Hi everyone, Joe for jasmizcasebreaks.com, coming at you with the definitive collection baseball random number block randomizer for that group of teams right there. That's how a number block works in case you're not familiar with it, you can take a look at the item description. Big thanks to these folks for getting into it, Rex with that last bottom mojo, nice. Good luck. There are the numbers there. Let's roll it, let's randomize it, five into three, eight times, four the names and numbers, one, two. And eighth and final time, after eight we've got Debra down to a couple mats, eight times for the numbers, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eighth and final time, good luck. After eight we've got one down to zero, all right so Debra with one, Jay with six, Steve with two, Matt with four, Kenny with three, Jay with eight, Rex with five, Chris with seven, Matt with nine and Matt with zero as well. So zero gets you any and all redemptions for that group of teams down there including one of one redemptions but Debra you'll still get live one of ones, it's alive. So there you go. Thanks everyone for watching. The break itself will be in a separate video, we'll see you for that, jasperyscasegreaks.com.


Hey everybody today I'm making some banana bread and we're going to be making this gluten free although you can make it regular by just swapping out the flour everything else is the same no big deal but I want to share with you a little story my son and his friend went to New Zealand recently they were traveling and they were talking with someone there about of all things bananas I know right we're really strange but anyway so they uh they were talking to this guy and they were he was telling them that there are some fantastic bananas in Florida and that they should try them and so my son ordered a box of bananas at a price of $97 for between 10 and 14 pounds of bananas pretty expensive I know and they decided to make some banana bread and let me tell you it was the best tasting banana bread that I've ever had so if you're in Florida you might want to check that out the name of the website is miamifruit.org I have no affiliation but I just thought I'd throw it out there anyway I'm rockin robin and I'm going to show you how to make some delicious banana bread using store-bought regular bananas right after this let's go over the ingredients first up we have our flour I'm using Bob's Red Mill this is one-to-one gluten-free flour and you know like I said you can swap out regular flour if you like you need three bananas good sized bananas here and make sure that they have quite a few brown spots on them you want it to be nice and you know very ripe bananas we'll need a couple of eggs some white sugar I have some raw honey here vanilla extract some butter for our spices I've got some baking soda salt cinnamon and nuts I'm using some walnuts here you can either leave them in or take them out either way you want to preheat your oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit and you want to have a pan a loaf pan like this a metal works the best I think and we're going to coat this with some butter so that the bread doesn't stick now I like using butter instead of you know the sprays because of the propellants I'd rather I'd rather eat butter so that's what we'll do here I'll take some butter and we'll start spreading it throughout the pan all right so now we're going to take our ingredients and we're going to put them basically into two bowls we're going to have the bowl with the dry ingredients and the bowl with the wet ingredients so we'll start with the dry ingredients I have my flour in the bowl already I'm going to add the sugar to it the baking soda the salt and the cinnamon now you want to whisk this really well to combine everything because once we add our dry ingredients to our wet ingredients we're just going to fold it in we don't want to over mix so we got to start out already having everything well combined now for our wet ingredients I'm going to take the butter and I'm going to melt it in the microwave now how I do it typically is I'll place it in there for about 45 seconds on power level three take it out stir it up and once it's all melted then you're good to go but don't boil it or don't you know make it splatter so I'm going to peel my bananas and I'm going to put everything in here even the bruises I'm not going to worry about that you want to make sure that these bananas are nice and ripe that way they'll be nice and sweet and your banana bread will just turn out so much better so buy them ahead of time let them sit on your counter and they will ripen up now we want to mash them and you want to keep mashing these until they turn into you know they get really mushy almost liquidy like now next we're going to toss in that melted butter and you want to use a spatula to get every last drop out of there now we're going to add in the vanilla extract now we want to get our eggs in a separate bowl and whisk them up separately so that you know we get them really well combined we get that egg yolk and the whites mixed together well once those are mixed up good we'll place them in our wet mixture and the last wet ingredient we have is the honey so if you were to use all sugar in this you would use one cup of sugar by the way I'll put that down in the in the description of the video where you find the written recipe I'll put the conversions down there for you in case you want to use just all white sugar and we're going to add that to our wet ingredients okay so now you want to just make sure that everything is really well combined and that honey is you know really combined in there and dispersed okay now what we do is we just take all of our dry ingredients and just pour it into the wet ingredients and we're going to fold this in you don't want to over mix but you just want to make sure everything gets wet okay okay I'm going to toss in the walnuts I remember this is optional if you want them you can have them if you don't want them you just leave them out so just keep folding things in until everything all the flour mixture looks like it's you know mixed in all right so now we're ready to pour this in our pan just spread it out a little bit push it into all the corners now we're going to pop this in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit and we're going to check it at 45 minutes with a toothpick and see if it comes out dry all right so we're going to test our bread it's been 40 45 minutes what we're looking for is a clean toothpick coming out of here okay so it's a little wet right there there's still some moisture coming out on the toothpick so we're going to go another five minutes now you want to do this every five minutes until you get a clean toothpick all right I let my banana bread cook about 55 minutes remember ovens will vary and it smells incredible love the smell all right I'm going to cut into it it's still warm you know how I like to eat my banana bread I really love it with a little bit of butter on it oh it's still pretty hot especially when it's hot like this when it's warm so I'm going to put a little butter on mine let that melt a second and take a bite really delicious guys it's moist a beautiful banana flavor and aroma I like the little walnuts in there a little bit of crunch very delicious man you guys are gonna love this so good love the little bit of hint of cinnamon in there man I really love the moistness though that's the kick that's the real thing for me love that it's very delicious um I you guys are gonna love this so thanks so much for watching guys hey if you'd like to subscribe to my channel click the subscribe button right here at the end of the video and we also have another subscribe button down below the video along with that bell now you know what that bell is right that bell notifies you when my new videos come out every week that way you don't miss anything all right so thanks so much for watching everybody we'll see you next time


How's it going everybody? I am Clint Smith. I'm a 2020 Emerson fellow and the author of How the Word is Passed and Welcome. Thank you for joining the New America Fellows Program and the Center for the Future of War for the discussion of Jonathan Katz gangsters capitalism Smedley Butler the Marines and the making and breaking of America's Empire Before we start a few housekeeping notes if you have questions during the event Please submit them through the Q&A function and we will make sure to get to them in the second half of the event and most importantly Most importantly copies of gangsters capitalism is available for purchase through our bookselling partner solid state books You can find a link to buy the book on this page Just click buy the book at the bottom and I say this and I say this beginning Because sometimes in this virtual space people can like click on it and they'll open a tab and they'll be like Oh, I'll get to it You've got 7 000 tabs on your computer and then your computer crashes And you never get a chance to buy the book that you meant to do it right now Click on it buy the book by 7 of them buy them for to stack on you know under your computer for your zooms Buy them for your coffee table Buy them to show that you are a thoughtful Interrogator of the larger american imperial project and in putting it in conversation with the world around us today But most importantly buy it because it's an excellent book I'm so excited to get into this conversation with jonathan Who if you are not familiar with uh, you should get familiar with jonathan Cats jonathan m cats is a 2019 asu future of war fellow at new america He received the james folly medill medal for courage and journalism for his reporting from haydie His first book the big truck that went by was shortlisted for the penn john kenneth galbraith award for nonfiction and won the overseas press long overseas press clubs quinellia spryan award The j anthony lucas work in progress award and the w ola duke award duke book award for human rights in latin america His work appears in the new york times foreign policy and elsewhere Cats also received fellowship from the logon nonfiction program. He lives with his wife and daughter in charlesville, virginia jonathan How are you doing man? How's the virtual book tour been so far? It's been virtually great virtually great. That's that's uh spot on um, so I mean we're gonna hop right into it these hours fly by first of all How did you decide to make uh smithley butler the sort of central character or protagonist around? um this book because this is you know in many ways this is a book about us imperialism and You could have taken a myriad of different approaches But you kind of used a certain person a certain character someone who i wasn't familiar with as the As our guide almost through the history of american imperialism And I thought that that was such a fascinating and effective Strategy and i'm curious if that's how you imagined it from the beginning Where did you kind of stumble on him or were you gonna write a biography of smithley butler and then Just it morphed into something else. I'm curious of sort of the evolution of the process It kind of first of all by the way. Thank you for doing this Uh, this is this is terrific, and I've been very excited about putting our books in conversation because you obviously wrote an incredible one um Yeah, so I mean to a certain extent and maybe i'm remembering it wrong, but this idea sort of like kind of Almost popped out of my head fully formed at once um You know the I first encountered smithley butler while I was writing my first book the big truck I had come across his name shortly after moving to haiti. Um, I think on wikipedia like an article about the banana wars and uh, I then after the earthquake in 2010 I was writing the big truck and I knew I I wanted to sort of you know Go back into history and explain how things have gotten so precarious And that required talking about the us occupation of haiti And butler is a major character in that occupation and for that book You know, I was looking and maybe this is like partially An out of order answer to your question about the way that I think about my process But like, you know, even at that moment, I was thinking like well if i'm gonna Tell the story To drive the narrative forward um And I didn't end up using any of the material that I collected on him It was a very brief amount in in the process of writing that book. Um But the thing about butler that made him So I was sort of fascinated by both questions simultaneously the question of Uh, you know, how did how has america's imperial past been remembered by The rest of the world, but it's completely ignored and and in many many cases actively suppressed the memory hold in the united states And who was smithley butler? uh butler You know, I'm not just saying this like just to sell books I'm explaining like how I got into the like butler is butler is one of the most fascinating characters that I had ever encountered he You know, he was everywhere. You know, he was zealoc.  How did this person who was known literally as the devil in hady? How did he become this anti-war Later in life and then this sort of merged seamlessly as I remember it. Maybe I'm just remembering but I talking about memory From the beginning With this question of you know, and why why is this person who was so famous back then? And why were these wars that were such a big deal back then? Why why are none of them talked about today? Which then created an opportunity to like, you know, write a whole book about it um, so that was that that you know You know, I'm sure there was maybe more conversations sort of at the beginning But as I remember the conversation with my agent was that I want to write this book About smithley butler, but I don't want it to be a biography of smithley butler I want it to be a history of american imperialism and then I wanted to have this modern day component Uh, where I you know travel to the places and use sort of my skills as a foreign correspondent to talk about Uh, the ways in which you know, that story is you know reverberates today Um, and that it was sort of a process of me trying to convince her and then trying to convince the publisher That this kind of you know, cockamamie idea was was was a good one I mean it's so interesting because I mean as you say like he was everywhere. I mean, it's it's almost kind of like if you were going to write If you were gonna if I was gonna write a screenplay, you know, like making up a character I you know, if I read this I'd be like, okay, but like was this person really like like every single Imperial project that the united states engaged. I mean it felt. I mean he was in the philippines. He was in Haiti. He was in china. He was in Uh, I think Mexico. He was in all these different places Um And and it just I mean it kind of sometimes I think when you're writing non-fiction The the characters end up being better than the fictionalized Version that you would have come up with and and Smedley butler to me seems like one of those characters who just serves as Again, it's like really remarkable guide through the so many of the sort of atrocities that the us has enacted or been a part of over the past several decades and One of the other things you do when you alluded to this is not only is it is he serving as the Our guide you're also serving as our guide, right and you There's a version of this book that could have been written from your office, right? That could have been written from the library Uh, that could have taken so much of the incredible history and archives that you delved into So many the incredible primaries was documents you spent time with And and written what still would have been a really great book But I think what makes this look different and what takes it to the next level and something that I really resonate with a lot because It's very similar to how I did my book. We were talking before the The webinar started about how there's a tiktok Out there that has the book. Um, how to how to make an empire or how to build an empire How to hide an empire how to hide an empire and then my book how the word is passed And it's like if this book and this book had a baby together it would be and then they showed this book Um, and after reading the book I was like that's so funny because we really had similar approaches where it's this idea like you have to go to the place where this history happened Uh, because it gives you a different Sense of that history right to be on the soil to be in the buildings to be with the people who were the descendants of those who experienced these atrocities. How did you come to decide that? You wanted to travel truly travel across the world to go to all of these different places. And why did that feel important to you?  I can bring you know, I can do Play with different frameworks and I can sort of do some of the work that a historian does What I really do is I'm a reporter like I go places and I talk to people. So that was part of it another part was That and this actually you know, as I as as I'm remembering this um Big shout out to new america seriously because like this book was really born out of Sort of like my new america journey like my new america process um The first time that I actually even said the words out loud. I think i'm going to do a book about snubbly butler was It's like an info session and he's like, so what's your project? I was like, what is my project? I was like, have you ever heard of this guy snubbly butler because it was like a name that is you know A concept that had been kicking around in my head for for a while at that point and it was in conversations Especially with a friend of mine through new america named chris Leonard who was a fellow and and on board for a long time We were talking about so part of my concern was that even though this period really isn't that long ago The period that you know butlers fighting him, you know 1898 to to 1940 It's really not that long ago. Like people are still Alive who are alive during it But I was worried that maybe it would feel remote that some of you know Some of the terms some of the history would maybe feel a little stodgy And I wanted to you know, make sure that that didn't happen and chris actually put me on to a book by tony harwitz called blue latitudes Which was about the journeys of captain cook And in that book, uh, tony harwitz. I mean, this is also a thing that tony harwitz does in other places but in that book in particular Harwitz and a friend actually go The islands in the south pacific in australia and i guess new zealand. There's also an island in south pacific Where cook went and they sort of and he intersperses You know the you know entries from you know cooks journals and like, you know historical like, you know research on that period with like here i am in tuvalu and like i'm passing a billboard and it looks like this and Part of me, you know, it's a part of the reason that I I I really want to do this was I was afraid that butler You know as as as many places as he had been might end up being like kind of Director who would feel out of remove among other things one of the only things that I knew about him at the beginning was he was a quaker from philadelphia and he throughout his life wrote in his letters to his parents and his wife um He would use like thee and thy Which so even though he's you know writing letters like this in the 1930s like You know, I was afraid that that could feel a little like out of date. Yeah Imagine my surprise when I actually got into And I was also worried that maybe there just wouldn't be that much material on like what he actually was doing like in these battles Like what the battles looked like I then as um, you know, I've I've gotten I'm embarking on this research um, and I'm sitting at us the first place that I was doing archival research at quantico through butler's letters and They just and and they're just you know wheeling out cart after cart after cart of his letters And his letters are are voluminous. I mean, they're just he goes on and in detail And he's like bearing his heart and he's talking about his like two fakes and like what he What he had for breakfast and why he wasn't his preferred thing before he kills people I mean it's like and I was like and he's and he's I mean he's funny he is Complicated he's terrible like he like you know his like his racism is like awful and there's all these like parts of him And I was like and I didn't I didn't anticipate that at the beginning And so, you know the way in which he ends up sort of coming alive on the page in his own Tellings and his own just sort of like character fullness Um, and then you know since I'd already since I was already, you know fully committed to to doing the modern day thing I was like, you know, I had to part of part of the writing process was trying to figure out and this was also something that happened at new america in Hence writing workshops was trying to figure out like how do I balance like this just character who jumps off the page in the historical material and you know me going places um, and that was a real negotiation about, you know Turning up the levels on this and turning them down on this And trying to make it all work together. So so the very short answer is that like it was almost It was at the beginning. I thought it was going to be born out of necessity And then it ended up I I think being just sort of something that that added to to what was already as you As you note a great narrative on it, so absolutely Pivoting to the the specific content of the book one of the things that you talk about Early in the book and that was so that was really illuminating for me. So for folks who don't know Um, my own book is a book about the how the history of slavery is remembered or misremembered Um across the united states and and to some extent abroad And so I've been thinking, you know, a lot about the founding fathers been thinking a lot about, you know Went to Monticello went to Mount Peoria went to Mount Vernon Think about what those places represent and who those what the idea the sort of way that those people those men and their ideas served as the foundation upon which Not only American obviously domestic policy, but international policy will be built and one of the things that you brought up was how Jefferson wrote a letter to Madison suggesting that they should Annex Florida, Canada and Cuba and he says we should have such an empire for liberty as she has never surveyed since the creation and I thought that that was so illuminating And I thought and and I'm thinking too about how for enslavers they wanted to Annex Cuba said they would have a place to tip the balance of power so that they could have more control over congress in the u.s. government and it really demonstrates this early relationship between slavery and between slavery and imperialism And you talk about how so many of the people Who were, you know, and this is the founding fathers believe in so many of the people who were the leaders of the confederacy for the former leaders of the confederacy um And who were in charge of these sort of early, uh, jim, you know in charge of the confederacy and the early jim crow Governments were also the people who were going abroad and enacting the policies That were destabilizing these regions in the global south often across the world so Can you talk a little bit about the relationship between sort of domestic manifestations of oppression through slavery through jim crow through indigenous genocide whatever the case may be and and the sort of Almost what feels like of an outgrowth of those sensibilities In the way that people some of those folks enacted And destabilized region different regions across across the world. Yeah, no, that's those are all really good points the I mean in You know, so as you note like before the civil war um, you know, one of the major drivers of of the quest for expansion of the united states was slavery It was to have more slave states more land to expand slavery to um, and and you know, there's slavery capitalism and expansionism were kind of, you know, the two the three legs of of the stool And uh, yeah, and so, you know cuba has initially looked at very hungrily by Uh, jefferson davis as secretary of war. He under franklin pierce. He Is is pushing to to annex cuba Paul considers it And at various points along the way, um, there are there are proposals to annex cuba to annex Santo Domingo, it becomes the Dominican Republic And those are sort of rejected by sort of like america like white americans racism like It's like it's like the it's like the the scene in the simpsons where where it's like mr. Burns is like disease profile and all the diseases are trying to fit through the door at once and and And dr. Hibbert's like if you move remove one of them, they'll all come through But they're all sort of keeping each other in check. It was kind of like that because um Yeah, I mean like, uh, you know a successive president millard filmore, uh came to this conclusion Uh, uh james polk came to this conclusion. They were like, well, we could annex cuba, but Don't speak our language. They're athlete um, and and you know and and the ratio of of of black people to white people and slave people to to uh to europeans Was was such that they were afraid that it you know that it would have these sort of other effects on american life and on the american body Politics that they didn't want and what happens in the period of the book that that i'm you know that where the action is really said um with you know, so the big the book opens with uh, the war against spain in in 1898 And smidley butler joining the marines. He lies about his age He's old and he joins the marines to go fight in cuba and ends up at the the first place the americans Conquering cuba a little spot called guantanamo bay And by that moment, you know, so the civil war has now happened, uh, you know three decades before and it is But the civil and the civil war just like suffuses this entire period in every respect both You know teddy roosevelt and sort of the jingos of the as they're known like the the expansionist the imperialists Desired to sort of reclaim the glory of their father's generation Missed out on, um, you know, they they've grown up hearing, you know tales of heroism the civil war and they hadn't gotten to participate in it um, and then also this sort of relationship between slavery and expansionism because at this point obviously uh slavery has uh Been outlawed in the united states. It's also been outlawed in cuba finally over the course of 30 years of of Independence war by the cubans against their spanish colonizers um, and because slavery is a dead letter in the united states the the the people who are themselves former enslavers or the children of former enslavers um are no longer cuba anymore Tip the balance of power in in congress That's old hat and so for them the only thing that's retained is this other idea that like, you know They speak spanish. They're catholic. They're not white their idea like spanish categories of race are different than america than american categories of race You know, they don't subscribe to the one drop rule so there are some people who don't consider themselves black who would very much be black in the united states and And they don't want it. And so you have guys like, um One of just the all-time great sobs in american history Uh, uh, uh ben tilman pitchfork Ben tilman Um, the the the one-eyed not that having one eye makes him a bad person But it just sort of adds the picture of this guy the one-eyed, uh, you know, he was a confederate He enlisted in the confederate army Um, and he then becomes governor of south carolina. He oversees a huge surge in lynchings and he gives this passionate Opposition to specifically the colonization of the philippines On on the floor of of the senate where he he says, you know, you know You know Incorporating the philippines in the united states would bring in and then he lists all the different categories and subcategories of non-white people Yeah, that he's that he's worried And he's like he's saying like I don't want to be sitting next to the senator from malay Like that's not that's not mine. That's not my vision of myself in america And what ends up happening at this moment is the other thing that's happening um and and uh You know, I I I I draw on on um, uh, the work of adrian, uh, lenn smith Who writes a great book called freedom struggles about this period? um, and and others, um, you know, this is this moment of uh reconciliation between sort of northern capital and southern capital northern whites and southern whites You know, we're in the redemption i mean 1898 is also plusy versus ferguson This is all it's also the the year of the wilmington coup So like all of these things are sort of happening at once and you know, basically white people in the north are like Well, let's let's sort of let's let's find, you know common ground with with white people in in the south at the expense of both non-white black people in the united states and elsewhere and this, you know comes You know, this is lived out on the ground in these wars and there's also in addition to, you know, plusy There's a series of supreme court cases known as the end insular Which are still good law. They still govern life in in puerto rico and guam, etc Which say that just because the united states government runs your island and just because the flag flies over your You know territorial house does not mean that you have equal rights under the constitution And this is still in 2022. This is still the law that governs puerto rico It's it's and and guam and the northern mariana islands, etc It's still the law Uh, it's there's still the cases under which it is acceptable for us to have these fully owned colonies That do not have a vote for president and do not have Representation on the floor of of either house of congress and it's that compromise that ends up Modifying people like pitchfork ben tilman where he's like, well If they're not going to have representation in congress and they're not going to be able to vote for president And we're not going to have to give them equal rights. I guess that's cool with me And it that provided such helpful historical context for me, right and it just really made the through line clear of the sort of Colonial inequity in the the way that Electoral agency has been stripped from these places that are ostensibly members of the sort of larger american project and And you know making it clear that I mean, it's just so revealing because it's you know, you see all these parallels between What's happening abroad and what's happening here where they're like, oh, okay? Well, if if black people can't vote or if black people don't have you know can't run for office or if black people You know, I don't have to sit next to them in the restaurant or if I you know And it's a similar sort of sensibility that are animating the decisions about What the united states relationship to its colonial territories will be Depending on the nature of of who they are and I mean I remember the part in your book about the philippines where the maybe it was like one of the generals or a politician and they were Using some of the same they were using like anti-black language about philippinos Because they they almost like didn't have the language like anti-asian or anti-pacific islander language to use But they were like well, they're brown and so they just started using these anti-black racial slurs to describe the philippino folks Um, and again, just that it just makes that through line so clear and one and you know, this is tied to that One of the things I didn't know I just learned so many facts from your book But like I didn't know that the majority of people who built the panama canal For example were were black people who have been brought in from the west indies and one of the things you talk about is how The united states both in panama, but also more broadly were was like Americans were exporting restaurants and they were exporting You know goods and services and certain things that Came to these regions and I came to panama, but they were also exporting American apartheid right like and and and I think you describe it as such you were like they They were exporting the very racial hierarchy That was that existed in the united states, uh, and then bringing it to To panama and bring it to places where as you've mentioned the relationship Of race like what the sort of racial hierarchy looked different right like race doesn't look the same in panama as it does here Race doesn't look the same in brazil as it does here race doesn't look the same in honduras as it does here but But part of what the u.s. Did was impose its own conception of What it believed the racial hierarchy should be and that animated what? What life in these places looked like and and and really shifted In some ways the dynamics of of race relations and racial dynamics In these places. I think I remember in the panama chapter you were talking about the The struggle between you know because these were black west indians brought in from brought in to panama who spoke english and then They their relationship to the sort of the native and indigenous communities in panama who spoke spanish That was contentious But all of that was happening because white people from america were the ones who were bringing in panama like Bringing in english speaking west indians to i mean in the whole thing. It's like i mean we It gave me such a more expansive understanding of of what Of how the us destabilized these regions Yeah, exactly. I mean and one of the things that I you know, I wanted to make Sure, and it was a lens that that I brought to the book was that you know, it is not In no way in in in almost in no Areas of the book at all. Is it just you know the bad us? Doing things to you know blank slates like these are people with agency themselves They have their own histories and their own complexities and races race and racism is one of them. So yeah in In panama I you know, I I I spent a little bit of the book talking about The you know, and this was something that I would not have gotten Just from reading maybe if I'd read enough maybe who knows but like I got it in a much more visceral way By going to panama and spending time The ways in which you know race and panama is extremely complex because not only do you have You know sort of the and and in the period that I'm talking about, you know, the zonians who are essentially like the white americ mostly white american colonizers who live in the canal zone And then you also have the you know, you have the indigenous panamanians You have the the the panamanians who you know are mestizo with you know mix Mixes between you know european and indigenous and maybe some african ants In black month, there's there's the fight between the afro-colonialis who are the descendants of the original Or the older, I guess I should say immigration forced immigration of enslaved africans by the spanish and then the west indians the afro-intelianos who are the descendants of the Mostly barbadan st. Lucian's Grenadians mostly from the the lesser antilles who the americans brought in to to dig the canal and die for us for for our benefit and the and the way Visceral sense of this was that I you know in panama city. I went to there's a museum And I talk about in the book called the museo afro-inteliano the the the afro-intelian afro-west indian museum of panama Which is which you know contains a history that is not even reflected in the the more well visited museums of the panama canal that you know most tourists go to um, and it just so happened I mean this is the like like you know this and like there's a million moments like this and and how the word is passed as well it's just like Magic that happens like or just there so I just I go so I go to the museum I introduced myself to you know a Woman who is is uh, you know on duty that day.  It's I think her 80th birthday Uh, and they say your happy birthday and They have cake and ice cream And then I get to know her and actually I don't I like, you know, there's so many things that I did that I don't have time for in the book. I actually end up spending like like a day with enus. She's awesome And like we she she decides like she's like there's a there's a smithsonian museum in in Panama like another remnant of of uh American colonialism It's like it's like a a wildlife center that like has like it's like They have like frogs and like sort of like native animals and it's really she's like we should go to that and so like I'm like walking around um, you know with enus and and and she's you know looking And she's and she's talking about you know her mother from st. Lucia and her father from Barbados And you know them coming to Panama and the and the double and triple racism that they experienced both from the lighter skin panamanians and from the white americans and then also from the afrocolonialis um, and then I go, you know, I go to cologne, which is you know, and and I and I you know, I have lunch with um uh, Marcio Rodriguez who is an afrocolonial whose whose grandmother told her stories of the american invasion in which medley butler to part in 1903 um, and it's and it's just You know, all these are just they're all wonderful women and I would love to go back and hang out with them again Honestly, they're awesome, especially well, they're both cool, but um, but uh, uh, I You know, it was just you know, it's and it's is exactly as you say I mean, you know, I talk about in the book the way that you know the the americans who build the Build the canal zone around, you know, within which the the the west indian workers for the most part do the actual building of the canal and they bring Jim crow like they bring They bring this system in which they divide the payroll. It's the gold and silver system and you have Actually white and and white americans Um are on the gold roll and so they're they're paid at a higher rate and they uh, they get, you know Better housing to get better commissary, etc. They have their own separate entrances And then you have the people on the silver roll who are almost entirely black um, they're these interesting marginal cases where like Like worker like white workers from spain are like fighting and they're trying to figure out like which role do they go on but um And and yeah, and and this was This was promoted by the americans who are overseeing this uh as a mark of modernity like this they sell this as a as a public health Uh, uh innovation where they're like we're bringing this great american innovation of segregation Which is going to somehow like keep people from getting malaria. It makes no sense but like but but but they they they build this as a mark of progress and the fact that had had their own Uh ideas about, you know racial categorization and their own ways of living Within what becomes the canal zone, which by the way, that's another thing that I didn't realize I mean, I had heard about the building with panama canal, but Yes, was that was an area that was was depopulated This was an area that people lived like there were tens of thousands of people who were evicted from their homes forcibly by the americans for the purpose of building a canal and one of the ways in which uh, uh, you know dr. Gorgas um one of the ways in which the the americans who are are are uh overseeing this ethnic cleansing essentially uh, we're just forced total You know population removal from uh the canal zone Um is they're saying like well look how backward these people are like they weren't even segregated like they weren't even Like there were There were light skin and dark skin people like living next to each other Like these people clearly don't know how to create a society We're doing them a favor and that was the way that was one of the ways in which uh americans in that period Uh told themselves that everything that they were doing was okay Man, it's just it's always wild to think about the way that Systems of white supremacy and oppressions more broadly. Um attempt to justify themselves I'm curious from your end. Also, I should say um As we are getting Closer toward the end we're about two-thirds through uh, if you have any questions Feel free to put them in the q&a function. I will certainly incorporate your questions as we finish our conversation Um, so feel free to throw those in there And if you have not pressed purchase this book button press it now do it now don't wait another minute Uh, I'm curious for you. I mean you you went to all these different places I mean, I I just again I could this whole thing could just be me like going through my list of all the things that I learned from your book like that Uh, us imperialism in Honduras is related and its relationship to banana exports And then you talk about how that is one of the ways that the term banana republic Came to exist and it was one of those moments I think I was like eating a dull banana and I was like, oh snap You know, I was like, oh my and I was like, what am I doing? Eating a banana you're eating a banana by the former standard fruit company on whose behalf Smelly butler and the marines intervened In Honduras in 1903 and I I'm I have a question about that, but I'm gonna do it closer toward the end But one thing I'm just curious just generally for you like which place that you went Was most I don't know if the word surprising but like the place that you that is That has stayed with you the most, you know, maybe it's that was most surprising that was most you know that resonated the most that The devastated you the most or that you learned the most like what what is the you know if you can pick? I know it's like picking your kids. It's hard for like Which which one is the one that you are like this is This I couldn't have written the book and not included this chapter So I want to stipulate first off that like Haiti you know I I lived in Haiti, you know for for for three and a half years A lot of my heart is is is still there and you know And and Haiti is Haiti is also the height of Smelly butler's career um, and you know, you know, so You know, there's two chapters on Haiti. There's one on the Dominican Republic Which also deals with sort of the Dominican Dominican Republic's relationship with Haiti I also lived in the Dominican Republic before I lived in Haiti. So there's there's, you know, the three the three hispaniola chapters sort of geographically they're they're the center of They're literally center of of the book And there really are sort of at the heart of how I how I came to this story And the lens through which I view it. I mean, you know, one of the one of the And I talk about him in in the the prologue to the book um, and the prologue is broadly about a you know Smelly butler blowing the whistle on this, you know fascist coup in the 1930s, which I I could and often do find myself spending all day talking about um, but uh, uh, but I also am talking about and I quote the great Haitian scholar michelle ross trio You know his book silencing the past which was one of sort of my load stars And also by the way the epigraph to this book is a Haitian proverb by coup blier potet marksonger the the the one who the one who gives the blow I it was my translation deals I was trying to be a little bit cute with with gangsters of capitalism the one who deals the blow Forget the one who buries the bears the scar remembers um, you know, I'll just say that because it's I guess I guess I just throw cleared myself into into just making that my answer.  Um, you know To write this book. Um, I I went back at a period of extreme unrest Haiti is now in in in yet another one Um, and you know, I go with my with my dear friend, uh, Evan sanon Um, who if anybody here has read The big truck that went by We'll know Evan's very well. He was my fixer and is is my He's he's my he's he's he's my he's my friend And he's he's he's you know, it's the guy who I go through the earthquake with and and he's throughout the big truck And he does, you know, he does make a a an extended cameo in in In the in the Haiti chapter this book because I go and I meet evans In in capy cn in the north and then we go into the mountains to look for The place where smithley butler won his second of two medals of honor In in the massacre at fort rivier and I you know go up this mountain looking for him and end up in a in a voodoo temple, etc um You know, but you know, but but haiti is haiti, you know, it will surprise nobody Who knows me just didn't say to like haiti, you know, um You know, it just comes through and and and uh, you know another part of the book that that that, you know, uh was Ultimately sort of one of the first parts that I reported was on another trip to haiti I you know, I visit this uh industrial park that essentially the clinton's built In response to the earthquake An industrial park which unbeknownst to the clinton's and unbeknownst to the builders of the park Was a forced labor camp overseen by the marines including smithley butler um in which not only so smithley butler among other things that he does in haiti A country founded famously in a in national Revolt by enslaved people against uh, they're they're enslavers against france from 1791 to 1804 smithley butler then reimposes slavery in haiti For the purpose of building roads for the occupation And and this is one of the forced labor camps and at this forced labor camp um a a great Haitian hero of the resistance against the americans charlemagne perrault Um is he's killed by the marines He is and he is buried in this place where the americans uh in in uh the mid 20 10s Building a garment factory complex and and I go there and I meet um, you know You know, I'm on a tour of this factory I kind of escaped the tour and then you know, I speak kray also like I I'm just asking people. I was like, you know You know Where did where is charlemagne perrault?   Um, and so that you know, that was um, You know, that was My answer was going to be the philippines, but I I ended up I ended up throw clearing myself into haiti as as often happens But haiti makes a lot of sense Somebody's one asking uh, and you alluded to this a little bit, but maybe you can go into some more detail Is there anything that you left on the cutting room floor? That you wish you had been able to include? Oh man, so much There's so many things. Um, I actually have an op-ed coming out. Um, I think I think this afternoon And uh, and it contains a um, a little bit of of a material from from haiti from uh, uh a a joint attack uh by the marines and and um The gendams which were uh The the client militia that butler creates which becomes the model for a whole uh Lineage of client armies that go that include the the army of the republic of vietnam People who remember the vietnam war up through the afghan national security forces. Um, and uh, so so that was a piece that that It's it's it it it it it it's basically a piece of writing from essentially, you know 1919 that could get ripped out of a story about a drone strike today But I found a home for that in in this op-ed that's going to be coming out. I think maybe in a couple hours Um, but there's so many things.  Um, you know, and there were some things that you know, I was able to You know sort of work in like a little bit of um You know, I have a scene it's like kind of a partial scene Where during butler's anti-war phase In 1935 he appears at an event in cleveland Uh, and it's it's sort of thrown the event is kind of put on by like the communist party But like they're not all communists who are involved in it and it's a it's a it's a protest against War and against fascism And it's butler Um, uh a a a uh an important anti-faction From cleveland langston hues Um all appear on this stage together along with other people and there's other people who i'm like leaving out of this brief telling and um Just like what so and there's a marine spy who comes to this meeting And reports back to the commandant what's happening at this meeting and and he's there to sort of inform on butler um, but he writes about he writes all this stuff about langston hues um, and he and and um One of the things that he says is that um This this hues guy must be a communist spy Because he speaks far too eloquently to have written these things on his own So they must have been written for him by cpu s a um clearly And so and and and and then you know and then you know I have like I was able to sort of go down this rabbit hole and like figure out a little bit There's there's some you know, there's some uh interaction between butler and langston hues Which obviously, you know, it doesn't need to be said but puts the light of that particular Insult anyway, so like you know, but there was just there were so many things You know, this book was five years in the making I could I could write I could I could write a whole series honestly I don't think I will but I but I hope that there are more of these opids That are coming. I know the feeling of the cutting room floor and looking down at it and being like Damn, that's like three other books. Yeah So so I feel you on that One of the things that I kept thinking about Uh as I was reading and and this might be the last question Is like what is it What does it mean to live ethically as an american Given this history like if we look around us our you know, I was kind of making light of it earlier But like our fruit our clothes our houses, you know, the material that makes our cars are, you know, all this stuff To varying degrees our material manifestations of a history of violence and oppression and imperialism You know, whether it's the things that you know, the people who were killed Uh, you know, essentially killed to make the Panama Canal that so many of our stuff comes through whether it's the bananas and Honduras, whether it's the you know, the beef and Mexico, you know, whatever the case may be What what do you think about what? like what do Yeah, well just what are the how do we live ethically given this history and the ways that all of us even when we try ostensibly benefit from the material resources that have been extracted as a result of Yeah, this past Yeah, I mean, um, and it's all done, you know Because we're an empire it's all done with sort of a flick of the wrist another moment that that I remember this just sort of coming back to me right now that that um that I remember from My travels that I couldn't include was at the fancier museum at Museo del Canal the the museum of the Panama Canal in in Panama City You know, I had to get sort of a special escort in order to be able to like take Those for my notes and while I was going around this museum Um, the the guy who's who's escorting me like asks like, you know So what do Americans think about the fact that the Panama Canal was given back to us in in in 1999? um, you know, uh, are they still mad about it and I was like I don't know how to tell you this most Americans don't even know that we had it at this point Like it's not because we got it because we we wrung everything out of it and and at the cost of all these lives and and all and and and all these things in Panama and they're still I mean, they are still very much living today canal, but but um you know with with all these legacies of american imperialism and You know, like I don't know like I don't think that like the fact that I had that conversation with him Like makes me like, you know an inherently ethical person you know, I think It's a really really hard question to answer and honestly, I think it's a question that Smetley Butler was was dealing with in his life. I mean one of the one of the reasons why I One of the reasons why he is such a fascinating character Um, that you know that I've spent in the last seven years essentially like living in my head with Um is because at the end of his life He recants his Imperial past He writes the series of art.   Um, you know to to collect revenues in Looking back on it I could have given al capone a few hints. The best he did was operate in three city districts. We marines in three continents And the ultimate tragedy of his life and maybe this is the ultimate tragedy of of our lives Is that he ultimately belatedly sees this Imperfectly, he never really he never really deals with his his, uh, you know racism He never really deals with with his intersections of of uh, you know, masculinity and white supremacy But he does see to a far greater extent than you know, almost any other marine does at his time or most any other person does really um He sees the way in which these things that he did that that brought him so much honor and fame and glory have, you know, these these Destructive effects not only on the rest of the world but on ourselves here at home All, you know on you know, these ways in which uh, as as uh, I may say as air says, you know, uh, that that you know one of the ultimate consequences of colonialism is the brutalization of the colonizer Which then comes back home in the form of fascism um and and and brutality at home um You know, ultimately butler He in you know, he's a great success as an imperialist. He's really a failure at you know any kind of attempted At anti war or or or anti colonialism Um, he you know, he spends his last stores of energy Trying to prevent what worked to from happening and trying to prevent the united states from getting involved in it um and and to and to convince americans to you know Decolonize our our our holdings especially in in the pacific and it's only with world war two That the philippines which three chapters of this book that butler, you know spend so much time in um that the philippines are finally granted their belated independence after we have bombed them to death To a certain extent for for douglas macArthur's ego so that he can so that he can make good on his promise You know, I I shall return and then and then return to manila which Becomes the second worst destroyed city in the world after war saw in in in um In in in world war two and but and butler's trying to prevent that from happening and he fails and to a great extent He has failed to do so because He was such an active participant in creating this empire and creating these imperial structures and You know and and and really, you know, I mean, and I think this is the thing that you deal with in your Because well like ultimately this kind of Of individuals versus structures, you know, how much how much of an impact can any one person have Versus, you know, these larger historical and and social structures And the answer is it depends it depends on where that individual is placed An individual president can have much more influence than than than, uh, you know An unhoused person, you know, who's who's just watching all these things go by Um to a certain extent it has to do with the ways, you know the extent to which we are participating in sort of the Goals of these structures in making things worse. You can have much Much more effect then um If you are trying to make a war happen with rusher right now You are going to be much more successful Um, then then then if you then if you, you know, if you try to fight against it Unless you're one of the people who might have influence on this Um, who can stop, you know, the war machine as it goes into overdrive um, and so you know Maybe the answer is you know Uh, maybe the answer is that that it is impossible to be to ultimately be be truly ethical and still be, you know, inside, uh, You know, it's impossible to you know Doesn't until the house using the master's tools, right? Um, uh, you know, maybe maybe maybe that's the answer It is, you know, it it is more ethical to try it is more ethical to try to Shine a light on these things and and and uplift Um, uh, the people who who who are are are trying to point out these crimes and and to and to prevent further ones from happening um people like osmoc con our our new america colleague who has done just incredible work um and um I in the op-ed that I have i i'm i'm tying sort of butler and to her work actually. Um, but um But you know at the at the same time it's like my daughter needs bananas like You know and and uh extricate yourself on it. Yeah. Yeah, so it's it's It's hard. It's really hard and and you know You know, maybe the answer I this is I feel like this is the jewish like they'll tell me to kiss It's like it's the argument. It's the struggle like it's it's it's Being in the fight that like where where where where, you know, where it's as much as you can do um, but it's also You know looking at the ways in which in which uh, you looking at the ways in which you're perpetuating the empire and the ways in which you're trying to dismantle it and And trying to make the best choices you can Yeah, no, I think that's absolutely right. Um, and I think that so much of the point of educating yourself and struggling with it and reflecting on it and You know books like yours that teach us so much about it. Um, or so that we don't do the same thing in the future All right, and and I think that that is um That makes the struggle you know meaningful So Jonathan man, it's an excellent book. Um, congratulations I I know virtual tours and virtuals that you know, the situation can be weird I hope you get a chance to do some in person stuff. Um, at least a few sometimes soon But uh, hope your daughter and your family are doing well. Hope she's loving those bananas as much as my kids are And thank you all. Thank you to everybody who joined us over your lunch break Or if you're on the west coast when your breakfast break Appreciate you coming through again by this book. You won't regret it. Um, it's really really excellent And uh, if you're into audiobooks you can give the audiobook whatever whatever your thing is Jonathan, thank you new america. Thank you


Recording started welcome back to our class and we are sharing or we are covering the last chapter and the book Receiving God's Guidance and the last chapter is 14th which says putting it all together so we are just trying to sum up all things from whatever we have learned till now. Can I request one of us to read from the book of Job 33 verse 14 to 16. Job chapter 33 verse 14 to 16. For God may speak in one way or in another yet man does not perceive it. In a dream in a vision of the night when deep sleep falls upon man while slumbering on the abets then he opens the ears of man and seals the instruction. Amen. So we're just trying to put everything together and and you know a recap of everything that we learned so far so we must walk humbly before God always seeking listening to his direction and obeying him and what he instructs us because God is continue to speak to us in different ways. He can speak to us in dream vision through word through another person different ways but we need to keep ourself open we need to walk humbly before God that you know so that we can perceive what he is he's been talking to us he's been speaking to us in different ways recognizing that and putting putting it together and you know guiding our way. Recting our way. So there are 11 ways that we studied we covered 11 ways through which God can speak to us and guide us. They are the word the inner witness of the Holy Spirit the voice of the Spirit gift of the Holy Spirit dreams and visions prophecies angels godly counsel the renewed mind times and seasons circumstances and divine orchestration the first three the word the inner witness of the Holy Spirit the voice of the Holy Spirit are the primary ways through which God can speak to us when God speak to us in these three ways we can take it in all confidence and move ahead in our life because and also God always speak to us before in hand before in hand and he can prepare us our mind our heart will be prepared so much that we can step into that call on that situation what God has in store for us but the next eight ways that we need to verify we need to validate and we need to test is that from God so we need to test and validate what you receive with the word of God and with the inner witness of the Holy Spirit we need to see how God is leading us is it from God and is it giving us peace so there are different ways we need to ask ourselves two questions one is what I feel led to do aligned and in harmony with the word of God is it aligned to the nature and the character of God if we have received in any of the other eight things the secondary ways we need to question ourselves with these two question one is it what I feel led to do aligned in harmony with the word of God is it aligned to the nature and character of God and the second question we can ask ourselves is what is the Holy Spirit witnessing or speaking in my spirit about the situation about the circumstance do I sense a space and is approval on this matter we need to check and if you find peace and if you get an approval about it you can proceed you can go ahead but if not it would be good that you wait on the Lord and also what we could do is we can check with any two or three witnesses about this if you do not have peace if you do not have the complete knowledge of what you are stepping in or what you have been led in your spirit you can discuss this with two or three witnesses we see in second Corinthians chapter 13 verse 1 Paul writes he quotes this from the Old Testament Old Testament from Deuteronomy chapter 19 verse 15 any addresses the matter to the local church at Corinth saying that this will be the third time I'm coming to you by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established every word shall be established so it is very important that we check with two or three witnesses so that we get clarity we are sure about the part that we are taking so that we can we can be safe it gives us the confidence to step into what God is asking us to do sometimes in our own thoughts we may be misled but when we seek people who are expertise in that area when we seek counsel from them they will guide us in the right path so seeking counsel from two or three people is very important because we are safe in the council we are safe and we will not be misled in that so it is very important to take counsel from two or three people and consider a situation where someone gave gives a word of prophecy and that that was gives a prophecy saying that you know you would start a business in certain city where you need to leave the city and go to another city and start a business now if you're already having that desire in your mind in your heart and you've been preparing and you're waiting for a confirmation of word then you can do it go ahead and proceed with the word that you have received from God but then you have never thought about it you have not prepared but then you just received a word what we can do is you can thank God for the word thank God for the prophecy make a note of it and then test is it from the Lord do you have peace is there in a witness you can ask God God speak to me by your word by your by your Holy Spirit let me have that peace you can wait on the Lord and then you see once you get the confirmation in your spirit saying that this is what God is asking me to do the next step is the preparation preparation process is very important you need to prepare yourself to move to a different city you need to prepare yourself to plan and how to launch the business and what the other people the other vendors or laborers who can come and help you then packing up back immediately and going into the city and then face challenges and face a loss in your business and then saying God you gave me a word but nothing didn't happen yes God gave a word even to Joseph even to David but they did did they wait for the right time to move in or did they pack their bag and got into action immediately they waited yes there is a promise of God and after that there is a period of preparation there's a period of preparation so that's why they say preparation time is not a wasted time it is very important that we prepare on what God want us to do God prepares us he orchestrates the situation the circumstances in such a way that we prepare ourselves so that we are ready for the next call of God way he is moving way he is leading us God prepares us in the situation personally we have experienced in our life how God prepares and how he leads we need to just trust on God there are times where I you know in our Bible College as I shared with you all we have this time of supernatural time where you know God speaks to us and during this time where you know our students were flowing prophetic gifts with the word of wisdom with the word of knowledge they used to release to each other so once that situation I still remember you know God spoke through one of the students saying that you know God revealed it through him saying that you know there is a tunnel season that I would be entering and you also assure that ma'am you're not alone that God is with you God's hand is much more much more upon you in this season you know I was shocked it was not like shocked I was like Lord what is ahead of me but then I took it to the Lord and pray I started praying about it I said Lord what strengthened me after the word exactly six months after that the season changed situation changed circumstance was different and I faced it and then I remembered the promise I remembered this particular word that I received from one of our students saying that this is what God spoke to me and I said yes Lord this is the season of tunnel and I'm I'm assured that I'm not alone that you are with us in the season that you will never leave us nor forsake us you will help me to overcome this and during that season I trusted God completely completely went on our knees trusted God to help us to overcome that season and today I can testify I can sense in my spirit that the season is over God has brought us all the way through much stronger much better out of the season his hand was upon us during the season he led us he guided us he strengthened us by his word by his spirit he never let us down he never let us to go and say but he was with us so even in the time of warning God reveals it to us even before we could head into a tunnel and season he reveals it to us so that we are prepared and we can trust God in that season knowing that God is with us even in that season of darkness even in that wilderness season you're not walking alone but God himself is with you and he strengthens you just the way I shared yesterday about when we studied about Elijah during the time of faith he has got provided in unusual manner but during this season when things were not good during his season of you know tunnel God himself was with him God himself provided him and that sustained him that strengthened him so in our difficult season we can trust God that God himself will be with us because we are his precious children he will never he leave us nor forsake us that's the promise so just like the difficult time even the blessing even before God can bless us he reveals it to us just like how God revealed to Abraham God revealed to Moses God revealed to David God revealed to Joseph he reveals to us he reveals to us and he sets us on course so that we are focused on that great call and we don't give up in the process yes we will face difficulties challenges but we need to have this assurance that God is with us and he's leading us so we are all learning and we will be making mistake we are not perfect being so when we make mistake as I said God is about our mistake God is about our mistake he will not rebuke us or he will not leave us or he will not shun us away Moses did make a mistake Abraham made a mistake Moses made a mistake David made a mistake Peter made a mistake but God forgave God forgave when we repent when we seek God God forgives can one of us please read book of John chapter 10 verse 4 to 5 and 27 please John chapter 10 verse 4 and verse 27 and when he brings out his own sheep he goes before them and the sheep follow him for they know his voice yet they will by no means follow a stranger but will flee from him for they do not know the voice of strangers my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me so my journey in learning to receive God's guidance has not been always perfect yes and I've made mistakes but then I can assure you even in my mistake God has taught me God is many many times God has warned me before in hand there was a time when I was about to make a mistake you know God just woke me up in the night suddenly sleep just went off and I'm getting a verse prompting a verse I got up I opened the Bible and read that verse it was exactly an answer to my situation what was I was about to do the next day you just give me a word as I read the inner voice you know God said God is you know revealing it to me this is what you're supposed this is what you're about to do but this is not a right in my eyes this is not a right in my eyes immediately I gave up I said Lord please forgive me even though I've not I've not made any mistake but then God warns he is very careful about his children that we should not go astray because we know that every action of us will face a consequence God don't want this children to face that consequence and God can correct us when we give that access to him in our life we need to allow God saying God I surrender I submit to you and you know it is not that we know everything we are a sheep you know how sheeps are right you know I've been I visited Andhra once during Bible College times we went there on a ministry to one of the simple village there it was a very nice experience we we got there so we went to a sheepfold to see how the sheeps are how they have been grazed and how they've been bought back and you know into that sheep stable or fold we call it they are very simple they just follow the shepherd's instruction if shepherd is not there they just go scattering everywhere there are certain season I saw that you know the shepherd went before the sheep to lead them there are certain point where the shepherd goes behind and there's a certain phase that shepherd just sits and relax and you know shepherd just the sheep's just go grazing on the green grass so the different stages I could witness and see the sheep I spent at least two or three days there watching how things were in a simple life being it was a very wonderful experience to learn so from my learning there I I just made a prayer Lord I'm just one of these sheeps sometimes so dumb not knowing where we are going what is ahead of us we don't know Lord but I'm very thankful that you are the good shepherd that you are leading me you are guiding me you take care of my future the next step of my life and you also avoid from me doing any such mistake knowingly or unknowingly we can do mistakes sometimes knowingly also knowing certain things are not right we can step into it maybe our situation our circumstance would lead to do that mistake knowingly but our God is so faithful yes I remember God warned me when unknowingly was about to make this mistake he woke me middle of the night and there was another situation in my life where knowingly knowing it is not right in God's eye because of the circumstance and situation I would have led to do that mistake but praise God today when I look back I'm so thankful to God that God saved me even from that situation he literally stopped literally stopped from me doing that mistake I remember in my prayer like you know sometimes our prayers are so silly but that's what me I just you know speak simple to God I say Lord I just speak in the way that I know and I also get a response from God in the simple way that I can understand I've always prayed this way saying that Lord even if I go astray I want you to hold my right hand and bring me back because that's what your scripture says that you will always hold the right hand and bring me back and he's so faithful to that prayer he's so faithful so with that assurance I can tell today to each of us in the class and we will be listening later also when we pray let's make the simple prayer there's no language barrier there because God knows us from our thought from our art attitude we can just be who we are friend of him free and he understands us he just understands us and God God can stop us from even doing any mistake he can hold us he can correct us for that we need to surrender ourself and just come before him Lord I give you complete control you lead me you teach me you stop me from doing any mistake then lead to a bigger consequence in our life because every action what we do is what we face in our life what we sow we reap in our life let's sow things that would be a blessing in our life Psalms 18 36 says you enlarge my path under me so my feet did not slip true God enlarges our path you know when we go in the remote places or when we go on trekking you see not much path is clear but if there's many people who have walked in that part you see some kind of path been formed in that place when we pray God enlarge my path under me so that I do not sleep God can be there he can show us the path he can create the path he can create a way where there's no way when we trust on him he's our God we can we can trust him in every area of our life every area because he's all knowing he's omniscient God we can trust our life with them because he knows there's no one on this earth who could know is better than God himself because he knows our end from the beginning he is our God he is our father the relation that has been restored with God is our father he is mindful of us he can lead us and guide us in the right way Psalms 25 4 and 15 says show me your ways or Lord teach me your path my eyes are ever toward the Lord for he shall pluck my feet out of the net very true you can just trust this verse because this is what God is when we trust on him and ask God and say Lord you lead me and you teach me God's eyes are always towards us that he can stop us from you know getting snared by the even because we all know that the enemy is waiting to kill steal and destroy his children but then when we surrender ourselves to God God can pluck our feet out of that net out of the snare that has been laid ahead of us and we need to be staying on the side of caution and taking risk in faith Romans 11 33 and 34 can one of us please read oh the depth of the righteous both of the wisdom and knowledge of God how unsearchable are his judgment and his ways past finding out for who has known the mind of the Lord or who has become his counselor a man a wisdom knowledge in the decision the ways of God are beyond our comprehension we are to constantly learn and learn from God from his wisdom this knowledge and the way God leads us we cannot put in put God in a box and say this is how God works he's infinite is beyond our time and season we need to seek God and receive his wisdom receive his guidance God can guide us and lead us in you know in some unusual way sometimes we would have never imagined but we need to be open enough to receive it just like how Abraham trusted God he had this inner witness it is from God and with that trust he stepped out of his father's house and he received the blessing of God God guided Abraham step by step step by step he guided him in the same way we can take the risk once we are assured that it is God we have received this word from God we need to have that assurance that God is speaking to us and this word is from God we see in Hebrew 11 8 can one of us please read Hebrew 11 8 by faith Abraham or when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance and he went out not knowing where he was going so in faith Abraham stepped out and the event and we see God led them step by step even without him knowing where he was going problems for 18 can one of us please read but the path of the just his like the signing son that signs ever writer unto the perfect day yes when we trust on God but the path of the just is like the shining sun when we trust on God you know God opens up ways and it becomes much brighter and clearer each day today and staying with the last instruction one Corinthians chapter 4 verse 1 to 2 we see that let a man so consider us a servant of Christ and steward of the mysteries of God moreover it is required in steward that one be found faithful so it is important for us to be faithful in our journey and trust God with it when we trust God God will lead us every season every circumstances we see God leading us taking us to the place the right season at the right time and you know there's a saying wherever God guides you is grace abounds we have God's grace wherever he guides us is grace will be upon us so that you know we will be a blessing in that place we will overcome all the challenges we will be the salt and light of what God wanted us to be in that place he will make us a channel of his blessing where he leads us so we need to be open enough and know God I am your steward lead me in the place where you want me to go help me to do the things what you want me to do help me to minister to people whom you want me to meet and minister to when we when we keep ourself open when we keep ourself available God start using us there's also another saying which says God does not qualify the call but he but he qualify but he can anyone remember that say but he qualifies the call doesn't call the qualified but he qualifies the call yes but he qualifies the call thank you brother true we may not have enough of skill or talent to the area which God may have called us but when you're available when you're faithful when you submit and surrender yourself to God he qualifies to that called he gives us the skill he gives us the talent he gives us the wisdom increases as wisdom knowledge and understanding so in all the areas one cannot boast on what they have because we need to realize and understand that comes from God himself and give all glory to the God who's the giver of that area at the same time if one lacks certain skill we need to seek God because that is what James 1 5 says if any of you lack wisdom as God who gives us abundantly the same way it can be anything the ministry the area that God has opened up the opportunity that God has opened up we need certain skills to improve us it can be a language it can be it can be the public speaking sometime back I was challenged with this or even now I'm still progressing in many areas especially when it comes to public speaking or speaking friend of a camera it was a challenge I didn't have the confidence to sit and speak for a long time sometimes I would have gone blank not knowing how to speak what to do am I getting any response it was a challenge but then I started seeking God and asking God help me in this area help me to overcome this because I knew this skill comes from God I said Lord please help me God strengthened me he has given me that courage the strength he removed all my fears the challenges that I had the same way when I had to go visit the colleges on we have a program called elevate where we minister to the college students so they will be about hundreds or sometimes thousand students depending on the college which we go so initially it was a challenge they scared me with the roaring sound but then I trusted God sometimes I imagine myself like David facing Goliath but when we trust God saying God you be my help you are my strength and I see God power move in behalf of me God strengthen me sometimes much more than what we prepare is what we share but then that as that situation or that word had been a blessing to the students we see them come share after the class ma'am I was blessed by what you what you thought in the class because this is the area this is a situation that I'm going through in my life and that was a blessing that has changed my thought so God knows each one of our heart and when we stand there to minister and we alive saying God you speak in and through me to minister to your people to minister to your children to be a blessing to them God speaks in and through us he will be our mouthpiece he will be our voice we are just a mouthpiece we are saying Lord you speak in and through me the simple prayer that we pray saying God you speak in and through me activates God to speak in and through us so all we have to do is be a good steward surrender ourselves to God in every situation and receive God guidance in that way the provost 14 12 says there is a way that seems right to a man but it ends in the way of death so every every council or every instruction that we receive we need to you know check is it from God is it what the word of God says is does this please God am I having peace from the Holy Spirit so that we can avoid being self-driven or stubborn yes there are two ways for stubborn good way and the bad way here we are talking about the bad way being stubborn knowing it is not right friend of God we should not be the stiff-necked people what Moses says in Exodus 34 he says that if now I have found grace in your sight oh Lord let my Lord I pray so among us even though we are a stiff-necked people and pardon our inequity and our sin and take us as your inheritance that means people with stiff-necked people knowingly they were sinning against to God sometimes knowingly as I said sometimes knowingly we know this is not right friend of God we may be forced into doing that because of a situation or circumstances but then we should not be stubborn we should allow God to help us in that situation Lord you move in my circumstance and situation so that I will not sin against you when we surrender our self that situation into God's and so that we do not make a mistake we do not sin against God God is much faithful enough to change that situation to move that circumstance away from us because God our God is a God who you know who leads people in the right direction he will not watch us committing wrong he will not watch us doing wrong when we ask God to help is more than enough to come change the situation and to help us so we should not be stubborn in Deuteronomy 1016 says stop being stubborn give your heart to God we need to allow God to work in and through us so avoid being aimless we need to avoid being aimless a God how to avoid being aimless we need to see God's guidance and direction and then work hard plan strategize prepare to see his purpose been fulfilling fulfilled we need to work hard knowing this is what God is leading us so we need to start planning start receiving we need to receive God's guidance is direction so how do we receive God's guidance and direction simple we need to sit with a notepad and pen and pray those who have the gift of tongues pray in tongues when we pray in tongues sit in his presence God reveals things he guides us he can direct this he can give us new ideas new plans above and beyond normally generally in our wisdom in our thoughts in our knowledge we could not conceive that but when we see God you know God gives us his guidance and he directs us when he gives us the guidance and directs us we need to start working hard towards that we need to work out we need to plan we need to strategize and prepare ourselves to see his purpose being fulfilled in our life very very important to see that proverb 16 3 in line come at your works to the Lord and your thoughts will be established a man's heart plans his way but the Lord directs his step so we cannot take this work and say like okay no matter what I plan you know God directs our ways but then God is saying come at whatever you work you plan you strategize do all our homework and come at it to the Lord so that our thoughts will be established a man's heart plans his way we need to do it and God directs his step God leads us and in our leading we should be focused and not get distracted when we are focused you know we can avoid certain distraction that comes our way to break us as we see broken focus result in waste of time energy and resource on things we were not supposed to be doing so when we allow God to work in our life he can give us the grace so that we can be focused in the things that is head of us and not get ourselves distracted easily and the Lord the Lord led me as I was on the way we see in Genesis 24 27 Genesis chapter 24 verse 27 he said blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham who has not forsaken as mercy and his truth toward my master as for me being on the way the Lord led me to the house of my masters brethren so any of us on a certain project or a certain mission we are heading we can trust God to lead us in the way just like how Abraham's servant Elias went to search a bride for Isaac he prayed he prayed and seek God to lead him to the right place in the same way as he prayed God led his servant to the right place and to the right person Rebecca he had prayed and in the right way he she showed up and God gave him the confirmation that she is the right person for him and everything from he going back to his house and how his parents treated him and they were all open enough to give Rebecca to Abraham son Isaac so everything went well and in smoke so when the Lord is leading you see God's hand in the way when we seek him we see his guidance leading and guiding so we need to trust God for any of our missions for any of our leading knowing that God will lead and he will lead us to the right place at the right time to the right person so any of the opportunities even in our life you see we can see God leading us many times many times God will lead us in the right place at the right time to the right people and God opens the doors through them in that season all we have to do with submit ourselves to the leading of God so when we submit without questioning we can be led to the right place at the right time and you see the door open to us the last year is you know we need to avoid dwelling in the past but we need to look ahead Philippians chapter 3 verse 13 to 14 we see that brethren I do not count myself to have apprehended but one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead I pressed with the goal for the price of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus this is very important of forgetting the past we should not hold the past if you're holding the past you cannot move further you cannot receive what God is doing in your future so we need to let go of our past so that we can we can focus on our future the blessing that God has in store of us we need to be mindful of our of a call ahead of us so that we can we can press towards that goal yes there are some failures there are some mistakes that we made but we need to learn lesson from them but not hold on to them and do not have a doubt in facing your future or trusting your future in God's hand but then just move ahead yes we may have had a bad example or a bad experience trusting somebody before but then that does not mean that you do not trust anyone in your future trust God and move ahead God will lead us we need to be mindful of a future of the call and the purpose of God that is ahead of us so that God can lead us so that we can press toward the goal for the price of the upward call upward God has in store for us through Christ Jesus and we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us so yes with this we end this we end this book called receiving God's guidance that God when we trust God we can guide us in all these 11 ways and the primary way that we can confidently trust God is in the first three ways that's through his word the inner witness of the Holy Spirit and the voice of the Holy Spirit with this I'll open up to the class to share their experience of God's leading in their life and more than anything what was your learning from this book there's something new that you learned that God touched you or God open up those understanding in your please feel free to share so it will benefit the whole class and the others will watch the session later brother Subashish you would like to share something Jeffina you would like to share yes ma'am I say one tasty money yes ma'am when I was in school days I I just coming from Tucson class with my friends in that time I I just saw the one clothes store and the one dress which which I was liked and that dress was hanging in front of this clothes store then I went that clothes store with my friend and I just asked the clothes store owners that how much cost this clothes then he said me that 600 rupees then but in that time I have no money to purchase that cloth then I say to the owner that I will come back with my father then I will purchase this dress then that owner has said me okay then we went from there and I said to my father and I say to my father that father I like that dress can you purchase for me then my father said that my child now I have no money to purchase that dress next time I will purchase okay that's he liked me just he they like that afterwards ma'am I have not satisfied with my father's words then I say to my father no father I want I want that dress right now but my father said till you are not understanding he's saying me then ma'am I go to the room and I praying to Jesus according to 7 Matthew 7 and 7 chapter 7 verse 7 that I've said to Jesus the Lord you have said that you ask I will give and I I want I want that dress Jesus please give me how whatever from wherever you give me the dress all you give me 600 rupees a lot like this I pray to infert of the Jesus ma'am and then after finish my prayer I say to my father papa come and we will purchase the dress and will bring that dress my father has said me you're not understanding I have said that in this time I have no money I little bit salary has gone in that all the money has finished then how I will purchase then ma'am I don't know where that faith has come in my heart and I've said to my father not that you come with me you just will provide from wherever then that time ma'am my father and mother both of them were gone with me to purchase that cloth that dress in that clothes store in that time ma'am what happened when we come to the clothes store ma'am in that time my father stand the bike in front of the clothes store in in front of the bike my father's two thousand rupees has fallen down my father's bike in front of that bike two thousand rupees is there nobody is taking the two thousand rupees then in that time my father has said that no no I've seen man I'm told my father my father see how two thousand rupees has God has given and my father said yes how it is fallen down and nobody's man is taking the two thousand rupees then my father and my mother is very happy and they are very soaked and in that time my father take the rupees and given to the closed owner and the purchase their 600 rupees the dress and left 1400 rupees my father kept because in that time is very bad time is going in our home because no money is there to purchase household things ma'am but in that time our Lord is provided 600 rupees I purchased the new dress also and 1400 for household and things in that time ma'am I'm very crying and in happy that they just providing in small things that he is giving giving to their child why did when I will when we'll pray then why God will not provide a big thing for their children's ma'am this small testimony for this ma'am thank you first I want to add something hello can you hear me yes yes please go ahead actually as I was going through this book though I have read about Eliza but again actually that motivated me when actually he faced the 450 prophets of Baal and he is challenging actually that 450 people many times actually as a minister of God actually we are not bold enough to face the challenge I even don't know that actually before he said okay that the rain will come from heaven maybe he will he has consulted God or not I don't know but but the company he has before the Lord that if I have said that means God will also honor me even he said three and a half years there will be no rain when he uttered that means he believed that whatever I have ordered that means God will honor me yes actually that actually motivated me that if we are the servant of God whatever the things we have said we have to believe that God will also honor us but the question actually that actually put God before me that the way Eliza worked with the Lord am I actually working these days thank you thank you thank you brother so let's take this time to pray as we also have the third our different class okay quickly we pray in this session and dear God we thank you for the way that you work in us Lord as we end this book on receiving God's guidance we thank you that you opened up all these 11 ways in us that we may seek you Lord to be led by your word by the inner witness of your Holy Spirit by the Holy Spirit by the voice of the Holy Spirit and by your prophetic word and by the council thank you Father for orchestrating things in our life so that we may we may be at the right time at the right season and meet the right person Lord to receive to unfold your blessing of Father Lord I surrender and submit each one of us in your hand I pray and I speak that you open up divine divine interventions in their life or father I pray and I I speak that you open unusual doors in the life the doors that have been closed for a long time or father I pray and I declare that you will open it for them or father because your word says in Revelation 3 7 the door that you open Lord no man can shut in the name of Jesus we pray that every closed doors to be open in the name of Jesus every way that has been blocked will be will be removed will be cleared in the name of Jesus Lord I pray that you will orchestrate things in their life in the name of Jesus the situation the circumstance will no more be the same but you will change it in the name of Jesus to benefit your children to grow in your word to be real rooted in your word to experience the the Holy Spirit the more of the Holy Spirit in their life or father Lord I pray that those who are earnestly seeking you Lord for the power of the Holy Spirit in them for the encounter of the Holy Spirit for them to be led by the Holy Spirit I pray that Lord you will reach each one of them you will start talking to them with that still small voice within them or father you will hold their righteous right hand and you will lead them or father Lord I thank you that each and every student in our class and the students will be hearing our sessions or father I pray that you will prepare their heart to surrender to you completely or father with the all humility a lot giving you all the glory and saying Lord I surrender that you lead me in my life you are my God you are my Lord and I give you complete control that you will lead me in the right way in the right path Lord I thank you that you have heard every cry of each and every student every word of their prayer every desire of their heart or father for I'm wanting to know you more and experience more of you or father thank you for changing the desires from the worldly material things but seeking and wanting for more of you and your spirit or father thank you for creating this urge within us or father the star that is within us which will lead us in the right path in the right direction of knowing you Lord we thank you and we praise you in Jesus most mighty name we pray amen amen thank you I know due to time we cannot given all the inputs but I would encourage you to write to us to know your experience how the Lord is working in and through your life you can also use the stream or you can write to us and you can also use the other the sessions are recorded and been updated on the stream you can also go through it so the next week we will be starting with the new book on code of honor see you all thank you so much God bless you take a quick break and log into your next class soon thank you thank you God bless bye thank you ma'am thank you thank you God


Public response to the national vaccination campaign continues to grow. The Ministry of Health and Wellness sells at Tuesday 9 March 2021, 10,437 doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine had been administered to St. Lucian's across the island. Over the past two weeks, emphasis has been placed on reaching the target groups in phases 1A and 1B, ensuring that as many people in these target groups are protected. These include frontline workers within clinical and national security settings, senior citizens and people living with chronic health conditions. Assistant Principal Nursing Officer Teclaja Matisse is the immunization manager. The response at the various vaccination sites has been very encouraging. This level of interest we see as an appreciation by our citizens of the health sector for the benefits of the vaccines and the opportunity it presents for regaining some measure of normality as we continue to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. The vaccination campaign has been undertaken by bringing together partners across all sectors and with a wide range of interests. This partnership has started with us within the health sector, with the public and private healthcare practitioners on the taken national vaccination efforts collaboratively. The successful rollout of the campaign also requires the involvement of our non-health allies across all sectors nationally, including the commercial, tourism, education and transportation sectors to name a few. It is important that these sectors are targeted as people within these groupings are at medium risk of being exposed to COVID-19. Persons working in the transportation sector such as minibus drivers, teachers and tourism sector workers are advised to access the community vaccination sites to access the vaccine. In the coming weeks mass vaccination exercises will be undertaken for the second phase of the vaccination campaign. The ministry is encouraging people who fall within phase two to pre-register to receive the vaccine. Pre-registering is valuable to the Ministry of Health as it assists in logistical planning and resources required at vaccination site. The Ministry of Health is aware that there are individuals with special needs including the elderly and people with mobility challenges who are unable to access the vaccination sites. These individuals, their family or caregivers are encouraged to contact the nearest community wellness center to register their loved ones. Vaccination will be facilitated through home visits by the community health nurses. To date, majority of the elderly homes have been covered and will be completed in the coming week. Vaccines have proven to save lives. People are therefore encouraged to access the various sites for the vaccine. Ensure that a valid form of identification is taken with you when coming for the vaccine to assist entering you into our national health management information system. Assistant Principal Nursing Officer, Tekla Jomabtees.