The group met on Feb. 10. They began the meeting with a devotion led by Melody Munden. After the agenda the group ended the meeting with The Lord’s Prayer.

The Grace Lutheran Church’s website was shared, and it can be found at www.gracealbertlea.org. The site will contain previous bulletins, Grace Notes and links to different committees. There will be a link for a daily devotional called “God Pause” from the Lutheran Seminary that people can sign up to receive through e-mail. An updated contact list, calendar and devotional schedule was passed out, and it was agreed that the person assigned to devotionals will also be the person who will attend council meetings.

January’s minutes were submitted and approved, and the treasurer’s report for January was submitted and approved.

The Caring and Sharing committee had nothing to report. The first event for that group will be the Women’s Retreat April 9.

The Stewardship committee’s February focus is the church library. There is a mitten tree up in the narthex for members to take if they wish to purchase something for the library. The March focus will be the Salvation Army and food shelves. For the kits for Lutheran World Relief, members wishing to help with the project do not need to get all of the items on the list. Stamps were given to Lakeview Elementary School for the art program. Labels from Campbell’s soup were also given to Lakeview.

The Quilting committee made 22 quilts in January. The Lutheran World Relief truck will be here in May. The committee will find a Sunday in early May to have a blessing of the quilts before they’re shipped.

The Cookbook committee met in early February. The cookbook will contain only salads to commemorate the 35th salad luncheon at Grace Lutheran. The cookbook will contain different salad categories, and recipes will be collected in March. The committee is looking at various printers for the cookbook. They hope to have the book available by September and October and at the salad luncheon.

Deborah Circle was the only circle to report, and they’re studying the book of Acts.

Monthly WELCA meetings are open to all women of the church of any age. The group provides support to the church and each other. The group would like to thank active members, and they hope to see new members.

New business/Upcoming events

There are still open spots on committees, but active searching will stop. Judy Menssen volunteered to help with the historian. Kate Dahl volunteered to help with the salad luncheon.

The Triennial Gather has projects church members can participate in. There is a quilt project, and information was given to Kathie Rogers to present to the quilters. There is also a banner project. It was discussed that the banner project could possibly be part of the upcoming retreat, and donations for kits could possibly be collected at the retreat. It was discussed that the congregation could focus on one project or kit.

The installation of WELCA board and committee members was scheduled for Feb. 20 at the 8:30 a.m. service. The monthly WELCA meeting in March will be at 6 p.m. March 3 in the Fireside Room. In April there will be kitchen cleaning and inventory.

Ongoing business

The Rev. Todd Walsh will be contacting circle groups about their current resources and the level of support they would like from him.

The second annual Retreat planned a group meeting for Feb. 17 and will meet again to continue planning.

The Good Friday lunch is scheduled for April 22. The Caring and Sharing committee will plan the event.

Life & Growth, a ministry group at Grace, is looking for photos from church events to be included in the new directory. Please submit photos to Brenda Wieland.