Before plunging into the financial report, I would like to update you once again on a few personal matters--specifically, my wife Arlene's health, and, of course, the "World's Cutest Grandchildren" (Source: Schnipperts Book of Records, 1997, Schnippert and Resler Publishing).
As I have mentioned previously, my wife has been convalescing from a serious illness and multiple surgeries performed about one year ago.
In April my wife underwent two other less critical but nonetheless important surgical procedures.
One was to repair a hernia resulting from the first surgery, and the second was a procedure stemming from the primary operation.
The surgeries went well and Arlene is almost fully recovered. Although some days she is not quite up to par, and from time to time feels a bit listless, she is about 95 percent recovered.
Thanks again for your continued prayers on her and my behalf. Your expressions of love throughout this ordeal have been both strengthening and much appreciated
Thanks also for the well-wishing about our twin grandchildren. My wife and I feel fortunate indeed. (And, in case you are wondering, we would feel this way even if they weren't the world's cutest).
Now on to an update of the finances.
We approached April with caution, since some early indicators suggested income might not meet expectations, either in daily mail income or Holy Day offerings.
As I said in earlier updates, although we are budgeted for a daily mail average of at least $122,000 by year's end, we know from experience that some months may be more and some may be less even though the final average may be right on target.
This is OK as long as it averages out at least to our expectations. We calculated that if April followed trends for previous Aprils, we needed to average about $129,000.
In spite of a few nail-biting days when income seemed to lag, we finished the month at an average of $138,931. We are thankful for the month's income and hope we do not relax our giving.
In addition to the daily mail income for April, we also had two festival offering days, the first and last days of Unleavened Bread. We averaged about $1.1 million for each day, exceeding our budgeted expectations of $900,000. (The chart below reflects the total at the end of April.)
Although this is considerably less than the about $1.4 million we averaged for each festival offering last year, it is above our budgeted projection and means we are on course.
In summary, April's income met projections even though the month started slow. Festival offerings met expectations, although the final count is not ready for this report.
Finally, the church has been blessed with a more or less stable financial situation in the past few months. The credit goes to you who so faithfully contribute to the church and to God whom we ask for guidance and whom we thank for all blessings, financial and otherwise.
May 20, 1997, WN, page 12
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