Earlier this year we prayed for Felix Ngole, but the courts did not give him justice. Felix, a Christian reading for a degree in social work at Sheffield University, leading to Health and Care Professions Council certification, joined in a serious discussion on a US website about same-sex marriage.  Sheffield university was informed, summoned him, heard his defence and threw him off the course, saying ‘his writings might damage confidence in the social-work profession’. The university’s decision has now raised online comments by a  professor of commercial law, ‘that somewhere, at some time, a hypothetical service user might have seen Mr Ngole’s comments, discovered in some unspecified way that he was a social-work student, and as a result, again in some unspecified way,  lost confidence in social workers as a whole’.

Today's culture is seeing the denial of God-given sex and gender. The NHS options for children and young people with suspected gender dysphoria include family therapy, child psychotherapy, parental support/counselling, group work for young people and their parents and regular reviews to monitor gender identity development. Treatment with a multi-disciplinary team includes mental health professionals as most treatments offered are psychological, rather than medical or surgical. This is because say the NHS, ‘the majority of children with suspected gender dysphoria don't have the condition once they reach puberty’.

The embattled chancellor was subject to conflicting pressures when he presented his Budget. The media wanted him to respond to the public's desire to end austerity. Amid media doom and gloom predictions, some encouraging Budget decisions are: Scrapping a fuel duty rise for petrol and diesel cars scheduled for April 2018. A new homelessness task force. Preventing developers purchasing land for financial reasons and then not building on it. £400m to regenerate housing estates.  80% of first-time buyers will be exempt from  stamp duty. National Living Wage rise of 4.4%. VAT threshold for small business to remain at £85,000 for two years while large technology groups like Google and Apple will pay more. £40m teacher training fund for underperforming schools.  Recruitment of 8,000 new computer science teachers for new National Centre for Computing. £2.8bn for the NHS in England. Pay rise for nurses, but not the police.

Children who have been abused by Jehovah's Witnesses were told not to report it by Elders. Men and women from across the UK said they were routinely abused but the religion's rules protected perpetrators. A child abuse lawyer believes there could be thousands of victims who have not come forward because of the ‘two witness’ rule. But there is rarely a witness to the crime of rape. The organisation said it did not shield abusers. Louise Palmer, waived her right to anonymity. Louise was born into the organisation along with her brother Richard, who started raping her when she was four. She told her parents and elders in the congregation. ‘I asked, 'what should I do? Will you report it to the police, or do I tell them?’ They strongly advised me not to go to the police because it would bring reproach on Jehovah.’

On UN's’ Universal Children’s Day, (20 November) ‘Anyone’s Child – Families for Safer Drug Control’ handed in a letter to 10 Downing Street calling for legal regulation of drugs. More people are dying in the UK from illegal drugs than ever before. Families who have lost loved ones to such drugs took a powerful message to Parliament, ‘Failed UK and UN drug policy killed our children, and the government should take control of the drugs market to protect others. We are a group of ordinary families who have joined together because we share the grief and sorrow from having loved ones who have been hurt by our failing drug laws. Our group has now expanded internationally - Kenya, Afghanistan, Mexico, Canada, Belgium. We are uniting to demonstrate that the drug war causes untold misery in every corner of the world.’ 

Ireland has said it will block progress of Brexit negotiations in December, unless the UK gives a formal written guarantee there will be no hard border with Northern Ireland. Michel Barnier told the Centre for European Reform, ‘We need to preserve stability and dialogue on the island of Ireland. We need to avoid a hard border. I know that this point is politically sensitive in the UK, it is not less sensitive in Ireland.’ Ireland will be staying in the EU, The UK will be leaving, but neither side wants to tear up the Good Friday agreement and put a hard border.  We can pray for all who are involved in border issues and discussions to have God inspired solutions to every challenge facing them now and in the future. Pray for inventive, original technological solutions that will maintain peaceful co-operation between North and South and provide even more new opportunities for cross border trade. (Linda Digby, Prayer Alert)

In recent years, Sports Chaplaincy UK has been encouraging its Chaplains to host stadium carol services at Christmas. Sports stadiums have been described as secular cathedrals as many people go there at weekends. At Christmas we remember God moving into our neighbourhood. How might you, or your church, pray for and support one of these carol services to celebrate this amazing fact? Warren Evans, Chief Executive of Sports Chaplaincy UK

Jiang Tianyong, a prominent Chinese human rights lawyer has been jailed for two years, the latest conviction in Beijing's crackdown on rights activists. He was found guilty of inciting subversion of state power and defaming China's political system. His wife told Reuters that the verdict was unacceptable. Amnesty International dismissed the trial as a ‘sham’. It is estimated that over 300 lawyers, legal assistants and activists have been questioned, and more than two dozen of these pursued as formal investigations. Mr Jiang defended human rights activists and fellow rights lawyers as well as also Falun Gong meditation practitioners and Tibetan protesters. The court also found him guilty of using social media to attack the Chinese government and of inciting others to demonstrate in public. China tortures people in prison see also  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-china-blog-41661862

Uganda: Over 9,000 drop out after registering for PLE (Primary Leaving Examination)
Pupils who pass their PLE exam can progress to secondary school. Primary school tuition is free but pupils, especially in rural areas, face serious challenges to finishing their education. They lack books and pens, often having to study all day on an empty stomach since no meals are provided at school, and schools often have poor teaching methods.  Information obtained from Uganda National Examinations Board website indicate that out of 333,482 pupils who registered for PLE from 2010 to 2016, a total of 9,320 did not sit. A government official said, ‘Grazing livestock is one of the major reasons for the school dropout.’ The other reasons keeping children out of school, he said, are poverty, underage marriage, trading, tea picking, stone quarrying and mining. However he said they have engaged parish chiefs, sub-county chiefs and chairpersons of school management committees to arrest parents of children who  are removed from school See also https://www.theguardian.com/katine/2010/feb/08/education-system-explainer

UK documentary director David Cohen filmed Israel's humanitarian work treating victims of Syria's civil war. ‘Love Your Enemies’ was premiered at a special Westminster screening. It featured interviews with medics and patients of pioneering surgery on horrific wounds at hospitals in Western Galilee. The film was enthusiastically received by an audience including former Cabinet Minister Stephen Crabb, Labour’s Ian Austin, Andrew Percy MP, and Israeli deputy ambassador Sharon Bar-li. But in a question and answer session following the hour long film Mr Cohen revealed that discussions with the BBC and Channel 4 over purchasing the film had so far proved fruitless. Israel and Syria are two enemy states, however a young Syrian patient said, ‘we are taught that Israel is the enemy – but all I have seen here is humanity.’ Unfortunately a documentary showing ground-breaking medical relief treatment of 4000+ Syrian war victims was considered ‘too Zionist’ for mainstream British television.