is Not a Luxury
It is important to rest. Actually, it is crucial, essential, and critical to rest. This has been said many times before and it will continue to be necessary to say this until we take heed of this. God instilled a natural rhythm of work and rest that was placed there for a reason. The simple message is this: proper, God-filled rest takes us back to the straight edge to retune our hearts to God’s unwaivering standards and goodness so that we can be sharp as a tack when we must return once again to the often muddy and fuzzy world around. A sabbath taken properly ought to recalibrate our minds.
All in all a very pragmatic and relevant set of instructions to put into instr-action. I am thankful to have had Matt prepare such a wholesome miniseries of messages for us, the leaving and the succeeding PC’s to soak in. He spent surprisingly little time with us (leaving early after meals and coming late to fireside gatherings) since he was preparing his messages (which were all started with a short monologue of Star Trek “Captain’s log…” style) and essentially practicing what he was about to preach. I am greatly encouraged by such a man of God’s word.
I am also quite appreciative of the efforts of Lyris, Melissa, and Moyee who spent many hours preparing food they would never eat for others. If it weren’t for their planning and preparing, we attendees wouldn’t have been able to take things as easy and spend nearly as much time in fellowship (as opposed to in cooking from scratch) with one another. I really do think the only reason I ever go to these kinds of things is the amount of quality time spent with each other to “get to know one another” and “bond” (both overused and over-glorified terms that get my current point across). For one thing, sleeping thigh to thigh with each other has gotten us boys that much closer at heart.Returning to the food, it was all quite good although slightly hard to prepare in bulk, but that was mostly because Arthur brought the world’s tiniest frying pan as opposed to a large baking tray converted to frying up stuff (that what we used to do at Haliburton). I especially liked the BBQ meats which were the tastiest flame cooked meatses I’ve eaten in years. The large amount of salad-like foods also got most everyone in the camp heading for the restrooms a lot from fibre overload (not necessarily a bad thing, but slightly dangerous with nervous skunks in ambush in the bushes at night).The bugs were not so bad (not even nearly as bad as anywhere else I’ve been) since, for me at least, they were virtually non-existent. I suppose they were all busy feeding on the more tender and presumably sweeter flesh of Angie and Elaine. I have actually come back with no real bites to whine about (except maybe one small one near my ankle), which is a first for me. I can thank cold days and nights for that.
All in all, I really enjoyed this eventful retreat (Benson and I almost seriously burned ourselves and set the entire camp ablaze on top of everything else that happened) and found it was a perfectly opportunistic time to speak with next year’s PC about challenges we have foreseen, experience we have to share, and encouragements we have to offer. I am not at all worried for Hosanna since God has given it into the hands of a very vision-ful and maturing group of brothers and sisters. They are exceedingly open to direction and guidance and so I hope that they will draw those directly from God’s word and be used powerfully.
