Remembering Them In Prayer

This is about that time of year.

I'm not talking about Halloween.

I'm talking about the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP), which is observed every year on the weekend of November 2.

Who Are The Persecuted Church?

The persecuted Church consists of followers of Jesus in restricted countries and areas of the world (as shown on the map below, courtesy of Gospel for Asia. These believers live in countries where Communism, Buddhism, Hinduism and most often, Islam, is the state religion. They suffer everything from discrimination, government harassment, threats, social or family ostracism to violence, arrests, jail, prison or death in connection to their faith in or service for Christ. Their main resquest to us Western Christians is, "Please pray for us!"

Why Does Prayer Mean So Much to Persecuted Believers?

As followers of Jesus, we believe that God moves in power when we pray. This means much especially to persecuted Christians outside the West, who are usually literally forced to trust God totally, because they usually have little in the way of material possessions and face the reality of persecution and can easily identify the enemies they face to following Jesus. So they come to know, firsthand, what it means for God to move in power and unmistakably in their lives and in the lives of their families and communities. I have read plenty of accounts where their lives and experiences read like the modern-day Book of Acts! So when they ask us to pray for them and they sense our prayers because of God moving in their lives and giving them strength to stand firm in faith, it means everything to them

What Can We Do?

We can pray, give, and we can raise awareness. I wonder if the silence of so many pastors and other believers in the West about global religious persecution of our brothers and sister who share our faith but not our freedoms, is because of lack of awareness. There are many ways we can stand with our fellow believers who share our faith but not our freedoms, but prayer is the most important Yes, it is hard to know what to pra about but there are websites where you can educate yourself, learn how to pray, raise awareness through their updates, and even donate for the strengthening of severely persecuted followers of Jesus and the the furthering of the spread of the Gospel in persecution countries and areas of the world. The links are provided below at the bottom of this page.

Voice of the Martyrs

Open Doors USA

Voice of the Martyrs and Open Doors USA have offices in many countries throughout the world. If you are not in the USA, you can find these offices closest to you.

Gospel for Asia

God's blessings to you as you stand with persecuted believers not only during IDOP but every day of the year!

The above video and the map have been provided courtesy of Gospel for Asia.

A Loving Tribute to a Special Lady

Feel like sharing this with you... This reply is directed as much to Vicki Thorn as it is for a man's testimony. She came to our Respect Life Banquet on 1/31 at Holy Family Church in Rockford, IL as a featured guest speaker. Her words throughout the speech were, are, and will always be very powerful, touching the masses. That said, there is one thing which I elaborate further upon in the subsequent paragraphs, that she said that has stuck to me like a magnet. When I wrote these words, I began to cry unlike I have done in a very long time. I believe that her words were a form of beautiful healing.

I emphasize that I have never had a relationship with another lady, but this testimony is more based on a fear of the unknown. Her words piecred my heart like a straight arrow in the night when she was talking about how abortions took place back around when my granddad and my parents were born. I understand the fact that evil exists, but that being said, I know with faith in Jesus that we are stronger than our frail bodies will ever be. God's timing could not have been more perfect for me. I was an epileptic with uncontrollable seizures, as medicine never controlled or stopped them. Also, I had pretty severe stuttering and so I received God's grace by having this corrected. I have received physical healing many times and am so blessed for that.

However, what I do believe where Vicki has made the most impact, as I described above, is I'm so very thankful that I was born when I was instead of when my parents/grandparents were, as I fear that I would be society roadkill. I know my parents would never be subjected to that type of decision, so this is not about that. But as the fear of the unknown, thinking back that long (100 years or so), I may have been born, but really who would have wanted me? I just cannot imagine the pain, emotional and mental that would've been with me if that was the case. I know every generation has loving parents. That is not why I write this. But what if I was in the wrong hands, and they thought I was imperfect? Just because of seizures, as epileptics are passed over for mental issues far too often.

I probably will always have this hole in my life (which is extremely real, even though they are perceived thoughts on how my life would have been different), so I will probably always need for myself, to at least cope with this type of situation. But, it saddens me that people, far too many, just don't know how valuable a human life is, let alone the priceless gift of holding a newborn.

I write this because it is a testimony to Vicki's beautiful work that she was granted the gift from God to carry out the mission that she has for pretty much my entire life. I am blessed very much to know that she is an advocate, seemingly and perceptively powerful voice that we need more of. For that, we are extremely and infinitely appreciative of her tireless work.

So Dear Lord, I pray that you show your face to us each breath we take, as life this day is no less or more valuable than the last in and of itself. Other things may be priceless, whether big or small (be it a bird chirping, seeing the sunset in Hawaii, marraige, and so on). But the top two are the gift of life and you infusing my life with a multitude of blessings through your healing touch. I thank you for the gifts that you gave me, even to the point of entering this world when I did. I may not feel compelled each and every day to discuss the sensitivity of how my life could have been different, but if it was not for accepting you, Jesus, as Lord and Savior, I just don't think I would have the strength to live each day, let alone defy the belief of society that says, hey, your life is worth this much (kind of like what slavery may have been back in the day) instead of being worth more than the finest bar of gold that there would be. Therefore, in closing, in despair, you give me hope. In hurting, you comfort. In grief, you love. As humans, I cannot comprehend the level of love you have, but it's all encompassing, and very powerful. I cried many tears today thinking of this very fact, Lord. Thank you for all the reassurances you have given me, and to use Vicki as a leading voice, a beautiful ray of hope that she is. She is definitely an instrument that has done thy holy will, because she accepted your calling via the nudge from the Holy Spirit. Words cannot express my thanks and gratitude that I have to find out this was as prevelent as it was, and still is pre and post Roe v. Wade. This is a grave religious, social and moral injustice, as we, as part of God's Army, need to stand in peace and show society that there is no place whatsoever under your authority for this behavior. Please shine your light, the booming, humungous beams of light, down into our soul, now and forevermore. Amen, Alleluia, the Savior Reigns. Mother Mary, Queen of Peace, Out Lady of Guadelupe, St. Michael, and all of the other Saints, Archangels, Angels, and Spiritual Brothers and Sisters, please lift me up and pray for me always.

And to you Vicki, God Bless You and Your Work on this all important mission.

With Love, Through Christ,

John Fayhee

Prolife Feminism Yesterday and Today

This books, a large collection of essays, has been compiled by Mary Krane Derr, Rachel MacNair, and Linda Naranjo-Huebl. It is the revised and much-expanded earlier version of this same book with the same title. This in-depth book begins with an Introduction to the entire book and gives a the historical overview of feminism and the three Editors' credits to some people who made the book possible. Then the Editors open with an Introduction to Part one, which consistes of essays by past feminists, from Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) to Dorothy Day (1897-1980). Then the Editors continue with Part Two, with an Introduction that helps the reader transition, in historical context, to modern prolife feminism. Part Two begins with essays by Fannie Lou Townsend Hamer (1917-1977) to Linda Naranjo-Huebl. The Editors end Part Two with a Bibliography, many pages of Endnotes with sources used in research, and an Index.

This book is the greatly revised and updated version of an earlier version of this book. It is a big book, and it took awhile to get through it. I found the earlier essays by ealier feminists challenging to follow, as their styles of writing and language tend to be more from earlier times and more arcane. Many of them seem to have been taken from larger writings and my concern is that prochoice people can argue that these writings were taken out of context. In fact, I have read a review or two where current feminists scoff at the idea of "prolife feminism," clearly declaring that these writings have been taken out of context. Clearly, though, these feminists denounced abortion as not serving women and as using them for profit, as well as killing their children. The writers of this book come from diverse religions, walks of life, ethnicities, and some are LGBT. I liked the variety and styles of essays, including question and answer formats for some of them. These writers adopt a "consistently prolife ethic," where they assert that they are prolife not only about the unborn, but about all people at all ages and stages of development. Reading this book dispels the notion that to be prolife, you have to be a Christan or any "religion," support and vote only for Republicans, and be for other "conservative" issues like unregulated gun rights, the death penalty, military involvment, and oppose means-tested government assistance programs (like Food Stamps and Medicaid). One big beef of mine with so many who identify as prolife but who oppose so many government assistance for low-income pregnant women, poor single moms, early childhood education and other services that many vulnerable citizens rely on just to survive. It seems hypocritical to denounce abortion as evil and as murder, while being unwilling to make changes in society that would make carrying untimely and crisis pregnancies more appealing. It seems that all the writers of this book's essays would agree.

I recommend this book for all those who identify as prolife. It can show them that you do not have to fit the conservative and right-wing profile in order to respect all life and protect it from conception on. I recommend this book for all who call themselves prochoice, as a woman-centered book like this may be more acceptable to those who identify as prochoice or feminist (or both) than most prolife literature. Most average prolife literature is more baby-centered and the well-being of the woman seems to be secondary to what comes off as the primary subject of concern: the baby. This is not a Christian book, though some of the authors of the essays in the book identify as both Christian as well as prolife feminists. Books like this can change the tone of the abortion debate so I can recommend it to those on either side of the debate.

An Unforgettable Retreat Experience

This is from one of my church retreats... Prior to knowing Jesus as my Risen Savior, I don’t know if I had a sense, let alone understanding, what could be done through His will, and I really don’t know how strong my faith life was. However, through my life experiences, overcoming obstacles has positively impacted my faith life, as today my faith is the key to any success I’ve had. It is supposed to be our engine, but we have to turn the key to ignite it; however it can sputter as well. In no small way to these circumstances, my life has become much more enriched.

I have had many situations where I have had to show a great deal of faith to overcome obstacles while being a first-hand witness to Jesus’ healing and powerful touch and, as a result I have become more aware of how He has been working through me. The first way has been my speech issues (namely stuttering). Previously, I received assistance from about 3 or 4 speech therapists all the way from pre-school to high school as we tried many strategies that didn’t work, as my face would be a deep red like an apple, especially if I was talking in front of people.

After a lot of research, guidance and prayers, my family and I decided that I should go out to Norfolk, VA to what I phrase a Speech Boot Camp for three weeks at the Eastern Virginia Medical School. The participants tried to overcome their stuttering through Jesus’ Divine Healing, as the instructor also stuttered. This is predominantly a condition men historically face much more than women. The patella blocks the air flow out of the mouth similar to a cat or dog trying to get through a door flap and is stuck. So stuttering can be deeply embarrassing for people with it, especially since it is tougher to speak in a quasi-normal way the longer it hasn’t been mastered (just as it was for Moses when he was delivering the Sermon on the Mount). The first thing we did was re-learning how to breathe by lying down on the floor. After this, we relearned how to correctly annunciate basic words and group them in sentences, such as ‘The dog ran.’ The way to determine if we were correctly speaking in a phonetic way, a different light came on compared to if it was wrong. As the first few days went on, gradually there was more advancement to more difficult words and situations. Another more advanced phase was to find businesses in the phone book and ask them basic questions, such as how much is the pizza. Once this took place over the course of a couple days, then we would go a close-by business in person and order lunch, which also helped us assimilate back into society.

Once I returned from Virginia I started to experience the real love of Christ as everyone started to notice good improvement with my fluency, as this gave me added confidence. Consequently, Jesus showed me through His intercession how lots of practice through the speech boot camp, take home material and other real life situations made my life easier. A couple of years later I went back to Virginia for a week refresher course to obtain further instruction and refine what I had learned and practiced. The next issue was my epilepsy, as I have been officially diagnosed since I was 3 months old (as I had gray skin for what is believed to be lack of oxygen from birth). I have been through 10 medications (with a variety of dosages within each) and 6 neurologists. Because this never had been controlled with my medicine, we finally started expanding our thought process to consider more ‘radical’ options including, but not limited to, brain surgery, as I went through many types of tests to see if I was a candidate. This really made me uncomfortable for a couple of reasons, as I didn’t want to relearn how to talk with all of my strides I had made and also was concerned about my peripheral vision being reduced or non-existent and didn’t know how realistic an option this would be; however, Jesus through His intervention comforted me.

I was in the hospital for 12 days in May of 1999, getting out on that Memorial Day. Probably half way through the stay, I had an EEG and they reduced my medicine to half of the normal level to try and trigger a seizure. Well, I had a grand mal seizure (the first and only one of those in my life). This ended up showing the doctor and surgeon where it was coming from, so fortunately there was no form of blockage anywhere that prevented a clean cut (which fortunately was only a pinky incision instead of across my head type of cut), so all of the area that was creating the problems was able to be removed by God’s grace. So to this present day, I have never had another seizure. Furthermore, I know that my whole reason for being who I am today results in no coincidence whatsoever to these experiences, regardless of how trying they have been then or now.

I know God placed these people in my life when I needed them most. My faith life is very much stronger as a result thanks to God’s healing touch. In the time since my medical procedures, I have had many rich and unforeseen blessings.

As deeply enriched my faith life has become from these medical situations, a true blessing that started to energize my faith life was when I was able to go to the Vatican, Rome and Assisi for a pilgrimage with my Newman Center at WIU just after Christmas of 1999 for the Catholic Jubilee, as we were there for 10 days. Among the many things we were able to do was have Daily Mass and participate in Papal Audiences at the Vatican, and also had Daily Mass in Assisi, and toured the many religious sites in both places. I will always hold very close the 3 Vatican pictures that their photographers took that I have (as I am in two of them), as this is a life time reminder of some very powerful spiritual experiences, especially since I am in a shot with Pope John Paul going by in his Pope mobile and also am in a big group shot with St. Peter in the foreground. Due to my medical history, I never thought I would be able to drive. In high school, I was able to do the classroom part of drivers ed, but I was not permitted to go any further. So in June 2002 (which was 3 years after my surgery), that all changed. I started to learn how to drive with my dad and granddad. This was quite a process, because they have driven for 6-8 decades and could tell me many things about what to do, especially since even though I was 25 years old, I was mentally just like a 16 year old in terms of driving ability. Well, in 4 months, I was able to obtain my license and then two weeks after that, I moved 6 hours from home to St. Joseph, MO as a VISTA member (which is basically like the domestic Peace Corps). This was a huge leap of faith, as I had never lived outside of my home county my first 25 years, and then all of a sudden some sort of reality set in about having to live on my own being away from my parents nest and support, even though I was oblivious to what that life was going to be like. The change hit me like a big tornado going right through my soul before I could blink an eye and rethink if I made a wise decision. Once again, Jesus through His intercession helped me through this experience. God has been present in my life through good and bad (even though I have had many signs of His tough love since then, in particular with my too many to count accidents and tickets). I realize that things happen for a reason and we do not always know what the reason may be. I feel in a sense my life has been a real blessing because even though in my teens and into my early 20s that even though the epilepsy wasn’t controlled, I never got addicted to drugs, smoking, or drank and never have had a desire to even try. Therefore, in some way, shape or form, there is always a silver lining, regardless of how easily it may be acknowledged, especially since I think most of these times I have learned something tangible from the experiences to make my faith life that much stronger as I have been much more successful than I, let alone my family would have ever imagined prior to how my medical situations gave me a new lease on life.

My final closing thought is this: The longer I live; attitude has become much more important than facts. It is also more important than the past, education, money, circumstances, failures or successes, or than what people say or do as well as appearance, giftedness or skill. My life will be enhanced or broken because of this, and my faith life is impacted similarly. I have a choice every day regarding the attitude that I embrace for that day. While I cannot change the inevitable, the one thing I can do is play the only fiddle I have and that is my attitude. Consequently, life seems to be 10% of what happens to me and 90% how I react. So Dear Lord, I am very grateful that you have shown your face in my life, as You continue to give me the courage, strength and will power to practice my faith daily, as well as helping me overcome these and all obstacles, as my life has been worth fighting the good fight for and am very grateful for the gift of life You have blessed me with. I hope and pray for many more blessings to come my way, in whatever way they may be presented. Please continue to provide me the strength & courage to face each day with the same fortitude that You have blessed me with to this day, and help me to focus on those around me and keep me mindful of the trials and challenges they are dealing with that I may provide support, understanding and encouragement to help them through their struggles similar to how You have continued to help me. Thank you!

John Fayhee

View This Video, Share It & Save A Life

In the past few years, 4D ultrasound has emerged and it clearly shows the the reality of the life and humanity of the unborn child. It is been proved that when moms are shown ultrasounds of their babies, they are much more likely to reject abortion and choose life for their babies. This is why pregnancy resource centers use ultrasounds for their clients with positive pregnancy tests. They know that when these clients are shown ultrasounds of their babies, they can see that their babies have body parts and can move, and masses and clumps of cells do not possess these characteristics. And 4D ultrasounds show the unborn child more clearly and are being used more and more often though I understand that they are expensive and insurance typically does not cover them. Christians, we are called to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. You can do that by sharing this video and pray that abortion-minded girls and women will find it, view it, and choose life for their babies.

Will you do this simple thing to be a voice for the unborn?



This video is provided courtesy of American Life League. I'm not a partner of or affiliated with this nonprofit.