Federal Judge Bob Kendrick

Doug Poling: Bob Kendrick will tell you that his has been a good life. Robert E. Kendrick is a retired federal judge, former prosecutor, and law school professor. He holds two law degrees and a master's degree from Vanderbilt University and Yale University, two of the most prestigious institutions of higher learning in the United States. But Kendrick's roots are humble.

Mr. Kendrick: I was a farm boy during the great American depression back in the 1930's. My father did not own the farm, but he rented it from others, worked for shares, and he got two-thirds of the crops produced and the owner got one-third. I had three brothers; we all worked on the farm. It was hard work, and we worked from daylight until dark, and we did not get any monetary pay for what we did, but it was a family enterprise and we enjoyed living there together.

Doug Poling: So how do you get to the farm all the way to law school?

Mr. Kendrick: World War II came along, and in 1943, at the age of 18, I went into service and was in the Army Aircorps until I was discharged in 1945, and at that time it became possible for discharged American veterans to go to college under what we call the GI bill of rights.

Doug Poling: One of Kendrick's first jobs as a lawyer was in the anti-trust division of the U.S. Justice Department. That agency enforces laws that goes back to the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890. Bob Kendrick told me how this important piece of legislation came to be approved.

Mr. Kendrick: Well, it was because our Congress saw, and the people saw and put some pressure on the Congress perhaps, that certain corporations or conglomerates, or combinations of corporations, were becoming too powerful and were able to fix prices and the average individual had no choice but to pay those prices. Competition was really not allowed to operate, as it should have. In oil, and in iron and steel, and in railroads and transportation - those giants were able to control and our whole society suffered from it. A few people got rich but a lot of people were not able to enjoy the benefits of competition.

Doug Poling: Kendrick did his part, working on merger cases that involved banks and airlines. Later, as a federal judge, he helped interpret laws in the field of labor, and health and human services. He told me that his Christian faith helped him do his work. I asked him if he prayed before making difficult rulings.

Mr. Kendrick: Yes, in fact, I not only did that, I did it with every decision that I made, but with each day that I lived, that I practiced my profession, every day I would pray for guidance, and I really feel that God has provided, has protected; he has been good to me every day of my life.

Doug Poling: Kendrick has been a committed Christian since the age of twelve. Part of that commitment involves serving as an elder, or shepherd, at the Woodmont Hills Church of Christ in Nashville, Tennessee. I asked him what his faith does for him.

Mr. Kendrick: Well, I have an abiding sense of God's mercy, grace, and justice, and realizing it right from the beginning that I'm imperfect, and that I may make a mistake in judgment sometime, but I don't feel that God will hold that against me in my everlasting being, judgment or eternal life. God is forgiving, and I'm a beneficiary of his grace, and I feel like my future is everlastingly secure in that relationship.

Doug Poling: Retired judge, Robert Kendrick, a respected jurist, and a committed follower of Jesus Christ.

Would you like to return to the IWitness transcript page, or would you like to return to list of all transcripts?

 

Robert O'Connor's Irish Kids

Mike: Robert O'Connor has lived one of those successful immigrant stories that Americans love so much even though Robert originally had no interest in becoming a U.S. citizen.

Mr. O'Connor: I was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1939, and was brought up there. I immigrated 25 years ago right after I came out of college with the intention of seeing a little bit more of the world. Ireland, of course, is an island and somewhat isolated from the world, so it's very common for people to immigrate for a time and then come back. That was my intention. The first stop was New York City, and in a rather short time, I met up with Diane, my wife, and that was the end of my travels. I stayed put in New York and we got married after a year or so courting, and that was that. So I settled down in the United States and have been here for 25 years. I'm presently with a company called GoJo Industries, which is the world's largest manufacturer of skincare products, located in Akron, Ohio.

Mike: Although Robert was proud of his adopted country, he was constantly distressed by the sectarian violence that continued to torment the land of his birth. He eventually decided that he had to do whatever he could to help.

Mr. O'Connor: What I did was to incorporate the Irish Children's Fund and started up an organization, a grassroots organization, with the intention of bringing young Protestant and Catholic children from the really tough areas of Belfast and Londonderry, the two major cities in Northern Ireland where the conflict is at its worst. Bring them over to the United States, place them with families, and give them a good experience. These kids really miss a normal childhood. They don't have a normal childhood, and here is a chance to give them a slice of what a normal childhood is, where they can get up in the morning, and ride their bikes around the neighborhood and be free, and not have the kind of pressures that they have over there. Nothing more than that, really - to give them a good break. But to also expose them to a society where there is a tremendously high tolerance and to let them know that there is another way to live.

Mike: Although Robert is the founder of the Irish Children's Fund, he is quick to give the credit for the organization's success to a higher power.

Mr. O'Connor: It really started one month after I had a transforming spiritual experience where I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. We recognized immediately that this was not just a good idea, that this was indeed an assignment, if you like, a calling from the Lord, because from just that idea, and sitting and writing a few letters from the kitchen table, it developed into this very substantial organization, which in just a few years, has touched the lives of thousands of people in northern Ireland, the kids and their families, and also the families here in the United States in a very positive way. And we know that this is the Lord's work, that the Lord raised up this whole organization, this whole movement, because we see plainly that he has opened doors, that he opens doors every day to allow this to happen. He has facilitated everything to happen. There have been miracle after miracle; he has provided in a thousand different ways to make this happen, and we can see clearly and have seen right from the start that he uses us as his instruments, and hundreds of other people as well, to accomplish his work, and our role in this is to be willing, to be open to his will, and to do his bidding.

Would you like to return to the IWitness transcript page, or would you like to return to list of all transcripts?

 

The Seasick Doctor

Mike: Today, on a Life Well Lived, we introduce you to Dr. Christine Aroney-Sine. Dr. Sine spent twelve years treating patients all over the world as part of the crew of the Christian medical relief ship, Anastasis. Dr. Sine talks about her decision to join the Anastasis is 1979.

Dr. Sine: Well, it wasn't an easy decision to make. I think that I had felt that I would probably spend the rest of my life in New Zealand in Family Practice. And so when I started thinking about going to this ship, which at this stage was undergoing renovations in Greece, it was a real struggle for me. I wasn't going to be paid for the time that I was on board. I knew that the living conditions weren't going to be a nice, big house, like I'd been living in New Zealand, and so it wasn't easy, but there was that kind of 'niggle' at the back of my mind that God had called me to something other that making myself comfortable, and just accumulating goods and resources for myself.

Mike: Joining the Anastasis was more of a sacrifice for Dr. Sine than you might imagine. Unfortunately, Dr. Sine suffers from seasickness and became ill every time the ship moved from one port to the next.

Dr. Sine: Fortunately, the ship itself, because of the nature of its ministry, spent most of its time in port, so I wasn't constantly sick, but it's true that whenever we sailed, I did have that problem, and I start the book with the story of sailing down from Olympia, Washington to San Francisco through a huge storm, when somebody dislocated their shoulder, and so I had the rather difficult and not very pleasant task of setting their shoulder while I was being seasick, they were being seasick. The ship, of course, is moving from side to side, it was an absolutely crazy thing, as you could imagine. That was about the worst that happened, but there were many instances, of course, of seasickness and not feeling very well while we were sailing.

Mike: Dr. Sine says her years on the Anastasis have been well worth the trouble. She talks about one of the many lives she touched in more than a decade of medical ministry.

Dr. Sine: The ship was coming into Tema, which is the major port of Ghana in West Africa. And we arrived the first day of screening, and there were over a thousand people waiting for us. And one of the people that stands out distinctly for me in that crowd was a 22-year-old woman. She had been born in a village in a fairly remote part of Ghana with a cleft lip. And in her village, she should have been put to death because this was regarded as a curse. But her grandparents were Christians and so they decided to take her, and bring her to the capital city and to bring her up as their own. And they prayed for her throughout her childhood that one day, something would be able to be done to make a difference in her life. And so you can imagine their excitement 22 years later when the Anastasis came to town, and she was one of the ones we were able to operate on. And I'll never forget watching her after the operation. We always gave patients mirrors, and she sat there, and the first day, she'd look at her face in this mirror, and it was like it did not register that this was her face. And then by the second day, you could see the smiles start, and it grew bigger and bigger and bigger, until by the time she left, the smile literally lit her whole face! And we had the privilege of meeting this woman six months later, and much to our delight and joy, we heard that as a result of this operation, she had had the opportunity to go back and visit her village, and be reconciled with her family again, and tell them about the God who, from her perspective, had literally brought people from all around the world to make a difference in her life. I could tell you dozens, if not hundreds of stories like that, and I think it is just incredible to have had that opportunity to make that kind of difference in people's lives.

Would you like to return to the IWitness transcript page, or would you like to return to list of all transcripts?

 

The Allen's & Their Special Kids

Mike: Walter and Linda Allen will soon reach a stage in life when most Americans are thinking about slowing down and quietly enjoying a well-earned retirement. But things are far from quiet, slow, or restful in the Allen home near Castillian Springs, Tennessee. After successfully raising a son and daughter of their own, the Allen's took on the challenge of keeping foster children. They have had as many as six in their home at one time, and eventually adopted four of the children in their care. And because both Walter and Linda are medical professionals, they specialize in keeping children who are medically fragile, many with severe handicaps. The Allens have suffered through the deaths of four of the children entrusted to their care; two were children they had adopted as their own.

Linda: We started with our little Kendra when she was just 15 months old, who was very brain-damaged at birth. Her life held more joy for us, I'm sure, than it did for her. And that was very difficult when she died. We had a little girl that we had for three years. She also died. The last two were extremely hard for us. One of our other little boys that we'd had for four years died in his sleep. He was the most precious little boy that we'd gotten, and he weighed, he was two years old and probably weighed ten or twelve pounds when we got him. When he died, he weighed fifty pounds! We had found a lot of things that he really liked. He never spoke; he could never turn; and we all knew that he was better off, but that did not make it any easier on us. And then, of course, Erica. This year has been the most horrible thing. We went to church, and took both her and Megan to Camp Easter Seal for camp for a week. She loved to go to camp. We got a call two hours after we left that they thought she was having a seizure. We got to the hospital; they transferred her to Vanderbilt, and she died the next morning at 7 o'clock. Totally unexpected, and it turned our lives upside down.

Mike: It is hard to imagine how anyone could endure such loss. The Allens say that the strain would be unbearable if they didn't feel God's constant care.

Linda: Someone said to me one time, 'How can you stand to watch these kids die everyday?' I said, 'I don't! I watch them live!' You know, I am not into their dying. I am into their living. God will take care of their dying. They will have a whole lot better person taking care of them after they are gone from here than they do here. I do my best; His is perfect.

Walter: He gives us strength…somebody is giving it to us because we could not have done this for the last thirteen years if somebody with a higher power, and I'm talking about God, not the state of Tennessee, didn't give us the ability to do this thing. That's what it's all about, help your fellow man, and in return, you're going to get rewards, not only in this life, but hopefully in the life to come.

Would you like to return to the IWitness transcript page, or would you like to return to list of all transcripts?

 

Doctor Dorothy Barbo

Mike: Dorothy Barbo is a veteran medical doctor who engaged in private practice in her early years and went on to teach medicine towards the end of her career. Now semi-retired, Dr. Barbo worked in oncology for many of those years, and so had to deal with the deaths of hundreds of those patients she could not cure. Dr. Barbo says she could not possibly have endured living with so much death without having a strong faith to draw strength from.

Dr. Barbo: The residents kidded me, and the students, even way back when I was a fellow and a young faculty member in Milwaukee, they used to laugh about 'Barbo's rounds', they called them. But I would make rounds at the end of the day by myself, and talk to the dying patients. They would talk one on one, about their fears, and about dying, and I learned how important that was to them. Patients told me that. 'You are the only one that doesn't run out of here.' So I didn't have to abandon a patient, which, I believe, some people do because they cannot deal with death itself. I didn't have to abandon a patient; I could stay there and take care of them until they died.

Mike: In a very personal story, Dr. Barbo relates how frightening death can be for those who are not certain that a loving God waits on the other side of death's door, or even for the doctors who care for them.

Dr. Barbo: Well, I remember the night my father died. The doctor came to the house, and he and my father were very good friends. And he could not deal with my father's death. He came, pronounced him dead, and literally ran away. And I remember that night because my mother needed somebody standing there…it was a long time ago…and if he'd of stayed a few minutes and talked to her, it would have been very helpful. I was thirteen and I was the one that had to deal with it, and I said, 'I'm never going to be like that.' I probably could never have done all the cancer work I did without my faith in God.

Would you like to return to the IWitness transcript page, or would you like to return to list of all transcripts?

 

Colonel Curt Linge

Mike: Colonel Curt Linge is a 21-year veteran of the United States Air Force. His duties have taken him all over the world, including to one of the world's most recent flashpoints, the Balkans. But Colonel Linge's assignment is a bit different than you might imagine. The colonel is a military chaplain, currently assigned to the 366th airwing, stationed at Mountain Home, Idaho. Linge describes how he sees his duties.

Col. Linge: You might say the chaplain sits in the role of spiritual fitness, spiritual and emotional fitness, and helping people sort out the issues of their lives, to keep the focus on God, to keep a strong faith, so that when they are away from home, they don't get sidetracked or out of balance, out of focus. I think it's that realization that God's with you no matter where you go, no matter what the situation, is that really makes for stronger soldiers and airmen, sailors and marines. I think the chaplain has everything to do with people having the right mental outlook, the right spiritual focus in life. Some reject that kind of help from a chaplain, but many don't. In Bosnia, we had a great men's Bible study every Tuesday night, and a lot of guys who were involved directly in the mission were in that Bible study, encouraging each other in their faith, talking about how important God is to them, how he makes a difference in the way they live. People encouraging each other to do what's right, to stay away from those things that would drag them down. It's sort of like a spiritual self-help group in many ways. There was a focus on the Bible, a focus on encouraging each other to live out this Christian life. I think the chaplain fits in that area of keeping people's mental and spiritual perspective correct so they can be really effective in the military.

Mike: As you might imagine, Colonel Linge has thought a great deal about whether, as a Christian, he should serve in his nation's armed forces.

Colonel Linge: I really believe that being a military member is not for all people anyway. Nor is it for all believers. I think there are some believers who ought not to be in the military because it puts them in a position that would be beyond what would be OK for them as a Christian. Yet at the same time, there are other Christians who, I think, subscribe more to the 'just war' theory, and I think most chaplains have to come from that perspective if they are to serve in the military, and that is, while war is not God's ideal or his will for this world, that there is always going to be Saddham Husseins, there's always going to Hitlers, there's going to Mussolini, there's going to be Stalins, there'll be others who will tramp on the rights and freedoms of other people, and at that time, you must have a strong military in order for good innocent people to not be hurt, to not be killed, to not be dominated by an evil force. The only way you can do that is to engage in the messy and terrible business of war where people have to lose their lives.

Mike: Colonel Curt Linge, serving the spiritual needs of his comrades in arms for more than two decades. A life well lived.

Would you like to return to the IWitness transcript page, or would you like to return to list of all transcripts?

 

Dee & Margaret Stribling

Mike: Dee and Margaret Stribling no longer have the use of the largest room in their home. The couple's living room has long since been lost to desks and chairs, computers and printers, fax machines and telephones. The Striblings have devoted more to their ministry than living space. Feeling called by God to ministry, both left good careers behind to launch their ministry in 1983.

Margaret: We started going to hospitals, visiting people who were ill, and from that point on, God just seemed to say it was time to step out in the ministry and that we would work for him full time. It was not an easy thing, looking back, knowing that we really didn't have any basis for support, but the Lord was calling us to do this.

Mike: The couple's devotion to the work was sorely tested in those early years. The Striblings lost a home when funds became scarce. But Dee said God was always faithful to always provide exactly what they needed at just the right time.

Dee: The Lord has been so good along the way to give us lots of enticements and encouragements. You'd like to think that your friends and those that are part of your ministry are your main source of that, but God has never been unfaithful in that. He's always been faithful in that, to keep us encouraged.

Mike: The Striblings say the working poor are often just one paycheck away from disaster. What would be a minor problem for most of us can push the poor into poverty. 'In His Name" Ministries can help them get back on their feet. Dee took me to visit one of the ministry's clients. Jimmie has endured a long string of surgeries for a condition that has left her disabled. Even though living on a meager income, Jimmie recently took in her orphaned granddaughter. 'In His Name' Ministries placed Jimmie's story on their website, and proving that God does indeed work in mysterious ways, a wealthy entrepreneur living in Texas agreed to be Jimmie's mentor. Teresa Roundtree and the local community church she attends often support the work of 'In His Name' ministries. She says Dee and Margaret have taught her to rely on prayer and the Holy Spirit's leading when caring for the poor.

Teresa: And I have found that there are not too many situations that God cannot take care of. And it's me getting out of the way, but being a vessel and being willing to listen and come up with creative ways to help people, and show them, through helping, that Christ loves them.

Mike: Dee and Margaret have learned that helping the poor can be a thankless task. The destitute are often bitter about their circumstances and so, not always grateful for what they receive. Donors are afraid their gifts will go to the undeserving. Dee says a Christ-like attitude is the key.

Dee: God was extravagant in his giving. He gave his only son, and for us to be less than that in relation to other people is virtually playing the role of the ungrateful servant. We have assumed the role of the ungrateful servant if we do not extravagantly, creatively, but extravagantly love our neighbors.

Mike: Dee and Margaret Stribling. Caring for the poor in His name; the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Two lives well lived.

Would you like to return to the IWitness transcript page, or would you like to return to list of all transcripts?

The New Life Station is pleased to provide transcripts online for a number of KNLS programs.  Please note that all scripts are the property of World Christian Broadcasting and/or SeedSower Productions.  They are provided here for your personal enjoyment only and may not be disseminated in any fashion without prior written permission.

                     KNLS International, © 2001 - Mike Osborne webmaster