By Christy Barritt

Janitor Saves Nursing Home Residents 

A stay-at-home dad in California decided to work as a janitor at a local nursing home so he could buy Christmas presents for his children. Yet he never expected to become a hero.

In October, the state suspended the operating license of a Castro Valley nursing home because of safety and health violations. The owner and staff walked out, leaving the residents without care. 

Only two employees stayed: 33-year-old Miguel Alvarez and a friend who’d gotten him the job there. They knew they couldn’t leave the 19 residents still at the home, so they changed, fed, and comforted the abandoned seniors.

Many locals have called Alvarez and his friend heroes after they stayed at the home for two days until sheriff’s deputies and firefighters eventually came to rescue the residents. Alvarez said he treated the residents how he would have wanted his grandfather to be treated if he were in that situation.

Christian Church in India Growing Rapidly 

According to Operation World, Christianity is growing by nearly 4 percent a year in India, making it by far the fastest growing of all major religions in that country.

Christianity is especially emerging at a rapid rate among middle- and high-caste Indians, as well as young people, according to the report. In the past, Christianity was mostly limited to lower castes.

India is currently the second most populous nation on earth, with more than 1.2 billion residents. Most of the country’s population is Hindu at 74 percent; 14 percent say they’re Muslim; only 6 percent claim to be Christians.

Despite the low percentage, this still means that, given its high population, India is now the eighth largest Christian nation in the world, according to The Mission Society. However, the group also said that India still has more people groups unreached with the Gospel than any other nation—88 percent of its population.

Beautiful Wife, Beautiful Life?

A new study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology claims that spousal attractiveness plays a major role in marital satisfaction—but only for men. The results showed that men care about looks more than women do.

The study’s author wrote, “The significant effect of wives’ attractiveness on husbands’ satisfaction was significantly stronger than the non-significant effect of husbands’ attractiveness on wives’ satisfaction, indicating that partner physical attractiveness played a larger role in predicting husbands’ martial satisfaction than it did in predicting wives’ martial satisfaction.”

Attractive wives also reported higher levels of satisfaction, mostly because having a happy husband also made them happier.

The study’s author, psychologist Andrea Meltzer, tracked over 450 newlywed couples over the course of four years for the study.

Most Corrupt Countries in the World

Transparency International, a global civil society organization leading the fight against corruption, released its index of most corrupt countries.

The organization scored countries based on expert opinions about perceived levels of corruption. They evaluated 177 countries and ranked them from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).

Not one country got a perfect score, and more than two-thirds scored less than 50. Leading the way as most corrupt was Afghanistan, North Korea, and Somalia. They each tied at 8 points.

Denmark, New Zealand, and Finland were the least corrupt. The United States came in as the 19th least corrupt with a score of 73.

Transparency International took into consideration factors such as children being denied education and elections decided by money instead of votes.

Christy Barritt is an award-winning author, freelance writer, and speaker living in Chesapeake, Virginia. She and her husband Scott have two sons.
www.christybarritt.com