CMS
Change is afoot
Sadly, Russell Morton has resigned as Chair of our Branch Committee because of ill health and Sue Morton has also resigned from the committee to care for Russell. They have both faithfully served CMS Tasmania and the wider organisation across Australia in many ways for a number of years. They and their family continue to be in our prayers.
We are glad that the Revd David Rietveld, Rector of Wellspring in Sandy Bay, has agreed to become our new Chair. He takes the position as CMS Tasmania is praying for and seeking more people to step up as candidates for missionary service.
Arrangements for SummerView 2013, our annual mission conference on 10-13 January at Port Sorell, are getting under way. We look forward to welcoming Mike Raiter, who has recently joined the CMS-A Training Team, to lead us in our Bible studies, together with some other accomplished speakers.
The battering of negative financial news in Tasmania has had some effect on giving to CMS. Although we do not currently support any missionaries on the field because Andrea and Pam Lake are on leave pending developments in Syria, the committee decided to maintain our budgeted commitment to CMS-A in order to help with shortfalls from other states.
However, giving this year has not shown the level of increase of last year, leaving us facing a larger deficit than the one we had budgeted for. Our Pentecost appeal during June will challenge our supporters to bridge the gap.
Although some events and predictions in Australia can make us feel anxious and that we may be getting behind economically, in fact generally we remain one of the most blessed countries in the world, with one of the highest standards of living in history. Without doubt, there are problems to deal with, but we have much for which we can thank God.
We therefore look to God to move many supporters to give generously.
David Boyd
Russell Morton speaking at CMS Summerview, January 2012