Dear Friends,

‘Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.’ (Proverbs 16 v 3)

I am writing with a special request for your prayerful consideration.  As you know from last month’s Pulse, we are progressing with the refurbishment of the Social area and facilities at HTC and are very encouraged by the positive feedback for the “Logos Café” approach that has been given so far.  Again, our vision is to create a space that is accessible to anyone, a “hub” or “centre” that everyone knows about and has in their mind as a great place to meet; an attractive space that we can use as a catalyst for offering events and activities to broaden our contact base and which, we pray, will lead to a growth in people’s exploration of the good news we have to share. 

As you may also know, we have received 15,000 euros of match funding from the Diocese against our reserves in order to pursue this vision and we are very grateful to retiring Archdeacon Colin and Area Dean Leonard for their support of us in this process and Bishop Robert for his encouragement in enabling us to make this vision a reality.  The church council has committed to developing this project using our reserves as necessary and on this basis; we are proceeding with our conversations with contractors.

At present, the reserves we have amount to approximately 6 months running costs – which feels about right.  Using our reserves in match funding, will reduce this to around 2 to 3 months which is tight.  As I have said, we are confident that this is the right use of our resources to further the mission and ministry of HTC in sharing the good news of Jesus and the council is willing to take the risk if necessary, to do so.  It would, of course, be far better if we were able to raise the funds for the refurbishment work and allow our reserves to remain reserves and to be there for unforeseen emergencies. 

And so, it is to this end that I am writing to you to request your prayerful and financial support for this vision.  I am asking that you consider making a one-off contribution to the refurbishment funds as a separate donation to your usual support.  The reasons for requesting funds in this way are as follows:

1. On average, the existing income and collections for the church just about match the outgoings, so it important that the ongoing expenses of the church are funded by our ongoing income and giving.

2. Any money raised at the fund-raising activities we carry out (fayres etc…) is split between HTC and local charities and we would like to continue with that approach.We know how much our support is appreciated and any special fund-raising events may detract from our ability to help others in this way.

Donations can be made in sterling to the UK bank account or in euros in cash (to Christine at church) or into our Greek bank account.  The details are below and if you have any questions please do let me know.  I have attached a response form to this letter and it would be very helpful if you could to let us know your intentions and thoughts.

I hope you will consider supporting this next step in our adventure here at HTC.  We hope and pray that HTC will continue to be a blessing to those we serve for generations to come and that these developments will enable us in that mission.

With thanks and blessings,

Jules.