Posted: 12/29/2015 at 7:39am | IP Logged

The future of persecuted Christians at the end of this ‘Year of Mercy’

Your year-end gift will help save lives and promote vital prayer support

By Dan Wooding, Founder of the ASSIST News Service

LAKE FOREST, CA (ANS – December 28, 2015) – I would like to personally thank you for your wonderful support for the ASSIST News Service during this past year that has been marked by unprecedented violence towards our brothers and sisters around the world by terror groups like Islamic State in the Middle East and Boko Haram in Nigeria, the land of my birth.

One shocking statistic I can share with you is that more than 300 people have been murdered during this month alone, and this was only because they were followers of Jesus Christ. Maybe, as you read this, you can thank God that you live in freedom, but that freedom also means that we need to help those who face the ultimate price for being believers.

For the past four years, Syria has been in a civil war that has forced 11 million people -- half the country’s pre-crisis population -- to flee their homes. About 7.6 million Syrians have been internally displaced within the country and 4 million, many of who are Christians, have fled Syria for other countries. The result is one of the largest forced migrations since World War Two.

In Nigeria, where I was born some 75 years ago to missionary parents, Alfred and Anne Wooding from Liverpool, England, at least 2.1m Nigerians have been displaced due to the deadly insurgence of terror group Boko Haram, which has killed thousands in northern Nigeria and neighboring countries. The Islamic militants, who are fighting to overthrow the current regime and establish an Islamic caliphate throughout the occupied territories, have killed more than 15,000 people since their insurgence became violent in 2009.

And who can forget the missing schoolgirls from Chibok, Nigeria, who Amnesty International says that it is aware that out of the 276 girls abducted on April 15, 2014 from their boarding school by the Islamist group, 219 are still missing and that other girls kidnapped by Boko Haram have been forced to fight for them.

In Pakistan, Asia Bibi, the 50-year-old Christian mother-of-five who was sentenced to death for blasphemy, has just spent her seventh Christmas in the women’s prison in Multan, a town in the province of Punjab, where Asia awaits the outcome of a re-examination of her blasphemy conviction. Pakistan’s Supreme Court, the third and final stage in the trial, has accepted Asia’s petition to appeal against her death sentence. The wait is now on for a hearing date to be set so that he final verdict can be issued.

For many of you, I am sure that this seemingly never-ending situation of horror and pain makes you want to wring your hands, but there is hope, and you can play a vital role by helping to turn things around with your generosity and prayer.

We at the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net) are totally committed to bringing you daily updates of all that is going on in our sin-sick world, so you can be equipped to be involved in the lives of these many people who are facing such overwhelming odds.

Francis Bacon, the one-time Lord Chancellor of England, once said, “Knowledge is Power,” and so once you have the “knowledge” about what is going on, you have the “power” of prayer to be able to help these courageous believers with your intercessions in their behalf.

This has been called “The Year of Mercy” and that’s what you can bring to the table by helping ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) assist our persecuted brothers and sisters, with a generous year-end gift will help make an immediate impact and will help us continue with this vital media ministry that Norma, my dear wife of more than 52 years, and I began more than 20 years ago.

I am sure you are aware that none of our wonderful team of writers, including myself, receive a regular salary, but instead we raise our own support as “Media Missionaries.” So all gifts you can send today, will be used to help us continue with our unique news service.

So, dear friend of ANS, I am asking you if you would prayerfully consider making a year-end (tax-deductible in the US) donation to ASSIST today, as we operate solely on donations and gifts that friends like yourself (and also churches) send to us.

All you need to do is go to our website (www.assistnews.net), and then scroll down the page to where it says DONATE TO ASSIST NEWS and then click on it. If you prefer a check, just make it out to ASSIST and mail it to PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609, USA, and if the envelope is dated December 31, 2015, or before, we can issue you a tax receipt for 2015. If you send a check, would you mind letting me know at assistnews@aol.com , so I can give Norma the good news.

Once again, thank you for helping to make 2015 a “Year of Mercy.” May God bless you and your families and, on behalf of our suffering brothers and sisters, thank for caring for the suffering brothers and sisters who so need our help at this time. Your kindness is deeply appreciated.

Photo captions: 1) Islamic State terrorists. 2) A Boko Haram killer. 3) Asia Bibi. 4) Dan Wooding recording a radio show about persecuted Christians. 5) Dan and Norma Wooding on their wedding day in Birmingham, England, more than 52 years ago.

About the writer: Dan Wooding, 75, is an award-winning author, broadcaster and journalist who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, and is now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for more than 52 years. They have two sons, Andrew and Peter, and six grandchildren who all live in the UK. He is the author of some 45 books and has two TV programs and one radio show in Southern California, and has reported widely for ANS from all over the world and was one of the only Christian journalists to be allowed into North Korea as a reporter for the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC.

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