Appeal for Catholic Missions by MattMackinlay

My name is Matt Mackinlay and I am a teacher here at St Joseph's Primary School. I am not here this evening to rouse on any St Joey's kids for socks down or to check homework, I am here representing Catholic Mission and I'm here to ask for your prayerful and financial support. I'm here to ask you to consider "Faith, Hope, Love".

Put simply I’m here to talk to you about these appeal envelopes. Catholic Mission’s fundraising appeal for 2010.

To consider giving to the appeal you probably need to know a little more about Catholic Mission.

Catholic Mission is an organisation that is an integral part of the evangelizing mission of the church we belong to. In short, Catholic Mission, who I'm here to represent, is not a separate agency from the church.

Each year Catholic Mission raises funds for distribution to identified locations around the world. Catholic Mission's structure supports the equitable distribution of funds by church leaders to areas of need and each year the generously donated money given by parishioners goes to projects like;

• providing water tanks in Papua New Guinea,
• giving life skills to hearing impaired children in Sri Lanka,
• building and maintaining orphanages in the Philippines and in Vietnam,
• building primary schools in Nigeria,
• establishing seminaries in Zimbabwe and
• contributing to Indigenous education programs here in Australia.

All up, Catholic Mission supports 2.6 million children worldwide and is active in 160 countries. Their work is challenging and ongoing.

This year, to reinforce the appeal theme of Faith, Hope, Love, the Catholic Mission appeal is centring on the selfless work of Sr Marie Bourke, a Franciscan nun from Melbourne.

Sr Marie is working in the landlocked southern African country of Zambia, providing clinical and palliative care for people living with HIV/AIDS in that country. Sr Marie's work and that of her team is remarkable. I suppose she epitomises this year's appeal theme of Faith, Hope, Love.

Her story can be found on the flap of the appeal envelope.

Hers is only one story of the essential work of Catholic Mission.

In December of 2009 I personally saw the positively brilliant effects that Catholic Mission projects were having on communities in East Timor. With about 8 teachers across the diocese of Brisbane Catholic Education I journeyed to East Timor on the Get Involved Globally program supported by Catholic Mission.

We experienced first hand the smiles that Catholic Mission is helping to put on the faces of the people of East Timor. Our experiences were remarkable.

We played cricket with orphans in Dilli. I think our improvised bat was a lump of wood! We fumbled our way through traditional dances with locals in Bul Bul Fahee. It was quite a remarkable journey to hike 3 hours into Bul Bul Fahee and spend the night sleeping on earthen floors inside thatched rooved huts. We sang with a choir of training priests in Bacau. We tried to teach them I still call Australia Home and Waltzing Matilda. But we soon found that Coolibah trees, billabongs and Jolly Jumbucks in tuckerbags were a little difficult to translate…. We certainly had lots of fun trying.

These are just some of my experiences in East Timor but all these were signs of Jesus present - all of these green shoots of life, that we were privileged to experience in East Timor, were being fertilised by the work of Catholic Mission.

As I said earlier, I am here today to encourage you all to contribute to the life giving work of Catholic Mission in our world. Catholic Mission's charter is powerful and necessary.

I'd like to take a minute or so to allow you to familiarise yourself with the appeal envelope amongst you on the pews. Please use the time to fill out some of the details on the envelope if you are planning to give generously. Donations can be made by the collection plate. If you are unable to make a donation today please take an envelope with you and consider donating at a later time. All donations are accepted with gratitude.

Also, please take the time to read Sr Marie’s story found on the appeal envelope and consider the theme of this year’s Catholic Mission Appeal "Faith, Hope, Love."

As I conclude this evening I recall the words that we heard in today’s first reading. It talks of a "spirit of kindness and prayer". It is with that spirit that we ask you to contribute to the Catholic Mission Appeal for 2010.

Thank you for your time and generosity and thank you to Father Graham for the opportunity to talk to you tonight about Catholic Mission.