I know that many of you are extremely careful about how you spend your hard-earned money, especially in these days of change and confusion around the world.
But one thing that hasn’t changed is the persecution of Christians, and that is why we concentrate on their plight on the ASSIST News Service, with our many stories about people like Asia Bibi, who has been languishing on death row in a Pakistani jail on what I believe are phony blasphemy charges.
You will be aware that I was born in Nigeria, West Africa, of British missionary parents, and the believers there are suffering untold agony because of Islamic terror groups like Boko Haram and the Fulani herdsmen, who are being slaughtered almost daily.
Dan Wooding with Ray Barnett in Uganda at a river where the bodies of Christians were fed to the crocodiles. Photo Courtesy Assist News
It was in Africa, that I first became aware of persecution. It was when I went to Uganda with my friend, Ray Barnett, to write a book called Uganda Holocaust (Zondervan), in which we told the incredible story of how Idi Amin and his thugs murdered around 300,000 believers during his eight years of misrule. I was so moved by hearing the many stories of those Christians who had survived the killing fiends of Uganda, and also meeting with them that, at the end of that trip, I knelt by my bed in the Namirembe Guest House in Kampala, Uganda, and offered the rest of my life to the Lord to become a “voice” for the courageous believers like these.
It was then that my life changed forever.
Since that time, I have had the privilege of traveling to many of world’s hot-spots to report on persecuted Christians, including those in Africa, the Middle East, and even in the mysterious land of North Korea, which, without a doubt, is the world’s worst persecutor of Christians.
I had previously spent some years working as a journalist in the tawdry world of the London tabloids, but after Uganda, I knew that I had to change course with my reporting activities, and that’s how the ASSIST News Service came into being.
The Namirembe Guest House in Kampala, where Dan’s life changed forever. Photo Courtesy Assist News
Norma and I began ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times), and then I started the ASSIST News Service, and it has been my privilege to assemble a fine team of writers who daily file their stories from around the world, often at great danger to themselves.
None of us receive payment for our work, but work as “media missionaries,” meaning that we trust the Lord for our support through friends like yourself.
Each month, we have to pay our bills to keep the news service going, and so I am asking you to prayerfully consider giving a generous gift (tax-deductible in the US), to allow us to continue to serve those heroes of the faith that we write about.
Both Norma and I are in our mid-seventies, and yet we are busier than ever with this wonderful ministry, and so I am asking if you would join our support team and either make a monthly, or a one-off gift, to ASSIST to allow us to continue to bring you these stories.
Free Asia Bibi. Photo Courtesy Assist News
It’s quite easy to do so, but will make such a profound difference in the lives of our persecuted friends who depend on us to continue to tell their stories. Just go to www.assistnews.net and then scroll down the page to where it says DONATE TO ASSIST NEWS, and put in the amount that you feel God wants you to give. If you prefer a check, just make it out to ASSIST and mail it to: PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609, USA.
I would like to thank you in advance for your generosity and for standing with us at this incredible time of turmoil in our world and, by so doing, you are showing that you really care for those who are paying the ultimate price for their faith in Jesus Christ.
Dan and Ray on the road with Tanzanian soldiers in Uganda shortly after Idi Amin had fled the country. Photo Courtesy Assist News
About the writer: Dan Wooding, 76, 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 54 years. They have two sons, Andrew and Peter, and six grandchildren who all live in the UK. Besides running the ASSIST News Service, he has written some 45 books and hosts a weekly radio show and two TV programs in Southern California.
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