2022 International Plowing Match

The International Plowing Match (IPM) was held September 20 to 24, near the town of Kemptville,
North Grenville. The IPM has not had this five-day match since 2019.
The IPM is put on by the Ontario Plowmen’s Association annually in different counties
throughout Ontario. There is a huge variety of farm equipment, tractors, new innovative high-tech
equipment, antiques, steam engines, great varieties of workwear, tools, clothing as well as horse and
other animal shows. And, of course, the annual plowing competition. In past, over 100,000 people have
visited the huge tent city.
The Reformed Evangelistic Outreach Committee has for the thirty-sixth year set up a booth at the
IPM. As in the past, there were several other evangelizing and church groups present handing out
tracts, pens, and other items to promote the Gospel, which is encouraging.
Each day there were eight workers that handed out free tracts, Bibles, and calendars. Inside our booth
there was a variety of Christian books, Bibles, and many children books available for a discounted price.
Visitors to our tent quite often had questions about religion in general or asked the differences in the
Reformed faith and some had no background at all in the Christian faith. Many Bibles, scripture text
bookmarks and colouring books were given to children; several admitting they did not know what a
Bible was, and many never had their own Bible. Normally, we would have handed out more than 5,000
calendars in the five days, as well as 500 French calendars. Each page on the calendar has a Bible text
and an Ontario scenic picture on it. However, this year approximately 2,500 calendars were handed out.
This was due to a smaller crowd of only 67,128 visitors attending the match. This is much less than
normal which was partly due to weather. The opening day was very wet and cold with the rest of the
week having a mix of sun, clouds, and rain. Saturday was a nice sunny day which resulted in the busiest
day at the match.
Even though less religious material was handed out this year, our prayer is that the Lord would bless His
Word that has been distributed and be the means of many coming to know more about the most high
God, our Maker and Redeemer, to seek and find Jesus the Saviour and be born again!