Welcome to the awards luncheon of the National Latino Children's Literature on France. We're very excited to have a program today that represents yet more first for our beloved San Antonio and for our nation and I believe our world. Today our program includes a very exciting dual keynote as well as some scholarship presentations of the United Scholarship for the very first year of this award and even more importantly we have the Premio Campoia Ava happening at today's luncheon. The Premio represents the first award in North America focused specifically on quality children's literature and the lengua española in the Spanish language and we've seen before from our history of children's literature that when an award becomes reality publishers start to pay attention and suddenly books begin to appear not that nobody wrote before then not that there were no Latinos writing. I served on the Tomas Rivera Book Awards National Committee for what I got in 10, 12 years, 15, a thousand something like that. And we noticed that after the first year the number of submissions came in and people said oh it's so good that all these Mexican American authors are writing now. I said no these Mexican American authors have been writing for years but they were being thrown into file 13 or being ignored by publishers who said nobody wants this nobody's interested in this. And so the Premio Campoia Ava gives us an expansion of that realm of literature for the many, many children who need, want, and deserve children's literature of the highest quality in their native language in Spanish. So that's part of our program today. We have some wonderful things happening but I'm not the person who's been a welcome you. I have one of our deans from UTSA, formerly chair by cultural bilingual studies and now coming on behalf of our dean of the College of Education and Human Development, Will and I mark right now Dr. Belinda Flores. I want to welcome everybody that's here and I'm assuming everybody with bilingual but I want to especially thank our honorable mayor Ron Nerdenberg and his wife Erika for being here with us. So let's thank them for taking time to congratulate the conference organized by Dr. Premio Campoia, Dr. Howard Smith, and Dr. Jamie Nayuzo who helped organize the conference but also all the students in the department of Bicultural Bilingual Studies. It takes a lot of work to put a conference together and last year I know that the throats of it because I was the department chair. But we do this at UTSA because we are dedicated as a community to our capitol youths. UTSA was founded in 1969. It was the dream there and hopefully we will realize that three one day that UTSA would become the first bilingual university and that also the secretive from UTSA would be bilingual. But I heard it's when you're not there in the school and it doesn't mean it cannot happen. Perhaps we can lead the way. The department of Bicultural Bilingual Studies, we always have promoted bilingualism, Biculturalism, and the rights and the social justice for others. We have very strong faculty in the department but our dean is also dedicated to that vision and vision. Our new president Dr. Taylor Amy is also very dedicated and appreciates the way they both have embraced our community because it takes someone special. Those of us who are from the community, of course this is our backyard, this is our love. It's difficult for us to leave every San Antonio but I encourage the writers and I also want to thank them as well. The ones that are here, I know there are many. And aspiring writers, I met one this morning Natalia. I won't forget her name Natalia because that's my husband's grandmother's name and she was a wonderful storyteller, también. But it's very important that we as an institution here at UTSA not only embrace our Latino community and our culture but like I said, our language. And so I ask you to challenge our university. Say, what can I do in Spanish? I know that we often live in our department of Bicultural Bilingual Studies. So, I don't want to take too much time because I know that we have a lot on our schedule. But again, thank you for being here. Tell others about your wonderful experience here. In Bicultural, I know Natalia is already planning a session for those who want to be aspiring writers. All of you in here have went through this while. We as an institution share our culture. So, tell others and invite others so we can have a room larger than this next year for lunch and for the conference. We know that you are national, international recognized scholars and children writing. So, we are so honored to have you. Muchas gracias. Gracias, doctora Flores. And I want to underline what she said. This is a place with a lot of history. We have a centuries long bilingual, illiterate heritage on this ground.  The first national conference on bilingual education was held here in San Antonio in 1964. Before the rest of the nation even knew what bilingual education was. I know it for a fact because my late husband was involved in that conference. And we are not proceeding. Dr. Albania was chair of Bicultural Bilingual Studies at that time. And so, we have a history and we have heritage. We also know that the oldest known bilingual textbook in the Americas was used in San Antonio by the Spanish missionaries. It was in Spanish and Guadalcan and it was in Catechism. And this was the way they used language, dual language instruction to communicate the Catholic faith. So, we have a lot of history here. It's very appropriate that we make a lot of firsts. Our first verse for today is the awarding of the Milagros Scholarships, which my chair, Dr. Patricias Sanchez, will be presenting to students here in the Department of Bicultural Bilingual Studies who plan a career in education. I'll give you a little history, even though this is our very first award, set of awardees. Dr. Howard Smith and Dr. Katnicka Bolia, as well as Dr. Jamie Nadu from Alabama are our organizers of this conference. And there was a vision there actually by Dr. Howard Smith. I'm not surprised he should be there, but I'm probably presenting this. He's always wanted to help fund our students who are trying to pursue careers in bilingual education. He's often not funded in terms of pursuing graduate work. So, he had a vision that if there was a post-ease that could go from registration fees at this conference, why not help propel the next generation of bilingual teachers?  And this was also shared with him to power the name of Milagros. Dr. Howard Smith has a daughter named Milagros. And he is someone who has championed bilingual education and bilingualism since he became tri-lingual, or he might even speak four languages now. And so, this scholarship was a very special one because it was the first year that we're going to award it. And we hope that with the continuation of the conference here in San Antonio, we can continue to award those educators who are pursuing bilingual education, either as a career or also in their academic research. We had five recipients this year. I am not sure if all five were able to attend today and receive their certificate. They have actually already received their award. We awarded five of these, and each recipient received $1,200 this spring for their tuition. We're going ahead and name the awardees, and if by some reason they are not here, we will still clap for them in their absence because this is a tremendous honor. The first recipient, who is a doctoral student pursuing research and work in bilingual education, is Ms. Francine Johnson. Our next recipient, she is also a doctoral student pursuing work in bilingual education, Leticia Medina. So if they're not here, we're going to mail these to their homes. Our next three recipients are pursuing a master's degree in bilingual education, Ms. Denaida Rodriguez Costilla. And then we have another master's student, Blanca Garza Infante. Mr. Hector Castellón Costa. This recipient is actually based out of Austin, and he drives down twice a week to take classes down here at ETSA. So thank you so much for coming to our conferences this year, for helping fund these awardees, and hopefully, again, awards that are going to be distributed next year will come from the proceeds from this conference. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Sanchez. I'm very honored to be able to introduce our dual keynote today for our luncheon. And you might think I'm excited because I'm introducing the mayor of San Antonio. I'm not. We've had a lot of mayorals. Some of them have been good, and some of them are hard to talk to. I'm excited because we have with us today a leader with courageous dedication to this.  And yeah, you know, we don't remember the commencement address. They said, what? Hurry up. There's a program. We're going home and celebrate. We finally got this graduate group. We have a large number of first generation students in ETSA. We make a big deal about it. Dr. Sanchez, in fact, has spearheaded a program for us to identify ourselves as first gen. And so many faculty members, including myself, have a sign on the door on the desk that says, I'm first gen. I'm first generation college. My parents did not finish college on most of our instances. Start, or some of the time, not high school. My mother's instance, she didn't finish middle school. So it's a big deal. A lot of our students also have struggled to become legal residents of the United States. Some of them do not have papers. They have the loyalty. They have the patriotism. But they live in fear of being separated from their family or being deported or being questioned. And we're in a time period of a lot of hate, a time period when we're out of the gun. So the first thing our mayor said when he was talking about our city and what he wanted our city to be, was that this would be a city of compassion. And suddenly the eyes turned to the stage and they started to water up. And he said, is he saying what we think he's saying? And he spoke about compassion. And he spoke about equity. And he spoke about the value of a very diverse population. And so for that, for his being a courageous leader in cultural equity and for his understanding of our society's need to be united from the ground up, that there is no up, that we're all on the ground together, that we're all related to this planet, that's what I would most like to say about Mayor Ron Nirenberg. But you don't just get one today, you get two. And if you think we're excited about our mayor, you should see what we think about our society. Erica Prosper probably needs to run for mayor whenever Ron gets tired of it. Because she is a Latina executive of a Fortune 1000 company. She's mother to a curious and kind son, and she's a community volunteer who's leading the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce this year. She states one simple goal for 2018. To remind our city, state, and country that Latinos are leaders and that our culture, kids, and money is the future. So I'd like to welcome to the podium Mayor Ron Nirenberg and First Lady Erica Prosper. As is always the case in my house and in life, Erica always gets the last word.  When I was inaugurated not too long ago, I wanted to make sure that the first words out of my mouth were about compassion and the fact that I believe that this city is not just a city in the world but San Antonio is a city of the world. Not too long ago we were actually a city in Latin America. Well, we are certainly a city of the world and we embrace our diversity and embrace our heritage. And I am very proud that once been an intern at the Intercultural Development Research Association that had a champion in bilingual education for a long time and one of my heroes in that pursuit is Dr. Kuka Obledo Monticello. She's here. I don't know if she's here, but if she's not here, she's here in spirit. And I'm also very proud that this conference and these awards are located in my city of San Antonio. And I would like to welcome you to our beautiful, multicultural and multi-lingual city of San Antonio and to the awards luncheon of the Latino, National Latino Children's Literature Conference. Ours is a special city, a city with a centuries old history of literate, bicultural, bilingualism. This year of 2018 is San Antonio's Christentennial. We are celebrating 300 years as a city with the presence of the Spanish language in this beautiful coilo by the river. San Antonio is a deeply committed city to its most important demographic, the children who will become tomorrow's leaders. And we owe it to those children to give them the best writings, the best stories and the best art that reflects their own experiences and that reflects who we are, a diverse, compassionate, dynamically growing, changing and learning people committed to each other, committed to our unlimited potential. Every child deserves the right to read and expand his or her own capacities and dreams and options through books that mirror, connect and guide their own experiences. To ensure that this happens, children need to see the lives and cultures they know are represented in the books that surround them. This often has been the case for dominant culture kids, but it's most often not been the case for Latino children. I have more than 3,000 books that we were published last year, only 70 were written by Latino authors. This is not equitable and this is not equal opportunity for Latino children to read and to succeed. In today's world, those who don't read don't have a voice, they all submit the magic of literature, the magic of art. Reading inspires the imagination and so much more and if that's one small portion of where my son gets his magic, I can tell by the snacks of books that are always surrounding him today. If we want all children to succeed and excel academically, they must be exposed to books that reflect their cultures, languages and experiences. In short, we as a nation need more Latino books and all children deserve literary masterpieces written in the languages that reflect their culture and linguistic heritage and wealth. We need to ensure that our literary capital will be as carefully guarded, developed and protected as our financial capital. We need to ensure that our literary heritage is preserved alongside our cultural and linguistic heritage. Today represents a first for this conference for our city and for the North American continent. Today we see the awarding of the Premio Necroyada for high literary quality children's books written in the Spanish language. We also see the awarding of the Milagros Scholarship for Young University students who will someday be bilingual educators and create their own Milagros in the students they educate. Today we see this wonderful national conference taking place here right here in San Antonio. A conference aimed at providing Latino children the magical, beautiful books that they deserve. And we see participants coming in from Maine, Mexico City and all places in between. And from Illinois, and Arizona, from California, and from the Rio Grande Valley. Together all of us will change the future for Latino children in this nation and in this world. Latinos are leaders. By assuring the quality and the diversity of the books that give them a voice and give them a reflection of their own hearts and their own dreams. I applaud the efforts of all who have participated in this conference, as well as the organizers, one of Milagros, Dr. Carmen, as well as everyone who is here today for making this happen. And I want to particularly thank the co-conference co-directors, Drs. Jamie Campbell-Nanou, Howard Smith, and our very own Dr. Correa. So as Mayor of San Antonio on behalf of this wonderfully rich, compassionate city I want to thank you for being here and I invite you to come back to San Antonio again and again and again. And let us be the literary capital center for Latino children's literature to change this year. Thank you very much. Again, introduce First Lady of San Antonio, someone who is my partner in life, who I love and adore but who most importantly keeps my and my son's feet firmly pointed on the ground and just makes me a better person every day. Jonah is going to go crazy if at some point he doesn't come up here, so we will greet at the end. I'm going to invite him, but only if he sits still. It's up to you, buddy. You have power over this. Thank you for having us here. I am first generation, family to go to college. I will not be the last. Obviously, that is an important thing for us and our family to continue to explain the importance of an education to our son. But I want to start with the theme of why you're all here. Because the stories that are out there about communities matter. They shape identities. They shape self-esteem. They shape how much people invest in those communities. And for our part, for my part, it is a really important thing that we as San Antonio reclaim that story. And we reclaim it by quite simply telling them, publishing them, and getting them into schools. I took pride in reading. I loved the stories I read. I loved about Paul Bunyan and his oxen blue. Y'all remember that one? Thank you. And his onions, apparently. I loved reading about our founding fathers, what they were fighting for. The underdogs against the great empire. It made me a stronger American. It also made me a stronger student. And in many ways, for me, the most important thing that I lacked, though, during that time were equal stories telling me about heroes that looked like me. For my part, the only stories I ever heard were the stories where Mexicans were defeated at the Alamo. Because somehow they were in the wrong. Other stories, unfortunately, that I got were about the cuckoo. Maybe not unfortunate. It kept me actually out of trouble. But my grandmother would have to tell me everything, because most of the stories from my culture, from my point of view, were oral histories. La llorona, el cuckoo, el diablo que bailaba con la muchacha si no les acaso la mamá. You see that in my grandmother's stories. Then, for that oral history, I wouldn't have gotten a good sense of who I was. But I can tell you that if a book called That's Not There, No Jesucidicia, about Emma de Mayuca was written, I would have had a better sense, and I would have felt ashamed at being a migrant farm worker. Because I would have known the hard work and the proud history that migrant farm workers brought to this country. If books had been written about first gen, I would have been easier for me to explain to my family why I was leaving them in the valley, Bo Valley, to come up to Austin and get an education. If books had been written about my culture and its point of view, during world scuffles, or Texas scuffles, or local scuffles, they would have given me a better sense of what is justice and a balance and fairness of discussion. Now I am lucky. Because my grandmother always taught me that justice is beginning in conversation. So for her it was the reason that I did grow a little more tolerant, a little more open-minded in the heart to listen to the whole world. But if there wasn't that woman in my life, as there are many families where parents work a lot, or maybe they are not involved in their children's day-to-day life, there are many children who don't have that person in their life. And they need literature, they need books, we need to read those stories, those stories. So for me, when Carmen says my goal is to ensure that this city, this city, that this state and this country understands the value of the Latino children and the value of them as our future, it is important because there are 18 million Latino children under the age of 18 in the United States. 90% of the growth in children in the United States, between 2000 and 2015 I believe, was Latino children. They will be the future. And right now their stories are being written as criminals, as illegal, as if their cultural heritage, whether they are first generation, second or third, it's somehow a burden on society. And it is my belief and I believe every one of y'all's belief, our city's belief that it is not so, that Latinos, Latinas are leaders, that they are innovative, that they are heroes, that they are authors, that they are scholars, and that that $1.7 trillion that they wield is something that we should finally take seriously, especially in the publishing world. The fast-destroying segment in education, believe it or not, is bilingual education. Because other people have seen the value it is for their children, not Latino parents, for their children in the future. Why can that not be translated back when it is just as simple as a native language that we speak? So I applaud you all for being here and being the first to have such a conference. I also applaud you for the long-term vision of making UTSA a bilingual school, but primarily what I want to encourage everyone from all over the country, from all over the world to know is that San Antonio is going to continue to say over and over and over, Latinos are leaders, Latinos are smart, our children are your future.  Generation that looks up, reads books about them and says, without even hesitation, I deserve to be here, not because somehow my skin color is different and I'm given a benefit, but because quite frankly, I'm that good. And that is the message you want to leave you with, our family. Now, Jonah, you have stood as still as I can ever see you still, so please come on up. I'll let you have the last word because you are ultimately the whole point of our here. Come on over here, buddy. I'm so motivated and we're about to get to the Fresno Capoeira Awards, but I think you need to have a little activity. So, if you look at the center of your table, the centerpiece is not in flowers. The centerpiece are what the aspect is called in such a little cuicado, in flower and song. They are the poetry of words. They are the poetry of children's books. There are two children's books at the center of every book, I mean every table. And that's the heart of what this conference is about. So, if you want to see what's going to happen to those two books, you have to stand up and look under your chair or get your neighbor to look under your chair. And if you see a little round piece of paper that says N-N-C-N-C-C, that means you get to take one of those books on. Because when everybody else put up a national note N-C-N-C, so we knew it was... We also know that there were some school districts here that had hardy participation. So, we're going on the honor system here. If your school district sent ten or more participants to this conference, raise your hand. How many school districts are those? Say it out loud. Judges are good, because I have two books left. I was praying we would have six school districts that said they'd say, I think we have two. So, we have Drone Dream Girl, How One Girl's Courage Changed Music by my faith and goal of forever free awarding for whoever gets here first. Judges are surprised, everybody. But we gave away door prizes yesterday. We hit little papelitos under your table. We did everything we could, and I have a feeling that next year, we saw a lot of publishers this year go, oh, there's a lot of excitement. Here, you can have some of my books to give away too. So, all of a sudden, it was like the loaves of the fishes. We started with like ten books, and then it became twenty, and then it became thirty, and then it became like fifty. This was over. How many have we given away? So, I think next year, we're going to have a ton of donations for our conference registrants and probably have them in your registration bag so that you can take them right off from the beginning and get some autograph signatures on them. You're going to be receiving a little request for a survey assessment of this conference. If you like something about this conference, please tell us. This is the way we get our support and our excitement and our university to say, sure, we'll help you out a little bit more than we did last time. And it's also a good place to say, you know what would make it better? And I know some things already that we need to do to make it better, because we didn't have enough of the books available for sale that we could have for our keynote speakers. But there may be other things, help us on it, help make it a better conference, send us in, let's see what was planned. It's my great pleasure to talk about the two women that will be coming to the podium next. What can we say about Alma Florada and Isabel Campoy? Books. That might be a little low for an estimate. Everything from scholarly books, text books, academic articles, children's books, chapter books, books, books, memoirs. What did I leave out? Everything. Everything. They've done it all. And especially they have been leaders in the transformation of education for Latino children and for the widest diversity, cultural and linguistic diversity of children. They've transformed the way we think about and talk about education. And the way we think about and talk about literature. So it's a pleasure to see them collaborating with a group that I'm just getting to know a little better. I'll let. The North American Academy of the Spanish Language, which joined in 1973 the 20 Spanish language academies of the Americas. Can you say, I'm talking about bunches of the United States, Americas to continents. Its objective is to preserve, support and expand the use of Spanish in the United States and honor the Latino culture in this country. This year, the Academy inaugurates the Campoy Avalab Award. Donated by Dr. Isabel Campoy and Dr. Agma Florella. And it is an award for children's and young adults, this is what why we're all here and what we're about. The purpose of this award is to recognize the merit of both written or translated into Spanish and published in the United States, to support the work of publishing companies that publish Latino authors and to expand and honor the use of Spanish in the literature for children in this country. So please put your hands together and welcome Dr. Isabel Campoy and Dr. Agma Florella. Last month in Cuba and we also celebrated the fact that the UTSA was able to sign the agreements with the Academy of the American Language, with the benefit that we have been working to prosper the English, the Spanish language into the children's literature.  We thank you very much for being here with us. We are presenting the gifts and we have brought them to the UTSA. I just want to say thank you for the valuable association that has always given me in UTSA. Although I am excited and I will not take the same time with which my mission is to read the names of the books, I just want to tell you that when the celebration of these 80 years that have had more recognition than I would have expected, in Cuba they wrote a journalistic article about the 80s and the dreams. The truth is that there have been many dreams that have been fulfilled in the 80s, but this is a very important dream because our children deserve the best literature and they deserve it in both languages. And we have awards for literature written by Latinos in English, but until now we did not have it in Spanish. And I am really glad that life has given me for the last few years to see this very beautiful dream come true.  This award has a series of categories. The first category is image books. For image books, the first award is the Abbey of Mass. Written by Andrés Piandreu illustrated by Quim Amate, published by Andriana. And there is a mention of honor. And the mention of honor is the best is my father. Written by Joaquín Alázalo illustrated by Marcella Calderón and also published by Santillón. And today I would like to thank all of you. The second category is illustrated children's books and we have the pleasure of the mention of honor to the book, the Caracolas, the Pallazos and the Shadow of the Sea, written and illustrated by Circe Lolo, can be received in the book's category of chapters. The first award, since I had not read it, a strange disappearance I would have received a mention of honor. In the book's category of chapters the first award is for a book written and illustrated by Lulú de Láchez Rafi and Rosy, and others, published by Lulú de Láchez. Lulú de Láchez is not only a book written and illustrated by Lulú de Láchez, which is the same case that happens with Lulú de Láchez and the truth is that Lulú de Láchez has read more than 100 books in the book, but he could not read them. In this category, in the next category of children's novels, there is a mention of honor in the book of Caracoles Escarlata written by Daisy Valls, illustrated by Juan José Catalan, who has not been able to be present, but all of them have not been able to come. Of course, they have sent their personal gratitude but also their congratulations to the conference and their commitment of trying to be present in the next few years. The category of children's novels has a first prize, although it is a novel, it is a novel with illustrations of the author Adalucía. Adalucía has conceived and created a magnificent book in which, in a very well-traveled way, in the course of history, the characters ask for in different moments of their lives in different Spanish-American countries. And that allows us to get to know a lot of the culture, the customs, the day-to-day of these countries. And as a real psycho-graphic novel, it is capable of reproducing the own dialogue of each of these places. And the truth is that it is a book that should be in all the classes because it would learn a lot the children of our culture in such a free way and almost without realizing what the good literary can do. To hide myself from my father, which is a lot less. In the category of infant poetry, the first prize goes to a great poet who has been able to come and be with us with the title Precioso Agua Aguita illustrated by Serice Pugalde Alcántara, published by Muñata and Avenido Jorge de que va con frecuencia a trabajar con los niños a enriquecerles con la mejor literatura a llenar su vida de libros tratando de darles una orientación, un futuro, esa esperanza de la que habla Margarita en un país donde la juventud está muy amenazada de terminar siendo parte del libro del canga, verdad? Pueblo sin infantil hay una mención de honor para poesía alada una ambia antología escrita por Mariana Llanos que nos acompaña ilustrado por varios ilustradores de Adri Mallorca, Juliana Afran quien verles los ilustradores enriqueciendo con las voces históricas la voz de Mariana en poesía juvenil hay un primer premio para un libro cuya autora también va a ser en España La Bodicera Marina de María Tragués un libro escrito ilustrado por María José Tobal una fiesta de imaginación conocemos a Martín cuyo autor tanto Andorra Rodríguez nos ha abolido venir todos que me reconocen su obra novela Chiquita ilustrado por Pablo de Bella publicado por Santillana que también nos manda su presencia al cripto y hay tres menciones de honor otro libro sobre Martín y sus versos por la libertad cuya autora es Emma Ottegui ilustrado por Beatriz Vidal publicado originalmente en ingles pero con traducción al español de Adriana Domínguez el libro es Quivel cuya autora es Susan Kuhl ilustrado por Tonotiu con una versión en español de Carlos Calvo y otra biografía de Georgina Lázaro que hace estas hermosas biografías en perso, verdad Lori publicado por Hector y terminamos con la categoría la oficción en un libro ya la autora en español está también presente con nosotros es el libro El Planeta Azul el libro en el cual la oficción, sin embargo se convierte en hermosa y creativa literatura el autor es Marc Rejer Lucia Sanchez que está con nosotras esencial es el que está en el corazón de cada uno de ustedes es el premio que haber decidido dedicar la vida a quienes más lo perecen a lo que son y les convocamos con todo clase de esperanza hererosidad y compasión a una nueva visita de San Antonio el próximo año y a todos los que están empezando a escribir en bien los sus boluscritos el próximo año se encantará es uno de estos premios un saludo y feliz año Muchísimas gracias doctoras Alma Florada Isabel Campoy y muchas gracias también a los autores I'd like to thank not only Doctors Ava and Campoy but I'd also like to thank all the authors both the winning authors but authors to be the young authors like Jonah who are just popping with ideas right now and haven't even gotten them on to the paper yet because to quote the great one I look like I've seen a call from yesterday's keynote when she talked about being asked people talking about an educator having to carry a weapon an educator whose purpose is to protect and guide and teach a discussion going on right now about whether they should be armed as well and she ended her view of the keynote behind my saying which she said we're going to be publishing that keynote watch for it it's going to be probably factors myth and the violin review journal but it's definitely going to be on the website of the conference proceedings but she ended it by saying so given all that we've been through and all of the history that we have survived all the ugliness with which we've been treated how we have made it through anyway if I am asked to carry a weapon I will poor thing she's going to have to stare at God in the purse and she says I will carry my weapon of choice and I will speak about my history and I will speak about justice and so I want to thank writers like one of them is like our the days like our emerging writers all of the authors who have made these books possible and all of the readers who have provided that support and enthusiasm that we love of course you're the ones who make this really good today we have an extra treat Jorge Agüeta has agreed to show us a little power point about his growing up and how it ties into his writings we don't like to have any event go too long about hearing from an author about the work and Jorge has agreed to show us a little bit of his work just for your listening pleasure but thank you all for working on the technical difficulties I want to thank nowcast who is with us today who is filming this it is being streamed live on the nowcast channel and it's also going to be available we'll send out also on the website the information about where you can get the recording of this days award selection so thank you nowcast you're amazing you record history, you document history you make history thank you for all the things you've done all the work you've done to help in the light of our city and our world okay good afternoon thank you so much the best word you can have in life is the best word it says thank you it says mountain it says river the Mother Earth the most humble the most proud the most beautiful the most beautiful of all the most beautiful of all my grandmother I'm going to show it to you on this on this in the language of the birds, you get it? Now I want to thank you. I'm not going to mention names, but you know, I'm saying thank you. To all of you, to all of you, but to the child, to the child, that we all should take care of and continue to take care of. We must continue so that our children are happy. We have to be happy. We have to be happy. I work with schools, with a library in El Salvador, and I see children, gangsters, non-gangsters. You can't go, you can't go to this battle if you're not happy. You have to be happy. You have to be happy. So that's what my grandmother taught me. My grandfather was a man who loved horses, and he learned how to love horses. He made them dance. It's beautiful to dance in a horse. My grandfather had some lands where we planted corn, beans, and he grew up there. And what's around all of this are stories. Boom! Witches! A lot of wonderful stories. And I grew up listening to all these stories that these people had. In Nahuatl and in Spanish. I first mentioned Nahuatl because that was my first language. This is my father, and my mother, and my siblings. And this is me. It was the only picture I had of myself. And I was always in a ball, basically naked. We had no need to wear clothes, the river was there. But for that occasion there was a man taking pictures. Bring that boy! Maybe you want to take a picture? You don't want to have time for that picture. But I didn't want to take pictures. And they took me those pictures. I have two pictures of myself. And here, this book that we're celebrating, Aguauita, I'll tell you briefly. My grandmother told me that in this video those stones that you see are our Nahuatl grandparents. And Indian people. And that under each of these stones, in the same water that you pour, the corpusas are a nation. In Indian. When Aguauita passes, they're talking. And sometimes they sent me to bring water. And don't step on the curb when you have it, don't step on the curb.  It all happened on the other side. I went around. But the most important thing that the lady told me, my grandmother, when you get into the water, the river asks you for a wish. Ask for a wish. In some way, maybe I ask to be with words. My grandmother never knew how to read or write. She used to talk with the fire, with the wind. She used to talk with the birds. She used to speak that wonderful language. But she didn't know how to read or write. But her hands, her heart, her eyes. And her tenderness. Because she was a curator, my grandmother. So there are people who used to go to work home. My grandmother hugged them and rubbed their hands and made them have good childhood. They had it at home. So I witnessed all of that with my grandmother. And she told me about this wonderful river. I want to read a little bit, I don't know if we have time. I'm going to read a little bit about it. My grandmother was a lady who was told about the jacoas. The mergers. And I didn't like to listen to what my grandmother told her about the jacoas. Because they were Tlamenes. My grandmother made pomales. And they had heavy heavy battery. And she would transport that. Like 10 10 miles in her back. She would tell her about the jacoas. My grandmother was a jacoa. My grandmother was a merger. And I didn't like to listen to what I was listening to. And what I saw was that my grandmother was a magical person. She was a magical person. She would tell me about the river. And one time among so many things she said she told me something about a woman who was a jacoa. And why did my grandmother say that? Because she was there in the belly in the belly of your mother. And the first music you heard was the music of love. Through the heart of your mother. Sometimes we have this word about people sometimes crying. One of my uncles tells me they cry because when they hear the drumming they remember the first sound the mamas the heart of the mother through the water. And then that is the connection the mother of the earth the belly and the heart of the mother. My name is water but everyone calls me little water.  I ask in the background of our mother earth I come singing I am born deep in our mother earth. From there I come singing I am a tiny drum I am rising to the surface I pass through the pores I surrender to the roots I go up through the rocks I travel through the clarity and darkness and drop by tiny drop I climb to the surface I pass through the quartz getting tangled in roots climb along rocks trouble through light and darkness little by little I am rising to the surface I come back to the surface I return to rest on the tip of the leaves on the terraces or on the petals of the flowers drop by drop I climb and when I come to the surface I rest by hanging on the tips of leaves on the spiderwebs or on flower petals I ask the children if you have seen this little girl and they say yes I saw her this morning I saw her when she came to school I am rising to the surface Listen! I am rising!  Me convierto en grillo, en lago, en mar, de gotita en gotita subo el cielo. I become a river, a lake, an ocean, and drop by drop, I climb to the sky. Soy de un color por la mañana y de otro color en la tarde. I am one color in the morning and another in the afternoon. Y luego, por la noche, soy de otro. And then at night, I am another color. Soy de todos los colores y no tengo color. Soy de todos los sabores y no tengo sabor. Soy de todas las formas y no tengo forma. Soy agua, soy agüita. Save me, soy agua. Soy agüita. I am all colors and have no color. I have no flavors and have no flavor. I am all shades and I am shapeless. I am water, I am little water. De gotita en gotita, me convierto en nubet. Drop by drop, I turn into a cloud. Soy pájaro de agua. De gotita en gotita, regreso cantando a nuestra madre tierra. Soy agüita, soy vida. Soy agüita, soy vida. I am a water bird. Drop by drop, I return singing to our mother earth. I am little water. I am life. Soy la vida. Thank you all. We want to thank our sponsors. We want to thank our mayor, first lady, and first son. I have to explain my first son, I am a person. Latino culture is not a problem because every child has many people and they should come. So thank you all for being here. I know they have to scoot out to another event. I'm going to ask those of you who would like to talk to the pre-annual winners. You can stay here, you can mob them, you can try and get their autographs. Don't forget to take their books from the table. If no one else claims it, there was an empty church or table and it was under there. It's for grabs. Our sponsors have been wonderful. Our food service people have been wonderful. San Antonio. Now, do not forget, we have two more rounds of presentations this afternoon. The first of those rounds begins at 2.15. We have some wonderful, exciting presentations, bridging culture into the writing workshop with Chicanx Children's Literature. We have Luminarias, recommended book list for bilingual student readers and national identity and ethnicity. And then at 3.15, we have Tiempo Social with book signing for Campoyala winners. Here in this room, there will be nothing scheduled in this room between now and then, so you're welcome to get the party started early. We have two author readings happening at 3.15. Dr. Mariela Rosales Pérez and Luper Riz Flores. And we have a presentation on the Latino Collection and Resource Center at the San Antonio Public Library. And 4 to 4.15, we have a 15-minute closing session in this room with Dr. Smith and myself. Just kind of tapping some ideas from you for next year. And those of you who are interested, we're closing down here at 4.15 so that you'll have a chance to get over to the San Antonio Public Library, where we have a wonderful Latino Collection. The library staff has agreed to give us a group tour from 4.5 to 5.30. So if you are interested in that and you know you're going, leave your name at the desk. And that way, we just have a muscle Reynolds number so we can call the library and give a heads up and change your rank in the last minute and you say, yes, I have to go. That's fine. You don't have to. I've given your name. It's not reservations. But it lets us tell, let them know whether it's 20 people or 40 people or 80 people that are going to leave you a little ready for it. Yes, would all of the premio capoe adau awardees please come forward for a photo shoot? And after that, I know you'll be proud by other people wanting your autographs and the pictures you take as well. Thank you. Until the next sessions.


Let's begin. Now that the recording has started, we were at the beginning of Acts 16. So let me quickly show us the picture of the second missionary journey and then we can discuss. You have it. I hope it is clear enough. If you can follow along here, we are starting off from Antioch. Remember, we have a new team now. We don't have Paul and Barnabas together, but we have Paul and Silas who are a team who begin their journey from here. Of course Barnabas took John Mark and went a different route. We don't know exactly what the regions that Barnabas touched were. So here are the ones that Paul went to. So from Antioch, we know that he ministered in the region of Sicilia. Remember, we read that Sicilia, Tarsus Sicilia. And from there he goes to Derby and Lystra. This is where he meets with Timothy and then he circumcises Timothy and then he goes back to the older cities, Iconium. We are familiar with that place. We are also familiar with Antioch of Sicilia where there was somewhat of a positive response. So there are churches here. So they go back to these cities and now newer regions is what Paul has on his mind. So we will see him moving to newer regions. So he wanted to enter Bithynia. He wanted to enter Asia is what we read. He wanted to do ministry over there. But we will see how the Holy Spirit will actually guide him not to minister here right now but through the region to travel into the Macedonian region. So that's what we are going to see happen. So from Antioch of Sicilia via Bithynia, Maesia, he goes to this place called Troas and at Troas the team will be a four member team. So Luke joins in and when we read about Troas, we'll see that the language in which Luke reports will change. So he will write something like we. So obviously Luke is also part of the team right now. So they have a doctor on the team, four of them, Paul, Timothy, Silas and Luke. So from Troas, he will move on to Macedonia. Macedonian region, they're going to read about all these places. There is Neapolis, then we will read about Philippi and in Philippi we will see that people of various sections of the society will be touched, the rich. Then there is this woman who is a dealer of purple cloth. So she accepts Christ, we have people like a jailer and a slave girl. So you see there are all strata of society but they're all receiving the gospel of Jesus. So Philippi is a very important place from there. Paul and team will travel to Amphipolis, Apollonia and then we will come to a place called Beria and then later on Thessalonica, Beria is known as a place where people used to search the scriptures. So Beria, then Thessalonica and then through the region of Akaya and Athens, another very, very important crucial city and that way he will move back and then just sort of touch places like Ephesus and all but then he will go back to Caesarea and Jerusalem. So that's how the next missionary journey will take place. So second missionary journey as far as the timelines that we are going to follow is concerned. We take it as like a three to four year period for the second missionary journey. So from AD 49 to AD 52 is where Paul would have made his second missionary journey. Now as I told us, if you look at timelines of different commentaries, you will find different dates there. So don't get worried or stressed about it. We'll just stick to one way of considering this. Now also, I had mentioned earlier that commentators say it was at least five years since the first missionary journey and the gap between the first and the second missionary journey but as far as our timelines are concerned, it's something like a three-year gap. So that's okay. Don't get too stressed about it. So this is the picture of the second missionary journey and we can quickly look at how this plays out. So we were at the beginning of Act 16. We saw that Timothy has now joined the team. Let's read from Act 16 and verse 6. So here it says, now when they had gone through Fragia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. After they had come to Maesia, they tried to go into Bithynia but the Spirit did not permit them. So you see how I showed you earlier the Bithynia region, the Asia region. So Paul wants to go there. He wants to do the ministry but he's being forbidden by the Holy Spirit. He's being restricted by the Holy Spirit. And remember when we started the study of the Book of Acts, we also said that though we look at acts as the acts of the apostles, it is really the acts of the Holy Spirit through the apostles and the believers. So here we have the Holy Spirit directing the agenda, directing the path that the people of God needed to take. So Paul had a particular place in mind. So he wanted to do ministry there but you see how Holy Spirit is giving him a different direction. So Paul is not able to go to Asia. He is not able to go to Bithynia. So what happens next was it. So passing by Maesia, they came down to Troas. So he just comes to a place called Troas. We may ask the question, how did Paul know that he was forbidden? Everything that we learned about in the prophetic ministry, everything that we learned about under the guidance of God, the way the Holy Spirit speaks to us through an impression, through a quickened word, through visions, through pictures. So we don't know exactly how the Holy Spirit confirmed that communication but Paul knew that he should not go to Asia or Bithynia. So here he is at Troas just waiting for the leading of the Holy Spirit. So how do we do ministry? We do ministry by the leading of the Holy Spirit. Not just what we want to do but where the Spirit leads us. So he is in Troas waiting for God to speak. So verse 9, and a vision appeared to Paul in the night. So God is speaking now through a vision this time around. What does he see in the vision? A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him saying, come over to Macedonia and help us. It's almost like a direct invitation to Paul and team where he's been called to Macedonia. So Paul knew because of the vision, Paul knew that he needs to now take the ministry forward in the region of Macedonia. So we've seen that in the map. So he goes to Macedonia and verse 10, now after he had seen the vision immediately we sought to vote. Remember I said in Troas the language changes. We sought to go to Macedonia concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them. So quite clear here that Luke has joined the team. So coming to the Macedonian region. So it's the region we've seen all these cities, Philippi, we've seen like Amphipilus, Apollonia, we've seen all the cities in the Macedonian region. So we'll talk about each of those cities. Now we've come to Philippi, what's happening in Philippi. Therefore sailing from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samathras and the next day came to Neapolis. Okay, so they've come to Neapolis first and from there to Philippi, which is the foremost city of that part of Macedonia, a colony. So you know one of the things that we observe is all these port cities from where the ships, the ships would come there and the ships would go out of there. Those were all very popular because a huge population of people was passing through those cities. So that's why even earlier when Paul made the first missionary journey, he goes through Cyprus. So that seems to be the business route, that seems to be the easiest route where you had a good connect through ship and then maybe even roads connecting other regions. So similarly, this seems to be a popular route. So Philippi, the verse here, verse 12 says, foremost city of that part of Macedonia. So among all the cities, Philippi is a popular city. It's a famous city, a strong city and the team stays there. What do they do there? You know, they have to find a way to do ministry, isn't it? Earlier, we saw that Paul and Barnabas went into Synegons. That was their best way of reaching people. How are they going to meet people here? So verse 13. And on the second day, we went out of the city to the riverside where prayer was customarily made and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there. So what are they doing over here? See strategy as per the city and town, they have to pick a strategy. They have to see where the people are and then go and speak about Jesus. So in Philippi, they come to the riverside. So the riverside was a place where prayers, we noticed from this verse that prayers were taking place there, but also we know that the riverside was also a place of trade and business. So that's where a lot of people would come. And for some reason, there were wealthy women in this particular city. So women came there and Paul and team started ministering to the women at the riverside. So what happens? Verse 14. Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Taitira who worshipped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. So here is a God fearing woman and not just that, but she's a rich woman. Seller of purple. It wasn't easy to be a seller of purple in those days. It was very expensive to get that purple dye, but back in those times, we're talking about like AD 49, 50. Around that time, if there is a woman who is selling purple, she must have been extremely rich, very rich woman. But look at this. She was a God fearing woman. And as the message of Jesus was preached to her, her heart was softened to that message and she heard and took heed to the things which were being preached to her. Verse 15. And when she and her household were baptized, so what happened? Lydia is now a believer. So you see city by city. One person at a time, as some ministries say, one person at a time, people are being touched. So Lydia is now a believer and not just her. We know that her family accepted Christ too because we are told her household was baptized and a little bit more about Lydia. We are told she begged us saying, if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay. So she persuaded us. So you see how God makes a way. Where would they have stayed in the Philippi? Well, Lydia opened up her home. So she became a believer. She was rich. She had the resources. So we see even in the Old Testament, we see certain women blessing prophets, men of God, Elijah, Elisha. And so God has a way to open doors for his people when they are serving him.  Why don't you all stay with us? So in Philippi, they stay with Lydia. Who else do they minister to in the city of Philippi? Let's see verse 16. Now it happened as we went to prayer that a certain slave girl possessed with the spirit of divination met us who brought her master's much profit by fortune telling. This girl followed Paul and us and cried out saying, these men are the servants of the Most High God who proclaimed to us the salvation, way of salvation. And this she did for many days. But Paul greatly annoyed, dirt and said to the spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out that very hour. But when her master saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities. Verse 20. And they have brought them to the magistrate and said, these men being Jews exceedingly trouble our city and they teach customs which are not lawful for us being Romans to receive or observe them. The multitude rose up together against them and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods. And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. So now Lydia is one person in Philippi who is the next person who is minister too. We see that there is a slave girl who was bringing a good profit to her masters. She was functioning with the spirit of divination. What is the spirit of divination? See basically these are all demonic spirits who speak from their knowledge. So these spirits obviously knew that Paul and his team are ministers of God. So the spirit of divination starts to reveal their identity and says these men are the servants of the Most High God who proclaim to us the way of salvation. Now obviously this kind of a promotion by a demon spirit was not something that Paul was happy about. If it was a positive thing we wouldn't have seen him becoming so annoyed. Paul was greatly annoyed. So the demon spirit was it wasn't the intention and it is never the intention of Satan to promote the work of God's kingdom but to bring destruction. So though it sounds like now there was free advertisement for Paul's ministry, we know that it was detrimental. So Paul picks it up in the spirit. He's annoyed with the demon spirit and he goes ahead and casts out that spirit and it's a powerful deliverance because we are told that he commanded the spirit in the name of Jesus to come out of her and it came out that very hour. Now this is a matter of joy isn't it that a slave girl is set free from the oppression of demonic spirits but people who you know kept her as a slave her masters they were unhappy because they were making money out of her special abilities of saying all these words of knowledge if you want to call them prophetic words whatever they were making money out of it and now that the spirit was out she would no longer be able to say these so-called prophetic words and that was not at all good for her masters. They were at a loss so what did they do? They drag the steam to the magistrates and they bring up a false charge against them. They say something like these men being Jews exceedingly trouble our city. So how did they trouble the city? They were doing good. They in fact cast out a demon spirit from a girl but you see their pride and their selfish agenda because they were not able to make money out of their slave anymore. They make a statement such as no trouble our city. So we've seen earlier that Paul was in these dire situations where he was beaten remember Lystra he was beaten so badly thrown out of the city the disciples gathered around him and then the next day you know he went to minister that's what we we read in Acts 14. So something similar is beginning to transpire so he's accused and the magistrates you know listen to the words of these masters and what happens the verse 23 and when they had laid many stripes on them they threw them into prison so they were beaten and they were jailed and a particular jailer is assigned and they he's asked to keep them like safely like you know don't let them escape and we are told that they are now in the inner prison and fasten their feet in the stock so they are being treated as very dangerous criminals so inner prison is a place where you would keep you know people who are likely to escape you would fasten the feet in stocks okay that was a way of imprisoning criminals such that they're not even able to move their feet are also stuck now their chain their feet are stuck so you know such harsh treatment for people who are preaching the truth and the love of Jesus and it's you know very sad to see so we saw that the the Philippine woman Lydia and her family are saved the slave girl is set free but what is the final consequence you know Paul is still in trouble his team is still in trouble okay and people are not able to open their hearts fully to the message of the Lord Jesus Christ why no it's like the story of those people who told Jesus to leave the city right spirits were cast out of a man and those spirits asked to be sent into pigs and when the spirits went into the pigs they drowned and died so what did the people of that region do they said Jesus our business our money is more important can you please leave this region you know we we don't care about your you know your your compassion and your deliverance and all of that so this is very similar a girl was delivered but people's hearts were so far away from God that you know they they did not receive the gospel and now we have Pete Paul in the prison okay so what's gonna happen in this inner prison when Paul you know has is secured with the stocks okay verse 25 but at midnight Paul and Silas okay so you know you might ask the question what happened to Timothy what happened to Luke we don't know we don't know where they are in this equation but somehow Luke only mentions Paul and Silas so Paul and Silas would have been you know captured and taken to prison so at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God and the prisoners were listening to them you know it's amazing when you read about the apostles and ministers of God in the book of ads you know acts 12 Peter when he sees the angel guiding him he thinks it is you know a vision how could Peter even sleep in the prison you know if one of us were in the prison we'd be so anxious that I don't know if we would be able to sleep but you see Peter sleeping and the angel guiding him out of the prison supernaturally because of the prayers of the believers and in this case Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God can you even imagine that picture your legs you know are tied your hands are chained we've been beaten okay maybe you know we can think of just getting a quick rest or a nap or just getting a shut eye but here are Paul and Silas at midnight so it just shows us what kind of a lifestyle they had of pursuing after God of worshiping God that in the prison in these circumstances they have found praying singing even singing hymns to God it's amazing okay and how are they singing not very quietly because that was 25 says and the prisoners were listening to them so they're singing loudly to God maybe they knew the power of praise okay very very well they knew that as they praised God God would intervene on their behalf so here they are in the in the prison praying and singing to God in such a way that other prisoners could hear them so whenever to be worshiped God in this manner what happens was 26 starts very beautifully you know Luke puts it so beautifully he says suddenly so God appoints suddenlys when we trust in him when we pursue him so in a very difficult situation as these two are worshiping the Lord Paul and Silas suddenly God does something okay so something supernatural takes place what what is that suddenly suddenly there was a great earthquake you see how God works sometimes through an angel you know sometimes through people but now even through a great earthquake so that night there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken God is a God you know of of um this world he has created the world he knows what he can do to set his people free so this time around it's an earthquake that shakes the foundations of the prison and notice the words suddenly now immediately immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were lost so you see the effect of the devotion of Paul and Silas in the prison that God intervenes immediately doors are open chains are lost not just theirs but everyone's chains are lost so you see the power of of devotion of prayer and worship that not only did it touch their lives but the lives of the people around even their chains were lost it's amazing so amazing just those two verses in the midnight but at midnight sometimes in our deepest most difficult challenges the right thing to do is to worship God and then we can experience the suddenly because God is almighty he's the creator of the heavens and the earth and he knows what is best to get us out of that situation and not only will we be we be out of that situation but you see how everyone's chains were lost so you know our worship can affect others around us verse 27 at the keeper of the prison awakening from sleep and seeing the prison doors open supposing the prison prisoners had fled drew his sword and was about to kill himself but Paul called with a loud voice saying do yourself no harm for we are all here okay let me just stop here so what happened the earthquake you know lose the chains of everyone we know earlier you know Herod when Peter escaped right he he killed the jailers who were in charge so this is the you know procedure that they followed that if prisoner escaped the jailers would need to die so the jailer is petrified and he thinks that it is best for him to kill himself but you know Paul assures him and tells him do yourself no harm for we are all here so they were all still in the prison what happens next from verse 29 then he called for a light ran in and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas and he brought them out and said sirs what must I do to be safe isn't that beautiful you know you don't see Paul preaching at least in acts 3 Peter preached and then the people asked him the question what must we do what what should we do they were cut to the heart but now looking at the intervention of God in Paul and Silas situation the jailer understood that these men are men of God so look at his response okay and not just that look at the integrity of Paul and Silas and their compassion they probably knew that if they ran away the jailer would be you know killed so they were there for the sake of the jailer and the jailer who touches his life and he asks them the question what must I do to be safe you would have probably heard the message you know Paul and Silas earlier we don't know but this is his response and they minister to the jailer so three people right at least three people that Luke mentions there must have been many more Lydia slave girl now the jailer so verse 31 so they said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved you and your household then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in this house and he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes and immediately he and all his family were baptized now when he had brought them into his house he said food before them and he rejoiced having believed in God with all his household wow what a what a you know positive ending to the story of Paul and Silas being imprisoned you see God is working in every situation even in the jail so now you have the jailer and his family believing Jesus being baptized and also you know taking care of Paul and Silas so that is how this this particular incident ended in Philippi so let's read on okay what more happens after the jailer and his family are saved verse 35 okay let me just quickly ask all of you are you all doing okay I'm just trying to go a little fast and cover the content but I hope it's not disorienting are you able to keep pace with me okay one person says yes how about the others yes pastor okay good good wonderful yes okay glad that you are in step with me so let's go on so we're still talking about Philippi and let's see you know what takes place at verse 35 and when it was day so in the night so many things happened when it was day the magistrates sent the officers saying let those men go so obviously they have you know learned about the earthquake and the jailers a situation and all of that so in a hush hush way you know the magistrates of Philippi they were the ones who beat up Paul and Silas and imprisoned them isn't it so they feel that you know they should not continue overseeing this matter anymore so let's just close this case so quietly what they want to do is they say let those men go close this chapter verse 36 so the keeper of the prison reported these words to Paul saying the magistrates have sent to let you go now therefore depart and go in peace okay so that's that sounds good that finally Paul and Silas you know in a in a sort of a legal way because the magistrates have set them free they can go their way and continue the work of their ministry but how is Paul going to respond you know to this decision of the magistrates verse 31 but Paul said to them okay Paul is not very happy about the way things are being done in Philippi firstly without proper interrogation without proper process they were imprisoned and that too be in a prison and now without a proper process the magistrates are saying yeah yeah you can go no problem now we know that Paul is a learned individual and he knows you know about the roman law much better than probably the magistrates so he just looks at the shoddy way in which things are being done and he's quite upset so he says verse 37 but Paul said to them they have beaten us openly uncondemned romans and have thrown us into prison and now do they put us out secretly no indeed let them come themselves and get us out so he's very upset and also you know he declares this information which the magistrates probably did not know all year they knew that Paul was juke he was a juke but they didn't know that he was a roman citizen now in those days being a roman citizen was of great value it was not easy to get the citizenship and if you were if you had the citizenship you know then you had great power okay and Paul declares this information and he says they have treated roman citizens uncondemned romans they imprisoned and now they are quietly putting us out so this is not acceptable okay he puts his foot down so verse 38 obviously the magistrates would now be afraid because they figured out that Paul is indeed a roman okay that's scary that they have treated a roman poorly so verse 38 and the officers stole these words to the magistrates and they were afraid when they heard that they were romans verse 39 then they came and pleaded with them and brought them out and asked them to depart from the city was 40 so they went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia and when they had seen the brethren they encouraged them and they depart so anyhow you know Paul and Barnabas did leave the city and one last thing they did before they left the city was to go to Lydia's house so why did they go to Lydia's house why do you think they went to Lydia's house before they left the city anyone any thoughts could it be to reassure to strengthen her before they leave and encourage her sure yes yes I should to strengthen and encourage that's correct and we can also assume that by now there was a church meeting in Lydia's house okay because some good ministry had taken place in Philippi now I'm sure apart from just these three individuals there could have been more people so now you even have a jailer's household right so they all could have been meeting so the church in Philippi could have been meeting in Lydia's house that's why Paul goes there encourages the brethren and moves on from there so let's now go to act 17 and see you know what happens in the ministry of the steam Paul Silas Luke and Philippi was 70 now when they chapter 70 now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia they came to Thessalonica where there was a synagogue of the Jews then Paul as his custom was so you see the normal way of ministering is to go to the synagogue so verse two then Paul as his custom was went into them and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the scriptures okay so we understand that verse three explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead and saying this Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ verse four and some of them were persuaded and a great multitude of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women joined Paul and Silas so now in Thessalonica they are spending time reasoning with the people the reasoning is also persuading from the scriptures so preaching yes you know you preach we've seen Luke use that term they preached earlier but here he says reasoned with them so that just says that in a more earnest way in a more sort of a continuous way Paul put before you know the Thessalonians all the reasons why Jesus is Christ and why they must believe so you see the different ways in which ministry is being preached yes reasoning is also something that you know Paul engaged in and it's beautiful to see that there was a church that arose in Thessalonica so a great multitude of devout Greeks and there were also leading women so there must have been some rich women like Libya in Thessalonica so there is a group of believers who are now the church of Thessalonica okay what happens next verse five but the Jews who were not persuaded so after all the reasoning there are some Jews who are not convinced what's happening they are behaving like the Jews of you know we saw Sidia and Iconia they rose up against you know Paul and team so there is an opposition which happens even in Thessalonica so these Jews who are not persuaded becoming envious took some of the evil men from the marketplace and gathering a mob set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason and sought to bring them out to the people so Jason's home is where the church of Thessalonica met but there is an uproar and they attack this house and they you know want to bring these people out and you know maybe throw them out of the city so verse six but when they did not find them they dragged Jason so they couldn't find Paul and team so they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city crying out those who have turned the world upside down have come here to verse seven Jason has harbored them and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar saying there is another king Jesus verse eight and they troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they heard these things so when they had taken security from Jason and the rest they let them go so very similar situation like Philippi what's happening just some false accusation you know they also said that these people are troubling us so here again one other false accusation that they are preaching a new called Jesus who is above Caesar and in the accusation there's actually a compliment to the believers what is that they say these who have turned the world upside down have come here to so it's meant to be a negative comment but notice how it's a compliment for the believers so what do we learn about the believers in the book of Acts their life made an impact on you know they using the word world but that simply goes to say that large regions cities towns villages they're being impacted by the preaching by the you know persuasion the reasoning the demonstration of the power of God there's so many things that the believers were engaging in so as Jesus gave us the great commission and said go into all the world and make disciples we see the believers of the book of Acts and more so Paul and Steve making an impact on cities so today we saw in detail about Philippi but also Thessalonica there was a church which was now established in Thessalonica so legally what do they do in Thessalonica they just say okay Jason they beat him up they take a security from him they and you know they let them go so that is probably what happened and you know they want to ensure that Paul no longer continues his ministry in Thessalonica so a lot of other interesting places coming up in the second missionary journey we will study them later there's going to be Beria where we have people who are so you know interested about the truth of God's word that they search the scriptures and then we will go to Apens the Apens a very intellectual philosophical city increase we'll see the approach that Paul and his ministry team have in these places okay so I know that you know I've gone a little faster than usual but if there are any comments if there are any questions we can take it up before we wrap up today's class yes so I just want to have the clarity of for preaching and reasoning okay okay so you see preaching and reasoning I you could look at reasoning also as preaching okay so just that we when we talk about reasoning reasoning is more with the intention of you know gently persuading or convincing the people so the matters that that we may talk about would be a little more in detail a little more step by step to help the people you know move their understanding from not knowing Christ to knowing Christ and things like that so it's not very different just that reasoning is a little more detailed and a little bit more of you know convincing sort of an approach I don't know if you got what I'm saying Pratik does it help yes yes ma'am yeah I can understand ma'am thank you sure sure thank you yeah that's how it is okay so reasoning is also preaching but a more convincing sort all right so let's pray and wrap up today's class and we shall come back to you know continue from act 17 next week so okay somebody please lead and pray okay Tasha how about you lead us sure heavenly father we thank you for the class today we thank you Lord for the great work that occurred in acts and we thank you that your power still works today and we pray Lord that we will be you know we will see the manifestation of your power in today's church as Paul Salus Lord John Mark Barnabas did back in the day and how they transformed lives of those who they encountered and demon spirits must know that you are the High God the only one strong living God and the only high power and every other power must bow Lord help us Lord to connect on a deeper level with the Holy Spirit as we are your ecclesia we are your church father as we rise up and take authority in Jesus name amen amen thank you thank you Tasha thank you for that prayer and thank you everyone so God bless you have a wonderful weekend we shall meet next week bye for now okay God bless you bye