The World and Everything in It - August 13, 2021

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

It’s been a week of reflection and today some encouragement from Trevin Wax on why looking back might just help us move forward.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: That’s ahead on Culture Friday.

Plus three more stories from the past, including a visit to hell via the imagination of C.S. Lewis and actor Max McLean.

And a few final thoughts from the WORLD Radio team on the work they’ve done over the last 10 years.

BROWN: It’s Friday, August 13th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

BUTLER: And I’m Paul Butler. Good morning!

BROWN: Up next, Kent Covington has today’s news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: U.S. sends 3K troops to Kabul to evacuate some embassy staff » Three-thousand more American troops are heading to Afghanistan to help evacuate some personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby acknowledged that conditions are deteriorating quickly as the Taliban advances.

KIRBY: And as I said before, our troops will, as always, have the right of self defense. But this is a narrowly focused mission to help safeguard an orderly reduction of civilian personnel.

One Army and two Marine infantry battalions will enter Afghanistan by the end of the week to help guard the partial evacuation.

The Taliban has not yet advanced on Kabul, but analysts say an assault on the country’s capital city could be just weeks away.

Taliban take Kandahar, Herat in major advance » The extremist group Thursday conquered Afghanistan's second-and-third-largest cities, Kandahar and Herat. It has now captured 12 provincial capitals in a weeklong blitz.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan said Thursday that his government has tried to broker peace in Afghanistan, but the Taliban isn’t interested.

KHAN: The moment the Americans started drawing down their troops and especially when they gave an exit, the Taliban thought they had won the war. In their mind, once the Americans had left then, you know, then they had won.

The resurgent Taliban now controls more than two-thirds of the nation. In some areas, its fighters are now seen riding on U.S. military Humvees with American M-16s slung across their shoulders.

Seth Jones with the Center for Strategic and International Studies says in his view, the Afghan military’s biggest problem is not a lack of equipment or training, but morale. He says Afghan troops feel abandoned by the United States and Europe.

JONES: Morale has been so decimated. The support for the Afghan central government has been so weakened in some areas that we’ve seen massive defections from Afghan national security forces.

The latest U.S. military intelligence assessment suggests that if current trends hold, the Taliban could take over the country entirely within a few months.

Census shows US is diversifying, population growth slowing » New information from the U.S. Census Bureau paints the most vivid portrait yet of how America is changing demographically.

Marc Perry is senior demographer with the Census Bureau. He said the data show that the population growth of the United States has slowed.

PERRY: This past decade’s 7.4 percent increase was lower than the previous decade’s 9.7 percent increase, and was in fact the second-lowest percent increase ever. Only the 1930s had slower growth.

The figures show continued migration to the South and West. They also indicate that the white population is aging and has fallen to its smallest share of the total population on record. The population under age 18 is increasingly diverse.

The census figures will set off what are sure to be bitter redistricting battles across the country. The numbers could help determine control of the U.S. House in next year’s elections. The data will also shape how the federal government will distribute $1.5 trillion in federal spending each year.

U.S. jobless claims near pandemic low » The number of Americans filing jobless claims fell for a third straight time last week. WORLD’s Sarah Schweinsberg reports.

SARAH  SCHWEINSBERG, REPORTER: Thursday's report from the Labor Department showed that unemployment claims fell by about 12,000 to a total of 375,000.

A total of about 12 million people are receiving unemployment benefits, down sharply from 13 million the previous week.

Analysts say that’s a sign that the economy continues to recover. But some say another factor is that more than 20 states have canceled temporary special unemployment programs.

Since last year, self-employed and gig workers have been able to apply for unemployment for the first time through one of those programs. And a separate program, so-called enhanced unemployment, sent extra $300-a-week federal checks to recipients.

With job openings hitting a record high, many states felt those programs were no longer needed. Both programs will end nationwide next month.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Sarah Schweinsberg.

California’s Dixie Fire continues to grow » California’s largest single wildfire on record continues to grow this week. The Dixie Fire, about 150 miles north of Sacramento, has burned more than a half-million acres. And it’s already destroyed more than 1,000 buildings, about half of them were homes.

Thom Porter with the California Dept. of Forestry and Fire Protection said it takes very little to start a fire right now in the drought-stricken region.

PORTER: If there’s even a blade of grass near you, that is enough to start a fire these days. It is so dry. And the way we’ve seen this burn though live timber in the tens of thousands of acres an hour is unlike anything we’ve seen.

Meantime, in Montana, officials have ordered evacuations as strong winds drive a wildfire toward several remote towns.

Roughly 100 large blazes are burning across 15 states, mostly in the West.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: the importance of looking back.

Plus, the vagaries of technology.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Friday, August 13th, 2021. Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Myrna Brown.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: And I’m Paul Butler. This month we’re marking a few significant ministry anniversaries: 40 years ago, WORLD published our first kids publication, It’s God’s World. It’s the paper that started it all and launched WORLD Newsgroup.

BROWN: That’s right. And we’re celebrating 10 years as a program! We’ve been listening back all week, highlighting some of our most memorable stories. We’ve heard from many of our reporters and staff from over the years—reflecting on God’s faithfulness and provision. And I’ve gotta mention too that this past Tuesday, we marked 1 year of WORLD Watch video news for kids. So quite a week indeed.

BUTLER: All this reflection got me wondering about the benefits of taking time in our lives to reflect. At one of our live events a couple years ago, someone asked our panel about Biblical role models as reporters. After someone mentioned Mark, Luke, the gospel writers, another chimed in with Mary, the mother of Jesus. Luke 2:19 says “But Mary kept all these things” or treasured these things, “and [she] pondered them in her heart.” Good journalists don’t just report what they see, they’re good ponderers too. They reflect so they can set that coverage within a greater context.

BROWN: It’s Culture Friday, and Trevin Wax joins us today to help us consider the personal and spiritual benefits of a reflective Christian life. Good morning, Trevin.

TREVIN WAX, GUEST: Good morning.

MB: You’ve had a few changes in your life recently. You’re no longer at LifeWay. You’ve started a new chapter of ministry with the North American Mission Board, and you turned 40! That’s a lot to reflect on!

WAX: That's right. Yes, yes, it is.

BUTLER: I think some of us may just be wired to reflect more than others. Some people keep a journal or diary, others keep genealogies and family stories alive, but it seems like many of us think a quick social media post about our lives is enough. Why do you think it important for all of us to practice more intentional reflection in the rhythm of our lives?

TREVIN WAX: Well, you know, I think it is one of the aspects of being human, that we view our lives in terms of a story in terms of a narrative. We think of our lives at the beginning. We think of ourselves on a journey. I mean, it's just almost impossible for us to not conceive of our lives in this way.

I have a friend who's a fiction writer, who is constantly asking that as a question: “If you were placed in the story, what kind of character would you be?” And of course, he's asking that question from a fictional standpoint as a novelist, but that is really a question that he says is also important for us to consider as human beings.

Because, as the Scriptures teach we are in a story. We're in the story that has been written by God. The drama of redemption that is unfolding. The grand narrative of Scripture, from creation all the way to new creation. And so taking a moment to stop and to reflect and to look back at our lives and to look forward is a good way of asking ourselves the question of where we’ve been, who we are, and what it is that we're becoming?

BROWN: Trevin, you said it's a good time to look at and ask the question,, you know, where we've been. What happens when we spend too much time looking in the rearview mirror? And those things, those regrets?

WAX: You know, I think of something the old missionary Lesslie Newbigin said is that nostalgia for the past and fear of the future, they're both out of bounds for the Christian. There is a sense in which you can look back, and it becomes paralyzing. Maybe because of regrets because of things that you've done, things that have had an impact on your life and in such a way that you live with the consequences.

But a lot of times, it's easy to look back at the past too much, Myrna, because we love living there. There are aspects of the past that we actually enjoy more than the present or that we we yearn for. We have a rosy view of the past. Either one of those ways can be detrimental if they keep us from the tasks that God has put in front of us, in our day to day lives.

BROWN: In a recent blog you wrote that you set aside time every July to take a break from writing articles and even put away your social media feeds. So how was this year’s break and what did you find yourself reflecting on during that time away?

WAX: Well, it was fantastic as it is every year to do that. I'm not always off of social media every July, but I'm generally off of posting anything for a whole month. And this time, I was pretty much off both. But I will say that being off social media has reminded me and has taught me something.

We don't need to fill every single nook and cranny of our lives with content that's, you know, coming at us from all sorts of places. If we do that, we're going to wind up just being driven by whatever is newest,  whatever is the biggest news of the day, without really saving any time to actually think through what is going on in the world around us. What are our responsibilities to those closest to us, and whatnot. So I think there's something valuable in us taking a step back in removing the clutter from our lives, whether it be physical clutter, whether it be digital clutter, whatever it might be, to give our self some space for that contemplation and reflection that hopefully will enable us to make better choices and to make decisions that are pleasing to the Lord.

BUTLER: Now you mentioned the danger of living in the past. So what does a healthy, Christian, reflective life look like?

WAX: Well, I think it's important for us to look to the past in order to retrieve what we need for the future. God has so orchestrated things that there are events and moments in our past that are designed by him, to make us and to shape us into the kind of people who will have an impact on others in the future.

Almost anybody who's gone through even through tragedy, or through times of suffering, will later find some sense of purpose and meaning in that suffering, for the way that that experience has prepared them for something else down the road—maybe something related to their own life and job, maybe something related to how they minister to others. But I think personally, we look back to our past to say, “What was God doing then to prepare me for what he has for me now and ahead?”

I think it's important for us to know our history, to know our past, to know where we've come from. Every generation is tasked with handing down the faith once for all delivered to the saints. Every generation is tasked with receiving that faith, that gospel, and then passing it to the next generation.

Whatever we might think when we look at the past, we don't find a golden era in which everything was pristine. But what we do find are aspects of true Christianity, gifts from the Lord, that we can use for the days ahead. It's like a treasure box back there and God has so has put things in the past that are going to aid us as Christians as we seek to be faithful in the future. And so just as we do that with our personal lives, I think it's important for us to do that as Christians. As we look to the challenges that we see ahead of us, we need to look back to grab resources we need from the Christians who have gone before us.

BROWN: Well, one of the things that I that I've done for over 20 plus years, I keep a journal, and that's how I record you know, my reflections. What are some other things that we can do to, you know, make sure that we are recording the reflections, the things that that God is giving us as we look back?

WAX: I've done something very similar. And, you know, looking back, it's nice to be able to go back and search that journal and to see things in the past and to see God's faithfulness and to see how God brought, you know us through difficult times.

You see the Psalmist doing this regularly. He’s in a particular moment of despair, or he's got some kind of problem that he's facing, and the psalmist then goes back and reminds himself of the goodness of the Lord reminds himself of the way the Lord has blessed him and has done great things for him in the past.

That's a it's a way of preaching the gospel to ourselves. And I think it's important for us to, to keep count of the wonders of God. The more we do that, the more we are likely to recognize God's good gifts to us when they come and to be grateful for them.

BUTLER: Trevin Wax is Vice President for Research and Resource Development at the North American Mission Board. Thanks so much for joining us this morning!

BROWN: Thank you, Trevin!

WAX: Thank you both. Glad to be with you.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: Well, if you happen to be a librarian, here’s something you probably don’t see every day.

The staff at a Plymouth, Pennsylvania library recently received a book-return with a note attached, hand-written in tidy cursive. Here’s how that note started:

“Fifty years ago (yes 50!), a little girl checked me out of this library in 1971. At this time, she didn't know they were going to move from Plymouth. Back then, kids weren't told things like that. As you can see, she took very good care of me."

That’s the tale from a two-page apology note.

It went on to explain that the library patron borrowed the book as a little girl.

Her family moved from the area a short time later and the book, called Coins you can Collect, got packed away with the rest of the family’s belongings.

After many moves, boxes, and shelves the book was finally returned to the library along with the note and a $20 bill.

The author of the note admitted it was insufficient to cover the overdue fine. But she said, perhaps, it could go toward paying the fines of the next child who takes their library book on such an adventure.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: Today is Friday, August 13th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Paul Butler.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: our final three highlights from the past. Next week we return to our usual programming, but it’s been humbling to remember the many wonderful stories God brought our way. We hope you’ve been encouraged by them. I know I have. Today, C.S. Lewis on stage, the value of a human life, and a community grief observed.

BUTLER: Let’s begin by returning to 2012—not even a full year into the program—as then co-host Joseph Slife filed this story on Max McLean and his stage production of The Screwtape Letters.

JOSEPH SLIFE, REPORTER: The Screwtape Letters is often humorous – but it’s also chilling at times, such as when Screwtape and Toadpipe grow feverish with devilish delight over the idea of perverting what God has created for human happiness and turning into the means of human destruction.

MCLEAN: Never forget, that when we’re dealing with any pleasure, in it’s normal, satisfying form, we are on the enemy's own ground. But I know, we’ve won many a soul through pleasures. But it’s His invention, not ours. He made the pleasures. All our research thus far has not enabled us to produce one. 

The Screwtape Letters succeeds as both entertainment and edification—a tribute to both Max McLean and the genius of C.S. Lewis’s book.

For Christians who happen to be in the audience, McLean hopes seeing Screwtape brought to life will prompt them to be more on their guard about what the Bible calls the “wiles of the devil.”

MCLEAN: We don’t spend a lot of time talking about Spiritual warfare, or the power of the evil one, and I think that our Chiristian life would be more...we would be more alert I would say to virtue, to grace, if we recognized that someone was really out to get us. It would bring us more to the cross. More to Christ.

MCLEAN FROM THE STAGE PLAY: Your affectionate uncle...Screwtape. [LAUGHTER].

BROWN: Our next story highlight celebrates an anniversary of a different sort. In 2017, WORLD correspondent Katie Gaultney introduced us to a family whose life had been unexpectedly enriched by a very special addition.

SOUND: “…happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you…”

KATIE GAULTNEY, CORRESPONDENT: I’m at a birthday party for Palmer Anderson. It’s at a busy ice cream shop in north Dallas, and 1-year-old Palmer is the star attraction. A sprig of bright blonde hair sticks straight up off her head in a tiny ponytail. She has pale blue, almond-shaped eyes. They offer a hint that she is a member of a special club—a club that only 1 in every 700 babies in the U-S belongs to:

ANDERSON: Palmer has Down Syndrome. It’s a part of who she is. It’s no different than the fact that she has blonde hair…

That’s Katie Anderson. Palmer’s mom. She says when Palmer was born, the Down Syndrome diagnosis came as a surprise to her and her husband Dave.

Palmer is a lot like any 1-year-old. She scoots and crawls across the floor. Snacks on Cheerios. And mouths brightly colored toys. She wants to feed herself—and loves banging on her little red piano.

SOUND: PALMER PLAYING THE PIANO

ANDERSON: Every time her daddy comes home from work, she just beelines to the front door with a huge smile on her face. She adores her big sister Beckett. She literally, her eyes just follow her everywhere she goes ...

In just 12 months, the baby who surprised Dave and Katie Anderson with her Down Syndrome diagnosis continues to surprise them. Katie says God has used Palmer to change her perspective about what “normal” means, and to grow her capacity to love others.

ANDERSON: I wouldn’t want it any other way. I wouldn’t change Palmer at all, not one single bit. I wouldn’t even take away her Down Syndrome if I could. That, in and of itself, has been a gift to me and our family.

SOUND: “…happy birthday dear Palmer, happy birthday to you [cheers]”

For WORLD Radio, I’m Katie Gaultney reporting from Dallas, Texas.

BUTLER: And finally today, we wrap up with one of our most memorable stories from last year. Kim Henderson spent months digging into a horrific series of murders. In 2017, a lone gunman killed eight people in rural Lincoln County, Mississippi, over Memorial Day weekend. Kim met with the families and discovered how they handled incredible grief and how many of them found healing through forgiveness.

SCENE 8 - THE TRIAL

AMBI: RAIN FALLING

The morning jury selection began in the capital murder trial of Cory Godbolt, the sky thundered. Rain fell in sheets. It was like two-and-a-half years of tears bottled up, coming down all at once.

The families of Godbolt’s eight victims had waited a long time for justice.

NEWSCASTER: It apparently started as a family dispute and ended with 8 dead, including two boys and a deputy. 

Daisy Moore attended the trial. She knew Cory Godbolt because he hung out at her grandmother’s house. But that was before he murdered her nephew. 

MOORE: It's been an emotional roller coaster. This is a family member, this is someone we grew up with. But then on the other side of it, it's like, who is this person? Like, how could you do those things?

Reporter Therese Apel said the families of victims and witnesses like herself couldn’t wait to get the trial behind them. 

APEL: But you didn’t realize what the trial was going to mean as far as what you're going to learn, what you're going to see, who you're going to see, you know, that kind of thing.

Apel was the first to take the stand. Her video of Godbolt’s confession had become primary evidence. The Clarion-Ledger even sent a lawyer down to protect her source from being named, the one that called her during the night.

Jurors studied the footage of Godbolt and Apel as it played on a screen at the front of the courtroom. Audio here is courtesy of Apel and The Clarion-Ledger.

GODBOLT: My intentions was to have y’all to kill me. But I ran out of bullets. (APEL: It’s a good thing they showed mercy.) Suicide by cop was my intention. I ain’t fit to live, not after what I done.

Godbolt watched the video, too, surrounded by a trio of defense attorneys. Instead of prison orange, he got to wear a coat and tie to court each day, as well as a distinguished pair of wide-framed glasses. Shayla Edwards found it difficult to be near him. 

EDWARDS: When you see sitting in front of you, the man that killed your children. It's kind of hard . . .

AMBI: LOW SOUND OF TALKING

Myrtis May has health problems, but she made it to the trial anyway. Myrtis May’s daughter, Sheila Burage, was one of the shooting victims.

During a recess at the trial, May described what it was like to watch her granddaughter weep in the witness stand.

MAY: I hate to see them in pain, because when this first happened, I was no help to them at all. I mean, they could come cry on my shoulder, and all I could do was cry back.

But May said she can now give her grandchildren a sense of direction. Six months after the tragedy, she did a deep dive into Scripture. God became her comfort.

MAY: Knowing who He is and how He died for sinners like us—you can't help but love a God like that. I learned to depend on Him more and more each day. Lean not to your own understanding, but all thy ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your path . . . It has helped me a whole lot, and I'm praying that it will help my family as well.

May has grieved before, but she says this time has been different.

MAY: It's a hurt that, that only God can bring you back from.

HENDERSON: You feel like He’s doing that?

MAY: I feel like he's already done that for me.

BROWN: If you’d like to hear any of the complete versions of these features, we’ve included links to them in today’s transcript: wng.org.

BUTLER: We could only feature 12 stories this week, meaning there were so many good ones we didn’t have time to highlight. But on behalf of all the editors at WORLD, I want to express our deepest appreciation to our many reporters and correspondents over the years who have invested so much time and energy into our mission of Biblically objective journalism. Thank you.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, August 13th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: And I’m Paul Butler.

As our week of anniversary coverage draws to a close, we’ll leave you with a few final thoughts from three members of the WORLD Radio team. And we’ll start with the voice you’ve heard just about every day for the last eight years.

KENT COVINGTON: Hi, this is Kent Covington. And thinking back on all of the years here with The World and Everything in It, there’s been a lot of fun memories, a few embarrassing ones. I think one time I referred to Nikki Haley as the governor of South Korea, as opposed to the governor of South Carolina. So that was fun.

And another embarrassing memory that I have was going back to the early days. In the early days of The World and Everything in It was very much like working at a startup business where it's a very small team, you're working long hours, everybody were six different hats. And it was a lot of fun, but also hard work, running around like chickens with our heads cut off to get the program out the door each day.

I just remember one interview I did with somebody in Washington, D.C., for a particular story. And we were doing a lot of phone interviews at that time. We would interview people by telephone. We don't do that very much anymore because the sound quality is better online. But I was working from a home studio. And first thing I wanted to do was turn off call waiting so that in the middle of the interview, we were not interrupted by an incoming call. So I forget what the code is. It's something you dial something like Star 69 or whatever, and then dial the phone number and that makes sure that the call waiting is turned off and you're not going to be interrupted.

Well, the problem is I entered the wrong code. And not long after the interview, the guest contacted me and said, hey, I've been getting calls from people asking for you. Now this was really confusing to me, because I was not even aware of the existence of the call forwarding feature. But I had entered the wrong code. I had turned on call forwarding, and I inadvertently forwarded all of my calls to the guest.

So that's one of those fun stories over the years, embarrassing moments. But there's been a lot of, there have been a few of those embarrassing moments but it's all been a lot of fun.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN: Hi, this is Anna Johansen Brown. I started working for WORLD three years ago and one of my first assignments was covering the one year anniversary of the Sutherland Springs shooting.

It was a tiny church in a tiny community in Texas, where a gunman walked in on a Sunday morning and killed 27 people. And one year later WORLD wanted to cover how the community had coped with that level of trauma. And for some unfathomable reason, they sent me fresh out of WJI to do this story.

I remember being absolutely terrified about the responsibility, going to this community, and asking people to relive, literally the worst day of their lives, while they stared into my massive microphone. It felt incredibly daunting. But there were a couple of specific individuals I wanted to talk to.

First, the pastor of the church who lost his daughter that day. The worship leader who had been paralyzed in the shooting. And the church member who went after the shooter and stopped him as he ran from the church. But I wasn't sure if I would be able to talk to any of them, if they would be available, or if they would even be willing to talk to me. So I remember praying desperately that God would bring me to just the right people, the people whose stories and perspectives He wanted me to share with listeners.

Sunday morning, I went to the church and attended a morning service. And I saw God very clearly answer that prayer. Because the pastor in his morning announcements told everyone that he would be in meetings the rest of the day, so unavailable for me to interview. The worship pastor was out sick that morning, so I knew I would not be able to talk to him. But as we filed out of the church after the service, that last person on my list, the man who stopped the shooter, he was standing at the sanctuary door literally greeting people as they filed out. And I had to grin because God had made it so abundantly clear who we wanted me to talk to that day.

By the end of the weekend, I was able to talk with multiple survivors who trusted me to tell their stories, which is always humbling, no matter what topic I'm reporting on. And sometimes it's a really daunting responsibility. But I'm so grateful, knowing that God will guide me through that and provide people and stories and interviews. And I'm so grateful for WORLD, that enables me to go out and tell those people’s stories.

MARY REICHARD: Mary Reichard here. And my reflection reveals to me God’s Providence and also His sense of humor.

First, some quick name drops: Marvin Olasky picked me along with nine others for the very first WJI course for mid-career people back in 2011. It was just astounding to me! Two people from that class remain friends: Michael Cochrane and Laura Edgehill. Now both have moved on from World, but our friendships haven’t.

That Nick Eicher plucked me from obscurity to do radio still blows my mind. And when the incomparable Joseph Slife moved on from World, Nick made me the offer to co-host. And when I got around to asking about vacation time, Nick mumbled something about well, “for now this is a start up”, and then I heard the phrase, “probably not.” That was not a deterrent and I said okay! And I’ve never looked back.

Our early news guys Kent Covington and Jim Henry had to teach me everything about news writing. We had to fit entire stories about war, disease, and corruption into 45 seconds. Sometimes it took me all day just to do that!

Kristen Flavin actually moved in with my family to teach me how to edit audio. So everyone was all in to make this thing go!

In spring of 2020, Jenny Rough and I were at the Supreme Court. She was writing a story about sewage systems. And she thought how creative would it be to begin that radio piece with the sound of a toilet flush at the Supreme Court? So I asked a passing employee whether he could get us some sound from an in-chambers porcelain throne.

He said no, so Jenny and I improvised. But apparently he reported us to the public information office, because the next day a reprimand awaited us from that office. Whoops!

Well, anyway, during telephonic oral arguments soon after, somewhere, somehow, right in the middle of Barr v American Association of Political Consultants, the sound of a toilet flushing! And to this day, it’s still a mystery as to who did that. But somehow, that seemed like justice to me!

I’m so grateful for this job and I’m grateful every day for the opportunity God’s given me.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: It is time to thank our team in order of appearance.

Mary Reichard, Kent Covington, Nick Eicher, Sarah Schweinsberg, Jenny Lind Schmitt, Bonnie Pritchett, Katie Gaultney, Jenny Rough, Kim Henderson, Onize Ohikere, Anna Johansen Brown, and Josh Schumacher.

And a very special thanks to our former colleagues who returned to help us tell the story of our humble beginnings: Joseph Slife, Christina Darnell, Michael Cochrane, Susan Olasky, and Warren Smith.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Johnny Franklin and Carl Peetz are our audio engineers who stay up late to get the program to you early! Leigh Jones is managing editor. Paul Butler is executive producer. And Marvin Olasky is editor in chief.
And you! Thank you for supporting independent Christian journalism.

The Apostle Paul wrote: For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God?...If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. (Galatians 1:!0)

Spend this weekend worshiping with your brothers and sisters in Christ. Lord willing, we’ll meet you back here on Monday.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.