Divine Love Sanctuary Foundation First Annual Report

[jeanne]

Dear Friends,

Already the first AGM report is outdated! Much has happened during the first month of 2013! For those who might be interested....here is 2012 in review:

First Annual General Meeting Report to Members
Divine Love Sanctuary Foundation
December 29, 2012

This has been an exciting first year….filled with surprises and wonderful experiences! Our core group of Divine Love Prayer Circle participants reached out through the world wide web and in a very short period of time connected with other Divine Love followers from around the world! We expanded our Circles which were held every week (alternately in West Vancouver and on the Sunshine Coast), to include participants from such far off places as Australia, Hawaii, Namibia, Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Germany, 8 continental states and 3 Canadian provinces.

Attendance at Monday evening Prayer Circle Meetings was typically 7 – 9 participants with 20 guests following the Divine Love Retreat on July 21. Attendance at Saturday Prayer Circle Meetings ranged from 7 – 22 participants.

In July we held a 5 day retreat with an average of 43 participants at every session and 49 participants at the Saturday evening session!
Following the Retreat, participant Geoff Cutler who came from Australia created a message board at www.divine-love-sanctuary.ca for international participants to maintain and expand connections with each other. As of December 28, 2012, 49 users had registered on the site who collectively made 1530 postings under 183 topics!

In September a 10 day work party was held with 12 participants to preserve more than 5,000 pages of original transcripts of messages received through James Padgett almost 100 years ago.

In the Fall of 2012 we provided support for the creation of Children’s Sanctuary Namibia led by Helge Mercker in Gobabis, Namibia. We appealed to members, families and friends for donations at Christmas which resulted in raising $715 to feed 120 children in Helge’s care.

We give thanks to all donors who are making dreams come true and for feeding the children in Namibia…a very special thank you to Geoff Cutler for his many generous gifts, including: travel and accommodation scholarships, sponsoring the purchase of equipment and food for volunteers, for creating a message board for members and for his wise counsel in business matters.

Goals for 2013 include, but are not limited to:
• Applying for Charitable status in order to issue tax receipts to residents of both Canada and the United States
• To continue and expand weekly Divine Love Circle Prayer Circle and Spiritual development opportunities
• To host at least one Divine Love Retreat in 2013
• To meet with members around the world by electronic means, video conference calling and/or in person whenever possible
• To plan and recruit members for a work party in Gobabis, Namibia to assist with the building of an orphanage in partnership with Children’s Sanctuary of Namibia
• To raise funds for two main purposes: scholarships for travel and accommodation; to feed orphaned children in Namibia
• To review the constitution and by-laws on how to formalize membership.
Thank you to our members for a wonderful year which far surpassed our expectations! We invite all members to share their faith and their personal stories at: www.divine-love-sanctuary.ca .
Jeanne and Al Fike, Founders