LIVERMORE FALLS – Members of the Eaton Memorial United Methodist Church received a surprise Christmas present from two siblings in New Jersey.
A Livermore resident had sent a gift to a woman in New Jersey and used the Sun Journal for padding in the package, church member Miriam Buchanan said Tuesday.
The New Jersey woman’s sister noticed the article about the Livermore Falls congregation facing massive maintenance issues with the church and took the newspaper home with her to read.
Livermore Falls church members voted 21-7 on Dec. 10 to keep the church building open despite costly maintenance and repairs, including a leaky roof and failing brickwork.
Buchanan said the woman who read the paper and her brother decided to donate $2,000, $1,000 each, to the church in memory of their grandfather, Herbert Lincoln Nichols, a former Methodist minister who died in 1929 while serving a congregation in Skowhegan.
The Rev. Joseph Chamberland told the congregation about the gift last week, Buchanan said.
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