K-love News Podcast

A girl searches the internet: 'how do I know if I’m pregnant?' “Our mission is to have these girls be able to find life-affirming information through us -- and then we connect them with pregnancy centers in their neighborhood, " says Dawn-Marie Perez, executive director of StandUpGirl.com. Quick response is essential. “If you go google the word ‘abortion’ right now there are millions of websites that are gonna come up. Our goal is to have StandUpGirl show up on that first page of their google search.” K-LOVE's Marya Morgan reports. (Educational Media Foundation - All Rights Reserved)

The Catch-A-Dream Foundation provides all-expense paid trips for terminally-ill children who crave outdoor adventure. “Our job is to give them that opportunity to have what one child once called, a ‘vacation from being sick’-- he said, ‘when I’m huntin’ and fishin’ I don’t really feel bad.” Catch-A-Dream was specifically founded as a Christ-centered organization weaving the message of God’s love and salvation into everything they do. K-LOVE’s Phil O’Bryan speaks with founding board member Dr. Marty Brunson. [Educational Media Foundation – All Rights Reserved]

By Richard Hunt Police were knocking on doors in a Fayetteville, Arkansas, neighborhood. They were trying to locate a missing elderly man who has Alzheimer’s. It was especially urgent because a big storm was coming. When they knocked on the door of the McCulley residence, they got a clue that may have saved the man’s life.

Billie Branham talks to special education teacher Robin Hughes about her snowman, Lucky, and the joy he brings to students and the world.

By Richard Hunt “He’s been on dialysis since he’s been born.” Mother, Jeanne Backer, shares that Jaxon, age 3, has end-stage kidney disease. He’s been doing at-home dialysis every night for about 12 hours. “For a 3-year-old that’s a lot to stay in one spot for, but he’s finally big enough for a kidney transplant.” Of course, that requires a kidney donor. “So, we went through the whole process to see if anybody we knew was a match – and, thankfully, we found out that I was a perfect match for him!” Since Jaxons’ parents aren’t biological parents, “we didn’t think it (a match) was possible at all – it’s definitely a God thing.”

Monika Kelly speaks to Rev. Joshua Austin, a homeland missionary who works with West Point (United States Military Academy) cadets. Recently, two female cadets were so fired up about their faith in Christ (one after suffering a mental crisis and the other after losing ground even though she grew up in a religious household) that they decided to get baptized in the icy Hudson River. Jenny Ma and Brooke Parker's baptism impacted the entire West Point campus.

By Richard Hunt 1,700 people attended the star power sold-out event. “And then we ended the night with a really special version – just having everyone join us – and singing Great is Thy Faithfulness…remembering that together that this is the hope that we have through all of this, is God’s faithfulness.”

By Richard Hunt “I mean to be 13 or 14 years-old, and your prayer request is to make it to 19 or 21 without being shot, just really touched me!” Bob and those he serves alongside have found that a book by Christian artist Lecrae called “Unashamed” is helping point to truth. “A lot of them relate to him because Lecrae grew up without a dad and had a grandmother that prayed for him. And he went through a series of ups and downs – in and out of the system – before he got on the right track.”

In “The Last Supper on the Moon,” Pastor Levi Lusko uses the moon to help explain God’s plan for us here on earth. In 1969, Neil Armstrong was the first human to set foot on the moon, but Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin was the first human to take Communion on the moon. So, in a sense the first footprints on the moon were dedicated to Jesus, who the Bible explains created the moon and everything else in space. As NASA prepares to return to the moon after 50 years, there’s renewed interest in space travel, in visiting Mars, and even setting up habitation on the moon

More than 4-million teenagers are homeless every year, though not always by choice. “Whether it’s that they don’t feel safe in their own home, or whether they’ve been kicked out, this is not something young people generally want,” says Jeff Stern of the National Runaway Safeline. NRS helps kids looking to get off the streets. K-LOVE's Monika Kelly reports. (Educational Media Foundation - All Rights Reserved)

Father and Son Team, Nathan and Alex Johnson wanted to give non-wheelchair users a chance to attempt to do their normal tasks in a wheelchair. Listen to K-LOVE's Rafael Sierra's report.

By Richard Hunt It’s an all-volunteer mission to raise the spirits of people who lost their homes in Colorado’s recent Marshall Fire. Many are still living in hotels or other temporary locations. The late December fire was stoked by winds near 100 m.p.h. and claimed 1,084 homes in Boulder County. Why the project name “Operation Hotel Sanity?”

Adopting a child is beautiful -- but messy. “We’re not always looking at it from the adoptee’s side,” cautions Jenn Hook, co-founder Replanted Ministry. Vanessa Joy Walker was adopted as a baby. “Grief is woven into an adoptee’s journey,” she says, adding desperate questions about birthparents are sometimes suppressed by pressure to be grateful. “The grief and the gratitude can co-exist.” K-LOVE's Billie Branham reports. (Educational Media Foundation - All Rights Reserved)

By Richard Hunt “All kinds of trash; plastic bottles, plastic bags, cigarette butts,“ were floating in the water. But, according to 12-year-old conservationist Cash Daniels, “Fishing line is one of the worst pollutants – and especially in Tennessee because we have a lot of bass fishing tournaments here.” To offer sports fishers a better way, Cash arranged for fishing line recycling bins to be available, keeping the monofilament from becoming part of the river junk. Money from thousands of pounds of recycled aluminum cans helped pay for the bins and other projects.

By Richard Hunt The ability of technology to help emergency responders was proven recently in eastern Tennessee. A teenage girl, who was walking her dogs in a mountain area, went missing. Volunteers with Bean Station Fire and Rescue were called in to assist in the search. “We were probably on the scene within 10 minutes of being dispatched and within another 10 minutes we had the girl located.” That’s because of the drone being piloted by Brandon Ramsey.

By Richard Hunt 60% of the Lighthouse Snow Fort workforce was under the age of 10. Nolan Wiersma explains he and wife, Katie, like to ”wrap their faith” into family projects as an example to their children and even the community. “We also like the picture of a lighthouse and how that relates to our faith in Jesus ... the true light in life.” As part of the project, they also shared awareness of a cause they support: Living Water Wells.

You see trouble, you hear it – now believe it. “Trust your intuition…you know when a situation is different,” says Hector Alvarez, an expert in workplace security with more than 25 years of experience in threat assessment. “One of your best bets for surviving these incidents is thinking about it before it happens.” Preparation is key says Mindi Russell, exec. dir. of the Law Enforcement Chaplaincy of Sacramento. “Instead of, ‘it will never happen here,’ have the mindset that if something happens, this is what we’ll do.” K-LOVE's Bob Dittman reports. (Educational Media Foundation - All Rights Reserved)

By Richard Hunt “People can freeze to death, and they do every year, more so before we started this program. What we do is try to keep people alive and warm and provide them heaters and make sure they have fuel to keep those heaters running.” - Joe Stevens, the CEO and co-founder of Joppa

By Richard Hunt What’s in John Konkel’s heart as he works long odd hours and maintains numerous relationships with students? “My parents were divorced when I was 12. My dad was an alcoholic…and I lacked that father figure growing up – and I tell this to the fraternity brothers and I tell this to a lot of guys that are in our ministry as well, I want to be there for them in ways that maybe my dad wasn’t able to be. And I think that drives a lot of what I do – is to be sort of a father figure and just to display God’s Father heart for these young men.” John prays those he ministers to can grow up to become great fathers and husbands – those kind of life changes that often happen not too long after graduating from college.

Monika Kelly hears the story of a pair of twins born prematurely at 22 weeks, Meredith Ard shares her harrowing story of being pregnant with twins and being advised to terminate or she might lose her life. She chose to have faith in God instead and stayed pregnant. She tells her story.