Yo, what's good everyone and welcome to Thomas.exe destroyed story All right, and here we go. We have started the game. Oh wait, we have a gun. Okay. Good night. Good night Welcome to Thomas's world. All we got go to a boy Thomas right here Apparently we're like attending a live-action Thomas and friends show and something goes wrong Let's meet my friends because it's another busy day and good night. It's night. My friends are having fun All right, I'd like to look easy. Okay, let's meet them here. We're gonna cheer. Oh, man. It's going fast It's his job. It's here's Thomas with the shiny red page. It's act I know his James, but I just like St. John is he's a very busy train. Don't you see? All right, so oh Percy. Oh Personally down as well Oh, what happened? We have a new Percy.  Okay, that's what caused Percy to catch on fire Who could have done this? Oh, no, man Okay, so there's actually someone out there bamboozling these guys on tracks. I Oh, no, what's going on with Thomas? I don't don't Uh-oh Is he gonna blow up to feel good? You don't feel goo. He does not feel goo, bro Help. I think it's gonna burst into flames as well. Oh He is some so may some Some some oh one car Okay, someone call the search and rescue center.  Oh That is epic. Oh gosh, okay, what do we do? Do we run? What for your lives?  I guess we don't run away. Oh Man, this is pretty sick. I got the Glock broke Why I guess we should get out of here. Yeah, that is a good gas man. Oh, no Bro, is that Thomas? It is Thomas. It's like we're playing the tunnel right now, and we'll be changed by Thomas the XT Okay, can I can I can I shoot him in the face? Can I shoot his wheels? Oh, man, this is insane. I ain't gonna lie Dude, this is pretty epic. All right, um Doesn't seem like anything happens to Thomas if we shoot him But you know, it's worth to try you never know man. If you don't try then you will never know what happens All right. Okay. We're almost at the end of this raw tunnel way. Oh Man, press the lever. Okay. No, you don't like do you I see that you can click it. All right.  Okay? So I figured out you're supposed to actually pull the lever Bro, you sacrificed him. He's supposed to pull the lever before he gets here. So it stops him from coming in Yeah, you totally left them to die man.  Okay, so now what?  Oh There you go. Okay, I think that actually there's something now. Well, that was close Yeah, we better get out of here before he breaks through that. Let me in now I'm gonna find you. Oh heck not man.  I tell you All right now we break this down Okay, what the? Why did the teleporters? Hey, I think I see something we could get this Okay. All right. There you go. We got it All right, wait, where the train track? This is weird Okay, where did this take us? Unless the train is uh supposed to pull up right now. I hope we're safe Oh, maybe it's like Gordon or James Hey, it's Thomas what? Wait, why are you guys here? The metro has been closed for repairs. Okay. This is getting weird, bro What is going on? We just see Thomas turn into Thomas exe and now he's on all it is. It's Edward I saw number one right here. That's like oh, it's a number two. Okay. Now. I'm tripping, bro Okay, who is that? What do you mean? Okay, so Edward's here to save the day Seem like a group hop into my flatbed right. He's gonna take us to safety. There has been strange situations happening on sorter. Oh Man, you don't say man. Would you see Thomas turn evil, bro? Okay from delays to explosions to missing engines All right, that does seem like a big issue going on Since when has it started? I recall started happening three days ago. Okay, so that's that's still fairly soon Okay, I sadly I sadly need to deliver these goods, but I can leave you near a train station That would be nice. I think it's a train stop. I'm not sure It's dialogue be going so fast. Sometimes I can't read it. Let's get there Bet my boy. All right, so we got Edward to the rescue and There's probably one more endings Yeah, I saw that there's like three different badges that you could get like a good ending a bad ending and then you get like You get a a Percy ending. Yeah, there you go There's probably more than one ending because this cuz yeah, yeah That's exactly what I was talking about the Percy ending. All right. Well, I guess he's gonna take us to that tunnel I feel like I feel like Tommy's the exceed gonna be in that tunnel once we arrive. It seems like a trap. I Don't know man. I guess we just have to wait to see But I ain't gonna lie. This is taking a little too long. Oh, wait. What is that? Bro, y'all see that right there. Oh, hey, no, man. All right.  All right. See you later farewell, bro All right, come on. Let's get out of here. The metro should be up here. Let's go I guarantee Thomas will ram us into a massive destruction. Oh Look, I think we're gonna get chased again because there's another tunnel right here Oh, I knew it. Oh No, oh No There's a whistle. You know, that's the war cry whistle from Tommy CXC. Oh Man, oh Man, he's coming in quick What is that? It's like a red cloud. Oh wait underground metro. No Wait, I know go this way. Oh my god. I took the wrong way. Okay underground metro Wait, I think that was Percy. I Didn't think that was Thomas All right, that was strange man. Phew. I hope there are no trains down here I mean, we are going to the underground metro. So I think there's gonna be a lot of trains down here All right. Oh, what you got the whole squad here, bro She looks funny right there. All right. We got diamonds. We got the boys. We got the squad here. Okay, um This is master metro it is. Hello Hey All right, my name is Nia and these are my friends James, Rebecca and Edward All right. Nice to meet y'all man Rebecca James and Edward I hop into my flatbed. We will make all of you. We'll take all of you to the steamworks All right now I feel much safer Uh-oh Uh-oh, there's some chase music Oh, dude, look at Thomas What the I never seen them look like that. Okay, we gotta shoot that dude shoot them about what you're doing How do we wait? Yeah, Percy that was Percy. So I was right.  Please. Thank you And if it doesn't work out, we'll see you on the other side, man All right, we're like totally gone, bro We left them in the dust Those other trains are dead. Yeah, I'm pretty sure they are man I don't understand how they're so slow like how we left them all the way back there. We're going so fast All right, girl, you left your friends behind kind of what kind of train are you?  What? Dude, what is this like a mech robot thomas? Oh my god, how do we even defeat this thing? Okay, he's getting a little too close now That laser looks like it does a lot of damage I don't want to get hit by it. All right.  I don't know what's going on with with jit.  So I assume he's supposed to dying I don't know what's happening. He wouldn't do anything else.  We made it good ending Noice Now how am I gonna get back home? All right, so we got we got the good ending Good job. Hey, I thought that we're dead It's nice to see y'all man wait Where's edward? That is true. I don't see edward He probably sacrificed himself I'm so strong, honey Hey, what he's actually pulling james. I mean, uh persian Thomas All right, so it seems like everything got restored back to its normal self. I'm soter island. Oh, no All right. Well, it seemed like that is not the end of this game As we've seen thomas have that evil thing on him still you guys well I'll leave the game link down in the description so you guys can check it out for yourselves It's a pretty awesome thomas story game and um, yeah, if you guys want me to get the other endings I think there's like two more endings. Let me know in the comments I'll I'll play once more and I'll try to get the bad ending and the percy ending But I got to figure out how to get them first before anything. Oh, yeah I think helicopter man told me he got the bad ending. So he knows how to get the bad ending I got the good ending and we just need to know how to get the percy ending So let me know down in the comments below and thank you all for watching if you're new around here Make sure to subscribe hit that notification bell on and I will see you guys in the next one


Okay, now even as we get into chapter 2, we have seen John introducing Jesus, we see how the first disciples were all gathered into his team and now John is going to talk about how Jesus actually starts his ministry work. Okay, so and the way John, this particular John, the writer, the way he presents it, it seems to start off very low key, not with a big bang, nothing dramatic and something that will catch the attention of the entire nation. It seems to start off with some little local incident in some little place among some normal average people, not somebody influential or powerful and so we see this ministry of Jesus starting off in a very almost hidden way in a very low key manner but there is great significance and there is also power in this slow start. What looks like a very slow start, what looks like a very insignificant event contains within it certain aspects which can, which actually carry a lot of importance, which carry a lot of significance. We will see what we mean by that even as we go along and we'll also try to see why did John put two very different stories together in a right after his main introduction, why does he talk about the wine being formed by Jesus miraculously and then the very next thing, why does he talk about the temple being cleansed. So coming to the first story, John chapter two versus one to five. If maybe we could have one person read out versus one, two and three. So we are into chapter two now, if one of us could read out one, two, three. John chapter two versus one. On the third day, there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there. Now both Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding and when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine. Okay, my internet is, I think, slightly problem. Okay, no problems. Okay, so yeah, it says very specifically that Jesus mother was present at that wedding and Jesus and his disciples were also present at that wedding. So the story, John starts off the story by presenting to us the main characters who are involved in this particular story and he goes on to say that the wine supply got over and Jesus mother approaches him asking for his help. Okay, so we and most of us are aware of this story and we know that especially in the ancient Near Eastern circles, in the region where this particular story takes place in those regions, the wedding ceremony was very important or rather wine was played a very important role in the wedding ceremony because wine was supposed to be a symbol of joy. It was supposed to be a symbol of prosperity and celebration. So these are all positive aspects which this object of wine was supposed to symbolize. And so if you were to have a wedding in those times in that day without any wine, it's almost as if you are saying, okay, this is not a joyous occasion. There's nothing to celebrate over here. There's no happiness in this event. It would be the indirect implication. And so in their culture, the wine would have played a very important role in symbolizing that here is a young couple who has now come together and this is going to be a joyful, wedded life and this wine is a symbol of this joy which they would be sharing in their home in their family. So when the wine runs out on day three, I mean in those days they used to have a seven-day celebration. So it's not just a two-hour celebration like we have it nowadays but it's also a seven-day celebration and on the third day probably because this particular family is not very well off, the wine supplier runs out and maybe they invited too many people and the wine was not enough and so the supplier runs out and on the third day itself when you still have another four days of celebration to go, if the wine runs out that would really be very socially disgraceful for that family. It's almost like as if you're saying that this new couple who has been wedded, there is no joy in their home. There's not going to be any celebration or prosperity in their home. So all these cultural implications come into play and it's so therefore it is a serious matter and that is why Jesus' mother comes to him and says they have no more wine and she's hoping that he will help and then of course we are familiar with the reply. Let's look at verse four, yeah maybe only verse four if someone could read out please. Verse four, woman, why do you involve me? Jesus replied, my hour has not yet come. All right so again there are many commentaries which will comment on this particular praise woman used over here. It sounds very bad in our current day culture but then in those days you know when they would use that word in the Greek language it was used almost like a title. I mean nowadays we have people saying you know ma'am and so that word at that time was something similar to ma'am. So it's a respect, it's a title of respect and over here it's Jesus is saying ma'am you know respectfully ma'am why do you involve me is what Jesus is saying and it's a rather strange way to speak because you see this is his mother that he is speaking to so obviously he would always address her as mother but over here in this particular instance he chooses not to refer to her as mother but as ma'am you know with a respectable title and why are we seeing this happening here because now she is asking for something and he would have to respond not just as a son but as the Messiah who has now come. She is asking him to do something which would involve his official capacity over here the purpose with which he has come here on this earth so he says why are you getting me involved in this situation and he refers to her formally with the title of ma'am or woman and he goes on to explain and say my hour has not yet come and this word hour is used in John's Gospel again and again with reference to the crucifixion and resurrection my hour has not yet come and over here so it basically saying the time for my crucifixion and resurrection has not yet come and I will just simply read out you know the scripture references where you have this term being used the word hour being used it's to be found in 730 in 820 1223 and 27 and also 131 and 171 and in all of these places where the word hour is used it is being used specifically with reference to Jesus crucifixion and resurrection so Jesus is saying you are asking me to do something which is going to lead to something else once the miracles begin once I start revealing the signs of who I am because each miracle is a sign it's indicating that here is someone who is not just a normal human here is someone who is not just a teacher but here is someone who is coming in the authority of God as the Son of God so all these signs all these indications are these miracles would lead to the ultimate event which would be the crucifixion followed by the resurrection so Jesus is saying over here ma'am you are asking me to do something which is going to lead to a whole bunch of events and according to the timetable which I have drawn up at the moment I am not supposed to be starting this right now okay so Jesus is says my hour has not yet come I should the time has not come for me to start doing these things and start revealing publicly who I am and when Jesus says this and speaks to her in this formal manner this is Mary's response we see that in verse five and if we if someone could just read out that one verse chapter two can I read yes can I read yes please please go ahead yeah okay his mother said to the sevens whatever he says to you do it okay it's it's interesting the way she replies she understands what he is saying maybe she did not really understand clearly what he meant by my hour has not yet come and all of that but she knew that he is now addressing her not as her son not as her child but as the one who has come from God so she understands that very clearly so she backs off she does not pressurize she does not argue she just simply says to the servants whatever he tells you to do you do it so she's just steps back in faith in simple trust and she says now he's going to tell you what to do next and you just do that so whatever decision Jesus chooses to take in his official capacity as the Messiah she is willing to settle for that okay so it's a very lovely attitude that we see she trusts him completely she knows that he cares about this family you know which is like now faced with with the social disgrace he knows that Jesus cares about these things and so in simple trust she backs off and she says fine whatever he wants to do let him do it and so she says to the servants he will tell you what to do you just do that so we see two things over here in her attitude she knows that he is someone who cares she knows that he will do whatever is best for all concerned and second she because she has that attitude of trust she is willing to submit and yield she's not going to push her own agenda and say no you must do this no there's no there's no argument over there there's no pressurizing over there and maybe we can have that same you know attitude when we come to the Lord with our needs for them in that particular social setting it was something serious because when the wine runs out on the third day itself what is it saying about that wedding what is it saying about the future of that couple you see all of that is involved it's like as if a black shadow is being cast upon that that young couple which has come together and so because of all these cultural implications that was a serious matter for them and Mary believes that Jesus cares about these things Mary believes that Jesus will do what is best and because of her faith it's amazing Jesus chooses to you know push his agenda earlier he takes the timetable and he pushes it up little more early he begins to reveal himself extra early it's an amazing thing that we see over here the power of prayer and in fact we see this happening in the Old Testament on many many occasions you know where God says I will do this and then the people come to him and they pray to him they seek him and then the Lord says all right because you have approached me because you are trusting me I will you know change the timetable so we see that in the Old Testament on many occasions for instance in the book of Jonah you know in Jonah chapter 3 verse 4 we see that Nineveh was supposed to be destroyed in 40 days and then the people of Nineveh they repent they actually repent and turn away from their sins and God changes the timetable and he waits another 150 years so what was supposed to happen in the next 40 days actually happens 150 years later in response to the attitude of the people so there's great power in the way we respond Mary showed simple complete trust that the Lord will do what is best for all concerned and second because she trusts him in that manner she was willing to yield and submit and we see Jesus changing the timetable in response to her request so we're coming to verse 6 we see that yeah in verse 6 and then verse 7 where Jesus says you know fill up the jars with water maybe we could actually read these verses yeah we'll have Albu Kirk yeah if you can speak up go ahead please thank you thank you pastor I just see that there is there are two sort of aspects to the you know the you know the reason why Jesus you know for a change the timetable and that is one is you know the need of the you know of the of the people who were at the wedding and you know the the host who were who would who really required to get that wine you know on the third day and the other one is this you know is Mary who is asking her son to you know to do something with regards to you know getting the wine just just a point here with regards to you know the request from from Mary because there are certain denominations where they that you know there is you know intercession that that can come from Mary even now they feel that you know they can they can they can in a sense pray to Mary and you know get get her to intercede on their on on now you know on on their behalf so we just want to understand and I'm aware that you know that we only pray to Jesus God I've got the Father in the Holy Spirit but there's just a point over there just wanted to get your your feedback on that yeah in the in the New Testament we see so many examples where people directly go to Jesus and place their requests so it's not just Mary who had the privilege of doing that we even see a beggar calling out you know he says son of David have mercy on me and he directly goes to the son of David I mean over there he doesn't even ask the disciples to intercede on his behalf he doesn't go to Jesus mother and say you're please intercede on my behalf he's just a beggar very insignificant sitting there at the side of the road and he directly approaches this Jesus and cries out for mercy and Jesus responds so again and again it's very clearly shown in the New Testament that anybody and everybody has the privilege has the freedom to directly come to him so it was only much later when someone decided to put barriers between Jesus and normal average ordinary people you know by saying you must go to Jesus through somebody but if you when you look at the actual gospels themselves we don't see that happening there are some instances of course you know where the people they come for with their with their little children and they want Jesus to bless and then you have the disciples you know poking their nose in and saying no no no don't disturb him and all that but even they when they came they came directly to Jesus and wanted him to lay his hands on their children so always in the gospels the interaction is direct nobody really feels the need to go through an intermediary to approach Jesus so that is the kind of spirit that Jesus wished to convey to the reader so Jesus always presented himself as someone who can be directly approached so all these customs and practices of the church saying that an intermediary is needed an intercessor is needed all those things were things which people came up with long after these gospels were written so they kind of went away from the gospels when they were asking for all these extra requirements and conditions we don't see that in the scripture itself and it's always best to go with what the scripture itself is asking us to do rather than you know go with man-made you know directives and instructions which man has come up with so yeah so we see many occasions when people go to Jesus for help directly and Mary is in no way involved anywhere on the scene so yeah maybe we could just leave it at that yes if we could have someone read out verses 6 and 7 because maybe this we can dwell on one or two things no in those two verses verses 6 and 7 please could you please read verses 6 and 7 now there were six there were six water ports of stones according to the manner of purification of Jews containing 20 and or 30 gallons a piece these are said to them fill the water's pots with water and they fill them up to the brim okay so these are large water jars made of stone and it says that the they contained water which was used for the ritual purification so the the people would wash their hands and feet as a kind of ritual purification indicating that on a daily basis they are conscious of God's presence and it's like a symbolic way of saying you know I need to keep myself clean because I'm moving about in the presence of God so just the washing of the hands and feet would not achieve anything but it's a symbolic way of saying I need to continue to keep myself clean because when I went to the temple with my animal sacrifice and the Lord covered my sins now I'm grateful for that and symbolically every day I'm washing my hands and feet to to as a reminder to myself that not only physically but even on the inside I need to keep myself clean so it is a that kind of a of a ceremonial ritual which the people used to practice and so we see here those jars being used for a different purpose here and we will you know look into the significance of that a few verses later but right now over here we see that Jesus asks the servants to fill up these jars right up to the he you know in fact he doesn't say fill them up to the brim it's the servants who on their part choose to fill it up to the brim okay so it's interesting if they had only filled up a quarter of the jars then there would have been a much shorter supply of wine and they probably would have had a second shortage but we see these particular servants being very responsive Mary had said to them do what he says and we see these people actually willing to do what he says and they go to the effort of filling up all the six jars right up to the brim and if you look at the number of gallons each of those jars contain you know it shows that they were committed in what they did they were sincere in obeying so maybe the one point that we could you know take away from this is that our attitude of obedience and submission will probably determine the size of the miracle that we receive because sometimes we call out to God desperately in prayer asking him for something and God is there ready to respond but then there's something that we need to do from our side probably you know something that we need to obey or something that we need to yield and submit and the level to which to we do that probably will determine the size of the answer that we receive so in a way it's in our hands actually the more we obey the more we submit the more they are willing to trust the greater probably will be the answer to the prayer that we receive so sometimes I think from our side we restrict the answer through our limited obedience and through our kind of doubtful attitude as in oh why is God asking me to do this is it really gonna help you know and maybe that kind of an attitude takes away from the size of the answer so here we see these persons filling it right up to the brim which increases the size of the miracle they end up with a lot more wine because of what was done now even as we are you know I mean whenever I should just read this passage I kind of think you know here we all are living in the modern church you know which very strongly preaches against drinking of wine and here we are dwelling on the very first miracle of Jesus which is all about wine so just you know to clarify even as we are not talking about this particular passage wine was something that was a part of their daily diet in those days so the wine that we are talking about in biblical times and the you know the wine which we have at a bar now today would be two very different things now of course there was wine at that time which you know was drunk undiluted and it would end up with people getting drunk and it's not something that the respectable people would the respectable godly Jews would ever do they would never ever have wine which is undiluted and you know like it explains in so many commentaries and in all these cultural background books in those days especially in the Middle East Eastern region where they all were living fresh water supply was not something that was readily available yes they would dig wells they had wells which they would dig all over the place but the kind of water the quality of the water available in those wells was not always you know very good quality and so for them wine was you know fermented wine because it's fermented it could have you know killed the bacteria it was a it was a an option as a as a as a as a drinking you know drinking option a safe drinking option so even the children would partake of the wine and which parent would ever give their child undiluted wine you know so it was something that was which was very very diluted with water and of course right from the Old Testament drunkenness has is something that has been criticized as being sinful especially if you look at proverbs you would have entire passages talking about how drunkenness is something that God despises and so when we are talking about wine over here we're not talking about you know something that is very strong not not the kind of liquor which we have now but we are talking about something which was in a very diluted form and which was used just as a part of their everyday diet all right so over here we we are not having Jesus doing a miracle to get people drunk he would never go against what is taught in the proverbs he is giving them a beverage which will not get them drunk in any way but just something that they would enjoy so the wine of that day and the liquor of today is not something to be compared the people who did not care for the ways of God they are the ones who would have had undiluted liquor which of course would have made them drunk that's not the case over here over here in the feast you know the especially the family that is performing the wedding would definitely prefer to have their guests in their right mind and completely same all right so okay moderate drinking is it okay we'll not get into all of that now because you know that would take us very far away from our passage it is left between you know that that person and the Lord because generally the world that we are living in and the kind of cultural significance that liquor holds today it may affect our testimony as a believer you know so most believers would say I'd rather not even drink moderately simply because of the kind of cultural significance it holds today back at that time even a child would drink the you know I would sit at the family table and they would all have this diluted wine it was it was different the cultural implications of that was different it was something which respectable families were doing as a family but now now you have the cultural implications of liquor now today is so negative and so if someone sees a believer doing that they would probably draw a very different picture of who I am and what my moral standards are and my values are and so would I really want to you know spoil my testimony so maybe we would have to start thinking of all of that so yeah it's a very valid question that has been raised but we would have to think about how will people who look at me doing this how would they be impacted what impression would they get about the God I follow what would they think my Jesus more my Jesus priorities are when they see me doing this so the cultural implications of wherever your living would come in you know because back then at that time it was a family thing the family would sit together and as they're having their meal they would be having a diluted wine so it is a very different kind of cultural you know context of that day all right yeah so just coming back to our passage here so Jesus instructs them and says you know take a sample of this water from the jar and give it to the master of the banquet maybe we can come to the response of the master of the banquet versus 9 and 10 so if someone could please read out for us chapter 2 versus 9 and 10 chapter 2 9 versus when the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine and did not know where it came from but the servant who had drawn the water knew the master of the feast called the bridegroom and he said to him every man at the beginning set out the good wine and the and when the guest have well drunk then the inferior you have kept the good wine until now okay so even in those times where they would give a diluted form of wine those who over indulged in it would end up getting drunk we see that in verse 10 where it says and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink so by the third day of drinking free the free wine which is being provided there are people who would over indulge and it would also in fact affect their behavior so it is true that there were people who were not following proverbs and being very careful about how they were doing their drinking so even back then there were people who were taking the word of God lightly but then many others would not have done that many of them also would have been careful about you know how they were consuming this particular product so anyway over here the master of the banquet he says this is very strange generally people wait for you know people to kind of get used to the whole wine thing and then when people are not really noticing anymore then they would introduce the cheaper wine but you on the other hand he says to the bridegroom because he's not aware of who has created this new wine he says you on the other hand seems to have seemed to have you know saved up your best wine for the third day and he remarks upon this with surprise now let's look at verse 11 and then we'll connect it to the previous two verses if someone could read out verse 11 please verse 11 yes this is the beginning of science jesus did in kana of kalili and manifested his glory and his disciple believed in him okay so the wine which was created out of this water was of such high quality that this master of ceremonies comments on it and he says my goodness this quality is so good I have no clue why you have waited up to the third day you know to start serving this is what he says and this reveals something about the glory of Jesus so Jesus he reveals his glory by helping that family by saving that wedding by not allowing a black shadow to be cast upon that young couple you know which is trying to celebrate their wedding so he's the jesus is reaching out to them and helping them in a very personal way he reveals his glory by helping them and he reveals by his glory by using whatever is available at hand I mean this is not a very influential family if they were a very rich and influential family their wine first of all would not have run out because they would have had enough supply so these are just very ordinary people and God just uses Jesus just uses whatever is available over there in that particular place to do his miracle so using something very simple like a bunch of jars with some water in them just using that Jesus does his miracle so that also reveals something about his glory and then we also see that he has completely you know overruled the usual the laws of physics and chemistry I suppose is also involved in fermentation yeah so he completely overruled the laws of physics and you know chemistry in bringing about this miracle which shows that he is someone who surpasses the human laws you know which exist on this earth the laws of nature which exist on this earth so there are different aspects of his glory which get revealed through this first sign so wherever the word sign is used it's a it's a sign of what is what is being shown it's an indicator it's a sign or an indicator of who Jesus is and so over here we see that Jesus is being revealed as someone who loves and cares is being revealed as someone who can take something very simple and insignificant and do something great and marvelous with it he is also being shown as the one for whom there are no limitations the natural rules and laws of nature do not apply to him at all he surpasses all of it so when the disciples see that this is the kind of messiah that he is they have already believed in him in the last chapter you know we see that here they have already expressed their belief in him but now they believe in a deeper way their faith in him gets stronger and it's the same even for us you know when even as we walk with the Lord and even as we see him working in our lives by and by gradually our faith gets deepened it gets more mature because of the experiences that we have had with the Lord so over here when it says his disciples believed in him it's not trying to indicate that they did not believe in him earlier it's just reinforcing the fact that now their faith has become even deeper all right now just you know to to talk about other aspects of this particular story here in the story we have jars which were used for water what the ritual of cleansing okay this water was being used for the ritual of cleansing and Jesus takes this water and turns it into wine and so you have commentaries which comment on this they talk about how the people were using water to wash themselves and clean themselves but Jesus takes this water and converts it into wine and wine they say you know it's a symbol of Jesus blood which cleanses at a whole different level water can only cleanse physically but blood cleanses you from your very sins and so they talk about how there's a there's a hidden layer to this story where Jesus is taking the whole process of cleansing to a higher level up to now people could only cleanse themselves outwardly they would try to live live better lives they would try to make better choices but now the Messiah has come and he's going to do an internal work of cleansing which they cannot do on their own so he is going to cleanse them inside and make them into a new person with a new heart and he's going to do that by his blood and the blood of course you know is symbolized by a wine because Jesus says drink my blood and they would drink his blood symbolically through the wine which they would have during the communion so even though this is just a very simple story where God reaches out and helps a family we see that there's something more happening over here there are deeper spiritual implications which we can see where we see a Messiah who has come who can take cleansing to a an entire new level okay so that's one of the hidden layers of this of this particular story which also comes out to those who kind of you know meditate upon this particular passage all right we are kind of running out of time because we have reached 1040 what should I touch upon just give me a moment I'm you know just quickly going through all right we'll come to this passage on the cleansing of the temple now most of us are already familiar with this maybe we could just look at one or two verses specifically all right it says in verse 16 okay we are looking at John chapter 2 verse 16 okay maybe 15 as well if we could just have one person very very quickly read out uh John chapter 2 verses 15 16 17 yes when he had made a whip of codes he dropped them all out of the temple with the ship and oxen and put out changes the changes money and overturned the tables and he said to those who sold us take these things away do not make my father's house a house of merchandise then his disciple remembered that it's he was written zeal for your house has eaten me up so that the Jews answered him and so you know that's okay that's all right yeah thank you yeah uh so over here we see uh that Jesus after seeing what the people are doing in the temple he prepares a whip using a bunch of you know ropes which are available he makes a whip out of it and some commentaries have pointed the fact that it must have taken him some time to make it you see he didn't come over there carrying a whip he did not know what he would find when he gets there but when he comes over there and sees all this havoc and all this you know selling and buying that's going on over there and there is no peace and quiet and people are you know busy thinking about money rather than thinking about God when he sees that it angers him and it says that he spent some time making a whip so this is not an instant reaction you know because sometimes we just react in anger and it may not be righteous anger uh it is just uh an anger born out of a selfish nature on the on the other hand over here this is an anger which is very carefully thought out and then expressed so it's not just a you know a knee jerk reaction Jesus thinks about what is being done over here he thinks about what's going on in the minds of all those merchants sitting over there they are thinking okay fine i've made this much money now it's afternoon maybe by evening i'll make this much money and there they are sitting thinking about those things in the temple of god rather than you know uh focusing on mange is it my network or pastor has lost the internet i think it is your side you are safe okay very sorry for the interruption very very sorry um the connection just kind of went off for a bit am i audible you can hear me right could someone just indicate whether you can hear me yes perfect yeah very sorry for this um all right the point which many of the commentators make is that um if you look at the same story in the other gospels they talk about how when jesus goes there and sees all the noise which is being made he's upset because his temple is supposed to be a house of prayer and so he's upset that the Gentiles who come over there uh you know to to meet with Yahweh they are not able to stand over there because the area which is allotted for them the outer court where they where they can stand and pray to god that area has been filled up by all of these merchants who are selling their merchandise so they point to that aspect of his uh anger you know they talk about how jesus is so upset that the place which has been reserved for the Gentiles to come and stand and pray to Yahweh that space has been taken up by the merchants and they are too busy you know selling their merchandise and making money rather than leaving that space open for the for the Gentiles to come and uh interact with the Lord uh so that aspect of Jesus' anger is touched upon in the other gospels over here in the book of John we see the other aspect that Jesus is very angry about not only are they taking up the space which is reserved for Gentiles also they are dishonoring God himself with their attitude and we see that part of the of God's anger of Jesus' anger being touched upon over here in verse 17 it's say in verses 16 and 17 because Jesus says get these out of here stop turning my father's house into a market this is his father's house this is the place where the god of gods and king of kings said i will come down and interact with human beings and make my home among them so people should be honored that they have been given such a privilege that God himself has chosen to come down and live among them but instead of instead of that of that these people are not even thinking about God but thinking about money making and that is when his disciples remember that it is written zeal for your house will consume me so there are two aspects that make Jesus angry one that the Gentiles have been denied the space where they can stand quietly and contemplate upon God and hear his voice and secondly because the people who are gathered over the merchants don't even care about God have no respect for him all they can think about is how to make more money and greater profits so now these two passages which seem to have no connection between them why did the Holy Spirit inspire John to place these two particular stories together all right so just a moment please the first story if we see it talks about how cleansing is taken to a whole new level God God introduces us indirectly you know through the story God introduces a system where not just water but wine his blood will cleanse okay so this is a kind of spiritual connotation to the first story and now in the second story we see the emphasis which is there upon his crucifixion and resurrection because over here he says within the Jews question him in verse 18 and say what sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this you know they're saying what authority do you have to talk about what we should do and what we should not do in this temple and Jesus replied to that is that I am the temple so I have authority to tell you what should be done in this temple because I myself am the temple and he goes on to talk about how the temple will be destroyed he will you know lay down his life and be crucified and how he will again be raised on the third day so over here in the second story the emphasis is on how Jesus himself is the temple and he will be crucified and he will be raised so the connection between these two stories seems to be that earlier human beings all they could do is maybe try to clean themselves with water but now they would be cleaned on the inside by the blood of the lamb itself they would be internal cleansing and they would become a new creation they would become a new person and how would that happen it would happen through what is mentioned over here in the second account where God establishes the glory of who God is supposed to be by driving out all the false merchants who are there and presenting himself as the sacrifice through whom people can access this glory of God so they try to draw that kind of a connection between these two stories to point out that at a spiritual level there is a connect between the two stories you know so that probably could be one reason why an account which talks about the crucifixion and resurrection is connected with another account which talks about not just physical cleansing but cleansing through the blood which is symbolized you know in the form of wine all right so these are just some things that we could cover today and next week of course we'll move on to chapter three I know we are a little beyond time and yeah you have one more session to go so if you could you know just post your questions you know if you have any questions if you can post them in the stream page you know of the Google Classroom I will address the questions next week so we will now you know leave but if you can put your questions in the stream page of Google Classroom I can address those questions next week without fail so thank you so much for joining in and listening and we'll meet again next week thank you thank you pastor we'll bless you


Hits up! Hits up! Hits up! Rookie! Hits! Hits up! Time to show the hands. Rookie! Rookie! Ask him if there are more! Ask him if there are more! I got the six. You talk with him. God talk with him. What else do you have on you? Nothing. Don't you have the name? If you have it in your head, you'll see it in the head.  I just told him. I just told him. I told him to get up. Hang on, hang on. Let me first and first. You got some zip ties? No, no, no, no. Wait for the zip ties. Go on. I'm rolling, sound not to move. I'm rolling, sound not to move. When you're done, you're done. It's like a car.


for Borneo, the largest raid yet by the United States 13th Air Force. Flying from recently occupied Morotai Island, farmers head for Tarakhan Island off the East Borneo coast. Bombs rain down on the Tarakhan oil fields, a vital source of supply for the Japanese Navy and for the Japanese divisions fighting in the Philippines. A level of extremely high quality can be used by merely distilling away its water content. Because of this punishing raid, much of that oil is now lost to the enemy as smoke from the burning fuel rises 10,000 feet in the air. The 79th Congress, Vice President Henry Wallace, Vice President-elect Harry Truman and Congressional leaders leave the White House after conferring with President Roosevelt before the opening of the new United States Congress. Speaker of the House Rayburn, Senator Barclay, Vice President Truman, Representative McCormick. New senators from Indiana, Iowa, New Jersey and Oregon are among the Republican party members recently elected. To the Democratic majority in the Senate, belong new senators from Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Connecticut, North Dakota and South Carolina. Women of both parties were elected to the House of Representatives. Congress convened. The newly elected Speaker of the House, Mr. Rayburn, takes his place. He is congratulated by Representative Martin, minority leader. United in aim, Congress starts work on new war legislation. Torpedoes for the Navy, complicated mechanism that must be accurate. Each is tested by an actual launching before battle service. The torpedo, its explosive remove, is placed in the compressed air firing tube. At a speed of from 25 to 45 knots, it is sent on its way. Just beneath the water surface, over a 6,000 yard course, the torpedo speeds on its way. From an observation tower, its course is checked. Now another. During the end of its run, the torpedo slows down. A blimp checks its course from above. On the surface, with its run complete, the torpedo is salvaged. If in any way imperfect, it will be dismantled, checked, rebuilt, then tested again. Torpedo is launched twice, once in the trial run, once again when it hurtles toward the enemy. Constant full-scale testing helps make certain that the torpedoes do not miss their mark. Freedom of the press, of motion pictures and communications among the United Nations. At Washington, delegates assemble to sign the new charter, establishing an information service, a war and peacetime pooling of information vital to the member nations. Signing for the United States is Elmer Davis, director of the Office of War Information, a pledge that in war and peace, there shall be truth. Mr. Davis speaks of the United Nations' common purpose. Information agencies have progressed prodigiously since the last peace settlement, a quarter of a century ago. The press, oldest and most tried of all media of communication, has now a circulation and influence far greater than in those days. The motion picture, in its infancy at the last peace conference, has become one of the most powerful agencies of international knowledge, free of any of the limitations of language, and with all the appeal that comes from actually permitting the public to see events. The world of tomorrow must be a world of the freeest flow of news and information among its different component nations. Clothing is sorted before shipment overseas by UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. United States religious groups, Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish, organize the nationwide voluntary donation campaign. Clothing is compressed into bails to save space in transport. UNRWA Director General Herbert Lehmann has announced that the response by American church groups will exceed the goal of 15 million pounds. Bails begin their journey to areas which have felt the worst deprivations of war. Just as it was donated, it will be distributed without regard to race or creed, as a gigantic task of rehabilitation and relief is carried forward by the United Nations. The P-38 Lightning Fighter plane fitted with loads of aircraft rockets under its wings. The tank is the target. 47 Thunderbolt fires in slow motion. Tremendous firepower, a mighty new weapon against the enemy. A new heat-resistant plastic which may someday be a widely used substitute for rubber. It is formed into sheets which stretch like chewing gum. Rolled into a ball, it feels like putty, but while putty falls dead, silicone bounces like live rubber. Silicone is limp and pliable before organization. It resists both extreme heat and extreme cold. After vulcanizing, it becomes tough and elastic. Its industrial uses today are manifold. Moved from 300-degree heat, silicone is unharmed. Whereas after the same treatment, rubber is burned to a crisp. Zoffening up Luzon, preparatory to landing, a carrier-task force of the Pacific Fleet and the Philippine Sea carries the air war to the enemy. Navy hell-cats and hell-divers train their guns on Japanese ships in Luzon waters near Manila, capital of the Philippines, in the teeth of murderous anti-aircraft fire. Team guns rake the decks, bombs gore near hits. These ships twist and turn in the attempt to escape. Inland, guns blast airfields around Manila. Following these attacks, heavy American forces landed on Luzon Island in the battle to liberate the Philippines.


Budget gaming laptops keep getting better in 2022 seems like a turning point for the market. One of the more popular lineups, the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 series has gotten a total overhaul. With a new design that ties the notebook to the Legion family, and improved internals, should you entrust this Lenovo with your hard-earned money? Sit tight to find out. While the laptop is still 100% plastic, it does offer a sturdy base, which extends past the lid and houses the heat vents, which look pretty good, especially with those blue accents. On the other hand, the lid is flimsy, but when the laptop is closed shut, it should handle being carried around with ease. The laptop is a bit slimmer now, with a profile of 21.8mm, while weighing 2.32kg. Being a gaming device, the keyboard is very important. It has stayed the same over the last few years and we can't be happier about it. With long key travel, clicky feedback, and large keycaps, the lines between the IdeaPad and the Legion 5 grow thinner and thinner. While you will be using a mouse most of the time, it's nice to see that the touchpad is of good quality and has a smooth gliding surface. Similar to the Legion series, some of the input output has been moved to the back, which is better for cable management. As for what you get with it, there are two USB type A 3.2 Generation 1 ports, a single Thunderbolt 4 port, an HDMI 2.0 port, a LAN connector, and a 3.5mm audio jack. While the performance of a laptop is important, you need a good screen to experience it properly. The IdeaPad comes with three offerings, two FHD panels and one QHD option. The FHD displays come with either 120Hz or 165Hz and are plucked right from the Legion 5. We tested the base spec, which is good purely for gaming but lacks any significant color coverage and accuracy to be used in the creator world, so if you want something to satisfy those needs, check out the 165Hz option, which does offer such pleasantries. The 45Wh unit inside is too small for the 12-core Core i5-12500H, resulting in poor battery life. It lasts for 3 hours and 25 minutes of web browsing, or 3 hours and 27 minutes of video playback. You can learn more about our testing conditions in the written review in the description. Only 2 per 100 people watching this video are subscribers. If you decide to just start following us, we'll be able to reinvest more in our laboratory thus making even more helpful videos for you. Thank you, you're awesome! While battery life might not be great, the performance is, as the 12500H dwarfs its 2021 competition by a large margin. On the GPU end, we are a bit bummed to see GPUs with lower TGPs, but that is how it goes in the entry-level market. Still, the RTX 3050 that we tested utilizes all of its 85W. In other words, it is powerful enough to run shadow of the Tomb Raider with 75FPS on average. Going back to the cooling, we have two heat pipes shared between the CPU and GPU, and a third one solely for the processor. There are also four heat sinks and two fans. In the CPU stress test, the Core i5-12500H drops its clock speeds rapidly but still keeps them relatively high in the long run, while hovering around 70°C in the later stage. The GPU reaches and manages to maintain a stable and high clock speed of around 1,900MHz. The noise levels can get high during long gaming sessions, but the outside temperature remains tame, maxing out at 43°C. The insides of the laptop are quite colorful, with parts of the cooling painted in bright blue. Getting to them is a bit tricky, as first, you have to remove the shroud on the back, and then unscrew 12 screws. For more info check out our teardown video. Upgradability is good, thanks to two Sodom slots that fit DDR4 RAM, which is the sweet spot currently. For storage, there are two M.2 slots, with one 42mm slot that fits generation for drives and an 80mm slot that supports only generation 3 SSDs. The IdeaPad Gaming 3i is a fine gaming notebook, but its closest competitor is also pretty good. The Nitro 5 provides longer battery life and slightly more performance, so look into it as well, before making a final decision. Of course, we've done a lot more tests and you can check out all the results in our in-depth review on laptopmedia.com. You'll find the link in the description below the video.


Today I have the distinct pleasure of interviewing Pat Bailey. Hello Doug, how you doing? Let's just start right at the beginning. Tell us a little bit about your growing up and your family, that kind of thing. So yes, I was born in Sacramento, California, and I grew up actually mostly in Los Angeles. My family was originally from New York area. My dad was born in Brooklyn. My mom in Montana, and then she moved over into New York. So they were very East Coast folks, and I was kind of their wild child, California child. I have a 16 year older than me sister, and I'll tell you up front, I'm 62, but I can never tell her age, because she gets really upset about that, but she can do them now. So it was funny because when I grew up, I went to Catholic school, and the thought was that she was my mom.  So my sister and I weren't very close when we were growing up. Later in life we got much closer with that. I was a tomboy, kind of from day one. I played a lot of sports. It was always jeans, I hated the skirts and all that kind of stuff. And then as I moved along, I got older and discovered more about myself. But I went to Catholic school for 12 years. So I learned about discipline, service, fear, uniforms, all that kind of stuff, all the basics that you need for the community. But I loved the education. I learned a lot about those were kind of the good old days in Catholic school. Yes, the ruler was alive and well, and so there was some masochism that came in at that point. But I also learned about service to the community, working and building together and being part of that community. And to do good and to think about what you're doing with some ethics and values. Tell us about your coming out. That's actually a very interesting piece. Right. Well, it was interesting because when I was in high school, I met a woman and we were high school partners together. And we ran around and we got more involved. But we had that good Catholic ethic that you weren't supposed to be doing any kind of sex, much less same sex. We didn't even have a word for it. And I can remember that I used to sneak out. This was probably when I was about 14 or 15. And I would ride my bicycle about eight miles to her house after my mom fell asleep. My mom was an alcoholic, would drink, pass out. She wouldn't know I was gone. I'd spend the night at my girlfriend's house. Her parents didn't know we were there. And then I'd ride my bicycle back home, you know, in the morning. So it was that wonderful essence of trying to be out and be creative without knowing what the word was for years. We kept having this imbalance, though. It was like, I'd say no, it was wrong. We shouldn't do this. Or she would say no, it's wrong. So we actually, if I really had to count the number of times we really hit that middle ground, where we actually discovered ourselves in our body, it was not very many times. But it was kind of my first awareness. And I identified as bisexual for a long time because it was about a year after that that I had my first relationship with a guy. And that kind of went on longer until I was about 27. And my relationships with men and women, and I realized about 27 that I was really much more interested in women. And so I identified as lesbian then and dyke. Those terms kind of came out. In Los Angeles there was a really strong sports community. A lot of my coaches were lesbians. And so I had lots of models of how to live that life. And then everything went along kind of fine until I got into my early 40s and discovered that some of the women I had been with transitioned and became men. And so I couldn't call myself a lesbian in good faith if I honored their transition. So at that point there wasn't, you know, omnisexual or, so I called it bisexual light is what I called it. Because I was interested in trans guys and those relationships were there. And now I just consider myself dyke, genderqueer, and queer. How did you come to join the Air Force? Well career-wise, when I got out of high school, I was the first in my family to go to college. That wasn't something my family did. My dad was a post office worker and my mom was a secretary. My sister was a mom. She went to a couple of years of college but didn't graduate. And I became a PE teacher. That was what I studied. I'm the stereotype. I did track and field, softball, you know, so I was in Lesbian Mecca from day one of my life just by doing that. And so when I got out through college and I finished my degree, I was teaching and I was at Kanoka Park High School which is in LA area. And some of my students actually got into the first women's class at the Air Force Academy. And they came back and they go, they've got teams and they need women coaches. They don't have any because the women hadn't been there before and they hadn't thought about staffing and putting women coaches there. So I decided, hey, that'd be cool. I'd love to teach at college rather than high school. So I went to the Air Force recruiter and I said, this is what I want to do. And he goes, well, we don't have that job but we've got this other really great job over here. But it's not an officer, it's an enlisted. So I had a degree already. And what was happening for me in that moment when I was living in Los Angeles was I was on a softball team and anybody who plays on, you know, community softball teams knows that when a couple breaks up on a team you have to form another team. And then there's a whole league that forms of everybody's breakup with all that. And I was having a very dramatic breakup with that point with my partner. And so I always termed it that what I was doing was joining the foreign region and kind of like that. So I joined the military and I did a lot of training there so I was an educator there. But they didn't quite see fit for me to kind of move into the education that I wanted to which was that they catabased and things like that. But it was fun and basic training because the day I walked in, my technical instructors I looked at them and they were two cute hot twin red heads. And I went, oh yes.   And so they ended up making me the dorm chief and I graduated from basic training. Went, immediately got selected for officer training because I had all the requirements. And one night, my two drill instructors said, let's go out for a drink. I went, okay, that sounds good.  I didn't know too many people in San Antonio. And we ended up going to a lesbian bar and they're all nervous. They're going like, well, if you don't like this place, you know, we can leave right away. We know about and we hang out. And I walk in and we get to the bar and I said, oh, I've been here before and they go, why didn't you tell us? And this was long before Don't Ask, Don't Tell. This is when the witch hunts were around and people got kicked out quite frequently and doing those kind of things. But what they had done is they had actually brought women who were retired and still active duty, high ranking officers who were also lesbians who sat down and talked to me about how to survive in the military and how to survive in the doors. And it was an incredible gift that they gave me. And so I was out and queer in the military in my own way which, it was funny, because I went to a couple of Imsils during my career but nobody ever knew I was there. You know, it was registering under another name, never in the cameras, the yellow badges and things like that. But I felt like I had to kind of pay my whole debt back to them by being out and supporting other folks who weren't out. It was three times when I was in the military. The first time was my first assignment playing softball but I was the only officer on the team and they tend to bring the enlisted folks in the security would question them and that kind of gets into the next part of the story we can talk about a little bit which is more how I got involved in the leather community but I knew a lot of the leathermen that lived in the community so I started doing matchmaking.com like softball players and they would say go have coffee and then when the investigators would come in and say no I've been out with Joe so I kept the pressure off the team a little bit. I went to Alaska and I was up in Alaska for a year which has been fun this year with Saraw coming from Alaska and I was under investigation there and it got dropped and then later in my career I was under investigation based on my security clearance. I was with a woman at the time who was the pastor of a metropolitan community church MCC and my security clearance was such that I had to disclose who I lived with so I put that on there and they came to me in the security clearance and said well we understand the person you live with runs a lesbian church or a gay church and I said well I think the way I practice my religion is not subject to a security investigation now this is before a lot of the being out and all that kind of thing happened because a year before on coming out day I called up the Pentagon to change my religious affiliation it said Catholic when I came into the military and I'm going I'm tired of that I'm a reformed Catholic and I just don't want to go back there at all so I had her change it to MCC on national account coming out of day and she spent all day going is that a Buddhist religion or is that you know but on my doc tags and I wore them it says MCC on it and so again those little pushes of being out a bit with all that so that investigation they said well we're not asking about that we're asking if you're a lesbian and I said I wouldn't answer it before again about two and a half three years before Don't Ask Don't Tell came out and they said we have to we went back and forth and that started a three year dance where they didn't take my clearance away but they didn't grant my clearance either so one of the things with a military career is you have certain points you have to hit and if you don't you don't get promoted by gay brothers in the military is that those that were HIV and were caught for being gay didn't get promoted in 19 years and got nothing for their service no retirement, no benefits nothing that and so it was a truly a a concern of mine that I had missed that window when I needed to be a commander so I got another assignment ended up in a Navy position one day in a little envelope came my clearance and restored and it was good but about that same time Clinton had announced Don't Ask Don't Tell and on the day he announced that I decided it was time to retire and I had 15 years in which usually you don't get benefits but it was right after Desert Storm when they were drawing down the forces so I got a full retirement and I was able to go ahead and get all my benefits with a little bit less money and when I went to the 10 year anniversary at Hofstra University to speak on Don't Ask Don't Tell so for 10 members on the panel I was the only one who could wear my medals because I was the only one who had gotten out honorably and got a pension and doing that so I every month when I get my pension check that is my, I did it I'm standing up for those folks who met me in the bar you know, 20 years ago fantastic well how were you introduced to the Kink community that's probably one of those I remember since I was 10 or 12 I realized those kind of things I knew it, I mean those were the kind of fantasies I can remember playing with the guys in the neighborhood and I would tie them up or they would tie me up it would be Cat Boys and Indians is what we called it those kind of things and you know it was fun and playful when I got in the military I actually the woman I met basic training that's another story we kind of were in the same dorm together and there were 30 women sleeping in the other room and we'd be in the day room making out and kissing and all that so I didn't you know my blood pounding in my ears knowing that somebody was going to walk in and catch us but it was just so hot I just had to do it and I got lucky, it made me caught as I got into my career I found out that the job was very stressful and I was in charge all day as an officer and I came home just exhausted and I just went, you know I just need to let go and not be in charge you know, yeah that's cool and so it kind of started with that and about that time my first assignment was in Phoenix, Arizona and I was at Luke Air Force Base and we she was working with a guy in the office she was a travel agent and he you know he was this really great guy he ran him over for dinner a few times got to know him a little bit and he was a member of the Phoenix Levi and Leather Club was a men's club there that is no longer in existence had about 24 or 25 members and he said why don't you come on down and have a drink and have a beer with us and so we found the men's leather community that way and found out there was a lore and a history it was hot and about 11 o'clock all the guys would go in the back room and we'd go, night, catch you later guys you know, thanks very much and like we'd go home and say, do you want to try that that was kind of cool, did you see what that guy was doing I kind of explored that way and we had parted ways with that in terms of her being my partner but my interest was definitely cued up and I was starting to look around to find that and there's only about three of those guys that are still alive now most of them were, this was the 78, 79 time period most of them were hit by HIV and AIDS and got to march in the San Francisco parade with them one year because it is the only club I've ever pledged for because they were starting to say well you hang around, you're cool you kind of look like a neat leather person and they kind of taught me those traditions and we did a lot of community fundraising when people were sick you go help somebody when they had a motorcycle accident so that, again, that community service piece keeps coming through with that and I know that as we lost them that was part of the tradition that I bring forward too so again, service, community helping others and doing that was really how I got started and it took me a while to find the women's leather community and when I did, I think I found them in San Francisco I think I went to Folsom Street or some of them and the women scared me they had blood and they were cutting and they were yelling and screaming and punching and the men's leather community was not exactly of that it was all about sucking, fucking and having a good time and you know a little bit of pain and stuff like that but it was more the erotic hot and heavy kind of stuff so it took me a little while to kind of get adjusted to the women's community and I think somewhere in my past Sharon and I had crossed paths because as I started to move up to be a title holder and all that I went up to Seattle and that was one of the parties I went to going oh my god, what are you people doing up here they're putting up sheets and tarps and there's blood splattering on the walls and all this kind of stuff and although I didn't meet Sharon at that point I had a great time and it's expanded and grown since then What sort of expansions and growths have you seen? Well for me in terms of my growth you know is that never say never it's like oh all I want to do is a little slap and tickle and a little bondage and then I want to do this and then I want to do needles and let's check out this blood stuff and all of that but for me what I learned from those men in Phoenix was really about that community service I've seen on my Icaria seven pins that's on a leather panel that I wear when I get into kind of formal dress and it's the Kinky County Fair in Phoenix, Arizona in 1979 80 somewhere around there and that was what they did they brought the whole community together I learned that kink and drag and rodeo and all those parts and segments of what we consider the other parts of the community we don't hang with in a place like Phoenix you've got to work together so I was able to cross back and forth all of those lines and so I know that when I did my speech when I ran for Emzel I was going to die in the house and say hey guys fags in the house say hey and all that kind of stuff that came from a drag queen up in Alameda that was the way she'd always start her shows and she's still in the community and we catch up once in a while but that's the connections that I've seen and so now if anybody knows Lady Sharon she's my lady you know all kinds of blood and pain and things like that so I'm definitely a masochist I'm a boy, I love service I'm not a slave and I love to excel and do community stuff so I don't know there's a community hanky I have to make one of those here's your opportunity it's clear oh okay miss that so there's a clear hanky that I did not know about service there we go well please do a man at one time please tell us about that I was, it's kind of funny because I've actually been married three times the first time I had missed that right after high school everybody goes off and gets married and that didn't interest me at all graduate from college everybody gets married after that gets settled in, missed that and I got my master's so I had a master's degree in physical education and a pre-med degree when I got out of college and I met a guy and he was black and we just really had a good time together we became very good friends very quickly and I had grown up in the 60's we had watched a lot of the TV and all the civil rights movement catheters definitely stood up for a lot of the freedom writers and all that kind of thing so my media the way that looked and the way my community responded was always about this isn't right, segregation is wrong you should change that you should move forward and then I brought a black man home for dinner one night suddenly that theory kind of went out the window I also was in school at the time Vatican II which is when the Catholic Church turned every rule in the world upside down you can now meet on Friday you know they got rid of limbo they did all this stuff and if there's any Catholics in the audience I know you're going like oh yeah I don't know it was like everything I had been taught had been kind of turned upside down and it kind of drew us together because he was a military brat and he had traveled around with his family all over Europe so he also had an experience the US experience of being black in the United States and as a result we ended up getting married my sister did not come to the wedding and it caused lots of issues in my family I was kind of a side note my dad had died when I was 13 and again in my teens I kind of laughed about this because my mom was older when she had me and I'm going into adolescence my mom is going into menopause so the only way a respectable Catholic man could get out was to die and literally it was a crazy wild household with an alcoholic mother who was also rageaholic taught me my rageaholic kind of behavior and it was just I was out all the time and kind of running I was lucky I got involved a little bit with drugs and things like that it didn't destroy my life because I was always that person who wanted to go out and do more so again one of those lucky survivors who didn't quite get that but basically so that was my first marriage didn't last very long and the reason that we broke up is because I didn't learn about this open relationship kind of stuff so we both cheated but we cheated on the same moment I thought it was funny so I was still bisexual in those days and so it was basically kind of a moment to go like okay and so we broke up and he's still in contact we still talk with him my second marriage was the man that took me into the leather community who I kind of consider my leather daddy although he doesn't kind of do that role kind of position but he had about a hepatitis and was really sick and needed some help and didn't have insurance I'm in the military they're bugging me about my cousin is coming to town and he's going I'm in a relationship you know and trying to dance around that and be obvious I married him and all that happened the only problem when we were in Phoenix is I would take him out to the base and it was an air base and he would go into the back bar and the German pilots were back there he has a perchance for German pilots so I had to keep dragging him out so he didn't like blow the cover on that we ended up getting divorced when my partner at the time had my son, Josh, who's now 25 and then she was a mother, I was the the other parent and he's not real aware of that of that relationship because she got cancer six months after he was born and has had major health things but came back, she's fine she's got another couple of kids but at the same moment that she was getting ready to have him Bob, my leather daddy his partner, his love of his life and from HIV and so literally two weeks before my son was born, I was going on a flight to bury his partner and I had the birth of a son and we kind of looked at each other and we went, wow and we lived in Texas and there's a lot of community property there so on a purely financial part it was like, alright, we gotta break up for that, but again we stay very very close and we're together with that then I've gotten commitment with a couple of other partners that I've gone through so I actually on the day don't ask, don't tell Defense Marry Jack fell I asked Sharon to marry me and she said yes and so we're getting married in September and it's really exciting because it's the first time I'll be able to marry a woman and love of my life fantastic so here's the comment she made about being pianches you building on all of this you have very interesting professional work tell us a bit about your professional work today I'm a professional gay that's what I do my job, I'm director of training and I'm an equal workplace advocate and it's a 501c3 that works with corporations to create inclusive environments for LGBT employees around the world climate and those kind of things so my job is to go out and tell corporations to be nice and clear and it's interesting because I can be very out, my job is really to be the Google events, learning what's happening help to train individuals but when I won the Creating Change Leather Leadership Award from the task force I had to do that come out moment I had to go tell my boss look I'm getting this award, we're working with corporations I've already planned to do some training from my day job there if you want me to back out of that I will and also realize that there's an honorarium that honorarium is not coming to my day job that's about the leather community it took them a little bit they actually had to have a couple meetings about it so that leather phobia in the workplace even in an LGBT organization is still very much there it went fine, it went great but I've actually had one company talk to me who's deep in the south I've never had these discussions before they Googled me and found me and they said we don't have a problem with it but we're not sure we'll be able to bring you in for training because our media will pick it up and our local radios will do that I'm still waiting on that they're still having that discussion they haven't gotten back with me but it is another coming out experience but I love my job doing it I've tried to retire twice now because I retired from the military then I was a government contractor in New Mexico and I'm not ready to be done yet but I can retire as early as November if I want to do you think you will? no the lady does not want me in the house that much well, please tell us how you came to IMSL and about winning your title okay, I had like I said IMSL a couple times in the background and seen it it was very very cool and when I retired from the military I said I will never go back in the closet again and I will be out and by that time I'd been into leather for 15 years or so so I decided to get more involved with the community and I was actually living in Santa Cruz and San Jose had a very vibrant community so what's so fun about this weekend being at IMSL this year is it's kind of a homecoming for me because I was Miss Leathermaster 1995 right before my title I went to go run at IMSL the community title of Miss San Jose Leather came out of whatever bondage it had been in by whatever club member who owned the title and the rights to the name and so I became Miss San Jose Leather right before the contest and it was so short that it happened that I didn't have a title best so Jeff Tucker who was International Mister Leather 1994 came along and he took one of his old vests and we took the R off of his because he was Mister San Jose Leather and we studded it in an S so the vests that I wore that I ran to compete with the San Jose contest was Jeff Tucker's and I had an incredible set of mentors here in the community Gabrielle had been from San Jose if you ever watched my competition I had a silver LeMay jacket because Gabrielle had made that popular Gabrielle Thornton had been drummer and he lived here in the community and my title Sasha then Kevin Roche we were having a great run and it was a really fun time in San Jose again more clubs were all coming together and doing that and I went to the contest actually I had applied for medical school because I had that premed degree and I was going to come to as a requirement of the title to IMSL and I had to tell them look I'm going to med school next year this would be really nice but I probably can't really do justice to this title I got my last rejection from the medical schools that I went to I applied to about five months before the contest and I said what the hell I'm going to run for it and go for it so it's like to be here kind of a transition year because my year was a transition year as well the San Francisco board the contest, Amy Marie had picked it up and she took it on the road and I won my contest in Chicago and there were 19 contestants in my class they had to make a cut and so I made the top ten it was really fun in this theater in Chicago and all the performance stuff that went on with that and we get to the end and the person who was supposed to would be the big winner and that's who the favorite was there and I was still standing on the floor and I thought I did fairly well but I really didn't know how I'd done and I went oh wow okay I guess I didn't make the top three and then they called my name and I got up there I found out after I didn't win a single category I was second or third in all of them but because of my overall score and doing well and being able to do all the parts of IMSL that's how I won so I was the first IMSL of the second generation well tell us a bit about the recent IMSL changes what's going on and what can we anticipate for the future well it says Sunday we're here, we're queer, we're leather we did it so much less theoretical now I know when Doug and I talked about these questions a little further back well this is kind of what we hope and now I've got a lot more tangible pieces with that but what happened with us last year is that we were going along I was an IMSL alumni which is one of the perks and benefits of being an IMSL you come here, you get to play, you get to do whatever you want nobody really has very many expectations of you you get to walk up on stage once maybe you do some classes and that's kind of your role in that Sharon had been involved on the registration side and was doing some great work and revamping that making all that work and it came to life to us the writer is part of Sharon's family in terms of the leather family and that came to her attention that in fact monies were being misappropriated for charities or hadn't gotten there and things like that Glenda came to us and asked us if we would buy it to Sharon and I to buy Angel from her first thing we said was hell no that was not in our plan Sharon was a bit more emphatic about that because she was dealing on a very personal level with that as well for me it was like that's not in my plan I had tried when Amy in Gen 2 sold it to Glenda I was the first bid and Amy and I were in negotiations for quite a while and we just couldn't close the deal to sell it so I was attempting to buy Imzel 8 years ago and that did not happen Glenda picked it up and moved forward so it was like that should have sailed I'm kind of done with that and we'll move forward what happened a day or two after that is Sharon got a call from Spencer Berkset who is an old friend of hers from the Seattle area and I got a call from John Crongaard within hours of each other on the same day and both of them said you need to take this this is important this is an important contest we love it we want it to continue you need to do this now we thought for a while they were in Kahoot said somebody in the big Uber leather elder council come along and said yes you are the title holder you will do that in fact they did that was a spontaneous on both of them Glenda had a lot of other offers on the Imzel productions part of that and looked at them and decided that it was what she wanted her preferences were to give it to us when Amy bought Imzel from the board in San Francisco she paid them a dollar what we offered Glenda was a dollar and that she would keep all of the debt to the charities and to the other areas that she still had to pay and we would start clean we would start with nothing but we would start clean as a new Imzel productions and then Sharon and I of course talked about what the part she doesn't like is fundraising education dealing with the title holders on a day to day kind of basis about cover your ears and that's the part I love so Sharon used to produce power search she was one of the early organizers of power search so she likes to throw a hot weekend and I think what we found this weekend was that this is a hot weekend people have been having fun it's a good contest, it's gone really well and I get to do what I love doing and created what was called the Imzel foundation so it has kicked off and I talked this morning in the brunch that we already have gotten in for the travel fund for the title holders over $6,000 so they'll each get $3,000 and I what the fuck video from bathrooms all over the United States and Berlin and everywhere else I just brought in another over $1,000 so that kind of my goal of my passion is to make sure the current Imzel and Bubba can travel with the experiences I got to have and hopefully not go into debt at $15,000 to $16,000 because we're excited this year one of the new feeder contests that's coming to Imzel is a Miss South Africa contest that's going to happen in December and I was at LLC a couple weeks ago and Yaku did a kind of strip and raised $2,600 for that travel fund and what I was so honored about was that both Cowboy Jen and Yaku came to me and said this Imzel foundation is where we want to put that money to hold for the Miss South Africa travel fund so we've got a designated fund that when that person wins that title that their travel and trip will be taken care of now a little beyond the scope of what we want to do for Imzel foundation overall but it's a big part of that so it's been crazy it's been wonderful days of this but it's people have shown up and they've had a wonderful time so I thank the communities and the title holders and the contestants we prayed that we would get at least a contest we wanted at least two Buplacks and two Imzels we ended up with eight Imzels and two Buplacks and had an amazing class that believes in what we do and really move forward so if you could do anything you wanted and had no limitations whatsoever what would you do with it? we've learned a lot and there's a lot of debriefing kind of aspects but if I really take a longer look and say what's that strategic part I think I want to try to find a place where I don't have to retire again you know my work in the LGBT community is really fun and exciting but if we can grow this foundation with grants and the things we want to do and the work we want to do with and increasing education and a small community could get a grant from us to bring an educator in that we can have the title holders who could train and build up and be our representatives and get to where they need to go I would love to be the executive director of that organization as Imzel Foundation and that I would work with this weekend as one of the projects that we would work with as the 501c3 because I believe this community Yaku's fundraising was so good is despite all the stuff we've seen over the last year in terms of monies and finance and all that stuff happening that this community still wants to give and still has that heart that I learned way back in Phoenix in those first days you were honored with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Leather Leadership Award please tell us a bit about that I felt old I looked at the previous winners Aldwin, Grayland Thornton, Judy Revye, I'm sorry and those are the folks that were my mentors when I won the title they were the elders who came up and said good job kid here's what you gotta go do, go do this and I had been a creating change and I go for my job and things like that we had just finished our big workplace summit and I got a call from Suhide and we chatted for a while and it was one of those kind of C-3 to 501 C-3 kind of conversations and then she dropped the bomb that you bet selected as the award winner this year it was only the second woman and Vi Johnson was the first and I just kind of shook my head going me, you know for me I am always a boy in service and I do that because I love what I get from that I get a lot of stage time I have an extrovert because the light goes on but I love just being able to serve and make it better and to see a path forward and so thinking about getting up in front of 4,000 people and talking to them who are LGBT queer intersexed, questioning and allies about who we are as leather is a humbling experience because I may be the only voice that they hear about who we are in the community and that we are standing toe-to-toe with them boot-to-boot to be with them and so getting up there was just an amazing experience and I was really, really honored and the timing was amazing we had two comments to it the first this happened after we bought IMSL and I said well maybe if you buy IMSL that's what you get the community gives you award but because it was selected by the former and so that council of elders that we shall not speak of basically said we we endorse you we think what you're doing is important and going forward and with that award came a $5,000 honorarium and with that honorarium that's how the foundation started we're going to talk about in the coming days about match grants I put 2,000 of that in the account already to start the foundation and I'm going to go ask other people to match those funds and to put the other 3,000 in as we need it and so it was so serendipitous to say wow so it seemed like in my life I've always found that if it is easy and it flows that's what I'm supposed to do if I struggle and try to make it happen it's not the right thing to do and this has been that kind of easy what does mentoring mean to you it's been fun I've kind of transitioned that I thought it was just going to have to be the alumni and I didn't have to do all the kind of out front work anymore and so I when I was in Albuquerque until about 2008 I grew the community we did events I was bringing other people up and we began to talk about how do you bring the next generation and talk to people and I am so proud of the fact that Jason DeBoy and Tyler McCormick were both folks who came to me very young in their leather days and just talked to me about it you know I wasn't the first line mentor with them but they came and they asked me that and when Jason won Internationalist Boot Black and Tyler won Internationalist Leather I could not have been prouder so I realized that for me that sense of sharing it you know Joe Carter you know Imzo 1996 said each one teach one we've got amazing skills and abilities and part of that foundation belief is really to make it a professional development you know I can do it yes but I need somebody who's half my age to do it and I need them to find somebody who's half their age because otherwise clubs come and go groups come and go titles come and go and we're not going to be a community if we have to keep riding the surf what's the biggest misconception about you huh probably that boy to me means only submission I am not submissive anybody who knows me and sometimes when people only see my exterior part they go you're a bottom you're a boy that's amazing that I have found in my life that being a boy and doing good service when somebody says to me your job is to go out and do that the best you can because I'm under order and I love to serve and that I'm not doing it because I'm topping the community or something like that it's really about community service and I love that so thank you all for engulging me this weekend in my service fetish could we stop for a little while say for it well I'd like to thank you very much Pat


The K-2 battalion of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, 54th Brigade, have carried out an operation to capture the position codenamed Cyclop in eastern Donetsk region. During the operation that lasted for several days, Russian Army soldiers suffered heavy losses despite putting up resistance. Residents were able to extend the resistance for a while as the military position was in a favorable location for them. The invaders trench was located in a complex terrain, which reduced the effect of Ukrainian artillery strikes. For this reason, the position where the invaders had gathered additional forces came under intensive fire from mortars and grenades. As a result of the strikes, 10 Russian soldiers in the trench were killed. Up to 15 Russian soldiers managed to survive by hiding in a trench. Later on, some of them were killed by missiles fired from a drone, after which Ukrainian fighters managed to enter the trench. However, the surviving Russian soldiers hiding in the bunker continued to resist. They went out of the bunker in an attempt to fight at a close range but failed to resist the intense shelling by Ukrainian fighters and head in the bunker again.