We weren’t sure what to expect this year, what with fuel and food price rises and so many more calls for charitable giving. Also we decided not to collect from people at home again this year, but just to deliver the envelopes and hope that people would take them to the collection addresses. Well, the amount was down on last year, but there again that may be because people have found it easier and quicker to give online. Nonetheless we had raised £1,203.24, at the time of writing. £602.50 of this was handed in at the Coffee Morning, £107 at David Willan’s Food Hall, and the rest were generous donations, many with Gift Aid vouchers filled in, (which will result in another £140 from the inland revenue) and delivered to the Vicarage or handed in at church. Very many thanks to you all. This amount of money will enable people in drought ridden countries such as Zimbabwe to install taps and to buy drought resistant seeds. It will also train around 150 women farmers in a project to help them grow food in a changing climate, and provide a storeroom to store seed and fertiliser.
Elspeth Jayne. (Christian Aid Organiser at St. Mark’s Church)
