WORLD Radio replay - Interesting people

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, August 10th.

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

Good morning. I’m Paul Butler.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: WORLD Anniversaries!

It’s a big week for us around here at WORLD Newsgroup. Today marks the 40th anniversary of the first issue of It’s God’s World—a Christian newspaper for kids. Soon after its start, parents began lobbying for a news magazine for adults from a Christian worldview. WORLD founder Joel Belz:

Parents of our young readers more and more frequently came back to us, saying: “We like this. We read this with our kids. When are you going to do an edition for adults?” Wisely or not, we listened. WORLD magazine appeared in 1986. No, the God’s World News papers are not a junior version of WORLD. WORLD is actually, and historically, a senior version of the kids’ papers!

Forty years of Biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

BUTLER: We’re also celebrating our 10th anniversary of The World and Everything in It this week. So over the next few days you’ll hear highlights from some of our most memorable profiles and feature stories over the years. We polled our reporters and staff, and they nominated their favorites. One that many mentioned was a story from Susan Olasky: The Search for the Man From Olevsk.

REICHARD: That feature aired on Thanksgiving, 2012. It chronicled a journey of discovery as Marvin and Susan searched for clues about the Olasky family tree. We pick up the story as they arrive in Olevsk, Ukraine.

SUSAN OLASKY, REPORTER: Barkov asks, What now? What’s the plan? Marvin doesn’t have much of a plan. Just 15 year-old information from the internet.

DRIVER: This used to be a totally Jewish city.

AMBI: FOOTSTEPS IN CEMETERY

We arrive and get out. We walk slowly through the crowded graveyard. Iron fences surround many of the graves. Stones with the star of David and etched with photographs—in the Russian style.

Marvin looks for graves with the name Chaya, his great grandmother, or Yehoshua his great grandfather.

Where did all the Jews go? Many died in Stalin’s famine of the 1930s. The Nazis killed millions more. Those who survived left for Israel and the U.S. in the 1970s and 80s.

We left Olevsk knowing little more about Marvin’s family than when we came. He found no grave. He found no long lost relatives. So what did he learn?

MARVIN: Our lives are short. Left to ourselves, if it’s just ourselves, if it’s just our material existence, we do die and we may be remembered for a while, but basically other people will forget us. The joyful thing is that God does not forget. Those lives have not been lived in vain.

For The World and Everything in It, I’m Susan Olasky.

MUSIC

BUTLER: Since 2011 there have been many times when we’ve had the privilege to really live up to our name—as can be heard in this excerpt from November 15th, 2018. Reporter Jenny Lind Schmitt profiled Gilbert Brabant, a French sand collector.

JENNY LIND SCHMITT, REPORTER: It all started about 20 years ago, on a vacation. Brabant took his family to a new beach. His children claimed the sand was “lighter and finer” than their usual beach. Brabant told them that was nonsense. He said all sand was the same. To prove it, he scooped up a handful to compare to the sand from their regular beach.

FRENCH TRANSLATION: At the beginning it was just out of curiosity and to show that I was the boss and that the boss is always right. [LAUGHS]

Turns out, the kids were right. Brabant learned that sand is not at all the same.

SOUND: VOICES AND SHAKING VIALS OF SAND

A hobby was born. Word soon got out, and friends and family started bringing him sand. Red sand, black sand, orange sand, pink sand, and every gradation of gray and brown imaginable.

In 2006, Brabant discovered there’s an online world of sand collectors. They’re called “arenophiles.” Finding them was a watershed moment for him.

Brabant’s initial dream was to collect sand from every nation on earth. He fulfilled it last year when he traded for sand from North Korea. So now he has a new goal: Sand from every region of France and every state of the United States. He only needs 16 more states.

So why collect sand? Brabant says the real quest isn’t the sand. It’s not the creation. But the Creator.

FRENCH TRANSLATION: What we know of creation is truly a tiny, tiny, tiny piece. And you realize that our perspective, and therefore, our understanding, is very limited in relation to the universe, in relation to creation. And for me, that shows that we should be very humble, especially humble in relation to our knowledge of God and to our understanding of our Creator.

So Brabant says next time you go to the beach, be careful where you step. You never know what marvels may lie just under your feet...

BUTLER: WORLD Reporter Jenny Lind Schmitt.

REICHARD: And our last story highlight for today is the one most mentioned in our internal poll. It comes from last year’s COVID-19 coverage. WORLD Reporter Bonnie Pritchett introduced us to an 83-year old school bus driver who went from delivering students to delivering school lunches.

TOMMY BATES: Hello Andrew! How are you?

BONNIE PRITCHETT, REPORTER: For the last six years, Tommy Bates has driven a school bus for Gwinnett County Public Schools, in northeastern Atlanta, Georgia. It’s a post-retirement career. Ten years of retired life left him stir-crazy. Not sure what he wanted to do, Bates found inspiration while driving home one day.

TOMMY BATES: And there was a big sign in front of the school that said ‘Bus managers needed.’ And I thought to myself, I don’t know what that means but I guarantee ya, I can manage a bus...

SOUND: [BUS ENGINE AND RADIO CHATTER]

He passed the training course and became Mr. Tommy, school bus driver. During a typical school year, his day begins at 4–dark–30.

SOUND: [SLOWING AND DOORS SWOOSHING OPEN]

But these days he’s not up before the sun. And the students he sees at each stop, never climb aboard his b

BATES: We are now at Norcross High School. And this is where we pick up the sandwiches.

Bates and his bus driving colleagues no longer pick up and deliver students to their schools. Instead, they pick up and deliver lunches to most of the district’s 181,000 students learning from home since March 16th. That’s when schools closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

BATES: Alright. We’ve got our sandwiches.

Does he worry about himself? Yes. Sort of.

At 83-years old, Bates understands he and his wife Katie are among those most vulnerable to potentially deadly complications should they contract the coronavirus. So, he takes what precautions he can, leaves the ‘what-ifs’ to God, and goes to work each day. Besides, he says he’s a “young” 83.

BATES: I’ve got a ready smile and I’m a happy guy. And I’m an up guy. And they see that. And that’s just naturally who the Lord has made me. And the way I see my relationship with them, the hope that I see, is kinda like, kinda like a ripple on a lake. You know. You throw a rock in the lake and it creates ripples and the ripples go and go and go and go. You just don’t have any idea what influence you’re having. I hope it’s good.

SOUND: [BUS PULLING AWAY]

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Bonnie Pritchett.

REICHARD: We’ll include links to the complete stories we featured today in our transcript. You can find that at wng.org.

And tomorrow, three more stories from the past as we celebrate 10 years of The World and Everything in It.

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.