23rd November, 2011


Well, we had great fun with the Tamil  youth group, who were here while Iain was away at the Assembly handing out  fundraising packs. (Have you got yours?) They sang lustily, made wonderful curries which they invited us to share, and had lots of fun & games. There was a serious side too, with talks from a guest speaker and one of the young people became a Christian. The leader asked if he could be baptised here, as it is their custom to baptise people as soon as possible. Hasty attempts were made to arrange it, almost foiled by poor mobile reception, and finally he was baptised in the church baptistry on Saturday morning. Pitlochry Baptist Pastor David shared their lunchtime curry in celebration.

The church has been keeping the Centre busy recently with some big occasions: yesterday was a Tearfund supper with Daudi, an inspired individual from Uganda, last Friday was a lunch club meal for about 40 with Caroline as a speaker who's been doing literacy work in Chad, before that there was the shoebox appeal evening when the church got together to eat and then pack the shoeboxes.

Our usual community groups  have continued to meet this month, with Highway (adults with learning difficulties) coming twice for craft evenings to make products to sell for Christmas. They're also preparing to make a programme for Heartland, our local radio station.

As November nears its end the weather is getting cold now but the Centre is nice and cosy when the heating's on - in fact someotimes we even have to turn it down, as the radiators get warmer quicker now & blast out heat much better than before. Now I whinge about the draught from the front door when I'm in the outer office, but that's going to be solved soon too as a new double glazed front door is going to be fitted in January. I recently wrote a post installation report on the boiler project and discovered when the figures were calculated that we're saving an incredible amount of energy compared with before (better insulation, a more efficient system and some energy is free solar energy - although not a huge amount this year with the overcast summer we've had), and the wood pellets are cheaper than gas was, so we're making substantial financial savings too.  This is really good news as we try to make sure the Centre is paying its way and a solid investment for people giving money to our 40th anniversary appeal.

We linked up recently with a group called ROCK UK who do fundraising adventure challenges, some just a physical challenge in amazing locations, others are linked with charity projects where you spend time helping children, communities or the environment abroad. Go to our fundraising page to find out more. Pitlochry is a great place for adventure challenges too. You know how you're always looking for something different to give young (or young at heart) adults for Christmas - something better than a mobile phone or new computer game, so how about giving a  fundraising adventure challenge in Pitlochry as a Christmas gift. See here for more.

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