DIXFIELD — Sometimes, things happen for a reason. That was the case for new pastor Matt Andrews and his wife, Kristi, who traveled from more than 2,000 miles away to lead the Dixfield Congregational Church.

The couple, both in their 40s, came here from Laramie, Wyoming.

“It was pretty funny how it worked out,” Andrews said. “I had a resume out and had had a couple responses from different churches. I figured I would end up moving to an area where we lived, which made sense, and our family was there. Then this church came up through a recruiter, the funny thing was, our daughter was, at that time, engaged to a guy named Andrew from Bethel.”

“And that made us say, that’s a bit of a coincidence,” he said. “We’d probably better pay attention to this and explore it. And so, when we came out here, we really liked the people. Of all the places in the United States, and this is half an hour down the road from Bethel, we’d better pay attention.”

At first, Kristi Andrews thought “that’s too far.”

“But then, after we both separately prayed about it, we both thought we should do it,” she said. “So, it was an easy decision when it came to that point.”

The church will host an open house reception to welcome the Andrews’ in the church annex on Sunday, Oct. 26, from 1-3 p.m. following the 10 a.m. worship service.

Parishioner Mary Dailey said the 16 High St. building, also known as the Church on the Hill, had been without a pastor for almost five years after pastor John Gensel’s retirement.

“However, we have been able to continue to hold services for this whole time,” Dailey said. “We were fortunate to have two interim pastors and also several members of the congregation who prepared sermons.”

‘Kind of timeless’

Prior to coming to Dixfield, Andrews said he worked fulltime, part time and volunteered at churches.

“I’d always just kind of been involved in different ministries,” he said. “I did youth ministry, was an associate pastor and then I led a music ministry at a church in Laramie.

“Finally, I felt I was ready to just do the main thing, so I figured I need to pay attention to that, too. I felt that in my heart,” he added. “This was a crazy and exciting thing that came up, and it’s been a wonderful adventure so far.”

Andrews said they had been in Dixfield for just three weeks when their daughter had her wedding.

“But that was in Colorado, which, at the time it was planned, was central to where everyone lived,” he said. “We moved out here during their engagement and our son and his wife ended up moving to Pennsylvania. Right now, my daughter’s in-laws are still in Bethel, so we’ll see them at Christmas when they come up.”

Though Maine is quite different than Wyoming, Andrews says they are ready for the winter.

“It’s fun to be in this area because it’s different for us, too,” he said. “To see all the trees and all the water. Where we come from is the complete opposite of that. And we’re used to a pretty hard winter. We didn’t head south for better weather, but we’ll be ready,” he said.

The pastor’s first Sunday at the church was Sept. 7.

“One of the things that’s really fun for me out here is how connected people are by degrees to this church,” he said. “Last week, there were about 60 people (in church). It’s been fun to meet with so many different people, already. One of the things that’s fascinating for me here with the trees is that there’s an illusion to me that there aren’t very many people here because I’m used to the plains.”

Kristi Andrews said that when you walk into the congregation on Sundays, you’ll see all ages, but it varies from week to week. She said one of the qualities they bring to this church is their love for youth. “We’ve done youth ministry for 26-plus years,” she said.

Matt added, “We looking forward to getting to know some of the kids, some of the teens that are in the community.”

He said that possibly this fall, the church might start a youth group.

“It might just start with a handful of kids,” he said “We started before with three in the past, then they start bringing their friends.”

Andrews said that he and his wife talked a lot about how their first year in Maine was going to be a lot about learning.

“So, we’re preaching biblical teachings, getting to know everything and learning the area,” he said.

“Any way to keep people personally connected is hopefully going to be a big part of what we do for the ministry here,” he added. “We can get real isolated sometimes just being on our phones or on our tablets, watching TV. I think a big component of church is that you need to come to learn wisdom about how God wants us to live our life, but also, you do that together, and you meet people who can support you.

“The beauty of church is that it is for everybody and kind of timeless.”

Music and marriage

One aspect the couple brings to the church is music.

“We both have led worship together for our whole marriage,” Andrews said. “(The church has) been without any live music for about five years. So, we’ve been able to bring back some live music and that’s been a lot of fun for us and it looks like everybody’s been enjoying that.”

Kristi Andrews added, “We’re looking forward to seeing other people become a part of it as we get to know them.”

She said another thing they bring to the congregation is a strong marriage.

“We been married 28 years and we understand it’s hard, but it’s amazing,” she said. “To guide people through marriage is important.”

Andrews added, “Something that’s tough nowadays is we have more information than we’ve had before. You can get good information, but you need somebody to walk through it with you.”

In the end, Andrews said that it “always comes back to our faith.”

“What’s the foundation that you process these things through because sometimes you have plenty of information but don’t know how to take those steps,” he said. “You don’t know what to actually do with that information. I think God helps us to have a framework for that.”

An example of a message the pastor recently shared with his congregation was “God can restore relationships. Weeks before, we talked about how God can heal our hearts and heal our thoughts.”

In addition to relying on their faith to get them through, the Andrews’ say the people in Maine have added a whole new level of connection, and that they are “loyal” and “helpful.”

“I can of recognize some of that because in the rural west, where we’re from, it’s a similar thing,” Andrews said. “But the thing that we struggle with in the west is kind of a ranch mentality that you have to do everything yourself.

“So people are willing to help you, but lots of times people are unwilling to receive the help. I’ve been intrigued here to see how connected people are. Part of that is because people have stayed here and have relatives,” he added. “To me, that’s been a really beautiful thing to (have) something that comes up and it seems like right away five or six people are offering to help. And people have done that for us already.”