The World and Everything in It: October 2, 2024

PREROLL: Springfield, Ohio, has become the latest flash point over our country’s immigration policy. While politicians debate procedures and quotas, there are Christians stepping in to offer practical help and hope to both the immigrants and the communities taking them in. We’ll hear more in just a few minutes. 

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Good morning! The vice presidential candidates squared off last night. We’ll have analysis. That and a visit to probably the key “swing state” in the race.

NICK EICHER, HOST: The key-stone state, ya think? That’s all ahead on Washington Wednesday. Also today our weekly international news roundup World Tour. And a pregnancy resource center doing what it can for migrants in Springfield, Ohio.

AUDIO: We laugh a lot, we point, we have a picture of all of the formulas we have and we make it work.

And later WORLD commentator Janie B Cheaney on managing money.

MAST: It’s Wednesday, October 2nd. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Lindsay Mast.

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

MAST: Up next, Kent Covington with today’s news.

SOUND: [Iran attack]

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Israel » Iranian missiles rained down on Israel Tuesday as sirens blared.

SOUND: [Iran attack]

And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared a short time later that— “Iran has made a big mistake tonight, and will pay for it.”

NETANYAHU: [Speaking Hebrew]

But the White House says the U.S. military came to Israel's defense with U.S. naval destroyers joining Israeli Defense Forces in shooting down the incoming missiles.

Secretary of State Tony Blinken told reporters:

BLINKEN: A few hours ago, Iran for the second time in the space of five months, launched a direct attack on Israel, including some 200 ballistic missiles. This is totally unacceptable and the entire world should condemn it.

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan characterized the attack as a severe escalation by Iran...and warned that it would be met by severe consequences…though he declined to specify what those might be.

Debate » Defending Israel was among the many big topics debated last night during the first and only vice presidential of the 2024 campaign. Kamala Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz argued that with wars raging in the Middle East and Ukraine, Harris has shown a steady hand.

WALZ: We’ve seen a calmness that is able to be able to draw on the coalitions to bring them together, understanding that our allies matter.

And he argued that another Trump presidency would be dangerous in these volatile times.

But Donald Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance fired back …

VANCE: Donald Trump actually delivered stability in the world, and he did it by establishing effective deterrence. People were afraid of stepping out of line.

Vance accused the Biden-Harris administration of giving bad actors like Iran a license to stoke violence without consequence.

The senator also hit the current administration on immigration.

VANCE: We have a historic immigration crisis because Kamala Harris started and said that she wanted to undo all of Donald Trump’s border policies.

Gov. Walz, argued that Trump killed a bipartisan Senate border bill that would have helped.

WALZ: Donald Trump said no, told them to vote against it because it gives him a campaign issue. What would Donald Trump talk about if we actually did some of these things?

The two candidates also highlighted stark differences on other major topics, including life and abortion, the economy, and energy.

Helene » In western North Carolina, President Biden will have a firsthand look at the devastation left in the wake of Hurricane Helene’s remnants. And his Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre adds:

PIERRE:  The president will travel to Raleigh, North Carolina, where he will visit the state emergency operations center to meet with local officials and also first responders.

First responders are now searching many communities in the region looking for anyone still unaccounted for after catastrophic flooding.

And the president said on Tuesday:

BIDEN:  In the storm's wake, I've directed my team, including the leadership of key departments and agencies all across the government, to send every, and I mean every available resource that we have at our disposal to the affected region.

The death toll Tuesday reached 166 people across six states.

PROTESTERS: No work without a fair contract.

Dockworker strike » Some 45,000 workers at ports from Maine to Texas are carrying picket signs today. They walked out after labor talks broke down between their union and port operators.

The International Longshoremen’s Association had demanded a 77 percent wage increase over six years and protections from automation.

Boise Butler is the local union president in Philadelphia.

BUTLER: What we control in the economy is billions and billions and billions of dollars every day. Every day. OK? What we want them to do is share.

Port operators had offered a 50 percent pay raise. And the two sides remained at an impasse when the previous labor agreement expired on Tuesday.

The Biden administration says it has no intention of intervening in the dispute.

Mexico new president » Mexico has a new president, the first woman ever elected to the office. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more more:

SOUND: [Mexican lawmakers cheer]

KRISTEN FLAVIN: Claudia Sheinbaum took the oath of office on Tuesday on the floor of Congress … as legislators cheered, “presidenta” … the feminine form of the word president in Spanish.

MEXICAN LAWMAKERS: Presidenta! Presidenta!

The 62-year-old scientist-turned-politician has vowed to stay true to the leftist policies of the previous administration. She inherits the social programs of her predecessor, which have, so far, been popular.

But she also inherits problems, including paying for those programs, a sluggish economy, rising debt, and stubbornly high violence.

In her inaugural address, she vowed to, among other things, introduce a new energy plan, fight climate change, and make Mexico a safe place for investors.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

John Amos obit » Actor John Amos has died at the age of 84. He starred as the family patriarch on the hit 1970s sitcom “Good Times.”

AUDIO [From Good Times]: I thought I told you to take the garbage out.  Oh, uh, I will, Dad. That's what you said a half hour ago, Junior. Oh, don't worry, Dad. I got it covered. NOW, JUNIOR!

He also acted in Hollywood hits like Die Hard 2 and Coming to America. And he earned an Emmy nomination for his role in the seminal 1977 miniseries “Roots.”

I’m Kent Covington.

This is The World and Everything in It.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 2nd of October.

This is WORLD Radio and we’re so glad you’ve joined us today. Good morning, I’m Lindsay Mast.

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

Before we get going here, I’ve got to say the outpouring of prayer and support for us at WORLD is … just humbling. You see those floodwaters rolling in, the waters rising … and you start to wonder, what does the future hold? But God provides … in his providence he moved your hearts … and you have given generously, extravagantly …

I talked yesterday with our CEO Kevin Martin and he told me, straight up, taking together what you’ve sent in and what you’ve pledged … Kevin said, that’s enough to get us through … more than enough … we don’t need more to get past this critical moment.

So we’re not asking for anything further, we’re taking down the banner. The emergency situation, for us, we’re confident now we’ll get through it.

So thank you for standing with us!

MAST: Time now for Washington Wednesday.

Today, what tight races in Pennsylvania may signal about the 2024 election.

But first, takeaways from last night’s Vice Presidential debate.

Joining us now to talk about it is Christopher Devine. He researches vice presidential candidates and teaches political science at the University of Dayton.

That’s quite the specialty. Christopher, good morning!

CHRISTOPHER DEVINE: Good morning. Good to be with you, Lindsay.

MAST: Christopher, was there a standout moment for you in this debate? And if so, what was it?

DEVINE: You know, it's funny that often gets negotiated in the days that follow. It might depend on what major networks choose to cover. It might depend on social media and what people are talking about. Perhaps the Trump-Vance campaign will point to Tim Walz being really unable to answer a question that kind of got to his honesty in that case about whether he was there for the Tiananmen Square massacre in June of 1989, which they might also say points to other inconsistencies and things that he said on various issues over time. Basically question his character. From the Harris-Walz campaign, I think they may point to a moment that happened toward the end of the debate where the 2020 election in January 6 came up, and Tim Walz asked J. D. Vance directly whether Donald Trump had lost that election. And Vance deflected to another issue, and the response for Tim Walz that that was a damning non answer. So either one of those could be the moment, maybe both of them.

MAST: Let's talk strategy a little bit. What was Vance's strategy? Do you think last night and how successful was he in achieving his goals?

DEVINE: Yeah, I think J. D. Vance's strategy, pretty clearly, was to broaden his appeal and to broaden the appeal of the ticket. You know, just to give a little context here, this race is neck and neck. It really could go either way. But J. D. Vance as a candidate is not doing particularly well. His unfavorable ratings are a good bit higher by about 10 points than his favorable ratings, which is very low territory for modern vice presidential candidates, well below Tim Walz, who's slightly popular, slightly more favorable than unfavorable. So I think he was trying to---actually, it's funny that the first question that he got, he went second after Walz answered one. And he started not by answering the question, but taking about a minute detour to, I would say, reintroduce himself to the American people, do a very quick version of his biography. So between that and then the way that he talked about certain issues, you know, abortion could be one example we might get into where he clearly was trying to appeal beyond the immediate base of the party, maybe reach out to people who, you know, frankly, I think at times, Donald Trump has struggled to reach, out to – people who are more undecided voters. So he was trying to broaden the ticket’s appeal, I would say.

MAST: On the flip side, what was Walz's strategy last night, and how successful was he in achieving his goals?

DEVINE: When it came to criticizing the other side, really saying what was wrong with the possibility of electing the opposing ticket, Tim Walz is first out of the gate on that, or at least was a little more aggressive early on in the debate. So, I think he was trying to remind people of what might have concerned them about the Trump presidency and what they might fear about a second term from him, while also speaking positively to Kamala Harris's accomplishments as vice president and what she would do in a Harris-Walz administration.

MAST: This seemed more like a debate than some of the other so-called debates that we've had in the past, but the role of moderators and rules has been a running theme this election cycle. Your thoughts on how those affected last night?

DEVINE: Yeah, Lindsay, you know, I do think it's really strange that CBS went out of their way to say in advance they weren't going to fact check. And then we did have a fact check, and that was specifically in regards to Springfield, Ohio, not far from where I am here in the Dayton, Ohio area. You know, fact checks are complicated there. I don't know if there's any perfect way to do this, but I will say, if you're gonna announce what you're gonna do about it beforehand, why not stick to it? So, I do think that was strange. 

Now, I do want to address a larger point. I have to say, this is one of the more substantive debates that I've seen in recent years, and they were actually pretty nice to each other. This was not full of character attacks and things like that. They challenged each other and they challenged the veracity of what the other was saying at certain times, but it never felt spiteful in the way that some other debates in recent years have. They were talking about issues and so many times, anybody who was listening last night would have noticed this very often, believe it or not, the candidates were saying, "I actually kind of agree with part of what he just said." You know, J. D. Vance was doing that to Tim Walz, Tim also doing that to J. D. Vance. They were saying nice things about each other. And I have to say, I think that matters in an age where many of us are concerned about the polarization, about people being at each other's throats, about not being able to see any good in someone who disagrees with you. We actually saw that last night of people talking in a civil, respectful way. Frankly, I think there are a lot of people who were watching last night's debate who are going to say, "Man, I wish either those are the presidential candidates or the presidential candidates would act like those guys did."

MAST: What effect will last night's debates have on the polls and when will we know who won, at least in the eyes of the voters?

DEVINE: Yeah, you know, we don't tend to get decisive wins in this. Of course, there will be polls afterwards, and they might tilt one way or another. I have to say I think probably J. D. Vance won it if we're going to score this thing. Vance is relatively unpopular, whereas Walz is slightly popular. He's actually, according to recent polling, the most popular of the four candidates, not by a lot, but he is okay. And so going into this debate, there was room for J. D. Vance to move up, and there was room for Tim Walz to move down. And I suspect that's what you're going to see, probably some shift in the polling and what people think of these VP candidates. People are going to see some things in J. D. Vance that they like more than what they've seen before. They'll have trouble with some of the things from Tim Walz, especially on the honesty issues. So, you only see a little movement there. But is that going to affect the people at top of the ticket? Is that going to affect how folks are voting? You know, our research on this shows that what people think of the VP candidate doesn't have a lot of effect on how they vote. People are much more focused on the presidential candidate, and they're looking for what the VP candidate will tell them about the person at the top of the ticket. I think probably people watching will look at either of those running mates and say they're at least fairly credible, if not quite convincing as potential vice presidents, so that might work in favor of the presidential candidates, but if there are problems people have, it might actually have a little, just a marginal effect in bringing one candidate or another down.

MAST: Christopher Devine researches vice presidential candidates and teaches at the University of Dayton. Christopher, thanks for staying up late to discuss the debate with us!

DEVINE: Thank you, Lindsay, it was a pleasure.

EICHER: Turning now to election politics in the state of Pennsylvania.

For decades, Pennsylvania was part of the so-called blue wall. Democrats could really count on it in the race for 270 electoral votes. That changed in 2016, when Donald Trump carried the state by just over one percent. In 2020, Democratic candidate Joe Biden claimed victory in Pennsylvania, also by a razor thin margin.

MAST: Polling this year shows yet another close race, both for the presidency, and for the balance of power in the Senate.

WORLD’s Washington Bureau reporter Carolina Lumetta has the story.

CAROLINA LUMETTA: With less than five weeks to go until Election Day, the presidential candidates are keeping their eyes on Pennsylvania…and its 19 electoral votes. Here’s former President Donald Trump at a recent campaign rally.

DONALD TRUMP: We got to take our country back from these horrible people because if we win Pennsylvania, we win the whole thing. It's very simple.

Vice President Kamala Harris is also driving home a sense of urgency.

KAMALA HARRIS: And we know ours will be a tight race until the very end…

Recent statewide polls have Trump and Harris in a dead heat, either evenly tied or with less than one percentage point between them.

LAUREN CRISTELLA: The margin in the last two presidential elections has been about 1% or less. So we're really talking about maybe tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians deciding who the next president is.

Lauren Cristella leads the Philadelphia-based Committee of Seventy. That’s a nonprofit working on voter education and training election workers. In 2020, about half of Pennsylvania voters mailed in their ballots…thanks to a law passed the previous year allowing no-excuse mail-in voting. That law is still on the books, and it could lead to delays counting mail-in ballots this year.

CRISTELLA: And so our election officials aren't allowed to open those ballots until 7 a.m. on election day. And this is why the whole country, if not the whole world, will be waiting in Pennsylvania to know how the election, the presidential election is gonna go because we can’t start that process until 7am, it’s going to take days.

Since the last election, the margin between registered Democrats and Republicans in Pennsylvania has shrunk. Meanwhile, the number of unaffiliated voters is growing. With recent elections decided by 1% of the vote, that unaffiliated group could make all the difference…and not just for the presidential race.

In the 2022 midterms, Democrat John Fetterman flipped Pennsylvania’s Republican Senate seat. That gave Democrats a one-seat majority in the upper chamber. Now Fetterman’s colleague, Senator Bob Casey Jr., is up for reelection.

CASEY: I wanted to talk today about what this race is about. It’s about the work that I’ve done as a United States senator delivering for our commonwealth and delivering in particular for Bucks County.

Casey is vying for a fourth term in the Senate, but polling shows him neck and neck with his Republican opponent, Dave McCormick.

MCCORMICK: Gas is up by almost 50%, groceries are up by 22%, rent is up by 23%...

Both candidates place the economy at the center of their campaigns. Casey pitched his record in Washington during a Kamala Harris rally back in August…

CASEY: I'm leading the fight in Washington against corporate greed calling out “greedflation.”

McCormick on the other hand blames Democratic leadership for high inflation. He’s a former hedge fund CEO, and his campaign is seeking to tie Casey to the Biden administration’s record on the economy.

MCCORMICK: We created a site to help you see this, bobflation.com. [laughs] I want you to check it out. It allows you to calculate how your lives have changed as result of what Bob Casey and Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have done.

In 2022, Donald Trump endorsed TV personality Dr. Mehmet Oz instead of McCormick in the race against John Fetterman. This time, McCormick has the former president’s backing.

TRUMP: David will be a warrior for your Commonwealth. He will be a warrior. Total warrior.

But voters appear gridlocked on opinions of McCormick and Casey. In the latest Monmouth poll, equal shares said they trusted the candidates on both the economy and immigration. Overall, Casey leads McCormick 48 percent to 44 percent, according to The Hill’s poll released yesterday.

NICHOLAS: Anytime you're an incumbent and you're below 50, that's a danger zone … I think Bob Casey, for the first time in his elected lifetime, has a real race on his hands.

Chris Nicholas is a veteran Republican consultant in the state. He expects to see narrow results and challenges in November.

CHRIS NICHOLAS: So in Pennsylvania, we have a law that says if the final margin between two candidates is less than a half of 1%, the state will automatically pay for a recall, a recount if the losing candidate wants it. So I think we could be in a in a season of what I call recount city once we get to the early part of November.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Carolina Lumetta.

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

AUDIO: You want some more?

Lebanon church offer aid — We start today in Lebanon where churches and schools have become refuges for people fleeing Israeli airstrikes.

The recent ongoing bombardment has killed several high-ranking commanders of the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon.

St. Joseph Church, a Roman Catholic church in Beirut, has received more than 100 migrants who live near some of the hotspots.

Michael Petro is the project director for the Jesuit Refugee Service’s Migrant Programs. He says the church has also assisted another 100 migrants in finding other places to live.

PETRO: Most of the people are coming with just the clothes they had, and so people are very stressed, people are worried. There's a sense we have no idea how long this is going to last for. But what I will say is one of the best things about the shelter is that we've been prioritizing families with children.

Lebanon currently hosts nearly 2 million refugees—the majority of them from Syria. The country is also home to some 250,000 migrant domestic workers, mostly from African and Asian nations.

Kumiri Parara is a Sri Lankan migrant.

PARARA: [Speaking Arabic]

She says here that she fled her home in southern Lebanon with her son as the strikes got closer. She found out later that her house was bombed one day after she left.

AUDIO: [Applause protest]

UK anti-Brexit march — Over in London, hundreds of protesters marched to Parliament Square in Westminster on Saturday, demanding a return to the European Union.

The 2016 Brexit referendum marked the start of Britain’s exit from the bloc—a move that finally happened four years ago.

But the protesters say it hasn’t paid off so far.

Seventy-three-year-old Christine Humphries participated in the march.

HUMPHRIES: It's just so sad because we miss out on so many things. The young people are suffering from it in all the countries and in our country, and it just seemed such a pointless thing to do when we're worse off now than we were before, and we need our friends in Europe.

A group called National Rejoin March has organized the protest annually to campaign for a Brexit reverse.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is meeting today with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to discuss his plans to reset post-Brexit relations with the bloc.

AUDIO: [Applause]

Japan death-row acquittal — And in Japan, a court has overturned the sentence of the world’s longest-serving death row inmate.

Last week, a Japanese court declared Iwao Hakamada innocent of quadruple murder after 46 years on death row.

The ruling concluded that authorities interrogated and severely tortured Hakamada to force his confession of robbing and killing his boss and his boss’s wife and two children.

HAKAMADA: [Speaking Japanese]

The 88-year-old says here that he had waited for this moment for a long time.

Prosecutors have until next Thursday to appeal the acquittal.

Japan and the United States are the final major industrialized democracies that still implement capital punishment.

AUDIO: [Happy birthday]

South Africa birthday — We close here in Africa at the 118th birthday celebration of a South African woman.

According to her identity card, Margaret Maritz was born on September 27, 1906. That makes her possibly the oldest living person in the world—although her identity card has not been independently verified.

Gregory Elroy Adams is a senior nurse at Maritz’ care home.

ADAMS: She is a very nice person to talk to, she talks about her life as a young woman, you must respect your mother and your father. She didn’t drink, she didn’t smoke. That’s the kind of stuff that she talked about. And that’s why she is a loving person, always a smile, always a happy person.

Japanese national Tomiko Itooka, who is now 116, currently holds the Guinness World Record as the verified oldest living person.

AUDIO: [Cheering]

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

NICK EICHER, HOST: A veteran postal worker recently hit a milestone: a million miles driven in that red-white-and-blue jeep, the equivalent of 40 laps around Earth! Jim Schultz is his name …

JIM SCHULTZ: I'm a letter carrier for the post office

Lakewood Washington is where he runs his route. The News Tribune, his local paper, mic’d him up and tagged along for a day-in-the-life piece. That’s where we got the audio.

SCHULTZ: I kinda like the job.

Schultz’s career started when he was barely out of college.

SCHULTZ: I was 25. So I'm 70 now.

And with all that driving, in all that time …

SCHULTZ: 45 years.

… he hit the milestone without hitting anything else, no wrecks in that mail truck.

And Schultz has another big milestone in sight, 50 years on the job.

SCHULTZ: I'm gonna be working for a few more years at least.

With the spotless record intact, no doubt.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Today is Wednesday, October 2nd. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Lindsay Mast.

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

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Ministry to migrants.

Since 2020, an estimated 20-thousand migrants from Haiti have settled in the small Ohio town of Springfield, where the local population had been hovering around 60-thousand.

MAST: The town became a political flashpoint when former President Trump highlighted the immigration crisis there during the presidential debate. For many in Springfield it’s not been easy: a major influx of people from a very different culture and economic climate presents a daily challenge.

EICHER: But something else, too. WORLD reporter Maria Baer reports on a pregnancy resource center in Springfield, where the local staff rise to the challenge.

MARIA BAER: I pulled into the parking lot of the Pregnancy Resource Clinic of Clark County in Springfield, Ohio a few days ago expecting to see an expectant mother or two. I didn’t expect to see police dogs.

SOUND: [Traffic, cars passing by]

But when I arrived, it was just as the K9s were sniffing for bombs around the perimeter of the small brick building. There’d been a bomb threat that morning. Investigators say foreign entities have been calling in similar threats across Springfield since the presidential debate.

SOUND: [Leash jingling]

The police clear the threat and round up the dogs just in time for another unexpected visitor: Ohio’s first lady.

Fran DeWine, wife of Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, has come for a tour. Clinic director Nicole Patch shows her and her aides inside, where soft piano music plays in the wide, bright lobby.

SOUND: [Doors squeaking, music, laughing]

It’s not every day the governor’s wife stops by to ask how she can help. But then things haven’t been exactly business-as-usual for the PRC of Clark County for a few years now.

AUDIO: We have seen an influx with our Haitian community needing diapers, wipes, formula, baby food…

Patch tells the first lady the clinic allocated an extra two-thousand dollars just last month on baby formula for local Haitian moms.

PATCH: We’re trying to get more formula. Yes formula, we can’t keep it on our shelves! (Laughter)

Almost as quickly as she arrived, Mrs. DeWine is off again in her black SUV.

AUDIO: Thank you, thank you so much, thank you…

Back inside the clinic, a few young moms have gathered in the lobby, waiting for their appointments.

AUDIO: [Soft music and baby sounds]

Director Nicole Patch says the clinic began seeing women from Haiti around three years ago. But the number dramatically increased in the last 18 months. She estimates a full 30 percent of the 24-hundred or so patients they serve per year are now non-English speakers.

PATCH: We’ve had to pivot, like when we started out, we were using Google translate and then when our patients would leave we would be like, I don’t think they know what their next steps are, like they just seemed confused.

Before the highway east out of Springfield stretches into farmland, there’s a wide stretch of manufacturing plants. There are at least two food packaging centers, and multiple steel plants. City officials say many Haitian immigrants came for these factory jobs.

It's likely, too, that once a few families settled here and sent word back home to Haiti, friends and relatives followed. Immigration often follows that pattern.

But there’s no reliable, institutionalized healthcare in Haiti, and learning to navigate America’s complicated medical system is a challenge for the migrants. Then there’s the language barrier.

Most of the Haitian women who visit the clinic speak Creole. Patch says her staff briefly tried using an app with an in-person interpreter. But after a few interpreters refused to translate when the women wanted to pray together, the clinic stopped using it.

PATCH: We laugh a lot, we point, we have like a list, a picture of all of the formulas we have and we make it work.

Sarah Graham, a longtime Springfield resident, works the pregnancy clinic’s front desk. Recently she decided to study Creole.

GRAHAM: (Speaking in Creole)… How can I help you? And I learned how to say… (Creole)…. I’m happy to see you!

Graham says learning even basic phrases has allowed her to connect with women who are facing desperate situations in an unfamiliar country. It’s caused some frustration, though, when other women are stuck waiting in the lobby while Graham and clinic staff fumble through the translation.

Christina Conover is the director of nursing for the local county health department in Springfield. She toured the pregnancy clinic with the governor’s wife, and she says the surge of migrants from Haiti has stretched Springfield’s already thin housing and medical resources.

CONOVER: It’s true, us as an agency, we have stumbled. Because it’s been so fast, so we are still trying to get our feet.

Conover says Springfield has suffered a shortage of medical providers for decades. The Haitian influx has stressed the system further, catching the attention of the state government. The state recently paid to send additional nurses to the health department to cut down on wait times for routine immunizations. Families are now waiting one month, instead of two, for vaccines.

There have been some reports that the migrants have brought with them communicable diseases such as HIV and tuberculosis, causing an uptick in Springfield. Conover says that’s technically true, but the hard numbers remain small.

CONOVER: So when people say there’s a 500 percent increase, well that’s because we started with one.

Sarah Graham at the pregnancy clinic says some cultural differences pose challenges, too.

GRAHAM: Sometimes the men speak for the women, and that’s ok, but we’d like to talk with her, so we do use a translation service and ask if it’s alright if we bring her back, just to get her input.

Graham and the clinic staff say they remain committed to never turning any woman away. Patch says as the clinic’s demand for more supplies has increased, so have the incoming gifts from donors. They’ve hired a student from nearby Cedarville University, a young girl who was adopted at 15 from Haiti, to translate for women here every Friday. But the clinic’s most precious offering to their patients doesn’t cost a dime.

Graham says she was able to share the gospel recently with a Haitian woman named Ann.

GRAHAM: In fact I had a brief conversation with her, and she said I know. I know your God. And I said then we’re sisters. And I love that.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Maria Baer in Springfield, Ohio.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, October 2nd. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast. Here’s WORLD commentator Janie B. Cheaney now on wise investing, God’s way.

JANIE B CHEANEY: It’s criminal that basic economics isn’t part of every school district’s core curriculum. Because it seems to me that very few Americans understand money. For too long, I was one of them.

My husband had a bachelor’s degree in business when we met, and saw it as his natural role to control our finances. I was happy to let him, since that wasn’t my forte. Case in point, during my last summer job as a bookkeeper at the Dallas Salvation Army headquarters, they made me do one payroll. Let’s just say graciously, that was a big mistake. One they didn’t repeat.

As a young couple, our first twelve years were an economic roller-coaster from job to job. My husband worked as an assistant manager for a drive-in, an apprentice electrician, and a brakeman, fireman, and part-time mechanic on steam excursion railroads. We never got ahead financially until he used his dad’s connections to hire on as a brakeman on the Missouri Pacific Railroad.

The job paid well but was detrimental to family life, not to mention slightly dangerous in all kinds of weather. He banked enough money to quit and try starting a business, which didn’t pan out. Then he went back to school—to study music, of all things. The benefits were spiritual rather than financial, and I wouldn’t have traded that year, but at the end of it we were broke.

Back to the railroad, in management this time, starting out as a lowly clerk. For the first few months we had to borrow money to pay grocery and electric bills. But that was 1980—after the decade got off to a rough start, incomes rose, boosting us to solid middle-class status. He stayed with the railroad long enough to get a sales job with a company car and an expense account. Then he quit to start a business, and back to square one.

Our basic principle of money management was “save, don’t spend.” Like Paul, we knew how to be brought low, and as long as I had a stove and a sewing machine I could manage a frugal household. But we didn’t know how to abound.

My husband’s second try at self-employment succeeded, and he used much of the money to make unwise investments—for which I blame his early dementia. When I assumed control of the bank account it came with a steep learning curve. The Lord has always provided, and I don’t dwell on past mistakes. But I’d like to do better.

Last week I came across a quote from Ron Blue that centered my thinking: “When we use money we are investing it, not spending it.” In other words, while laying up treasure in heaven, we’re investing in our health, the well-being of others, and the kingdom of God. Tithing is like a direct deposit, but disposable income is invested also: in our homes as places of refuge and hospitality, in our tables as refreshment and welcome, in our vehicles as service, even in our fun as relationship-building. What a concept!

In God’s economy, nothing is wasted. But investing our resources in Him is not just responsible, it’s joy.

I’m Janie B. Cheaney. 

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: Iran avenges the loss of its terror affiliate in Lebanon. We’ll have a report. And, since Dobbs, pro-abortion advocates have claimed doctors and hospitals are denying women care after miscarriages. But we looked at the numbers, and we’ll tell you the truth. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast.

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