As we are gathered !

Greetings!

Gathering and together are two inseparable things that goes hand in hand and when there's gathering, that means something important is taking place. Though that thing taking place can be a two way things, and this can be to move something forward or better still, to move something backward which means, we have a positive gathering and a negative one. It all depends.
But when talking about gathering and together, we should have it at the back of our mind that, both gathering and togetherness are born out of the word meeting. This means we can only meet to gather, or meet together as the case maybe. Meeting is part of life and as we all know it, there's different and various types of meetings ranging from the political meeting where politicians gather together to discuss on what to do, to religious meeting where religious leader meet and gather to discuss the development of their religion or respective denominations, also, we have prayer meeting, board meeting, family meeting and so on.

But, of all these meetings, there's a meeting that's very crucial to humans and that's the family meeting. As we all know that the family is the nucleus and the mirror of the society, it's meeting is and should be very essential to the development of the society and this is because, all other meeting are hinged on the outcome of a family meeting. I'm not saying the family meeting is the only important meeting, but because of the nature of what a family is that all member of the society being it politicians, clerics, boardroom personality and so come from the family. So, a family meeting is an important meeting.

So, for this reason and as our custom in this part of the world, most especially in my own family, on the 3rd of January every new year, we used to meet and discuss our plans , resolutions and way forward for the new gregorian calendar year which this year 2025 is not an exemption. At the meeting this year, we started with prayers and read the minutes of our last meeting which was read by the family secretary and adopted by me and one other family members. After the adoption of the meeting, we went straight into the agenda of the day as co-ordinated and presided over by the family head and other elders of the family.

There at the meeting, we discussed the challenges of the family and it's members and how we can overcome all these challenges being brought forward by every member of the family. Not that alone, we also as a family, discuss our wins and losses together and see to what are those things to work on as a family to have a better result to where we have fell and failed in the last year.

Also, at the meeting, we had a special session, where we congratulated those people that did one events or the other in the last year, things like wedding, birthday, naming ceremonies and even burial of the older ones and at the same time, mourn those we lost or are dead as a member of the family and we also prayed for the repose of their souls.

Furthermore at the meeting, we real outbthe name of those people that have brought forward the invites for their next events and the names and date of each persons and their birth date. This was done by the next to the head of the family head.
After all, this, we made and paid all our dues and donations to the family. This due was collected by the treasurer with the aim of depositing in the bank and maybe if there's no cash, the members can transfer to the bank account.

So, after the donation and the due being paid, we moved on to the to discussing how to assist and support those whom have brought invites and we were told that part of the dues and donations will be used to assist and support and that if there's any individual that wants to assist them, he or she should not hesitate.

Also, the head of the family after all these reel out his achievements during the last year, the achievement are, the building of the family hall, renovation of the family house and so on.
So after this, we all went into a special family prayer session where we prayed and committed the new year 2025 unto God's hand to take perfect and absolute control of year. We also prayed for all those who want to do one thing or the other in the year and our children were also remembered in the prayer. Though they were part of the meeting, we also prayed for journey mercy to our various destinations as most of us don't reside at home, we prayed on the food already prepared for consumption.

And after the prayers being said, we moved to the last item on the list which is the item 7, all were served and we all ate the delicious meal being prepared and served to us. But before then, a member of the family had move a motion for the adjournment of the meeting which was seconded by me.
Seriously, the meeting was an interesting one and we really thank God for the successful last year and we hope that this year will be much more better. After which we took pictures with each other as a family. So, as to our custom and tradition, we did the meeting and it was successful.

Thanks for reading.

All pictures are mine.