2022-10-31-accounts

GOOD NEWS FELLOWSHIP UK

Charitable Incorporated Organisation 1167287

ANNUAL REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31[st] OCTOBER 2022

GOOD NEWS FELLOWSHIP UK

Registered Charitable Incorporated Organisation No. 1167287

ANNUAL REPORT FOR YEAR ENDING 31[st] OCTOBER 2022

The work of producing and distributing the Good News newspaper, our main ministry, continued through the year as we continued to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, and we thank God for His leading and provision.

Our priorities for 2022 were:

1. Expanding promotional efforts, especially through some Christian conventions and exhibitions, speaking at churches, limited advertising in Christian publications and promotions on Christian radio. (A £12,000 budget was proposed and was reviewed throughout the year.)

2. Maintaining our current customers, restarting the paused customers, and looking to extend personal outreach with new customers

3. Work in cooperation with Outreach UK and Pocket Testament League on the Casting Your Nets programme

4. Bring the new booklet ‘Jesus Unmasked’ to publication and promote through contacts

5. Continue to grow the ministry to prisons, Christian half-way houses and rehabilitation centres working through Christian chaplains

6. Ensuring the monthly publication of the Good News paper meets the needs of those using the paper as well as those reading about the Christian faith.

Activities

The Good News newspaper was produced each month and sold to missions, churches and individuals as a means of helping them in Christian witness, testimony and outreach. Some city missions, and a number of churches and individuals, were still unable to restart outreach but sales volumes had recovered to around 53,000 per month by October 2022 – as we anticipated in our budget. The Christmas, Easter and harvest editions were well received with improved circulation. It has been thrilling to receive many encouraging reports of lives being changed by God as people receive the paper and talk about articles it contained. The paper continues to be widely used as an aid to personal evangelism.

Two national events featured in the paper during the year, the platinum jubilee celebrations of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth in June, and in the October edition, a tribute to her strong personal Christian faith when she passed away. These were very well received. Earlier in the year we had featured testimonies from both Ukraine and Russia about how Christian churches were demonstrating God’s love by reaching out to those badly affected by the war.

We were able to have stands at several Christian exhibitions and events, including the Christian Resources Exhibitions at Exeter and Sandown Park, Spring Harvest (Skegness), Baptist Churches

convention in Bournemouth, and Cliff College convention in May. Our UK representative was able to attend some Evangelists conferences as well as speak in churches about the paper.

We continued to advertise in several publications including Keeping the Faith magazine, the CRE Handbook, Evangelical Alliance and through interviews with the UK representative on two Christian radio stations. In November 2021 we had a 30 second advert for the paper on a new Christian radio station, Konnect Radio and this was repeated in October 2022, aimed at church leaders and evangelists about the Christmas edition.

The gospel leaflet we produced, ‘Good News For Everyone’, continued to be well received and sales of copies of the second printing were encouraging.

We continued to work in cooperation with two other Christian charities, Outreach UK (OUK) and Pocket Testament League (PTL), on a programme titled ‘Casting Your Nets’, which aims to train and encourage Christians and churches in personal evangelism for all. OUK lead this, with the training involving the use of the Good News paper and a PTL edition of the Gospel of John.

A monthly video review of the Good News newspaper is produced by our UK representative and an evangelist from Outreach UK. These have been well received with very encouraging viewing figures. Going forward, two versions will be produced, one aimed at Christians explaining the benefits of the paper and the other for those seeking God to point them to Jesus Christ.

Our presence on Facebook and Twitter we see as a means of outreach and raising awareness of the paper and postings were strong throughout 2022 with a good number of followers, “likes” and “shares”

The paper was printed by Newsquest and packed and mailed by Parcel Hub. Both businesses provided excellent service and worked well with Good News.

At the start of March, we held a National Day of Prayer when Christians were involving their churches to report on our ministry and to take time to pray. The latest promotional video was made available to show in meetings. It was encouraging to hear of many praying and knowing that God answered prayers.

A second supporters on-line Zoom evening was help in October with around 25 delegates attending, with a variety of contributions from both team members, Outreach UK evangelists and those using the paper. This was a great encouragement; this will now become an annual event with varying formats.

The prison ministry work continued to grow with 2 new prisons requesting papers and others increasing their quantity and another rehab centre. With the help of free-will gifts and a grant, both regular and occasional, papers are sent free of charge to Christian chaplains at UK prisons. By the end of October 2022, we were supplying 2,455 copies to 84 prisons, youth offenders’ institutions and repatriation centres, one secure training centre and three Christian half-way houses run by the Langley House Trust and a Christian rehab centre.

The gifts and a grant for the ministry during the year came to £6,620, an increase from 2021. Gifts designated for the prison ministry are ring fenced so they can only be used for this work and as a charity, we are able to reclaim gift aid tax on gifts from donors who have signed a declaration. We never fundraise or approach people to ask for gifts. 100% of all such gifts are used 100% for the cost of the prison papers and postage out. We are grateful to a team of volunteers from a church in north-east England, who faithfully pack and post the papers each month. It was encouraging to meet chaplains at events and receive emails saying how the Good News newspaper has been a blessing to inmates and a means of opening spiritual conversations.

Follow-up correspondence was carried out by Rolf Burnie with prisoners (Rolf is a member of the Prison Fellowship) and Sheila Johnson, a Christian writer with the general public and a retired trustee, Donald Banks, sending copies of the Jesus video when requested.

The bi-monthly newsletter was distributed to customers and prayer supporters to keep them updated with the work.

People

The trustees throughout the year were: Mr Phillip Bounds (Chairman and prison ministry) Mr Andrew Halloway (Editor) Mr Paul Olise Mr Stephen Leedham Mrs Susan Cuthbert Mr Ian White

The trustees and team met three times through the year in November, March and June, either face to face or by Zoom. Any interim decisions are made by email or telephone. The trustees are prayerfully looking to add to the number with one or two people committed to this form of Gospel outreach.

Mrs Amanda Halloway was the Good News Fellowship administrator until 31[st] July, and attended Trustees meetings and acted as minutes secretary. After receiving applications and carrying out interviews by Zoom, the trustees appointed Teresa Jackman to take on this vital role and she commenced 1[st] August 2022.

Mrs Julie Reeves, who commenced as Finance Officer on 1[st] November 2021, attends meetings reporting on the finances.

Rev Trevor Dickerson, National Field Director for Outreach UK, acts as an adviser for the work, is consulted on articles proposed for publication, and attends meetings.

Rev Andy Godfrey, who is UK representative on a contract basis, also attends meetings and contributes to the promotional strategy as well as being actively involved in promotional work.

We thank God for leading us to our new team members and for what they bring to the ministry.

Other committed people actively involved in the Good News ministry but who don’t attend meetings are:

Mr Rolf Burnie – prison correspondence counsellor

Mrs Sheila Johnson – general correspondence counselling and social media support

Mr Kevin McCadden – honorary representative in the Tyne & Wear area, contacting churches, and also sends Good News to those on our complimentary copies list. Kevin will be stepping down at the end of 2022

David & Cath Thompson plus a team of helpers – pack and post the prison papers

The following people continue to be on the Council of Reference: Rev David Cole Mr Victor Jack Rev Dr Sam Gordon Mr Terry Puttick

Finance and Governance

The financial statement for the year ending 31[st] October 2022 is attached. The accounts were examined and approved by Mr Neil Towers, an accountant with vast experience with charity accounts.

Designated income for the prison ministry was £5,648 plus £972 tax reclaimed and for general operation was £137,297. There was a surplus for the year of £3,976, where we had budgeted a deficit of £7,263. We considered it necessary to increase the price per copy by 5p during the year as a result of price increases and to recover a deficit situation. Reserves at the year-end were £76,449 (£3,370 prison ministry, £73,079 general funds). We are thankful to God and several churches and individuals who gave specific gifts for the ongoing work of Good News, totalling £3,175 in the year.

The trustees are mindful of cost pressure with raw materials, energy and transport/delivery, all increasing significantly. The proposed 2022 budget is again based on a circulation of 53,000 average per month and plans for a deficit of £12,700 for the year ending 31[st] October 2023. We believe this to be a wise course of action given the uncertainties around price rises of newsprint paper and deliveries. The actions and finances will be reviewed monthly, and changes made as needed. The deficit will be met from reserves, a price increase, or from a circulation increase.

The Good News Fellowship UK is accepted by HMRC for reclaiming gift aid tax from donors completing a declaration. Such gifts were received throughout the year.

The Trustees continued to ensure compliance with the General Data Protection Regulations.

Looking forward

The Trustees are aware that the ministry of Good News is God’s work under His guidance. The plans for 2023 major on:

1. Promotion of Good News, especially through some selected Christian conventions and exhibitions, speaking at churches, limited advertising in Christian publications and promotions on Christian radio. (A £12,000 budget has been set and will be reviewed throughout the year.)

2. Maintaining our current customers, restarting the paused customers, and looking to extend personal outreach with new customers

3. Work in cooperation with Outreach UK and Pocket Testament League on the Casting Your Nets programme

4. Continue to promote the ‘Jesus Unmasked’ booklet and the “Good News for Everyone” tract

5. Contact the UK prisons who currently do not take the paper each month and offer to send to chaplains freely

6. Ensuring the monthly publication of the Good News paper meets the needs of those using the paper as well as those reading about the Christian faith.

Phillip Bounds

…………………………………………………. Phillip Bounds Chairman on behalf of the Trustees 14[th] November 2022

GOOD NEWS FELLOWSHIP UK CharJtyNo 1167287 Receipt and Payment accounts for year ended 31st Ortober 2022 EtsL￿.96 sa￿01tractS Refundson prtyN)t¥l A￿ertI￿r4 rt4en IrK¢ Irfftstmeni8erw41 hK4)me Ithstmeot irKon*tned Tax refwwl Prf50n M￿stry DtySAatedGrftsftGeMnlFufvts De￿1r￿6fftsfr￿prfX￿ 129.C6 £1.795. E510.CO £270.19 É052 £317.70 £7,39 fl.147S) n9 £2.12 £J.175.25 f14I917.74 U1449).67 fA7,222 2,421n? £19.537.51 £25,1￿.4 É15,2tl.02 £124137 EQ. fI279.63 £1,145AI .strlburkin costs1Par￿ HU￿ Pc&) Prhtt4ni CoAslNewsqLW Ed#or￿l(l￿1(￿¢Il￿I•W. wrrfr••d> £23XA.98 £3,91th39 th•r8es Pronhjtkin C￿nn￿$￿￿4nd Gffts¥￿ Ul532J5 Q73.47 LI39.￿1.43 U26.4S2.61 on 4IL961.94 Trt•ndtrOpertk)r￿l1cwf¢rfj 5artaAderOperntkJnallShslthKa37DS1 KIn8th￿ BankP ÉI.S45A7 E3L8￿.13 £Jl.191 £71473 NdlTowv5 Inde￿?4 Eyjml 13.12.21

116n87 Accounts for year eftdI￿ .--315t October 2022 I report to the Trustees on my examinatton of the accounts of the charity above {Ihe TTusff) for the year As charity trustees of the Trust you are responslble for the preparation of the accounts In accordance with I report in respect of my examination of the Trusys accounts carried (xrt under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in Carr￿￿8 (xrt my examlnatlon, I have followed all the appkcable Directions given by the Charlty jxnmiss1￿ undef sectKm 145(5) (b) of the ACL Independent Examlnerfs Statement The tharltles 8ross Income did not exceed £250.LKX). I can meet the CT7teria for independent examlnation I have completed my examination. Thts involved examination of bank statements, computer records, matters have come to my attentK)n in connertI￿ with the examination giving me cause to believe that in or I have no concerns and have come au0s5 no matters in Connecti(￿ with the examination to whith be reached. The acc(yJnts are presented. as pem*ted by the A¢ as sknple recelpts, and payments 1.5..12:21 Name.........Neil Towers_..--.-.--.---.-.---.-....-.-.----.-. -.PR25 SUR