The World and Everything in It: July 10, 2024

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like us. My name is Adam Kohlstrom and I'm pastor of Chestnut Street Baptist Church in Camden, Maine. I listen to The World And Everything In It every morning as I train to run my next marathon and as I look to Jesus and train to run with endurance, the race that is set before us, I hope today's program helps you to run with endurance.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning! The Republican National Committee dropped a lot of pro-life language from its proposed platform. What’s changed, and why?

NICK EICHER, HOST: That’s ahead on Washington Wednesday. Also WORLD Tour. And a summer camp that reminds adults living with disabilities of their worth.

ANDERSON: We firmly believe that God does not make mistakes, period. Hard stop.

And WORLD commentator Janie B. Cheaney on hope for late bloomers.

REICHARD: It’s Wednesday, July 10th. 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: Here’s Kent Covington with the news.

SOUND: [NATO ceremonial music]

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: NATO general » A military band performing at the opening ceremony of the 2024 NATO Summit in Washington where member states are marking the 75th anniversary of the alliance.

STOLTENBERG: 75 years ago in this very room, NATO’s founding document, the Washington Treaty, was signed.

Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told Western leaders …

STOLTENBERG: We can finally say that NATO is not only the most successful and the strongest, but also the longest lasting alliance in history.

President Biden followed Stoltenberg to the stage, emphasizing the importance of the alliance. He also paid tribute to the outgoing secretary general, who will step down in October.

BIDEN: Secretary, you have guided this alliance through one of the most consequential periods in its history. I am pleased to award you the highest civilian honor the United States can bestow, the presidential medal of freedom.

NATO Ukraine » Stoltenberg and Biden also talked about the importance of repelling Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. And Biden said NATO is taking further action …

BIDEN: Today, I am announcing the historic donation of air defense equipment for Ukraine. The United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Romania, and Italy will provide Ukraine with the equipment.

And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed conservatives last night at the Reagan Institute in Washington.

ZELENKSYY:  Together with America, the world is capable of doing the right, right things. And when we all act strong enough.

Stoltenberg and U.S. officials say they believe Ukraine has a future in the NATO alliance, though any membership would likely be years away.

Biden latest » As the president greeted allied leaders at the Washington Convention Center Democrats on Capitol Hill met privately to tackle an extraordinary question: Should they back the president or try to push him aside over concerns that he’s set to lose in November and pull other Democratic candidates down with him?

Number three Democrat, Congressman Pete Aguilar:

AGUILAR:  Our caucus meeting today was about listening to members. Uh, there was no instruction, uh, to get on the same page …

Some members said after the meeting that Democrats remain deeply divided on the path forward.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said President Biden is pressing forward.

PIERRE: You're going to have some congressional members who feel differently. It is, that is, that is up to them, right? The president wants to continue, he's going to have those conversations.

One reporter pressed Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer for his stance:

REPORTER:  Are you confident that President Biden has what it takes to win in November and serve the next four years? 

SCHUMER: As I've said before, I'm with Joe.

Trump campaigns » Meantime, Donald Trump campaigned in south Florida last night. He told supporters that the Democratic party is divided in chaos …

TRUMP: All because they can't decide which of their candidates is more unfit to be president: sleepy crooked Joe Biden or laughing Kamala …

Trump poked fun at the upheaval on the other side of the aisle after Biden’s troubling debate performance and he offered the president a quick rematch.

TRUMP: Let's do another debate this week so that sleepy Joe Biden can prove to everyone all over the world that he has what it takes to be president.

Biden and Trump already have a second debate scheduled to take place two months from today.

Texas Beryl aftermath » Utility crews are working overtime to get the lights and air conditioning back on in parts of east Texas amid oppressive heat after Hurricane Beryl knocked out power to millions, including this Houston resident:

RESIDENT: That’s a lot of people, and you have some that’s maybe my age. And I’m 85. Today is my birthday.

Officials are asking Texans in affected areas to check in on elderly neighbors.

Beryl made landfall early Monday as a Category 1 hurricane and has been blamed for at least seven U.S. deaths and 11 in the Caribbean.

Jerome Powell » Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell says an interest rate cut could be on the horizon. But he’s not making promises.

POWELL: We just need to see more good inflation data, that's all.

Powell’s comments came as he briefed Congress on Tuesday. Powell told lawmakers that the elevated interest rates are serving their purpose, helping to curb inflation.

POWELL: You know we had seven months of good inflation data at the end of last year, then we had a quarter, really a month or so where inflation went up. We just need to see more so confidence rises.

He pointed to a cooling job market as a trend that could push the Fed to cut interest rates in the near future. But he said the central bank is still being careful not to cut rates too soon.

The Fed’s inflation target is 2 percent. At the moment, it’s still stuck at over 3 percent.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: pro-lifers are concerned about proposed changes to the RNC’s platform. Plus, a summer camp for adults with disabilities.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 10th of July, 2024.

You’re listening to WORLD Radio and we’re so glad you are! Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. It’s Washington Wednesday.

Congressional Democrats have lost their appetite to try to push President Biden off the ticket. One of the leading critics on a Democratic caucus conference call was veteran House Democrat Jerrold Nadler of New York. By the afternoon yesterday though he was back in line, questioned by CNN’s Manu Raju who would ask Nadler why he changed his tune on Biden.

NADLER: He made very clear he’s going to run. He’s got an excellent record, one of the most existential presidents of the last century. Trump would be an absolute disaster for democracy. So I’m enthusiastically supporting Biden.

RAJU: What did you say on that call on Sunday?

NADLER: I’m not gonna comment on what I said on a private call.

REICHARD: Biden set a defiant tone on Monday with a letter to Congressional Democrats saying he is committed and competent and he intends to stay on as the Democratic nominee.

This came after a week of withering media coverage of a debate with Donald Trump that no Democrat, including Biden, would defend. I had a bad night, he said repeatedly.

EICHER: Now nearly two weeks later, concerns have only increased. Biden took questions about his age in an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos over the holiday weekend:

STEPHANOPOULOS: Did you know how badly it was going? 

BIDEN: Well look, the whole way I prepared- nobody’s fault. Mine. Nobody’s fault but mine.

 STEPHANOPOULOS: But what has all that work over the last three and a half years cost you physically, mentally, emotionally?

BIDEN: Well, [long pause] I-I-I think it just cost me a really bad night. Bad run. But you know I…. George… I am optimistic about this country.

REICHARD: In that letter to Democrats in Congress, Biden stated his record on job numbers, drug prices, and “canceling” student debt. He said he must take the nomination out of respect for the democratic process, citing voters who have already cast their ballots. Biden referred to himself as the “presumptive nominee,” and took it even further when he called into the MSNBC show Morning Joe.

BIDEN: I’m more than the presumptive, I'm gonna be the Democratic nominee.

EICHER: In the Stephanopoulos interview Biden argued that he’s evaluated for his cognitive strength on a regular basis, and that there would be no need to submit to independent testing.

On Capitol Hill, some Democrats left a House Democratic Caucus meeting in Washington still lukewarm in their support. Here’s Congressman Ritchie Torres of New York speaking to reporters. Leo Briceno in WORLD’s Washington bureau among them:

TORRES: If this president declines to leave voluntarily then he's our nominee and we have to do everything we can to support him, it's that simple. [Reporter: Do you think- Do you think he's the best person to defeat Donald Trump?] We have to make the best of a complicated situation. 

LEO BRICENO: Is that a pragmatic consideration? 

TORRES: I'm a pragmatist, so yes it is. 

REPORTER: Has the president said he would consider whether or not to drop out?  

[No answer]

REICHARD: Now turning our attention to the other half of this year’s presidential race. The Republican National Committee released new language for the platform to be voted on at the convention next week.

EICHER: In 2020, the Republican Party decided to forgo the platform committee due to the pandemic and a scaled back convention. The new platform wording was released on Monday, perhaps best summarized with former President Donald Trump’s catchphrase: Make America Great Again. Platform planks include restoring Trump’s border policies, modernizing the military, ending critical race theory and gender ideology in schools, and restoring protection of women under Title IX.

What the new document lacks, though, is strong pro-life language. Here to discuss the changes and the politics is Jonah Wendt. Jonah is a policy adviser at Advancing American Freedom, which is a think tank founded by former Vice President Mike Pence.

REICHARD: Jonah, thanks for joining us.

WENDT: Hi Mary, thanks for having me on. It's an honor to be here.

REICHARD: Jonah, let’s start with what struck you most about the proposed new Republican platform language?

WENDT: Yeah. So the Republican platform language has massively shrunk down. I believe there were 35 references to either life or abortion in the previous platform. That's been condensed down to one. And you also have a very concerning language here in terms of what Republicans will protect and defend the vote of the people from within the states on the issue of life. And that should get the hair on the back of a lot of pro-lifers to stand up when they start thinking about the recent ballot initiatives we've seen in Ohio and are going to be on the ballots in Arizona and Florida.

And this idea that Republicans are now supposed to be on the side of doing ballot initiatives that oftentimes result in massively expanded abortion policies, especially when those campaigns are often conducted without, you know, the slightest bit of honesty from the pro-abortion agenda.

REICHARD: Well, that’s the quantity aspect. Let’s talk the quality aspect. I mean, the whole document is only 16 pages. As you say, it mentions abortion once and says, I’ll quote here: “we will oppose late term abortion, while supporting mothers and policies that advance Prenatal Care, access to Birth Control, and IVF.” Jonah, is this very different from the past, and if so, how?

WENDT: The previous language had been much stronger, but when you're saying that late-term abortion according to the CDC, 99 percent of abortions happen prior to 21 weeks. And so now the Republican party is saying you can have abortions under those situations, but not after 21 weeks. So saying you're only going to stop 1 percent of abortion, that's not going to really fire up pro-lifers.

And then additionally embracing IVF, which a lot of pro-life Americans have deep, deep concerns with. There's responsible ways to do it. But under the current structure of IVF inside the United States, a lot of pro-lifers have very sincere concerns with the way that it's practiced.

REICHARD: If you were in charge here and could put in language that you think is best aligned with best principles, what would you say?

WENDT: I would just go back to the 2016 platform. This is language that's been hammered out over 40 years. Delegates got together, held hearings, did subcommittee meetings, offered amendments and hammered out this language over 40 years. And to just throw that away in the name of honestly, political expediency is quite concerning.

REICHARD: What would you cite as evidence that it’s political expediency alone behind this?

WENDT: I think you can look at how the Trump campaign and the RNC and a lot of the Republican establishment has responded to recent electoral defeats. In the 2022-2020 election cycle, we kept being told that Republicans are going to take all these seats. And then all of a sudden when they didn't, they had to find some scapegoat. And who else but the pro lifers to scapegoat when they're going to vote for you anyway.

REICHARD: You know, we’ve seen that pro-life issues have not fared well at the ballot box as you referenced. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs case, six states have voted on whether their constitution guarantees a right to abortion, and the pro-abortion side has won each time. Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, California, Michigan, Vermont. Given that, is it sensible to scale back abortion language for the sake of winning elections?

WENDT: I mean, I think this is one of the situations where it's really the Streisand effect. If you hadn't touched a language, nobody would talk about it. But now you're going to tell one of your most loyal voting blocks inside the Republican party, yeah, your issue, we're scared of it. I don't think that's very helpful. I think if they just kept the language as it is, it's a non-story. You say, this has been the language for 40 years. The Republican party unapologetically stands for life. But now by retreating, you're making it into a much bigger issue.

REICHARD: You mentioned the Streisand effect. That’s a reference to when Barbra Streisand, the singer and actress, sued a photographer for taking a photo of her mansion on the cliffs of Malibu. He did it for ecological reasons, the California Coastal Records Project. And her lawsuit just brought even more attention to her home that she was trying to avoid. Is that what you mean by the Streisand Effect?

WENDT: Yes.

REICHARD: Okay, all right. Well, we know that this is not the final official platform. That only happens after delegates vote next week in Milwaukee. What do you expect to happen?

WENDT: A lot of the delegates there will get their arms twisted and forced to vote. Yes. But, luckily Tony Perkins at Family Research Council’s on the platform committee. He has been a very strong voice for life. He's actually trying to introduce a minority report that expands on these pro-life views. And I encourage delegates to support his maneuver, although I don't expect it to be successful.

REICHARD: Final question here Jonah…what’s good about the platform?

WENDT: The platform is great in certain areas. It calls for extending the Trump/Pence tax cuts. It calls for a Reaganesque peace through strength. It opposes the radical gender ideology we've seen sweeping through schools. It supports school choice. There's a number of great things in the document. It also calls for protecting a Supreme Court, keeping that from being packed and ending the Democrats' radical lawfare. Like when you have pro-life activists having the FBI knock down their doors simply because they were at an abortion clinic, that seems like it's something that we should be fighting to stop. And when you're just fundamentally breaking the rules of the game and how it's played in the United States and using the legal system to go after your political opponents, that's simply not who we are.

REICHARD: Anything else you’d want to add to this entire topic?

WENDT: I think that this platform opens up the question of is there a pro-life party in the United States? And that pro-life activists need to think long and hard about that. A lot of the pro-life activists that I follow on Twitter who aren't politically connected—those who are more free to speak their mind—have incredible concerns about this. And they do give President Trump credit for winning the 2016 election, pushing life, getting Supreme Court justices. But now Trump's really left the pro-life movement out to dry. And so you've got a situation now where...All these people claim they're pro-life and now you have people walking away from the issue and we need to be standing stronger than ever.

REICHARD: Jonah Wendt is a policy adviser at Advancing American Freedom. Jonah, thanks so much.

WENDT: Thank you for having me on, Mary.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: WORLD Tour with our reporter in Africa, Onize Ohikere.

AUDIO: [Music and cheers]

West Africa military split — We start today’s roundup in West Africa where three military leaders in the region formally launched an alliance.

The leaders of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger held the first summit of their Confederation of Sahel States—also called Alliance of Sahel States—in Niger on Saturday. The three countries first announced their partnership last year. Then, in January, they withdrew from the regional Economic Community of West African States or ECOWAS.

Mali will lead the new bloc of about 72 million people for the first year.

Abdourahamane Tiani is Niger’s ruling general.

TIANI: [Speaking French]

He says here that the new alliance is the only way to tackle terrorism in the current geopolitical climate.

The meeting came one day before a planned ECOWAS summit on Sunday.

Omar Alieu Touray is the president of ECOWAS. He warned that West Africa faces the risk of disintegration because of the new military formation.

TOURAY: [Speaking French]

He says here that the change will disrupt people’s freedom of movement and settlement and also worsen insecurity.

AUDIO: [Applause]

Japan -Philippines —Next, to the Philippines, where authorities signed a defense agreement with Japan on Monday.

The Reciprocal Access Agreement will allow both countries to deploy troops in each other’s territories for training exercises and other operations.

The defense pact is Japan’s first in Asia. It has signed similar agreements with Australia and Britain.

Monday’s agreement comes as conflicts increase with China in the South China Sea.

Enrique Manalo is the Philippines’ foreign affairs secretary.

MANALO: Amidst the realities permeating the regional security landscape, our strategic partnership plays an important role.

He says here that the partnership will allow the countries to bolster regional security.

Panama-Colombia — Over in Panama, authorities have started building a barbed wire fence along the Darien Gap in an attempt to block out crossing migrants.

The Darien jungle links Central America to Colombia and has become a major route for migrants seeking entry into the United States.

Jose Raul Mulino took office as Panama’s president last week.

AUDIO: [Applause]

He vowed to end illegal immigration and signed a pact with the United States shortly after assuming office to block the Darien Gap route.

Authorities in neighboring Colombia have criticized the move.

Julio Balanta Mina is the Colombian ombudsman.

MINA: [Speaking Spanish]

He urged authorities in Panama to respect migrants’ rights and access to basic needs.

Authorities in Panama recorded more than 190,000 migrants crossing the Darien jungle in the first half of this year.

AUDIO: [Migrants speaking]

Lampedusa migrants — We wrap up today on the Italian island of Lampedusa where some 39 migrants arrived after traveling for two days at sea.

The migrants had departed from Libya.

They said they spent 44 days detained in a Libyan camp before they escaped and began their journey. Their boat arrived on the shore of the island—avoiding any detection from patrol boats.

Migration played a major role in the European Parliament elections last month.

More than 73,000 migrants have arrived in Europe this year. More than 1,500 others have died along the way.

That’s it for today’s WORLD Tour. Reporting for WORLD, I’m Onize Ohikere in Abuja, Nigeria.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Wednesday, July 10th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

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

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Summer camps are in full swing. Kids across the country are swimming, ziplining, and setting marshmallows on fire. Young people with mental and physical disabilities used to be sidelined, but now they can attend a host of camps suited to their needs.

REICHARD: Few of those special camps are faith-based. A camp in Texas specializes in those, including a group of people not usually associated with the summer tradition.

WORLD Reporter Bonnie Pritchett visited that camp. Here’s the story.

TIM FERRELL: We're gonna we're gonna continue typing in because I'm trying to get some stuff loaded up so I can put it on my mp3 player…

BONNIE PRITCHETT: With his bags mostly packed the remaining camp prep for Tim Ferrell includes reloading thousands of songs accidentally deleted from his computer so he can create his camp playlists. One of his caregivers helps Tim/Ferrell who is legally blind and has Cerebral Palsy.

His parents, 78-year-old Shirley and 84-year-old Joel are happy to let her help.

Tim Ferrell is 52-years-old. And he’s going to summer camp.

AUDIO: [Laughter] 

SHIRLEY: Oh. Ok. Well, be in the kitchen for a little bit.

Seated at the kitchen table in their College Station, TX home, Joel and Shirley discuss raising Tim.

SHIRLEY: Tim was born at 30 weeks. And it was some time about between six months and a year that we realized that he had different disabilities…

Then came the CP diagnosis. Their pediatrician warned Shirley not to have more children. A neurologist suggested Tim be institutionalized.

Joel Ferrell still scoffs at that idea.

JOEL: That was not gonna happen…

Buoyed by their faith and the support of their church and friends, they raised Tim at home with his older brother and had two more kids.

They raised Tim to be as independent as possible, including sending him to an overnight camp five hours away.

SHIRLEY: But this was why we drove so far because we learned that they had a camp for adults…

In 2019 they discovered Camp Blessing – just 40 minutes from home. The camp offers many of the same activities but with a notable distinction. Tim Ferrell explains.

TIM: At the other camp, we didn't get devotionals. We didn't get we didn't get worship. If you remember your days of growing up you had your church camps. You had youth camp. You had all that. I did not get all that when I was growing up. So, this is kind of my youth camp, my church camp…

And camps like that aren’t only for the campers. Physically caring for Tim isn’t difficult. But other things are.

SHIRLEY: To me, I think one of the most difficult things about having an adult son is that you want to always honor their adulthood and not always be the mom or the dad. But you still have that responsibility of making sure that he has what he needs…

Tim is more concise.

TIM: What that does for both—[Cough] excuse me—for all of us, is it just gives us a break…

So, while Tim is away, his parents will spend the week in Houston catching up with old friends, eating out and relaxing.

And Tim will spend his second week this summer at Camp Blessing. It’s an experience that never gets old for him - beginning from the very first movement he arrives.

AUDIO: Alright! Tim’s here. [Music and cheers]

Each camper exits their car and is escorted through two columns of cheering, welcoming camp staff and volunteers. Tim grins and bobs his head in rhythm as he rolls down the runway.

VOICE: Alright Tim! [Cheers, applause]

Tony Memmel, Camp Blessing’s worship leader greeted Tim at the cheer line. The two met one year after Memmel gave his testimony. His story revealed something Tim couldn’t see about the guitar-playing singer.

TIM: The idea that he only had one hand. And he does so well in the worship…

Learning to play guitar was a calling for Memmel. But how would he play with a left arm that ends at the elbow joint? He points to a spot on his arm.

MEMMEL: I have a space on the end of my arm that is the exact perfect size of a guitar pick. Like I was 100% made – designed - to play the guitar…

SINGING: One. Two. Three. Four…

Securing the pick in place took eight years of trial-and-error. And a mutual love of music secured his friendship with Tim – and their recurring performance at the camp talent show.

SINGING: No I won’t back down. No, I won’t back down. [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]

From the stage, Memmel sees there’s hardly a dry eye.

As encouraging as that song may be - in the moment - Memmel wants campers to stand their ground on the eternal truth of who they are as God’s image bearers.

TONY MEMMEL: And, so, what I like to tell the campers too is what what the world might perceive as weakness with the Lord can actually be something that is great strength. Because he's designed things in ways that maybe we don't understand yet…

Camp director Greg Anderson stands on that truth as well. His son, Brandt, has a genetic condition that significantly delays his growth. He is nonverbal and has hearing loss. At 21 years old, Brandt is the size of a slender 9-year-old.

ANDERSON: We say this every single week. We firmly believe that God does not make mistakes, period. Hard stop. Every single person, whether a volunteer, whether a camper, is perfectly created by God in His image for a purpose in his kingdom…

Not all campers have the verbal skills to shout “Amen!” But Tim Ferrell does.

TIM: I've had many opportunities to share, to share on what people have asked, Why am I in this chair? And I've had to say, that's the way that's the way God built me.

SINGER/MEMMEL: Every star up in the sky is shouting who God is. And every cell down deep inside is made in his image…

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Bonnie Pritchett in Central Texas.

SINGER/MEMMEL: The wonder of it all is he is mine and I am known. I am known.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, July 10th, 2024. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Up next: WORLD commentator Janie B. Cheaney reflects on finding your calling, no matter your age.

JANIE B. CHEANEY: The phrase “late bloomer” has meant a lot to me over the years, mainly because it defines me. I didn’t formulate any clear goals in high school, never advanced in college beyond an Associate’s degree, didn’t decide I wanted to write until sometime in my mid-twenties, when I was already a wife and soon to be a mother. Homemaking, and later homeschooling, took most of my time and I wasn’t disciplined or focused enough to follow a writing career in the off-hours.

Then, after several failed attempts, I published my first novel at age 50, followed by five more over the next fifteen years. That puts me in the ranks of classic late bloomers, including: Julia Child, “Colonel” Harlan Sanders, Isak Dinesen, Kurt Warner, Morgan Freeman, and Copernicus.

In a recent Atlantic piece, David Brooks tallied up some common characteristics of the class. Late bloomers are internally, rather than externally, motivated. That is, they’ll pursue a subject for its own sake, rather than test scores, rank, recognition, or promotion. They tend to have a wider range of interests while younger, a kind of sampling period where they try on various hats and habits. They have a higher tolerance for ambiguity and even inefficiency. They allow themselves to fail. They’re naturally curious. They follow rabbit trails. They know how to self-teach. Eventually they “bloom” by committing themselves to a particular goal, which by then they possess the wisdom and discipline to pursue effectively.

To these I would add a kind of humble confidence: knowing that you have a lot to learn, but also that God has given you certain gifts he expects you to develop. Knowing that you have the capacity to be really good at something, and the road to excellence is worth the inevitable knockdowns and setbacks. God pays each of us the great complement of participation in creation: “Good works,” as Paul says in Ephesians, “which [He] prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

Why “walk in them,” rather than just, “do?” Maybe because “blooming” into good works is a process rather than a series of deeds. Our good works make us as we make them. In that sense, we’re all late bloomers. There may be a time to retire from a career, but never from a calling.

As someone who’s not that much younger than a presidential candidate, I can sympathize with forgetfulness and diminished capacity. There does come a time to put down the hammer, the scalpel, the gavel, or the microphone. But whatever your age, or mine, whatever our fading or growing abilities, we can still bloom. Or as Tennyson’s elderly Ulysses puts it: “Come, my friends. ‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world.”

I’m Janie B. Cheaney.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: a mom in Oregon is in federal court battling the state’s insistence she set aside her religious beliefs to foster a child. We’ll get an update. And, we’ll visit a food pantry with a dual purpose. 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.

Jesus said: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” —Matthew 11:28, 29

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.