"But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand." [Ezekiel 33:6]
"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." [Ephesians 6:12]
Presbyterians Week Headlines
[1] Letter from Imprisoned Iranian Christian Pastor Talks about God's Faithfulness at All Times
[2] A Prayer for the Netherlands in the Midst of Their National Tragedy
[3] Iowa Supreme Court Upholds Sexual Exploitation Convictions of Former Pella, Iowa URCNA Pastor Patrick Edouard
[4] Youth Volunteer for First Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) of Merchantville, New Jersey, Arrested in Child Pornography Sweep
[5] First Presbyterian Church of Fulton, Missouri (PCUSA) and Parent Entities Sued for Facilitating Convicted Child Pornographer’s Access to Boy Abused at Youth Conference
[6] Indictments Handed Down in Embezzlement from Collierstown Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) in Lexington, Virginia
[7] Former Pastor of First Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) of Salem, New Jersey Pleads Guilty to Sexually Assaulting Child, Will Receive Four Year Prison Term
[8] News from the Deepest Recesses of Hell
[9] Headlines from The Christian Institute
[10] The Thinning Blue Line
[11] Raging Heathen and Vain Imagining
[12] The Religion of Peace
---
[1] Letter from Imprisoned Iranian Christian Pastor Talks about God's Faithfulness at All Times
By Jeremy Reynalds
Senior Correspondent for ASSIST News Service
Imprisoned Christian Pastor Farshid Fathi has sent a letter from Iran’s notorious Evin Prison, reflecting on God’s faithfulness even in difficult times.
Farshid Fathi
Elam said that Fathi has been in Evin Prison for almost 43 months, just because of his Christian faith and ministry. He is scheduled for release in December 2016.
According to a news release from Elam Ministries, he wrote “In each of our lives, there are nights: nights of loneliness, nights of nightmare, nights of fever and pain, endless nights of prison, nights of missing, nights of hard-breathing and some scary, unexplainable nights in our lives.”
Fathi said these experiences are inevitable, even for those who have a close walk with Jesus Christ.
According to Elam, Fathi continued “When a child has a bad night, his father or his mother lies beside him during the night, tenderly stroking his forehead, kissing his cheeks over and over, calling his name in the most lovely voice and they keep looking at the child's face until that bad night passes over. Then the child opens his eyes and thinks his father has just come to him. He was not able to sense his father's breath while he was battling with his nightmares.”
That’s the same for us, Fathi continued, when our troubling times end. We think that God has just comes to us.
But that’s not so, Fathi said. “He was not only there in the morning, but He was with us all through the dark nights of our life … So I am absolutely sure that finally ‘the sun of justice will rise with healing in its wings (Malachi 4:2).’”
Elam wrote, “Thank you for your faithful prayers for Farshid, who is in the midst of a dark night, and yet waits for the dawn to break. It is a great encouragement for him to know that his family around the world are still holding him up in prayer.”
Elam Ministries assists the church in the Iran region and beyond.
For more information visit www.freefarshid.org
Jeremy Reynalds is Senior Correspondent for the ASSIST News Service, a freelance writer and also the founder and CEO of Joy Junction, New Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter, http://www.joyjunction.org He has a master's degree in communication from the University of New Mexico, and a Ph.D. in intercultural education from Biola University in Los Angeles. His newest book is "A Sheltered Life."
+ Assist USA, Post Office Box 609, Lake Forest, California 92609, 949-380-1558, danjuma1@aol.com
[2] A Prayer for the Netherlands in the Midst of Their National Tragedy
By the Rev. Dr. Michael A. Milton
“Our heavenly Father, whose voice causes the foundations of heaven to shake and sends forth the incensed smoke of imperceivable mystery to fill the sanctuary, we confess that our finite minds are unable to comprehend the breadth and depth of such tragedy that has touched our Dutch brothers and sisters at this time, and we can only weep with those who weep and pray for the comforting ministry of the Holy Spirit, and for divine power to be given to those Gospel preachers who, now, are called to conduct services across that beautiful and storied land of the Netherlands, so important in the founding of our own nation—and in their many contributions to the world—so that they, depending on the One who is sovereign, omniscient, and omnipresent, might equip them with power from on high, to declare the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ in the midst of their national tragedy—yea, this international tragedy—so that as poor broken-hearted mothers and fathers, grieving sons, daughters and sons, sisters and brothers, grief-stricken-loved ones, and soul-shocked-fellow-countrymen look to these pastors they will, indeed, discover that Word from another World bringing hope of the resurrected Savior into their world; and so praying for the people of the Netherlands, with their goodly King, Willem-Alexander, and his wife, Queen Maxima, and his mother, the retiring Princess Beatrix who reigned so well and so long as their queen, and all of those who govern, we remember the other nations who, likewise, mourn for meaning as they mourn for their losses, as well, not counting one above the other, but moved by the utter magnitude of the Dutch national impact, and so, we cry to Thee on their behalf, and make our prayer through the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, the Alpha and the Omega, the Redeemer and the Lord, who ever lives to save, and who reigns with Thee, O Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forevermore. Amen.”
+ Faith for Living, Inc.
[3] Iowa Supreme Court Upholds Sexual Exploitation Convictions of Former Pella, Iowa URCNA Pastor Patrick Edouard
An 18 July 2014 Des Moines Register article by Grant Rodgers titled “Pella Pastor's Sexual Exploitation Convictions Upheld” reports that the sexual exploitation convictions of Patrick Edouard, former pastor of the Covenant Reformed Church (United Reformed Churches in North America (URCNA)) in Pella, Iowa, were upheld by the Iowa Supreme Court on 18 July 2014. The decision overturned an earlier Iowa Court of Appeals decision granting Edouard a new trial.
Edouard was convicted of the sexual exploitation charges for pursuing sexual relationships with women who had come to the pastor for guidance with problems including concerns over infertility, extramarital affairs, the death of a best friend and a father's degenerative Alzheimer's disease.
Edouard’s five year prison sentence was upheld by the Iowa Supreme Court. Edouard had been out of prison on bond while his case made its way through the appeals process.
+ Des Moines Register, 715 Locust Street, Des Moines, Iowa 50309, 515-284-8000, publisher@dmreg.com
+ United Reformed Churches in North America, c/o the Rev. Bradd Nymeyer, 227 1st Avenue Southeast, Sioux Center, Iowa 51250, 712-722-1965, statedclerk@urcna.org
[4] Youth Volunteer for First Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) of Merchantville, New Jersey, Arrested in Child Pornography Sweep
A 24 July 2014 ABC News article titled “NJ Church Volunteer, Bus Drivers in Child Porn Sweep” reports that 55-year-old Michael Parker of Pennsauken, New Jersey, was arrested 8 July 2014 in a child pornography sweep that included two school bus drivers and eleven others. Parker was a youth volunteer for First Presbyterian Church (Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)) of Merchantville, New Jersey, and had expressed the desire to become a youth minister.
When Parker's computer was examined during execution of a search warrant, investigators allegedly found numerous items of child pornography and evidence of Internet activity indicating an interest in the sexual exploitation of prepubescent boys. The photos included those of young boys from the church that were fully clothed, but police are seeking further information relevant to the investigation.
+ ABC News, 7 West 66th Street, New York, New York 10023, Contact Page
+ Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202, 888-728-7228, Fax: 502-569-8005
[5] First Presbyterian Church of Fulton, Missouri (PCUSA) and Parent Entities Sued for Facilitating Convicted Child Pornographer’s Access to Boy Abused at Youth Conference
A 24 July 2014 Fulton Sun article by Katherine Cummins titled “Fulton’s First Presbyterian Named in Lawsuit” reports that Kristopher D. Schondelmeyer has filed suit against First Presbyterian Church (Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), of Fulton, Missouri, Missouri Union Presbytery, Synod of Mid-America, the PCUSA, the PCUSA Foundation, Bruce Berry, and Jack Wayne Rogers related to the alleged sexual abuse of Schondelmeyer by Rogers during the Connection 2000 Youth Conference in Maryland.
Rogers had been appointed a lay minister at another Missouri Union Presbytery church by Presbytery official Berry and First Presbyterian Church, knowing Rogers had been convicted of child pornography charges in 1992. Rogers was chosen by First Presbyterian Church to be a chaperon at the 2000 youth conference.
+ Fulton Sun, 115 East Fifth Street, Fulton, Missouri 65251, 573-642-7272, kevin@fultonsun.com
+ Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202, 888-728-7228, Fax: 502-569-8005
+ Synod of Mid-America, 7301 Mission Road, Prairie Village, Kansas 66208, 913-384-3020, landonsoma@gmail.com
+ Missouri Union Presbytery, 917 Leslie Blvd, Jefferson City, Missouri 65101, 573-635-9221, Fax: 573-635-9222, jerickson@mupresbytery.org
[6] Indictments Handed Down in Embezzlement from Collierstown Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) in Lexington, Virginia
A 30 July 2014 article in The News-Gazette reports that on 14 July 2014, a Rockbridge County (Virginia) Circuit Court grand jury certified twenty-four charges of embezzlement against Marilyn J. Dudley related to her work over a twelve year period as church treasurer of Collierstown Presbyterian Church (Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)) in Lexington, Virginia.
+ The News-Gazette, 20 West Nelson Street, Lexington, Virginia 24450, 540-463-3113, Contact Page
+ Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202, 888-728-7228, Fax: 502-569-8005
[7] Former Pastor of First Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) of Salem, New Jersey Pleads Guilty to Sexually Assaulting Child, Will Receive Four Year Prison Term
A 29 July 2014 NJ.com article by Alex Young titled “Ex-Salem Pastor Pleads Guilty to Sexually Assaulting Child, Will Get Prison Term” reports that Jonathan Smith, former pastor of First Presbyterian Church (Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)) of Salem, New Jersey, on 29 July 2014 pleaded guilty to one count of second degree sexual assault related to Smith assaulting a minor child, a relative, in 2013. Smith was originally charged with first-degree aggravated sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child, but these charges were dropped as part of a plea deal. Smith will be sentenced to four years in New Jersey State Prison at a sentencing hearing in September 2014.
+ NJ.com, Contact Page
+ Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202, 888-728-7228, Fax: 502-569-8005
[8] News from the Deepest Recesses of Hell
-- Ex-Planned Parenthood Director: They Told Me Every Baby Killed in Abortion Made Them US$313.29
-- Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Civic Center Okays Satanic Black Mass: Protest Swells Past 37,000
-- Appeals Court Creates ‘Right to Marry by Everyone and to Anyone’ in Virginia: Dissent
-- Top British Doctor’s Chilling Claim: The National Health Service Kills Off 130,000 Elderly Patients Every Year. America’s Future?
-- Forty-Four-Year-Old Man Gets Thirteen-Year-Old Daughter Pregnant, Uses Abortion to Hide His Crime
+ LifeNews.com, Post Office Box 270841, Fort Collins, Colorado 80527, news@lifenews.com
+ Christian News Wire, 2020 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, Washington DC 20006, 202-546-0054, newsdesk@christiannewswire.com
+ LifeSiteNews.com, Incorporated, 4 Family Life Lane, Front Royal, Virginia 22630, 888-678-6008, Contact Page
+ AgainstCronyCapitalism.org, Contact Page
[9] Headlines from The Christian Institute
Headlines of the past week from The Christian Institute:
-- Majority Sidelined as U.K. Government Backs Three-Parent Babies
-- U.K. Peer and Times Columnist Claims Faith is a ‘Virus’
-- Disabled U.K. Peer: Assisted Suicide Bill ‘Frightens’ Me
+ The Christian Institute, Wilberforce House, 4 Park Road, Gosforth Business Park, Newcastle upon Tyne NE12 8DG, England, 44-0-191-281-5664, Fax: 44-0-191-281-4272, info@christian.org.uk
[10] The Thinning Blue Line
-- Atlanta, Georgia Man ‘Threatened With Jail by Cop Who Shot His Dog and Prevented Him from Taking the Bleeding Animal for Treatment’
-- Hometown, Illinois Cop Shoots Dog in Its Yard in Front of Six-Year-Old Girl
-- Campbell, Wisconsin Police Chief Admits He Signed Up Tea Party Activist to Porno Sites and Whatnot
-- Lawsuit Filed against Jackson, Mississippi Police Department for Intimidating Christians Conducting Pro-Life Ministry
-- Houston, Texas Cop Arrests Man, Forces Him to Leave Family Pet on the Side of the Freeway to Die
-- Scranton, Pennsylvania Police Kidnap and Imprison Woman to Ensure She Testifies against Her Kidnapper
-- Los Angeles Man Awarded US$1.8 Million after Incompetent Cops Filled His Truck with Bullet Holes for No Reason
-- San AntonioTexas Cops Attack Man Photographing Building, Claiming He Was Man Fleeing from Them
-- Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania Constable Shoots, Paralyzes Man While Serving Warrant for Parking Tickets
-- Cleveland, Ohio Seventy-Three-Year-Old Attacked and Killed by Out-of-Control Police Dog during Search
-- Alaskan Border Patrol Agent Pulls His Gun on a Boy Scout
+ Right Wing News, Contact Page
+ Police State USA
+ The Daily Caller, 1050 17th Street Northwest # 900, Washington DC 20036, 202-466-3004, media@dailycaller.com
+ Christian News Network, Post Office Box 30000, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103, Contact Page
+ The Free Thought Project, contact@thefreethoughtproject.com
+ PINAC, carlosmiller@magiccitymedia.com
+ Ben Swann, Contact Page
+ The Free Patriot
+ Tea Party Economist
[11] Raging Heathen and Vain Imagining
Articles from the past week regarding kings and rulers setting themselves against the LORD and against his anointed:
-- Obama Calls for New World Order in Seattle Fundraiser Speech
-- U.S. Department of Homeland Security Agents Raid Statesville, North Carolina Home to Seize Land Rover For Violation of EPA Regulations
-- Nazi Tactics Being Used Against American Churches
-- While Illegals Get Bus Trips, Americans Are Being Tazed and Arrested by Border Patrol 100 Miles away from the Border
-- Nevada County, California Veteran Told to Stop Building Furniture for Needy Military Families by Lake of the Pines Home Owners Association
-- Newborn Baby Taken From Parents after Having Baby at Home
-- Christians Caught in the Crossfire in Ukraine
-- Four Evangelical Christians Executed By Pro-Russian Terrorists for ‘Sectarianism and Treason’
-- Ohio State University Teaching Psych Students Atheists Smarter than Christians
-- Scientist Sues California State University - Northridge for Firing Him after His Dinosaur Discovery Supported Creationism
-- U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions Says Obama Preparing to 'Nullify' Immigration Laws
-- Michigan Department of Agriculture Thugs Force Raw Milk Dairy Farmer to Dump US$5000 Worth of Products
-- Missouri National Guard Bars Troops from Attending Vacation Bible School Honor
-- Four-Year-Old Monroe, Connecticut Boy Gets Lifetime Ban from Doughnut Shop for Asking Lady If She Is Pregnant
-- Evangelicals Persecuted in Ukraine
+ Now the End Begins, Contact Page
+ Infowars.com, Post Office Box 19549, Austin, Texas 78760, 512-291-5750, writers@infowars.com
+ Godfather Politics, 457 Nathan Dean Boulevard, Dallas, Georgia 30132
+ The Right Scoop, tips@therightscoop.com
+ CBS13 Sacramento, 2713 KOVR, West Sacramento, California 95605, 916-374-1313, Fax: 916-374-1304, Contact Page
+ The Free Patriot
+ Mission Network News, 1159 East Beltline Avenue Northeast, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49525, 616-942-1500, Fax: 616-942-7328, Contact Page
+ EuroMaidan Press, Contact Page
+ The Christian Post, National Press Building, 529 14th Street Northwest, Suite 420, Washington DC 20045, 202-347-7734, info@christianpost.com
+ WND, 2020 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, #351, Washington DC 20006, Contact Page
+ Fox News, 1211 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10036, 888-369-4762, Fax: 212-462-6127, yourquestions@foxnews.com
+ The Daily Caller, 1050 17th Street Northwest # 900, Washington DC 20036, 202-466-3004, media@dailycaller.com
[12] The Religion of Peace
Articles from the past week about the religion of peace:
-- Obama to Send US$47 Million to Gaza Jihadists
-- ISIS Goes On Horrific Beheading Spree in Syria
-- Hamas Police Shoot, Kill Starving Gazans a Day after Executing Protesters
-- Obama Gives Official Ramadan Message, Says ‘Muslims Built America’
-- Obama’s Delusional Views on Islam
-- Obama’s ‘Beautiful Religion’: ISIS Releases Horrifying Video of Slaughters and Executions
-- Obama: Muslims Built 'The Very Fabric of Our Nation'
-- IDF Takes Out Gaza’s Only Power Plant with Tank Strike
-- Muslims Outraged, Demand Apology for Scottish Terrier Dogs Appearing in the Scottish Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony
-- Hamas Continues to Kill Their Own People as Their Rockets Fall within Gaza and Beat Them When They Try to Escape
-- Two Ahmadi Children in Pakistan Burned Alive by ‘Blasphemy’ Mob
-- Netanyahu Tells Hamas to Buckle Up Because ‘What Is Coming Will Be Worse’
-- Organization in Israel Launches Campaign to Draft Plans for Third Jewish Temple
-- Iraq ISIS Crisis: Christians, Hounded Out of Mosul, Trapped in Desert and Refugee Camps
-- Hamas Reportedly Talking Arms Deal with North Korea
-- France Offers Asylum to Mosul's Christians
-- Iran Says the End of Israel Has Arrived as Obama Gives Them US$2.8B in Sanction Relief
-- U.S. Congressman Frank Wolf Slams Obama for Ignoring Christian Genocide in Iraq
-- India: Mumbai on High Alert after Muslims Threaten Jihad Mass Murder Attacks to “Take Revenge for Gaza”
-- Hamas Killed Hundreds of Muslim Children to Build Tunnels
-- Islamic State in Syria Beheads Fifty and Puts Their Heads on Poles
-- John Kerry and the Obama Administration’s Betrayal of Israel
-- Sex Jihad Fatwa Permits Incest in Syria
-- Thousands of Jews Flee France and Germany as Muslims Become the New Nazis
-- Nigeria: Devout Muslims of Boko Haram Kill Seventy-Five with Two Bomb Blasts
-- ISIS Blows Up the Tomb of the Biblical Prophet Jonah in Iraq
-- 2009 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Dr. Jim Garrow Says Muslim Terrorists to Unleash 9/11 Shopping Mall Bombing Attacks on America
-- Obama Sells US$11 Billion Worth of Arms to Hamas’s Sponsor, Qatar
-- Islamic State (ISIL/ISIS) Orders ‘Orders Female Genital Mutilation’ (Clitoridectomies) for Women in Mosul
-- Nigerian Muslims Take Hundreds of Underage Christian Girls, Film Themselves Brutally Gang Raping Them Over and Over Again, and Then Butcher Them
-- ISIS, Kurds Clash near Assyrian Town, 2000 Assyrian Families Driven from Mosul
-- Sharia Iran: Christian Sentenced By Iranian Judge to Have His Lips Burnt with a Cigarette for Eating during Ramadan
-- Islamic State Torches 1,800-Year-Old Church after Ethnically Cleansing Mosul Christians
+ Atlas Shrugs, writeatlas@aol.com
+ WND, 2020 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, #351, Washington DC 20006, Contact Page
+ The Algemeiner Journal, Post Office Box 250746, Brooklyn, New York 11225, 718-771-0400, Fax: 718-771-0308, Contact Page
+ Now the End Begins, Contact Page
+ Godfather Politics, 457 Nathan Dean Boulevard, Dallas, Georgia 30132
+ Clash Daily
+ International Business Times, 7 Hanover Square, 5th Floor, New York, New York 10004, 646-867-7100, info@ibtimes.com
+ Examiner.com, 555 17th Street, Suite 700, Denver, Colorado 80202, contactus@examiner.com
+ Yahoo! Inc., 701 First Avenue, Sunnyvale, California 94089, 408-349-5070, Contact Page
+ Assyrian International News Agency (Nineveh Software Corporation, 2317 West Farwell, Chicago, Illinois 60645, 773-575-5863, Fax: 773-761-8534)
+ Jihad Watch and Dhimmi Watch
+ Still Waters Revival Books, Inc., 4710-37A Avenue Northwest, Edmonton, Alberta T6L 3T5, Canada, 780-450-3730, support@puritandownloads.com
+ Shoebat.com, Contact Page
+ Assist USA, Post Office Box 609, Lake Forest, California 92609, 949-380-1558, danjuma1@aol.com
