A New York moment: 

It’s Giving Tuesday in New York, and I paid a visit to the Mormon temple down by Lincoln Center. The Latter-day Saints had set up three beautifully designed vending machines on the busy sidewalk, where New Yorkers can “buy” items like a first aid kit for CARE International (a humanitarian organization) or a winter blanket for the local Catholic Charities or a gallon of milk for a neighborhood food pantry.

James Whitford received a doctorate from the University of Kansas School of Medicine, then moved on from rehabbing bodies to rehabbing lives. Whitford and his wife, Marsha, have given birth not only to five children but to the Watered Gardens Gospel Rescue Mission in Joplin, Mo., a city of 50,000. Here are edited excerpts of our interview in front of Patrick Henry College students.

Excited chatter filled the air inside a gated compound in the town of Bukuru, just south of Jos in north-central Nigeria. It was graduation morning at the Center for Caring, Empowerment, and Peace Initiatives (CCEPI), and 32 widows and orphans were preparing for a ceremony to celebrate their completion of the center’s skills program. In one bedroom, several women applied makeup and donned matching T-shirts. Outside the compound, staff members loaded a truck with sewing machines, knitting equipment, and computers the students would receive at the ceremony. 

Last week I wrote about my friend Joseph (not his real name), whom I met while working on an ongoing series on homelessness. After decades of living on the streets peddling for drugs, Joseph’s story had culminated with a miracle—he sobered up and stayed sober for more than a year at age 50, found a full-time job, and began dreaming of ways to serve God in ministry. But two weeks ago on a Saturday night, he called me asking for help: He had relapsed, and he needed to find a rehab program. 

A major league baseball player is pitching in to help chronically ill and special needs children. Texas Rangers pitcher Cole Hamels and his wife, Heidi, are donating a mansion and 100 acres of land in southwest Missouri to Camp Barnabas, a Christian charity that provides camps for people with disabilities. The 32,000 square-foot home is worth more than $9 million.

A New York moment: 

A cold and clear Saturday in Central Park is the right time for ice skating and hot chocolate. About 60 children eagerly hit the park’s Wollman ice rink this past weekend as part of Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree program. All have incarcerated parents. 

Olympic figure skater JoJo Starbuck and other instructors were carving the rink to train the children, some of whom had never skated before but stayed on the rink for hours despite the unseasonably cold weather. 

HOUSTON—Before Hurricane Harvey hit the Texas coast on Aug. 25, a fleet of trucks from evangelical nonprofit Convoy of Hope (Springfield, Mo.) was on the road loaded with water, food, and hygiene kits. Two disaster teams from Samaritan’s Purse (Boone, N.C.) headed out on Aug. 26. Southern Baptists, with churches scattered throughout the affected area, quickly activated chainsaw teams that cleared roads and removed fallen trees.