Christmas donations

Christmas proved to be a fruitful time for donations to our restoration fund. Two parades were held in Market Street, Jamestown. The first was organized by the Rock Club with their catchy slogan "Rock Club helps Rock Fall". They are still in the process of collecting funds. The second parade was organized by Barry Dillon and co. held on Christmas Eve - this is an annual tradition spanning several decades. This brought in ₤650. A very special thanks to those who organized these parades and to all who participated and gave.

Another Christmas gift for the Baptist Church Restoration Fund came from the Freedom Community Church in Shrewsbury, Pennsylvania. The pastor, Peter Mayer, has been encouraging his church to give liberally after some of his members, the Williamson family, were here recently. The Williamsons were in the Baptist Manse with our family at the time of the rockfall, and so have a first-hand account of the trauma. The church gave a very generous donations of ₤1,972.94, the largest gift so far by an individual church. We want to very gratefully thank Peter, the Williamsons, and everyone who gave for being so generous.

To date we have topped the ₤20,000 mark which is a major accomplishment in such a short time. The present balance sits at ₤22,471.71. We give God the glory and thanks.

We have secured a building contractor, Gavin Williams, to undertake the first phase of our rebuilding. The first project, which is the simplest and cheapest of the three, is the schoolroom repair. We are hoping to begin before the end of January.