ST MARK'S PLUMSTEAD
AVM
2026

A word from the Rector...

 “Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness, in the hope of eternal life that God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.”
– Titus 1:1

In Paul’s opening words to Titus, we have essentially the entire purpose statement of everything we do at St Mark’s Plumstead that really matters.

God has promised us life. Eternal life, real life. God cannot lie, and so we know it’s actually coming! This present life is short and difficult, but our real life, which will never end – is on its way! If this is true, then it makes sense that the most important work we could do, is to bring others to that new life before the time comes when we can no longer do that. It is the only work that really matters now. As Paul puts it, he lived his life, “for the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness”. That’s why those are also the two goals that everything we do at St Mark’s aims for and every Rand given towards our work goes towards…

Firstly: for the faith of God’s elect. God appointed, before time began, that you and I would hear and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, and be saved through that faith. But he has also appointed other people, who have not yet heard. And he’s given us the job to tell them, as we work with our larger church family and others who serve Jesus around the world. We as a church do this in an organised way, by connecting with outsiders, by serving our community to share Christ practically, and by planning events and courses that bring people to find Jesus. But we are also each called in our personal lives to be ready always to share Jesus in the unique network of relationships he has given to each of us.

I have personally been encouraged by the conversions to faith that we’ve seen over the past year through God’s work in St Mark’s, as well as the role that many of our members have played in helping people on a journey from first contact with our church to coming to trust in Christ. If you have been one of those people who have come to true faith in the last year, well now it is your turn to get involved in helping others, in coming year, to find the life you have found.

But that is not the entirety of our work, as if, once a person is saved we leave them and move on to the next. Paul also prioritizes, secondly, ‘the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness’. We are all on a road to preparing for the age to come, growing in holiness like God commands us, so that we may be fit for the coming Kingdom. And, frankly we all still have a long way to go. But thorough God’s powerful Spirit, and the ongoing teaching of his Word, we know that He will complete the work he has started in us. But we also have an important role to play in that – by growing in our disciplines of devotion, prayer, and good works, we are being slowly transformed into people who display Christ’s character and love to the world around us. A lot of what we do formally – our Growth Groups, our service areas, and our social action – are for this precise purpose: of growing us in fellowship, grace, godliness and Christian charity. But we must also all make a point of continuing to pursue personal holiness too: in our relationships, our marriages, our workplaces, our thought lives, and our spiritual disciplines.

I have been greatly encouraged by seeing real growth in holiness amongst our church family: when people overcome relational issues with grace and patience, when they sacrificially give of their money and time for God’s work, when they show hospitality and love to those who have done nothing to deserve it – that kind of growth encourages a pastor’s heart far more than any numerical growth would. And, let me tell you: it spurs me on personally, to see examples of the godliness of saints way further along the road than I am.

So, I am excited about the year ahead, and I look forward to seeing where God is going to take us together, as we continue to work for the faith of his elect in Plumstead and beyond, and for the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness, looking forward to the eternal life that God promised before time began.

Reminder: St Mark's 'lighthouse'...

 “let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven”
– Matthew 5:16

To make sure we are always working for a) the faith of God’s elect, and b) growth in godliness, we structure all that we do in a ‘pathway’ so that everyone knows where the ministry they’re doing fits into a bigger picture. Using the picture of a lighthouse, we can understand our ministries like this:

If we think of those without Christ as being ‘lost at sea’, then every gospel church is a kind of ‘lighthouse’, shining the truth in the darkness of our world. Our churches are places where people can find firm truth to cling to, and eventually get out of the lost state they’re in. The first step to this is often simple hospitality – inviting them to something easy like a breakfast or music event or sharing life with people outside of church. This often exposes people to realizing the relevance of the bible for their lives and situations. After this, deeper conversations can happen and we have a chance to challenge people with the truth of Jesus Christ.

After hearing the gospel, when a person comes to believe by God’s grace, then they begin to grow as disciples, following Jesus in their daily life. This begins with a deeper understanding of all the aspects of the gospel of grace and what it means for how we live. After this, disciples learn to connect closer with God and each other through personal devotion and Christian fellowship. From then they are given opportunities to serve in various ways in church, and further to use their gifts in the mission of the church. This mission involves both word ministry: helping other to know the truth, as well as work ministry: extending the love of Christ and manifesting his healing work in the world.

This encapsulates all the work we do at St Marks… which we will now hear about in our various reports…

Social Action Report...

 “Paul greeted them and reported in detail what God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry.”
– Acts 21:19

The Book of Acts shows how God’s plan to save and bless people moves relentlessly forward regardless of opposition. Many of the churches that Paul planted were not big or influential. Yet because they were connected to the One enthroned in heaven they received the gift of the Holy Spirit and along with that an abundance of power, abilities and resources to preach the gospel and help those in need. As Christians living in Plumstead our story is strikingly similar: St Marks is not a typically large suburban church, and yet we can testify along with Paul to all that God has been doing through our various ministries to save and bless each other and our community.  

Highlights over the past year include the winter outreach delivering over 200 beanies to Hillwood Primary in Lavender Hill; the launch of our homework club; using Latimer House for sewing and art classes, and helping a number of clients reconnect with family and rehab facilities. We have 21 awesome people regularly involved across the various ministries which includes both frontline and support workers. Above that we have an army of ad hoc supporters that are quick to jump into action when it comes to emergency appeals (clothing, food, money etc). 

Exciting projects for the year ahead include the launch of the Latimer House Family Centre; partnering with U-turn to be a voucher distributor as well as a voucher earning provider (details later in the report) and our Community Clean Ups. We have plenty of opportunity for you to grow in being part of a team that can say: look what God has done through us to bind up the broken hearted, heal the hurting, strengthen the weak and welcome the lonely. 

 

Good Samaritan Project 

This is the main point of entry for at-risk people to start receiving help. Anyone you meet that asks for food / money / clothes / shelter should be referred to our Sunday soup kitchen and from there we do an assessment of their needs to see how we can help them. Helen and Sandy make the soup while Yvonne supplies us with fresh veg. Emmanuel helps Bryan with cooking and clean-ups with Penny and Mari talking to clients.

Plans for the year ahead:
have soup making drives to stock up the freezer ; partner with U-turn Centre in Wynberg to help with next steps of the change process

Helping Hands & Jars of Hope

Helping Hands provides relief to those going through a difficult time financially and who need food support. This is used primarily for regular church attendees (although we do make exceptions). Sandy and Gerrie make sure the cupboard is stocked. The Jars of Hope (coffee jars of dry soup mix) are very useful to supplement the Helping Hands parcels and for ‘drop ins’. 

Plans for year ahead:
1) have Jar of Hope drive to fill up jars       
2) create ‘Standby/Response Team’ who can help clients with SASSA requests, banking, ID’s; referrals to service providers 

Community Outreaches

Our main community outreach event last year was our Winter Warmer Outreach. Levona and Carol form the core team that lead the project. Gavin Alkana set the goal of providing 200 beanies and I know they reached that and more! We busy with this year’s Winter Warmer drive so do get involved. 

Plans for year ahead:
1) connect with Adam’s Farm to do more knitting projects
2) get our community clean ups back on the calendar

Care Team

The Care Team continues to serve St Mark’s in contacting and visiting the sick and those unable to attend church for various reasons. We go through the Church list of members and attendees and contact those we have not seen for a few weeks. It’s a much needed and I know a much appreciated work. 

Plans for year ahead: 
recruit more team members especially ladies; develop an Action Team component that can help with emergency situation logistics (food parcels, clothes, transport etc)

Stories of change…

The purpose of our various ministries is to act as a front door for people to receive help that otherwise would not come into contact with us. Yes the problems they bring are messy and time consuming. But what better place for people whose lives are trapped in chaos to be helped by people who have been steadied by the gospel? We’ve got the most amazing stories to share what God has done through your prayers and your giving. 

Individual A God has done an absolute miracle in this person’s life and we are part of it! From giving birth on the street, to meeting God in prison and getting her life back on track, to the daughter (who knows nothing about how she was born) saying to her foster mom as they randomly walked past our church one day: ‘She wants to go to this church because she has a nice feeling about it’! And now we are ministering to the daughter and the foster mom and the biological mom through our Sunday school, kids club and homework club! 

Individual B Thanks to the Holiday Club a family that had recently moved to the area heard laughter and music and walked in to ask about services for their primary school kids. We immediately invited them to our homework club and we have been able to minister to the family through some extremely difficult circumstances that required social services intervention due to bullying at school. But God works through mysterious ways as this allowed us to continue working with a previous family that we had been blocked from helping precisely because of getting social services involved! 

Individual C A homeless person taken in by church member began receiving help from our GSP and Helping Hands. That allowed us to meet with him get his life story, pray for his situation and encourage him to receive help for his addictions. He said it made a big difference to have church people willing to help and pray for him. Through that he was able to reconnect with his family and is now in a rehab facility. 

Latimer Aftercare Homework Club

After much prayer we opened our doors in June last year and the homework club has been a place of encouragement and growth ever since. We have helped 10 different families with 15 different children over the past year. Three of those families have started coming regularly to St Mark’s which is partially what the homework club was set up to do. Tracy is our head teacher with outstanding support from Sharon who has a sharp eye for where educational development is lacking; Neville our maths guru who is so committed he relearned high school maths to help our clients; and Zoë who is great with the kids. We quickly realised maths is an issue with children who simply have no maths teacher replacements when their teachers are off sick at school. The homework club is a wonderful place to both give and receive blessing so do prayerfully consider giving your time to a great cause!

Plans for the year ahead
1) use the relationships we have with parents through the homework club to offer further help through the Family Strengthening Centre.
2) needing help with lifts and extra teaching slots to create a roster of teachers. 

Latimer Family Enrichment Centre

Through our various ministries and outreaches God has been showing us an area of opportunity to bring gospel change to families and that is through helping strengthen parent roles and relationships. We have run a parent course before and we would like to make it a more permanent part of what St Marks can offer our community. We are in the early stages of planning this but there is enough interest (and ability!) from within our Church to help families have a more fulfilled richer experience of family life.

We will offer courses that cover topics like leadership roles in the home; helping with homework; building family traditions; managing toxic relationships etc. But courses alone will not drive change. A vital part of the Family Centre will be to connect with and integrate struggling families within the Church. Our greatest resource to help struggling families is Christian hospitality. God willing, we will launch in the 2nd half of the year so do be in prayer about it and you welcome to come talk to me if you can offer teaching / hospitality or if there are families that you know of that would benefit from joining our courses.

Partnering with U-Turn

U-turn has a wonderful track record of helping needy people through a process of change to move off the street and back into productivity. The bottleneck in our process is getting people to U-turn in Claremont. But U-turn have opened up a service centre in Wynberg that  is close enough for us to refer people to. We will also be making use of their voucher programme to offer help. The U-turn vouchers are an excellent alternative to giving money or food as it requires them to be redeemed at U-turn where people will be processed and help offered depending on their needs. 

U-turn also has a voucher earning programme we can partner with whereby people are paid in vouchers as they learn to earn their wages again. This often entails clean up teams and other entry level labour. We are investigating getting a voucher earning team to help the business like Shoprite and surrounds to uplift the business area on our doorstep. More details to follow soon! 

Youth Report...

Kids Club
Grade R-6
Fridays 6pm – 7.10pm

We have had a good year at our Friday evening meetings. We began Semester Two 2025 with the Lineage of Jesus working our way through the Bible from Genesis up until Jesus’ birth. It gave the children a good opportunity to find their way around the different books of the Bible along with lively discussion time. A highlight was our July 2025 winter holiday club. Our theme was Under Construction where all our games and activities involved Lego and construction/building. Our talks were based on Matthew 7 and Psalm 119, teaching the importance of God’s Word as our foundation in life.

The year ended with a Christmas Holiday Club entitled, Light of the World. The children enjoyed Christmas themed games and crafts. The teaching explained how Jesus is the light of the world and how we as his people get to bring that light into a dark world. We had children from St Marks as well as the broader community attending and averaged 14 to 18 children per day. It was a time of great blessing and a wonderful opportunity to share Jesus with our children.

We began 2025 with a story of how Jesus has made each  one of us unique and special and for a purpose.  This was followed by a series leading  up to the Easter story. On Easter Sunday we had some very excited children filling up their Easter boxes at an Easter egg hunt  in the Latimer House garden.

We have not been able to start out Kids club sessions again in the second term due to a shortage of helpers for both Homework Group and Kids club. This is a wonderful ministry opportunity for those interested in serving in this area. We are so grateful to God for the opportunity to serve our children and point them to Jesus. It is therefore our desire to grow our team of leaders and helpers so that this ministry can start up as soon as possible.

We are so grateful to God for the opportunity to serve our children each week and to point them to Jesus.

Youth
Grade 7-12
Fridays 7pm – 9pm

St Mark’s Youth group has seen another year of growth in numbers but more importantly, we have seen growth in the teens’ faith in and love for God. We are witnessing them desire and develop a deeper relationship with God. We are so grateful to the Lord for growing this ministry and for the impact He has made in the teens’ lives. 

Our leadership team has halved from four leaders to two since last year. There are 20 teens that regularly attend St Mark’s youth and we averaged 15 per week over the past year, with 21 teens being the most we have had present on a single night.

We have covered multiple topics over the past 12 months. We worked through six series from RightNow Media, covering the book of Job, the book of Jonah, Jesus as Emmanuel our counsellor, the everlasting Father and the great I Am, How do we live as Christians and an Easter series. Our focus for term 2 is in the book of Ephesians.

We have had many fun adventures together over the past year such as a movie night, youth socials, a sports-themed evening, a boerie-to-bag fundraiser and a games afternoon. We also attended Cross Word Connect events once a term. These events are great fellowship opportunities where we gather with youth groups from various REACH churches.

One of the major highlights of the year is Cross Word Cape Youth Camp which we attended. We generally fundraise throughout the year to help offset the cost of camp with our termly cake sales being a popular event! 

Last year, we had 14 teens and 2 leaders at Cross Word. We had 4 teens attend for the first time and they loved it. This year we aim to raise as much money as possible as we are planning to send 18-20 people on camp.

A stand out highlight for the year happened on Cross Word, where one of our teens gave his life to Jesus. Nothing brings us more joy than witnessing our teens accept Jesus as their personal Lord and Saviour. 

As a leadership team, we are extremely grateful for the privilege of serving in God’s kingdom work and walking alongside the teens as they grow in their knowledge and love of Jesus.

Children’s Church
Grade R-7
Sundays

Over the past year, Children’s Church has continued as a small but encouraging ministry. We have around five children on most Sundays, sometimes growing to as many as 10. A couple of our older children have moved on to remain with their parents in the main service, which is what we encourage children to do as soon as they’re ready. It has been a joy to welcome some new families over the past months. Although the group is small, it has been a real encouragement to see the children growing in their engagement with the Bible.

We have increasingly focused on helping the children engage with Scripture for themselves by reading the Bible together and discussing its big ideas. We are thankful for the opportunity to sow God’s Word into their lives, and we ask for continued prayer that, through the word, these children would come to know Jesus deeper and grow to love Him more and more.

Treasurer's Report...

 
  1. Once again, we have been blessed by the Lord in the last 12 months – we’ve showed a small Surplus of R2398 in spite of the difficult economic circumstances we find ourselves in. Offerings were up by 10% and Planned Giving was up by 7%.
  2. Our costs were up 5% on last year and that was mainly due to:
    a) Cleaning: we felt we needed to substantially increase the wages of our cleaner.
    b) Electricity, Water, and Services ; both up at the Church and the Rectory.
    c) Repairs and Maintenance up by 3%.
    d) Staff Remuneration: this was up by 6% on last year because of inflationary increases.
    e) There are other expenses that were up by a large percentage but the amount themselves were small.

Some features of the budget for 2026:

  1. A major problem is the amount of repairs and maintenance that we’re going to need.
    1. The Rectory’s roof is in bad shape and needs a substantial amount to repair it. There are other minor repairs there and, on the premises, next door.
    2. The church itself needs a lot of maintenance.
    3. I’ve budgeted for R180K and this has directly resulted in a loss of R170K – even although the budgeted Givings have increased by about 8%. I will be addressing this issue at the AVM.
  2. Conferences and Synod have increased this year because it is in KZN and we need to purchase two airfares.
  3. Most of the other increases are inflationary or if they are large, it’s simply because of last year’s budget not being used.

    We read in Corinthians 9 vs 7, “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or     under compulsion for, God loves a cheerful giver”.
    Unlike the compulsory tithes in Mosaic law, giving in     the New Testament is a matter of the heart. Paul makes it clear that believers should never give out of pressure, guilt, or fear but should decide personally what to give based on their own means and convictions. The emphasis is on voluntary and joyful giving, reflecting a heart that trusts God’s provision.

    Another important principle is giving according to one’s ability. In 2 Corinthians 8:12, Paul states, “For if     the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he
    does not have.” This means that giving is not about meeting a fixed percentage but about giving in proportion to what one has been blessed with. This principle ensures that those in financial hardship are
    not burdened by unrealistic expectations. At the same time, those who have been blessed with more, are encouraged to give more generously to support the work of the gospel at St Marks and beyond.
    And lastly and most importantly, thank you to Helen for doing all the hard bookkeeping work including
    counting the money every Sunday and thank you to those who assist her.

Alan Hodson
Treasurer           

A Word From the Wardens...

Praise God that we can look back on another year of His faithful love to St Marks.

We thank God for the new members who joined during the year and for the visitors and new adherents who have started coming.  It’s been so encouraging to see new people arrive and attend courses like Discover Jesus and Follow Jesus! Within our church family, we celebrated with a newly married couple and welcomed eight new members to our congregation.  Thanks be to God for his ongoing work through his people.

St Mark’s has had opportunity to practically assist a very broken family in dire need. The way the St Marks family came together in support – each person in different ways according to the abilities given to them – has been amazing to witness. While the issues are ongoing and haven’t been resolved, Christ’s love has been demonstrated though homes being opened, meals being made, clothes donated and grace and love shown despite open hostility at times. This is not something one person or family could ever do by themselves and serves as an important reminder of why we are called into a community.

Looking back on the prayer requests, there were many very serious illnesses, accidents and conditions that people endured, and God was faithful and kind to answer our prayers and heal those in need.

We remember Jenny Terhoven and Lola Lloyd who passed away this year, with sadness but also joy, knowing we will see them again in glory.

Our sermon series over the last year focussed mainly on the gospel of Matthew as we unpacked the teaching of Jesus during his earthly ministry and more recently, we’ve tackled the seemingly weird teachings of Leviticus and seen how applicable the principles still are for us today. We have been blessed with excellent, faithful bible teaching and give thanks to God for Nick and Dylan.

Our various growth groups have continued to meet during the year. We continued the format of prayerful reflection on daily devotional readings. We thank God placing a desire in people’s hearts to meet around his word, for open homes to meet in, and for the building of Christian relationships as we gather together in fellowship.  Praise God that some groups are filling the homes where they meet and a new growth group for the Youth has started.

Please keep your pastors in prayer:

  • Praise God that He is using Nick & Dylan full time in his service.
  • Pray that they would keep their spiritual fervour and passion for the gospel and that it will never be ‘just a job’.
  • That they would manage their time well and know what tasks to do themselves and what to delegate.
  • For their physical health, that God would keep them well and provide for them.
  • For wisdom, biblical understanding and humility.
  • For the ability to lead, guide, teach and encourage.

Please keep our church in prayer as we remember the way the early church devoted themselves to God’s teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer (Acts 2:42):

  • Pray that we would be a praying congregation bringing everything to God in prayer.
  • Pray that we would be a bible reading congregation and spend time daily in the Word.
  • Pray that we would be a growing congregation – both in number and in spiritual maturity.
  • Pray that we would be a generous congregation, giving joyful to the work of the Lord.
  • Pray that we would be an evangelising congregation – ready and willing to share the gospel.
  • Pray that we would be a congregation that helps and benefits the community we live in as we practically demonstrate the love of Christ.
  • Pray for those in our congregation suffering from illnesses, cancer, struggling to make ends meet and grieving the loss of loved ones.