Our last show in Aroostook County before heading back to southern Maine was for a church picnic.  The Mapleton and Washburn Methodist churches, who share a pastor, met beside the Presque Isle River in Washburn to celebrate together, and we were blessed to do a 30 minute set in lieu of a sermon.  The weather was beautiful, the attendance was high, and the food afterwards was classic picnic fare.

The worship songs were all river-themed: “I’ve Got a River of Life”, “Peace is Flowing Like a River”, and “Down by the Riverside”.  They even rewrote the lyrics to this last one to include:

“We’ve got the Supreme Court Jesters here,

Down by the riverside”

We’ve never had a song written about us before!

Since the show was outdoors, I could do plenty of fire work without concern for setting off alarms.  I shared a little about next summer’s trip to Paraguay, and we received a generous offering toward that endeavor.  My primary emphasis, though, was scriptures that compared the temporary things of this world with the eternal things of the Spirit: grace, love, truth, and hope.  It was a pleasant way to wrap up our time in Maine’s northernmost county.