Good morning, for those unfortunate few who don’t know me, I’m Kelvin Bueckert. There’s many things I could say, but the main thing I want you to know is that I can actually do things at once, you see, I’m Charlene’s brother and Peter’s brother-in-law at the time. Anyway, I’m not here to talk about myself…today, I’d like to talk to you about Ben Bueckert.

Ben was a farmer, a trucker, and he also happened to be my father. In many ways he could be described as a simple man. He didn’t have a desire to chase riches and big mansions. He didn’t have a lot of interest in the toys that this world has to offer. His idea of a good time was watching wildlife, visiting, and going for walks out in the bush…sometimes these would be very loong walks. A few hours or more. But the main thing he was interested in was his faith in Jesus Christ.

Ben didn’t have a wall full of fancy degrees. He didn’t wear a long robes and a long face to show everyone how important he was. His was a simple faith, he went to church every Sunday, he read the Bible and believed what it said. And when he read verses like, love your neighbor as you love yourself. Or, go into the world and make disciples, he took them literally.

This meant that when a next door neighbor would call for help with an angry cow or broken down farm machinery, he would go over and help them out. This meant that if he saw someone beside the road with a flat tire, he’d stop and help them out. This meant that if someone was going through a hard time and needed to talk, he’d often stay there and talk to them. Even if this meant that he had to sacrifice his own agenda for the day.

He drove a semi truck for FED EX, so that meant that he’d go back and forth between Winnipeg and Toronto every single week of the year…and at every truck stop he’d stop at, at every place he’d stop to deliver loads, and even on the CB to truckers he’d meet along the way, he would talk to them…show them that he was concerned about them and share the gospel with them.

It wouldn’t matter if you were young or old, rich or poor…if you started talking to Ben, before long the conversation would come to a question like, so, where do you go to Church? And that would be the lead into a conversation about Christianity.

Well. This all sounds pretty good…and it was…anyway, my Dad carried on like this until the winter of 2013. One night, as they were driving to Toronto in the middle of a blizzard of ice and snow…their semi was hit, Ben was thrown from the cab of his semi and soon after, passed away.

Yet, even then, his thoughts were of others. His final words on this earth were, “don’t worry about me, worry about the other driver. He’s hurt bad.”

It was terrible shock to us all. Yet, it was also the time when we really started to see the fruit of all his labor over the years. Many, many people came out to his funeral…big bosses from FED EX Toronto flew out to a little Church in Gladstone for his service…we received cards from people we’d never heard of…the employees of truck stop somewhere on the road to Toronto sent us greetings…people who had never met Ben,but had just talked to him on the CB sent well wishes… FED EX employees gave us a wall display full of comments about how they were touched by Ben. FED EX Florida had a service for him. And so it went…in the time afterword some of the people who helped us as a family were the same ones that Ben had helped over the years. And the common comment from these people was how much these people respected Ben for who he was…

What was it about what he did that affected them in this way?

Was it his eloquent words? No, it sure wasn’t that. Ben wasn’t known to sugercoat things.

Was it his great knowledge and insight into the things of God? Well, he had knowledge and insight…but many people in this world have greater knowledge and insight than he did. No…it wasn’t simply some ideas about the truth that made the difference in Ben’s life. It was knowing the truth personally…specifically, the way, the truth and the life, Jesus Christ…and living out his teachings in his everyday life…no matter what cost him…even if it meant people thought he was strange, or crazy, he would share his faith with them…and even if people didn’t like what Ben had to say, most of them would respect him for saying it, simply because they could see that he was living out the message that he preached. This is a valuable lesson for us today.

The truth is. We can all do the same kinds of things that Ben did. The invitation to know Christ personally is extended to all of us. Opportunities to live out the message of Christ exist in every area of our lives. Will we give in to fear…will we do as little as we can get away with and hope for the best…or will we take to heart the command in Colossians 3:23. “Whatever you do, work at it with your whole being, for the Lordand not for men, because you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as your reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

In the eyes of the world the things that Ben did were small things, many of the people he talked to would be considered insignificant, but in the hands of the Lord, who he served, these small things he did became much greater things…and now, Ben has received his reward from the Lord, who he was serving.

It is now up to us to carry on the mission…and the truth is, we don’t have to go to Africa or Tibet to do this, we have a mission field of opportunities all around us…in our communities…in our workplaces and our homes. Will we be like Ben, will we take every opportunity to share Jesus?

And if we do share Jesus, will people respect us because we are living out the message we are preaching?

Sure it’s hard to live like this, it’ll mean sacrificing your time and energy…but as Ben has discovered, the rewards of wholeheartedly living out the mission are out of this world.