Laura Thomas – Page 56 – St Michael's Church, Stoke Gifford

Another £20,000 trust donation

Posted on 24 October 2013 by Laura Thomas

As well as seeing such generosity at our Heart of the Community gift day this week, we also received news of a donation of £20,000 from the Beatrice Laing Trust.

The Laing Trusts are named after Sir John Laing, a devout Christian who was instrumental in creating the global Laing Construction Group. He set up his first charitable trust in 1922, and the Beatrice Laing Trust, named after his wife, followed in 1952. Its focus is on the relief of poverty and the advancement of the Christian faith, both at home and abroad.

After visiting the site they chose to donate £20,000 towards the cost building our new church and community centre next door to the Old School Rooms in Stoke Gifford.

Trust director, Elizabeth Harley, said “I hope this will be of some encouragement to you and the church membership as a whole as the building work and your fundraising efforts continue”.

We are extremely grateful for their support of our vision to make a difference in this community and beyond.

Church gift day for the Heart of the Community

Posted on 4 October 2013 by Laura Thomas

Sunday 20 October is our 2013 church gift day for the Heart of the Community project.

Every family in church will receive an updated Making a Difference brochure explaining the vision we believe God has given us. Please read your copy or pass it on to someone else who might be inspired to play their part as well?

We have already raised £2.2m and work has started on the church and community centre. Our aim is to raise a further £800,000 by June 2014. That will enable us to complete the shell of the new centre and provide the first useable meeting rooms and community spaces. We will hear more about this over the next couple of weeks.

Many people have been giving sacrificially since May 2012. Thank you. Others of us may now be in a position to give to the project for the first time or to increase our level of giving. Please pray, asking God to guide you as you decide how much you should give. Pledge forms for the gift day are currently available at the back of church. Any questions please ask one of the Heart of the Community team or a member of the church leadership team.

Bring and share

Everyone is invited to make their pledges on Sunday 20 October. We will also be gathering for a bring and share lunch together in the Old School Rooms after the 10.30am service. Please sign up on the sheets in the church and the Old School Rooms – choose a food to bring and a job to help with – and we’ll celebrate God’s generosity together. (Don’t forget to bring something to drink as well.)

Thirteen miles and counting…

Posted on 21 September 2013 by Laura Thomas

Our curate, Martin Gordon, completed the Bristol Half Marathon last weekend. Thanks to the generous support of his friends and family, he raised almost £5,000 for the Heart of the Community project.

Donations of nearly £2000 were made using Martin’s online giving page (it’s not too late to donate). Automatic Gift Aid contributions increased that total by another 20% and a very generous supporter agreed to match all the other donations made.

Martin completed the 13 mile course in 1 hour 38 minutes on his birthday, and was back in church to lead the evening service a few hours later.

He sends his thanks to all those who sponsored him for the Heart of the Community project.

Sixty thousand pound donation to Heart of the Community

Posted on 26 July 2013 by Laura Thomas

This week we received an extremely generous grant from a charitable trust in Bristol.

The Heart of the Community finance and fundraising team have been carefully applying to many different funding organisations.

The Temple Ecclesiastical Charity said they “were impressed by the application, by the boldness of the project, and by all the hard work which is clearly being put into it” and offered to donate £60,000 to help us realise our vision of living to make a difference.

The trust’s purpose is to support the charitable work of the Church of England in the Bristol area. Their funding policies give priority to the projects where they feel their grants will “make the most difference”.

We are extremely grateful for their generous support, particularly as it will help to fund the capital costs of the new church and community centre building work.

This is the third major donation to the Heart of the Community project from different trusts and charities. Please join us in giving thanks for this encouraging support, and praying for the success of future applications to other funding organisations.