Hi, beautiful. Today we're hacking at some TikTok hacks. I've done this before and the hacks got crazy. To prepare for today's video, I probably watched 300 different hair hacks.  I'm interested to see if these things actually work, if I can actually do them, if they're easy enough for you to do, and if I ultimately think the hack is worth the try. Let's see if these hacks are something you should try on your own hair at home. Let's hack away, baby. What do you guys think about the dreadlocks? I'm feeling bright, and powerful, and fiery, and I'm into it. It's definitely a lot, but when am I not a lot? Okay, up first we have a TikTok buy, that Missy chick, and we're gonna learn a fast way of tying our hair up with no ties included. Okay, what was that? How did she do that? What kind of, what? I'll be damned. I'll be damned, girl. I would be damned if I were you, too. I don't even know how you guys did that. I'm gonna attempt to do it, but that was really well done, and it was really swift and quick, and it looks like magic. Okay, wait. Oh, okay, this is actually pretty easy. Okay, so we grab the hair. Oh, I don't know. No, that's not it. Okay, so she grabs the hair.  This looks so simple, and this is why it's annoying me, because I know it, oh, okay, it is simple, that's why. And then you pull it through. That was almost it. I think that I'm doing it right, but it's just not working the same way there's is. Oh, there we go. Okay, that's, I guess, a ponytail, right? I did the easiest hair hack ever, and it took me a good five minutes to figure it out.  How could you not do that before? It's so easy, and I'm like, like, sorry.  There goes my rings. And you pull it through like that.  Let me make it prettier. Someone, please escort her off-set, please? Who? You. We're gonna put the finger through, and we're gonna pull the pony through the hole, and that's how you do it. And ignore this single piece. Just, we'll just hide that over here. That is, I guess, like a ponytail-less ponytail. Actually seems pretty useful. Would you do this, Emma? A ponytail-less ponytail? No? No? I don't think so. Your hair's not long enough. Okay. So, she's running a mile. Like, she's at school, and she has to run. She's having an elastic, so she's doing this. Is it gonna stay in? Is it gonna stay in? It's gonna stay in? Nope, it's not gonna stay in. It's a good temporary fix, you know? I don't hate it. Would I say you should try it? Yes, I actually do think it's very useful because you don't always have a hair tie on you, and for those days, you need to just put it up real quick. It's not gonna stay super well, but it's going to get off your back, which I think is the point, right? Like, I don't think it's to look cute. I think you should try. I think it's pretty cool. I approve of that. Okay, up next, we have a video by Kenna Flynn, and we're gonna do a flat iron hack with this one. Okay, so she's basically talking about how she didn't know how to curl her hair with a flat iron, which is honestly a problem with a lot of girls. Y'all don't know how to do your hair. She learned a different way of doing it, and it's apparently easier for her. So, she wraps it around the flat iron, pulls the hair downwards. Hopefully, she gets a curl out of it. And she shook that she has a curl. More or less, this is basically how, you know, you're supposed to do it. It's sort of a run-around way of doing it, like how any hairstylist would do it. But I guess it makes it easier for the everyday person to do a curl. So, I don't never done it like this, but I'm willing to learn. We are putting the hair over the iron, oh, wrapping it around, and then putting it back through, and then pulling it down. This is weird. And there we go. We have a gorgeous cork-screw curl. It actually looks really flawless.  However, what the hell happened here? What's this? It doesn't get that whole top half of the hair. When you do it like this. I mean, it definitely works. Like, was she lying? No. All you gotta do is take the iron, put it on the hair, and turn it halfway back. And then you got a curl that goes all the way up to the root. I love how y'all think it's easier to wrap the hair around the flat iron like this, rather than just clamp it down and turn it halfway. Why would this be easier for you guys? I'm getting mad. Explain to me this one. Somebody in the comments, just let me know, because I don't get it. This looks way prettier. It's just me. And we can disagree. If that makes it easier for you to curl your hair with a flat iron, then go for it. It doesn't make it any easier for me, that is for sure. But, give it a shot. That helps you curl hair. Then good for you.  And you can finally curl your hair with a flat iron. Especially this girl who made this video.  Great job, girl. Our next hack is by Audrey Victoria. Okay, we got one ponytail at the very top of her head. Wow, she's beautiful. Really shiny, gorgeous, healthy hair. Wow, it looks like silk. Okay, she's one at the bottom. I'm losing track of what's going on. She's now looping the top one through her, its own self. And now there's another ponytail on the bottom going through the loop, loopy loop. And now, oh, right, it's this. She is getting a Ariana sort of ponytail. And there is an Ariana track playing in the background. So I think that's the goal. It's to get this Ariana like plumped up ponytail moment and in a kind of easy way. It's not very cute, but maybe it's cuter in person. And I definitely need to try this. It looks even off in the video, I must say. So my bar for this one is set really, really low. Hopefully it can come through and something really good can happen with this one. Let's try it out. Let's do it. My goal here is to make mine look better than the girls. You know, hers look good, but I feel like I could make this look actually really good. Like even better than what it's supposed to be with some real nice sectioning going on right behind the ear. We're gonna pull that hair up there. She has the thickest hair. I can hardly even section it. I feel like this ponytail needs to be a bit higher. Let's bring it up further. Let's keep going up. Okay, that looks good. Let's throw a little hair tie in here. We are now going to add a second ponytail onto the first ponytail. Let's throw this in here. Okay, well, something isn't looking right here to me. It seems as if I made the bottom ponytail too skinny because this is supposed to go over this one at the end and like cover it up. This one is way too thick. So I think I'm going to adjust this. Hold on. So we adjusted the top ponytail to have as little hair as possible because it's really just acts as like a little bump it moment underneath the other ponytail. So let's put the other one in now that we have more hair. I think this is gonna work a lot better. So now we lift this top ponytail up, stick our hands in here and we pull the ponytail through. Now all we have to do to finish this off is just put this bottom ponytail through this loop at the top. Definitely make sure you don't use black hair ties if you've blonde hair. I just wanted to show you where the hair ties were. We have pulled it through the top layer. Now we're going to let it down and hopefully we have a really cute ponytail. It's going to be a no. Like I just imagined somebody having no idea what the back looks like and they're like, okay, the front looks like decent. I don't even think they would say that but like they walk out and they have no idea that this whole thing is parting on the sides. Like, ew.  And our girlfriends are like, I'm your chickie. And she's like, thanks, girl, learn something on TikTok. It's really bad. It was just a lot of work and a lot of like complicated maneuvering that ended up in the worst style possible. Let's just leave this one behind. I will never ever be doing that again. I actually had high hopes for that too. So I'm kind of sad about it. The next TikTok is by Nasha Mamacita. And this is hair hack. Using the clothes dryer to dry my extensions. I'm interested. I don't know if any of you are like me that literally wait to the date of your appointment to wash your hair extensions. And guess what? You realize you're running out of time. Oh my gosh, hair's still wet. So here's a little hack to help you with that. I've never needed a hack more in my life.  It takes forever and they feel like they never dry. So this will be good for me. You put the extensions there. You need a hair tie. We're going to tie it so that they're all in a bundle. Wrap them up. You get them and you're ready to put them in the dryer. Oh, we're putting them in the dryer. Okay. Is this safe? Okay, so the dryer has stopped and let's check it out. So the hair has unraveled, but guess what baby? It's dry and it's ready for installment. Texture still looking good. Try it out ladies. Do you think we should like put a hair tie around the towels so the hair doesn't fall out? That way the hair dries like smoother and straighter. Like I'm going to hack this hack. The hair came out so ratty and like curled and it doesn't look the best. I feel like I could do this way better. But we'll see. Any of you guys with hair extensions knows how annoying it is to dry these things. I'm getting more and more excited as I go with this. What I'm going to do is gently brush them all out. Make them nice and smooth. Put them all down onto our towel after they have been brushed out. And now what we're going to do is roll this up. Make sure nothing moves out of place. And now we're going to put elastics on both ends. There's the hair extensions inside of here. They're locked in tight. And now we're going to throw this in the dryer and hope for the best. And hope I don't blow up my house. Okay, let's do it. This towel is very warm. It feels dry. I had a little trouble because my washing machine shuts off when it doesn't think anything's wet inside of it. It definitely kept on shutting off because the towel is dry and I had to keep restarting it. But it's been like 25 minutes. Let's see if they are dry yet. I don't know. If they aren't, I give up, whatever. But they did stay in the towel quite nicely. So I'm happy about that. Please be dry. Please be dry. Please be dry. Why? No, they're not even close to being dry. You would need to put these in there for like an hour. I think if you just put them in the dryer, they'll dry very quickly, I'm sure, because they're bouncing around and getting fluffed up. However, you're going to get nasty situation going on if you dry it like that. So I'm not going to be trying that because these are good extensions and I don't want to wreck them. I really was hoping this was going to work. It was going to help me so much because I hate drying extensions, but oh well, I guess we'll have to resort back to the old blow dryer or the old air dry moment. Don't try that one. The next hack is a little, a little crazy. This TikTok is by, it's about Amanda. She has carrots in her hair. Can't believe I'm doing this. And I went to my local former market to find these humongous carrots. I fit perfectly with my length of hair. Oh my God, we just- What in the, what is going on? Back down from a challenge, I was going to make these carrots work. I can't believe I'm doing this. Is she curling her hair with carrots? At this point in my life, I didn't think I was going to be curling my hair with carrots, but you know what? It's all part of the journey. These are the largest carrots I've ever seen. Is this how carrots are supposed to look? Like when they're not genetically modified? Like I don't understand. Let's see how they came out. Time to take them out. Let me just say, I was not confident at all, but when I seen that first curl drop, I was instantly in love. Oh my God, this is really pretty. And it came out so good, just- Whoa. So love. They came out super bouncy. Your hair's so long. Smells so good. I realized I have a habit when I get really pretty curls. I tend to bounce around a lot. Well, that was a lot of energy and holy s**t, her hair is so long and so pretty. Those carrots seem like they were doing something for her, so I need to try this. Okay, I'm sorry about this from this many people. Where about to put carrots in your head? These are multi-colored carrots, okay? These were large. The interesting part about carrots is that they have a lot of moisture in them. So I don't really know how well the hair's gonna dry, but maybe as the carrots dry out, the hair will dry out as well and it'll create like a really majestic, magical, shiny curl. Let's just begin. Why is this my life? How did it come to this? We're gonna dampen the hair a bit. Get a little moisture and we're gonna put this carrot in.  That's what she did. And we're gonna wrap it around the carrot. What the f**k am I doing? Okay, we have the carrot in place. Now we're going to pin it into the carrot. Okay, it's not staying. Well, the bottom is staying, but the top is not. Don't know how she made this stay in place. Let's see. Maybe like she pin the top. If it's gonna stay, it works for me, okay? This time we got a yellow carrot. We'll pin that baby into place. The good thing is they're easy to pin into. All right, that's staying. Good, good, good. One more pin at the bottom. If that ain't a good looking set of carrots, I don't know what is. We have to get an orange carrot in there. And just like that, three carrots right in the head. We're gonna let this dry and hope that it comes out with beautiful curls. Just like the video we saw. So I believe our carrots have officially dried. Let's see if we have beautiful curls, like the grubs did. All right, moment of truth. Oh, oh, okay. How do I get this off? I'm kind of excited. I don't know.  Does this work? Yes, it does. I just ruined it. Well, you saw what it looked like. It definitely worked. I think it wasn't fully dry on the thicker parts. It definitely took a really long time to dry. And the ends dried much nicer. And that's why the curls are a lot tighter and prettier down here. This is my fault from the body pins, but I didn't know how else to pin it. So we had to do that. I'm gonna say this one was cool. It's a waste of carrots though. I would rather ate them, but three carrots down. I'm gonna say I didn't hate the hack because I thought it was really fun and it did work, but I would absolutely never do it if I were you. Just use a curling iron. I swear, it's not worth your time. Don't do it, don't try it. I actually learned a little bit. Is there anything that I'm gonna take from this video and actually try and use more in real life? Not really. Oh, come here. Hi to everybody. They missed you. Sit down. Oh well, it was fun anyways. Maybe I could help you with something. I'm so sorry I used half of this entire video. It was probably a lot. I don't know. If you're not already subscribed, make sure you do, right down below. And click the like button and the bell icon to be notified every time I post a new video. You can text me at this number right here. Yes, it is really connected to my phone. Yes, I do see some of your messages and yes, I'll be replying to a few of you guys if you text me right now. This number will also keep you notified every time I post a new video on YouTube. Make sure you follow me everywhere else. Here are all my social media handles all around me. Go for it. If you guys would like to live your actual life, like I always am, baby, you can shop my Live Your Actual Life merch.  I wear it every single day. You can shop it with the link below or at xmondohair.com. If you'd like to check out my hair care line and my color line or get this color on my head, it is super red. You can shop my hair colors and my hair care products at xmondohair.com. It is linked below for you. You can also get some hair inspiration on our Instagrams, at xmondohair for hair care and at xmondocolor for color. They are linked below as well. Do you want to do the Instagram shout out today? No? Okay, I'll do it. Make a little shoulder rub there. Today's Instagram shout out goes to Gina B. Any comments or advice would be hella helpful. I've had the same hair for years, naturally curly, fried ends. What the do I do with it? I'm tired of looking dull and like everywhere now so my stylist just won't suggest anything. Okay, all right, all right. I see you quite beautiful curls. I love them. I think you should add more highlights to your hair. I would highlight the entire top of your hair. I would make it all bright blonde. I think it would look so fabulous on you and maybe a bit shorter, like up to here. That way you get more fullness in your hair, more curl. It's not as weighed down. I think it would look stunning. If you end up doing it, I would love to see a photo and good luck. That's all for today, guys. Thank you so much for watching. Don't forget to leave your extra light and I'll see you next time. Bye, guys.


Hi everyone Joe for jazby's case brace calm with a random number block randomized for archives sig series pick your team One full case break coming up in the next video featuring some really nice teams here as well There's the full list of teams right there Everything is numbered so there'll be no non numbered issues there. I don't think there are any redemptions right? So I have to deal with that also giving away a couple extra spots. So let's do that dice roll first So top two after six. We'll get extra spots one two three four five and six After six times Brian and Luis congrats to you After six extra spots going your way little buy one get one opportunity Now There are the numbers right there. Let's randomize Do the second dice roll four and a five nine times for names and numbers one two three four five six seven eight and ninth and final time four and a five nine times for the numbers one two three four five six seven eight and Ninth and final time. We've got two down to nine All right, here's how it shakes out for you Jeremy You got two Luis with four Justin with three Brian with one and eight Patrick with five mark with zero Luis with six Rex with seven and Nancy with nine got two old school Jasper supporters there All right, and we'll see you in the next video for the break just these case breaks. Bye


With the coming down of Shelby versus Holder and seeing that the Supreme Court has taken us in part back to pre-1965, what will you do using the power of your office to ensure that we don't further inch our way back to pre-1865? And what will you do to not only protect voting rights in this election, but also enhance access to the ballot for the elderly, communities of color, college students, people of who are poor and those involved in the criminal justice system? Thanks for that very important question. You know, as I mentioned earlier, as somebody who has run for office in Vermont many, many, many times, it amazes me that in the year 2016, people are working overtime trying to figure out ways to prevent people from voting, prevent people from voting. All right, you have my word. This is an issue that I feel passionately about.  You know, I don't hate, I don't hate people who disagree with me. That's democracy. My views are, you know, very progressive and I've got conservative friends who disagree with me. I don't hate them. But I do hate cowards who try to get elected by denying people the right to vote. We are not going back. Too many people fought and died for the right to vote.   Voter, if you cheat and you vote twice, that's a serious penalty. Very serious crime. You should pay for it. But fortunately in America, it is not a serious problem. But using that excuse, all of these governors and cowardly legislatures have passed all kinds of legislation to make it harder for poor people to vote. In other words, you need a government established ID. Well, what happens if you're too poor to own a car? You're too old to drive. You may not have, well, that's okay. You can pay $25 and go across town to get your ID. Well, maybe the office is not open when you go. Maybe you don't know how to get, can't afford to get across town. And it's not only poor people. It is old people. It is students making it harder for young people to participate. Look, here's what I believe. And we got to figure this out. I talked recently with Jesse Jackson about this issue. People look, we don't quite know the answer. Turns out, I didn't know this, federal government actually does not in the Constitution guarantee the right to vote. You all know that? It's a state decision, not a constitutional decision. So what ultimately we have got to do? And some people think it's a constitutional amendment. Some people think we could do it legislatively. I'm not sure which is the best route. But you know what other countries do in terms of the right to vote all over this world? They say automatically, with all of the technology out there, you are 18 years of age. You are registered to vote. That's it automatically. What's the problem? If you don't pay your taxes, somehow the government can find you. So I think if you're over 18, we can know who you are. You're automatically registered to vote. And I'll tell you something else. You know, we have got to crack down.  People waiting online for hours to cast their vote? What is that about? It's just simply an effort to discourage poor people from voting. Okay. And I'll tell you something else. You want a radical idea regarding this? All right. Here's a radical idea. And we've introduced legislation with John Conyers of Michigan some years ago. What about actually having Election Day a national holiday? If we pride ourselves in being democracy, why, how many people miss vote? They're out working.  So we need to do same day registration. We need to extend early voting. We need a national holiday to honor our democracy and let people think about who they're voting and take the time to come out to vote. It's not radical. But here's the issue. And all of you know this.  When we have low voter turnout like we did a year ago, November. You know how many people voted? 63% of the American people did not vote. 80% of young people did not vote in November 2014. And that was great news for the Republican Party and for the wealthiest people in this country. All right. Our job is to reverse that. Our job, as I said earlier, is to figure out what is the mechanisms that we need to increase voter participation. Let's think about it. I don't have all the answers. Our goal, though, is to have the highest rate of voter turnout in the world, not one of the lowest. That I can assure you.


Hello, I'm Scott Busby, Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor at the U.S. Department of State here in Washington, D.C. Thank you for joining us for this discussion today. We will address the Chinese government's campaign of repression against Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, and discuss how you, your organization, and your government can help respond to these deplorable human rights abuses. On July 16th to the 18th, the U.S. Department of State hosted the Second Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom, where the United States invited government and civil society leaders from around the world to discuss current global challenges and threats to religious freedom. Among the many horrific examples we discussed during the ministerial, the Chinese government's systemic repression and detention of more than one million Uyghurs and members of other Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang is among the worst. Unfortunately, much of the world remains unaware of this increasingly bleak reality. Beyond awareness, there is also a need for louder, more engaged voices and stronger action on this human rights crisis. A number of governments have condemned the Chinese authorities for these actions, but they need to follow through on holding China accountable and encouraging other allies and influential regional partners to likewise put pressure on China to end the repression in Xinjiang. Today we have with us a panel of experts with deep knowledge of what is happening on the ground in Xinjiang. We'll discuss many of the repressive policies the Chinese government has implemented, including the mass detention of Muslim minorities in sprawling internment camps, the ramping up of high-tech surveillance as a tool of social control, and the Chinese government's widespread disinformation campaign to cover up or change the perception of their actions. We'll start off by investigating each of these issues and getting the latest updates from our panel. Then we'll turn to you for your questions and thoughts. If you have a question for the panel, please submit it in the comments section next to the video player or on Twitter using hashtag Xinjiang. Let me introduce our panel. To my left is Dr. Sophie Richardson. She's the China director at Human Rights Watch and the author of numerous articles on domestic Chinese political repression. She has testified before the European Parliament and the U.S. Congress. Dr. Richardson has provided commentary to the BBC, CNN, The New York Times, and many other media organizations. Also with us is Nuri Turkel, a U.S.-based Uyghur rights advocate and attorney here in Washington, D.C. She was born in a re-education camp in China's Xinjiang region at the height of the cultural revolution in China. He is chairman of the Board of the Uyghur Human Rights Project and one of its co-founders as well as a past president of the Uyghur American Association. He has been speaking publicly on nearly a nonstop basis over the past two years advocating for a global response to the crisis of the Uyghur people, appearing most recently as one of the opening speakers at the Oslo Freedom Forum in May. Also joining us today is Aleem Setoff, the director for the Uyghur service at Radio Free Asia. He previously served as the executive director for the Uyghur Human Rights Project. In 1999, he started at RFA as a production coordinator and broadcaster. Throughout his career, Aleem has written many articles on China's human rights violations of the Uyghur people and is frequently interviewed about these issues by leading media organizations. Thanks to all of you for being a part of this important discussion. Sophie, you and your organization, Human Rights Watch, have engaged directly on the Chinese government's actions in Xinjiang. What can you tell us about your organization's work on the issue and what have you learned? Scott, first of all, thanks so much for having us. Human Rights Watch has written about abuses of Uyghurs for 25 years. A lot of that has focused on restrictions on religious freedom, torture, and enforced disappearances. In the last couple of years, we've focused on the establishment of these political education camps in which people are arbitrarily detained and essentially forced to swear their loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party. And they're really simply being detained because they are Uyghurs or other Turkic Muslims. We've also spent a lot of time looking at abuses of surveillance technologies to track people's behavior across the region and use that as further evidence of suspicious behavior and to detain people. So I think we'll probably talk more about that in a bit. Thanks Sophie. Nuri, you've spent years working on these issues, but recently there has been a clear increase in the repressive actions of the Chinese authorities. Can you share insights from your perspective on what is happening right now in Xinjiang? First, I'd like to thank the State Department for organizing this important discussion. The Uyghur repression under the communist government in the last six decades did not just happen overnight. This has been taking place as long as I'm breathing. So the current wave of oppression really come to an existence in the last two years, particularly with Chinchenguo come to power and this draconian measure called the Extremification Measure enacted in April 2017. China's government ratchet up the oppression of the Uyghur people with a mass detention and creating this police state. So what the Chinese government is trying to tell the world, it does not really fit to reality. The Chinese government claimed that they're doing this for security concern. Every country has a right to defend its national security and national interest, but the ongoing repression of the Uyghurs have geopolitical, political and cultural and even racist context. So the Chinese government started a similar type of reeducation program before building, extracting and managing the current internment camps that they wanted to teach like a school, manage like a prison and protect like a military. With the purpose of breaking up Uyghur lineage, connection and family. So it has nothing to do with the security concern that they've been expressing. If you look at the type of people that they're locked up, it shows that they have a very different purpose. The world needs to pay attention to this. This is not about the Uyghurs anymore because Chinese government using this similar technology, similar method and a way to expand its influence around the world as we speak about their 18 countries already adopted Chinese way of monitoring their own citizens, imposing a political repression. Thanks Nuri. Halim, through your work at Radio Free Asia, you focus the spotlight on the Chinese government's campaign of repression in Xinjiang. What can you share with us from your coverage and why is it important to raise awareness about these human rights abuses? Yes, we have covered extensively about Chinese government's detention of the Uyghurs, especially after Xinjiang got became the party secretary of the region in August 2016. And we began to report on a large number of disappearances of Uyghurs' detentions and also build up many police checkpoints in Uyghur villages, towns throughout the region. And we were able to confirm, at least in the Kashgar prefecture alone, 120,000 Uyghurs have been detained. These detentions are arbitrary, extra-judicial, and also most people do not know when they will be released or graduate from the so-called vocational skills training centers. But we have been able to confirm that these are not some kind of schools, but these are in fact indeed detention facilities and camps by the Chinese authorities. And China claims that they are doing this because of religious extremism. They are helping with the local Uyghurs so that they could help them with cleansing their minds of extremist thoughts. But in our reporting, we have found out that many of those people who have been detained are not just the so-called people who have been influenced by extremism. But we have confirmed that university professors, presidents, Uyghur writers, Uyghur editors, Uyghur sportsmen, Uyghur singers, Uyghur artists, the top of the cream of the Uyghur people who make Uyghur people who they are have all been detained in these Chinese camps by the Chinese authorities. And also, we have interviewed a lot of people overseas, for example, in Europe, in Canada, in the U.S. and Uyghurs, they have not been able to contact their loved ones for two or longer years. And some of them, obviously, became very vocal, speaking to media, speaking to us and others, then the Chinese government basically showed their parents or loved ones to them once or twice, basically warning these people not to speak up again about their detentions. And also, basically, we can't tell stories that Chinese government detained their parents and loved ones. And so we have been reporting up all these cases. And all of them indicate that China is not actually just educating these Uyghur people at some sort of vocational training facilities, but rather the Chinese government has been detaining these Uyghurs, not just the so-called Uyghurs under the influence of extremism, but also top of the cream of the Uyghurs. Thanks very much, Aleem. Let's now talk about the rapid and expansive growth of the internment camps and what is happening inside of them. Nuri, can you update us on this? Despite the ongoing media scrutiny and growing global concern, even though there has not been a governmental action taken to rectify the situation, China's government is still managing and expanding these camps. Late last year, an Australian think tank and the media organization have reported some figures stating that in less than 20-month period, the expansion rate was 465 percent. And in one instance, they report also indicate that the areas that they surveyed, the area of an expansion is equivalent of 140 soccer fields. At the same time, the BBC reported that the Chinese government built building the largest prison camp just outside of the regional capital, RMJ. So there's no end in sight. This is why we have to call on the governments, particularly in Europe, that has a history of seeing, witnessing, experiencing how it ends when a government targets religious and ethnic minority. We've seen this movie before. It never again is happening again in China. This should not be lost in a translation in Europe. So the Chinese government not only managing and expanding these camps, but also promoting this as a method, a model for other countries to deal with so-called world's Muslim problem. Thanks, Nuri. Another issue that has received a lot of attention recently and is a key focus of our discussion today is the increasing use of sophisticated high-tech surveillance as a tool of control and repression in Xinjiang. From widespread installation of security cameras to phone monitoring apps, compulsory DNA samples, and police checkpoints, the Chinese government is heightening its police state control and monitoring of the life of everyday people in Xinjiang. Nuri, what can you tell us about this growing dystopian reality in Xinjiang? As reported by credible media organizations and NGOs such as Sophie's organization, the life of the weaker people who are not in the camps are even more difficult to say the least, simply because the Chinese government has created a dystopian system environment that you only read in science fiction. So anywhere that you go, any moment you take, it's heavily monitored. Just an example, if you wanted to go about with your daily life, go to work or go to school, you have to go through a police checkpoint, iris scans, biometric data collection, unreasonable questions, search and seizure. In some instance, they have to run a mobile app, a scan on your phone, because every Uyghur phones reported by Human Rights Watch have a compulsory app, spying app, that monitors the communication text messages online surfing. And also, the Uyghur people have been subject to DNA collection. This has been also widely reported. In addition to what's happening in the society, the Chinese intrusion already in the lives of the Uyghur people and their homes, private homes.  The children's honest answer, in some instance, resulted in their parents, the kid's parents lending in internment camps. Horrible. Now, let's take some questions from the comment section of those following along on Twitter using the hashtag Shenzhen. Our first question is from Dimas. She asks, how can people from other countries like Indonesia effectively pressure their governments to stand up to China when the governments are worried about potential economic backlash from Beijing? Sophie, do you want to answer that question? Sure. I'll take a stab at that. It's a great question. Thanks for asking it. We know that Beijing shoves back and that it will try to punish other governments for standing up to it. But I think it's also very important for citizens who care about issues like religious freedom or a sense that a culture that's comparable or with which they have a certain amount of sympathy or they're simply concerned about human rights worldwide need to explain to their own governments that that's of much value to them as potential trade deals. For example, I think governments, democratic ones, have to respond to what constituents say to them. And I think it's very important also to think about it in terms of allowing the Chinese government to operate with impunity and according to a double standard. Do people around the world in the US, in Indonesia, want the Chinese government to operate according to the laws that it's freely signed up to? Or is it smart for other governments to let China do whatever it wants domestically or internationally? So I think it's worth pushing these conversations with governments on a couple of different levels. The societies in countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey have a huge responsibility. They are relatively free in comparison to other Muslim societies. They should use their democratic freedom and took to the streets in protest and demand their governments to take an action. At least tell the Chinese that they should stop their war on Islam. The Chinese government calling the Uighur Islam as some sort of mental illness. And this should upset people in Indonesia, Malaysia and other places who really, if they really care about their religious values and religious practices and belief, they should be annoyed by this, but we haven't seen it. But at the same time, we recognize that as Sophie pointed out, Chinese have been very effective buying out silence from these Muslim countries. Case in point, Pakistani prime minister denied twice in public media interview that even the existence of these camps, even though some of his citizens been affected, like your family members being locked up, and the next thing you read on the paper that he'd been given $3 billion eight by the Chinese government. And this kind of toxic political environment is very difficult to convince the governments unless this societal support, societal pressure exerted in these governments. With Uighurs as being Muslims in Turkey, they expect actually Muslim countries and countries like Turkey, other Turkey countries to support them in the first place. Many interviews we have conducted, you know, a lot of these Uighurs express their frustrations basically say, you know, they're not seeing strong support actually coming from countries like Indonesia, Malaysia or Turkey and other Muslim countries. But in fact, the support comes from the United States, Europe and the Western countries basically telling China to stop this kind of repression and close the camps and release Uighurs. So most Uighurs are really disappointed by the lack of action from the Muslim countries and by a lot of heads of states in these countries by just putting their heads in the sand, not only that, but in fact supporting the Chinese government's repression of the Uighur people. One additional point if I may, Saudi prince who is grooming to be the next king of Saudi Arabia and the custodian of two holiest mosques for the Muslim people went to Beijing and phrase the Chinese government while his name, his beard, his outfit, his way of greeting fellow Muslims been banned, actually being criminalized, how ironic, how despicable that is. At least these leaders could tell the Chinese, leave my religion alone. That's not too difficult. And today, ironically, the Chinese government is relying on countries like Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, North Korea to defend itself on human rights records. Troubling. Mahariti asks, what can I do as a simple citizen living in Europe and not really engaged on Chinese issues, but just concerned with freedom and human rights worldwide? Perhaps we'll start with Aleem this time. And I think as individuals, we're all concerned with freedom, at least our own freedom, our own privacy. And we are affected by that. If the government intrudes upon our rights as individuals, as human beings, if my right to man, to name my child is taken away, if my right just to practice my religion is taken away, if my right to go to another country or another region is taken away, I'll naturally be upset. And what China is doing to the Uyghur people as we have reported many international media, CNN and BBC, all of them report and confirm not only affecting the Uyghur people, but also affecting the Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uzbek peoples in the region. And China is also portraying that its repression of the Uyghur as a great model for other countries to emulate. China is even exporting, it is repression. It's also a high-tech police state to other countries. A lot of countries are buying their systems to monitor their own citizens. So this is affecting everybody. So everybody concerned with the situation of their own rights should be concerned with rights of the Uyghur people. I don't know, Sophie or Nuri, do you have further thoughts on what people in Europe can do who are concerned about this situation? I think at a very basic level, people who live in democratic societies can make use of their rights on behalf of others. Write a letter to your local paper asking what your government is doing. Call your member of parliament. Get together with other people who have similar concerns and think about actions that you can take together. I mean, there's a lot more room for even the governments, European ones, the U.S., Australia, who have publicly expressed concern about China trying to do things beyond the joint initiative at the Human Rights Council. I mean, contemplate imposing sanctions. The U.S. still hasn't imposed global magnitsky sanctions on Chinese officials who are engaged in abuses, same in some other countries. But these are all tools that I think sometimes when individual citizens or groups demand those of their own governments, in some ways, that's a more effective strategy than having an international human rights group say to a government, you should be doing this, that or the other thing. I think citizen power is very compelling and politicians have to respond to it. Just a quick additional point. The letter, the joint letter initiated by 22 countries now apparently 24 is still open. The invitation to join that effort is still open. We would love to see countries like Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic that have experience, survive fascism, Nazi Germany to join the effort. And it's not that difficult because at the end of the day, history will not be kind to those who are feigning ignorance in the face of these atrocities taking place. And also, people need to realize there's something really funny and interesting happening. The Chinese created this false division in the world, 50 countries against 22, which side you're on, what kind of history, what kind of future that you want to leave for your children. That's a very simple and legitimate question that European people will enjoy freedom to think about. And I would note that those countries not only survive fascism, but also many years of communism. So they have very similar experience to that of Uyghurs and other Chinese citizens. Asya, a student at Al-Azhar University of Indonesia writes, discussion of this topic so far has considered repression from economic and ethnic perspectives. But what is the main factor driving the repression? Sophie, do you want to take a crack at that? Sure. I think China has long reserved a special hostility and scrutiny towards Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims. They're certainly not the only ones. Many other communities inside China face suspicion on the part of the government. But I think because Uyghurs have a pan-Turkic identity, the language, the culture is more tied to originating from Central Asia, it's perceived as being the potential basis for separatism and particularly since the start of the U.S.'s war on terrorism, Beijing very effectively expropriated that rhetoric to accuse Uyghurs very broadly of being terrorists or being extremists. And it's used those ideas and those pretexts to really crack down on that distinct identity. The Chinese Communist Party is not a fan of any other organizing vehicle that might become a political challenge. And so as you guys mentioned earlier, the idea of a distinct ethno-national identity is perceived as being particularly problematic. And I think that's why you see the government working so hard to effectively erase that distinct identity through these arbitrary detentions. The stated goal that the Chinese government stated goal is to fight against extremism. They have this new term called de-extremification effort and it has a Chinese phrase for it as well. It sounds ridiculous by the way, but because the people that they locked up for de-extremification include world-known scholars, athletes, musicians, you know, the custodian of Uyghur cultural heritage. So it has nothing to do with extremism. So, but unstated goal to me pretty obvious from the government statements, official statements, and also the process that they build up to get this point as early as 2010 has a lot of racist context because they think that Uyghurs' ethno-national identity, if allowed to exist, eventually will pose national security threat. And this has been echoed by Chinese government's official statements. For example, one of the people who has been cited a lot in the media and academic papers promoted this idea to find a final solution to so-called Xinjiang problem when Xi Jinping took office. And he, his name is Hulian He recommended that the government should give up the keratin stick and implement stick policy. The spirituality, that means the Uyghurs' way of appreciating their cultural heritage, way of life, their national existence, eventually problematic. So let's get rid of this identity if anyone stands away, send them to the camps or to prison. So they have very specific mindset that the Uyghur cultural values is a problem in the long term for the Chinese government. Thanks. And if I may, it's two other important reasons as well. One is the collapse of the Soviet Union. China, you know, studied that very well. They are very afraid that if Chinese Communist Party rule collapse, Uyghurs, along with Tibetans, others may become a separate country. Another is Xi Jinping's signature policy, one belt, one road. When you look at geopolitically, the region of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region sits at the corridor of this. So for Xi Jinping's signature policy to succeed, these people who occupy this region must be pacified, and the current policies the Chinese government seems to believe that do exactly that. Thanks very much. I understand we're getting lots of questions, so it urge you to be brief in response. We want to get to as many as possible. Nam Dinh writes, I couldn't contact my Uyghur relatives back home for three years. I learned from secondhand sources that some of my relatives died in Chinese concentration camps. I called the Chinese Embassy for comment and was told to go back to China if I want to ensure the well-being of my family members. What do you advise? Let me turn to Nuri first, because I know you have similar experience. The Chinese government has been very effective in punishing the Uyghurs who live in the free societies. In addition to managing or constructing these camps and creating this open air prison like environment, they're exporting their repression to the countries around the world. In the United States, we have a handful of Uyghur Americans, American residents of Uyghur origin have not been including ourselves. We have not been able to talk to our families. The Chinese government purposefully doomed us to cause anxiety, create a sense of guilt, and put us in a desperate hopeless situation. The situation got to this point that we will not know if somebody dies because we lost contact with our family members.  And in this question goes to the heart of the problem that all of us around the world experiencing. So this can be fixed through our governments and embassies. I think the embassies around the world with the sizable Uyghur population should establish a hotline for the Uyghurs to call in and through the embassy to inquire their family members whereabouts and safety. This cannot be done by an individual Uyghur person. This has to be done by governments through embassies, even diplomatic missions, send people out and investigate and demand if they reject once, go back again. This has to be persistent. This matter is already way past just a raising human rights concern type of stage. We have to be bold and a little bit aggressive in a way. Alim, any additional thoughts because I know you have several colleagues who are suffering from this very problem. Yeah, this is obviously not an isolated case. This is case of every Uyghur overseas, whether in the U.S., in Canada, in Europe. Every Uyghur has one or more relatives are in these internment camps. And most of them do not know whether their relatives are alive or dead. Like this individual who has not been able to contact his loved ones for three years. And most people were expecting that things would change. China will release them. Things would be better. So they have been quiet. Only a few of them are there to speak up and talk about in spite of risk to themselves, to their loved ones. And seven or six of our reporters and their loved ones are in those detentions. We haven't heard much. Most of them do not know what happened to their parents, what happened to their loved ones, brothers and sisters. So far we do not know, even though six of them went public. And this doesn't mean the other seven of them, their relatives are safe. And this has been happening to all of the Uyghurs, whether we are Uyghur Americans, Uyghur Europeans, or Uyghurs in other countries. This is an extremely urgent matter. And most Uyghurs in overseas, now they are suffering psychologically. They can't sleep. They can't contact. They don't know what to do. But Chinese government is holding their loved ones hostage, just making sure their loved ones, their relatives overseas, keep their mouth shut, never raise any voice about these detentions. So this is a very urgent situation. Yeah, horrible. Clearly Chinese disinformation on this issue is pervasive and unfortunately has had a strong effect in downplaying the realities of life for Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. Whether it's the labeling of the internment camps as re-education camps or framing the repressive tactics in Xinjiang as fighting terrorism or secession. This tactic has been used to block and divide international criticism, especially with majority Muslim countries. What effect does the Chinese government's false portrayal of their treatment of Muslim minorities had on sidelining important Muslim and Turkish voices around the world? Sophie? Well, look, governments lie. China doesn't have a monopoly on that. But I think the particular dishonesty that it has employed, first in denying that there have ever been human rights violations in Xinjiang or that the camps existed, was so easily disproven that in a way it's been helpful in continuing to feed media attention, challenging its claims just a week or so ago that 90% of people had been freed and going back to work. But Beijing has been very methodical in calculating about getting other particular voices to buy into its narrative. It's invited multiple government delegations, civic groups from countries like Indonesia, for example. And then it has decided to report itself to the media globally on what those governments and what those individuals and organizations said. And that's helped feed support for its own narrative in, for example, organization of Islamic cooperation member states in other parts of the world. And so when China needs to go to a couple of dozen other governments to say, will you publicly support our view, governments will sign on to that. At the same time, I think there's a real discussion underway, particularly at the Human Rights Council, about how to get the actual facts. Because a number of governments say there are serious human rights violations going on. A number of others don't. The logical thing to do in those circumstances is to say, we need independent observers to be allowed access to the region and to people there and to interview them to come back and report to the world on the facts that they find. Helpful. A number of countries have been vocal, along with the U.S., in condemning China's actions in Xinjiang. But how can governments, organizations, and people around the world take the next step and demand that the Chinese government is held accountable for these clear human rights violations? Nuri? Yeah, China's government has been conflating, denying and confusing the global international community with various claims, even euphemistically calling the camps as the boarding school early this year. They've been taking people to show Potemkin villages, showing sympathetic reporters, the reporters from sympathetic governments and societies, to echo Chinese propaganda, and also importantly, very relevant to your office, that they think that they claim that this is in the United States making. The U.S. is intentionally creating this problem to hamper China's rise. So there's a lot of misinformation floating around, and it's working. The fact that when you look at, when you flip through some countries, the newspapers and online magazines, they're very the report that you see echoes China's propaganda. So what do we do about it? We need to do counter that narrative, just the way that the NGOs, the various governments, international bodies, force the Chinese to acknowledge the existence of the camps last summer. And it's been very effective. International bodies like the United Nations, various governments, European Parliament, need to do something. So if you mentioned the Global Magnitsky Act, their countries already have legal tools, United States, Canada, U.K., and Estonia. Empty talk means nothing. Expressing concern, I need to borrow Sophie's line, is not the same thing as taking action. So the governments need to be, need to realize it's time for action. Business, as usual, cannot continue. And also business community has a big role into this. They cannot just continue to do business with this government, building, that is building modern day internment camps or concentration camps, to lock up more than 10% of the population. It's a matter of principle. It's a matter of moral standard. It's a matter of the future for our children. This is, this actually question is very simple. This is about who we are as a human being, as a society. Thanks, Nuri. Now let's take some final questions from the comment section and those following along on Twitter using the hashtag Shenzhen. First question, how are institutions in the United States, both the government and civil society organizations, such as Human Rights Watch, supporting Uighur and Uighur advocacy groups abroad? Perhaps Sophie, you can take that? Sure, I can start. But others should chime in too, since we all work together quite a bit. We have worked very closely with Uighur organizations in the U.S. and around the world, both to share information, to strategize about how best to approach governments, to try to support what the diaspora communities need on issues ranging from asylum cases to trauma counseling to cultural preservation efforts. We try very hard to make sure that what we're asking for really broadly reflects the views of the communities that are affected. Thanks for that. A question from My America in Jakarta, Indonesia. If China uses the extremism terrorism argument, how should the international community respond? How do we address the increase of tech surveillance specifically in regards to its tension with privacy? Nuri? First of all, you have to challenge, you have to critically respond to that claim. There's nothing since 2005. The violent incidents that the Chinese government likes to cite every single time took place way before they started constructing these camps. And the Chinese government's claim does not have any evidentiary backing to support. If this is set up to fight against extremism, why would they lock up scholars?  So it makes no sense. The Chinese can claim the same thing 15 times, but the reality is that they do this for very different purposes to secure their insecurity. Thanks for that. How can Western countries leverage their economic ties to exert pressure on China? How can they do more to stop human rights violations in Xinjiang? Nuri mentioned earlier the role of companies that I think merits a lot more scrutiny, both of the companies based in the U.S. or Europe, for example, that don't appear to have due diligence strategies in place to even assess whether they might be contributing to or otherwise enabling human rights violations. Do all of the manufacturers out there know who's making their products in Xinjiang? Do they know who their partners are, whether those are government or security apparatus partners? Those are important questions. Similarly, we've written a lot about some of the big Chinese tech companies and their involvement in repression in Xinjiang. They're investing all over the world. I think, again, there's a real discussion to be had amongst governments and publics about whether it is appropriate to let companies who are responsible for serious human rights violations or who are implicated in serious human rights violations inside China provide data and other kinds of service technology beyond China's borders. Those are not the companies that I want handling my data. One final question. What are the implications of China's actions in Xinjiang in the context of its ambitions to expand its global reach such as through the Belt and Road Initiative? Alim, do you have any thoughts on that? Yes. As soon as the Chinese President Jinping start this Belt and Road Initiative, this current policy went in tandem basically with the Belt and Road Initiative. As a result, we have seen millions of Uyghurs, Kazakhs, other ethnic groups have been detained in these internment camps, families torn apart, parents detained, children are left in orphanages. Uyghurs overseas cannot communicate with their loved ones there. We have seen Chinese government investing in other countries, Muslim countries, all because of the Chinese investment and money either kept their mouth shut or signed onto the Chinese government letter in support of the Chinese government's repression. So the people live in those countries that are on the one road. They need to understand the profit they make from the Chinese government's one Belt and one Road projects are at the expense of Uyghur detentions, Uyghur sufferings at the pain of the Uyghurs. They are making this money. Thanks, Alim. Unfortunately, we're now out of time. Thank you for all your questions and comments. We've really covered a lot of ground today. Hopefully, those of you watching will continue engaging on this critical issue. Sophie, do you have any final thoughts to share? Well, I think one very broad thought is about really seeing this problem not just as an approximate issue, but rather about holding China accountable for gross human rights violations to the standards and the legal obligations it's freely signed up to. And we find ourselves thinking, if China gets away with this, what else might it be able to get away with? Thanks for that. Nuri, any final thoughts? Yeah. The Uyghurs are canaries in a cold mine. And this matter should be treated with utmost urgency, because I worry every day that if the Chinese government's ongoing repression, mass detention, and this human engineering project succeeds, the Uyghurs prod centuries-old ethno-tradition identity will be destroyed. And then if they fail, we're talking about more than 10% of the population. Let's say if it's the 1 million, it's more than the whole Washington D.C. population. The whole Washington D.C. population will be gone in the simplest way to put it. If they fail, what are they going to do with those people that they're locked up? Why we don't see people leaving the camps? It's supposed to be reeducation, right? If it's reeducation, when it's reeducation, it's going to be completed. So the world needs to wake up this brutal reality. If this, as Sophie pointed out, if China could get away with this, we will see the same model, same method, same repression, same camps all around the world. The Chinese government already, through Global Times and its embassy here in Washington, promoting this idea to solve so-called world's Muslim problem with a similar method. New York Times cited 18 countries already in the process of adopting Chinese surveillance technology. There's a police cooperation. As we speak, the Hong Kong police are learning from the Xinjiang police to suppress the protesters in the streets of Hong Kong. So this is a real problem. This is a global problem. So it requires immense global reaction. Aline, final thoughts? Yeah, we have reported for the past several years basically on this situation. And other medias also have went there, have been there, and did excellent reporting. The world knows what's happening there. This is not like the concentration camps when the Jews were locked up. The international community was not fully aware of what was in those camps. Now they are. So they need to do something about this. I'd like to thank our panelists for their important insights. Hopefully this discussion can serve as a catalyst for greater awareness of the abuses in Xinjiang and the critical role we all play in confronting them. Thank you and have a good day.


How are spiritual practice can help us manage time, information and energy you talked about earlier? It definitely helps you to manage energy, isn't it? Definitely it does. Information to manage your information properly or not to succumb to the tendencies caused by the information of the past information, energy is a very important part. The old rut has formed. If you want to get out of it, you need some energy. If you don't have enough power, you can't get out of it. It will take you in the same rut. So if you generate sufficient energy, you can also handle the tendencies caused by the old information. The karma can be broken only if you have the needed energy. So these two things, it definitely serves. Above all, once your energies are in a certain way, what somebody does in twenty-four hours, you may do it in six hours or what you do in twenty-four hours, somebody may do it in three days, which is a fact for us. So all three things are being managed in a certain way. But specifically about time, if we want to have a grasp of time, then we would need a sadhana, which is of a different nature. If you want to have mastery over time, there's a completely different kind of sadhana. This gives you some, but the mainly is focused towards handling the karmic information and the energy. If one wants to have mastery over time, it needs a different approach. If you have to go that way, either you must have an enormous understanding of various aspects of life. It'll become extremely scientific or you must be simply willing to listen. If you have either one of these qualities, it's possible, the first one that I said, an enormous understanding that will not happen in a short time, that cannot happen in a short time. It takes a lot of… it takes a lot, it will take lifetimes for people to understand how it actually happens. What is time? I know science has some explanations for time. It's fine, they've taken a few steps, but it's nowhere near the ultimate reality of what is time. So, I would say going into that such sadhana right now limits itself to only those people who will simply listen.  Not an open well, tube well. Yes? If I say jump into a tube well, they will squeeze themselves and go into the tube well. If they are like that, we can do kala related sadhana. You've heard of Kirtimukha? Every temple is adorned with the image of Kirtimukha. When Shiva said simply, I eat yourself up. He said, I'm hungry.  He simply ate himself up. Only his face, mouth and hands were left. Everything else he ate himself up.  You are above all gods. So, every temple has the face of Kirtimukha, where hands are into the mouth, everything, the body is gone, he ate it up. His own body, he ate it up. Because Shiva said so. No reason, no sense, but simply ate it up. So, he rose above all gods. What is being said is that he rose above time and space and everything. He is above gods means he is risen beyond all these dimensions. Because even gods are subject to some of these realities. He is above all that.


I'm going to continue the series of talks that we started. They deal mainly with ministry, with work called towels and titles. And today's talk is going to be titled, When potential is greater than your position. It will not only apply to the ministry, it will also apply to people who work outside of the church and who have certain positions that they feel are below their potential. We will take a reading from Book of Acts chapter 6. It's the same verses that I've been reading for the last three Sundays. Verse 2 of chapter 6. I want to remind you that the notes for this message are on the YouVersion Bible app. They will stay there only for one week, and after that they get put into podcasts and YouTube and our website where people can download PDF file sermon notes. Acts chapter 6 and verse 2. Then the 12 summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, It is not desirable that we should leave the Word of God and serve tables. Therefore brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation full of the Holy Spirit. Last week we talked about the importance of being full of Him. The week before that we talked about the importance of that ministry and work is more spiritual, that we need to develop structures and systems and that we need to also learn to delegate and be faithful in small things. Seek out from among you seven good men of good reputation full of the Holy Spirit wisdom and whom we can appoint over this business. Verse 4. But that we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. Verse 5. And the saying, please the whole multitude.  And if we skip to verse 8 it says, And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders among the people. And if you skip through the whole chapter 7, it's pretty much a PDF of Stephen's sermon, which is the longest sermon in the book of Acts. Like Peter's sermons, they were like bulletin points, just few. Few verses quickly to the point. Stephen, this guy had a sermon. I mean, he preached for so long. It was 60 verses, the whole chapter of 7, the longest sermon in a book of Acts. What I want to present this morning in few moments that I have with us is that Stephen's potential, Stephen's anointing, Stephen's grace, Stephen's gift was so big. The Bible says he was full of the Holy Spirit. He was full of faith. He was full of power. He had miracle signs and wonders on his belt and the guy could preach. That's an apostle to me. That's an archbishop right there. That's a guy, Catholic church, voting for the Pope. This guy got some stuff under it. This guy has a resume. But I want you to see where the church appoints him to serve over kitchen. If I would be Stephen, and I do crusades worldwide, and I can run my mouth really good, and I have faith and I'm full of the Holy Spirit, the church puts me in the ministry to serve over kids ministry or over, you know, maybe particularly over food or over oysters. And with that kind of anointing I would say, excuse me, do you know who I am? Did you see my YouTube channel? Do you know how many subscribers I have on my podcast? Do you know how many followers I have on my Facebook? Did you see the latest miracle that God used to do? Do you know where I've been to school? For Bible college? I would accuse the church of not having discernment of preachers. Because, you know, there's gift of discernment of spirits. Discernment of man of God. But see, the church wasn't concerned. Make sure that the position matched his potential. They were just careful. Make sure his gift wasn't bigger than his character. If you're taking notes, write this down. It's okay if your potential is bigger than your position. It's okay if the job you're doing outside of the church right now is smaller than you. It's okay. What's not okay is if your character is smaller than your gift, your skill, your education, and your position. God is not sweating in heaven because your potential is bigger than your title.  Why is that very important to God? God is not there in heaven making sure your potential matches your position. That is not his number one concern. His concern is with our character. If you're taking notes, I want you to draw this down. Our value does not come from our visibility. One of the reasons why sometimes the Lord puts us in places that are smaller than our anointing is to teach us that your value is not connected to how visible you are.  As a human, as a Christian, your value is connected to what God says about you. Not what men see in you. Let me say that again. Your value is not determined to what men see in you. It's what God says about you. We must understand. Man will always see later what God says earlier. God will say you're the king. It will take man 13 years to say, uh-huh, yes, you are the king. God will say this is the son of God and it's a baby. It will take man 30 years later to say this is the son of God. God will always will say about you what will take man decades to see in you. And sometimes God will allow positions in society and certain lack of visibility so that you anchor your identity not in what men see in you, in what God says about you. Before God will, before men, see men appoint us, God anoints us. And God always anoints us first, but it takes time for men to appoint us.  It will take time. And that time is specifically strategically positioned so God can flash out wrong identities that will be based on what men see in you. Because when you have to live for 10 years relying on what God said about you, everything men says afterwards don't move you. They can say you're crazy. You say I heard worse from better people.  It didn't move him, why? Because Paul already knew what God said about him for years before this incident. God will allow a season where your position is way smaller than your anointing so that you don't depend on men's compliments or criticisms to make you valuable. If my heart says I'm not valuable because I'm not visible, so therefore I'm going to climb out of the chest and stick myself on his last forehead.  Many people are obsessed today with visibility.  If God puts you as a forehead, shine as a forehead. But if God hid you behind a chest as a heart, don't strive to be visible for the sake of visibility. Your value is not determined by your visibility. Your value is determined by the position God placed you in right now and by the presence of God and by the people you surrounded by and by the principles you live by. Now my friend is where your value is depended on. Bible calls the church the body. And the body, there are organs in our body right now, in your body and in mine that are so valuable. In fact, they are way more valuable than the organs people see. And it will be foolish to say that just because those organs are valuable, they have to be visible. Not everything that is visible draws its identity, draws its value from the stage, the popularity, being known and being visible. We live in a generation today whereas maybe 10 years ago everybody sought to be prosperous. Today everybody seeks to be popular. If you're popular, you become rich. If you're popular, your life can change. And we have this drive in our generation for popularity. Popularity is influence and that influence is responsibility. God grants us, God gives us that. But to live your life seeking popularity instead of seeking purpose is equivalent to taking your heart out of your chest and sticking on your forehead. You know people who do that. You look at them and you're like, man, you don't belong there.  It's like you're trying to do something. You're trying to be somebody. You're trying to copy these people on TV. You're trying to be somebody. That's not even you. You don't even look good on that thing.  And God put Stephen in an invisible place in the church but he was still valuable. Another thing that I want to point out and I already kind of mentioned is that your title doesn't determine your identity. What determines our identity is our relationship with God. Can somebody say amen? God trusts those he tests. A lot of times God will test us by putting us in a position that is smaller than our potential, our anointing, the calling of God upon our life, the dream God has given us. And God will do that to test us. It speaks in Psalm 105 verse 17. It says the following, He sent a man before them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. They hurt his feet with feathers. He was laid in irons until the time that his word came to pass. The word of the Lord tested him. I want you to see this. The rejection, abuse, and offense Joseph experienced was not just that he was surrounded by jealous and bad people. The scripture says that God's word tested Joseph while his feet were being hurt, while he was being rejected, while he was being falsely accused. All of this stuff, it wasn't just bad people. It was actually God testing him so he can trust him. God loves everyone the same, but he trusts people differently. In my family, my father and my mother, they love all of five siblings in my family the same. But they never trusted all five siblings the same. Now, I was always accused being the oldest, that I was born with a silver spoon, gold spoon, a diamond spoon. I was accused of everything that you can think of. From my siblings. It was not easy being the oldest, but one thing that I did was really well is the fact that I knew that if I wanted to have certain pleasures and certain things given to me by my parents, it's not about appealing to their love. I had to earn their trust. While my other siblings did different things, I tried to earn their trust. My dad and my mom, they trusted me, even as a little kid. I tried to clean their car, clean the house all the time. Milk the cow, feed the pigs. That was BC days before coming to the United States. I did all of this stuff, cleaning the house so good. I remember one time my mom came back home and she had like little pennies in her pocket. She pulled all of that and gave it to me. She says, wow, the house smells so good, because I knew the way to her heart. You know, it's to serving, it's through helping. And through that, I earned the trust. At the age of 20, you know, my dad, he trusted me and he helped me to get along. He cosigned for me, which is not a good thing to do. Parents usually don't cosign and shouldn't cosign, even for their kids. And the reason why my dad did is because he trusted me. I paid things off to him. And then he trusted me with another thing, trusted me with another thing. And I seen my parents' relationship with me, there was more trust. And my other siblings, their great siblings, but at the age that I was in, the way there was a problem with trust and they accused them, they said, well, Vlad got this and that. The reason they got loved less, it's that they trusted me more. It wasn't better, I just simply earned the trust. You have to understand, God treats all of us the same in the reference to his love. But God will trust each person in this room differently. And he cannot trust you if he doesn't test you. And sometimes what he tests you with is he puts you in a position, Stephen, that is smaller than your potential.   God will put David in the palace. But you have to understand is that David has an anointing to be a king. There's only one problem with that. Is his destiny the place is not vacant. There's somebody sitting there to be a king. And God is testing David. Will David get offended that his family is not seeing the great anointing on his life and they're sending him back to the sheep a position smaller than his potential? Or will David be in that position and say, well, send some bigger than this position. Let's do some bigger things. Let's kill lions. Let's kill bears. Let's develop a testimony. Let's create history with God.  A lot of people want God to trust them with the Goliath, but God will test you with the lion. Before God will trust you with the publicity, he will test you privately where a lion and a bear, insecurity, pornography, maybe jealousy, maybe certain hurts from the past will come attacking you and there you are complaining you have a great destiny. Nobody believes in me. Nobody sees in that.   Everybody's not discerning that. God is testing you. He wants to trust you, but he is testing you. Don't fail the test. See this about David. He goes finally to the palace. He kills the Goliath and you would think that David now will be trusted to be a politician. You know that the first job David had in the palace, it was not a king, it was a musician. You have to have enough courage to work as a musician in the place you're anointed to be a king. Many people would never play music in the place they're called to reign. Before David became a king, he served a king. He was tested. Before David led, he played music. I wrote this down. David shepherded sheep before leading a nation. David killed lions privately before facing giants publicly. David started as a musician in the palace before God called him to be a king. David drove out demons before he drove out philistines. David was a armor bearer before he was a king. All while, he was anointed to be a king. Why? Because God loves you the same. He trusts us different. And that trust is based, my friend, and how you pass the test. God's love won't change for you, but his trust would be different.  Anchor yourself in God. Be faithful, be fruitful. Men will see different. Men will appoint you.  But if you run right away to the front, and you're not that special, men will put you back. He said, you'll be embarrassed. It's okay if you're bigger than your position. What's not okay is if your character is smaller than your anointing. The second thing that I want to point out from this story is position does not restrict anointing. Ego and laziness does. Position, so I want you to see Stephen gets put in a position that is way smaller than his anointing. The guy could do crusades worldwide. The guy could speak and preach and teach Bible seminaries. So well thought of. Stephen's sermons are way better than even probably Apostle Peter's and Apostle Peter, if you're listening, I'm sorry, it didn't mean to hurt your feelings. But Stephen's sermon was like legit. And Peter's sermons were very quick and very short. Stephen was the guy. Yet, he was put in a smaller position. But I want you to see that Stephen didn't get offended at the Peter, at John and James. They say, guys, that's not fair. I can preach better than you. I can heal better than you.  I'm better than you and you're dumping me into something you guys don't want to do so you can spend more time with God. You should invite me into the big league. I should be with the big boys. Not put over there over the kitchen. You go take care of widows yourself. Give me the big stuff. Stephen doesn't get offended. Nor does he let his position in the church say, okay, well, since they're letting me only hand out food in the kitchen, that's all I'm going to do. I'm just going to be faithful with the food and the anointing I have to heal the sick, the power of God I have to cast out devils, the dreams and visions and prophetic gifts and utterances that I have, other things that I have that they're not letting me do here. Well, so what? I'm just going to put them on the back seat and wait until somebody will see that and give me a place. Stephen said this, in church I will do my best to make sure every widow is taken care of. And when I leave the church I will cast out demons like it's nobody's business. I don't need a platform. I'm going to go to the park. Peter doesn't need to invite me to speak at the apostolic church. I just need to heal three blind people in the park and I have a crowd. I don't need the platform. I just need a camera, a microphone and a Facebook account. I don't need that. He doesn't. I don't need him to help me build my anointing. He's not restricting it by putting me into a smaller position. What's restricting me is two things. Ego, I'm offended. They didn't see it in me. And secondly is I'm lazy. Instead of developing other skills and instead of developing other graces instead of learning how to play guitar since they're not hiring a king in the palace instead of learning how to translate dreams and developing that gift because Pharaoh is not hiring a prime minister. What these people do is they develop other gifts on the side because they're not lazy and then they sneak into their calling even though they never changed their position. Don't be a rock. Be like water. Rocks need open doors. They're stiff and they're too big. Water doesn't need an open door. Water needs a crack. Water is fluid. Calm but forceful. And many people, they're like a rock. They're so special in their own eyes. They're so important that if you don't give them a place if you don't promote them if you don't confirm and you don't encourage their gift I don't think I can do it. If you don't push them, motivate them spoon feed them. Hold their hand and constantly tell them nice words. No, I won't succeed. I'll never do anything outside of my position why nobody's encouraging me. Nobody believes me. My mama didn't tell me I was special. My daddy didn't tell me I was special so my position is restricting my influence. Don't get offended that it's not your mama it's not your position. It's your ego and it's your lazy. You have a lot of time and instead of benching instead of benching on Netflix and instead of watching all the latest movies if you would develop some other skills and develop some other things and exercise your anointing outside of your position, God will use you no less just because your position at your work or in the ministry now doesn't match your potential. Come on somebody. Anointing doesn't need a title to operate it needs a problem to fix we shouldn't seek a stage to shine on we should seek an opportunity to serve some people are always looking for a spotlight to shine on them scripture says you are the light that means you have to shine you don't need somebody to give you a light give them a light you don't need a stage you just need an opportunity as a person you need to find a need and fill it find a hurt and heal it find a problem and solve it God does not need a stage God's anointing didn't wait until David gets a crown we can't do anything God's anointing says David don't need a crown David needs a lion David don't need people to say oh my gosh David is such a man of God David needs a bear David needs a Goliath David needs cancer David needs arthritis he needs a problem to solve and if you are good at solving problems God will promote you God will open you doors for you can somebody say amen please understand the anointing upon your life if people hate you if people hate you and they really want to stop you and you really feel like there is a spirit demonic spirit operating through a pastor is holding you back cutting you out all the time if you truly anointed no demon can stop you because you are like water did you see these things cannot be stopped by our nooks they cannot be stopped by nothing if you are like water you don't need a crack you don't need somebody to roll a red carpet for you somebody to constantly pep talk to you you just need a crack you just need a small opportunity where you can help somebody where you can help somebody and next time it happens you will come out into a new season into the new room into the new level you will come out to a new position why because you are flexible you are fluid and because you bring benefit and help to other people don't be stiff don't be too solid don't be too ego driven don't think too much of yourself be humble in your mind and God will exalt you at your due time somebody give God some praise right now somebody who is fluid in the spirit give God some praise right now somebody who knows you are going to a new season in your life give God some praise right now will not let us succeed outside of our position will not let you succeed as a slave because you've been called to be a president Joseph ego will not let you succeed as a musician because you are too anointed to be a king ego will never let you go back to the sheep just because you got anointed to be a king ego will never pick up a towel just because you have a title that you are a son of God see in order to succeed in a calling you have to swallow your ego Jesus simply picked up a towel he had the title as a son of God but in that moment it didn't matter people whom God will use are people whose egos are small and hunger is big and a lot of times the only thing that we have that's big is our ego our passion is small our prayer life is small our desire to learn is small our desire to improve our skills our race is small and the only thing that's big is inflated version of ourselves it's like a balloon we're walking it's so touchy God forbid somebody touches us the wrong way that's when you know you're inflated not anointed inflated Stephen wasn't inflated he was easily said yes you guys need me to serve I can't stop serving within my gift and I don't need Peter to sign off on that if Peter is okay with me going on the streets I'll preach on the streets if you have an anointing to preach if you have an anointing to heal the sick if you have a ministry inside of you if you really have that you don't need somebody what you need is you need to stop thinking of yourself too highly and being offended that people don't see it and find opportunities where you can serve and playing music for Saul will lead to becoming his armor bearer becoming a general becoming a fugitive and then becoming a king of a one tribe becoming a king of all the tribes God's calling will take you to the throne but God will take you through a process God will take me through the process where he will kill insecurity where he will kill my little petty little self-esteem petty little self-importance he will put that down and the only thing that will be important is God what he said about me and how he sees me can somebody say amen don't leave the church just because you're famous on the streets there's a temptation that happens is this is the moment the ministry gets big outside we want to rub it into the people on the inside say well you didn't believe in me look what God did I'm leaving starting my own international LCC or my own international ministry Steven never did that the only reason why Steven left is because of him I see a lot of people who sometimes they get limited they feel like they're limited in the church especially those of you coming from other churches you come and you're like man in the other church I was an apostle in the other church I was this and I was that and please understand in order to prove that you were that serve reference letters are good your videos on YouTube that you prophesied in the other church are amazing everybody of people they don't know you therefore they don't trust you you can give the right prophecy people won't hear it you will say they won't hear it because they don't know you why they don't know you because you just came in learn to serve get to know the church let the church get to know you so that your voice will be heard not just spoken what you say is true it's just nobody will hear it nobody will care because they don't know you because they don't see your faithfulness how popular how anointed you were and how great you are in the marketplace you have to understand you can't just come in and shove your title you have to come in pick up a towel and serve serve in any way show your heart first not your skills and lastly so think first thing we mention is that your position is smaller than your potential don't worry about that make sure that your character is not smaller than your gift the second thing that we mention that a position in your work and position in the church doesn't limit you it's your lack of desire to grow and you're thinking too highly of yourself that's what's going to limit you but the third thing that I want to share with you and it's going to pretty much slightly contradict what I just mentioned in point one the reason why is because I have to mention this and we have to see we have to correct our motives is that serving is not a stepping stone serving is not a stepping stone Steven we know we're in here we see now maybe he did but we don't see it where he got promoted into a better position in the church because his ministry outside of the church was successful you don't see here was Steven like the church saw his sermon and you took one viral like outside of the church like dude he's going to be part of our preaching team you don't see Steven after a few healings Peter's like oh dude man we're going to send you to other cities as well man you're good the only thing that we saw here is that he didn't get promoted to a better ministry he got promoted to a better place he went to God's glory you can't beat that kind of promotion guys like you did so good the church doesn't see it I'm seeing it you coming home sunshine you coming home now it's true if you are faithful many times man will see it man will appoint you God will open doors he'll promote you he will exalt those who walk in humility but it's important that we don't see this thing that we are doing for God as a temporary stepping stone until King Saul dies until Pharaoh gets the revelation on the guy because then what we do is that we use the serving to build our ministry instead of God using us to build this kingdom plus the bible presents the church as the body how many of you know you don't promote your heart to become eyes because it pumps blood really good you don't give your heart after 5 years you've been pumping blood so good I'm gonna make you a nose I'm gonna promote you into being ears so everybody can see you I'm gonna promote you to be eyebrow so you can be on every single photo nobody does that with their heart sometimes the Lord doesn't promote us into visibility because that is really our sweet spot where we are being effective and where we are serving him and we shouldn't compare the function and the visibility of the heart with eyebrows and eyes because eyes cannot do without heart and heart cannot do without eyes we all have our functions where God will reward us not based on what people thought of us not based on where we got invited to speak not based on where our books landed and New York Times not based on how many people followed us on social media or how many people listened to us God will promote us and how effective the heart was beating how effective the lungs were receiving air how effective were eyes seeing how effective were ears hearing and so you have to understand you and I will stand before God and we will give an account not how we measured in the eyes of man God I'm all for promotion I believe that God will exalt us but our motives have to be pure God will purify our motives by sometimes lingering our promotion so he can get all of the faults from our motives out so our motives is not I'm using the church to build me to God using me to build this kingdom my name will die but his name will live we live for the fame of his name we don't live for the fame of our name we don't use the church as a platform to get a ministry going we use our ministry as a platform to get God's kingdom spread there is only one name that heals the sick there is only one name that drives out demons there is only one name that restores broken marriages there is only one name the hell is afraid of it is not the name hungry generation it is not the name Vlad it is the name of Jesus Christ the son of the living God the name that heals the sick the name that islands will trust in somebody shout that name somebody shout that name somebody shout that name hallelujah we don't promote a heart to become a mouth because it pumps blood good don't fall into pressure don't live insecure be comfortable in your calling don't compare and compete run your race I am going to read the last verse and then we are going to go into testimonies John chapter 17 verse 4 it says the following Jesus said this I have glorified you on earth I have finished the work that you have me to do I love this about Jesus he didn't live on this earth even glorifying his name he was God his motive was I glorified you on earth and I did what you asked me you positioned me in a particular place I did it I didn't go far at physical building didn't build a building didn't travel very far and didn't live very long but he says I did these two things I glorified you and I did what you called me to do he didn't say what people said about me because people thought he was crazy at the end of your life your success will depend on these two things Lord I glorified you everything I did was for your glory not for my fame and Lord I did what you called me to do