Your ‘Gift of Hope’ will bring Hope to Persecuted Christians

Your ‘Gift of Hope’ will bring Hope to Persecuted Christians

By Dan Wooding, Founder of the ASSIST News Service

LAKE FOREST, CA (ANS – September 8, 2017) – As I reminded you in my previous e-mail, our world is in a shocking state, with hurricanes, earthquakes and war, with terror groups like ISIS in the Middle East and Boko Haram in Nigeria, continuing their vicious attacks on Christians. At times, there seems to be little hope.

We’ve got the brutal regime of Kim Jong-un in North Korea threatening the United States, and surrounding countries like South Korea and Japan, and the continued violence in Iraq and Syria, which has displaced millions of Christians who are now living as refugees in camps around the world.

Having been to North Korea, I am especially concerned about the plight of Christians there, which is illustrated by the fact that, for the past 14 years, the Open Doors World Watch List has listed North Korea as the World’s Worse Persecutor of Christians with tens of thousands of believers being held in brutal labor camps or even publicly executed. (See the picture of myself with a North Korean soldier and Michael Little of CBN at the DMZ, which marks the border between North and South Korea. It was taken during my reporting trip with a delegation of Christians inside this secretive country.)

Our dear sister in Christ, Asia Bibi is still on death row in Pakistan – she’s been there since 2010 when she was sentenced to death for standing up for Jesus -- while many other believers, especially pastors, in Iran, continue to be incarcerated in brutal prisons for their faith.

Our dedicated team of writers continue to bring you stories like these, so that you can be informed about, and pray for, these courageous Christians who don’t have a voice out to the world.

We at ANS count it a real privilege to join with others in being that voice but, unfortunately, we are having serious problems in continuing to fund the news service, which my wife, Norma, and myself, began some 25 years ago.

When we first started the news service, we took a decision then not to charge for subscriptions to, but to trust God’s people to help us continue our media ministry, and we have continued that policy for the last quarter-of-a-century.

We keep our expenses down to a minimum, and none of our writers, including myself, get a regular salary, but we trust the Lord to provide for us via our friends and churches who believe in what we do.

As we move into the fall season, Norma has told me that very little has been coming in, which means that, unless things turn around soon, we will not be able to meet our expenses, which include office rent, insurance, phone and Internet costs, and so that is why I am coming to you with this urgent appeal for help.

I hear from so many of you that you depend on ANS to get your news, as it is one of the only few ways you can get information about the dire situation our brothers and sisters are facing. They are pleading with us to continue bringing you this vital news so you can pray for them, and also get behind them in their desperate time of need.

So, what can you do? Well, if you appreciate what we do I am asking you to prayerfully consider making an urgent and generous donation to ASSIST (tax deductible in the US) to help us continue, and not have to close our doors. But we need you to act quickly.

All you need to do is go to www.assistnews.net and then scroll down the page until you see DONATE TO ASSIST NEWS, and there you can put in the amount you wish to give as a love offering.

I know that many of you would prefer to make out a check, so please do so to ASSIST, and then mail it to: PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609, USA. If you are sending a check, would you mind letting me know by e-mail at assistnews@aol.com, what you are kindly sending, so I can tell my dear wife Norma, our volunteer administrator, that the gifts are coming in. By the way, here is a picture of the two of us working hard together to bring you the news. We are now both in our mid-70s, but are as busy as ever with this ministry the Lord has called us to.

I want to thank you in advance for standing with us in this time of crisis, and, by doing so, you will be allowing ANS to continue our Kingdom work. Yours will be a “Gift of Hope,” and hope is something we want our suffering friends to have.

Our full name is Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times, and your gift will be doing just that. You will be aiding these “Special Saints” in what are the most “Strategic Times” many of us can remember.

Blessings from Dan and Norma Wooding -- www.assistnews.net