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The World and Everything In It
4.22.25 Remembering Pope Francis, regenerative farming, and leaving Ukraine for a family in America
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- [00:06]
Mary Reichard
Good morning. Pope Francis has died, but conversations on his legacy are very much alive.
- [00:11]
Jordan Ballor
He will be seen as a pope who has drawn attention to all of the same issues that liberation theology has drawn attention to.
- [00:18]
Nick Eicher
Also today, a farmer who practices Earth.
- [00:20]
Joel Salatin
Day every day in the idea of dominion. It is not dominion to exploit, it is dominion to caretake, like an overseer, like a shepherd.
- [00:31]
Nick Eicher
And war in Ukraine. Ukraine created orphans who became refugees. One of them tells her story.
- [00:37]
Daisy Serlow
Our train stops every second like, because they see where they gonna do it.
- [00:44]
Nick Eicher
Bombs and the shot heard round the world 250 years ago.
- [00:56]
Mary Reichard
It's Tuesday, April 22nd. This is the world and everything in it. From listener supported World Radio. I'm Mary Reichard.
- [01:03]
Nick Eicher
And I'm N Eicker. Good morning.
- [01:07]
Mary Reichard
Up next, Mark Mellinger with today's news.
- [01:11]
Mark Mellinger
President Trump is stepping up his sharp critique of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, creating a fresh round of jitters in the financial world. Last week, Trump called Powell terrible amid reports the White House was thinking about trying to fire the Fed chair. Monday, Trump again laid the figurative lumber to Powell for not lowering interest rates, calling him a major loser and Mr. Too late over social media. While critics fear the president's tough talk on Powell combined with his new tariffs are hurting the economy. Trump says there's a little transition and.
- [01:46]
Joel Salatin
That'S going to happen, but ultimately we're.
- [01:48]
Jordan Ballor
Going to be the strongest that we've.
- [01:49]
Joel Salatin
Ever been as a nation.
- [01:51]
Mark Mellinger
Stocks tumbled after the president's comments. The Dow Jones industrial average finished the day down 972 points, losing 2.5% of its value. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 indices were also each down more than 2%. And the US dollar index sank to its lowest level in three years. The White House is defending Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who is under fire after a New York Times report that for a second time he shared secret US Military attack plans in a group chat on the messaging app Signal. The Times says its reporting is based on four people with knowledge of the chat. Without refuting the content of the report, Hegseth lashed out at the news media. They take anonymous sources from disgruntled former employees and then they try to slash and burn people and ruin their reputations. Not going to work with me. The Times reports Hegseth's wife, brother and about a dozen other people were on the thread. Last month, it came to light that Hegseth and other national security officials accidentally shared US Attack plans in Yemen with the editor in chief of the Atlantic over Signal. The president says Hegseth is doing a great job and called reporting on the second Signal chat. The same old stuff. Should parents be able to pull their kids out of elementary school classes featuring LGBTQ themed books? That is the question before the U.S. supreme Court today. It is hearing arguments in a case out of Montgomery County, Maryland, where the public school system refused to let parents withdraw their children from a language arts class whose reading curriculum includes a handful of books with LGBTQ characters and themes. One mother in the school district, Billy Moges, tells Fox News the reading materials are leaving students in a state of.
- [03:47]
Travis Kercher
Confusion and they're going home asking their parents what they're learning at school and at home. Is it not lining up?
- [03:55]
Mark Mellinger
The plaintiffs in this case, including Moges, say the school system is violating their First Amendment freedom of religion. Mogis says she's pulled her own kids out of public school. A judge has cleared the way for abortions to resume in Wyoming. World's Travis Kercher has more.
- [04:14]
Nick Eicher
Wyoming's only abortion business is once again legally permitted to end the lives of unborn babies. That's after a state judge's ruling yesterday. In his decision, District Judge Thomas Campbell suspended two state pro life laws prohibiting Wellspring health access from performing abortions. The Casper based abortion business stopped providing abortions in late February in response to the new legislation. One law required surgical abortion businesses to be licensed as outpatient surgical centers. The other required mothers to receive an ultrasound before getting a chemical abortion. In his ruling yesterday, Judge Campbell said the pro life laws affect a fundamental right to abortion by the state constitution. The Wyoming Supreme Court is weighing whether that's accurate, but its decision is probably several weeks away. Monday's ruling blocks the laws from taking effect until that decision comes down. In a social media post Monday afternoon, the center says it is once again taking appointments for mothers to kill their unborn babies. For World I'm Travis Kercher.
- [05:18]
Mark Mellinger
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says his country is sending a delegation to London tomorrow to meet with Western allies. The top topic of discussion? How to achieve an unconditional ceasefire with Russia. That is Zelensky saying Ukraine pledges not to strike civilian infrastructure in Russia and Russia must respond in kind. He goes on to suggest both sides end all missile and long range drone strikes. In Washington, reporters asked President Trump about the likelihood of a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, but his comments come on the heels of more Russian airstrikes. According to a report by the Kyiv Independent, three Ukrainians died and seven more were hurt in attacks Moscow launched on Sunday and into Monday, as Catholics mourn the death of Pope Francis, we're learning he'll be buried in Rome's papal Basilica of St. Mary. Major the Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, explains why he would always.
- [06:24]
Joel Salatin
Go there before he left on a journey and when he returned to thank Jesus through Mary at that basilica so that he wants to be buried there kind of in the middle of a Roman neighborhood, kind of at a crossroads of Roman life.
- [06:40]
Mark Mellinger
Cardinal Dolan talking to Fox News Channel's the Story with Martha MacCallum. Pope Francis died Monday at 88 from a stroke and heart failure. Cardinals younger than 80 will convene at a secret meeting in the Sistine Chapel to choose his successor. That gathering typically happens 15 to 20 days after a pope's death. I'm Mark Mellinger. Straight ahead considering the legacy of Pope Francis, plus a story about protecting Ukrainian orphans from human trafficking. This is the WORLD and everything in it.
- [07:33]
Nick Eicher
It's Tuesday, the 22nd of April. Thank you for listening to World Radio. Good morning. I'm Nick Iger.
- [07:40]
Mary Reichard
And I'm Mary Reichardt. First up on the world and everything in it. Remembering Pope Francis. Jorge Mario Bergoglio was the first pope to take the name of the founder of the Franciscan order. Characterizing his commitment to the poor and the stewardship of nature, Bergoglio was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, making him the first pontiff from the Americas.
- [08:03]
Nick Eicher
Francis will be remembered for his focus on the poor, but his lasting legacy may be the unintended consequences of the way he responded to poverty, immigration and human sexuality, unlocking the door to doctrines and practices that the church has long preached against. World Radio executive producer Paul Butler has the story.
- [08:28]
Travis Kercher
On March 13, 2013, on the fifth ballot, the College of Cardinals elected the Catholic Church's 200 SE Pope. Introduced in St. Peter's Square as Pope Francis, he says it was the conclave's duty to give Rome a bishop. Then he jokes, it seems that they've gone to the ends of the earth to get one. Jorge Bergoglio entered the Catholic Order of the Jesuits as a priest in 1969. As the child of Italian immigrants to Argentina, Bergoglio was no stranger to poverty or political violence. Bergoglio served Argentinian Catholics during tumultuous years when the government sought to stamp out communism. Around this time, Catholics in the Global south began to more fully embrace liberation theology, a framework for teachings on poverty and suffering that incorporates economic and political ideas from Marxism.
- [09:34]
Jordan Ballor
So Francis is faced with a kind of a broader discussion about the relationship.
- [09:39]
Travis Kercher
Between rich and poor Jordan Baller is director of research at the center for Religion, Culture and Democracy.
- [09:45]
Jordan Ballor
This movement is presenting somewhat of a coherent answer to the challenges of wealth and poverty.
- [09:51]
Travis Kercher
Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict xvi, both took strong positions against liberation theology and censored its proponents. Bergoglio kept his distance, sympathizing with the movement but never formally adhering to it.
- [10:08]
Jordan Ballor
That kind of, you might say, ambivalence towards liberation theology, I think, has continued into his papacy.
- [10:15]
Travis Kercher
After his election as pope, Cardinal Bergoglio took the name Francis, the first pontiff to be named after Francis of Assisi. He sought to emulate Assisi's focus on caring for the poor and caring for God's creation. As pope, Francis navigated a complicated range of issues, from efforts to legalize and normalize homosexual unions to calls for global action to confront changes in climate.
- [10:43]
Joel Salatin
Mr. Speaker, the Pope of the Holy See.
- [10:48]
Travis Kercher
In 2015, he addressed the US Congress, calling for a stronger commitment to environmental protections.
- [10:54]
Cardinal Timothy Dolan
I convinced that we can make a difference, I'm sure.
- [11:01]
Travis Kercher
Many saw Francis as a progressive force within the church, and his statements frequently raised concerns for people both in and out of the church. When asked about homosexuality in 2013, Francis said, if someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge? Some took that to be a softening of the church's stance towards homosexuality, though others affirm that Francis did not change church doctrine regarding the nature of biblical marriage. And then just last year, the pope angered many LGBTQ advocates when he warned of the dangers of gender theory, saying it was a threat to society as it sought to erase the differences between the sexes. Many times during his papacy, Francis came under fire for his handling of the ongoing sex abuse scandals in the church. He seemed to blame victims of slander during a 2018 visit to Chile, though he later walked that back, admitting to what he called grave errors in judgment. He apologized to victims while demanding bishop resignations. Pope Francis also strayed into geopolitical debates. In 2016, he visited the US Mexico border and publicly prayed for those who had died trying to cross into the United States. During the visit, he criticized then presidential candidate Donald Trump over his promise to strengthen the border. CNN's Rosa Flores called Francis the Pope of mercy. It's a label that stuck. Here's Jordan Ballor.
- [12:36]
Jordan Ballor
Once again, he will be seen, I think, as a pope of the heart, focusing on the piety and the charitable orientation of the Christian heart.
- [12:44]
Travis Kercher
Ballor says this legacy does not conflict with his predecessors but can be read in conjunction with them.
- [12:51]
Jordan Ballor
You've got a pretty robust expression of a social thought that is oriented towards the intellect, the will and the heart in a way that they complement one another and can correct one another.
- [13:05]
Travis Kercher
What remains to be seen is whether the next pontiff reaffirms the doctrinal defenses of prior popes or continues France's ambiguity toward the left.
- [13:14]
Jordan Ballor
In many ways, his legacy will be defined by what his successors do, just as the legacies of John Paul II and Benedict XVI have in many ways been refined or defined or transformed by Francis himself.
- [13:28]
Travis Kercher
Last month, Pope Francis marked the 12th anniversary of his election while hospitalized.
- [13:33]
Mark Mellinger
I know you've not been feeling great, but it's good to see you in better health.
- [13:37]
Travis Kercher
This past Sunday, US Vice President J.D. vance met with the pontiff and thanked God for the pope's improved health. Francis blessed easter pilgrims from St. Peter's Basilica, then surprised the crowd with a trip around the square in his car. It turned out to be his final goodbye. On Monday morning, Cardinal Kevin Farrell announced the death of Pope Francis. He says at 7:35 this morning, the Bishop of Rome Francis returned to his father's house. His entire life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and his Church. The Vatican then officially sealed the papal apartment of the Apostolic palace and proclaimed the traditional season of mourning. A conclave of cardinals is expected to convene in the next two or three weeks, where they will choose a new head of the Catholic Church. Reporting for World I'm Paul Butler.
- [14:39]
Nick Eicher
Next up on the World and everything in it. On this Earth day we consider the dominion mandate. It's found in the first chapter of the first book of the Bible, the Book of Genesis. Actor Max Maclean reads for Crossway's ESV translation.
- [14:54]
Joel Salatin
Then God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female. He created them and God blessed them. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.
- [15:34]
Nick Eicher
Subdue it and have dominion. The Hebrew words speak of bringing creation under cultivation. That's subduing as well as ruling over and governing. That's having dominion and yet this is.
- [15:48]
Mary Reichard
No license to exploit. Think of it as royal stewardship under Christ. The idea is man is made in God's image and we are called to act as his vice regents, justly, generously, in a way that is life giving. Augustine saw dominion as order. Calvin stressed responsible stewardship. And Kuyper declared, there's not a square inch over which Christ does not cry mine.
- [16:14]
Nick Eicher
Dominion then is a creational blessing and responsibility. So with that theological framing, let's now consider how one farmer lives out the dominion mandate in practice.
- [16:26]
Mary Reichard
A while back, my colleague Jenny Ruff and I spent some time at Joel Saletan's family run operation called Polyface Farms. It's located in Virginia's beautiful Shenandoah Valley and it's known worldwide for regenerative farming. Animals, plants, soils, all integrated in such a way as to restore the earth. Salatin folds his arms on his kitchen table like a philosopher in muck boots.
- [16:51]
Joel Salatin
What do we do here? So we grow salad bar, beef, pigurator pork, pastured poultry, and that's eggs, broilers and turkeys, pastured rabbits, lamb and ducks. And so we produce all this without chemicals, without vaccines, without medications, no antibiotics and no MRNA either.
- [17:25]
Nick Eicher
Saletin looks to God's design of the planet for instructions on how to run his farm.
- [17:31]
Joel Salatin
So there are principles involved. So when we look at herbivores in nature, moving, mobbing, mowing, when you honor all three of those, you build soil, you increase pollinators, you increase vegetative diversity, you increase abundance, everything increases. If you violate one of those, you turn the herbivore which built all the healthy soils on the planet, you turn it into a liability rather than an asset. And in most livestock, commercial livestock situations in the world now, they're violating all three of those.
- [18:11]
Nick Eicher
All three of those moving, mobbing, mowing herbivores roam around. That's moving. They bunch up together. That's mobbing. They eat the plants. That's mowing. Saletin studied natural herds of the world, the wildebeests of the Serengeti, the bison of North America. And he observed, that's how they live.
- [18:32]
Joel Salatin
A feedlot violates all three. You know, they're not moving, they're not mowing. Well, I guess they are mobbed up. But, but, but they're not moving, they're not mowing in the average grazing situation, they're not moving, they're not mobbed up. They are mowing, but they're not moving and they're not mobbed up. So all you have to do is violate one and you turn it from an asset into a liability. And so we're looking at this. How do we mimic moving, mobbing, mowing? And so we use electric fence as essentially a steering wheel, a brake and an accelerator to move that mower around the landscape to do positively what herbivores have done since the beginning of time.
- [19:24]
Mary Reichard
I remained a tad skeptical as I'd read some opposing views beforehand. No way can this be done on a large scale to feed the people of the world. So I asked him.
- [19:35]
Joel Salatin
It's completely scalable. You can do it with one cow, you can do it with 5,000 cows. Has nothing to do with acreage. It's about management. It's how you manage. So if you have one cow, you might give him 50 square yards a day. If you have 5,000 cows, you might give them 100 acres a day. The equity in this is not in infrastructure. The equity is in management.
- [20:00]
Mary Reichard
Saletan sees farming as a kind of living parable.
- [20:04]
Joel Salatin
Well, if I was God looking down on this, how would I feel about a dead zone the size of Rhode island in the Gulf of Mexico? How would I feel about eagle eggs that are DDT'd and can't hatch? How would I feel about 3 legged salamanders due to pesticide contamination or frogs that can't breed because they're infertile due to chemical contamination? I think as I meditate on that question, I think I'd be upset with the folks that I entrusted my thing to and said it was beautiful and good in Genesis. I don't want back a bunch of deserts, a bunch of tainted soil, a bunch of erosion, a bunch of gullies, a bunch of C. Diff. Mrsa, whatever. Yeah, E. Coli tainted. Right. I don't want that back. And so does God care?
- [21:07]
Mary Reichard
Salatin says yes, he does. And so he runs this place in such a way as the creatures and land are honored in the way God made them. How does that play out? Saladin says the marvelous pigness of pigs proves it. He even wrote a book of that title. And he walks us over to where his swine live and play.
- [21:25]
Joel Salatin
Watch him lean into me.
- [21:28]
Nick Eicher
Watch.
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Joel Salatin
He's wiggling his rear. They love that.
- [21:30]
Travis Kercher
Oh, yeah, way back.
- [21:32]
Joel Salatin
Oh, oh, I love that.
- [21:33]
Daisy Serlow
I'm getting a little scratchies.
- [21:35]
Joel Salatin
That's good stuff, isn't it?
- [21:37]
Mary Reichard
Yeah.
- [21:37]
Nick Eicher
So what is this marvelous pigness, the glory of which he speaks?
- [21:42]
Joel Salatin
You don't go down the street and hear people using the word glory very often. Usually that's something used in church, right? Glory. But the Bible doesn't make those Kind of distinctions. It talks about certainly the glory of God, but it talks about the glory of old men is their gray hair, the glory of nations is their kings, the glory of the heavens, the glory of the earth. I mean it doesn't just spiritualize and kind of, you know, academic. The term glory, the glory of something is its distinctiveness. It's what's special about it that nothing else has. So the glory of God is he's omniscient, he's omnipresent, he's holy, you know, that's God's glory. All right. Well what is the glory of a pig? Well, the glory of a pig is not to be linked up in a confinement house on a slatted floor with a cut off tail, living in stress all of its days and treat it like some sort of a mechanical blob. The glory of a pig is its ability to respond, to be curious, to sniff in the ground and to dig up roots. And that's the glory of the pig.
- [22:58]
Nick Eicher
Saletin elaborated on the glory of an integrated farm system.
- [23:02]
Cardinal Timothy Dolan
They are so cute.
- [23:04]
Nick Eicher
To use another Salatin original, letting the pig pigurators turn waste into life giving soil.
- [23:10]
Joel Salatin
We add corn to it and the corn ferments because this is the cows are chomping out the oxygen and it's fermenting. And so when the cows come out in the spring, then we put in the pigs. The pigs then seek the fermented corn and in doing so they aerate it. That's what pigerates, they aerate it and this whole thing turns into a big.
- [23:32]
Nick Eicher
Cow which is all part of the overall design.
- [23:36]
Joel Salatin
And of course it fully honors and respects the pig. So now instead of the pig being pork chops and bacon, the pig is also a co laborer in this great land healing ministry.
- [23:48]
Mary Reichard
This integrative farming method has drawn interest from people all over the world. Life from life. That's Salatin's philosophy, a bulwark against the chemical ag model that he says ignores stewardship. Saletin is reclaiming dominion as he says God intended not in lording it over the earth and its creatures.
- [24:12]
Joel Salatin
Water, soil, air. It's the stuff that preceded me and will be here after I'm gone. And so as a result of my footsteps here, I've been entrusted with whatever it is, a square yard, an acre, 500 acres. As a result of my being here is my legacy. Am I leaving God a return on investment? What's his roi? Here's the goal. I got this plate sitting in front of me and I'm looking at this food, if I squint my eyes and imagine and look through the food to the landscape on the other side that grew it, that processed it, that distributed it, that brought it to me and look at that landscape. Is that a landscape that lines up with my beliefs? And is it a landscape that I want children to inherit? That's the question. Additional support comes from Life International.
- [25:33]
Travis Kercher
Fighting the scourge of abortion globally, teaching.
- [25:37]
Joel Salatin
About the father's heart for Life Life International.
- [25:42]
Nick Eicher
And from Eyewitness, an immersive audio drama.
- [25:46]
Joel Salatin
Exploring stories of faith and transformation on podcast apps or at the letter I.
- [25:53]
Travis Kercher
Witnesspod.Com.
- [26:12]
Mary Reichard
Today is Tuesday, April 22nd. Thank you for turning to World radio to help start your day. Good morning. I'm Mary Reichert.
- [26:19]
Nick Eicher
And I'm Nick Eicher. Next up on the world and everything in it, an orphan's dilemma. Two weeks ago, we introduced you to a family hoping to adopt seven siblings from Ukraine. Today, the oldest of those siblings shares her gripping story, a dramatic escape from a war zone. World senior writer Kim Henderson has the story.
- [26:43]
Daisy Serlow
We sleep in the third floor. If you hear the sirens, you need really fast pickups. And go down from three floors and you never.
- [26:52]
Kim Henderson
That's Daisy Serlow. She was 17 when Russians invaded the Ukrainian city where she lived in an orphanage. People were dying right outside her building. Daisy had been separated from her six siblings a few years before the war began. They were living in a different orphanage. They escaped to Poland, but it took Daisy's orphanage director a full month after the war started to secure a bus.
- [27:17]
Daisy Serlow
Drive like two hours and you hear the bombs fall down from the sky.
- [27:23]
Kim Henderson
And after the bus ride, the orphans boarded a train. For two days and two nights, they inched their way toward Italy.
- [27:31]
Daisy Serlow
Our train stops every second, like, because he can see the light and the Russians can see the light. You never turn the lights on when it's war because they see where they gonna do it. Bombs and everything.
- [27:49]
Kim Henderson
They made it to Italy. Three teachers and hundreds of refugee orphans, including Daisy.
- [27:55]
Daisy Serlow
It's just beautiful, beautiful place. It has lots of big mountains.
- [28:02]
Kim Henderson
But Daisy still didn't feel safe.
- [28:04]
Daisy Serlow
I don't feel safe because you never feel safe everywhere because everywhere have bad people.
- [28:10]
Kim Henderson
She speaks from experience. Her parents were abusive alcoholics who left Daisy and her sisters and brother for months at a time. Townspeople intervened. The kids went to live in an orphanage.
- [28:23]
Daisy Serlow
Katerina McColla, Lisa, Marsha, Nastya and Barbara.
- [28:29]
Kim Henderson
Daisy, as the oldest, had to fight for their survival. She remembers crying out to God, I.
- [28:36]
Daisy Serlow
Feel like pray to him. It Was hopeless. Like, he doesn't hear me, and I died.
- [28:41]
Kim Henderson
But it wasn't hopeless. Some of the siblings came to America through a hosting program in 2021. Daisy was not part of that trip. A Baptist pastor, Brian Serlow and his wife Anna decided to adopt the whole set of siblings.
- [28:57]
Cardinal Timothy Dolan
They kept telling us, she is so good, she has taken care of us and we love her and we need her home and we will come to America and live with you, but we have to bring our sister.
- [29:07]
Kim Henderson
Their adoption process was rolling until the war shut it down, but they managed to stay in contact with the kids. The Solos went to visit Daisy in Italy and the others at the refugee orphanage in Poland. But something seemed off with daisy. She and 12 other orphans were living in a regular home with a man who was paying Daisy special attention.
- [29:30]
Daisy Serlow
When my birthday was born, he got me really expensive restaurant and we go in there and we.
- [29:39]
Cardinal Timothy Dolan
And he bought you an expensive.
- [29:40]
Daisy Serlow
Yeah, he.
- [29:41]
Cardinal Timothy Dolan
And flowers.
- [29:42]
Daisy Serlow
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [29:43]
Kim Henderson
For Serlo's suspected abuse.
- [29:46]
Cardinal Timothy Dolan
I was actually hysterical when I left Italy. To leave your child in an abusive situation and know that you have no way to get them out of it, there's nothing to describe that level of despair and desperation in the Solos got.
- [30:00]
Kim Henderson
Busy contacting their congressmen, their senators, anybody who would listen.
- [30:05]
Cardinal Timothy Dolan
I just knew that God and his goodness had not brought us into this situation to leave her in despair and to leave us helpless somehow, there had to be a way to rescue her out of that. So we started fighting for her and fighting to find a way to bring her home.
- [30:20]
Kim Henderson
But behind the scenes, the Italian man was trying to take guardianship of Daisy. The Serlos hired a Christian attorney in Ukraine. It took time, but one morning he arrived in Italy to lawfully remove Daisy from the man's home.
- [30:36]
Daisy Serlow
I just like, scream like.
- [30:39]
Mark Mellinger
Praise the Lord.
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Daisy Serlow
Thank you, thank you, thank you. And what I remember. HE SPEAK Pack your suitcase. You go with me. And it's just so nice, so smooth. And everything was so happy.
- [30:50]
Kim Henderson
Sterlos worked to bring Daisy home as a refugee through the United for Ukraine program. She flew into the New Orleans airport on a cold November night in 2022. The next step was keeping Daisy here permanently. She was 18 now, too old for adoption, or maybe not.
- [31:10]
Cardinal Timothy Dolan
In Mississippi, when a child is up to 21 years old, it gives you more leadway in the legal system than a lot of the other states in our country. So we didn't know we were living in the perfect state to do something that was very unconventional, but we were.
- [31:24]
Kim Henderson
The Cerlos got legal custody and Daisy has a path towards citizenship in the future. But it's been a tough adjustment. When Daisy arrived, she was malnourished. Inflammation wracked her body. Her teeth were rotten and broken. She also needed counseling and time to heal.
- [31:42]
Cardinal Timothy Dolan
She had regressed a lot in her mental age where she was very much like a small girl. And we were just told it was from the trauma.
- [31:51]
Kim Henderson
Two years, Daisy is sitting in her new home with her new family, the Serlows and their three biological kids. Daisy looks vibrant, happy. She's holding a Holland Lop therapy bunny.
- [32:05]
Daisy Serlow
I don't know if he needs more therapy than I. So many straws.
- [32:10]
Kim Henderson
She loves her church and inviting people to church.
- [32:14]
Jordan Ballor
What branches of kindness he is.
- [32:18]
Kim Henderson
She loves singing with her new siblings.
- [32:20]
Joel Salatin
His blood was the payments, his life was the cost.
- [32:25]
Kim Henderson
While her dad plays the guitar. But it's been five years now since she saw her Ukrainian sisters and brother. They do get to FaceTime every time.
- [32:35]
Daisy Serlow
They call, let me see the fridge. And they see everything the same.
- [32:41]
Nick Eicher
Wow.
- [32:43]
Kim Henderson
But it's. It's not just the refrigerator full of food. It's the family they long to join.
- [32:48]
Daisy Serlow
They wait so long and they have a fate. And they never like, upset at me that they're not home. I'm home. They speak. I'm glad you're home and I'm glad you're safe.
- [32:58]
Kim Henderson
Anna Serlow admits it's been a tough journey. The long wait for the other six children. Daisy's difficult rescue. Sometimes it's hard to talk about it, but they do.
- [33:10]
Cardinal Timothy Dolan
There's power when we share our story. When people unite against things that are wrong and stop pretending like they don't exist, we see God move.
- [33:17]
Jordan Ballor
His mercy is move.
- [33:19]
Kim Henderson
Reporting for World, I'm Kim Henderson in Gosher, Mississippi.
- [33:24]
Travis Kercher
Stronger than darkness New every morn our sins, they are many.
- [33:32]
Mary Reichard
His mercy is mournful.
- [33:46]
Nick Eicher
Today is Tuesday, April 22nd. Good morning. This is the world and everything in it from listener supported world radio. I'm Nick Icker.
- [33:54]
Mary Reichard
And I'm Mary Reichard. This past Saturday, April 19, marked 250 years since the first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord. That clash launched what would become America's war for independence. World Opinions contributor and historian John Wilsey says there are many reasons to remember it.
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Jordan Ballor
One week after the momentous events in 1775, the President of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, Joseph Warren, wrote these words to his fellow colonists. We profess to be the king's loyal and dutiful subjects and are still ready without lives and fortunes to defend his person, family, crown and dignity. Nevertheless, to the persecution and tyranny of his cruel ministry. We will not tamely submit. Appealing to heaven for the justice of our cause, we determine to die or be free. Less than two months later, Warren was killed by the British at the Battle of Bunker Hill. His body was dumped into a common grave by his enemies. Later, Paul Revere recognized the body from a set of false teeth he had made for Warren. 68 years later, a young undergraduate named Mellon Chamberlain interviewed a 91 year old veteran named Levi Preston, who saw action at Concord on April 19, 1775. Chamberlain wanted to know why Preston fought the British. He said it was not due to the Stamp act, it wasn't over the tea tax. It wasn't even John Locke's political philosophy. Preston had only read the Bible and the catechisms. Young man, preston exclaimed to the baffled questioner, what we meant in going for those redcoats was we always had governed ourselves and we always meant to. Stories like these from 1775 have captured the imaginations of generations. Remembrance of of the people, the ideas, the occurrences of the American Revolution give us wisdom and inspire gratitude in the present. Also, stories like Warren's and Preston's powerfully engage our emotions and appeal to our sense of nobility. While these good effects are caused by remembrance and reflection, ultimately they're not the primary reasons why we remember. We remember the past because it's in our nature to do so. As image bearers of our Creator. Unlike any other creature under heaven, human persons know our place in time as well as in space. We comprehend the passage of time as the thin line of the present continues to advance into the future. We carefully chronicle the past, learn from those who have gone before, and conserve the best of tradition as a stewardship to pass down to children and grandchildren. We look to the future with expectation for the fulfillment of hopes and aspirations for ourselves and those we love. As Christians, we look to the day when Christ will return to usher in the eternal age. As divine image bearers, we possess great dignity, but as sinners we have the tendency to forget the past and thus become fools. Proverbs 26:11 says, Like a dog that returns to its vomit, so is a fool who repeats his foolishness. When we give in to forgetfulness, we become neglectful of our traditions, our origins, what makes us who we are. Forgetfulness leads to thanklessness. Thanklessness leads to prayerlessness. Prayerlessness leads to atheism. Paul identified the reason for the degeneracy of unbelievers when he said this in Romans 1:21. For even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks. But they became futile in their reasonings and their senseless hearts were darkened. When we remember the 250th anniversary of the start of the American Revolution, it's not for the sake of vacant sentimentality, transitory amusement or pedantic immodesty. We remember because we were created to do so. And in remembering the events that brought our nation into being, we give acknowledgment and thanks to the Father of Lights, the giver of every good and perfect gift as our home and our heritage. America has been and remains a good gift that God has given to us. Praise God, from whom all blessings flow. I'm John Wilsey.
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Nick Eicher
Tomorrow, Washington, Wednesday and a world tour special report on how governments are responding to international calls for assistance and aid and how tariffs are reshaping daily life in towns along the U.S. canada border. That and more tomorrow. I'm Nick Eickert.
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Mary Reichard
And I'm Mary Reichard. Harrison Waters and Mary Munson wrote and reported our story on the Pope's legacy. 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 Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome, for I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith. For faith as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. Verses 16 and 17 of Romans 1. Go now in grace and peace.