Okay. Hi there folks. I'm Heidi Joy Trethaway with the OpenStack Foundation and thank you for coming to this lightning talk about the user survey. I have a few more copies of the user survey coming over from the Media Lounge. So if you didn't get a copy, hopefully I will have them here before the end of the session. Also, because PDFs are wonderful things to have, if you go to openstack.org forward slash user hyphen survey, you can download your copy of the PDF. You can also watch a four-minute video where I'll go through the highlights of the 12 most important slides or findings from the user survey. So if you don't feel like digesting all 66 pages of the full-length report, you can definitely do the four-minute video. So let's talk a little bit about the user survey. What I'm hoping to cover here is to give you a little more insight into some of the key findings and then also answer your questions. I'm really thrilled about how many folks are here and I'm really eager to have a conversation with you.  I will repeat your question for you for the camera. So in terms of demographics, what we see is increasing user diversity. And just to give you context, over the last 12 months, we've surveyed more than 2,500 individuals in our community. Only about a third of the people who answer one survey also answer the next one, which means that we have, although a broader base of users, we're not just surveying the same users over and over again. It also means that we're constantly starting from scratch, in a way, in terms of marketing the survey and getting it out to the to the full community. We know that 32% of users have more than one role and Cloud Architect, which was actually just in the last year, we started asking folks if that was one of the ways they referred to themselves. That's our top person. What we hear from the survey in the 1800 plus verbatim comments about OpenStack, our comments about the community, about technology, and about things they'd like to see improved. And so one of the things we'd really like to do after this cycle, because we were kind of hustling just to get this report created for the for the summit cycle. But afterwards, we'd like to really dig in further to those 1800 verbatim comments, which either came as a result of the Net Promoter Score question, where we followed up and said, what is the primary reason why you might recommend OpenStack to a friend or colleague? Also, we asked, what do you like best about OpenStack? And also, where are the room, where is their room for improvement? And so in those things, we have a lot of comments, a lot more context and detail that we could share with the development community from the users. We know that IT makes up the greatest share of users. But if you look over the last several cycles, the slice of the pie that IT dominates is shrinking. We're seeing more and more diverse workloads, diverse industries using OpenStack. And also, I'm really excited to share with you that we're seeing greater geographic diversity in that 61% of users, 74% of deployments are physically located outside the United States. And this summer, we hope to launch the user survey in multiple languages, including simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, Korean and Japanese, specifically targeting Asia, knowing that we're going to Sydney for the next summit. So that Australia, New Zealand, as well as Asia regions, we're hoping to see much greater participation from the user survey and to reduce the language barriers that the user survey creates when it's only available in English. So I really am excited about that. And I hope for those of you who live in that region, you might also share this with friends and colleagues, because I'd like to see more representation there. One last thought, and this is countering some fud that we see pretty regularly. Folks are saying, oh, yeah, big corporations can do it, small corporations can do it, but midsize, I don't know. As recently as a couple weeks ago, I saw a journalist writing that. And I just want to point out that the demographics that we are seeing in the user survey absolutely counter that, that in fact the largest share of users is midsize organizations. You see a nice even distribution of organizations of all sizes using OpenStack. And I also want to point out that when we just look at those organizations that registered deployments, this number is largely consistent. So let's talk a little bit about some of the user perspectives that we saw. One thing that we did differently this year is we used a different mechanism for visualizing the data on business drivers for OpenStack. And for the last several cycles, users have consistently told us cost was the number one reason for choosing OpenStack. So I thought it was really interesting that what bubbled up to the top in this survey was avoiding vendor lock-in, followed by the opportunity to accelerate innovation and increase operational efficiency. So there's a good amount of debate on the user survey team about what does this mean and how is this changing. But ultimately, I think it's important that we keep a pulse on why people are choosing OpenStack and what can we do to improve adoption or to make it easier and better for people to adopt OpenStack. So I want to pause for a second and ask those folks who are part of either the user committee. We have a couple of user committee members in the room or the user survey working group to please stand up. I'd like to acknowledge you because you did so much work to support this effort. Come on, people. I see you. I see you. So thank you. These are some awesome folks who not only dug into those 1800 verbatim comments, but also looked at a slide deck that was probably 90 slides long, each of which was a complicated chart to crunch just like this one. They read through that whole 66 page report multiple times and they are instrumental in helping to shape the way this report looks. Why I think that's so important is because although I'm an employee of the foundation, I feel like this needs to be that community effort that really reflects what users are thinking, not what the foundation is thinking or not what foundation marketing is thinking and as I'm a member of the marketing team. So I would also encourage you to be a part of the user survey working group which does require a confidentiality agreement so that we don't inadvertently expose any user's data, but does give you some really wonderful insights into what users are really thinking. I like this quote here. OpenStack is a force to be reckoned with, a powerful array of cloud features that businesses have come to expect. One thing that is not my favorite thing to tell you about, but honestly, we need to talk about the good, the bad and the ugly, is that according to our net promoter scores, we saw them drop pretty much across the board to a certain degree. And this one was one of the more positive charts that shows that users with more recently launched clouds are more highly satisfied with OpenStack. But I'm reporting these less exciting NPS numbers because I think it's really important that as a community, we embrace that good and bad and really dig into those comments about where people feel like OpenStack has room to grow, particularly they refer to the user experience of OpenStack and manageability for OpenStack as being areas where they'd like to see OpenStack improve. And the cool thing about that is that if you look at the community generated roadmap, we have a session that we've already completed at this summit and it's recorded. It shows how the community generated roadmap top priorities actually align perfectly with those issues that the users addressed. And so the user survey work group actually compiled themes around what are the comments from people? Like what are we hearing over and over again around manageability or user experience? So I was pretty excited to see those themes come forward. Thank you for asking. The question was what is NPS? NPS stands for a net promoter score which takes the percentage of people who rank you a number or who rank you a nine or a 10 on the scale of zero to 10. Those people are considered promoters. Folks who say zero to six, they're considered detractors. Seven and eight considered neutral. And so if you take the percentage of promoters minus the percent of detractors, that equals your net promoter score. I have one more question. Yes. To repeat your question, you're asking why are the N numbers as they are, you can see them underneath like 2010 through 2014 is 80. The N numbers represent the number of deployments that indicated that they were launched in 2010 through 2014. So it's the number of respondents for each of those bands. I want to skip forward a little bit. Just as we don't have a ton of time to talk a little bit about deployments because I want us to think differently about this chart, which we're always so fond of showing when we talk user survey, which is showing the percentage of deployments that are in production. In this case, the percentage of deployments in production edged up just one point year over year. But the object of the game is not to get us all the way to 100% of clouds in production, right? We want to see new clouds constantly coming online. And so what was so exciting and encouraging for me to see is that new projects are indeed coming online. When we looked at the number of clouds launched in 2016 and 2017, that's the majority of clouds. And the average age of an open-stack cloud is just 1.68 years. So that was some exciting stuff to see come out of the survey. We also saw more, most open-stack users running Mitaka and Newton. And this is one of my favorite kind of very colorful charts to show you kind of give you a sense of how the clouds migrate over time to the newer releases. One more thing I wanted to kind of make a point of before I take a couple more questions is the idea that the average cloud is using nine projects. And you might be wondering, well, which nine projects in general, they're running all of the core services of open-stack. Among open-stack core services, 89% adoption or greater among all the clouds. And then also just we're seeing a lot of projects grow in adoption and full use. These projects are gaining in popularity. And then finally, users indicate they're really interested in adopting these additional projects. So I want to pause here and take some more questions. And I have additional slides that I can kind of skip over to, to talk about specific parts of the user survey. But I have to repeat your questions. So go ahead. Yes, many people are, I'm sorry, I'm having trouble hearing you. So I'm having trouble repeating the first part of your question was that I had mentioned that open-stack, one of the top reasons for adopting open-stack was avoiding vendor lock-in. Okay. So you're asking for a net, so he's asking if there will be additional impact on open-stack adoption as Microsoft brings forward another alternative to VMware. And that remains to be seen. And when we see it, we will see it in the user survey. I'm not sure I have a greater comment than that. Okay. Any other questions? Yes. Yeah, I'm really glad that you asked that. Yes. So we are asking different regions, or we're asking everyone worldwide to answer the user survey. And then if you would like to analyze the results, for example, just for the Asia Pacific region, then what you can do is go to open-stack.org forward slash analytics, apply one of the six global filters, which includes geographic region. And then you'll be able to look at the results that are specific to your region. I'm afraid the last lightning talk went a bit how you can get that data. You would get that, you would get that data through this website that I have up there. How do I get the data? How I get the data is that we are requesting folks answer the user survey, and then that information goes and populates our database. Yes, exactly. We saw about 24% of respondents to the survey from Asia last time. And I'm sorry, but I have to wrap up, but I'd love to talk to you a little bit more at the end. So thank you very much for attending.


I'm Sarah Funk, an on-camera travel host, video producer, and New York tour company owner. I live and breathe the entrepreneurial lifestyle. And I'm Maxima Amartno, a fantasy author, co-founder of a writing resource site called All the Kissing, and a brand writer for GoDaddy. Being an entrepreneur takes courage. This lifestyle is full of ups and downs, twists and turns, and unexpected hurdles. But overcoming these challenges means building the business of your dreams. Which is why we set out to chat with everyday entrepreneurs from all sorts of industries about their roads to success. Real stories, real people, real inspiration. This is School of Hustle. You know, I'm doing pretty good, all things considered. I'm feeling a little cooped up, and I'm like a self-proclaimed recluse, so I don't like to go out anyway. Wow, this is a lot for you to feel this way. Yes, it's a lot for me, so I need to be doing something that sparks either my creative energy or gets the juices flowing or something, because I'm feeling a bit stagnant right now. I'm not going to lie. I hear you. I told myself I would work out every day of this, and I think I've probably worked out a total of five times. I know, I think by the time I get out, I'm going to have zero muscle left in my body. But, you know, we've got to take care of our health these times. We've got to take care of our mind. Today, we're chatting with Taylor Elise Morrison, founder and CEO of Inner Workout. From movement to breathwork, to meditation and journaling, her mission is to make self-care more inclusive and accessible to all. Her business has been featured in Forbes Entrepreneur and more, and we're so excited to chat with her about her entrepreneurial journey. Taylor, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here. We're so thrilled to have you here. So, could you tell us in your own words about Inner Workout? Yeah. Inner Workout, I like to say that it's people's self-care support system. So, we're rooted in this yogic concept of the Koshas, which we call the five dimensions of well-being, and we really create offerings that help people build the skill of self-care, which we define as listening within and responding in the most loving way possible. From the moment you came up with this concept, you actually used to be the vice president of operations at a wellness startup. So, why the shift from corporate life to starting your own business? Was there an aha moment you had? Yeah. So, I've always been entrepreneurial ever since I was a kid. I would always be learning things and then wanting to turn them into a business. So, even before I started Inner Workout, I had a brand strategy company that I started my senior year of college, and I ended up actually marrying my high school sweetheart, and I remember telling him pretty early on in my relationship with him, like, if I am still working for someone else by the time I'm 30, then you have to make me quit my job because I know I'm meant to be an entrepreneur. I love that. That's so inspiring, and I completely agree as well. That was kind of my timeline. So, we're in line with that. Yeah. So, I was working in corporate at Allstate's headquarters, and I knew that that life wasn't for me, so moving into a startup and a role on the ground floor of a startup really felt like a good way for me to start to build up some of my business, and especially my operational chops. So, let's get back into Inner Workout a little bit. How did you know that was going to be a good business idea? I wish I could say, like, there was a specific moment, but when I had the idea, I was about to take a yoga class, and I just thought, why isn't there a self-care class? And so, I did a lot of looking around to see if there was something similar to what I wanted to build, and I didn't really see anything that was exactly the same. There were some things that were kind of similar, but were maybe focused more on cardio. There wasn't anything in the restorative space, and nothing that was purely focused on. We were here to help you build the skill of self-care, so I saw that market opportunity, and then I started talking to a lot of people. I was in a startup program, and so I was doing a lot of customer discovery and talking to people and running the idea past them and getting a lot of good feedback. Could you tell us a little bit about that startup program? I'm so curious about that. I bet it taught you so much. Yeah, so I did a program called, well, the organization is called Future Founders. The program that I'm in was at the time called the Startup Residency. They've since rebranded to the Startup Bootcamp, and it's for idea stage companies, and it really takes you through the process of validating your idea, starting early stages to think about what a business model could look like. And for me, it was really helpful because it gave me a lot of accountability. We had to talk to a certain amount of customers by a certain amount of time, and then also it gave me a really good support network. Like there are people who went through that program, and then there's a second stage where you get even more support and mentorship, and I still talk to those people today. Was there anything that people had told you during your process of validating the idea, maybe some people you spoke to asking if they would be interested, that gave you new ideas to tailor your business model? So I think the biggest learning was that people knew in general that self-care was something that they should do, and either they knew what worked for them, but they struggled to make time for that for it, or they didn't know, and they were just kind of lost. So I really saw the biggest opportunities for us to offer support was one in putting something, creating something that people could put on their calendar. If they could go to it, they can show up for it, that accountability piece, and then also the support and kind of guiding people through a practice, guiding them through things that can resonate with them. So let's talk about a little bit. The first thing you did when you had your business concept, now how do you implement it, right? How do you create it? This is, this can be so overwhelming. Yeah, so where did I start? I think what was helpful for me is having a background where I was working with clients on their branding. I definitely had a little bit of a head start because my brain starts to think about mission, vision, and values where our target customer is, what the type of language we're going to use to connect with them is. But even before all of that, I loved this name of inner workout. So I searched to see like, is there a domain that I can get? Can I start to reserve names on social media and did like a preliminary trademark search to see what was out there to make sure that there wasn't something I didn't know about? So that's kind of where I started. And then I started building out the brand. I built the website myself. My husband's a designer, but it was really important for me as I was building out the brand to support as many women-owned companies as I could as I was building my company. So I actually worked with a colleague of his to build the visual brand. And then I executed that on building out the website. I had a landing page up for a while. So I would kind of tease about it on my own channels and people could go and start to follow, start to sign up so that when there was something, I had not a huge list, but a little bit of a list. So when you started doing this, it sounded like you kind of rolled it out slowly to see if there's a taste in the market for it. What were you feeling when you launched your first class? Were you scared? Were you excited? What was going through your head? Yeah. And I realized something else that I did that I didn't mention is I beta tested the class format. So I had people go through it and got some good feedback, was able to get some initial blurbs, testimonials that I could use to validate so people could see, oh, this is actually something other people have enjoyed. When I launched, I felt really ready. So I had the idea for the concept in late March. And I didn't launch until September. And so by that time, I was like chomping at the bit ready for people to actually experience it. So I was excited. It also was a little nerve-wracking because it's like, oh, what if it fails? Oh, I don't have time on this. I know. Oh my gosh. But it was cool. It was exciting to launch it. So entrepreneurship has a certain level of fluidity to it.  I really loved the name. And I knew that I wanted to support people in self-care. I think values-wise, I also really wanted to be a company that represented all different shapes, sizes, backgrounds, and be really making self-care accessible. So I've been really intentional in that when there is different brand partnerships, when you see all the photos on the website, you see different types of people represented. And that's really been a stake in the ground for me. I absolutely love this message that you're putting out there. And it sounds like you were just so prepared, right? This came to you in late March. And then you launched in September. So was there anything that you wish you knew now that you could have told yourself back then? I wish I would have been a little bit bolder in asking early on. I think I had a lot of fear and imposter syndrome of what if someone finds out that I'm not a real CEO, whatever it means to be a real CEO. In some ways, failure can teach you so much more than success can. And learning from failure and adapting failure can lead to a more successful outcome. And I think the little voice in our head that's always like, oh, I'm an imposter. I'm not really this great. That's what it's really saying, is you're afraid of failure. Yeah. And I also noticed that there was a lot of self-sabotage where I was afraid of failing. And so I wouldn't want to tell people about what I was building, or I wouldn't want to ask for help, which inadvertently, actually not really inadvertently, subconsciously, was leaning me towards failure because I was so afraid to put myself out there. And so I was just like, either I'm going to do this and ask for things and show up in a big way. And if I fail, I fail or not do it at all. But this in between, it's just not healthy for me. Is there anything you're still actively learning about? Well, it's funny. I don't feel like I know it all. I think the reason why I'm good at running this company is because I'm a person who is actively figuring out what self-care looks like in my life in any given moment. I think the biggest thing that I'm looking at when it comes to self-care is how I relate to self-care when self-care is my work. And I love what I do, but I also know that my tendency is to be a workaholic. So really trying to figure out how I can have things that I do for fun outside of my job, which honestly is a good problem to have. Like a lot of people don't enjoy what they do so much that they're like, man, how do I step back from this? So I'm curious, Taylor. You have had so much experience, right? You worked at a startup before this. You've gathered an email list before you even launched your business. So you're, I would say you're pretty savvy when it comes to the marketing side of your business. However, like the wellness industry is growing, right? Like I feel like there's a lot out there, a lot of competitors. So I'm really curious how you separate yourself. How do you stand out from everyone else who's trying to say that they're a wellness brand right now? I think a couple of things. One is being really firm and intentional about being an inclusive wellness brand. I also think that focusing on being a product and a company that's focused on self-care. Yes, there's like a mental health aspect of that, but we're not really a health company. We're not really a fitness company. We're really about you relating to yourself. That's such an honest mission. I love that. So what's next for your business? Are you looking to expand it to other products and services? Can you talk about what products you offer now as well? Yeah, so it's interesting. It's an interesting time to be a business owner. I would have answered this question probably a lot different a couple of months ago. So what we offer right now is we have the inner workout class, the namesake class, which is a 30 to 60 minute class that blends movement, breath work, journaling and meditation. And it's all designed to help you build the skill of self-care. So right now what we can offer is we have the prerecorded classes for that. And people can buy a single class or they can buy a bundle of all of the class recordings. We did do a lot of in-person classes and we have a certification program, which is now taking place online where people can become inner workout facilitators. That's what we call it rather than teachers because again, we really think that you're the teacher. We're just facilitating the experience to help you step into that role for yourself. So we've got that certification program and we also have what we recently launched is the take care profile, which is completely digital. It measures people along the five dimensions of well-being tells you percentage-wise where you're at and then gives you three customized self-care practices based on what your results are. So what are you doing to navigate these challenging times as a business? Are there any new products and services that you're going to offer, such as virtual classes perhaps? I kind of hit pause when everything with COVID-19 happened. I put out some free resources. I put out this, we call it an inner workout. That included an embodiment practice, some journaling prompts and a meditation. And it was just like, here's something that you can do to take care of yourself right now. I thought about doing more live streamed classes. I have the setup where I could do it, but I realized that looking at the landscape, there is so much going on when it comes to virtual fitness classes. A lot of the really big companies are offering them for free. Could you talk a little bit about the partnerships with brands that you've established? Yeah, so I've done a lot of event partnerships and sometimes it's me teaching a workshop on self-care. Sometimes it's teaching an inner workout class, but it's been really good because it allows me to get in front of a different audience. So I've chatted with a few entrepreneurs in similar spaces, whether that's wellness, fitness, or adjacent to the wellness industry, who have a very strong social media following, and their followers expect them to be motivational and energetic all the time. Like their posts on social always have to be happy and smiling faces and positive speeches. And right now, that can be difficult. It's a lot. So when you have people counting on you for this type of support, emotion, feeling, whatever that may be, how do you keep yourself motivated? I've built the brand in a way where we don't have to do that, both my personal brand and inner workout. I think of around Christmas, we had a post that was like the most wonderful time of the year question mark. Like actually, this isn't the most wonderful time of the year for everyone because you're having to sometimes see family that really annoy you or have like done something terrible to you in the past or you're stressed out or the end of the year. So just being able to- Or buying presents that you can't afford. Exactly. And so being able to have those real conversations instead of like it's all sunshine and rainbows, but be like, no, sometimes it's really awful.  Sometimes life seems really hard. How do you care for yourself, even when you're in that place? What's one piece of advice to give to everyday entrepreneurs like yourself? In this moment especially, and something that I'll carry with me, is that collaboration is so vital. It's just exactly what I was describing. There's so many ways to create shared opportunity. And I think in having a mentality of like, I need to go this alone or I don't want to collaborate because what if they're getting money that people aren't spending on my brand but having this collaborative mindset makes a world of difference. Yeah, just connecting with people that can relate to what you're going through. I know GoDaddy has a great community right now called Open We Stand. And it's a community of entrepreneurs that are all struggling right now because of COVID-19. And I'm part of it. And it feels so good to be part of it because you're in a group of people that can understand and relate to you. And we're all sharing information. And growing and trying our best to stay open. Yeah, for anyone listening, for anyone listening who wants to join in on that community, there's a group on LinkedIn. And it's just entrepreneurs coming together talking about their current experiences, what they're going through. So just having open, honest conversations just like we've been having with the wonderful Taylor. Yes, 100%. So Taylor, you've been so wonderful before we let you go. Is there anything else you would like to share? No, I guess the biggest thing is that I would encourage anyone who's listening to this to set aside some time for yourself. It doesn't, a lot of times we think self-care has to be this long ritual or routine. But even just taking five minutes to listen to a song and have a dance party in your living room, taking one minute to do some deep breathing can make a world of difference in how you approach the rest of your day. I love that. So if anyone's looking for resources like that, I know I am as an entrepreneur in the tourism industry, which is rough right now. You can check out Taylor's information. It will be linked either in the podcast or below in this video. So Taylor, it's been such a joy having you on the show. So thank you so much for joining us. And thank you to everyone who's tuned in today. If you want to learn more about Taylor and Inner Workout, visit innerworkout.co. Follow her on Facebook at the Inner Workout and Instagram at Inner Workout. That's all for this edition of School of Hustle. Keep up with all of our episodes on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or wherever you stream and download podcasts. And if you like what you heard, please leave a review, share with your friends, and subscribe to our show. We'll see you next time.


Open educational resources are critical for the African continent. If we are not part of this, we are going to be left behind. Open educational resources are an idealistic attempt to share knowledge with the whole of humanity. I think it's critical to pay very close attention to open educational resources because they provide us a really effective mechanism for improving the quality and reducing the cost of educational delivery in developing countries. The 2012 UNESCO Paris Declaration was a landmark event for the Open Educational Resources, or OER movement, a global call on governments to openly license publicly funded educational materials. But this movement is still widely unacknowledged and misunderstood. What are OERs all about? Open educational resources are just that. They're teaching and learning resources that have been licensed openly so that anyone can use them without having to pay royalties or license fees. So why are OERs so important in higher education and why on the African continent? It's all about access. If you can't find the latest resources, if you can't afford them, then you're completely out of the loop. So the huge possibility around open educational resources is that you can get them, you can use them, you can adapt them, you can share them back. You can raise the profile in so creating them of African intellectual property as well. The term Open Educational Resources was coined in 2002 at the UNESCO World Open Coursework Conference and high education institutions and organizations have been harnessing this evolution in education across the African continent. Let's take a look at one example. Sadi is a not-for-profit organization with a strong social justice mandate. Our mission is to increase access to educational and learning opportunities for all people throughout their lives. And so when Open Education Resources came around, we were really very happy to take forward this OER movement. And so the South African Institute for Distance Education, Sadi, promoted the OER Africa Initiative in 2008. Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya and funded by both the Hewlett Foundation and the Gates Foundation, OER Africa has played a vital role in pioneering OER projects across the continent. In all of the areas that we work in health, agriculture, teacher education and foundation courses, as far as possible we work with existing networks. Back in 2008, OER Africa and the University of Michigan jointly facilitated a health OER project, comprised of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, the University of Cape Town, the University of Ghana and the University of the Western Cape. At some of the Ghanaian institutions, they had found that they were worrying about whether students were actually getting enough exposure and enough practice with practical things. And this is because the classroom sizes were large. We are using video techniques in other forms like illustration. We're able to demonstrate complex techniques to students that equipment will not be really available. And we also believe that some of the videos we've produced, especially examinations of pregnant abdomen and other things, they are there. Students can study before they touch a pregnant woman, when they go and touch a pregnant woman, when they come back and see what they did right, they just revise it over and over again. What the faculty found is that students who had access to these resources were now performing at a much higher level than students from previous cohorts who hadn't had access. I can foresee a day when we are much more widespread than it is now. Then we are likely to spend less time repeating the adaptive material and more time doing practical and harmful exercises for students. This model that we first worked with in health is a model we have subsequently rolled out in agriculture, in teacher education. And this is the way that we are working going forward. There were also some unexpected and life-changing collaborations that developed out of this Health OER project. We heard from a professor who had created some resources on hematology for some of his students, posted them online on the university website. I was contacted by email, by a Croatian physicist who himself had had anemia for about four years of unknown cause. He had been investigated thoroughly and I took a look. I was convinced that it was an infection. So several tests were done. In the end, he was finally diagnosed as having Lyme disease caused by Borrella. And so he's been treated now for about four to six months and he's doing much better. I've never met him. I don't know what he looks like. All this has been on the internet. Because those resources, those hematological slides that were created for the students had been licensed clearly, this person in Europe knew exactly who to contact, how to contact them and how to use these resources. The essence was not and should not be one's ownership of the fact. But the essence should be the enhancement that the fact brings to academic life and individual lives. Open educational resources seem a natural fit for the higher education sector for one. And the Quamengruma University of Science and Technology has an OER policy in place. Can this relationship be strengthened through institutional policy? There are a lot of reasons that openness is a good thing and they range from transparency, they range from the principle that academics in universities and public universities are paid for with public money and therefore the public beyond the university has the right to access those resources, which is a central issue throughout the Open agenda. But I think in the OER space in particular, it's good for pedagogy because the process of making teaching resources openly available improves them. UCT does not have a policy on OERs in particular. What is much more useful is to develop an institutional position on openness. UCT Open Content was launched in 2010. It hosts UCT academic author material. The way Open Content has evolved has been a sort of middle management incentive where researchers have seen a need and a place for Open Content and it hasn't initiated, hasn't had a top-down approach at all. There's a very interesting thing happening in the global north with the change in the policy environment by government and by funders. Open Access is a requirement in the UK, in Europe, in the States and all of that has a wonderful effect of making a huge amount of academic content available to the global south. But it also has the consequence of drowning what developing content there is online. So we don't make a concerted effort to put our content online and to make it discoverable. We're going to become more invisible. I think that it's clear that in the long run, unless government policies change, we're going to make limited progress with getting open educational resources systematically integrated into the education systems because ultimately governments are by far the biggest investors in education in any country and therefore the policies that they have set the tone for the rest of the system. I think that maybe our role as OEA Africa will become smaller and smaller. It will be more and more around the areas of policy rather than around actual content development. It will be around policy development, policy implementation. It will be around supporting higher education institutions and governments to liaise with each other so that at a national level and at an international level the policies exist. So what lies in the future for OERs? Actually, there's a vast amount of money already being spent on educational resources. If we can shift the focus of that investment rather than it being spent on buying textbooks from publishers that are all largely the same, we invest that money in creating vibrant and open knowledge networks, then I think that there is actually more than enough money available to invest in sustaining open educational resources. We've been talking about higher education but really when you're talking about open educational resources the sky is the limit. I believe that open education resources will revolutionise the education industry in pretty much the same way as changes in technology have revolutionised the music industry. At the University, why do this? The question is actually going to very soon be why aren't you doing this? The global terrain is becoming open. I feel that the idea of having this African content for Africans is crucial and that's where OER Africa comes in, that's where universities in Africa sharing the materials makes a huge impact. It's now time that we share our own useful material in the context that we really need it. We're seeing collaborations growing across institutions so you imagine the quality of a programme that is collaboratively designed by some of the best brains on the continent and then delivered to students wherever they are. Education for all means sharing by all. Open by default. Grow yours in the future.


Dust is a key ingredient in interstellar space because cosmic dust shelters forming stars, becomes part of planets, and can contain the organic compounds that lead to life as we know it. One of astronomy's mysteries is where did galactic dust come from? To find out, Webb will be studying dust-producing wolf riot binary stars like this one, WR 140, 5300 light years away. There is evidence that these stars, through interactions with a companion star, produce large amounts of dust in a distinctive pinwheel pattern as the two stars orbit each other and their stellar winds collide, as shown in this image. This animation shows the production of dust in the binary star system WR 140 as the orbit of the wolf riot star approaches the O-type star and their stellar winds collide. The stronger winds of the wolf riot star blow back behind the O-star, and dust is created in its wake as the mixed stellar material cools. As the process repeats over and over, the dust will form a distinctive pinwheel shape. It is possible that these binary star systems account for a large percentage of a galaxy's dust. However, the intense luminosity and heat coming from the wolf riot stars has made it difficult to study the faint, more diffuse dust in these systems. This is where Webb comes in. The mid-infrared light that Webb can detect is exactly the wavelength of light we need to study the dust and its chemical composition.


Hey, what's up, M.I.C. It's Jerry aka Jay Brack. I'm a moderator here at M.I.C. been trading for about seven years. Started out shorting small caps kind of stuck with that. Last couple years I've added long and short mid and large caps also. Primarily tape read and have a trend following strategy along with the trend reversal strategy that I use intraday. So keeps me busy trading basically all day with with those strategies. I pretty well am at my computer every morning from 7.30 till 5 or 6 in the evening so I pretty well trade all day. But I will be in chat most days but if for some reason I'm not sending me a message if I can help you out in any way shape or form. If you have any questions about tape reading or any of the strategies that I do I'll be happy to help you out. And again I'm glad to be here and I wish you guys the best of luck in trading and again if I can help let me know. Thanks.


When people think of the open university they tend to think of our undergraduate and master's degrees and the ones that you do at a distance. So I don't think that people are aware of the students that we have on campus and that the open university is a place to do your doctoral research. So I think it's really important that we promote the great work that our doctoral students are doing and promoting the open university as a place for research. yw etoeddiad y tuodol yn sprintol y cleverlyf panille hwrs, sy'n cael fuig y bydd hefyd i am Llywodraeth Gwaaint'r Rym países. closeriretfi ac allanodd yr ydyddai itова'r pwysig Peirulaeth Mwneud yn ei bod datblygu a ddwy'n ddwy'n ddwy'n ddwy'n ddwy'n ddwy'n ddwy'n ddwy'n fwy ffordd.


Today I have the pleasure speaking with Dr. John Gluckman from Six Wave Innovation. How are you today? Fantastic Tracy, nice to be with you again.  We're going to talk about nanotech and we're going to talk about cannabis and how you might get involved in a much more innovative and exciting way. So let's start with the Biden election win. I'm not sure we can we can say that quite yet, but you know, many of us are acknowledging that Biden is the new president and with that we've seen an increased interest in the cannabis sector. Can you tell us what you think with regards to the cannabis sector as a scientist, entrepreneur, CEO and co-founder of Six Wave, please involved in this sector? Yeah, we're really excited. I think that in addition to the Biden win it was pretty clear that the referendums on the state ballots in the United States were extremely positive and forward-looking for the future of cannabis and significant expansion in the United States, which is obviously a huge market. So we're really excited by both those things. We see it as a tremendous opportunity for for LPs to expand their footprints into different spaces and certainly for new equipment requirements, which will include affinity. So we're more stoked. Well, speaking of stoked, I actually invested some time going through, you know, the information on the affinity and because our investors are always interested in capital, revenue, etc. Even though I'm dying to talk to you about how big this market is, etc. Did I read this right that the affinity could basically be bringing in Six Wave 100,000 a month? Did I read that correct? Yeah, that is correct. So we were kind of taking an approach that helps us partner more with the LPs that are in the processing business and the way we do that is we make sure to get them our equipment at, you know, a very small profit in margin, you know, almost at cost. But what we sell them then is a total system performance license. And what that does is it brings us into we make money when you're making money. We're all engaged in the enterprise of making sure that the LP is profitable. And so we simply take a small amount of money from them based on their production on an ongoing basis. For that, they get upgrades. They get full maintenance. We monitor the equipment remotely for them. We can do optimization remotely and we have teams standing by to help them if something goes down and make sure that they get back into revenue production. Even with that cost, the savings that we offer to the LP, the increase in productivity that they can get, are far greater. So we've done some recent analysis on this with looking at the specific pricing and things like that. And even with our costs for the TSPL program, it looks like we're selling the, you know, saving the LP somewhere around 50% of their production cost. So that's a substantial savings for them. Okay, many of us, some of us, I know I did, missed out on the cannabis uptick. Okay, I mean, I introduced T-God to their lawyer that put that deal together. I was involved in with Aurora first round, but for some reason I missed out on that. So the knowledgeable investors that were in in the first round and those of us that do not want to miss out on the second round, we've got what, 35 states now they're legalized in the U.S.? Is this correct, John? I'm not sure if that's the right number, but I'll take it from you. Okay, well, that's the number that I read last night. Also, so in reading this, your process, your nanotech, your MIP extraction process, correct? Correct me here, John, because, you know, we've got to get this right for the investor intel audience. It's okay for me to be wrong, but, you know, we need to make sure we understand this. It's my understand that it will, it takes the input materials, okay, it runs it through the solution, right? And then you extract the specific cannabinoids and what makes your cannabinoid distalate so competitive is the pure purity. Is that correct? Right. So we, because again, we're using a synthetic molecular imprinted polymer, what we've done initially is keyed that so that we can take any of the process inputs, whether we're working with a cannabis extractor that's working in supercritical CO2, a hemp producer that's working in cryogenic ethanol, and even, you know, there are producers that are still working with hydrocarbon extraction. At the end of that primary extraction, they end up with a crude extract. It's, you know, lactar essentially, but made of cannabinoids. And in order to process that to get to the ability to incorporate that, say, into addables and drinkables or vapes where they need to have a very consistent and high purity product, they go through a number of process steps. We kind of eliminate all of those. They simply have to dilute the crude, pass it through our cannabinoid, attracting molecular imprinted polymers. We gather all of the cannabinoids and leave all of the rest of the impurities that aren't wanted into the waste stream. And they can then recover the terpenes later if they want to do that. And we give them back then a high purity distillate. As we continue with the upgrades to our beads, we'll also have the ability to independently separate the different cannabinoids. So as you're following this market, you'll know that, yes, we all want the CBD and THC, but there are also tremendous medical advantages and bystander effects that come from some of the secondary cannabinoids, which are very high value like CBG and CBN and THCV. And so as those cannabinoids find more production in the biomass, we'll be able to do independent separations. And at that point, we're replacing even a final conditioning step called chromatography. Okay, that all sounds very interesting to me, but just cracking this down for us investors at Investor Intel as we look at different competitive, innovative players in the market, and of course Six Wave already has a deal in place with the affinity system with a company called Green Envy. Is that correct? Yeah, it is. Yeah, we're very excited. We're just getting ready to have them come later in the month to do a site review of the first piece of equipment that they'll take. And we hope to deliver that still here before the end of the year. All right. So with your deal with Green Envy, for instance, can I ask, or dare I ask, when are we going to see revenue for shareholders at Six Wave with this particular deal? Well, assuming everything continues on schedule, we should be starting the initial revenue generation in December and really ramping that up through the first of the year. And we expect to be delivering three pieces of equipment to Green Envy within the first quarter and we're going to be rapidly expanding the delivery customer base. We have a huge amount of interest in this. One of the great things about, you know, you were asking about investment in cannabis and having missed the first wave perhaps. The very interesting thing now is, you know, what we've seen is that the growers are all growing. The technology to be implemented for that is all well known now. You know, we're like the pick and shovel people of the cannabis industry. And so, you know, they're the guys that always make the money at the end. It's not always the minors, but it's always the pick and shovel guys. And so as these new states come on board, they're all going to need new licensed producers to come into the states. You know, that's one of the unique things about the United States so far is that without a federal mandate, a federal legalization, every state is going to have to have their own growing and processing capability. There is no ability to transport cannabinoid products across state lines. And so that gives us even a larger market opportunity right now is that stuff, you know, panning out. And we don't see that changing, you know, in the very near term. So we're really looking forward to it and scaling up significantly next year. So for those of us out there who may have perhaps missed out on the first cannabis wave, can you tell us why your technology is competitive with many of the other technologies that are currently in the cannabis sector? Absolutely. I mean, one of the fundamental things that we do, you know, this molecular imprinted polymer, this nanotechnology, it could be used in a million different places. Our focus is to come out with products that really help our customer. They've got to do something significantly better for our customer than what can be done today. Otherwise, it doesn't make sense for us to invest in it. And cannabis is one of those markets where, you know, it's been a collage of machinery and equipment that have been used for lots of purposes, but isn't really suited well for this purpose. And that's why we focused on this market. And we do offer all those advantages and they are being noticed. So we're excited. Well, as always, John, thank you so much for an update and letting us know what's happening with six waves of affinity. Thank you for joining us today. Thanks again for having me.


We're really going to see that authenticity, truth and trust is going to be more worth its weight and goal than it used to be. But definitely that also puts an onus on us to provide, you know, insight from communications and also to find a way to connect in a way which is more human than just a commercial point of view as well. Consumers are now demanding experiences which are really created through their specific needs and with new technologies coming in, I think helper personalization is really possible through grid marketing techniques that we can do. And there's new people, younger people coming and they don't want to spend hours reading a white paper. They want to consume the same type of information in a bite format. So you need to produce marketing materials the way people want to hear them.


Timothy chapter 1 verses 18 through 20. I'll begin reading at verse 18. I'll read to verse 20 and we'll get into our study first Timothy chapter 1 Verses 18 through 20. We're looking at the subject fight the good fight verse 18 this charge I commit to you son Timothy According to the prophecies previously made concerning you That by them you may wage the good warfare Having faith and a good conscience Which some having rejected concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck of whom our harmonious and Alexander whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme and So as we're going through first Timothy as is the way that I normally teach and some of you who've been part of this Search for a while know this I like to give a foundation and then move into application And so let me give you a context that we can view this passage by in order to understand What Paul would be sharing with this young man by the name of Timothy? So I want to begin today By asking a question and the question is is not one that I'm expecting you to answer I'll supply the answer for you, but the question I would begin is with is this What is the primary reason for Paul writing these letters that we have first and second Timothy? Why did Paul write first and second Timothy? The answer is found in first Timothy 3 verse 15 The answer is to instruct believers in proper conduct in the church That's why he writes this and in first to me Timothy 3 15 he said it this way. He said if I am delayed You will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household Which is the church of the living God the pillar and foundation of the truth And so I want to begin my introduction today and establish the context by pointing that out You see the household of God as Paul just said is the church or the congregation It is the church or congregation of notice with me the living God So the household of God the church is the congregation of the living God This is the living God who was working actively and personally in the city of Ephesus Remember that Timothy is a pastor of a church in the city of Ephesus a city that has been given over completely to idolatry and and commercialism it was a huge city as I've been mentioning to you in my introductions and this is a city that's given itself over to Cultism as well as the worship of Diana and so when Paul's beginning to speak here he's reminding us that that the church is the Foundation the sub pillar of the truth and the church is the church of the living God So that is the living God who is working actively and personally in the city of Ephesus But that would be in contrast to Diana whose image was in the temple, but did nothing for the people See that image that they had could do nothing to help. It was just an image The image is dead, but God is alive. That's the point that would be made you see again Ephesus was given over to occultism and idolatry and their idolatry is useless Diana did them no good Diana could not be of any help to them when they were in need And that's what idolatry is it is Worshiping a useless lifeless idol Psalm 115 verses 2 through 8 says it like this Why do the nations say where is their God? Which is what is being said right now about us by the way, where is their God? Our God is in heaven. He does whatever pleases him But their idols are silver and gold made by the hands of men. They have mouths, but cannot speak eyes they have Cannot see they have ears But cannot hear noses, but they cannot smell they have hands But cannot feel feet, but they cannot walk nor can they utter a sound with their throats Those who make them will be like them and so will all who trust in them Lifeless idols they cannot help in your time of need and that's what Paul would remind us of that We have the truth and the truth that has been given to us has been given to us by the living God In contrast to dead idols who can be of no help and so idolatry is useless So in contrast to this the church is the church of the living God and is the pillar and foundation of truth So when he speaks of the church being the pillar the church Is a massive pillar upholding preserving and presenting the truth of the gospel Our very existence is intended to validate God's promise to save as well as to transform So when I as a Christian claim to have a message that transforms lives Then it is very helpful indeed if I live that message out before men Because if not that i'm undermining the effectiveness of the gospel and the truth The church proclaims originates or is founded on Jesus Christ. It originates with him He is the foundation because Jesus himself is the truth And it's the truth that's revealed in the gospel that the church guards as well as cries out to people So with this in mind as we're looking at this passage Paul is writing to instruct believers to live lives that line up with the word of God to do this Paul writes around 75 specific instructions in these two letters alone You see Christian leaders are intended to instruct those whom they lead And leadership is intended to safeguard the sheep from spiritual deception Leaders are intended to communicate the message That keeps people from going into error In Ephesians 4 verse 14 Paul says we will no longer be like children forever changing our minds about what we believe Because someone has told us something different or because someone has cleverly lied to us and made the lie sound like the truth So God gave to the church apostles prophets evangelists pastors and teachers For the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry so that we might be matured and safeguarded from deception So if timothy is going to be a spiritual leader, he needs to have proper doctrine and he needs to have character Now when paul was writing or rather speaking to the elders of Ephesus There in myelitus as is recorded in acts chapter 20 Paul was speaking to the elders of the church of Ephesus and he was giving them instructions And he told them that their manner of life would be the mirror of biblical doctrine So he was encouraging the to live lives that that properly presented the gospel to people In order to do that he actually pointed to to his own way of of life as an example for those Elders to follow in acts 20 verses 17 through 21 It reads from myelitus. He sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church And when they had come to him, he said to them You know from the first day that I came to Asia In what manner I always lived among you Serving the Lord with all humility with many tears and trials which happened to me by the plotting of the Jews How I kept back nothing that was helpful but proclaimed it to you and taught you publicly and from house to house Testifying to Jews and also to Greeks repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ But notice he had said in what manner I always lived among you So he says use me as a model imitate me even as I imitate Christ Is what he would tell the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 11 1 I should say this very quickly Obviously leaders are not perfect and Paul never taught that leaders were Perfection doesn't occur this side of heaven every message that I give Is always a message that is above the way that I live not to say that I'm a hypocrite intentionally just to say that the message Is greater than my behavior and yet that doesn't give me an excuse To continue in sin at all. It just is a way of explaining that perfection is is in heaven and not this side of heaven There are those who teach what is called sinless perfectionism. Perhaps you've heard of that term They they say that you can become perfect On earth and and the ones who preach that I would like to talk to their wives Because I rather doubt that that's true in their life In the book of Philippians. I actually had mistyped on my notes collosions and it may be up there on the screen I don't know But in it's philippians chapter 3 verse 12 the apostle paul said And not that I have already obtained all this or have already Already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which christ jesus took hold of me. I haven't attained The apostle himself would make it very clear this side of heaven perfection is not experienced You see often leaders are judged by a standard that many do not meet themselves There are those who will hold pastors like me and others to a standard that they themselves don't apply to themselves and it's interesting how people can be Because they do they they look at you as in a way that the lord himself doesn't Uh, the most important thing that we can do all of us is to do the best that we can and trust the lord to work through us And and keep proceeding forward, but sometimes people I think really do judges by a harsher standard I was gone this last week. I um I had the opportunity to go To the east coast and to minister. I was in uh upstate new york um I actually I taught at a at a mens conference on saturday. Then uh, I taught our services on sunday Then on monday. I had the opportunity To leave at six in the morning to the east coast arrived that afternoon in new york And attended a pastors conference in upstate new york Taught twice on tuesday drove from Finger Lakes upstate new york Drove to a place called Poughkeepsie in orange county, which is a four-hour drive Did the wednesday night study on thursday met with some pastors and staff On friday drove to new jersey Um attended a conference taught twice on saturday then drove from new jersey to manhattan Did the sunday morning service for harvest manhattan. So we had a busy week and um On monday I went to breakfast and I did something that I usually don't do. I took a picture of my breakfast I know people love to see breakfast. I know you're just dying to see a picture of those eggs, you know And I actually did that as kind of like a joke and I I just took a picture of the eggs And I wrote something like something like okay A food photo because there are a lot of people who hate those food photos, right? I'm sure I've got a lot of you and say I don't care what you're eating. Well, that's why I did it So because it bugs people and I just thought it was funny.   No, I I still don't get it. I I don't get it.  I don't know. Maybe I should have put bacon, but if I put bacon Maybe some Jewish person would be mad at me. I I don't know. I don't know Don't you think it's time for us to lighten up a little bit? I think I think it's kind of that's kind of crazy I'm sorry. Maybe that's not the proper word somebody's going to write and say you shouldn't say okay That's just not right Maybe we ought to lighten up on one another and give each other a little grace, you know Do you think that's something we can do? Maybe we ought to love each other and and all of that, you know Because you know paul didn't say that pastors were going to be perfect paul said that he hadn't attained and I haven't attained But we are to be models and and hopefully some of the things that we're doing Our emblems of what the grace of god can do in somebody's life But often leaders are judged by a standard that that others don't meet themselves In first carinthians chapter four verse three paul said it like this He said with me, it's a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court In fact, I do not even judge myself.  He was called to be an apostle And and one who has tasted of the grace of god is encouraging one who is presenting the grace of god Who has also tasted of it and that's what he's doing here in first timothy and thus in verse 18 He gives him an order now notice what paul this apostle Notice the order that he gives to this young man named timothy who is pastoring a church in Ephesus In verse 18, he says this way he said this charge. I commit to you son timothy According to the prophecies previously made concerning you that by them you may wage the good warfare So at this point he gives him a charge the word charge is a military word It conveys urgency and response and an obligation to obey If I have any military vets or currently active military personnel here You know what that means when you're given a charge or given a command You don't have the ability to to argue those commands. You're to fulfill the command When the fulfill when the command is given you obey that's what you do and that's the word that he's basically using here He's saying you have an immediate response that you should be giving and you're obligated to obey this command This word charge is a word that is used seven times in various forms in this letter It's given in first timothy 1 verse 3 Verse 5 and verse 18 It's repeated again in chapter 4 verse 11 Chapter 5 verse 7 Chapter 6 verse 13 as well as chapter 6 verse 17. It's a military charge He's saying this charge or this strict order.  You are engaged in spiritual warfare Paul is saying I have a heavenly order that you are obligated to urgently carry out We need to remember that the christian life is a prolonged battle. It has immense cost but immense reward And as soldiers we are called by god To endure hardship In second timothy chapter 2 verses 3 and 4 He says you therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of jesus christ No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life Then he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. He's saying you are in a battle and the battle Is spiritual in nature Ephesians 6 12 we do not wrestle against flesh and blood But against principalities Against powers Against the rulers of the darkness of this age Against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. It's spiritual In its makeup That's why this message called the gospel must be free from error We do not follow cunningly Devised fables peter would say in second peter 116 It has to be given properly And so it has to be free from error So that's why paul would have said earlier in verse 3 To a command some to teach no other gospel. That's why he would do that You see early in church history false gospels began being taught And what was happening it was emptying the gospel of its ability to save and transform people So paul came out strongly against the false messages as well as the false messengers In second carinthians 114 he was speaking to the church and he said you seem to believe whatever anyone tells you Even if they preach about a different jesus than the one we preach Or a different spirit than the one you received or a different kind of gospel than the one you believed You're so prone to believe what these false teachers are saying he said You see false teachers were beginning to alter the message They were undermining the faith And paul gave warning about this and there were very heavy warnings by the way In galanxians 1 8 and 9 He said even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you Let them be accursed as we have said before so now I say again If anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received let him be accursed Those are strong words. May he be cast into eternal judgment anathema now paul pointed out some errors that had begun to enter in He speaks concerning the fact in verse 20 that these teachings are blasphemous In chapter 4 verses 1 through 5 He points out that their teachings promote a false holiness by emphasizing outward behavior and asceticism We'll see that when we get to that passage And in 2 Timothy 2 17 and 18 their teachings were an error about resurrection When paul begins to speak concerning the origin of this he says these are doctrines of demons These are doctrines that originate with demons in contrast to the truth that comes from christ So paul is summing up the essence of the true gospel He had pointed out in verses 14 and 15 of this chapter That jesus christ came to save sinners and he alone gives eternal life So paul emphasizes the importance of this by reminding timothy of a spiritual experience He reminds him of the prophecies that went before him There are there are times that the lord And I hope this makes sense. I didn't share this for a service. I'll share it here I I I hope this makes sense There are times There are times when the lord Can And I'll develop this with you this illustration is not something I shared today, but I'll work my way through it right now There are times in the holy spirit validates his word In in a way that is uniquely supernatural uniquely supernatural When our church was very young I've shared this some of you have heard this before but When our church was very young Just a few months old we had been evicted from the place that we were meeting Because The pastor of the church that we were renting for our Sunday morning services believed that we were a cult Because we celebrated the birth of christ And because we had given an alternative to a halloween a halloween Observation by giving a hallelujah party for our children And so they thought that we were satanists that we worship the devil And they kicked us out of the church And we were looking all around to try and find a place to meet And the expulsion date was At the end of january And we were looking all through the city of ontario even into upland To see if we could find a place locate a place to use and we had Been unable to find anything we We had a small fellowship. We We couldn't afford any of the rent that was being required of us I mean we were spending like a hundred and fifty dollars a month to rent this church and a hundred dollars a month to rent an office And that was all we could afford And the place that we were looking for to to rent the only place that had been opened up to us was Central school and central school cost 1500 dollars a month to rent There was no way that we could afford that with With the amount of people we had and so It was the middle of january and I was just Beside myself. I didn't know what to do and And I still remember a wednesday night Going into my room and for some reason marie and our children were not there at that time and I still remember just laying on the carpet in the bedroom crying literally crying saying god I don't know what to do. I We don't have a place to go.  We need to pray for you And so I said well, thank you after the bible study. I truly appreciate that and after the study um my assistant at that time dan and I sat down and And that little study laid their hands on us and said god, please open away and that night As I was laying in bed The spirit of the lord spoke my heart in an unmistakable way and it was an audible yet internally audible voice and he said you will need A place to seat 200 On easter sunday, which was two and a half months away At that time we had about 60 people and yet he's saying you're going to need a place that seats 200 And I sensed it and I remember thinking That's true. There was not some odd feeling of any sort. I just thought that's true I went to bed and went to sleep rather next morning woke up I was preparing a study out of john's gospel. We're going through john at that time and Unless a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die Bides alone, but if it dies, it'll bring forth much fruit john 12 24 and and I was I closed the bible and I said Lord, I am dead I don't have an answer for the situation i'm asking for help And at that moment the mailman came up and was dropping off letters and The spirit of the lord once again spoke and said your letter is here Several days before I had written a letter to pastor chuck smith and I had said to pastor We'd like to be associated with calvary chapel And so the voice of the lord spoke to my heart said your letter is here And so I went and I got the mail and put it down and I went through the other things and then Opened up that letter and my heart didn't even bounce or anything. I mean, I saw it. I knew it was I knew it was A letter and I read it and that's when pastor chuck welcomed us into the fellowship of calvary ministry You can see a transcript of that on the wall right here in the hallway and We entered into and became calvary chapel ministry at that time Up to that point. We were called ontario christian chapel and so Within a short time our church doubled and offerings increased and we made a commitment to use central school and on easter sunday in 1982 it was pouring rain And i'm thinking nobody's going to show up for church It's pouring so much that the curbs here are getting overflowed by water And anybody who's from ontario knows that the the curbs are higher in certain areas there in sultana by g street And the the curbs were the water was lapping over that it was that bad And I go in and I deliver a bible study and I still remember walking out looking at 200 people And saying to them you don't know this But you are were already spoken to me by the lord that you would be here today And so there have been times That I have gotten to the point where I've said lord. I don't know if I can do this anymore And what paul is saying here to timothy is remember the prophecies that went before Hold faster those promises And do you know I'll be honest with you that part of what keeps me strong in my ministry Is remembering the things god has done over these years to validate his truth One of the things he said to me that I still remember in my heart where he had said I did not raise you up to let you fall I did not raise you up to let you fall He has always supplied our need according to his riches in christ jesus And paul is speaking to timothy here in a similar way of a supernatural awareness that he needs to have Concerning how the lord had spoken to him notice again verse 18 This charge I commit to you son timothy According to the prophecies previously made concerning you that by them you may wage the good warfare In first timothy chapter 4 verse 14 We see there that the elders had laid hands on him and had actually prophesied over him Later on in second timothy 1 verse 6 paul writes Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of god, which is in you through the lane on of my hands He's reminding him of the impartation of the spirit of the words That were spoken You see god gave to the church in its early beginnings prophets Ephesians 4 11 and 12 He gave some to be apostles prophets evangelists pastors and teachers Um for the purpose of building up the saints for the work of ministry and so Before the new testament was completed. He still was directing the church and did so often through the the leadership of the prophets in the church It's directed uh in the rather in the early church It is recorded that the lord directed the church by prophets acts 13 1 through 3 Now there were in the church that was at antioch certain prophets and teachers As barnabas and simian that was called niger and lucius of sireen and Men which had been brought up with hered the tetrarch and sol As they ministered to the lord and fasted the holy spirit said Now separate to me barnabas and sol for the work to which I have called them And when they had fasted and prayed and laid hands lay their hands on them They sent them away or act 16 verses 6 and 7 Paul and his companions traveled through the region of frigia and galatia made the way to ontario and eventually out to chino Having been kept by the holy spirit from preaching the word in the province of asia When they had come to the border of missia they tried to enter bethinea But the spirit of jesus would not allow them to Undoubtedly through the mouth of prophets So the elders had laid hands on timothy and prayed for him and they encouraged him We need to remember that according to 1 Corinthians 14 3 He who prophesied speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men So prophetic direction was and remains part of how the lord directed the church Now the prophetic utterance that word from the lord lines up with scripture It does not replace nor does it contradict scripture If god's word plainly says it if someone speaking in his name, he will not contradict it And that's very important You see because the lord will use it there are times that he foretells and speaks future events or There are other times that he foretells he's speaking concerning what it's about to take place And so these prophecies had to be remembered. He said that by them you may fight the good fight Why because they give you strength to continue when you're surrounded by trouble We can encourage others by reminding them of and sharing god's promises with them That's the purpose of prophecy Years ago again I was at biola young student And I had gotten to the point That I wanted to give up and biola is a christian college and I went and spoke to my professor who my love very deeply His name was dr. George more And I spoke to dr. More and I said to him dr. More.  I I am so shattered and and defeated and I just I just want to step out step away and And dr. More said to me david. He said don't do it hold fast He gave a word of encouragement to me He spoke the word to me to my heart and and he said david He said you think that that that That the lord has abandoned you he hasn't he says you think that what is happening in your life is common that a man should Lead his father and mother to faith in christ to lead his family to faith in christ the way you have He says you think that's normal. It's not normal. He said god has placed a call in your life david hold fast That was a word of encouragement to me. I was at a pastors conference and And our church had begun and and I had gotten to a point where it was so difficult. I didn't know what to do and And I I was thinking lord, I'm just not cut out for this. This is just not my call I'm just not good at this and And I I probably should just step out of the ministry and And we were having what is called an afterglow where we wait on the spirit and god moves through The various gifts of the spirit and all we're having a time of an afterglow where Prophecy and words of knowledge and all were given in the gifts were exercised and and during that time as I was I still remember just Being seated with my head just down just thinking lord I I just I want to give up one of the brothers said there is a brother here right now Who is wanting to give up and the spirit of the lord is saying don't hold fast God isn't through with you yet Hold fast and I started to weep. I knew that was to me I knew that was to me and that was one of the ways that the lord kept me strong in my ministry in the early days Is knowing that he didn't raise us up to let us fall Knowing that god is able and that has strengthened me. And so paul is speaking about this. He said listen This charge I commit to you son timothy according to the prophecies previously made concerning you that by them You may wage the good warfare hold fast You see as a faithful soldier in the army of god, I'm giving you an order Fight the good fight wage a good warfare This is a command repeated later in in chapter 6 verse 12 where Paul says fight the good fight of faith take hold of eternal life to which you were called When you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses And paul reminds timothy you're in spiritual warfare. You need to be aware of this Satan is battling against god and god's purposes and he's battling against christians You see if he can undermine god's work in his people He will make god look weak And because of this we should be aware of his methods as he attacks the church We should be knowledgeable concerning his battle plans against us In 2nd Corinthians 2 11 paul said we're not ignorant of the devil's devices So timothy Remember god's desire is to rescue the lost That's why jesus christ came That he might bring salvation In luke 19 verse 10 the son of man has come to seek and save that which was lost So wage a good warfare Be aware that you're in a battle for souls And as a minister timothy Be aware of the fact that satan will undermine your work and try to undermine the gospel Remember that he attempts to keep unbelievers blind to its saving message In 2nd chrithians 4 3 and 4 paul said if our gospel is veiled It is veiled to those who are perishing whose minds the god of the sage is blinded Who do not believe lest the light of the gospel of the glory of christ is the image of god should shine on them He wants to keep people blind Secondly, he intimidates a believer to keep him from sharing the gospel Don't be afraid of the faces god says to jeremiah.  Just be faithful You see satan wants to convince the messenger that god's word is not what people need satan will whisper into the ear of a pastor and say well the bible's boring. It's not relevant What you need to do is entertain but don't preach the word And yet in 1st simothy 4 16 it says take heed to yourself and to the doctrine Continuing them for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you Don't water it down Preach it as it truly is if there's been a time when the gospel needs to be preached. It's now If there's been a time when fearless preachers ought to be taking the pulpit It's now Instead of watering it down to make people who can't handle the truth Make them satisfied. We ought to be saying this is what god says He can transform your life through the gospel But if I minimize its demands, you'll never be a child of god So we need to preach the truth in love, but we need to preach it nonetheless Especially now especially as the days are getting darker and people are looking for alternatives to christ Now the gospel changes life it transforms people and like paul would say to timothy If it took a persecutor of the church and its insolent man an injurious man and transformed that man into a courageous Apostle a man who was taking the word of god out to the world timothy hold fast to that and do the same I would say that to us as a church. Don't be ashamed of the gospel of jesus christ Don't be ashamed to tell people that that jesus christ transforms life Don't be ashamed of the gospel speak it forth and watch what god will do He changes lives to the power of the gospel and never forget that jesus christ transforms people Don't try to entertain people Teach them the word a third thing is you must remember that satan will go after the most difficult target He tries to undermine and destroy a genuine believer's trust and faith in god He'll go after the hard target not the easy one the one who's backsliding the one who's lukewarm is really doing more on his behalf than on For god's behalf He goes after the warrior He goes after the man or the woman of god who wants to stand up for jesus christ in this age He goes after that one. They're the harder target. He wants to take you out So the when you you've seen this when you have said lord use me.  We need to speak for the truth We need to be open with what we believe and let other people know why because god can change their life too To destroy the work of god satan attacks the leaders in the church So servant leaders are to have integrity and strong marriages. They're to have humility and moderate taste That means that they can become a model of the christian life In philippians 4 verse 9 Paul said the things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me these do and god of peace will be with you And then finally You need to remember that satan attacks the church through deception His ministers appear like believers who are teaching a genuine message, but they're really transforming themselves. They're disguising themselves In 2nd Corinthians 11 14 and 15 satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness whose end will be according to their works You see leadership has been placed in the church to protect the church from deception And christian ministers are strategically set in place for the defense of the gospel In philippians 117 Paul said it like this. I'm appointed for the defense of the gospel If satan can infiltrate the teaching ministry, he'll do great damage And therefore paul admonishes timothy to remain faithful to present god's word In first timothy 4 13 till I come give attention to reading exhortation and to doctrine Present god's word to the people be obedient and faithful to him and his word Finally he says having faith in verse 19 and a good conscience With some having rejected concerning the faith of suffered shipwreck of whom our hymenias and alexander whom I delivered to satan That they may learn not to blaspheme Having faith in a good conscience Faith in a good conscience are part of your weapons faith speaks of a proper trust in the lord through a proper understanding of his word A good conscience keeps you sensitive to the voice of god In order to preach with conviction a minister must maintain a clean conscience And and a clean conscience begins by the way with a fear of god You read sometimes of well-known leaders who fail I've known a few in my time. I've been around for a while now and I've known a few who have who had well-known ministries who fell who failed And what people don't know from the outside people who don't know them Only saw what they did on the screen or heard what they said on the cd But there have been times when I've known them on a personal level How do I say this? and I've seen that they don't live what they teach and I'm not Sat I'm not completely surprised When things are done things are discovered And I've seen that the fear of god is not in some people The fear of god is what gives to you knowledge fear of god leads to life And the mark of a person who doesn't know god is there's no fear of god in them And when a person begins to rely on their own strengths their own eloquence their own intelligence When they begin to rely on their own strategies and their own Attempts to do certain things that are spiritual and they When they rely on their own flesh It just isn't going to work. It does not work And when you don't guard your life When you when you don't have a healthy fear of god I here we go Oh, I've gone long. I might as well continue one one last thing One last thing I had a dream many years ago It was so vivid. It was so real It was so vivid and real in my dream I had Committed adultery in my dream. I'll say that again in my dream Because right now people here. I committed adultery in my dream. I committed adultery and in my dream My this is many years ago. My parents were still alive at that time in my dream I had to tell my parents I told my dad and I told my mom and I saw the faces of the people that I led to christ In my dream. I saw the look they would actually give It was so real I had to tell my wife marie And I watched my wife as she I had to watch my wife as she broke in front of me broke All that admiration and love that she had for me was gone in in a second and And then I had to tell my children in my dream And I watched their faces As they And I woke up No, wait, I had to tell the church I had to stand up in The church and I had to say I have failed And I saw the members of my church And I woke up And I said, oh god Oh god, thank you Showing me what would happen if david russon this was the fall I will not I will not fall I will not fall I will stay strong in you von I don't want To lose All that god has given to me For what? For what? And my god My god is a holy god And he will expose my sin Thus lord may I walk in your fear Timothy Walk in the fear of the lord Give the word of god as a man of god be aware Of what's going on around you fight the good fight of faith Because there are some who have walked away will close with alexander and hymenias He says who am I delivered to satan that they may learn not to blaspheme When he says I've delivered them to satan remember that the church is looked at as being the household of god When he says I delivered them to satan what you have is you have The church pictured as the place Of the body of christ and it is it is set apart as god's kingdom And then outside of the church is the kingdom of the world Somebody said it like this There are but two kingdoms recognized in scripture the kingdom of god the church and the kingdom of the world Which is under this way of satan This would mean to exclude a man from one is to subject him to the dominion of the other So he said enact church discipline remove them from their presence They're no longer to be there They're leaven that is going to cause the whole church to become infected with the sinfulness remove them He said I have removed them. I delivered them to satan that they may learn not to blaspheme By enacting church discipline. I've removed their influence from the church and they're going to need to learn Not to be blaspheming against god not to be speaking things that are ill Concerning the lord not to be speaking in ways that do not give honor and glory to god that are not accurate And that's what church discipline does Church discipline is enacted You have corrective discipline where you have to remove them you have preventive discipline, which is the teaching of the word You teach the word of god to prevent the corrective action Because when the word of god goes forth People are being equipped if they reject god's word Then you have to bring in the corrective You begin with preventive by teaching and you have corrective When they violate and these two individuals hymenias and elixir were delivered. They were ex communicated In order that the lord might work on them and prayerfully They would repent And learn not to blaspheme