There have been several important developments in our work, as well as a number of major difficulties during our second year.

CARDS FOR EVERYONE
During the year we were able to produce 3 new catalogues. The Evangelical Catalogue contains texts that are important for Christians, especially new Christians. The Pastoral contains texts that will give comfort to Christians and non-Christians. During the summer, thanks to Chris Logan and Moira Hannah we had sufficient appropriate images to produce a Children’s Catalogue.

SPREADING NORTHWARDS
Early in the spring of last year we were able to set up a new team in Kinross, responsible for handling outlets in Central Scotland, including St Ninian’s Centre at Creiff and Scottish Churches House at Dunblane.

FACTS AND FIGURES
During last year we had 53 outlets for our cards, an increase of 10 from the previous year. We distributed 8000 cards. Illnesses in the Trust and changes in personnel at some of our most successful outlets resulted in a fall in distribution in the Autumn. However, orders over the last six months are almost equal to our total orders for the previous year! St George’s West Church, where our Trust started and where two of our teams operate, continues to have the largest uptake of cards.

CARDS FOR OCCASIONS
The year ahead presents challenge. We are continually developing our work with customised cards and a number of churches have asked us to produce a special card to be given out to each member of the congregation at a Sunday Service. Specific churches are requesting us to produce cards for Elders visiting, cards sent with flowers to members who are sick, and cards showing some feature of the church to take to housebound.

TOWARDS THE YEAR 2000

As the century moves nearer to its close we can see clearly that the culture of society has changed. Britain used to be deeply steeped in the Word of God, owing to the efforts of the BBC, as well as countless headmasters and journalists. This allowed many churches to focus on the task of preaching and worship. They had no need of a tradition of spreading the word of God out into our society; the task had been accomplished. The prophet Amos states 'Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD'. (Amos 8:11). The Church’s task is to care for people through God's word.

TIMELESS MESSAGE-
MODERN PRESENTATION

Today’s public is growing up in a world that is dominated by advertising. The imagery used by modern advertising is markedly different from that used by the churches. We have a deep commitment to reveal the wisdom of the Word of God to the many who are ignorant of it, and to that end we are working on cards with modern imagery and texts suitable for the work place. Many of the texts that we have chosen as appropriate to people at work are from the book of Proverbs. We are seeking graphic designers and photographers who would be willing to allow their work to be reproduced on our cards.

Finally, I am approaching my 60^th Birthday. I am very grateful for all the support and help that I have received since founding the Trust. However, the burden of being designer, administrator, secretary, and developer is becoming somewhat onerous. Ideally, I should like to hand over the reigns of some of these tasks to younger people.

Bruce Crerar

Bruce Crerar as founder of the Trust is following a family tradition. His grandmother was Jessie Drummond , a sister of Henry Drummond and niece of Peter Drummond, the founder of the ‘Stirling Tract Enterprise’, now known as the ‘Drummond Trust’. As a Training and Development Officer with the Salvation Army, Bruce established Jubilee Lodge, an alcohol project for the homeless. He is an Elder and an active member of St George’s West Church.