Kicker: Helpers in hard places

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Wednesday, January 17th, 2024. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

This week on Concurrently: The News Coach Podcast, Kelsey Reed and Jonathan Boes are once again joined by God’s Big WORLD editor Amy Auten. They conclude their discussion on modern challenges and healthy practices. This week, they explore the practice of hospitality. Here’s a preview:

BOES: I feel like some of the most redemptive ways I have found to use digital communication is, you know, as a way of facilitating or leading to something outside of the digital. So like using Facebook to organize a book club, using a text to invite somebody into hospitality or even, I have a hard time psyching myself up to write a letter, but I think there's a lot of power in just like sending an invitational text to hospitality, because it kind of locks you in, right? Like, if I feel really inspired to be hospitable in a moment, I might feel tired later. But if I shoot a text now and invite someone over, then I'm locked into it. It doesn't matter how I feel later, accountability and accountability for yourself. Yeah, I love what you're saying. And I'm wondering, you know, if there are ways that you know, we can redemptively use those more immediate forms sometimes to push into a slower form of hospitality and connection.

REED: Such a great way to foil the algorithm. With social media, you know, definitely being designed at this point or operating at this point to try to keep your attention online, we have found the way to foil the social media algorithm. I'm just going to put my attention elsewhere or use this to divert our attention and energy back to where we really longed for it to be which is in the personal.

EICHER: You can hear the entire episode of Concurrently today wherever you get your podcasts. And find out more at concurrentlypodcast.com.

The late Mr. Rogers taught us well what his mother taught him:

FRED ROGERS: Always look for the helpers. Because if you look for the helpers, you’ll know that there’s hope.

And so it is in Ukraine, where even the animals suffer from war. Russian shelling hit a zoo and killed most of the 200 animals there. But when Ukrainian soldiers entered, they found an injured black bear that had survived.

His name is Yampil, and he’s named after the town. Yampil had to be carried out on a tarp, but a charity arranged to get him to the safety of Scotland.

He’s adapted well to his new home and that’s thanks to … ?

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Thanks to the helpers, of course.

EICHER: It’s The World and Everything in It.

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