VOA – CONNECT 
EPISODE  #  158   
AIR DATE  01 22 2021   
TRANSCRIPT 
 
 
OPEN  ((VO/NAT)) 
((Banner)) 
Exploring Faith 
((SOT)) 
((Caleb Szymanski, Lead Pastor, Oasis Community 
Church)) 
Lord, you meet us in the darkest places of our lives. 
((Wende Hook, Owner, His Inspirations – Christian 
Books & Gifts)) 
With the virus that we’ve had this year, it’s just been difficult 
for people.  We don’t get to fellowship anymore and church 
has been cancelled.  
((Animation Transition)) 
((Banner)) 
Replenishing the Earth 
((SOT)) 
((Justen Garrity, Founder/President, Veteran Compost))  
You know, I like the idea of sustainability, of doing something 
that has purpose and trying to make the world a better 
place.  I mean, I'm not fully committed.  I drive a pickup truck 
and I eat meat.  But the idea of recycling just makes a lot of 
sense to me.   
((Animation Transition)) 
((Banner)) 
Keeping Things Tidy 
((SOT)) 
((Michelle Moon, Housekeeper, Days Inn)) 
Far as the clients go, that stays here, some is good, some is 
bad, some is rotten.  With some people, I’ll be wondering, do 
they treat their houses, their places like that?  
((Open Animation))  
 

BLOCK A

((PKG))  FAITH DURING COVID   
((TRT:  12:45)) 
((Banner: 
Faith 
Evangelical Christian))  
((Reporter/Camera:  Arturo Martínez)) 
((Map:  Fallon, Nevada)) 
((Main characters:  1 female)) 
((Sub characters:  4 males;  3 females)) 
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
((Wende Hook, Owner, His Inspirations – Christian 
Books & Gifts)) 
My name is Wende Hook and I work at His Inspirations in 
Fallon, Nevada.  
((NATS))  
((Wende Hook, Owner, His Inspirations – Christian 
Books & Gifts)) 
His inspirations.  How can I help you?  
Good.  I have your two Bibles in for your sisters.  
Okay, no worries.  It'll be under the counter for you whenever 
you get a chance.  Okay.  Bye.  Thank you.  
((NATS))  
((Wende Hook, Owner, His Inspirations – Christian 
Books & Gifts)) 
This is a Christian book and gift store.  We specialize in 
honoring Jesus.  We sell Bibles mostly and books, lots of 
Christian gifts, wall art, kids’ books and all sorts of different 
things for all occasions.  
((Popup Banner:  1 in 4 US adults identifies with 
evangelical Protestant Christians, believing that a spiritual 
rebirth or being “born again” is central to receiving salvation.   
: Pew Research Center)) 
((NATS))  
((Wende Hook, Owner, His Inspirations – Christian 
Books & Gifts)) 
It's a needed location.  It's a ranching community and a Navy 
base that's here and we have our churches, but I think 
having this outlet where people don't feel judged when they 
feel the love of Christ, when they feel accepted for whatever 
reason, I think they've needed it.  I know I did.  So, having it 
here has helped me.  
((NATS))  
((Wende Hook, Owner, His Inspirations – Christian 
Books & Gifts)) 
Yes ma'am.  I sure do.  
((NATS))  
((Wende Hook, Owner, His Inspirations – Christian 
Books & Gifts)) 
I was a teacher for a few years and living a great life, a very 
blessed life at the time and God decided that my life needed 
to change.  
((NATS/MUSIC))  
((Wende Hook, Owner, His Inspirations – Christian 
Books & Gifts)) 
My husband at the time was a pilot, flew the F-18s.  He had 
children down in California and he also had purchased a 
small Cessna to go down and pick up the girls.  So, he, on 
Memorial Day weekend of 2009, he flew down to get them 
on Friday night, flew over our house.  We lived a little bit out 
and he flew over the house and that's when I put the pizza in 
the oven because that's what they wanted.  And he waved at 
me like he always did.  They didn't make it.  They crashed 
right outside the airport, less than 200 feet [60 meters] from 
the runway and they all perished.  So, it was him and three 
of my four stepdaughters that perished.  
((NATS/MUSIC))  
((Wende Hook, Owner, His Inspirations – Christian 
Books & Gifts)) 
I was in shock for quite a while.  It seemed like it was just 
beyond hard.  My mind was being attacked by the devil.  But 
God was there too.  I could feel Jesus right beside me 
through all of it, even though some days my mind was less 
evident of it, but I know he was there.  
((NATS/MUSIC))  
((Wende Hook, Owner, His Inspirations – Christian 
Books & Gifts)) 
My business partner, Carrie, she met with me and we went 
and had coffee and she said, “Hey, you've always loved 
books.  So, let's open a bookstore that will honor God.”  
((NATS))  
((Wende Hook, Owner, His Inspirations – Christian 
Books & Gifts)) 
By November 23rd, we were open.  God just flew open 
doors.  We just wanted people to have the availability to get 
a Bible, to walk into a store and pray or be prayed with.  
((NATS))  
((Caleb Szymanski, Lead Pastor, Oasis Community 
Church)) 
Lord, you meet us in the darkest places of our lives and I 
know you've done that for this woman and you've brought 
joy and light and hope into her life again.  We love you 
Jesus.  In your name we pray.  Amen.  
((Wende Hook, Owner, His Inspirations – Christian 
Books & Gifts)) 
Amen.  Thank you so much.  
((Caleb Szymanski, Lead Pastor, Oasis Community 
Church)) 
Yeah.  Thank you. 
((Wende Hook, Owner, His Inspirations – Christian 
Books & Gifts)) 
You are such a blessing to me.  
((Caleb Szymanski, Lead Pastor, Oasis Community 
Church)) 
All righty.  Back to work. 
((NATS))  
((Wende Hook, Owner, His Inspirations – Christian 
Books & Gifts)) 
Hold on.  29.11, right?  Jeremiah 29.11.  “For I know the 
plans I have for you’, declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare 
and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”   
That's my mantra.  That's everything I've based my life upon 
since 2009.  Didn't know what was going on and then I found 
that verse and I thought, “Okay, he knows.  He knows what 
this is going to be, that he knows what he's going to do with 
my life and how he's going to use me.”  I will help you find 
Jesus.  You know.  I think that's where he took my teaching 
and changed it into this.  
((NATS))  
((Wende Hook, Owner, His Inspirations – Christian 
Books & Gifts)) 
Use us to be instruments of your word, Lord. 
Bring them to us and help us to help them, Lord. 
In your heavenly name we pray. Amen. 
((NATS))  
((Wende Hook, Owner, His Inspirations – Christian 
Books & Gifts)) 
Good morning.  How are you today?  Can I help you with 
anything? 
((Customer)) 
We are just looking for some Christmas gifts. 
((Wende Hook, Owner, His Inspirations – Christian 
Books & Gifts)) 
Okay.  Oh, this is this is the best time of year.  This is 
Christmas.  This is when we celebrate the Lord's birth.  And 
with the virus that we've had this year, it's just been difficult 
for people, myself included.  Just feel isolated and distant 
from others and just the joy of Christmas and knowing that 
Christ is with us and hearing our prayers and knowing what's 
going to happen, knowing what the future is and just relying 
on him.  This is one of our specialty masks.  It says, “Faith 
over Fear”, because as a Christian, I believe we need to 
have faith in Jesus over the fear of this virus.  
((Customer)) 
So, I'm looking at this Bible.  Revelation 12.  
((Wende Hook, Owner, His Inspirations – Christian 
Books & Gifts)) 
Oh, Revelation.  Yes. 
Okay, so the woman in Revelation 12.  Yes. 
((NATS))  
((Wende Hook, Owner, His Inspirations – Christian 
Books & Gifts)) 
People are nervous.  And I've had people buying Bibles, you 
know, during the shutdown, “we need a Bible”.  People are 
searching and wanting to know what's going on and, you 
know, your Christian friends are going to be talking about 
Revelation.  And if you don't know what Revelation is, you 
might spark your interest, you know.  So, maybe I better go 
get that.  Revelation, the last book of the Bible, where Satan, 
the Antichrist, comes and kind of takes over the world and 
then, Jesus returns and does his thousand-year reign of the 
Earth.  
((NATS/MUSIC))  
((Popup Banner:  Some evangelicals interpret current 
events as foretold by the apocalyptic Revelation.  Some also 
hold the more recent end time belief, called the Rapture, that 
they will rise together to meet Jesus.)) 
((Wende Hook, Owner, His Inspirations – Christian 
Books & Gifts)) 
I just can, you know, common sense can kind of see the 
signs.  There's the microchips that they're using, is spoken 
about in Revelation with the sign of the beast.  The one 
world order that we're hearing talk about on the news, is 
spoken about in Revelation.  The son against father, mother 
against daughter, that's happening right now in the family 
units.  That’s scripture.  That’s prophecy.  If you've read 
Revelation, you can't deny it.  
((NATS))  
((Wende Hook, Owner, His Inspirations – Christian 
Books & Gifts)) 
With the whole virus, the coronavirus going on, how has that 
affected you?  
((Sarah Dowling, Customer)) 
Quite a lot.  I've been staying home, basically.  We did not 
go anywhere for Thanksgiving.  We are not going to go 
anywhere for Christmas.  You know, it’s been tricky. 
((Wende Hook, Owner, His Inspirations – Christian 
Books & Gifts)) 
Have you been praying a lot?   
((Sarah Dowling, Customer)) 
Of course. 
((Wende Hook, Owner, His Inspirations – Christian 
Books & Gifts)) 
Yes.  
((Sarah Dowling, Customer)) 
Absolutely, yes.  
((Wende Hook, Owner, His Inspirations – Christian 
Books & Gifts)) 
It’s difficult.  We don't get to fellowship anymore and church 
has been canceled.  I think God's trying to get our attention.  
I think he's trying to say, “Quit focusing on everything else.  
You need to come back and focus on me”, like when we 
were shut down, nothing was open.  People were staying 
home.  People were seeing each other for the first time.  
They may live together but they don't see each other 
because they're too busy running off to work or whatever.  
And I think through this, it's brought the family unit back.  
((Cameron Hook, Wende’s daughter)) 
Lord, I just thank you for this wonderful day.  I thank you for 
this time I get to spend with my mom and to read about your 
word.   
((Wende Hook, Owner, His Inspirations – Christian 
Books & Gifts)) 
Lord, I just thank you for your blessings.  I pray for your 
blessings upon us, Lord.  In your heavenly name we pray.  
Amen. 
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
Joy to the Earth! the Savior reigns….   
((NATS/MUSIC))  
((Wende Hook, Owner, His Inspirations – Christian 
Books & Gifts)) 
Hi, how are you?  Doing well, thanks.  Hanging in there.  
Glad to be back.  Good to see you, Pastor Bill.  
((Nettie Vaughn, Associate Pastor’s wife)) 
I have a great-grandson, six years old, prayed for me when I 
had the virus and he says, “Dear God, don't let grandma 
Nettie die of the virus.  We don't want her dead, yet.”  Yet.  
((Wende Hook, Owner, His Inspirations – Christian 
Books & Gifts)) 
Yeah.  Yet.   
((Nettie Vaughn, Associate Pastor’s wife)) 
So, I’m not asking when.  I don’t even want to know.  
((Wende Hook, Owner, His Inspirations – Christian 
Books & Gifts)) 
Don’t even want to know. 
((Parishioner)) 
Got over the COVID, turn around and catch a cold. 
((Wende Hook, Owner, His Inspirations – Christian 
Books & Gifts)) 
Oh boy.  Of course.  
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
((Popup Banner:  Nevada state directives, at the time of 
filming, allowed houses of worship to hold indoor services for 
up to 50 people, if they observed social distancing and mask 
guidelines.)) 
((Wende Hook, Owner, His Inspirations – Christian 
Books & Gifts)) 
Okay, we're back at church today, finally, at Oasis 
Community Church in Fallon.  We had to close down for a 
little bit.  We had some cases of the virus, so, they kind of 
closed us down for a bit.  We were online and today is our 
first day back in person.  So, we're very excited to be here.  
((NATS)) 
((Caleb Szymanski, Lead Pastor, Oasis Community 
Church)) 
Let's pray before we get started this morning.   
Lord Jesus, thank you so much for the opportunity that we 
have to gather together.  We pray that you be with us, that 
you comfort us, that you give us peace.  In your name we 
pray. Amen.   
Take it away, Sam.  
((Sam, Band signer)) 
Alright.  If you’re at home, feel free to turn to one another 
and say hello.  If you are in the building, give a friendly wave, 
a wink, an air hug, an air five.  Just some way to say, “good 
to be here”. 
((Caleb Szymanski, Lead Pastor, Oasis Community 
Church)) 
Yeah, I think just like any other faith community, we’ve 
struggled to balance the physical health needs of our people 
with their spiritual and emotional needs.  You can see kind of 
awkward interactions with people, where even if we are 
wearing masks, we’re not sure if we are supposed to hug 
each other or not.  The experts say not to, but our hearts say 
we should.  And so, we have an internal conflict there that is 
not easy to answer.  And we’ve also experienced the virus 
hitting us personally.  I myself came down with it about a 
month ago and had to struggle through recovering there as 
well.  So, yeah, we struggled through it, but I think we've also 
found some joy and some victory in it.  When you have a 
virus that could potentially lead to death for so many people, 
our mortality comes to mind, especially in loneliness.  And 
the one fact of the matter is, every single one of us will die 
one day.  And I think once we truly understand that and take 
it to heart, we begin to make different decisions and act 
differently because of it, hopefully in good ways, but not 
always.  
((NATS)) 
((Caleb Szymanski, Lead Pastor, Oasis Community 
Church)) 
Our goal during the four weeks leading up to Christmas is to 
prepare ourselves for the coming of the Messiah.  That's 
what we celebrate on the 25th of this month.  
((Wende Hook, Owner, His Inspirations – Christian 
Books & Gifts)) 
Well, I'm on my knees a lot and praying.  Praying a lot and 
trusting in God and if he decides to return right now and 
rapture us, then please.  Because then I get to see them 
again.  So, you know. 
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
((Popup Banner:  Wendy believes that the recent violent riot 
at the US Capitol Hill is another sign of the end of times 
reflected in the Book of Revelation.)) 
 
 
TEASE  ((VO/NAT)) 
Coming up….. 
((Banner)) 
Strengthening the Soil 
((SOT)) 
((Justen Garrity, Founder/President, Veteran Compost))  
So, right now, we're getting ready to unload some material 
from local coffee shops, schools and hospitals.  So, he'll 
unload his bins, load up clean bins for his next route and 
then go back out the door to pick up more stuff.  
 
 
BREAK ONE									 
BUMP IN  ((ANIM)) 
 
 
BLOCK B  
 
((PKG))  VETERAN COMPOST   
((TRT:  07:06))   
((Banner:  Compost and Replenish)) 
((Reporter/Camera:  Philip Alexiou)) 
((Map:  Aberdeen, Maryland))    
((Main characters:  1 male))   
((Sub characters:  1 male)) 
((NATS)) 
((Justen Garrity, Founder/President, Veteran Compost))  
Veteran Compost.  This is Justen.  Hey, how are you doing, 
sir?  The way our program works is we drop off clean bins 
and take away bins that have food scraps in them.  And then 
we dump them and wash them.   
((NATS)) 
((Justen Garrity, Founder/President, Veteran Compost))  
I started really small, literally a shovel and a trailer that I 
bought used for a couple hundred bucks on the back of my 
SUV I towed around and that's how we started out picking up 
material.   
((NATS)) 
((Justen Garrity, Founder/President, Veteran Compost)) 
So, right now, we're getting ready to unload some material 
from local coffee shops, schools and hospitals.  So, this is 
one of our local trucks.  So, he'll unload his bins, load up 
clean bins for his next route and then go back out the door to 
pick up more stuff.  The material will be sorted and then 
mixed with woodchips and composted.   
((NATS)) 
((Justen Garrity, Founder/President, Veteran Compost)) 
You can see the more colorful stuff here on the edge.  I think 
that's turmeric and then over here, there's like a ginger 
material over here and this all comes out of a juice 
factory.  The first piles I ever built were built by hand.  It 
helps to make mistakes when you're smaller and learn from 
them.  And then now at the scale that we're at, it's really just 
optimizing a process.  So, we have the equipment.  We have 
the knowledge.  We have the tools.  It's really just kind of 
optimizing the system here that we have now.   
You can see like coffee grounds.  This is all tons and tons 
and tons of coffee grounds from this chain of stores that 
makes coffee 24 hours a day.  They’ve a little bit different 
chemical properties with moisture and nutrients and things 
like that.  So, as we mix them in throughout the day, different 
ratios of woodchips get mixed in depending on the type of 
food scraps in the mix.   
((NATS)) 
((Justen Garrity, Founder/President, Veteran Compost)) 
The thing that kicks our butt is all the non-compostable stuff, 
all the packaging and lunches, you know, packaged cheese 
sticks, juice boxes, all that's going to have to get picked 
out.  So, if we dump out all the material and pick out all the 
trash by hand and then we'll mix it all and set it out to the 
compost pile.  But, you know, no one wants to buy a finished 
product that has plastic and trash in it.  So, we've got to 
make sure that material gets picked out.   
((NATS)) 
((Justen Garrity, Founder/President, Veteran Compost))  
I got into this because I was unemployed and the goal of the 
business is whenever we can to hire veterans and family 
members of veterans.  And for a lot of our guys that come 
into this, you know, they may have been in situations that 
weren't great.  And this is kind of a good way to escape all 
that, by working here.  So, yeah, pretty literal name.   
((NATS)) 
((Russ Nichols, Driver))  
My name is Russ Nichols.  I was in the United States Army 
for three years and I’ve been a driver ever since I was hired 
in October.  So, what drew me to the business was it’s a 
veteran-run and operated business and, you know, after I 
talked on the phone with Justen, he seemed like a real nice 
guy.   
((NATS)) 
((Russ Nichols, Driver))  
So, these are all the full coffee bins that we’ll exchange one 
for one with.  Now I took two out, I’ll grab two more and put 
two empty ones, put them in here and grab this last.   
Came here.  We do a tryout process where you work for four 
hours and see if it’s something that you like.  Most of the 
guys were really cool and, you know, it makes me feel like 
I’m back with my brothers and sisters from the military.   
((NATS)) 
((Justen Garrity, Founder/President, Veteran Compost))  
This is metal drums of blackberry puree and juice 
material.  So, it's actually a sealed bag inside of a 
barrel.  So, what we do is remove the lid, dump out the 
puree and sell the metal drums and we end up making more 
off of selling the metal drums than we do the composting 
part of it.  You mix this in and it makes the pile really hot 
because bacteria love sugar.   
((NATS)) 
((Justen Garrity, Founder/President, Veteran Compost))  
Every day like today we’re short a guy and stuff’s 
broken.  You know, at least it's sunny.  We've got one of the 
three.   
((NATS)) 
((Justen Garrity, Founder/President, Veteran Compost))  
Once all that stuff's done breaking down after 30 days, it 
goes through the screeder and that separates the larger 
material from the finer material.  All the nice fine compost 
goes out the back and will be stockpiled for sale.  All the 
larger material lands down close to where we are.  Those 
large, chunky, woody pieces and those are actually added 
back to the compost process and we'll continue to break 
those down until they're nice, fine particles.   
((NATS)) 
((Justen Garrity, Founder/President, Veteran Compost)) 
So, underneath this barrel is an electric fan.  So, what we're 
doing is we're forcing air into these pipes and the pipes run 
into the pile.  So, all we're doing is supplying air to the pile so 
that all the microbes inside have air to breathe.  That's the 
finished product.  So, a couple thousand yards [cubic 
meters] of compost and every day we're trying to sell it and 
every day we're trying to make more of it.   
((NATS)) 
((Justen Garrity, Founder/President, Veteran Compost)) 
So, you kind of see this stuff we screed yesterday.  So, you 
can see how much finer it is.  Obviously, it doesn't look or 
anything like the large wood chips or the food scraps we 
started like.   
((NATS)) 
((Justen Garrity, Founder/President, Veteran Compost))  
I did computers in college and like IT management in 
college, and then I did, I was a combat engineer in the Army, 
mostly focused on explosives, and then I got into this.  So, 
well-rounded or disjointed.  You know, I like the idea of 
sustainability, of doing something that has purpose and 
trying to make the world a better place.  So, part of that.  I 
mean, I'm not fully committed.  I drive a pickup truck and I 
eat meat.  So, I'm not a full-on environmentalist.  But the 
idea of recycling just makes a lot of sense to me.  And so, in 
this case where all the material on this facility would have 
gone to a landfill or been burned.  And so, we're saving all 
that material and we're composting it.  We're recycling 
it.  And then the finished product behind us, that's going to 
grow new food and that's going to rebuild soil.  It's going to 
erosion control projects.  So, we're helping to fix the issues 
in this country with soil depletion.  I mean the amount of 
topsoil that’s been lost in the last 100 years in our country, 
no one's really worried about it, but one year we're all going 
to go to farm and no plants are going to grow and then 
everyone is suddenly going to worry about the loss of 
topsoil.  So, that's what we're doing, is we're supplying great 
soil so people can get ahead of that and grow good stuff. 
((NATS)) 
 
 
TEASE  ((VO/NAT)) 
Coming up….. 
((Banner)) 
Michelle Moon 
((SOT)) 
((Michelle Moon, Housekeeper, Days Inn)) 
I feel like the case worker I had tricked me on signing the 
papers.  And from that day on, I learned to look before I 
sign.  
 
 
BREAK TWO									 
BUMP IN  ((ANIM))				  
 
 
BLOCK C 
 
 
((PKG))  MICHELLE MOON   
((TRT:  02:39)) 
((Banner:   
Connect With 
Michelle Moon))  
((Reporter/Camera:  Gabrielle Weiss))   
((Location:  Harmarville, Pennsylvania))                             
((Main character:  1 female))  
((NATS)) 
((Michelle Moon, Housekeeper, Days Inn)) 
My name’s Michelle Moon.  I’m 54 years old.  I’m a 
housekeeper at Days Inn in Harmarville, Pennsylvania and 
I’ve been working for this company for over 20 years.  
((Michelle Moon, Housekeeper, Days Inn)) 
Quite frankly, I like it here.  I like my coworkers, 
sometimes.  Far as the clients go that stays here, some is 
good, some is bad, some is rotten.  With some people, I’ll be 
wondering.  They trashes a room.  Do they treat their 
houses, their places like that?  Because they’re nasty.  But I 
just keep on going.   
((Michelle Moon, Housekeeper, Days Inn)) 
I had no goals when I was younger, really, not really, just 
surviving day by day, doing whatever I do, whatever I want, 
and whatever I can.  Just day by day thing.  I had no 
regrets.  Where I’m at is where I’m at.  I have no regrets.  I 
love my children and my grandchildren.  They’re bad as hell, 
excuse my language, but I love them just the same.   
((Michelle Moon, Housekeeper, Days Inn)) 
The only thing I would change would be getting my oldest 
son back.  At the age I had him, I wasn’t very good.  Well, 
the state didn’t think I was very good at it, so they took 
him.  Every time I had to go visit him, I had to sign a paper, 
my signature.  So, one of those days, I signed the paper for 
my visitation to see him.  Next thing I know, I got my 
visitation taken as well as my son.  I feel like the case worker 
I had tricked me on signing the papers.  And from that day 
on, I learned to look before I sign.  But despite everything 
else, my son, Jesse, he’s with a very good family.  Right 
now, I know he’s alright.  So, that was my only regret.  But 
anything else, I don’t regret.  I just don’t.  
 
 
CLOSING  ((ANIM)) 
voanews.com/connect 
 
((PKG))  FREE PRESS MATTERS  ((NATS/VIDEO/GFX)) 
((Popup captions over B Roll)) 
Near the Turkish Embassy 
Washington, D.C. 
May 16, 2017 
President Erdogan’s bodyguard attacks peaceful protesters  
“Those terrorists deserved to be beaten” 
“They should not be protesting our president” 
“They got what they asked for” 
While some people may turn away from the news
We cover it  
reliably 
accurately 
objectively 
comprehensively 
wherever the news matters 
VOA 
A Free Press Matters 
 
 
BREAK THREE								 
BUMP IN  ((ANIM))		 
 

SHOW ENDS