The World and Everything in It — July 16, 2020

MEGAN BASHAM, HOST: Good morning!

Healthcare workers are feeling the strain as cases of COVID-19 continue to rise.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Also Turkey is moving ahead with plans to turn a centuries-old cathedral from a museum into a mosque.

Plus the music of funerals.

BASHAM: It’s Thursday, July 16th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Megan Basham.

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

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

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Alabama latest state to adopt mask mandate » Alabama is the latest state to announce a statewide mask mandate. Republican Governor Kay Ivey said Thursday… 

IVEY: Over a two-week period from June 29 to July 13, the total number of COVID-19 cases in Alabama rose by 50 percent. And the number of patients hospitalized during this same time period has increased significantly. 

Beginning today, Alabamians will be required to wear a mask in public spaces. 

About half of all states now have mask mandates.

Florida does not have a statewide mask mandate, but the state’s hardest hit county, Miami-Dade, does. The coronavirus continues to surge in South Florida. 

Dr. Nicholas Namias with Miami’s Jackson Health System said they’re running out of critical care beds. 

NAMIAS: We are getting to the point where it’s going to be full. We have gridlock and we won’t be able to take patients in. They’ll just be stacking in the ER. 

Miami’s mayor has warned that if they can’t curb the outbreak, he may have to order another full lockdown. 

Florida is bringing 3,000 nurses into the state to help with the surging caseload. 

Meantime, in Oklahoma, Republican Governor Kevin Stitt made this announcement on Wednesday…

STITT: I got tested yesterday for COVID-19 and the results came back positive. 

Stitt says he feels fine, but is in quarantine and will be working from home for now.

Fauci pushes back against White House attacks » The White House’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, responded Wednesday to what some see as attempts within the White House to discredit him and other top health officials. 

President Trump this week retweeted a message from former game show host Chuck Woolery. It said—quoting here—“Everyone is lying. The CDC, Media, Democrats, our Doctors, not all but most, that we are told to trust. I think it’s all about the election and keeping the economy from coming back.”

But Fauci on Wednesday said suspicion of doctors and the CDC isn’t helpful. 

FAUCI: For the most part, you can trust respected medical authorities who have a track record of telling the truth. But it’s entirely understandable how the public can get mixed messages and then get a bit confused about what they should do. 

Assistant Health Secretary Admiral Brett Giroir also pushed back against the president’s retweet, telling NBC’s Today Show…

GIROIR: We may occasionally make mistakes based on the information we have, but none of us lie.  

Trade adviser Peter Navarro also published an opinion piece in USA Today this week saying Fauci—quote—“has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on.” He then cited examples in which he said Fauci offered flawed or conflicting advice. 

Fauci told The Atlantic that attempts within the White House to discredit him are “bizarre.” And he said ultimately, it only hurts the president. 

The White House said Navarro failed to go through proper channels before writing the op-ed. 

Floyd family filing civil suit against city, officers » George Floyd’s family is filing a civil lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis and the four officers involved in his death. WORLD’s Leigh Jones reports. 

LEIGH JONES, REPORTER: Attorney Ben Crump said Wednesday that the family is suing to set a precedent—quote—“that makes it financially prohibitive for police to wrongfully kill marginalized people.”

The suit claims the city and the officers violated Floyd’s civil rights.

Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill on Wednesday allowed members of the public and media to view footage from two of the police officers’ body cameras. The videos reportedly showed that when officers tried to place Floyd in the squad car, he panicked and resisted, telling officers he was “claustrophobic.”

After Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck and Floyd complained he couldn’t breathe, Chauvin appeared not to believe him, saying “Takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to say that.”

The judge has declined to allow news organizations to publish the video.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leigh Jones.

U.S. imposing travel bans on some Chinese tech executives » The Trump administration is imposing new travel bans on employees of some Chinese technology companies. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters Wednesday…

POMPEO: State Department will impose visa restrictions on certain employees of Chinese technology companies like Huwaei that provide material support to regimes engaging in human rights violations and abuses globally. 

Pompeo said Huawei “is an arm of the Chinese Communist Party’s surveillance state.”  

Pompeo made the announcements a day after the British government said it would ban Huawei from its 5G networks. That over concerns that the Chinese Communist Party could access sensitive data.

Police investigating after churches set ablaze, vandalized » Police are investigating a series of recent incidents after Catholic churches were burned and vandalized from Florida to California. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has that story. 

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: A fire heavily damaged a historic church in Southern California, destroying the rooftop and most of the interior of San Gabriel Mission. The church is nearly 250 years old. Nobody was hurt in the fire.

Investigators do find the timing of the blaze suspicious. It came soon after the toppling of monuments to Junipero Serra, the founder of the California mission system.

And on Saturday in Ocala, Florida, a 24-year-old man rammed his vehicle into the Queen of Peace Catholic Church. He then doused the foyer with gasoline and set it ablaze before fleeing. 

And in Boston on Saturday, a statue of the Virgin Mary was set on fire. A similar statue was vandalized in New York City one day earlier. 

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin. 

I’m Kent Covington. 

Straight ahead: doctors and nurses struggle to treat the growing number of COVID-19 cases.

Plus, Cal Thomas on Roger Stone’s second chance.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MEGAN BASHAM: It’s Thursday the 16th of July, 2020. Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Megan Basham.

NICK EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. First up: hospitals brace for a rise in COVID-19 cases.

Sun Belt states, from California to Florida, are seeing more COVID-19 activity. And after weeks of steady mortality rates, the death toll is again rising. The relentlessness of this disease has hospitals in some areas already at capacity.

BASHAM: WORLD correspondent Katie Gaultney reports on the strain that’s placing on doctors and nurses.

KATIE GAULTNEY, REPORTER: Sherry Tutt remembers her big sister Keshia combing her hair when they were little. As teenagers, they used to fight over phone privileges. 

TUTT: Keshia used to hog the phone. We used to have one phone back in the day, the house phone. And that’s what we were mostly at odds about, like, “You had your time on the phone!”

It drove their mom, Von Sims, crazy. But the three women were close—especially Sherry and Von. They called each other several times a day, often making plans to go to different dollar stores around town.  

TUTT: My mom was my best friend. We did just about everything together.

Now Tutt is reeling from a double, devastating loss. Both her mom and her sister died of COVID-19 on June 9th, at different North Texas hospitals. Tutt contracted the virus too, but never had to be hospitalized. She said the family was careful, wearing masks, avoiding crowds, and really only going out for essentials. 

She’s urging people to take the virus seriously: 

TUTT: It bothers me to see people being so cavalier about it, the coronavirus, but it enrages me when I see people say the death rate is so low, but that death rate affects somebody, and it affected me double, my mom and my sister. 

Many states across the country are feeling the pressure as coronavirus cases surge. Officials in Tutt’s home state of Texas are sounding the alarm that local hospitals are running out of available space for incoming patients. Florida’s positive COVID test rates over the last week have ranged between 11 and 18 percent. That means about 1 in 8 Floridians may have the disease. And in Arizona, 90 percent of the state’s intensive care beds are full.

Dr. Matt Bush is an emergency room physician in Dallas.

BUSH: The tricky question is, when does overcapacity become unsafe? There’s real true data that’s been there for a long time that when hospitals are crowded, patients don’t do as well. 

Bush works with Questcare, a network of hospital-based providers and urgent care clinics. It staffs 750 doctors and nurses in more than 50 facilities across multiple states. Bush says New York City was an outlier in its high volume of cases and deaths, but it’s not unreasonable to compare some areas—like Tucson, Arizona and parts of Texas’ Rio Grande Valley—to former hotspots in New Orleans and Detroit. 

And it’s not just metropolitan areas that may become overrun with COVID-19 cases. Katy Vogelaar is a doctor of nursing practice, or DNP, in North Texas.

VOGELAAR: I think where a lot of people are concerned is these rural communities that maybe only have a couple of ventilators, a couple ICU beds, a couple ICU trained nurses. 

Vogelaar says rural patients often don’t have convenient access to medical care. That might mean a higher incidence of unmanaged chronic disease that could make COVID outcomes worse. 

For weeks, the mortality rate held steady or even declined, even as cases climbed. Now, deaths are ticking up, though not yet at the same rate as cases. U.S. data appear to show about 41 deaths per 100,000 population. If you look at confirmed positive cases, the mortality rate is slightly more than 4 percent. 

Bush notes doctors and nurses have become more adept at treating critically ill COVID-19 patients. 

BUSH: But I think what we need to realize is that it is a day to day learning process in the medical community. If you get it today, you have a better chance of surviving than you did, you know, three months ago.

Another possible reason deaths haven’t spiked at the same rate as cases: Younger people—ages 20 to 40—are getting the disease, and they tend to have better outcomes. But Vogelaar warns we might see the fatality rate skyrocket in the weeks to come. 

VOGELAAR: If you look at the data, um, our cases are going to be lagging a little bit too, cause usually it’s about two weeks behind when someone’s going to get infected. And the typical stay of someone in the ICU with COVID is about three weeks. So we are going to be maybe a month to five weeks kind of lagging in our mortality, based on current reporting and the trends that we have now.

Even if mortality is relatively low, it is on the upswing. And the novelty of this virus means scientists are just beginning to have insights into potential long-term negative effects. A small but growing body of research indicates that some patients may experience lasting lung or vascular dysfunction, as well as neurological complications. 

That’s why doctors are increasingly adding “COVID-19” to a list of patient comorbidities—conditions such as asthma, diabetes, and hypertension—on patients’ electronic health records so they can better monitor how that disease may affect people down the road. 

Tara Cavazos is a DNP who runs a Dallas clinic. She and her partners have discussed how to follow up with their many COVID-19-positive patients, like performing a chest X-ray three months after infection to assess any lingering lung damage. Bottom line, Cavazos says: If you can avoid getting COVID-19, do. 

CAVAZOS: It’s something that’s not predictable. We don’t know how you’re going to respond. Even though you’re young and healthy, we can’t guarantee that we can keep you well.

That’s a message Sherry Tutt hopes hits home for people. She’s been sorting through her mother’s belongings, fighting a flood of memories with each unopened dollar store purchase she comes across. She keeps absentmindedly picking up the phone to call her mom, or trying to tag her sister on a Facebook post she would enjoy. And then Tutt remembers: they’re gone. 

TUTT: So I don’t want anybody to negate the fact that the death rate is low because it’s still someone’s loved one. And until, I guess 2 percent, you know, didn’t affect you. But someone in the world that 2 percent was their world and it was mine. 

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Katie Gaultney in Dallas, Texas.

NICK EICHER: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: a controversial conversion.

Turkey has been a beacon of hope for those who believe Islam and democracy can coexist. The founder Ataturk established the modern nation state back in 1935 and he went to great lengths to keep Islamists at bay. 

But in the past two decades, Turkey has changed course.

MEGAN BASHAM: Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ushered in a new era of nationalism and Islamic identity. And along with that have been attempts to extinguish the region’s rich Christian heritage and presence.

EICHER: Last week, Turkey’s highest court approved a proposal to convert Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia from a museum into a mosque. The 1500-year-old cathedral was the headquarters for the Bystantine Church for almost a millennium. WORLD’s Jill Nelson reports on this controversial move and why it’s not the only threat to Turkey’s Christian heritage.

AUDIO: [Byzantine orthodox chant]

JILL NELSON, REPORTER: Hagia Sophia was the most important church in the Christian world for more than 900 years. When Ottoman Turks invaded Constantinople in 1453, they turned it into a mosque, added its towering minarets, and covered Christian icons.

In 1935, Ankara decided to promote unity among faiths by converting Hagia Sophia into a museum. But current Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan says that was a mistake and made the issue part of his election platform.

AUDIO: [Celebrations]

On July 10th, Erdogan issued a decree declaring Hagia Sophia a mosque once again. A crowd cheered as the the ancient basilica broadcast the Muslim call to prayer.

Ankara claims tourists will still be able to visit the ancient cathedral. But Christians and historians fear the building’s history will be hidden.

Oguz Alhan is a Turkish Christian who studied Byzantine church history.

ALHAN: When you convert it to a mosque, you will get rid of a majority of it. You will cover the floors with carpet. You will cover all the pictures and all the historical sites and important parts that you would see in history.

Alhan says Hagia Sophia’s wealth of Christian frescoes would no longer be visible.

ALHAN: In Islam, especially in a worship place where you worship you would not have something that will be considered an idol, idolatry. So that’s why it has to be covered. In 1453, after the conquest of Istanbul, they covered all these icons, and mosaics and frescoes for that purpose.

It could also jeopardize the already fragile historic structure. Earthquakes have damaged the massive dome over the years, and many sections of the building need repair. Converting it to a mosque would require additions to the building—speakers, wiring, carpets, shoe racks and more, according to Alhan.

ALHAN: This is not a domestic issue in a sense. It is a world heritage. it’s an historical site that’s been standing for almost 1500 years. Instead of how we can damage more, we should be thinking about how we can preserve it and how we can strengthen it.

In June, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo encouraged Turkey not to change the museum’s status. And the spiritual head of the Eastern Orthodox Church said the conversion would only sow division. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew leads the world’s 300 million Eastern Orthodox believers from his church’s headquarters in Istanbul.

BARTHOLOMEW: The conversion of Hagia Sophia to a mosque will disappoint millions of Christians around the world. And Hagia Sophia, which due to its sacredness, is a vital center where East is embraced with the West, will fracture these two worlds.

Greece, Russia, and Cyprus also issued statements condemning the move. Alhan says the conversion is motivated in part by Erdogan’s desire to boost his support among Islamists.

ALHAN: He’s been losing a lot of support from people. As you know, at the last local election he lost five big cities mayors.

Ali Kalkandelen is chairman of Turkey’s Protestant Churches Association. He’s concerned about Erdogan’s decree and the division it will cause. But he’s even more worried about Anakara’s recent efforts to expel Christian foreigners from the country… one more sign of the government’s war on the church. Christians comprised 18 percent of the population a century ago. Now they are less than 1 percent.

KALKANDELEN: We had one couple already left from our church, and we had another couple banned this week. So they were given 10 days to leave the church, to leave the country.

Kalkandelen says there’s been an uptick in deportations since 2018 when American pastor Andrew Brunson was freed from a Turkish prison. Many of the Protestant Christians recently targeted are married to Turkish citizens and involved in ministry. He counts more than 50 cases in the past two years. They have all been given the code N-82: threat to national security.

KALKANDELEN: They are all secret cases and files and nobody knows. You cannot go and ask about the details because they are all secret files. The only reason they are targeting is because they are important figures for the church in Turkey. And they don’t want the Turkish church to grow.

Kalkandelen asks the global church to pray for Christians in Turkey, that whatever hardship they encounter would lead to revival in the church that spreads to the country’s 82 million Turks. And he says now is the time for Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant Christians to take action.

KALKANDELEN: I think what we need to do is when we see negative things over us, done against us, instead of just becoming passive and not doing anything I think we just need to send more workers. We have to we have to evangelize more, we need to pray more, so we just need to counterattack that way.

The first Muslim prayer service at Hagia Sophia is scheduled for July 24th.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Jill Nelson.

NICK EICHER: Three sisters recently defied some long statistical odds—one in 50 million, I read: Daneesha, Ariel, and Ashley all gave birth at OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital on the same day!

Sisters, delivering cousins, all within a four-and-a-half-hour span, with the same obstetrician overseeing each delivery. I hope they got a discount!

Ariel was first—a daughter.

Ashley followed—a son.

And Daneesha—a daughter, a blessing, she said, kind of amazing. It blew everybody away.

Including grandma Deborah Ware—very proud. She joked that they won’t need any extra children at the kids’ birthday parties!

It’s The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER: Today is Thursday, July 16th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MEGAN BASHAM: And I’m Megan Basham. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Funeral songs. 

Music is a powerful medium capable of expressing a full range of emotions, from sadness and grief, to joy and hope. Especially when family members are saying their final goodbyes.

EICHER: WORLD correspondent Kim Henderson recently asked several people what songs they’d like to have at their funerals. Here’s how they replied.

KIM HENDERSON, COMMENTATOR: Colby McMorris is only 32, but he’s been working at his family’s funeral home for half his life. It’s a busy business. Ten funerals are in the works today. When McMorris sits down at a conference table for a break, it becomes clear he knows a few things about funeral music.  

MCMORRIS: You know, you always fall back on “The Old Rugged Cross” or “Amazing Grace”, “Beulah Land” are probably the main three hymns that we see more than any. 

He says it’s important to give some thought to what will be sung or played at your funeral, no matter how old you are. He and his wife have their wishes written down. 

MCMORRIS: You’d be surprised how many families would like to go back and see exactly what their loved one may have wanted. Talking about it helps children and spouses not to make those decisions based on what they think.

BATES: It was important to me…

Ginny Bates agrees. She’s at her mother’s house for a Saturday afternoon visit.

Bates says her mom is adamant about what hymns she wants played, and that’s fine with her.

BATES: When the time does come that she does pass, I don’t think I’ll be in any condition to be making major decisions.

BRITT: I’m Ethel Mae Britt, and I’m 95 years old…

That’s Bates’ mother. 

SONG: IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL

BATES: I have two different hymns I’d like to have at my funeral, and one of them is “It is Well with my Soul.”   

Her life experiences form her preference for Horatio Spafford’s “It is Well:” like living through the Depression and losing the family farm, then marrying a man who had suffered as a POW in Germany. But what does she want this hymn to convey at her funeral, when she’s lying there in a casket?

BRITT: I want my friends and family to realize that everything is alright with me, for what Christ has done for me.

And there was a second hymn Britt mentioned. She wants her niece to play “How Great Thou Art” on an “ulcimer.” I think she means dulcimer.   

SONG: HOW GREAT THOU ART

But that’s news to her niece, Fran.

SMITH: I didn’t know that (LAUGHTER)

Fran’s seated outside her house next to a garden with tomatoes hanging heavy on the outside row. Her dulcimer lays across her lap, and she easily picks out the tune, no sheet music in sight. 

SMITH: I’ll do my best to get it done for her.

A few miles away, a couple is also sitting in the shade. They’re beside their driveway under a stand of crepe myrtles. 

SMITH: My name is John Paul Smith, and I’m 90 years old. Never believed I’d live to see 90 years… 

Smith and his wife, Bessie, landed on a couple of the same hymn picks. 

JOHN PAUL: “I’ll Fly Away” is one that I like…

BESSIE: I’ll Fly Away is my favorite…

SONG: I’LL FLY AWAY

The sound of a metal swing helps him keep time as he sings.

They also want “Amazing Grace” at their funerals.

DUET: AMAZING GRACE

JOHN PAUL: “Amazing Grace” especially is probably one of the favorites of so many people…

BESSIE: ’Cause we all feel like a wretch (LAUGHTER). 

But there was one point up for discussion. John Paul expressed his opinion that funerals are sad, as well as their hymns. 

BESSIE: I disagree with the funerals being sad. The Lord has taken you home from all the pain and suffering.
JOHN PAUL: You’re right there, Darling. 

KILPATRICK: I am Zach Kilpatrick, and I am 34 years old.

Kilpatrick is a Baptist pastor, but he thinks his hymn choice would be unfamiliar to church members raised on more contemporary worship songs. 

SONG: A MIGHTY FORTRESS IS OUR GOD

KILPATRICK: I really like “A Mighty Fortress is Our God.” I love the message of the song. Any hymn that would point my family not to think as much about me, but to think about His promises… 

He says funeral music serves a dual purpose, and both involve memories and reminders.    

KILPATRICK: One, it allows the family to think about the loved one. You know, “This was a mom’s favorite hymn. This was, you know, my, my grandfather’s song that he would whistle when he was in the yard.” But then of course the words of the hymns, whenever they’re good, theologically sound hymns are also reminding the family of the goodness of the Lord. 

And that to be absent from the body is to be home with the Lord. That’s what a Methodist minister’s wife emphasized. 

IRVING: My name is Lisa Irving… 

Irving is busy raising two teenage daughters, but she’s thought about her funeral. She wants the contemporary “Give Myself Away” on the program, as well as one she learned long ago at her church in Chicago—Jessy Dixon’s gospel standard, “I Am Redeemed.” 

SONG: I AM REDEEMED

IRVING: I want everyone to know that I am. It’s nothing that I did. It’s all Jesus. But at the same time, don’t worry. I’m ok. I’m redeemed. Look for me. I’ll be in heaven.

There was one last stop I wanted to make on my rounds—a couple celebrating 68 years of marriage. Dad was happy to oblige regarding his hymn.

SONG: BECAUSE HE LIVES

And even though she’s forgetting so much these days, Mom picked out a few bars of hers. 

PIANO: LILY OF THE VALLEY
ANITA: He’s the Lily of the Valley…

Then she chimed in for the close with words fitting for any funeral—any time, any where. 

ANITA: He’s the fairest of ten thousand to my soul…

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kim Henderson in Wesson, Mississippi.

MEGAN BASHAM: Today is Thursday, July 16th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Megan Basham.

NICK EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Commentary now from Cal Thomas.

CAL THOMAS, COMMENTATOR: Last week President Trump commuted the prison sentence of his longtime friend and political adviser Roger Stone just days before Stone was to begin a 40-month prison sentence. Whether or not that decision was appropriate has been the subject of much debate—but there’s a more important angle to the story that most media have ignored. 

The story reminds me of another man who was as loyal to his president and who did go to prison. Critics described Charles Colson as Richard Nixon’s “hatchet man.” He went to federal prison after pleading guilty to obstruction of justice for attempting to defame Pentagon Papers defendant Daniel Ellsberg in the Watergate affair.

While the cases and outcomes are different, Stone has proclaimed a life-changing experience identical to Colson’s. In a recent interview with The Washington Examiner, Stone said evangelist Franklin Graham had counseled him and urged him to—quote—”…put my faith in God, and confess my sins, acknowledge Jesus Christ in my life. And I have done that.” End quote.

As was Colson’s experience, many skeptics and political opponents will deride Stone’s announcement. While some have used religion to keep out of prison, receive a lighter sentence, or be paroled early, the faith of others has proved to be genuine. Time always tells.

Stone acknowledged that some will be skeptical, even cynical, when he told the Examiner—quote— “I’m aware of the fact there are skeptics who are going to say ‘Stone is posturing. Stone is maneuvering for public sympathy,’ and so on. But that’s just not the case. And He, God, knows what’s in my heart.” End quote. 

The list of Roger Stone’s sins is long and very public, including those of a personal nature. He and his wife had been regular visitors to a notorious Washington, D.C., sex club. But Scripture tells us that God’s mercy knows no limits and that Jesus came to save all who have sinned “and fallen short of the glory of God.” The man who wrote those words, the Apostle Paul, was the Stone and Colson of his era prior to his own conversion.

In his book, Born Again Colson writes about meeting with a small breakfast group that included Sen. Harold Hughes (D-Iowa), a fierce Nixon opponent.  He quotes Hughes saying: “For years there were men towards whom I felt consuming bitterness. I wasn’t hurting them, only myself… One of the men I hated most was Chuck Colson, but now that we share a commitment together in Christ, I love him as my brother. I would trust him with my life, my family, with everything I have.”

Find me a power in Washington or anywhere else that can produce results like that. Let’s hope Roger Stone has truly found it.

I’m Cal Thomas.

NICK EICHER: Tomorrow: A look back at an eventful Supreme Court term and where it leaves religious liberty. Plus a serious and frightening resignation at The New York Times. That’s on Culture Friday.

And, we’ll review a new movie about journalism in Soviet Russia, that contains warnings for us all.

That and more tomorrow. 

I’m Nick Eicher.

MEGAN BASHAM: And I’m Megan Basham.

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

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

Psalm 46 tells us that because God is our refuge, we need not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake; though its waters roar.

I hope you’ll have a great rest of the day. We’ll talk to you tomorrow!

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