Hello, hello, and welcome to PD and your PJs. I'm so excited that you could join us to talk more about Book Snaps with CESA. We're here with Tara and she'll take over in just a few minutes. Before we get started though, I want you to know that you should hear me talking now. Don't worry, we are recording the session and you'll receive that in an email shortly after we conclude. The best part though is that you're going to get the slides so you can look through those at your own convenience later and click on all the resources that Tara has to share with you. We will take a few questions at the end. So if you think of something as she's presenting, just go ahead and type it in the question box and we'll have lots of conversation about Book Snaps as we conclude tonight. Quick introduction, my name is Julie. I was a high school ELA teacher for 18 years. I'm now on the teacher community team at CESA. Go ahead and find me real quick on Twitter. I'm at EdTechJulieJay. Give me a follow because I share lots of tips and tricks about CESA. And then of course you can connect with our whole team on Twitter at CESA. Now I do wanna tell you, Tara is not talking about how to get started with CESA or how to set up your class. So if you need that kind of information, please visit ideas.csad.me. Everything there will help you get started. And then definitely check out our calendar, web.csad.me, fact slash PDs to see which PD topics are coming up that might interest you. I do have a quick favor to ask you before I turn it over to Tara. When we conclude tonight, a survey is going to pop up on your screen if you can. Take a minute to answer those questions. We really do value your feedback and that's how we make our PD sessions better. And then we also randomly choose a winner of a t-shirt every week from those survey responses. So if you don't mind, give us a little feedback as we wrap up tonight. I'm so excited though to be turning it over to Tara Martin. You know her from Twitter and from all the book snaps. She has so many awesome things to share with you tonight. How's it going, Tara? It's wonderful. Thank you for inviting me. I'm going to make you the presenter now and you can take it away. I'll let you know when we can see your screen. Okay. Okay, yep, we can see it. You got it. Okay, we're good to go. Do I need to close this box? I think just as long, yep, you're good. We can see it in present mode. Okay, fantastic. Well, welcome to PD and your PJs. We are going to be talking book snaps and I am super excited to be here today. So book snaps was created in August of 2016. It was a product of my son using Snapchat ridiculously all the time and all I ever saw him do was take selfies and it was driving me bonkers. So I just wanted to figure out a way to use the app for edu awesomeness and I was reading one day and I was like imagining this picture in my mind like we do when we're reading and that's how we connect to text, right? And I was like, oh my goodness, maybe I can use bitmojis and emojis to recreate this imagery that's happening inside of my head. So I called Caleb downstairs. He was 15 at the time. I was like, dude, you have to teach mom how to use Snapchat. And he was like, no, you're too old for that. But he ended up teaching me anyway. And it turns out when you can take a picture of the text and within Snapchat at that time that's the app that bookstops was birth. I realized I could annotate and then pull images down and help recreate this imagery that was happening inside of my mind. But then I started to notice, not every student is connected to Snapchat. It is an app for 12 years and older. So I started looking at other apps and Seesaw was one that I used all the time with the kiddos that I work with. And so I was like, let's see if we can make bookstops with Seesaw. And then it was just a plethora of apps that you could do this. But basically you're connecting to the text. You're annotating and sharing excerpts of any kind of reading material. It works at all grade levels. And you are creating a digital visual representation of your learning. Well, since book snaps, we have all kinds of snaps like math snaps, science snaps, anything that you are sharing your learning through this image. So I'm gonna walk you through how to create a book snap in Seesaw. And then I hope that if you are a math teacher out there, a science teacher, we have a culinary teacher in Oregon who does food snaps. I mean, the snaps are endless. Anytime you're allowing students to share what they're thinking in a digital format, this will work, this strategy will work. The best thing about this strategy is it actually has brain-based research. So when you are comprehending, you're using the left hemisphere of your brain and then when you recreate that comprehension through a digital visual representation, you're using the right hemisphere of your brain. So now you're engaging both hemispheres of your brain and the chance of taking that content and pushing it out of the working memory into the long-term memory increases exponentially when you use both hemispheres of the brain. All right, now all of that, let's create a snap. So the first thing you do is open Seesaw and we are using Rick Jeter's the isolate in book tonight. So if you are interested in reading this, it's fantastic for teaching empathy grades four through eight, love, love, love this book. So you will open Seesaw, choose the photo and you're gonna take a picture of the text that you are connecting with at that time. From there, you are gonna choose the T and you will add your annotation here. Type it in, you can use emojis if you're on iPad. And so from there, then you add the emojis, you will make sure that you choose the style and make them transparent. Some of the kids like them to not be transparent. So if you don't mind the tape looking, you can leave it like that. After that, you can customize the box. This was if he is that a lot of the students just absolutely loved making their box more decorative. Then there's a drawing option. I found that a lot of students really like to draw their own thoughts. And I love that because it kind of connects, it connects the motor memory as well. So now you're not just working with digital imagery but you're actually adding another memory, your motor memory and the chances of remembering that content actually increases when you draw it. So I love, love, love this piece about seesaw as compared to other apps making book snaps is that you can make your book snaps come alive with voice and it changes everything. So you can tell them, I connected with this because I had a friend one time and he was super lonely and he was feeling super upset and this little guy has autism. So maybe these children are connecting in a way like that but they can share that verbally. And I love this for the little, the littles too because sometimes their annotation is really like the title and the author of the book and it took them like their whole station to build that. So they can share their thoughts here and their thinking. And then from here you would just choose added to their journal and their class feed view. I love this piece about seesaw as well because students can go in and then comment on each other's book snaps and the little people can comment via microphone. They can just voice over their comments. One of the things we did recently with first grade group is we got everyone made a book snap. They were actually making math snaps. So they all made math snaps and then they went in and got their QR PDF right here. The teacher could do this and she printed off these sheets that are over here on the right. And what happened is they took a gallery walk with their iPads and groups of two and so they got to go and scan the QR code and listen to how their partner came up with the answer, the solution to their math problem. And it was just amazing because they were going around the room and then there was the big poster paper underneath and so they were leaving comments and smiley faces on how their work went. So they had a gallery walk based off of math snaps that came out of seesaw. There are so many sharing options as far as putting them out on Twitter. I love that seesaw connects with so many apps. So if you wanna take your students book snaps and just share them right out to Twitter, you can do that. And I would highly recommend you looking at my website which is TaraandMartin.com and looking under the resource section and on the left-hand side, there's tons of book snaps resources for you. But in May, we will be having a book snaps challenge. It's across the world. We had 15 countries involved last year. So I'm excited to see what it will be this year. And kids will post their book snaps straight out of seesaw right onto Twitter and post them to the hashtag that'll be the challenge of the week. And they win like book snaps swag and they also guest blog on my blog.  So be looking for that in May. Also, if you want to copy the link and add a video image, you can do that here. And I just would like to show you a few examples. This isn't just for little people, it's for big people too. As Julie mentioned earlier, her students were creating book snaps and the upper grades. And then these guys are like kindergarten. So sometimes they're making sight word snaps. And you can see on the right where they're just making meaning out of the text. So they see that that's a big cake and they put the yummy emoji. So you're still getting that comprehension. One of our most recent snaps, book snaps has a billion cousins, math snaps, science snaps, all kinds of snaps. But one of the most recent is I read for global read aloud to a group and I read the book exclamation mark. Love that book, but it's all about being true to who you are. And that is something I stand for. It's just being real, being relatable, exposing vulnerability, always approachable and learning through life. So I was telling these kids this and we decided to make real use snaps. And so what each of the students did is they took a self-beam and then they used emojis and drawings and words to express what makes them unique and different and how they want to embrace that. So I just absolutely love their real use snaps. They were so cute and every one of them are so uniquely different. And I think that's the beauty of book snaps too. Everyone can read the same exact passage and everyone can make a book snap and none of them ever look the same ever. So it's great for teaching diversity, respecting and honoring people for who they are and the experiences that they bring to the table when it comes to learning. So if you get in a bind and you can't remember all of these steps, fear not, teraimmartin.com and you go to resources and on the left-hand side, the second tab down is how-to videos. There's a seesaw how-to video in that playlist. So you can just click that, it'll walk you through, you can pause it. The great thing about my website is the kid-friendly website. And there are kids that go there all the time to find resources for different things. So feel free to send your kids there. I don't use ugly language or anything like that on there. So what does it mean to connect to text in the 21st century? I think it means that we speak the kid's language. They love images, they love emojis, they love bitmojis. So if we can get in tune with what they love and allow them to share what they're learning, then we have a better chance of them being more engaged. But not only that, sometimes students actually share with you things that you never would dream of through book snaps because it feels non-threatening. We're using a language that they love, we're allowing them to connect to their learning in a way that's meaningful for them. And they may or may not share something that is super personal, that we may not have ever known that they were thinking, had we not given them this outlet of book snaps? So if you create book snaps, please do find me on Twitter at TerraMart EDU, share your book snaps with me. I will show them lots of love. I try to send video messages and just snap messages, Twitter messages back and forth to kids and encourage them to keep sharing their learning. And we all are made better because they are allowing us to see what they are learning. So thank you so much for joining us. And I suppose now we can take questions. Thank you so much, Terra. Right now the question box is just full of people saying how much they love book snaps and how thankful they are for your webinar. We have a few minutes still tonight, folks. So if you wanna ask Terra a question, go ahead and type it in. We'll have a few minutes for those still tonight. Like Terra said, I was using snaps with big kids and my kids were using iPads. And as some of the screenshots in the webinar were from iOS. But don't forget you can use book snaps even if you're using CESA on a Chromebook. I think the interesting thing is knowing your keyboard commands for emojis depending on what device you're on. But your kids will probably know how to do that is what I'm thinking. Terra, I'm assuming you work with some teachers who have students do snaps, not just on iOS, right? I'm sorry, I missed the question. No, that's fine. I was just saying that sometimes we get teachers asking us about how to find the emojis on Chromebooks. And I was reminding people that their students could do book snaps even not on like mobile devices or iOS. Like they could still take pictures on their Chromebooks. Do you have teachers that use Chromebooks for book snaps? Totally, any of the Google apps. So I often teach them in Google Slides too. And if you go in Google Slides, you can use emojis because all you do is you go to images, upload from the web. And if you upload from the web, you can type in the word emoji and you can type the emotion and it will pull up all the free ones that you can use inside your book snap. So it's fantastic. Now with CESA, it's a little trickier in getting the emojis onto the Chromebook. But what they can do and what we do in my district, we're a Chrome district too, we create them in Google Drawing or Google Slide. And if you go to that playlist on my resources, you will find a how-to video that's very easy to follow. Then you save the book snap as an image and that's how our little people upload them into CESA. They just upload it as an image already created from Google Drawing so they can use all of the images from online into their book snap or snap, science snap or whatever it is they're making. Okay, those are actually really helpful tips, especially if we have some people who are Chromebook users listening tonight. Kristen B is asking some questions about the activity flow in CESA. And Kristen, I can tell you that we have a lot of CESA users using these book snaps as activities. Someone you could connect with on Twitter for a CESA activity link for book snaps is Brenda Morrow at ITech5M. She has a book snaps activity already created. And if you look in the activity library in CESA, you'll see an activity called Describe Yourself and those instructions work really well for the kind of snap that Tara was describing at the end of the webinar. So Tara, here's a question from Krista. Krista is asking, what's your best idea for using book snaps in second grade? You know, this is the advice I give any grade level. Honestly, it's the same. I think the less parameters you could put on it, the best is the best because it allows the students to truly be creative. However, I will say every time I teach book snaps for the first time, whether it's to adults or to kindergartners, I always have them use the same text the first time. So everyone has the same text and we walk through the steps together. And typically I will use my videos just because it's really easy for them. And that's something I can leave with the teacher when I go. And so that is how I started, but it's wonderful if you can take the snaps and you can show them in CESA, it's beautiful because they go to feed view. So you scroll up and you show it projecting on your screen how we all created snaps from the same text and they all look so different. It's great to teach them that we are all going to think differently. And then when they go on their own to create snaps, I usually will have, I upload the video into the CESA feed and just let them have it right there handy. So when they go to create their own snaps, they can do that too. I will say a lot of people try to make it into like a digital worksheet, please, please, please don't do that because when we do that, it just takes all the fun out of it. And it also, it takes all the creativity out of it if we make them do exactly what we want them to do, but digitally. So yeah, there's times where they need to find the main idea, but I would say let there be a little bit of choice and voice there because that's what Book Stamps really is all about. So well said, Tara. And it's like you're reading people's minds because a lot of the questions that I have waiting in the question box are things like what directions do you give students? How do you introduce this to students? And you were really, you were really talking about that as I was scrolling through the question. So I'm glad you covered that. I have worked with teachers who have asked just one quick question to students as they're doing their self-selected reading, like asking them to look for their favorite part or their favorite sentence of that day's reading and then making their book snap around that, just giving students a little bit of a direction as far as what they wanted them to snap that day. But I agree with Tara, kind of less is more probably as far as the directions you give. I'm gonna keep looking for a couple more questions for you, Tara. If you still have a few more minutes. Certainly. I will say that one time I watched a teacher create like a Book Snaps anchor chart and so all the kids were on the carpet. They were brainstorming ideas, primary grade and they were brainstorming ideas of what we would even snap. And so that is how they got just a ton of ideas of what might even go on a snap. And they were like, some of them had it was a little heart and the heart icon meant that was my favorite or this character reminded me of someone else. So they drew like an icon that represented that. And so they brainstormed all kinds of things that might make you connect to the text because I think sometimes students, little people they don't understand what is it that what do you mean connected the text? Like what does that really mean? So they brainstormed all kinds of ways you might connect to the text and then they're like the teacher was pretty open or you might connect to the text in another way but she gave them some ideas. So they had Book Snaps station in their guided reading station stations. They had choice stations but one of them is Book Snaps and the anchor chart just stayed there. So when they were self-select reading they had to grab an iPad and make a snap and upload it into Seesaw. And they had that chart there to remind them of how they might connect to a page. I love that. I love the idea of a station and also the idea of an anchor chart. I have a tip that Stephanie is suggesting she's saying that she uses a website called emojicopy.com on Chromebooks. So that's a helpful tip if anybody's interested in that. I was not aware of that site. So that's a helpful tip. Have you heard of that, Tara? I have not. So thank you for sharing. Emoji, what is it? Emojicopy.com. So we'll have to check that out. That is a good tip for our Chromebooks users. I was in a one-to-one iPad district so I was not using Chromebooks for Book Snaps but I think it's helpful when we can talk about other platforms too because not everybody's using iOS. So thank you for the tip. Tara, mostly what we're getting in the question box is lots of thanks and compliments for you. People were pretty excited about this topic tonight. So I'm just scrolling to see if there's anything else we've missed tonight. And of course, sometimes we can't get to all the questions in real time. So feel free to connect with Tara on Twitter. And then like she said, she has all those resources including videos available on her website. And remember, you're gonna get her slides so you'll have her website there. And I know a lot of people were asking for clarification about the name of the book, The Isolate. So you'll see that in print when you look at the slides later too. Tara, Lauren is asking, do you think Book Snaps would replace a reader's notebook? Can you explain the reader's notebook to me? We'll see if Lauren can type in anymore. So it must just be the terminology that they're using in their school for some of the responses to reading maybe that their students are using. I didn't teach elementary school so that I wasn't using the terminology reader's notebook but. The question that often comes up is do I think Book Snaps will be timeless? I do, I did it when I first created it like it was a solving a problem, right? But as I've studied the science behind the visible learning and even with Hattie's research and many different researchers and why this works, I think as long as there's something out there, some digital piece, some piece of technology that you can create a digital visual representation of what you're learning, then the idea, the strategy Book Snaps will never go away. It's still just a great strategy. That's why it works for every single content area because it's the recreating of the imagery, the thinking that's happening inside of your mind that allows that content to jump out of the working memory and lodge in the long-term memory. In fact, real quick, when students create a Book Snaps, beginning, middle and end of a book, and I don't have enough research on this because it's only been out for a year and a half, but when I get enough, which will be a couple more years, I'll be able to prove this. You can ask the student about three weeks later, we've tried this with multiple sets of kids, control set and not controlled set. You can ask them three weeks a month later about this book and invariably they will always tell you the part of the book they remember is the parts around the Book Snaps that they created. So if you can get them to create a Book Snaps at the beginning and the end or the beginning and the middle of the end, eventually they will probably remember a lot of things about that book, not maybe all the pieces, but they remember the places where they created those Book Snaps. It's pretty incredible actually.  Yeah, that's super fascinating. I did not try that experiment with my own students, though I was using Snaps for vocabulary words and I do think that was aiding their retention of those definitions, but that is super fascinating. Lauren is clarifying and giving us a little extra info about Reader's Notebook. She says the place where students reflect on their reading and one quick tip I would give Lauren too if your students are using CSA for Book Snaps, you can just create a Book Snaps folder in CSA and that could kind of be your Book Snaps or Reader's Notebook and then all of those are same in that same folder. Also another tip, Tara always puts the hashtag in front of Book Snaps because she's on Twitter tweeting about Book Snaps all the time. If you put the hashtag in the folder name, what you will find out is that that will bump it to the top of your folder list in CSA so your students won't have to scroll very far to find it. That's stellar. Then I think Book Snaps will totally take any kind of reflection of reading. I think it could potentially take the place of it and I love the idea that that's one of the things I love about the CSA app when creating Book Snaps, easy to organize them. In most other apps, we have to put them, upload them to Padlet or upload them to Google Slides or some way of curation, but with CSA, everything you need is right here in the app. Right, great point. And I think you made a great point too about gallery walks. Like you can print an entire folder so you could print a whole folder of Book Snaps and then you'd have the QR codes and you could leave them out in a bulletin board or hallway display and viewers could come scan those codes to hear student voice. So, I mean, so many possibilities. Tara, I think we're gonna have to wrap up tonight. We're kind of running out of time and questions but remember, connect with either of us on Twitter if you have questions and don't forget to check out all of our upcoming PD. I love all the enthusiasm around Snaps tonight, Tara. I am so excited. Oh, can I share one more thing? Do we have? Absolutely, absolutely. The last one, I just thought of it. It was another gallery walk that we used on a parent night recently and it was Science Snaps. And they had their students like share the science experiments and the successes and the failures, which was so great because it's all verbal. And then so the parents took the iPads and was scanning them around the library. And so they got to like hear their students and see them, their Snaps and then hear what they had to say about it. I just thought it was the cutest thing ever. It was all Science Snaps and involved parents on the parent night. So, there's endless opportunities when it comes to seesaw and all the options we have here. Oh, absolutely. And if you're on Twitter, those of you who are listening tonight, you'll see all kinds of Snaps. Teachers are making Snaps about everything. So Science Snaps, Math Snaps, you'll find so many and you know, it's all kind of born with Book Snaps. So a lot of credit to Tara. Thanks so much for being with us tonight, Tara. Everybody, don't forget to give me about a minute's worth of feedback on the survey. And I hope you can join us again soon. Thanks again, Tara. Thank you. Have a good one.


The objective of this study was to improve the results of post-traumatic soft tissue defects and the consequences of damage to the neurovascular bundles of the upper limb. Methods included analysis of the results of various surgical interventions in 60 patients with soft tissue defects and Ktonbool. Causes of soft tissue defects and Ktonbool were severe Valkmans contracture, 24, complications of various wounds of the forearm and hand, 19, the consequences of damage to electric machines, 8, electrical injury, 5, and gunshot wounds, 4. Concomitant damage was noted to 52 arteries, intersection 32 and compression of 16 nerve trunks, the area of defects varied from 80 square centimeters to 95.47 square centimeters. An important criterion in the treatment of this category of patients is the determination of the stages of the operation. Depending on the duration of the injury and the nature of the damage, as well as the functional significance of the hand, in some cases skin and facial, 33, were used, in. This article was authored by G.D. Kareemzade, M.K.H. Malikov, E.K. Abrajimov, and others. We are article.tv, links in the description below.


with that said let's open our bibles to Luke chapter 19 verse 10 and it says the following for the son of men has come to seek and to save that which was lost two main questions that everyone usually asks is who am I and what am I here on earth for who am I and what am I here on earth for when we say who am I we don't necessarily ask what is my name and what is my source security number when we say who am I we don't necessarily ask what is my highest education and where do I work and what I live who am I on inside who am I supposed to be who am I capable of being and the second question that is also as important is what am I supposed to do with my life and we ask that meaning deeper than just am I supposed to be a politician a police officer or an army sergeant sergeant am I supposed to be just a missionary a musician or a teacher we ask something deeper than just a career we're asking what am I supposed to do with my life what's what's gonna be my legacy and what kind of mark am I to live on this earth and this verse that we read Jesus Christ in one statement he reveals two very important answers to extremely critical questions he says the son of man has come to seek and save that which was lost the most beautiful part about Jesus outside of him being God outside of being him being fully man and outside of him giving his life for us is that Jesus on this earth knew who he was and what he was supposed to do he knew who he was and he knew why he was here he knew that at the age of 12 when most of the kids know about reality TV shows or Disney characters most of the kids while they know about friends and they know certain games Jesus at the age of 12 already knew who am I and what am I here for his parents didn't like that answer actually but he already knew the two questions that you have to answer first is who am I and what am I here for and this verse gives us a clue where Jesus says I am a son I am a son and I came to save I am a son and I came to rescue I am a son and I came to help and to raise people up the first most important answer that we must have is who we are and the scripture reveals to us who we are we actually looking at Jesus can see who we are our reflection is in Jesus because we are in him and we belong to him that's why most of the people like Apostle Paul when he met Jesus he said Jesus who are you and then the second question he asked what do you want me to do the reason why Paul asked who are you is because when you know who you who Jesus is you will eventually know who you are because we're made out of same material he is the branch is an extension of the vine and we he is the first born and then we just after Jesus as the children of God so when we know who Jesus is how much God loves Jesus we will also have clues on who we are and how much God loves us can somebody say amen I am a son your position before God is the one of sonship your position before God is a son Jesus was a son when he was born that was his position but his condition was that he was an infant he was a baby in sweatling clothes couldn't speak couldn't move on his own couldn't take care of himself but he was a son his conditions begin to improve he eventually learned to walk and he began to speak and he began to develop as his condition developed his position before God still remain the same he was a son and then eventually at the age of 12 he was able to leave his parents run away into the temple be his being his conditions improved but his position was still the same he was a son until he was 30 years of age and he got baptized and we see that he went to the wilderness but his position was still the same he was a son his position was the one of being a son I want to tell us something this evening is that your position before God is more important than your condition in life your position is what you get when you get born again as a Christian that position is this is you become a child of God this position is invisible this position is how God sees you when the baby is born in the family in that very instant at the day at the second of the baby's birth this baby receives a status in the family if it's a female it becomes a daughter if it's a male it becomes a son this son or this daughter gets a position in the heart of a daddy and mommy that she never worked for this position is invisible if you walk into the house you won't see nowhere written she is our daughter but if you stand in the house long enough you will see parents running around like there is no tomorrow to take care of this little infant who has a highest position in the house that she or he never worked for it came as a gift and there's nothing baby can do to earn this and there's nothing baby can do to remove this if a baby gets a fever it doesn't stop her from being a daughter if a baby wears diapers it doesn't change the fact that the baby occupies a unique place in the center of the father's heart being the center of his world why just because she was born did not wash the dishes did not vacuum the floors didn't wash the car did not cut the grass just because I was born I already have a position in the heart of God that I cannot deserve or earn because somebody say amen Jesus was a son it's important to understand our position before God because that position is how God looks at you when he sees you when you look at your baby you don't see a kindergarten you see a daughter when you look at your son you don't see a teenager you see a son you look at them not through their condition you look at them through their position at that never changes when they graduate when they get their own car when they get married and have kids of their own you still look at them through that position which they had when they couldn't speak couldn't talk and couldn't take care of themselves that is their position the Bible says our position in the eyes of God is we are righteous in his eyes we are justified justified means just as we've never committed sin we may still wear diapers we may still not be able to pronounce mommy and poppy we might still not be able to walk fluently and speak fluently but at the day of your salvation you occupy a place in the heart of God it's called sonship it's called you're a child you're his and it's very important to understand as believers as Christians that God is not intimidated by our conditions God is not thrown off by our weaknesses our struggles and even our diapers he still loves us God knows if this child does not have a position in my heart this child has no chance of ever getting out of diapers if this child does not have a place in my heart if this child does not receive a constant consistent never changing love that I have for this child this child's circumstances could not be changing improving evolving and getting better for our life to change our position has to remain constant for our life to change our view of God must be dependent on God's view for us which doesn't change even when we make a mistake even when we struggle even if there are symptoms in your body even if the relationship you are in is going through the hardest times it has ever went through even if in financially you are below zero and you are struggling your conditions are just so complicated and many times we like to throw away the whole idea that God loves us remove the whole idea that he is our father and God has promises for us and we say well see look at I am in my diapers and there is no God there is no love and there is no promises of God diapers are temporary your position in the heart of God is not if there will be no position in the heart of God there will be no diapers there would be no problems of which we complain if there will be no God who loves us so passionately we can never exalt the problems in our life above the God who put us into the life which has the problems it's he who loved us because why he made us and created us in this world it's he who said his son to die on the cross for us so that we will be born in his family thus born in his heart God doesn't lose affection for you just because your life is tough and just because you can't feel him and just because it seems like you don't understand him that doesn't necessarily mean he is completely absent God's silence is not God's absence can somebody say amen and when a teacher is silent in a classroom it does not mean that the teacher has disappeared it just simply means you're going through a test and if you bow your head and stop screaming and yelling but remember everything the teacher told you before the test you pass the test and the teacher will speak again your position is a child you always have to be conscious of that when you're going through difficult times you always have to start with that when you want to change something in your life our position is what matters it's how God sees us it's how God views us and this position is the one of sonship Jesus said I am a son who are you many times the answer comes by by I'm a successful person because I make money I am a happy person because my husband loves me I am a beautiful person because I get over a hundred likes on my Instagram pictures who are you is it dependent on your weight scales is it dependent on your degree or your certificate to your diploma is it dependent dependent on the digits on your paycheck who are you is it dependent on how good you look and how your biceps and triceps and all other apps stick out when you work out four times a week or five times a week three hours a day who are you it's a very very important question the problem with most people is they don't know who they are just today I heard of a person who said I was trying to invite my co-worker to church and my co-worker you know relationship that they were in broke out the person that they've been married to decided to live a homosexual lifestyle and and this woman says I don't know who I am you know my sarcastic response was check your drive license you will see your name did you forget your name but people don't mean that I don't know who I am now because my success my identity was placed in marriage and it collapsed and hold my who I am collapsed with it I placed all of my chips into this basket all of my eggs into this basket and this basket had a bottom and all of my eggs cracked and they fell and I don't know who I am it is dangerous to put who you are in the hands of a boyfriend in the hands of a boss in the hands even of your kids in the hands of your parents in the hands of your college or in the hands of your mirror place who you are in the hands that fashioned you in the hands that gave itself to be pierced for your redemption and he will never ever disappoint you and when you gain 10 extra pounds you will still be confident and then you'll lose them and when you lose a job you will cry a tear but you will get over it and you'll get a better job and when something collapses and you can fix a relationship listen you will shake it off and move on why because on a solid rock my foundation stands not on a sinking sand not on the opinions of people not on the mirror that I see not on the salary from my boss not on the opinions of people but on a God who never changes he's yesterday today and forever the same place who you are in his hands and he never changes and you will stand to the storms of life can somebody say amen who are you maybe you went through a divorce maybe a boyfriend left you with kids maybe you got black male pushed and kicked out of a job maybe you're just literally all demons are coming back maybe you financially struggling and the rug is being pulled out of under your feet and the questions that you should have answered at the age of 12 now you're 32 and you're asking these questions who am I until you answer that question adequately not find another fix not find another thing to help you put a band-aid on the wound that cannot heal but find someone who will never disappoint you when life friends or you are not stable you know when this was challenging question for myself because I've struggled with who I am I've struggled with asking the question and answered the question of who I am I knew my name I know where I was from I knew my weaknesses and I knew my strengths a lot of weaknesses almost no strengths I knew my friends and I knew my foes but who I am was a very big question that I seem not to have an answer for I always thought who I am was revealed in the person I saw in the morning when I looked in the mirror and the person that I saw in the mirror I didn't like the person I saw in the mirror I couldn't appreciate and I couldn't accept and so I thought if I could change the person in the mirror then I will change how I feel I thought maybe if there would be people around me who will tell me the fact that I am better than what I think of myself then it will change everything but I realized it is such a dangerous life to put your happiness in the hands of people who most of them don't even know what they want for themselves 80% of people don't even think about you and 20% don't even like you imagine putting your happiness imagine putting your heart in the hands of someone and I know you may say but he's my husband he says he loves me he's not God he is not God put your happiness and your identity in the hands of someone who doesn't just say he loves you who died to prove it come on amen and sometimes I would meet guys who are very confident they're like walk around you you could see them in the gym they're doing more I think we need to have more mirrors in the gym tell tell Martin tell the gold gym stuff more mirrors you know you think girls are insecure when they spend much much time in the mirrors you should go to the gyms and you will see the most and sometimes the biggest those guys are the more insecure they are because when they have guys send five snapchat pictures of their face it's insecurity at his highest and I remember we'd meet with guys and who acts so confident and I asked one particular gentleman and I said what would happen if I would give you my physical appearance and I would take yours would you be as confident as you are now as if we would trade places and he freaked out and I was like don't don't worry buddy you're not gonna intimidate me by your reaction he's a man well they'll be hard and I was like you say whatever you want to say I was like no it's not gonna be hard you'll be depressed suicidal and you'll be walking around doubting whether God loves you he's a well I'm not saying you're by looking or anything and I was like that's exactly what I was doing in the years prior to this but I'm like today you can put any skin on this skeleton and the person inside is already knows who they are the color of skin the weight on the scales the wealth and everything else plays very little effect to the inside revelation I am a son loved by a father loved by Christ who died on the cross for me and dwelt by the spirit of living God who fashioned and created the universe I have a home that's built by the greatest architect Leo my my uncle great architect and great builder but there is a home that's being built from me by the builder of all builders God himself every 6,000 promises in the Bible are mine he calls me his own he says if you mess with me you're messing with an apple of his eye so at the end of the day I am not what I see in the mirror I am what I see in his word I am his I am his son I am loved I am cared handsome and fearfully and wonderfully made more than a conqueror if hell comes against me the spirit raises a banner against the devil because he is on my side that is who I am and that is who you are that is who you are cuz somebody say man Jesus says I am a son now with this lofty position with this very privileged place status you would think Jesus would come on the earth like a spoiled excuse me Brad on a big chariot having thousands of people running around him having massages every single day having his nails trimmed and polished and every single thing being being so delicate in every single thing living in the palace hanging out with the big guys you will think having this such a high position you would have such a lofty place in this world lofty assignment in this world to reconcile the Roman and the Greek and the other empires together together all the emperors together and say hey guys the son is in town let's gather together drink some coffee and think about how to change this world but Jesus said the son his assignment is to save that which is lost sometimes salvation of people we have this such a low view of salvation of people we think of occupying political office or being a winner in the boxing match or having people walk around everywhere riding on their hands suck my blood or making to the Hall of Fame or to have your star in the Hollywood or to have a movie and finally you have your moment of fame sometimes we think oh that is such a such an incredible position but here is the person who has the highest position comes and it seems like he picked the lowest job ever possible it seems like he chose a career for himself that's similar to a career of a janitor to a career that's not worth anything it has no value in itself because our value system is completely twisted completely twisted Jesus chooses a life where he is the Savior to people he doesn't choose a life that has comfort you would think being a son you know if your daddy has a lot of money and your daddy most likely will make your life a little bit more comfortable you will be comfortable you will have your own car you will have your own privileges you probably will have your own people who will clean the room for you cook for you if you're loaded with cash I mean you're just gonna have a lot of comfort and you would think Jesus would come and live with just a lot of comfort but Jesus comes and we see he doesn't have a lot of comfort on earth but he has a big cause we have to change our perspective today that when you know who you are it doesn't necessarily make your life fluffy and comfortable it makes your life on point focused and has a cause people say well the Holy Spirit came to give us comfort he only came to give comfort to those who were dying for the cause of Christ not to us Western people Holy Spirit comes to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable he doesn't comfort people who simply make a mess of their life of selfishness and puts a bandit no he comes to comfort those who live for a cause bigger than themselves he brings them comfort but to the rest of us he brings deliverance from demons and selfishness amen when Jesus came into the wilderness and we see that Satan comes to him and says Jesus I know that you came on this earth to do this task of saving people but Jesus you're the son you're a big shot a big guy you deserve glory you deserve fame you deserve to be known you deserve for your popularity ranks to be at all-time high you deserve to be the person of the year every year that you live here if you just bow if you push the cause for which you came and accept the fact you deserve better you will have it and Jesus said no no no no no I'm a son but the highest task in my father's agenda is not fame and glory it's people and because it's the highest on his heart it will be the highest on mine and fame and glory it's not gonna be my most important wealth and riches nicer and being coolest and nicest that is not gonna be my main thing I am not gonna be running around and kiss everybody's butt to see that everybody likes me that Roman Emperor likes me and this governor likes me and Herod invites me the pilot takes a picture with me that is not my agenda I know I am their boss but when I am here I am here to serve my father's purpose not to please their face and the father saw that in Philippians he said because he took my priority above everything else I will exalt his name above every name and every knee will bow at the face of Jesus Christ it's as though father is saying when you put my priorities and put the rest of the things on the side God says I'll move hell and high water but I will make sure that things you sacrifice will come to your life not because you pushed yourself by your own shoes but because God elevated you and when God elevates you know devil in hell can stop you can somebody say a man I want to challenge each one of you to make winning people for Jesus your highest priority I want you to sharpen the purpose of your life you are a son you are not a slave you're not weak warm of the dust you're not what you see in the mirror you're special to God and your cause on this earth is not to just walk around easily offended everybody needs to like me I need to live a comfortable no no no you're bigger and better than this you have to have a cause that's sufficient to the position that you have a cause that includes everyone a cause that includes living a life of sacrifice why because your position is capable of handling it other people are weak warm of the dust they just they cannot live like that they need to chase fame and money because their cause is weak you are bigger better and greater your cause has to be sufficient and consistent with your position because somebody say man a lifeguard on duty that's the message title saving people for the person who goes to a pool is an option if somebody is drowning most of the time you will not pay attention because you don't know whether they're having fun or they're drowning if you are a swimmer in a public pool your response to everyone who's a help help is none of my business I don't know deal and I don't want you to sue me after this when you are in the public pool you are there to have fun but when a lifeguard is in a public pool he is there to look at every single person intently he can't be checking his Instagram he can't be checking latest tweets and the funniest cat videos on Facebook he has to be checking quickly and looking who is drowning a hundred people in the pool and everybody's having fun but his eyes are going to unfro the pool looking who is drowning lifeguard on duty saving people is not an option for him saving people is his job and if he won't save people he commits a crime many times as Christians we develop this worldly mindset that to save people invite people pray for people make it our mission go to school of leaders home groups well that's an option if I develop this radical personality if I become socially really rich person then I will go do something about that well for Jesus he did it because well Jesus had nothing else to do but I'm a busy man really if the God who made this earth didn't think saving people was least important you little and I who's a little and walking on this earth should at least elevate his priority to the value he placed it on them you are a lifeguard to your family to your generation to your neighborhood and to your city I know you don't have everything perfect in your life but you have a position that God calls you by you are his child and saving people bringing people to God is not an option it is your assignment it is my task it is why I am here it is why you are here can somebody say amen lifeguard pays attention and the lifeguard rescues the moment somebody is perishing a lifeguard doesn't take pictures of it a lifeguard doesn't say I don't know how to swim the water is too cold I don't know them all of that goes to the side he jumps in and he rescues as many people as he possibly can in New Orleans at 1985 the team of a hundred certified lifeguards and 200 people gathered together in one of the largest pools in New Orleans to celebrate that 1985 was the year that no one drowned in the city huge celebration they were celebrating having a good time while there was a pool for people who were lifeguards were watching over the pool the party was coming to an end that they were emptying the pool as they did so they saw a man Jerome Moody 31 years of age was on the bottom of the pool he drowned while day a hundred four certified lifeguards were celebrating their victories how many people drowned on our eyes while we tend to our own emotional hurtful feelings while we attend to our own selfish lives lives and different things I want us to be a generation that live like Jesus lived let it be said about you and me for the son you and me has come to seek and save that which is lost that's why we want to see thousands of people saved in tri-cities that's why we want to see thousands of home groups in tri-cities that's why we want to see miracles and healings and deliverances that's why young people who are 10 and 12 supposed to at the young age get a vision infected with the vision so they go to schools to start home groups not to go to school to lose their virginity or get high on drugs that's why at the young age like Jesus they have to know clearly and precisely if you hit him with the hammer on the head they'll tell you I am here to win souls and make disciples and only then that generation will grow up to be something bigger and greater when our pastor started the church 15 years ago and he took us as teenagers people around the two wonderful churches we have and other people looked at our pastor and they said listen you're taking these boys and you're sending them on a suicide mission they won't make it the culture is too rough you gotta take them and protect them from the world you're sending them you don't know who they are and the challenges they will face my pastor knew the best way to protect a person from the world is to empower them and send them into it to change it did we have temptations yes did we have problems yes but most of the people my age who were protected by their parents by their church stay away try to maintain your salvation have lost not only their purity not only their freedom not only their license many of them I saw them in jail when I would go to preach and I said it's interesting you focused on trying to stay away my pastor sent me to the world and here you are in prison not because you were preaching in the mall but because you jacked a TV in the mall and I am here in this prison not because I was smoking or drinking under DUI but I am here in this prison not because I'm holy moly God Almighty but because my pastor at the young age infected me with the vision and said the only way you'll beat that devil is if you run head on with the Holy Ghost and beat him and overcome him and then you'll be protected parents the best way to protect your kids from bad is send them to our Sunday school send them to every service it's not to glue them to a TV in Disney World movie as long as there's no violence no no no is to empower them at a very very young age filled them with the purpose and with the vision and you will see the Bible says train up a child when he's young and he will not derail when he is old because that vision will become a reality in his life all of our leaders I want to encourage us commit your life to the mission of seeing people give the lives to Jesus giving salvation is not something our church is in this right now season it's not a season it's a season until every person in our city is saved until every drug addict is not taking drugs and parents don't have to sleep with one eye open to look at them this season will last until every cancer patient has no more cancer this season has to last until every person who has a disease and demonic attack is free of it this is not something we are on right now this is our assignment this is our purpose this is our focus and this is our direction because somebody say man about two years ago when our church has refreshed its focus to see people saved I remember that I had an internal work in my heart during prayer what I had to pledge myself that till I die seeing people saved and doing everything possible for that will be only reason why I live the rentals the cars my name being known in other churches and another place people watching our podcast all of that is not worth protecting and fighting for all of that is to be used for one purpose and one purpose alone I wrote it on my phone in my notifications that I live for this and there is no turning back we might do home groups differently we might do miracle miracle catches differently we might invite people differently we might use different techniques and our methods will change but church our mission and our direction cannot change it remains permanent until every single person Jesus blood and died for reaches and knows Jesus Christ can somebody say a man right now I just want to take a few minutes and I want us to watch a video clip and this video clip was recorded and made it's a little movie by one of the greatest evangelists of our time most of you have heard of him or know of him Rehard Bonke he's a German evangelist who moved to Africa to start trying to bring people to God and for many years he only had six to eight people and things were so difficult and so struggling that he had only one thing left there in that Africa is he had a cow and poor cow even that cow died and afterwards he was so discouraged in his work and he wanted to already leave but God kept putting on his heart the continent of Africa and during one of those times when he was praying and praying for Africa he went to sleep and during a sleep God showed him in the vision a whole continent of Africa in the vision he saw the whole continent being filled with blood and he woke up in a pool of sweat shaken by the vision and God spoke this deep in his spirit and said these words Africa shall be saved the next night the vision repeated again it repeated three times and after that he just vision inside of him exploded not just to start a little tiny church but to just go and start having crusades and believe people will be saved up to that point there was no miracles in his ministry up to that point there was no big gatherings he wasn't known he wasn't nobody he was just a man who was a missionary move to see people saved and God gave him very big vision he organized his first crusade and his first crusades he gathered five churches he asked him let's bring all the people into the stadium and that we will have a big crusade he says on the first evening there was some a hundred people that showed up and the reason why he knew it was a hundred because he counted them ten times while he was preaching he was so discouraged because the stadium filled with some few thousand people and he preached and he preached and he preached and he preached and while the sermon was going on somebody started to scream in a native language of that town while they were preaching and he was disappointed he said God you know shut him down and he heard he felt that God was speaking back to him he says I couldn't wait until you finish preaching so I just went ahead and healed somebody because your preaching was so boring turns out that a blind person totally blind got into the service and while the sermon was going on their eyes were open so here is a man from Germany that didn't see miracles but said I'm gonna focus on seeing people saved God gives him a vision he runs with the vision and God starts backing it up with miracles the next night as you would expect hundreds people showed up more miracles happened more people showed up and then the third night he prayed for the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit the baptizing people with this power his crusades grew to that which is some of his crusades he will see 1.5 million people in one meeting well country after country I met people in America who were in Africa who got healed and saved in his crusades and people who radically changed but all of that started with one man who said I'm a little man I don't know much but I know a big God who loves the whole continent so much I know it's a black continent and I am white but it doesn't matter God's power is greater than that and today he's an older man everyone knows of him he's seen people raised from the dead he's seen people who were in prison who are now presidents he ministered to people all kinds of people and his life is a legacy if he will start telling his story he will keep you on the edge for weeks why a son came to seek and save that which was lost amen


and getting the news that he's coming up from triple a scrant Wilkesbury Jack to make his major league debut tomorrow is last outing he's gotten progressively better of seven and a third innings of one run ball yes last outing he took a no-hitter into the seventh inning you see what he's done across his last seven a lot of those numbers are good the walks are not 17 walks and 32 and a third innings the batting average against is good Bob anytime you make your major league debut the lights are going to be very hot and I know they're playing a day game so the lights won't be on but the lights are going to be especially hot on Chance Adams tomorrow at Fenway Park against the red socks your team has lost three straight games and hasn't played well in any of them has been listless and sluggish and lethargic and now the onus is on you to go out there and try and straighten things out so a lot for Chance Adams to think about but really all he has to think about is pitching to his strengths trying to get out I think the Yankees are looking for Chance Adams to give them five solid innings if they have a lead after five innings they'll try and go to their bullpen because their bullpen despite last night's abomination is still one of the strengths one final thing after one hit against Porcello the offense can do a lot to help him out Nathan of Aldi's on the mound a former teammate don't let him get traction in his last start he was able to get a win in his Red Sox debut yeah I think you're absolutely right Bob I talked about Adams but this is not a one-man show the Yankees need to show up in this series at Fenway Park we're going back to the Baltimore game at Yankee Stadium they've now been outscored 26 to 13 in their last three games they've picked a very poor time to play some of their poorest baseball of the season I mentioned the phrase self-reflection referring to Aaron Boone in the pregame and now I think that self-reflection goes for every player in that clubhouse there's seven and a half games behind the Red Sox right now they've got to try and do whatever they can to salvage the split at Fenway Park it starts with tomorrow Adams can do his job but you're absolutely right their lineup has to try and do some damage against Ivali too all right join us here on yes Saturday BP 3 o'clock pregame 3 30 first pitch just after 4 o'clock take care


One tree lives longer. One other tree has a greater diameter. Three other species grow taller. But in volume of total wood, the giant sequoia stands alone. The largest tree and the largest living thing on the face of the earth. The ancestors of the giant sequoia ranged over the northern hemisphere. In the age of dinosaurs, large flying reptiles may have soared over sequoian forests. But as climates changed, as the earth's crust rose and fell in the slow dance of geologic history, the giants retreated. Now the big tree's natural range is restricted to the western slope of the Sierra Nevada in California, a strip 260 miles long, less than 15 miles wide. Only here, in isolated groves, is a sequoia able to reseed and regenerate itself by natural means. The Indians of the central Sierra pondered the size of the giant sequoia and held it sacred. With discovery of the tree by Western man in the middle of the last century, however, it faced unfamiliar kinds of threats. Loggers rushed to the sequoia groves, their eyes popping. But the brittle wood was a scant economic value for more than shingles and grape stakes. The tree's power to move the emotions, even of those who had exploited, led early to its protection in federal and state preserves. When Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa giant sequoia grove was set aside in 1864, the park concept was born in the United States. Excess human curiosity and affection for the big tree, however, presented a threat from trampling its young and damaging its fragile turf. There was a threat of fire, not too much, but too little fire. For millions of years, lightning set fires have been part of the life cycle of sequoian forests. Heat is a rival of the tree. The sequoia has evolved in ways that help it resist the heat of its marriage to fire.  The spongy fiber contains little or no resin to fuel flames. It also protects the tree's life-sustaining wood tissues from excess heat. These tissues conduct water and minerals up to the treetop and return food down to the roots. The mature sequoia's crown of evergreen foliage stands so high in the sky that ground fires seldom reach it. Older trees bear the scars of many fires. With most of their hotwood burned away, some of the old giants still produce cones and seeds at a rate approaching that of a 300-year-old youngster. The mature sequoia is ever having died from disease or insect attack. Affliction's common to other trees in their old age. It comes to the giant by toppling. After hundreds or thousands of years of vigorous growth, they suddenly fall, brought down by a storm, by erosion around their shallow root system, or by some other combination of forces. Though it lives long and remains virile throughout its life, the giant sequoia is a classic example of reproductive fragility in the plant world. Most other trees are showering the forest with seeds two years after their cones appear. Sequoia cones stay green and closed on the tree for more than 20 years. Propagation of the giant sequoia is totally dependent on seeds, although its cousin, the coast redwood, is noted for stump sprouting. Many other trees sprout from their roots. Most other species have some kind of seed dormancy, a delaying device that permits seed germination and conditions favor growth.  And while the seedlings of competitive trees thrive in a shade, giant sequoia seedlings need sunlight. Even in soil prepared by fire, the sequoia seedling death rate is high. Lack of moisture, insect attack, fungus disease, too much shade, or too much direct sun, each contributes to the mortality of the seedlings. To balance the vulnerability of its young and the scale of species survival, the giant sequoia produces cones and seeds at a prodigious rate. In an average year, a mature tree produces more than 2,000 cones containing nearly half a million seeds. The sequoia also has evolved to serotonous cone. The green, closed cone that stays in the tree for as long as 20 years. By the end of their second year, the cones contain seeds ready for germination. Thousands of cones accumulate on the tree. When fire comes along to dry them out and clean out the groves, an explosive seed release occurs under conditions that favor sequoia reproduction. Continuous year-around seed release is another of the giant sequoia's survival strategies, a strategy based largely on the feeding habits of two animals. The Douglas squirrel, or chicory, a hot spark of life, in John Muir's phrase, feeds on green sequoia cones, much as people chew kernels from an ear of corn. It also cuts and stores cones for eating later. Hundreds of seeds may be found in the piles of chewed cones the chicory's leave in sequoia groves. Also important to survival of the sequoia is a tiny cone-boring beetle. The beetle larvae chew their way into the cone's interior, taking nourishment from its tissues. As cone veins are cut, the scales dry out and shrink. Permitting seed fallout over a period of months as the beetle eats its way through. The chicory and the beetle feed mostly on cones of different ages and thus complement each other as seed release devices. Each of the seeds, small as a grain of wheat, holds at least the potential to become a giant sequoia. The work of the chicory and the beetle will be in vain, however, unless some of the seeds fall on bare mineral soil. Both are essentially backup systems to the occasional reproductive explosion fathered by fire. Weeks following a hot fire, the ground is peppered by a seed fall as much as 20 times the yearly average. Incineration of litter and dust on the forest floor provides the bare mineral soil needed for successful growth. By killing competitive trees, fire opens the forest canopies so that sequoia seedlings can receive the sunshine they must have. High temperatures kill insects, fungi, and other microscopic organisms that attack both seeds and seeding roots. The seeds of white fur and other more shade-tolerant species are baked in the soil beneath the fire. High temperatures also make the soil of the Sierra Nevada crumbly and wettable. Both conditions required for the infant trees to get a roothold. The policy of suppressing fire in sequoia grows has tended to frustrate the tree's adaptations to its environment and to endanger its survival. Beginning in 1886 in Yellowstone, park policy was to put out all fires. The National Parks Act of 1916 emphasized the protection of objects, including trees, rather than preservation of natural processes. Yet fire is the giant sequoia's greatest ally in its struggle to reproduce and continue its kind. Since the late 1960s in Yosemite and in sequoia and King's Canyon National Parks, lightning set fires at higher elevations have been allowed to burn. Prescribed burning by the park service has been conducted at lower elevations. The prescribed fires are applied in relatively small patches much as natural fires burn. The long-term goal is to establish conditions that will allow natural processes to take over in the forest without further intervention by man. Wildlife is not greatly disturbed by small fires. Many species benefit from the changes in vegetation that fire sets in motion. In this respect, they are like the sequoia itself. The sequoia grows seem relatively static in size. Hundred-year-old trees are growing along several boundaries. The young spire tops let their start after the last major fires. And if conditions for seedling growth improve, the grows may expand in the future. The existence of scattered sequoia communities along the central Sierra is a wonder and a mystery locked in nature. But fresh insight into the giant's reproductive strategy gives hope for a long-term species survival. Working to re-establish the natural wedlock of tree and fire, man may yet help the forests find their own destinies in their own way. The giant sequoia has one last immutable friend, time. The big tree can afford to wait. Wait a hundred, five hundred, or a thousand years. Wait for the hot fire to open the forest to its young. The tree is so ancient and so tenacious of life it is not soon likely to disappear. Even in death, flat in the wet ground, the heartwood of the giant seems to endure forever. She and still unborn will come to admire the groves and never see the end of the oldest tree among them. Time is confined to his meager three-score and ten. But no one truly knows how long the giant sequoia may live.


Dan fig leaf and I'm welcoming you to figments power imagination big that's my nickname pigments of the imagination. The power of imagination rather is intended to highlight things that go from fantasy to reality, your hard work and perseverance, but today this is a special edition that's right a special edition and figments. You can see we got three hot topics that I think need to be talked about. And I'd like to provide a perspective that maybe you haven't heard the whole. Why me. I asked myself that question very often, as I do the show. I'm no genius, but I've been around the world I served in the Air Force for 33 years I was blessed to be a better about so much of the world. In combat, which influences a lot of my thinking, and worked at a pretty senior levels of three star general. I'd later did some work in the international arena here in the Asia Pacific region. And so I think I've got a perspective that might be a value. I know I'm not right about everything. I'm right about a few things, but I want to engage in a non political discourse. Throw some ideas out there and see what you think and I'd love to hear what you think by getting an email from you at info at base minus one dot com info at base minus one dot com. You can visit my website drop me an email but let me know what you think. I'm going because I think we're at a critical time in the world there's so much going on that is represents several inflection points and domestic and international relations. We ought to be very thoughtful citizens because this stuff is going to affect our future a lot. Again I strive to be non political and more practical I'm fascinated by things that work and not very interested in things that don't work very well. I'm not special because I'm going to talk very briefly about somebody who was special. This past week we lost Admiral Ron zap slatter per former package commander, a man of tremendous influence here in Hawaii and in industry and in education. And besides that one of the best human beings I've ever known.  Rest in peace. Okay, let's get a little more lighthearted because this is lighthearted. My last two jobs in the Air Force is a three star general. I was a vice commander, therefore space man, and the deputy commander of us Pacific man now known as into a for two weeks at the two glorious weeks I was the acting commander they come, but for the last several years I was number two and, and I know therefore that there's a lot of number two and being number two. That said, I'm sympathetic with the Vice President United States who tested positive for coven. Okay, that's bad enough, but then the White House released a statement that she was not considered a close contact with her boss, the President. I'm sorry Vice President Harris. That's just not a good look, not a good statement by the press secretary either. So, about a number two and be a number two, so let's strive to be number one. The first topic I want to talk about is Ukraine. And as I talked today about the three topics, maybe more if I have time. I want to emphasize three words humanity diplomacy and liberty, because they're pretty important words. And that helps me organize what I'm going to say. I look at the Ukraine the humanity have it is really sad tragic truly tragic 12 million out of, I think 44 million people in Ukraine displaced 12 million people's lives are absolutely totally change, and will never be the same. And they're not changed for the better. 12 million people. And for that, the death, the destruction, the tragic situation. Having said that, there are reasons that could make you feel optimistic, if you don't want the Russian forces to prevail. The sinking of the missile cruiser Moscow the largest combatant sunk since World War two. And I'm going to assume that the, the Ukraine played a role in that that we really don't know. Sort of withdrawal to the east and south by the Russians, the problems that the Russians are clearly having the fires of Russian oil refineries which may or may not be caused by Ukraine. That looks pretty good Russia's failing Russia does not look like any kind of a competent military power right now. But if their goals are still just to control the done boss region and deny access to black have access for themselves to black sea ports and deny it to Ukraine. They don't have to take key for anywhere else. Other than Boston area along black sea so. They're losing and winning at the same time. In the meantime, people are suffering in the US. And I'm going to say this with a bit of hyperbole intentionally and then, and then refine what I've said, we're funding the death and destruction. We're supplying, we're providing weapons and missiles and stuff. Now there's a place for that we don't want Russia to succeed and the Ukrainians has have asked for weapons. We don't know where our focus should be. Certainly not our soul focus and do we know where these billions of dollars of aid are going. Hashtag Afghanistan. Look back at what happened in the arms we supply there. So, the supplying a weaponry, maybe absolutely necessary. It ought not be the end game. I don't think it should be our focus and the focus should be on medical and humanitarian assistance with reasonable and well controlled provision of lethal capabilities. Again, I'm not against it. I just don't think it should be our focus. Look at Afghanistan. A brighter note. Well, let me start with a dim note and a brighter note, then a brighter note. Secretary of State Blinken and Secretary of Defense Austin visited Ukraine it's about damn time.  This hands off approach we were just throwing stuff at the problem. I don't think is very competent doesn't work very well. I visited met with President Zelensky and came away from there with a couple of major outcomes one bad one good first the bad. Following that meeting, the Secretary of Defense said our goal was to weaken Russia. What the heck, because this might be a family show. The reaction initially was a lot stronger. Oh hi. Why would you say that our goal isn't to weaken Russia shouldn't be anyway. And I can't imagine anything would further fee would better feed internal propaganda in Russia and saying we're trying to weaken this country that already has a bit of an inferiority complex. Come on man. Why would you say that Secretary Austin. We should have three goals one reduce human suffering. First and foremost, most urgent to get Russia out of Ukraine. That has to be the goal. Russia leaves Ukraine not Russia gains the control of the Black Sea ports and in the full Donbas region out of Ukraine. That's the three we deter them from future adventurism in Ukraine and elsewhere now that deterrence may involve some weakening of the forces, but that weakening of the Russian military is not the goal. I hope that coming exercise energized and irritated, it pissed me off. Check. But there's some better news and that this next bit I think reflects some new competency in the diplomatic efforts of the Biden administration and I've alluded to what I see is failures of competence or incompetence. There are other shows, but now they are restarting diplomatic efforts they're going to reopen the embassy and key and Ambassador Bridget Brink interesting name in this case. The current US ambassador to Slovakia has been nominated to be the ambassador to the Ukraine. And I think that's awesome. I think it's trying to correct a mistake to in Afghanistan and in Ukraine the first thing we did when the fecal matter hit the ventilation system is withdraw diplomat. Okay I understand the sensitivity coming from the death of our ambassador and Libyan and others. But the last thing to go should be diplomacy in time of Christ. There's a lot of our great straight State Department professionals diplomats, other folks in the State Department apparatus, and we need them in time of crisis so the last thing to happen should be withdrawal of our tip. And instead, under two different administrations. It's become the first three actually. Now we've got a diplomatic presence restarted there. And I'm hopeful for that. That said, it's still a dire situation and can't lose fact, but lose sight of the fact that 12 million people been displaced many thousands have died on both sides because I am a moral absolutist. That's a, that's a nod to you as a free speech absolutist and every life matters and any life loss of human life unnecessarily especially more is a tragedy that we ought to seek to avoid. Let's pray that the diplomatic initiatives and the strength provided to military strength provided to Ukraine prevails, and that we achieve those three goals which once again are in this suffering. Russia out of Ukraine and deter further aggression. Okay, let me take a breath from that and tell you that I'll be back soon in six days with another edition of pigments for imagination this this will be special but it won't be a special edition. I'm going to have Clint Churchill, former international guard pilot and commander here and why Clint's an amazing guy, great friend, and one of the founders of the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum. And I want to help you imagine history you can feel now full disclosure I'm a member of the board of the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum and I had my retirement party from their force. He's many years ago. But you're going to love this. Clint story is so interesting. And there is history you can feel right there on Fort Island, America's World War two battlefield. So I hope you'll join me for that may second to PM why standard time the rest of you do the math. All right, what's the next topic China and coven. Remember, you should remember because I've reminded you many times that I was right on December 6 when I said that the emergence of Omicron is the principle variant of coven mark the end of the pandemic. I was right. And the reason I said that was it was so highly infectious so much less lethal, and that it was going to mark the end of the pandemic and the coven infections would become endemic. And in fact CDC announced today that 60% of Americans have coven antibody on it 60%. And in our house we've wondered if we already had coven and don't know if it's entirely possible, but that was the end of the pandemic. There's something else I said that may not have gotten as much attention because it wasn't so obviously right at the time. And that's the China would be first in and last out regarding pandemic. I don't mean by that they were first in because the virus originated there and I don't care to debate. What happened in Wuhan or, or how could we don't know, but that's where the virus started. When it started there. The Chinese were very successful at controlling internally didn't care much about controlling it externally and allowed it to leave with 1000s 10s of 1000s of passengers travelers from China, but internally they were very successful. How were they successful through a coven zero or zero coven policy, where they would squash every infection like a bug. I don't the way I mean that is, they tried to limit the infections to zero through aggressive testing, isolation and quarantine, reporting, etc. And it seemed to work and I think it would be reasonable to view Chinese numbers skeptically wonder if maybe there weren't a few more than the reported infections but generally worked well and life was relatively normal for those in China. Until this year, mostly until on the ground. When in Jinlin province and later Shanghai, the, the virus made a very dramatic emergence resulting in significant and oppressive lockdown. The reason I said that they'd be last that was that on the ground being so contagious doesn't care about China zero coven policy. That's part one part two is the zero coven policy is simply not compatible with with long term control of an infection of an infection because the way they made it zero coven was to have strict controls strict isolation strict quarantine strict testing and high consequences for those who failed local officials in controlling the virus so if you're the mayor of will call Green Bay, there's probably a Green Bay somewhere in China, you're the mayor of Green Bay, China, and Green Bay China has five or six coven infections show up. And here's what happens to you get fired fired, you're fired runs well for some reason, but the local officials who had the incidences of COVID were relieved, taken out of office. Now, certainly that gets everybody's attention but not in the way long night hope. If you're the mayor of let's say Milwaukee, China. Just to use another generic name. And you see what happens to the mayor of Green Bay, China. Are you going to report infection no you're going to suppress accurate reporting. You're going to hide it until it's too late. And I believe that's what's happened in China is the fear and mowing of the local officials led to hiding of significant infections until they, they expand it and when you add that to the nature of the background virus. You've got kind of big trouble that we see in Shanghai, before that genuine problems. And now, in Beijing. Let's see if China learns from the failures in Shanghai and genuine and the human tragedy, I mean it's a, it's a human tragedy won't go over some of the draconian measures that Chinese have I will read from April 24 25th of April time magazine, an article called parents in China protest COVID child separation gross protest in China risky business. But here's, here's the, the important sentence for many Chinese people, the fear of getting COVID-19 is not about getting sick. It's not about having to submit to China's strict pandemic measure. There you have it. That's not good for China. So I hope they learn and adjusted and take a more humane approach to addressing the virus. We do because they're very authoritarian authoritarian form of government, but no, no authoritarian leader has absolute power absolute power in the modern era of information sharing is a myth just doesn't exist. What does this mean for for the long term for China. First of all, it means internal unrest. And that's bad, because in addition to these very strict and you have to read them to believe them horrible measures that are leading to food shortages and medicine shortages and so on and so forth. The economy is being stifled by it and any failure of the economy in China to progress leads to social unrest, which leads to more repression or perhaps distracting. What I worry about is that approaching the 20th Party Congress is very important event this fall in China that that Xi Jinping may be compelled to launch his own October surprise, ignore the lessons he should have gathered from from Russia's adventure in Ukraine and launch military action action against Taiwan. I think that'd be tragic on every level for China and for Taiwan and a huge mistake. But will he be compelled to distract his internal constituency. So, absolute power, not a good thing. And the application of it in China is a lesson we should all learn from. We should learn from it because it's possible here in the US people, it really is. Another thing that pissed me off this week was when I heard Dr. Fauci's remarks on the court decision that lifted the mask mandate for transportation in airplanes, airports, buses, etc. trains. Not automobiles so we do see some people who think that it applies to automobile. Dr. Fauci, the director of the National Institute for of allergy and infectious diseases has become the central, central figure of this pandemic, said that he found it disturbing that the federal court would roll against the CDC's COVID-19 travel mask mandate. It was his opinion that this was not judicial matter, because they're the experts right. Obviously, and understandably Dr. Fauci was not a political science major and doesn't know jack anything about the American system government and the separation of powers. Yes, it's a legal matter. Okay, I don't know what the right decision is on on masks, but I do know this. We are a nation of law, and those laws govern our behavior. The judge in the judicial branch finds something that somebody in the executive branch or CDC resides incompatible with our law, despite the consequences they are compelled to overrule, and they did this judge did. They agree with the judge you're done. That's where separates our city, our system of governance works. So Fauci is a long time government employee doesn't understand that just drives me crazy. And there is danger with the overreach of government power throughout the COVID pandemic that this will become the norm, the CDC or some other element of the executive branch without law from the legislative branch. And they'll say do this do that, or else, and it won't be addressed properly by the judicial, by the judicial branch or anything else won't be controlled. It'll be the kind of absolute power that is creating the human tragedy in the we're seeing in China it's a Shanghai is a human tragedy. Take a look. So, what would fig do. Hey, don't let that happen here. I don't care. It's not a matter of how you feel about the pandemic, how you feel about the liberty that gives you the life you want. We've given up a lot of it during the pandemic. Maybe it's been worth it. Maybe not. But you got a draw line somewhere, and a federal judge did. Got a couple of minutes left so let me talk about one more thing because it's so interesting. And that's the Elon Musk purchase of Twitter, I'm not a Twitter maniac or whatever you call people who use Twitter 24 seven, I'm a little more interested in it because it's been in the news. These days, but here's what I'm interested in. Elon Musk likes to say, as I alluded to earlier, that he's a free speech absolutist. What does that mean okay free speech anybody can say anything. Now there are categories of speech that are prohibited and by law. So we have a way to address that. I agree with it. I agree that even a warrant is not as long as you're not harmful speech should be allowed. Why want to because it's, it's in the Constitution Bill writes, rather, and to because and I wrote this down, as I thought about it so I'm going to pull up my note card, folks, actually do prepare for these. This is what I think about it. Abhorrent speech is enhanced by repression, allowing abhorrent and incorrect speech to see the light of day over time will wilt it and make it less effective, less convincing. Former President Obama said something quite to the contrary, and I haven't been there will be president, but I respectfully disagree. President speech is dangerous, more dangerous than allowing important free speech. I really believe that anything we suppress will have an implied credibility this this speech is so bad we can't let you here. And we have to have a little more faith in our citizenry and within reason. So those are my thoughts for today, I'll remind you that you can find our pigments episodes on the YouTube playlist. I'm going to give you give you a minute here to scan those in if you'd like your codes, making a comeback by the way qr codes are pigments power of imagination this show in for a while several months I did pigments on reality which was all count solo commentary on events of the day. And then, more importantly, let me remind you, if you haven't seen maybe haven't seen that it's not a reminder I'm telling you, it's fun drive time the spring fun drive, or think tech wise this is a great organization over 20 years old. A true nonprofit 5013 C or so, whatever that number is, it's a nonprofit folks, they don't make money, I don't make money, but they enable citizen journalists to put together about 30 shows a week, every week. Very diverse in topic and viewpoint, and they need your support to continue to succeed. So that's a wrap on figments, the power of imagination, special edition, I'll close by saying that I'd like you to think of these words, humanity, diplomacy, and liberty, and make sure they're all part of your life. Aloha. Thank you so much for joining us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn, and donate to us at thinktecawaii.com. Mahalo.