New Beginnings and New Ideas
On Ash Wednesday, February 26th at 6:30 p.m. the Conway Village Congregational Church will host area congregations and the Mount Washington Valley Clergy Group. Roger Miklos is contacting area churches in hopes we will gather a choir which will represent this Ecumenical celebration. In the next weeks the Clergy will be planning this worship, so further information will be forthcoming as to how we may creatively begin Lent 2020.
On Saturday, February 22nd, I will be attending the “Prepared to Serve” in Pembroke, NH. 
It will allow me to study, “You Already have a Facebook Page … Now What?”, “Innovations in Children’s Sermons” & “Witness in Worship with the Wilderness: a study in how people sharing stories in worship can grow your church.” Melody, our Administrative Assistant, has enrolled in several workshops as well. The first will be “Capital Campaigns – Now is the Time”, with the goal of obtaining insight in planning, organizing and conducting a Capital Fund Raising Campaign. She will also attend “Always With You: The Comfort of Spirituality in Dementia Care” & “Listening to the Holy Spirit”. Kurt and Jill Reynolds will be in the “Marketplace” distributing information and looking for volunteers for Kairos, their prison ministry.
February is a rich month of worship and reflection which promises new beginnings and
new ideas. Please consider beginning Lent at our Church and if you know someone who could use a “Faith Lift”, bring them along!
Yours in Faith
Rev. John Hughes
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We officially start the new year now that the Annual Meeting has come and gone. Thanks to all who stayed or came later to attend; very much appreciated by all. With many work-ing in the kitchen, we had a great spread of food. We welcome all new committee and board members and thank you all for volunteering your time. The trustees welcome Gabe Necochea to the board, this is the first time in quite a while that we have had a full board.
The trustees will continue working with the experts who are helping us with assessing the condition of the buildings and designing parking options. We hope to have some final reports later in the year.
If you have not read the Annual Report please do, they are available in the office. It tells quite a story about all the church does in the community and what all the boards and committees accomplished this year.
SAVE THE DATES: Valentines Dinner, Saturday February 15th & St. Patrick's Day dinner, Tuesday March 17th
Trustees: Anne Getchell, Nancy Divine, Duddie Andrews, Nancy Irving, John Edgerton, Paul Weld, Kim Murdoch, Gabe Necochea and Carl Vitters, ex officio member (CVCC Treasurer)
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Now that Annual Meeting has come and gone, our Boards of the church are full. I want to thank all of you who graciously accepted the call from your church to serve the church in this capacity. This is a great time in the church to be able to assist in the decision-making process as we step into the future. We have the opportunity to take great leaps of faith and transform this church into a vibrant integral part of the community and to be a beacon of faith to the village and beyond. So, I have one question for us!
Are we going to be an ostrich or a chimpanzee? What am I talking about? Well we can approach our work on the Boards with the mentality of an ostrich or that of a chimpanzee. Still not catching on? Think of an ostrich; an ostrich is a large formidable non-flying bird that runs and hides its head in the sand when con-fronted with a situation that poses trouble. With its head in the sand the ostrich is not able to see or hear any-thing around itself, and therefore feels safe and secure.
The chimpanzee on the other hand is agile and willing to take great leaps of faith in its own abilities. Chimps leap from branch to branch, leaving the security of the branch that they know supports them to a branch they are not sure will carry their weight. They are confident enough that if the branch were to break that they could easily grab onto the next branch. Chimps are curious and will investigate things that are unknown to them. Chimps use not only their problem-solving intellect, but they also are capable of using their hands and feet equally well. They are truly one of nature’s great multi-tasking creatures.
As the Boards meet for the first time after Annual Meeting and choose the chairperson or chairpersons to lead and guide the others, I hope that you will all be chimps and swing us in new directions.
Faithfully yours,
Carl Vitters
NEXT CABINET MEETING
Tues, March 10th ~ 5 pm
Cabinet is now meeting quarterly
History Corner
Pillars of the Conway Congregational Church: Part II: Frank Wescott Davis
Today Frank Davis is likely known to Conway historians as the grandfather of the late attorney Burnham B. Davis as well as the father of both Phil Davis, the owner of the first garage in the town in 1912 and of the author of Conway Thru the Years and Whither, Ruth Burnham Horne. All were active in the Congregational Church, but today we shall focus on the patriarch.
Mr. Davis was born in West Newfield, Maine on March 11,1851, the son of Darius and Ruth (Durgin) Davis. There he attended the public schools and later Limington Academy. He then worked in various stores in Haverhill, Massachusetts. At twenty-one, he received the appointment as the first telegrapher of East Wakefield. A year later he became the station agent and telegrapher of the Boston and Maine Railroad in our village and did so for twenty-two years until 1895. In 1875 he established a grain business and three years later became a partner in the Palmer and Robinson Store and eventually became the sole owner. In 1885, he took as a partner, H. Boardman Fifield (a charter member of CVCC and father of Lillian Demerrit) and operated under the name Davis and Fifield for twelve years. In 1898, Mr. Davis took his son Phil into partnership. The two conducted an extremely successful business in hardware, furniture, and men’s furnishings. In 1879, Mr. Davis built the Fifield Building which stood where now exists the newest addition to Kennett Middle. Enlargements were needed for the growing business. Wishing his father, mother and young brother to come to Conway, he added a two-story building to the front of the grain store. His father’s family lived on the second and third floors. His father operated the grocery store while he operated the dry goods. His brother took over the position of station agent and telegrapher.
Frank Davis was noted for his integrity, probity, ability and moral character. He served on the Board of Directors of the Carroll County Trust Company Bank. He was the first president of the National Bank. Here’s a fact that is new to us: Around the turn of the century, Frank W. Davis was the leader and sponsor of an all-girl band. They met regularly in the large basement room of his store on Washington Street. The girls were twelve years old and up and according to reports “a pretty sight, dressed all in white middy suits with red ties, marching with their instruments.” They even played at local fairs. Mr. Davis was a staunch Republican and a member of the New Hampshire State Legislature, where he served on the Banking Committee. He was deemed “an interested and ardent supporter” of our parish.
Mr. Davis was one of the very first citizens to travel to Florida and California along with his wife Lucy Maria Shackford, who was the daughter of Samuel and Lydia Pendexter. Their three children and their families (Philip, Ruth and Madie) sometimes accompanied them. He had retired in 1917 as World War I broke out here in America.
Brian Wiggin, Historian
Diaconate
In the cold month of February, what topic better than Love to warm hearts while the temperature plummets outside? The yearly appearance of Russell Stover Hearts festooned across store aisles is easy reminder of sweet romantic love, but in the language of commerce is treacly and soon forgotten. Our enduring les-sons in love are learned over time and gleaned from ever widening circles of people, experiences, and culture. A year ago, a friend sent to me, a eulogy written about her father. I’ve been moved by the spirit of a person I’ve never met, and now find his example gently shaping my own life. She simply titled it, “Love Letters”. Coming off of the Season of Light and in the month of “Love”, it seems apropos.
After dropping his daughter off to college as a freshman, Gerard went home to type a single paged, double spaced letter in which he described daily news of family, weather and his beloved garden. He included a few bills for coffee before signing off, “Love, Mom and Dad” and to the post it went. On the following Sunday another letter typed sharing a week’s worth of life, $3 for coffee and “Love, Mom and Dad”. This weekly ritual continued throughout his daughter’s freshman year, stretched past changed majors, boyfriends, grad school, teaching, children, and the death of a spouse. The letters started in 1977 spanned 38 years until 2015, when multiplied by 52 weeks- came to nearly 2,000 letters and a whole lot of coffee. The content of the letters, the quiet details of an ordinary life, don’t tell the true story. But in their amassed physical reality catalog constancy, commitment, and belonging; hallmarks of love that nurtures and transforms with its quiet presence.
“the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life” Middlemarch by George Eliot
Most of us will not receive the gift of weekly letters enduring several decades, nevertheless we’ve been recipients of care from the hearts of friends and family in understated yet life changing ways. Consider the tributaries flowing from aquifers that have fed and embraced us. There is a gracious, loving God who is alive, hidden yet ever present. While we begin the new year in earnest, what unhistoric acts of love might we offer, how are we known by the Beloved?
Star Almquist-Lee
Mark your Calendars! 2020 CVCC Events!
In addition to our usual fundraising events we have scheduled a few additional events this year. Please invite your co-workers, neighbors, family and friends. No matter how much advertising we do the best form of promotion is still word of mouth.
February 15th (Saturday) will be a Valentine’s Theme Dinner featuring steak tips and chicken cordon bleu. 
March 17th (Tuesday) features a St. Patrick’s Day Traditional Corned Beef Dinner.
May 16th (Saturday) Our 7th Annual Spring Fling! We will feature the usual Plant Sale and Bake Sale and BBQ lunch. We are very excited this year with the addition of a Christian rock band “CLAYFOOT”!
We are hoping to involve more of the Conway Village Community in the event and plan to send invites to area businesses and organizations to see if they would like to participate in some format. This is also Armed Forces Day so we would like to include some way to honor our active duty service members, possibly with the help of a local veterans’ group. We are looking for church members and friends who would like to assist with the plan-ning of this event. If you would like to assist with planning, inviting or coordinating with local organizations please contact Anne Getchell, Nancy Divine or Nancy Irving.
We will have a concession stand in front of the church for the July 4th Parade.
August 7th will be our annual Summer Thanksgiving Turkey Dinner.
The Fryeburg Fair is October 4th – 11th we will start prepping our famous APPLE CRISP October 1st. This is our largest annual fundraiser and accounts for a large portion of our annual budget. We need everyone’s help either at the church or at the fair booth to accomplish this.
Our Annual Holiday Fair will be Thursday November 19th – Satur-day November 21st featuring dinners on Thursday and Friday and a Saturday Luncheon. There’s a pick-a-prize raffle – if you are involved with a business we would appreciate gift certificate donations, the Women’s Bible Study group always have wonderful holiday décor and crafts for sale, baked goods table, crafts such as Charlene’s quilted goods and Bob’s wood creations. Please contact Dawn Vitters if you would like to lend a hand with this event.
A new event this year, December 5th, will be a CHRISTMAS TREE LIGHTING event which, along with the tree lighting will feature caroling, hot cocoa and more. We expect to include more of the community in this event in the form of either sponsors or participants in some format. We welcome your assistance in planning and or participation in making this an Annual Conway Village Community Event.
If you are not sure what you can do to help with these events, typically our dinners require a few volunteers each for: set up, food prep, buffet servers, dining room staff to serve coffee and clear tables and dish washers. The other events could use assistance with the planning and in other various ways such as set up, break down and clean up, working the events such as prepping and working the booths and other various ways. We welcome your assistance and recommendations.
2020 January Suppers Wrap-up
Thank you to everyone who volunteered their time and talents for the January suppers!
We had four successful suppers attended by our usual attendees and several new customers. In addition to our regular Conway Daily Sun, Website and Facebook advertising, we added some new marketing outlets this year. Jill Reynolds and Brian Wiggin graciously volunteered to take part in the Community Chatter TV inter-view show on Valley Vision, we placed ads in the MWV Chamber Valley Inspirations and Chamber Connections newsletters and we purchased a sign for the Jewelry store window and “Dinner Tonight” banners. Several people who attended our suppers for the first time mentioned that they found out either through the Chamber newsletter or from the sign in front. We asked attendees to complete surveys to help us determine which marketing methods work best and gather other useful info. The results for the 4 dinners and the survey responses are listed below.
2020 January Suppers Survey Responses
How they heard about the event? Conway Daily Sun 8, Newsletter 3, Facebook 3, Friend 2, Front Sign 2, Chamber News 2,
Prefer Dinners held on: Friday – 9, Saturday – 1, Any 4
Favorite Dinner: Turkey 5, Chicken 3 Pot Roast 3, Pork 3, All 3
Other Dinner Recommendations: Boiled Dinner, Greek, Chicken Pot Pie, Beef Stew with Biscuits, New Orleans Gumbo & Italian Lasagna, Seafoo
Feedback/Suggestions:
I absolutely love the new colors and décor, it is beautiful!
The Volunteers are so friendly & accommodating, Love you guys!
Keep it simple and great.
Love these dinners, love your “staff”, love the meals! XOXOXO! Thank you – wonderful.
First Time – saw your sign, love church dinners. Everything was delicious and everyone friendly.
Friday night is perfect, keep them on Fridays, wish you offered them thru-out the winter season as we come every weekend skiing.
This is the friendliest in the Valley.
Everyone is always smiling AND the food is always delicious.
It is always wonderful.
Thank you all so much! God bless you for all you do.