Downend Dedication - Haven Home

18 April 2009

Our new podcast series, where we find out about the amazing life-changing mission of a group of people from our St Augustine of Canterbury parish in Downend, Bristol.  We meet parishioners who’ve done an incredible amount to help orphans in India.  Not only have they raised £30,000 - even in these difficult financial times - they’ve just come back from India having built a new school.

Today cliftondiocese.com meets Martyn Poole.  He tells us about Haven Home and how he reluctantly became involved in a project that would change his life.  Martyn describes his first naïve visit to the orphanage in Andhra Pradesh, India and how his faith means he now returns every year.  He describes what it’s like in Haven Home and how our Downend parish has vastly improved life for the children who live there. 

Last year he committed himself to building a school for the orphanage - his wife Sue couldn’t believe what she was hearing when she met him at the airport!  But last month the seven-room school was completed.  It now quenches the thirst for education the children have.  Martyn tells us: “The Lord has blessed this project.”

You can hear Martyn’s passion and enthusiasm loud and clear in our multimedia panel on the right.

‘Downend Dedication’ continues over the next five weeks.  Every Saturday cliftondiocese.com will bring you a new episode about this amazing faith-filled mission. 

The next project is the urgent need to build a wall to protect children from being snatched.  In that area of India there have been several cases of children being found dead with organs removed.  Our next episode of ‘Downend Dedication’ sees John Jordan telling us about this deadly threat of abduction and how you can help make children safer.

To find out more about this dedicated group of Downend parishioners call John Jordan on 07771 902337. 

‘Downend Dedication’ continues on cliftondiocese.com every Saturday for the next five weeks.

You can hear Martyn live on the radio this Monday (20 April).  He'll be on the award-winning Face to Faith on BCfm.  You can listen on 93.2FM in Bristol and online everywhere else.  Face to Faith is live every Monday at 3.00 pm.