Meet Max McLean. He’s the award-winning founder and artistic director for the Fellowship of Performing Arts (FPA), a not-for-profit New York City-based production company that has produced theatre and film from a Christian worldview since 1992. If McLean sounds familiar, it’s probably because his is the official voice of the Listener’s Bible, and his narration has earned him four award nominations from the Audio Publishers Association. McLean received the 2009 Jeff Award for Best Solo Performance — Chicago theatre’s highest honor — for his one-man show Mark’s Gospel.   McLean portrays a man who goes from hard-boiled atheist to one of the most beloved Christian writers of the 20th century in The Most Reluctant Convert: The Untold C.S. Lewis Story. It is one of several works about Lewis that McLean has been involved with over his celebrated career. Just as Jesus used parables to illustrate the Kingdom of God, McLean believes integrating theatre and film with faith is one of the best ways to present God’s Word to all people.   “The power of the arts is to tell stories,” McLean says. “God is the Great Story Teller. Stories tend to expose our needs. It also exposes our pride.”   Born in Panama, McLean moved to the United States at age 4 and overcame a fear of public speaking during his study of theater at the University of Texas, where he graduated in 1975. He says we can find effective ways of spreading God’s word, even if it isn’t on stage in front of a theatre audience.   “Anytime we do anything that approaches what the Good Samaritan story is leading us to do — in any form, whether it be business, engineering, the arts, law, medicine — I think we’re doing Christ’s work,” McLean says.

Meet Geoff Duncan. He’s the 12th Lieutenant Governor for the State of Georgia, husband of 24 years to Brooke, and father to three children ranging in age from 19 to 11. A former minor league pitcher in the Marlins organization, Duncan saw his Major League dreams derailed by an injured shoulder. But that didn’t keep him from aiming for success, and he found it as an entrepreneur and a politician.   Those experiences formed the background for “GOP 2.0,” a book he authored, though he contends the title — and most normal, everyday Americans — aren’t nearly as partisan as they sound.   “Because of social media and other elements, the outside 5 percent on both sides feel like they’re driving the narrative,” the lieutenant governor says. “The reality is that there’s a silent majority that just wakes up and doesn’t really care about a Republican or Democrat being in charge — they want to make sure they got a job the next day, they want to make sure their kids are going to a good school and that their communities are safe, and their nation is secure. Those are the real issues. When we stop looking through the lens of being reelected and start looking through the lens of actually doing stuff, that’s where this starts making sense to people.”

Meet Janine Maxwell. Along with her husband, Ian, she’s the co-founder of Heart for Africa, a faith-based humanitarian organization which has focused on the areas of Hunger, Orphans, Poverty and Education (HOPE) in Eswatini and Kenya for 15 years.   How a Canadian, who was running one of that country’s most successful marketing companies, ends up in southern Africa is a compelling story. In 2001, Janine was a self-proclaimed “capitalist pig” in New York, right in the heart of the terrorist attacks on 9/11 and fleeing from gunshots echoing in the madness. It was the kind of life-changing event that plunged her into depression, took her through a period of deep introspection and onto a path for the true meaning of life. When the rollercoaster ride stopped, she found herself in Africa, where she encountered the AIDS pandemic, hunger and disease, and her life forever changed.   “If you say that’s not OK, then what are you going to do about it?” Janice says. “You can’t say it’s not OK, then not do something. Especially not as believers.”   That’s what she’s written three books to address. A graduate of Evangel University in Springfield, MO, Janine most recently wrote “Hope Lives Here,” through iDisciple Publishing. She and Ian are parents of adult children Spencer and Chloe, and serve as adoptive parents to more than 300 orphans in Africa. Some of what they’ve seen has been miraculous.   They have witnessed blind children given sight, deaf children’s ears opened and lame children who now not only walk but run to school every day. If that’s not miraculous enough, consider that of those 300 Janine is helping raise there are some 40 “terrible twos.” Yet she has maintained her sanity — all because she decided to act and encourage others to do the same.   “Do something!” she says. “It doesn’t have to be Africa. Do something. Just stop looking in the mirror and stop complaining.”

Meet Colleen Swindoll Thompson. The daughter of prominent radio evangelist Chuck Swindoll, she has weathered just about every blow that life can throw at her and lived not only to tell the tale but also to give birth to a ministry that helps address it. Colleen has lived through domestic abuse, a body she calls a “genetic nightmare,” parenting a child with multiple disabilities, identity theft, a difficult divorce and betrayal from trusted Christians. And this isn’t to say all this is in the past and done, a hurdle once overcome and forever overcome. Some of these remain present-tense ongoing situations.   There was a time that she would ask God why. She doesn’t do that anymore, even as some of the slings and arrows rock her faith to its core.   “What is ‘why’ going to change?” Colleen says. “It didn’t change Job’s situation. It didn’t change Joseph’s situation. It didn’t change David’s situation. It didn’t change Esther’s situation. It’s accepting what God has allowed in my life. I may never understand it. I may never like it, but I will release my will in surrender to a greater purpose that I may not see on this side of Heaven. I know that His love never fails. He is forever loving us, and I have to cling to that.”   In her clinging, she has made peace with the uncomfortable parts of her story. Colleen gave birth to Reframing Ministries out of that pain, helping sufferers come to terms with their pain and helping them also learn to cling. It helps care for caregivers, based on one overriding strategy.   “Empathy has been shown to be the most impactful comforter when someone is suffering,” Colleen says. “Not sympathy or pity, but empathy, which says, ‘I’m putting myself in your shoes.’ Can you do that?”

Meet Bob Dalton. He’s the founder of Sackcloth & Ashes, a mission-driven company that donates a blanket to a local homeless shelter for each one purchased. It’s an admittedly “insanely ironic” place for him to find himself because he used to perpetuate the stigma of homelessness. He was the guy who would drive past a homeless person and mutter, “Go get a job” under his breath.   That changed when his mother, a waitress with two college degrees and a healthy work ethic, spiraled into homelessness on the streets of Florida in 2013, after leaving Oregon and trying to restart her life after the deaths of her mother and brother.   Her plight inspired him to call his local homeless shelters and simply ask what they needed most. All said blankets. That also became the impetus behind his Blanket the United States campaign, which has a goal of donating 1 million blankets to homeless shelters by 2024. He even tried to make blankets himself when he read the words “what are you waiting for?” on the sleeve of a coffee cup.   “What coffee company puts quotes on a sleeve?” he says. “That was my first thought. And then my second thought was, ‘I’m going to do this.’ … I’m just going to go buy some fabric and a sewing machine and I tried to learn how to sew. And I realized really quickly that I’m horrible at sewing. That was my first obstacle. I had two choices at that moment: I can either quit or I can find somebody who can sew. And I found a sweet old lady named Tammy and Tammy started sewing blankets for me.”   Dalton didn’t want to start just another one-for-one business but wanted something that would make Sackcloth & Ashes, clothing symbolic of mourning and repentance in the Bible, stand out. He asked himself, “How can I innovate, how can I evolve, how can I reimagine it to make it unique?”   The company’s hyper-local emphasis, something that could allow concerned people to benefit their own communities, seemed to work best. “The local component sets us apart,” Dalton says. So, when a person purchases a blanket, the company donates a blanket to a homeless shelter in that person’s community.   Dalton says anybody following his example shouldn’t do so out of guilt. If they can meet a need, they should simply do so. “However, 90 percent if the time, most of the time, you don’t have the ability to meet every need, but you do have the ability to be a bridge-builder and you have the ability to connect somebody who can meet a need with the person that has the need,” he says. “Most of my work is bridge-building.”

Meet Shaunti Feldhahn. A well-known ground-breaking social researcher, best-selling author and popular speaker, Shaunti is a Harvard graduate and former Wall Street analyst who lives in Atlanta with her husband, Jeff, their daughter, son, and two cats who think they are dogs.   She has authored devotionals and Bible studies for iDisciple Publishing — her “Find Series” of includes Find Rest, Find Balance, Find Peace, and Find Joy. They guide women to discover the path that will take them from stressed-out to peace when they lean into God’s truths and begin to live the life designed just for them.   “Living in a fallen world is going to come with some stress, but the whole point is He wants us to navigate that, so we don’t have a life of stress and that we have that sense of joy no matter what,” Shaunti says. “[The books] are not just about reading something and going, ‘Oh, that’s nice.’ It’s about ‘How do I apply that every day to my life?’ ”   Shaunti’s books delve deep into relationships — the best-selling For Women Only, followed by For Men Only (co-authored with Jeff) and her most recent work, Thriving in Love & Money – the money book that has little to do with money. These rigorously researched books help couples finally “get” what has been so often misunderstood about each other and what the roots of stress in their relationships might be.    The books have been sources of insight while much of the country — and, indeed, the world — has been under stress with COVID-19. On a personal note, Shaunti has dealt with that and then some. She not only battled COVID-19, but stage 1 breast cancer and a withering attack from a Christian sister on the teachings in her books concerning sex.   She has resisted a public back-and-forth battle, citing Scriptural teachings and the common-sense that says, “You can’t heal hurt with further hurt.” Instead, Shaunti aims to help because that’s the essence of a Good Samaritan — one who goes out of their way to help.

Meet Rich Stearns. He’s the former and longest-serving president of World Vision U.S., an organization committed to human transformation, seeking justice and bearing witness to the good news of the Kingdom of God. After 20 years as its president, and now as its president emeritus, Stearns has authored a book, “Lead Like It Matters to God.” In it, the Bellevue, Wash., resident expands upon 17 crucial values that transform leaders and their organizations.   He and his wife, Reneé, are the parents of five children and grandparents of six. Stearns holds a B.A. in neurobiology from Cornell University and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He joined World Vision to answer God’s call on his life, forsaking a corporate career that included CEO roles at Lenox and Parker Brothers Games.   That choice was hardly easy, one borne of what he calls “grudging obedience,” but few walking in the spirit of the Good Samaritan find avenues of convenience. His became a course of sacrifice and surrender to God, a walk steeped in accountability to the One to Whom we must all answer. It led to his direct involvement in combatting HIV/AIDS in Africa, where more than 13 million children have been left orphaned by that plague.   As Stearns can attest, God honors even grudging obedience.   “What are the things that are going to matter to God when you stand before Him on that day?” he asks. “It’s going to have very little to do with the business you were in or the profession you’ve chosen. It’s going to be about how you treated the people entrusted to your care, the people that you led. It’s going to be about the human beings around you during this whole career you’ve chosen, and how you helped them to flourish.”

Meet Brian Roland. He’s the co-founder and former CEO of Abenity, a Tennessee-based company that helps employers, alumni groups, and associations supplement their employee benefits with private perks and discount programs. Now living in Scottsdale, Ariz., he’s also a husband, a self-proclaimed girl dad, coffee nerd, trumpeter and drone pilot.   But what stands out about Roland is his generosity. The company he built — and served as CEO for 13 years before resigning in 2019 — has made the Inc. 5000 list for six consecutive years while giving more than $1 million to causes like World Vision, which battles global poverty. Many companies plan to give, almost as an afterthought, but built into Abenity’s DNA was a sustainable plan for generosity: The company committed 15 percent of its annual profits toward the United Nations’ goal of ending global poverty by 2030.   Roland says we can make the same thing can work in a smaller scale in our daily lives, ensuring a way to put legs on the parable of the Good Samaritan. Likewise, it simply starts with a plan that helps us avoid being the priest or the Levite who walked by the mugging victim on the other side of the road.   “By having the plan to give and being present in the moments around you, that’s the story of the Good Samaritan,” he says. “The priest that walked by — his head was just in the wrong space, and he didn’t have a plan that he could follow that allowed him to serve that person right then. He let his schedule, to wherever he had to go, take precedence. … One thing we like to do is we keep $5 McDonald’s gift cards in the middle console of our car, so when we see somebody in our community standing around, we’ve got a McDonald gift card and a Bible verse card in there, and it’s like ‘Here’s a meal.’ … There are simple steps that you can do.“

Remember Batya Ungar-Sargon? She’s baaaaaack. Officially, the first repeat guest on the Walking Through Samaria podcast, Batya rejoins us in response to a fresh outbreak of violence in the age-old conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. She lived in Israel. She went to high school there before earning a Ph.D. over here at the University of California-Berkeley. Not only can Batya recount the history of the Holy Land hostilities, she tells us why that history is so important. But then, she looks forward, not backward. “To me, when I look at the problem there, I try to see it through a political lens, through a moral lens and through a lens of justice,” she says. “And, of course, then it’s very obvious what needs to happen, which is that every single person living in that territory should have full civil rights and should have access to safety, security and dignity.” A few things have changed since Batya last visited with Dan and David. She is now the deputy opinion editor for Newsweek magazine, where she co-hosts a podcast called The Debate, in which people from opposite ends of the political spectrum engage in substantive conversation about real problems, rather than spewing talking points at each other without listening. Even though she approaches the Israeli-Palestinian problem from a Jewish perspective, she can see faults on both sides. Because rhetoric matters, she strives to avoid the kind that keeps the Israeli-Palestinian conflict raging. “They’ve rebranded the problem in such a way that will make sure it will never be solved,” Batya said. “You have these very vocal Congresswomen talking about Israel as committing genocide against Palestinians or as being an apartheid or as engaging in ethnic cleansing, and these are all rebrands of actual problems that exist in such a maximalist way the only thing that would solve it for them, the only thing that would make them feel that there was redress to the Palestinians, would be what Hamas wants — which is Israel not to exist, and that is never going to happen.”

Meet Terry Johnson. He’s a major-gifts fundraiser for World Vision, a global Christian humanitarian organization tackling poverty and injustice.  Johnson serves as the organization’s area director for philanthropy in the southeastern United States.   A husband to one wife (Suzanne) and father to one daughter (Meredith), Johnson was destined to do something great after he survived tumbling out of the “suicide doors” of a Lincoln Continental at 70 mph and onto the sizzling pavement near El Paso, Texas. He was 3 years old at the time.   Now, he wants to make sure underprivileged kids around the world and their families survive their tumbles — which are far more dire than a momentary case of road rash. The people Johnson tries to help face an ongoing pandemic of poverty, living on less than $2 a day, which makes the coronavirus crisis look mild and short-term by comparison.   “There’s no stimulus check coming to the lion’s share of the world,” says Johnson, whose mission work has taken him to the hardest-hit areas of Ethiopia, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Honduras — “places their own governments won’t even go.”   Johnson endeavors to show that Jesus is alive in the places that it’s hardest to be a child and encourages more people to make something good happen.   “If we have the good fortune to travel and see the real need in the margins, how do I fit into that?” he says. “How do I become a part of that? I think those are the questions we need to ask ourselves.”