Monday, June 30, 2014

Bondslave Rally in Stonewall June 28, 2014

The annual Canada Day weekend was held under threatening skies. Our attendance was whittled down to two CLR members and our area Coordinator James. Saturday morning was very foggy but rain was not expected for a  few hours, so it was a very enjoyable ride to Portage to meet with President Bruce, James and Helene.
On to Stonewall after our fill of coffee and goodies from Timmies, After dozens of "hello, how are you" things settled down to getting a burger and a drink. Soon the races would start up and that is always an entertaining time.
Little did we know that we were crashing another motorcycle wedding! Yes the Bondslaves do get hitched. This one was going to be a big one as there were many family members that would be coming for the wedding and not the rally.
Now the races, yes all kinds of bikes, even some full dressers, a little dirt bike and a wild go cart.
What followed was the tire burn out, man this is hard on the bike motor and tranny, but deadly for the tire. All for a $300 prize. Just covers the tire replacement.
After all this the bride seemed to be 30 min late, (normal) wedding went off really well Pastor Gavin doing the nuptials. Had a great message for the new couple and also a reminder of the process of getting married that the vows we make to each other are really vows to our Lord Jesus.
Anticipating the pork BBQ we set our sights on departing at 6:00pm, however the wedding took priority and dinner was delayed  so we packed up and left for Brandon. The ride back was marred by a few showers but got back before the monster winds and rain came that lasted all night. Praise the Lord for looking after his children.

Things that matter , or not! June 21, 2014


This is a slightly different post along with it's content. Attending different functions are part of the Ministry of CMA and CLR. Sometimes it' just for the  fun with friends and associates, kind of relationship investments. So here we go.
June 21, CLR members scooted to Wawanesa MB, to attend a wedding of one of our members. This was to be a motorcycle included event. The bride was given a motorcycle ride right to the alter that was a small arbor on the side yard of her rural home.
The day was sunny and mild with a nice breeze rolling through the freshly cut lawn, keeping the mosquitoes down. After the nuptials, the bride was taken away by her new husband on the motorcycle. The final event was the tossing of the bouquet that was caught by yous truly, however since I was already taken I tossed it to our single President Bruce, thus the evidence in this picture
What followed a time of picture taking, a great BBQ dinner then back to Brandon.

Say "yes" Helen

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Roll With Us" Yorkton Faith Ministries outreach

After taking a one year hiatus and changing the name of the event from "Spoke and Smoke" to "Roll With Us", Pastor's Kevin and Pat Bundus of Yorkton Faith Ministries opened the doors of their church for a day of honoring bikers. Kevin and Pat are my cousins but our connection goes much deeper in that they are the ones who prayed me into the Kingdom of God. Thus my heart is to honor them in any way I can and one way is by supporting their Father's Day outreach event by riding out to Yorkton and sharing the Word of God with their assembly. 

Similar to two years ago, our journey to Yorkton SK was cold and wet and we encountered some rain however it was minimal compared to the storm we rode though in 2012. What really touched my heart was the commitment demonstrated by Vice President Grace Loewen, Road Captain Hank Loewen, and Jim and Jean Stremel to accompany me on this journey. It's one thing to ride almost 700 kms on a day that is warm and sunny but to do so on a wet, cold, rainy day is nothing short of honoring. It was also Father's Day! This level of commitment provided me with an example to share with the Yorkton congregation of men and women who honor each other and in doing so honor the Lord. When we honor each other, we honor God and He in turn honors and blesses us. Indeed we were honored and received a "rolling out of the red carpet" from Kevin and Pat and their precious assembly of Believers. We were treated to a wonderful worship set by their youth praise and worship team and then I was given the freedom to share an hour long message on growing in intimacy with God. Afterwards we were treated to an amazing BBQ meal and a great time of fellowship. Remember the honor part I wrote about? Well Pastor's Kevin and Pat honored all of us in one more amazing way; they paid all of our fuel costs to attend this event through a generous donation to our Chapter. The Lord truly honors those who honor Him by doing His good works in the earth. Personally I can't think of anything more special to my heart then preaching at the church where for me my new life in Christ began back in 2007. As I shared with the congregation, it always feels like a homecoming to me when I attend Yorkton Faith Ministries. 

Speaking of honor, a big thank you to all the members of CLR who were unable to attend this event but prayed for us and this event. You are a blessing too and we can not measure the value of your prayers since they may have prevented a break down, or a collision, or a sickness, or a cancellation of this event, or a terrible storm. Praise the Lord that we will never know for the Lord brought all things together on this day for His glory. 

The big man next to me in the photo is Pastor Kevin Bundus who also rides a motorcycle. Check out the sign hanging from the pulpit. The group shot was taken just before our departure and includes our Yorkton biker friend Wally on our far left. 



Visit to Riverheights Terrace June 21, 2014

After several days of severe rains, the skies cleared for your servants to do the visiting in Your name.  Riverheights Terrace is a seniors retirement home on the west end of Brandon. It it provides residential  accommodation to seniors in the Westman area.

CLR visited with a 30 minute sing song with some of the older hymns followed by a small message from the heart of President Bruce. There were about 30 residents attending in the open rotunda. One of the residents asked for prayer and it was done as part of our closing prayer.I passed out 8 small book of John to the same number of residents. Ice cream was presented by the all that attended in the activity room following the presentation.


One of the residents was showing me the front page of the Journal, a weekly paper in Westman, he was pointing out the news item about the Defender Motorcycle Club's ride. I mentioned that we were not part of that group. He said "I know,  your the opposite to the HA, and I am pleased that you are" Bless that man Lord for his insight.

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Wawanesa Personal Care Home Visit


Under grey skies on June 14, 2014, we rode out to the Wawanesa PCH. The Lord blessed us by keeping the rain away and once we got there, it was anything but grey skies inside the Care Home. Many residents came out to greet us and join us in worship as the CLR singers (Grace, Helen R, Helen A, Ingrid, Jean, Jim, and myself) led a half hour of praise to the Lord. This was followed by a half hour message on "God's Love". Several residents came out afterwards and shared some laughs around the motorcycles. The highlight for me was meeting up with Clayton again whom I remembered from our visit in 2013. Clayton is passionate about horses and farming and you can still see the strong drive beneath his rugged exterior molded by years of farming. Clayton is the gentleman standing beside Grace in the checkered shirt. He also couldn't resist asking for his photo to be taken beside Grace our Vice President, whom he calls "the pretty lady". Indeed Hank is a blessed husband and Grace a blessed wife. The residents really love our CLR sister Helen Allen who has worked at the PCH in the past. This event find us just over a week away from Helen's wedding. All God's best to Helen and Walter. All God's best to the treasured residents of the Wawanesa PCH; we look forward to seeing you in 2015



Sunday, June 1, 2014

CLR 2014 Run for the Son Shoal Lake Visit

Sunday May 24th at 9 a.m. we headed out on our annual Run for the Son to Shoal Lake Baptist Church. Twelve members started out from Brandon and joined our 2 members in Shoal Lake.  Thank you to the church and Merl and Glenda for welcoming us again this year and providing a great meal.  Special thanks to Cody cooking the burgers and to all the others who brought food and served it. 
 
We were privileged to lead in Worship and have the opportunity to share about CMA’s Run for the Son, our only fundraising event of the year.  Money raised for our Run for the Son is shared with two other ministries that CMA partners with; Missionary Ventures and Open Doors Ministry.  We then heard God’s message for us shared by President Bruce.
 
Praise God for a wonderful day, safe riding, and warm weather.

 

Bethel Christian Assembly VIsit


Recently we were at Bethel Christian Assembly to make a presentation for Run For the Son.

Bethel has always been very supportive of CMA, so it was an honor to do a presentation for RFTS.We were able to bring our motorcycles into the Church and President Bruce shared a little bit about what CLR does and shared a RFTS video.
Thank You to Bethel for your continued support and encouragement, and thank you to all the members who came to the presentation.


Dinsdale Personal Care Home Visit



On Saturday May 31st 10 members of CLR attended at Dinsdale Personal Care Home here in Brandon. This was the first one of many more that our President Bruce has schedule to visit this  season.     Again we were blessed with a wonderful day, bright sun and. There were 33 beautiful soles and several staff members that blessed us by attending.

There were a number of seniors there that I knew from a previous time in and out of the church scene. It was nice to visit with Abe, Sam and Dennis, they made us feel welcome just like they did in their homes before Dinsdale.
President Bruce and his helpers spent 30 minutes in a small praise session through song. I noticed a few of them were following along with some of the older hyms, that was nice to see. Following that session President Bruce spoke to the folks on the topic of Heaven. Heaven is real and several descriptions from the bible were quoted and expressed. An assurance of a wonderful place that has been prepared for them all.
 Following that the folks came out to the front drive. CLR brought the motorcycles out to the drive area and we mixed, spoke and prayed with them for another half hour. I met a British lady that married a Canadian soldier following the 2nd world war. He had taken her for a ride on his Harley 45, these were bikes that were used by a division in the army known as "Dispatch Riders" It just happens that my brother was a dispatch rider during that conflict, so I was deeply involved in the conversation. She challenged me to tell her the name of the back seat of a motorbike, she had forgotten.  Well no one knew the name. After a time I thought why not Google it? And so I was able to remind her that the name was "Pillion". We had a good chucled over this find and marveled at the technology at our finger tips, even to the joy of seniors that have no ideal of this technology.