As some know, we have spent a lot of time fixing up the interior of The Vicarage over the last several years. It is always a work in progress, and maintaining what was done remains a challenge. That said, this summer I wanted to turn my attention to the forest garden at The Vicarage, which has been neglected for seven long years.
I have done a lot of work rearranging garden beds and planting herbs and vegetables. The time of harvest has begun. Tonight in fact I am frying up our second egg plant from the garden and making a chopped salad of tomatoes, cucumbers and green bean garnished with nasturtiums.
This week The forest garden had two large projects that took place. The first project was…CHICKENS!
We got our first four chickens! They are named Squash, Partly Sunny, Eggplant and Spot.
Because their coop is a little smaller than we would, we have built them temporary exercise yard as well. My plan is to do some more brush cutting around the coop , buy some wood and fencing and set up a larger coop before the winter sets in. This will have to do for now.
The other project we had done was our Northern driveway. I got a good price from Art’s Paving, so we did this on Friday afternoon.
The Vicarage…. it is a never-ending work, but we keep moving forward.
Life is wonderful. Life is full of opportunity. Life is full of challenges. Life is full of set backs. Life gets hard sometimes. All of the wonder, opportunity, challenge, setback and hardness just wears me out. I find I constantly need to restore myself, or perhaps more accurately, I need to be restored.
For me this means I spend a lot of time is RESTORATIVE PRAYER.
Prayer is broken down into many different genres: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication, Petition and Waiting (what I call RESTORATIVE PRAYER) to name a few.
Isaiah 40:31 says, “But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.“
The word WAIT (QUAVA) is perhaps the most important word for me when it comes to prayer. WAIT in Isaiah 40:31 does not mean to sit and wait like you wait for a bus (although sometimes that is what it looks like when you are actually doing the work of waiting). It is waiting as in hoping. It is waiting as in expecting, but it is also an intentional twisting together as in braiding two or three chords together until the individual rope (that would be me) is strengthened by the addition of another rope or three ropes (those additional ropes would be God as in the Trinity).
As I said life wears me out until I am just too tired to keep going. RESTORATIVE PRAYER is that which makes me strong again.
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE.
I FIND A QUIET PLACE.
I TAKE MY BIBLE, MY PHONE, MY PEN, MY AGENDA AND A JOURNAL
I GET INTO A COMFORTABLE POSITION, FOR ME USUALLY SITTING IN A COMFORTABLE CHAIR OR LAYING DOWN
I SET A TIMER FOR AT LEAST 10 MINUTES BUT USUALLY 20 OR 30 MINUTES
I PUT ON EITHER SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC OR MY BIBLE APP IN AUDIBLE FORMAT.
I CLOSE MY EYES AND SETTLE BACK TO LISTEN.
I TRY TO COMPLETELY RELAX. SOMETIMES I HAVE TO PRACTICE “HANDS DOWN PALMS UP AS I BEGIN.
WHAT HAPPENS:
Sometime I come to the waiting with a thousand things on my mind. In time like this my racing thoughts jump from issue to issue that I have to deal with. This is what the agenda is for. I turn to my “TO DO LIST” and I begin to write down all the things my racing mind thinks are more important than seeking God and His strength. Sometimes I write down the time when I need to do the jobs alongside each item in my list. This step sometimes takes me five or ten minutes.
As my mind slows down I begin to feel the weariness of my spirit, soul and body move in. Now I can begin to focus in on the music I am playing or the Scripture.
Often at this point I fall asleep. I never feel guilty about this. It is part of the waiting, a necessary part of being restored. I trust that the Word of God or the worship music is getting into my subconscious. It is also why I set a timer.
Usually I will awaken before the timer and then I begin praising the Lord. As I do I spend a moment contemplating if there was anything I thought about or dreamt about during the beginning of my waiting period that may have been from God. Often there is. I write that down in my journal.
When the timer goes off I consider whether I need to go again. Many times I reset the timer. Sometimes if I am very weary or stressed I need to repeat the whole cycle, but if I have been mindful of my personal care, I can usually focus on items 3 and 5 the second time around (Usually the second time around I opt for the Bible app over music as I am ready now to receive deep truth).
RESTORATIVE PRAYER is one of the most essential spiritual disciplines I practice.
One of the things I have learned from years of ministry life is that to do ministry or to be a minister long term requires CONSTANT RE-CREATION. That is the creating anew of my personhood in the short and the long term. It is resetting myself to factory settings or making entirely new settings from which my life will operate.
RE-CREATION comes in two forms: RECREATION….AND REFORMATION.
Regular recreation helps me RE-CREATE myself on a weekly basis. This is the work of setting myself back to a healthy center. For me a healthy center is the space where I am in touch with the Spirit of Jesus. In that space I am loving, joyful peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle and self controlled.
Regular recreation is a daily and a weekly work and for me it requires the practice of three mindsets.
Recreation for me is stopping to smell the roses or the herbal flowers as it were.
I garden not so much for the look of the garden but for smell. Right now the garden is full of the scent of basil, mint and oregano. Each season has its own fragrance that helps me to get in a recreating mood and gardening towards those scents is for me one of the most relaxing things in the world.
The busier I become with ministry the more time I need to PLAN for recreation. Daily this requires me to schedule in restorative prayer between every ministry function. Ministry is a pouring out of all I am physically, emotionally and spiritually so before and after I minister I need to spend time in RESTORATIVE PRAYER.
Beyond that I need to weekly take time to do something that makes me truly relax. That used to mean watching TV. That is becoming less so now. Currently I am learning the relaxing JOY OF GARDENING and NAPPING.
FINALLY RECREATION REQUIRES ME TO BE INTENTIONAL.
I have learned that the less planned I am the more unhealthy I am. I need to plan as much as I can on a weekly basis including my daily and weekly times of recreation. I need to schedule in my RESTORATIVE PRAYER TIME daily.
I need to intentionally plan when those times will come in my schedule, where they will be held, how long they will last and what form the RESTORATIVE PRAYER take..
I also need to plan my SABBATH DAY. What I am going to do, when I am going to do it and most importantly when I am going to NAP.
I AM CURIOUS WHAT MINDSETS HELP YOU TO PRACTICE RECREATION?
Now that said, there has been so much water under the bridge since that post was written in 2019 that I have to say it hardly applies anymore. The world has changed, the town we live has changed, our ministries have changed, the Vicarage has changed and my family has changed.
These last few months have caused me to do some deep introspection. I have been asking the question “Where do we go from here?” over and over in my time of prayer.
So let me introduce you to the changes in the way I see the world. Let me introduce you to the changes that have taken place in our town, in our church, in our ministries, in the Vicarage and in our family.
LET’S START HERE:
WHAT IS THE VICARAGE?
The Vicarage is a Queen Anne style house co owned by Rev. J. Lillie (that’s me) and Rev. Brenda J. Lillie (that would be my sister). It sits on a piece of property in North Central Massachusetts that is currently what I call an out of control micro-forest garden.
WHAT IS “NOTES FROM THE VICARAGE”?
“Notes From the Vicarage” is a blog about the Vicarage and its micro-forest gardens and all the projects going on there.
It’s a blog about the characters connected to the Vicarage, both human and animal.
It’s a blog about what we believe and the ministries we all oversee.
And it’s a blog about the towns we live in and how they are changing with the times and how we are becoming influencers in them.
WHO ARE THE CHARACTERS OF THE VICARAGE?
PASTOR J. LILLIE- Part owner of the Vicarage. Older brother of Pastor Brenda J. Lillie, father of Joe, Pastor Amanda and Melanie; father-in-law of Kristine and James; Oz (grandfather) to Lela, Abigail and Sevy. Lead Pastor of Cornerstone Church. Currently resides at The Vicarage.
PASTOR BRENDA J. LILLIE- Part owner of the Vicarage. Younger sister to Pastor J, Aunt to Joe, Pastor Amanda, Melanie and their families. Missionary to The Netherlands where she currently resides.
JOE LILLIE VI- Son of Pastor J., husband to Kristine, father to Sevy, nephew to Brenda J, brother to Pastor Amanda and Melanie, Brother-in-law to James and Uncle to Lela and Abigail. ESL teacher in Jr. High School, Gideon, and missions team member at Cornerstone Church. Currently resides at The Vicarage.
KRISTINE BERNADETTE BARRAMEDA-LILLIE- Wife to Joe, mother to Sevy, daughter-in-law to Pastor J, sister-in-law to Pastor Amanda, Melanie and James, Aunt to Lela and Abigail. Teller at Athol Savings Bank and Administrative Assistant Cornerstone Church. Currently resided at The Vicarage.
JOSEPH LILLIE VII (SEVY)- Son to Joe and Kristine, Grandson to Pastor J, Great nephew of Pastor Brenda J., Nephew of Pastor Amanda, Melanie and James, Cousin to Lela and Abigail. Spends time being a little kid. Currently resides at The Vicarage.
PASTOR AMANDA LILLIE- Daughter to Pastor J, niece of Pastor Brenda J., Sister of Joe and Melanie, Sister-in-law to Kristine and James, Aunt to Lela, Abigail and Sevy, Next Generations Pastor of Cornerstone Church. Currently resides at The Vicarage.
JAMES FRANKLIN- Husband to Melanie, father to Lela and Abigail, son-in-law to Pastor J, brother-in-law to Joe and Kristine, uncle to Sevy. Pizza chef. DLT leader and Royal Ranger Commander at Cornerstone Church. Currently resides about 5 minutes from The Vicarage.
MELANIE FRANKLIN- Wife to James, mother to Lela and Abigail, daughter to Pastor J, niece to Pastor Brenda, sister to Joe and Amanda, sister-in-law to Kristine. Medical records transcriber. Worship leader and DLT leader at Cornerstone church. Currently resides five minutes from The Vicarage.
DANIELLA FRANKLIN (LELA)- Daughter to Melanie and James, Granddaughter to Pastor J, niece to Pastor Brenda J, Joe and Kristine and Pastor Amanda, sister to Abigail and cousin to Sevy. First grader! Currently resides five minutes from the Vicarage.
ABIGAIL FRANKLIN- Daughter to Melanie and James, granddaughter to Pastor J, niece to Pastor Brenda J, Joe and Kristine and Pastor Amanda, sister to Lela and cousin to Sevy. Practices being a little kid. Resides five minutes from the Vicarage.
SNUG AND MERCEDES: Elderly Maltese dogs owned by Pastor J. Currently reside at the Vicarage.
SUNSHINE, PARTLY CLOUDY, EGGPLANT AND SPOT-The chickens who live in the Forest garden at Tye Vicarage.
SO… This is us. This our home. This is our story. I encourage you to join us on the journey.
It is not often that I get both Friday and Saturday free from ministry events or visitations. This week happened to be one of those rare occasions.
I ended up spending Friday night and Saturday at The Red Apple Farm in Phillipston MA.
On Friday Joe, Kristine and Sevy invited me to a dinner of wood fired pizza. I started with blueberry honey soda by the bon fire.
We played a game of Jenga.
and cornhole.
Saturday morning started out with work in the gardens at The Vicarage.
Please note I am working hard at not growing grass. I am specializing in moss and clover this year. It is keeping the rabbits out of the garden.
After about two hours playing in the forest garden, I met the rest of the family at The Red Apple Farm for lunch.
It was not age festival weekend, but there was free face and body painting and a stand that was helping kids make pet rocks.
I have to say the farm does a wonderful job with their musical entertainment. Friday night they invited a Caribbean kettle band to come out and play and Saturday they had zydeco. If you are going to be in the area of Phillipston MA, YOU CAN FIND OUT MORE ABOUT WHAT’S COMING IN THE DAYS AHEAD HERE.
While Amanda and I ordered BBQ from the Brewhouse Abigail, Mimi and great aunt Andrea got coordinating body paint.
Then Lela and Abigail played a game pf checkers with their great Aunt while several of us chowed down on BBQ Ribs and chicken while listening to the band.
Notes From the Vicarage 