150 + Backpacks are ready for pick-up by Mary’s Meals to be sent to their projects in Malawi. One of our favourite projects it brings great joy to the children to receive the packs as they contain uniforms, school supplies, toiletries and other items we take for granted that are a real blessing to them and a great encouragement. Thanks to everyone who gave items and helped with the packing ! God Bless You.
Summary :- Total Raised £ 3900 , much of which is thanks to the recycling which keeps getting bigger as more people get involved ; scrap from plumbers boosted us this year too, a big thank you to all our collectors. This year £2100 went to the Littleway Association for a solar water pump and a pig farm, £1000 to Sudan to a camp for internally displaced families ; £435 to the Laura Vicuna Foundation in the Philippines for their work with the poor, particularly young girls; £300 to Mary’s meals along with 145 backpacks for school children in Malawi, £200 to the Good Counsel network in London who save the lives of unborn babies , £400 to Asia Harvest for Bibles for China as the regime tightens its grip on Christianity once more and £500 for CSI slave redemption work in South Sudan . God Bless you all.
Tanzania & Malawi—(via Littleway Association) – Two of their projects were given support this year, £1000 going to Tanzania for a solar powered pump and well . Currently a small community of sisters is having to hire donkeys to bring water every day from far afield so this will enable them to pump their own clean water. The other project in Malawi received £100 to buy pigs ! The community is starting a pig farm as a means of earning income so they can look after the increasing number of Aids orphans who come to their door.
Asia Harvest—£400 was sent for the Bibles for China project which has sent more than 10 million bibles for new believers all over China. As the communist government continues its intense persecution of the churches there, knocking their churches down, arresting Christian leaders and those gathering for prayer, this is one way to help them spread the faith in spite of the dangers and challenges.
South Sudan:- £500 was sent to Christian Solidarity International for their slave redemption programme which we have been supporting for almost 20 years now. It’s a slow process to bring everybody home and give them a fresh start but imagine the joy of freedom and being reunited with friends and family !
Sudan – £1000 was sent to a refugee camp. A Sister there says:- Food was distributed to the elderly, the blind, the lame, children and those living on the margins of life. Numbers continued to increase in the following months as there was a looming fear of more fighting and so more people joined the camp. The sense that someone cares about their welfare has had an effect on people’s mental well-being as many people suffer from a sense of hopelessness and despair. This support has enabled people to cope better with stress and trauma. People have also cultivated a sense of equal distribution of food and of helping each other as the beneficiaries are involved in food distribution.”
Backpack Appeal/ Mary’s Meals:- This year another 145 backpacks were sent and £300 for their Mary’s Meals project. These contain an array of useful items for the school year like shoes, t-shirts, skirts, trousers as well as pens, exercise books, soap, toothpaste, & brushes, etc
Laura Vicuna Foundation £435 was sent to help with the Salesian sisters work with children. As well as the orphanage for abused girls they also work with young people from poor communities to lift them up and follow their dreams.
Good Counsel Network £200 sent to help further the prolife work in London and save more babies from abortion and their mothers from a lifetime of regret.
December 2nd 2018 Medjugorje : –
Our Lady appeared to Mirjana Soldo and gave the following message:
Dear children,
When you come to me, as to a mother, with a pure and open heart, know that I am listening to you, encouraging you, consoling you, and above all, interceding for you with my Son. I know that you desire to have a strong faith and to express it in the right way. What my Son asks of you is to have a sincere, strong and deep faith – then every way in which you express it is proper. Faith is a most wonderful mystery which is kept in the heart. It is between the Heavenly Father and all of His children; it is recognized by the fruits and by the love which one has towards all of God’s creatures. Apostles of my love, my children, have trust in my Son. Help all of my children to come to know His love. You are my hope – you who strive to sincerely love my Son. In the name of love, for your salvation, according to the will of the Heavenly Father and through my Son, I am here among you. Apostles of my love, along with prayer and sacrifice, may your hearts be illuminated with the love and the light of my Son. May that light and love illuminate all those whom you meet and bring them back to my Son. I am with you. In a special way, I am alongside your shepherds. With my motherly love I illuminate and encourage them, that with the hands blessed by my Son, they may bless the entire world. Thank you.
* Latest News * An avenue has been opened to help those starving in Yemen, more news on that in our next report :- contact us for information on how to donate for Yemen.
Also:– 145 back packs are ready for despatch to Mary’s Meals for distribution to school children in Malawi. A splendid project which goes well with their feeding program in the schools enabling children to stay in school and have a brighter future.
Our 25th Anniversary Newsletter is now complete and available for download Click here
Our distribution this year is mostly to Sudan, both slave redemption to CSI and also for food aid via the Little way Association and the missionaries they support. Regular donations continue to LVF in the Philippines, the Pro-life group Good Counsel Network in the UK, Asia Harvest and their ‘Bibles for China’ project. The backpack appeal is also still going strong.
Its been a long journey and yet the time has gone rather quickly. Many of our volunteers have graduated into eternity and become intercessors, and new ones arrive to pick up the gauntlet. Thanks be to God for His providence and the privilege of serving Him in those in need.
A good Counsel Network Video Click here
On February 13th 2018 there will be a thanksgiving Mass at St Alphonsus Church, Ayres Rd, Old Trafford, Manchester at 9 am. The Icon of Our Lady Queen of Peace will be there for the day too.
Marking the 25th Anniversary of operations, there will also be the Rosary and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. A display of old photos and reports will be on show and the chance for old friends to meet up again.
Many people have joined this 25 year pilgrimage, some walking alongside for a while, others for the long haul. Many continue as intercessors now in eternity. Each has played their own unique role to make up the whole.
It is a partnership between our brothers & sisters in need around the world and those with the compassion to help them; somehow both receiving what they need.
For many it is also a spiritual journey which has enriched many lives. I hope all who can will join in this thanksgiving to God for 25 fruitful years and the privilege to be a part of it.
Here is Our Lady’s message from Medjugorje 25 years ago February 1993 :-
February 25, 1993
“Dear children, today I bless you with my Motherly blessing and invite you all to conversion. I wish that each of you decides himself for a change of life and that each of you works more in the church, not through words and thoughts but through example, so that your life may be a joyful testimony for Jesus. You cannot say that you are converted, because your life must become a daily conversion. In order to understand what you have to do, little children, pray and God will give you what you concretely have to do, and where you have to change. I am with you and place you all under my mantle. Thank you for having responded to my call.”
– St. Augustine
Thank you for loving your brothers and sisters in need for another year. February 2018 will mark our 25 year anniversary so a report will follow and a date for your diary for a day of prayer of thanksgiving. Have a blessed Christmas.
Medjugorje International Relief Team
Our Lady’s Message Given to Mirjana Soldo in Medjugorje on December 2, 2017
“Dear children, I turn to you as your mother, the mother of the just, the mother of those who love and suffer, the mother of those who are holy.
My children, you too can be holy – this depends on you. Those who are holy are those who immeasurably love the Heavenly Father, those who love Him above all.
Therefore, my children, always strive to be better. If you strive to be good you can be holy even though you may not think so of yourselves. If you think that you are good, you are not humble, and arrogance distances you from holiness. In this peaceless world full of threats, your hands, apostles of my love, should be extended in prayer and mercy.
And to me, my children, give the gift of the rosary, the roses which I love so much. My roses are your prayers pronounced with the heart and not only recited with the lips. My roses are your acts of prayer, faith and love. When my Son was little, he said to me that my children would be numerous and that they would bring me many roses. I did not comprehend Him. Now I know that you are those children who are bringing me roses when, above all, you love my Son, when you pray with the heart, when you help the poorest. Those are my roses. That is the faith which makes everything in life be done through love, not knowing arrogance, and always ready to forgive; never judging, always striving to understand one’s brother.
Therefore, apostles of my love, pray for those who do not know how to love, for those who do not love you, for those who have done evil to you, for those who have not come to know the love of my Son. My children, I ask this of you because, remember, to pray means to love and to forgive.
Thank you.”
*Stop Press* *****- as of December 7th, Medjugorje is now an official place of pilgrimage, pilgrimages from parishes & dioceses can now proceed . Previously only private ones were permitted so a big movement towards full Church approval.****
A friend of ours who works as a volunteer with CARITAS visiting the holding cells of a Police Station; (where there can be up to 150 prisoners at a time in a space about the size of your living room) has asked for some help. Because of the war on drugs, the number of prisoners has swelled dramatically as has the length of time to process them and take them for trial or prisons. The overcrowding coupled with heat, poor ventilation and lack of water has led to many deaths from dehydration and suffocation in recent months. Diarrhea is a contributing factor as is a lack of water supply. Infections and skin diseases are also widespread. Prisoners are the bottom rung of society here and there are no resources for them.
The CARITAS group is permitted to visit once a week and they bring the prisoners food and pray with them. Occasionally people give money for water and basic medicines to treat the prisoners as best they can. The cost of a weekly ‘first aid kit’ consisting of things like:- Iodine/ antiseptic, hydrogen peroxide for cleaning wounds, plasters, cotton balls, diatabs and other simple medicines would be about £8-10 a week. Perhaps another couple of pounds for a container of purified water.
We are appealing for a prayer group or family to come up with that amount per week to help these prisoners. It could really be life and death for them. So regardless of what they have done to get there please consider helping. …Address and bank details below .. Phone:-0161-881-5664…
By bank transfer to our account:
Account Name: Manchester Medjugorje Appeal
Sort code 01-01-97
Account No : 31147658
Nat West Bank,
Chorlton- cum- Hardy Branch,
438 Barlow Moor Rd,
Chorlton -Cum- Hardy
Manchester
M21 0NW
UK
Or send Cheques payable to Manchester Medjugorje Appeal
Medjugorje International Relief
c/o 13 Erlington Ave
Old Trafford
Manchester
M16 0FN
UK
Tel: 0161-881-5664
