Watsap everybody and thank you so much for tuning in yet again. I hope each and everyone of you is having a good time and is doing well. How about you let me know where you're tuning in from by talking to us, by talking to us rather on our Facebook page that is rising stars ea, rising stars capital E dot capital A. I go by the name Vivian Dagwa and today I am having a gospel artist with me who goes by the name Jose Blessed, not blessed. He just corrected me, I was saying Jose blessed and he insisted. No, not blessed, just called me blessed. So Jose blessed, how are you? I'm so fine. Welcome to the show. Thank you so much. Why do you insist it's blessed? I mean when we write it blessed, right? B-L-E-S-E-D, right? So why do you have to insist it's blessed and not blessed? Okay, it's just, I think it's just a matter of, I think there is no, that big reason attached. I just like being mentioned, blessed. You feel it's sounding better when you say you're blessed. Oh, I'm blessed.  Yeah, just consider myself blessed. Because of the great thing Lord has done unto my life. What are some of the things that you can put out?  Okay, maybe to begin with, one of the greatest things that I would like to thank God for is in the first place, I'm a total love fan. Maybe to begin at that point. Yeah, and normally you know if you are an orphan, it's so tough. It's so tough. It's so tough, but financially, socially, I hope you know how it's very tough. Then I didn't expect that God could have raised me to this point. I'm in school, I'm at the university, I'm serving in a big church, I can talk and people listen, I can say people like, it's siki to rahisi. I just consider myself blessed. That's all. Not actually a blessing to consider that you were orphaned at quite an early age, but here you are now. You managed to be who you are without the help of your parents because of God. I don't have parents, but I thank God for giving me a church. I'm in a church called Count Victory Center, Nyanchabo Pefa under Mamharia Trobiken and Ken himself. So under that care, I grew up. So you realized you can sing at what particular age since you mentioned you were serving in the choir? When I was in high school, particularly in Form 2, I remember the first day we were being trained, the choir was being trained and I was one of the guys who were singing very, very, very bad and I was isolated. But this mum I called Harriet, she encouraged me, she told me that you can do better. You're one of the best vocalists that can be. So I went to the church and I found myself here. Yeah, you prepped at it.  Are you a songwriter? You have someone who writes songs for you? No, I write songs for myself. All right, now here comes the question. So now while you were starting to write your own songs at that particular time, did you get your lyrics from the Bible? Do you take the Bible and find, like you open sums and then you find something that has been said? You know, like, as I walk through the valley or the shadow of death, you know that song, a Kodida song, it's directly from the Bible. Do you do the same thing or what inspires you to write your music? No, okay, this mind is different. It is in this mind. Me, I read the Bible, but I don't quote the exact verses. Okay, sometimes I quote, but sometimes I don't. In most cases, I don't quote, but what I do, I read the Bible, get the message, I paraphrase, I put down the song. So yeah, that's how I come up with my songs. But then I don't say that I will not quote Bible verses in my songs. I will quote, but in most cases, you know it's a matter of being creative. You want to show people, like how God has blessed with creativity. Yes, you don't quote. Many people have been quoting exact verses. I'm not criticizing, but you do something different. You read the Bible, you paraphrase it. You come up with the message. I think the most important thing is the message. Yeah, that is. I feel paraphrasing is the better way of doing it. For my case, I just think that's the best way for my case. Alright, I'll have to bring this question in. Over the past weeks or, let me say weeks, there's been controversy in the gospel industry. And actually people right now are timing the gospel industry in Kenya as a fake and immoral industry. What do you have to say about that? Okay, let me talk. This is what I'm going to say. Me, as far as Jesus Christ is concerned, His suffering is concerned. I think that day I chose gospel as a genre. I think I knew what I would do. So I'm not going to talk about what those other guys did. I would just focus on whatever I know that is right to serve my God. That's all. Of course, criticism is there. And not just because other people did what they did, what was the kusema, now we're generalised the gospel industry is ruined. No. There are those people who are... Yeah, yeah, just a person. Yeah, don't just generalise. There are those people who are standing and serving God in truth and faith. Before I ask you this other question, have you gotten the time or the chance to interact with some of the celebrities in the gospel industry? Those who have already made it. Yeah, yeah, some of them. So can you really tell us if fame actually changes some of these people's character? Do you feel like somehow they are changed by the fame and the money that comes with their name? Okay, sometimes. Yeah, I just think sometimes and more so when somebody is not that strong spiritually, that's automatic. You know, like when you declare that you are serving God, you are not the target for the devil. Yeah, and if you are not strong spiritually, automatically the devil will attack you and will win. Yeah, so that is why you find that some people, if they come famous, they change. Yeah, that is it. But if you have Jesus, he will always guide you. Like this is not the right thing. It's not, you know, fame is just a term. But you are the still, just a blessing, you know. Yeah, that is. So what exactly you are saying is that as in we are all tempted by the devil once in a while, whether you are saved, whether you are not, but it all depends on how strong you are in the world. We are all tempted. But one thing I want you to know is that when you are saved, you are now the most target for the devil. So that is why you see, like, if I am a Christian and I am found of a scandal, it will be more popular than that person who is not saved. But one thing that people should know is that even these gospel artists and those saved people, they are still human beings. Yeah, they are still human beings and they have witnesses. Let's talk about your music now. You've been doing this now professionally for approximately three years or... Am I wrong? Let's say for four years. For four years now. And you have around eight audios out already and two videos. One is a collab and the other one is a single. And the one that you're promoting right now is the single that is called Nite Te. Let's talk about Nite Te. What is Nite Te all about? Nite Te is just all about... It's me now speaking to God, telling him to just defend me, you know, like it was the first song by the way. So as I was entering the music industry I was telling to Nite Te, to defend me, you know, as we had speak earlier, you said that there are so many scandals and whatever.  Already I've come across with criticism and such like things, but I can thank God. He's on my side. So it's all about that telling God to be on my side always, despite of challenges and difficulties in life. That is all. So where can people find this song in particular and where can they follow you on your social media platforms? Okay, this song is on YouTube. It's on dundo. Ya. For those who can't approach or can't reach the sites, sometimes when I go to the village, they ask about my music, I give them hard copy. Ya. So they can get them all on YouTube and dundo.com and they can as well follow me on Instagram at josebblessed. It is josebblessed then on Facebook at josebblessed. Twitter, jose Kenyawan then that's all. Amazing. How about you wrap up the show for us by singing nite te? So you have to sing. Ya. Okay. You want me to do it all do just part of it. Ya. This is joseblessed. Thank you. Awesome. Now remember if you want to vote for your favorite rising star, you can do that easily by going to our Facebook page that is rising stars. E.A. and on Facebook page you can do that easily by going to our Facebook page that is rising stars. E.A. and put the name of the artist that you would love to be our rising star and the song for example if you want to vote for joseblessed all you have to do is just begin with the word joseblessed and then you write nite te. So you have to sing. Ya. This is joseblessed. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.


Okay, let's talk about easements. They can be a mysterious subject and many seem unsure how to apply them to their layout. I'm going to show you how you can easily determine the proper easement for any curve. First let's explain what an easement is. In simple terms, instead of going abruptly from a straight track to a full curve, an easement eases you into the curve with the curve radius going slowly from infinity or straight track to the desired curve radius gradually. This not only makes entering the curve less jarring, it also creates a very pleasing, smooth, flowing look to the track on curves. Here's a diagram showing how adding an easement changes the curve. The red track shows the easement added. Notice on the left, you can start the curve a lot sooner on the straight track on each end, but that offsets the curve inward dramatically, or you can offset the tangent or straight track outward, which leaves the inside curve location at basically the same place. Most of the time on the prototype it's easier to move the tangent track outward than it is to move the curve inward. Think of a curve along a canyon wall, and you can see how moving the curve inward would require removing a lot more rock, making the line a lot more expensive.


Thanks for joining us on Think Tech Hawaii and dealing with just a really tragic and devastating range of problems from the Maui wildfires. We're going to talk some about that today with Jeff Hortnoy, one of our leading civil litigation lawyers here for many years, and Ben Davis, professor at Washington and Lee School of Law and professor emeritus from the University of Toledo School of Law. Jeff, you're here, boots on the ground. What do you think need to be the first priorities recognizing that both short-term and long-term things need to get on out on the table quickly? Well, I just think it's an enormously difficult problem. I think the most important thing is take care of the people who have been displaced, take care of the families who have lost, love ones, find the remains, treat them with the care that they deserve. I think too much is being emphasized on fault and blame and lawyers coming in like sharks and vultures from all over the country, land developers coming in from all over the country. There's been a reaction. You can see now a lot of the bent up hostility towards tourists. Even going back to the takeover or the annexation is being revisited. So, you know, I think the emphasis needs to be social services, free legal services, housing, food, retrieval of bodies, and we'll let the blame game play out. But unfortunately, that's not the way things work in America. Even before the fires were out, the blame game started. The media is partially responsible. I think the government's public statements have been not helpful in many cases. The latest being the head of the Maui emergency system when he was asked about whether he would rethink not sounding the alarms. Instead of saying, of course, we're looking at everything saying I wouldn't do anything differently. Those are just for tsunamis. Those kinds of moronic statements are only going to create much more emotional problems. So that's how I see it. And, you know, I think we see that Hawaii is not immune to what happens in other places where there are natural and manmade disasters. And it's unfortunate. Ben? Well, you know, I, as usual, agree 100% with Jeff. And, you know, to me, it's a question of different levels of response, right? I mean, there's the immediate emergency response of recovery and those things and treating the remains with dignity of people and the family and the loss that people have treating that all that with dignity. So I agree. I do think, though, one of the things that strikes me is maybe in the next level of this is sort of what I call systemic failures, if I could say it like that. I mean, if somebody is saying that the alarms are only for tsunamis, right? That seems to say that there was a whole plan which was focused on tsunamis, but no one had really sort of had a plan focused on the possibility of wildfires, right? You know, I mean, the system was not prepared sort of thing for this kind of way of thinking, right? And so to me, that's sort of the, I don't know if the right term is failure of imagination, but maybe at least it should encourage a little more imagination in thinking of the kinds of natural disasters or manmade disasters that have to be addressed. I think that going to another level is that I wonder if we're capable to really think through the climate change aspects of these kinds of events. I mean, you know, we have a lot of private ordering in our system and then we have these separate federalism governments and things like that. And I just wonder if we're able to get our heads around these things because I remember watching Johnny Carson back in 1972 or 73 and having what we're called doomsayers on who were predicting exactly this, okay? I think one guy was named Paul Ehrlich if I remember them right. And here we are, 50 odd years, 40 odd years later, and we're seeing these kinds of things. And I feel like my generation has really done a lousy job of somehow incorporating this before it became some kind of crisis. Now, you could say, okay, you blame this person, blame the fossil fuel, whatever you want to do. But I just, it's like whatever, the point is, is that Mother Nature doesn't play, all right? And Mother Nature has a way, if you're not going to address her, she will find her own way to do things. And maybe we need to have a better grasp of that part of the reality and how to deal with it than we've allowed ourselves to. I don't know. That's something that kind of thinks that there's, and I'm saying Democrat, Republican, independent, whatever, just a failure, private sector, public sector, whatever. Just the failure of dealing with the horror that is going to be happening with all this that seems to be related to climate change. Well, I mean, the blame game has already been a number of series as to who did what, who didn't do what, what could have been done, what should have been done, even before the fires ever got started. And I'm sure that when all is said and done, when some calm returns and people look at this through a long lens, they will find any number of things that should have been done, could have been done, weren't done, were done incorrectly. I mean, and climate change will be a political blame part of this, that folks in Hawaii should have anticipated, should have anticipated the drought, should have anticipated the potential for winds, should have built firewalls between these former agricultural lands and major developments. But Ben, you're not here and you don't see what's going on all over these islands and maybe not this particular disaster, but it was waiting to happen somewhere and it's going to happen again. I mean, there is a professor at the University of Hawaii who deals with climate change and obviously has a political bent, but he's come out in the last few days to say what happened in Lahaina is going to pale when a Category 4 hurricane hits Oahu, which he guarantees will happen within the next decade. Have we done anything? Anything? Can we do anything if a Category 4 hurricane is about ready to hit the island of Oahu? You know, when you have one lane of road going in and out of Lahaina, when you have development in what was formerly agricultural lands, I mean, we can go on and on and, you know, easy to blame the utility company for maybe its poles falling down and now accusations the poles should have been underground. There are poles not underground all over the state and they didn't need to learn from this. You know, we had Hurricane Iniki and poles fell and we've had multiple fires with poles falling. So anyway, I go back to where I started. Are there going to be tremendous lessons learned? Yes. Is anybody going to do anything about it? I don't know. We should concentrate now on the folks who are suffering. So what do you think might be some of the most important things for us to learn for the rebuilding and the recovery, for going forward rather than the blame game?  I mean, and it's not unique to Hawaii. If you're going to build your home five feet from the ocean, you should be prepared for it to be washed away in a storm.  Should you allow developers to build major housing areas next to fallow agricultural land without a fire block? Should you allow utilities to put poles not underground?  On Maui, the water issue has been a major controversy for decades dealing with who gets water and who isn't. And now it's come to the forefront again as to whether there was enough water or whether certain landowners would release water. And I mean, these are not new issues, Chuck. As you know, you've been here as long as as I have. And you know, I mean, let's just be, in my humble opinion, candid about it. This state has never been really good at forecasting and fixing things before it's too late. I mean, you know, I'm not sure the competency level at various levels. I mean, the guy that was head of Maui emergency preparedness never had one day in his life dealing with emergency preparedness. Clearly a political hire at a 40 applicants, a graduate of the law school, he probably had his, I have more experience probably in emergency preparedness. So I mean, does it happen other places? I'm sure. But you're going to expose all this. The question is, anybody can do anything about it. And I give the governor credit and the attorney general, they've been right up front saying, Hey, we're going to look under every rock and figure out what happened and why and what can we do to fix it? The question is, what happens after that? Will it get fixed? And that gets to, I don't know, the public and private will, right? The public and private will. Do we have enough public and private will? I mean, I'm not in Hawaii, but in Hawaii, but I think more broadly across America, do we have enough sufficient public and private will to try to address these things? Now, I've just read this case in Montana that these kids brought a lawsuit to invalidate a part of the Montana Environmental Act that prohibited looking at climate considerations in Montana. Okay. So in a way, that's a step forward in that particular part of that statute is declared unconstitutional under the Montana Constitution. But to me, it's like, how is it possible that there could be a statute that was passed that prohibited looking at climate stuff, right? I mean, that you had to have the lawsuit to start with. And where was the political will inside the legislative bodies of Montana to try to overcome? Obviously, there are interests you don't want climate change looked at, right? But to overcome that, to try to deal with that kind of sober look that you say that you were highlighting Jeff, I have a stepdaughter who's up in Jasper, Alberta, right? They've had incredible wildfires up there. And here's the weirdest thing, they were in June, they had wildfires and then they had three feet of snow, okay? I mean, literally they did two weeks of each other, okay? And flooding too.  And again, trying to figure out in that Canadian setting what needed to be done or what needs to be done in the future. All the things you talk about about not developing five feet from the water, right? All that stuff. Somebody authorized that or permitted that, right? And the person that permitted that in some kind of scheme thought that that was something that is okay, right? Well, at some level, maybe there's got to be the sort of, this is not okay. Now, some people might argue that that's being worked out by the insurance company, right? Yeah, you can build there, but we're not getting you any insurance. So when you lose it, you lose it, right? I mean, that's the kind of market result, I think. But I just don't think that we grapple with it and have the capacity to really tackle this. And so, as somebody said, the earth's going to be fine, okay? We may not be around, but the earth will be fine, you know? Well, but this fire here is interesting in a number of ways. And it's opened up a lot of political and social wounds. It's giving voice to issues having nothing to do with climate change, having to do with Hawaii. And as I say, going back to annexation, it's reopening tourism wounds. I mean, Lahaina is a microcosm of that problem. You have thousands of people living there who have lived there and their families have lived there since the plantation days, Filipinos, Hawaiians, Japanese. And then within a couple of miles of Lahaina, you have mega resorts and homes being built by billionaires. And it's reopening those wounds. And there's a lot of non-blame issues that are going to come to the forefront that actually go to the core of what Hawaii is. And is someone going to be able to make the political decisions? Because that's what they are. I mean, Hawaiian Electric allegedly had a plan before the Public Utilities Commission to get $100 billion or whatever the number is, over a year now to make some changes that they thought would be important. And it's still sitting at the PUC. We have seawall cases on the North Shore of Oahu that have been pending for decades. Nobody can get them to remove them. Houses are falling into the ocean. So anytime there's a disaster, everybody starts shaking their head about, oh my God, how could we have had this happen? And then what? I mean, maybe it takes a few factory fires right before you start enforcing fire laws and factories like we saw in the 20s and 30s. Maybe the same kind of thing's going to have to happen with the planet. I don't know. Well, when you say what you're saying and the reaction, I go with, it reminds me of after all the school shootings, the thoughts and prayers. Yeah, what's happened there? Yeah. It's like the thoughts and prayers. But the next thing, which is like how we get those cases that the seawall cases, everything you're describing, actually dealt with as opposed to the inertial structures that are in place seems to me something that we have to find a way to wrap your hands around. It's not probably politically popular, right? Because somebody always loses in that setting. I'll give you a perfect example. We had a major, major fire and a high rise. Multiple people killed. I can't tell you how much damage and it had no sprinklers. You would not believe the ongoing debate now five years later about can the government force these other condominiums, which are all over, that are more than X years old and were built before water, whatever you call it. I can't think of the precise word. Sprinkler system, sorry. And there are condos now fighting it, not wanting to spend $3 million after what they saw happen to the condominium down the block. There's governmental debates as to whether you can force it or not. How can you get lawyers to come up with excuses why we don't have to do it after they saw what happened? They don't want to spend $2,000 a unit or $20,000 a unit. And they saw what happened. So these are really imponderable problems. Well, if I can jump on that, I don't know. I mean, there's, at least to me, there's maybe one part of this, which is that private money not wanting to come up with its own nickel, right? So if you don't have private money, will it willing to come up with its own nickel? Is there public money to come up with the own nickel? It's like the, what are the led abatement situations in all these cities where we know that is bad. And therefore it has to be moved out of these places where there are kids who are going to be affected for the rest of their life by the flakes. So the landlord doesn't want to do it. So is enough of an urgency in the local or state budget or even federal budget to put the money in to make it happen? But if we're all in this game that we've been in for last 40 odd years, what does it reduce taxes and turn everything into user fees, right? This is what we get stuck with is these kinds of games of somebody saying, I don't want to spend $2,000 a unit. I used to live in Paris. We're trying to put an elevator in a five-story building. And the folks on the first floor say, well, I don't need to use it. It's a why shouldn't I pay for it? It's the person on the fifth floor who needs to pay for it. You know what I mean? So at some point, it's like, hey, sprinklers, important, here's the money, get it done by next week, okay? And if you don't, then we're going to find you or something like that. Who wants to be the guy to do that or the woman to do that? It's political will. Whether there is is or is not political will and climate change is, as you point out, and others right at the top of the list.  I mean, because they're controlled by right-wing Republicans. Congress doesn't do anything about climate change. No matter all the noise they make. And I'm not talking about fossil fuels or anything. You know, I mean, that's obviously part of it. But we haven't done much about climate change. We had a devastating hurricane 31 years ago. Is it going to shock anybody when we have the next one? Has climate changed in 31 years? Hurricanes are in the Pacific every single day. It's just a matter of luck that they don't come here very often. And when they do, they haven't been deadly, except for one. Are you going to be shocked when this September we get a hurricane that's a category three? We're going to blame it on climate change? You know, it's happening. It's going to happen. What are we going to do about it? I don't know. The way I look at the climate stuff is that it's the Delta, right? You have hurricanes, but these are a little worse or a lot worse. You know what I mean? We had the ice age. They didn't do anything back then, those politicians. I don't know what they were doing then. Maybe they were frozen or something. Maybe they're being unfrozen now. We're finding them with little notes about I should do this. Not to put all the blame only in the United States. It is the great thing about climate is that it doesn't like tie to borders, right? And so talking about political will across borders, too, to do something. It is not very optimistic situation, but something's going to have to be done or something's going to get done to us. I mean, I think we should be building an entire fleet of interplanetary devices so that the 200 million of us can get off the planet right before itself destructs and go somewhere else and ruin another planet. That's what I said. I'm kind of like, you know, we ought to maybe do something about here. Just a little bit. I mean, we should do more. I don't know what they is because I'm not the scientist, but it's clear that there's a lot of stuff we've left on the table that needs to be done that costs money that we should pay to deal with. And I personally think that whenever you talk about government spending, that's what we're going to talk about. That ends up being spent on things that actually employ people, okay? So it serves an employment benefit at the same time. And it helps industries and things develop and all. So, you know, I just had an idea from your idea, which is that you remember the NASA thing where in 10 years, John Kennedy said we're going to be on the moon, right? We need that kind of approach to the climate stuff, I think, maybe. Where there is that kind of commitment that everyone feels like they have to buy into it because, you know, I don't know, some president says it is. I know that's Biden. I don't know who it is, but, you know, or some state governors are like really pushing it as a more central part of their agenda. Maybe that helps to break out the money to do the things that need to be done. I don't know, but somebody's got to set a serious goal and have a, you know, like such a commitment to it to move us farther along than these thoughts and prayers versions that we're in now. So as we come into our last minute, wrap up thoughts. We've got parallels between what we've called natural disasters, those fueled and accentuated by climate change and manmade disasters, the mass shootings, more than one a week so far in this country alone for the first months of this year. What, in your last minute or so, are the most important takeaways? What do we need to prioritize most if we're going to get commitment to the political and popular will for long-term and short-term solutions? Jeff? If I had the answer to that, I'd be president of the United States. Is that what it takes? I mean, it's a great, great question, Chuck. And obviously, I don't have any answers. You know, we started by talking about hopefully taking care of the folks that need to be taken care of, no matter what their losses have been, and then work on in Hawaii, figuring out what happened and why, and hopefully be able to do some things, have the political will to spend the money, to enforce the rules, to put in the regulations, to deter speculators, to deter those who are only interested in their own gain. And I'm not sure that anybody can ever come up with an answer to that. But there will be lessons learned, and we'll see. We'll see what, if anything, comes out of it that may prevent a catastrophe like this in the future. Ben, wrap up thoughts? I agree with Jeff, and I remain an optimist that it's possible to do what is difficult, or what seems difficult, if there are people of goodwill who were willing to spend the money and do the work to make it happen. And that's where, looking for that leadership, wherever it's local or at the state level or national, to actually make it happen. Obviously, people know things in science and all that that I will never know. But there are things that will be learned, and to learn and actually do something from them. I think the people of goodwill can do it. I got one final question for you, Ben. Do you have to be an optimist to remain an optimist? Think about that and let me know. And that's a great question to leave us with. Do you have to really believe in order to continue to be a believer? Yeah, yeah. These guys, hey, can we generate enough of a public and political will to commit to real community building, to real relationship building that honors the values that have made that possible wherever that may have happened? Thanks so much for joining us. Think Tech Hawaii, Aloha. Find your favorite charity or source contribute. Kokua, help if you can. Thanks so much and take care.


Konvension 2023 Beyond all limits. Great. It is now my pleasure to introduce to us our convention chair. Our convention chair is Sister Ruth Obara. Sister Ruth Obara is an organizational development consultant and a transformative leader and a serious follower of Christ. She's a mother, she's a wife, she is married and has two, three great children. She's a curious, she likes to describe herself as a curious student of awareness and alignment. She's passionate about unlocking the potential of the African continent through its people. She works as a talent and organizational development consultant and coach. She has worked with organizations that facilitated the development of high performance personnel and team competencies, designing and structuring leadership, learning journeys and culture, alignment and development. She has actually won an award for where she has helped in working as an executive producer for the East Africa HR Summit for seven years. And then an annual premiere, this is an annual premiere event for HR professionals in the region where she has won the award. And she is the immediate former managing partner at Sierra Africa a niche learning and development organization. She is also a co-founder and director of Busea Chicken Limited and she is currently working on a transformative leadership development module contextualized for Africa and academically she holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree and an MBA in strategic management from the University of Nairobi. A round of applause as our convention chair comes. Thank you. Young professionals 2023. I can't hear you. Young professionals 2023. And beyond all limits. Good morning. Hallelujah. How many of us are visitors to Nairobi Central SDA Church? You haven't been to Nairobi Central SDA Church or you're not a member of Nairobi Central SDA Church. Nairobi Central, what do you say? Welcome our guests. Hey, we have a way we welcome, get involved. So you're very welcome to Nairobi Central SDA Church. Our motto, our rally call this year is get involved beyond all limits. And so allow me to take this opportunity to welcome you to this event. Thank you so much for being here. And as we consider this morning, allow me to thank and invite our most excellent invited guests that are here. Thank you for making the time. We apologize we are running a bit late but we are expecting that we will catch up as the day goes by. My pastor, thank you so much for praying and allowing us to start this meeting. Thank you very much. We would like to, as Victor is helping us with that technology has a way of playing it out but we are armed and equipped for the day so we are considering the theme of beyond all limits and as you're invited here it tells us that you're resonating with the theme that we have today and you're curious about how do I get involved as a young professional beyond all limits. And so as you sit here with us today it is our hope that you are going to actually start asking yourself what does it mean to get involved beyond all limits? For us to get involved beyond all limits we'll have to know what are our current limits? What is it? Where have we been as people? Where are we sitting? Where are we stopping? How do we go beyond all limits? And most importantly why should we go beyond all limits? And so today we not only have the theme beyond all limits but as a church, the host of the AYPs of this church we have been given a word of revelation about how and why we should get involved beyond all limits and the word that we are considering as our theme is found in the book of John anyone who has their Bible the book of John verse chapter 15 verse 16 and as you sit with us that is the anchor that is the reason why we are saying we want to go beyond all limits and in the book of John chapter 15 verse 16 my Bible says you did not choose me is the new king James Vashon you did not choose me but I chose you and appointed you great we are here that you did not choose me but I chose you and I appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit fruit that will last and so that whatever you ask in my name the father will give you those are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ that is that why we want to go beyond all limits because we realize that we have been chosen we did not go choosing ourselves that when we acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior that in itself is a choosing that He has given us and He has given us a mission when we look at the rallying call of the AYP of this church they are taking their rallying call from the book of fast Peter 4 verse 10 to 11 those are scriptures that you want to keep and Colossians chapter 3 verse 23 to 24 and those say if anyone know that each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms if anyone speaks they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God if anyone serves they should do so with the strength that God provides so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ to Him be glory and power forever and ever Colossians the book of Colossians says whatever you do work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord not for human masters since you know that you would receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward it is the Lord Christ you are serving so as we ponder this then we ask ourselves how then do we start going beyond all limits and today remember what is the truth that the Lord has sent us with in the three books we have sent that the good news is that we are chosen that we did not even choose out of grace we have been chosen that we are appointed that we have a mission that we are blessed we are custodians of God's manifold grace that we may serve that we are faithful stewards of grace that God is revealing His grace to others through us who actually have been chosen and therefore we shall seek to be transformed because we have a higher master and that master I call him Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour I do not know what you call that master but we no longer are now looking at who we are what we do as doing it unto human beings we are having a higher master who has equipped us and called us in this day you have come because the AYPs have listened to this call and have decided that we would like to go beyond all limits and how do they start there they are starting on a journey we are saying that let's not narrow our perspective let's expand the perspective of our focus and ask ourselves how we start going beyond all limits today this morning we are bringing to you that when we say we want to go beyond all limits another language for us to use is to say we would like to pursue excellence but we would like to pursue excellence in view of the divine heritage that we have in view of the divine anchors that we have we are seeking and choosing from today to pursue excellence and therefore we are going to start thinking as you sit here today my invitation is that as you listen to the very esteemed professionals that have gone before many of us starts thinking through what are your dreams what are your aspirations as a young professional what has your faith in Jesus Christ got to do with it what does it mean to you to actually have the Lord Jesus Christ on your side not only as your equipo and friend but also as the one you are serving so think through your dreams think through your aspirations some of us may have had the opportunity to actually do how many of us do new year resolutions anyone with a list of new year resolutions ah you stopped doing them who are doing them when were you age when did you stop doing them as you go through this day expand your perspective start thinking about how do your dreams resonate with this call and the truth that we are here what is it you are hearing echoing in the voices of the speakers who are here today in what you need to do as a young professional and we are going to look at it and say at any one given time start thinking about when we are pursuing excellence we are not just looking at it from one perspective the professional we want to look at it and we are asking ourselves what is going beyond all limits mean where are we at as family members as friends all of us belong to a family not very least the family of Christ that is here today all of us have friends all of us are learners some of us I am a learner I got to be given a new responsibility the other day in the church and I am just learning how that is supposed to be done so we are all learners all of us are workers we are young professionals so in your profession start thinking about that as well associate member we are members of this church you belong to a professional association so when you start looking at all these roles that you have how where are you and how do you need to go beyond all limits and it is important that as you do that you get a glimpse of the vision the big picture what is the big picture because when we get a glimpse of what the big picture is then we start aligning ourselves a glimpse of the big picture we call it vision and the word of God says that where there is no vision there is no revelation of God and His word the people are unrestrained it means we then just live life without a plan we go all sorts of directions and all sorts of wins but we have the privilege of a revelation as a church that we go beyond all limits because we have a call in the book of John 15 verse 16 so start thinking about a vision which direction would you like your life to go think about Esther we know Esther in the Bible she was just a young woman being a queen preparing to be this queen but then when she got a glimpse of the vision God had for her we now know that everything changed when we get a glimpse of the vision the direction God wants us to go then we actually get into action we action ourselves and that is the performance system we now channel ourselves and you can use the story of Esther to actually look at the performance that now she required think about performance is success is a process going beyond all limits requires us to align and to actually get into action and we want to think about it through our physical life how do you need to go beyond limits what are the goals you now put together we want to think about it through our mental learning and education we want to think about it through professional we are here today the young professionals have started us on that journey today we want to think about it through our financials we want to think about it through money and wealth creation we want to think about going beyond all limits and establish beyond all limits goals in our social and emotional life our relationships with ourselves with our family and our others we want to think about it in our spiritual work we are doing all this so that we can let the light of Christ shine in us so that other people who do not know Christ when they see even just a glimpse of how your physical life is organized they can be attracted to that God that you believe in we are doing this so that when people see how we relate with them even whether it's family or other people they are attracted to this master that we have Jesus Christ so we want to center our lives set your goals how do you want to grow in the knowledge of God how do you want your character to develop in view of the truth that we have we are pursuing excellence beyond all limits and how do you want to serve how do you want to serve what are the gifts that you have that you're going to actually order so that you can bring out the best in you in all these areas and finally you want to make sure you have a support system and the AYP is a support system and they have started off and when we are talking about support we are looking at why is council we are looking at accountability we are looking at in perspiration we are looking at mentoring and coaching do you have a mentor do you have a coach and the AYP is doing all these things for us so get connected to the AYP of this church because they are going to be mentors to support us to actually achieve those goals hello AYP 2023 and beyond all limits and so it is my humbling responsibility now to share with you how the day is going to flow today we have received our opening prayer and opening song we have received a welcome this morning and just shortly I'm going to invite my pastor pastap JP Mayua to actually come and give us a word of devotion and declare this convention officially opened after that we are going to have our keynote presentation from my elder elder kidenda and its transformational leadership immediately after that we are going to actually have round tables where you share with us some thoughts we will structure those questions for you and then we will start with our first panel which is building business of integrity we will take a break then at lunchtime and we will have the afternoon program faithful public service so allow me to please welcome my pastor pastap JP Mayua and pastap JP Mayua is an accomplished professional yes he is an accomplished professional because he loves the Lord and serves as the ordained minister of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and so today he is going to give us a word and inspire us what the Lord has revealed to him to share with us and he is currently serving as the youth director of the East Kenya Union conference he served as immediate former youth director of Central Kenya conference and served as a senior pastor of Nairobi Central SDH church so this church is his home church he is home and he is inspired and humbled that you would come and the dream for young people will come to pass in this church for over 25 years and has many turn seen very many people turn their eyes to Jesus he is married to Sarah and they both have 4 children and an additional one who came the other day retirement one I believe pastor he has served in many districts before Nairobi Central new life Nairobi new life many place in the USA laser hill in Rungai Kiamuni in Nakuru and Karangata Nairobi he also served as the executive secretary and vice president of administration at the Central Kenya conference he has preached in the US in Canada in Uganda in Rwanda and South Africa for camp meetings and evangelistic campaigns he holds an MA from the Adventist University of Africa and a BA from the University of East Africa Baraton he is currently a PhD candidate at KU nothing should stop you our pastor is a PhD candidate he is a learner he is pursuing excellence nothing should stop you now it's my humbling opinion moment to invite pastor JP please come and share the word of God that you have been given with your children