Good morning. I'm a professor, of course, so good morning. Okay, first, thank you, Patricia, for organizing this session. My colleague at Baruch College, Zach Manfilie, works a lot on rebel taxation and would have liked to be here. But I'm happy to be here at my first wider conference and appreciate the initiatives that try to bridge the gap between policymakers and academics. Today our main goal is to emphasize the importance of including the behavior of non-state actors. In our understanding of the total tax landscape for people living in conflict areas, we just heard about this a bit. We urge policymakers and aid organizations to take a more expansive approach in recognizing that armed non-state actors may sometimes improve on state tax systems. And as Patricia mentioned in the beginning, we've heard already in two cases may provide public and private services and goods. Further, we support a multidisciplinary approach when looking at these sort of issues, recognizing that both in Zach's case and my case, he's a political scientist. I'm an economist. We often have limitations in our own discipline as we're looking at these issues. So a few key framing questions. Patricia mentioned earlier that the work that we're putting together is kind of a broad way to, like a conceptual framework, a way to think about this more broadly and kind of forge a path forward in terms of where the research should be going in this area. Some key framing questions are what are the limits of existing state-centric approaches to setting taxation and conflict? What are some of the shortcomings of disciplinary approaches? Can incorporating the behavior of non-state actors improve our understanding of the impact of conflict on household well-being? And how would shifting the debate from state taxation to include all forms of taxation during conflict impact the behavior of the international community? So Patricia mentioned a few of these things already. A lot of people live in conflict-affected areas. And the World Bank that has, I'll show you a designation of fragile and conflict environments that they do every year, say that by 2030, the majority of the extreme poor in the world will live in those areas. Moreover, conflict has gone from being interstate over the decades to more interstate conflict where these non-state actors, like rebels and surgeons, militias have a lot more presence and are engaged on the ground. This is in contrast to gangs and other criminal organizations and cartels that may be operating in even non-fragile and non-conflict states. These armed non-state actors are more involved over time, have been involved in governance, and that's what we're going to be talking about a little bit now. Some of the literature that has looked at conflict and taxation has said that interstate wars have improved support for taxes, but that interstate and civil wars may actually kind of do the opposite because of increases in polarization. So here's an example just of some of the World Bank's classification of conflict situations and fragile situations. They define fragile situations as systemic condition or situation characterized by an extremely low level of institutional and governance capacity, which significantly impedes the state's ability to function effectively, maintain peace, and foster economic and social development. As we've heard for the past day and a half, institutions are critical to thinking about up revenue, and this is a challenge in fragile and conflict environments. Importantly, in the literature, sometimes scholars don't always separate these two different environments, fragile and conflict, but in terms of thinking of policy implications, they can be quite different. So a quick note on definitions. I'm going to use the word conflict very broadly, but in each of the papers that we're referring to in the literature, often there's like a specific definition for conflict or for taxation, so it's important to keep in mind. Now the main goal here is to describe this conceptual framework and think about kind of revenue on one hand and expenditures on the other hand, then I'm going to give you an example from Yemen, because some of the work I'm doing at the moment is on Yemen, and then I'll finish up with some kind of implications and guiding questions. So this conceptual framework, we want to start by thinking of tax revenues in fragile states. We can imagine, for example, in fragile environments, a lot of potential revenue being lost to bureaucratic efficiencies, to corruption, to other things like that, and so we have this potential total tax revenue, right, and then we have the realized tax revenue. This is in fragile environments as opposed to, for example, stable environments, right. Then we add in the conflict state, and so here we're thinking of similar corruption and efficiencies and similar, you know, this realized tax revenue, but there's also this loss of a revenue base, and we've heard a little bit about from the beginning what conflict does to local economic activity. There's also the loss of territory and many other ways. Government is spending money now on, you know, on more military instead of some of the administrative services, and so there's this loss of revenue base. And what we propose is, you know, this middle section is more of a state-centric approach, and in this conference, of course, I think, as Patricia said in the beginning, we take for granted that we're talking about a place where the state is functioning at a decent level and we're trying to rev up this revenue and domestic revenue in a functioning environment. Here, when we have conflict states and we incorporate non-state actors, what we want to think about is, you know, how some of the loss of the revenue base that is happening on the state side, it's actually going towards realized non-state tax revenue. And we heard some examples here just now in the context of Columbia, which, you know, has to do with both criminal organizations but in the past has to do with FARC as well and how some of that money is going in that direction. So here we're just thinking of kind of the tax revenue side, but we also want to think about the expenditure side, right? Actually, before I leave this slide, let me say one more thing that we've already talked about how businesses and I guess there are citizens in certain places pay the people who are in charge, right? The people who are on the ground who are, for example, giving protective services and whatnot. And so sometimes households and firms are taxed, you know, predation and extortion. We'll talk about that in a moment, but they're taxed based on where they are operating in, let's say, rebel territory or in state-run territory. Sometimes when goods, for example, are transported across a long area or a large area, then they have double taxation. So the first part of this framework recognizes that individuals and firms pay more than just state taxes. The next part considers how this is spent. So again, we have the fragile environments and the conflict states and then the two different kind of state-centric approaches versus non-state actors here. And so here on the left, we think about kind of ideal expenditure for a fragile state where they're doing these social services and then other necessary expenditures like defense and interest payments. And then here we think about getting rid of that lost revenue, right? So we have the realized revenue in the state. And you can see here, let's imagine that defense, the box is a little larger, but the reality is that social services have gone down, right, during a conflict area for all the reasons I named. And in the right-most box, we can think of that lost revenue again as actually going into some total revenue if we think again about how non-state actors are bringing in some of the money and then they're spending it. So some of it, of course, is in the top box where they're spending it on military campaigns, but some of it is actually the non-state services. Here we're extrapolating and sorry, we are abstracting from things like borrowing, from things like aid and international organizations which may be on the ground and doing some of these social services. This is kind of a basic framework that we're hoping to develop and think about in the context of specific sectors depending on the country. So there are many challenges to identification and estimation in this area. In the interest of time, I'm going to come back to this later if I have time when I finish this out. But as we know from the discussions here, it's really hard to do research in conflict areas. There's always a paucity of data in these areas and there are a lot of other factors coming in which makes it challenging and that's why I think the multidisciplinary approaches are really important here. So I'm going to quickly go through some of the literature on taxation by state actors and non-state actors. Broadly when we think about state taxation, of course it impacts state building, capacity building. These institutions can in turn affect the ability to tax and within fragile environments already, these systems are being very strained. Akitobi and colleagues at the IMF examined tax revenues in developing countries from 2000 to 2017 and find that fragile countries revenues were about 12% of GDP. That's about four to six percentage points less than non-fragile environments. And of course when conflict breaks out, then there are all these other mechanisms. I've mentioned some of them before, you've heard some of them from my colleagues. But there are many different ways that conflict affects the tax space for the government. And again, that's kind of part of our conceptual framework is just to think of those different mechanisms and recognize which scholars have already done the impact of conflict on state capacity and taxation. And what we want to bring in now is the other side, right? So first I'm going to start by talking about governance more broadly by armed non-state actors. Here scholars have shown, as I mentioned, this is some of the work actually my colleague, both Zach and also Desmond Arias, both at Baruch. They've increasingly studied rebel and criminal organizations as governance actors and a wide variety of nonviolent actions. I mentioned that they provide services and public goods. They also deploy symbolic actions to establish larger social order. And while often viewed as extortion, non-state groups commonly levy taxes in a predictable and structured manner. Rebels seek to define, engage, regulate and control civilian populations and commercial actors through tax systems. Now again, note that in these areas, we do often find unarmed non-state actors. I mentioned NGOs, international organizations. These groups are often providing social and humanitarian services, but they're typically taxed as well to be able to go into these zones, right? So it's not that they're there and they're not engaging while international organizations may not always want to, you know, publicize how they're engaging on the ground in these areas. They are getting protection to be able to get into zones that are under rebel control. So as an example of these structured quote unquote taxes, we have a few receipts that Zach shared from Nagaland, which is a state in Northeast India. This is from the National Socialist Council of Nagaland. It was one of the main rebel groups operating in this area. And what you see here is some tax receipts. And Zach really liked where they said, you know, received with thanks, you know. And this is the full receipt. And here's an example of one of their officials. He said paying tax to NSCN is in itself a political demonstration of indicating that Naga people pay tax to the Naga government and not to the occupying force. And that occupying force is the Indian government. So that's just an example. I'm going to show you another example from Yemen in a moment. So this literature on taxation by non-state actors is quite nascent, but is growing. As I mentioned, some of my colleagues have done a lot of work in this area. First, there is evidence that both how individuals and firms view and experience taxation and how scholars understand taxation are impacted by historical, political, and cultural lenses. This is really important if we think back to yesterday's early discussion and the afternoon's plenary as well, where we're thinking about how, you know, citizens can maybe mobilize, right, to think about having their voice and pushing for more transparency and things like that. And so it's really important to think about how individuals and firms experience taxation and to look at the total tax landscape for them, right? So many scholars use this term extortion or predation when non-state actors receive money from, thank you, from local population, which implies it's like unpredictable uses of force for such collection. However, as Kenton's note, non-state actors could have, quote, unquote, more predictable administrative processes than tax and customs systems in their own countries. Finally, over time, non-state actors may not just, you know, expand on these systems. They may identify new sorts of revenue, adopt more efficient practices, be less corrupt, be seen as less corrupt than the state, and maybe, you know, as Patricia mentioned, more legitimate in some ways, and they may shift from more military goals to political goals. I'm just going to highlight a couple of key things from Yemen. I'm doing some work on conflict, displacement and food security in Yemen at the moment. In particular, some of the main groups there, the Houthis, they took over the capital Sana in 2014 and then in March 2015 with regional international forces came an escalation of violence and airstrikes and other kind of military campaigns. And we've been, you know, they've been in violence ever since. There was a large contraction in GDP. We talked a bit or we heard about yesterday some of like the importance of natural resources in some countries. Oil, for example, or production in Yemen, dropped a lot before this crisis in 2013. It was like 60% of fiscal revenue came from the state oil production. That made up about 13% of GDP in 2013 and that dropped to about 3% of GDP in 2015. So we have these different key actors. The Houthis have about one-third of the territory in Yemen, but about 70% of the population of 33 million live in that territory. And so, you know, the internationally recognized government, for example, some of the issues that came up, they couldn't tax during this process. You know, this resulted in lack of basic services. Also, they didn't kind of pay their government workers. They started printing money to cover the budget, but that resulted in a currency crisis. So there were these many spiraling things. Airblocks and sea blockades had massive impact on supply chains, et cetera, et cetera. You can imagine kind of over the past decade or, you know, six, seven years how this has been. The Houthis do a lot of taxing. So they tax and confiscate goods and they divert aid. Houthis, quote unquote, have increased tax revenue from tax selection by 500% compared to pre-war tax revenue. So now some of these, just to say again, you know, the data here, we're going to think about triangulating different sources, right? So any one source, of course, is going to be biased in many ways. And everyone there in Yemen has a reason to maybe lie about what, you know, both the government side and the Houthis as well. But so we have this quote, you know, some quotes from some of the researchers who are there. Gradually, the Houthis developed some capabilities, although limited, within service delivery, such as the provision of electricity, water, and limited educational and health services. So here are some quick examples, two minutes, yeah. Okay, here are some quick, just examples of, again, some receipts in Yemen, some quote unquote donations, right, that they have putting out that money there. Here's a vaccination campaign to COVID. Initially the Houthis were saying there was putting out a lot of misinformation saying that there's no COVID. Eventually the acquiesce, they let the World Health Organization come in and do some vaccinations and, okay, so for the last two minutes, I just want to talk about kind of the multidisciplinary approach and some questions to leave us at when we move forward in this area. I think what's really important here is using complementary methodologies. We've already heard some of them today using both qualitative and quantitative methods, thinking about econometric models and the broader scale, but also kind of detailed case studies. And again, using things like key informant interviews and participant observation, given that we don't have great data sources, especially on the non-state armed actors. So I'm going to focus on these three, excuse me, four different boxes, thinking about some questions to keep in mind. So from a legal perspective, for example, we might want to consider issues like when civilians pay taxes to armed groups that could sometimes legally be considered material support for terrorism. There are also questions about, for example, post-conflict when there are land rights issues and citizens have been paying rebels but not the state, and afterwards, do they have, you know, what rights do they have to that land? Our economic approach as being an economist, I can say that we have many strengths, but one weakness is that if we can't measure things well, sometimes we don't measure them at all, and I think that it's really important to think about some of the assumptions and question some of the assumptions that economists make on armed actors. From a political perspective, we want to consider how governance can be thought of as a technology, and when we think about the legacies of taxation regimes and they carry on after conflict, how to incorporate some of perhaps the benefits of what rebels have brought into these contexts. Finally, from a social perspective, it's critical to think about the implications for local communities and consider, again, citizens' attitudes towards non-state taxation. Finally, I know I've got less than a minute. I think I've said most of these things. I just want to highlight one or two questions to leave us with. During conflicts, we want to think about how to avoid double taxation, so civilian and commercial actors are not forced to pay multiple times. This could be useful for them during this period, and how to design agricultural and export commodity prices that do not exacerbate, for example, the divisions happening during war. Post-conflict, we want to think about, as I mentioned, the legacies of taxation regimes, whether the state is in power afterwards or, for example, in Afghanistan, where the Taliban is now in charge, to think about kind of what novel practices there could be to, again, rev up revenue. Finally, how should national governments and international actors deal with taxes paid to rebel groups? Again, this is something that we can take away from in this conference and thinking about how to broaden our approach, especially for thinking about those 2 billion people who live in areas that are afflicted by conflict. Thank you very much.


Hey guys, welcome to suspect pursuit again, and we have here serpent and let's corral this girl and let's all go home Okay, for suspect pursuit you may actually put here with her in a way that she can deal damage maximize it Have to stay there you have to more or less take advantage of her attacks Going up and going down This way she will have more you know more time to survive Okay, so let's see how I do this. I like her weapon actually because Let's do some energy first here. There you go so core broken and There you go So as much possible you do not want to head on these guys have to Take care of them by the side and alternate where you cannot be attacked see so This gives her really a big advantage from my end because she can really attack and be strategic about where she can place her attacks and There you go, let's do a two for one here. Let's just wait for them to come in this and Do two core break see Ain't that nice guys so we have a little bit more This is why I like her because of the positioning advantage that she gives you It's really up to you on How you're gonna be positioning her how you're gonna be maximizing her and So on and so forth So as you see there you can actually defend two lanes two lanes while You are Actually In the middle See So not really hard to use her actually it's it's nice to be able to leverage placement with With serpent so that is how you use her guys and hopefully you also clear this stage Thank you guys for staying as far take care stay safe. This is the warden and I'm out of here


And so, I'll begin reading at verse 33. I'll read to verse 38 and we'll look at this passage this evening. Mark writes, now, when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Alui Lama Sabachtani, which is translated, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Some of those who stood by when they heard that said, look, he's calling for Elijah. Then someone ran and filled a sponge full of sour wine, put it on a read and offered it to him to drink, saying, let him alone. Let us see if Elijah will come to take him down. And Jesus cried out with a loud voice and breathed his last. Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. As we begin our study, the Lord Jesus Christ has been on the cross now for three hours. When you look in chapter 15 here in the Gospel of Mark at verse 25, it tells us when he was crucified, he was crucified at 9 a.m. And now it's noon. Now Jesus had ministered for three years. And as he had done so, he had made many enemies. His powerful ministry had caused religious leaders to rise in opposition to him. They even desired him to die. And they sought out ways for this to happen. They were finally able to secure charges that they could try him on. Those charges are found in John chapter five. The first charge was that he was a Sabbath breaker because he had healed on the Sabbath. And the other charge was that he called himself the Son of God, making himself, they said, equal with God. Now those are religious charges. They were not enough to secure an execution. So because of this, they took him before the Roman governor, a man by the name of Pontius Pilate. And they gave us secular charge. The charge that they brought against Christ was the charge of sedition. It says in Luke 23 verse 2 that they began to accuse him, saying, we found this fellow perverting the nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ, a king. And so that was a charge of sedition of trying to overturn the Roman governor. And these were charges that Pilate couldn't ignore. And so we see in the scriptures how that he had taken time to talk with Jesus Christ and he asked a series of questions of him. And after he had questioned him for some time, he finally said, I find no fault in him. He didn't find any fault. And though he did not find any fault, he finally had to wash his hands. He washed his hands of the whole thing. So throughout the night, after all of this is taking place, Jesus has suffered. He had suffered severe beatings. He had suffered humiliation. Finally he was taken to a place called Calvary and there he was crucified. Now as crucifixion fulfilled one of the prophecies, the many prophecies concerning Messiah, a thousand years earlier King David had prophesied that this would happen in the Psalms in Psalm 22 verses 14 through 17. It speaks of the Messiah and words that Messiah would utter and it says, I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax that has melted within me. My strength is dried up like a pot's hurt. My tongue clings to my jaws. You've brought me to the dust of death. Dogs have surrounded me. The congregation of the wicked has enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones and they look and they stare at me. This is a picture of crucifixion. We need to remember that during the time of Christ and prior to that the Jewish manner of execution was through stoning. Crucifixion was Roman. Now Jesus had been taken outside of the city. He had been taken to a place called Calvary and there he had been crucified. As I was preparing my heart for this message, I wanted to spend a moment allowing myself and I'll encourage all of us for a moment to think what this means when we say crucifixion today across is an article of jewelry for people. They wear it because they think it's just kind of cool or whatever. I don't know why they would wear it but they do. They don't understand what crucifixion is. Crucifixion is one of the most barbaric, one of the most degrading, one of the most painful ways anybody could ever die. The risks of the person being crucified would be nailed to a cross beam. The legs would be twisted and nailed to a post. A rope had been tied around the waist of Jesus and he was placed on a sharp saddle peg. The cross was made up of two pieces, a post and a cross beam and Jesus was either nailed to the cross beam or raised by cords to the cross beam and then it was nailed to it. The cross was usually twice the height of the man. Being crucified, dislocation would occur. The veins would bulge, congestion of blood in the head, lungs and the heart occurred. We know that Jesus had already suffered head wounds that his back had been ripped open and as he was breathing his back was rubbing against the splintered post and the sharpened iron peg, lacerating his back with every breath as he raised himself to breathe. As he did so over time he began to dehydrate, his legs began to cramp, he would suffer intense fever and eventually the dehydration and the shock, the loss of blood and the suffocation would result in his death. Every time Jesus would take a breath his arms had been stretched there on that cross beam. Every time he would lift himself up because he had to lift himself up to breathe because his ribs, his rib cage was collapsing his lungs so in order for him to catch a breath he had to lift himself and every time he lifted himself his back which was already lacerated by the stripes he had earlier received and not the splinters in that wooden post those splinters would be driven into his back. That sharpened saddle peg that was placed in an area around your lower back was not intended to be a place of comfort to allow you to rest on it but it was sharpened like a nail and it would slice into your lower back lacerating it with every breath. Jesus was not on the cross for 10 seconds or 15 seconds he was on for hours and so as he would take his breath every time he would breathe his back lacerated would be torn even more by that wooden cross and the sharpened peg would be driven deeper and deeper into his back. Again people like to wear crosses today for whatever reason I see all kinds of people who have no faith in Christ to wear crosses used to be a symbol of our faith used to be a reminder of our Savior and now it seems to be simply an article of jewelry but it was what Jesus himself went to for us. Now the question has to be asked and it was a terrible death why would he allow himself to die in this way? We know that through Scripture there was nothing in him that should have caused him to have in any way deserve such a death and Pontius Pilate the civil authority had said I find no fault in this man why would that happen? Why would he allow this? He didn't deserve it but the Bible makes it very clear the reason that Jesus went to this cross voluntarily is because it's the way that God is going to provide salvation for man God so loved the world we're told God loved us so much that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever should believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life Jesus Christ came in order to lay his life down he took upon himself our sins because all have sin and fall short of the glory of God there's none righteous no not one there's not one perfect person nobody has been born without this edemic sin nature and Jesus took our sins upon himself he suffered for us and that's something we should remember and that's why we call this Good Friday it was the way that God was providing salvation for us in Matthew 20 verse 28 Jesus said the Son of Man came not to be ministered to but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many and so here he is on a cross and he's been on that cross from noon until from 9 in the morning now from noon until 3 there's a darkness that's over the whole land the scripture says verse 33 the sixth hour had come and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour it's interesting that on the night that Jesus was born remember that it's recorded in Luke chapter 2 how in the night that he was born that the sky was filled with supernatural light and in Luke 2 verses 8 and 9 it says there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields keeping watch over their flocks by night and behold an angel of the Lord stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were greatly afraid so there was glory there was light it was beautiful there was a supernatural light in the night that he was born Jesus is the light of the world it was fitting that his birth would be accompanied by light but on the day he died at noon when the sun is at its brightest the Bible tells us that the sky had become dark now why would it become dark well in the Bible darkness very often is a symbol it's a symbol of judgment you can see that it's stated that way in both the old and the New Testament an example in the old is in the prophetic book of Amos chapter 5 verse 18 where it says woe unto you who long for the day of the Lord why do you long for the day of the Lord that day will be darkness not light in the New Testament when Jesus was speaking of judgment in Matthew 25 30 it reads throw that worthless servant outside into the darkness where there will be weeping in nation of teeth why was it dark because it's a symbol of judgment the cross was a place of judgment the sins of the world were poured out vicariously on the Son of God and the supernatural darkness expresses God's response to sin again in Habakkuk another Old Testament book chapter 1 verse 13 the prophet said you are of purer eyes than to behold evil cannot look on wickedness maybe a picture of the spiritual darkness that was enshrouding those who were crucified Jesus in 2 Corinthians 4 3 and 4 Paul said even if our gospel is veiled it is veiled to those who are perishing the God of this age is blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God you might be a Christian who shares your faith and you'll speak to people and sometimes it's almost as if you see a light go off in their eyes when you're speaking to them as they come to realize that what you're saying is true and it applies to them and then there are other times that you're sharing the faith of Christ with someone and there's like a there's a sense that they're not receiving it's only revealing their heart their the spiritual darkness the God of this age Paul said blinded the minds of unbelievers they can't see the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ they can't and so darkness very often is a symbol of God's expression of God's displeasure with sin darkness is a symbol of his judgment later on the light is going to return and that may be foreshadowing the resurrection it says in verse 34 the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying which is translated my God my God why have you forsaken me now I'm going to do something and share something with you here the gospel writers and as you read this and you read the stories in all four of the gospels of what occurs there at the crucifixion if I did interesting to note many of you already know this the gospel writers really preserve very few words uttered by Jesus there on the cross you have a whole gospel filled with his sayings his teachings and all but when he was dying on the cross there are very few recordings of the words that he spoke scripture actually records what are called the seven last sayings of Christ that's seven last sayings of Jesus when he was on the cross and let me remind you of some of these because we're going to see some of this in just a moment but I'm going to take you through these seven last sayings and develop it with you as I go through this study the first of his seven last sayings is recorded in the gospel of Luke it's been called a word of forgiveness and that took place when Jesus was crucified remember there were two thieves who were crucified next to him and there were people there surrounding him and when he was placed on the cross the first thing that is recorded that he said was in Luke 23 34 he said father forgive them for they know not what they do and we have to understand that in the midst of his excruciating pain he's there praying he's praying for those who are putting him to death he's praying for those who harmed him he wasn't specifically praying by the way for Judas who betrayed him or even the pilot or the priest they all had differing amounts of information concerning him and they're the ones who had determined to betray him they're the ones who brought false witnesses to bear testimony against him they're the ones who were involved in his execution and they had a lot of knowledge and they rejected what they had heard and the bible says from the one given much much is required he was praying but he was praying for the soldiers he was praying for those who were carrying out their duties he was praying for the thieves who are dying next to him and those who are watching him die and he was praying that God would show mercy to them that it would be something that they could receive that they would receive forgiveness and it was a prayer that was given to God on their behalf and then a second saying is recorded and it's a saying that was to to one of the thieves who had died beside him and this second saying has been called a word of salvation it's recorded in Luke 23 verses 39 through 43 and he was speaking to a thief a thief was there dying next to him on the cross obviously the thief had been impacted by what he was watching what he was witnessing the thief was there he saw the mocking of the priest and the scribes as well as the elders he heard the taunting of those who were passing by and he saw the Calliston different soldiers who were gambling for Jesus's robe and at first the Bible tells us that this thief had joined in the reviling of Christ but some time during this time he had a change of heart and maybe that he had heard the prayer with Christ that said Father forgive them they no know what they do and as he's watching this righteous man dying he came to believe in him when you look at the story the other thief blasphemed Jesus he said Christ save yourself and us take us from this cross but the other one responded don't you fear God we're getting what we deserve this man has done nothing and then he says to Jesus this is recorded in Luke 23 42 he said Lord remember me when you come into your kingdom remember me don't forget me I know a lot of people who have had people forget them a lot of lonely people a lot of lonely people a lot of people die alone and that's one of the saddest things that can happen to anyone and that was happening to this man Lord remember me you wonder if there were family members or former friends or people who knew that we're there watching this take place I'm gonna assume that there weren't any I'm gonna assume that he was dying next to somebody that he had he had done evil with a man who was another thief but there were no friends there there was no family there there was no mom crying there was no father there saying my son it was just him a thief a crowd and a savior and he looked at Jesus I can't I can't imagine Lord remember me don't forget me and the Lord spoke to him a word of salvation he said I say unto you today you will be with me in paradise I won't forget you because today you'll be with me and this is a man who was the last person to turn to Jesus for salvation during the ministry of Jesus Christ he gave him a word of salvation then there was a third word a word of relationship that's when Jesus entrusted his mother Mary into the care of John the apostle in John 19 verses 25 through 27 he had said to Mary woman behold your son and then he told John behold your mother and in doing this as her oldest son he was honoring Mary by providing for her care Jesus would not entrust her into the care of those who didn't believe in him he had brothers and sisters but he didn't entrust his mother into the care of those who didn't trust him he entrusted his mother into the care of one who did and that's why he pointed to John and said behold your son he wasn't saying look at me he was saying look at him he's going to care for you and he entrusted her into his care he provided for her and he was there on the cross and then there's the fourth saying it's called a word of abandonment and that's when he had said in verse 34 my God my God why have you forsaken me and he cried out he cried out in anguish because of the separation he's experiencing on the cross Jesus experiences the separation of man man's separation from God and that's the only time in eternity that Jesus experienced such a separation and taken upon himself the sin of the world he also felt the isolation that sin produces we know that sin produces isolation it cuts you off from relationship and that's what sin does we are made separate we are separated from God because of our sin Isaiah 59 1 and 2 says the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save or is ear dull that it cannot hear but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear sin when unforgiven produces separation between God and man now what kind of separation did he experience it wasn't a separation of nature it wasn't a separation of his essence it was a separation of fellowship somebody wrote that Jesus had a taste of such broken communion the first and last he ever experienced in those desolate hours when darkness lay upon the earth and upon his soul Jesus was our forerunner in every kind of experience even to the feeling of God's frown of disapproval of sin that he might become our high priest understanding all our infirmities being tempted in all points like us but apart from sin he felt the way a lost sinner feels without himself having sinned again the cross is a place of divine judgment Jesus is bearing our sins he dies in our place to purchase us out of a marketplace of sin the Bible tells us as God is holy he cannot look upon sin with approval and sin had to be dealt with revealing both God's wrath as well as his mercy and that's what he's doing he was providing for us salvation through Christ the cross reveals both God's holiness as well as the grace of God and that's why Paul in Galatians 3.13 would write that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us for it is written curse that is everyone who is hanged on a tree and so on that cross God's love was was revealed 1 John 4 9 and 10 says in this the love of God was manifest it was openly revealed toward us that that God has sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him and this is love not that we love God but that he loved us and he sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins the word propitiation means the satisfaction of his holy and righteous anger Jesus satisfied that on your behalf and the result of believing what God has done transforms us it teaches us that we don't have to attempt to earn his approval that we learn to trust in the love that was demonstrated to us when Christ went to the cross and that's what causes you to love God 1 John 4 19 it says we love him because he first loved us I never did anything to make him love me he loved me first and I love him in response to his love first for me I know he loved God demonstrated his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us by becoming sin for us for the first and only time he experienced separation his communion with the father is broken he feels the isolation that sin produces he experienced what every one of us understands and the separation this loneliness this sense of brokenness is what drove us to Jesus Christ and that brings us to the fifth saying of Christ it's a word of distress John 19 28 says after this knowing that all things were now accomplished that scripture might be fulfilled said I thirst now that's the picture of crucifixion it describes the dehydration that is suffered and Jesus knew all things were now accomplished and when it speaks of the all things that that's the all things that pertain to salvation they're being completed and knowing this is fulfilling scripture once again Jesus said I thirst now that's another prophecy concerning Jesus that is fulfilled it says in verse 36 someone ran and filled a sponge full of sour wine and put it on a read and offered it to drink and so in psalm 69 verse 21 again another prophecy they gave me golf for my food and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink and so Jesus is giving these last sayings and that's what's taking place now in verse 35 it said some of those who stood by when they heard that said look he's calling for Elijah now the ones who were hearing it were not Romans they were Jews and they misunderstood what he was saying their reaction to what's going on is anything but sympathetic it's without compassion it's actually mockery this isn't out of curiosity this isn't out of religious fear and so what they're saying is they're twisting his words and instead of it being Eloi Eloi which is speaking of God they're saying he's calling for Elijah you see there was a prophecy that Elijah would introduce Messiah to the nation in Malachi 3 verse 1 behold I send my messenger he'll prepare the way before me and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple even the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight behold he is coming says the Lord in the Holy Ghosts and so that was a prophecy related to Elijah and so they're mocking it they're saying is Elijah about to come is he going to formally introduce Jesus to us and so as he's saying that verse 36 that's when someone ran and filled a sponge full of sour wine and put it on a read and offered it to him to drink saying let him alone let us see if Elijah will come and take him down 1929 a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there and they filled a sponge with sour wine put it on his and put it to his mouth the sour wine was high in water or low in alcohol it was used to quench thirst and by this he was able to moisten his mouth so he could speak his last words this was an act of mercy and more than likely was done by a Roman military guard and as his mouth is now moistened verse 37 Jesus cried out with a loud voice and he breathed his last the vinegar had provided moisture for his dry mouth and now he can cry out Matthew Mark and Luke all say that he cried out with a loud voice in other words it wasn't a weak cry coming out of a man breathing his last breath it was a loud cry it was a cry of victory coming from someone who was dying voluntarily in John 10 Jesus had said this in verses 17 and 18 he said the reason the Father loves me is that I lay down my life in order to take it up again no one takes it from me I lay it down of my own accord I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again this charge I have received from the Father and so he is moistened in his mouth and he is making his loud cry which comes to the sixth saying of Christ on the cross in John 19 verse 30 when Jesus had received the sour wine he said it is finished it is finished to Telestai the word to Telestai is paid in full completely paid for everything was now accomplished he had completed his task it is time to return to the Father in John 16 28 he had said I came forth from the Father and have come into the world I am leaving the world again and going to the Father so the mission is now reaching the end it is time for him to go home and he is crying out and he is saying it is finished and as he does so someone said that Jesus died with the cry of a victor of the victor on his lips not the moan of the defeated nor the sigh of a patient resignation it is the triumphant recognition that he has now fully accomplished the work that he came to do and he cried out paid in full the Messiah's work of redemption was accomplished his Father's command had been obeyed types and prophecies had been fulfilled his life had been lived his teaching completed his last earthly tithe had been severed and the end has come the final wages of sin which his death alone remained to be paid and it is there on the cross that Jesus paid the price of redemption Ephesians 1 7 says in him we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace and Jesus verse 37 says cried out with a loud voice it is finished and he breathed his last which is the seventh saying of Jesus on the cross Luke tells us in chapter 23 verse 46 he called out with a loud voice Father into your hands I commit my spirit into your hands I deposit my spirit these words are an expression of total trust in his Father remember his death was completely voluntary and he is now entrusting his spirit to his Father the words that he expresses are from Psalm 31 verse 5 into your hand I commit my spirit they were part of the evening prayers for centuries more than likely were part of the evening prayers of Jesus from childhood they would say this prayer as they went to sleep from childhood Father into thy hands I commit my spirit we teach our kids scary prayers if I die before I wake who wants to go to sleep you know that's a scary prayer I mean you already think there's a boogeyman under the bed you already do right many of us grew up thinking there was a boogeyman under the bed and some of us understand that everybody uses a different word for him we use the word kukui and he was under the bed and he was waiting to get your feet I can still remember I would turn the lights off but I would be standing like I was in a race and I would turn the lights off and actually try to beat the light from going off and I would take two steps and dive and I would land on my bed because kukui was going to get me I was taught to do evening prayers a long time ago but the wrong ones if I die before I wake I'm going to die there's kukui under the bed and I have to go to the bathroom I'm a dead man but in the life of Jesus there were prayers they would pray and they would pray the psalms Father into thy hand I commit my spirit and that's how they would put their head on the pillow they'd have their head on the pillow and they would pray that prayer it's very precious a beautiful prayer it's a prayer they would have prayed every night and here on the cross it's a prayer he prays one last time on his lips as he gently as he peacefully and as he willingly died Matthew 2750 says that he cried out again with a loud voice Father into thy hands I commit my spirit and then he said spirit go he yielded his spirit he dismissed it he chose the moment all was accomplished it's over early in his ministry he had been in a place called Cana in northern Israel in the Galilee John records it in chapter 2 how that he had gone to a wedding in Cana of Galilee and as he was there in this wedding his mother had approached him and said to him they have no wine and Jesus responded to her and he said woman what is that to do with me my hour has not come Jesus knew he had an appointed time he knew that there were things he was going to do and that at the moment that everything had been accomplished that's when it was over and no one was to tell him when that moment was it was his father had given to him the timetable and it was his father he obeyed to the very end right so when she had approached him and she said they have no wine he with respect when you're first reading the Bible you may not understand this but for him to say woman is not a disrespectful thing now perhaps for us today in our day if you turn to your mom and said woman maybe she wouldn't like that maybe she'd be upset maybe you think she'd think it was disrespectful but it wasn't disrespectful it was really an honor it was something that they would call their mother they would call her woman that's why he there on the cross he had said woman behold your son it wasn't disrespect at all it was a term of endearment and he had said what is that to do with me what is your concern got to do with me you are not the one who determines the timetable my father does I will go and I will do and I will begin when he says not when you and I was sharing just the other night with another church how that she said to the servants to you do it and I was sharing with them that I was raised in the Roman Catholic tradition many of you probably were too and we were taught to have great respect for Mary but as I got older and I got saved I began to see that there's a place of honor and respect for her for she shall be respected through all generations she gave birth to the son of God of course we venerate and respect of course we respect her we hold her in high esteem because after all she gave birth to Jesus but the wisest thing that I can do is to listen to what she said because she said whatever he tells you you do it she didn't say whatever I say to you she said whatever he says to you she didn't die in a cross for my sins Jesus did the wisest thing I can do is to listen to Jesus and what did he say unless a man is born again he cannot enter into the kingdom of God he said take my yoke upon you learn from me he said that all would come to him all those whom the father had given to him would come to him not a single one of them would be lost Jesus came in order to lay his life down for me and so when he tells me that I should come and pick up my cross you see and so Jesus is there on the cross and he's all things are now being accomplished all things are being settled all things are being done at his time and he begins there to dismiss his spirit and he tells his spirit go he sends it away all things have been accomplished he died but he did it when the work was complete and he died with majesty and when this happened verse 38 says the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom this veil separated what is called the holy place from the holiest of holies this veil was 60 feet long it was 30 feet broad it was a palm breath thick and the veil was to remind men of separation from God in Hebrews 9, 6 and 7 it says priests entered regularly into the outer room to carry on their ministry they entered the inner room and that only once a year and never without blood which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance he couldn't go back there he had to offer the blood it was a separation but the veil was torn in two from the top to the bottom it wasn't torn from the bottom to the top from the top to the bottom God tore it God established fellowship through the death of Christ the most holy place is now open to all who come through Christ in Hebrews 10, 19 and 20 it says we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way open for us to the curtain that is his body and Jesus was bridging the gap Jesus with one hand took the hand of his father and with the other hand took our hand and he brought us together he's the cross he's the one who reconciles he's the one who died for us and he says it is finished father into his eye hands I commit my spirit and he closes his eyes dismisses his spirit and he dies I was watching a news program man on the street asking people why do they call it Good Friday and I don't know if they're selecting people just to make us laugh because sometimes some of the things we can say are pretty ridiculous I don't know if they select it and we're being selective I don't know that all I know is that nobody really knew why Jesus died nobody that they interviewed could tell the interviewer why is Friday called Good Friday it's good it's a Good Friday because the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world died on a cross for you and for me he took upon himself our sins he died on our behalf the punishment that was really for me was taken upon the innocent and if you don't think that's good it is it's amazingly good not by worse of righteousness which any of us has ever done but according to his mercy he saved us and when Jesus stretched out his arm on the cross he was also embracing us and he was saying come unto me I poured out my blood for you the scripture says he did he is the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world and as he's there and his mom and John and some women and others that they're watching as they watch his body as he's lifting up to breathe and he finally just says Father into thy hands I commit my spirit and he puts his head on the cross like he used to put his head on the pillow and he breathes his last and dismisses his spirit and his mother standing there and John is there and those who loved him are there and that mother who loved that boy that mother who gave birth to a boy named Jesus she saw what they did to him I wonder how many of us could those of us who were parents could stand and see that his beard had been pulled out his head was swollen they had placed a crown of thorns on it his back was lacerated he was groaning in pain and he's praying for those who put him on the cross in the care of his mama and he's praying like he did as a child in front of his mother and his mother sees this and John his beloved apostle and he'd been forsaken by his closest companions and he felt the frown of God cried out for the separation and then he finally just dismisses his spirit and he just hanging there and that mother couldn't do anything because he died for the sins of the world and she watched him die can you imagine I mean when Jesus would smile the sun would shine brighter and now life itself has been extinguished on a wooden cross to the mocking and rejection of man and the clouds and the darkness that had been overshadowing couldn't match the darkness and sorrow in the heart of the woman perhaps she remembered what she was told when she dedicated Christ and the sword shall pierce your soul she was told and she experienced that too and it was quiet and life and the song the song of life had been silenced and it was dark and it was quiet but that was Friday Sunday was coming Sunday was coming Sunday was coming we can go through those times ourselves but we need to remember that the light shines brightly after it's been the darkest he died but he died for us he was buried but on the third day he rose from the dead and because he lives and he died for our sins to cleanse us from unrighteousness to faith in him I can live and I can have hope and I can have joy and I can have purpose because Jesus Christ didn't die in vain for us we have received him as our Lord and Savior and we can say hallelujah Jesus thank you for what you did for us thank you


Are you trying to reach a recruiter in the Air Force, and you're stuck sitting there going, why is my recruiter ignoring me? This video is for you. I'm gonna try to make this video short and sweet, so I hope you guys appreciate that if you do give this video a thumbs up.  Number one, they're not trying to ignore you. Now keep in mind that recruiters in a city or an area, there might only be one or two for that whole area, all those people that live there. So recruiters are gonna be very, very busy because they're constantly talking with dozens of people. Not only are they crazy busy with a bunch of other recruits that are trying to join the Air Force because you're not the only one trying to join the Air Force, but these recruiters are people. They have lives, they might have a family at home, they might have pets, they go on vacation, they have meetings constantly checking emails and doing voice mails and calling people and going to schools and filing paperwork for people that are already in the process. Recruiters have a lot that is on their plate. Sometimes it's only one of them. And when they're trying to put in several people already, sometimes taking on a new person right now might not be the best thing for them. So my advice is have patience and some perseverance and just keep at it. If you really do wanna join the Air Force, the only thing that you can really do at that point is make sure that you are the best candidate possible when talking to that recruiter. They have a lot on their plate and you wanna make things as easy as possible because that increases your chance of them actually talking to you. Second reason, you could be blacklisted under the Air Force system for recruiters. I don't think they really have a blacklist necessarily, but if you've ever gone through the process of joining the Air Force or gone through maps or even before you've gone to maps and you started talking to them, if you're planning on joining the Air Force, they start creating a profile for you so they know all of your information.  All of that information is in your records. If a recruiter is not contacting you back, it might be that they've already zoned you not a good candidate for the Air Force and they don't want to work with you. They're documenting all the stuff that you give them, all the information that you tell them, the way that you act towards them. A lot of people think it's the recruiter's job to get them the job that they want. The Air Force is paying that recruiter to do their job. That recruiter does not work for you. They have orders from their officers above them and from the Air Force as a whole. They have a mission, orders that they need to follow and those orders are to get people into the Air Force in the jobs that the Air Force needs. Now, if you come into debt and you're like, I only want this job, that's all I'm taking. I'm not taking anything else. The problem with that, one of the core values of being an Airman is service before self.  So if you've already denied a job contract, you already told the Air Force, I do not embody what your core values are. And your recruiter is not trying to screw you over and the recruiter is trying to help you get into the Air Force. It might not be what you need, but it is what the Air Force needs. And at the end of the day, if you really wanna serve in the Air Force, then you need to put service before self. Number three is, you might not be the best prospect for the Air Force. That doesn't mean that it's forever. It doesn't mean that it's permanent. But you just might not be what the Air Force is looking for right now. You could have debt problems. You could have criminal past problems, drug problems. You could not meet the ASVAB requirements, right? There's multiple reasons why you wouldn't be considered a top candidate for the Air Force. And if you want your recruiter to really wanna work with you, you need to work to be the best recruit that that recruiter is talking to. So some of these things are things that you can change or you might need to wait out for a little while. They wanna talk to the people that are ready to go to MEPs and ready to go to basic training right away. The biggest thing for them is putting in recruits that are fully qualified. Your recruiter might be ignoring you because you have a few things that you need to tie up on your own. You need to buckle down and take care of the things that need to be taken care of so your recruiter can look at you and say, this is a top tier prospect and I am ready to work with this person. And my fourth reason for why a recruiter might be ignoring you is they literally might not even be there. Might be on vacation. They might take leave. They need to take a break. They earn 30 days of vacation time a year through the Air Force. But there also are other times where your recruiters are just super busy. They could be out scouting around at different high schools trying to get recruits. So they might not be in the office for a week because they decided to take that week to hop around different high schools and do presentation. They could be in the middle of a change. New recruiters will come in. Old ones will go out. Sometimes those don't really match up that well. Most of the time they're gonna try to have an overlap but even if there is overlap sometimes you might have a new recruiter come in. They're taking all the things that a recruiter that has been there for four years because that's how long a recruiting duty is as a four year stint. But their replacement coming in has zero experience being a recruiter. But they're taking on all of the responsibilities that a four year recruiter just completed. And they have to start up right away with that. And then also on top of that try to be working with new people. So it can be very overwhelming for a brand new recruiter because they're also trying to learn all the rules and see how the area is because they might have just moved there so they're getting a house. They're moving their family there possibly. Odds are there's probably hundreds of people in your area that are interested in joining the Air Force but your recruiter only has time to talk to a select few. Try to be proactive with it and shoot an email, leave a voicemail, wait a few days or wait a week or two, do it again. But don't try to call your recruiter and email them every single day. They might be on vacation. How annoyed would you be to get back from vacation? One person called you 28 times. Oh heck no, I don't wanna mess with this person. But if I got back and I had two voicemails from the same person over a two week period you know that's a lot more manageable.  Give your recruiter some space. Be persistent but space it out where it makes sense. Well those are my four reasons why recruiters might ignore you. There possibly could be more reasons than that but those are the main reasons that I usually would see. So be persistent, push towards your dream, make sure you're the best candidate for the Air Force because that's what the Air Force wants. They want to put in the best people that they can. Set yourself up to be one of those people and you shouldn't have any problems. Hopefully this video helped. If it did be sure to subscribe, like this video and if you really wanna say thank you and help us out here at Airman Vision, become a channel member. The link is in the description below.


Attention East Colfax residents. This is a community notification of a new sexually violent predator in your area. Please stay tuned to the following short program for more information. Hi I'm technician Ron Hackett with the Denver Police Department. The sex offender registration and compliance unit at DPD is responsible for the registration monitoring and tracking of all registered sex offenders and sexually violent predators who live in the city and county of Denver. Here's a brief history of sex offender legislation in Colorado. Our state laws trickle down from federal government mandates. In 1994 we had the Jacob Wetterling Act which mandated that states would establish a sex offender list. Magans law of 1996 said that the public would have access to those sex offender registration lists. The Pam Litchner Act of 1996 stated that some offenders might have to have lifetime registrations and the Adam Walsh Act of 2006 unified sex offender laws across the country. In Colorado the legislature has determined that sexually violent predators by definition pose a higher risk to the community at large and therefore mandated that upon their release from the Department of Corrections the community must be notified. Sex offender notification in Colorado happens in two ways. The first is passive and ongoing through the sex offender registration process which is a list maintained by local police departments. The second way is active via community notification for those offenders determined to be sexually violent predators by the courts or by the parole board. Most sex offenders in Colorado are supervised by the criminal justice system in our communities. Most sex offenders engage in crossover behavior which means they may have been arrested for one type of crime but be apt to commit another.  There is no typical sex offender but all tend to be deceptive manipulative and secretive. 80 to 93 percent of sex offenses are committed by someone known to the victim. Sexual deviancy begins in mid to late adolescence. Sex offenses are not impulsive.  The community has a vested interest in helping offenders to be successfully managed in the community. Sex offenders have the same need for housing and employment as any other citizen.  There are approximately 16,500 registered sex offenders in the state of Colorado. About 65 percent of convicted sex offenders are placed in the community on probation. The remainder are in the Department of Corrections or Community Corrections. Offenders may be caught for one type of offense but be at a high risk to commit another type. Crime of conviction is only one indicator of risk.  The offender's residence must be verified quarterly by the Denver Police Department. The full sex offender registration list is available by calling the Denver Police Department Identification Bureau at<PHONE_NUMBER>. Convicted felons and those with multiple convictions are posted online at denvergov.org slash police.   Now here's a look at the newest sexually violent predator living in Denver. Here's an overview of the registered sex offenders currently living in Denver. There are 2,395 total living within city limits. In Denver Police District 2 there are 380. Precinct 223 has 90 registered sex offenders. Of those 74 have felony convictions and 16 have misdemeanor convictions. Zachary Stephen Neustel is a sexually violent predator currently living in Denver. He's 44 years old and was born on December 13, 1978. He's a white male 5 feet 11 inches tall 230 pounds with blonde hair and blue eyes. He's currently living at 8600 East Colfax Avenue number 107 in the East Colfax neighborhood of Denver. School is located within one mile of this offender include Denver School of Science and Technology Montview Middle School and High School at 2,000 Valentia Street William Roberts K-8 School at 2100 Akron Way Ashley Elementary at 1914 Syracuse Street Vanguard Classical School West at 801 Yosemite Street the Logan School for Creative Learning at 1005 North Yosemite Street Montessori Children's House of Denver Central Park at 2211 North Zanthia Way. Parks located within one mile of this offender include Crescent Park McNichols Park Denison Park Thomas Park Greenway Park Great Lawn Park Kelly Open Space Westerly Creek Park Westerly Creek Lowry Burbina Park New Freedom Park. Recreation centers located within one mile of this offender include Montclair Rec Center at 729 Ulster Way. Bus routes located within one mile of this offender include Route 15 Colfax Avenue and Willow Street Colfax Avenue and Bealer Street routes 15 and 15 L Colfax Avenue and Uinta Street Colfax Avenue and Yosemite Street.  He's currently on parole and registered with the Denver Police Department on May 12 2023 to 8600 East Colfax Avenue number 107 in the East Colfax neighborhood of Denver.  Zachary Stephen Newstall has been determined as sexually violent predator after meeting the following criteria. Criteria one, age 18 or older on the date of the offense or under 18 and tried as an adult. The offender was age 39 at the time of the offense. Criteria two, the crime must have been committed honor after July 1st 1997 and convicted honor after July 1st 1999.  The offender was convicted on February 18th 2020 for sexual exploitation of a child's cell published. Criteria three, the relationship to the victim was one of the following. Victim was a stranger to the offender or the offender established or promoted a relationship with the victim primarily for the purpose of sexual victimization. The juvenile female victim was known to the offender. Criteria four, positive results or the passing of a risk assessment instrument administered by probation parole staff and a qualified treatment evaluator. Positive results include an assessment for the presence of a mental abnormality, a level of denial regarding the offense, treatment appropriateness and motivation, presence of sexual deviant interests. The offender was evaluated by the Jefferson County courts with positive results, determining him to be a sexually violent predator.


This is the interesting news. So if you remember yesterday, I kind of teased that I saw something when I was capturing the installation of the lift hill. So this is me and like that little forest with the zoom lens. I know I can see really far. But all righty. So we have a construction update in person today. So today was Saturday, which means I was able to go into the park and get some awesome footage for you. So at the beginning of the video, we're just going to go over the actual construction project itself. At the end of the video, you'll see, you know, the shots of the actual completed drop and lift hill and all that all together. So as you can see, the footings for the Imelmann are done. At this point, they should be cured enough for them to install the Imelmann. And from what I'm expecting and hearing is the Imelmann should be done by next Friday. So again, the last weekend operations for Canada's wonderland, you should be able to get some awesome shots of the Imelmann complete, the drop complete, the tunnel complete and the lift hill station transfer track and all that complete. That's a lot done by the end of the season. So that was a little bit of a sneak peek. There's a separate video coming out after this. I have discovered what the speakers are for or I have pretty solid evidence what the speakers are for. And I'm going to present that to you guys in a separate video because it's to do with theming and all that hint hint. So as you can see here, this is the transfer track area. So one of the transfer track or storage building areas, sorry, one of the storage buildings has its buttons all there. I don't see any wiring. So that's not hooked up yet. But you'll see some wiring in a second. So they'll probably be installing all that very shortly. Again, the coaster is supposed to be done by end of December. And then they'll start working on the theming and all that. And I'm now predicting a ton of theming from what I saw today. So here are those cables. These are for the transfer track areas. It says right on them TT. Actually, that one's for the rollback and dog check. So that's probably to do with the station. There are some that say TT transfer track one and TT two. So transfer track two, I'm assuming that means like storage shed to storage shed one. But yeah, lots going on in the station area that we haven't been able to keep up with with no weekday operations. So that was interesting to see. So pay close attention to the speakers, but I'm not going to reveal too much yet. But this is really exciting. And it's definitely a new era for Cedar Fair. And I look forward to seeing what they're going to do with this. But I can almost confirm that they are not lift spiel speakers. They are not. And you'll see that in the video that will come out probably an hour max after this video. So there was the final piece of the lift hill was installed the other day. You'll see in a couple shots where it looks like it doesn't fully align properly right there. So it doesn't it didn't fully align properly properly. But I'm sure that's as simple a quick hammer and then weld it together. They can fix pretty much anything. So that was interesting. The wind station was up and it was turning. So again, as of next Friday, the emblem should be complete. So I'm assuming that they'll bring in I don't know if they need these heavy duty cranes to put up the rest of the coaster. So I have a feeling they'll bring in some other cranes and get rid of those ones and they'll start erecting the rest of the coaster because they're going to need some more mobile cranes. Other than those two that require a lot of space and a lot of flat lands and all that. But yeah, lots going on in this area. So they dug it out. So the trench is now dug out. It is really deep. I was not expecting it. They're really removing a lot of the kind of level land in this area. So if you look closely, there's like a lot of so even the trench but outside of the trench, the area has been kind of leveled down a bit. So that was interesting. And you can see the orange spikes that resemble where the footings will go. So those have not been dug or poured yet. So no footings poured or cured in this area. So they'll probably start those shortly. I'm assuming within the next week or two. But again, they are definitely like on time or somewhat ahead of schedule. Timberwolf's queue line has been somewhat destroyed to make way for Yukon strikers. So we'll see what kind of queue line comes for Timberwolf Falls. The fencing over there in the back corner has been removed. And there's a bit of a little bit of clearing that has taken place. I did not was not able to get fully a good shot of it. But there are definitely orange marking markings on trees back there. So that's what's interesting. So you'll see in my next shot, there are orange markings on trees. So I'm assuming that this is going to be almost like a frontier Canada area, and you're going to see some buildings going in. We know that there should be a pond. I don't know if the pond marker was actually just to throw us off or if it was actually serious, there's going to be a pond. But here's some of those orange markings I was talking about just a second ago. So the trees do have some orange markings. So who knows what they'll put in there. Maybe, you know, like an ice cream parlor. Or, you know, we already have like the northern gift store. So an ice cream parlor, maybe like a panning for gold type experience, who knows what'll come. There's lots of minor teasers on Canada's Wonderland's blog posts on their website. So go check them out. This is the interesting news. So if you remember yesterday, I kind of teased that I saw something when I was capturing the installation of the lift hill. So this is me and like that little forest with the zoom lens, I know I could see really far. But yeah, there's definitely lots of discussion going on about the behemoth and mind buster area. So definitely lots of pointing up in the sky and talking about who knows what, but holding what looked like if you saw him tilted a bit towards us like a map of the area. So it was like almost like a Google satellite image of the area from what I could tell. So that's interesting. We know attractions are planned three to five years out. So who knows what it could be. It could be just a paint job on behemoth, could be RMC, could be GCI, or it could literally be nothing at all. Who knows.  This thing is absolutely massive and impressive in person. If you haven't gone today, go tomorrow or go next weekend and check this thing out.  Next year we'll have Winterfest. So we'll have a bit more to enjoy and I look forward to it and I couldn't be more excited. So definitely go pick up those gold passes or platinum passes for next year. They got some really great deals. And yes, again, awesome content is coming in November. So stay tuned for that behind the scenes tour and hopefully you guys really enjoy the shots of Yukon striker. So I went around almost every angle of the park to get you some shots of this beast.  As always, hit that like button, subscribe if you haven't, share this video for others to enjoy and keep having an amazing weekend. Have a good one guys. Bye.