|
Minister Duo Discover Their Summer
Place
For
more than 30 summers, two ministers, the Revs. John David Stewart
and Jim Miller, have been coming to Frenchboro to offer services at
the island’s church.
The Rev. John David Stewart |
Stewart is the minister for July while Miller calls Frenchboro his
home in August. It has always been that way, established back in the
beginning, because of each family’s respective school schedules,
Stewart said.
Stewart made his first trip to Frenchboro in 1968. The year before,
his wife, Freda, became intrigued with the island after having read
an article in the Saturday Evening Post titled, “The Island That
Borrows Its Children,” a story about how island families took in 20
foster children. The Stewart family traveled to Maine the following
year and camped on Mount Desert Island.
While looking for a way to get to Frenchboro, Stewart came across
Neal Bousfield, head of the Maine Sea Coast Missionary Society at
the time. “He was a stereotypical New Englander,” Stewart recalls.
When Stewart asked about getting out to Frenchboro, Bousfield
responded with three simple questions.
“He asked me, ‘Do you have a boat? Do you know anyone with a boat?
How well can you swim in ice water?’” said Stewart.
After Stewart answered no three times, Bousfield said, “Then you
can’t get there.”
Bousfield asked Stewart to visit him again the next day. But it was
not until two visits later that Bousfield announced his purpose.
“He said, ‘I can’t get you there this year, but I can get you there
for a month next year.’ ”
Bousfield offered Stewart no money but a place to live if he would
come to Frenchboro the next July to be a summer minister. They have
been coming steadily ever since.
Miller, however, is the more senior minister, Stewart said
teasingly, “He has been coming here one summer more than me.”
Miller concurred. “I have seniority,” he said.
Miller’s journey to Frenchboro began when his family visited a
friend who was a summer minister on Swan’s Island. He thought it was
a neat situation so he wrote to the Sea Coast Mission to see if
there was a place for him, too.
The next summer he was in Frenchboro—and that was 36 years ago.
“It was a wonderful summer,” he said. “Not too demanding.”
The Miller family has fallen in love with Frenchboro. Each year
there is a “countdown to Maine,” Miller said. His children never
wanted to go anywhere else and his grandchildren hold the same
enthusiasm.
Stewart’s children have felt the same way. “The kids loved it,”
Stewart said. “We moved three or five times, but Frenchboro was a
constant they always came back to.”
Stewart calls his summer home an “idyllic place.” Miller’s take on
the place: “It’s a safe place to recharge your batteries.”
During the rest of the year Stewart lives in North Carolina. Miller
is a little closer, in Reading, Pa.
Miller built a home in 1999 and his son has bought a house on the
island. The elder Miller had planned on retiring in Frenchboro, but
after having visited the island in the winter, he is not so sold on
that idea anymore.
Stewart also bought a rental property, and hopes to live in that
house once he retires. |
