e ur th f le yo ts s o op w ac nd pe ho p a g e im us un Se ort tho yo pp of nd su es a liv ren ild ch
Prayers – week beginning October 4 Sunday 4 Engage, an SU local mission partner in Woking, will be taking primary school assemblies this week. Their team of volunteers has changed. Pray that the new members will settle into the team, enjoy the experience and be able to communicate effectively, and that through them the children will catch something of God’s love.
Monday 5 A Sticky Faith event will be taking place in Malvern tonight with another in Hereford on Wednesday and a third in Buckingham on 19 October. Please pray that these events, put on in conjunction with Urban Saints, and designed to help churches explore ways of helping young people to develop lasting faith, will bring new energy to youth work in many churches.
Thursday 8 – Your prayers Supporter prayer: My prayer is that Oliver and Finn may come to know Jesus and that their parents will be accepting and open to Christians sharing the love of Jesus with them.
Friday 9 Connect Kent, a residential holiday for children in years 6–8, takes place this weekend. It gives an opportunity for leaders who come with their groups to build closer relationships with the children and to enjoy a fun and creative environment in which they can meet with God in a larger group. Please pray for Sam Fowler, Matt Ager and Sarah Smart as they form the overall leadership team.
financial review
Tuesday 6 Today sees the start of the Prayer Fellowship Conference, attended mainly by retired members of staff and other older friends of the movement. Pray that as they gather, with a wealth of SU history, they will be inspired by what God is doing today. Pray, too, for the SU Council as it meets at the weekend, that God will guide discussions and that this will help to set the direction for future ministry.
Wednesday 7 SU Vanuatu’s campsite is being rebuilt after being partly destroyed by Hurricane Pam in March. Pray for wisdom for the SU Vanuatu council members during this time and that the work on the campsite will progress well. Give thanks for the encouragement of the visit in July of a team from SU New South Wales who joined local teams in visiting schools and communities to proclaim God’s love. 14
Saturday 10 Shine is an Urban Saints event for girls aged 11–18 which will be held on December 4–6 in Staffordshire. Hannah Legge, Development Worker in the Midlands Region, is part of the leadership team. Today the team will meet for training. Pray that as they prepare for this event they will have a clear sense of God’s vision and that he will prepare them for all they will do in December.
Mission report Highlights from the year ended 31 March 2015
Thank you
As we look back on another amazing year for Scripture Union, I want to personally take this opportunity to say thank you. It’s only because of the support and prayers of people like you that the mission of Scripture Union has such an impact on the lives of so many children and young people. Thank you! As you look over this short summary of the 2014/15 year, I think you’ll agree that the impact of SU’s mission to introduce children and young people to Jesus has been huge. Imagine what we can achieve together in this next year – exciting, isn’t it?!
Tim Hastie-Smith National Director, Scripture Union
financial review
The BIG picture
Over 200,000
children and young people heard about Jesus through face-to-face SU ministry this year. Thank you for your help in making this possible!
Growing partnerships This year we worked with even more local mission partners to ensure that the good news was shared:
67 SU local mission partners 5 more partnerships than in 2013/14 15 new partnerships in development by
the end of the year
Volunteering Thank you to all our amazing volunteers for their faithful and selfless work!
3,543
known opportunities for volunteer involvement Equivalent to 7,943 working weeks or 169 full-time staff
International Scripture Union is an international mission movement, helping to share the good news of the gospel right across the world…
130
Scripture Union movements working in 120 countries
£463,000 given by and through
SU England and Wales to support other movements
We put the Christian message into children’s hands
Thanks to you, we were able to create and share great resources with children who may not otherwise have had the opportunity to hear and relate to the gospel message.
Christmas and Easter
40,000 children enjoyed
Christmas presentations given by our local mission partners (10,000 more than last year)
schools across England and Wales (80 more than for Christmas 2013)
That’s 95,000 children who were introduced to the good news of Jesus this Christmas (60,000 more than last year!)
55,000 disadvantaged children
42,480 copies of the Easter
310 Christmas presentations in
received a Christmas Bible Comic in their family’s food box
Bible Comic were given to children at Easter presentations in schools
It’s Your Move is a Scripture Union resource that helps children take that scary step to secondary school. Assemblies and presentations take place in many schools up and down the country for children in their final term of primary school, and children are given a copy of It’s Your Move to take home with them.
169,756 copies of It’s Your Move were distributed this year!
Thank you
As we look back on another amazing year for Scripture Union, I want to personally take this opportunity to say thank you. It’s only because of the support and prayers of people like you that the mission of Scripture Union has such an impact on the lives of so many children and young people. Thank you! As you look over this short summary of the 2014/15 year, I think you’ll agree that the impact of SU’s mission to introduce children and young people to Jesus has been huge. Imagine what we can achieve together in this next year – exciting, isn’t it?!
Tim Hastie-Smith National Director, Scripture Union
financial review
The BIG picture
Over 200,000
children and young people heard about Jesus through face-to-face SU ministry this year. Thank you for your help in making this possible!
Growing partnerships This year we worked with even more local mission partners to ensure that the good news was shared:
67 SU local mission partners 5 more partnerships than in 2013/14 15 new partnerships in development by
the end of the year
Volunteering Thank you to all our amazing volunteers for their faithful and selfless work!
3,543
known opportunities for volunteer involvement Equivalent to 7,943 working weeks or 169 full-time staff
International Scripture Union is an international mission movement, helping to share the good news of the gospel right across the world…
130
Scripture Union movements working in 120 countries
£463,000 given by and through
SU England and Wales to support other movements
We put the Christian message into children’s hands
Thanks to you, we were able to create and share great resources with children who may not otherwise have had the opportunity to hear and relate to the gospel message.
Christmas and Easter
40,000 children enjoyed
Christmas presentations given by our local mission partners (10,000 more than last year)
schools across England and Wales (80 more than for Christmas 2013)
That’s 95,000 children who were introduced to the good news of Jesus this Christmas (60,000 more than last year!)
55,000 disadvantaged children
42,480 copies of the Easter
310 Christmas presentations in
received a Christmas Bible Comic in their family’s food box
Bible Comic were given to children at Easter presentations in schools
It’s Your Move is a Scripture Union resource that helps children take that scary step to secondary school. Assemblies and presentations take place in many schools up and down the country for children in their final term of primary school, and children are given a copy of It’s Your Move to take home with them.
169,756 copies of It’s Your Move were distributed this year!
We meet children where they are, reaching the unreached It’s a sad reality that many children aren’t in churches, but thanks to your support we’ve been able to develop a range of schools and community-based ministries that take the gospel to children where they are.
Sports ministry Our sports ministry really started to take off during 2014/15. Scripture Union’s dedicated Sports Minister, Bob Milton, grew his ministry:
Over 125 children reached every week through physical education classes in three primary schools 50 young people reached every week at three local Multi-Use
Games Areas (MUGAs)
By the end of the year, 2 additional sports ministry projects were also getting underway in other parts of the country
Schools work
8 schools development workers provided training to around 1,000 people to help them improve their schools work 125,000 (estimated) children and young people reached over the academic year via 67 local mission partners 6,000 schools groups now registered on our SchoolsLive website – that’s over 100,000 children who’ve learnt more
about the Bible as a result of this free resource
2083 school children attended a Lifepath event and learnt
more about the Christian faith through the story of a famous historical Christian
Missions
21 missions run with 4,105 estimated guests 721 volunteers helped ensure these great gospel sharing opportunities were possible
We help churches develop healthy children’s work
Thanks to your support, we were able to continue to train and equip children’s and youth workers and produce helpful resources to make their crucial job as easy as possible…
LightLive Over
the last year there were 11,091 active groups on LightLive, that engaged with an estimated 119,000 children who benefited from fun and engaging Bible-based sessions.
Light During the year,
over 170,000 children’s activity magazines were distributed
2,363 copies of the Mega Makers! and Polar Explorers holiday club programmes were ordered to help churches run effective and exciting holiday clubs 9 church and community
Development workers built relationships with over 500 churches across England and Wales. Around 50 church relationships were made this year alone
8,000 copies of the Light Party Pack were distributed to help churches plan simple yet effective Light Parties as a Christian alternative to Halloween
We meet children where they are, reaching the unreached It’s a sad reality that many children aren’t in churches, but thanks to your support we’ve been able to develop a range of schools and community-based ministries that take the gospel to children where they are.
Sports ministry Our sports ministry really started to take off during 2014/15. Scripture Union’s dedicated Sports Minister, Bob Milton, grew his ministry:
Over 125 children reached every week through physical education classes in three primary schools 50 young people reached every week at three local Multi-Use
Games Areas (MUGAs)
By the end of the year, 2 additional sports ministry projects were also getting underway in other parts of the country
Schools work
8 schools development workers provided training to around 1,000 people to help them improve their schools work 125,000 (estimated) children and young people reached over the academic year via 67 local mission partners 6,000 schools groups now registered on our SchoolsLive website – that’s over 100,000 children who’ve learnt more
about the Bible as a result of this free resource
2083 school children attended a Lifepath event and learnt
more about the Christian faith through the story of a famous historical Christian
Missions
21 missions run with 4,105 estimated guests 721 volunteers helped ensure these great gospel sharing opportunities were possible
We help churches develop healthy children’s work
Thanks to your support, we were able to continue to train and equip children’s and youth workers and produce helpful resources to make their crucial job as easy as possible…
LightLive Over
the last year there were 11,091 active groups on LightLive, that engaged with an estimated 119,000 children who benefited from fun and engaging Bible-based sessions.
Light During the year,
over 170,000 children’s activity magazines were distributed
2,363 copies of the Mega Makers! and Polar Explorers holiday club programmes were ordered to help churches run effective and exciting holiday clubs 9 church and community
Development workers built relationships with over 500 churches across England and Wales. Around 50 church relationships were made this year alone
8,000 copies of the Light Party Pack were distributed to help churches plan simple yet effective Light Parties as a Christian alternative to Halloween
Financial review
We help young people to develop faith that lasts a lifetime Unfortunately, many young people give up on their faith as they enter adulthood, but we’re working hard to change that. Thanks to your support, in 2014/15 we were able to provide events, training opportunities, resources and practical help to keep them enthused in their faith…
Holidays
Along with the dedicated support of our volunteers and those who pray regularly for the mission work of Scripture Union, financial support is essential in ensuring we are able to continue to reach out effectively with the good news of Jesus. Here’s an overview of the income and expenditure for the 2014/15 financial year. Thanks to all of you who were able to support us in this way. Publishing sales £1,840,000
Donations and gifts £3,502,000
Income £7,381,000
Publishing Publishing conventional Face-to-face digital ministry £1,531,000 £1,645,000 £2,865,000
Expenditure £7,085,000
Scripture Union holidays are the perfect opportunity for children and young people to get away from home, have a great time and get to know more about the God who loves them.
67 holidays run with 1,924 guests 1,005 volunteers involved
Training leaders of the future
18 young people completed the 10:2 Leadership Development programme, finding out more about their calling 6 young people attended the Training in Action holiday and developed their skills in youth work
25 Sticky Faith training events ran, providing children’s and youth workers with creative ways of keeping young people in church
Other including Holidays and investments: missions Legacies £302,000 £572,000 £1,165,000
Cost of International generating Governance activities funds: £514,000 £56,000 £474,000
For every £1 spent on the costs of fundraising, £9.94 was received from donations and legacies.
£
£5
££ ££
If you would like to support our mission with a regular gift, to allow us to plan ahead and do more to introduce children to Jesus, turn the page. This is a summary of Scripture Union’s financial activities for the year ended 31 March 2015, extracted from the full Trustees’ Report and Financial Statements which have been audited. A full statement of our financial activities can be found in our Trustees’ Annual Report and Financial Statements, a copy of which can be obtained by contacting Scripture Union on 01908 856135.
Financial review
We help young people to develop faith that lasts a lifetime Unfortunately, many young people give up on their faith as they enter adulthood, but we’re working hard to change that. Thanks to your support, in 2014/15 we were able to provide events, training opportunities, resources and practical help to keep them enthused in their faith…
Holidays
Along with the dedicated support of our volunteers and those who pray regularly for the mission work of Scripture Union, financial support is essential in ensuring we are able to continue to reach out effectively with the good news of Jesus. Here’s an overview of the income and expenditure for the 2014/15 financial year. Thanks to all of you who were able to support us in this way. Publishing sales £1,840,000
Donations and gifts £3,502,000
Income £7,381,000
Publishing Publishing conventional Face-to-face digital ministry £1,531,000 £1,645,000 £2,865,000
Expenditure £7,085,000
Scripture Union holidays are the perfect opportunity for children and young people to get away from home, have a great time and get to know more about the God who loves them.
67 holidays run with 1,924 guests 1,005 volunteers involved
Training leaders of the future
18 young people completed the 10:2 Leadership Development programme, finding out more about their calling 6 young people attended the Training in Action holiday and developed their skills in youth work
25 Sticky Faith training events ran, providing children’s and youth workers with creative ways of keeping young people in church
Other including Holidays and investments: missions Legacies £302,000 £572,000 £1,165,000
Cost of International generating Governance activities funds: £514,000 £56,000 £474,000
For every £1 spent on the costs of fundraising, £9.94 was received from donations and legacies.
£
£5
££ ££
If you would like to support our mission with a regular gift, to allow us to plan ahead and do more to introduce children to Jesus, turn the page. This is a summary of Scripture Union’s financial activities for the year ended 31 March 2015, extracted from the full Trustees’ Report and Financial Statements which have been audited. A full statement of our financial activities can be found in our Trustees’ Annual Report and Financial Statements, a copy of which can be obtained by contacting Scripture Union on 01908 856135.
Let’s do more to reach children for Jesus Many generations have benefited from the ministry of Scripture Union. Will you help us to reach more children and young people with the gospel by setting up a regular donation? A regular gift enables SU to plan ahead as we share the good news of Jesus.
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Why I’m leaving a legacy Martin Nunn from Hayes, Kent, first encountered Scripture Union in his teens. Now in his eighties, he reflects on a life inspired and impacted by SU. I was brought up by Christian parents and became a Christian in my late teens. Around this time I was recommended to use SU Bible reading notes to help me read God’s Word every day. This I’ve done for well over 60 years, and my daily spiritual ‘feed’ has sustained and delighted me throughout my life, right up to today. I still use Encounter With God. In 1956, while in my early twenties, a Christian friend named Alan Galpin introduced me to beach missions and I spent three happy summers in Elie and Crail along the Fife Coast: ‘It’s worth experiencing if you’ve never done anything like that!’ he told me. He was right. People used to come, take a boarding house and stay for a month. They were lovely family events – the same families came back year after year, partly for the golf, and partly for the beach mission! I remember making and decorating massive beach pulpits, rushing down with our shovels and spades once the tide had gone out. I’ve kept in touch with some of the lads I befriended there, and some have gone on to become Christian leaders (one, David Arnott, even became Moderator of the Church of Scotland!) Those Scottish missions took place in July and when I was no longer able to return there, following my becoming a teacher in southern England, I transferred my involvement to SU’s Southwold mission for several years. The fellowship and camaraderie on those missions was a real joy to experience, and so was the privilege of introducing youngsters to their Saviour. I’m so thankful and grateful for those summers, working alongside other members of
the team. It really helped my own faith to grow. My career was in education and I led a flourishing Christian Union. I always introduced SU notes and, outside of school, I also helped run youth groups for 30 years in church. I have kept in touch with many of these young people and it is a constant joy to know that seeds sown many years ago continue to bear fruit today. I’m leaving a legacy to Scripture Union because SU has been faithful to its remit to spread the gospel, particularly among young people, and to advance the reading of God’s Word. That’s the important thing for me. To get to know God, you’ve got to get to know his Word – in both senses! – and from personal experience I know that SU is a movement which helps people do exactly that.
Leave a legacy that lasts ‘… we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done’ Psalm 78:4. After making provision for their family and loved ones, many lifelong Scripture Union supporters choose to leave a gift to our work in their Will. To find out more, visit www.scriptureunion.org.uk/legacy 15