by Maurine Jensen Proctor

Growing up in Communist-held Czechoslovakia, Olga Kovarova knew religion was against the law.

When had it happened? In a moment when she had hardly noticed it, Olga Kovarova had become an atheist, pounded and shaped into emptiness by the Communist school system she hated. She was a twenty-one year-old sitting in a Czechoslovakian park in 1981 secretly reading a book about God, when it hit her. “Ten thousand times repeated, a lie becomes true,” she thought. Just as her nation had been held in Communism’s iron grip for a generation, so had her heart. The questions that would have lead her to God, the feelings that sprung naturally to her heart about life’s meaning had all been stifled.

“It was hard to admit it, but it was bitterly true,” she said. Her soul was like many of the churches she saw. Because of the Communist regime,

Video Review: Avalon
by Karl Bowman and Jonathan Walker

A Polish immigrant struggles to keep his family together amidst tensions in their new land of America.

As the turning of the millennium approaches, the world feels an intense anticipation, whether self-inspired or created by the media. This week we searched for a film to review which would tie into the hype. Then we realized that, although Y2K seems like a galactic event, the fact is our lives will not change that much. However, this special new year does bring a wonderful opportunity to reflect on where we’ve been and look forward to where we’re headed. When we do so, we will find that our happiness has consisted of loved-ones and the small and simple moments we have shared. So we chose to review “Avalon.”

If you’ve seen the film, you might suggest it would best be reviewed near the Fourth

The Business of Heart
by Michael J. Glauser

Mick Shannon and his partner Joe Lake are the founders of the Childrens Miracle Network, an organization that raises $200 million a year for children’s hospitals across America. The organization’s success is a miracle itself. Starting off with nothing more than a dream, Mick and Joe traveled across America for three years setting up an elaborate network of television stations, children’s hospitals, and corporate sponsors. Today, the Children’s Miracle Network produces the largest television fund-raiser in the world. Brandon Tartikoff, the former president of NBC Entertainment, referred to the telethon as “the finest live television show produced.” Here’s the story:

[Mick Shannon]

Right out of college, I went to work for the March of Dimes in Boise, Idaho. Five years later, I moved to the March of Dimes in Salt Lake City. At the time, the Utah organization was doing a local

Your Life Insurance Calculator
by Richard P. Halverson

You don’t just guess at the size of your clothing; why guess at the amount of life insurance you need?

Right at this point I should have some really clever line that would encourage you to read this article. But this is not an entertaining article. This article is intended to help you determine if you need additional life insurance and how much. It is probably only slightly more fun to read than your 1040 Instruction Manual. Well if I haven’t chased you away by now you are probably the person this article was written for.

More than almost any product I know people determine the amount of life insurance they purchase by buying an amount that sounds like a good number. This is like buying a suit and ordering a size just because sounds good without making any attempt to find

Devouring Fire: Volcanoes and Scripture
by John P. Pratt
Meridian Science Editor

The United States has more potentially dangerous volcanoes than any other country except for Japan and Indonesia.

The cover story of Discover magazine for November 1999 reviews evidence that there are several very dangerous volcanoes in the United States which are being largely ignored. The cover proclaims the warning, “When Mount Rainier blows – and it will – 100,000 people will have less than an hour to get out of the way.” It points out that Mt. Rainier erupts “every 500 years or so, spewing five-story-high avalanches of mud ice, trees, and boulders down river valleys that lead right to the suburbs of Seattle and Tacoma. And that’s if the beast – now 100 years overdue – burps. If it really blows its top, no one is quite sure what will happen.”1

The article goes on to note …

When the Rain Falls Hard
by Maurine Jensen Proctor

It’s that time of year again, when Christmas lights are strung against the dark, good smells fill the air, and Claudia and Steve Goodman are caught in memory. It was on a Sunday afternoon in December 1996, when the world was busy celebrating the Savior, that their little red Diahatsu was struck broadside in an intersection, smashed and twisted like a tin can, thrown into a field, and three of their children David, 12: Peter, 11; and LeAnne, 10 were killed. Two other daughters, Aimee and Andrea were life flighted to local hospitals, not expected to live, and Steve would only remember a bright light and the whirr of the life flight helicopter before pain was absorbed in the darkness of unconsciousness.

It was an accident filled with irony. Christmas, we think, should somehow be a time of protection, when the