Diocesan Prayer Fellowship

Behind the clinics lie a pile of discarded crutches - metal, often re-welded, the grips bound with dirty bandages where the plastic had worn away, and wooden, often spliced, now food for termites. Their owners have not been healed, legs extended or restored, they have merely traded old crutches for new ones from our store. It's a sideline, and we do the odd wheelchair too.

Please pray for these friends and the welcome we give them. Life is hard enough here without loss of limb to a reckless driver or a mine. Pray too, for Fatima, nineteen year old from Darfur and a member of the congregation, and also for Fatuma, burned in a grenade attack which killed her husband and children in Ethiopia. Neither have any relatives in Yemen and live in a refugee camp in Aden. May God give them a future and a hope.

Christ look upon us in this city
and keep our sympathy and pity fresh,
and our faces heavenward,
lest we grow hard.

In the summer Dr. Amal returned to the eye clinic, our first 'home grown' eye surgeon - a cause for deep thanksgiving. The autumn saw monthly open evenings for the wider community begun and many more participating in the leading of our Friday services.

This year is the fortieth anniversary of the British leaving Aden and several groups of ex-servicemen and women will be returning. A while ago, one Englishman wrote to us of his time here, '

"I will never forget my nineteenth birthday when I cradled the head of a dying friend shot by a sniper, nor the day the Somali girl I went out with was killed as a collaborator...' He concluded, 'still, I love that place and its people and am so glad the church continues there to help them.' Do remember all who gather in war cemeteries across our province for for those who lead the services.

Almighty Father,
whose will is to restore all things
in your beloved Son, the King of all;
govern the hearts and minds of those in authority,
and bring the families of the nations,
divided and torn apart by the ravages of sin,
to be subject to his just and gentle rule;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.