I want to share with you the ways your support and engagement have helped to transform the Sacred Fire Community organization.

It has been a time of significant change both in our world and in our work. In gatherings over the year, I have repeatedly heard people express anxiety and concern for the many acts of destruction, polarity and even violence that we are witnessing and experiencing on an almost daily basis.

Listening to people across the US and in other countries react to this time of great challenge has convinced me that the work of Sacred Fire is more urgent than ever. This is the time to step up and offer the antidote to this pervasive fear and to catalyze our efforts as we never have before. And, I believe our work over the last few years, with your help, has placed us in a position to meet the challenges of this great endeavor.

Over the past three years, the Sacred Fire Community organization has undergone a significant transition towards becoming a more focused and effective organization.

This has included incorporating as a nonprofit organization, establishing a board of trustees to guide the organization, restructuring personnel into one Executive Director and four Program Directors, reorganizing our bi-annual business meetings to include a smaller and more focused group of volunteer staff, and creating a three-phased strategic plan. We have also been working on creating systems, processes and funding that support our three primary offerings: Firekeeping with initiated Firekeepers who facilitate bringing people into a direct connection with the energy of fire, their emotions and their hearts; Lifeways programs to help people move into alignment with the natural and ancient cycles of living; and Fire Speaks events where audiences can directly experience Grandfather Fire. We added a Finance Department, and an Outreach and Engagement Department and moved the role of fundraising to the board level. We introduced Life Cycle Living as a backdrop to Lifeways programs and we are in discussion with excellent, experienced, program leaders. We created a functional database and website, revamped and redesigned the Around the Fire newsletter into a digital format, and opened social media channels.

We continue to offer training and support to our fantastic Firekeepers who host monthly fires in over 40 communities across 7 countries.

These fires are a place for discussion, connection and learning. In many cases, individuals experience what we call “the Fire effect” when sacred fire touches their hearts. We have hosted several Fire Speaks events that have reached capacity, showing us that more people are interested in hearing the wisdom of Grandfather Fire. In Life Cycle living listening sessions we have learned from our communities and are incorporating that learning into our program offerings. We have attracted the attention of funders who are helping us to feed this fire and bring it more broadly into the world.

As I hunker down with the program directors and our board of trustees to finalize our plans for 2018, I am humbled by the road many of us have traveled together to get to the incredible opportunity and challenge ahead of us. All of our experiences, learning and collective wisdom are needed to go to the next step of letting more people know that we are here and what we have to offer.

Through your journey you, too, are a part of this next step.

I invite you to keep abreast of our work and our community happenings through our newly revised social media channels on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter; to subscribe to our newly redesigned Around the Fire newsletter and blog, and to visit our new website launching early in the year.

You should know that we are now able to pay for professional services, and support our program directors in ways we could not have done without your help. One of our focus areas for this next year is to increase our monthly giving dollars. The reason is simple. Knowing that we have a specific amount coming in each month allows us to plan ahead. If you are able and willing to join our group of monthly donors by committing any dollar amount to be contributed every month of 2018, I would be most grateful. Our goal is $1,000 of reliable income every month. Click here to sign up for our monthly giving circle of supporters or to make a one-time contribution. We are deeply grateful for all of your help.

If you have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me directly.

In service,

Lawrence I. Messerman
Executive Director