Edward the gardener went down on one knee before our chairlady of the Women's Association and asked that he have the room to the roof of his room repaired. Little did we realise that the gas explosion in Yeoville that occurred a few weeks back, and which destroyed out land line, had also launched a brick into the air, which had damaged the corrugated iron roof above his room, which now leaks.
This then sparked a conversation between Sophia and the Men for the Master to see if we had skills to handle the job. Indeed we did in the form of Joefred and Jahor, who did such greats jobs in sanding and varnishing three of our church doors on Saturday. But do they have the tools to fix what needs to be fixed?
The Men also noted that we lacked a church tool box with simple things like a wood saw, pliers, hammers and other stuff for doing basic internal maintenance.
So let's get to the solutions. Why don't we start collecting spare tools and put these together in a maintenance tool box, to be used by members of the congregation, hired to fix such items as Edward's roof?
Why don't we source a saw on Joefred's behalf?. Many in our congregation have skills, but they not the tools of the trade to empower them to get back into business. This box could eventually be rented out to members of congregation to raise church funds, while creating job opportunities for our members into the bargain..
We'll certainly look into the possibilities and challenges at the Men for the Master meeting on Sunday. The first test would be to see what tools we can donate to that tool box and secondly how to keep it secure in our circumstances.
The major job now will be to create a database of skills available within the congregation, so that we can look after our own. The idea will be to give workers reference and publicise their contact details. We therefore create jobs for our members and we benefit from their skills as well
Comment on the above ideas t by using the "comment" button below. Let's empower the unemployed. It could all start by the church having it's own tool box and maintenance supplies. The rest of the process would be guided by Session and our Lord.
The St Mark's Editorial Team
I love he idea of a skills audit within the church. Word of mouth is a powerful marketing tool and we can help our people and put food on the tables of families and people in need.
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