As we move into February of 2017, we look back on the close of another successful year. Our church’s annual meeting is held each year in late January. At this time, we gather to look back on the year – our successes and struggles. In 2016, we were pleased to be able to host a number of events for the community, including the Bill Bastian and the Holiday Quartet Christmas Concert, New Orleans Gumbo Dinner, 5k Run/Walk, Fall Bazaar, Olive Garden Spaghetti Dinner, Easter Breakfast and others. We continued to offer Sunday School and Bible Study on Sunday mornings. We were also blessed with the donation of two new boilers from Fond Du Lac Tribal and Community College and the labor to install them from Stack Brothers, keeping our old building comfortably warm all year. This has also helped considerably with the heating bills. We also had a new computer donated by Saturn Systems and set up by Keith Erickson.
In addition to looking back at the annual meetings, we plan for the year head, passing a budget and nominating council members to open positions. We were fortunate that Karen Robnik has agreed to continue another year as the Council moderator. All new and renewing council members will be confirmed at the regular service on February 5th. Finally, we also set goals for the year, such as hosting additional events that we can offer the community throughout the year, providing more activities for children and young families, and increasing membership (an ongoing ambition).
After all orders of business are concluded, we close with a prayer and set to demolishing the amazing spread that appears at every pot luck! And this year was no disappointment. I believe we had four lasagnas just to start!