Well, hello again, to my Beloved Church Family,

Yes, it’s true that I feel that way. I do think of you as family and am so happy to have all of you in my life.

As I write this during the week before Christmas, I feel like my head is spinning a little with all that has been going on. In addition to the usual holiday preparations, which would keep me busy enough, there have been many things going on in our congregation and with our church building.

During the last month we’ve had some changes in our Children’s Religious Education team, which you will have read about in one of our weekly emails. We are also working on hiring a new Office Administrator who will be working in the office rather than remotely. Terra has done such a great job, and we love her dearly, but the Board and Communications team, as well as Terra herself, feel it will solve some current logistical problems if we have someone who works in the office IN the building. Since Terra moved up to Tennessee, she has been a very positive, competent, and reliable remote worker, and together we’d planned from the beginning that working remotely was a temporary situation. Fortunately, the timing for a change is serendipitous because Terra is ready to work fewer hours so that she can have more time with family and pursue a new volunteer opportunity. We expect to have a new Office Administrator on board sometime early in February, and Terra will begin a less time-consuming job, that of spoiling another family’s pets! We will miss her very much!

We’ve also had some building issues, namely the unlawful clearing of the property next to the church, which encroached on OUR property, and a recent insurance inspection revealing a few smaller issues, plus the larger issue of a potentially faulty electrical panels and panel components. And despite multiple calls and visits to our phone provider, we have had no luck restoring phone service to the building, although we can still leave and retrieve voicemail messages. Thank goodness for mobile phones!

So, these are all issues we’ve been working on with Hugh Ed and the rest of the Building and Grounds Committee.

AND we’re working on some much more positive things…By the time you read this, the Christmas Eve Candlelight Service will have come and gone, and we’ll be back to our Sunday Services offered both in person and on YouTube (thanks to Erin!). In addition, we continue to get ready for our first (maybe annual) Light the Darkness Music Festival, from 2:00 to 8:00 PM on January 14th, closely followed by the MLK Day Parade on the 16th!

There are also some intriguing Second Hour presentations in the works, so watch your calendar and stay in touch!

Happy New Year!

In Love and Fellowship,

Laura Keith King