Over the past year, the teaching topics we’ve covered as a church have challenged and encouraged us to think more broadly about our faith and walk with God. We’ve looked at generosity; the words of Jesus on the cross; what it means to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and then to live by walking in step with the Spirit. This has brought a response from many of us to live in obedience to what and where Jesus is calling us, and to look beyond our own lives. We are incredibly grateful and humbled by the church’s generosity to enable St Mungo’s to support the work of mission both in the UK and around the world, with the Good News of the Kingdom of God being proclaimed to many communities.
We continue to invest in mission as a church, not just financially but also through prayer and relationship. One of the ways we do this is through our monthly worship and prayer evening services and we are thankful for the way many have supported this over the last year.
St Mungo’s continues to give between 15% and 20% of all our income to mission work. The majority of this is distributed to our 7 main mission partners [these are listed below and further information for each one can be found here], who received a total of £108,600 in 2022/23. We also gave gifts in response to several emergency situations and support requests:
£5,000 to Bethany’s Welcome Centre
£2,500 to Tearfund’s Turkey-Syria earthquake appeal in February.
£500 to West Lothian Foodbank to assist their work.
£500 to Dundee Youth for Christ to support Andrew Bennett, Centre Director, to develop the youth ministry in Dundee.
£500 to Wycliffe towards travel costs for members to attend a conference in Asia, including presenting, debriefing with their teams and a time of retreat.
£1,950 to the Heriot Watt Chaplaincy to support the ministry to students.
£2,500 to Starfish Asia for a special request to help with finishing internal building work of Holy Field School in September.
£2,500 to Tearfund’s Ethiopia Hunger Crisis Appeal in September.
Year-end gifts were also distributed to Open Doors [in support of the persecuted church] and International Justice Mission [in support of ending human trafficking and slavery], each receiving £2,000 and £1,000 to Reach Beyond, the organisation supporting Gavin & Heather Falconer, in Ecuador. We were also in a position to give top-up gifts of £1,200 to each of our 7 main mission partners (included above).
In total we gave almost £160,000 to support UK and World Mission, plus our Christmas Gift of £24,334, which last year went to the Life Center Church in Beirut to support their work of sharing the gospel to Muslims through their Education Institute ministry. Life Center Church shares many aspects of the vision and core values of St Mungo’s and Pastor Said continues to be immensely grateful for the support received from St Mungo’s..
At the start of our new financial year, the Vestry approved gifts for the coming year of £14,520 for each of our main mission partners; £10,000 to Bethany’s Welcome Centre; £6,000 to Starfish Asia; £6,000 to Holy Trinity Church, Wester Hailes in support of their Counselling Manager costs and £5,000 to Just Earth. In addition to these, approval was given for 2 further organisations to receive support, bringing Open Doors UK on as a mission project, receiving £5,000 and Heriot Watt Chaplaincy at mission donations level receiving £2,050.
We will also continue to support Gavin & Heather Falconer in Ecuador serving with Reach Beyond and Tod & Andrea Chapin in their ministry to leaders in ministry and their spouses in Scotland. Our support of smaller donations to several other mission organisations also continues.
Local mission ministries remain close to our heart, and we love to hear stories from members of our congregation who take up opportunities to volunteer and support those who are serving our local communities, offering a lifeline to those in need. If you would like to get involved, please get in touch and I can point you in the right direction.
Our main Mission Partners:
Bethany Christian Trust
Challenge Ministries Swaziland
Comfort International
Holy Trinity Church, Wester Hailes
Scripture Union Scotland
Tearfund
Wycliffe Bible Translators [David & Evelyn]
Please continue to pray for all our mission contacts as they faithfully serve and live out the call Jesus has placed on their lives to bring hope and good news to the afflicted; to heal the broken-hearted; to comfort all who mourn; to set prisoners free. May all those who work and volunteer in mission be filled with the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives and that they would know the goodness and greatness of God and see His power at work.
Psalm 113
The Lord is exalted over all the nations,
his glory above the heavens.
5 Who is like the Lord our God,
the One who sits enthroned on high,
6 who stoops down to look
on the heavens and the earth?
7 He raises the poor from the dust
and lifts the needy from the ash heap;
8 he seats them with princes,
with the princes of his people.