Yemen: Heartbreak and Hope

Peter Crooks spent time as chaplain to Christ Church, Aden, where he ministered to an international congregation that included refugees, aid workers and the director of two busy clinics. Before that he served with his wife in Beirut and Teheran where he was supported by CMS. He has now drawn on his wide knowledge of the Middle East to produce

(available from lulu.com) Although he focuses on the Yemen, telling of the joys and challenges of ministering to Somali refugees, being held up at gunpoint on the road to Sanaa and going down with a life-threatening disease on a remote island in the Indian ocean, he also includes chapters on Palestine/Israel and Iran. Christians and Jews share the Hebrew Bible. Most Christians read the books of what we call the Old Testament with the help of commentaries by fellow-Christians but it can be illuminating to also see it through Jewish eyes. In

(SCM), Jonathan Magonet gives us short but stimulating studies of passages in the first five books of the Bible that were originally broadcast over the radio. He offers many unexpected insights. Highly recommended. Andrew D Mayers is Adviser for Spirituality in the Diocese of Chichester. In (SPCK) he draws on his experience of travel in the Middle East to show how the Christian life is a journey into mystery. We leave familiar landmarks and certainty behind when we accept Jesus’ invitation to follow him as disciples. “The place of risk is the threshold of the divine.”