| MATE 27 Home | Enrollment | Photos |
Beginning in the summer of 1982—and each summer thereafter—a group of Wilton Presbyterians and friends have spent a week in and around Farmington, Maine helping to improve the living conditions of people there by rehabilitating their homes. This is done through the ministry of Mission At The Eastward (M.A.T.E.). WPC will be returning in 2008 for our 27th trip, June 21 to June 27. Anyone is welcome to participate, under rules and guidelines of M.A.T.E. and our own set of expectations. The links at the top will take you to more detailed information about the week and enrollment forms. A look through the photos will give you a good idea of what being part of this week is like.
M.A.T.E. is an ecumenical mission project, begun in 1954, that ministers to the people in many small rural communities of Western Maine. A major part of this ministry is tending to the need for adequate housing. This is especially important in the face of the fierce Maine winters and the dwindling government assistance available for those not able to totally provide for themselves. WPC, and many other churches, have been sending groups of people to Maine every summer to help with this very important ministry.
Why have the people and friends of WPC remained committed for so long to this week-long work camp? There are, perhaps, as many reasons people go on this work as there are people who choose to go. But under girding each of these individual, very personal choices to participate is a community of Christ’s disciples who believes God sends us to risk our own peace and comfort in compassion for these, our brothers and sisters, our neighbors, and in the process, giving and receiving from them the grace of God.
This sharing and multiplying the grace of God among neighbors is the mission of the week. The mission work is important; indeed, it is the human, physical work of the week that serves as catalyst for the week’s divine, spiritual grace. But it is the experience of the mission grace of God in Jesus Christ that centers and shapes the week. This mission grace of God in Jesus Christ we Wilton Presbyterians give and receive with the people at whose homes we work, with the local people who assist us in our work, and with one another as we work, eat, and spiritually reflect about our daily work experiences together is foundation of the week’s experience.
