Saturday, April 4, 2020 -
Today would have been my mother’s 92nd birthday had she lived another five weeks. The pneumonia she contracted killed her within a few days after diagnosis. It was just at that time the COVID-19/corona virus begin rapidly spreading and I will always wonder if that is what actually happened to her.
Since my incarceration, I have been telling people that I am merely one of the first of many Christians in the United States, who will be imprisoned for their faith. Hostility is on the rise in the United States against Christians as it is the world over.
Open Doors recently released figures for 2019. I don’t know how exactly they know this, but they claim a 41% increase in the number of Christians worldwide who have been detained without trial, or arrested and imprisoned for their faith in 2019–3,711 individuals! Somehow I doubt I am included in those numbers. In addition, 2,983 Christians were martyred in 2019 – 11 per day, which is actually down from the 4,136 martyred in 2018.
But the most alarming statistic is the 744% increase in 2019 of the number of attacks against churches or Christian buildings up from 1,266 in 2018 to 9,488 last year! A growing number of these are in the United States!
“But you will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, and you will be hated by all on the account of MY name. Yet not a hair on your head will perish. By your endurance, you will gain your lives” (Jesus, in Luke 21:16-19).