President Trump has ordered the State Department to shut off funding for “ineffective” United Nations programs

Dave Boyer reports in the Washington Times,

Vice President Mike Pence announced Wednesday night that President Trump has ordered the State Department to shut off funding for “ineffective” United Nations programs to help persecuted Christians in the Middle East, saying the administration will take over those efforts directly.

“From this day forward, America will provide support directly to persecuted communities through USAID,” Mr. Pence said at the In Defense of Christians annual solidarity dinner in Washington. “We will no longer rely on the United Nations alone to assist persecuted Christians and minorities in the wake of genocide and the atrocities of terrorist groups.”

Read more here.

Despite threat from ISIS, 100 children receive First Communion in Iraq

Deacon Greg Kandra reports at aleteia,

The first communion Mass in Alqosh was an historic moment for a “frontier town” that has been under threat from the militants of the Islamic State (IS) for a long time. Now it can “hope for peace and normalcy” around these hundred children, said Mgr Basil Yaldo, auxiliary bishop of Baghdad and close associate of the Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako.

The Chaldean primate presided over the ceremony that was attended by “all the priests of the city, the nuns and more than 700 people. The faithful were excited because for the first time, the patriarch celebrated communions in the community.”

Like many other towns in Iraqi Kurdistan, Alqosh too welcomed scores of refugees.

Read more here.

Brutally torturing and killing Christians

Shianee Mamanglu-Regala reports at Christian Today,

Islamic State militants have brutally murdered 12 Christians, including the 12-year-old son of a Syrian ministry team leader who had planted nine churches, for refusing to renounce Jesus Christ and embrace Islam instead, the Gospel Herald reported.

The horrific executions took place last Aug. 28 in an unnamed village outside Aleppo, Syria, according to Christian Aid Mission, a humanitarian group that assists indigenous Christian workers in their native countries.

"In front of the team leader and relatives in the crowd, the Islamic extremists cut off the fingertips of the boy and severely beat him, telling his father they would stop the torture only if he, the father, returned to Islam," Christian Aid Mission said, according to Gospel Herald.

"When the team leader refused, relatives said, the ISIS militants also tortured and beat him and the two other ministry workers. The three men and the boy then met their deaths in crucifixion.''

"They were killed for refusing to return to Islam after embracing Christianity, as were the other eight aid workers, including two women,'' Christian Aid Mission said in its statement.

The eight were reportedly brought to a separate site in the village and asked if they would also return to Islam. But after they refused the offer, the women, ages 29 and 33, "were raped before the crowd, summoned to watch, and then all eight were beheaded."

Citing relatives and villagers who saw the horrific crime, the ministry leader of Christian Aid Mission said that the women "prayed and knelt before the Islamic State militants.''

"Villagers said some were praying in the name of Jesus, others said some were praying the Lord's Prayer, and others said some of them lifted their heads to commend their spirits to Jesus," the ministry director told Christian Aid Mission. "One of the women looked up and seemed to be almost smiling as she said, 'Jesus!'"

The bodies of those killed were then hung on crosses for display, reflective of Christ's crucifixion, according to the Gospel Herald.

The twelve martyrs were among thousands of Christians killed by the ISIS, an extremist Muslim group determined to wipe Christianity off the Middle Eastern map. The group also reportedly shattered "countless time-honoured Christian monasteries, manuscripts, and holy sites in an attempt to eradicate the faith."

Since civil war erupted in 2011 in Syria, the Christian population there has plummeted by nearly two-thirds. In Iraq, the Christian population "is teetering on extinction, dwindling from around 1.5 million in 2003 to well below 200,000 now,'' said the Gospel Herald.