Dear friends in Christ

Some saints have been venerated for nearly the entire history of Christianity. Cosmas and Damien are two such mysterious heroes of the faith. All we know about them for sure is that their names are recorded in the Eucharistic Prayer of the Mass in the Roman Catholic Church. Legend however, holds they were twin brothers who practised medicine in Syria. Competent physicians, they were called “moneyless ones” because they didn’t charge for their services. Perhaps that miracle alone is enough to keep them remembered for more than sixteen hundred years.

This got me thinking: if you have a particular talent or trade, do you ever give it away or do we always expect to be paid for our services? We live in the world of entitlement and we always ask what is due to me? We always want to receive instead of giving. Sometimes we lose sight of the fact that we have been given our talents and abilities not to store up earthly treasures, but for the good of all humanity.
We always say, “But we have worked hard for what we have”. We may object and feel that we deserve to be paid for the work done. That is true and nobody, not even saints, would say you have to give away everything. But giving is not an obligation, it is a way to say thank you to God for all you have. As the gospel of Matthew says, “Freely you received, freely give.” (Matthew 10:8) When we give, we not only bless others, but also acknowledge the fact that we have been blessed.

There is no limit to the amount which the Church needs to advance the Kingdom of God. Churches that accept this principle find that they can give to Missions and benevolences one to two hundred percent of their current Church expenses. However, we know that OUR GREATEST NEED is not “how much our Church needs”, but rather “HOW MUCH WE NEED TO GIVE”.

Increased giving as has been proven many times over will develop greatly increased interest in our Church and in our spiritual lives. Every family should look upon this call to Stewardship as the opportunity to make the greatest sacrifice of their lifetime for their faith. Therefore as your parish council we are making every effort to set the example with generous sacrificial pledges to inspire all our families to become better givers.
This is a challenge to all of us! It is a Call to service and Christian Stewardship, which offers each of us an opportunity to measure up to our Christian obligation and responsibility. On the foundation stones of Faith, Prayer and Sacrifice we will build success. Let us give as God hath prospered us.

September was the month of Creation and thank you for the cleaning operation in the community you live. October was the month of Stewardship, and all sermons were focused on “Theological reflection and Financial sustainability”. The needs of the Church are increasing beyond the contribution we are making and we are being challenged to look at the future of our Church. On the 26th October it was our Dedication Sunday and I hope we will rededicate ourselves and our talents to the Lord. I’ve realized that many of our members have not yet brought back their dedication forms, so I appeal to everyone to return them as quickly as possible so as to help the PCC to do budgeting for 2015 based on the cash projections promised on the forms. It is vital that we budget correctly, and it would be so good to be able to budget without having to depend on all the fund raising efforts to balance the books. We should be able to break even on pledges, and then do FUN raising for more Outreach programmes etc. Let us this year, all thank God for the gifts He has given us, and maybe then we might be blessed with a balanced budget.

May God bless you all.
Dean Lazarus Mohapi