My Sister's Engaged!!

To my Friends y Amigos

Hello Friends and Family!

I just wanted to send you all a quick email to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! May God fill this coming year for you with grace and peace from on high. May the reality of the Incarnation of the incomprehensible and otherwise unknowable creator God in the person of Jesus of Nazareth transform our lives and fill us with hope in his promises!

Below are a few pictures from this past semester. I'll soon be putting together another little newsletter to give you all an update on how things have been going in Vancouver.

Big Prayer Request: I and another 27 young adults from my home church (Midland Evangelical Free Church) are leaving for Urbana on the evening of Dec 26th. If you are unaware of what Urbana is, it is a huge Christian student missions conference put on in St. Louis by Intervarsity Ministry. About 25,000 students will be attending - yes, it is huge - and there is so much potential for impact upon people's lives. Please pray for myself, my sister and brother who will be attending, and for those going from my church, that our lives would truly be changed in deep and substantial ways and that God would bear much fruit through our lives after the conference.

Many blessings! Hope to see you all soon,

Matt

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Queridos Amigos,

¡Les deseo un Feliz Navidad y Año Nuevo! Espero que en este nuevo año puedas experimentar la gracia de nuestro Señor tanto en los gozos que en las tristezas, en las derrotas y en las victorias. Que te siga fortaleciendo por su Espíritu Santo y renovando tu corazón en amor.

Te cuento un poco de lo mío: En el Septiembre pasado entré a estudiar en un seminario en Vancouver, BC, llamado Regent College. Es un programa de tres años, asi que me faltan un par de años mas. Estoy muy contento y privilegiado de poder estudiar en Regent - es una escuela muy sólida, tanto en doctrina que en formación espiritual. Estoy en el programa que se llama ¨Masters of Divinity¨ que prepara a uno para trabajar en el ministerio, sea como pastor, misionero, etc.

Mi familia esta muy bien; hoy mismo mi hermana se comprometió con un chico de nuestra iglesia que es amigo mío. Estoy muy, muy contento de que ellos se casen. Mi otra hermana también entró a estudiar para sacar un Masters en Obra Sociál. Mi hermano Miguel esta en su primer año de universidad; quiere estudiar Educación pero trabajar de misionero después.

¡Muchas bendiciones! Si tenés un momento escribime un par de lineas y contame como estás y que pasa en tu vida. Hasta pronto,

Tu amigo y hermano,

Mateo

The greatest compliment...

They say that imitation is the greatest compliment you can pay someone....

Encounter Between Saint and Sultan

Here's a link to my History term paper that I just wrote on St. Francis and his missionary encounter with the Sultan of his day.... if anyone feels like reading it.

ENCOUNTER BETWEEN SAINT AND SULTAN

EXAMS ARE OVER!!!

Faith Seeking Understanding

Today I had a opportunity to talk with one of my professors, Hans Boersma, about a number of spiritual-intellectual that issues I have been wrestling with. The issues revolve primarily around the proper method of the interpretation of the Scriptures (hermeneutics), issues regarding intellectual certainty and faith in the doctrines derived from Scriptures (epistemology, particularly regarding modernist foundationalism), and the certainty of faith and how one goes about studying so as to grow one's own faith and convictions in the universal truth of the Christian message and tradition.

Some particular issues I've been recently exposed to and need to spend a lot of time studying and thinking about are: the Scripture's relationship to tradition and the role 'tradition' plays in our interpreting, the nature of doctrine and knowledge, Authority (in terms of truth) and how the Bible is authoritative - how we are to live under its authority, and the Early and Medieval church's writings on all of these issues.

We had a great talk - it was really helpful for me to be able to express my questions, doubts, and frusterations, and to hear from a very respected, humble, godly theologian a bit of his own journey of faith, some of the theoretical questions that he still wrestles with, hear his critique of the postmodern movement of deconstructionism, and get his advice on how to move forward in exploring these questions. Here are three pieces of advice that really stuck in my mind. (***These are NOT quotes but my own memory and understanding of our conversation, so please take them as such. As much as I would never seek to misrepresent someone's thoughts and advice, my memory is as flawed as the next guy...)

1. Spend lots of time in the tradition of the church catholic and not so much in contemporary authors. Read Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Gregory of Nyssa, Iraneaus, Origen, Chrysostom, and others. Get to know the tradition thoroughly, understand what they were wrestling with and what they were saying.

2. Don't get so caught up on studying 'method', hermeneutics, and postmodern awareness of our own knowledge limitations. Humbly go to the past and expose yourself to the answers that the church has been giving for 2,000 years, spend time in theology, in the answers that have been given us. In that way you will take your eyes off of your own interpreting self (in a healthy way) and will humbly but confidently fix your eyes upon the object of faith: Christ.

3. Be patient with yourself. Don't rush. God knows that you are human, and to seek to get to know the entire Christian tradition and think through these issues takes a long time. God knows that. Don't rush spending time in plumbling the depths of our foundation of faith; don't limit/conform your studies because you need to "have all the answers" as soon as you are in a position of Christian leadership. Take these three years to study, read, think, pray, ponder, etc.

What a great bit of advice! It was very particular advice to where I am at in my struggles but I still hope that it might encourage you to - with me - ask questions honestly, seek truth sincerely, and know Christ more deeply thorugh his revelation in the Word and his church.

Is 50.10-11

Here's a beautiful verse that I came across today in Isaiah, one which was of great encouragement to me a couple years ago when I was struggling with a great deal of doubt about God, truth, how to know that I know true truths about God and not just constructed doctrines of man.

"Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who equip yourselves with burning torches! Walk by the light of your fire, and by the torches that you have kindled! This you have from my hand: you shall lie down in torment." -Is 50.10-11

Obedience & Faith

Psa. 1:1
Happy are those
who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or take the path that sinners tread,
or sit in the seat of scoffers;
2 but their delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law they meditate day and night.
3 They are like trees
planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season,
and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper.

“But not only faith, perfect and complete in every way, but all right knowledge of God is born of obedience.”

- John Calvin

snowing in Vancouver....

Sorry for the lack of posts....my life has been crazy busy! here's a couple pics....

I love good backgrounds for my computer...

Here are some pictures that I took.....ok, maybe not....but I did do some editing on them.

By the way, I just posted more text below these pictures so read on... Peace!

Mary, Martha, and Francis

Wow, its been a while since I've posted. I just finished about a two week sprint of homework, projects, and tests. Its been hard but good. I feel (potentially) better prepared for finals knowing how I need to study between now and then.

One of the papers I wrote was on the historica Crusades and contemporary 'Crusader' rhetoric when certain journalists or politicians refer to Western foreign policy. My thesis paragraph was the following:

While there is much evidence that might characterize the West as historically ‘colonial’ in nature, the connection between the crusades and modern politics is deeply problematic. This in and of itself might be a small issue if it were not for the fact that this connection between the Crusades and modern politics is employed repeatedly in political dialogue regarding East-West tensions, and in the position of this paper, inappropriately. In contemporary political dialogue, the popular association of the Crusades with recent Western political intervention in the Middle East is largely a re-interpretation of history to further a political end. References to the historic Crusades as found in recent critiques of Western foreign policy (primarily American) are used to interpret current events as a part of a perceived historic aggression of the Christian West against Muslim lands that began with the Crusades and has continued unabated up unto the present.

It was a great paper to do research for but I procrasinated so much my final draft that I rushed the whole end of the paper and was fairly dissapointed with the final outcome. Bummer. Fortunately, I am doing my end-of-the-term history paper on a similar topic so a lot of my research crosses over.

The last week has been a great week of being exposed to moments of history of the Church and Christian leaders that I had never previously gotten to know in any significant way. This week we spent time learning about the High Middle Ages, Francis of Assisi, the Franciscan and Dominican orders, St. Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas, and more. Its been great. Learning about the life of Francis of Assisi has been 'a gong show' (that's Canadian slang for huge, overwhelming, etc.)! He was such an incredible man - humble, innocent, full of joy, corageous, simple, cared for the poor and common people, choose to live in poverty for the sake of identifying with Christ, lived for heavenly reward and not earthly. We recently watched a movie called Brother Sun, Sistern Moon. It was a movie created in the 60's and it definately shows! But it was a really inspiring movie, great to watch with a group of friends and discuss afterwards. So I recommend it to ya'll back home in REAL... or at least the Garrett club.

Prayer Request: I am still unsure about what church I want to committ to being a part of so please pray for me that the Lord would give me discernment and peace about where to put down roots and get involved in ministry.

Well, I want to be a more regular blogger which means my blogs will need to be more frequent but shorter. So I'll end this here with a short quote from one of my readings. The author's name is Hilton (1370), who wrote a letter to a layman who wanted to become a monk. He writes to him to tell him to NOT give up his secular life and profession for that would be irresponsible and misguided charity towards God. Instead he must pursue "the mixed life" - a life characterized by both Mary and Martha pursuits...

"The mixed life was thus modelled by our Lord Himself as an example for those who take up the estate and calling of a mixed life... that [they] should give themselves to their worldly businesses in reasonable measure...such as may profit the people who are under their care...[and] they should make time for giving themselves entirely to contemplation, in devotion, prayer, and meditation...." And, "for such persons it is appropriate to labor and occupy themsleves inwardly in order to obtain through the grace of our Lord cleanness of heart and peace of conscience through the rejection of sin and the nourishing of spiritual virtues."

gooood message

Here's a message from the pastor of my new church St. John's Shaunessey.


powered by ODEO

Some new friends...

I shared with some of you about some new friends I’ve made who are from the Near East (Saudia Arabia & Turkey). It’s really been fun and energizing getting to know the guys and seeing our friendships developing. To give you a brief summary of what gone on so far, recently a street drama ministry that a friend of mine is in began performing Friday and Saturday nights downtown on Robson in front of the Art gallery. I attended on a few weeks ago to watch and hopefully get to talk with someone in the crowd. The only person I met was a young guy named Muhammed (Jordanian-Saudi) who had only been in Vancouver a couple of weeks. We talked a little bit about faith but mostly about life, transitioning into Vancouver, culture shock, background, etc. Afterwards we ended up going out for coffee with a group of friends and just hung out for the rest of the night. Before we left we exchanged contact info and planned on meeting sometime later.

The next weekend Muhammed, I, and Steve, a Christian Canadian studying International Relations who has spent time in Northern Africa, got together for dinner and then went to his apartment for some Turkish coffee and dates. It was a great time of friendship building. While we were there his Turkish roommate and two friends came home and so the six of us ended up hanging out and talking, making friends. It was an incredibly enjoyable evening.
Then last Friday night I went again to watch the street drama ministry but I arrived quite late, an hour before finishing. I was there not even 10 minutes when up beside me walks two of the turkish guys that I had met in Muhammed’s apartment! We laughed about how ‘random’ it was that we should find each other there. We ended up grabbing coffee and then going out with some other friends until 1:30 am. Again, it was a great time of connecting, building friendship, and having meaningful conversation. Late in the evening, Holuk who is about 21 asked me, “Do you believe that we came from monkeys? I read lots of people saying that.” What a great sign that he is asking questions about ultimate reality and who we really are as humans. Please pray for him and for the rest of the guys that our friendships would grow, trust would deepen, and they would keep asking the right questions and find the true answer.

Downtown Vancouver...some of my most recent photography

Take a look at the next 8 photos and leave a comment telling me which are your top two pics.

Downtown Vancouver...some of my most recent photography

Christ and the Eucharist

**Recently I received a comment that my pictures have been really nice to look at but the content of my blog has been lacking. Well, I totally agree. Sorry. I've been really busy getting ready for reading week. Here is something i typed up last week. Sorry for the posting delays...

As I finish up my last week of classes before reading week the work load begins to grow, but also with increasing joy. This morning in chapel we had a beautiful communion service that I found was theologically very rich and facilitated a very reverent and personal experience of Christ through the eucharist. I had my eyes open once again to the reality of Christ and the sure promise that is given to us - that if we would eat and drink his life into us we will never perish but have eternal life. I was also reminded by the Holy Spirit through the words of the message of the faithfulness of Jesus Christ to us - even in the midst of our pathetic, failed attempts at holiness. “And of those who the Father has given me I will not lose one”, Jesus said. He promises his sovereign work of grace not just in responding to our cries for salvation but in bringing about in us consciousness of our sin and raising within us a desire for salvation and for His Presence. And what then does he call us to do? “This is the work of God, that you would believe in the One who he has sent.” That’s it. That we would believe in and trust in Jesus. May he help us to do so.

...But back to the eucharist...or should I type, Eucharist. If the Eucharist really is only symbolic why does the Scripture say that some who ate of it unworthily fell sick, the reason being that they were joining in “participation in the body and the blood of the Lord Jesus”? (citation) If it is because the symbol is just that, a symbol of the Lord Jesus, then we should treat a symbol representing him as if it was him. Then for all practical purposes, the Eucharist should be approached, spoken of, and partaken in as if it were Christ’s body and blood. Theology has the task of clarifying the metaphysical meaning of Biblical language. But shouldn’t liturgy speak of the symbols not as being symbols but as the very body and blood of Jesus?. It should facilitate one’ s experience with Christ not in spite of the physical elements but through the physical elements. It lets the symbols truly be symbols in the deepest, most experiential sense. Those are some of my thoughts for now; I’d love to have some of you post your thoughts on the topic.

Mirslav Volf from Yale Divinity School

These are pictures of a conference we just had at Regent. Mirslav Volf came and spoke on the topic of pluralism. Very cool! He is a highly regarded professor at Yale Divinity School. Mirslav is the last gentleman in the while shirt. My gentleman in the middle is Hans Boersma, a systematic theology professor here. The third gentleman is our profesor of exegetical preaching, Darrell Johnson.

fall colours

This is a picture of the back wall behind our house.

Caleb's visit.

Another blessing!! Caleb, a great friend of mine (and my sister's boyfriend) came up to Vancouver to visit! We had a great time catching up, hanging out, and driving around Vancouver. He also got a little tour of Regent, met my history professor Don Lewis, and I gave him the plug for coming up to Vancouver for grad school. ;-)

a thankful heart

This Saturday morning I woke up full of joy and thankfulness. God has been so good to me! He has been so gracious in answering so many prayers, in comforting me, in providing for me, and in surrounding me with the goodness of new friends and family.

Last weekend I had the opportunity to go on an all-school retreat with Regent College. We traveled down to a Christian camp in Washington state and spent three days together listening to some great talks, eating some delicious food, and getting to know one another. We played soccer, danced the "kalie" (a Scottish dance done with a large group of people), worshipped, got to know the professors, enjoyed a talent show, stayed up until 1:30am talking about lots of random topics, and other things. It was a great time of bonding, making new friends, and getting a clearer vision of the next year.

This week has also been great. I am really enjoying all the new people I'm meeting. I have a number of friends that are second generation Chinese, as well as a few from Ireland. I also have met a few people from Latin America and as it turns out they are organizing a party for Spanish/Portuguese speaking people for every weekend over the next three months, and I was invited! I've also started getting to know a couple of the professors here - they really are wonderful, down to earth, approachable individuals. I am also making progress on getting to know some churches that I'd like to scope out as my potential home over the next fear years as well as places where I could possibly do my supervised ministry.

Praise God for his goodness and faithfulness! He's brought me to a place where there is so much to soak in, so much to learn, so many questions to ask, and where I can be myself, struggle, search, be formed, and learn to think more clearly and seek more fully our God.

Below are a few pictures of Regent's retreat....

Picture of JI Packer!!

This is my last picture post, although for you reading this blog it will be the first you see. If you gaze VERY closely into this picture taken on my laptop icam you can make out an elderly, white haired man in the middle of the front row (click on the picture for a better look). He's name is JI Packer. If you don't know who he is you need to either slap your hand or go to amazon.com and buy his book "Knowing God." This is a picture of just before chapel started. JI Packer spoke; it was great. We also celebrated his 80th birthday!!

the beach and a friend...

Here are a few more pics of the beach...the last pic is of a buddy of mine who goes to Regent. His name is Joel. He's from Calgary, his girlfriend is in Toronto, and he just starting his studies in Greek...pray for him. ;-)

after two weeks of classes

Hey All,

It's been a crazy/fun/tiring/exciting/stretching first two weeks of class. I love my profs, the subjects are really stimulating, and I'm meeting a ton of people. The classes I have are: Christian Thought & Culture 1, Church History 0-1500 AD, Old Testament Foundations, and Intermediate Greek. I am really enjoying the fact that much of the classes are overlapping! History and CTC are moving chrologically parallel so much of what we are reading has to do with the same early church leaders, Greco-Roman cultural issues and religions, etc.

I think the most interesting thing I have been learning is how the early church faced so many different challenges and dealt with them: persecution, heresies, the systematic catechizing of the believer, church organization & structure, social & political evil, etc. I've been facinated reading about Ignatius, Polycarp, Tertullian, Origen, Gregory of Lyssa, and others. They were such interesting people with even more interesting ideas at times...

Well, I don't have much time to write right now but I will include a couple of pictures from the past couple of weeks. These ones are from the beach that is a 10-15 minute walk from me home. :-)

First day of orientation...

Well, after writing about 45 emails...responding to some 45 awesome people who wrote me Happy Birthday emails...my fingers are a little tired. But I'm going to post just a few thoughts anyway...

Today was a fantabulous day! It was my first day of orientation at Regent College, in Vancouver, BC - a Christian evangelical graduate school. We first had worship at 9am, followed by a lecture by the President on the history, identity, and committments of Regent. Then we had a number of faculty give 10 minute presentations on their background, field of study, and interests. It was awesome to hear them share from their lives and get a sense of their genuineness, humility, and graciousness. It really got me excited to be studying under them. During lunch I sat with two guys from Seoul, Korea and one lady from Beijing, China, who worships in a house church. I also got to meet another guy from Hong Kong who had recently moved his whole family to Vancouver to work as a banker and is now pursuing theological graduate studies. In the afternoon we got a lot of info on academic policies, etc., and then finished the day with a student panal Q&A. It was great! The guy who led it was this really funny, dry-sense-of-humor New Zealander who told great stories of his experiences. Also on the panel were a Brazilian lady, a guy from Africa, a Canadian, and a USA-ian.

After the discussion I met a girl from Argentina (Chinese descent). It was crazy! She looked totally Asian but sounded just as Argentine as any of my friends from back home (in Arg.) I also met people from all over Canada. I also (later that night) met a lady from Belfast who lives in my residence house the Menno Simons Centre and a girl from China who also lives in Menno...she speaks English with a heavy accent since she's only been here for 8 months.

To be honest, I am already falling in love with Regent. I am realizing that I think it will be a really good fit - down to the buildling, location, culture, bookstore, international flavor, theological bent, committments, faculty, and even the coffee!! I am really thankful that I can be here.

Today I got to walk in UBC (University of British Columbia) a bit. I had to go to the big campus bookstore to buy my student ID and bus pass. Since Regent is an affiliate college of UBC we are actually a part of the Alumni association and get almost all the rights and privelages of the UBC student body. So I walked into the bookstore and felt like I was entering..I don't know what, the Midland Free rummage sale when it had just been opened. There were easily a few hundred students in the book store (the story was fairly large). It was incredible to see the diversity of the students - I saw Chinese, Koreans, Indians (of India), a few people of the Shiek religion, and of course some very secular Canadians. I had to stand in a long line to wait for my id and bus pass and of course right next to the line was a big book display clearly promoting alternative lifestlyes, homosexual marriage, and 'coming out.' I wonder if the display just happened to be placed by accident next to where every UBC student will have to walk to get their student ID....

After getting my bus pass I rode the bus home (it was a good feeling), made a spagetting dinner, and then ate some birthday cake made by my residence directors. They threw a little party for another roommate and myself who just had birthdays. It was fun.

In Summary: T'was a good day! Couldn't have asked for a more enjoyable birthday (although there are lots of people I wish I could have had around me that are far away). I thank God for such good times & the privelage of studying here for the time being! Pray for my discipline - academic and spiritual - to take advantage of being in such a place and haveing this privelage.



PS: the pics are of Regent's chapel hall during break. Sorry it isn't very high quality, it was taken with my iCam.

PPS: At least three of the profs told of new 'conversion' experiences within the last year, when they bought their very first Mac. Now they are fully committed (tends to happen when you convert later in life...) ;-)

...a view of (and from) Point Grey (our neighborhood)...

a house that was built for a good view...this house is at least $2M

the latest trasportation style in Vancouver - BMWs and high-class Hondas....I've seen SO MANY incredibly expensive cars in the past 24 hrs.

two blocks from Menno...

2 blocks from Menno...

also 2 blocks...

ONE block from Menno!....

a few more pics of Menno....