Planting seeds of ministry

On Wednesday night our church was a busy place. In one room the Budget Committee was hashing out the final budget that will go before the congregation on January 29th at the Annual Meeting. In the other room the Missional Church Committee was finalizing plans for our Winter Survival Kit giveaway on January 24th.

The Budget Committee, chaired by George Strouse, had to prune several thousand dollars off the proposed budget. The truth is that the pledge cards came back with many increases. George Rezendes, the Financial Secretary, reported that about ten new families made pledges. In a normal year we would have been able to add new programs or invest more money in a few ongoing projects. As it is 52 families pledged $103,000 to the current expense budget and another $7,300 to our mission and benevolence budget.

The Trust & Memorial Funds have suffered due to the failing economy and that meant we had less interest to draw on for the budget. The last few years we have taken twenty thousand dollars or 4.5%. This past Fall we lost over twenty five percent of the value and the Trustees felt we need to be very conservative with what we draw from that account.

We also had a few families whose situation had change and they had to pull back from the level of their past support. The good news is that at the end of the day the Budget Committee worked their magic and no major programs had to be cut. God is good!

The Winter Survival Kit Giveaway is scheduled for January 24th at the Martin Luther King Center from 10:00 a.m. - Noon. We have all kinds of neat things to give away. The "No sew" blankets that so many people helped make are the centerpiece. WE also have some laundry detergent, shampoo, bar soap, toothpaste, tooth brushes, white socks, the ingredients for a vegetable soup,hats and mittens and some goodies for the kids.

The kits will be put together on Wednesday, January 21 at 7:00 p.m. and we are looking for help. Anyone woh can come should speak to Cynthia Strouse, Judy Dupont, Amanda Duntz, Sue Ferguson, Phil Postler or Curt Brockway.

We will be distributing flyers throughout the neighborhood on Saturday, January 17th at 10:00 a.m. Anyone woh can help should speak to me. We also need people to bake cupcakes. We have the mix and frosting. You can pick it up at the church next Sunday. We will be serving coffee, cocoa, and cupcakes to everyone who drops in that morning. Our Motto is "Because We Care" and it will be on the bags that we put the stuff in and on our aprons as we serve them.

It was a great night that will see its promise in the coming weeks. As I left the church I left with an image of the gardner who had just planted seeds. We are going to nurture them and water them but God will make them grow.

Cal