Amen, amen. I have been in, as I told you, I have been really enjoying the beautiful music, the feast of praise that we've been having here in Nairobi. And I enjoyed trying to read the language. And fascinated by the words in your language. And just love it, I hope. I'm really hoping that the Lord, you know on the day of Pentecost, the Lord worked a miracle, yes? And allowed these uneducated disciples to speak in other tongues. And I'm hoping that one of those miracles can be happened. To my wife and myself. So we can leave with a good grasp of your language. That would be interesting if I go back to the Cayman Island speaking. What's the name of the language? Swahili. If I go back to the Cayman Island speaking some Swahili, that would be good stuff. Really enjoyed. Okay, good morning everybody. And for those of you watching by the internet, wherever you are, I know maybe nights, some of you, in the western part of the world, folks up in Canada, folks up in UK, and folks in the Caribbean, and all over the world who are watching, we're delighted to have you back home in the Cayman Islands. And down in Jamaica, land we love, you want to welcome everybody who's watching online, Nairobi Central Camp Meeting 2023. Hope you had a good rest last night, did you? Amen. Yes. And the Lord has brought us back again here this morning to continue to do some work. So our presentation today will be in two parts. We'll take the first part this morning. And then this evening when you come back, we will be working on the second part of our presentation entitled Procrastination. You know that big one.   You don't want to miss any of those presentations. But for the next few minutes that we have, as the clock on the wall tells me, I'm going to ask for your help as we unpack a challenge. It's a huge problem that I have noticed in the Bible concerning the second coming of Christ. So bow your heads with me as we unpack the subject, the coming. Father, I know, I know, I'm aware, I am conscious of this one fact that I dare not open your words without asking for help. So again, Lord, please for your sake and for the sake of the waiting hearts here today, send the Holy Spirit upon us as we open your words again. We pray in Jesus' name. The coming. There is a huge problem with the coming of Jesus that I don't think many in my church is aware of. Huge problem. Some of our brethren are excited about the coming of Christ, which we ought to. But I think for a large portion of us we have overlooked this major problem that is attached to the coming of Christ. And for the purpose of our camp meeting this morning, I'd like to identify it and bring it to the forefront of your mind so that we can deal with it so that it doesn't prevent us from being ready when the Lord comes. Is that all right? Problems. Big problems. Here's it. Here's it. Luke 12 verse 40, Jesus spit out this amazing statement, problematic statement, troubling statement. He says, therefore, come on, help me read, one, two, three. Therefore, you also be ready. For the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. That, my dear friend, is a problem. What's the problem? Watch me, watch me. If you read the book of Matthew chapter 24, there is a litany of signs that Jesus had as given us. Signs of the signs of the signs of the signs of the signs. And he said, these signs are to get you ready and to prepare you for the second coming. Is the church with me? Here's my problem. In spite of all these signs, Jesus says, I'm still going to come at a time when you do not expect. Which tells me, so hang on, hang on Jesus, which tells me that even though I gave you the signs, for most of you, if not all of you, the signs do not seem that they will be helpful to you because I'm still going to come at a time when you do not expect me to come. And the question then is, if we get the signs of your coming, if we keep track of them, what in the world could have caused us not to be ready when you come? What could cause you to come when we are not expecting you to come? Because if we are tracking the signs, then we should know when you're coming. But what could possibly cause it? What could cause us not to be ready? What could cause a Seventh Day Adventist members in the church not to be ready when we have the three angels' message, when we have the prophecies, when we have the signs, when we are raised up for one purpose and that is to get the world ready. What could cause us not to be ready? Ah, I'm happy you asked the question. The answer? Sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep. Hey, please notice. Not disobedience. Sleep. Not returning your tithing offering. No, no, no. Sleep. Not breaking the Sabbath. Sleep. Not being ungodly. No. Sleep. Sleep. Sleep is going to be our biggest problem. Sleep. So let's end part that a little. Jesus gave us five lessons to help us to be prepared for His coming. Five lessons. I will deal with four of them today, this morning, and I reserve one of them for this evening. So let's jump into these lessons and to do it for sleep. Lesson number one. Five lessons. Five lessons. Lesson number one. The summer is coming. Lesson number two. The thief is coming. Lesson number three. The bridegroom is coming. Lesson number four. The master of the house is coming. Number five. The day of the Lord is coming. Five consecutive lessons. Jesus spit out to get us ready. So let's unpacked. Number one. The summer is coming. Summer is coming. So here's what Jesus is about that. I've been Master 24 or 32. He says, now learn... Come on, let's read like kindergarten children. One, two, three. Now, learn this parable from the... From where? From the fig tree. Now, you guys have fig tree here? In Nairobi, is there fig tree? There is? Oh, you're not sure? Okay. I was preaching... I was preaching this in the Cayman Islands. Was it earlier this year? Last year. And I noted that there are no fig trees in the Cayman Islands. So... By the time I went home, there was a fig tree plant at my door. Somebody had a fig tree in a pot. And they decided to bring it to the preacher. Amen. I love preaching. So that the next time I preach about fig tree, I have something tangible. And by the way, my wife is very... She's a lover of flowers and stuff. So she was able to take care of that fig tree. And we got some figs off of it. The first time I was eating figs. And so I knew what Jesus meant by fig tree. But if you don't have fig tree, we can... In Luke's version, you will soon see Jesus says, not just fig tree, he says all the trees. But he says, learn a parable from the fig tree. Let the fig tree teach you. He says about the second coming. What's the parable? Well, when its branches... When its branch has already become tender and put forth leaves, Jesus says, you know that the summer is near. Now, I don't know if you guys have different seasons here, but when the trees start to put out branches, what season is that? Anybody know? What season? Come on, talk back to me. What season do the trees put out new branches? Well, the spring. That's correct. Spring, spring, spring, spring, spring. And I had to be very careful here. Let me just disclose something. The first time I came to Nairobi, pastor, I was shocked. I'm deviating a little from my sermon here. I was shocked. It was cold. It was cold. And where's pastor Ambuchi? Pastor Ambuchi didn't tell me that when it is summer in my country, it is winter here. So in the Cayman Islands and in Jamaica, August is the mid of summer. It is hot. That's the hottest month. And back in the West, we do not associate cold with Africa because on television screen, all we see is heat. Amen? Are you with me? So I think I'm coming to a hot country. I didn't even dress for it, didn't even pack for it. When I reach here, I understand that you guys are in winter. And I said, oh my goodness. I wasn't aware that when you're having winter, I am having summer. So I'm going to be careful with the seasons here. But what Jesus says is this, when the leaves, when the trees start to put out little young leaves, look at what the text says. All of you know that the summer is near. Put another way. All of you know that we are now in spring and what comes after spring? Summer. Come on, talk with the preacher. What comes after spring? Summer. So when the leaves start to come out, all of you know that you are in spring and then the next season is summer. So when the leaves are coming out, that tells you that summer is on its way. Summer is just around the corner. Summer is next door. It's a church with me. Now, for me on the text, the last piece is the most important. It says, you know. Which means, which means it is a common knowledge. Hey, you don't have to go to university to know that if the leaves are coming out on the tree, it is spring and then after spring comes summer. It's common knowledge, you know. Why is that important preacher? And so here's it, here's it. So also when you see all these things, now what things? The list of signs that Christ has given. When you see these things, know that it is near, how near? Even at the door. So what's the point? Oh, here's the point. If we didn't get the point. In the very same way that it is common knowledge that when the leaves are budding on the tree, summer is near.  Point one, point two, point two, point two. Don't miss this. There's something about spring and summer. And that is once spring comes, summer comes behind it and you can't stop it. Meaning it is in a motion. Watch me, watch the preacher. The four seasons are in a motion and that motion cannot be slowed down. It cannot be stopped. It cannot be diverted. Once spring comes, you know that summer is behind it. So Jesus says, once you see the signs fulfilling, we are in a motion. It cannot be slowed down. It cannot be stopped. You can rest assured that after these signs, the second coming of Christ is on its way. It's a church with me. And so what Christ says, it ought to be common knowledge. So the question for the Adventist church in Nairobi, is it common knowledge in Nairobi? When you see the signs being fulfilled, do the members of... Do the people in Kenya do all... How many people here are here in Kenya? What's the population? What silence? What's the population in Kenya? 50 million. About 50 million. 50 million. Whoa. That's a lot of people. Is it common knowledge among the 50 million? Is the signs of the time common knowledge to them that Jesus is near? Or it's, hey, hey, hey. Or it's only common knowledge in the church. Let me say that. Let me repeat that for you. Is it common... Does the average man on the role of Nairobi understand that when they see crime and violence, when they see all these natural disasters taking place, when they see the signs fulfilled, is it common knowledge in Kenya? And if it is not common knowledge in Kenya, how is it common knowledge in the church but not on the road? Why is it not common knowledge? Which means that, hey, hey, hey, the church cannot rest until it becomes common knowledge out there. Which would be? Because that's the reason why God raised us up. It got to be common knowledge. Number one. Here's Luke. Luke version on it says, He told them this parable. Look at the fig tree and what else? All the trees. And I say praise the Lord, because if you don't have fig trees, still happen to the trees that you have back home. We have mango trees. We love mangoes. So I'm happy that Luke put in all the trees because there's no excuse to say, well, I don't have fig tree. Well, it's all the trees. Amen. When you see the sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that the summer is near. Even so, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near. And I'm about to tell you, all the prophecies that are listed here have already been fulfilled in Nairobi. And so one of my concerns is how close Christ is to the Second Coming. We are to the Second Coming of Christ and the majority of the people on the street are not aware of it. And if that is so, then the church has some work to do. Number two. Number two. Second lesson. The thief is coming. The thief is coming. Here's Jesus. Here's Jesus. In Matthew 24 again. Let me read. Jesus says what? Watch, therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. It's a warning that keeps coming over and over and over again. Watch, therefore, for you do not know what hour the Lord is coming. Verse, verse, verse, verse 43. Here is Jesus. He says, But, help me read. But what? But know this. I have underlined that for you. Know this. When Jesus tells you to know something, don't overlook it. Know this. Those of you are preparing for the Second Coming of Christ. Know what Jesus answer. Well, know that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allow his house to be broken. True? True? True. Hey, everybody, all eyes on me. All eyes on me. All eyes on me. All eyes on me. All eyes on me. All eyes on me. Even the children, all eyes on me. Let's look at the text. Let's look at it. Let the text talk to you. Let the text talk to you. Jesus says, Jesus says, Know this. Know this. Know what? If the master of the house, if you know that the thief is coming to break your house, by the way, do those things happen here? Okay. Okay. So, it's common knowledge. See, you know what Jesus does? He uses things that we are familiar with. Have you with me? Are you with me? Good. So, here's Jesus. If you know what hour the thief is coming to break your house, if you know that, what would you do? Come talk to me. Oh, you still don't get it. You still don't get it.  You would leave church. You would leave church. Am I right? And you'll go home to watch out for that thief. Am I right? If you are at work, yes, and you know what hour the thief is coming, you leave work. Am I right? And you go home to watch for that thief. If you are at a football match, if you're enjoying yourself and you know what time the thief is coming, no matter what you are doing, watch the preacher. You would make this sacrifice. Does that make sense? You would make the sacrifice to run home, and to prepare for the thief. In other words, watch the preacher. Watch the preacher. The problem is if you don't know what time the thief is coming, then it is likely that we are not going to put out that extra effort to go watch the house. That's where the problem is. That's where the problem is. If we know what time Jesus is coming, we would make the effort to watch. But because we don't know what time Jesus is coming, we will watch when we have time to watch. We are not watching the preacher. We are not motivated to watch because we don't know what time the thief is coming. In other words, we may go there and the thief don't come for the whole night.  I could have been a church. I could have been a work. Because we don't know what time the thief is coming, it caused us not to have the level of motivation and zeal that we needed to put in. And so this is where the problem lies. So watch me. So watching becomes difficult. Watching becomes boring. And it is that time when the thief is coming. And that's what Jesus is warning about. If we know what time the thief is coming, we would make the effort to watch. We are motivated to watch. But because we don't know. Ah, verse 44. Therefore, you also be ready for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you don't know. And that's where the problem is. Hey, church of God, listen to me. Where the problem is with the Second Coming of God is that we don't know what time is coming. And therefore, watching for him to come is a long, laborious, boring task. And it is that unknown factor that we raise us in the watching process. That unknown factor. That's the problem. That is the problem in the Adventist church. Ho, ho, ho. That's the problem with the 10 virgins. You remember them? We're going to talk about them tonight. That's the problem. Hey, hey, stay with the preacher. It's not that they weren't watching, you know. Did you get that? No, no, no, no. It's not that they weren't watching. Hey, those of us who lose our souls on the Lord come. It's not that they weren't watching. No, no, no. They were watching. But what happened? They fell asleep. Why? They didn't know the time when the bridegroom comes. That's where the danger lurks. Hey, members of God's church, that's where the danger is. Do you know how many people started to watch but Peter out, by the way, because there is no set time for the coming. That's where the danger lurks. And that's why Jesus kept saying the same thing over and over and over again. He says, therefore be ready for you don't know the hour that the son of man is coming. He's coming at a time when you don't expect it. Number three, the master of the house is coming. Third parable, Jesus, keep about the coming. There's so much stuff about this coming of Christ. Here's it, here's it. I want to take note of this one. This one is in Mark 13 verse 32 to 37. Let's read together. But of that day and that hour no one knows not even the angels in heaven nor the son but only the Father. Hey! This is a whole sermon on this verse. So let's unpack this verse. Number one, the first thing we know about this verse is that the day of Christ coming is set. Yes? And the hour is set, that point one. The second thing we know is that even though it is set nobody knows that day nobody knows that hour. Number three, out of that this is the shaka not even the angels in heaven. If they don't know it, I'm okay with that. Is that okay with you? Huh? Yes. Where I have a little problem is the next couple of words. This is where I have a little problem. It says only the angels who don't know but somebody else don't know. Who is that? No, who is the son? Huh? Talk back to me now, man. Talk back to me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. By the way, by the way, this is Jesus talking. Jesus says the angels don't know that day neither the son. The son is Jesus. So what Jesus is saying I don't even know the day myself. Hang on, hang on, hang on. He's coming back. But he says I don't even know the day I am coming back. Why? Because I don't set the day. Ah. So who knows? The father. Notice what he says. Only the father. Hang on, hang on. Here's a piece of theology. Hey, I'm going to deviate from my sermon. Here's a piece of theology. So some people tell us that there's no difference between the father and the son. Oh. But the text tells me that the father the text tells me that the father has some knowledge that the son doesn't have. Are we together? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's Jesus. That the father has some knowledge that in other words Jesus says the father is the one who sets the date and when he tells me go I go. Is the church with me? So on the subject on the second coming of Christ on the second coming of Christ what the text says Jesus says I don't even know the day. This is top secret that only the father keeps it to his chest. And so Jesus wants us to understand that not even the angel in heaven nor the son but only the father. Well, the next thing we the next point we want to bring to your attention is verse 33. Verse 33 says I mean verse 33 it says take heed. If you look in your Bible it says take heed. Watch and pray for you do not know when the time is take heed. Watch watch and pray those are two different action words. Take heed be careful amen. Be careful watch which means that if you're sleeping you can't watch so the caution that Jesus gave be careful as you wait for the second coming of Christ make sure that you're not just praying but that you are watching means that you are awake you are conscious you are aware hear the theme coming again for you do not know when that time is over and over and over the same thing Jesus has been saying keep watching praying, keep alert keep fast, keep anchored, have a relationship with Christ because if you don't know what time it's coming you can find yourself falling asleep even in the church even in the church and that's a challenge for us so take heed, watch and pray for you don't know the day and then in verse 34 you'll soon see it on the screen as soon as we get it back on the screen for you it's like a man verse 34 it's like a man going into a far country and when he goes in it, if you take your bibles out, come on, take your bibles out go ahead, take your bibles out I mean I know I know you're relying on the screen the screen will failure but that Bible will failure yeah verse 34, thank you guys you're back up on the screen it says it's like a man going to a far country look at the text, look at the text who left his house gave authority to his to his servants and to each his work so the servants had their work and commanded the doorkeeper to watch now stay with me, let's unpack this so there's a difference between the servants and the doorkeeper come on, stay with me, there's a difference between the servants and the doorkeeper the servants were to do their work while the doorkeeper was supposed to watch so I'm going to help you with this now so the man going into a far country let's call him Jesus he's the owner of the house he left his house meaning the church and gave authority to the servants of the church to do their work now I'm suggesting to you that the servants of the church represents the members of the church and then who do you think the doorkeeper represents look at the text, look at the text the coming of Christ is like I love this stuff go into a far country left his house right to the servants to do their work and to the doorkeeper to watch I'm suggesting to you that the man going in a far country is Jesus himself he has to leave and go back home but he left his church and asked the servants and I'm suggesting to you that the servants are the members and they are supposed to do what again their work and then he says and I command the doorkeeper to watch now if the members are the servants in the church who are the doorkeepers okay let me suggest to you I'm suggesting to you that the doorkeepers are the pastors oh let me put you where you get it that the servants is the lady and the doorkeeper is the clergy is the church with me so when the lady and the clergy begin to work together then there is some safety in the house does that make sense hang on so watch me so the servants watch me the servants had their work to do stay with me stay with me everybody can't be working and nobody watching does that make sense yeah yeah because and the church will be doing its work and still not ready for the Lord to come and by the way and everybody can't be watching and nobody working amen then the church will lose its mission so the Lord appropriately assign the two of them together to work together for the preparation of his second coming yeah and that's why that's why the clergy have that responsibility to study the word of God and keep watching while the church member does the work hello somebody watch therefore for you do not know when the master of the house is is coming he can come in the evening he can come at midnight he can come the crowing of the rooster or in the morning there are four watches of the night and he can put in his appearance at any one of those so here's where you're going to talk back to me of those four watches in the night evening midnight the crowing of the rooster or the morning if somebody is likely to sleep which of those times do you think they are more likely to sleep come on talk to me talk to me talk to me let's let's let's do it by the way I have not heard a rooster since you guys have roosters here yes okay we have we have hundreds of roosters I mean literally hundreds of roosters so they wake us up in the morning let me ask you again look at the text there are four watches in the night evening midnight crowing of the roosters that's like about I don't know two three o'clock in the morning and then in the morning if a watcher is about to sleep is likely to sleep which of those times is he most likely to fall asleep somebody says midnight anybody else crowing of the rooster crowing of the rooster well here's the text here's the text the text says if that if we are likely to sleep at midnight then what Jesus is trying to tell you it is at that time it is at that exact time when we are most likely to sleep that when the sky will split open and the Son of God put in his appearance does that make sense to you yes yes yes hang on people here's the message I don't miss the message God will not come at the time when we are expecting him to come is that clear let me say that over here God will not come at the time when we expect him to come over and over and over and over it is repeated he will come at the time when we least expecting put it in context for you let me put it in context for you if all hell is breaking loose in Nairobi if we have problems here and problems here and all kind of crime and violence and starvation and disease and all the other stuff and going on in top and people say oh well this is the time God is not coming during that time does that make sense to you let me put it again he is coming at a time when the people in Nairobi is quite comfortable well fed have good jobs low taxes amen is coming at a time when there is no crime and no violence in other words peace and safety if you think the preacher is joking I can give you evidence for it I can give you evidence for it what did Jesus say what did Jesus say in the days of Sodom as it was in the days of Sodom they were eating and drinking and look at the text they were eating they were drinking they were planting they were doing all kind of stuff the economy was good life was prosperous nobody wanted God to come right now and nobody expected God to come right now why life is sweet nobody prays when life is happy nobody come to church nobody nobody think about God he is coming at a time when the society is prosperous you get it don't miss it as it was in the days of Noah same thing they were eating and drinking marrying and giving into marriage and life was good did you hear the preacher life was good life was good again he is coming at a time when life is good that's the danger because it is at that time that we sleep is at that time that we are comfortable is at that time when the pulpits don't preach they don't know the second coming up price anymore less coming suddenly he find you he find you what sleeping over and over that word came coming up and it blows my mind he keep coming up find you sleeping find you at ease find you resting find you dozing off because life is comfortable and what I say to you I say to all watch watch I turn to the last of the lessons for today for this morning the day of the Lord is coming this one I am fascinated by this one fascinated by this this one I found in the book of Thessalonians about the Paul so Paul I want all eyes on me so so if you understand when you read the New Testament when you read the letters written by Paul Corinthians Galatians Ephesians I want you to understand the context of those letters what happens is that the church that Paul pasted while he was in prison most of those letters are prison letters is the church still with me problems in the church and so they would send messages to Paul their pastor who was in prison to ask him questions about the problems that they were having Paul got their questions and then wrote back to them the answer it is the answer that we get in Bible we don't get the question we only get the answers so it is the answers we get in 1 Thessalonians 4 there were a litany of things that they asked Paul about a number of things and Paul responded to them but one of the things they asked about is when the Lord comes back whether or not the dead will come before the living will rise before the living and Paul addressed that in 1 Thessalonians 4 that Paul says Brethren I want you I do not want you to be ignorant concerning those who fall asleep in and he addressed that for the Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of an archangel with the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up and he addressed the whole thing that's in the last part of chapter 4 watch the preacher his answer to them continues over into chapter 5 that's why chapter 5 starts with the word but have you seen that then he says but concerning what the times and the seasons which mean that they ask him about that also and he's giving them the answer but concerning the times and seasons Brethren you have no need that I should write to you ha in other words I don't need to tell you anything about the time and the seasons mmm he shied away from that by the way he's a good practice Jesus shied away from it also because the disciple says Lord are you going to establish your kingdom now and Jesus says hey hey hey when it comes to the times and the seasons that the Father has set for himself is not for me to say it to you so Paul shied away from the time of the season and he says Brethren you don't have any help me preach this stuff you don't have any what need there is no need in the church to talk about the times and seasons why because the church already have the information does that make sense Paul says you already know the stuff I'm going on for your for you yourself help me read this stuff you yourself you know how what you perfectly know that the day of the Lord so come as what thief in the night when your lease expected I don't need to tell you about it because you have the stuff he says okay here's the dangerous part watch this watch this although you know although you know I'm just going to remind you that when you hear people in Nairobi saying peace and safety when the economy is good the taxes are low when there is food on the table when everybody is doing well Paul says then sudden destruction comes upon them as what labor pains on a pregnant woman and they shall not escape pause pause pause my wife has two children she gave birth to two children and I learned a few things about labor pain yes there's a sermon coming up in this week about labor pain I'm going to leave half of it down there because I learned a lot about labor pain I learned a lot about pregnancy Ola I was pregnant with her I mean I'm serious I was there from day one straight to the very birth are we together? I was there I was there I'm part of the fund so I need to be part of the travail labor pain is an interesting pain watch me watch me watch me labor labor pain is an interesting pain how many of you have experienced labor pain? ok just a few the men don't understand what we're talking about so let me help you with this labor pain is an interesting pain even though she is pregnant one and two their sign of it because her tummy is projected are you with me? even though she knows the she has an idea of when this will actually take place yes watch a preacher even though she has an idea of the time when the baby is supposed to come she does not know exactly when is that so? stay with me she will expect the baby to come maybe in another two weeks they will tell you but 9 o'clock on Monday morning nobody can tell you that am I right? hey watch a preacher she does not know when the first labor pain will start no doctor can tell you exactly when that labor pain will start they can give you an idea is the church with me? a little time when it is likely to start so even though you are expecting it to come you don't know exactly when same thing Paul says even though we are expecting God to come and we see all the signs are all we do not know exactly when and that is what he says the only thing you need to be prepared for the time period in which he will come is when the world is at ease and the mistake that a lot of people make is that when the world in turmoil they said yes Jesus must be coming no pass is the church with me? when all hell breaking loose see Jesus is coming no no that's not what Jesus says because if he comes now he comes when you are expecting him to come and the Bible says he come when you least expect him is the church with me is when all is well so when I leave Nairobi when I leave Nairobi I want you to remember this preacher telling you it is when all is well it is when money in your pocket and your family members are happy and everything is doing well that's when Jesus is going to put in his appearance is the church with me let me wrap this up then here's what troubles the preacher here's what troubles the preacher if you are a member of this church this should trouble you after saying that Paul then went on to verse 4 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 4 says but you brethren comma you are not in darkness comma meaning you have information am I right? you have knowledge, you have information you have the intel you have everything you need to be saved so that this day should not overtake you as what Steve so if it catches others unprepared it should not catch the member of the 7 day Adventist church that's what Paul says why? because you have the stuff Paul says because you have studied the prophecies because you know the stuff because you have a relationship with Christ Henry you are all sons of you are all sons of light and sons of day we are not of the night we are not in darkness we are not in error no no you have the truth, you have the oracles you have everything and then Paul says therefore let us not oh Jesus hold on hold on hold on hold on hold on this is where I wrap up this sermon look at the text you are not in darkness you have light meaning you have the truth you have the prophecy you have everything you have everything you have everything to be saved and then Paul said something that does not make sense therefore let us not which means which means which means even though we have the truth hey even though we have the stuff even though we have the knowledge even though we have the prophecy even though the 7th day Adventist church has a truth of God it is still possible that we may fall asleep that is the danger and I am going to talk about that later this evening having the truth is not enough to say hey having the truth is not enough to save us that is the danger that is the danger why let us not sleep what others do the truth because it is highly possible that we will go to sleep with the truth in fact many of us may get so comfortable having the truth that we fall asleep this is what troubles the preacher this is what troubles the preacher you can't become a member of the Adventist church I think that is okay I am on my way to heaven so Paul warns the church don't get careless with the truth let me say that one more time don't get careless with the truth let us because we are children of light let us not sleep let us keep awake let us watch there is a part 2 to this that I have to crack open tonight because I will give you evidence when you come tonight of people sleeping with the truth I am tempted to give a little peace I am going to fall to temptation is that alright I am going to succumb to temptation of people sleeping with the truth all the things that disturb this preacher more than anything else and I wrote it in my book is God still coming up to now it blows my mind that the first coming of Christ the first coming of Christ is the church with me on the balcony the first coming of Christ the church back then had the prophecy amen they had the oracles they had the prophecy every single piece of Christ coming was prophesied Isaiah said a virgin shall conceive and be a son the place where he was to be born Micah prophesied that how he should be born Isaiah prophesied that hey hey even how he should die the whole thing the church had it every morning they preach and they had the scripture and yet God came and the church did not know and the church did not know Ellen White says there is some uncircumcised Gentiles from far land rode into Jerusalem wise men and asked where is he that is born king the church did not know and you ask the question how is it ever so morning you gone to church how is it ever so morning you are preaching how is it ever so morning you are studying from the word of God and God come and the church do not know that God is here and they had the truth they had the truth the clergy did not know re-deserve ages Ellen White says when Christ was born those those those shepherds oh man I'm in trouble here my time is gone but have you noticed did you notice did you take note that when Christ was born angels came down and sang amen do you know who they appeared to say me there was a chief priest there were elders there were scribes there was a huge entourage of clergy that run the church at the time angels bypassed all of them and go to some shepherds on the outskirts and it is to them angels sang to not to the church leadership it is to them Ellen White says when they came into town and told church leadership hey that the saver is born they run them deserve ages she says the chief priest says why would God bypass us were ordained ministers to tell you uneducated shepherd that Christ was born they had the truth and slept with it they had the truth and fell asleep with it that must not happen to the church of God again amen that must not happen again study the word diligently look at it carefully it says when there is peace and safety it says when they are buying and selling when the economy is good it says when all the wars are over and people are enjoying themselves it says when we are in prosperity it says when life is good when we least expect it that's when the Lord is coming my time is up so the question is are you ready for Jesus to come don't be deceived by the process don't be lost stay focused stay focused watch Jesus keep that relationship with him keep that connection with him hey keep active with him watch and pray for he's coming at a time when you expect it not so I'm going to invite this congregation to stand with me can I ask you to stand with me so Israel blended on the borders the whole generation lost their soul and lost their life Israel we are again at the borders and there's a high possibility that the same thing may happen to us again and my burden as a preacher is to try to prevent that from happening by saying to my brethren let us not be deceived on the borders again study the word diligently know God for yourself have a relationship with him have a testimony of his goodness let him carry you walk by the light that God has given to you because in a little while he that shall come will come and when he comes and call the roll of yonder it is my prayer that there'll be thousands and millions of people from Nairobi who will be in the number how many of you plan by God's grace to be there in the number God bless you keep your hands up Lord our hearts know our thoughts and you will see that for every hand raised here this morning is a solemn determination to make it home to glory we do not want to be lost on the borders we sense the time has come to an end God we know that you're at the door to step out anytime we recognize that the labor pains are about to start and the hands raised here lifted up towards heaven is a hand is an indication stating we need your help God to keep us awake in these very difficult times because we want to be in the number when this world is on fire we want your bosom to be our shelter and so God we're asking you help us that we will be ready help us to stay watching and praying so that all will be well with our souls and we can go home and be with you this is our prayer we ask in Jesus name


Hi everyone! So this is a vlog all about my training! I know! Very exciting! So this week I have two days of practice, so Monday and Friday I will be working half eight till half six my normal hours and then Tuesday Wednesday, today's Tuesday. I'm going to be doing baby immunizations training and this is part of the foundations of primary care course or fundamentals of primary care course. It's called different things in different places, but anyway yes! So all of our baby immunizations is now online, so we have to do online learning which I'm really annoyed about because I could have done this nine months ago when I first started. This is something I could have got on with and done and I could be well away doing babyims by now but because of COVID and the course was pushed back then we're just starting now but I'm literally logging on to my e-learning for healthcare which I always use to do the babyims training. I could have done this at the start so I'm a little bit miffed about that but do you know what? At least I'm getting on with it, I'm going to do it so I thought I would take you through it and show you how I learn and revise and make my notes whilst I'm training online and hopefully I'm going to stay as motivated as possible. So this screen here is my e-learning for healthcare package and this is the e-learning that I'm going to be doing today and tomorrow. So this is all about immunizations and vaccines which is handy because there's a new COVID vaccine coming out. So I am literally just going to start at the top national immunization policy and programs and then I'm going to work my way down this list. Every session you click on so if I click on the top one it's got different parts to it. If I go back and then click on the next one it's got those parts. If I go to that one oh god I've got a lot of work to do over the next two days oh god are these going to have everything inside it? It's nothing in that one that's a bonus oh no there was it's come up there's only one in that one thank god okay next one there's only one in that one HPV oh amazing okay so I have got a lot of work to do but hopefully it's going to be okay I'm going to get through all of this hopefully and get my certificates at the end and yeah and then I'll be able to book in some clinics with the other nurses and do the baby vaccines which I'm not looking forward to I'm not going to lie I do not want to be injecting babies and have them cry at me that's not fun to me um but yeah it is what it is and it's to protect the health of the future children and all that jazz so yeah here we go oh so this is a really interesting statistic that's on my first bit of e-learning this is from public health england and showing how vaccines actually work showing you the evidence so before vaccines the on the left hand side of this screen this is before vaccines were introduced so they're all the different types of diseases or illnesses whatever and that's how many people were infected by it um but now because there's a vaccine this is the right hand side as after the vaccine's been given so the difference between the 1940s 1950s 1960s 1990s up to today and now and look at those numbers one case then just look at those numbers it's amazing how reduced those numbers are that's massive reduction so it just shows you that actually vaccines are needed and this is why we vaccinate so at the end of every section that i'm showing you um we get an assessment and you have to get 80% or more to pass the assessment so right now i'm doing the immunology assessment and i'm on question two and there's an option for all of the above so i'm going with that one because if there's an option then i'm going to tick it let's face it the fingers crossed past this ready to submit this is what happens when you don't read a question right oops second attempt guys uh i haven't got high hopes for this one i'm not gonna lie oh third time lucky guys so i have finished my mandatory stuff on my immunizations and that is all the boring stuff so if i didn't make notes because it was all about kind of stuff that i already know like consent the legal stuff fridge temperatures so i didn't make notes so i didn't show you that part but however i've now moved on to disease specific so the first one we are going to go to is this what i'm going to do now is just go through each one for the information and then as i do that i'm going to make some notes so my first note i'm going to put the title which i cannot pronounce so i'm not going to say it out loud too much but i've wrote it down on my note so it's got to be done title done let's add some color to the title just to make it look pretty done next okay so organism so this is usually caused by bacterium oh what are these words bacterium coronet bacterium diphtheria and less commonly don't understand how to say these words guys anyway some some strains toxogenic strains of the bacteria produce a toxin it's only these strains that cause disease lovely history we do want to know so i'm going to put a little title because we need the stats to tell people and to tell the parents so i'm going to put history in an ice color i know it's going to be color coded history okay so disease of children well that's why we're vaccinating children and came rare in the uk following an introduction of mass immunization in 1942 oh so imms started in 1942 and then in 1941 there was approximately 50 000 notifications in england with 2 600 deaths this amounted to approximately one notification every 10 minutes and one death every three to four hours ouch so this is my final notes for the e-learning that i did and that is it i'm going to move on to the next one now says day two of e-learning i'm bored i'm at home i'm in pretty much the same clothes as i had on yesterday what is life with some extra ones i've done is hep b hpv and now i'm going on to influenza which i've already done the flu one but this is more targeted at the baby ones which i do not know so that's what i'm going to do right now so bored i'm nearly finished i'm just coming to the end now so i thought i would stop this video in here um i've got all of my notes and i'm going to make some little flashcards from them all i think about baby imms and vaccinations probably not today though but yeah i'm gonna sort something out but i've done my mandatory training so that is me hopefully going to be signed off for baby imms and start to be able to do them but basically yeah just like i've shown you i literally go through bit by bit and i document all of the important stuff in my notes and i use colors and subheadings little stars little bullet points just to make my notes that's how i do it um sometimes if i was doing like anatomy and physiology i might draw a little diagram or something at the side and then label it and then put some arrows and make notes at the side of it that sort of thing that's how i normally sort of do my note taking for amp um but yeah i hope that's been useful i feel like this has been really boring if i'm not going to lie so i'm really sorry if that's really bored you to death but i hope it helps a bit i don't know but now i am going to have a cup of tea to excuse this guys literally i'm learning from home we all have got our pyjamas on we've all not done our hair don't worry about it i'm gonna go and have a cup of tea now and just chill out for a bit because this is draining my soul i've no idea how all the student nurses are doing this how are you all doing this from home the motivation to do it is just it's not there i'm not gonna lie but it has to be done so i'm doing it um but yes i hope that you're all staying motivated and i'm sorry if you're not and i'm sorry if you're feeling really deflated right now with everything being online but you know what you've got this you can absolutely do it so go have a cup of tea have a coffee have a drink treat yourself to something nice keep yourself motivated and yeah i shall see you all next time


Before you hear this story of one of America's first great advocates of religious freedom, we should like to introduce to you Dr. Frank Monaghan of Yale University, historian of cavalcated America, Dr. Monaghan. Among the many blessings which we as Americans enjoy and cherish is that of religious freedom. And if you examine carefully the three other great constitutional liberties, you will see how closely they are associated. But religious freedom was the first to be achieved in America, or rather in one American colony, and long before the Constitution and its bill of rights. And it came to be established in a curious and ironic fashion. Briefly, it was this. You are well aware of the celebrated story of the Puritans. You know well their piety, their courage, their determinations, their stamina. No one group has made more effective contributions to the development of the American nation. The Puritans had fled to America to obtain religious and economic freedom. They gained the opportunity of realizing their own way of life. After many hardships, they established colonies in New England. They prospered. They came to America to find religious liberty, and they found it. But within a few years, there appeared among the Puritans several persons whose religious beliefs were not quite the same. The Puritan temper flared up. The centers were hurried, stoned, some executed, others exiled. It was now clear that the Puritans never wished to extend the principle of religious freedom to those persons who made it if they did not agree. The voice of Roger Williams was most eloquent in the denunciation of such intolerance. When he was finally exiled, he fled to the wilderness to find a new colony, Providence in Rhode Island. And this was the first colony in America with true religious liberty. Roger Williams was not only the first great American liberal, or one of the greatest of all American figures. He was one of the greatest figures in the worldwide movement to achieve freedom of the human conscience. Stay in Plymouth more than 300 years ago. In the morning sunshine, black-poked worshippers are walking along the shore to a small, square, long meeting house. One of their number is a bold, jawed man, Roger Williams. Beside him is his wife, Mary. Roger, please be careful in your sermon this morning. Careful? You know what I mean. They say you're preaching dangerously. It's your heritage trying to stir up trouble.  You'll stop at nothing to hurt you. I'm not afraid, Mary. I wish you weren't. Oh, Roger, please, for my sake. Mary, I can't. I believe what I say is the truth. And I shall speak it. We know that the nine rulers of this colony are ministers of the established religion in Massachusetts Bay. They not only govern the church but the colony as well. A few brief years ago we landed at Plymouth to escape a union of church and state. And already we have religious intolerance again. We have those who deny us our God-given freedom. We must worship God their way, not according to the dictates of our own consciences. Brethren, this religious tyranny must come to an end. God must be worshiped by each man according to his will. We must no longer submit to a civil and ecclesiastical authority joined in the diabolical suppression of man's free conscience. Intolerance is not the mark of a true believer in Christ our Lord. Tolerance and freedom must be the center of the division. The General's Court will now hear a summary of the case against the defendant. Governor Haynes. I'm Mr. Wintlop. May I ask if the defendant be given a chance to recant what he has said in his silence? Just a moment, Mr. Wintlop. Roger Williams has had ample time to recant his heresies. A Christian court should show mercy. Remember, Mr. Williams has no counsel. No counsel? No counsel. Well, what about your own zealous efforts, Mr. Wintlop? Do you harbour the same pernicious opinions as the accused? No. At this time, to remove all doubts, court teams are advisable that the defendant be examined again. Good job, there. Very well. Roger Williams. I am ready. Roger Williams, in addition to preaching sermons with your open heresy, you also stand accused of holding that His Majesty the King does not own these lands which make up our colony. Is that correct? I hold this land belongs to those who first possess it. I mean the Indians. I say this in the name of justice. No one has a right to take land away from the Indians, least of all a Christian monarch. Why do you say a Christian monarch? His Christianity should prevent him from taking what is not his. But no monarch would have the right any more than an Indian station sailing up the Thames to claim London. Roger Williams, do you persist in denying our authority? Yes, I do. You respect a man's right to believe what he chooses. You do this both in civil and religious matters.  You forbid freedom of conscience. You force your religion on the souls of three people. Yours is of vicious authority. Reverend, this heretic would destroy the Massachusetts Bay Colony.  You are. All of you. That's enough. It is not enough. We came to America for freedom to escape intolerance. We should have complete freedom here. According to the word of God, we ought to permit Jews or Turks or anti-Christians to live among us. It is not a courtesy. It's tolerance. It's the basis of all human civilization. Very well, Roger Williams. Further talk is useless. You've heard your opinion. Will you change them? I cannot. Roger Williams has broached and devolved divers' new dangerous opinions contrary to our authority. He sentenced you, Roger Williams, to banishment from this colony within six weeks. Order to John. Roger. Oh, Roger. Yes, John. I'm sorry. Is there anything I can do? John Winthrop, you've been my friend. I want to thank you for all you've done. I seem to have little influence anymore. You hadn't been so stubborn. Sometimes I wonder, Roger, why you came to this colony. Because like you, I believe in freedom. Freedom of opinion. Freedom of conscience. Freedom of worship. We haven't got it here, John. But we'll have it yet. We've got to have it. Because where there is intolerance, there can be no freedom. Roger, what do we do? What do we do now? Mary, you believe in me, don't you? You know I do, Roger. Then they can't hurt us, Mary. It's just that it's no use anymore. Banished from the colony, there's nowhere for us to go now. There's the wilderness, Mary. There's peace out there. We mustn't give up hope. What about our child, Freeborn? I can stand it, Roger. I'll follow you anywhere, but I'm afraid of taking her into that wild country. Mary, it's God's will. Trust in His providence. We're doing what we know is right. God will save us right here. I wonder who that is. Let us see. Yes. Oh, come in, Master Skelton. Thanks. Well, come in, Thomas. Come in. Sit over here for the fire and warm yourself. Mr. Williams, I came here to warn you. They're sending an officer with a warrant to take you back to England and Irons as a felon. A felon? No, Roger. He can't see. But they are mistress. They'd persecute him to his dying day if they could. Why have you done this for me? Will Mr. Winfreyp suggest... I might have known John Winfreyp would try to help me. What did he suggest? He doesn't want you to leave New England. But he thinks you should leave here at once. You know the Indians, Mr. Williams? Maybe you could live with them. Yes. Perhaps it is with the Indians. But, Roger, you can't. Not now. I don't relish the voids that give me to England, Mary. It's either that or the Indian wilderness.  You can't go alone. Mary, I must please help to make it easier for me. Don't worry, my dear. It won't be long, and I'll send for you and pre-born in the spring. You'll be all right, Mr. Skelton. I'm going with you. Thank you, Thomas. But we'll have to hurry. Strange. To escape intolerance and cruelty, we must run into savages. Goodbye, Mary. And don't forget. Trust in God, God. Mr. Williams. How do you keep going? Must be the fever that cries me on. There's not even a sign.  There's a sign that we shout here either. Providence will lead us on. Mr. Williams, take my arm. Take my arm, Mr. Williams. Aye. Thomas, sir. What is it? What's the matter? Aye. I can't go on. You.  No, no. The end. Aye. I can't go another step. Please be here, Thomas. No, no. Look. That walk ahead. Shelf, I can't. Here, I can't.  There. All right. Come on now. No. Come on. Almost there. No. No. Here, get down behind it, Mr. Williams. I'll build a fire.  Thank you. Do you want to go back? No, no. We can't go back. Thomas, we'll go on. We'll go on until we find the place we need. We'll find it. God's Providence will take us there. And we'll call that place the Providence. I missed you so much, Roger. Well, I missed you, Mary. But now you're here. And freeborn too. I don't want to leave her alone in the cabin, Roger. Let's start that. It's a peaceful summer night. She's safe. Providence is peaceful. The climate seems so far away. And the blizzard you told me about so long ago. Now this is our home, Roger. It's not much of a home yet, Mary. But our town of Providence is growing. We'll have a better home. 10, 11, 12 lights I think out in homes along the day. You sound happy, my dear. I'm glad. I am happy. And so proud of you. I mean, of what you've done here, and what you've made of Providence. Praise the most high and lonely wise, not me for our freedom. Who could be riding here this time of night? I'm frightened, Roger. Now, Mary, we've got a good dozen muskets. I sounded alarm. Anybody awake? Who's there? What do you want? I'm looking for Mr. Williams' home with an urgent message. The message you just bagged. Hi, Roger Williams. What is the trouble? The Pequots and their agendas are on the warpath. Warpath? You must help us. You're the only one who can. What's behind the uprising? If I knew that. Our troops on the upper Connecticut. They burned the Pequot village or two and revenged for the slaying of one of our traitors. But Mr. Dudley sent me to you for help. Mr. Dudley? Then it is God's judgment. Today, Mary, it is up for us to judge our enemies. Please, Mistress, I know what you're thinking. Heaven knows he has been unjust to you, but now Mr. Williams is our only hope. Little hope that I can try. Please, Hazen, if you can, there's no time to move. The Narragansets are my friends. But we bought our land from them fairly. Perhaps I can stop them and together we may stop the Pequots.  So be it. I shall go to the Narragansets and talk to the station. The Atenomo. The Atenomo. Brother, when we bought our land from you, you promised there would be peace between us. As long as you lived, you let us follow our own good. The Atenomo trusts you, but no other white man. If you wish our friendship to go on, brother, I ask you this. Silence your wardrobes. Put aside your tomahawks. Smoke the peace pipe with all my people. Not you people, brother. You enemies. But people, they are my people, brother. I ask you to do this as my friend. I promise you it will be a just peace. You were good, brother. You friend, I am your friend now. I cannot be if you fight my other friends. Brother, the Atenomo will do much to keep you his friend. The whole consul with Narraganset warriors, tell them. What are the two parts? The Atenomo talk to the Piquots. But maybe Piquots, no listen. I pray they do, my brother. Tell me, Atenomo, why are you good to people who hurt you? Brother, I do not preach to you, but the only way I can answer you is in the words of my Lord, Jesus Christ. He taught us to forgive our enemies. He said return good for evil. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I think you'd better come at once, Mr. Williams. They may harm this woman. What do they want to do? They're trying to drive her out of town. Well, there they are now in front of Gorton. Aye, and now I see the poor woman over there. Let's hurry. May even my enemies in Massachusetts gave me a hearing before they banished me. This doesn't demand a hearing. We know of you, Mr. Danbutton.  I see I was mistaken, Insofaradun. I thought it was a play for... Brethren, Brethren, what is the meaning of this? We make it plain to this woman, she is not welcome. She is welcome, my good man. Any man or woman who has suffered for conscience's sake is welcome here. I thank you, Mr. Williams, for your kind words. Do you mean you agree with this woman's behavior?  She's already made herself a nuisance talking about equal rights for women. I don't hold for women. Brethren, listen, listen to me, please. It is not a question of whether I agree with her, it is not a question of whether you do. You may think her opinions outrageous. I may think yours the same at this moment I do. Mr. Hutchison, my wife and I invite you to our humble board. I shall accept, gladly, Mr. Williams. Then come with me now. Thomas, if you will assist me with her baggage, I, Mr. Williams, I will. Then, Providence is, what I heard after all, a refuge and the only one for me to come to. But you have so many here now, Mr. Williams. So many to feed. Can there be room for me? I'm sure the Indians will send you good land as they have sold it to me, Mistress. It is good farmland, good for grazing and corn. We have a good harbor, as you can see. There are islands as fertile as the mainland. Yes, there is room for you. Good.  As are all the New England colonies, do you know they plan a league of New England, a league of defense? A league will be a fine thing for all of us. It will be if it is for all of us. Rather than let us review our situation, behind our colonies the Indians are being armed by England's enemies. Within New England, there is now a league that chooses to play with New England's Connecticut. But we are left out of it. Aye, that's the very basis of the league. I mean that we of Providence be out of it, so we are told. What do you say, Mr. Arnold? I say we must find a way to cooperate with them, or we are lost. Mr. Harris, aye. For otherwise, they will not let us trade or travel among them, or use their harbors. Mr. Wicks, Providence stands for the freedom to think as we please. We can't give that up. We must, for without care, our crops will rot on our hands. We all know what's behind this. The other colonies would gladly trade with us, but for one reason, Roger Williams, I say we must give him up for the sake of the others here. He was the first one to say that. You may be right, brethren. Least here you have the right to speak as you believe. We all have that right. Now, I have an opinion too. I suspect a bay colony will not like it. The bay dominates the other. I, the bay, may not like it, but I think I may solve your difficulties. Remember, openly, the other colonies refuse to deal with us because they claim we have no legal basis. Well, if it meets with your approval, I shall go to London for a charter from the crown. What if you fail? We cannot live quarreling with our neighbors. If I fail, I will return. I will go to Boston and give myself up. Goodbye, Captain. Goodbye, Mr. Williams. Roger! Oh, Roger! Mary! John Winthrop! Oh, it's good to see you too. I didn't expect to find you in Boston, Mary. Oh, Roger. Thanks, Roger, for seeing me again. I'm sorry, you'll miss us, Roger. I don't see how you can avoid trouble, but I'll do whatever I can to help you. I know I can depend on you, John. Thank you, but I don't think that... Roger Williams! Roger Williams! Mr. Dudley! It's a pleasure to see you. Roger, what are you saying? Roger Williams, you were warned never to set foot on this colony again. You're under arrest, yes, but all this... Mr. Dudley! My husband wishes no more than I to tarry in this colony one moment longer than necessary. If you open it up to go... Yes, Mr. Dudley. I will guarantee his quick departure. Please, if you'll only... Enough of this. Williams, escape the front. You shall not again. Then let me, Mr. Dudley, speak my mind. That is something you cannot understand, I know, for you do not have the freedom to speak here, your mind is narrow and vicious. Mr. Williams. Oh, I know, or at least I can imagine what you have it in your power to do to persecute me as you have my husband and oppress all of us here, but I had to seek out whatever the cost. We'll discover that soon enough, Mr. Williams, you'll come with me. If all I do, Mr. Dudley, I wish you would examine this letter from the leaders of Parliament, among others, Oliver Cromwell. It is you will see a letter of safe conduct. You have a letter of safe conduct? Mr. Williams. In the recognition of Roger Williams' good affections, I say, suffering by the oppressors of God's people is Indian labour. That's not enough. This also may interest you. And it has pleased Parliament to grant to province plantations a free and absolute charter of civil government. Well, am I still under arrest? No. No, you are free, Roger Williams. You have won your point. Well, I've won more than a point, Mr. Dudley. And more than my own freedom. There is now a small place in the world where one's conscience is free. But this is more than a charter of freedom for province. Even you cannot stop that, for liberty is a God-given right. It is as natural as the air we breathe. Liberty is hardly got and is hardly kept. But someday even these colonies will be free, and all America too. And God willing, all the world may yet be free. The years pass, and finally there came to all of America liberty of conscience, establishing those very truths which brought about the banishment of Roger Williams in 1635. It was a victory of complete religious freedom, the freedom of Roger Williams' providence experiments. This religious freedom found fullest expression in the Constitution of the United States, which declares, Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. Today, this is one of America's proudest heritages, and it is for this that Roger Williams takes his place in the cavalcade of America.


Welcome everyone to nurturing open education through stakeholder surveys. This is a this is a webinar with CCC OER and my executive president of my council. So Una Daly here, director of the community college consortium for OER and I'm here with Dr. Judith Sabesta who I'll let introduce herself. Thank you so much, Una. I'm so glad to be here and have the opportunity to present. I serve as the executive director of the digital higher education consortium of Texas based here in Austin, Austin, Texas. And I also have the privilege of serving as the CCC OER executive council president. Thanks, Una. Wonderful. Thank you, Judith. And so today we're here to talk to you about how using surveys as one tool to increase communication between our members and between us and our members and how that supports and nurtures open education programs. And so that's pillar number four of the UNESCO OER recommendations. And we've decided to split this into two case studies for you. So we have a case study based on CCC OER and its annual survey that we've been doing since 2013 actually with our members. And then Judith will share the biennial surveys that Digitex does for the statewide Texas group. So excited to tell you about both of those survey efforts. So just to really quickly about the community college consortium for OER, we have members across the United States and Canada founded over a decade ago. And our mission is expanding awareness and adoption of high quality OER. We work with faculty and librarians, administrators on this work. It's about fostering OER leadership, but at the heart of it is improving student equity and success. And those things haven't changed over the last decade. Those are still really important, although many underpinnings technology things have changed in the last 10 years. Just a really quick look at our membership. About 20% represent statewide or system memberships, which of course Judith as the executive director of Digitex is one of those statewide membership groups. We also have 20% that are multi-college districts and about 60% of our members are individual colleges that are trying to do this work around open education. And I call out to California, Texas, and Wisconsin, which are the states within our consortium that have the most members. So why conduct an annual survey? Well, our members when they join, we get to know them, but over time they change. And we sometimes we don't have an opportunity to have those one-on-one conversations. So we really hear about what's going on at their institution and what their needs are. And so at least annually, we want to check in and we like to do that more often as well. We want to understand what the value of the membership within CCCOER is. And we want to encourage collaboration between our members because we know that together we are a very powerful group. And finally, we want to understand their member priority. So we always ask about what's coming up in the next year for you and then what do you see two to three years out? And this helps us with planning and promoting collaborations for our upcoming year of activities. But we don't wait until the end of the year to ask these questions. We have quarterly meetings, other opportunities, of course, to interact with folks. But just last March, we did a poll during our quarterly meeting in March and we said, you know, there's so many wonderful things we could do this summer. What would you like to hear about? And we got some great feedback from our members at that point. And that led to the creation of a virtual book club focused on equity, diversity, and inclusion this summer. And also the open pedagogy tutorial series. So wonderful feedback through that as well. So this last year, we shipped out our survey early in May. And we usually give our members about three weeks to respond back and we encourage them multiple times over that time period to please fill that out for us. And so we were very happy to get almost 40%, a little under 40% of our membership responding this year. And what I wanted to tell you about on this particular slide is that the largest role of the respondent to this survey was administrators. So those are often the folks who are running programs, making some decisions around policies at their institutions or organizations. So they're a very important voice. And we were glad to see that we also did have over 40%, almost 50% faculty or librarians who responded. So those are definitely our boots on the ground and very important voices as well. And OER, dedicated OER staffs, continues to be a minority at our institutions and organizations. Most institutions have not established an OER department, but a few have. And who's in charge of open education on campus? Another interesting one. Once again, libraries came out as the top department that's in charge, but e-learning and teaching and learning centers also are a very critical leader in this area for the institution. And once again, dedicated OER open education staff is in a minority at most of our institutions. So we were really pleased to see that 41% of our respondents reported an increased interest in open education for 2021. And part of that was our survey back in 2020 indicated that the pandemic had really shifted priorities and that OER was taking a little bit of a back burner during that time. So we were very happy to see that it had come back really strongly. And 61% reported that student savings was the most successful aspect of their open education program over the last year. And you can see there were other various pieces that were important as well, such as pedagogy, improved pedagogy, equity, etc. So what were their top professional development needs? Measuring the impact of open education, looking at open pedagogy as a tool for student empowerment. And of course, I just mentioned that over the summer we had an open pedagogy tutorial series. Open education as an anti-racism tool, which is another important project, which we won't have time to talk about today, but is a really something that our members are thinking about and very concerned. And once again, OER course design, open education leadership continue to be top needs. Challenges, funding is often at the very top of that. And so I wanted to tell you about some of the funding sources. This was the first time this year that we actually asked about funding sources. So federal and state grants were a little over 60% of what was funding the work at our member institutions and organizations. Colleges were also funding that work through innovation grants, faculty stipend grants as well at 73%. So really wonderful to see that. But in terms of having an ongoing open education budget, that still isn't the minority for most of our organizations, looking at about 15% and private donors came in even a little bit less at 6%. So what were your priorities for the next one to three years? Honestly, this hasn't changed much in the last couple of years as we compare between 2020 and 2021, raising OER awareness on campus. And this is not just for faculty, it's also administrators. And over the last few years, really getting students involved. So figuring out how students can also be advocates for open education. As beneficiaries of much of this work, they can be quite articulate. And also faculty OER adoptions, obviously that's a huge one. Improving student success is often the why around the open education work. But increasing equitable education opportunities, that's really moving ahead in terms of which students, I mean, we do want to help all students, but we want to work particularly with those students who can benefit most from open education. And what has changed between 2020 and 2021, just kind of summing that up, in 2020, our member said that their most successful aspect was creating OER awareness on campus in 2021 at student savings. So OER awareness is a little higher this year, which we're so happy to hear. And that student savings is something that they can really claim as a success measure. Back in 2020, lack of time was identified. And of course, you know, we were right in the midst of kind of that really worst part of that early part of the pandemic. And now institutions, organizations are reporting that getting faculty by it is one of their top challenges. So excited to help them work with that with those challenges that they have. So collaboration opportunities, I mentioned a little earlier, collaboration is what our consortium is all about. How can we support our members in collaborating together? And how what activities can we create to encourage that? So what was reported back to us is that networking is the really key piece. And so faculty and librarian came up very much at the top with leadership networks right underneath that and equity focused networks. And so we do have a program this year where we're doing some an intensive program called the Regional Leaders of Open Education, and it is very focused on faculty and librarians. And also, I would say mid level administrators, it's a leadership network. And it has a very heavy equity focus. So we, we encourage our members to join that group. But we will also have activities that will focus on bringing all of these constituents together. And the Student Advocacy Network is new this year. It was a little less than half of our, our respondents, but we're really excited to see that as well. Something for us to work on this year. And so the, we wanted to ask about the benefits of global open education community collaboration, because of course CCCR, CEOER is part of Open Education Global, which is a global organization representing members in 40 countries around the world. So one thing that our members said is that they felt that they could contribute and also have access to more openly licensed materials through this wonderful community. There's a, there's a strong interest in mentoring, both regionally and then across country boundaries. So something that we're working on this year, we hope by that, by mid, mid level of this year, we'll have more plans around what that mentoring work might look like. And our, our folks are very interested in global and multicultural perspectives. And we recently just had a webinar actually last week where we were fortunate to have some open ed education folks from both the Caribbean and from Nigeria. So, and people were very pleased with that and we hope to do more. So we want to take action on these surveys. We don't want to simply hear what our members need. And so what we were very clearly told is they want professional development on OER impact studies, course design, how to get funded, what are the funding opportunities and how to pursue those. Open pedagogy and students and collab collaboration opportunities both regionally and globally. And so we have already started to put plans in place for our professional development this year around those topics. And lessons learned. There's always some great lessons learned. Next year, we're going to ask a little bit more information about the role on campus and what their priorities are and see if that creates a slightly different skew on what the important, the important challenges and professional development needs are. We're going to ask some more open-ended questions this upcoming year. So we can better understand some of the priorities, some of the priorities of our members and dig a little bit deeper. And finally, we're going to clarify the goals of the annual survey in order to make the results more actionable. So this is something that we've been thinking about for a while and next year is the time to do it. And finally, we have chosen a new survey tool that we think will really support us in the analysis of the data. And so I now want to turn this over to my colleague, Dr. Judith Sabesta. So I'm going to stop sharing and let her come in. Thank you so much, Una. I think there's some interesting and not entirely surprising intersections between the CCC OER survey and our own. Let me pull up my slides. So as I mentioned, I serve as executive director of the digital higher education consortium of Texas, also known as Digitex. We serve all 50 Texas public community college districts. We were founded as the virtual college back in 1998 and we facilitate intercollegiate course sharing, among other initiatives, including leading the Texas Quality Matters Consortium, providing free membership in WCET state authorization network. We conduct research and we host free webinars on digital higher education. And then most remain to my presentation today, we support a variety of open education initiatives across Texas and beyond. These include our biennial statewide survey, which I'm going to focus on more today, a statewide annual conference, and a variety of professional development activities, including our Texas Learn OER course. And of course, not insignificant, is that we provide a 40% discount to Texas community colleges on the CCC OER membership. For my presentation today, let me focus some on this biennial statewide survey in which we have engaged and partnered with several organizations on. So I'd like to do a kind of who, what, why, when, where sort of sort of thing with this. So why are we doing the statewide survey? Well, to collect data to make informed decisions on resource allocation and initiatives to better understand, to get a better, broader understanding of open education across the state and to engage in partnerships and collaborations in order to amplify our reach and impact as an organization. Our primary goal, though, is to help build an open ecosystem in Texas, and thus across the country and the world. So who and when we partner with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, which is our state higher education agency, and with the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management and Education. This has been a very productive partnership for us and has enabled us to have, to bring multiple perspectives and various expertise to the survey that we conduct. As I have mentioned and UMA did as well, this is a biennial survey. We first conducted it in 2019, and this year we have conducted the second, and we're just about to wrap up the final report for that second survey. The purpose of the survey is to examine the landscape of OER programs, policies and practices, and higher education institutions across Texas. We administer the survey to all 158 to and for your public and private nonprofit institutions across the state. New for 2021, though, is that we administered also the survey to 11 independent health and medical centers, our health-related institutions across Texas. We send the survey directly via email to campus CAO's chief academic officers and chief instructional officers, and the timeline both years has been roughly 10 months from the initial partner meeting to the final report that we released, and we will soon be releasing for 2021. So we had 111 respondents with two-year colleges interestingly being the highest percentage of those respondents. Findings included some things like the growth of formal OER programs and policies has been certainly something that has been a highlight of the 2021 survey data. We've seen an increase in fully OER-based courses, especially again at two-year institutions. 59% of the institutions report using OER to meet diversity, equity, and inclusion guidelines. And interestingly, we've seen a correlation between cross-office engagement on campus and OER leadership in the state. So when there has been cross-collaboration among different divisions, offices, and units across the campus, we see that those often are our OER leaders in the state. Back in 2019, awareness building and professional learning were key priorities. They remain that way, and similar to what Una talked about with the CCC OER member survey, faculty buy-in is very crucial, and that even increased for the 2021 survey. So what are some implications of the survey that we've conducted? Well, we've seen the importance of partnerships, funding availability, collecting impact data, and engaging faculty and students, probably not surprising for these. And what these findings have led to for implications are recommendations for such strategies and initiatives as the creation of a state OER playbook to build capacity and drive systems change around OER, increased support for professional development and creation of OER for career and technical education. There seems to be a need for that across the state. And also, there was a recommendation to create a series of case studies on OER best practices in Texas. And we jumped on that right away. And my organization actually just recently released the first of these, creating and adopting open educational resources across the state. Finally, some tips and takeaways for you if you're considering implementing an OER survey, be it at your organization, your institution within your system, or even across states. Partner network collaborate. And this will very much strengthen the data that you can collect through the survey and also capitalize on the unique strengths of each partner. The coordinating board and ISCME both have just amazing research chops and data analysis chops. To be perfectly honest, Digitech was able to contribute financial resources to this partnership so that we could commission the research from ISCME, the organization ISCME. So that was kind of one of our strengths as Digitech. But we also have research expertise as well. Work to create a strategy for a high response rate. Again, this is where the expertise of the coordinating board came in, because they can send an email to the institutions and as a state higher ed agency, frankly, the institutions listen and they respond. Get the survey into the hands of the right people. That will differ across contexts. For us, we knew that it was getting it into the hands of the CAOs and the CIOs, so that then they could collaborate with OER stakeholders across campus to get the most accurate data. Assure that respondents, assure the respondents that disaggregated data will not be released in order to ensure the integrity of the data. Plan for multiyear surveys if you can for greater impact and understanding as CCCOER has done and as we are doing. And finally, celebrate completion of the survey and the dissemination of your findings. And I'll turn it back over to you. Well, thank you so much, Judith. I learned quite a bit listening to your wonderful sharing about the Texas OER survey. And I think now we want to continue this conversation in OEG Connect. So we'll be posting some resources there. And we hope to hear feedback from you. So thank you so much for joining us for this pre-recorded session. Thank you, everyone.