 I'm Adam Clever, I've been the pastor here at the United Presbyterian Church of Freeport for about a year and a half. Presbyterians have been here in Freeport for at least as early as the early 1800s. There's stories of a pastor John Reddick riding in from the next town downriver to preach to a small Presbyterian congregation in a shared meeting house they shared with other churches. The Presbyterian congregations then organized in the 1830s to have an actual church here and then for a lot of the late 1800s into the 1900s we had two Presbyterian churches in town, the first Presbyterian and the second Presbyterian. They eventually joined together in the 1960s after having time of sharing spaces then having each of them with their own buildings and then joined together in this building which was constructed in the late 1800s. One thing that just pleases me and impresses me about the history of these churches is how often the people put these things together themselves. They had a small congregation at first without even a pastor living here. They put together a meeting house, shared space with Episcopalians, shared space with the Lutherans. We shared space with so many different churches and eventually this church now stands as an image of unity again, a congregation that joined together more recently in the 1960s and we continue to be a church that for me as a newcomer in town having only been here a little over a year impresses me at the level of community that's here. A lot of families in this town have been here for centuries. Their families have been here generations but for me coming in as a new person I'm still pleased with how well I've been welcomed into the joy and fellowship of a small town church and of small town life. One of my favorite little stories about this town is the image when I was first here at the Halloween Parade having the mayor of the town come out and stop traffic at the main traffic light in town. Just thought that's the image of our small town life. That's the image of everyone gathered together at the one main intersection. And as a pastor it reminds me of how much we come together in times of need as well. I've watched our churches, I've watched all the churches in town joined together to help families who've lost their homes to fire and to floods joined together to worship on combined Lenten services and Holy Week services so that history of the congregations putting themselves together, working together sharing space, sharing resources and building up the community of the town continues strong today.