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Hometown Heroes – Mary Jo Major @ Lily House
Lily House helps women who are escaping human trafficking in the Dominican Republic.
Mary Jo Major tells us about this problem, the solutions that active people are bringing about, and a few of the stories of how important and life-changing this ministry is.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:11 — 8.5MB)
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Remembering the Heroes from Hometowns in the Family Life region
As we approach Memorial Day, this Family Life News Feature takes you to the Veterans Administration National Cemetery at Bath, New York.
You will hear the stories of the war dead who were laid to rest there, many dating back to America’s Civil War.
Our story-telling guide for this radio-tour is Dan Miller, a volunteer at the museum at the National Cemetery. Miller himself is a decorated war veteran who served as a Navy medic during the Vietnam War.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:56 — 8.1MB)
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“God has given us the opportunity to love and serve the brokenhearted.”
The “Eight Days of Hope” ministry is on the scene where tornadoes created multiple disaster zones in the past couple of weeks.
New-York-based Steve Tybor gives us an update on how the volunteers and equip get mobilized, to respond to the tangible needs while also bringing Christian hope.
Tybor tells Family Life’s Mark Webster about the midwestern response, their efforts to shelter young women caught up in human trafficking, and the upcoming annual trip to Buffalo for a week-plus of work in neighborhoods in need. This is the fifth year for the Buffalo projects — in the previous four, they have rehabbed homes of 1,200 families. Individuals, couples and families can participate in that work, even for fewer than eight days.
The national “Eight Days” effort has involved 60,000 volunteers.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:49 — 8.0MB)
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Bringing Jesus to Europe’s war zone: Family Life’s “Hometown Heroes”
A Pennsylvania-based Christian evangelist is back in Ukraine, sharing food and hope in and near that war zone.
Family Life’s Mark Webster reconnected with Jeff Seigworth on his way to a return trip with the A-1-8 mission organization.
He talks about the relative dangers for the Ukrainian citizens and global visitors like himself, the human needs in this third year of the Russian war, and the spiritual opportunities which are open amid the widespread misery.
This new conversation about front-line evangelization is available from the podcast player above.
You also can hear, download or share our previous interviews with Seigworth from September 19 and September 26. These podcasts also have links to the A18 mission work.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:59 — 4.1MB)
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A group called MAP — Mission to Amish People — seeks to provide encouragement and discipleship resources to anyone who leaves an Amish lifestyle and seeks to live out their faith differently than they were raised.
This is the first of our two-part conversation with Samuel Girod, a missionary with MAP. (Click his picture to see a video of his presentation at a “Step Out of the Boat” conference.
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For Part Two of Mark Webster’s conversation with Samuel Girod — and more information about MAP — go here for the April 2 “Hometown Heroes” Podcast
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:52 — 8.1MB)
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A Tonawanda Church invites the surrounding communities to experience first-hand what Jesus experienced on the original Good Friday.
Their interactive Good Friday experience takes place on Good Friday, March 29. Guests can drop in for as long or as little as they like, anytime between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. First Trinity Lutheran Church is at 1570 Niagara Falls Boulevard in the northern Buffalo suburb.
Carolyn Doster is one of the coordinators. She tells our “Hometown Heroes” interviewer Mark Webster about what families and individuals will discover as they “Journey Through Good Friday”. The Biblical story comes alive with an all-five-senses self-paced visit. It is family friendly, plus has advice for parents of very young children about two of the 16 scenes which may be too stark or need parental context. The First Trinity website offers a preview (plus information for people who are unable to attend in person).
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:59 — 8.2MB)
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Hannah Farley is the Community Outreach Manager for the University of Rochester Cancer Services Program of the Finger Lakes Region.
For more information on available services, visit their website.
Family Life’s “Hometown Heroes” interviews intriguing people from throughout Pennsylvania and New York who carry out inspirational, life-changing work. Tap the Hometown Heroes icon for more of these features.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:00 — 8.3MB)
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“Hometown Heroes” from Family Life
Hannah Farley does outreach to encourage people who are 45 and older to get checked for early signs of cancer.
In this Family Life News interview, she says some residents of rural areas have a bias which prevents them from wanting to get cancer screening. Farley finds though that it is productive to reinterpret the question as a “stewardship of your body” and to encourage you to ponder how the people around you rely on your presence — “you are a gift to your family”.
In this week’s edition of “Hometown Heroes”, you will hear about success stories through this program across its three decades. The CSP team can help individuals get screened, even if they don’t have current health insurance or feel there are other barriers.
Farley is the Community Outreach Manager for the Cancer Screening Program in the Finger Lakes region of New York.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:37 — 7.7MB)
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Syracuse-based missionary Dan Sorber just left for Cuba.
Before his departure, he talked with Family Life News about faith, Christian freedom, and today’s realities in a Communist nation.
Sorber sees the changes that have opened up across his 15 previous visits to Cuba. When government officials and the general population face desperation and economic disaster, those hardships actually open up more evangelistic opportunities. He tells us that real revival is underway there, in ways he has not seen in any other place.
Sorber and his team see one of their most urgent priorities for each of their mission visits is to support and encourage the local Cuban pastors.
Click the podcast player to discover more about what Christians in Cuba face every day, and about how Americans can pray for and support the Cuban people who do and who don’t consider themselves people of faith.
For more about Dan Sorber’s involvement in Christian evangelization in Cuba, go to the Mission Landing Cuba website or watch this video from his church, The Gathering Place in Syracuse.
Family Life’s “Hometown Heroes” interviews intriguing people from throughout Pennsylvania and New York who carry out inspirational, life-changing work. Tap the Hometown Heroes icon for more of these features.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:46 — 7.9MB)
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Family Life’s “Hometown Heroes” Feature
COPE is “Children of Opioid Parents and Empowerment”.
The program in Chautauqua County, New York, offers of full year of services to children and teens who lost a parent to an opioid overdose.
Bill Matteson is the executive director of the COPE Foundation 19. He knows this tragedy personally. One of his sons died at age 29 due to heroin laced with fentanyl, leaving three children without their father. Matteson offers his family’s story as an encouragement — and a caution — to other families.
In this conversation, he also tells us about how the COPE program became a positive step his pastor promised could come from the disaster, as well as the ways COPE reaches out to guide other children who have faced something similar. It is open as well to children who This effort also includes counseling sessions with a Christian agency.
“Hometown Heroes” is hosted by Family Life’s Mark Webster. He talks with individuals throughout Pennsylvania and New York who are transforming lives and answering real human needs in their local communities.
This feature airs during the Family Life Noon Report on Tuesdays, and is available on our News Podcasts website and through most podcast sources. You are invited to subscribe to this feature — and to share this interview with anyone who may find it helpful for their circumstance, or for a congregation looking to create a similar outreach.
