2022-03-31-accounts

Little Hill Church

Wigston

Trustees’ Report for the Year ending

31 March 2022

Little Hill Church

Launceston Road, Wigston, Leics, LE18 2GZ

www.littlehill.org.uk

Registered Charity (England & Wales) No. 1138737

HM Revenue and Customs (Charities) Reference: XN32811

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Governing Documents

The objects of Little Hill Church and procedures for its government are laid down in the Trust Deed of 16 May 1975 (amended on 20 January 1993) and the Constitution adopted about 1975

Trustees during the year:

John Eardley (Chair of Trustees)

James Harrison

Joshua Harrison

Peter Holmes

Andrew Irvine

Faqir Kallow

Mike Smith

Elders :

Faqir Kallow (Chair)

John Eardley

Joshua Harrison

Deacons:

James Harrison

Peter Holmes (Chair)

Andrew Irvine

Mike Smith (Treasurer)

Bankers:

HSBC, 9 Leicester Road

Wigston. Leics LE18 1NR

Independent Accounts Examiner

Melanie Smith

11 Tremaine Drive, Wigston, Leics., LE18 2GW

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Trustees’ Annual Report

The Trustees have pleasure in presenting this report of the church’s activities for the year ending 31 March 2022, which includes the information below and the attached Receipts and Payments Account.

Purpose and Objectives

Little Hill Church is ‘an undenominational and evangelical work for the service of Almighty God and the education of young persons’ and for other purposes ‘incidental to or connected with the work of a Christian church in accordance with the teaching of the Scriptures’ (Trust Deed clause (a)).

Little Hill Church exists for:

• a. the building up of Christians through preaching and teaching,

• b. bringing Christians together to love one another,

• c. the worship of God through prayer, praise and ‘breaking of bread’ (communion),

• d. baptising believers,

• e. fulfilling the commission to make disciples. (Constitution para.1)

Public Benefit Statement

Little Hill Church aims to provide public benefit through the advancement of the Christian Religion, in accordance with reformed evangelical theology, through the various activities highlighted below. The main area of activity has been Wigston and the immediate surrounding area, but Little Hill Church believes in a global mission in accordance with the command of Jesus Christ in Matthew 28:19 and 20. We have therefore provided support for members, other individuals and organisations, as resources permit, where such individuals and organisations are seen as sympathetic to our theological position and are themselves engaged in the promotion of Christian Religion.

Regular Activities

In pursuit of these objectives, the following regular activities have been undertaken during the year ending 31 March 2022. This period has been that of the worldwide Covid 19 Pandemic. The church has resumed public meetings with simultaneous livestreaming via You Tube on Sundays. Thursday Bible studies have been audio recorded.

• Numbers attending have gradually built up with only a handful still shielding.

• On Sunday mornings , Joshua Harrison has continued to preach through the book of Exodus concluding in February 2022. We are now enjoying a new series in the Gospel of Luke. On resuming our Sunday afternoon services in the church building, men from the church have preached through a varying range of topics including studies on the Fruit of the Spirit from Galatians, The Lord's Prayer from Matthew's Gospel and a series on Women in the Old Testament. There have also, during this time, been visits from guest preachers at both our Sunday morning and afternoon services. These have been very much appreciated.

• Children’s Talks: We have continued to give a talk to the children each Sunday morning. There have been two significant issues which have been successfully addressed this year. The children have not been referred to by name or appeared on camera because the morning service is still streamed on-line. This is to comply with our Safeguarding Policy.

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We now have a high proportion of children with Special Education Needs. This has necessitated a more interactive approach being adopted by the speakers.

• Tuesday morning continues to be a time of blessing, fellowship and encouragement around God’s Word. 13-18 ladies attend with some still receiving the notes online. We have also welcomed several new members. We resumed meeting in the building from the Autumn. Two men from the fellowship kindly offered to help with refreshments so that we could meet the Covid regulations. This year we have studied the following series: ‘Joshua - the Power of God’s Promises’, ‘Meeting God’, and 1 Peter and 2 Peter. Some in the group are facing the challenges of illness and age and praying for each other is a vital part of our meeting.

• SHED: This men’s fellowship meeting has continued each fortnight. Each meeting begins with devotions and a variety of activities follow. These have included:- crisp tasting, bridge building, lighthouses, clay modelling and IT security. Around 10 men attend each session.

• Monthly Saturday Prayer Focus Meetings resumed in the building to praise God and pray for the work of the gospel locally here in Wigston, nationally and internationally.

• In January 2022 we started a monthly lunchtime meal with a devotional talk and hymn singing, for senior citizens in the fellowship and other friends. There is no charge for those attending.

Evangelism

The church has held meetings for various age groups over the years. All the following meetings are provided at no cost to individuals and most are term-time activities. As stated in each report these meetings have been severely disrupted this year.

• Little Ones at Little Hill is for pre-school children. There is no charge and meetings are held on Mon afternoons 1:30 - 3:00 pm during term time. Approximately 20+ mums, dads and carers attend along with 25+ pre-school children and babies.

• A team of five, DBS checked, church members help with the smooth running of the group. Due to the size of the building, we are able to offer a wide range of activities, including craft activities, home corner play, construction toys, dressing up, safe enclosed baby area, bikes and push-along toys in enclosed area, book corner and larger toys for physical activities. Refreshments for adults are provided in the foyer and the children have a drink and a biscuit during story time. This involves telling of a Bible story, singing, finger play rhymes and celebration of birthdays.

Team members mix and mingle with adults and children showing friendship and sharing their Christian faith when appropriate, also inviting them to evangelistic events organised by the church.

• Kids’ Club is our weekly meeting for primary school aged children held on Friday evenings during term time. It has been great to start this meeting again after the pause for Covid, and encouraging to meet new families from the local area. We continue to teach stories from the Bible, and sing choruses with the children. There are a variety of activities that we do with them including sports and crafts, as well as fun games and events. There are regularly about 20 children attending this meeting each week.

• Lions’ Cubs reconvened when church services were held again in the building, following the restrictions of Covid. During the morning service we have a children’s slot – a bible story.

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Following this, the children aged four to eleven leave to have their own activity. This involves follow up activities based on the stories told earlier. Activity sheets are enjoyed by the different ages along with singing and craft activities. Numbers vary from four to ten. There are four main leaders, who rotate on a three-week basis supported by five other church members.

• Parklife: Following the easing of the government restrictions we were able to visit a few local parks around the Church from July to September 2021. The team reached quite a number of youngsters of 15+ years, some wanting to know the purpose of life and asking many questions about life, death, suffering and ‘where is God in a messed-up world’. Many tracts were given out and we were able to point some of the youngsters to the Church website. Unfortunately, we were not able to go out this year because we have insufficient female helpers.

• Women2Women : Two ‘in-person’ events were held in the Autumn of 2021 and Spring 2022 (complete with Covid risk assessments). We were encouraged by the large number of visitors for our first event back in the church after the pandemic: ‘Christmas Coffee and Cookies’ was a very informal meeting (Nov. 2021). As well as a quiz, a craft and some Christian music from singer/songwriter Ellie Ling, there was time for everyone to consider ‘What I don’t like about Christmas’ and ‘What I like about Christmas’. The shared dialogue included the Gospel message relating to Christ’s incarnation. All ages attended, with a popular ‘children’s corner’ and teenagers helping set up. In March 2022 we celebrated Mothering Sunday with ‘A Mother’s Love’. At this event, several women told stories from their family history about those who were like a mother to them (but were not their biological mother). The idea was to be inclusive to those who were childless, unmarried or had different experiences of motherhood in their lives. Ruth Eardley spoke about Amy Carmichael (1867 – 1951), a heroic missionary who fought against temple prostitution in India and rescued hundreds of children.

• A permanent, weather-proof, Free Literature Stand is outside the church building 24/7 and continues to be used by the local gospel. Globe Café comes under the auspices of Friends International, an organisation working with international community. A steady trickle of tracts, booklets and Bibles are taken. New Testaments are taken from it every week. We are thankful that it has not been vandalised this year.

• Ministry to International Students: Since July 2021 we have had six trips to our church arranged in partnership with Globe Café with a total of 120 international students joining us (Globe Café is a ministry of Friends International). These represent 18 countries (China, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, South Korea, Morocco, Pakistan, Peru, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Turkey, Vietnam and Zimbabwe). The highlight was our Christmas Carol Service where 40 students attended and we sang "Silent Night" in nine languages (English, Chinese, Japanese, Malayalam, Indonesian, Urdu, Spanish, Romanian, Telugu).

Meals in Church members’ homes are always a treat, and the students enjoy this very much.

Worship and Ministry

• Joshua Harrison is the full-time pastor and he continues to bring a consistent, consecutive ministry. This year he has preached from Psalms and the book of Exodus. He continues his role as a Chaplain for the local Police Service.

Encouragements

• Little Hill Church continues to support the Blythswood shoebox project with collection and despatch again taking place at a member's house. Blythswood is a Scottish-based charity providing Christian care for body and soul to many in Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia. In spite of

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ongoing covid difficulties, 2172 boxes containing Christmas gifts and practical necessities for distribution to the needy in Eastern Europe were collected and sent.

• Financial giving has been maintained for the support of our full-time Pastor Teacher and we have been able to continue support of our overseas partners in the gospel.

• The church had a collection facility in the foyer for the Leicester South Foodbank which is managed by another local church. We have had to suspend this during the pandemic and members were directed to the local collection point.

• Lectures on Church History have once more been given by one of our members, Dr Lesley Rowe. It has been good to recommence the lectures in the church building, as well as making them available to a wider audience via YouTube. The series on 17[th] -century evangelical bestsellers ‘Publishing the Gospel’ continued with accounts of Richard Baxter’s ‘A Call to the Unconverted’ and Joseph Alleine’s ‘An Alarm to Unconverted Sinners’. A new series focusing on the Great Ejection of 1662 began with a background lecture looking at events leading up to the Ejection.

Practicalities

• Deacons and Elders have separate monthly meetings to consider their respective responsibilities. These have been conducted via zoom.

• Elders and Deacons continue to meet monthly at the Church Council to conduct the business of the church. Here decisions are made and practicalities are discussed including church finances. Members of the church are invited to attend.

• Those working with children, young people and vulnerable adults have been DBS checked and continue to be rechecked after five years.

• The Little Hill Link and is sent out electronically to inform the church of forthcoming activities and is a useful prayer stimulus. Copies are printed and posted to those who are not on-line.

• A library of Christian books is available for members and visitors to borrow. This is in the process of being revamped to make it more effective.

Risk Management

• The Deacons conduct an annual inspection of the premises to identify and evaluate any physical risks to which the church and its attendees may be subject, and they are satisfied that appropriate measures are in place to mitigate or eliminate these. A system of annual Risk Assessments for activities is used.

• The church holds a comprehensive insurance policy with Ansvar Insurance which includes Public Liability, Employer’s Liability and Trustees’ Indemnity. The Public Liability cover includes activities of the church on or off the premises.

• We continue to review Safeguarding Policy each May which now includes protection for adults.

Management of Funds

The attached Receipts and Payments Account shows total income of £81,564. This is entirely made up of voluntary donations, mainly from members of the congregation. There are no fund-raising activities.

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Many churches and other charities again suffered substantial reductions in income as the pandemic continued to curtail gatherings, so we give thanks that the effect on our resources has been relatively small – a fall of 10% the previous year and a recovery of half of that this year. We were still able to replace our stock of chairs, many of which had been in use for over 40 years.

Day to day expenditure is normally met by individuals within the congregation and reimbursed on production of an invoice or till receipt. Approximately 85% of payments are now made by Bank Transfer or Direct Debit. Two Deacons are authorized to conduct Internet Banking. All payments are checked against the records after the end of each month and signed off by two Trustees other than the Treasurer.

During the year we were able to make an interest-free loan of £10,000 from our reserves to a similar church in the county, at a critical point in their building project. The risk was fully considered and the loan was repaid within a month.

This church continues to support gospel work elsewhere. This year £15,106 has been sent as gifts to individuals and organisations involved in evangelism, training leaders, Christian advocacy and general relief work around the world. This is approximately 18.5% of the church’s income.

The Trustees consider that the church is in a sound financial position with sufficient reserves for projected expenditure.

Approval

The Trustees’ report was approved by the Trustees at a meeting on 10.10.2022

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Notes to the Accounts

Note

Note 1 2 3 4	Gifts and Donations Giftaided Gifts GASDS Gifts and Donations Other Offerings Designated Income Love Gifts SIM for Lydia King Weekend/day away Ministry Pastor's Salary, Nat Ins & Pension Pastor's expenses and training Other meeting costs Special Gifts Lectures Visiting Preachers Evangelism Evangelism - General Publicity Little Ones Kids Club Friday Fellowship Women to Women Printing/Literature Catering	2022 £ 47,810.00 1,162.41 14,045.00 4,152.40 67,169.81 2,295.00 216.00 252.00 2,763.00 36,791.32 601.94 293.51 0.00 94.50 1,285.00 39,066.27 435.23 100.00 123.93 65.36 76.07 121.07 2,994.50 206.38 4,122.54	2021 £ 45,800.00 911.05 14,576.20 505.00
			61,792.25
			1,165.00 0.00 0.00
			1,165.00
			36,499.61 0.00 108.80 370.48 0.00 990.00
			37,968.89
			0.00 223.89 157.70 154.40 0.00 -30.00 727.69 14.25
			1,247.93

Notes to the Accounts

Note 5 6 7	Gifts Vinukonda Zambesi Mission Blythswood Care Blythswood Care Ukraine Emergency Simon Terry Thurlaston Chapel Building Project Thurlaston Chapel Bible Notes Friends International Penny Wang Friends International Ruth Duffin Answers in Genesis Platform 67 Open Air Mission Christian Institute Our Daily Bread Ministries Association of Evangelists Shepshed Word of Light Church UFM Alan Davey Int'l Mission to Jewish People (formerly Christian Witness to Israel) Samson Ogalo Market Overton Free Church Glencroft Church SIM International Lydia King Good News for Everyone - formerly Gideon Evangelical Movement of Wales FIEC Designated Expenditure Designated Gifts: Love Gifts Weekend/day away Accommodation Light & Heat Insurance Cleaning and Hygiene Building repairs & services Water Rates	2022 £ 1,750.00 800.00 1,500.00 2,000.00 0.00 1,000.00 120.00 1,000.00 1,000.00 500.00 1,000.00 1,000.00 1,000.00 120.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,000.00 0.00 1,000.00 100.00 216.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 15,106.00 0.00 880.00 880.00 2,088.75 1,724.74 530.74 7,181.67 188.74 11,714.64	2021 £ 2,250.00 800.00 1,000.00 0.00 500.00 0.00 240.00 1,350.00 0.00 500.00 1,000.00 1,000.00 500.00 120.00 500.00 1,000.00 150.00 150.00 600.00 0.00 0.00 500.00 250.00 300.00 700.00
			13,410.00
			1,215.00 0.00
			1,215.00
			2,053.91 1,722.43 560.95 5,501.78 167.15
			10,006.22

Notes to the Accounts

Note 8	Administration Bank Charges Library Recording Equipment purchases Equipment repairs Printing/photocopying Postage and Telephone Stationery Advertising Audit Website Professional fees Affiliations and CRB checks	2022 £ 44.96 438.78 103.84 11,489.54 875.28 41.98 791.09 271.78 0.00 230.00 730.66 1,509.10 250.00 16,777.01	2021 £ 0.00 296.23 133.34 5,190.20 258.99 143.00 1,231.18 94.75 37.00 264.50 288.71 624.98 350.00
			8,912.88

Little Hill Church

Receipts and Payments Account y.e. 31st March 2022

Note Opening Balances Bank Current Account Bank Deposit Account Bank No2 Account Receipts Gifts and donations 1 Designated Income 2 Income Tax Refund Bequests and Legacies Interest Received Repayment of Loan to Shepshed Church Payments Ministry 3 Evangelism 4 Gifts 5 Designated Expenditure 6 Accommodation 7 Administration 8 Loan to Shepshed Church Closing Balances Bank Current Account Bank Deposit Account Bank No2 Account

£ £ £ £ 1,673.42 1,477.09 26,787.57 22,209.13 307.00 307.00 67,169.81 61,792.25 2,763.00 1,165.00 11,628.62 12,067.65 0 2,500.00 2.58 10.79 10,000.00 0.00 39,066.27 37,968.89 4,122.54 1,247.93 15,106.00 13,410.00 880.00 1,215.00 11,714.64 10,006.22 16,777.01 8,912.88 10,000.00 0.00 5,774.77 1,673.42 16,268.77 26,787.57 622.00 307.00 120,332.00 120,332.00 101,528.91 101,528.91 2021 2022

NOTE

No credit has been included in the accounts for a sum of £6,246 (2021 £5,672) which is due by way of an Income Tax Refund against Giftaid for the period.

AUDITORS REPORT

I have examined the Church's Books of Account and the Receipts and Payments Accounts which, in my opinion accurately state the Church's affairs.

CHANGE TO ACCOUNTING POLICY

The Church decided to change the way the accounts are prepared and presented with effect from 1st April 2019 from an accruals basis to a receipts and payments basis. The effect of this is that there is no longer a balance sheet showing the value of the church building, other fixed assets, current assets and liabilities.

………………………………………….

Melanie Smith

Qualified with CIPFA in 1976, (member between 1976-2013) but no longer a member of the Institute 9th August 2022