How you can help Asia Bibi, and other Christian prisoners

How you can help Asia Bibi, and other Christian prisoners of conscience around the world

By Dan Wooding, Founder of ASSIST News Service

LAKE FOREST, CA (ANS – December 28, 2016) – Could you picture for a moment, a tiny dark and dank prison cell in Pakistan in which, for the seventh consecutive Christmas, Christian mother-of-five Asia Bibi, has spent alone in solitary confinement.

This isolated cell is within the Islamic Republic of Pakistan -- a country that has what the United Nations describes as “one of the worst situations in the world for religious freedom.”

Rats run freely around her darkened cell and life is so dangerous for her that she had to cook her own Christmas meal from meagre raw materials that her family had brought her because the authorities fear that she might be poisoned by those that hate her. And there are many who do!

A member of the Christian minority, just 1.6% of the population, this courageous mother was jailed after being found guilty of breaching Pakistan’s strict blasphemy laws.

Now, let’s jump to a prison in Iran, where beatings, torture, mock executions and brutal interrogations, are the norm. It is also where for four decades the anguished cries of prisoners have been swallowed up by the drab walls of their lockup.

They include Maryam Zargaran who is incarcerated in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison where she is serving a four-year jail term for “acting against national security.” She has, on several occasions, been on a hunger strike to protest the prison’s refusal to allow her to receive treatment for long-term health problems.

Maryam, a convert from Islam, was originally arrested in January 2013, in connection with her work at an orphanage with Pastor Saeed Abedini, who was also imprisoned, but eventually released in January this year.

The figures on persecution are staggering with two thirds of the 2.3 billion Christians in the world facing not only arrest, but also death, as they try to exist in such dangerous parts of the world, like Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan and Pakistan. They are often poor and often belong to ethnic, linguistic and cultural minorities and have no voice, except for our news service.

Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, we at ANS highlighted shocking cases like those above, and now, as the clock winds down to the end of 2016, I am asking you to take a minute of your valuable time and make a donation to support our work that is so important to those who are suffering so much for their faith in Jesus Christ.

More than ever, every dollar you donate to ASSIST will make a difference, and generous donors like you can allow us to continue to tell the world about their plight, and pray that governments will take heed of what we write and free them.

Would you be willing to make a special year-end donation to ASSIST of $50, $100, or whatever you can afford to help us meet our goal of bringing you more of these stories that will literally change the lives of those we feature. Your support will make a real, lasting impact in the lives of those who are still in need.

Please, go to www.assistnews.net and scroll down to where it says DONATE TO ASSIST NEWS and make your donation now. If you prefer a check, please make it out to ASSIST and mail it to PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609, USA. (All gifts in the USA are tax-deductible, and all envelopes dated December 31, or earlier, will be deductible for 2016).

Thank you for your continued support and friendship. With gratitude from all of us at ASSIST, which means Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times.

Photo captions: 1) Asia Bibi. 2) Maryam Zargaran. 3) Dan Wooding reporting for ANS from outside the Kurdistan Parliament in Northern Iraq.

About the writer: Dan Wooding, 76, is an award-winning 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 53 years. They have two sons, Andrew and Peter, and six grandchildren who all live in the UK. Dan is the founder of the ASSIST News Service (ANS) and he hosts a weekly radio show and two TV shows, all based in in Southern California. Dan also is the author of some 45 books.

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