We recently celebrated the wonderful contribution that Mrs Margaret Blair has made to the life of our church over very many years.

We took the opportunity at a fund raising lunch to make the presentation and we certainly managed to surprise her as she had no idea of what was being planned.

Margaret had recently decided to stand down as a serving Elder having actively served in this role for more years than most of us could remember.  This does not mean that her contributions to church life have stopped and we are sure that she means to continue in many respects into the future.

There are so many ways in which Margaret serves and supports the church and fellowship.  She has been our Local Church Leader and has been instrumental in carrying out the day to day running of the church, from pulpit supply to flower arranging, to organising the music and coordinating church events.  Using the local bus services she visits anyone associated with the church who would welcome a visit, whether they are housebound, in hospital, ill at home or recovering from illness.  She is the person to whom we all turn for information and advice.  She is always willing to offer support for any ideas or initiatives thought up by members of the congregation and encourages our self-belief when we have doubts, as well as being full of praise for all of our efforts.

Undoubtedly, we do not praise her enough for the huge effort and thought that she puts into so many aspects of church life.  For example, throughout the year she travels far and wide to purchase toys, cosmetics, stationery items, etc. for the Christmas shoe boxes and coordinates the rest us in providing needed items and putting the shoe boxes together in time for collection.  She maintains our supplies of consumable items, such as washing up liquid, tea bags, sugar, paper napkins, etc. and she enthuses and galvanises the rest of us into action for significant events, such as the Queen’s 90^th Birthday celebrations in April when we invited everyone in the neighbourhood of the church to a traditional tea.  For this event Margaret put together, with contributions from other members, a wonderful display of memorabilia which interested and delighted all who came to view it.  Our list of Margaret’s achievements would be far from complete if we did not mention her cooking………..   Who has not had the opportunity to savour this?!

Margaret devotes so much of her time, thoughts and energy to every aspect of the life of our church.  We all have so much for which to be grateful to her.  She knows how to relate to everyone, whatever their age or ability and she is greatly loved and admired by us all.