About Me
Thoughts. Experiences. Inspiration.
The human mind plans the way, but the Lord directs the steps. ~Proverbs 16:9
It has felt like a slow-motion and convoluted journey to come to this point yet all the relationships, experiences, places, and spaces have come together as a 5000 piece puzzle. Each piece was needed or the remaining 4999 were different incomplete parts. Some of those puzzle pieces include fearing the ranting outbursts of a childhood neighbor, helping to care for my grandmother, often advocating for the underdog, working in a biotechnology food science lab, attending seminary while my two children were in high school, being a workshop and support group leader, climbing a mountain alone and always loving to write.
Since 2019 I have been the pastor of Smith Memorial Congregational Church, United Church of Christ (UCC), in Hillsboro, NH, (just 10 months before the pandemic!). Prior to that I was a hospice chaplain/bereavement coordinator/volunteer coordinator as I also served UCC churches in eastern MA in various capacities. These have also been opportunities to minister in the communities, to support people living with Alzheimer’s/dementia and their caregivers, to work against childhood food insecurity, to address end-of-life concerns for veterans, to advocate for survivors of sexual and domestic abuse and to offer education about healthcare decisions.
The old cliché about making plans is what makes God laugh is so very true. This is not the journey nor destination I planned a very long time ago, yet it has been a while that I have known that this is the path where I belong and cannot imagine anywhere else.
My Official Bio
Rev. Donna Marie Vuilleumier is a pastor and author living in Hillsboro, NH, where she is active in the community and the New Hampshire Conference of the United Church of Christ.
She earned her MDiv in 2003 from Andover Newton Theological School in Newton, MA, and was ordained in United Church of Christ.
Donna enjoys time with family and friends, traveling, kayaking, snowshoeing, bike riding, hiking easy trails, geocaching, theater and concerts.
Special thanks and credit to Monique Kayden for the website creation, to Aaron Olawuyi for the artwork and to Maryann Cheung for the headshot.