The World and Everything in It: February 19, 2025

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Good morning!

Today on Washington Wednesday, Republicans in Congress wrangle over spending cuts to unlock other campaign promises.

CURRY: Because it'll that will also affect what they can do on taxes.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Also today, news from around the world on WORLD Tour.

Later, a retired OB/Gyn who performed abortions tells her story of coming to grips with reality.

WHEELER: All of a sudden it was like, I saw the baby for what the baby was. I realized, I mean, in that moment, I'm like, I am about to murder a human being

And WORLD commentator Janie B. Cheaney reflects on the role of women in the church.

MAST: It’s Wednesday, February 19th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Lindsay Mast.

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

MAST: Time now for the news with Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: U.S.-Russia talks/Diplomatic ties » Top U.S. officials say they’re feeling encouraged after sitting down at a conference table with Russian leaders on Tuesday. The talks centered on restoring diplomacy between the two countries and launching talks to end the war in Ukraine.

The meeting took place in Saudi Arabia, so Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff was there.

WITKOFF: We discussed it afterwards. We couldn’t have imagined a better result after this session. It was very, very solid.

Both sides agreed to restore staffing levels at their respective embassies in Washington and Moscow, and they discussed appointing new ambassadors.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also called the meeting productive.

LAVROV (translated):  The conversation was, I think, very useful, and we did not just listen, but heard each other.

Diplomatic ties » With regard to the war in Ukraine, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said both sides agreed to work toward the same goal:

RUBIO: The goal is to bring an end to this conflict in a way that's fair, enduring, sustainable, and acceptable to all parties involved.

What will that look like? Rubio says that’s what the negotiations will be all about. And no one thinks it will be easy.

But President Trump said last night that both sides will have to make concessions, and that something has to give.

TRUMP:  Both Russia and Ukraine, they're losing thousands and thousands of soldiers and … I think people are going to be surprised at how many people, not only soldiers, have been killed in Ukraine.

The Kremlin will insist that Ukraine never be allowed to join NATO. It will push for recognized control of Crimea and possibly other annexed parts of Ukraine.

All of that will be a tough sell in Kyiv where Ukrainian leaders will also want security guarantees. That will likely necessitate a peacekeeping force on the ground. But Russia will insist on no NATO troops in Ukraine.

Lutnick confirmed as Commerce Secretary » The Senate has approved another of President Trump’s cabinet nominees. Howard Lutnick will lead the Commerce Department after a party line vote on Tuesday.

AUDIO: On this vote, the yeas are 51. The nays are 45, and the nomination is confirmed.

Lutnick is former CEO of investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald. He has strongly supported President Trump’s use of tariffs. Democrats objected to that. They also raised concerns about his business ties and what they see as potential conflicts of interest.

DOGE legal battle » A legal win for the Trump administration and DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency.

A number of Democrat-led states sued to stop DOGE from facilitating jobs cuts in the federal workforce. But  U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkin said the states failed to convince her that the government efficiency efforts posed any imminent harm to the states.

White House Press Secretary Karline Leavitt pushed back Tuesday on Democrats’ claims that DOGE represents a takeover of the government by Elon Musk, who is leading DOGE.

LEAVITT:  Just like everybody else across the federal government, works at the direction of President Trump. Elon Musk is a special government employee, as I have told you before, he serves as a senior advisor of the president, if you will, within the executive office of the president.

Democrats have called DOGE a “government coup” and a “threat to democracy.”

Border numbers » New numbers suggest that illegal immigration is down sharply.

Border officials arrested just over 61,000 migrants along the southern border in January. That’s the lowest monthly number since May of 2020.

And the Department of Homeland Security is rolling out a new ad campaign aimed at deterring migrants from entering the country illegally.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem heard here in a new ad:

NOEM:  Under President Trump, we are defending American families and restoring their safety. If you try to enter illegally, you will be caught. You will be removed. And you will never return.

The ads will run online and on traditional airwaves both at home and internationally.

Israel latest » In Israel:

SOUND: [Family celebrates]

The family of Israeli hostage Omer Shem Tov cheered and danced yesterday, after receiving word that he is among six hostages Hamas plans to release on Saturday.

But another family received devastating news.

HAMAS SPOKESMAN: [Speaking Arabic]

A Hamas spokesman said the bodies of four dead Israeli hostages will be released tomorrow...and they include members of the Bibas family.

Yarden Bibas was one of the hostages freed earlier this month, but until now the status of his wife and two young children, who were also kidnapped, has not been known.

Herut Nimrodi is the mother of another hostage still held by Hamas:

NIMRODI: We knew there was a possibility that they didn't make it, but to finalize everything and to realize that this is really the end for this woman and two children, it's devastating. There's no words I can say to make them feel any better.

The Bibas family issued a statement yesterday saying that until they have definite proof that their family members are dead...they will continue to fight for their release.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Republicans work on passing a budget. Plus, a former abortionist comes to terms with her past.

This is The World and Everything in It.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 19th of February.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Lindsay Mast.

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

Time now for Washington Wednesday.

The House of Representatives is in recess this week…but before leaving town, members of Congress got one step closer to passing a budget. Last week, the House budget committee approved a spending blueprint.

Washington Bureau reporter Leo Briceno has the story.

ARRINGTON: The ayes have it, and the motion is agreed to. The concurrent resolution of the budget for fiscal year 2025 is ordered favorably reported to the House of Representatives.

LEO BRICENO: Passing a budget out of committee might not sound like headline news. But it’s a critical first step that blueprints how Congress will pursue fiscal responsibility while implementing Trump’s domestic policy agenda.

CURRY: You have agreement that we’re going to have this much in cuts from these places. That this is an agreement that people can at least in principle get behind.

That’s Jim Curry, professor of political science at the University of Utah. He explains that its main purpose is to create a consensus among Republicans on spending.

CURRY: It’s going to set the parameters for what happens here after. Which is why it is dragging on and dragging on. Because they need to find near total unity given that they have a two-seat majority in the House.

In its current form, the budget sets a goal of cutting about $3.5 trillion dollars in spending over the next ten years. That’s a huge number. But Republicans think it’s doable. In particular, they hope to meet that goal by cleaning up government programs like Medicaid. Here’s House Speaker Mike Johnson last week.

JOHNSON: Medicaid is infamous for fraud, waste, and abuse…And so, we do right to go into those programs and find that, and show that and show the people what’s happened and make sure that doesn’t happen again.”

Republicans are not calling for the end of Medicaid, but believe changes as simple as better ID requirements will prevent dollars from going to thieves and ghost accounts.

BURCHETT: “How much money do you calculate is wasted due to waste fraud and abuse in the entitlement programs each year?”

That’s Tim Burchett of Tennessee in a recent hearing of the House subcommittee for Delivering on Government Efficiency, or DOGE. He’s posing the question to Haywood Talcove, the CEO of LexisNexis Risk Solutions.

TALCOVE: My number right now—between federal state and local government is you can save one trillion dollars a year by simply putting in front-end identity verification, eliminating self-certification, and monitoring the backend of the programs that are providing the benefits. Those three things.

But cost cutting does not necessarily equal cost savings. The budget outline contains instructions for increasing spending by up to 4 trillion dollars over the next 10 years. That’s to pursue Trump’s many domestic policies—like border security. The bill would also raise the debt ceiling by 4 trillion dollars.

Without spending cuts and a higher debt ceiling, Republicans may find it hard to accomplish another one of Trump’s goals.

CURRY: It will also affect what they can do on taxes right?

CURRY: If they’re going to link these things together, which is what House Republicans want to do, then the instructions to the other committees in terms of what to find in terms of cuts will determine how much leeway the tax writers have to write a bill.

The Trump administration wants to cut taxes—just like it did in its first term through the Tax Cuts and Job Act of 2017. But fiscal hawks are worried that cutting taxes will decrease the amount of revenue the government has to work with. If tax revenue goes down at the same time spending on things like border security goes up, Republicans like Ralph Norman of South Carolina believe voters who expect cost-cutting will be frustrated.

Norman wants a guarantee that the cuts will happen before he supports any spending package.

NORMAN: What happens if some committees in the resolutions do not fulfill their promises. Just some what ifs. As long as we get some assurances on that. We’ve got one shot at this thing.

It only takes two dissenting votes to sink the whole plan. And that’s happened before.

In 2017, the Senate voted on a reconciliation package aimed at repealing Obamacare. It was on pace to narrowly succeed…until the late Arizona Senator John McCain voted against it.

That one thumbs down sank the plan.

This time, Republicans seem to be off to a good start to avoid a similar outcome. Andy Harris is the Chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, a group of the most fiscally conservative members in the House of Representatives. Here’s Harris standing right outside the House chamber, speaking with reporters during a vote series last Thursday.

HARRIS: We declare victory. We have a bill that we believed that it had to be done rapidly…

Harris goes on to say the bill gives President Trump funding for border security, reduces deficit spending, and advances the president’s tax policies.

HARRIS: It all happens here, we don’t need more.

For now, the fiscal hawks have not countered the plan. Even so, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson isn’t taking any chances. He has one other key way to keep party unity: throwing away the possibility of a plan B.

PINCIN: Speaker Johnson wants to have one bill, what President Trump calls ‘one big beautiful bill’ and the Senate is willing to split this out into two’

That’s Jared Pincin, associate professor of economics at Cedarville University. He explains that Johnson is trying to force party unity by pinning the vast majority of Trump’s agenda to one single bill.

PINCIN: The House is such a key player here because the Senate would like to put forward spending on the budget, defense, certain things first and then deal with the tax stuff later.

The Senate is also working on its own version, with a two-bill solution. Here’s Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the main proponents of a two-bill method.

LINDSEY GRAHAM: To my Republican colleagues in the House, I’m pulling for one big, beautiful bill but there;s a sense of urgency. I hope you will consider what we do if you cannot produce the one big beautiful bill quickly.

Graham argues Republicans should split the more pressing priorities now and then work on other parts of the Trump agenda later. His approach could also provide backup if the House fails to deliver on its front. The Senate budget committee advanced that plan last Wednesday—just in case.

GRAHAM: The Committee’s adjourned.

But House leadership believes parceling out the priorities would weaken leverage over skeptical members who would have to get in line for an all-or-nothing bill.

Once lawmakers land a budget plan, the committees that handle spending can get to work.

Rep. Chuck Edwards of North Carolina sits on the Appropriations Committee, the body tasked with shaping legislation on spending.

EDWARDS: We clearly have to roll back spending from the federal budget. We’re on an unsustainable path. There’s never been a time more important or a better opportunity than right now with President Trump in the White House and Republican majorities in the House and the Senate.

But first, the full House needs to confirm the budget resolution after they reconvene next week.

ARRINGTON: That concludes today's business of the House Budget Committee. I want to thank everybody again for their cooperation. God bless America. Let's go reverse the curse.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leo Briceno.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: WORLD Tour, with our reporter in Africa, Onize Oduah.

AUDIO: [Memorial service]

ONIZE ODUAH: M23 Rebels — We start today in South Africa at the official memorial service for some 14 soldiers killed in ongoing fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Violence surged in January as the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels captured the region’s largest city of Goma.

Rudzani Maphwanya is the defense chief of the South African National Defence Force.

RUDZANI MAPHWANYA: To you, my family, and the entire DOD (Department of Defence) family, your sorrow and grief is shared by a nation that recognizes and understands that yours is a noble task, a task that none would stand and carry out except those who are patriots.

On Sunday, the M23 rebels advanced into the region’s second-largest city of Bukavu with little government resistance.

The African Union warned about the risk of a larger regional conflict.

Bankole Adeoye is an African Union commissioner.

BANKOLE ADEOYE: This new escalation should not become an open conflict that will disrupt an impact on humanitarian activities and the already very weakened social fabric in the region. The only way to solve the problem in eastern DRC is for all parties to sit around the table.

M23 is one of more than 100 armed groups active in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The region holds trillions of dollars’ worth of mineral wealth.

AUDIO: [Rescued workers]

Myanmar scam centers — And in Southeast Asia, hundreds of workers rescued from scam centers are in Myanmar, also known as Burma, as they await repatriation to their home countries.

Authorities rescued them near Myanmar’s shared border with Thailand. The border region has increasingly become a haven for criminal groups running online scams worth tens of billions of dollars. Many of the people carrying out the scams were also falsely recruited in what’s now called virtual slavery.

Guo Jiakun is a spokesman with China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

GUO JIAKUN: [CANTONESE] China is working with Thailand, Myanmar and other countries to actively conduct bilateral and multilateral cooperation, comprehensively adopt a series of policies, address both the symptoms and root causes of the issue, and prevent lawbreakers from crossing borders to commit crimes.

He says here that China is working with Thailand and Myanmar to address the symptoms and root causes of the criminal groups.

Last week, Thai authorities announced that they are repatriating more than 250 rescued people from more than 20 countries, including from Africa.

AUDIO: [Memorial goers singing together]

Navalny memorial — Next, to Russia, where mourners and foreign ambassadors laid flowers at the grave of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny last weekend.

Sunday marked one year since Russian authorities announced Navalny’s death in detention blaming chronic diseases and a sudden spike in his blood pressure.

But his family and other supporters insist Russian authorities killed him.

His mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, attended the memorial at the Moscow cemetery.

LYUDMILA NAVALNAYA: [RUSSIAN] The entire world knows the contractor, but we want to find perpetrators, those who facilitated it and those who did it.

She says here that the world knows who ordered his death, but Navalny’s supporters still desire to find those directly involved in his killing.

Similar memorials occurred in other countries, including Poland, Spain, and Germany.

AUDIO: [Chanting protesters]

Germany protest — We end today in Germany, where tens of thousands of people joined demonstrations to push against any cooperation with a right-wing populist party.

The Alternative for Germany party is expected to emerge as Germany’s second-largest party after elections on Sunday.

The weekend rally followed a speech by U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance at the Munich Security Conference. He said that free speech is in retreat in Europe and insisted that everyone must be allowed to participate in politics.

J D VANCE: The threat that I worry the most about vis-a-vis Europe is not Russia, it's not China, it's not any other external actor. And what I worry about is the threat from within - the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America.

Sven-Christoph Blaesing is a civil servant within the German government. He told a WORLD reporter in Germany that the country’s political institutions protect free speech by limiting some forms of hate speech. But he says the same institution also keeps all political parties in check.

SVEN-CHRISTOPH BLAESING: A lot of the things that are happening here simply can’t be changed by any party. So even if the AfD comes to power, they cannot change certain things, we will still have nine country borders versus, for instance, two that the US has that cannot be changed.

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

NICK EICHER, HOST: The idea of buying Greenland from Denmark is only mostly dead—the U.S. Senate just held a hearing on it about a week ago. It didn’t really go anywhere, except to a few politicians’ punchlines.

But speaking of jokes, there’s now a counteroffer circulating. A half-serious online petition: If the U.S. wants Greenland, maybe Denmark ought to make a bid for California.

Three small problems, though: Money, money, money. Even at a simple valuation of 10 times earnings on California’s GDP—we’re talking $40 trillion dollars. A bit steep for Denmark.

But back to a Greenland acquisition? Let’s ask one of Greenland’s two MPs in the Danish Parliament, Aaja Chemnitz:

CHEMNITZ: We shouldn't be bought by anyone because Greenland is not for sale and Greenland will not be for sale

Turns out, the real art of the deal is finding a party willing to make one.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Today is Wednesday, February 19th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Lindsay Mast.

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

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: from darkness to life.

It’s been one month into President Trump’s second term, and he’s already followed through on several pro-life campaign promises.

He shut down an HHS website meant to facilitate abortions. He pardoned nearly two dozen pro-life demonstrators. And just this week, he ended a Biden-era policy that funded abortion travel.

MAST: Vice President JD Vance attended this year’s March for Life and offered his own experience.

VANCE: There was a point when I would get frustrated with people who didn't see what we saw. I would get frustrated that people could look at a picture of a baby on an ultrasound and see not a human being but just a clump of cells. But one of the things that being a father has taught me, and one of the things that being in politics has taught me over the last couple of years, is that it is a blessing to know the truth. And the truth is that unborn life is worthy of protection.

One of the women at the March was Catherine Wheeler.

She’s a retired OB/GYN. And although she’s pro-life now, all through medical school, she was not.

EICHER: Dr. Wheeler stopped by WORLD’s Washington bureau around the time of the march and told Washington producer Harrison Watters her story.

WHEELER: The first time I ever really thought about fetal pain, the memories came back about the babies trying to get away from me with the instruments, but somehow I blocked that part out until things trigger the memory.

Catherine Wheeler says she doesn’t remember much from the roughly 20 abortions that she did back in the 19-80s.

WHEELER: I would say, if you take a human life, one is too many, you know? And there is something about it. I can remember a lot of things, but I specifically block that out.

MAST: During her 24-year career in Salt Lake City, Dr. Wheeler was one of very few OBs who performed abortions.

WHEELER: We're talking somewhere around 87 to 93% of OBS don't do them. And back then, it was even more of an outlier thing, and especially if you think about Utah's primarily, at least then, was primarily a Mormon culture, and they're very clear about life and when life begins, more so than the Christian, the Christians that I knew.

At the time, Wheeler wasn’t a Christian. If anything, she says she was some sort of a feminist.

WHEELER: Not overly in your face kind of feminism. I guess I believed too much in women's empowerment.

EICHER: So given the choice to perform abortions, she did. Though not often. Typical for her were second trimester babies with what she described as “fetal anomalies.”

WHEELER: I was at the University of Utah, which is a major genetic and anomalies center. And so it came up as it's a choice a woman gets to make, and you don't have to do them. … And you know, if you really care about women, and you're surrounded by the first real wave of female residents. And we love women, you know what I mean. So without really thinking about it, I opted into it. It's a very twisted compassion.

MAST: Wheeler grew uneasy, but it wasn’t until an experience with an established patient that her mind began to change.

EICHER: The pregnant mom came into Dr. Wheeler’s office with her own mother, both insisting on an abortion. They specifically wanted Dr. Wheeler.

WHEELER: You do feel awful for these people and I think there's this really weird compassion, where you feel bad for people, and you really do, and you have to block out the baby, but you feel bad for that woman, and you get the wrong answer when you're not grounded and when you don't believe in God, you know. So I did relent finally. I went in to do her abortion that day, and I can't even tell you what happened. All I know is sitting down, starting the abortion and realizing that there was just some kind of evil presence in the room.

MAST: She says she felt a darkness in the room.

WHEELER: And all of a sudden it was like, I saw the baby for what the baby was. I realized, I mean, in that moment, I'm like, I am about to murder a human being, and just sitting there going, Okay, now what do I do? I either can stop, but then she's at risk because I've already started the abortion, or I can actually kill a human. It was just shocking.

It was around this time that Wheeler believes the scales fell from her eyes and she began a journey to faith in Christ.

WHEELER: Now I can look back and go, well, that was a moment that God allowed me to see the evil, but I did end up completing the abortion, but going, I am never doing this again. And I wish I'd had somebody to talk with about it, but you just kind of push it away, like that's so dark. Who are you going to tell you know, who to understand that?

EICHER: She also began to grapple with her past.

WHEELER: I don't know anybody who's murdered anybody. And then I think about how many people I've murdered, and you just go, how do you even get up from that?

Remembering that pain is hard, but Wheeler prays God will never let her forget.

WHEELER: You've got to keep that in the forefront of what that grace is that Jesus would die for somebody who takes the life of the people who are so precious to him, these beautiful gifts of children.

MAST: Today, Wheeler faces head-on the reality of abortion by speaking with abortion survivors. She remembers one meeting in particular, an event featuring survivor Melissa Ohden.

WHEELER: And so I went up to I waited till people were like, away from her afterwards, and I just went up crying. I'm like, I just want you to know I'm so sorry. I'm an abortionist, and I'm so sorry for what happened to you. And she cried with me and hugged me. And my hope in that was that some like, probably they'd never met an abortionist who told them I'm sorry, and now I know they probably actually have met some of the people who went before me. But I'm like, they need to know somebody feels sorry about that.

Wheeler hopes her story offers others a way out of guilt and shame.

WHEELER: Sometimes they'll hear me, and then they'll share their stories. So I think with me, it's a little bit safe, because they know, like, what am I going to throw you know what I mean? So you know, they know that I'm going to understand, but I do try to be incredibly careful because I don't want to do anything to turn them from God, but I want to offer hope and help, because I know it's a long process, and you have to confront everything that you believed.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, February 19th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast. WORLD commentator Janie B Cheaney now with a word of encouragement for some of the unsung heroes of the local church: the women.

JANIE B. CHEANEY: Over the years I’ve worn many hats in the local church—even being the unofficial social director for a church plant. Sounds glamorous I know, but think of it as a mix between a cafeteria monitor and a military company clerk. I’d never considered organizing picnics as part of my skill set, but someone had to do it. The slack was just lying there, so I picked it up. Like most church plants, we organized our schedule around the Methodists or Seventh-Day Adventists who let us use their buildings, sometimes deciding that it would be best not to jostle delicate relationships by invading the kitchen. So, I was the one who reserved recreation halls and park pavilions, wrote the checks and picked up the keys. I was the one who hollered over the clamor that dinner was ready and advised young parents not to let their kids hog the deviled eggs.

That’s not all. I also taught Sunday school nonstop for over a decade. I organized women’s Bible studies and often led them. I reviewed the video series and arranged for the DVD player and printed out the worksheets. That church went through many ebbs and flows and times of balancing on the edge of extinction, during which I might have come on too strong and stepped on a few toes. When the third full-time pastor in twelve years arrived, I judged it time to move on. For one thing, I was tired. For another, my days of autonomy were coming to an end. As a full-time caretaker at home, I would need to be served more than serving.

My former church is finally on a stable footing with long-term leadership, steady growth, and a building of its own. Few of the current members remember me, and I sometimes wonder if all I did made any difference. Did the meals and picnics and kids’ catechism drills help lift that bulky body off the ground?

Only God knows for sure, but I recall a conversation with our second pastor about the possibility of being named as a deaconess. That didn’t happen—the denomination wasn’t ready to take that step. But I recall telling him I considered myself a deaconess anyway, along with other women in the church. We were part of a fellowship going back to Salome and Joanna and Mary Magdalene, those women who followed Jesus along with his apostles and provided for them out of their means. They also must have cooked and washed and served the practical functions that held that band together. That’s what women do. I told our pastor: men provide the leadership; we provide the connections.

I’m talking with some of the older ladies at my current church about starting an informal Bible study. Of course we need more time in the Word, but we also need more time together, to help spin those threads. The things that glue our church together, says one of my friends. Exactly, I agreed: women are the glue. The nursery helpers and meal-train volunteers and baby-shower organizers may not get a lot of attention, but thank God you’re out there, ladies: making connections one tater-tot casserole at a time.

I’m Janie B. Cheaney

NICK EICHER, HOST: Staffing the Trump administration’s “faith office.” appointments recently. We’ll tell you more about this advisory group and its role in the White House. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

LINDSAY MAST: And I’m Lindsay Mast.

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio. WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

The Bible says: “The nations rage, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts. The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.” —Psalm 46:6, 7

Go now in grace and peace.

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