ORANGE, COUNTY, CA (ANS) -- Brian Harmon has always loved reading, but when he got to college he fell in love with school.

Brian Harmon has archived 15,000 ANS articles since 2007. (Submitted photo).

Harmon earned a Master’s Degree in Economics at Cal State U, Long Beach, and soon moved 35 miles south to Orange County, where a few years later he began teaching college economics part-time, which he did for 24 years, generally working in the daytime to support his ‘reading habit.’ He married a second grade teacher in 1984 after three years of courtship.

“Many years later, after ten years full-time in the public school system, mostly teaching history, it became apparent that teaching high school was not my calling,” he told ANS.

“Unfortunately, the process of learning that lesson was a brutal one, and I felt like a total loser. I spent many months trying to pull my life back together,” he said.

In desperation, Harmon enrolled in the two-year, full-time program at the Calvary Chapel School of Ministry in Costa Mesa.

“There I met a guest speaker, Dan Wooding, the award- winning Christian journalist who founded ASSIST News Service (ANS). I had read his book 'Twenty Six Lead Soldiers' 20 years earlier and was deeply moved, feeling that maybe God could use my talents in some way as he uses Dan Wooding’s.”

Harmon says he reads ANS articles pretty much every day.

“With some of them, just by reading the headlines I can get an idea about what God is doing in the world and where his people are suffering. I have been especially moved by the suffering of God’s people in Sudan, where the death is in the 100,000’s. I am also brought to my knees by stories about the hundreds of Christians murdered in Nigeria, the homeland of a beloved coworker, an economics professor at Cypress College.”

In addition, said Harmon, he finds a number of helpful ANS articles relating to apologetics (the defense of the gospel), such as stories on recent archaeological finds and new biblical manuscripts being discovered.

“I also love to see examples of how God is working in the world today,” he said.

“It is amazing how much one can learn about what God’s people are experiencing throughout the world by spending just a few minutes a day looking at articles on ANS.”

From 2007 on, Harmon has tried to save all of the ANS articles, so now he has an ‘archive’ of over 15,000 articles.

“I wrote half a dozen articles about YFCI’s activities in Latin America and the Caribbean that were carried on ANS. I would like to share the ‘archive’ with other Christians because it could be a valuable research tool,” he said.

“For example, if I want to see what God is dong in Turkmenistan, in a few seconds I can have all 45 articles that mention the subject that have appeared since May, 2007.”

He added: “I am grateful for the way God has used ANS, Youth for Christ International (YFCI), and CBMC (Christian Business Men’s Connection) to put my life back together.”

If you would like to contact Harmon, please write to him at yfci@hotmail.com

** Michael Ireland is the Senior International Correspondent for ANS. He is an international British freelance journalist who was formerly a reporter with a London (United Kingdom) newspaper and has been a frequent contributor to UCB UK, a British Christian radio station. While in the UK, Michael traveled to Canada and the United States, Albania,Yugoslavia, Holland, Germany,and Czechoslovakia. He has reported for ANS from Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Israel, Jordan, China,and Russia. Michael's volunteer involvement with ASSIST News Service is a sponsored ministry department -- 'Michael Ireland Media Missionary' (MIMM) -- of A.C.T. International of P.O.Box 1649, Brentwood, TN 37024-1649, at: Artists in Christian Testimony (A.C.T.) International where you can make a donation online under 'Donate' tab, then look for 'Michael Ireland Media Missionary' under 'Donation Category' to support his stated mission of 'Truth Through Christian Journalism.' Michael is a member in good standing of the National Writers Union, Society of Professional Journalists, Religion Newswriters Association, Evangelical Press Association and International Press Association. If you have a news or feature story idea for Michael, please contact him at: ANS Senior International Reporter