Rest in the Word

Christmas Eve Candlelight Service  at the site of the fire and at the church 12.24.25   Gathering in Grief and Hope Tonight, December 24, 2025, we gather with many feelings in our hearts. Earlier, we stood at the site of the fire. Now, we gather here in the church. Two places. One community. One story. One week ago, that place was filled with another kind of light. It was the light of fire. That fire destroyed thirteen households, Stephen and Cheryl’s business, and the livelihoods of many workers. We are still mourning. We are grieving. We are distressed. This loss is real. This scar is our town’s pain. Yet tonight, we invite a different light. We welcome the light of Jesus Christ. He came for us. He lived among us. He died for us. He saves us. This light does not ignore our suffering. It meets us right where we are. It turns sorrow into gratitude, fear into hope, and emptiness into love.   Another Loss We Carry This Christmas, we also carry another deep...

When we visited Pastor Kwan Lee last week, we told him, 'We love you.' He replied, 'I love you, but do you know what? Jesus loves you the most.' Those were his final words to us. He passed away this morning (12/22/25). We can truly feel God's Hesed —His steadfast love—through the witness of his wonderful life. 12.21.25 Stetson Memorial UMC Alaina Boone and Addison Anderson's Baptism 2025 Pageant  <Hesed in the Pageant and Baptism> Dear beloved sisters and brothers in Christ, last Sunday was filled with many moments of joy and deep meaning. As a church family, we celebrated together as we welcomed Addison and Alaina through the sacrament of baptism. Their testimonies touched our hearts in a quiet yet powerful way. They shared that they now see life with new eyes and that they have found a peace they could not fully explain with words. Their stories were closely connected to the Christmas pageant we shared together. Just as Charles Dickens passed o...

(John 1:1-9)   12.7.25 Stetson Memorial UMC   <Christmas Decoration in our hearts> Shalom! Peace! I greet you today with this beautiful Hebrew word because it speaks deeply to our Advent theme. Today is the second Sunday of Advent, and our theme is Peace. Last week our four churches—Houlton, Hodgdon, Mars Hill, and Stetson—came together for our first Advent celebration with the theme of Hope. More than sixty people gathered in the warm sanctuary at Hodgdon. Surrounded by beautiful decorations and lifted by music, we felt united as one choir and sensed God’s presence with us. It was a moment of Shalom, a moment when our hearts rested in God’s wholeness.   Shalom means more than the absence of conflict. It carries the idea of wholeness, harmony, and flourishing in every part of life. It is the peace only God can give. I wondered this week if you felt Shalom in your lives. During Tuesday’s snow day, I decorated our home with my children. We turned on Chr...

   11/30/25 Hodgdon UMC < What breath we need > Dear our beloved Houlton, Hodgdon, Mars Hill, and Patten church families. I am so thankful we can celebrate our Thanksgiving and the first Advent all together in Hodgdon UMC today. On Thanksgiving Day, we played a gratitude relay game with the children. We took turns to say one of our gratitude in 2025. One of my answers was “Breath”.  I felt thankful simply because I could breathe. Breath is so important. The very first thing a newborn baby must do is breathe. And if they don’t breathe right away, the nurse gives a gentle tap so that life may begin. We must even learn how to breathe. When we swim, we breathe with our mouths. When we run, we breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth so we don’t hurt our throat. Breathing is important. How we breathe is important. And what breath we live by is even more important. Some of us may be sighing today. Some may feel like the breath in our hearts is we...