2024 Day 4…Missing Day 3

January 4, 2024 / joseph elon lillie / 2 Comments

Tuesday is the end of my week. Wednesday is my Sabbath. I am still trying to figure out what Sabbath should look like in my life. It is a day of rest, but more than that it is a day of a different rhythm. I am fighting with myself to figure out whether writing is part of that different rhythm. Is it work? Is it relaxation? Is it work that relaxes me?

Anyway, yesterday I tried the day without writing (although I still did my daily video for the other blog so I am not sure it was really a good test). I like writing. I missed it, but honestly, I was so tired I am not sure I had the brain space for it anyway. Even my prayer and Bible time were spent mostly in a staring stupor.

I was in the Book of Deuteronomy so I am not sure that helped either.

But the real weariness came from my “busy days of ministry ” Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.” Sunday is my preaching day. This week I preached us down a rabbit hole which is always more exhausting than sharing direct from the notes.

Then of course we had our NewYear’s Day celebration.

Monday I led an hour of worship at The Worship Room.

Tuesday was staff meeting and then Royal Rangers, boy’s ministry.

My end of week is filled with awesome ministry, but sometimes it does feel like this.

Yet another reason for me to lose some weight and get in shape!

DAY 2 2024: 5 THINGS I LIKE…ABOUT ME

January 2, 2024 / joseph elon lillie / 4 Comments

I said yesterday that this year I will be working on my weight, strength and flexibility…in short my physical health. I actually started working on this a year ago. 2023 showed little progress in this area. I had a net weight loss of 3 pounds. It’s not nothing, but it’s close.

My chosen weight loss vehicle is NOOM, well at least it is the parts of NOOM that I like or find easy to accomplish. Therein lies the problem. I realize that I have not committed to the work. Part of the suggested work with NOOM is that you publicize your work, make yourself publicly accountable. SO….this is me making myself publicly accountable.

This morning I started a lesson entitled “Express Yourself Pt. 3”. It called for me to answer questions about how I felt about “Express Yourself Pt. 1”. Well, I never did Pt. 1 so I cannot do Pt. 3 (no I didn’t do Pt. 2 either but we will save that for another blog).

EXPRESS YOURSELF PT. 1 asked me to write down 5 things about myself that I really liked regardless of my size and shape. SO HERE WITHOUT COMMENT ABOUT HOW I FEEL ABOUT HOW I LIKE MYSELF IS MY LIST OF FIVE THINGS.

I LIKE THAT I AM A PATIENT PERSON.

I LIKE THAT I AM A STUDIOUS PERSON.

I LIKE THAT I AM A PERSON OF PEACE.

I LIKE THAT I AM A PROPHETIC PERSON.

I LIKE THAT I AM A PRAYERFUL PERSON.

Ok, that wan’t as hard as I thought it would be.

IS IT HARD FOR YOU TO TALK ABOUT WHAT YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF?

DAY 1 2024

January 1, 2024January 1, 2024 / joseph elon lillie / 2 Comments

Happy New Year!

2023 is history. Here is my favorite picture from the last year.

This is a picture of night time at The Vicarage during a full moon. I was pleasantly surprised by the filter edits I was able to impose on the original.

I am setting my sights on 2024 now. I am praying close into what God will give me for the year ahead. I already know my word for the year…”PREPARE”. I am asking now what I should use for filters on the raw material God gives me so that I might be prepared for God’s best outcome.

I know I am going to be working on my weight, strength and flexibility.

I know I am going to be working on my administrative capabilities.

I know I am going to be working on my writing again.

I know I am going to be preparing for some big changes at The Vicarage which will affect me spiritually, emotionally, and practically.

I know there are opportunities and challenges in my pastoral work that I need to get a better understanding of.

I know there are coming changes in The United States and the Earth which I need to understand better.

I know God is about to move in our church in some new, exciting and challenging ways.

I know God is about to move in our region in some new, exciting and challenging ways.

Lord Prepare me! Lord prepare us!

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

WHAT DO YOU THINK THE NEXT YEAR WILL BRING?

A Bit of 2023 In 10 Pictures

December 31, 2023 / joseph elon lillie / 2 Comments

I started the battle of the bulge at the beginning of 2023. So far it is a stalemate.

Melanie became one of Cornerstone’s lead worshippers

Joe, Kristine and Sevy moved into The Vicarage

Memories Of Christmas 2023

December 26, 2023December 26, 2023 / joseph elon lillie / Leave a comment

Christmas 2023 created so many wonderful memories for me. It was a season of old traditions and new experiences blended together. We started the Christmas celebration with Christmas Eve service and communion followed by a quiet family dinner. We had shrimp with cocktail sauce and roast beef pinwheels, Eggnog and Christmas cookies, and chips with salsa and cream cheese dip as usual. But this year we added lumpia to the mix.

It was Sevy and Kristine’s first American Christmas so we blended American tradition with Philippine tradition.

Christmas Day we started the day with stuffed French toast and bacon.

For lunch I made lasagna, cole slaw and buttermilk biscuits. Kristine made more lumpia….soo good!

maja blanca….soooo good!

and lechon….sooooooooooo good!

The day was ordered around keeping Sevy on track with the Christmas plans. We knew it was time to move onto the next tradition when Sevy started climbing the walls.

Opening presents with four generations was one of yesterday’s great blessings. It is not every family that has the privilege to have four generations living under one roof.

The Christmas season has come and gone and now we are rushing headlong into the New Year. My word for 2024 is “Prepare”. I believe next year will be a year of great upheaval and change. Holding on to our hope, peace, joy and love is going to need that preparation.

THE EXTENDED FAMILY VISITS

December 22, 2023 / joseph elon lillie / 2 Comments

It is Christmas and with Christmas comes the visits from extended family. I love these times of sharing and family memory.

Kristine’s Mom called today from Ilo Ilo and I imagine we will be hearing from Kristine’s sister n Singapore sometime this weekend. I also expect we will be chatting with Brenda from The Netherlands. And my son Joe will undoubtedly chat with his friend Bill in South Korea as well.We are a global family!

I enjoy hearing about the goings on around the world. I also love seeing family, right here at home, we don’t get to see very often. Aunt Carol and Uncle Tom stopped by this afternoon and stayed for a visit.

Usually they just pop in with a holiday bread and pop back out. Mom, Carol and Tom are the last living members of their generation in our family. Mom and Carol are the last sisters from a family of eight. Both are living with dementia and both are easily tired out. Today was a good day, though, and all three felt like visiting. So I put on a pot of coffee.

Uncle Tom pulled up a chair for Aunt Carol in the living room and we left the sisters to visit while we had our coffee around the new dining table Joe and Kristine bought me for Christmas. Mom and Aunt Carol chatted for about an hour about their grandchildren while Uncle Tom and I talked about wildlife and ancestry. The stories of the old days are some of my favorite conversations.

Our visit today reminded me that I still need to pick up some holiday breads and drop them by the cousins houses before Christmas comes. Well that’s a job for tomorrow morning. Tonight I need to do some wrapping of the Christmas presents I bought this afternoon.

WHERE ARE YOU AT IN YOUR CHRISTMAS PREPARATION?

So Much Fun

December 11, 2023 / joseph elon lillie / 2 Comments

We just marched through the second weekend of Advent, The weekend of Peace. It was so much fun. Last week our church was honored to host our local high school for three days while the school was repaired from a malfunction with one of its hot water heaters.

This weekend we had a team come in to clean up and get ready for church on Sunday. But the church staff and school staff did such a great job of putting the church back together that the congregation was able to do a few extra jobs which have been waiting in the wings.

I had thought we would have the students with us for two weeks, so I rented this huge dumpster which the school hardly used. We used it instead to get rid of a shed full of rotten lumber we have been sitting on for a looooong time. Meanwhile a group of ladies went through out kitchen and indoor storage rooms to get rid of old and broken kitchen and ministry items.

I love cleaning out!

Another group of congregants worked in the sanctuary reattaching the chairs which had been disconnected and because it is the fourth season of the church year they also vacuumed. You know the four seasons of the church year don’t you? Spring, Summer, Fall and Glitter.

Vacuuming is not really effective against glitter but at least it gets up the sand and the salt that people carry in from the parking lot.

After the clean out Amanda and I headed over to our sister church, Bread of Life, which was hosting the Special Touch Ministry Christmas party.

It was ten years ago that Amanda and I joined twelve other people led by Mike and Kim Ferguson to start the first New England Chapter of Special Touch Ministry to the Disabled.

It is amazing to see what God has done over this last decade through this ministry!

It was even more amazing to see Mike playing King Herod for the Christmas story wearing a tiara.

While we were partying, Kristine was hard at work at home reorganizing the Vicarage kitchen.

Amanda, Melanie, Daniella and Abigail, finished off the night by attending Cornerstone’s leadership Christmas party.

It was a busy day filled with true peace.

WHAT DID YOU DO LAST WEEKEND?

First Weekend Of Advent: A Weekend Of Cookie Conversations

December 5, 2023 / joseph elon lillie / 3 Comments

It is the first weekend of Advent! That is the season where we celebrate the arrival of Messiah, and for those of us in the Pentecostal church it is a special time of reminding ourselves that Christ will come again.

The hi-light of this weekend for me was the first ever Winchendon Christmas Cookie Crawl held on the day of the Winchendon Wonderland Celebration.

The purpose of the Cookie Crawl was to promote town awareness of different micro communities and businesses.

It started at the Old Murdock Senior Center. The Senior Center hosted a huge craft fair in their auditorium. My first step was to pick up my Crawl card at the Parks and Rec table, and then to buy a few stocking stuffers for the fam!

My first stop after the Senior Center was Fidelity Bank. Andrew the branch manager was the cookie warden for that location. I chose a soft chocolate chip cookie for my first try. Andrew and I had a great conversation around prayer.

My next stop was the Historical Society’s Old Centre Church.

Peggy was the Cookie Lady there. Our conversation was built around Christmas wreaths (which she makes) and singing (which I have been known to do). I also got to meet her Yorkie Chester.

Megan was the cookie lady at Ruschioni’s Flower &Gifts on Rte. 140. We talked about how and when she started the business and about the fact that we are neighbors. Our church is right up the road a-piece.

Pattie’s Jewelry was next. I didn’t have time to chat with Sherry, the owner. She was super busy; So I just got my cookie (another chocolate chip) and went on my way.

I had a great time catching up with Michelle, a school mate of mine, and the owner of T Each His Own Design. I also got to chat with her about how I had met her pastor Father Henry at the last council of churches meeting.

At Not Just produced, I talked for a bit with the owner Beth Hunt and we shared stories about care giving for people with chronic and terminal illness.

At 108 Ipswich I got to talk with a few of our local farmers about their products and how they were made.

At the library I had a ginger snap while I caught up with one of the library trustees. She was the nurse for my previous PCP.

After a stop home I met up with my daughter Melanie and granddaughter Abigail at the Winchendon Community park which was hosting Santa and the Grinch for “Winter Wonderland.

The Grinch had put Santa in Christmas jail. People could pay towards getting the key to set Santa free before the town tree lighting. What a great idea for a fundraiser.

My day ended listening to Santa’s elf telling the kids a story.

HOW DID YOU SPEND THE FIRST WEEKEND OF ADVENT?

Korean Night At the Vicarage

November 16, 2023 / joseph elon lillie / Leave a comment

My daughter-in-law has been expanding our palates since she arrived in July. She is a very dedicated and talented chef. Tonight she treated us to a traditional Korean feast. We started with a soybean curd soup and moved onto pork and beef lettuce, wraps with kimchi and Parella leaves, fresh garlic, and red chili paste. Side dishes included, rolled egg, omelettes, Korean, fish, cakes, spicy squid, and an anchovy and nut mixture. It was delicious.

Winter Comes To the Vicarage

November 14, 2023 / joseph elon lillie / 2 Comments

Winter has arrived. We got a dusting of snow overnight.

It’s not enough to cause real problems. But we know it’s a sign of things to come.

The birds are happily chirping in the hedges, flying back-and-forth to the feeders, thankful for the food they’ve been ignoring during the harvest season.

I’m reminded as the cold seeps into my jacket that there is still winterizing to do on the house.

Every season brings its joy, beauty and hardship. It’s all adventure really. Where will this winter take us? I look forward to the journey.

Notes From the Vicarage

A minister's family living in a micro forest garden

family