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On 'All Things Considered' this week (Sunday 24 January at 8.30am, repeated on Wednesday 27 January at 6.30pm) Peter Baker and a panel of guests discuss the question of suffering.

As the humanitarian aid effort in Haiti enters a second week, the death toll following that devastating earthquake continues to rise. As many as two hundred thousand of the world's poorest are feared dead and countless more have lost their homes and possessions as well as their loved ones.

Day by day the depth of suffering is all too apparent on our TV screens and although many around the world have been moved to help, the aid effort is often struggling to reach those who need it.

Whether facing up to the effects of a natural disaster, the aftermath of genocide or coming to terms with personal loss, the issue of how faith in a loving God can be reconciled with suffering is an age old question and for many it's a huge obstacle to religious belief. But should it be?

On today's programme Peter Baker is joined by three people who each have a distinctive experience of suffering which can hopefully help to shed some light on this difficult and complex area.

Rev Dr Leslie Griffiths is Superintendent of Wesley's Chapel in London, but he began his ministry in Haiti and has maintained a relationship with the country for some 40 years. Evelyn Davies is an Anglican priest in Criccieth who has spent many years counselling people with terminal illness and Peter Andrews is a Christian missionary who was working in Rwanda at the start of the country's genocide.

For further information:

By mail: Bendith Fach Prayer Ministry
Garth House,
Leon Avenue,
Cardiff
CF15 7RG