Happy anniversary!

You are invited to join the Readfield United Methodist Church for a very special celebration of the Torsey Church’s 175^th anniversary on September 26, 2010. Bishop Peter Weaver, Episcopal leader of the New England United Methodists will be present as guest preacher.  Period hymns and refreshments will help bring history to life and Readfield UMC’s popular musicians are preparing to celebrate in song.

The Methodists on Kents Hill, the second oldest branch of five that form the congregation’s merged history, built the Torsey Church for worship in 1835.  It replaced an older sanctuary completed by Luther Sampson, founder of Kents Hill School, then the Maine Wesleyan Seminary.  During a later renovation supported by school alumni, the sanctuary was renamed to honor Dr. Henry P. Torsey, headmaster for 4o years, as well as a key figure in emancipation and reconstruction efforts in American History.   In more recent years, the site has become well known for generating many mission and outreach efforts as well as hosting popular community suppers.

Sunday, September 26, 10:00am.

For more information contact 207-685-4211, office@readfieldumc.org, or visit www.readfieldumc.blogspot.com

Three Simple Rules to Change the World

Last Saturday teams from the church scattered around our area to change the world. It was part of the larger United Methodist movement (www.umc.org for more stories). Here's some of the places that groups went, we know that there were many individuals making a difference on their own.
*May basket deliveries
*8 walkers on the Walk for Hunger (on the Augusta/Gardiner rail trail)

*6 Road clean up and recyclers.








*9 finishing Camp Mechuwana staff cabins.

*2 claening out the Camp Mechuwana Village.

       *Cub Scout Beach clean up and land restoration

*3 Readfield Community garden raised bed constructors

*24 supporters of the annual Sexual Assault and Crisis Counseling Center fundraiser.

All participants shared a challenge that you can too, wherever you find yourself today.
BE YEAST. The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.

John Wesley's 3 simple rules can help, as they guided our local mission teams:
*Do all the good you can. (For all the people you can, in as many places as you can).
*Do no harm.
*Stay in love with God.

Dear Jesus, as we follow you together today, may our hands be put to your work, our hearts be open to your love, and our fellowship be blessed by a spirit that rises to the occassion.  Amen.

Heifer Project update

Yesterday we watched the new Heifer Project International film in worship. It was fun to remember how our own ark project got started with three Sunday School students in 2002.  Instead of a carefully planned 5 year project, the ark raising went at break neck, community fueled speed. The Sunday School grew to 23 students.

Five years later, what difference might that local effort be making in a community far away? Watch this shorter version of "12 Stones" and let the Spirit guide your viewing! You can borrow the full (20 minute) video from the church office or order your own (free) from www.heifer.org




There were some great conversations about the film during fellowship time after worship. Many notice that few men appeared in the film, and one woman talked about her father's alcohalism. Charles Piddock, who spent time working in this part of Nepal, said that the men would usually be working in the fields, farming. In his experience, alcohalism was not a wide spread problem.

Have you ever spent time in this part of the world?
Do you have a heifer project story?
Add your comments to the conversation!

Easter flower album

Seed

by Luci Shaw  

 (From Accompanied by Angels, 2006)

God dug his seed

into dry, dark earth.

After a sprouting up 

in hopeful birth

and healing bloom

and garland grace,

he buried it again

in a darker place.

Twice rudely planted seed,

root, rise in me

and grow your green again.

your fruited tree.

Joy Walters and Elizabeth Reinsborough send these favorite spring flowers.

Rosie's new friend, Paul

In I got to hang out with Paul ( a retired Middle School teacher from South Bend, Indiana) and we became great friends. At first we just started out as two regular old strangers and insulation partners. But the entire time we where were working on the first day, all we did was talk. We talked about hockey, his grandsons, and Tennesse. We became great friends in like three minutes!!!

At the end of the week we acted like we had known eachother for years!!! He even ended up giving me a book that he wrote and his girlfriend illustrated.

It was a great time meeting new people like Paul, and even getting to hear stories from other people about their experiences through hurricane Katrina. It was also very interesting how different things were from being outside the city, to going downtown. The damage that was done, and could be noticed, was completey different.

Over all I had a wonderful time,

-Rosie Guimaraes UMVIM team '10

P.S. Paul from South Bend is a member of the church my parents were married in.....God's small world! -Karen Munson

From Miles

I worked with our home owner and learned to respect everyone. She told us some crazy stories about how it's important to respect people and look past what you may have been taught. Through all that she had been through, losing her house, and some family members in hurricane Katrina, she still wanted to help others that were even worse off than herself. Seeing how she cared for others even after things most could never imagine happen in her life was really cool -Miles Carey Snow UMVIM '10

Jeff's rememberings

So many good stories to share about Louisiana.  Do I talk about the pleasure of getting to know Bob after being told that he may be a little difficult?  Should I share the pride I felt when Emma, Graham, and Karen B put up a wall all by themselves.  Or how cool it was to stand at the bayou and picture the speedboat chase from "Live and Let Die?"  Perhaps the sheer relief that Zexin did in fact escape the week with ten fingers, ten toes, his face, and other appendages still intact in spite of some questionable drywall cutting techniques.  These and so many more small things get added to the long list of memories that started five years ago when we first drove up Roberts Blvd.  Here are the two things that I think I will carry away the most from this trip:  The sense of frustration that the mission may be over when there is still clearly so much work left to do on the south side, and my complete and utter inability to articulate how much I missed not seeing Carl's trailer parked at the Aldersgate campus and having him as a valued member of the team.  - Jeff Munson, Slidell '06, '07, '08, '09, '10.