Innkeepers see Luther Rice homesite as regional center for hospitality and networking
If somehow a science-fiction time machine deposited Luther Rice on his boyhood farm in Northborough, the famed Baptist missions pioneer would be surprised by its astounding development as a center for missions and ministry throughout the six-state New England region, but not by the hospitality with which Donna and Roy Carlin, the latest in a line of Rice Lodge innkeepers, welcomed him back home.
The early-American promoter of international outreach by Baptists would be amazed to find that the family farm had been transformed as the home of the Baptist Convention of New England’s three-story ministry center and the Rice Memorial Baptist Church, both of which he could view from his restored colonial home on Lincoln Street, one of three buildings that comprise the retreat center named in his honor.
Luther Rice (left). Donna and Roy Carlin.
For Donna and Roy Carlin, who, as she says, “took a leap of faith” in February 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown when they moved from Milford, MA, to the Rice Lodge, their work is “a service to God (and) an opportunity to give back to others what we have been given.” A former Roman Catholic, Donna was born in Hartford, CT, and raised in the “potato land” farming community of Frenchville, ME, on the Canadian border. She found faith in Jesus Christ while on a missions trip to the Dominican Republic.
A Concord, NH, native, Roy grew up in Sanford, ME. Before moving to Massachusetts to study electronics and computer networking, Roy was a deputy sheriff at a county jail. He coordinates computer networking and repair for the BCNE and others. Despite a severe allergy to bee stings, Roy is also an avid beekeeper; he plans to bring a hive to the lodge property. As a young adult, Roy heard the Word of God preached at a church in Ashland, MA, and decided to follow Christ.
They met at the University of Maine at Presque Isle, married in 1986, and are parents of two adult children and grandparents of a one-year-old boy.
Donna spelled out their vision for the Rice Lodge in a recent interview. She and Roy want to strengthen the property’s outreach as a regional center for “hospitality and networking,” a place for church and family retreats, a quiet spot dedicated to discipleship and ministry training of all sorts, a temporary home for missions teams from elsewhere, and a destination for church groups to meet for fellowship and strategic planning. They also foresee a day when the homestead will serve community groups in Northborough, a bedroom community between the cultural hubs of Boston and Worcester.
When pandemic restrictions are lifted and they can welcome more than eleven people at a time, the lodge will once again sleep twenty-two people, in four bunkbed rooms, each with private bathrooms. A large multipurpose living room that once doubled as a classroom for the Northeastern Baptist School of Ministry seminary courses before these were moved online a few years ago, a kitchen, and the adjacent Rice family home that includes a private three room suite are available for guests. Click here to schedule a retreat or other function.
The Luther Rice home (left). The Rice Lodge.
Significant repairs including the replacement of doors, windows, and shingles are needed to meet those hospitality goals. Other projects may include carpentry, painting, electrical, floor covering, and landscaping. That’s why the Baptist Foundation of New England, the fund-raising arm of the BCNE, announced a $50,000 goal to preserve the historic Rice Lodge.
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The Carlins have no plans to slow down as they age. “We never plan to retire. We’re in it for the long haul. You never know what’s around the corner,” says Donna. She concludes, “I’m up for what God wants!”
Dan Nicholas formerly served as a pastor in Vermont and as the managing editor of the BCNE’s print newspaper.
