0:05

Good morning. Pope Francis

0:07

has died, but conversations on his

0:09

legacy are very much alive. He

0:11

will be seen as a Pope

0:13

who has drawn attention to all

0:15

the same issues that Liberation of

0:17

Theology has drawn attention to. Also

0:20

today, a farmer who practices Earth

0:22

Day every day. In the idea

0:24

of dominion, it is not dominion

0:26

to exploit. It is dominion to

0:28

caretake, like an overseer, like a

0:31

shepherd. And Warren Ukraine created orphans

0:33

who became refugees. One

0:35

of them tells her story. Our train

0:37

stops every second. Like,

0:39

because they see where

0:41

they're gonna do it,

0:44

bombs. And the shot

0:46

heard round the world 250 years

0:48

ago. It's

0:56

Tuesday, April 22nd. This is the

0:58

world and everything in it from

1:00

listener -supported world radio. I'm Mary Reichard.

1:03

And I'm Nick Iker. Good morning. Up

1:07

next, Mark Mellinger with Today's News. President

1:11

Trump is stepping up his sharp

1:13

critique of Federal Reserve Chairman

1:15

Jerome Powell creating a fresh round

1:17

of jitters in the financial

1:19

world. Last week, Trump called Powell

1:21

terrible amid reports the White

1:23

House was thinking about trying to

1:25

fire the Fed chair. Monday,

1:27

Trump again laid the figurative lumber

1:29

to Powell for not lowering

1:31

interest rates, calling him a major

1:33

loser and Mr. Too Late

1:35

over social media. While critics fear

1:37

the president's tough talk on

1:39

Powell, combined with his new tariffs, are

1:41

hurting the economy, Trump says, there's a

1:43

little transition that's going to happen, but

1:46

ultimately we're going to be the strongest

1:48

that we've ever been as a nation.

1:50

Stocks tumbled after the president's

1:53

comments. The

1:55

Dow Jones industrial average

1:57

finished the day down

1:59

972 points losing two and a

2:01

half percent of its value.

2:03

The Nasdaq and S &P 500

2:05

indices were also each down more

2:07

than two percent and the

2:09

US dollar index sank to its

2:11

lowest level in three years. The

2:14

White House is defending Secretary

2:16

of Defense Pete Hegseth, who is

2:18

under fire after a New

2:20

York Times report that, for a

2:22

second time, he shared secret

2:24

U .S. military attack plans in

2:26

a group chat on the messaging

2:28

app Signal. The Times says its

2:30

reporting is based on four

2:32

people with knowledge of the chat.

2:34

Without refuting the content of the

2:36

report, Hegseth lashed out at

2:38

the news media. They take anonymous

2:40

sources from disgruntled for employees

2:42

and then they try to slash

2:44

and burn people and ruin their reputation.

2:46

It's not going to work with

2:49

me. The Times reports Hegseth's wife, brother,

2:51

and about a dozen other people

2:53

were on the thread. Last

2:55

month, it came to light that

2:57

Hegseth and other national security officials

2:59

accidentally shared U .S. attack plans in

3:01

Yemen with the editor -in -chief of

3:03

the Atlantic over signal. The

3:05

president says Hegseth is doing a

3:07

great job and called reporting on the

3:09

second signal chat, the same old stuff. Should

3:12

parents be able to pull

3:15

their kids out of elementary school

3:17

classes featuring LGBTQ -themed books? That

3:19

is the question before the

3:21

US Supreme Court today. It is

3:23

hearing arguments in a case

3:25

out of Montgomery County, Maryland, where

3:27

the public school system refused

3:29

to let parents withdraw their children

3:31

from a language arts class

3:34

whose reading curriculum includes a handful

3:36

of books with LGBTQ characters

3:38

and themes. One mother in the

3:40

school district, Billy Mojus, tells

3:42

Fox News the reading materials are

3:44

leaving students in a state

3:46

of confusion. And they're going home

3:48

asking their parents what they're

3:50

learning at school and at home

3:52

is not lining up. The

3:55

plaintiffs in this case, including Mojus,

3:57

say the school system is

3:59

violating their First Amendment freedom of

4:01

religion. Mojus says she's pulled

4:03

her own kids out of public

4:05

school. A judge has

4:07

cleared the way for abortions to

4:09

resume in Wyoming. World's Travis

4:11

Kircher has more. Wyoming's

4:14

only abortion business is once

4:16

again legally permitted to end the

4:18

lives of unborn babies. That's

4:20

after a state judge is ruling yesterday. In

4:23

his decision, District Judge Thomas

4:25

Campbell suspended two state pro

4:27

-life laws prohibiting wellspring health

4:29

access from performing abortions. The

4:31

Casper -based abortion business stopped providing

4:33

abortions in late February in

4:35

response to the new legislation.

4:37

One law required surgical abortion businesses

4:40

to be licensed as outpatient

4:42

surgical centers. The other required mothers

4:44

to receive an ultrasound before

4:46

getting a chemical abortion. In

4:48

his ruling yesterday, Judge Campbell said

4:50

the pro -life laws affect a

4:52

fundamental right to abortion provided by

4:54

the state constitution. The

4:56

Wyoming Supreme Court is weighing whether that's

4:58

accurate. but its decision is

5:00

probably several weeks away. Monday's

5:03

ruling blocks the laws from taking

5:05

effect until that decision comes down. In

5:07

a social media post Monday afternoon,

5:09

the center says it is once again

5:11

taking appointments for mothers to kill

5:14

their unborn babies. For

5:16

World, I'm Travis Kircher. Ukrainian

5:18

President Volodymyr Zelensky says his

5:20

country is sending a delegation

5:22

to London tomorrow to meet

5:24

with Western allies. The topic

5:26

of discussion, how to achieve

5:28

an unconditional ceasefire with Russia.

5:33

That is Zelensky saying Ukraine pledges

5:35

not to strike civilian infrastructure

5:38

in Russia, and Russia must respond

5:40

in kind. He goes on

5:42

to suggest both sides end all

5:44

missile and long -range drone strikes.

5:46

In Washington, reporters asked President

5:48

Trump about the likelihood of a

5:51

ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. But

5:56

his comments come on the

5:58

heels of more Russian airstrikes. According

6:01

to a report by the

6:03

Kyiv Independent, three Ukrainians died and

6:05

seven more were hurt in

6:07

attacks Moscow launched on Sunday and

6:09

into Monday. As Catholics

6:11

mourn the death of Pope Francis,

6:13

we're learning he'll be buried in

6:15

Rome's papal Basilica of St. Mary

6:18

Major, the Archbishop of New

6:20

York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan explains why.

6:22

He would always go there before

6:24

he left on a journey and

6:26

when he returned to thank Jesus

6:28

through Mary at that basilica, so

6:30

that he wants to be buried

6:32

there kind of in the middle

6:34

of a Roman neighborhood, kind

6:36

of an acrossroads of Roman

6:38

life. Cardinal Dolan talking to Fox

6:40

News channels the story with

6:42

Martha McCallum. Pope Francis died Monday

6:44

at 88 from a stroke

6:46

and heart failure. Cardinal's younger than

6:48

80 will convene at a

6:50

secret meeting in the Sistine Chapel

6:52

to choose his successor that

6:54

gathering typically happens 15 to 20

6:56

days after a Pope's death. I'm

7:02

Mark Mellinger. Straight ahead,

7:04

considering the legacy of Pope

7:06

Francis, plus a story about

7:08

protecting Ukrainian orphans from

7:10

human trafficking. This is the

7:12

world and everything in it. It's

7:33

Tuesday, the 22nd of April. Thank

7:35

you for listening to World Radio.

7:37

Good morning. I'm Nick Iker. And

7:39

I'm Mary Reichard. First

7:41

up on the world and everything in

7:43

it, Remembering Pope Francis. Jorge

7:46

Mario Bergoglio was the first pope

7:48

to take the name of the

7:50

founder of the Franciscan Order, characterizing

7:52

his commitment to the poor and

7:54

the stewardship of nature. Bergoglio

7:56

was born in Buenos Aires,

7:58

Argentina, making him the first Pontiff

8:01

from the Americas. Francis will

8:03

be remembered for his focus on

8:05

the poor, but his lasting

8:07

legacy may be the unintended consequences

8:09

of the way he responded

8:11

to poverty, immigration, and human sexuality,

8:14

unlocking the door to doctrines

8:16

and practices that the Church has

8:18

long preached against. World

8:20

Radio executive producer Paul Butler

8:22

has the story. On

8:28

March 13, 2013, on

8:30

the fifth ballot, the College

8:32

of Cardinals elected the Catholic

8:34

Church's 266th Pope, introduced

8:36

in St. Peter's Square as

8:38

Pope Francis. He

8:48

says it was the conclave's duty to

8:50

give Rome a bishop. Then

8:52

he jokes, it seems that they've gone to the

8:54

ends of the earth to get one. Jorge

8:59

Bergoglio entered the Catholic order

9:01

of the Jesuits as a

9:03

priest in 1969. As

9:06

the child of Italian immigrants

9:08

to Argentina, Bergoglio was no stranger

9:10

to poverty or political violence. Bergoglio

9:13

served Argentinian Catholics during tumultuous

9:15

years when the government sought

9:17

to stamp out communism. Around

9:20

this time, Catholics in the

9:22

global south began to more fully

9:24

embrace liberation theology, a

9:26

framework for teachings on poverty

9:28

and suffering that incorporates economic and

9:31

political ideas from Marxism. So

9:33

Francis is faced with a kind

9:35

of a broader discussion about

9:37

the relationship between rich and poor.

9:39

Jordan Baller is director of

9:41

research at the Center for Religion,

9:43

Culture and Democracy. This movement

9:45

that is presenting somewhat of a

9:47

coherent answer to the challenges

9:49

of wealth and poverty. Pope John

9:51

Paul II and Cardinal Joseph

9:54

Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict

9:56

XVI, both took strong

9:58

positions against liberation theology

10:00

and censored its proponents.

10:03

Bergoglio kept his distance, sympathizing with

10:05

the movement, but never formally

10:07

adhering to it. That kind of,

10:09

you might say, ambivalence towards

10:11

liberation theology I think has continued

10:13

into his papacy. After

10:15

his election as Pope, Cardinal Bergoglio

10:17

took the name Francis, the

10:19

first pontiff to be named after Francis

10:21

of Assisi. He sought to

10:23

emulate Assisi's focus on caring for the

10:25

poor and caring for God's creation. As

10:30

Pope, Francis navigated a

10:32

complicated range of issues, from

10:35

efforts to legalize and normalize

10:37

homosexual unions to calls for

10:39

global action to confront changes

10:41

in climate. Mr. Speaker, the

10:45

Pope of the Holy See! In

10:48

2015, he addressed the U

10:50

.S. Congress, calling for a

10:52

stronger commitment to environmental protections.

10:54

I convinced that we can

10:57

make a difference. I'm

10:59

sure. Many saw Francis

11:01

as a progressive force within the

11:03

church, and his statements frequently raised

11:05

concerns for people both in and

11:07

out of the church. When

11:10

asked about homosexuality in 2013, Francis

11:13

said, if someone is gay and

11:15

he searches for the Lord and

11:17

has good will, who am

11:19

I to judge? Some took

11:21

that to be a softening of

11:23

the church's stance towards homosexuality, though

11:25

others affirm that Francis did not

11:28

change church doctrine regarding the nature

11:30

of biblical marriage. And

11:32

then just last year, the Pope

11:34

angered many LGBTQ advocates when he

11:36

warned of the dangers of gender

11:38

theory. saying it was a

11:40

threat to society as it sought

11:42

to erase the differences between the sexes.

11:45

Many times during his papacy, Francis

11:47

came under fire for his

11:49

handling of the ongoing sex abuse

11:51

scandals in the church. He

11:54

seemed to blame victims of

11:56

slander during a 2018 visit

11:58

to Chile, though he

12:00

later walked that back, admitting to

12:02

what he called grave errors in

12:04

judgment. He apologized to

12:07

victims while demanding bishop

12:09

resignations. Pope Francis

12:11

also strayed into geopolitical debates.

12:14

In 2016, he visited the U .S.-Mexico

12:16

border and publicly prayed for those who

12:18

had died trying to cross into

12:20

the United States. During

12:22

the visit, he criticized then -presidential

12:24

candidate Donald Trump over his promise

12:26

to strengthen the border. CNN's

12:28

Rosa Flores called Francis the

12:30

Pope of Mercy. It's

12:33

a label that stuck. Here's

12:35

Jordan Baller once again. He will be

12:37

seen, I think, as a pope

12:39

of the heart, focusing on the piety

12:41

and the charitable orientation of the

12:43

Christian heart. Baller says this

12:45

legacy does not conflict with his

12:47

predecessors, but can be read

12:49

in conjunction with them. You've

12:51

got a pretty robust expression of

12:53

a social thought that is

12:55

oriented towards the intellect, the

12:58

will, and the heart in a

13:00

way that they complement one another

13:02

and can correct one another. What

13:04

remains to be seen is whether

13:07

the next pontiff reaffirms the doctrinal

13:09

defenses of prior popes, or continues

13:11

France's ambiguity toward the left. In

13:13

many ways, his legacy will be

13:15

defined by what his successors do,

13:18

just as the legacies of

13:20

Jean -Paul II and Benedict XVI

13:22

have in many ways been

13:24

refined or defined or transformed

13:26

by Francis himself. Last

13:28

month, Pope Francis marked the 12th

13:30

anniversary of his election while hospitalized. I

13:32

know you've not been feeling great, but

13:35

it's good to see you in better health.

13:37

This past Sunday, U .S. Vice President J .D.

13:39

Vance met with the pontiff and thanked God

13:41

for the Pope's improved health. Francis

13:46

blessed Easter pilgrims from St. Peter's

13:49

Basilica, then surprised the crowd with

13:51

a trip around the square in

13:53

his car. It turned out

13:55

to be his final goodbye. On

13:57

Monday morning, Cardinal Kevin Ferrell

13:59

announced the death of Pope Francis.

14:03

He says at 7 .35 this

14:06

morning, the Bishop of Rome, Francis,

14:08

returned to his father's house. His

14:11

entire life was dedicated to the service

14:13

of the Lord and his church. The

14:16

Vatican then officially sealed the papal

14:18

apartment of the Apostolic Palace and

14:20

proclaimed the traditional season of mourning.

14:23

A conclave of cardinals is expected to

14:25

convene in the next two or three

14:27

weeks where they will choose a new

14:30

head of the Catholic Church. Reporting

14:32

for World, I'm Paul Butler. Next

14:38

up on The World and Everything in

14:40

it on this Earth Day we consider

14:42

the Dominion Mandate. It's found in the

14:44

first chapter of the first book of

14:46

the Bible, the Book of Genesis. Actor

14:49

Max McClain reads for

14:51

Crossway's ESV translation. and

15:18

female, He created them.

15:22

And God blessed them, and God said to

15:24

them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the

15:26

earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over

15:28

the fish of the sea, and over the

15:30

birds of the heavens, and over every living

15:32

thing that moves on the earth. Subdue

15:34

it, and have dominion. The

15:37

Hebrew words speak of bringing

15:39

creation under cultivation that's subduing,

15:41

as well as ruling over

15:43

and governing that's having dominion.

15:45

And yet, this is no

15:48

license to exploit. Think

15:50

of it as royal stewardship

15:52

under Christ. The idea is

15:54

man is made in God's image, and

15:56

we are called to act as

15:58

his vice -regions, justly, generously, in a

16:00

way that is life -giving. Augustine

16:03

saw dominion as order. Calvin

16:05

stressed responsible stewardship. And

16:08

Kuiper declared, there's not a square

16:10

inch over which Christ does not

16:12

cry, mine. Dominion, then,

16:14

is a creational blessing

16:16

and responsibility. So, with

16:18

that theological framing, let's

16:21

now consider how one farmer lives

16:23

out the Dominion mandate in practice. A

16:25

while back, my colleague Jenny

16:27

Ruff and I spent some time

16:30

at Joel Salaton's family -run operation

16:32

called Polyface Farms. It's

16:34

located in Virginia's beautiful Shenandoah

16:36

Valley, and it's known worldwide

16:38

for regenerative farming. animals, plants,

16:40

soils, all integrated in such

16:42

a way as to restore

16:44

the earth. Salatin folds his

16:46

arms on his kitchen table like a

16:49

philosopher in muck boots. What do we do

16:51

here? So we

16:53

grow salad

16:56

bar beef, piggerator

16:58

pork, pastured

17:01

poultry, and that's eggs,

17:03

broilers, and turkeys, pastured

17:06

rabbits, lamb,

17:10

and ducks. And

17:12

so we produce all this

17:14

without chemicals, without

17:17

vaccines, without

17:19

medications, and no

17:21

antibiotics, and no

17:23

mRNA either. Salatin

17:25

looks to God's design of the

17:27

planet for instructions on how to run

17:29

his farm. So there are principles

17:31

involved. When we look at herbivores in

17:33

nature, moving, mobbing,

17:36

mowing, when you honor

17:38

all three of those. You

17:41

build soil, you increase

17:43

pollinators, you increase vegetative diversity,

17:45

you increase abundance. Everything

17:48

increases. If

17:50

you violate one of those, you

17:52

turn the herbivore, which built

17:55

all the healthy soils on the

17:57

planet, you turn it into

17:59

a liability rather than an asset.

18:02

And in most livestock, commercial

18:04

livestock situations in the

18:06

world now, they're violating

18:08

all three of those. All

18:11

three of those, moving, mobbing,

18:13

mowing. Herbivores roam around,

18:15

that's moving. They bunch up

18:17

together, that's mobbing. They eat the

18:19

plants, that's mowing. Salatin

18:21

studied natural herds of the world,

18:23

the wildebeests of the Serengeti, the

18:26

bison of North America, and he

18:28

observed that's how they live. A

18:31

feedlot violates

18:33

all three. They're

18:36

not moving, they're not mowing. Well,

18:39

I guess they are mobbed up,

18:41

but they're not moving, they're not

18:43

mowing. In the average grazing situation,

18:45

they're not moving, they're

18:47

not mobbed up, they are mowing,

18:50

but they're not moving and they're not mobbed up. So

18:52

all you have to

18:54

do is violate one and

18:57

you turn it from

18:59

an asset into a liability.

19:01

And so we're looking

19:03

at this, how do we

19:05

mimic moving, mobbing, mowing,

19:07

And so we use electric

19:09

fence as essentially a

19:11

steering wheel, a brake and

19:13

an accelerator to move

19:16

that mower around the landscape

19:18

to do positively what

19:20

herbivores have done since the

19:22

beginning of time. I

19:24

remained a tad skeptical as

19:26

I'd read some opposing views beforehand.

19:29

No way can this be done on a

19:31

large scale to feed the people of the

19:33

world. So I asked him. It's completely scalable. You

19:36

can do it with one cow. You can do it

19:38

with 5 ,000 cows. It has nothing to do with

19:40

acreage. It's about management. It's how

19:42

you manage. So if you have one cow, you

19:45

might give him 50 square yards a

19:47

day. If you have

19:49

5 ,000 cows, you might give them 100

19:51

acres a day. The equity

19:53

in this is not in

19:55

infrastructure. The equity

19:57

is in management. If

20:04

I was God looking down on this,

20:07

how would I feel about a dead zone

20:09

the size of Rhode Island and the Gulf

20:11

of Mexico? How

20:13

would I feel about

20:15

eagle eggs that are

20:17

DDT'd and can't hatch?

20:21

How would I feel

20:23

about three -legged salamanders

20:25

due to pesticide

20:27

contamination or frogs that

20:29

can't breed because

20:31

they're infertile? due to

20:34

chemical content. I

20:36

think, as I meditate on

20:38

that question, I think I'd be

20:40

upset with the folks that

20:42

I entrusted my thing to and

20:44

said it was beautiful and

20:46

good in Genesis. I

20:49

don't want back a bunch of

20:51

deserts, a bunch of tainted

20:53

soil, a bunch of erosion, a

20:55

bunch of gullies, a bunch of

20:57

sea -diff, MRSA, whatever.

21:01

Yeah, he called I tainted. Right. I

21:03

don't want that back. And so

21:06

does God care? Salatin says yes, he does.

21:08

And so he runs this place in

21:10

such a way as the creatures and land

21:12

are honored in the way God made

21:14

them. How does that play out? Salatin

21:16

says the marvelous Pigness of Pigs proves

21:18

it. He even wrote a book of

21:20

that title and he walks us over

21:23

to where his swine live in play.

21:25

Watch him lean into me. Watch

21:27

he's wiggling his rear. They

21:29

love that. Oh,

21:32

I love that. I'm getting

21:34

a little scratchy. That's good stuff

21:36

in there. Yeah. So what

21:38

is this marvelous pigness, the glory

21:40

of which he speaks? You

21:42

don't go down the street and hear

21:44

people using the word glory very often.

21:46

Usually that's something used in church, right?

21:49

Glory. But the Bible doesn't

21:51

make those kind of distinctions. It

21:53

talks about certainly the glory of

21:55

God, but it talks about the glory

21:57

of old men is their gray hair. the

22:00

glory of nations is their kings,

22:03

the glory of the heavens, the

22:05

glory of the earth. I

22:07

mean, it doesn't just spiritualize

22:09

and kind of, you know,

22:12

academic the term

22:14

glory. The glory of

22:16

something is its distinctiveness. It's

22:18

what's special about it that

22:20

nothing else has. So

22:23

the glory of God is

22:25

he's omniscient, he's omnipresent, he's holy,

22:28

you know, That's God's glory.

22:30

All right. Well, what is the

22:32

glory of a pig? Well,

22:34

the glory of a pig is not

22:36

to be linked up in a

22:38

confinement house on a slat and floor

22:40

with a cut -off tail living in

22:42

stress all of its days and

22:45

treated like some sort of a mechanical

22:47

blob. The glory of

22:49

a pig is its ability to respond,

22:51

to be curious, to sniff in the ground

22:53

and to dig up roots, and that's

22:55

the glory of the pig. Salatin

22:58

elaborated on the glory of

23:00

an integrated farm system. They

23:02

are so cute. To use

23:04

another Salatin original, letting the

23:06

piggerators turn waste into life

23:08

-giving soil. We add corn

23:10

to it and the corn

23:12

ferments because the cows are

23:15

tromping out the oxygen and

23:17

it's fermenting. And so when

23:19

the cows come out in the spring,

23:21

then we put in the pigs The

23:23

pigs then seek the fermented corn, and

23:26

in doing so, they aerate it.

23:28

So pig aerators, they aerate it, and

23:30

this whole thing turns into a

23:32

big compost pile. Which is all part

23:34

of the overall design. And

23:36

of course, you know, it fully honors and

23:38

respects the pig. So now, instead

23:40

of the pig being pork chops and

23:42

bacon, the pig is also

23:44

a co -laborer in this great land

23:47

-healing ministry. This integrative

23:49

farming method has drawn interest from people

23:51

all over the world. Life

23:56

from life. That's

23:59

Salatin's philosophy. A bulwark against

24:01

the chemical ag model that

24:03

he says ignores stewardship. Salatin

24:05

is reclaiming dominion as he

24:07

says God intended, not in lording

24:09

it over the earth and

24:12

its creatures. Water, soil, air,

24:14

it's the stuff that

24:16

preceded me. and

24:18

will be here after I'm

24:20

gone. And so

24:22

as a result of my footsteps

24:24

here, I've been entrusted with whatever

24:26

it is, a square yard, an

24:29

acre, 500 acres, as a

24:31

result of my being here is my

24:33

legacy. Am I leaving God to return

24:35

on investment? What's

24:37

his ROI? Here's

24:39

the goal. I got this plate sitting in

24:41

front of me. And I'm

24:43

looking at this food. If

24:45

I squint my eyes and imagine

24:47

and look through the food

24:50

to the landscape on the other

24:52

side that grew it, that

24:54

processed it, that distributed it, that

24:56

brought it to me, and

24:58

look at that landscape, is that

25:00

a landscape that lines up

25:02

with my beliefs? And

25:04

is it a landscape that I

25:06

want children to inherit? That's

25:09

the question. Additional

25:29

support comes from Life

25:32

International, fighting the

25:34

scourge of abortion globally, teaching

25:36

about the Father's heart for

25:38

life, lifeinternational.com.

25:42

And from Eyewitness, an

25:44

immersive audio drama

25:46

exploring stories of faith

25:48

and transformation on

25:50

podcast apps or at

25:52

the letter eyewitnesspod.com. Today

26:11

is Tuesday, April 22nd. Thank you

26:13

for turning to World Radio to help

26:15

start your day. Good morning. I'm

26:17

Mary Reichard. And I'm Nick Iker. Next

26:19

up on The World and Everything,

26:21

in it an orphan's dilemma. Two

26:24

weeks ago, we introduced you to

26:26

a family hoping to adopt seven

26:28

siblings from Ukraine. Today,

26:30

the oldest of those siblings shares

26:32

her gripping story, a dramatic

26:34

escape from a war zone. World

26:36

Senior writer Kim Henderson has the

26:39

story. We

26:42

sleep in a third floor.

26:45

Have you heard the sirens? You

26:47

need really fast pickups and

26:49

go down from three floors. That's

26:51

Daisy Serlo. She was 17

26:53

when Russians invaded the Ukrainian city

26:56

where she lived in an

26:58

orphanage. People were dying right outside

27:00

her building. Daisy had

27:02

been separated from her six siblings a

27:04

few years before the war began. They

27:07

were living in a different orphanage.

27:09

They escaped to Poland. But

27:11

it took Daisy's orphanage director a

27:13

full month after the war started to

27:15

secure a bus. After

27:19

the bus

27:21

ride, the orphans

27:23

boarded a

27:25

train. For two days

27:27

and two nights, they inched their

27:29

way toward Italy. He

27:36

can see the light, and

27:38

the Russians can see the light.

27:40

You never turn the lights

27:42

on when it's war because they

27:44

see where they're going to

27:46

do it, bombs. They

27:48

made it to Italy. Three

27:50

teachers and hundreds of refugee

27:53

orphans, including Daisy. It

27:55

was beautiful, beautiful. big

27:59

mountains. But

28:01

Daisy still didn't feel safe.

28:04

I don't feel safe because

28:06

you never feel safe everywhere

28:08

because everywhere how bad people.

28:10

She speaks from experience. Her

28:12

parents were abusive alcoholics who left

28:14

Daisy and her sisters and brother for

28:16

months at a time. Townspeople

28:19

intervened. The kids went

28:21

to live in an orphanage.

28:23

Katerina, Mykola, Lisa.

28:27

Masha, Nyster, and Barbara. Daisy,

28:29

as the oldest, had

28:31

to fight for their survival. She

28:33

remembers crying out to God. It

28:35

feels like pray to him was hopeless.

28:38

Like, he doesn't hear me.

28:40

But it wasn't hopeless. Some

28:43

of the siblings came to America

28:45

through a hosting program in 2021. Daisy

28:48

was not part of that trip. A

28:50

Baptist pastor, Brian Serlo, and his wife,

28:52

Anna, decided to adopt the whole set

28:55

of siblings. They kept telling us, she

28:57

is so good, she has taken care

28:59

of us, and we love her, and

29:01

we need her home, and we will

29:03

come to America and live with you,

29:05

but we have to bring our sister.

29:07

Their adoption process was rolling until the

29:09

war shut it down, but they managed

29:11

to stay in contact with the kids.

29:14

The Serlo's went to visit Daisy in

29:16

Italy and the others at the refugee

29:18

orphanage in Poland. But something

29:20

seemed off with Daisy. She

29:23

and 12 other orphans were

29:25

living in a regular home with

29:27

a man who was paying

29:29

Daisy's special attention. When my birthday

29:31

was born, he got me

29:33

a really expensive restaurant and we

29:36

got in there and... And

29:38

he bought you an expensive dress?

29:40

Yeah, he... Yes. For

29:43

Serlo's suspected abuse. I was actually

29:45

hysterical when I left Italy to leave

29:47

your child in an abusive situation

29:49

and know that you have no way

29:52

to get them out of it.

29:54

There's nothing to describe. that

29:56

level of despair and desperation.

29:59

The solos got busy contacting their congressmen,

30:01

their senators, anybody who would listen.

30:03

I just knew that God and His

30:05

goodness had not brought us into

30:07

this situation to leave her in despair

30:09

and to leave us helpless. Somehow

30:11

there had to be a way to

30:14

rescue her out of that, so

30:16

we started fighting for her and fighting

30:18

to find a way to bring

30:20

her home. But behind the scenes, the

30:22

Italian man was trying to take

30:24

guardianship of Daisy. The Serlo's

30:26

hired a Christian attorney in

30:28

Ukraine. It took time,

30:30

but one morning he arrived in

30:32

Italy to lawfully remove Daisy

30:35

from the man's home. I just

30:37

screamed like... Praise the Lord!

30:39

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

30:41

And without a member, he

30:43

speaks. Puck your shit case. You go

30:45

with And it was so

30:47

nice, so smooth, and everything was

30:49

so happy. The Serlo's worked to bring

30:51

Daisy home as a refugee through

30:54

the United for Ukraine program. She

30:56

flew into the New Orleans

30:58

airport on a cold November night

31:00

in 2022. The

31:02

next step was keeping Daisy here permanently. She

31:05

was 18 now, too old for

31:07

adoption. Or maybe not. In

31:09

Mississippi, when a child is up

31:12

to 21 years old, it gives you more

31:14

leadway in the legal system than a lot

31:16

of the other states in our country. So

31:18

we didn't know we were living in

31:20

the perfect state to do something that was

31:22

very unconventional, but we were. The solo's

31:25

got legal custody, and Daisy has

31:27

a path towards citizenship in the future.

31:29

But it's been a tough adjustment. When

31:32

Daisy arrived, she was malnourished. Inflammation

31:34

racked her body. Her teeth

31:36

were rotten and broken. She

31:39

also needed counseling and time to

31:41

heal. She had regressed a lot

31:43

in her mental age where she

31:45

was very much like a small girl.

31:47

And we were just told it

31:49

was from the trauma. Two years

31:51

passed. Daisy is sitting

31:53

in her new home with her new family, the

31:56

solos and their three biological kids.

31:59

Daisy looks vibrant, happy.

32:01

She's holding a Holland Lop therapy

32:04

bunny. I don't know if he

32:06

needs more therapy than I do. She

32:09

loves her church and

32:11

inviting people to church.

32:16

She loves singing with

32:18

her new siblings. While

32:24

her dad plays the guitar.

32:27

But it's been five years now

32:29

since she saw her Ukrainian sisters

32:31

and brother. They do get

32:33

to FaceTime. Every time they call,

32:35

let me see the fridge. And

32:38

they see everything the

32:40

same. Wow! But

32:42

it's not just the refrigerator full of

32:45

food. It's the family they long to

32:47

join. They wait so long and they

32:49

have a fate and they never like

32:51

upset me that they're not home. I'm

32:53

home to speak. I'm glad you're home

32:55

and I'm glad you saved. Anna Serlo

32:57

admits it's been a tough journey. The

33:00

long wait for the other six children. Daisy's

33:03

difficult rescue. Sometimes

33:06

it's hard to talk about it. But

33:08

they do. There's power when we share

33:10

our story. When people unite against things

33:12

that are wrong and stop pretending like

33:14

they don't exist, we see God move.

33:19

Reporting for World, I'm

33:21

Cam Henderson in Goshay, Mississippi.

33:45

Today is Tuesday, April 22nd. Good

33:47

morning. This is The World and

33:49

Everything in It from listeners' supported

33:51

World Radio. I'm Nick Iker. And

33:54

I'm Mary Reichard. This past

33:56

Saturday, April 19th, marked 250

33:58

years since the first shots

34:00

were fired at Lexington and

34:02

Concord. That clash launched

34:04

what would become America's War

34:06

for Independence. World opinions contributor

34:08

and historian John Wills, he says,

34:10

there are many reasons to remember it.

34:14

One week after the

34:16

momentous events in 1775, the

34:19

president of the Massachusetts

34:21

Provincial Congress, Joseph Warren, wrote

34:23

these words to his

34:25

fellow colonists. We

34:27

profess to be the king's

34:29

loyal and dutiful subjects

34:31

and are still ready, without

34:34

lives and fortunes, to defend

34:36

his person, family, crown, and

34:38

dignity. Nevertheless, to

34:41

the persecution and tyranny of his

34:43

cruel ministry, we will

34:45

not tamely submit. Appealing

34:47

to heaven for the justice of our

34:49

cause, we determine to

34:52

die or be free. Less

34:54

than two months later, Warren was

34:56

killed by the British at the Battle of

34:58

Bunker Hill. His body was dumped

35:01

into a common grave by his enemies. Later,

35:04

Paul Revere recognized the body from a set

35:06

of false teeth he had made for

35:08

Warren. Sixty -eight years

35:11

later, A young undergraduate named

35:13

Mellon Chamberlain interviewed a

35:15

91 -year -old veteran named Levi

35:17

Preston, who saw action

35:19

at Concord on April 19,

35:21

1775. Chamberlain wanted to know

35:23

why Preston fought the British. He

35:25

said it was not due to the Stamp Act.

35:27

It wasn't over the t -tax. It

35:29

wasn't even John Locke's political

35:31

philosophy. Preston had only read

35:33

the Bible and the catechisms. Young

35:36

man, Preston exclaimed to the baffled

35:38

questioner, What we meant in going for

35:40

those red coats was this. We

35:42

always had governed ourselves and we

35:44

always meant to. Stories

35:47

like these from 1775

35:49

have captured the imaginations of

35:51

generations. Remembrance of

35:53

the people, the ideas, the

35:55

occurrences of the American Revolution

35:57

give us wisdom and inspire

35:59

gratitude in the present. Also

36:02

stories like warrants and prestons

36:04

powerfully engage our emotions and appeal

36:06

to our sense of nobility.

36:08

While these good effects are caused

36:10

by remembrance and reflection, ultimately,

36:14

they're not the primary reasons why we

36:16

remember. We remember the past

36:18

because it's in our nature to

36:20

do so, as image -bearers of

36:22

our Creator. Unlike any

36:24

other creature under heaven, human

36:26

persons know our place in

36:28

time as well as in space.

36:31

We comprehend the passage of time

36:33

as the thin line of the

36:35

present continues to advance into the

36:38

future. We carefully chronicle the past, learn

36:40

from those who've gone before, and

36:43

conserve the best of tradition as

36:45

a stewardship to pass down to

36:47

children and grandchildren. We

36:49

look to the future with expectation

36:51

for the fulfillment of hopes and

36:54

aspirations. For ourselves, those

36:56

we love. As Christians, we

36:58

look to the day when Christ will

37:00

return to usher in the eternal age.

37:03

As divine image bears, we possess

37:05

great dignity, but as sinners, we

37:08

have the tendency to forget

37:10

the past and thus become fools.

37:12

Proverbs 26 -11 says, When

37:18

we give in

37:20

to forgetfulness, we

37:22

become neglectful of

37:24

our traditions, our

37:26

origins, what makes us who we

37:29

are. Forgetfulness leads to

37:31

thanklessness. Thanklessness leads

37:33

to prayerlessness. Prayerlessness

37:36

leads to atheism. Paul

37:38

identified the reason for the degeneracy

37:40

of unbelievers when he said this

37:42

in Romans 1 .21. For

37:44

even though they knew God, they

37:46

did not honor him as God

37:48

or give thanks, but they became

37:50

futile in their reasonings and their

37:53

senseless hearts were darkened. When

37:55

we remember the 250th anniversary

37:57

of the start of the American

37:59

Revolution, it's not for

38:01

the sake of vacant sentimentality.

38:03

transitory amusement, or

38:05

pedantic immodesty. We

38:07

remember because we were created to do

38:09

so. And in remembering the

38:12

events that brought our nation into

38:14

being, we give acknowledgement and

38:16

thanks to the Father of Lights, the

38:18

giver of every good and perfect

38:21

gift. As our home and our

38:23

heritage, America has been

38:25

and remains a good gift

38:27

that God has given to

38:29

us. Praise God. from

38:31

Whom All Blessings Flow. I'm

38:34

John Willse. Tomorrow,

38:41

Washington Wednesday and a world

38:43

tour special report on how

38:45

governments are responding to international

38:47

calls for assistance and aid,

38:50

and how tariffs are reshaping

38:52

daily life in towns along

38:54

the U .S.-Canada border. That

38:56

and more tomorrow. I'm Nick Iker.

38:58

And I'm Mary Reichard. Harrison Waters

39:00

and Mary Muncie wrote and reported our

39:02

story on the Pope's legacy. The

39:05

world and everything in it comes to you

39:07

from World Radio. World's mission

39:09

is Biblically Objective Journalism that

39:11

informs, educates, and inspires. The

39:14

Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in

39:16

Rome, for I am not

39:18

ashamed of the Gospel, for it is

39:20

the power of God for salvation to

39:22

everyone who believes, to the Jew first

39:24

and also to the Greek. For in

39:26

it, the righteousness of God is revealed

39:28

from faith for faith. As it is

39:31

written, the righteous shall live by faith. Verses

39:33

16 and 17 of Romans 1. Go

39:36

now in grace and peace.