Hometown Heroes

Farmers Helping Farmers  (Part 2)

Helping with Hay for Hurricane Helene's victims

Brittany Eisenman organized fellow northwest Pennsylvania farm families to ship hay to North Carolina and Tennessee farmers devastated flooding caused by Hurricane Helene.

That effort that has produced countless faith stories for those involved. 

This is Part Two of Mark Webster's conversation about how farmers help farmers -- and Christians help neighbors, even those who are a distance away. The widespread response from the community is heartening to those who are helping, and for those who have received this practical compassion.

Helping with Hay for Hurricane Helene's victims

Farmers Helping Farmers 

It's the "Hometown Heroes" podcast from Family Life News

The devastation of Hurricane Helene in mid-2024 will be felt for years in the Carolinas, Tennessee and other states. But, a group of farmers in northwestern Pennsylvania provided a helpful response that many of us might not have even realized was needed.

In this week's Hometown Heroes podcast, Mark Webster introduces you to Brittany Eisenman, who organized shipments of hay to western North Carolina farmers after those massive floods. As you will hear, it wasn't farmers "bailing" out farmers with bales of hay for their livestock, there's a strong story of a God Moment which was a major aspect to this project.

Kingdom Builders of Central New York

The Hometown Heroes podcast from Family Life News

Hometown Heroes: Victory Sports

Part 2 of our interview with Doug Rifenburg

Victory Sports founder Doug Rifenburg takes us inside this ministry which distributes sports equipment to children and teens to give them positive activities as an alternative to other troublesome options. There is a Gospel emphasis too.

Included in this segment of Mark Webster's interview, Rifenburg tells about a partnership which Victory Sports and its donors have with the police department in Buffalo, giving officers another community-policing tool to connect with young people in their neighborhoods.

Hometown Heroes

The Family Life News Tuesday Podcast

Victory Sports in western New York spreads the Christian gospel by distributing sports gear to young people in need.

Founder Doug Rifenburg takes us inside this ministry -- and out to the neighborhoods they influence -- with this "Hometown Heroes" interview with Family Life's Mark Webster.

The Hope Center in Western New York

Family Life's Hometown Heroes podcast

The Hope Center of Leroy, New York, is a community focused organization which provides a variety of services to the people of Genesee County.

Diane Sia is the director there, and she gives Family Life News Anchor Mark Webster an overview of their many community ministries, including:

• coordinating a Good News Club for children in partnership with multiple churches
• a Women's Crafting group
• plans for lifeskills activities for students during the summer

Sia says the most beneficial byproduct of the Hope Center of Leroy is the personalized connections that happen with the young people, parents and others they see. Those people get an attentive listening ear, experiences of care and encouragement, and tangible evidence of Christian faith.

Hometown Heroes

a Family Life Tuesday news feature and podcast

Co-founder Ray Oberst tells us of the value he sees in Christian weekday education as a New York State Christian school continues to grow

Today's edition of "Hometown Heroes" features the co-founder of the Parker-Jordan Christian Academy in Allegany County, New York.

Pastor Ray Oberst tells our Mark Wester about the vision and the launch for a Christian K-12 school there. While many look at faith-based education as an alternative with Scriptures and traditional family values as a primary goal --- and those do happen at PJCA too --- one of the biggest accomplishments that happens at a Christian school is marked improvements in academic performance.

Oberst talks about how the academy has seen mushrooming growth since it opened with a handful of students in 2019. He says families are seeing the progress students make in their classes, extracurriculars, faith, and their emotional/personal/relational lives.

Hometown Heroes

A Family Life podcast

Sandy Lenehan from Shamokin, Pennsylvania, has produced a series of YouTube videos called “Wee Steps with God”.  Her goal is to get the word of God into the hearts of young children.

Life Matters

The Hometown Heroes podcast from Family Life News

The Life Matters Training Center in Canastota, New York, is a pro-life ministry which prepares fellow Christians to effectively carry on the pro-life cause.

Hear their success stories from Joanna Myers, the center's director of program development and expansion. 

Wreaths Across America

The "Hometown Heroes" podcast from Family Life News

Perhaps you can feel like a Hometown Hero this weekend (Saturday, December 14).

A nationwide project is seeking volunteers for "Wreaths Across America", where Christmas wreaths are placed on the graves of America's war dead. Veterans will be honored this way at 4.600 cemeteries in this nation, at sea and abroad. This includes dozens of site in Pennsylvania and New York -- from Butler to Batavia to Buffalo, from Fairview to Scranton to Oswego.

Tyanne and Peter Jurka provide you the inside story of a Christ-based mission school, as the next generation of the Jurka family unexpectedly step up to serve nearly two dozen children -- even as they had an infant of their own.

In Part Three of Mark Webster's "Hometown Heroes" interview with these international mission workers with roots in the Family Life listening area, Peter and Tyanne tell about how God's providence provided just the right reassurances, at just the right time.

They have spent decades serving the Lord -- and serving the people in several regions of Central America.

Peter and Tyanne Jurka are Mark Webster’s guests on this week’s “Hometown Heroes” feature. The Jurkas are longtime Christian mission workers, serving in Central America. They talk about signs of God's provision and blessing as these two natives of the Family Life listening area chose to serve in international ministry.

Peter and Tyanne Jurka are Mark Webster’s guests on this week’s “Hometown Heroes” feature. The Jurkas are longtime Christian mission workers, serving in Central America. She is from western Pennsylvania, and he grew up in western New York. Their children and grandchildren are also part of their ongoing ministry.

Their story — in their personal lives and the ways they have served people in international mission — are fascinating and heartwarming.