In Israel the first ever convicted Jewish terrorist who nearly killing a Messianic teen with a pipe bomb disguised as a Purim gift is requesting a leave of prison to attend his newborn son’s circumcision.
Christmas events for Christian refugee children is now in four countries!
Nigeria, held it’s first Christmas for Refugees event at an orphanage in the heart of the conflict zone. In Lebanon each child received a meal and a toy, usually a board game that could be shared at home, or Gospel themed coloring and work books. The families received double thick blankets. These blankets were manufactured in Lebanon by a non-profit organization made up of Syrian refugees.
Christmas for Refugees events celebrating the birth of Jesus have begun for 2017. Celebrations have already taken place in Nigeria, Lebanon and Iraq. Displaced Christian children have come together to have fun, games, songs and gifts along with programs that center on the true meaning of Christmas.
At the request of the Diapers for Refugees ministry partner in Iraq, the number of diapers for infants and toddlers was increased and additional help was supplied for women’s needs and the elderly. The number of families returning to their burned-out homes in Qaraqosh and other Christian towns made the increase necessary, as some families who used to obtain diapers from other sources in the Erbil area can no longer do so. As a result, our costs in December increased from $18,000 to $23,475.
The Tabitha Evangel Ministries (TEM) orphanage houses about 190 children. Almost all of them are parentless. This past December they were able to celebrate a real Christmas including a puppet show, songs and games. Because none were available in the Jos area, coloring books celebrating the birth of Jesus were carried from the United States, something we rarely ever do as it is costly. But the coloring contests at the Christmas events are one of the most favorite activities for the children.
The Religious Freedom Coalition is moving forward with plans for our Christmas for Refugees program in Iraq. In some cases, the only question that remains is where the children will be. One of the new towns in which we intended to hold a Christmas program was Telskuf. It now appears that the children who would have been there, will be back in camps in Dohuk Province.
The Religious Freedom Coalition is assisting with the purchase of water for Odrana Camp in Dohuk, Iraq. The Christians in that camp are Assyrians who were forced from the northern areas of the Nineveh Plain by the Islamic State (ISIS). Those areas included the town of Telskuf, which for a while was occupied by the Islamic State and served as one of their strongholds in the Nineveh Plain. Then, the town was leveled by American and Coalition aircraft after Navy Seal Charles Keating IV was killed there by a sniper. He was “advising” a Kurdish Peshmerga unit trying to capture the town from ISIS.
President Omar al-Bashir of the Sudan has been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) as a war criminal, and there is an international arrest warrant for him. The planning for the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania was done in the Sudan under the watchful eye of this mass murderer, who has long practiced genocide.
This same Omar al-Bashir is now apparently a good guy in the eyes of President Donald Trump and his newly found neocon buddies. They recently removed sanctions that had been imposed on the Sudan, even though the murder of Christians continues in the Nuba Mountains under al-Bashir’s rule.
The arrest warrant by the ICC for crimes of mass murder in Darfur, and the status of Sudan as a “State sponsor of terrorism” were both still recognized and backed by the United States as recently as May of 2017 under the Administration of President Donald Trump.
One of the events I was recently a part of was the presentation of the Policeman of the Year Award by the Capitol Forum Club. This is a Club mostly made up of retired generals and admirals. Their award is given to a Capitol Hill police officer each year. This year the honor went to two officers who undoubtedly saved the lives of numerous congressmen, by engaging in gunfire the far-left gunman who targeted Republican congressmen as they practiced for an annual charity baseball game against Democrat congressmen. Both recipients of the award, Capitol Police officers David Bailey and Crystal Griner, were wounded during the shooting.
A meeting with John X: In October the William Murray of the Religious Freedom Coalition met John X, the Patriarch of Antioch and All the East. John X has served the Orthodox Church of Antioch for most of his life. He was born in Latakia, His brother, Bishop Boulos Yazigi was kidnapped in 2013 along with Bishop Yohanna Ibrahim, by Sunni Muslim jihadists probably supported by Saudi Arabia.