A Harvest of Hope by Lauraine Snelling

Author:Lauraine Snelling [Snelling, Lauraine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC042040, FIC027050, FIC042030
ISBN: 9781441265234
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2015-02-23T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

I will keep this meeting on track. Thorliff repeated his order to himself.

Anner glowered from the front row to his left. He had brought the report to Thorliff late the day before, and Thorliff got it set and printed, finally making it to bed by midnight.

He stood waiting for the hubbub to settle down. When quiet almost reigned, he raised his voice. “The meeting will please come to order.” He waited before repeating it a bit louder. When he had their attention, he continued. “Reverend Solberg will open our meeting with prayer.” He nodded to the pastor sitting in the front row with his wife, Mary Martha, on one side of him, Thomas Devlin on the other.

That Father Devlin was there caught him by surprise. Since these were all bank patrons, the father had to have opened an account at the bank too. Thorliff stared around the room. More of the recent additions to Blessing were there than he had expected. But all anyone had to do was open an account. He wasn’t sure if there was a minimum deposit or not.

Reverend Solberg stood. “Heavenly Father, we thank you for your great love and tender mercies. We thank you that you care about every part of our lives, that you promise to give us wisdom whenever and however we need it. Lord, you have made us a community, a family. We count on you to resolve any issues that we have, to take care of all our people, your people, that you have brought us. No one is here by accident. And now we ask you to bless our meeting and bring us to agreement and understanding, always keeping in mind your instructions to love one another, to forgive one another, and to always seek your will. Give us ears to hear and eyes to see. In the mighty name of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen.”

John sat down and Thorliff pushed himself to his feet.

“Anner Valders, I ask you to present your report of the Community Bank of Blessing, North Dakota.” Lord God, help us. He nodded to Anner and moved away from the podium, sitting in the front row beside his mor.

Anner settled his papers on the podium, which was really a wooden music stand. “Good evening. Do you all have a copy of the report? If not, raise your hand.” Several people raised their hands, and Hjelmer brought them the ten-page report.

“Thank you all for coming. It is good to see new faces here. You, who have chosen to become part of our little town.”

Thorliff turned to see that Ingeborg appeared as shocked as he felt. “His words and eyes don’t match.” Ingeborg nodded.

Thorliff clenched his jaw. Anything to keep the peace.

“Not so little anymore.” The comment made a flutter of laughter pass through the room.

“That is so true. As many of you know, our annual meeting in January is when we have looked at the bank report in the past, but this emergency meeting was called, which apparently is the way we do business now, so here we are.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.