A few words about our Missionary work:

As a Catholic community, we realise that our basic purpose in life is to know, love and serve God to the best of our ability. This we cannot do without God's grace, which we obtain mainly through prayer and the sacraments. No substitutes, even the most attractive or gimmicky, can ever replace them.

We know we cannot love God, if we fail to love our neighbour. Here at Our Lady's perhaps our favourite way of fulfilling this duty is by helping the Church in general, and the poor in particular, in mission countries.

First of all by prayer. Members of our Rosary Crusade for the Missions let us know how many rosaries they have offered for their brothers and sisters in mission countries. It's two-way traffic. The members in mission countries do the same for us. For every one we say for them they say about ten for us!  A bargain!!!

At this end, whether Crusade members or not, we try to provide financial help ‘out there'. This goes directly to some of the mission countries (21 in all) visited by Fr. Davenport, our Parish Priest, over a period of 30 years. Every penny goes to the purpose for which it was given: no expenses, no administration costs whatsoever. Our chief projects are:

1) building churches—often with free local labour—where the cost is around £5/6,000;

2) building houses for the poor where this can be done for about £1,000;

3) providing burses for the training of native priests;

4) last, but by no means least, providing education for poor children in countries where their parents just cannot keep them in school for less than £50 a year - a sum so many simply cannot afford. For every £50 donated, benefactors receive a photograph of their sponsored child.

At the moment, the bulk of this aid goes to an old friend of Fr. Davenport, Sister Lydia Pardeller of the Franciscan Missionaries for Africa. With her little team in the slums of Nairobi she is providing schooling and a good daily meal for up to 900 children living otherwise in frightful poverty.

Should you wish to help with prayer or/and alms, do get in touch with Fr. Davenport by phone or e-mail as in the banner header above.

Not quite sure? A little hesitant? Read on . . . .

Father Davenport has commissioned a CD on which he has recorded some of his experiences during his many visits to the Missions with which he has involved himself. The CD is normally sold to raise funds for the Missions now that he is unable to visit them himself, but he has decided to make the tracks freely available for download in .mp3 format. This is in the hope that they will inspire yet more interest in the work taking place in the Missions and that this generous gesture will be spiritually profitable, and perhaps reap as abundant a donation harvest as a sales one.

Here are hyperlinks to the tracks as recorded on "La Guadalupana":

1.  Introduction
2.  Kenya
3.  Fr. Ferdy Fent & Fr. Jim Cronin
4.  Story of Guadalupe
5.  La Guadalupana
6.  Itaituba - Brazil Wildwest / Bishop
7.  Itaituba - Brazil Mission / Hymns
8.  Itaituba - Brazil / 53rd Jungle Battalion
9.  Sarawak
10. Uganda
11. Upendo - Love
12. Peru
13. Mexico
14. Santa Maria del Camino
15. Come with us, Mother.