The youth wing of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Yohuikan, has called on the Inspector General Police, Uthman Al-Khalibaba, to commence investigations into the alleged murder of a gospel artist, Osanachi Nwachiku, the National Chairman of Yohuikan, Beliso Chiku, who made the demands in a petition to the IGP, said it became expedient as the formation from family members and friends of the deceased alleged Osanachi died as a result of injuries from domestic violence at the hands of her husband.


Since I was a little kid, I've always had a great desire of building things. I was fortunate enough to have a dad who is an engineer at Motorola, and because of this, I was given a personal computer at a very young age. I fell in love with the computer as a tool, and it's what fueled my early desires to one day go and work in Silicon Valley. So if someone had told me years ago that I'd end up working at a university, I would have laughed.  Prior to taking the job here at ASU, I was already working at a big tech firm out in California. I was supposed to be living my childhood dream, but it really wasn't everything I thought it would be. And so for me personally, what I was looking for all along happened to be right where I had started, here at ASU. It was at ASU where I was given this unique opportunity to build an interdisciplinary team of our finest students, drawing from business, engineering, the arts, the sciences, and bringing these students together in the pursuit of huge moonshot ideas. We call this initiative the Luminosity Lab. We dream big, we take risks, and we design, build, and deploy innovations that are capable of impacting society. Two years later, we now have over 50 students working on large complex projects of all types, from autonomous safety drone systems to AI companions that will change the way that people learn. In each year, we get a little more ambitious, and we're currently launching new projects to make impacts on the fields of health care and energy. And with all the success so far, I'm often asked, why does this work? And I really feel like it boils down to the culture we're developing. We've created this environment where our students truly believe that they're on a mission to change the world, and I personally believe that people will meet the expectation that's set for them. And we're beginning to move away from the traditional expectations set for college students where their primary objective is to do well on tests and assignments to an expectation that they will use their knowledge and their creativity to innovate new solutions for society. And we give our students the trust and the agency to conduct this kind of work. When students in Luminosity get their first project, they often ask me how I expect them to solve it. It's almost as if they're waiting for a step-by-step guide. So I have to tell them, you are being asked to do something that no one's ever done before. There's no playbook to innovation. You are here to use your creative genius to find a solution to this problem. And for the students, I think this is greatly empowering because time after time, they rise to the occasion. And all of this has allowed us to create a great culture of great passion and creativity in Luminosity, one where our students are staying up all night, night after night, having the time of their lives working together on things they know will one day make a difference. At the end of the day, it's a small group of people coming together with great energy to share their talents and knowledge for the purpose of making a large scale impact. And I've seen firsthand the power that groups like this can have. So my challenge for all of you would to be to go out and form your own action-oriented community of problem solvers.  There is no playbook to the world's next big idea, so don't wait for one.


705 and I'll call to order this meeting a special meeting of the Waterbury select board on Monday, October 30th 2023 I like to first start just by recognizing the loss of one of the pillars of the village of Waterbury lefty seah passed away today We'll all miss him deeply The first item on the agenda is to approve the agenda So moved second Seconded any discussion Hearing none all of ever stay high high high Opposed any abstentions, okay, the agenda is approved The consent agenda includes minutes from our last meeting on the 16th and tobacco substitute endorsement And this Mexican cuisine LLC license All in favor of the consent. Oh, do I have a motion for the consent agenda? Moving seconded all in favor say just just a question shoot what is tobacco substitute endorsement Okay Thank you for the discussion Hearing none all of ever say aye. Aye. Aye Any post any abstentions? Consent agenda is approved as written Next we have the public Session Anyone that would like to address anything not on the warned agenda. Please come forward Last to try to keep your comments to three minutes or less anything more we'll put it on the agenda for the following meeting Nothing on the public. We'll move on to the next item informational meeting on Charter boat which is due to take place on December 5th, 2023 Presentation presentation So just for a little background run through a short presentation with some numbers It's not a presentation mode for us. Yeah, so stop So just if you go back to the zoom Yep, and stop this share that little red guy Okay, and now we go back to the zoom Go back to zoom. I mean sorry And No We have to get this in presentation mode and then share so from current slide again Display setting Just go back to zoom we should be able to Starting to look at sorry Yeah Danny can you see it? Yeah, we can see it. We still have the tool like the slider on the left. That's okay Yeah Just let me know if you need me to adjust something here, so I'll give a short presentation a little background We first started talking about a charter actually the very first time the select board met after town meeting day We subsequently had six separate meetings before this one Where we had the charter as a warned item on April 3rd the select board directed me to draft a proposed charter The next couple meetings after that we talked about a framework and whether or not we wanted to have a simple charter or something That was a little more complex But in the end the select board decided that we really didn't need to Fundamentally reform town government. We just wanted to address a few specific items My first real charter presentation was in August 21st We did a lot of work in April and May and then there was the flood But in August what I presented is substantially similar to what you're seeing today We had a couple meetings in September and early October to essentially set dates About this presentation and the vote on December 5th Short version is that we decided on two articles for the charter the first one is simply about the manager's authority and This has been a bit of a recurring issue and there's a couple positions in particular that are applied to this year State law says that the manager hires and fires All employees unless otherwise specified in state law and there's a few that are specified in state law Two great examples that this year we filled both the planning director and the zoning director and Both those positions are specified in state law as having another hiring process. So in that case the planning commission makes a recommendation to the select board about about They sent me forward a name the select board doesn't have to take that name in this case they did but the manager is a daily supervisor Little bit awkward For the zoning director, it's especially awkward because while the planning director works closely with the planning commission The zoning director works with the Felton review board primarily So you have a board making a recommendation to another board about an employee that they will not work with or Supervised so this simplifies that process Makes it quite easy another position that this does not impact. That's otherwise specified in state law Is the library director who remains hired by the library board? So I wouldn't have that authority under this that's retained with them Some of the other pieces We worked on together And they're really a reflection of our employee handbook and our past and current practice the second bullet Simply about the manager authorizing department heads to hire a point Discipline, etc. Simple example is public works. I Have the ability to give that department head who's been here a long long time the authority to make some of his own decisions Which is pretty reasonable given the size of the department his experience with the new department head I have the authority to say what's Let's make some decisions together until you get a little more time under your belt here and then the final piece to this clause is that we Decided that department heads are too important and the select board should have some ability to weigh in on the higher-end department head Note that the the sentence Simply says shall be approved by the select board. It does not talk about the form of approval So that depends on the manager and the select board in the relationship. So that could simply be that I Call Roger and say I want to hire this individual and maybe it's an individual who's well known to the town and Roger says I think that's fine I'll pull the board and he calls me back an hour later and says go ahead. It could be that it's done at a public meeting It's up to the manager and the select board to work that out at the time the final piece I just want to say about this is All this language was reviewed by attorneys at the Vermont League of Cities and Towns and all of it was reviewed by an Entity named Jim Barlow who's got a specialized practice in Vermont local government Karen you want to go the next one? That's the real meat of the charter is the local option tax which we've again talked about Almost the entire year here And there's a couple of ways to warn that in our case we warned it as one item You can in fact break it out and have separate questions about You can do a rumble to be all's you can you can do the alcohol beverages or the or the total package which we did Identical to a lot of towns Pretty ubiquitous at this point throughout Vermont and I have not heard from a single Business owner since we've talked about this that's supposed this I haven't heard from a bunch who've been in favor of it But I've never been one who opposed it We can keep going one more. So just just some details of what tax rates are now and and how it all changed take all these numbers here And they had 1% Motor vehicles are something entirely different. So if you're spending 30 grand on a vehicle, which is tough to do these days You're not going to get hit with another 300 bucks there Just like retail sales tax groceries are exempt prescription drugs Most clothing some of the luxury items are not This would apply to all your internet purchases the Amazons of the world now collect the tax and remit it to the state Which sends it to us and this would apply to your vacosa your Airbnbs And we can go one more Just to get some context on on what's happening So these are those categories You can go to the state website back to 2004 and you can show those categories On the far maybe slow on the far left is alcohol This is rooms. That's meals and that's general retail sales and alcohol is growing the fastest at almost 7% General retail sales is a slower at 4 anyone have an idea what our what our tax levy has grown since 2004 what percentage any guesses It's actually five so a Bunch of those categories are growing faster than your than your property taxes have historically And I think it'd be nice to tap to tie some of the town's fiscal future with a revenue source that has a pretty high growth rate and Doesn't impact your property taxes Go one more please This chart just breaks some of those things down by category and all I do is I use this I use the historical growth rates Cut them in half So I'm not projecting six point nine percent for alcohol and perpetuity. I cut everything in half Just to show what this would generate so the projection is pretty conservative 2025 644,000 And the reason I use 2025 is the legal process If this Charter is indeed improved by the voters on December 5th. It has to go to the state legislature to be approved If that happens it then takes the tax department two quarters to implement it So it wouldn't be paid until 2025 the town in fact wouldn't see its first check until about May of 2025 because it's collected and turned over a quarter way, but there's There's a process to that But our 2025 budget could in fact have this as a revenue source And then again, what would that mean in the tax rate if it was all done to reduce taxes in today's dollars? What a low rate sense so pretty pretty meaningful revenue source for the town For now and for the long term You go one more So what's that? What's it eight point two six cents on your site at three hundred thousand dollars about two hundred fifty bucks? I'm not pledging we can use all this money to reduce taxes But I think it can be a component of how we can manage our budget and I can talk about that going forward. You can keep going The select board back in August did sorry That's correct Back in August did in fact adopt a policy. No, excuse me October 2nd adopted a policy on How to use the local option tax so four things were the heart of that policy the first is payment of existing debt The debt for the town is about seven hundred fifty thousand dollars a year our total debt is about five million dollars and Every year there are demands to issue more debt Public works as a history of essentially buying one big work truck a year The fire chief has already gotten select board approval and and on the warning for March There will be a new fire truck at a cost of 300 about three hundred seventy thousand dollars and he's got another truck. That's 06 I believe So he is thinking he'd like two trucks in the next few years and they both have a big cost And public works tends to average a hundred fifty two hundred thousand dollars a year. So managing debt It gives us some real possibilities to manage the tax rate capital expenses similarly What the policy says is that any unspent local option tax funds are reserved and so If there's a planned capital project for the town we can save cash Years ago and in fact until recently I would never have advised that to any town in Vermont one of the great Levers you have and local government is your borrowing costs are really low way lower than the private sector and that's been the case for a long time Many years local government could borrow less than the rate of inflation even when inflation was two percent so I always thought Vermont towns were were Spend thrifts and I thought that the last 20 years should have been the era of capital investment because it's cheap as cash You'll ever get That era is and you know what a very actually did a lot of that you're standing in a new building That era is over We can still borrow money a lot cheaper than the private sector, but the days of issuing 20 year debt at 2% are gone I don't know how long they're gone for but they're certainly gone today You know now rates are more like four to five For those of us that have mortgages, which is probably all of us you know the difference a few points make On that monthly payment no different for the town We also talked about economic development community vitality efforts. That's a pretty broad bucket But I think it's broad intentionally because there's a lot of things that could fall into there a great example is Next year there's an eclipse and we've talked about that a little bit, but there's We are being told from a lot of people in higher places that for month should expect a huge amount of visitors Something like half our population So we've got to be prepared for those visitors and that'll likely be a line-on in your 2024 budget to buy a Lot of things if nothing else portapies and rent those Some of those challenges that pop up and opportunities be nice to have a revenue source to pay for those It's not necessarily property taxes And then community of vitality You know we have a beautiful downtown, but there's a lot of interest Myself revitalized and water buried we've talked about it in Expanding some of our beautification programs in a downtown some of the holiday decorations some of the plantings throughout the summer And none of that is cheap or free So revenue source for some of those things is nice And then sometimes as a town you have some opportunities to make investments that generate some long-term savings generate some efficiencies Great example I can give is that waterbury like every town in Vermont is Wetted to really old software not really by choice but Just the way we interact with the state we're sort of bound to this product. It's really cheap And it works But it's nearing the end of its life and at some point we're gonna have to make a pretty expensive switch It's gonna generate some long-term help for us, but the turnover is gonna be difficult financially and operationally Again, it'd be nice to have something To finance that turnover, which is gonna help us in the long term Move on Karen And just some of the other challenges some of which I mentioned some of which I haven't affordable housing big challenge I don't think I don't think it's going away anytime soon So it'd be nice to have some funding to maybe keep keep trying to address that As the town in EFUD had with 51 South Main Street where they've tried so far Paving so our paving budget is four hundred five thousand dollars. It's been that amount for three years In that three years ash falls up 40 percent. So we're we're doing what we can but we're paving 40 percent less I'd love to grow that budget. I think a lot of people would love to grow that budget The two old fire engines I talked about Policing is another issue. I haven't talked about extensively in the past in public meetings, but I think it pertains to this Our contract with the Vermont State Police expires in June of next year It's also about four hundred thousand dollars It's a three-year contract and essentially the rate was flat for three years I think the state views that contract as The good faith effort to help water buries. So I don't know that they're gonna ask us for a giant increase But the cost of policing has gone up a lot in three years for the state of Vermont So they have every right to ask for a pretty meaningful increase and finally That's a unique arrangement and Two things are I don't want to say Meaningful possibilities or strong possibilities, but they're the odds of these things occurring are not high But they're certainly not zero and one is that The state police I don't think any time soon, but at some point could say With a long lead time that what are very we think it's time to figure out a different option for policing and this model is Tough for us because they have their own staffing struggles and policing water buries tough The other thing the community might say that we need more police coverage And if we're essentially paying two hundred thousand dollars per year per officer, and we want a third officer Here's a way to pay for it, and that's also a decision that Could be in our future someday depending on what happens with public safety Final thing is the flood After Irene the town engaged with a hydrologist And a number of experts to try to figure out some flood mitigation projects Then the same effort is happening again, and that's going to be another long-term effort in fact I would guess for water barrier that's going to be An effort that essentially never ends in various various forms So these are not things in our current budget or in real recent budgets and and again without Substantially increasing the tax rate here's a way to pay for some of these things and advance the town We can go ahead Karen, and I just want to fast forward if we had a local option tax about what I think 2025 Could look like in broad strokes So if we assume 650 grand which essentially is no growth From what we would have today, which is a really conservative scenario Two things I think we could do that if I was a year ahead, I'd probably be talking about with the select board right now and the first is We have some debt that's smaller capital equipment public workstrucks It doesn't have a ton left on it, but if we paid 256 grand and killed that debt We'd lower our tax rate by two cents Two cents is pretty consistent with our annual increase So in most years that two cents gets us a flat budget And that two cents carries forward because that debt has then gone for all future years The second thing I would tell them and this is something that might be a feature of the 2024 budget Depending on the vote on December 5th is that the fire chiefs truck for three hundred seventy thousand dollars And that's a rough number if we issue a 20 year bond at today's interest rates We essentially pay About five hundred thousand dollars in total debt service for that truck so 130 thousand dollars in interest over the long term We wouldn't need to do that. We could issue a very a short-term note Pay half of it roll half of it over do it again and have it paid for in two years. We did those two big things We'd still have two hundred thousand dollars left over Whether it's saved whether it's applied to other items Would be a decision made at that time But we could move the lever pretty significantly on two items still have a whole lot of cash left over and have a budget that has Essentially a zero percent tax increase so that's That's how I think about 2025 if the local option tax is in place I think there's some great options and I think if I I think if any manager tells any select board The budget I'm the draft budget. I'm delivering to you has a zero percent tax increase It's generally an easy conversation after that and it's generally a relatively easy vote for the public So that's my that's my 2025 Hope and and preview if this all goes through and that's that's the end of my short presentation He's out First thing comments from the board Tom's presentation was very comprehensive. Good job. Thank you. Okay. Let's open this up for questions in the public Comments I like to be first, but I have a few questions and then you stop so so do you mind? I'll have introducing yourself We can't hear you It'd be helpful if you may have a better automation should be in the approach for the use I have several questions, but I'll take them as we go first is it just introduce yourself I'm sorry Tom Glor by every resident the The data you just presented a lot of Well, we can but it's okay. I mean I can remember it I just is it accessible or will it be posted for this? Okay, all right, and then it has a lot of assumptions right not not facts, right? So so good good assumptions. I'm not I'm not So I took the 2022 numbers which are available To 18 years of history whatever those rates of increase were cut them and cut it in half So 50% of historical growth just to give some Some long-term projections about how this would move and I can email you the spreadsheet if you want and you can Pittle around with it too. I would I would be lost but but no, that's good. I mean, it's all it's all analytics It's good. It's data. It's just the assumptions. I'm talking about our Points in time right stuff happens in which I would say the flexibility and use of the funds would be key Right if this gets approved and then what would be the process for introducing What the strategy would be for that specific year say in 25 you get approved There's now funding that's a resource to the town What is the process or have you given some thought as to? Getting feedback because again like four or five very broad categories You're probably only gonna have enough money to do maybe one one and a half that year If you show some of the things you talked about the fire truck Phenomenal I mean any way to to reduce property taxes a great approach as far as I'm concerned, but I'm Sure, so the thought is So local government does something called fund accounting. There's the general fund You know water and sewer beef out or separate, but there's a general fund. There's capital funds This would be a separate fund. So think of it as a separate bank account Like an MR or sleep. So you do that. So everything is just transparent what goes the revenue goes in and what goes out is Is all the approved expenditures? So it'd be a separate fund it'd be reported that way in the town report so you could see Both in the budget, but then in a separate snapshot for this What the anticipated revenue for the up for the current year would be what would be the anticipated expenses? What's the difference and then what's the what's the balance in the fund? And What some towns do? Every town is a different strategy One town in Vermont didn't spend their local option tax for darn near a decade and they had two big capital expenses and they paid cash I don't think that was the greatest idea at the time since the cost of borrowing was so low But so was the cost of so was the price. So was what they earned an interest. So I think they were a little Little spendthrift in that respect But the idea would be really simple transparent embedded in the town report Okay, and then so that's the report that would be discussed at town meeting or and that would be for the next year's Okay, okay, and then is there a thought Yeah, you know what let me pause because they're probably other questions and I'll come back and ask them How's that Tom just to answer probably, you know Because I know you're looking at what people may think of good things to spend money on You could always come to any of those select board meetings when we're in the budgeting process in January And when it comes to whether it be a library or paving or whatnot You could discuss when when that items coming up for the board discuss And that that would be probably an appropriate time to present maybe an idea or you know You could always give something an idea to the town manager or and or the select work. No, I appreciate it I I literally just want to know how what that engagement would be right and when the the opportunities like that or want to be as Transparent as possible one one other piece Tom just to elaborate a little more the select board adopted a policy not a law about how to spend this and So the voters at town meeting to have full authority to say Whatever year hey, we've got this local option tax with a bunch of cash sitting in the account our taxes are high Let's let's vote ourselves a Tax cutter. Let's pay for this with it. There's in the end the voters at the final authority some towns Have the policy embedded into their charter Then it's law and then it's more rigid. Yeah, I've been I've been I mean Understand, I mean, I've been tracking your discussion on this and how that would play out I just didn't know the if that's gonna be the process that's fine. It feels like it's transparent It's fine. It's just those categories are so broad that I would get great because it's flexibility, but with anything resource You just got to think poverty right and and you're probably not gonna get in a specific year what you May have assumed and again, I am not talking obviously for against it's just the idea that We're two years out a year and a half out before getting any of this, right? So the expectation is we're looking at two years of potential tax rate hikes property tax, right? There's other people like the legislature to get to vote again on terms of other taxes that are hitting We're doing a reappraisal to right at some point in time in the future that our costs So there there are a lot of unknowns that are Coming right and that's why I think it's important that this process is so transparent But the public can look at it as okay look you're piling on right now I'm not adverse to the the idea of a local option tax But the the idea of option is kind of interesting, right? Is it really optional? It's you can shop somewhere else, right? I guess but Online shopping to me. I think it's that's a significant cost that no one's going to be anticipating and based off the The show tonight, right? And I know people get data different ways They a lot of it's just looking at site for meetings and stuff and work a shout out very good But that's something I don't think a lot of people know right now That that that it's going to apply to your internet purchases. So I don't know how you solve that in terms of participation, but it's probably something that when you have the meeting on the fifth The fifth is a vote the vote I'm sorry So the vote on the fifth if you looked at those categories that you saw on there There's no way of telling what would be Internet related costs right or that's correct. Yeah, so those are those are the Assumptions, I'm saying that could be higher, right, you know, so and then I have one more question, but so so just a a Boundaries right town boundaries, and I'm not gonna bring up other municipalities in this discussion That's for another time and again, I do a Feel bad about lefty, so that's news not not good but and that topic the So hardware stores in Waterbury one steps on the 100 one steps across the bridge There's local option tax apply to both Yeah, so it's I'm just saying you're gonna affect I Would imagine at least one of those Property owners who's gonna say look up you take because I know that I work in Wilson. Mm-hmm. There are times I don't Go to things like Home Depot because the local option tax, right? And I get a darn pretty good discount So but I look at it and try to keep my my business local In town, but that to me would be a bit of a discriminator. It's only 1% but You know, you're correct something something to look at And I only break because you said you haven't got a lot of feedback from businesses that type of a business I think would be something to talk to you. Maybe engage in direct. I don't know, but all right Thank you Yeah, Teresa Appreciate the the Stamped and words consideration of this local option tax I Agree with it what people are saying in terms of There's there's you know a lot of different options for how it can be used but we won't even have an opportunity to to have those discussions in less the less we've asked this and so I I am very much in favor of this and There are so many surrounding towns that have this we we are at an economic advantage by not not having this and I'm not sure if there's something that that Tom mentioned but you know the part that goes to the Part that stays with the state goes to fund the pilot program which we will also benefit from because it will increase the pilot payments, so I'm definitely in favor of this and appreciate you bringing it forward for public both. Thank you Yeah, Bill Good presentation Tom. Thank you I'm Bill Shepulek from water right I Support this charter Proposal I support the local option tax And I was going to mention what Teresa just did I was going to ask Tom I assumed the six hundred and fifty thousand was the seventy percent share correct and the thirty percent that of the So for every hundred dollars of the local option tax the local community gets seventy dollars and thirty dollars goes into the states Coffers and they take a little bit of that for administration because they do all the administration of this It's a tax that the state collects and the municipality doesn't the state Sends the money to the town But as Teresa indicated the town is one of the larger recipients of pilot funding in the state and and we will get a little bit more from That source as well, so We'll we'll get a bigger impact than some communities that have this that don't have a big state presence It might I can't announce yet in that a little bit So the pilot payment of will of taxes the state Takes this pot of funds and pays towns Based on the insurance values of state property in their borders Insurance values because I'm sure at some point a smart wister said hey There's a piece of state, you know, there's a state courthouse in my town and I can just value it at five million bucks It's normally one no one's going to care and I'll get more So it's it's insurance values We budgeted this year to get three hundred sixty thousand dollars from the pilot payment pilot came in a week or so ago at four hundred K So that's great You can look at each town share of the pilot payment and some of no state property and get none But based on that using the six hundred fifty thousand dollar number We get another fifteen thousand dollars a year in pilot payment. So there's that other side effect Good. Yeah. Thank you. I Know this is about the Charter and about should we have the tax I couldn't say it better than Teresa did We don't get to think about how we're going to use it unless we have it just a couple thoughts and I Heard what you said about long-term debt and that You know four or five percent is not The good old days that I dealt with for the last 20 years, which was you know 2% and you know Tom and I had talked many times when he first came that you know It was crazy not to issue debt to buy these things I would say however that even at four or five or six percent That's that's kind of back to what traditionally were interest rates when I came into the business in In the early 80s. So I would suggest that look towards how you can spend the money to reduce taxes through maybe operating expenses or on capital projects or capital Or equipment purchases that are maybe you know Pick up trucks and small vehicles things that are going to be paid off in five maybe even eight years like a Dump truck. I think we're on a five to seven year turnaround on those Things like fire trucks at thirty thousand dollars or buildings or highway graders and things like that My personal feeling is that not only does debt It's a it's a way to even out the payments over over time But it's also a way to ensure that the people who are using the the Improvement pay for it. So if you pay for that fire truck That's going to last 20 years in the first two years, and then it's free for everybody People who move in 10 years from now are getting service from that vehicle and they're not paying for it And I know you're going we've got a lot of fire trucks to buy and if you buy every one of them on Cash then everyone is going to pay their share of it But I'm not sure you can do that with the number of high-priced vehicles that we have with two fire Departments and the highway fund. So I'm not saying don't do it. I'm just saying Factor that into your equation because having people pay their fair share is important I did have a question about the first article and the town manager Hiring in the department head thing Tom You use the example of the public works director and I'm not trying to carry Tom Glor's banner here, but The public works director is an EFUD employee and the chain of command goes You know up the chain from the public works director to you to the EFUD board and You know, we've got an arrangement where we have one public works director He gets paid by one municipality Keeps track of his time the other municipality pays that back But I it's just a wrinkle that Yeah, just don't say it's really smooth and easy because it's it's not here That's all Thanks Other colors Yeah, you have ten people right here Such a good job You have a question People are shy about asking questions, there's candy Are there any unknown requirements That the state's gonna let me on this now as a charter town And then have we looked at this to understand what you mentioned policing, right? And I know that's the purview of the town or a municipality. I guess at this point Are those things that I mean is there a statue out there that says a town versus a municipality is Responsible for doing X Y and Z. No, we have other positions out to be hired No, no other responsibilities come with this, okay That was it. Thank you. Okay. Thank you Take your candy No, are we making it if you speak you could get a piece of candy This is still on She didn't get a candy But she did speak earlier Suggested that this would be Potentially our one good shot at getting this Get any concerns met at this meeting or the next meeting before the vote It does have concerns to please address them now so we can address them before it gets to know And she did have some concerns about Us defining how we would spend the money I think we have addressed that while setting some broad parameters. We have said that select board could address the policy and Have public input on how the funds would be spent on an annual basis. I don't know if we've got more discussion on this Yes, Alyssa, I didn't know if Karen or Tom could just speak to the voting process for anyone who is here or might see this later You can get a ballot now. They're available in my office. I can mail them. You can stop by and vote Monday through Friday Otherwise I intend to have the this room utilized on December 5th So folks from 7 to 7 So there won't be a meeting or discussion on December 5th that day is for voting So just to highlight you can vote now You can go early don't have to wait until December 5th if you don't want and if you want to vote by now You contact Karen for a ballot And her info is on the town website And if any other concerns come to you over the next week, we will be opening up the meeting on the number 6 with Another informational public forum on the same issue Next Monday November 6th and after that voting will be open as of now right through 7 o'clock December 5th, so I would say that And I may just be the evening party in this one, but I didn't know that the meeting in December was not going to be an It's going to be just a vote So it's up and down vote for those two articles. No presentation Okay, so now Australia now that voting will be open from 7 until 7 And then we'll be meeting that's Monday night That's to that's Tuesday Okay, and Tom that that process is dictated to us by state law Yeah, no, I'm fine with it. I just didn't it just based off the turnout today. It's just amazed me that we're making Strategic decisions with a very small subset, right? I You know, I don't want to get my soul, but it's informed citizen should vote, right? Everybody should vote, but it's really important to be informed. So so the next meeting I Don't know that I know I Did the orca thing got on so your last like we're meeting about trying to advertise a little bit more that this was happening I did see the front page form. I did see some things actually I would shout out with the roundabout So that's all good. It just and it could be the public is very informed and everybody's on board with this And I think it's going to be quite popular Um But that piece I guess of how the funds will be used is I think we're discussing Right. Well, good. I hope everyone heard you. Uh, Danny, you know something second Yeah, we're just gonna Take what tom said and um, you know, there'll be the informational meetings There'll be more out on from first forum. Hopefully, you know covering the roundabout as well. So folks who Feel informed and you know understand via the what's been published great But also we do encourage, you know, anyone who might be watching or listening to come and ask questions or send an email You know, you can always give a call or send an email to ask a specific question if you have one Um, and then I know Karen is going to publish the slides as well. So if those are going to be available to everybody um You know to everybody in the public whether you're able to attend the meeting or not and then um, the last thing is More of a question since we will likely put, you know, more info about the next meeting coming up Maybe we can even be more clear. Um, I didn't go back and review the other posting But even more clear about which is a meeting and what's just about so we can review that language And if it isn't clear in the language that's going out we can clarify it that way so Lisa you had your hand up I have two quick questions. Um, will the slides from tonight be with tonight's minutes probably I'll put them on the news section. I think Lisa already made a notice Okay, very good. I'll put them on the news. Yeah, they'll put them in the minutes, but I'll I'll try to put them on the home page I can link to that that would be happy to do that and one other quick question was has anybody voted yet? Yes Yes How many voters have you have you actually had yet? Has it been for a minute? I've had three I'm just curious. I think they've only had two and I've mailed one Oh Just if I could make a little commentary And I'd say this book personally as as as a select board member I'm not the hugest one that likes to see big increases in taxes or any increases in taxes and when The local options tax was first presented. I had my second doubts about it But after doing research and maybe this is just to educate some some other folks Is we're surrounded by a lot of towns that also have local options tax You know stoll wilson, etc places where where people shop, you know, they're all going to have options tax It's a very interesting one that tom brought up the hardware store right across the river that's kind of An anomaly, but I do think people I I used to always not go to wilson for that same For just like you said the same purpose I didn't want to pay that extra one one percent But you sometimes you become immune to the one percent and you I like to shop Things in town, but there's a lot of things that you can't buy here in town And you're going to wind up getting, you know, we all get hit by the you know The amazons the cabela's, you know, everyone's charging, you know taxes, you know, that's all and I think that I think that's the Wild card is we don't know how much income is going to be brought in by that And I would like to see that there's a lot if there was a real effect on our Citizens and our businesses I'd probably be opposed to to to the local options tax But I have become a convert. I think it's a reasonable way to help fund government I think it's an important way that we could minimize people's tax increases We do still we still have a lot of seniors here in this town who are, you know, Fixed incomes and you know, they really can't you know, you know any increases in their taxes are going to hurt them in the Pocket book. So I'm a convert. I think Taxes have become a big reason why you know, I think it's not our local taxes. It's really more of our School taxes that and I'm not going to get on a soapbox about that But I think this is a reasonable thing because other towns have it. It's a good way for us to fund Things that we need to do in town or minimize taxes. Let's see Thanks One last time I just want to make sure I think I understand but when when to the discussion a minute ago that was being had about You know the impact of internet sales I mean tom talked about the fact that this would apply But remember it applies to internet sales that the sales tax already applies to so in other words if If you're buying something and there's no sales tax because It doesn't apply then you're not going to pay the 1% But if you if you go online and you buy something and you're paying the state sales tax now because They've all agreed and there's been congressional action and everything else You're just going to pay that 1% extra. It's not like this is something that Is the bolt out of the blue and it's causing internet sales to be taxable if it applies now To what you're buying if you're paying the regular state sales tax, it'll be 1% higher. It's not going to go from 0 to 7% So I just wanted to make sure that we were aware of that and and you know the the hardware store across the Across the river. Yeah, you know, unfortunately, there's one on both sides You can't you can't solve every reality that's out there I mean that the people who do business on the new Hampshire border do this all the time And it's a lot more than 1% and somehow they they managed to make it and uh, you know the There's plenty of services that watterbury provides to folks outside this community And this happens everywhere in st. Albans and my pillar and in barry and burlington There's a municipal overburden that the bigger communities that have the services that have places to shop and Not for profits Which don't pay taxes here and people get services. So this I think it's a way to kind of broaden the tax base And get our fair share of things that we're missing out on now as well because of how the tax structure Is is set up. It's Nothing is going to be perfectly fair 100 of the time. That's just life. So I think this is a good thing for the community And I hope that it will pass Thanks, bill Did that one alibi That's why we're here. We want to hear everybody's not to respond to mr. Sheplock. That's not to be clear I am not adverse at all to the little option tax. I just I my statement's more about the knowledge out there And the lack of engagement at times with the community. That's not your responsibility. That's how we're the people responsibility, right? So I think you've done everything you needed to get the information out Um, it's just these are things that you know when they hit Next year People have short memories. So then it's oh, there's a 1% tax. What happened, you know Well, we talked about this for two, you know, two years so The last thing was the 1% is set, right? Is that a tax that does not get raised it? There's no local Ability to change that the state doesn't change that that's the 1% Because sales tax does change, right? so the state The legislature could change it Okay, okay, wouldn't be but it's not low Good to go Thank you. Yeah, that was my problem Well, we don't know come back again next week. Uh with more if you're good Look forward to it. Thank you. You should have free pizza to get people down to get to work Well, there's a bag of candy Oh, you didn't advertise Good point should have been warned. Mm-hmm. Well, it's got to be There you go. I I looked while I was in the store. I was like, should I bring a cabbage to celebrate? Good point Um, I don't know that we've got any more business in front of us. Do I have a motion to adjourn? So moved second Move in second and all the papers. All right. Hi. Okay. We are adjourned until next monday


Hey guys so we are going to work in this little mini address book journal today and I just wanted to this is the page I only did the one page in here last year and I didn't do any more in it so we're going to do some more in here. I do have a bunch of mini stencils I cut for this journal of my own design and so we may use some of those. I also have a couple of found stencils. These are from some shirts that I got my husband got for Christmas. This is part of the plastic collar stay that's put into the shirt to make it look pretty on the shelf and I have a couple of them. Yeah so I'm going to put those in there and I want to use my Jane Davenport confetti tissue on here and I love this stuff. I think it's fabulous. You can buy this little plastic pouch with confetti tissue in it cut into different shapes. I think it's a great idea and I also have some some tissue here from my stash little just little scraps. This is just a scrap that I'm just going to tear and stick in here. Some of this is bleeding art tissue and if you don't know what bleeding art tissue is bleeding art tissue has dye in it that when you get it wet and you collage it down the dye in the tissue will run and bleed into the wet water or glue or whatever you've used on your page and it'll tint your page. So I'm going to cut some of these scraps up and we're going to throw them into our bag and then we're going to get started on the page. I am going to clip I know this is bleeding art tissue and this is two so I'm going to keep these separate and I'll cut a few different little probably just like squares and triangles out of this but I'm going to put them in a little plastic small little plastic bag that goes in the pouch so that I actually know which ones are bleeding art and which ones aren't and that way because maybe I want to intentionally use one that's going to bleed and one that isn't. So anyway I'm going to speed forward through that process and I'll be right back. Okay there we go there is another page in our little mini art journal. I used some of the collage tissue I'm sorry confetti tissue in the background. It didn't turn out the way I thought it would but I like it so we'll have to keep experimenting and playing with it anyway that's it that's one idea I hope that gives you some idea of what you can do please think about supporting my channel by going to the youtube channel's main page and hitting that fan funding button or going over and shopping in my Etsy shop the link is in the description below and don't forget the most important thing go out and do have a great day and do something nice for yourself because you deserve it and I'll see you later bye guys.


In the Introduction to DHS2 course, you learned that DHS2 allows you to group organization units by any user-defined criteria into groups and group sets, for example, the form of ownership or type of facility. In this video, you will see how you can create these classifications in DHS2. Before we get started, let's review the facilities in our organization unit hierarchy and discuss how we might classify them. As we can see, our organization units consist of two facility types, hospitals, and health centers. We can use this example classification as the basis for grouping our organization units together. Now let's create the organization unit groups that we have identified. In the Maintenance app, click on the Organization Unit tab and select Organization Unit Group from either the left side menu or from the main page. From here, we can click on the plus icon to add a new Organization Unit Group. In the Configuration page, there is only one required field, the name. All other fields are optional. Let's create a group for hospitals. For the name, type in Hospital. And Code, HOSP. Adding a code is a best practice. We also have the option to assign a symbol to the organization units that will belong to this group. If we click on Select, we have a number of different symbols that appear. These symbols are useful when selecting the facility layer in Maps. You can learn about viewing facility data in Maps in the DHS2 Data Analysis course. After selecting a symbol, we can select the organization units we want to include in the group. This is where our configuration spreadsheet becomes very helpful, as we have already indicated this grouping in that file. To select the organization units to include, you can either expand the organization unit hierarchy and manually select each one of the organization units you want to include, or you can make this go a bit faster by filtering out specific organization units by using the search box labeled filtering organization units by name. If we enter Hospital in this field, it will filter out all of the organization units with Hospital in their name. Note that we still have to select them after they've been filtered. The selected organization units are now highlighted in orange. And you will see a prompt indicating how many organization units are selected. After selecting the organization units to include in this group, click on Save to create it. Now let's repeat the steps and create the health center group. Click on the plus sign to create the new group. Then enter the name, code, and assign it a symbol. To assign organization units, we can again filter them by name. This works if all the organization units that we want to put in the health center group have health center in their name. We can also use the selection tool by level and group on the right side. When we have selected the organization units that we want to include within this group, click Save. We have now created two organization unit groups, one for hospitals and one for health centers. In summary, we have seen how to create organization unit groups in DHS2 based on criteria specific to your use case. The first step is to define the categories of organization units we want to group, which is normally done outside of DHS2. To create a new group, open the maintenance app, select the organization unit tab, then select the organization unit group button, then click the blue plus sign to add a new item. Fill in the name and the short name along with optional fields if required, such as a code and symbol. Lastly, add the organization units we want to include in the group.


Back here in Nigeria, the National Industrial Court of Nigeria and ICN has ordered the Academic Staff Union of Universities ASU to call off its ongoing nationwide strike. ASU has been on strike since February 14 to press on the demands for improved funding for universities, a review of salaries for lecturers, among other issues. Several meetings between ASU and the federal government have ended in a deadlock. Consequently, the federal government went to court to challenge the strike. James Iguay counseled to the government, pray the court for an interlocutary injunction, restraining ASU from taking further steps as regards the strike, pending the determination of the substantive suit. The court therefore restrained ASU whether by themselves, members, agents, previous, or so-ever court, from taking further steps and doing any acts in continuance of the strike action, pending the hearing and determination of the suit filed. The ruling by the Honourable Court is very consistent with the rule of law. It's also a recognition of the fundamental role that education plays in development, in national development, in economic development. And also it recognizes the fact that without education there will be no rule of law. I thank the judiciary for saving educational development. What has happened is that the past seven months educational development has been halted, particularly in public universities in Nigeria, which out not to be, because when that fundamental pillar on which development rest is halted for seven months, it means the entire economic, the entire social development is also halted, which out not to be.


Strength through faith part two. Now when we last left Gideon in chapter seven here, we were at the very brink of the battle. Gideon is prepared for war. We are getting ready to rumble. This rather lengthy account of Gideon has been building up to this point now in chapter seven. And the Lord has been carefully working on and through the fledgling faith of Israel's soon to be hero here. Now think with me for a moment as we get into the text. Think with me about how the Lord graciously and patiently builds Gideon's faith. There's an ongoing process here, an ongoing work of God. You can be sure that God will complete that good work which he begins. And we see that happening here in the experience of Gideon. The Lord is working on his faith. Now the Lord first comes to Gideon when Gideon is faithless, entirely faithless. He cries out, the Lord has forsaken us, delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. I don't know how he got into this mess that we found ourselves in, but the Lord has abandoned us. And so the Lord assures him. He says, surely I will be with you and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man. It's just that Gideon doesn't trust the Lord, doesn't believe the Lord. So to build up his weak faith, the Lord endures Gideon's request for a sign, gives it to him in spectacular fashion. The Lord consumes Gideon's offering and Gideon has an encounter with the living God and Gideon's faith is built, right? Look at how the Lord graciously, patiently, mercifully builds Gideon's faith. Well, the next test of Gideon's faith came when the Lord commanded him to tear down the bale altar that his father had built and tear down the asherapole that was beside it. The Lord allows him to do that by night because Gideon was afraid, even brings out his father in defense of Gideon when the men, the Abiyah's rights of the city, rise up and want to kill Gideon. And Gideon even earns a new name, Jerobail, bale fighter, bale contender, becomes a walking living taunt against that false pagan idol and the Lord graciously and mercifully, progressively builds Gideon's faith. Well, next, the Lord clothed Gideon with the Spirit, probably more appropriate to say that the Spirit was clothed with Gideon, and Gideon blew the trumpet. He sent out messengers. He proclaimed the word, the victory of the Lord, and Gideon gathers together the army of Israel. But before Gideon would be commanded to go into battle, knowing that his faith was weak, the Lord patiently and graciously endured Gideon's twofold testing with the fleece. And God condescended. He stooped. He humbled himself, you could say. Once again, to build Gideon's weak and frail faith. Next, as we work through the account, the Lord tests Gideon's faith again as the army is encamped at the well of Herod. That word, Herod, literally means the spring of trembling. Trembling, and Gideon is likely, very likely, trembling at the well as the Lord begins to strip him and strip the people of any self-reliance. Gideon is told that he must send home all those who are fearful and faint-hearted and two-thirds of the army leave. The Lord then cuts the remaining 10,000 down to 300 lappers. And then the Lord explains that He does this, verse 2, lest Israel claim glory for itself against me, saying, my own hand has saved me. Once again, once again, we'll see at the beginning of verse 9, in tremendous grace, in tremendous patience, tremendous mercy, the Lord would care for the growing and maturing faith of His servant. This is the way the Lord works with us, right? This is the way the Lord cultivates faith, builds faith. He's extremely patient. There is, in the account of Gideon, a breaking down, isn't there, a breaking down of Gideon's self-reliance, a breaking down of Gideon's self-trust. There's a humbling that must take place. The Lord puts Gideon in a place where he must trust in the Lord, lest we rely on ourselves, lest we forget the Lord, lest we claim glory for ourselves against Him, saying, my hand has delivered me. The Lord puts us in a place where we have to trust in Him. It's a humbling place, but it's a place that requires breaking down of pride, breaking down of self-reliance. But in that place of humbling, in that place of reliance upon God, there is a building up, isn't there, that also takes place. The Lord graciously, in doing this, the Lord graciously, patiently, mercifully, builds up the weak faith of Gideon, teaching Him and teaching us that we cannot rely on ourselves, that we must trust in Him. The one who raises the dead, right? The one who is our strength. So, as we're working through the account of Gideon in chapter seven, we have a weak leader, the weakest man from the weakest clan. We have a weak army, 300 men against the Midianite horde of thousands that are arrayed like locusts in the Jezreel Valley. But we have the strength of God at work through faith, and there's nothing stronger than that, amen? Faith, John says, is the victory that has overcome the world. This is how God does it. This is how God works. He chooses the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty, so that we don't do what often comes so natural to us to do, which is to boast in our own strength, to rely upon our own selves, to rely upon our own wisdom, our own power, our own might. Say, our own hand has won this victory for us, or my own strength has gotten me this job, or gotten me this prosperity, or gotten me this comfort, or gotten me through this trial, and so that we learn, and often through adversity, that true strength comes through faith in the Lord. It's one of those lessons, isn't it, that is often taught us through difficulty, through adversity. It's one of the only ways that we really fundamentally learn how to trust in Him. So, verse nine, let's get ready to rumble. It happened on the same night that the Lord said to Gideon, arise, go down against the camp, for I have delivered it into your hand. Now notice, verse nine. This is the same decisive, clear word of God that was given to Gideon before. The Lord had said this to Gideon before, Hatton Eve, chapter six, verse 14. Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. The Lord's already told Gideon several times now that he would be with Gideon and help him in the battle, that he would deliver Midian into his hand. Gideon hesitates, wait, God, wait. If I have found favor in your sight, then show me a sign, right? Wait, God, not yet, wait, wait, wait, wait. If that's true, God, then let me test you these two times with my fleece. Surely Gideon's faith is strong by now, we would say. No, that's not the case. Consider again the patience and wisdom and compassion of God. Once again, as he stoops to build up Gideon's weak faith. Look at verse 10. But Gideon, if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Pura, your servant. You shall hear what they say, and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp. And he went down with Pura, his servant, at the outpost of the armed men who were in the camp. Now the Midianites, just to remind us, right, the Midianites and the Malachites, all the people of the east were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts, and their camels were without number, as numerous as the sand by the seashore in multitude. Well, is Gideon afraid? Does the Lord know Gideon's heart? Of course he does. Is Gideon afraid? Of course he is. Of course he's afraid. He might have thought to himself that all this sounds completely crazy. This is insane. Dale Ralph Davis says this, here is not your conventional, crusty, immovable man of steel. Gideon is no fearless, all pro linebacker, no general patent, and John Wesley, or John Wayne rolled into one huge ball of grit. And so Gideon, afraid, went down. Even by every worldly standard, there is every reason here to be fearful, isn't there? By worldly standards, the Lord knows our frame. He knows that we are but dust. He knows our fears. He knows our weakness. And he has provided for Gideon again and again and again and again. And he provides for Gideon here once again. You know, consider again that illustration of the child on the edge of the pool, working up the courage to jump in to his, the open arms of his father standing in the water, right? That illustration that we've used before. A good father isn't harsh or severe with a child in the child's fear, right? The child is fearful, working up the courage to jump in to his father, arms open. So the good father reassures the child, I'm here to catch you, right? You can trust me.  And our heavenly father is like that. He's patient with us. He pities us. He comes to our aid. He builds our trust in him. You notice it's different with rebellion, isn't it? Different with obstinacy or stiff-necked rejection of God's word. He's not patient with rebellion. He's not patient with obstinacy. That's different, right? But he is patient with our weakness. He's patient, long-suffering with our weakness. The Lord here knows that Gideon is afraid, so he sovereignly is provided for this opportunity again to build up Gideon's faith. If you are afraid to go down in battle, then go down to the camp with Pura, and I will strengthen your hands. And so Gideon goes. Now in verse 13, when Gideon had come, you can imagine he creeps down to the edge of the camp. There's two centuries there, outpost of the camp, guarding, keeping watch. And when Gideon had come, there was a man telling a dream to his companion. He said, I've had a dream. To my surprise, a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian. It came to a tent and struck it so that it fell and overturned, and the tent collapsed. Then his companion, the other century, answered and said, This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, a man of Israel. Into his hand, God has delivered Midian in the whole camp. And so it was, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, that he worshiped. I imagine as he heard them speaking, a smile probably came across his face, right? As he heard the dream and heard the interpretation, and Gideon was just lifted up in worship to God who provides, God who is so gracious, so merciful, and shows himself to be so. So Gideon returned to the camp of Israel in verse 15 and said, Arise, for the Lord has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand. And Gideon's hands, the hands of all the people, were strengthened. Anyone reading this account certainly would have thought that it was strange at best. Just think about what's going on here, beginning in verse 13. A loaf of bread knocking over a tent and that means that the sword of Gideon is coming and death to the Midianites, right? How you put those things together. How is the loaf related to Gideon? How is the tent related to Midian? How does the loaf of bread turn over and collapse a tent? Where in the world did his buddy come up with that interpretation of that set of facts? But even the humor or the foolishness of the scene communicates something, doesn't it? And that's what the point is. It's meant to communicate something. Communicate something of necessity to Gideon here. Here's what it communicates. God is sovereign over those two Midianite centuries. God is sovereign over the content of that dream that he gives to the Midianite. God is sovereign over the interpretation of that dream. He plants that interpretation in the mind of that Midianite. God is sovereign over everything, even what a Midianite thinks and does and dreams and says, right? And all of this comes rushing in upon the heart and mind of Gideon as the sovereignty of God and all of this done to strengthen the faith, strengthen the hands of Gideon, and it works. Gideon is strengthened. He has the Word of God, but it is the Word of two pagan Midianites confirming the Word of God. That communicates something also, doesn't it? Right? We should just trust in the Word of God. And I think Gideon learns that lesson through the testimony, you would say, of two pagan Midianites. Nevertheless, now, Gideon grows strong, not because of himself, not because of anything that Gideon has done. God entirely at this point has built up Gideon's faith, and he is about to become that mighty man of valor that he was said to be at the beginning, all at the hands of God. I think with me at this point in the account, what do we take from all this, right? I think with me about all that's happened at this point and all that the Lord has done to build up the faith of Gideon. And let's draw some observations. One, God's patience and God's mercy reaches into the heavens. God is abundantly merciful, abundantly patient with our weakness. He will bring to completion the work that he begins in us, right? God is so patient with us. We have our own weaknesses, truth be told. Many of our weaknesses far more glaring than Gideon's here. And God is so patient, so kind, so compassionate with us. We have every reason to trust in him as a good heavenly Father, right? God's patience. Two, faith is something that God produces in us. Faith is something that's cultivated, produced, built up in us by God himself. This is nothing that Gideon has done. The Lord has taken it upon himself to build Gideon's faith. It is rightly in scripture considered to be a gift of God, right Ephesians chapter two, verses eight and nine. We are saved by grace through faith and that, not of yourselves, it is the gift, the salvation by grace through faith is a gift of God, not of works as anyone should boast. It is rightly considered a gift of God. Faith is something that God produces in us and we are to exercise faith. We are to have faith in him. Thirdly, God produces faith in us through means, through the means of grace. Here he uses several means as he works Gideon through this account, building his faith. We have the means of grace. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God, right? Means, he also grows our faith through circumstances, through trials, through adversity as we learn to trust him in our circumstances and as we see him faithful to his promises which God always is. So many means are used to cultivate or build up in us faith. Lastly, fourth, fear or worry is entirely antithetical to faith. Absolutely no reason whatsoever why Gideon should be fearful. Fear and worry is faithlessness, fear and worry is simply unwarranted for the child of God. Philippians chapter four, verse seven, Paul says, be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. The victory comes not through self-confidence. Victory will not come through self-assurance. Victory is not going to come through self-reliance. Victory comes through faith in the one who is our strength. That's where our victory comes from. You think about it, faithlessness lies about God, doesn't it? Faithlessness lies about him. It says something of God that's not true, that he can't be trusted, that we shouldn't trust him or that he's not going to do what he promises to do or that he won't see us through or he won't help us or come to our aid. Faithlessness lies about God. So we should, with every fiber of our being, fight faithlessness. Gideon faced a physical foe, we face spiritual foes in our spiritual life, in our Christian life, don't we? No less real than the physical enemy that Gideon faced, but no less deadly either, no less deadly. Ephesians 6, turn there with me to Ephesians 6. Briefly, Ephesians 6, speaking of our spiritual warfare, Gideon faced a physical foe, we face a spiritual foe. Paul explains this in Ephesians 6, beginning in verse 10. Where he says, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of your might. No, it's not what he says. We have no power of our own. We have no strength of our own. We are weak. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Well, how do you do that, Paul? Verse 11, put on the whole armor of God. It's God's armor, right? God's armor that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood and Midianites and Amalekites and the people of the east. But we wrestle against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. No less real of an enemy and no less deadly than Midianites, Amalekites, and the people of the east. More deadly, right? More deadly, we're talking about our soul here. These, by the way, notice those enemies that are listed here, principalities and powers. These are those enemies whom the Lord has already defeated. Colossians 2.15, he's already disarmed them. He's already put them to an open shame by triumphing over them. So we shouldn't fear these enemies. We should trust in the one who's already won the victory. Right? Verse 13, he says, therefore take up the whole armor of God. That's how we're gonna fight. That you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand. And we don't fight against flesh and blood. We fight against principalities and powers. So although in our Christian lives, as we follow the Lord, as disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, although we walk in the flesh just as Gideon did, we don't war in the flesh, like we see in Judges chapter seven. Our warfare is not according to the flesh. Our weapons are not carnal weapons. Our weapons are though mighty in God or pulling down strongholds. But we have spiritual weapons. We are to wield spiritual weapons. It's interesting that Gideon and the Israelites, the 300 Lappers, don't go into battle with conventional weapons, do they? They're not sent into battle with swords and shields, chariots. They're sent into battle with trumpets and clay pots and torches. Not your conventional weapons list to go into battle with. Our weapons aren't conventional weapons, but they are mighty in God. They're not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. We've got to trust the Lord with the weapons he gives us, believe in the Lord God with the weapons that he says are mighty for defeating our spiritual enemies, these principalities and powers. We've got to fight with the weapons the Lord gives us that he says are mighty for victory here. He says in verse 14, stand therefore, having already girded your waist with truth, having already put on the breastplate of righteousness, in other words, having been justified, having your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, above all, take up the shield of faith, believe in God. Take up the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. Take up the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God and an offensive weapon, by the way. We tend to not think about these weapons of our warfare in this way. We tend to forget how many times, right?  You ask yourself, why am I absolutely embattled? Then you remember, it's like, oh, I've not been really faithful in reading the word of God lately or praying or using the means of grace. The word of God is the sword of the Spirit. It's an offensive weapon. Use that weapon. Praying always, verse 18. How often is always? It's always, always. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance. If brothers and sisters, if you're like me, you are often convicted and beaten about the head and shoulders because we don't persevere as we should and we forget. Like, you find yourself weak and you think to yourself, oh, you know, just not persevering as I should. I'm not being as watchful as I should. We tend to let our guard down. Paul says, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance. You can't give up the fight and supplication for all the saints. And although our enemies are greater than we are, and although they are stronger than we are and more numerous than the Locust Midianites and their camels all across the Jezreel Valley, although our enemies are more menacing and more fierce, the end of that enemy will be the same as the end of the Midianites at the end of chapter seven, right? The end of that enemy will be as the end of that uncircumcised Philistine that challenged the armies of Israel. And it won't be self-confidence that wins that battle. It's not gonna be self-will, and grinning and gritting and bearing it.  It's gonna be God's strength through faith. God's strength through faith. God's strength through faith. Sounds pretty simple, doesn't it? God's strength through faith. Consider with me for a moment the words of Isaiah chapter 41, verse 10. Listen to this. Isaiah chapter 41, verse 10. Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. I want to say it one more time. This is a promise of God. A blessed text for us to apply to ourselves. Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Two commands in Isaiah 41, verse 10. One is fear not. The other is be not dismayed. Fear not, don't be dismayed. Five reasons, five reasons in Isaiah chapter 41, verse 10, to fear not and be not dismayed. Five reasons. God is with me. He is my God. God will strengthen me. God will help me. God will uphold me. Five reasons. Two commands, five reasons. The key to overcoming fear and dismay is meditating on, resting in, and claiming by faith those five reasons. Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. The Lord Jesus Christ says, fear not, be dismayed, why? Because God is with me. He is my God. God will strengthen me. God will help me. God will uphold me. Courage in the face of battle. Courage is a fruit of faith. We're told to be courageous. Courage is a fruit of faith. Courage comes in many forms and courage is derivative of faith in the sense that courage is based on where your faith is, right? Courage just depends on what that faith is in but courage is a fruit of faith.  Well, if you bring an even bigger friend to the fight, you're feeling pretty courageous. You're feeling pretty strong because you're standing next to this even bigger kid, right? In other words, your faith is in that bigger kid. You're feeling pretty courageous but where's your faith? He's in the bigger kid. But if that one brings a bigger kid with him, right? It depends on what your faith is in.  With faith in God, we can have unflinching courage in the face of all our foes. Unflinching, unwavering courage. Faith in God. Courage is a derivative of that faith. It's a fruit of that faith. So the Lord here has been graciously, mercifully, patiently building up the faith of Gideon. Gideon now is ready for war and he has been given complete confidence not in his little band of lappers, not in the strength of his own arm, but confidence in the Lord God himself who goes before him into the battle. So look then with me at verse 16. So Gideon then divided the 300 men into three companies. He put a trumpet into every man's hand with empty pitchers and torches inside the pitchers, not your conventional weapons. They said to them, look at me and do likewise. Watch, when I come to the edge of the camp, you shall do as I do. When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then you also blow the trumpets on every side of the whole camp and say, the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. Trumpets and shields, no. Trumpets are swords and shields. Trumpets, pots, and torches is what they get. Weak weapons in and of themselves but full of God's saving and delivering purpose. Full of purpose. God even turns their own weapons against them, their own swords against them. We have weak leadership, weak army, weak weapons, but the strength of God supplied through faith-filled obedience to his word and that is all the strength that is necessary. So verse 19, Gideon and the 100 men who were with him came to the outpost of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch just as they had posted the watch and they blew the trumpets, broke the pitchers that were in their hands. If you can imagine from around the camp, the three companies, the pitchers were being broken, the trumpets being blown would have sounded like a massive army. The Lord would have caused a great confusion to take place. They cried, they broke the pitchers, held the torches in their left hand, the trumpets in their right hand for blowing and they cried. The sword of the Lord and of Gideon such that in verse 21, every man stood in his place. There was no encroachment on the camp here. They weren't marching into battle. They simply stood there. Right, they simply stood in their place all around the camp and the whole army of the Midianites, the Amalekites, the people of the east, that army ran, cried out and fled. When the 300 blew the trumpets, the Lord set every man's sword against his companion. That was the work of God. Throughout the whole camp, the army fled to Bethakisha towards Zerera as far as the border of Av el-Mahola by Tavat. And the men of Israel gathered together from Naftali, Ashrin, Al-Manasse and pursued the Midianites. Remarkable victory, remarkable victory. They blow the trumpets, they broke the pitchers, they yelled the sword of the Lord and of Gideon and no one said, no one could say, my own hand has saved me. There's no one, no one, not one of the 300 could have boasted against the Lord about anything. They would have just stood there and marveled at the grace and mercy and victory, the strength and power of God. So verse 24, Gideon sent messengers throughout all the mountains of Ephraim, come down against the Midianites, seize from them the watering places, as far as from Bet Barah and the Jordan and all the men of Ephraim gather together, seize the watering places, he's bringing in the rest of the tribes now, as far as Bet Barah and the Jordan. And here they captured in verse 25 the two princes of the Midianites, their leaders, the two heads of the Midianites, Aureb and Zeb. They killed Aureb at his own rock. They killed Zeb at his own wine press. Then they pursued Midian and brought the heads of Aureb and Zeb to Gideon on the other side of the Jordan. Here is just a foretaste, a foreshadowing that the seed of the woman has once again crushed the head of the serpent. In this case, the seed of the woman has taken the head of the serpent off his shoulders and Gideon, Gideon, all by the gracious and merciful and patient work of God himself, Gideon finally becomes a mighty man of valor. What a patient and gracious God we serve, amen? And remember, he's patient with us too. Let's trust him by faith in our own difficulties in our own warfare. Let's pray. Father in heaven, would we worship you and praise you, we acknowledge you as our great God and deliverer, our great God and savior. We thank you, Lord, that you are mighty to save. That your power is all the power we need. That you're the one who is strong. We ourselves, Lord, we are woefully weak and often in our ignorance, Lord, we don't acknowledge that, we don't recognize that. Thank you, Lord, for how you build up our faith. Thank you, Lord, for how you patiently, mercifully teach us time and time again to trust in you and follow your commands to obey your word, to do as you say, Lord, and how you teach us to rely upon you and all of the struggles that we face and all the circumstances that we find ourselves in. And thank you, Lord, that you are always, always faithful to your word. We love you, we trust you, Lord, please build our faith, cultivate faith within us. God, do that work that you began that you will certainly complete, that you've promised to complete and make us by your spirit, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, make us mighty men, mighty women of valor for your glory. We pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.


Hi everyone, Joe for Jaspy's CaseBreaks.com. We're coming at you with another team random. This is team random number five for pick your team number five. I think we just need to do a couple more cello packs to fill up a number block, and then we're done. Then we are done, Zos, and we can get into pick your team five. Alright, so as you've seen the previous four times, we sell 12 spots, or give away some spots too, but however we figure out 12 people to be in this, we just randomize your names. Name on the bottom gets the Kings, name on the top, Pelicans. Second name down, Grizzlies. Here are the people involved here in team random number five. Good luck. Let's roll it, let's randomize it. Three and a three, hard six, one, two, three, four, five, and six. And final time, it's Nicholas Kasperg and Robert Runkle, top two names, nice. There you go, so congrats to those two, listen everyone gets a team. So there you go, Robert Trailblazers, Michael Clippers, John with the Magic, Manny with the Raptors, Teddy with the Jazz, Melanie with the Nuggets, Brian with the Rock, Zach with the Pacers, Aaron with the Thunder, and Eric with the Kings, Nicholas Kasperg and Robert, get the two big ones. Nicholas with the Pelicans and Robert with the Grizz, good luck to you. And thanks everybody, I'll see you for the break a little bit later tonight, bye bye.