The World and Everything in It — December 16, 2020

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

Same people, different time. The new administration appears to be Obama 2.0.

NICK EICHER, HOST: That’s ahead on Washington Wednesday.

Also World Tour. 

Plus a 100 year old woman reflects on the way challenges in life make us stronger.

And WORLD commentator Ryan Bomberger on cherishing his father.

REICHARD: It’s Wednesday, December 16th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Good morning!

REICHARD: Time now for news. Here’s Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Coronavirus vaccine rolls into more states » Truckloads of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine continue to roll into distribution centers across the country. 

New Jersey celebrated its first coronavirus vaccination on Tuesday. 

A nurse at Newark’s University Hospital received the first shot. 

Several major U.S. pharmacy chains say they will help in the effort to deliver shots to most Americans. But storing the Pfizer vaccine requires special sub-arctic freezers.

Walgreens VP of Pharmacy Operations, Rina Shah told Fox News…

SHAH: We’re really confident in our capabilities, and we’re working closely with every state to make sure we’re helping to manage through all of those nuances.

Later this week, the FDA will consider approving emergency use of the Moderna vaccine, which can be stored at above-freezing temperatures. 

Also on Tuesday, FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn refuted a report that the White House pressed him to speed up approval of vaccines. But he did respond to President Trump’s criticism that his agency is moving like a—quote—“big, old, slow turtle.”

HAHN: No one is wasting any time at FDA. Our reviewers are mothers, fathers, daughters, brothers. They have kids, they have grandkids. Everybody’s working around the clock to get this done. 

But he said the FDA is the gold standard for medical product approval and it must complete “thorough scientific review.”

McConnell, foreign leaders congratulate Biden » After holding out for weeks, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell congratulated President-elect Joe Biden on his victory Tuesday.

MCCONNELL: Many millions of us had hoped the presidential election would yield a different result. But our system of government has processes to determine who will be sworn in on Jan. the 20th. The Electoral College had spoken. 

Electors gathered on Monday to formally elect Biden as president, reflecting the results of last month’s election. 

McConnell waited until now to give the president’s legal challenges every opportunity to play out in the courts. 

The leader also congratulated Sen. Kamala Harris on becoming the nation’s first female vice president-elect. And he thanked President Trump and Vice President Pence for their service. 

Several foreign leaders also congratulated Biden for the first time Tuesday, including Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

Biden reportedly taps Buttigieg for transportation secretary » President Elect Joe Biden is reportedly tapping Pete Buttigieg for a key Cabinet position. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more. 

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: The former South Bend, Ind., mayor once made a formidable opponent for President-elect Joe Biden—beating him in February’s Iowa caucuses. 

Now Biden is expected to nominate Buttiegieg for Transportation secretary. 

If confirmed, he would lead the department that oversees the nation’s highway system, planes, trains, and mass transit. 

Buttigieg stood out in the primaries for frequently referencing his religious views and for being the first openly gay leading presidential candidate. He also served for seven months as a U.S. military intelligence officer in Afghanistan.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin. 

High court sides with houses of worship on attendance caps » The U.S. Supreme Court has sided with churches and synagogues in Colorado and New Jersey in challenges to coronavirus restrictions. 

Multiple houses of worship sued, saying their respective states had capped attendance at lower levels than the limits placed on many businesses. 

In a 6-to-3 ruling, the high court told lower courts to take another look at a lawsuit filed by a church in Colorado. Lower courts previously sided with the state. 

The Supreme Court also provided an injunction to two houses of worship in New Jersey, blocking capacity limits there. 

The court’s majority stated—quote—“The restrictions at issue here … strike at the very heart of the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious liberty.”

The court’s three liberal justices dissented.

Army: U.S. bases vulnerable to attack » The Pentagon is warning that adversaries will attack American bases in the continental United States and that our bases are vulnerable to attacks. WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown has that story.  

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN, REPORTER: Army leaders sounded alarms in a 16-page “Installations Strategy” report this week. It said the military is operating on the assumption that enemies will directly target stateside U.S. bases and related so-called soft targets. 

For example, a cyber attack could knock out civilian power plants that provide electricity to nearby military bases. 

The report stated that “Increasing access to cyberspace, space capabilities, and to weapons of mass effects … greatly heighten the risk to facilities within ‘the homeland.'” 

But the Army has a strategy to counter rising threats. Among the key proposals: modernize facilities, upgrade technology at bases around the world, and strengthen training and readiness.  

The Pentagon is calling on Congress to fund those changes and upgrades. 

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: the Biden administration’s familiar faces.

Plus, Ryan Bomberger reflects on the hope and light of Christmas.

This is The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s Wednesday, the 16th of December, 2020.

So glad you’ve joined us for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. First up: Washington Wednesday.

Throughout the presidential campaign, Republicans suggested a Biden presidency would be little more than a third Obama term. The Biden campaign denied that.

But in an interview after the election, NBC’s Lester Holt pointed out the many former Obama officials Biden was adding to his administration. The president-elect tried to resist the implication by saying this:

BIDEN: This is not a third Obama term because we face a totally different world than we faced in the Obama-Biden administration.

EICHER: In the three weeks since that interview, Biden has continued to stack his administration with former Obama officials. Those include former Obama chief of staff Denis McDonough and former national security adviser Susan Rice.

So what’s likely to change?

REICHARD: Joining us now to talk about that is Kyle Kondik. He’s with the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. Good morning and welcome!

KYLE KONDIK, GUEST: Thanks for having me. 

REICHARD: Biden has largely voiced a desire to return to most of the policies of the Obama administration. And again, he has so far stacked his team with a lot of former Obama officials. So how will a Biden presidency be different from a third Obama term? 

KONDIK: Well, look, a lot of this might actually depend on what happens in the Georgia Senate runoffs in early January because if the Democrats were to win both of those—and I think the races are both very close at this point—Democrats would have effective control of the Senate, just a 50-50 with Kamala Harris breaking ties. And that would give them a little more latitude both in terms of confirming appointees to the cabinet positions and other important jobs in the Biden administration and also might give Democrats a bit more wiggle room on policy matters. 

But, you’ve got to remember, when Obama was elected it was a really big Democratic sweep in 2008, so the Democrats eventually got to 60 Senate seats, although they only had that for a short period of time during the first two years of Obama. They had a big House majority. And they were able to pursue big picture policy initiatives—most notably the Affordable Care Act—before the big backlash in 2010, Republicans won the House back. This time, even if Democrats were to have the Senate, they would still be, I think, constrained because they would need perfect party unity, they couldn’t overcome filibusters, and so I don’t necessarily know exactly what’s going to be going on, but I don’t think they can pursue as expansive of a set of policy proposals as Obama did.

And as for the personnel, the various cabinet appointments, I do think it’s fair to say there are a lot of people who are either from the Obama-Biden administration. Of course Biden was vice president for eight years. But also folks with whom Biden has a long personal connection. 

REICHARD: Can you imagine what Biden would do that would differ from Obama?

KONDIK: Well, look, I think that the parties are pretty different on policy these days and I think it’s pretty natural that the next Democratic administration might try to pursue some of the same things as the previous Democratic administration, particularly Biden was part of that administration. And I’ll also say that if you look back to the presidency of Donald Trump, Trump came in trying to be a different kind of Republican on certain matters, but in a lot of ways the people he appointed to top jobs were people that you could have imagined other Republicans appointing and I think Trump ended up being a little more of a conventional Republican on a lot of issues, maybe more so than he campaigned as. 

And I think that might be the case for Biden, too, in that both parties have these kind of built up apparatuses of ideas and think tanks and people who eventually go into the administration and that sort of helps set the tone of the administration. Look, Biden also was not someone who was, I think, running as someone who really wanted to make a break from Obama. I think Biden was running more as, hey, we’ve got to get Trump out of the White House so we can return to some sense of normalcy here. And, look, he’s also not going to have—even if Democrats have the Senate—he’s not going to have the kind of legislative majorities needed to really push through a lot of really aggressive policies. 

REICHARD: I mentioned Susan Rice a few minutes ago. She was largely the public face of the Obama administration’s Benghazi response. Republicans strongly oppose her, but they can’t do anything about it because Biden picked her for a role that does not require Senate confirmation. 

She will run the White House Domestic Policy Council. I don’t think the average person is too familiar with that role, but she could be very influential in the Biden White House. So in simple terms, what role will she play? 

KONDIK: Well, it’s interesting that she’s going to help set domestic policy priorities and she’s known as a foreign policy expert. Those are the roles that she held in the Obama administration and I think in a different world, and a world in which Democrats had a little more breathing room in the Senate, she might have been more of a natural choice to be Secretary of State. But I think there are some Biden appointments that are going to get crossover support, but I think the Biden camp probably realized that Rice is someone who would be very polarizing if she required a Senate confirmation process, so they opted to give her a different position and a position that I think is a little bit different than the job she held in the Obama administration. 

REICHARD: Another controversial figure is Neera Tanden. She’s his pick for director of the Office of Management and Budget. First of all, what does the director of the Office of Management and Budget do, and why is that position important? 

KONDIK: You know, it’s historically an important job and, again, it helps set the budget priorities for the administration. We’re also at a time in American history—this was not always true but it’s been true for a lot of recent history—that a lot of the proposals for the budget really come from the White House and then Congress sort of determines what they want to do with the proposed budget. 

And so that’s an important jobs and there have been some notable folks who have served in that role in past administrations. For instance, current Republican Senator Rob Portman from Ohio. He’s a former OMB director himself. So, again, there are some prominent people who have served in that role in the past. But Tanden is controversial in that she’s kind of a firebrand on Twitter and she’s been a big critic of a lot of Republican Senators, including the newly re-elected Susan Collins who’s one of the key swing votes in the Senate. But she’s also someone who really has rubbed the left the wrong way—the left as defined by supporters of Bernie Sanders—because Tanden was a big supporter of Hillary Clinton and then also of Joe Biden in contrast to Bernie Sanders. And so there are certain, it seems like with almost every administration, there are certain appointments that end up not working out for whatever reason. Perhaps that might happen with Tanden, although who knows. But, again, I think that there will be a number of Biden’s other selections will get through more easily, I think, than Tanden.

REICHARD: Let’s talk about Biden’s nominee for secretary of state, Antony Blinken. What can you tell us about him? 

KONDIK: He’s kind of a Democratic foreign policy lifer. He’s someone who seems like is probably going to have an easier time getting through. We just saw, within the last couple of days, that Lindsey Graham who is one of the leading foreign policy voices on the Republican side, he doesn’t seem to have any problem with Blinken. So I would imagine that he would be able to do just fine getting through for confirmation. 

REICHARD: Lloyd Austin is the nominee for Secretary of Defense. He is a recently retired 4-star general, so he’ll require a waiver from Congress. Is he likely to get that waiver? How do you see his confirmation going? 

KONDIK: This one could go a number of different ways in that, again, I mentioned Lindsey Graham, he seems like someone who would support the waiver for Austin. But there are some Democrats who maybe they like Austin, they think he’s qualified, but after giving Jim Mattis a waiver when he became Trump’s first Secretary of Defense, maybe they don’t want to set that as the precedent. So that is another one to watch that could be a bumpier ride.

REICHARD: Kyle Kondik is with the University of Virginia Center for Politics. Kyle, thanks so much!

KONDIK: Thank you!

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: WORLD Tour, with Africa correspondent Onize Ohikere.

ONIZE OHIKERE, REPORTER: Terrorists kidnap hundreds of students in Nigeria—We start today here in Africa.

AUDIO: [Sounds of children, people talking]

Boko Haram militants kidnapped more than 300 students from a school in Nigeria last week.

Attackers on motorcycles ambushed the all-boys school in Kankara on Friday. They carried AK-47 rifles, demanded money from the students and ransacked lockers. Some of the boys heard gunshots and jumped out of the school’s windows to avoid the kidnappers. Others escaped and made their way home over the weekend.

On Tuesday, a Boko Haram spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack. He said the terror group wants to stop Western education in Nigeria. A government official said the kidnappers would likely demand a ransom.

Farmers protest in India—Next, we go to Asia.

AUDIO: [Chanting at rally]

Farmers in India are protesting a set of new laws they say will drive down crop prices. Tens of thousands of farmers have camped along major highways around the capital, New Delhi, for the last three weeks. On Monday, they called for a national strike to demand action.

Nearly 60 percent of India’s population works in the agriculture industry. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government claims the reforms will help farmers by encouraging private investment. But the farmers fear crop prices will plummet if the government stops buying grain at minimum guaranteed prices.

Meanwhile, doctors in southern India are still trying to find the cause of a mysterious illness that suddenly sickened hundreds of people and left one man dead. Patients had trace amounts of nickel and lead in their blood, but doctors aren’t sure whether that caused the symptoms.

Iran executes journalist—Next, we go to the Middle East.

AUDIO: [ZAM SPEAKING]

Iran executed journalist Rouhallah Zam on Saturday morning. He was found guilty of, quote—“corruption on earth.” The charge does not specify a crime, but Iranian officials sometimes use it to accuse dissidents of trying to overthrow the government.

Zam ran an online news site and frequently criticized the Iranian government. Tehran accused him of inciting violence during the anti-government protests of 2017 and 2018.

Iran has imprisoned or executed almost 900 journalists in the past 40 years, according to Reporters Without Borders.

Holocaust survivors honored on first night of Hanukkah—Finally, we end today on the internet.

AUDIO: [Hanukkah… Speaking German]

Holocaust survivors around the world marked the start of Hanukkah last Thursday with an online event. The livestream included speeches by survivors, musical performances, and the lighting of the menorah at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

AUDIO: Candles tell a story. They tell a story of survival and a story of the future. Who are our candles? It is you the survivors, you who can share with us the message of the past and the promise of the future.

The Jewish Claims Conference organizes the event every year to pay tribute to those who died in Nazi camps, and raise awareness of anti-Semitism. This year they held a virtual event due to the pandemic.

That’s this week’s World Tour. Reporting for WORLD, I’m Onize Ohikere in Abuja, Nigeria.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Like most everything this year, the Summer Olympic Games got postponed. They’ve been rescheduled to begin on July 23rd of next year. 

And when that Olympic torch is finally lit, there will be several new sports for your viewing pleasure! 

REICHARD: Like board games? 

Uh, sorry, no. But we’ll have surfing, sport climbing, and skateboarding. But we’ve saved the best for last.

Can you guess? I’ll give you a few hints. 

It involves maneuvers like the Headspin, the Robot, and of course the Worm. 

REICHARD: Breakdancing?!

You got it. The International Olympic Committee is hoping to lure younger viewers by adding break dancing to the lineup. It’ll be known simply as “breaking.” 

REICHARD: Not sure they’ve thought this one through. What do you call it when a previous world record falls?

World-breaking breaking… 

REICHARD: Exactly.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, December 16th. You’re listening to WORLD Radio and we are so glad you are! 

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

As 2020 nears an end how will we remember this year 10, 20, or even 70 years from now? What’ll history record? Pandemic? Riots? A pervasive sense of unease?

EICHER: Or perhaps will we recall seeing God’s redeeming work in the world and in us. 

A woman born 100 years ago sought to follow that path. WORLD correspondent Bonnie Pritchett has her story.

AUDIO: [CLOCK CHIMING AND THEN TICKING]

BONNIE PRITCHETT, REPORTER: The handcrafted grandfather clock marks the quarter hour in Billie Kennedy’s cozy apartment. She doesn’t hear it. The clock stands to her left. Her right ear is her good ear. At 100 years old, Kennedy considers herself blessed that she can hear at all.

Her late husband, Raymond, built the clock. His skill as a fine carpenter was a life-long talent honed during the war when he worked as a tool and die maker. During that time the newlyweds lived in Chattanooga and attended Highland Park Baptist Church, even though they weren’t Christians.

But God eventually called them to himself. He then called them from the foothills of the Cumberland Mountains where they grew up.

BILLIE KENNEDY: And we found out about this small town in Canada and we decided that is what the Lord wanted us to do is go there…

With support from their church of $160 a month, Raymond and Billie Kennedy and their 10-year-old son, Steve, set out for Atikokan, Ontario in December 1950.

NEWSREEL: Into Port Arthur on Lake Superior rose an unceasing flow of Canada’s rich iron ore…the source of the flow of this mineral wealth is Steep Rock Mine…

The couple didn’t know what to expect when they arrived in the burgeoning mining town. Accessible only by train, Atikokan and its 3,000 residents were far removed from anything—except the bone chilling cold. Kennedy recalls her first impressions.

KENNEDY: It was winter time. It was quite a change. The first winter we were there we were really initiated because it got to be 64 below zero…

The family’s first home was two rooms in Mrs. Mulligan’s, um, “boarding house.”

KENNEDY: And in order to seal off those two rooms from her part of the house she just took a piece of plywood and nailed it on the door [LAUGHS]

Staying warm wasn’t the only challenge. Like most of the places they rented, the house had no indoor plumbing.

KENNEDY: We did have an outhouse. But, unfortunately, it became such a problem before the winter was over that you had to take the ax with you…

Water for indoor use was collected at a communal pump.

KENNEDY: There was a spigot, an outside spigot, that ran all winter long. And you can imagine the ice hill that would build up around it. 

Did the hardships make them reconsider their commitment to church planting in Atikokan and nearby Sapawe, a smaller town also only accessible by train?

KENNEDY: [LAUGHS] Often [LAUGHS]. But other people were living there and thriving so we said, ‘If they can do it we can too.’ We were very much convinced that’s where the Lord wanted us…

The Kennedys eventually established a church but didn’t know what to expect before the first service. At that time they knew little about the town and were keenly aware that they had arrived uninvited.

KENNEDY: [LAUGHS]. That’s the reason that when we advertised it in the paper, we were so delighted to have 17 people attend [LAUGHS]…

The congregation flourished. The family moved into an old barber shop that Billie did her best to transform into both a church and home. That arrangement worked well until the tragic death of a neighbor.

AUDIO: It was as though people had shut themselves up in their houses trying to hide from an unseen and deadly enemy…

In 1952 Canada, like the U.S., was suffering under a deadly and debilitating polio epidemic. A little neighbor girl died from the disease.

KENNEDY: When Beverly died and we had to keep her body in the church I was very concerned about Steve because the church, it was extremely small…

The Kennedy’s son Steve caught the virus.

KENNEDY: I just knew he must be going to have the same outcome. I just walked the floor…

And prayed. All night. During that vigil, Kennedy said God brought to mind a passage from Second Chronicles.

[SOUND OF RUSTLING PAGE]

KENNEDY: Let’s see. Don’t be afraid. This is God’s war not yours. Just stand firm and watch God’s saving work for you take shape. Don’t be afraid. God is with you.

By morning Steve’s fever broke in time for him to run his paper route.

AUDIO: [CLOCK TICKING]

For 11 winters the Kennedys ministered in Atikokan and in Sapawe.

AUDIO: [CLOCK CHIMING AND TICKING]

The Atikokan congregation helped construct the building for their First Baptist Church. Confident the church was in the hands of a spiritually mature congregation the Kennedys knew it was time to return to Tennessee.

Memories, like hearing, fade with time. Yet Billie Kennedy’s years in Atikokan, Ontario linger. Time has blurred some details of the joys and struggles in Atikokan.

But it has not diminished one lesson learned over a century of living, including when she stepped off a train in an unfamiliar Canadian town one bitterly cold December day 70 years ago.

KENNEDY: Trust the Lord. I mean, He will see you through. It’s as simple or as complex as that. Trust the Lord.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Bonnie Pritchett.

With the persistent tick-tock of Billie Kennedy’s grandfather clock still echoing in your mind, let me take a few seconds to say “Thank you!!” for your generous support of WORLD.

Since about 20-12 I’ve had the privilege of writing for WORLD Magazine, WORLD digital and, now The World and Everything in it. I call podcasts “radio on demand.” And it’s where I’ve found my reporting niche, mainly because, I like to talk to people. What you hear in my reports are only snippets of often hours-long interviews. Or conversations, really.

Instructive and gracious editors pare down those conversations to 5-to-7-minute features. I pray I faithfully tell other people’s stories and that they encourage and challenge you.

I wish you could have pulled up a chair with me when I spoke with Billie Kennedy. Or been with me when I’ve interviewed astronauts, a chicken farmer, or the volunteers who love on women enslaved by sex trafficking.

Instead, your support of biblically sound journalism does allow us to pull up a chair, sit a spell, and together tell and hear stories of God’s redeeming work. For that, I am so grateful.

This is WORLD’s December Giving Drive and, if you’ve not given yet, would you take just a few seconds now to visit WNG.org/donate and help secure the future for sound journalism grounded in God’s word. WNG.org/donate. 

I’m Bonnie Pritchett. Thanks for your time!

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning! Today is Wednesday, December 16th. This is The World and Everything in It from WORLD Radio, supported by listeners.  I’m Mary Reichard.

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

Commentator Ryan Bomberger now on the joy of Christmas past and the hope of Christmas future.

RYAN BOMBERGER, COMMENTATOR: As a child, I always loved the build-up and the wonder of Christmas time. Growing up on a farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, there were traditions I eagerly looked forward to every year. In the countryside, nights were dark with the exception of a rare streetlight. So, Christmas lights illuminated the world around me in a twinkling splendor. I could never have enough of them. I was the one who would decorate the porch, the tree, or whatever I could wrap a string of lights around. Unlike today, we didn’t have Hobby Lobby or Kirklands or Amazon. Our decorations were virtually the same every year; each piece, each ornament having its own story. We were oh so careful with each one for fear of losing a part of our history. Mom was was sure to preserve things; you had to if you have a family of 15. 

At our family store, customers enjoyed the Christmas atmosphere, employees mingled with neighbors, cashiers would fill the air with laughter (sometimes a little too loudly) and my dad would uplift people with seemingly every conversation.

As a kid I didn’t fully understand the servant leadership my dad modeled for his children, his employees and everyone who came into the store. I remember feeling embarrassed sometimes because my father owned the store, yet he would sweep around the front registers, make the coffee, bag groceries or clean up messes on the floor. People love Henry Jr. Yup. That’s his name. I’ve never heard one person speak an ill-word about him. He exuded what was inside of him—the love of Christ. It’s why Christmastime was even more precious to me. My dad embodied the things he encouraged us to believe. He was full of faith, full of joy, full of hope, and definitely full of compassion. How else do you explain a father who adopted and loved ten children that other men abandoned?

The world is a much better place because of the Light that he’s given to so many.

My dad’s still alive, but he’s slowly fading from a debilitating Parkinson’s disease as he sits alone in an assisted living facility, unable to care for himself. Because of COVID, no one in our family had been able to see him (in person) since early March. We can only see and talk to him via the Alexa device in his room. It’s heartbreaking. My incredible mom—who cared for Dad for many years before reluctantly relinquishing him to the residential home—has never been away from dad for more than four days at one time in her entire life. She’s gone nearly eight months without be able to visit him in his room. Five weeks ago, the home finally allowed her to spend 1 hour a day with him, in full COVID garb, in order to feed him because he’s lost so much weight.

It’s Christmastime again. I can’t sing carols with my dad, can’t decorate the tree outside of his window, and can’t hug him or tell him how much he is loved. What I wouldn’t give to have one more Christmas morning with my dad making his version of egg McMuffins, serving up lots of cinnamon rolls and delivering lots of joy.

He’s why I treasure being a husband and an adoptive dad. There’s not one day that goes by that I don’t tell my amazing wife and four children that I love them.

My comfort is that this season we celebrate Christ’s birth, and it’s all about rescue. Though God may choose not to heal my dad on this side of heaven (I never stop praying for a miracle), I know where he will be when his earthly body gives way to an eternal one. And what a spectacular show of lights he’ll be able to behold.

Merry Christmas dad. Your love still illuminates.

I’m Ryan Bomberger.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: Migration from traditionally blue states like California is turning traditionally red states purple. We’ll tell you what effect that trend is likely to have on the next few election cycles.

And, we’ll visit a drive-through nativity program that expects even more traffic this year than usual.

That and more tomorrow. 

I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio.

WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

Go now in grace and peace.

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.