It's crunch time for St Mark's in terms of growing our church, but the Lord is with us!

St Mark's upkeep and growth depends on us  ... the congregation needs to boost income by R8 500 a month.

Members of St Mark's it time that we amended our planned giving commitments to deal with the economic realities that we face. The need to dig deeper into pockets to serve the Lord was spelled out very nicely in the St Mark's Diary on Sunday.

ST MARK’S INCOME and EXPENDITURE Jan-Mar 2010
                                               To 31 March 2009     To 31 March 2010
TOTAL INCOME                                90,392.86                  92,480.08
TOTAL EXPENDITURE                      79,503.50                  88,340.79
Profit as at 31 March:              
        10,889.36                    4,139.29

The good news is that Income for January-March 2010 is up by just over 2%, compared with 2009, but Expenditure for the same period is up by over 11% and so far increases for salaries and electricity have not been taken into account.

Salary increases will only take effect in April and as well as the above, St Mark’s currently receives R2 500 per month from the Ministry Committee towards Solomon’s stipend.

There have also been effectively no motor car expenses. A permanent minister will immediately INCREASE expenditure by a minimum of R6 000pm when the Mininistry  Committee contribution falls away & Medical Aid, Pension, motor car costs begin. That means we must aim at least for an increase in income of approx R8 500 per month.

And there is the matter of general maintenance. There are areas of the Sunday school floor that a rotten. This is being looked into and the whole floor may not mean to be replaced, but again this will impact our. So please consider prayerfully what you can do to make St Mark's a blessing to our community.

The St Mark's Editorial team.