Valentine's day brought St Mark's together

Solomon and Perpetue ... they are expecting their first child on the 20 March, a gift of love


Yes Valentine's Day is not what Christians are about, but the idea of doing something special for one's partner or loved one, appealed to the Men for the Master, who were looking to build bridges in the congregation when they met last month.

The executive presented to Session on Saturday and we are now an officially constituted adjunct to St Mark's, with the same terms and conditions accorded to the Women's Association.  Indeed both the WA and the Men for the Master will be leading services in March. You can check out the diary in the right hand column for details.

Hopefully we'll be seeing all these smiling faces at the big church cleanup on Saturday. It's a bring and share from 13h00.

But we digress. How did the men get involved with Valentine's day, you may well ask? Our chairman Giyani Matampi and our Probationer Solomon Surwumwe floated the idea. They thought a donation towards the flowers in the church on this day would be the right way to go.

But then the creative juices started to flow and the discussion went towards  giving every woman a rose. Clearly we needed advice and who better to give it than the chairlady of the Women's Association Sophia Williamson.

She offered not only to buy, but also arrange the flowers for the men and then gave us a very practical tip. This was simply to take the arrangement to the door during the final hymn and strip out the blooms for the ladies of the congregation without putting packaging each individual flower.

This is what we did and the joy this brought to one and all was a clear indicator that the Lord was working in our midst.

Sadly Giyani missed the service as he and his family were involved in a car crash on Saturday. Again the Lord was at work, because none of the Matampi family was injured.

Sophia Williamson about to work her magic with the rose bloom on Sunday

But there's more. Sophia quite rightly expected a rose, but there were none to be had. But she found a bloom. and a stem in her trusty basket and manufactured an arrangement for herself as if by magic. Thank you Sophia and the WA for all your help. We hope to see you guys at the cleanup on Saturday to share a barbecue with the men..

• For those of you who missed the service. Sunday's readings were: Isaiah 30 18-21, Matthew 5 1-12 and Corinthians 4 8-13. The Sermon title was "Jesus the Teacher."  
• Don't forget the Focus on the family seminar next month. You can see the details top right 

The St Mark's Editorial team.