Heartfelt Thanks
Once again, our Estate Sale and Thrifty Goose volunteers excelled themselves with an amazing two days this past weekend. The Estate Sale broke new records in profitability. We all recognize that this is a testament to the incredibly hardworking volunteers along with a keen set of retail assessment and valuation skills. The amount of work both in preparing and executing such a mammoth fundraiser is truly an achievement of magnitude and I want to thank everyone who worked on the Estate Sale and in the Thrifty Goose for your unstinting contribution to ensuring the success of our common life.
The Estate Sale is important in two ways. Of course, the wonderful financial benefits are very important for our overall budget. I am also reassured to see that a number of our volunteers are becoming more skilled in assessing value and pricing appropriately. Secondly, in a broad sense the Estate Sale is a wonderful evangelical opportunity; an invitation to members of the community to visit our campus and to experience our friendliness and openness towards the wider world beyond our own particular interests. I know that our friendliness and commitment really commend us as a community to anyone who attends the Estate Sale and shops in the Thrifty Goose. Thank you to those working in the Thrifty Goose. In addition to a regular Saturday, I noted they had the added pressures of increased customer flow generated from the ES, which again is great for the profit made, but also more demanding on volunteer energies.
As individuals, so as a community, our strengths and weaknesses are the two sides of the same coin. Our strength is that we have big ideas and real talent. Our weakness is that we have big ideas and limited numbers of volunteers to carry them out. It seems to me that we cannot keep ratcheting up our activity levels without risking burnout – a situation I am keen we avoid. As we move forward with future plans for all our activities but especially a future Estate Sale, I would like us to give considerable thought to our capacity to repeatedly and successfully pull off such a huge endeavor. Food for thought!
Lent 2020 & Social Justice.
Following the screening of
Providence Lost
, we committed ourselves as a community to write to the members of the General Assembly urging urgent reform to the eviction laws which currently unreasonably favor landlords and unjustly penalize tenants.
Here
is a link to more information about your State Reps. Visit the Lent and Social Justice section of
Lent 2020
for links to background information and the letter writing template. Being mindful of Christian social conscience, using the template, I invite everyone to write to their State Representatives as members of the St Martin’s Community committed to advancing the cause of social justice in the fight against poverty and homelessness.
We are updating information on COVID-19 as it becomes available. Visit the St Martin’s
homepage and check the links in the Service Times box.
Mark+
