Dear Parishioners,

The Ebola appeal will remain open for the next couple of weeks. Donations may be left in the collection boxes at the back of church, though notes should be handed in directly.

Now, news from two parishioners supporting charities.

TRAFFIK JAM
The Traffik Jam concert was an enormous success with well over 200 in attendance and everyone thoroughly enjoying themselves. The concert made £2,211.00 for the Medaille Trust. A full report and pictures will appear on the Parish website. Thank you all, Anthony Brown

RAY OF LIGHT
In 2010 I visited Musami Mission in Zimbabwe, which has been run by the Jesuits since the 1920s. During my visit I was taken to the Mbare district of Harare, one of the most impoverished and violent districts of any city in the world. Amongst the multiple horrors I witnessed – most too gruelling to recount here – was a seven year old curled up in a doorway covered in polythene, two tiny sisters rummaging through refuse for scraps and a ten year old attempting to sell empty plastic bottles at the roadside with an infant on her hip and a toddler by the hand. These are the orphans of Africa’s AIDS epidemic. Every child’s face I looked into on that afternoon became the face of my son, or my nephew. I imagined the mothers of these children, dying in fear for their futures. Never before had the words ‘there but for the grace of God’ rung so true.
I have remained in touch with those I briefly worked with at Musami, one of whom was Patricia Vetutete. Patricia too had been shocked by what we witnessed in Mbare, but despite her own poverty, she decided to help. With my assistance and that of Jackie Robinson an experienced charity worker and my sister the charity Ray of Light was born.
The money we raise is delivered by Jesuit missions in Zimbabwe, and we have no overheads. Every penny we raise goes directly to the neediest children. It costs £160 to clothe, feed and educate a child for a year. Four of Ray of Light’s children have sponsors who will pay that sum until their education is complete. Sponsorship gives a child the confidence that she or he can complete his/her education, but any donation helps. Since 2011 it has put 17 street children in fulltime education. Ray of Light will be awarded registered charity status when it is able to £5,000 in a single year. As you leave church, please take a leaflet and for more information wvisit www.rayoflightafrica.org.
Thank you, Catherine Robinson.

                                                             Fr John