THE BIG MOVE

October 5, 2025October 5, 2025 / joseph elon lillie / Leave a comment

A week ago my daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughters moved in to the Vicarage. It has been a week of unpacking and transitioning and learning to live with all of our new normal.

As the fall settles in and the last of the garden flowers wilt to seed, the denizens of the Vicarage are preparing to settle in for our own long winter’s nap. Though I have suspect that very little napping will get done during the season of darkness.

There are lots of projects to do here at the Vicarage and at the church.

Yesterday James, Joe, Sevii and I attended a men’s conference at the church and then James headed off to work and I headed off to prayer.

Today is church service. Melanie is leading worship and I am preaching so we are already in full swing of preparation.

The next week will be about harvesting the last of the fall veggies from the garden (there is still kale and potatoes to bring in) and then putting the gardens to bed for the winter. As well the kids have to finish unpacking and working on the upstairs room which was Amanda’s room before she moved. They are turning that into a class room for the girls.

In the middle of all this the ladies are planning a fall ladies conference and we are preparing for the town’s first ever (as far as I know) volunteer drive at the end of October. T

This week I will be appointed to secretary of the Friends of the library.

It’s a wonderful and busy season breathing heavily on the edge of the holiday season which will culminate in what we are calling Christmas with our missionaries. All of this is going to give me lots to write about in the days ahead. I just have to make sure I get the writing done.

…AND GLAD OF IT!

September 1, 2025September 1, 2025 / joseph elon lillie / 2 Comments

So I announced in the short yesterday that my youngest daughter and her family are moving in with us at the end of September.

I am really excited to see what God’s next step is for my son-in-law and daughter and their two girls.

I know this is a season of change and a season of growth for all of us.

I sense that our family is at another pivot point in its history, and for some reason this feels like a big one. Maybe it’s just the times we are living in. Maybe it is the reading and listening I am doing of late. Maybe it is something deeper than that, bigger than that. At this point I am uncertain.

What I do know is I am glad to have my family around me at this season. I am glad we are doing life together. I am glad we are doing church together. I am glad we are all of us close in proximity.

WHAT’S GOING ON IN YOUR OWN FAMILY SAGA.

GOD REALLY LOVES MY SISTER

May 5, 2025May 5, 2025 / joseph elon lillie / Leave a comment

We have one TV in our home. It is a small TV. My sister does not like it. She says it is too small to read the captions for TV shows. I can’t say she’s wrong, but I wasn’t about to spend the cost of getting a new one.

Recently, we were gifted tickets for a cancer benefit. There was a door prize attached. We won this.

PERU AND THE HOME FRONT

March 18, 2025 / joseph elon lillie / 3 Comments

My daughter, Amanda, is currently in Cusco Peru with a missions team of other pastors from our network of churches.

She just finished the first cycle of her latest cancer treatment regimen on Friday. She was good up until this last week when a reaction to the treatment caused her to develop a lung infection. Her doctors placed her on antibiotics and told her that if she was not better by Saturday she could not go on the trip. We called our prayer circles and by Saturday she was feeling well enough to go. Sunday she took the five hour drive down to JFK International airport to catch her flight to South America.

Here are some pictures and a testimony from her that arrived today.

“Made it to Cusco:)”

“Praise report! I’m still sick but I have the best O2 of the entire group and am one of the only ones who don’t need oxygen this morning!”

Because of the location of Cusco, high in the Andes Mountains elevation sickness is a real concern and so Amanda had to take a medication beforehand along with her antibiotics to contend with it. Praise God! It worked!

While she is busy doing missions work, I am holding down the fort here at the Vicarage. This morning I walked and fed the dogs, fed the chickens and spent some time with Amanda’s cat Bacari who is greatly confused by the change in routine around here.

Our indoor garden is springing to life. The peppers are sprouting, and the broccoli is up. Melanie, James and I are going to try the broccoli and a few other early veggies in covered beds.

Amanda will be home on March 26th. For those of you keeping track that is the same day that Brenda and her dog Daisy arrive.

CHURCH AND AIRPORT

February 14, 2025 / joseph elon lillie / 2 Comments

With 18 inches of snow coming in on Sunday our church body has decided to try something new. We are going to have church on Saturday morning!

Our family spends a lot of time in church. Valuing faith community is a shared core value. Over the course of the next month we are also going to be spending a lot of time at the airport.

Directly after service tomorrow, I am going to drive my son’s family to the airport so they can fly out…hopefully before the storm… to visit his mom in South Carolina. I am scheduled to pick them back up on Wednesday. Joe’s mom will be returning with them for a week long visit with the northern part of the family.

Next month Amanda is scheduled to fly out for a missions trip to Peru.

Then at the end of March Brenda will be flying into Logan along with her dog Daisy Jane. I won’t say that flying is a shared core value, but over the next month we are going to doing a lot of it.

DO YOU LIKE TO FLY?

THE CHRISTMAS JOURNEY

December 18, 2024 / joseph elon lillie / 2 Comments

Nine bells just rang at the Old Murdock Senior Center, and I am just finishing my day. Snish is falling outside. Walking the dogs and putting the chickens to bed was a cold wet business tonight, but at last it is all done. I am dressed in the Christmas PJ’s the kids’ mom sent up just before Thanksgiving for all of us.

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: JAMES FRANKLIN, ABIGAIL FRANKLIN, MELANIE FRANKLIN, DANIELLA FRANKLIN, PASTOR AMANDA LILLIE, SEVII LILLIE(JOSEPH E LILLIE VII), KRISTINE BARRAMEDA LILLIE (IN FRONT KNEELING), PASTOR J LILLIE(JOSEPH E LILLIE V), JOSEPH E LILIE VI

This was the beginning of our Christmas journey as a family. A lot of familial water has flowed under the bridge of life since this picture was taken.

There were all my birthday celebrations and Thanksgiving with the kids, grandkids and nephews. What a blessed day that was.

ABIGAIL FRANKLIN (FOREGROUND CENTER), TYLER NEWTON (FAR LEFT FRONT CHAIR), SEVII LILLIE (HOLDING BALL), RYAN NEWTON (RECLINER), JOSEPH LILLIE, KRISTINE BARRAMEDA LILLIE, DANIELLA FRANKLIN, PASTOR AMANDA LILLIE, MELANIE FRANKLIN… THANKSGIVING 2024

There was the decorating of The Vicarage.

And the decorating of the church.

JOHN RUSSELL, BUILDING AND GROUNDS, PUTTING UP THE BIG TREE AT CORNERSTONE.

Then the celebration began in earnest.

There was breakfast with Santa and the Cookie Crawl.

FRANCINE (AKA PASTOR AMANDA) AND ABIGAIL START THE COOKIE CRAWL

And the town tree lighting.

MRS. CLAUS, SANTA CLAUS, MEALNIE FRANKLIN AND THE GIRLS

This week has been a whirlwind of parties. It started Saturday with our Deacon, Staff and DLT leader Christmas party.

Yesterday was a full day of connection and celebrating. It started at 9 AM with a meeting of the town, pastors at Sippin Serendippity.

Then it was on to Cornerstone’s weekly staff meeting. With the upcoming holidays, this will be our last staff meeting for 2024.

After that, I went to one of our DLT groups to join their Christmas party, and to discover the prophetic words from God they received during our sabbatical.

Then, after a brief rest, I was off to the cornerstone youth Christmas party.

Today, I spent the day finishing up the decorations at the Vicarage and cooking for a dinner party we hosted this evening with some missionary friends.

This weekend, the Vicarage is hosting a cookie swap for the Tenney side of our family. I have to say I am really enjoying this Christmas journey.

What does your Christmas journey look like?

IT FEELS RIGHT

November 9, 2024 / joseph elon lillie / 2 Comments

This morning Joe and I spent the first part of the morning moving boxes into his new condo.

A week ago, I said I was feeling a little ambivalent about Joe and Kristine and Sevii’s move from the vicarage into their new house, but as Joe and I lugged books and toys out of the Vicarage to deliver them to the new place around the corner, I began to feel right about this move.

It will make the Vicarage more quiet for sure.

But for the next little while I am thinking the prayer space will be good for me and for Amanda as well.

I’ve also realized that we are not going to be completely silent. We have a huge Thanksgiving planned

Photo by Photo By: Kaboompics.com on Pexels.com

and then a Christmas Cookie swap for the extended family in December.

I feel like this is going to be a really good move for Joe and Kristine and for Sevii. They need their own space so they can grow as a family without my interference. It’s not like I am heavy handed or anything, but The Vicarage is my house not theirs. They need their own space to spread out and to become.

It has been a blessed season. They needed us and we really needed them, but now…it is time. It just feels right.

NEW KEYS, NEW TIMES, UNEXPECTEDLY WEIRD

November 5, 2024November 5, 2024 / joseph elon lillie / Leave a comment

My son and daughter-in-law signed on a new condo yesterday. They got the keys to their new home today. That’s where they are right now, beginning the cleaning process before the big move in. Amanda is at the church preparing youth group. It is quiet.

I do love quiet.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

I have to admit, though, as I sit in this, there is a part of me that has become very unfamiliar with the silence, at least during this part of the day. It feels like there should be pots banging in the kitchen. The smell of Philippine spices should be wafting up into my nose making my mouth water. The TV should be blaring “Mickey Mouse Club House”. My son should be snoring in my recliner after a long day’s work at the middle school. I feel like I should be contending with several distractions to my concentration as I write this . Not having all that is kind of a…. distraction.

Now that is unexpectedly weird

I know that what I am feeling is just the shifting feeling of another change coming in a season of changes. When Joe, Kristine and Sevii moved in, Mom was still alive. Brenda was home for a big part of their time here with me. The house was bustling. Now Mom is gone, Brenda is back in The Netherlands and by next week it will just be me and Amanda in the house. I think the quiet is going to be a truly new atmosphere and I know I will enjoy it….once I get used to it.

That said, who knows what tomorrow brings? I am learning to hold the future loosely and that is another weirdly unexpected thing for me. But we can talk more about that another day.

HAS ANYTHING WEIRDLY UNEXPECTED HAPPENED TO YOU LATELY?

SABBATICAL DAY 19: A DAY AWAY IN A NEW PLACE

October 19, 2024 / joseph elon lillie / Leave a comment

I have not done much in the way of entertainment during this sabbatical. Well ….that is not really true I have been enjoying some good reading,

and I finished this year’s season of The Rings Of Power.

I did write last week about going to the Fall Fest, but today I did something new in a new place and it was also entertaining!

My son and his wife invited me along on their excursion out to Hollis Hills Farm, In Fitchburg MA. They had never been and neither had I, but it came highly recommended.

I guess this is as good a time as any to talk about the transition coming up at the end of the month. Joe and Kristine put in an offer on a condo here in Winchendon and it was accepted. They are supposed to sign paperwork on Oct. 31st my last day of sabbatical. This means their move in date will probably be the weekend of Nov. 1st-3rd, my first weekend back at church.

I think I have been unconsciously preparing for the change all this month, practicing the quiet, and wondering what it will look like as far as a new rhythm of life at The Vicarage.

But today was all about the farm and enjoying the presence of my family.