Happy New Year, Beloved Keystone Community!
I just returned from a relaxing week in Mexico where I was able to do my own translation of the beginning of John’s Gospel, which you heard on Sunday. I spent my mornings on the patio of my casita - looking at the ocean, watching the whales leaping and the little quails running around in the bushes. Every morning the birds would be singing – and I felt those words from our new hymn “It’s a Song of Praise to the Maker” leap into my head.
It’s hard to believe a year has passed since our last annual congregational meeting, but here we are again this week, looking at the budget for next year as well as the disbursements for the special Christmas Eve collection, which yielded 3,500 dollars – pretty amazing for our small congregation.
The budget looks good, although we had quite a few large expenses for the building in 2025, including a drain pipe that needed to be cleaned out and repaired, gutters that needed replacing and repairing, the heating system in Battson hall which needed some adjustment and repair, an electrical outage during the windstorm, and the roof on the Learning Center which needed to be bolted down around the edges. Hopefully, 2026 will not require so many expenditures on the building, but you never know!
In addition to the budget items, we will of course be electing our leadership team. As you probably know, Rita is a de facto member of the leadership team – she is a deacon as well as the leader of our direct service ministries. We would like to amend the bylaws so that the deacons are officially part of the leadership team. The good news is that our Keystone bylaws don’t need many other amendments. I have been attending meetings with other pastors who want to amend their bylaws and ours are so streamlined that we are the envy of all!
I will be praying for all of you as we head into 2026 – that your days will be full of joy and purpose, and that you will always know how deeply you are loved.
Blessings
Pastor Adina