CrossCurrent Podcasts

Cynthia Yanof shares humorous stories about the messy parts of parenting and daily life. Hear her insights into reframing messy experiences as blessings from God. Be inspired and learn about loving others well, even when it’s challenging.

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Praying Scripture Over Your Child’s Life -- Protect your child’s spiritual foundation with this free 7-part series. Jodie Berndt shares Scripture-based prayers to strengthen your child’s faith, help them navigate life’s challenges, and stand firm in their walk with God.

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Our hope is neither found nor lost in elections.

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What difference can one shoebox make in a child’s life?

For Kristiana Allenbaugh, it became a tangible reminder that she was seen, known, and loved—and an introduction to the hope found in Jesus Christ.

Growing up in Latvia, Kristiana experienced heartbreaking circumstances. By the age of six, she was caring for her two younger sisters. At ten, she and her sisters fled their home in the middle of a freezing winter night and eventually found safety in an orphanage.

But even in a safer environment, Kristiana struggled with feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness.

Then, at twelve, she attended an Operation Christmas Child outreach event.

There, she heard the gospel and received something she had rarely experienced before: a gift chosen just for her.

Inside her shoebox were school supplies, art materials, personal items, and a photograph of the teenage girl who had packed it. Every item reminded Kristiana that someone, somewhere, had thought about her.

And through that experience, she began to understand something even greater: God knew her, loved her, and was inviting her into a relationship with Him.

In this episode of the Teach Them Diligently Podcast, Leslie Nunnery talks with Kristiana about her remarkable story and how Christian families can share the gospel with children around the world.

You’ll hear:

Pack a shoebox with your family!

Operation Christmas Child National Collection Week is November 16–23, 2026.

Visit https://teachthemdiligently.net/occ/ to learn what to pack, find a drop-off location, and discover how your family can be part of sharing the good news of Jesus around the world.

Because the goal isn’t simply to give a child a present. It’s to point that child to the greatest gift of all—Jesus Christ.

Can You Really Teach Your Kids to Study the Bible—If You Don’t Feel Confident Yourself? The “Step by Step” Method to a Lifetime of Scripture Confidence

For generations, Christian parents have been told to center their homes and hearts on God’s Word, yet few have ever been taught how to truly study it—let alone guide their children to do the same. If you’ve ever felt insecure, intimidated, or unqualified when opening your Bible, this episode is for you.

Join host Catherine and special guest Angie Baughman, founder of Steady On Ministries and developer of the Step by Step Bible Study Method, as they offer an empowering, conversation-driven crash course on making Bible study accessible, life-giving, and transformational for the whole family—from toddlers to teens and beyond.

Meet the Guest: Angie Baughman

• Angie Baughman is a lifelong Bible teacher and the founder of Steady On Ministries, an organization passionate about rooting believers—especially parents—in the practical skills needed to stay anchored in God’s Word.

• With over 28 years of ministry, a powerful personal testimony, and tools used by everyone from school children to inmates, Angie created the Step by Step Bible Study Method to break down barriers and open Scripture to all experience levels.

Highlights from This Episode

• Why So Many Christians Feel Insecure About Bible Study
  Angie and Catherine discuss the lack of mentorship in church culture, the intimidation factor of unfamiliar terms, and the universal fear of “looking stupid,” even among lifelong believers 07:02.

• The Power of Slowing Down
  Through vulnerable stories, the hosts reveal how shame and insecurity can keep women (and men) silent—and how authentic community and gentle tools provide an accessible on-ramp for everyone, including the “Tracys” in our Bible studies 08:47.

• A Practical Walkthrough—Step by Step
  Angie unveils her 5-step study method, combining word study, translation comparison, biblical context, enemy-lie discernment, and personal application—transforming even a single verse into spiritual nourishment lasting all day 17:54.

• Real-Life Application
  In a powerful demonstration, Catherine shares how a familiar verse (Psalm 40:2) deepened through the method, revealing unexpected layers (did you know “rock” can mean “fortress”?) and helping her battle anxiety and pray more purposefully for her children 29:38.

• Equipping the Next Generation
  Detailed guidance on using the method with kids of all ages, from letting them pick words to discovering the lies of the enemy—a perfect fit for family devotions, homeschool routines, or real-life spiritual conversations 46:15.

• Accessible Resources for All
  Details on free step-by-step kits, family tools, and online communities so that every parent—no matter their background—can confidently open God’s Word and invite their children into the adventure.

Standout Quote

“Pastors and Bible teachers can share what the Holy Spirit said to them. But they cannot tell us what the Holy Spirit says to us when we study. That’s why it’s so important for us to have the skills to go into the Word on our own.” — Angie

Key Takeaway

No matter your past, education, or current insecurity, you can confidently unlock the treasures of Scripture—for yourself and your children. It doesn’t require expertise—just willingness, a doable method, and the expectation that the Holy Spirit will meet you—and your family—right where you are.

Why This Matters

In a culture obsessed with spiritual shortcuts and s

Jim Daly sits down with Vice President JD Vance to discuss the importance of family, marriage, parenting, faith, life, and religious freedom in creating a better future for America.

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Engaging the Culture with Love and Truth -- This FREE, 6-part video series called “Engaging the Culture with Love and Truth” examines the challenges and opportunities currently facing those of us who embrace the truths of Scripture in a post-Christian culture

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If citizens and politicians refuse to say anything, what is supposed to never happen will continue to happen. 

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A Protestant Air: Gide, Sartre, Barthes, and the Religion of Literary Modernity (Cornell UP, 2026) focuses on the Protestant connection linking three intellectual giants of twentieth-century French thought. All three came from a Protestant background and thus shared a common marginality in a nation culturally marked by Catholicism, one that profoundly shaped their personalities, thinking, and literary careers. When Gide received the Nobel Prize in 1947, he declared that if he had represented anything as a writer, it was the "spirit of protestation." Clémentine Fauré-Bellaïche explores the filiation that this spirit weaves between Gide, Sartre, and Barthes. She shows how their Protestant difference, confronted with France's Catholicity, informed their posture as writers, their conceptualization of literature, and their elaboration of the figure of the French intellectual as a counterauthority, with a distinctive positioning vis-à-vis the individual and the institution. As such, A Protestant Air examines the religious underpinnings of twentieth-century letters and politics, their interaction with the secularization of French society, and, more broadly, the historical and philosophical relationship between the Protestant ethos and modernity itself.

Guest Clémentine Fauré-Bellaïche is Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies at Brandeis University; she is currently at work on two projects. The first one, tentatively titled Transnational Theologies — Religious Networks and The Making of French Thought, is centered on the reconfiguration of French thought between the wars, informed by transnational circulations, exchanges of ideas across cultural spaces, and intellectual transfers between the religious and the secular spheres. The second one is a French literary history of the notion of conspiracy, both as form and as imaginary, from Balzac and Marcel Proust to Paul Nizan and Michel Houellebecq.

Host Gina Stamm is Associate Professor of French at The University of Alabama, with research concentrated on the environmental humanities and speculative literatures of the 20th and 21st centuries, from Surrealism to contemporary science fiction and feminist utopias, in Metropolitan France and the francophone Caribbean. Their monograph Posthumanist Ecology in Global French Surrealism is forthcoming in 2027 from Northwestern University Press.

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In Constructing Christendom: Conquest and Diocese Formation in Medieval Iberia (U Pennsylvania Press, 2026), Dr. Thomas W. Barton examines how church leaders partnered with lay rulers to integrate lands conquered from the Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula from the ninth through the fourteenth centuries. In tracing the intricate developmental histories of a cluster of competitive neighboring bishoprics, Dr. Barton reveals how rival factions fought over new territory by asserting that it belonged to their foundations according to ancient precedent. Wielding self-interested, manipulated recollections of the organization of the Visigothic church that had predated the eighth-century Muslim conquest did more than further these local territorial battles; it helped promote a shared revisionist Christian historical vision that delegitimized non-Christian rule and emphasized the elemental, divinely ordained centrality of papal authority.

Based on over a decade of research and drawing on documentation from numerous underutilized local archives, Constructing Christendom presents the unwritten histories of these foundations to demonstrate how such local efforts to expand Latin Christendom’s frontiers and establish or enlarge dioceses came to be associated with the reordering of the ecclesiastical hierarchy and the solidification of a cohesive European Christian identity. Despite the persistence of some unique features deriving from the formational histories of these frontier bishoprics, the overarching trend, Dr. Barton finds, was toward gradual homogenization, as dioceses on Christendom’s periphery and established ones situated closer to its core increasingly came to resemble one another in terms of their administrative and cultural attributes and relationships to papacy-centric governance.

This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.

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