All right. Good morning everyone. I hope you can hear me all right. I'm voice audible. Give me a thumbs up if it is. Is my voice audible? Okay. Let's begin this time with a word of prayer and then we'll get into our session. Father we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for giving us this opportunity to spend time studying a word and even as we talk about discipleship and small groups, we thank you Lord that Lord, even as we study your Holy Spirit will minister, speak to us, give us ideas, give us strategies to serve you better. Thank you. We submit this time into your hands. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. All right. So let me just present the notes. Our last class we covered in this chapter 24 right. We look at a few aspects from chapter 24. We looked at you know how to be a good leader, how to effectively minister. Right. Yes. We talk about leadership how it is so important to you know when as leaders we are to develop the ability to mobilize people to get everyone to participate get people to involve in leadership and basically raise up other leaders. Also in chapter 25 we looked at step one training cell members. So very importantly we look at how we develop relationship with members. Right. So in a certain group especially you know we look at people and we enable them our main goal is to take members and make them into leaders. Right. And how can we do that? We need to be able to build good relationships good friendships. Right. And then you'll be able to speak into their lives. Now we cannot speak into a person's life when we don't have a relationship with them. Right. And we looked at the example of Jesus. Right. He chose the 12 disciples he built a relationship with them. The Bible says you know when we look at the scriptures of the New Testament we see that whatever Jesus when he took them with him and he was friends with them and they saw his life. They saw the miracles that he did. They saw the way he walked in power and authority the way he had compassion on people and when they saw that the disciples opened up their lives to receive from Jesus. Right. They were ready to even come to a point of giving their life for the sake of Jesus. Right. So relationship is the foundation to bring the best out of people. Right. Peter probably saw himself as a fisherman. This is what I'm going to do. This is what I'm going to always be. But Jesus had other ideas and he had other plans. He probably saw himself as one despised as a tax collector ridiculed mocked by his own by his own people. But God saw something different. Right. So when we build relationships with people we bring out the best inside of them. Right. So remember we have to win their hearts before we can win their hands and the moment we win their hearts doing getting them to do things in their hands is a very, very simple task. Remember Jesus, what did you do? He won the hearts of the disciples and then he said, now you go and make disciples. That's the only thing he said. You go and make disciples and look at these 11 disciples and later they chose another person another disciple to replace Judas but look at his 12 disciples. They took the gospel across the world and they didn't have to do it but because of that relationship they built they were willing to use their hands. They were willing to step out and do the work. Right. So let's look at the second point. Step two is to develop ministers out of members. Right. When you develop that initial leadership initially develop that friendship then comes to test their willingness to serve. You take members, you give them opportunities. Right. You give them challenges. Challenge them to think like a leader. Challenge them to respond like leaders. Challenge them to do things in terms of being a leader. Right. So you take them from this place of just being members to a place of becoming leaders. Now during this period. Right. That's why the word here says develop them. So it's not a click of a button. It's not a switch where you switch on and the light comes on.  Developing leaders is an ongoing process. Right. And in that process they will be many, many they will make many, many you know wrong decisions. They may falter, they may fail and they may also be very good at their work. Right. They may just have that inbuilt quality of leadership. And so we when we are raising up ministers to become members to become ministers some of the things that we can look for is outward attitudes. Right. Of course we know that God looks at our heart. But remember out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. So what is their outward attitude? Do they spend time with people in the cell groups? Are they just walking in humility? Have they mentored new Christians? Right. And then if they've not mentored that you know maybe you could consider connecting people to them so they can just start ministry to people. They have to step out of their comfort zones. Leaders who have no heart for the lost or for mentor based discipleship groups which then become stagnant. So very important as leaders if we are if we don't have a heart for the loss if we don't have this attitude of hey right now I see this person I want to see him become a leader if there's no if that attitude is not there in the heart then what happens is this the cell group becomes stagnant. It stays the same. And it could just become a trap. How can it become a trap because you as a leader may just be doing the same things over and over and over again year after year but we're not seeing discipleship. We're not seeing raising up of leaders and that's what we want to see in ministry. So it's very important that as leaders when we look at people when we look at them members of our church or the cell group look at them develop them to become leaders and ministers right. So start small give opportunities and keep a check on them. Keep a check in the sense that you're not like you know always behind them. Did you do this but their heart attitudes how are they serving? Are they serving in freedom? Are they serving with all their heart? Is there humility? Are they able to you know take correction and apply the correction in their lives. All of these aspects matter. Step 3 in raising members to become leaders or ministers is to make the challenge. Now over time you've given them opportunities to minister to people within the cell group then you make the challenge for them.  I see that you have grown and the things of God. I've seen that you've been learning, you've been studying, you've been connecting with people well so why don't you think about starting your own cell group and if they are ready to move and start a cell group feel free to release them right and we talked about this as believers and as children of God we must never hold back people but God has called us to release people into their calling and we may think hey this person has served with me for maybe 3 years or 5 years and sometimes in build such a connect that we don't want to let them go. Want them to be always with us because they are able to do everything. They are there for you they are getting everything done and sometimes we feel hey if I let them go then who's going to handle a lot of things within the cell group. That is a common thought that can come to our mind. The main goal is to see him become a leader otherwise he's going to be an eagle stuck in a cage and that's not what eagles are meant for. It is very important that as leaders we must be able to release people into their calling. Share what you've seen in him encourage him. Share what worked with him. Share that you worked along with them. He's a co-laborer remember the apostle Paul what does he say? He appoints Timothy as the pastor in the church at Ephesus and he writes to Timothy and he says Timothy is my fellow worker. He's my fellow brother. He's my co-laborer in Christ. I can only picture how Timothy would have felt because Timothy was with Paul since a very very young age and Timothy has seen Paul's ministry he has seen Paul grow. He has seen the way that Paul has given his life for the ministry and Paul is writing to the church believers and saying Timothy is a co-laborer. He has the same heart that I have and that is such a powerful word because what's going to happen is when the members in that church see Timothy they will have felt it will always be their mind that hey Paul said that they are Timothy is a co-laborer with Christ and so they will agree to be with Timothy. They will agree to be under his leadership and he has to be very encouraging. Step 4 help them to start their settle. Now if they have decided okay you have spoken to them and they decided okay I'm willing to start my own cell group work with them through the process until they can run it on their own. So this could be a lot of practical things number one is to help them to maybe set up a day and time for the cell group now that they've already been part of a cell group so they normally know how to handle a cell group but you just help them work with them, relate to them as a leader don't look at them as somebody who's under you you look at them as a leader okay now he's starting his own cell group so you talk to them as a leader because now they are starting their own cell group. Now a good cell leader does not do everything himself and he learns to delegate. Delegating work and responsibility is very important it is a sign of a good leader and we may know how to do it ourselves but we must learn to delegate. Okay Jesus what did he do?  What is Jesus doing? He's delegating, he's giving them the authority he's saying you go and do it don't always be dependent on me because there'll come a time when I will not be there I'm going back to my father so you will have to do it and he delegates responsibilities and that's how even each one of us as believers as leaders we must learn to delegate it could be the smallest things so for example your cell group you delegate okay one person can choose the songs another person comes up with a quote out of the lyrics if required or sends the link of the song lyrics another person is in charge of prayer another person is in charge of ministry or the prayer requests that come in another person is in charge of maybe the snacks or anything that needs to be done within the cell group refreshments what's happening is you're delegating responsibilities a good leader makes the members to stretch themselves and taking them out of their comfort zone to reach higher goals stretch themselves as leaders when we raising up other leaders you will always see this not only in ministry but also in the corporate sector we see that in the marketplace your leader a good leader will stretch you because when we come out of our comfort zone we will reach higher places a good leader demonstrates and demands commitment as a leader you demonstrate okay this is what we expect and then you say this is what we want to see if you are committed to your ministry we are committed to as a leader this is the commitment that you will have to show right and very important a good leader does not tolerate complacency he can lose a fire and stirs up people God does not tolerate blue warm hearts it's very important for a leader to stir up people he says stir up a passion for your name stir up the gifts that are in you don't become complacent remember that people are going through different kinds of seasons there may be some who are weak and weary they are going through a terrible dark season in their life they just feel downcast, weary, tired all of that is there but as a leader we develop the ability to stir them up to rekindle the fire so for example if there is somebody in the cell group who says you know what I've been looking out for a job for the past six months and nothing has happened I've been doing everything right I've been reading God's word, I've been declaring in faith, I've been walking in faith but I don't see anything and it is very easy to lose heart there is nothing wrong in that, remember there are people but as a leader you kindle the fire you stir them up you say hey don't worry they are standing with you you know you can get anxious as to why nothing has happened but remember in your waiting God is working so let's stir up ourselves that's the heart of a leader, a good leader stirs up the other person gives them a push, you can put their feet off the ground and it's very important to do that now we may get different reactions so the person who you are speaking to may say but I've prayed for six months for a job, why is it not happening, what did I do wrong where did I go wrong, I'm a believer I've been trusting God's word and doing everything that God has asked me to do why is this happening to me, these are questions that will come up but as a leader of course we answer those questions, we help them to understand that sometimes God works in mysterious ways but we continue to trust in God, so we encourage them we build them up and we help them to rekindle that fire, it's very easy for a fire to go off remember the devil can come and just he can just make us feel weary, downcast and make us feel like whatever we are praying for there's no response and he can do that he can just pour some water on that little bit of fire and burn out that fire inside of us but remember God's word is living, it is alive it is sharper than a double-edged sword when we speak God's word, when we speak to our situations, no matter what it is we can hold on to the promises of God and say God I know that you are with me so we encourage people, all of our goldsmiths says this people sell them improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy if people are, if they don't have somebody that they can look up to, then they can hardly improve and here's the best thing, as believers you and I have people around us, men and women of God that we can learn from but we also have Jesus, the great hybrids, the great mediator whom we can go to, we can learn from his own life, what did Jesus do, in this situation what did Jesus do or what would Jesus do Lord I don't have anything at home I feel my hands are empty, go back to what Jesus did Jesus said cast all your burdens on me, I will care for you look at what Jesus did, he took the five loaves of bread, two fish he said thank you Father and he multiplied it so we pray on those lines, Lord this is what you have done and so as believers we raise up leaders, we encourage them, we put a heart of commitment, we help them to stretch themselves and eventually they become good leaders and you know here's another aspect that we can talk about, sometimes the other leader can become better than what we are, it's okay when they are under us, okay we keep telling them we can do this, do this, but what happens when they become a leader and they get better than us God our heart, right, discipleship the whole point of discipleship is to make the other person better than who we are, that's what it is, right Jesus said go and make disciples whatever I did you will do and greater things than these Jesus didn't say if you can just do how much I did that's enough, no, it's a grave of these you will also do that's the heart of a leader, right, any questions any thoughts, let me just check if there's any questions on the chat, okay the questions any questions, if any of you have a question or you've posted a question just stop me because I'm posting the I'm presenting the notes so I won't be able to see the question, just stop me and ask if you have any questions, right so let's get into the next portion and we'll look at the leader as a coach now when you hear the word coach or coaching the word coaching has many many thoughts, many things come to our mind, we can look at a coach as a leader of a team football coach, soccer team coach, cricket team coach, right so we have coaches now what does a coach do or why is a coach needed so let's look at a few of them, one, why coach people when a coach, when we have a coach you build a stronger team, the coach by nature knows each person and their abilities, right so for example you look at a soccer team, right now the coach knows who can go, who can be forward, right who can do what, okay so if it's penalty shootouts, it's using this example, right it's penalty shootouts, so the coach knows who to send and the coach also knows who can run faster, who is built stronger who is tactful in the mind who can plan, execute better, he knows who's who the coach knows every, probably there are 11 people in the team, he knows the abilities of all 11 of them so what the coach does is he uses their strengths and covers the weaknesses so the strengths are used and the team itself becomes a strong team, right rather than focusing on what the person cannot do a good coach will focus on what a person can do with their strengths so that the team gets stronger and helps people to enable people to rise to new levels and new challenges, to rise to new levels to rise to new challenges, right and that's what we want to see a coach helps people to rise to new levels then we can tell a person now I'm not sure if you have watched this movie I forget the name, it's a Christian movie facing the giants it's a wonderful Christian movie which talks about American football and how this team was a college team which lost all their team all tournaments, they've never won for more than a decade and how this coach was going through his own personal challenges and he was almost going to lose his job and how he sought God and God just strengthened him he enabled the entire team through godly principles, he used the entire team he used the strengths of the team, he's college going students and he raised up a team that was able to get to the national level and win at the most prestigious of all college university tournaments the same people, the same team that lost years after years, same they were able to rise up to a new level we coach people to begin to attract people and attract people who desire to be coached so there's a difference there are some of them who want to be coached, some of them who don't want to be coached so if you want to be coached when they come, as a leader you're there to teach and to coach them so what is coaching, what does it really mean? coaching is the process of equipping people with tools, knowledge and opportunities they need to develop themselves and become more effective it is the process of equipping people with the tools, knowledge and opportunities they need to develop themselves and become more effective, that's what coaching is sometimes, sometimes when we are ministering to people all they need is a little push all they need is a word of encouragement sometimes all they need is a little bit of teaching other times there are people in ministry all they need is an opportunity they're waiting for that opportunity they just need that opportunity, give me one opportunity they want that door to be open to somebody, a young boy or a youth who is praying for an opportunity to lead the worship there's no opportunities yet but when the opportunity is given they can do really well there are sometimes young people who like to teach and preach I remember this happened quite a few years back I began to somebody told me about David Guzik he writes these commentaries, he's done a commentary of the entire Bible and I just happened to open up Enduring Word, that's what his website is so David Guzik is a powerful teacher of God's Word so he's from the entire commentary of the Bible he's putting in the historical facts, some geographical facts very very interesting when I got my hands on it, meaning when I went online and began to read I was so grateful because there was so much material that we could learn from that somebody, hey why don't you, you know, since you're teaching why don't you go to this website Enduring Word and remember this person just told me that and it was a tool that really built me I learned so much and continued to learn from that and it just equipped me so much, all it was was a tool and with that tool I've been able to learn and grow so coaching, coaches don't develop people, they equip people to develop themselves, you see that mentors develop people, they keep teaching them okay do this, do this, do this, but coaches they equip people to develop themselves, so basically by saying, why don't you do this why don't you use this material or use this website or you give them an opportunity you have to do, so for example your pastor may come up to you and say, next Sunday at the youth meeting you preach now he's not telling you what to preach, you're saying you preach so you have to go back prepare yourself, come up with a sermon come up with a sermon notes and points to practice the sermon probably, come up with good examples and you have to prepare you have to do it, you have to spend time with God and you will have to speak, that's what coaches do they open those opportunities and they help you to equip yourselves to develop yourself okay, so yes mentor this mentoring and this coaching, some of them may overlap but coaches they equip people to develop themselves, say hey you can do this you can do it, you can run the hundred meters, you can run a 400 meters we may tell ourselves hey I can't run, but the coaches say you can run, you try it, you never tried it, but you can if you try it you can, some of you know many people have come and said to me, you know I can't read the Bible because when I read, probably I read one chapter and I'm this tired it's alright, so one of the things I always tell young people especially is when they're reading the Bible always imagine it that's powerful right, so you for example you're reading about Jesus, how he changed water and the wine, so you're looking at a, you know you're reading you're imagining it, looking in your mind's eye, you're making it into a movie you're imagining what's happening, okay you see a young Jesus 30 years old, right, you see a feast everyone are just, you know, enjoying their peace and you see a young Jesus, he's sitting with some of his friends, it's just a wedding nobody knows who's, Jesus hasn't revealed himself as a messiah right, nobody knows who he is, they just know him as a carpenter's son so he's there, everyone know his brothers, his sisters they know his mother as well, he's come for the wedding and then there's chaos on the back, what's happened, there's no wine, wine has run out, you know you also think about certain things, right, okay, so the Jewish weddings lasted for about seven days and so the wine was over so probably it was almost towards the end of the wedding that Jesus and his family have come, but it's an embarrassing thing when you know that wine is over, it's a bad name through the family and then you look at, you're just picturing it the whole thing so Jesus is there, he says okay go fill the water pots this is his first miracle, he says go give it, imagine the worker, so what you're doing is you're imagining it and so when you're reading the Bible, it doesn't become boring it doesn't become a task or an actual aid to the Bible no, it becomes interesting there's a simple glimpse that you can do people, when you look at the old Testament, look at the people coming out of Egypt or Daniel in the limestone, think of Joseph when you're reading those stories, powerful powerful stories, picture it in your mind's eye and then you get interested to read, right, and many of them have been able to learn it, it was a simple thing a simple suggestion given that many of them have applied it and used it to develop themselves and so there will be times as cell group leaders and leaders in the church, people will come and say these things give them the right, what would be the wrong thing to say at this time I can't read the word, people you would say I can't read and the wrong thing to say would be cast out that spirit of laziness and all of those things, it's nothing, there's no spirit of laziness it's just that, you know, there's so many distractions so how do we get them to focus on the word give them some suggestions, right so giving the right suggestion at the right time, some of the things you and I can do when we are coaching work one on one, take advantage of coachable moments, this is the most powerful thing that we can do and we see this a lot happening parents and children, right a lot, I do this a lot with my kids and I always wait for good coachable moments and give it to them, give them and so for example you know you know once one of my kids came up to me and I said, how can Jonah be in the belly of a fish, how come he didn't get swallowed and I knew okay, so what I'm going to say now is going to be with him for a long time it's going to go into, because what we say as parents is it's very important, so what do I say it's a coachable moment, what I say imagine if I say, you know don't worry that it's an old testament, God just protected Jonah and anyway Jonah came out right, so it's alright, I've lost a coachable moment but he used that moment and you take advantage of that moment and you say okay God, give me the right words to say now, so I remember just sharing with him what happens when we disobey God, you know we want to do something on our own, we go away from God God has a way of bringing us back and he does miracles, he protected, there's a wall of protection around Jonah, but if you look at Jonah, he knew he did wrong he confessed his sins, he asked God to forgive him and that's when God spared his life so when we sin also, we ask forgiveness how will we have Jesus, we have the cross and we ask forgiveness God will forgive us and that's a coachable moment and we say okay if I sin, I know if I go back to God, ask forgiveness, he will forgive us and he will restore us by possible moment and these moments, there will be plenty of them coming to you as leaders, plenty so work one on one, take advantage of those coachable moments sometimes you may not know what to say ask the Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit give me the right word give me the right thing to say at this time and the Holy Spirit will minister to them die people to learn for themselves let people learn for themselves, don't sin to share our experiences, to share the things that work, good lessons and places where we have failed we are here to help them, we are here to give them feedback, give them information, give them tools but we are not here to spoon feed others, especially if you're raising up leaders, they need to learn it for themselves Jesus didn't say okay, we'll make teams of 2x2s and then I'll stand at the back and you all speak I'll just stand and watch you all, he didn't do that he let them, he said go go do what you have to do, go and preach, go and teach but I will guide you on how to do this it's been a long time he guided them, so as coaches we guide people to learn for themselves because if we keep doing it, it becomes a habit and then what happens is it's just going to remain that way he'll do it for me, so that's not what it is we must be able to, good coaches help people to learn for themselves, orchestrate resources and opportunities not only equip people to learn but intervene with others on their behalf, meaning so for example, you have somebody in your cell group to start their own cell group, maybe you're in church you say hey, can I join your cell group I'm interested to join a cell group, what you can do is you can also say hey, we also have another new cell group it's a wonderful cell group, it's a wonderful leader and we are looking for people to connect with this cell group, so why don't you connect with this cell group it's a wonderful place, I can connect you to the leader so what are you doing, you're orchestrating opportunities so then you speak to this life group leader and say I met a family on Sunday they're interested to be part of life group, here's their number can they call them, connect with them, what are you doing with this opportunity, or I could have ended this by saying yeah sure, you could come to my life group, this is my number called me before coming, what's happening so we're not orchestrating an opportunity for the others or for example, there's something that I have a resource that I have that has really helped me you share it with others, share it with the other leaders and the people who you're ministering to now it could be something as simple as a document or how to prepare a PPT, very simple thing so orchestrate all of these resources and opportunities open doors for new experiences as coaches we must encourage our people to take risks and these risks taking should be intelligent ones and not just random risks but take good risks now especially if you are in a cell group it's not going to be much of risks taking but when you grow into higher levels of leadership you may have to take risks especially making decisions so you help them to do that as a leader and as a coach some of us may feel hey I'm not a coach, why am I learning about all this, remember that coaching is an aspect of the cycle so there will become opportunities where sometimes people don't want to be mentored, they just want a suggestion, what should I do they don't want to be mentored every day, they don't have time for it what should I do, this is what you can do you're giving them a one line suggestion or one line answer to their question just look at a few coaching strategies before we close, forge a partnership meaning build trust and understanding so that people want to work with you build trust, build partnership, build understanding inspire commitment get people to be committed, focus on the goals that matter for them, tell them hey gotta be committed to what you're doing because what you're doing is it matters in the kingdom of God the bible says be faithful and small and bigger things will come to you so you're inspiring them to be committed it's very easy to lose commitment especially when we don't see growth and we don't see things changing in our natural life, in our physical life but you can encourage them by saying hey what you're doing is you're building God's kingdom you're great as a reward in heaven, nobody may reward you here but your reward in heaven is great inspire commitment, grow your skills, build new competencies to ensure people know how to do what is required so even as you're looking at the spiritual aspect, it's also important to look at the technical or the tactical aspects of growing your skills we talked about right, people's skills, so as a leader we need to keep developing our people skills, our counselling skills these are skills and competencies as leaders we must need to continue to build and grow on promote persistence to build stamina and discipline as a leader, it's very easy sometimes where we get into this monotonous routine where we have life group we have self-group, prayer group, Bible study group it's just become a routine but it's very important to be persistent fan into flame, build stamina, build discipline sometimes we just don't want to do, don't feel like doing it I would share this as pastors, sometimes we don't feel like praying because we're tired we feel very tired sometimes but tell ourselves, we have to pray we have to spend time in God's presence we build stamina, we build that discipline and over time we're able to overcome these challenges that we may slip discipline is built over the years so it takes a lot of effort to become disciplined it's not like it's not discipline is not important, it's very important and so we need that discipline but as we keep doing it in small aspects in our life we know that we can just become stronger and be more persistent in the things of God nothing in the world can take the place of persistence talent will not, genius will not, education will not we have talent, no persistence many, many, many people who are very talented in terms of singing and music they probably go for classes and you know after a couple of classes they say hey, you know I don't feel like doing this or there's no, there's no determination to learn or there's no persistence and many people, they have a wonderful year for music, they sing so wonderfully talent but without discipline and stamina it's not going to help you know many people who are very well-learned but they've got nothing, why no discipline in life and so it's very important to promote persistence, be persistent, scriptures teach us about persistence, persistent widow went on knocking until she got a response finally, shape the environment, build support remove barriers, open doors for people shape the environment, it's not like you're saying okay I will look, I will make everything perfect for the person who is going to start their life no, you're just building support there could be barriers that you could help them remove these could be simple things or there could be doors that you can help them open help them, shape their environment and then when you release them into leadership, let them handle their own environment, let them, they're always there to give advice and counsel let them be able to fight their own battles, don't go searching for their battles and fighting it for them don't force control or manipulate people nobody can force anybody to be someone they don't want to be, don't force, don't manipulate let them do what they have to do, as I said let them fight their own battle, let them walk their own walk of faith, but you're always there to encourage and strengthen, if you want to be a good coach be coachable, right, so we'll go, we'll stop here and in our next class we'll get into mentoring another Christian, we'll look at different aspects of mentoring, right, so thank you so much for being here, have a good weekend and I'll see you on Wednesday for our next session, thank you God bless you all.


Hi, this is David Rosales. I'm the pastor of Calvary Chapel of the Chino Valley in California. Today I would like to address the question, what are the signs that we are in the last days? This is one of the subjects of Scripture that believers are most interested in. When I was saved in 1970, the return of Jesus to planet Earth was part of what we talked about most, and the excitement of his return stirred us to preach the Gospel. Since Jesus was returning at any moment, we saw sharing the Gospel as our most sacred and important duty because we simply did not want our loved ones to miss out on the rapture. This belief of the soon return of Jesus provoked much activity and was in many ways at the heart of the Jesus movement. There were books written, such as The Late Great Planet Earth, movies that were made, like A Thief in the Night, and there were songs such as I Wish We'd All Been Ready, all pointing to the rapture and how we should be prepared because it would occur at any moment. I'll never forget Larry Norman's song I Wish We'd All Been Ready, and how he sang Life Was Filled with Guns in War and Everyone Got Trampled on the Floor. I Wish We'd All Been Ready.  I Wish We'd All Been Ready. There's no time to change your mind. The sun has come, you've been left behind. The return of Jesus to planet Earth is a message that fueled the church then and should continue fueling the church in the days that we are presently living in. It should provoke us to live as if he really is going to keep his promise to come to receive us unto himself for where he is, we shall be also. John wrote in 1 John chapter 3 verses 2 and 3, we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is, and everyone who has his hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure. His return is intended to provoke us to live lives that are separated to him.  The hope of his return is intended to provoke us to live as if he were returning at any time and those who have this expectation are to be busy doing their master's business. I cannot help but believe that part of the reason the church is in many ways being overwhelmed by the trends of the world is that in many ways we have just stopped believing that Jesus is true to his word. Believers can be like the servant who said, my master is delaying his coming and find themselves flowing in the current of today's shallow value system. This often is the fruit of ministries that are led by those who do not truly believe that Jesus will return soon, and instead of heaping up treasures in heaven, find themselves more inclined to heaping up treasures on earth, treasures that do not last and do not satisfy. So once again, what are the signs of the last days? Matthew and Mark tell us in their gospels that Jesus and his men were departing from the temple and heading for the Mount of Olives. As they were making their way to the Mount of Olives, his disciples drew his attention to the buildings. They said, look teacher, what massive stones, what magnificent buildings, and indeed it was magnificent. But Jesus said, do you not see all these things assuredly I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another that shall not be thrown down. This sobered up the disciples and as they arrived at the Mount of Olives, they spoke to him privately saying, tell us when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? From there, Jesus spoke of what he said were the beginning of sorrows, wars, rumors of wars, famines, pestilences and earthquakes in various places. And these are the signs that are emphasized as we point out the increasing frequency of the reality of these things in our world and point out that they are the signs that Jesus gave to prepare us for his return. What I found most interesting is that his men asked him about the sign of his coming. This helps us to see that in answer to that question, Jesus said the sign is deception. He said, take heed that no one deceives you and repeats this warning in verse 11, verse 23 and again in verse 24. What is the sign of his coming and the end of the age? Deception. In the days immediately preceding the rapture, apostasy will occur. There will be a deliberate rejection of biblical truth, which is Christian doctrine and people will follow the deception propagated by demonic spirits, who are the originators of all false religion. As these false beliefs are evangelized, some will willfully fall away from the faith. This speaks of a purposeful decision to leave, a deliberate departure. Overall, the conditions of the last days will be deception, deception that produces denial. First, there will be a denial of Jesus as God in the flesh and the Savior of mankind, Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian scientists, Christodelfians, Oneness Pentecostals, the Unification Church, the Unity School of Christianity, Dianetics, and Islam. All deny Jesus as God. John wrote in 1 John 4, verse 3, that every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming and is now already in the world.  People will redefine grace and will present it as permission to continue in sin and still go to heaven. This is seen in the movement to ordain homosexuals and perform same-sex marriages. Ephesians chapter 5, verses 5 and 6 says, for you know this, that no fornicator unclean person nor covetous man who is an idolater as any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God, let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Third, there will be a denial of the need for solid doctrinal teaching. Bible studies will be boring to carnal listeners and entertainment will take the place of edification. Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 4, verses 3 and 4, that the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust shall they heep to themselves, teachers having itching ears, they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables. Fourth, there will be a denial of God through their works, having lifestyles that demonstrate a lack of faith in Jesus. Paul wrote in Titus chapter 1, verse 16, they profess to know God, but in works they deny him being abominable, disobedient and disqualified for every good work. Finally, fifth, there will be a denial that Jesus is coming back to earth, a promise that is found over 300 times in Scripture. The apostle Peter wrote in 2 Peter chapter 3, verses 3 and 4, knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. The spirit of the age encourages unbelief as demons entice people to reject the Gospel. What can we do? How can we combat this? We must simply obey Jesus and follow his command to go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything he said that he has commanded. And he promised surely I am with you always, even to the very end of the age. As believers and as pastor teachers, we must endeavor to go out and make disciples, teaching them to obey everything Jesus commanded. The best way to do this is to teach verse by verse through the Bible. The sad truth is that many who are called pastors simply fail to emphasize what Jesus taught us to emphasize. Many pastors are failing to preach and teach the whole counsel of God with conviction. And this has led to deception being accepted as truth and error as Bible doctrine. We believers are to speak with the boldness and confidence of knowing Scripture and that we are presenting the very word of God because it is truly God's message. Psalm 119 verse 160 says, The entirety of your word is truth and every one of your righteous judgments endures forever. As Paul wrote in Romans 1 verse 16, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. Sadly, because pastors have failed to preach and to teach with conviction, deception is now rampant and accepted as biblical doctrine. Many times I have watched portions of televised church services and have had to turn the program off because of the error that is presented as truth and the sorrow and grief I experience as I watch God's children being lied to and used by the entertainer who is called pastor. We who are pastors must consistently teach the whole counsel of God and remember that we give an account to God for what we have said in His name. We should use Paul as a model when he says, I am not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Are we in the last moments of the last days? Yes, we most definitely are. And with this in mind, may we the church make a complete commitment to God's truth. It was A.W. Tozer who said, Our Lord made it very plain that spiritual truth cannot be understood until the heart has made a full commitment to it. Jesus said, If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. The willing and the doing, or at least the willingness to do, come before the knowing. Truth is a strict master and demands obedience before it will unveil its riches to the seeking soul. This is David Rosales, pastor of Calvary Chapel of the Chino Valley.


Gw械wch, mae'r iawn gyda'r hwy, mae'r hyn gyntaf yn Gwthoswn Park. Rwy'n ddweud ei chard, yn Cymru. Felly mae'n gweithio, yn gweithio ar gyfer y gweithio, a'r frofio o'r bwrth deddi, i'r flwg sydd yn gyflawni'n gofio'r gwahanol. Felly mae'n gwneud o'r three-point arall. Mae'n gweithio, mae'n gweithio'n gweithio'n gofio'n gofio'n gofio'n gofio. Maen nhw wedi bod ganddo'i. Dwi'n amlwg y peth oherwydd sydd hynny, ond maen nhw'n arfer o'r gweld i'w ar ac yn gofyl gyda'r ymddydd, yn ei ddweud ar gyfer f Blessing. was Andre Gomez, I think he was man of the match again by a country mile. Absolutely outstanding. Michael Keane as well deserved a shout that he was brilliant as well. But I think as a team, I just don't, it didn't look like it, you know, like the attacking impressive attractive football that we're used to seeing now. It did look like we were a little bit unfit.  Felt like a long international break anyway. And it's obviously been three weeks since we last played the good of some park. So I don't know whether it was just a little bit of that. But we just didn't look on the spot for me today. Obviously had him all the luck man come on and played well. You know, he got himself into some good positions. He had a really good chance and he didn't end up scoring. And that was what it was for me. Obviously Gilvie Sigarton got the goal. Fantastic to see after all the stick that he was getting from the card of city fans. But for me it just, we just didn't look on, you know, we just didn't look as we've been looking. We didn't look as good as we know we can be. It was a very gritty game. It was a very tough game. They've got two big, tough centre of the halfs and they did put a level member behind the ball in time. We just won minute one. I think the referee was a bit of a joke. They had a couple of, you know, so they've had a couple of sending offs and being deadly honest. But yeah, it just, it wasn't what we're being used to seeing. But anyway, nevertheless, we got the three points. Marco Silva's blues coming away with another three points. We're going to have another tough game against Liverpool next week. So hopefully we can go out and, you know, grit it out and maybe even get the three points again in that field or at least a point. But yeah, for me, it wasn't what we used to seeing. It wasn't as pretty and as nice as we used to seeing. It was a hard, gritty game, a little bit like the game against Huddersfield, but we managed to get that all-important goal and, you know, defend really well to stop them getting a goal. And they never really had any clear chance. We had a lot with Charleston as a clear other than the thing that was the end of the first half. And it, you know, straight into the keeper. As I say, Luckman had that chance with Charleston. Had another chance in the second half where he could put it in. We round the keeper on one occasion. Was it with Charleston or Guilfee-Sigarton round the keeper? It was on one occasion and the ball gets cleared off the line. So we definitely had our chances. We just couldn't put the ball in the back of the net over the, obviously, the Guilfee-Sigarton goal that got us to three points.  We ended up getting the three points. I think that is, you know, a massive three points in the end. If you look at the game and you look at how hard and stuff and gritty it was, it really does turn out to be a massive three points for Marco Silva. So on to the next one. Another three points for the Blues. Wasn't the most attractive game, but all well. We'll move on and hopefully we'll go and give them a lot of game next week at Anfield. So thank you very much for watching and I'll see you later.


Hi, everybody. Yes, you are in the right presentation. I promise. Oh, I got some feedback. Let's try to fix it. There we go. So my name is Tex. I am the president for Guardians of the Shoulder in San Antonio. I realize that probably wasn't what you were expecting.  A little bit about myself real quick, just so we knock some stuff out of the way. I'm not a professional in child care. I'm not a certified counselor. I'm not a certified really anything. I'm a victim when I was 13 years old.  That is where my experience comes from. That comes from how we take a child from a victim to a victor. And the process that it looks like within our organization. And hopefully we inspire y'all in a way that you understand that you don't have to be part of a grand plan to make a difference in a child to apply the principles that we've learned today with recognizing the signs of child abuse, sexual, physical, emotional, neglect. But you can apply these locally. And the local application is what matters the most. Taking these steps and applying them just in your neighborhood, on your street with your next door neighbor, make a difference. So we're going to go ahead and go to the presentation and get started on this. And I hope y'all enjoy the ride. Are we live with the presentation? Is my PowerPoint up? Your PowerPoint is not up. We're going to have to get your PowerPoint up. It went down in the storm. It's not up. So go up to pull it in. Pull the. Probably should share the screen. That might help. Yes. All right. OK, now we're sharing the screen. There we go. All right. So as I said, I'm guarding the Children of San Antonio. So obviously, who are we? Guardians of the Children is a nonprofit 501c3 motorcycle organization. We've been around since 2006. So we just celebrated 14 years in existence. As of today, what started in San Antonio 14 years ago, we now have 55 chapters spread across 18 states in the United States. 14 of those chapters reside in Texas alone. And then we have seven international chapters in Canada. So we've taken a very local idea, a very local purpose. And we've grown on it to an amazing level. It's truly awesome to see this organization thrive. But why do we exist? I think that's a more revelant question as opposed to how big our organization is, but why are we here? So the mission of Guardians of the Children is to recognize and react to the signs of child abuse, to educate others to do the same, to provide strength and stability to families in crisis, and to answer the call and use child or teen for courage to move forward. And we provide support through the process and protection when necessary. I do like to emphasize this one key aspect. When I say protection, we are not a vigilante motorcycle. What I mean is we do not go after the people who do harm. We are what we call a pro-victim organization. We are there for the child and the child alone. If it comes down to a perpetrator is bothering a child during the process of going to court, our organization will step in and provide a physical defensive barrier to make sure that that child knows they're safe and secure and protected. We do this in a variety of ways. Everything from we've camped out in front of houses to we go within the court and make sure that that child knows they have a strong support system in court. There's a lot of different avenues that we take in providing this, but it is imperative that for me, I emphasize, we are not there to hurt or harm the perpetrator. We are there to make sure that the child sees justice in court one day. Now, that is not a picture of our founder. That is a picture of Edmund Burke. Edmund Burke is famous for saying several things, but one of the things that we love specifically is, he said, the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. We've adapted that in a slightly different way to apply to guardians of the children and it's our credence, it's our motto. Don't let your silence drown out their cries. We feel that the application of this is very prudent on us as human beings. If we stand by and idly do nothing while child abuse grows, while it intensifies, even during this epidemic that we're in with lockdown and quarantine, if we do nothing, then we've given evil the win. So the silence of children oftentimes is what is equated to child abuse because most kids don't make an outcry. Most kids don't say anything. And if they do, they say it to one person one time. And if they're believed, that's great.  So we have a standing rule in our organization that if a child discloses to us anything at any time, we 100% believe them. So how do we actually do this? How do we not let our silence drown out our cries? Our organization focuses on two aspects. One is direct involvement with the afflicted families and the children and the other is education of the public. We believe very strongly in doing what we can as bikers to educate others that if we can take a stand for child abuse and we can begin this education process that surely you can too. I mean, we're bikers, we're rough and tough and we ride fast and make a lot of noise but we stand for something and we do something about it. A few years ago, we ran across a phone call we got from a coworker, one of our members who said that he witnessed his child abuse happening and all this stuff and he saw the mom beating the son parking lot and all this and we asked, well, what did you do? He said, well, I called you guys. Well, that doesn't solve the problem. So we found that most and what we discovered is most of the people don't know what to do when they see or suspect child abuse. And I know we've covered a few of these things already so some of these I'll be brief on some I'll linger on but in terms of our organization we started a very, very specific campaign and we call it the see something do something campaign and we, this is actually a copy of our business card that we hand out. We have a little business card that we hand out to people because it's convenient, fits in a purse, fits everywhere and we tell people on the backside of it which I'll show you in a second what you can do if you see your suspect child abuse and this is very San Antonio specific because obviously we're in San Antonio but on the backside we give them and these things can be transcended to other areas. So I know we have a lot of people all across Texas and even in other countries right now but the first step is always call 911. That is the most critical step that we find that you can take in solving this issue or addressing or getting that child help is calling 911 and talking to an operator directly. Second thing you can say something. You can speak up, you can say, hey, stop. Hey, hold on a minute, that's not right. Hey, what are you doing? Hey, are you okay? You can even ask the child directly are you okay? I a few years back ran across a father and son in a fish fight and I yelled really loudly he got their attention and I asked the son, come here.  We call the police and begin to handle it from there. If you can stop the abuse in a safe fashion to yourself stop the abuse sometimes just yelling something or letting that person know that you see the abuse is enough to make that person stop moving forward with whatever they're doing but this also applies because sometimes the abuse you don't see it. We see the signs of it and for the 800 people that are watching this I'm assuming there's several parents on here you know when something's off with your child's best friend when they're a ray of sunshine every time they come over and they're happy to look and then they're coming over and there seems sad down depressed or when they stop coming over or when you hear your child talking about they're being weird or they're acting upset or they're mad and they don't know why you all of us parents have this innate ability to know when something's off with another child and some of you have seen it even at bus stops where you see a kid wearing the same dish shovel clothes every day or that you have that great 4.0 student suddenly becoming a D student and struggling in school overnight where they go from happy and cheerful and kind of boisterous to now they're quiet, shy and angry. So stopping the abuse doesn't just mean in physical format of when you recognize and you see something happening but it also means when you believe there's something going on that you suspect something. If you happen to be in the vicinity where you can take photos and videos that's absolutely imperative to do so because that helps with the investigation but also notes. Note take what you saw, what you see, what you suspect what you saw before the abuse and what you've seen after the changes these all help investigators determine where to start pinpointing it and whether there's validation to it. Report the abuse with detail. Those notes will become imperative with that because when you call that abuse in there's going to be questions of why do you think this? What led you to believe this? What do you know about the child? What did they look like? What vehicle were they in? What was the child wearing? Were there any other children? Were there any other parents? Were there any other adults? What was the license plate make model? There's going to be a lot of questions that they're going to ask so the more notes you take about everything around that situation the better it helps. In Texas you can also call the Texas Abuse Hotline that is a direct phone number anywhere. Those reports all get filed and they can be pulled up locally down to the local level and then there's online as well you can file that texasabusehotline.org and if you're local as well you can call the local CAC which in San Antonio happens to be Child Safe. It is an amazing organization. I love Child Safe and I love Voices and I may have forgotten to say this at the beginning but I truly am grateful that Voices has given my organization, our organization this opportunity to speak on what it is we do with children and how we can impact them. So thank you guys very much for this wonderful opportunity even if we're just a bunch of bikers. And sadly the last time we did a presentation with Voices we were in person and it's great because like I told Cathy this morning I said I'm not as effective when I can't threaten to rob you if you don't pay attention. So I'm just trusting that everyone's watching diligently today and I wouldn't really rob you. It's a voluntary donation. All right, so moving on, the facts and I know our first presenter Dr. Passoon covered this amazingly. I'm just gonna briefly go over this as this kind of just relates to our organization's intent and drive. So on average one in 10 children are abused by the time they're 18 and that is a variety of all three categories of physical, sexual or neglect slash emotional. And this average is based on the idea of confirmed cases. So confirmed and unconfirmed in Texas State's guideline is a confirmed case of child abuse means that they had enough evidence to move forward with the case. Unconfirmed cases means that they were unable to determine the validity of the case. So sadly there's obviously not as many confirmed as there is unconfirmed. But the way I always have viewed it within this my organization is confirmed and unconfirmed still means a child made an outcry that abuse was happening. So the average confirmed cases of child abuse is one in 10 children by the time you're 18. In Texas over the course of 10 years there's been $2.8 million outcries, outcries and child abuse. It means 2.8 million children have spoken up over the course of 10 years and said, something's happening with me, please help. That boils down to 767 per day. In our little county alone of San Antonio Bear County we average 24,000 per year of confirmed and unconfirmed. That makes our county the third worst on average in the state of Texas. The only two counties we trail after are Dallas County and Harris County, Houston. On average, that means we're down to 66 per day and Bear County are abused. And that to me is hard. Hard to stomach that today there's 66 kids that are gonna be abused. To give you an idea, the total population of kids in Texas in 2019 estimated for the 2020 census is 7.5 million. 2.8 million of 7.5 million kids have spoken up. Now, I don't do this as a job at Monday through Friday, 8 to 5 on the CPA, but that 2.8 million of 7.5 over 10 years, that's more than one in 10. That's a lot more than one in 10.  In the United States, a report of child abuse is made every 10 seconds. Every 10 seconds, so in one minute's time that I've spent talking about this particular slide, six kids reported child abuse. Six, that breaks my heart because there's so many kids that need help. And what I wanna inspire all of you today is to step up to that plate. Step up to that plate because you can make a difference in a child's life. So we're gonna stop here for a second. Now, normally at this point in time, when I'm doing a live presentation, I would actually have audience members stand for various parts. But since we're doing digitally, I'm gonna give you an encapsulated idea. With the 800 participants watching right now, 800. There was a study done and they asked the question of adults. They said, were you either sexually, emotionally, or physically abused as a child? And so they stratified all these findings and they found out that 30% of an adult population says that they were emotionally or neglectful abuse when they were a child. So out of 800 participants right now, that's 240 of y'all statistically suffered emotional or neglect abuse as a child. The study further classified this abuse and went down into physical abuse and they found that 20%, roughly 20% of adults said that they were physically abused as a child between the age of 18. So in 800 participants, that's 160 people are sitting here watching this that statistically have suffered physical abuse.  So out of 800, that's 80. That's 480 total out of 800 participants that statistically have suffered some abuse. And while that number may change geographically and whatnot, what I always try and get everyone to understand when they're sitting here is over half of any room you're in, statistically, of adults over half suffered abuse as a child. So there is this huge, huge opportunity to start curbing that.  So of 480, and these are only reported cases of child abuse that are confirmed, you know, trial. So of this 480 potential, that's 48 potential abusers down the road as they continue to grow up, just on a statistical average, not trying to say anything about anybody watching this presentation now. But if we begin to address and start taking a stand against and helping these kids work through these issues and quit being victims and transition them to a victor status, that marrying effect drops off the face of the earth because they're no longer victims. They've transcended that victim mentality and now become a victor of this situation. What we tell our kids all the time is you are not defined by your past, but you are defined by your future. What future you want is up to you. So real quick, I wanna cover one thing that I think is imperative for Texas. And I know Dr. Kasun, you covered this. It's something I feel is worth repeating.  And failure to report is a criminal offense. Section 261, 101 of the Texas Family Code. Now, I'd like to point out that this law says suspect. It doesn't say you know. It doesn't say you're 100% sure. One thing that CPS case workers have told us time and time again when we've interacted with them is they are amazed at people's responses because it's always the same responses, number one. I thought something was going on. And so I know there's some people even here thinking the same thing, that they think something's going on with their son's friend down the street, their daughter's friend down the street, the neighbors and their children. Something's off, something's different and they suspect something but no one makes a call. And I tell people this all the time that I would rather make a call 99 times and be wrong 99 times, make that call that 100th time and be right than to make no calls because that had been wrong 99 times. Make the call, be wrong. It's not against the law. In fact, you are protected if you make a report provide good information and good faith. So as long as you are making that call and good faith that you are not purposely trying to intentionally mislead officers that you genuinely suspect something, you are protected by law.  Now there's some additional guidelines to 261 which I know is relate to some of the people in this room. And it's very specific to caretakers, childcare workers, professionals required to report no later than the 48th hour after first suspecting child abuse and neglect. That's not Monday I saw this when he came into the daycare facility and I wondered and then Tuesday got worse and then Wednesday it seemed a little harder and Thursday I noticed more bruising and then Friday I made the call. That call should have been made Monday or Wednesday at the latest according to the law. You're required to make that call. And I honestly think 48 hours is too long. If I suspect child abuse and anywhere I'm at, whether I even see it in a restaurant I'm calling right then and there. I'm making sure that that child gets the help they need as fast as possible. I even once made a phone call sitting in a restaurant eating tacos. And I saw something that occurred at a family table that I thought shouldn't have happened. And I thought it was very suspect and I called the local PD and they came and I sat there and ate my tacos and watched them talk to the family, pull the child away and talk to the child. And I felt okay, somebody's involved. We don't have to make a Facebook post about it and make an Instagram post and share the horrible stories that we see and go all those poor kids don't just share something, do something. Let's not be a keyboard warrior in this society. Let's be a society that stepped up and started changing things. Now, professionals, you cannot delegate this responsibility.  Maybe we need to call CPS to investigate and look into this. No, and how do your manager make that call? It's up to you to make the call because you're the one directly involved. You're the one that witnesses everything. And it's also advised to not wait until all facts are gathered if you suspect abuse. And what that means is don't take time away from making that report to go, well, let me talk to sister and let me do a drive-by and let me interview the child at the daycare facility to make sure they're okay. Just make the report. On average, it takes CPS seven days depending upon the classification of the abuse to respond. So at a minimum, you're seven days out. Now, if you make that call and then you continue to get information and you continue to see things that become more pervasive that make it seem this child needs help now, immediately, you can call CPS back and say, hey, I've noticed bruising now starting to occur. I've noticed more things and they can escalate it to what they call a tier one, which it gets a 24 hour response to the call as opposed to a seven day. So obviously delaying your report can result in more serious harm to the child. And of course, as I've stated, report even in doubt. Even in doubt, make the report. Who cares if you're wrong? As it was pointed out earlier in one of the question and answers, CPS doesn't divulge who makes that call.  You can claim ignorance.  So when you file a report, some helpful tips for filing a report. Give information that helps locate the child. Try to describe the children's clothing. Try to get a picture, a description of car, model, make. The more information you have, the better. Just saying, hey, I saw this mom in the Walmart parking lot beating her child and they got in their car and drove away, isn't gonna help narrow the search down. You need to give them a little more. What's the making model of the vehicle? What's the last three of the license plate? First three of the license plate. Law enforcement can do a license plate lookup based on partials and they can help find that child. Report what you know about the child. This is incredibly important because in a house where there's siblings, and we've seen this where only one child is being abused when CPS has done an investigation, if they don't have enough detail on what that child looks like, the child that gets presented is the one that's not being abused.  They talked to the brown hair child. So make sure when you talk to CPS, you're giving as clear a description of the child as possible, height, rough age, length of hair, color of hair. If you're close enough, color of eyes even. Child's name, if you happen to know it, but the more details you give, help them locate that child, help them know which child they're talking to. And then report what you know about the event. Take the time to try and soak it in when you're writing the notes down. I always tell people when they're making a report, before you make that phone call, get a pen and paper out and write everything down. It'll help you organize your thoughts and get that mumble jumble in your head of the situation and take the emotional frustration out of it and the emotional pain. It'll help you put it down on paper in a logical format where then when you're talking, you can go, this is what happened, then I saw this and then this. The more detailed you are, the more organized you are, the better CPS can make their interaction. And then of course, call 911. Call the police non-emergency line. And lastly, call the DFPS hotline. And I got about 15 more minutes. I already know where I'm at. Edmund Burke said this, another great quote if he said, nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little. I'm gonna say that again. Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little. Don't make the mistake of thinking that your one act, your one push doesn't make a huge impact or can't make a difference. So what happens after? So what happens after all the calls, after all the interventions, after CPS gets involved and then where do we fit in? What do guardians do? First and foremost, real quick, I'll cover our admission process. All of our members are Central Registry checked. We check a Central Registry annually as well as a criminal background check. And we have a one year process for admission to full membership. So we try and be very protective of our organization or our entrance. And then I think the number one question I get sometimes from other CACs and counselors who work with us, why motorcycles? What is the big deal with using motorcycle? Because there's a lot of organizations like ChildSafe, Voices and other organizations that don't use motorcycles. Why do you guys use motorcycles? Well, it's quite honestly full disclosure of their fun. I love riding a motorcycle and the promotion of family and the motorcycle culture is a big deal. The motorcycle culture is big on family involvement and family feeling, you know. I've got a lot of people I call brother and sister that I don't share blood or patch with because we are such a tight knit family in our community. And for kids, there's this huge appeal factor. Kids love motorcycles. It's the most amazing thing. I can pull up to a gas station anywhere and kids wave at me.  And the kids are like, hey, hi. Kids love bikes and they don't see the danger that most bikers present which quite honestly, most bikers aren't dangerous at all. They're really nice guys. And then there's a whole another side called Method Acting which I'll cover in our next moment because Method Acting, for those of you who are familiar with Method Acting is when somebody takes on a role and not just in that moment, not just when they're on scene, but they also take it off screen. They're also, you know, when they're in their trailer, they're still that character. They're still living that moment. So we interact directly with kids. Our first step is what we call an adoption. The adoption is where we induct a child into our family. It's an induction ceremony. By doing this, this is where our Method Acting comes in because we give kids the opportunity to be a badass to say it that way. We have about 50-some members and motorcycles that show up at any adoption that we do. We have a bunch of safeguards that we implement for our kids to be safe. But the big key that we do here is we get the kids involved and let them know that there's a whole bunch of people that care about them, that love them, that are there for them no matter what, and that believe them. We never ask our kids about what happened to them. We never talk about their abuse with them. We are just there to let them know, we know you went through something and we're here to support you. And there's a lot of ways you can do this, not just in, you know, obviously our organization, but there's different organizations wherever you may be, especially in Texas, that offer opportunities for you to be directly involved in helping kids, there's big brother, big sister, there's CASA, there's Boysville Volunteer Opportunities, which is a foster home center. There's a lot of different avenues out there in your community. If you just take a look for opportunities, you'll find them. So we meet as a group, we discuss what we're gonna do for the adoption, we discuss the child's road name, every child gets a road name, it's awesome. And we discuss how that child wants to be greeted. One of the most important things is we don't cog every child. When we actually are interviewing the child and the family, we ask amongst other things, you know, what road name do you want? But we also ask them, how do you want to be greeted? I've had everything from, I had to do a peer away, peer case, curtsy, thank you, my wife. I had to do a curtsy, I've had to do cat noises, I've had to do fist bumps and waves, I had to dance once, I had to do the clock woe, which I still don't quite remember what that is. But we give the kids the power first to know that they're in control of their body. They get to determine how they want to be greeted. And the most important thing we give them is this vest. This little vest that says little guardian of the children on the back of it. This is where method acting comes in for us with these kids. That moment that child puts on a vest, that child changes because that child now suddenly feels like a badass, like a biker, and they get that opportunity to just feel empowered knowing that they're part of this group of guys and girls that just are there to love and protect them. And the names they pick out are truly amazing. We'll go through a few of them in a second. But then of course we always tell them in order to be a biker, you gotta go for a motorcycle ride.  And some of them have been before, but the majority of the kids that we work with never ridden a bike. And so we get this great opportunity where we get to take these kids on their first motorcycle ride. And what's really neat is when we first roll up as this large, noisy group, the children are always a little like, oh my gosh, shy, because there's all these bikes, all these people. But by the end of it, when they're on that motorcycle, you can't see it because we make sure all the pictures hide their faces. But behind every one of those helmets that a kid is wearing is this big cheesy grin because they're loving every minute of it. They're loving, and I don't think it's just the motorcycle that they love. I think it's the fact that they love that a bunch of people believe them and support them. And that's what makes a difference for them. After the ride is done, there's one thing we do give them that's very special, but I'm gonna skip ahead. Outside of the adoption, once they're in organization, we do several events throughout the year with them. All these events are designed around fun with them. At the top left is our Easter event. We had one of our members as the Easter money. We've taken them to the San Antonio Rampage Ice Hockey game, we do a back to school drive for all of them. We do games with them, we've taken them bowling. We even had one of them appear on Ken's Five with us to talk about how she is now an advocate, which I'll talk more about later. So we try and engage these children in a way that they now feel like they're a kid again. Because what we've seen with children is most of the time they get abused, they never leave that mentality because one, they think they're the only one.  So what we drive is that one, you're not alone. Look at all these kids around you. They've all been abused.  We're just gonna be kids and have a good time. We go to trampoline parks, we've gone to pool, we've had pool parties for them. We do whatever we can to make sure they feel like a kid again, which from what I've experienced is the most important aspect of helping a child heal is giving them their piece of childhood back to where they're not an adult anymore dealing with an adult issue. But they're back to being a child again. Now, one of the things we give all of our kids, only our kids have them, is the bear. I love this guy. I have mine with me here today. We affectionately call him cut, but our kids get to name them whatever they want. We present this bear to them, but before we present it to each child, we all give it a hug. And obviously with Corona and COVID-19 right now, quarantine right now, we haven't done that. Free quarantine, we'd pass it around, every member would hug it and we'd tell the child the bear's filled with love. If you ever need to be reminded of how much we love you, just remember us hugging this bear. Now, what's really neat is, it's a stuffed animal and these kids have taken to this bear like nobody's business. It's amazing, over 14 years watching what this bear has done. Because I still have adults that were kids in our organization at one point that still have this bear. And they still periodically send me pictures of this bear doing activities, which is truly cool. And I even have some of the kids who send pictures of the bear doing activities. This bear has been to places I have never been. He's been to Cocoa Beach, which I apparently, I really want to go.  He's gone to lakes and camping. He's been on a John Deere. He's gone to school. Most recently during quarantine, we got a picture from one family of all four of their bears, all having a party together and playing UNO. So these kids have really began to personalize this bear. And we get calls every now and then to go and fill this bear up and to visit with the child again. And when there's not an event going on and we gladly obliged by that. I mentioned that I talked about our little guardians. I worked with a lot of these kids directly with my members. This organization, these kids are truly amazing. And these are a fraction of the kids that we have worked with. But I'm going to talk specifically about two of them. My first one I want to talk about is Tink. Tink when we first met Tink was absolutely terrified of sleeping in the dark. She slept with her night light on, her hall light on, her bathroom light on, her bedroom light on. There could be no shadows in her room at all. If there was any dark room at night that she could see from her bedroom, that light had to be on, including the whole bathroom light on. That was about a month into her working with our organization and her being involved, that her liaison gave her a night light that projected our image up on the wall. And it was about another month later that Tink gleefully reported to her liaison that she was now sleeping with just our night light and the hall light on. She had transitioned because she began to feel safe. When kids feel safe, they're so quick and so resilient and overcoming their fear and overcoming their pain. And then we had about another month go by and Tink called her liaison and said, hey, I don't need my night light anymore. I'm sleeping with all the lights off. Ah, man, I just got to see a big burly biker get all emotional. And she wanted to give her night light to another kid that needed to be reminded of our image at night when they were sleeping. And three and a half, four months time, we went from being completely afraid of the dark to now she's not afraid of the dark and she wants to give what was once her security to another child to help them feel secure. That's the power of taking a kid out of the victim hood of making them feel safe, of giving them courage, of giving them protection, giving them the support is they bounce so quicker, so, so quick back. When another child named Shadow Angel, Shadow Angel is truly an inspiration to all of us. So when we first met Shadow Angel, she couldn't be touched. Shadow Angel's trigger was physical contact. If you padded her on the shoulder, other than her mother was the only one to touch her, but so when we greeted her and we asked how she wanted to be greeted, it was a peace sign, just a peace sign. And so that was fine, we gave her a peace sign, we were fine with that. And as she began to trust us and feel safe again, she began to give us high fives. And I was the first person at one of our events that she came up and she put her arm around me and gave me this big old side hug and said, hey, Tex, wow. All right, I'm going broke today. So we have a rule in our organization where whenever you get choked up in a speech, you owe $5 to the kitty. So I'm like up to 20 now. So Shadow Angel took it a step further though. Not only did she overcome her fear of physical touch to where she felt comfortable giving side hugs, but she came to us one day and said, I wanna do more, I wanna help. And so we talked with her about it and she began actually helping at the events instead of being a participant child at an event. She was a child that was helping at our events. So she was helping out the abused children. Shadow Angel took it a step further as I pointed out a few slides back. She went on Ken's Five, a great day I say with us and talked about why she was involved in this organization as an advocate, which is ultimately for us is the third stage that we all sit in right now, where we went from victim, we overcame our situation, became a victor, but now we're advocates. And that's where Shadow Angel at 15 years of age became an advocate for child abuse. I didn't become an advocate until I was 22. I know I look young, but I'm really 36. I didn't start this process until I was 22. And Shadow Angel seven years ahead of me, I jokingly talked to her and tell her, well, I might as well just step down as president and just go ahead and give it to you because you're a lot farther along than I am. And I know these names are a little weird, but I did say that the kids choose their names and we let them choose their names. And so some of them are quite interesting. As you can see, we have a variety of names that come from different backgrounds in different areas and different influences. I think one of my favorite ones that'll pop up in a minute is Nightmare. When we asked Nightmare why she wanted to go by Nightmare, that's gonna pop up right next to Xena. She said, well, he was my Nightmare when I was going through this, but now I wanna be his Nightmare. And this all started, guys, just because some bikers got together and decided, let's go help some kids. And so I wanna leave with this before I start answering some questions. If you want more information on us, you can feel free to email, phone call. Our webpage is right there, geocsatx.com or on Facebook. We have a dedicated phone line. We have a general email that goes to our board of directors. If you wanna email me personally, you can email me at presidents at geocsatx.com. I'd be glad to talk about anything that we can do. If you believe that there's a case or a child that you know that we can get involved in, we do have a barrier for entry in our organization to protect ourselves, that there has to be a police report on file. If there's a police report on file, then the abuse trust is validated. The hardest thing we get is cases that don't have police reports on file because oftentimes those seem to be custody battle issues and we kind of stay away from that. So if you want any more information, please go to our webpage, find us on Facebook, feel free to message us on Facebook, give us a call, give us a text. I'm good for anything. I'd be glad to discuss this at any time with anybody, anywhere. All right. Ah, oh, 11 questions. Top vote is mine. Who's excited about the final presentation? All right. How can we contact to be a part of it?  What are the requirements to join regarding to the children? Excellent question. So we do not require a motorcycle. We have a level of a membership, what we call supporters, who go through the same training and same worker that we put our membership through. You have to be 18 over 18, pass the criminal background check, pass the central registry and we conduct an interview before we give you admission with our membership coordinator. We do this to several different things. One, we gotta make sure that you're good with kids because that's what our organization's based on is handling kids. The second thing that we're also looking for is stability in your life. We've had some people join our organization and go through the cycle ups and downs. That's why it takes a year for membership because we wanna make sure that that person is stable enough to handle being a child's direct contact when they need help. So how do you take referrals? So most of our referrals come directly from ChildSafe. We get them from the DA's office directly. We've got them from Casa, St. PJ's homes. Any child advocacy center, we've even gotten personal phone calls from a mom or a dad who says, hey, my child's going through this. We file a police report. They have court in four months, can y'all help? And we most certainly can't. So we can take referrals any way possible. The only requirement that we have is making sure that there's a police report on file. Next question. What steps did you take during your journey to become a victor? Honestly, I took a lot of hard ones. I dived in drugs. I dived in alcohol, gang activity. Late night hooligans sneaking out of my parents' house, getting busted by my overly protective Catholic mother quite often. It wasn't until I actually found that there was people like me. As a child, I grew up thinking boys don't get sexually assaulted. That's just not a thing. And then I found out that it was a thing, that boys are victims just like I was. And once I began to identify that there were other male victims out there just like me, I really began to realize that bad things happen. But on my walk with and coming to know Christ at 21-ish, I realized that what the devil intended for harm got intended for good. So the devil intended to break me with the abuse I went through. But God said that I can take that and I can use it for my kingdom. So I took what I went through and I've now turned it for the past 14 years into making, yeah, 14 years. 14 years into making a difference in other children's lives. Because now when I talk to a kid and I say, look, I know what you're going through, I'm not speaking false, I'm speaking very true on it. How to connect students to your group. Holly, I guess I would depend upon in what method you were thinking. We generally don't do a lot of school presentations. Schools sometimes have frowned upon our message, believe it or not, because the message that I want to give schools and what I want to talk about is a little more graphic than this. I want to talk about what does abuse look like? What are the different types of abuse out there? And I get told I need to censor that when they screen my presentation. So we've had a difficult time getting through a school system to understand that if you don't talk about these things, it doesn't mean they're going away, they're going to happen. As far as individual students wanting to volunteer or work with us, that's a little separate. Feel free to reach out to me. We do have some volunteer activities that pop up. This year has been a little challenging because of quarantine, but we do have the availability outside of once all this is done to where we can involve high schoolers and even younger in some of our volunteer activities. Linda, not a question, but a statement, I love it. Yes. So at the live presentation, we allowed everyone there to hug this wonderful bear, but obviously this situation is a little different. How do we contact to become a part of it? I think I already answered that, but feel free to reach out to us on our Facebook page. We, if you go to our website, we have our membership coordinators email posted under Contact Us and you can directly email her and ask her and she will send you the required paperwork that we have as well as set up a time to meet with you. Not as easy as it seems. I fully understand that Debra, while I've not been involved in other childcare directly, I can understand the challenge in childcare and my heart goes out to you and my hat's off to you because you're the ones on the front lines. How can we get a bear? You can't. Yeah, you can't. That is a strictly goes to our abused children only. We've had that question by numerous people, even people wanting to throw buttloads of money at us and mind you, we're fully funded by the public, we're a nonprofit, so we don't have a large grants from the government or anything like that, but our bear is strictly for our children because that is something very special to them. And what we tell them too is this bear, this particular bear we've had now for quite a while. And so we always tell our kids, if you see anyone with this bear, you know they've gone through the same thing you have been and you don't got to talk about it, but you just know. And we actually had a story of one of our kids talk about, she ran into another adult at a supermarket who happened to be carrying our bear and no words were spoken. They just looked at each other and they both just knew. So unfortunately, you can't, I'm sorry. No, there is not a chapter in Corpus Christi, unfortunately. Well, I think that's about it, guys. Kathy, I'm sorry I went over, but the floor is yours. Hang in there for just a second. We'll get Kathy on the screen. Kathy, she's coming in. Hey, okay. There you go. You're always wonderful. Just, I can't tell you how grateful we are all the time for you and for all of your fellow bikers. If this were not a quarantine time, they come together all the time. You would see a huge group of guardians together, supporting each other. But this is a very different situation. I wanna thank all of our presenters.  You're always willing to step up and do whatever you can to help kids. Thank you also to Charlotte Ann and Susan from Nowcast for some of us who are really, really anxious about this whole virtual thing with high tech. You make it easy. Thank everyone who's here. We will be doing this. Please check with us. Please feel free to, on the questionnaire afterwards, suggest anything you would like. We are just learning, but thank you for your patience as we try to handle all of this different way of doing things. That's all I have. And if you have any questions, email us and we'll be happy to try to figure out what you need. Thank you.