How Have You Seen God at Work in Your Life the Past Year?
Each year, we enjoy coming together for one combined service to end the year to celebrate all that God has done for us. This year we will join at 10:00 a.m. and hear what God has been doing in the lives of Gwyneth Preu, Pastor Doug Scalise, and new members Matt and Annika Hall.
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How Have You Seen God at Work in Your Life?
First Reflection: Gwyneth Preu
“Teach Us to Number Our Days” Psalm 90:12-17
Good morning, my name is Gwyneth Preu, and I am honored to share, on this special Sunday of reflection, about 2025. I am going to read the scripture passage Psalm 90:12-17.
“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Relent, Lord! How long will it be? Have compassion on your servants. Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble. May your deeds be shown to your servants, your splendor to their children. May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us— yes, establish the work of our hands.”
The verse that drew me to this passage was verse 12, which says,
“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
In the past year, this verse – and events in my life – have reminded me of the limited number of days we each have. A significant event in my life, this past year, was dealing with my parents’ health issues – my mom was undergoing treatment for leukemia, and my dad is continuing to deal with Parkinson’s disease.
My parents live in Pennsylvania, and I spent many days there, this year, both with my mom at the hospital, and being with my dad. As so many of you have experienced, being with aging parents can be a reflective time, about both their lives and how we, ourselves, are also aging.
“Numbering my days” has also felt significant, as I am solidly in the season of mid-life, and my oldest child is about to turn 10-years-old this coming week, which means more than half of her childhood is over. Time certainly feels like it is quickly passing when watching your kids grow up!
These are just a few things in my personal life; maybe you can think of one event or circumstance from your year that makes you reflect on the passing of time. There are many other nationwide and worldwide events that can bring into perspective how short our time on earth can be. So, when I read this passage in Psalm 90, it challenges me to use well the time God has given me.
Psalm 90 is the one Psalm that was written by Moses. For those of us familiar with Moses’ story, we know that he was called by God to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. It is believed that Psalm 90 was written during the time the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness, and when Moses’ brother and sister both died, along with Moses being told he would not enter the Promised Land.
Despite these difficult things, Moses was asking, in this Psalm, for wisdom, for God’s love, for compassion, and for gladness. This shows me that one way to “number my days” is to talk to God, through prayer, and ask for God’s help in my life. I noticed that Moses didn’t ask for physical things, like relief from the heat or cold water, but for help in enduring the things that are happening in his life.
As Reverend Nikita McCalister talked about in her sermon two weeks ago on joy, in life, there is always this tension between sorrow and joy, they happen for us simultaneously, throughout our life. So, when we talk to God about gaining wisdom, it will help us, throughout our lives, to have God there for both the joy and the sorrow, as Moses expresses in this Psalm.
In verse 17, Moses writes,
“May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us, establish the work of our hands for us, yes, establish the work of our hands.”
This verse asks God to make the work we are doing meaningful, for the way we spend our time to have importance. We want our days to have a positive impact on others, and to honor God.
I’ve been blessed to work at BBC as the Family Ministry Coordinator for almost 3 years now, and also feel the importance of raising my three children with my husband in this time while they are in our home. These are both very meaningful pieces of my life that I want God to “establish”, to have long-term significance.
What is something you want to have meaning and long-term significance in your life? This will happen with God’s help in our lives, and again, this passage guides us in how to ask God for this help – through praying for wisdom, seeking joy in the sorrow, going to God every day, and asking God to be with us to make our work meaningful to Him.
One of the things I get to do, here at BBC, is lead the Mom 2 Mom group, which is a weekly group of wonderful moms with younger kids, getting together to study, pray, and encourage one another. The book study we did, this fall, was called Habits of the Household by Justin Earley.
In this book, he talks about small ways we can change our habits to glorify God, and I want to share a few with you that have helped me be more intentional about “numbering my days”. One practice he recommends for our mornings is “Scripture before phone”, that instead of looking at our phones first thing when we wake up, first look at scripture before diving into the rest of our day.
He also talks about the idea of a brief prayer before a difficult moment, such as disciplining a child or having a hard conversation – a quick reset to focus on what’s important and not necessarily focusing on being right.
And then the work of reconciliation, after having that disciplinary moment or difficult discussion, where you give a hug or affirming words. These small things are not always easy, but can have a huge impact on our relationship with God and others.
The Habits of the Household book emphasizes that practicing intentional habits in our life doesn’t change God’s love for us, but can change the way we practice our love for God.
May we all look for ways, in 2026, to “number our days so we may gain a heart of wisdom” and have intentionality in God’s work in our lives.
Second Reflection: Pastor Doug Scalise
“How Have You Seen God at Work in Your Life?”
Psalm 100:5 (NIV):
“For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.”
This verse from Psalm 100 affirms three things about the Lord that I’ve seen, not just in 2025, but in all the years of my life. The Lord is good, God’s love endures forever, the Lord’s faithfulness continues through all generations. The goodness, love, and faithfulness of God are gifts to be thankful for, not just at Christmas time, but throughout the year, and throughout our lives.
Of the people speaking today, I’m the oldest. I’m closer to the end of my life than to the beginning, and that means I’ve had the chance to see God work through the Passing of Time and through People.
I feel like sometimes people want to see God work in dramatic – even spectacular – ways, like the angels appearing to the shepherds, and God can and does do amazing things, but if we keep our eyes and spirits open, more often, we’ll see God at work through the passing of time, and through people.
When I look back at this year, I’ve seen – and I hope we’ve seen – God at work in several ways; I can only highlight a few. Part of trusting God’s goodness and faithfulness is stepping out and trying new things, and we did that this year in leading a Feed My Starving Children Mobile Pack in May, in cooperation with other churches who are part of our Thrive Cape Cod network.
The event was hosted at Trinity Christian Academy, thanks to Board Chair, Su Ballantine, and Head of School, Dr. Bruce Hanlon, and the Steering Team, under the leadership of Amanda Carter, who led a successful event that involved 648 volunteers who packed 106,272 meals in 24 hours that went to feed hungry children in Liberia and El Salvador.
The power of Christ followers and churches working together was encouraging to see, and we had folks of all ages – from our middle and high school students to people in their eighties – participating.
A month after the Mobile Pack, Jill and I, as well as Joe and Shelby Greemore, attended the ABCUSA Biennial in Omaha, Nebraska. Being there with our son, Greg, and his wife, Marci, and son, Victor, we couldn’t help but reminisce about Biennials decades ago, when we took our kids when they were young, and my parents came to help watch our boys so Jill and I could attend sessions and events.
One memorable part of the Biennial was the large choir from the First Kachin Baptist Church of America in Omaha, who sang at the closing worship service. Rev. Dr. Zau Sam Lahtaw, the senior pastor of the church, delivered the sermon.
Even in difficult times for them, to see and hear the faith of these Kachin brothers and sisters from Myanmar – the spiritual descendants of the people reached with the gospel by Adoniram and Ann Judson 200 years ago – was a powerful reminder of God’s goodness and faithfulness to people all around the world, through all generations, and they deserve our continued support and respect.
God’s goodness and love were seen in the largest baptism service in the 201-year history of our church, when we baptized thirty-seven people in Cape Cod Bay at Crosby Beach on August 17. I wish you could have seen the view that David, Joe, Nate, and I had in the water, of over 200 people standing on the beach to support, encourage, and celebrate people of all ages responding to God’s love and publicly declaring their faith and their desire to follow Jesus for the rest of their lives.
The Feed My Starving Children weekend, the Biennial, and the Baptisms were all planned events, but sometimes, God works through the unplanned and the unexpected. Jill and I experienced this in September, when the week before departing with thirty-four people on a pilgrimage trip to Spain, our friend, colleague, and tour leader Tom Ryan told us he wouldn’t be able to travel due to a health issue.
We’re so thankful that Blair and Paul Tingley dropped everything and changed their plans, so they could travel with us to Spain and help with the planning and details that Tom covered on these trips. While in Spain, we dealt with challenges, but the group was great in helping, caring, and supporting one another.
We also witnessed, in the churches and sites we visited, the faithfulness of God through all generations, as we visited and worshiped at churches where Christians have been praying and worshiping for close to 1,000 years.
Sitting in an old church or cathedral makes me feel like my life is so brief and fleeting, and at the same time, I appreciate every generation of faithful people who have followed Jesus and passed the baton of God’s goodness, love, and faithfulness forward – sometimes even in the face of persecution or martyrdom – and it’s humbling and an honor to think we’re part of this family of faith of people from all nations and generations, across two thousand years of history.
I can’t share about how we’ve seen God at work without mentioning the humbling and overwhelming celebration the church had on October 26 to mark our 30 years of ministry at BBC.
We did not anticipate or expect the thoughtfulness, creativity, time, and effort that our staff and volunteers put into that event to make it memorable and special; it is something we will always treasure, as well as the remarkable kindness and generosity that you all showed to us.
The Lord is so generous in sharing goodness, love, and faithfulness with all of us, and one of my favorite things about the people of BBC, and our church, is how we seek to imitate and demonstrate the generosity of God to help other people. Year after year, I have seen people giving of their time, talent, and treasure to glorify God and bless other people.
Through our Deacon Assistance Fund, Caring Cupboard Food Pantry, the Holiday Fair and Silent Auction, Habitat for Humanity House Sponsorship, Feed My Starving Children, our Mission Offerings, and our Mission Budget, hundreds of people have given thousands of hours and well over $300,000 to share God’s love and meet human needs on Cape Cod and around the world. Isn’t that amazing?
God’s faithfulness continues through all generations, through the passing of time. This is something I’ve seen in my family. God was faithful to my grandparents and parents, and we see God’s faithfulness continuing with our sons and their families.
When Jill and I came to BBC, we had a two-year-old and another child on the way. Now, our older son, Nathan, is a year older than I was when we started here, and we have three grandsons.
On April 22, Jill and I visited Colby College, where we met, and retraced the first walk we ever took together – 40 years ago on that very day – and we talked about our gratitude to God for bringing us together, and all we’ve shared for four decades. God has been so faithful to us in the joys and griefs of life.
This year, as always, we said goodbye and grieved the loss of faithful men and women who were our friends and served in significant ways at BBC. It’s always hard to say goodbye, and I miss their presence here. I can still see their faces where they sat in the Sanctuary.
As always, just before Christmas, we watched our favorite version of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”, the 1984 edition, starring George C. Scott as Ebenezer Scrooge.
In the story, seven years after his death, Jacob Marley, wrapped in a heavy chain he forged in life, visits Ebenezer. Marley is speaking of his regrets in the hope of convincing Scrooge to change his way of life. Scrooge remarks to Marley, “You were always a good man of business, Jacob,” to which Marley responds:
“Business! Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”
When I look back at 2025, I’m grateful that the chain being forged at BBC is a chain of love, charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, that connects us with God, all the faithful people who’ve gone before us, and with our sisters and brothers all around the world.
Let’s pray:
Lord, inspire us and help us to share:
Our Friendship with those who need it.
Our Love with those close to us and those who are new to us.
Our Thanks with those who deserve it.
Our Encouragement with those whose confidence is wavering.
Our Support with those who seek it.
Our Respect with those who have earned it.
Our Understanding with those whose views differ.
Our Comfort with those who suffer illness.
Our Consolation with those who grieve.
These are gifts we can all afford to give. None is beyond our means, none must be gift-wrapped, and none needs to be exchanged for size or color preference.
A gift of oneself is precious, not only to the recipient, but enriches the giver, as well. As one year draws to a close, and another is about to begin, Good, Loving, and Faithful God, help us to be your gifts in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Third Reflection: Matt and Annika Hall
“The Beauty That Change Can Bring” Colossians 3:12-15
Good morning!
To begin, we wanted to thank you all for welcoming us into this church family. We became new members a little over a month ago, and are so blessed to be a part of the wonderful things God is doing in and through Brewster Baptist Church.
For those of you who don’t know us yet, Annika and I just celebrated our second wedding anniversary, and recently moved to Harwich after spending the past five years living in Alaska, where we were both in the Coast Guard, stationed on ships. Between the two of us, we spent time living in Ketchikan, Petersburg, Cordova, and Juneau, before making our move east this past summer.
This year has been a season of a lot of change for us, and as we’ve been reflecting on the year, one thing that strikes us is the beauty that change reveals. Change has the ability to turn our eyes and tune our hearts – to the things that don’t change.
For some background, Annika and I are relatively new Christians; it has been a little over two years since we were called and realized that faith isn’t just something we could sprinkle into our lives where we wanted it, leaving it out of all the rest. We weren’t total strangers to church and probably would have described ourselves as Christians if you asked, but we didn’t have a relationship with Jesus, and we weren’t striving to be more Christlike.
By the grace of God, Jesus has been rebuilding every aspect of our hearts and lives around him since then. More recently, we’re both in the midst of major career changes to fields that align more closely with our faith – Annika to be a nurse, and me a teacher. These changes amongst others brought us to the Cape, and we’ve officially been living here for six months now.
During this year of new challenges, decisions, and opportunities, the Lord has been our rock. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus says,
“So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.”
We love this passage and recently learned that the Greek word used for “search” in this verse gets a little watered down in our translations. This asking, searching, and knocking that Jesus talks about isn’t supposed to be a one-time action; it’s continuous, constant, and prevailing.
Jesus is describing a faithful servant who persists in their relationship with Him. I think Jesus is telling us here to live every single aspect of our lives in a way that builds our relationship with – and reliance in – Him.
We’ve made our share of mistakes along the way, and for anything I have managed to do right, well, sorry to break it to you, but that was actually the other guy who lives here. But in that, in the gift of the Holy Spirit, lies the most powerful testimony of God’s faithfulness to us. Through this season of change, the Holy Spirit is bringing us closer to God, closer to each other, and closer to family through the abundance of love He gives.
He’s guided us in important decisions through prayer and has used our hands and feet to bless others, particularly through some of the homeless ministries we’ve been involved in both at the Glory Hall in Juneau, and here on the Cape at Faith Family Kitchen.
It is truly a blessing to work to prepare meals for and serve our neighbors in need. Getting involved in this community has been life-changing for us and has deepened our relationship with Jesus in so many ways, and we are so excited to continue to be moved by the Holy Spirit to serve our community throughout the rest of our lives.
This past year has been such a testimony to God’s faithfulness and perseverance in his love for us. We recognize how desperately we need His Spirit in abundance, and we ask Him for it. We’ve been trying to live in a way that asks, searches, and knocks first, and we can say from the bottom of our hearts, He is faithful.
Circumstances are always changing, and sometimes that change is not for the better. But God is also constantly at work in our lives and in our hearts. In this past year, He has given us an incredible appreciation for our community of faith and has shown us the deepest peace and purpose in helping other people.
To wrap up, I wanted to read a short passage from Paul’s letter to the Colossians that’s been on our hearts. Colossians 3:12-15:
“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.”
In our broken world full of change, tragedy, and need, let us all turn to Him who is good, who does not change, and is faithful to those who call upon Him. Let us all wake up each morning and choose to put on love through the power of the Holy Spirit – so we may be part of the force that binds all people together in perfect unity.
And in a world where change is scary and largely unwelcome, let us strive to view change as an opportunity to grow closer to God and joyfully embrace his movement in our lives. God bless you all and thank you again.
Questions for Reflection or Discussion
- What joys have you experienced in 2025, and how have you seen God working through these joys?
- What sorrows have you experienced in 2025, and how have you seen God working through these sorrows?
- Considering your season of life, where have you gained wisdom from experience, and in what ways can you continue to pursue a wise heart? In what ways have you grown in 2025? Can you identify at least one way you can say you’ve developed or matured since the year began?
- What is a practical way you can “number your days” to orient your life more intentionally towards God and faith?
- Write down at least one specific action you plan to take in 2026 to help you grow as a disciple of Jesus. What will you do to become more like Christ in the coming year?
- Write down the names of 3-6 people who have influenced your life in a significant and positive way. Are any of them still living? If so, let them know how grateful you are for their impact on your life?
- Write down the names of 3-6 people whom you’re seeking to influence in a significant and positive way. What steps can you take in 2026 to encourage and help these individuals?