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The World and Everything in It - July 28, 2021

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WORLD Radio - The World and Everything in It - July 28, 2021

On Washington Wednesday, Georgia Gov. Brain Kemp talks about the push to nationalize election laws; on World Tour, Christians in South Africa work to address issues that sparked this month’s deadly riots; and the unique elements of this year’s Olympic Games. Plus: commentary from Joel Belz, and the Wednesday morning news.


MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

The Department of Justice is suing Georgia over the state’s new voting laws. We’ll hear Republican Governor Brian Kemp’s response.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: That’s ahead on Washington Wednesday.

Also World Tour.

Plus a report on the Tokyo Summer Olympics.

And the blessings that flow from learning how to pray.

REICHARD: It’s Wednesday, July 28th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

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

REICHARD: Time now for the news with Kent Covington.


KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: CDC reverses mask guidance » The CDC made a u-turn Tuesday on its mask guidelines.

The agency had maintained that vaccinated people generally don’t need to wear masks indoors. But CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky announced on Tuesday…

WALENSKY: In areas with substantial and high transmission, CDC recommends fully vaccinated people wear masks in public indoor settings to help prevent the spread of the delta variant and protect others.

She said with earlier strains of the virus, vaccinated people were unlikely to spread the virus very much. But the delta variant plays by different rules.

Researchers tested the level of virus in the noses and throats of both vaccinated and unvaccinated people infected with the delta strain. And she said the level of the virus found was "indistinguishable” between the two groups.

That means vaccinated people can spread the virus, but it does not mean that they will get just as sick.

Vaccinated Americans are far less likely to get sick from COVID-19. And when they do, symptoms are generally milder.

Walensky stated earlier this month that 97 percent of those now hospitalized with COVID-19 are unvaccinated.

Tokyo reports record virus cases days after Olympics begin » Meantime in Tokyo, officials just reported a record number of new coronavirus cases. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga Tuesday urged people in Tokyo to avoid non-essential outings, but said there was no need to consider suspending the ongoing Olympic Games.

Tokyo reported more than 2,800 new COVID-19 cases, topping its earlier record of about 2,500 daily cases back in January.

Tokyo is under its fourth coronavirus state of emergency, which is to continue through the Olympics Games.

Still, Japan has kept its cases and deaths lower than many other countries. Nationwide, it has reported a pandemic total of about 15,000 deaths. For comparison, the number of deaths per capita in the United States is 15 times greater.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

House select committee on Capitol riot hears officer testimony » Police officers who tried to defend the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6th siege testified inside that very building on Tuesday.

The hearing featured emotional testimony from four officers and video clips of violence and mayhem.

Sergeant Aquilino Gonell told members of a House panel...

GONELL: I could feel myself losing oxygen and recall thinking to myself - This is how I’m going to die, defending this entrance.

And Washington Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone said he also wasn’t sure he would survive the day.

FANONE: I was at risk of being stripped of and killed with my own firearm as I heard chants of ‘kill him with his own gun.’ I can still hear those words in my head today.

Tuesday’s hearing marked the beginning of the House select committee’s efforts to investigate the events of Jan. 6th.

That panel has been the subject of a bitter partisan split. Many Republicans opposed its formation, saying the panel is redundant as other probes were already ongoing and that the committee’s scope would be too narrow. They also complained that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stacked the committee with members who will ask only the questions she wants asked.

Democrats counter that Republicans blocked the formation of a bipartisan panel.

The House select committee is comprised of seven Democrats and two Republicans: Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger—both of whom voted to impeach President Trump in the wake of the Capitol riot.

China convicts first person tried under Hong Kong security law » The Chinese government has convicted the first person to be tried under Hong Kong’s sweeping so-called national security law. WORLD’s Sarah Schweinsberg has that story.

SARAH SCHWEINSBERG, REPORTER: A Chinese court found a 24-year-old restaurant worker guilty of secessionism and terrorism on Tuesday.

The government charged Tong Ying-kit with those crimes for driving his motorcycle into a group of police officers last year while carrying a flag emblazoned with a pro-liberty slogan. The flag read “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times.”

Tong pleaded not guilty to the charges, but he now faces a possible maximum sentence of life in prison.

Under Hong Kong’s new “national security” law, which Beijing imposed last year, trials have no juries. Instead, judges handpicked by Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam preside.

Many similar convictions could lie ahead. The communist government arrested more than 100 people under the sweeping new law, which gives Beijing immense power to crack down on liberties in Hong Kong.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Sarah Schweinsberg. 

Atlanta spa shooter sentenced » The man accused of killing eight people last month in a shooting spree at Atlanta-area massage parlors pleaded guilty to murder Tuesday in four of those killings.

Twenty-two-year-old Robert Aaron Long will spend the rest of his life in prison after yesterday’s sentencing.

But he still faces a possible death penalty in the other deaths, which are being prosecuted in another county.

Many of his victims were of Asian descent, but prosecutors found no evidence that the murders were racially motivated.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: the push to nationalize voting laws.

Plus, the importance of teaching kids how to pray.

This is The World and Everything in It.


MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 28th of July, 2021.

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

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: And I’m Paul Butler. First up, election laws and who controls them.

Democrats on Capitol Hill are again calling for new legislation to shift more power over election laws from the states to the federal government.

Several Republican-led states passed laws this year to tighten up voting rules. That in the wake of the 2020 election that saw novel accommodations to account for precautions around the novel coronavirus.

REICHARD: Republicans said there were too many ways for bad actors to exploit the system. So they proposed new rules to ensure the security of future elections.

But Democrats accused Republicans of hiding ulterior motives. Vice President Kamala Harris, for example...

HARRIS: This all is designed, I believe, to make it hard for you to vote so that you don’t vote.

In other words, the administration charges that the laws are designed particularly to discourage minorities from voting.

The war over voting laws is raging right now in Texas—where many Democratic lawmakers fled the state to stall new legislation.

BUTLER: But the battle began in the state of Georgiawhere GOP Gov. Brian Kemp signed new election rules into law back in March.

Since then, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit accusing Republicans of violating the civil rights of Georgia voters.

REICHARD: And here to speak with us now is the Governor of Georgia Brian Kemp. Governor, good morning!

BRIAN KEMP, GUEST: Hey, great to be on with you. Thank you.

REICHARD: Governor, when you found out that the Justice Department was suing your state over the elections bill you signed into law earlier this year, how did you react?

KEMP: Well, it wasn't too surprising, quite honestly, which is kind of sad. But also it makes me mad. I mean, it's very disappointing that the Biden administration is politicized and the Justice Department, especially, with as many biggest issues as there are around the country with increased violence, shootings and other things in a lot of our major cities around the country, the crisis on the border, and a lot of things going on, and they're gonna start targeting states over a process that we've done for decades of deciding what our election laws are. It's just kind of sad, but it also makes you mad, but at the end of the day, it's also not very surprising.

REICHARD: What’s the status of that lawsuit and might it affect elections in your state next year?

KEMP: Well, we'll see how it plays out. And it's not just the Justice Department that’s suing us. There was liberal groups that sued us the night of or the day after I signed the bill, there's, you know, six or seven lawsuits. You know, I've dealt with that for over a decade now fighting the Obama Justice Department, fighting a lot of these liberal activist groups that have always sued Georgia over our election laws. Had to sue the Obama Justice Department to get our citizenship check when you register to vote. I've been in court twice—and won–defending our photo ID requirement when we vote in person in Georgia. And we're now going to have that requirement for absentee ballots, so I look forward to going 3-and-0 against the Justice Department on that one. So this is really nothing surprising for us. It's the left’s playbook. But people need to realize two things: Number one, they need to realize that we're gonna stand up and fight tooth and nail because we have the truth on our side that this bill makes it easy to vote and hard to cheat. But number two is, you know, this administration and activists are coming after you and your ballgame and your way of life and what you believe in and your state next, and that should scare people across the country, in my opinion.

REICHARD: Democrats are pushing to shift more control over election law from states to Washington. What is your response to what they’re proposing?

KEMP: Well, this is their response to that failing. I mean, they couldn't get HR-1 S-1 passed through the Congress, which is an unconstitutional federal mandate of elections, which thankfully, it didn't pass and the Republicans stuck together along with some other people up there and said, we're not going to do that. And I hope that they'll hold on that. But when that failed their next step to just appease the activist base of the party was to start suing states and they started with us, which is ridiculous when you think about, you know, we have early voting in Georgia. And Delaware—President Biden's own home state—until this last legislative session, they didn't even have it in their law. They haven't used it in their elections, and they will in the future, but they still have less days than we do. You have a lot of these other Democratic led states that you have to have an excuse to be able to vote by mail, absentee by mail. You don't have to have an excuse in Georgia. Our bill actually added days and you could vote on the weekend if you would like to and the county opts into that. So really, what they're saying is quite honestly, just a bunch of lies and a bunch of rhetoric for a political agenda. It has nothing to do with the truth and the way the process works at the state level. But we're willing to stand up and fight for that, however long it takes.

REICHARD: Well you mentioned voter ID, and I’d like to ask you about that.

Your state ditched the so-called signature-matching process for ballots and now requires some form of voter identification for mail-in ballots. Democrats say that will place an unequal burden on poor and minority voters who may be less likely to have a state issued ID or may have a harder time meeting the new requirements. Governor, I know you believe that is not the case. Why not?

KEMP: Well, we know that's not the case. And we also know that the vast majority of Georgians support the photo ID or the voter ID requirement for voting absentee in this new piece of legislation. We've been using voter IDs here in Georgia since the mid-2000s. We'll give voters one for free if they don't have one. You can get them at your drivers service offices and you can get them at your county registrar's office and so this is really a hollow argument on their point. What we saw in the last election was something that we need to address. And that's the mechanics of the election process. When you have five to 10% of our population or voting population voting absentee by mail, a signature match process, even though it's antiquated at times, works fairly well. But when you have 35 to 40%, the locals were overwhelmed. And I've talked to them and said, you know, would it make it easier if you're verifying a number versus someone’s signature? Would that get the process to go quicker? Would it be more secure? And the ones I talked to said absolutely, that would be helpful. And so that's what we put into the law. And most people support that. You have to have a photo ID to cash checks and buy cigarettes and alcohol and get on an airplane and get government benefits, to get in the Capitol building and other things in Washington DC. Most people have no issues with that; they actually support that because they want their vote to be secure. They want it to be counted. And that's the way it should be. But elections should also be accessible and they are in Georgia.

REICHARD: Are Democrats correct in saying that election fraud claims were the impetus for these voting changes?

KEMP: Well, I wouldn't think it is. I mean, it's certainly not to me. It's not you know, we have plenty of precedent in the state of Georgia—and I've been through this myself even long before I was governor, doing housekeeping election bills after big elections. Normally, after presidential year, or whenever we got new voting equipment, we would go in and learn from the last election, fix any mechanical problems that we have. And I think if you look at how our legislature went about this, Speaker Ralston in the House set up a committee to start looking at these issues that Georgians faced, started talking to local elections officials. We took recommendations from the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia, because it’s their elections office that are actually running the elections on Election Day, and we took some ideas from them and also the legislators that were hearing from constituents. So, you know, you might have some that are doing things because of what they think may happen during the elections, but the final product, a bill that actually passed that I signed, addresses the mechanical issues that we saw in the last election.

REICHARD: Let me ask you about Major League Baseball’s decision to move the All-Star game from Atlanta to Denver this year. MLB got plenty of pushback for its foray into politics.
Have league officials budged at all in the wake of that pushback? Any indication that they might bring the All-Star game back to Atlanta in the near future?

KEMP: Well, we’ll see what they decide to do in the future. Honestly, I'm not too worried about what all is after what they've done. I think a lot of people like myself are very frustrated with those actions. People are tired of the woke cancel culture. They're tired of people not standing up to these activists and the politicians like, quite honestly, Joe Biden, Vice President Harris, the U.S. Justice Department and other activists that are suing us and saying you're wrong, the truth is on our side, we're not going to waver. We're not going to bend and we're not going to do that in Georgia. And I think Major League Baseball made a terrible decision to politicize sports. I think you saw in their TV ratings for the All Star game, it was as low as anybody can remember in recent memory from what my understanding is. And I think their patrons are speaking with their wallet. But that being said, you know, it's a great sport, and it's just really disappointing that they did that and hopefully they learn from that lesson.

REICHARD: Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has been our guest. Governor, thanks for joining us!

KEMP: Thank you. Have a great day.


MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: a World Tour special report.

The deadly riots and looting that rocked South Africa earlier this month are over. And for the most part, so are the cleanup efforts. But the underlying problems that fueled the protests remain. Now Christians in the country are asking what they can do to help.

WORLD’s Onize Ohikere reports.

AUDIO: [Sounds of walking, talking]

ONIZE OHIKERE, REPORTER: South African President Cyril Ramaphosa toured a shopping center in Soweto a few days after looters stripped it bare. The manager, who still had his arm in a sling, described what happened when the violent mob surged through.

Ramaphosa told reporters the country needed better law enforcement.

RAMAPHOSA: We are all really concerned about what happened here, but we are also saying we have learned valuable lessons. We have learnt important lessons and the most important lesson is in the end we must tighten up our security forces, but we must also ensure that the defense of our democracy is firmly in the hands of our people.

But some Christians have a different take on the problem.

MARCUS:  It was no surprise that this had happened. It's been simmering for a long time. It just needed a trigger.

Marcus Van Wyk is a member of the More Than Peace Coalition. It includes Christian leaders.

South Africa has one of the highest levels of inequality in the world. More than half the population lives in poverty. Pandemic lockdowns have only made those problems worse. The unemployment rate rose to a record high of 32.6 percent in the first quarter of this year.

And now the latest unrest has put about 150,000 jobs at risk. That is expected to have a significant impact on the country’s economy.

MARCUS: People are angry, people are tense, people are frustrated

Van Wyk says church leaders are coming together to ask how they can address the root causes of that anger and frustration. He calls them fault lines.

MARCUS: And I mentioned the three of them: poverty, inequality and unemployment, you know. And then you add the whole racist, race conversation into that, as well. And so effectively, we were sitting on a powder keg of this fault line.

Immediately after the riots, churches began addressing the resulting food shortages.

MARCUS: Because when somebody says they're hungry, you don't say, I'll pray for you. You address the need for hunger. And not just that I don't have a job. Do we just create jobs for everybody? No, we deal with a system that perpetuates why people don't have jobs and why people are hungry. And so that's the big piece of work, I think, from a long term perspective that we need to address as a church in this country.

Van Wyk and others see the necessary conversations about poverty and inequality as an opportunity to share the gospel.

MARCUS: And obviously, depends on your, your theological understanding of how to address issues of justice, issues around evangelism, and all of those things, but what the centrality of the cross and what Jesus is—when he got up in Luke, chapter four, he spoke about today, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach good news to the poor, to bring sight to the blind, to and and to set the captives free. And so I think here’s a moment that's been created in the country for believers to say, what does it look like practically?

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Onize Ohikere.


PAUL BUTLER, HOST: Jason Robinson was fishing recently in South Carolina when he felt something at the end of his line.

But it wasn’t a fish! It was something much more valuable or at least it used to be.

Moments after reeling in the lifeless, mud-caked object, he figured out what it was an iPhone.

But inside the case was a photograph of a laughing woman carrying a man in her arms.

The fisherman decided to post the picture on his Facebook page, and just minutes later, he found the woman in the photo.

Riley Johnson said the photograph was of her and her then-boyfriend who is now her husband. They took the photo at Myrtle Beach State Park shortly after they started dating three years ago.

The phone and the photo had been missing for almost a year. There’s not much hope for the waterlogged phone, but the photo survived intact. And Johnson said the couple plans to frame it.

It’s The World and Everything in It.


MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Wednesday, July 28th.

You’re listening to WORLD Radio. We’re happy to have you along with us today.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: And I’m Paul Butler. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: the Summer Olympics.

Every four years, thousands of athletes from dozens of countries come together and compete.

In 1964, Japan hosted its first Olympics:

NEWSREEL: OLYMPIC GAMES COVERAGE “Tokyo is dressed in her holiday best for the opening of the 18th modern Olympics...

REICHARD: Now 57 years later, the international sporting event returns to Tokyo.

AUDIO: NEWS COVERAGE OF OLYMPIC GAMES IN TOKYO “And the 32nd Summer Olympics are officially underway in Tokyo tonight...

The games were supposed to happen in 2020. But like so many other events, it was postponed. Earlier this year, things were looking pretty good for the now 2021 Summer Olympics. But then, the Delta variant showed up. To prevent another delay, the Japanese Olympic Committee put in place strict COVID protocols, mask mandates, and even prohibited fans from attending the events.

BUTLER: Even so, officials warned they might have to stop the competition—but last Friday, the games opened as planned.

AUDIO: OPENING CEREMONY - FLAME ENTERS STADIUM

BUTLER: As the opening ceremony began, there was a collective sigh of relief that the Olympic Summer games were finally underway. The pageantry was as grandiose as ever.

As usual, the final leg of the flame relay through the Olympic Stadium was an emotional one. Torch bearers included a former New York Yankee and Japanese baseball legend, a pandemic doctor and nurse, and children representing survivors of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that killed nearly 18-thousand people.

The final torch bearer was Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka. She slowly mounted the imposing staircase of the Mount Fuji shaped cauldron to ignite the Olympic Flame. Then pyrotechnics lit up the entire rim of the stadium. For a moment, the whole venue appeared to be aflame.

AUDIO: OPENING CEREMONY - LIGHTING OF CAULDRON

But one of the most memorable moments of the ceremony came in an aerial display by 1,800 lighted drones flying over the stadium. They began in the shape of the Tokyo Olympic logo, and morphed into a three dimensional spinning globe.

AUDIO: NBC COVERAGE - DRONE DISPLAY

NBC reported that 17 million Americans watched the ceremony, down 36 percent from the last Olympics. However, 70 million Japanese viewers caught the event online or on broadcast TV.

AUDIO: MEDAL CEREMONY

A week into the competition, the top five medal earners by country include Japan, the United States, China, Great Britain, and the Russian Olympic Committee—or ROC. Russia was banned from international competition two years ago after a doping scandal during the 2016 Olympics. So athletes from Russia can unofficially represent their country under the Olympic flag.

AUDIO: AHMED HAFNAOUI'S GOLD MEDAL 400 RACE

As with every Olympics, there’s always an underdog that beats the odds and defeats the worlds’ best. This year is no exception as a couple of unknowns shocked both the men’s swimming and women’s bicycling fields with unexpected winning performances.

AUDIO: VARIOUS NBC COVERAGE

There have also been a few surprising losses and withdrawals. The U.S. women’s soccer team lost their first game 3-0 to Sweden. They’re not out of contention, but the pressure is on. U.S. gymnast Simone Biles—who many thought would dominate—is out with a medical issue. Japan’s tennis great Naomi Osaka was eliminated in the third round. And China’s seemingly unbeatable mixed table tennis team lost to Japan.

Each Olympics, the IOC introduces new sports to the games. This year athletes are demonstrating Kite Foil Racing ahead of the 2024 Summer games in Paris where it will be a medaling sport.

Also new this year are four official entries: surfing, skateboarding, karate, and sport climbing.

ACKERMAN: So it's a lot of fun to see some of these new sports get some new athletes involved in the Olympics.

Jon Ackerman is the managing editor at Sports Spectrum. He’s no stranger to the Olympics: He covered the Athens, Beijing, and London Games for NBC before coming to Sports Spectrum four years ago.

ACKERMAN: These new sports aren't always guaranteed to have another run in the Olympics. And so the athletes who get to compete in these new sports, really want to give it their best...

He says it’s been fun watching the new sports as they bring a very different kind of athlete to the games:

ACKERMAN: What's cool about skateboarding is...two of the medalists from the other day, we're 13 years old. So we have some young teenagers that are able to compete in the Olympics.

Though Ackerman acknowledges the decision to introduce new sports is primarily a marketing strategy.

ACKERMAN: So sports like surfing and skateboarding are more popular among younger generations. And so I think that's a big reason why they want to introduce new sports to the Olympics. To have that younger generation get excited about the Olympics and learn more about the Olympics...

The competition is often exciting. And the athleticism on display these two and a half weeks is remarkable. But for Jon Ackerman, what keeps him watching is more than “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.”

ACKERMAN: Well, it's a lot of fun to find these athletes who are unashamed about their faith in Christ and want to share about it. Because athletes do have a unique platform that many people don't have...

In his role at Sports Spectrum, Ackerman gets to meet a lot of Christian athletes. And he’s closely following two at the Tokyo Olympics.

ACKERMAN: One that comes to mind is Kyle Snyder, he's an Olympic wrestler for the US. He won the gold medal five years ago in Rio. And a few years ago, Kyle Snyder lost to this Russian wrestler and somebody asked him. How will this loss define you? And he's said, without hesitation, wins or losses don't define me. What defines me is my identity in Jesus.

The other stand out is 400-meter hurdler Sydney Mclaughlin.

AKERMAN: At the Olympic Trials last month, she set the world record and she is 21 years old and within minutes of setting that new world record in the 400 meter hurdles. She was praising God, she was being interviewed by NBC and other media members. And she's like, the biggest difference for me this year has just been my faith in God and my trust in God. And I can do nothing but but praise him right now. So it's a lot of fun to see athletes like that when they're competing when they're among the best athletes in the world. And they're praising God the whole lot the whole way.

The Tokyo Summer Olympics run through Sunday, August 8th.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Paul Butler.


MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Wednesday, July 28th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: And I’m Paul Butler. Here’s World founder Joel Belz on learning to pray.

JOEL BELZ, FOUNDER: It’s hard to say, based on the brief accounts in Matthew 6 and Luke 11, just how accomplished that one disciple of Jesus might have been in the practice of prayer. We’re not even told precisely which of the disciples it was who bluntly and boldly asked Jesus: “Lord, teach us to pray.”

Was that just the simple and naïve request of a beginner in his relationship with Jesus? Or was it the more advanced query of someone who sensed he and his colleagues were living day by day in a close relationship with the King of the universe? Did either of them have any idea what kind of power they were dealing with?

Jesus’s response fit both inquirers—and everyone else you can think of. His prompt and brief reply was the 70-word blueprint that ever since has been known as The Lord’s Prayer. What amazes me more and more is the applicability of the few words of that prayer to any person’s or group’s concerns or needs.

So why, against that background, and that ageless pattern from the Lord’s own mind and mouth, do most of us throughout the Christian church do such a slovenly and hit-and-miss job of teaching our children how to pray? Why do so few of them turn out to be prayer warriors?

Most observers would call ours a purposely Christian home. But neither of us remembers purposely constructing a specific plan to help our children learn what it meant to be a thoughtful pray-er. In retrospect, that may be because I wasn’t such a pray-er myself. Nor do I remember from my childhood such a purposeful plan by my parents—both of whom were godly people. But modeling, by itself—while important—isn’t the same as helping someone adopt a particular behavior. Jesus, of course, did both with his disciples.

If all that seems like a particularly gloomy account, you’ll be cheered to hear of the experience of a teacher at a Christian school in Illinois. For some time, this teacher had been helping her eighth graders stretch their knowledge of world affairs by listening every day to WorldWatch, a daily 10-minute account of global news launched last year by our staff here at World News Group.

“What grabbed my attention,” she told us, “was how over several months the maturity of these students grew in a manner none of us had anticipated. We had started by encouraging the boys and girls to pray for the people close to them and their families. So they prayed for their pets and for one family’s car that had been damaged in an accident. Nothing wrong with this, of course. But the focus was mostly inward.

“That’s when we noticed an important change. When WorldWatch became part of their daily schedule, the kids’ prayers got bigger. Now they prayed for people in other countries who had no guaranteed meal at the end of the day. The subject matter of the students’ prayers had little by little become bigger and bigger in importance.”

How could we here at World News Group not be excited by such an account? How could we not have a growing sense that God—“Our Father, who art in heaven”—was opening a daily door for us to offer practical prayer assistance to boys and girls in thousands of home and school settings?

Exactly 40 years ago next month, we launched our first weekly news magazine for children. Since then, our team has developed expertise I never dreamed of. Nothing in all those years, though, matches the opportunity to develop young hearts and minds as prayer warriors for the kingdom of God.

I’m Joel Belz.


PAUL BUTLER, HOST: Tomorrow: UFOs! Maybe you’ve heard this cockpit audio...

AUDIO: There’s a whole fleet of ’em. They’re all going against the wind. The wind’s 120 knots to the west. Look at that thing, dude!

The government released a report earlier this year on sightings of unidentified objects. But we’ll tell why the military is more concerned about terrestrial threats than a space invasion.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Paul Butler.

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.

The Psalmist writes: Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

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.

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