Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Compassion Radio picks Dan Wooding’s “Mary” book for Christmas
For Immediate Release
From Compassion Radio
Contact: Norm Nelson
Norm@compassionradio.com
LAKE FOREST, CA
(ANS) – Veteran American Christian broadcaster Norm Nelson, who along with his wife Cher, literally covers the world for their daily radio program, Compassion Radio, which is carried on numerous US and overseas stations, as well as on the web, have chosen Dan Wooding’s latest novel, “Mary: My Story from Bethlehem to Calvary,” as their Christmas premium.
Dan Wooding with Norm Nelson after the Compassion Radio interview
The Nelsons have traveled to over 150 countries, including in recent years such “hot spots” as Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan, Sudan, Pakistan, Kosovo, Bosnia, Lebanon, Syria and Colombia. Together they record and broadcast informative on-site reports from locations of conflict and suffering.
Examples include program series from Kosovo (during the war), Pakistan (in 2001), the Palestinian Territories (during the second Intifada), Afghanistan (in 2002), and Iraq (in February and April, 2003). Norm has also interviewed leaders of such diverse organizations as Hamas and the European Union, and government officials in such countries as Iraq and Sudan.
Dan Wooding, founder of the ASSIST News Service, and Norm Nelson, also share the unique experience of both traveling to North Korea to report from this mysterious country.
The idea to offer Wooding’s book came about when Norm invited Dan to be his special guest on Compassion Radio to talk about the recent passing of Pastor Chuck Smith, and also about his Mary book.
During the interview, Wooding explained how a friend had suggested that he might like to consider “becoming” Mary, and then write up her extraordinary story “through the eyes of this extraordinary mother” who was described by God as “highly favored” among women.
“My friend said that he had never seen a book that told the greatest story ever told through Mary’s eyes, so I began work on it,” said Wooding during the interview. “Each night, I would take my laptop out onto the patio of my Lake Forest, California, home and begin writing up the story.
Book cover
“To begin with, I had to imagine what it was like for this young and poor girl in love, who was living in Nazareth, and looking forward to marriage, when suddenly her life was changed forever when she is told that you she is to become the mother of the greatest person in history, the Messiah, Jesus Christ – and yet she was a virgin?
“The novel, which is now out, tells the amazing story of Mary, and gives real insights into her life with her beloved son, from His childhood, His growing years, His ministry, His terrible death on the cross, which she witnessed, His resurrection, and finally, His ascension to sit at the right hand of his father in heaven.”
Wooding added, “It is an epic story based on the Bible and I based much of it on some 365 Scriptures in the book.”
Norm Nelson, who began his long broadcasting career at the tender age of five, when his father [the late Wilbur Nelson] a pastor and a radio broadcaster, put him in front of a microphone during live programming, and he gave the mail address and told a Bible story on our his father’s 15-minute program that was on once a week, on one station, says he was so moved to learn about the book, that he immediately took the decision, to order many copies of the book for his Compassion Radio listeners that tune in around the world on hundreds of stations.
“As Dan was telling the story, I began to see how this wonderful book would bless many people as it tells the story of Jesus in a unique and powerful way,” said Nelson, who, like Wooding, is based in Lake Forest, California.
“It takes the reader all the way from Nazareth, to Bethlehem to Calvary, and lots of places in between, and it makes the New Testament come alive in a new way. It is the sort of book that people can buy for their friends and relatives especially as a great Christmas gift.”
What has sealed the friendship between these two veteran communicators, both in their seventies, is that they first met some years ago on a trip to the Middle East after being invited by Dutch-born Brother Andrew – “God’s Smuggler” – to help celebrate his 70th birthday in, of all places, Bethlehem.
At the pyramids in Egypt. Left to right: Terry Madison, Dan Wooding, Steve Haas
and Norm Nelson
“It was quite a trip,” recalled Wooding. “We started off in Jordan, then moved to Egypt, and then to Bethlehem, where we sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to Brother Andrew at the Bethlehem Bible College, where he was staying in a room provided for him which has the name, ‘The Smuggler’s Inn.’
“Brother Andrew then took us into Hebron during a gun battle where I had to interview him as the bullets whizzed by, and then, next day, he took us all into Gaza, to meet some of his friends there.”
Norm Nelson, added, “Dan’s book brings back such wonderful memories of being in Bethlehem at that that time, and I am so glad we can share this great story told in a really readable way, with our many loyal listeners.”
For more information on Dan’s book, please go to www.marythebook.com and for Compassion Radio, please go to www.compassionradio.com.
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<!–BYLINE:For Immediate Release
From Compassion Radio
Contact: Norm Nelson
Norm@compassionradio.com–>