Chairman’s Notes – November 2023

For many of us, the years seem to pass by with increasing rapidity. No sooner had 2020 drawn to its close but we seem to be at the end of 2023. Where has the time gone? However, we are grateful for the end of the pandemic and, for most of us, the return of meetings in person.

This issue of the magazine will see some changes brought about by colleagues retiring from certain responsibilities or from the trust altogether. Brian Clatworthy has served on the trust since July 2009. He has written extensively, not least his regular paper entitled Word for Today. His attention to detail, whether in the trust accounts or in the proof reading of articles, has been of great help and, in recent years, he has assisted Sandy Jack as joint editor of the magazine. We have all come to appreciate his wise counsel and diligence in the work. He has now decided that it is time to step down from the trust and we wish him well in his retirement.

John Scarsbrook has served on the trust since April 2004, now nearly twenty years of service, with many of those years as secretary. Whilst he plans to remain on the trust for a little longer, he is relinquishing the work of secretary. As someone with whom I have worked particularly closely, I am aware of the amount of work he has done and how much effort he has expended to help the Lord’s people by being the accommodating voice on the end of the Precious Seed phone line. That phone line service will be discontinued and to contact us subscribers should use the email or PO Box address.

In the light of these changes, we will be welcoming some new trustees, and details of these will be revealed in future issues of the magazine. We would value your prayers as they settle into the work in its varied forms. May we also encourage those who co-ordinate assembly parcels of magazines to review how many copies are needed so that we might be good stewards of what the Lord graciously provides through His people - distribution is our biggest cost.

We thank you for your continued support both prayerfully and practically.

John Bennett
Chairman and General Editor
Precious Seed International