2018 Christmas Eve Offering
Every year, on Christmas Eve, Restoration invites those who attend our services to give to an organization (outside of Restoration) that is doing excellent work in a place of great need.
We recognize 2 things:
- Lots of people visit on Christmas Eve and may not be attached to the work and mission of our local church.
- Lots of people want to give to something bigger than themselves.
Consequently, our Outreach Steering Team takes time to interview and vet a number of options so that we can all participate in the Christmas Eve offering and give to something that is doing important work.
In 2018, we will give our Christmas Eve offerings to The Ras Morbat Eye Clinic, which is a ministry of Christ Church Aden, an Anglican Church in Yemen.
The Ras Morbat clinic located in Aden Yemen provides eye care and basic health care services to the local people. The clinic is located within the compound of the Anglican Christ Church. The Anglican Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf and the Ministry of Health in Aden established a partnership to provide compassion and care for people in need without regard to religious or tribal identities. Over the years the work expanded to include and emphasis on eye care and in 2014 when the Yemeni government opened a small hospital a half a kilometer from Christ Church it was decided that the Ras Morbat Clinic should focus primarily on eye care which is not offered in the local government clinic.
The funds will be used for capital equipment and ongoing operations. The clinic is currently engaged in a project to raise funds to introduce new equipment that will allow our surgeons to offer a broader spectrum of treatment for cataracts and glaucoma. Currently they cannot treat these diseases until they are in rather developed stages and effectively the patients have blindness in one or both eyes. This piece of equipment will make it possible to treat these diseases in much earlier stages of development. This will help people to not experience significant levels of blindness before treatment and will expand the capability to treat cataracts. Treating these ailments in earlier stages will enable the patients to continue employment and support of their family.
