LAKE FOREST, CA (ANS) -- Dear friends:

Greetings to you all from Norma and myself. We are now safely back in Lake Forest from the UK after visiting our family there.

One of the most amazing things about being a journalist is the wide variety of people I get to meet and talk with. Last week I had the great privilege of interviewing Nobel Peace Prize winner, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, at a Church Army event in Sheffield which I attended with my elder son, Andrew. If you missed the story, just go to http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/2009/s09110007.htm.

John Cleese doing his 'MInistry of Silly Walks'

Then, today (Wednesday), I had the joy of talking with John Cleese, the zany star of Monty Python’s Flying Circus and Fawlty Towers, who was being interviewed by my favorite radio personality, Larry Mantle, on his show AirTalk on KPCC, the LA-based National Public Radio (NPR) station.

Larry Mantle allowed me to come on air and talk to John Cleese about the day back in the late 1960s when I was working for the Middlesex County Times in Ealing, West London. I was sent by my editor, Bert Munday, to try and get some stories in the South Ealing area. My first stop was at the famous Ealing Studios that had recently been taken over by the BBC and I told the PR person there that I was on the “look out for stories” and she told me, “Hey, I’ve got a great story for you. We have a bunch of lunatics starting a show here called ‘Monty Python’s Flying Circus.’ Would you like to do the first-ever story on them?”

I shared with Cleese that I wrote up the story that apparently launched them onto an unsuspecting world and soon would go out onto the local streets with them, a photographer in tow, to cover their antics. I did, however, miss John Cleese’s hilarious sketch on “The Ministry of Silly Walks” as seen in this picture.

We soon ran out of time on AirTalk, so I wasn’t able to tell Cleese that I had also written a story called “Monty Python Sends Up Jesus” for the Sunday People newspaper about the controversial “Life of Brian” movie. That story had some surprising results as the Jewish backer of the film pulled all his funding from it and so former Beatle George Harrison came along and put his money into the movie and this launched his career as a funder of many of their films.

On Sunday, I was in more familiar territory when I went to Saddleback Church, which is just a short way from my home in Lake Forest, and Pastor Rick Warren announced at the end of the event that celebrated the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church that he was launching a new “signature” ministry for the church to help persecuted Christians around the world. (See http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/2009/s09110047.htm)

Many of you who live outside of Southern California have been asking me how you can hear my Front Page Radio interviews and I am glad to say you now can – by going onto our website (www.assistnews.net)  and then click onto “Listen to Front Page Radio.” There you can hear my interview with Archbishop Tutu. Hope you enjoy it and the other interviews we have posted there.

ANS Finances

I want to again thank you once again for all your wonderful recent support for ANS. We are making progress in dealing with this present financial crisis, and I have to say that your initial responses to my SOS have been quite magnificent.

For those of you who haven’t yet been able to help, I am asking you to please prayerfully consider sending a donation to help us at this critical time.

All you have to do is to send a one-off gift or enroll to help with a gift each month by going to: www.assistnews.net/assist/donations.htm or you can mail a check to ASSIST, PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609, USA.

Cover of From Tabloid to Truth

In return, I would like to send you a complimentary copy of my

autobiography, “From Tabloid to Truth.” Just send me an e-mail at danjuma1@aol.com after you have made your gift and request the book along with your name and mailing address, and I will get it right off to you. This also applies to our overseas friends! If you want to know more about the book and my rather strange like, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com.

Front Page Radio

I also wanted to let you know that on Sunday (November 15, 2009) at 5:00 PM (Pacific Time), on KWVE 107.9 FM, my special guest is Baroness Caroline Cox from the British House of Lords. Baroness Cox a true hero who spends so much of her time in some of the world’s hotspots putting her life on the line to help believers there.

If you don’t live in the area, you can hear the program on www.kwve.com or on our website.

Again, a huge thank you and blessings to you all from Norma and myself!

Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST and ANS

Dan Wooding, 68, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for 46 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS). He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly “Front Page Radio” show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is the author of some 43 books. Two of the latest include his autobiography, “From Tabloid to Truth”, which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, press this link. Wooding, who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, also recently released “God’s Ambassadors in Japan” which is available at amazon.com.