Tom Henihan
McLennan Victory Life Church has been extremely busy coming up to Christmas with two back-to-back events, the Christmas Café Concert at the Elks Hall on Friday Dec. 4 and the Ladies’ Bake Exchange on Saturday Dec. 5.
Approximately 100 adults, youth and kids attended The Christmas Café Concert, a community gathering and musical event with MC Mark Schneebeli also providing musical accompaniment to those who performed throughout the evening.
Though Victory Life Church usually hold their events at their church, for the Christmas Café Concert they chose the Elks Hall because it was planned as a general community event.
“We are very pleased with having such a good turnout from the community,” says Ashley Morin, Victoria Life Church treasurer. “It was amazing to have that kind of community support.”
The event was certainly a community and family affair with young and old enjoying the informal get together that had a traditional meaning of Christmas at the center of the gathering with the Nativity scene setup on stage.
The choice of carols were also strong on Christmas tradition with such enduring classics as Angels We Have Heard on High and of course the quintessential Christmas carol, Silent Night, that always evokes the essence of the season.
Later in the evening, though staying with the theme of singing carols, the Victoria Life house band comprising of Jeffrey Garand on drums, Ashley Morin on keyboards, Branden Portelance on bass and Marc Schneebeli still contributing guitar, the band provided an impressive musical ensemble.
The Ladies’ Bake Exchange is an opportunity for women to get together socially and to have an opportunity to sample one another’s baked goods or have them on hand for Christmas.
“The 15 women involved in the bake exchange also invite friends and family members and the women just hang out together for the evening,” says Morin.
This year was the first Victoria Life Christmas Café Concert but considering the success of this year’s concert the church is hoping to make it an annual event.
