Dear friends,
I’ve been off on my travels again, visiting family in the West Country. We had a lovely time, swimming in the sea, walking along the coast and indulging in Cornish pasties and cream teas (would have been rude not to!). Back on Wednesday for an REInspired session and PCC.
The REinspired session was with 5-7 year olds and told the creation story. The children were shown a video of beautiful images of creation: animals, nature, weather, people, plants. It was lovely to hear the children’s collective “wow” as each new image was shown. It made me think how much I take for granted in the beauty of creation. Maybe I won’t be walking along the Cornish coastal path shouting “wow” every time I see a butterfly or see a wild flower, but I will try to remember to thank God for the beauty of the earth. Maybe we could ask Julia very nicely to borrow the slideshow for one of our services in Creationtide? I’ll be listening for the “wows” if we do!
I’d also like to share some good news from the PCC meeting. You may remember earlier in the year, the forecast for our finances was not looking great. We were predicting a significant deficit for 2025, and we asked everyone to review their giving to St Nicolas. I want to say a big thank you to everyone who responded, and donations in the first half of the year are exceeding the budget by £6,500. This includes some very generous one-off donations. The hall income is also looking good, and we have had some fantastic fund-raising efforts including Cake and Craft, plants sales, SNAC craft sales and the Quiz. Overall instead of a predicted deficit of around £14,500 for the first half of the year, it’s looking more like £3000. We shouldn’t rest on our laurels and think that our financial issues are resolved, but we are moving in the right direction. Thank you to everyone who has donated, knitted, made cakes, eaten cakes, quizzed, made cards and supported our church in many other ways including the generous giving of your time and talents. We definitely don’t take you for granted.
As we prayed at the start of PCC, let us remember that all we do here is for the glory of God and the service of our community.
Yours in thankfulness,
Wendy
Wendy Neale, Churchwarden