It is my privilege to bring this brief report to you on the occasion of our church's 203rd anniversary and our Pastor's 6th Anniversary. It is right that we take this opportunity to record our gratitude to our Heavenly Father for His continued care and gracious provision over this year. Undoubtedly such an opportunity should not only challenge us to meditate on our Lord's unfailing mercies but also to undertake serious self examination as individual believers and as a church, in the light of the clear exhortations of scripture and particularly a passage such as James.

It is of God's mercies alone that we have been blessed over this year with the consecutive and expository ministry of the Word. With God's help this has not only provided sound biblical teaching but has been practical in equipping the Lord's people for service. The ministry has also consistently brought home the challenge of the gospel to the unconverted.

We have to confess our own slowness of heart to respond to His Word as well as the deep yearning to see unbelievers convicted of their sin before a Holy God. We have been very encouraged to have several families in the church with little ones coming regularly to the services. It has been a great pleasure to have an opportunity every Lord's day morning for a short children's message and to see them so attentive.

Every other week this is taken by a member of the fellowship. It has been wonderful to see the variety of gifts that the Lord has given to His people. Recently the church agreed to change the time for the evening service from 6.30pm to 6.00pm. This has a variety of advantages for different age groups. It has particularly made it easier for families to bring children to the evening service.

As is the case in many of our churches we have brothers and sisters in the fellowship who have been called to go through a variety of trials. These have included major health issues as well as uncertainties in employment. Recently we have said farewell to Simon and Allie and their family as they have moved nearer to Allie's family. We miss their fellowship and pray that this move will be made a blessing to both the church there and to the family.

Our Sunday School work on a Sunday morning has been more encouraging this year. Our midweek children's meetings have known their ups and downs. Currently between 16 and 23 children attend Childrens' Hour on a Monday, about 6 attend the K.I.C. club on a Wednesday and about 16 teenagers attend the F.O.Y on a Friday evening. The increase of numbers on a Friday evening has been a real answer to prayer and despite the smaller numbers at K.I.C. club, they regularly report serious interest among this group in spiritual matters.

All the epilogues contain clear bible teaching. Our "Mums and Tots" group on a Wednesday morning is fully subscribed and we do ask prayer that the cooperative atmosphere among the parents continues during the story time. In a sense it has been encouraging to note that even bible talks aimed at the tots contain a spiritual offence to the unsaved.

The Ladies' meeting on a Thursday afternoon is increasingly well attended, and we pray that we will see more of our contacts coming into this meeting.

Last Christmas we were invited back to "David Coffer Court" sheltered housing complex, to lead a carol service for the elderly residents. We expect to return this year on Sunday afternoon 15^th December.

Last December 2000 gospel calendars and tracts were distributed in the local area just before Christmas, and again we hope to be doing the same this year. Apart from our hope that the displaying of Gods Word in many homes will bring light, we are also aware that many in the area look forward to this annual gift.

Recently we had a lady spend some time chatting to us and then sent us a card expressing her appreciation for this annual gift. She had attended the Sunday School during the war. She confessed to being far from God.

Most of the church were again involved in the Holiday Bible Club when once again we reached around 50 children. This year we were very ambitious! with three short dramatic presentations of Jungle Doctor stories followed by a gospel application of each story. We know of one child from another fellowship who was particularly spoken to by the message.

On this occasion we also remember the Lord's gracious provision of our pastor, Mark Gladwell. The welcome services were held on 12^th October 2002.

The Lord has been very gracious to our brother and to the church as he has been enabled by the Spirit to open up God's Word to us and to preach the gospel most clearly. We extend to Mark and Marilyn our love and our prayers for the coming year. We also thank sincerely other brethren who have ministered to us over the year.

As you will know, we have had contact with "Christian Camps in Wales" over many years. Several of our young men who now serve the Lord in the church were blessed when they attended these camps as young teenagers.

This year we were again involved in leadership in two of the camps. Several from the church attended as officers. Ralph once again was co leader on one camp and Daniel and Sarah assistant leaders on another.

On average between 60 and 80 young people attend each of the six camps during the summer holidays. We have rejoiced to hear of conversions and baptisms following these camps. Please pray for this coming year as plans are already well in hand.

In the past we have linked an evangelistic evening with our harvest weekend celebrations, but have not seen much response in the attendance of new people. This year we held a barbecue on a Saturday evening in the Spring purely as a bridge building exercise. We were very encouraged with a good number of new contacts and the opportunity to get to know some of the parents of the young people who attend the youth activities.

Subsequently, one lady came for some time to the meetings and initially showed some serious interest. We are still praying for her.

We value the fellowship of sister churches, and particularly your prayers for us as we commence another year of loving discipleship.

Website. www.free-grace.org.uk

In the last year we have continued to see significant monthly increases in the numbers of sermons downloaded from the church website. In the month of November 2007 we had 4,473 sermons downloaded from the site, this number continues to increase so that in October 2008 we had more than 12,000 sermons listened to from all around the world. This gives us a total of almost 180,000 sermons heard since we started making these sermons available in May 2001, more than 90,000 of these would be during the last year alone.

We continue to receive feedback from listeners around the world, most recently from a listener in Kentucky, USA commenting on a sermon on Election preached in 2004. This is encouraging as it demonstrates that messages which might otherwise have been long forgotten can continue to be of benefit to thousands of Christians across the globe long after they have been preached to the home congregation.

The information pages of the church site continue to provide a useful resource, and a point of contact with the church for many who live outside the local area.

All Geographic Locations where our sermons were heard during October 2008

CHINA .6002; USA: 5110; CANADA: 338; UNITED KINGDOM: 189; SINGAPORE: 76

KOREA, REPUBLIC OF.: 56 ;GERMANY: 37

PHILIPPINES: 29; AUSTRALIA: 27; BULGARIA: 26; SWEDEN: 21; FINLAND: 18; INDIA: 12; MALAYSIA: 12; NETHERLANDS: 12; SOUTH AFRICA: 11; KENYA..: 10; NIGERIA: 8; FRANCE: 6; ROMANIA: 6

MICRONESIA, FEDERATED STATES OF: 6; PARAGUAY: 5; TAIWAN: 5

SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES: 4; BELGIUM: 4; BAHRAIN: 4; MEXICO: 4; INDONESIA: 4; LEBANON: 4; JAPAN: 3; ITALY: 3; NORWAY: 3; NEW ZEALAND: 3; BRAZIL: 3; TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO: 3; SURINAME: 3; THAILAND: 2; PORTUGAL: 2UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: 2; VENEZUELA: 2; ZECH REPUBLIC: 2; DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: 2; HONG KONG: 2;