Please read about the individual missions when you get a few minutes spare. You will meet the people named on these pages who are our contact points in each of the missions. They will show you what a difference these missions are making to the lives of people in the world that are in so much need of love, medical care, support and education. The people we have named as contact points for these missions have dedicated their lives to the relief of suffering of the poor, sick and abandoned. In taking this path they have willingly given up the comparatively healthy, comfortable, peaceful and affluent environment in which we live. There must be days when they are in despair, either because of the lack of funds to help others, because they feel alone, weak and abandoned or because they feel overwhelmed by the problems facing them. They have a day to day struggle to improve the life quality and opportunities of others and even to save lives. We can help these people to help those who are in so much need and we can do this in four simple ways:
- By making financial and material donations to their mission.
- By praying for them and those in their care.
- By communicating with them.
- By making others, especially our young people, aware of our parish family mission.
Let us have a closer look at these four simple ways.
By making financial and material donations to their mission
Each of the missions under the umbrella of ‘St Joseph’s Epsom: Faith in Action’ depends entirely on charitable donations to be able to support the poor, sick and needy. Roughly 50p per day will supply food and medication and maintain the village infrastructure for one resident of the SSSMILE Village. Yes, that is 50p per day! A small amount of money such as this will have a similar effect on the lives of the poor, sick and abandoned in each of our new missions. Put another way, for the cost of a pint of beer or an exotic coffee, six people can be supported for one day in these missions. A small and regular donation, let us say one pint of beer and one exotic coffee each month, will have a significant beneficial impact on the lives of people who are in so much need. And please remember that every penny donated will get to the mission for which it is intended. We will give you the opportunity to make regular donations, no matter how small, and we will also have one off collections and fund raising events. In time we will try and set up a local infrastructure to collect clothes and other items that may be useful for the people that these missions support.
By praying for them and those in their care
The people who work in these missions need all the help that they can get to continue their wonderful work. There must be days when they feel overwhelmed by their work and the needs of those for whom they care. We will have regular Masses said for these missions and we will remember them during Mass. Please pray for the people who work in these missions and for the people in their care. Please also ask your family and friends to offer prayers for them.
By communicating with them
Communicating with the people in these missions will remind them that they are not forgotten. This will give them great spiritual and psychological support and help to boost their morale. The people who work in these missions have access to e mail and telephones but this access is intermittent. Most of us here in the UK have broadband access to the internet, but please remember that our contact person in each of these missions will not have this luxury. Neither do they have the luxury of a 24/7 electricity supply or a ready to hand telephone system. We will regularly communicate with these missions on a parish basis, but we don’t want to flood them with a series of communications which will cause them huge problems in finding the time to reply. We hope to get our children to communicate with the adults and children that these missions are working so hard to support. Communication, which will take the form of words and pictures, will also allow us to understand the practical benefits that our parish mission is bringing to these people. We will be able to see the changes that we are directly making to the lives of the people for whom these missions run.
By making others, especially our young people, aware of our parish family mission
The more people that know about ‘St Joseph’s Epsom: Faith in Action’ the better. Through our mission we are all trying to make a direct impact for good through missions in selected places in our world. We know the people who work in these missions, they have walked among us – and there are thousands like them all over the world. If our small parish family can make a direct impact for good in far off places then others may be encouraged to do the same. And it doesn’t have to come from Catholic parishes, it can be from other religious groups or any organisational unit: individual offices, hospitals, schools, factories, retail branches, dental practices, bank branches (careful!) … the list is endless.