I went to the modern day fount of all wisdom, Wikipedia, to see what a pilgrimage was at its simplest level. It says: a pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. We usually think pilgrimage, if we think about it at all, as some once in a lifetime trip to a sacred location. The Holy Land is where Christians for 2000 years have gone on pilgrimage to see the land Jesus saw and walk the streets he walked. It is a prayer of the faithful that, by doing so, Christ will become somehow more real. Yet it is also true that our entire life is a journey. It’s so true that it’s rather trite. Yet in that triteness we may miss the deeper truth that our life is a search of great moral and spiritual significance. Our lives lived out up and US 42 are as apt a place for Christ’s intervention as the Damascus Road was for Paul. Too ordinary, you may be thinking. Nothing more ordinary 2000 years ago than a major trade route filled with dust, camels and thirsty travelers. The Damascus Road, like the Emmaus Road, became shorthand for pilgrimages because of Paul and because of the two travelers. But remember that when we share and know the stories that have happened up and down our ‘roads’ we will also find stories of God’s dramatic intervention in lives that were apparently hopeless. We will hear of God’s saints in schoolrooms. We will be encouraged by God’s response to prayers without ceasing that the faithful have offered up for years. We begin Lent this year on February 22nd: a time of preparation for Easter. It can be a pilgrimage that you make searching for significance, for meaning where you may feel it lacking. You don’t have to have a passport for a pilgrimage, but you do have to have an open heart and an open schedule to allow God the space and time to make the pilgrimage with you.

Pastor Susan 

February 22nd at 7:00 pm

Worship, music & imposition of ashes

Our journey to the joy of Easter begins with acknowledging our need for a savior.

Join us each Sunday in Lent as we make our pilgrimage through Galilee to Jerusalem, from lakeshore to city streets,. We know that there is a difference between a just for fun road trip and a pilgrimage. But do we know how to make that difference real in our life, whatever part of life’s journey we are on? That is our spiritual topic this Lenten season as we explore pilgrimage: through worship and service, small group and solitary prayer. As in all things, we know that the Holy Spirit will open our hearts and minds to the deeper pilgrimage open to all of us. Join us beginning the evening of Ash Wednesday.

We had 12 kids attend Winter Blitz in January! This is a weekend youth conference that the KY Conference puts on each year. A great time for us all to hear fabulous Christian music, hear inspiring talks by a great speaker, participate in mission work and generally get excited to be a part of a Christian community. We are excited about the new year and look forward to being in ministry with our youth as we pray and plan for new ways to be Jesus to the world around us!
Feb 1 - 7:00 - Planning for McCauley Halfway House party
Feb 8 - 7:00 - Youth Group
Feb 12 - 4:00 -Depart for McCauley House & Agape Party
Feb 15 - 7:00 - Valentine’s Day party - bring a friend
Feb 20 - - Youth outing
Feb 22 - 7:00 - Ash Wednesday Service
Feb 29 - 7:00 - Youth Group

by Cornelia Nay

The first Methodist Church in the Goshen area was the Crossroads Meeting House, built 1823 at the corner of Hwy 42 and N. Buckeye Lane. This church burned about 1860, and for a time its members met at Antioch Church located on the Hermitage Farm. In 1870 Shiloh Methodist Church was built at the corner of Shiloh Lane and Hwy 42. This frame structure was replaced in 1948 with a stone sanctuary building (classrooms, fellowship hall, and kitchen). In 1888 former slaves who attended the Crossroads Meeting House built Little Vine African Methodist Episcopal Church. It still stands at the original site located on Highway 42, approximately a quarter mile west of Buckeye Lane.

The first Shiloh parsonage was built in 1870 on a lot near the Skylight Grocery Store at Hwy 42 and Axton Lane. This parsonage burned in 1915. In August 1935, Robert Shrader, who owned a farm next to Shiloh Church, deeded a tract of land to the church for a parsonage. Reverend E. C. Johnson, members of the church, and local citizens worked together to build the new parsonage. Some of the families who helped with construction were: Bottorff, Clausen, Adams, Leet, Carter, Ross, Pinnell, Shrader, Reibel, Becker, Hampton, Fellows, Nay, Waters, and Hood. Local farmers donated most of the construction materials. One large poplar tree provided much of the lumber used by the workers. Joe and Ernest Nay cut the poplar tree and hauled the logs by horse drawn wagon for some distance. It was then loaded onto a truck for transport to a sawmill located in the Highway 1694 area. The truck, owned by John Leet, was one of the first large trucks in the area. Church members also purchased used lumber to finish framing and for the siding.

The construction of the parsonage basement provided an extra challenge. The digging took days, even with the help of a device called a slip scraper. A slip scraper looked something like a huge metal scoop with a sharp flat end. On either side of the sharp flat end two iron rods were attached. These rods were attached to a crosspiece that was hooked up to two horses. The first worker held the horses until the scraper was in place. At the opposite end of the scraper were two handles, which allowed the second worker to guide the scraper. Once the scraper cut into the ground to a certain depth, the first worker signaled the horses to pull the scraper. As the dirt was lifted out of the ground it was dumped nearby. Some of this dirt was later used to fill in around the basement.site on Highway 1694 owned by the Hermitage Farm. After the hole was dug, workers mixed concrete for the basement floor and walls. The sand and gravel used for the concrete came from the Kerlin farm, located by the Ohio River near Rose Island Road and Highway 1793. This second Shiloh parsonage was completed in 1936. After construction of a new parsonage in 2001 at Barbizon Place, the 1936 parsonage was moved to a site on Hwy 1694 owned by Hermitage Farm.