Welcome to the Defender Podcast, a resource to help mobilize and equip the body of Christ to manifest the gospel to orphans and vulnerable children. This podcast is a ministry of Lifeline Children Services, and I'm your host, Herbie Newell.

It's 02/26/2025, and doctor Rick and I are coming to you from Birmingham, Alabama. Well, today is a special day in some ways. It is a day where we we wanna let you know that we're gonna take a little bit of a sabbatical from the Defender podcast. We're grateful for all of you who have faithfully listened, throughout the years. It was about eight years ago that doctor Rick put a microphone on my desk and said he wanted me to start doing a podcast, and, of course, it's about three years ago that doctor Rick was able to to join the podcast full time.

We're just grateful today to reflect on the guests that we've been able to have on the podcast, the information, the topics, but also to let you know, what's ahead and what to expect. And so with that, hopefully not for the last time, but for, the last time for a couple of months, it's my opportunity to bring on the golden haired, golden tongued one, really silver haired, silver tongued one, doctor Rick. Doctor Rick, you know, you've been in the background a little bit, with our marketing team talking about how to get the best content out on the podcast. Talk a little bit about where we see the future of the podcast going. Yeah, Herb.

I think,

you know, as we've talked about just sort of our hopes and dreams and what what we hope that the Lord will do with the opportunity that, we have in front of us, we we really want to engage, hard conversations. We wanna we wanna engage cultural topics that that intersect with life and adoption and foster care and all of those things that are, you know, that are that are part of, our our day to day, and the issues that we, you know, we come against. But I think, you know, a big part of of what I hope that we're gonna be able to sort of retool and do is there's a lot of things that you wrote about in, in Image Bearers, honestly. It was, you know, topics of how does having a gospel centered pro life, sort of mindset, how does how does having that sort of worldview, how does that affect how we respond to the things that are happening around us culturally? And, I think also we wanna be a part of the wider conversation.

And so, that means that we're gonna be intentionally working to, you know, bring some people into the podcast and to have some conversations with folks that we know that we don't necessarily or we think we probably don't necessarily agree with, that we may not always see eye to eye about, but we wanna have some of those, you know, iron sharpening, iron kind of conversations. And, you know, just really believe that that's part of our mission to equip the body of Christ to manifest the gospel to vulnerable children.

Yeah. 100%. And looking forward to seeing how that goes, and, certainly, we know that the podcast has been, for some, hopefully, a a welcomed friend every week, but for others, maybe it's been, you know, just a a time of refreshment or encouragement or even news and, understanding of the events that are going on in the orphan care and adoption space. You know, I look back at some of the great guests that have joined us, friends, other podcasters, other adoption advocates who have come and and really added to this podcast. And so we hope that when we come back after about a three month break, that we will be able to bring back some of the same guest, be able to bring back the same content, but also use this podcast in a way, as doctor Rick said, would encourage and would equip.

So, doctor Rick, talk a little bit about when people can be get be getting ready for us to drop new content.

Yeah. So I think we're looking at the, at the end of the summer to be sort of our target date to relaunch the Defender podcast And, you know, in in in that in between times, we're gonna be doing a little bit of work in the in the background, to look at our look at everything. We're looking at production. We're looking at our, you know, at our format. We're kinda taking everything and and, you know, just taking a hard look at it.

I, we have some hopes that maybe when we come back, we'll actually be a video show. And, so you'll get to see all the behind the scenes stuff and, and, you know, like the things that are going on today that we're, you know, that are happening here, as we're recording that people don't have any idea, about, you know, and and, but our our goal is to not, you know, like, we don't wanna go backward, we we wanna go forward in, in in what we, you know, in in what we produce here. And and I think, the the big idea is we we really want to, we wanna invest a little more deeply in in using this platform to, to be part of the the accomplishing of our mission.

Yeah. And so, you know, one of the things we saw from the podcast is, obviously, we had a lot of folks that were listening and sharing the podcast, during the the COVID nineteen pandemic, when we were locked down. And so we hope to come back with the Zesto and to really be able to use the Defender podcast, as doctor Rick said, to encourage, to equip, maybe to look at some new things to do. But in the meantime, we welcome you to listen to some old episodes, maybe catch up on episodes you haven't listened to. But more importantly, and even as we go ahead for the future, we ask that you tell others about the Defender podcast, and you let them know when they can be expecting new content.

And we hope, like doctor Rick said, that this content will be out of the world content, that truly will be able to bless you both today, but also be able to encourage and equip you for the journey ahead to defend the fatherless. So for doctor Nutrick and I, we look forward to joining you sometime this summer twenty twenty five. And until then, god bless, and may you do the work to defend the fatherless.

Thanks for listening to the Defender Podcast. If you enjoy making this podcast a part of your weekly routine, we'd love for you to take a moment to subscribe, rate, and review the Defender podcast to make it easier for more people to find. For more information on how you and your church can partner with Lifeline, visit us at lifelinechild.org. If you want to connect with me, please visit herbynewell.com. Follow us at Lifeline on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter by searching for Lifeline Child.

You can email us directly at info@lifelinechild.org. Beloved, will you allow God to use the gospel through you to impact the life of a child? Please contact us because we are here to defend the fatherless. We'll see you again next week for the defender pipe.