FireStarters Wales
A generation set on fire for Jesus to be sparks of revival!
TRUSTEES ANNUAL REPORT & ACCOUNTS 2023
Approved by Trustees at the AGM on 2.10.2023
Contents
Reference and Administration information
Trustees Annual Report
Income and Expenditure Report
Balance Sheet Report
REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATION INFORMATION
Charity Name: FireStarters Wales
Charity Number: 1175278
Registered Office: 10, Dorchester Avenue, Penylan, Cardiff CF23 9BQ
Bank Account: Lloyds Bank
Facebook: FIRESTARTERS WALES
Trustees: for the year ended 31.3.2022
Sarah Richards (resigned Feb 2023)
Andrew Goringe Janette Goringe Julie Lawrence Matthew Lewis
Secretary: Jayne Roberts
TRUSTEES ANNUAL REPORT - April 2022- March 2023
Significant highlights, events and developments include the following:
In relation to activities:
We have continued to meet once a month on the 2nd Saturday of most months, and this has continued to provide parents and young people with clarity attending.
We had two weekends in Oct and in March. Weekends give room for depth of input, relationship building and time to meaningfully connect with God.
We have had an increase of new young people attending this year through invitation via their youth leaders and hearing testimony through friends who have attended. Many of these were younger school Year 7-9’s. Those that kept attending benefited from gaining deeper friendships and receiving the fullness of teaching into our theme April to July of ‘Knowing Our Identity in Christ’ and Oct - March of ‘Freedom That Is Ours in Christ.’
All our events have had a good ratio of adult to young people with 35-40 young people attending regularly. Our young teenage leaders have taken an active part in worship, group led discussion, short teachings, leading quiet times, leading dance, games and creative work.
Outreach this year became a joy once more as we could go onto the streets with blessing and greater confidence to speak to people post covid. One particular time in Cwmbran we went with paper and pens asking the Lord to show us His heart for the individual people we saw. We asked the Lord to show us what He wanted for them. We brought all these back at the end and prayed over them all. A further step was to approach people saying that we were wanting to pray God’s blessing over them. One group approached a young mother and her 2 year old. The mother was very touched as she had just decided to dedicate her son at the local church she had started attending. She was clearly new to faith and one of the girls reaching out in this group attended her church. This was further testimony for this young person.
Our joint mission in late July with FireStarters Scotland to the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham was a great success and impacting for all those that attended. We collaborated with Urban Devotion, (a Birmingham all year-round youth outreach team) 24/7 prayer, YWAM and several local churches who gave us accommodation and enabled us to meet and outreach from their buildings.
A further joint mission to the Isle of Lewis for summer 2023 is being planned.
Team
We have over 22 voluntary adult leaders that are all DBS checked and will come to gatherings when they are available. We strengthened our recruitment process this year, revising our leadership role profile and commitments.
We provide training and support for our young and adult leaders at regular leaders’ gatherings at the start of the year and in between the events. The young leaders input times have all been in person, but regular planning involving young and adult leaders happened on zoom.
Janette continues to meet with Cefnogi, a youth leaders support group. This group enables Janette to connect with many different youth leaders from Cardiff, Newport, Caerphilly and the valley’s towns as well as other ministries such as Message Wales and Tearfund.
Janette has continued to meet with two youth leaders in Cardiff for mutual support and encouragement in youth leadership. Core team has remained a strong support to Janette in giving constructive feedback, taking on planning for several days in the year and generally being more aware of areas of need among the young people and all gatherings. There has been a growing increase of young people wanting to be involved in our worship team. We had several of our adult team step back or were unable to be with us during the year, so we needed to invite people to help us. Our young people responded well and were happy to play or sing alongside these visiting worship leaders.
Our joint mission in late July with FireStarters Scotland to the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham was a great success and impacting for all those that attended. We collaborated with Urban Devotion, (a Birmingham all year-round youth outreach team) 24/7 prayer, YWAM and several local churches who gave us accommodation and enabled us to meet and outreach from their buildings.
A further joint mission to the Isle of Lewis for summer 2023 is being planned.
Administration
All general admin happens from Janette’s home office or free desk space at Urban Crofters office.
During the year most of our past host churches welcomed us back with generosity towards us. Many continued to support us as they heard testimony of God at work in the lives of their church youth with us. However, running costs for many churches saw huge increases as gas and electric prices almost doubled and therefore the costs to an outside organisation using their facilities increased, especially in winter. This meant we needed to be hosted by two new churches (Vineyard Cardiff Central and Rhiwbina Baptist) which did help the young people from these churches attend more easily.
A website is still not set up but talks have started with a website designer who is giving us a quote.
In relation to funding:
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There has been ongoing financial support from our young people’s subs at each gathering covering costs for speakers, building hire, worship leaders from outside our team, leaders lunches and weekend food, ongoing admin, including a one-off payment to give FireStarters storage on Google, our annual insurance and membership to Thirtyone Eight.
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We had 9 one off gifts throughout the year, one specifically to be used for the summer mission to Lewis and two regular monthly gifts all totalling £763.07.
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We have applied to receive gift aid as a charity and will have this in place moving forward this next year ahead.
We are grateful to all our supporters and wish to thank them for their ongoing commitment and encouragement.
Firestarters Wales Charity Number 1175278 Income and Expenditure Report Year Ended 31 March 2023
| 31.03.2023 | 31.03.2022 | |
|---|---|---|
| Income | ||
| Subs | £2889.20 | £3090.01 |
| Gifts/Donations | £355.00 | £588 |
| Gift aided donations | £408.07 | |
| Total Income | £3652.27 | £3678.01 |
| Expenditure | ||
| Arts and crafts | £91.21 | £127.38 |
| Outreach Supplies | £65.10 | £0.00 |
| Stationary | £93.70 | £71.04 |
| Speakers | £448.00 | £640.00 |
| Gifts given | £264.95 | £55.55 |
| Canteen supplies | £721.88 | £636.70 |
| Photocopier | £0.00 | £6.50 |
| Building hire | £330.00 | £170.00 |
| Insurance | £304.38 | £304.38 |
| DBS Checks | £304.25 | £39.99 |
| Equipment Supplies | £0.00 | £309.77 |
| Travel/Petrol | £53.91 | £0.00 |
| Administration. | £610.49 | £1110.13 |
| Miscellaneous | £126.92 | £147.86 |
| Total Expenditure | £3414.79 | £3632.98 |
| TOTAL surplus / deficit | £237.48 | £45.03 |
Firestarters Wales Charity Number 1175278
Balance Sheet Report Year Ended 31 March 2023
| Balance | Balance | |
|---|---|---|
| 31.03.2023 | 31.03.2022 |
|
| Current Assets | ||
| Bank Current Account | £6,123.07 | £5,885.59 |
| Petty Cash | £20.00 | £20.00 |
| Total | £6,143.07 | £5,905.59 |
| Current Liabilities | £0.00 | £0.00 |
| Total | £0.00 | £0.00 |
| £6,143.07 | £5,905.59 | |
| Reserves | ||
| Surplus/Deficit YTD | £237.48 | £45.03 |
| Surplus brought forward | £5905.59 | £5860.56 |
| Surplus/deficit plus last year’s balance |
£6143.07 | £5,905.59 |