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2025-04-05-annual-report

SIMPLY SERVING MIN istRI ES CCNI Reg. No: 102580

Annual Trustees Report & Statement of Account

For the year 6[th] April 2024 to 5[th] April 2025

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Annual Trustees Report and Statement of Accounts for Simply Serving Ministries. Year 6[th] April 2024 to 5[th] April 2025

Contents Page
Introduction and Trust Information 3
Purpose 3
Beneficiaries 4
Activities and Achievements 5-7
Restrictions, Harm and Private Benefit 7-8
Independent Assessors Report 9
Treasures Report and Statement of Accounts 10

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Trustees Report for Simply Serving Ministries (SSM) Year 6[th] April 2024 to 5[th] April 2025

Introduction and Trust Information

The Trust was created formally on 10[th] September 2011 by ‘trust deed document’ and recognised under HMRC rules, registration number XR32570. We were registered with the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland on 19[th] May 2015, registration number 102580. We are a small trust, directed and managed by four trustees. With no paid staff or full-time volunteers, we rely upon our active trustees and those individuals that volunteer from timeto-time for specific projects and activities.

We the Trustees are pleased to present our next formal annual report on the work of Simply Serving Ministries (SSM) for the period 6[th] April 2024 to 5[th] April 2025. The submission of this annual report to the Charity Commission was delayed beyond our normal required date this year, due to the medical circumstances, then illness and subsequent passing of a close family member of our chairman.

We publicly acknowledge God’s goodness; the guidance of the Holy Spirit; the opportunity to serve our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ and the opportunity to support brothers and sisters in the Lord, in their work for The Master.

The trustees in post for the year to April 2025 are: William Gibson Michael Hewitt David Brown (Treasurer) Val Stewart (Chairman)

These are the founding members of the charitable trust from 2011. Only the trustees have the power to appoint new trustees.

Purpose:

As our name implies, and as the guidance of the Holy Spirit directs, we simply seek to serve others through our ministry. Our purposes remained unchanged for 2024-25, which are in summary:

These purposes are achieved through a number of objectives that the trustees have laid out in their founding trust deed document. Our objectives are available to read as part of our entry on the Charity Commission for NI website.

The objects of our charity will be conducted in accordance with our “Statement of Faith” contained in ‘Appendix One’ of our founding trust deed document. This “Statement of “Faith” demonstrates this charities Biblical foundation, Scriptural mandate; ethical framework and the spiritual and moral benefits promoted by it.

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In planning our activities for the year, the trustees have given consideration to the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland‘s guidance on public benefit under section 4(b)’ of the Charities Act (the public benefit requirement statutory guidance) to ensure that the activities have helped to achieve the charities’ purposes and provide a benefit to the public.

Beneficiaries and achieving the public benefit:

In this year, we have been privileged to direct gifts, donations and activity through the charity to others. Our activities have focused on helping churches, missions and individuals in the countries of Armenia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Moldova, Montenegro, Republic of Ireland, Serbia, and Northern Ireland.

The Bible teaching undertaken separately by our trustees in Armenia, and Bulgaria made a contribution to the spiritual and moral education of adults and young people, through the study of the Holy Bible. It supports, sustains and increases Biblical knowledge, skills, and expertise of church members, potential future church leaders, pastors and missionaries. In each locality pastoral support and encouragement was also undertaken.

The trust supported church planting projects in Armenia, Croatia, Moldova, Montenegro, and Serbia by making grants towards outlays. Grants were also made in the Republic of Ireland to support the spread of the Gospel and Gods word.

We were pleased to assist ‘Gospel Literature Ireland,’ over 4 days in May 2024 at the Balmoral Show, outside Belfast and over 3 days in September 2024 at the Irish National Ploughing Championships, Ratheniska, County Laois. At the two shows, we saw many thousands of ‘John 3:16’ gospel shopping bags accepted by attendees to the show, with more than 1,700+ children receiving free items containing the Word of God.

In October 2024, and March 2025, Bible teaching and Gospel outreach trips were undertaken, with seminars and meetings supporting the teaching of adults and children in various locations in Bulgaria and Armenia.

The trust welcomes their involvement and support in establishing and maintaining “The Venue.” This is a location for outreach work in Ballymena, County Antrim, providing a base for various activities and Christian outreach to the local community.

How all this has been accomplished and how it has benefited the public as our beneficiaries, is explained further in the ‘Activities and Achievements’ section of our report.

A number of report meetings to churches and groups were undertaken by the trustees throughout the year. The trustees welcomed the opportunity to inform others about the advancement of the Christian faith in the countries the charity operates. These report meetings are open to the general public.

Trustees also regularly represent the work of the trust at events and meetings organised by other organisations involved with Christian missionary and charity work.

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Activities and Achievements:

All our activities and projects involve at least one of the trustees. We are working to maintain our activities in this reporting year following the previous impact of the ongoing fall-out from the worldwide Covid pandemic, and this is reflected in this Annual Trustees Report. We continue to be amazed and humbled by the encouragement received from others, demonstrated in both practical and prayerful support. To the people who have participated or supported the building and humanitarian efforts, we owe a debt of gratitude that we can never repay. To any volunteers who have accompanied our trustees on the various encouragement visits to we are grateful for your company as travelling companions and your Christian encouragements shared with the people, that we engaged with, in the countries visited.

Montenegro

For the period of the report, we maintained contact with several mission partners in Montenegro. Financial support was sent to a few people who serve in Podgorica, the capital city. A husband-and-wife team from the Upper Room church in Podgorica relocated to Kotor, Montenegro to help establish a new outreach in that area. We became aware that finances were required. We made the need known to several larger charities in the UK and managed to secure a financial support package for this couple.

The Venue, Northern Ireland

In reporting year 2022-23 SSM was gifted the use of a 3-storey commercial building in Broughshane Street, Ballymena. To determine the use of the building and for governance purposes, a Steering Committee was established. This is made up of like-minded professionals who discussed, agreed, vetted and implemented a programme designed to benefit the local community. Some improvements were made to the building layout, the heating system and the electrics, then it was renamed and rebranded "The Venue".

In the third year, the following lists some of the activities undertaken at The Venue during 2024/2025:

Outreach at Balmoral Show, Northern Ireland – Organised by GLI and supported by SSM, amongst others. 15 - 18 May 2024

Over four days the Balmoral Show took place with assistance was given to the work of ‘Gospel Literature Ireland’ (GLI) at the Show. With over 120,000 people attending, from the exhibition stand used for the GLI outreach, many thousands of ‘John3:16’ gospel shopping bags were accepted by attendees to the show.

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Hundreds of children received free items containing the Word of God, and numerous other people received Bibles, literature and CD’s.

Encouragement Trip to Croatia. May 2024

A visit was made to Croatia in May 2024. The purpose of this visit was to encourage a couple who have established a church in Split. We had the opportunity to visit the church and to gain a better understanding of the challenges and needs of the people serving there. Financial support was provided to the people leading the work.

Outreach at National Ploughing Championships, Ratheniska, Ireland – Organised by GLI and supported by SSM, amongst others. 17 – 19 September 2024

Over three days two trustees gave assistance to the work of ‘Gospel Literature Ireland’ (GLI) at the National Ploughing Championships, Ratheniska, County Laois. With over 244,000 people attending, from the exhibition stand used for the GLI outreach, over 17,000 John3:16 gospel shopping bags were accepted by attendees to the show. Over 1400 children received free items containing the Word of God, and numerous other people received Bibles, literature and CD’s. A good number of reply cards and text message have been received by GLI from people seeking further evangelical literature. SSM was privileged to support and encourage missionaries working in Republic of Ireland engaged in the advancement of the Christian faith.

Support for Armenia and Moldova

During the year goods were obtained and stored in our storage unit and then pallets were shipped to England for onward travel both countries.

Bible Teaching Trip to Bulgaria. 16 October – 21 October 2024

Over six days, teaching was undertaken with one specific local church in Bulgaria. This was a further visit following first contact in October 2023 and a further visit in March/April 2024. Well-attended Bible teaching seminars were held on Thursday and Friday evenings and Saturday and Sunday mornings. Across the ten hours of Bible teaching, around 160+ Christians were encouraged with the scriptures.

Bible Conference and Seminars in Yerevan, Armenia – 12[th] -18[th] March 2025

Visits were made to support local believers in various Assemblies and each day over 100 believers attended the teaching meetings held in a city centre hotel conference suite. The Shohik Charity Building was also visited and time spent with the team of workers and members of their church encouraging them and fellowshipping over a meal. Financial gifts were left towards their ongoing work among the poor.

Serbia

Although no personal visits were made to Serbia in this reporting year, ongoing Youth Ministry in Backi Petrovac, Serbia was given Financial support.

Gospel Radio Ministry – Republic of Ireland

Financial support was raised for an established individual to help him prepare and broadcast a series of Gospel Radio programmes on nine separate radio stations in the Republic of Ireland.

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The preparation is undertaken in a recording studio in Castlebar, Co Mayo. CDs of the recordings are checked before being posted to each of the nine radio stations for onward transmission across the airwaves.

General:

Humanitarian Work

Our base for the humanitarian work since 2016 is in premises granted by a local business man from Lurgan, County Armagh. We are grateful for this facility and they are adequate for storing non-perishable materials but not suitable for sorting and loading shipping containers. Further impact has been the sharp increases seen generally in shipping costs since 2020 which has curtailed this activity considerably over this reporting year. We pray for guidance on the way forward with respect to the humanitarian side of our charity work.

During the year 6 Euro pallets of clothing and other material were shipped to CMIAID base in England and then containerised for onward travel to missionaries in Moldova. These consignments were used in the Bethesda Christian Centre building project. In March 2025, one euro pallet of presents for the local Armenian ministries mission staff and food to be distributed to those in the community who are in poverty or in need was sent out.

We continue to play a part in assisting the relief work by providing food and clothing to refugees in Moldova, Armenian and in Ukraine where we helped to directly support a number of families during the worst of the conflict.

Trips were made to different parts of Northern Ireland throughout the year to collect materials, tools, equipment, clothing and donations for the container work. We are grateful to all who contributed to this work. As we do not own our own goods vehicles, rental vehicles were used to facilitate these movements as necessary.

Restrictions on who can benefit:

There are no restrictions within our policies on the designated categories of who our charity helps. The only restrictions trustees may impose tend to be financially based, reflecting the fact we are a small charity with limited funding.

Harm:

The purposes of our charity should not lead to any harm. Our organisation does not work directly with children or vulnerable people.

Our alternative premises provided for our humanitarian work are adequate for storing nonperishable materials but not suitable for storing more fragile items or sorting and loading shipping containers. This has curtailed the humanitarian activity.

Further impact has been the sharp increases seen generally in shipping costs and this has impacted upon this work during 2024-25. This may have an adverse impact upon those who receive practical support through this part of our activities as a means to receive specialised building project materials and alleviating their poverty or need and we pray they receive such support from other sources to compensate.

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Private Benefit:

A private benefit flowing from our purpose may arise as the result of occasional gifts of money passed on to us or be made by us, to named foreign missionaries, pastors or church members for personal living expenses. Many of these individuals do not receive a regular income from their church membership or a salary from a secular job but rather ‘live by faith.’ The Trust considers this is incidental and necessary because the continued presence of these individuals in the countries, directly contributes towards achieving the charity’s purposes. The grant or gift of money for any of the charity’s purposes must be approved by a quorum of trustees.

A private benefit flowing from our purpose may arise for a church pastor and family occupying as tenants the house attached to the church in Red Coast village, Macedonia. The Trust considers this is incidental and necessary because the continued presence of the pastor and family in the area, directly contributes towards achieving the charity’s purposes of advancing the Christian faith for the benefit of the general public. It is the trustees understanding the church building and attached house will be controlled by FOUNDATION GALILEE BALKANS, a charitable organisation in Macedonia.

Signed on behalf of the trustees:

Val Stewart Chairman

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Treasurer’s Report for the period 06 April 24 to 05 April 25

We acknowledge that as a charity we do not generate any income from our own assets. The Trust relies on free-will offerings and gifts donated to us by interested individuals, churches, other charitable organisations, recognised grant making bodies and reclaim of gift aid. This is reflected in our accounts. We have no intention of using professional fundraising consultants.

We wish to express our thanks to everyone that made a donation or gift to us. It is truly ‘an offering made unto the Lord.’ We desire that the Lord Jesus Christ will bless your generosity to us and those we seek to serve in other countries.

We acknowledge the commitment of the trustees and volunteers to the work of the trust, displayed in their willingness to refund their eligible expenses and travel costs back. This has allowed a greater percentage of our funding to be directed to the activities of the Trust, allowing us to minimise our running and administration costs.

The Treasurers report accounts for the period 6[th] April 2024 to 5[th] April 2025 (a copy of the accounts for this period has been attached)

The following is a summary for that period:

We own no physical assets nor physical liabilities. Detail of the sources of income and payments made is contained in the SSM Charity Account and “The Venue” Sub Account.

Accounts completed by David Brown (Treasurer.)

Signed on behalf of the trustees:

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Val Stewart Chairman of Trustees

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