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─────── January 21, 2026 ───────

Happy Wednesday!
Here at TPO, we love the local church. And we really love when one of our very own is involved in planting one! 

Our Partnerships Manager, Elly, and her husband, Ryan, have a heart for serving college students in Santa Barbara, one of the most-needed mission fields in the U.S.

Learn more about their church plant here!

QUOTE OF THE DAY
“If we grow wiser and more learned in our intercourse with wise and learned persons, how much more will we gain in our inner life by communicating with God in prayer.”
Huldrych Zwingli

ESPRESSO SHOTS

U.S. NEWS

Cities Church Protest

The DOJ has launched an investigation after anti-ICE protesters disrupted a Minnesota church service.

Nearly 40 protesters interrupted St. Paul’s Cities Church on Sunday, leading to tense confrontations as protesters shouted things like “ICE out” and “Justice for Renee Good” at worshipers. Activists say they were there to protest David Easterwood, a pastor at the church and the acting field director of the local ICE office. Easterwood was named among others in a class-action lawsuit filed last week that alleges "unlawful policies and practices" by ICE in Minnesota.

The St. Paul Police are investigating the “disorderly conduct,” while the DOJ probes whether the protesters violated the FACE Act, which makes it a federal crime to intimidate anyone “seeking to exercise the First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship.”

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ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE
Moments like these can stir up fear in places meant to be a sanctuary. Take courage, remembering that God is with you and has already delivered you in Christ. And remember your brothers and sisters around the world who cannot gather for worship without fearing for their lives—pray for their encouragement.

“This I know: God is for me. In God, whose word I praise, in the LORD, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mere humans do to me?... For you rescued me from death, even my feet from stumbling, to walk before God in the light of life.”
Psalm 56:9-13 (CSB) (read full passage)

SPORTS

Zero to Hero

For the first time in school history, the Indiana Hoosiers are College Football’s National Champions. 

Top-seed IU defeated the #10 Miami Hurricanes 27-21 Monday night, featuring a gutsy fourth-down touchdown from Heisman-winning QB Fernando Mendoza (see it here), who went on to snag game MVP. 

The dub concludes the Hoosiers’ season with a 16-0 record (the first major conference 16-0 team since Yale in 1894) and completes a historic turnaround for the former Big Ten bottom-feeder; historically a basketball school, Indiana entered the season with the most losses in college football. 

Meanwhile, the NFL’s continuing its favorite off-season game: head coach musical chairs. After leading the Buffalo Bills to eight playoffs and zero Super Bowl wins in nine years, Coach Sean McDermott was fired Monday, leaving six top playcalling seats still vacant in the league. 

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Verse to consider whether you’re celebrating a Cinderella story, holding out for next season… or you’d rather just read a good book: “Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in everything; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (CSB) (read full passage)

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WORLD NEWS

Alpine Awkwardness

World leaders gathered in Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum, might experience high altitude tensions.  

President Trump is doubling down on grabbing Greenland, saying Monday, “the world is not secure” unless Uncle Sam has “complete and total control” of the Arctic island. 

Adding to the iciness, Trump criticized Britain’s recent move to transfer control of the Indian Ocean-based Chagos Islands—home to a key U.S./U.K. military base—back to the country of Mauritius (see map). #47 says the Brits’ cession of the archipelago is an “act of great stupidity” that makes Greenland even more essential for countering China and Russia.

Stateside, three U.S. cardinals weighed in, calling for a “genuinely moral foreign policy” and warning against using military power except as a last resort.

Discussions in Davos will continue through Friday.

 (We’re covering tensions over Greenland at a 7th-grade reading level with biblical reflection and action steps in Decaf: The Pour Over for Families. Sign up free to get it in your inbox tomorrow!)

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ABOVE ALL, LOVE
Most of us have very little control over geopolitics. But all of us have control over how we show up for our loved ones, those we’ve recently met, those we pass by, and even those we’d rather avoid. Invest in what you can control—and do so with love.

Love one another deeply as brothers and sisters. Take the lead in honoring one another. Share with the saints in their needs; pursue hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
Romans 12:10,13-14 (CSB) (read full passage)

IN OTHER BREWS…

An “extremely strange” train crash in Spain on Sunday left at least 42 dead, 122 injured, and investigators puzzled. In the southern Andalusia region, a high-speed train derailed and struck another oncoming train; both were traveling under the speed limit on a flat stretch of straight, recently renovated track. Investigators say a faulty rail joint is “key” to determining the crash’s cause. 

Valentino Garavani, the “last emperor” of high fashion, died at 93 Monday. Known for his signature “Valentino red,” the Italian designer dressed royalty and red-carpet, including Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Princess Diana, and Elizabeth Taylor, over a nearly seven-decade career (see some of his iconic gowns). Peers honored Valentino as “one of the last great designers of the modern day.”

China’s baby bust hit a record low. A Monday data dump showed Chinese births fell 17% in 2025, with births-per-1,000 people hitting their lowest since modern-record-keeping was born in 1949. Despite subsidies, tax hikes on contraceptives, and other pro-birth campaigns, a slowing economy and one-child-policy aftershocks persist—raising alarms about how China will support a rapidly growing retiree population.

Brrr… it’s cold in here. There’s been an arctic blast in the atmosphere, bringing wind chills in the subzero double digits across the Midwest. In Michigan, snowy conditions caused a non-fatal 100-car pileup on I-196. And things are about to get colder: Millions are bracing for Winter Storm Fern, which could blow snow and ice from Texas to New York.

The markets are getting cold feet over Greenland. Stocks took a cold plunge yesterday (DOW -1.8%, S&P 500 -2.1%, and Nasdaq -2.4%) after President Trump threatened new tariffs on countries that oppose Uncle Sam’s ownership of the mineral-rich Arctic island. Tech companies, many of which rely on rare-earth minerals, were hit hardest.

WHIPPED CREAM ON TOP

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