2025-08-31-accounts - Bodmin Youth Project Trust

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BODMIN YOUTH PROJECT (BYP) Annual Report 2024-2025

2024-25 was significant year for us:

With Hosanna Roeburn having moved on after 2 years training with us as a SWYM (South West Youth Ministries) trainee, we resorted to our initial way of working which is all volunteer-led – something we don’t take for granted – and I need to start this report by thanking everyone who gives their times, prayers and efforts to enable BYP to operate. THANK YOU!
All our groups are thriving – something we don’t take for granted!
We continue to take groups of young people to the GLOW events organised by Creation Fest and now also attend Sorted at St Kea as it’s so important they see faith amongst their peers and on a larger scale.
We again took young people to SPREE, to Menadue, and to the TAG Conference as once again we saw the value of residentials in growing young people’s faith.
And, of course, our regular commitments continued with Immerse, Immerse on Toast, football, and TYG continuing fortnightly.

Immerse

Immerse is our outward-looking youth group, run fortnightly on Friday evenings, aimed especially for those with little or no church background. In the last year we watched the 'Vox' video series, with some good engagement, but with many who struggled to stay focussed on the video-based material. Since September we have been going through John's gospel, looking at Jesus' life and words. There has been greater engagement with this. It's been really good to see young people consider for themselves who Jesus is and what relevance he might have for their lives. We typically have 15-20 young people each session, which is generally higher than we had a year ago. We're grateful to and for volunteer leaders who make this group possible.

Immerse on Toast

We meet on alternative Sunday evenings at 3 The Old Church Hall. There are on average 8 young people [aged 11 - 15] in attendance. Of these 8 young people, 2 are from a non-Christian home.

We meet at 6pm for something on toast then we study the Bible for about 45 minutes. We finish the evening off with games. We have been doing a discipleship course called “Life with Jesus” this is described as a discipleship course especially for teens, which helps youth & teens explore what life looks like with Jesus in charge.

There has been an exciting and significant increase in the number of youth events happening around Cornwall on Sunday evenings-

GLOW run by Creationfest out of the Engine House Church, Redruth

ROOTED run by Peninsular Gospel Partnership churches out of St Kea Church, Truro

SUMMIT run by ORIEL MINISTRIES about of Launceston.

These are a great encouragement for our young people as they know and feel they are part of something much bigger. They are a great way to get to know other young Christians from around Cornwall.

TYG is our group for young people in Yr 10 and above (14+) and we currently have 13 young people on the books. We continue to explore topics decided by the young people, looking at issues from a Biblical perspective and have recently taken them through the Alpha Course. It’s been great to see the

group really gel and develop – especially recently. Wendy and I are so grateful for the young people who keep on coming and a faithful God who keeps on working!

It's a real range of young people, but to see them coming together around the Bible and looking at topics they’ve chosen to explore, is a real privilege.

Football

Over the past year we've continued to meet on a fortnightly basis to run our free Football Sessions in the Community each term. We moved our usual Wednesday session (3.45pm – 4.45pm) to a Thursday afternoon instead (4pm – 5pm) as we found that a number of young people in School Years 7 & 8 who were connecting with us have football or other clubs on a Wednesday after school, so moved to a slightly later start time on a Thursday, so we could allow them to return home to change and join us, on a day that didn’t clash with other school commitments. Numbers have continued strong over the year with between 7-12 coming along for an hour of football skills, shooting challenges, a mini-match and an opportunity to hear more about the Christian faith and what it means in our daily lives. Hosanna moved on in the summer of 2024, so Simon and Steve alternate from session to session on what to share. This includes testimonies or reflections from God’s Word. Andrea was available to help on Wednesday afternoons, but when we moved to Thursdays, this meant Andrea was unavailable due to work commitments.

Moving forwards, we will need to look for new volunteers to help with the football sessions or to share when Simon steps down to retire in June 2026.

The rapport and friendships build up over the year have been really encouraging, with several young people also joining the Immerse Youth Night to get to know other young people in our local churches and hear more about the Christian faith. It’s great to see the growth and interest shown by so many as we connect with them on a regular basis! God is moving & drawing young people to Himself!

American Sports Camp

We held our second American Sports Event at The Shed on Walker Lines at Easter and this time we were joined by a team of 8 Americans who went down a storm and were just great to be around! We again worked with James Greene (from Breakout Ministries UK) to run 4 days of basketball & volleyball. We saw 34 young people attend over 4 days - that’s twice the number that attended last year. We had fantastic support from The Boxing Club and appreciated the new facilities at NLC. It was just great to see the 3 churches working together so well.

We again registered again with the Time2Move Holiday Programme provided by the Cornwall Council to offer free spaces for those on Free School Meals (FSM) and also to be supported financially to host the Sports Camp, and so we could advertise more widely across the local area and into the local schools, not just across our churches.

Leading up to the American Sports Camp (ASC) we had very few bookings, so this was a big test for our faith on whether we had organised this event with little interest? But the Lord answered our prayers in the days leading up to the event, with 19 attending on Day 1, 19 on Day 2, 20 on Day 3 and 24 on Day 4. In total 34 different young people were involved in the ASC, and this included 8 on FSM. With volunteers from our local churches providing food & speakers each day, and gifts plus funds from the Cornwall Council, we were able to cover all our costs and could say the event was a huge success. We saw many new people connect with us for the first time, one young person made a commitment of faith, and several new people went on to connect with our Immerse Youth Nights on a regular basis. We also saw many of our young people in the local churches encouraged & inspired in their faith, with many going on to the Spree Youth camp or other events in the summer.

The last day of the camp was also a great joy to see many of the parents join us for the Awards Ceremony and to give thanks & farewell to the American team who had joined us for the time together. We look forward to the plans for a similar event held over Easter in 2026!

SPREE SW Youth Camp

For the last few years we have taken young people to the Spree Youth Camp held at Westpoint Showground near Exeter. This has including partnering with Connect Church in Wadebridge (during 2023 & 2024) & more recently with Soul’s Harbour Church in Camelford (in 2025), as well as the 3 local churches in Bodmin (NLC, L&L & ICB) who are part of BYP. Therefore, on 27-29 June we had 7 adult volunteers/leaders (that included 4 from NLC, and 3 from Soul’s Harbour), and took 22 young people along for the 3 day camp (that included 14 from our Bodmin Churches, and 8 from Soul’s Harbour).

Spree was an amazing summer weekend festival away for young people aged 8 to 17 and it was full of so much fun, tonnes of activities (eg. inflatables, nerf wars, fairground rides, nature crafts, sports competitions, silent discos, climbing walls, etc.) and some great inspirational speakers to challenge and encourage young people in their faith (or to explore more about faith)! They also provide multiple venues for all ages to help young people at whatever stage they are in their faith journey.

The friendships and unity built up during the weekend away are such a joy to watch, and the questions and faith that arise from the time together. We can’t measure the impact this has on such a deep and spiritual level to all the young people who attended, but we have seen 2 young people get baptized later in 2025, and we have also seen others connect with our discipleship small groups more regularly on their return. Therefore, we are keen to keep investing in our children and young people to take them to this camp for many more years to come!

It was also great to see the local church getting behind the event, to encourage our children & young people with totals of gifts coming to £840! This was a great help to cover food costs, reduce ticket prices (& even offer some free or discounted spaces!), and help towards travelling expenses for volunteers over the weekend! Each ticket costs £80 per child and increases to £95 per child from 1[st] April, so any gifts and funds raised for the Spree camp makes this much more accessible for more children & young people to attend… so thank you to all who have given to the camp over the past year! We cannot thank you enough for your generosity!

Prayer and volunteering opportunities are readily available, so please speak to one of the team if you are interested.

Safeguarding Report

Thankfully, there were no incidents reported during the year. Additional signage was placed in our venues, directing people as to who to talk to should they have concerns, and our volunteers received annual safeguarding training in June.

Financial Report

We want to thank God for His faithfulness to us. This year has seen an increase in regular giving which has really established us on a secure footing for the future. Our total income for the year was £5,155 and our outgoings were £2,239, leaving a healthy balance of £6,153 at the end of August 2025.

As you’ll have gathered tonight, we have such an amazing range of young people who connect with us, from so many different backgrounds and experiences. Please pray for each one of them to find fullness of life with us, and ultimately in Jesus.

AOB

Please keep praying for our young people as they continue to journey in their walk with the Lord or are exploring faith for the first time. Please also continue to pray for our BYP volunteers who are part of the ministry to disciple or reach out to local young people in our area. We long to see a generation of young people rise up to know Jesus and serve Him in His purposes across Bodmin and this area where we live. So, thank you all for your partnership & support to see this vision become a reality as we seek God’s will to be done, here on earth as it is in heaven.

Jon Langford Dec 2025

2024 INCOME Sep Oct Nov Donor 1 25 25 25 Donor 2 25 25 25 Donor 4 30 30 30 Donor 5 40 40 40 Donor 6 35 35 35 Reg. Gift 35 35 50 Gift 1 Gift 2 ASC Gift ASC Payments SPREE Gifts Mthly Inc totals 190 190 205 EXPENDITURE Insurance 351 Web subscription 25 Ministry gift 150 Volunteer expenses Volunteer TAG ticket 99 SPREE Espenses ASC Venue Hire ASC Breakout Mthly Exp Totals 0 0 600 Profit/ Deficit per mth 190 190 -395 Cash Carried forward 1st Sept 24 3914.02 4104 4294 3899 Sep Oct Nov = actuals	2024 Sep Oct Nov	2024 Sep Oct Nov
	25 25 25 25 25 25 30 30 30 40 40 40 35 35 35 35 35 50
3914.02	4104 4294 3899 Sep Oct Nov


		= actuals