Effective Compassion

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Season 4 Trailer Apr 12, 2023

Show notes

This season, we’re exploring how we care for orphans in this country and the ways God has called His people to provide help that is challenging, personal, and spiritual. Those are the hallmarks of help that really helps. Or, as we like to call it, Effective Compassion.

North Korea is one of the most secretive, closed-off countries in the world, but World Help has a network of trusted partners there with 20+ years of experience smuggling Bibles and other aid to believers. These partners use donations to print, ship, and secretly distribute Bibles as well as food to people who have been desperately praying for help. And since North Koreans share their Bibles with trusted family and friends, each copy impacts around five people. Click here to learn more and donate.

Effective Compassion: Hard evidence - S3.E10 Mar 22, 2022

Show notes

If we’re going to say prison ministry works, we need to know it works on a wide scale, not just for a lucky few. In other words … we need hard evidence. Leigh Jones talks to sociologist Byron Johnson about how decades of research shows that prison ministry really can facilitate true rehabilitation. And Anna Johansen Brown and Jenny Rough meet two men who are living proof of that life-changing transformation.

Support Effective Compassion today at wng.org/donate. Additional support comes from World Help, a Christian humanitarian organization working to deliver food and Bibles to starving, persecuted Christians in North Korea, one of the most dangerous nations for Christians. A gift of $20 sends a Bible and a week's worth of food to a North Korean brother or sister. More at worldhelp.net/podcast/.

Effective Compassion: Carried on to completion - S3.E9 Mar 15, 2022

Show notes

Evangelism and discipleship forms the foundation of prison ministry behind bars. But those spiritual supports are just as important for inmates transitioning back to the free world. Unfortunately, they’re much less common. Leigh Jones visits two ministries in Texas that help inmates along the process of sanctification—living out the life of faith they embraced behind bars.

Effective Compassion: Get out, and stay out - S3.E8 Mar 08, 2022

Show notes

Every year, more than 600,000 men and women convicted of serious crimes are released from U.S. federal and state prisons. Within three years of release, as many as two out of three of them are rearrested. And more than half go back to prison. That’s partly because they just don’t know how to live life on the outside. Sarah Schweinsberg visits Christian ministries in California, Massachusetts, and South Carolina helping former inmates find stable housing and jobs … and keep them.

Effective Compassion: Loving the ones left behind - S3.E7 Mar 01, 2022

Show notes

For every one inmate there are countless family members abandoned and left to hold together what’s left of their broken lives. Providing them the personal and spiritual essentials of Effective Compassion is fairly straightforward. And that goes a long way to encouraging—or challenging—families to stay the course when it would be easier to give up on their loved ones behind bars. Bonnie Pritchett meets Christians in Texas working to show that God, who created the family, cares about theirs and they are not serving time on the outside alone.

Effective Compassion: Teach a man to fish - S3.E6 Feb 22, 2022

Show notes

Education is a key component to preparing inmates for life after prison. If they can’t provide for themselves and their families, they’re much more likely to return to a life of crime. Christian colleges and seminaries are among the schools going behind bars to teach marketable skills and offer four-year degrees. Jenny Rough visits a prison in Mississippi and talks to teachers and students in West Virginia to learn about college on the inside.

Effective Compassion: Setting prisoners free - S3.E5 Feb 15, 2022

Show notes

Prisoners who meet Jesus behind bars experience true transformation. That’s the power of the gospel in prison. The basic building block of all prison ministry. It usually starts with Christians on the outside. But once prisoners grasp the meaning of grace, their testimony and changed lives make them even more effective at sharing the good news on the inside. Bonnie Pritchett visits several prisons in Texas to meet inmates who found Jesus and are now serving a life sentence as his prisoner.

Effective Compassion: Mending broken minds - S3.E4 Feb 08, 2022

Show notes

Many of the inmates in U.S. prisons have experienced trauma. Sexual abuse. Physical abuse. Substance abuse. Exposure to violence. Abandonment. Even those who meet Christ behind bars still bear the wounds of their past experiences. And chaplains are starting to realize that until those wounds are healed, inmates will continue to struggle with true transformation. Jenny Rough meets an incarcerated veteran who overcame his own past and now helps others to do the same. Support Effective Compassion today at wng.org/donate. Additional support comes from World Help, a Christian humanitarian organization working to deliver food and Bibles to starving, persecuted Christians in North Korea, one of the most dangerous nations for Christians. A gift of $20 sends a Bible and a week’s worth of food to a North Korean brother or sister. More at worldhelp.net/podcast.

Effective Compassion: The court of second chances - S3.E3 Feb 01, 2022

Show notes

Nearly half of all prisoners sitting in federal cells are behind bars because they committed drug-related offenses. And for many of them, breaking the law started with addiction. But not everyone convicted of doing or dealing drugs ends up in prison. Some get a second chance through a unique system known as drug court. It’s a secular solution to what is ultimately a spiritual problem. But even here, Christians are making a difference. Kim Henderson visited the 14th Circuit Drug Court in McComb, Mississippi, to find out how. Support Effective Compassion today at wng.org/donate. Additional support comes from World Help, a Christian humanitarian organization working to deliver food and Bibles to starving, persecuted Christians in North Korea, one of the most dangerous nations for Christians. A gift of $20 sends a Bible and a week’s worth of food to a North Korean brother or sister. More at worldhelp.net/podcast.

Effective Compassion: Pipelines to prison - S3.E2 Jan 25, 2022

Show notes

Almost everyone in prison has one thing in common: trauma and brokenness. They come from shattered and impoverished communities, dysfunctional families. They never imagined a future that didn’t include time behind bars. In many cases that’s because the people closest to them walked the same path. Reporter Sarah Schweinsberg travels to California and Massachusetts to meet Christians working to break that cycle, starting with its youngest victims.

Support Effective Compassion today at wng.org/donate. Additional support comes from World Help, a Christian humanitarian organization working to deliver food and Bibles to starving, persecuted Christians in North Korea, the most dangerous nation for Christians. A gift of $20 sends a Bible and a week's worth of food to a North Korean brother or sister. More at worldhelp.net/podcast.

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