Chronicle
August 15, 2010: Hannah’s last Sunday with us. We met at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, where the newlywed Brenches live. We talked about the nature of the church, serving others like Jesus did, and not withholding good from people.
Notice the goofy double camo Ben’s wearing… we’re all going to laugh at that for years to come 
August 10, 2010: We planned a dinner get together for Hannah, our dear sister. She’s leaving for two years in Scotland as a sort of missionary with YWAM. We’ll miss her a lot!
August 1, 2010: We held a meeting at the Merrill’s in Bolton after cleaning for Doris. Rick Thompson, a house church apostle/leader guy who travels around the country supporting groups like ours, was there with us. We appreciated his wisdom and hope he can stop by more when he’s in the area.
June 5, 2010: Matt and Becca get married! A great day! We’ll miss them on their honeymoon but fortunately they’ll be coming back to us after that. Jon journeys back to California, the only sad part of the day.
May 14, 2010: Ben and Jill have a baby. Everyone was very helpful making meals for us and supporting us in this endeavor!
May 10, 2010: While only a “normal” meeting, this night was awesome. We had a great dinner and some great conversation. We talked about hoarding things and our attitudes toward money and possessions. Mr. Mutti was there and had wisdom to share. As Jill was about to give birth to our first kid at any minute, everyone prayed specially for us. It was really nice and we felt very supported and loved.
May 2, 2010: We met at the conservation land nearby for a impromptu picnic dinner. It was hot! Jon, Hannah’s beau, joined us and probably thought we were all really weird. And not without cause 
March 5, 2010: We surprised the Stoltzfus family (long-time workers for Young Life in our area) by sending the parents out to dinner free and babysitting the three kids while they were out! This was actually really fun for us. We played Wii, Connect Four, the piano, Apples to Apples, etc. Ryan cooked them up some tacos for dinner.
January 10, 2010: We visted the home of Doris, an elderly lady in Bolton, to clean her house. She had responded to an offer for free service we had posted at the Senior Center many months ago. She loved us being there and we cleaned her place right up (there were about 10 of us cleaning a small apartment at the same time). It’s so fun to see older folks genuinely surprised to see a group of 20-somethings visit just to serve them. People don’t really understand why we do it (do we want money??), and we get lots of questions. We’re planning on going back every month for a while.
January 3, 2010: Friends from our old church (Harbor of Hope in Chelmsford) visited us – Bernie and Diane Michaud, an older couple who love small churches. They were around in the 60′s when this stuff was popular Also, they brought another couple (David and Karen Astolphi) whom we knew because their son Tony is one of our best friends! With these two great couples sharing their wisdom, it was a really fun night. They seemed happy to be a part of our small church too!
December 20, 2009: We ate at the Damans’ house and then trucked over to Trinity church in Bolton for their “Lessons and Carols” thing. A few of our normal attendees also go to Trinity on Sunday morning. It was all Christmasy and stuff.
October 11, 2009: Five of us helped out a neat ministry/community house in Chelmsford called My Father’s House. It’s a place that troubled single moms can live and raise their babies! We cleaned their kitchen and pantry pretty thoroughly – it pretty much sparkled when we left. Not sparkled like a vampire… just sparkled with cleanliness.
August 23, 2009: Our first church baptism. At a local conservation land pond, we baptized Audrey Chow, had a picnic, and sang a few songs. Audrey’s mom and lots of Ryan’s family was there as well. A really exciting time for all of us!
August 2, 2009: “See the Queen” event, where you dress up really fancy and go somewhere normal. We went bowling and then to an Irish restaurant together. We had a lot of fun, and some nice looking attire.
July 5, 2009: Rick Thompson joins us. He’s a full-time house church guy we met at the Sutton gathering. He visits churches all over the country! After dinner we went to some local conservation land with a picnic table to sing and study.
June 28, 2009: Four of us attend a house church gathering in Sutton, MA. There were people from all over New England there – around 150 people representing a bunch of little churches. There was tons of food, fellowship, music, and discussion (both individually and in a large group). It was interesting to see the variety of people there too. People with vastly different personalities, ideas, nationalities, and ways of “doing” church. Older people, tons of kids.
June 21, 2009: We helped out an older lady in Bolton with miscellaneous yard chores. It was raining but we all had a lot of fun and felt useful. After that we went out for pizza and stayed for a couple of hours discussing church stuff and hanging out together.
May 24, 2009: We met in Bolton at Memorial Field, then helped out an older couple down the road. There were eight of us (including Matt’s dad!), but we all managed to find work to do mowing, raking, weeding, clearing, etc. The couple was very appreciative, even though we managed to break both of their mowers. The husband was showing us pictures of when he came to the USA 31 years ago (he’s Greek). After that we went to a playground and had a picnic and great time of discussion. Then we played on the awesome playground – this was my personal favorite part A really great afternoon.
May 22, 2009: We met at Hannah’s place for a bonfire/cookout. Lots of friends showed up and we had fun talking around the fire in the dark, hacking things with my machete, playing frisbee, eating marshmallows and Ryan’s burgers (YUM), and running around with Maggie (Christine’s daughter).
May 3, 2009: A few of us were able to help out an older lady named Betty, a widow in Bolton. We removed some sand from her driveway and raked/weeded an island. Nothing glamorous or even very necessary, just an opportunity to serve our community.
April 26, 2009: Church met at Steele Farm conservation land for the second time in its history. We had pizza delivered there, did a short Bible study, chatted, and then spent about half an hour just meandering around on our own talking to God. Very refreshing, and a great time to share with everyone.
March 15, 2009: We visit Glen again in the nursing home. We sang him some songs and talked to him a bit, and then played hymns for some of the old folks there. They really enjoyed it and even sang along. After that we went to the grocery store, got food, and had a picnic at a playground. A fun time! (Edit: Glen passed away about a month after we visited. We were glad to be able to see him before he died.)
January 4, 2009: Jim Gray and Walter Mutti joined us. A phenomenal evening! Jim works with a house church system in Los Angeles – it was exciting to connect with him about things. Walter is an amazing guy as well, and we learned a lot. Also, everyone walked around our house and prayed for it. It sounds weird but it made total sense and was quite encouraging to everyone.
December 28, 2008: Nate and Caroline Daman visit us and teach about asking questions in conversation. We agreed to think about supporting their ministry with the Navigators in Worcester.
November 30, 2008: We helped move wood for a different elderly couple in Bolton. Afterwards we had some great conversation with them over hot chocolate.
November 23, 2008: We raked leaves for some older folks in Bolton. Christine led us in painting during our meeting! It was a very fun way to worship.
October 26, 2008: Bob Turner is our guest speaker. Great guy, full of wisdom!
October 12, 2008: Some of us visited Glen Wicklegren in the nursing home he was at. We sang hymns to him. He seemed to enjoy it, and we even got to sing for some other people there!
September 29, 2008: Some of us agree to spend 70 minutes a week in God-related things. Sticker charts created for the purpose of holding each other to it.
August 31, 2008: Our first service project. We helped the Bradlee’s clean up their yard.
August 17, 2008: We met at a public place in a field. It was a beautiful evening and Hannah led the study. Ryan led us in praying for healing for Jill, who was feeling lousy. To this day her Crohn’s disease symptoms have not come back.
July 13, 2008: First meeting. Ideas collected from everyone about what they would like church to be like.
July 2008: Original email goes out to five people asking them to be a part of a church at the Holt’s place.
2007-2008: Ben thinks about house churches and researches how they work.