All right, welcome everybody back to our class lecture on Revelation and Daniel. This is our second lecture for today. And we've just getting started with an introduction to the book of Revelation. There's a question on the chat from Kennedy. Kindly furnish me about this idea about past and future prophecies. How do they relate as an attribute of God? Because there is the school of thought. Let's say, pray and believe that it has happened. All right, I'm not really sure if I understood your question, Kennedy, but let me just try to respond to what I think your question is. There is a difference between prophecy and promise, right? So promise is something God wants us to actively pursue and possess. Prophecy, we're not talking about personal prophecy. We're talking about prophetic scripture, which has to do with God's plan for the ages. That is completely different. Prophetic scripture is something that God has already decreed and that God reveals prophetic scripture. Whereas when we're talking about promises, that is promises in the scriptures or personal prophecy, that means God's prophetic word to and for an individual, that has to, we have to pray and believe and receive. That's the kind of engagement God wants from us in terms of promises, His promises given to us in scripture and personal prophecy. That means what God is speaking to an individual. So there we have to pray and believe and receive by faith and we have to wage a good warfare. A great example is for Timothy chapter 1 and verse 18 where Paul writes to Timothy and he says, Timothy, using the prophecies that were spoken over your life, you must wage a good warfare. That means use those prophecies, personal prophecies. So that's separate. When I'm talking about prophetic scripture, that is God's declaration of what He's going to unfold for the human race, for mankind, that's different. That has to do with an unveiling of the purposes of God and that is not something we pray and claim. It's what God is going to do, whether you like it or not, that's going to happen. God has already foretold it. So there are two different categories, if you will, of what two different things that we are talking about. I hope I answered your question, Kennedy. If I didn't, please let me know. All right, so Kennedy says, okay, Shukumar's question. What is the best method of studying the Bible? So Shukumar, there are many different ways to study the Bible. Some of this we covered in our... I think it's BC 106 interpreting scripture, I think it's in that course. We talked about the different ways to study the Bible. So for example, you could study the Bible, you can study passages of the Bible. You can do a word study, a topical study, a chapter analysis, a book analysis. So the different ways are a thematic study. So for example, what we are doing right now when we're studying the prophetic scriptures, we're doing a thematic study that means we are studying about the end times prophetic. We're also doing kind of a book study, meaning we've looked at the prophetic scriptures from the book of Daniel. We're going to do a book study of Revelation. So this is one way to study. So there are many different ways. You can do a character study, a biographical sketch, many different ways to study the Bible. And we also talked about the tools that we can use. So we've used software tools that can help us study the Bible. Is there anything specific that you are wanting to know, Shri Kumar, in studying the Bible? No, I just want to know that. In these things, which is the best one, I just want to know that. Is it topical or anything which helps me to understand more deeply the things. I just want to know that. So thank you. Yeah. Okay. So if you're going after, it depends on what we want to achieve. If we want to understand a particular subject, then of course we would do a topical study or a word study or a thematic study. If you want to understand a book, then you do a book analysis, a detailed study of that book. If you want to understand God's, how did a person walk with God and how did Abraham walk with God? How did David walk with God? Then you would do a biographical study, a biographical study of his life. So depending on what you want to achieve, there are different approaches to studying scripture. As a minister of God, as a preacher and teacher of the Word of God, two very important study ways that are important for us. One is to study by theme or topics. So that when somebody asks you about a topic, you should be able to speak with confidence knowing that you have studied that particular topic, Genesis to Revelation. That means you've covered that topic. Example, if somebody says, can you speak to me? What does the Bible say about divine healing? That's a theme or a topic. Well, if you've studied divine healing from Genesis Revelation and you've looked at all the scriptures and what God has to say, then you can speak with a lot of confidence on that subject and say, I know what I'm saying is right because I've really studied this end to end. So that's a good way to study. But if we want to say, hey, what is this book? Maybe Romans or Revelation. Do you have a good grip on that book? Then of course, for that, we have to do a book study, right? Looking at it worse by worse. Then you know, yeah, I know the book of Romans. I know what Paul is saying and Romans 1 through 16. I've really studied it worse by worse. And then you have a good grip on that book. You can speak with confidence on that book. So, okay. Thank you. You're welcome. So let's get back now. We're just giving an introduction to Revelation. We said that the way the Lord Jesus presented it to John, it's a very clear demarcation of three sections. Things that you have seen, things that are, things that are going to come so we can divide the book. The other thing by way of introduction is the way we will approach in studying this book. That is, we are going to take it chronologically, the way it is given, right? The book of Revelation. That means the book of Revelation, especially starting with chapter 4 verse 1, it is a vision into the future. You know, you can almost imagine like this is a movie. There's only an imagination. Don't go and say that God made a movie or something. No, I'm just saying. You can almost imagine God, you know, there's a movie produced in heaven saying, look, here are all the things that are going to come forth. Right? And this is how it's going to unfold. So Revelation chapter 4 verse 1, all the way to chapter 22, is a vision or a movie that was played out for John of the future. Right? This is what's going to happen. And God is telling John these are the things that are going to happen. So in our approach of studying the book of Revelation, especially chapter 4 verse 1, which is into the future, we are going to just take it in the way it is given, the sequence, the chronology. We are not going to mess with it. Right? This is how God gave it. This is the chronology. There's a sequence. We'll stay with it. The reason I'm saying that is because some people, in some books, there are a lot of books written on the book of Revelation. If you are interested, you can look at it, but some books will overlap. They will play around with the chronology. So, for example, there are three sets of judgments. There are the seven seals, seven trumpets, seven bolts. So some people, you'll find some people putting them in parallel. That means seals, bolts, and trumpets happening in parallel. But the book of Revelation gives it to us in sequence, one after the other of the other. We will stay with it like that. We won't mess around with it. Some people put it in parallel and they say, okay, this is all happening at the same time and so on. For whatever reason they do it. We won't. We will just take it in sequence. This is how it's given. This is how it is. And it actually plays out very nicely that way. So that's one thing. The chronology of, we will stay with the chronology and the sequence that is given to us in the book of Revelation. The other thing that we keep in mind is that as we journey through the book of Revelation, there are sections that are parenthetical in nature, meaning it's like a pause in the sequence of things that are happening. That means that chapter records something that is not going to happen in the future, but it records something that John experienced until all of this is going on.  Now the popcorn and coming back is something that actually happened. It's not out in the future. The movie is about the future, but you going and getting a popcorn and coming back is something that actually happened. So something similar like that you'll find in chapter 10. God is showing John the sequence of events. How do you come to chapter 10? There's an angel that comes to John and says, John, I want you to eat the scroll. There's a big angel and John very respectfully eats the scroll. The scroll is very sweet like honey in his mouth or bitter when it gets in and then it's symbolic saying, John, there's more things you have to prophesy and speak to the nations. So that's a parenthetical chapter, which is something that John experienced in his vision. It's not something that's going to happen in the future. So you will find that happening as we journey through the book of Revelation. The other thing is, while we understand that we are going to take it in the sequence it's given, there are two occasions when as we are progressing, suddenly there is a little piece that starts off in the middle, goes to the end and comes back. And then there's another piece that starts off but goes back and comes back in time and comes back. What do we mean by that? So imagine you're telling a story to somebody. You're saying, hey, these are things that are going to happen. It's what we planned. And then there's a particular character that comes in to the whole sequence of events. And then you tell the full role this character is going to play till the end. And then you come back and continue from there. That character came in. So this happens in Revelation chapter 11 where in the middle of the seven year tribulation, chapter 11 speaks about two witnesses. And it tells us what these two witnesses will do starting at the middle of the tribulation till the end of the that is for three and a half years from the middle till the end. It's all contained in chapter 11, but it is over a three and a half year period. That's the only chapter that talks about these two witnesses. And it's basically telling us everything they will do for the three and a half year period. So that chapter is a little different because it introduces to us these two characters, the two witnesses. And then it says, okay, this is what they're going to be doing for the next three and a half years. And then we come back to the middle of the tribulation in chapter 12.  The other interesting thing in chapter 12 is this, the chapter 12 kind of goes back in time past. Chapter 12 introduces to us this dragon, which is Satan. And then it goes back in time says, oh, there was a time long time ago when this dragon drew a third of the stars with him. That means one third of the heavenly angels fell with him. So it's going back in time. It's not something that's going to happen in the future. He says, okay, who is this dragon? Let me give you a little history of who this character is. This is who he is. He's the one who took one third of the heavenly angels with him. That's the dragon we're talking about. So it's a little background to this dragon that's introduced for us in chapter 12. And also a little bit of history. He's going after this woman. Who is this woman? Well, she's the one who had the sun, the moon, the 11 stars or the 12 stars. That is, this woman is that nation of Israel. And this woman gave birth to the man child historically. Jesus was born 2000 years ago. So chapter 12, when it's introducing to us the characters, the dragon, the woman and the man child, it refers back in time to a little bit of history. This is the background of these three characters that we're going to see. And then it says, okay, this is what this dragon will do. But the time is in the middle of the tribulation, three and a half years. So that's another thing to keep in mind. Are you all with me so far? Did I confuse you? You're okay. Okay. So just think about, you know, this unfolding of the events, but while these events are being unfolded for us, there's a little movement in time, right? Either into the future or back in the past, while specific people or characters are being addressed. Okay. So just keep that in mind. The last thing that we want to say before we start reading the book of Revelation is interpreting figurative language. The number seven is a very important number in the book of Revelation. And so there are times this number seven is used literally, and there are times this number seven is used figuratively, especially in the first three chapters. So, you know, in the book of Revelation we see seven is being used very often. There are seven churches, seven stars, seven angels or seven messengers. There are seven spirits of God, seven eyes, seven horns. Then there are seven, you know, seven judgments, three sets of seven judgments each. So seven, you see the number seven often in Revelation. There are times the number seven is literal, seven churches. Though these seven churches were literal, seven churches, we should not take them to be figurative. No, no, no. Each of these seven churches existed. Ephesians, Philadelphia, Smyrna, Sardis, they were there. These were the names of the cities, actual cities, and there were seven churches. The seven candlesticks representing each one of the seven churches. That's there. The seven stars representing each one of the leaders of each of these seven churches, seven, literal, actual seven, right? But then seven, there are times that seven has to be taken figuratively. Why do we take it figuratively? Because the literal would not be consistent with the rest of scripture. Example, seven spirits of God, seven spirits. Now, there is only one Holy Spirit. So to say there are seven Holy Spirits would be wrong. So that's an example where seven has to be interpreted figuratively. And the word seven simply represents perfection. That means this is perfect. So seven, why do we say it's perfect? Because in creation we see seven representing perfect. Light has seven colors. Perfect. A week has seven days. Perfect. Makes up a week. So it's talking about perfection. It brings something to its perfect state, a complete state. So when we read about seven spirits, that means this is the perfect Holy Spirit. He has seven facets. There are seven facets to him, but there's only one Holy Spirit. He's the spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, fear of the Lord. He's the spirit of the Lord. Seven facets, but he's one Holy Spirit. Seven eyes. So when he talks about the Lamb, we will see in Revelation 5 that the Lamb talking about Jesus, he has seven horns, he has seven eyes, and he has seven spirits. So that doesn't mean Jesus, this Lamb has literally seven horns. No, no, no, no. The Lamb is talking about Jesus. Seven horns always represent authority. So he's perfect in his authority. Now he has seven eyes. Doesn't mean he's got seven eyes literally. You know, he's talking about his omniscience. He has perfect sight. He knows he sees everything perfectly. Omniscience. And he talks about the seven spirits. That is, the anointing is perfectly the perfect anointed one, right? So in that case, seven has to be interpreted figuratively because the literal will not be right. So as we journey through the book of Revelation, wherever things are literal, we say it's literal. When things are, when the literal is not practical, then we have to interpret it. For example, Revelation chapter six, you will find it says, there's this man coming riding on a white horse. Now, from reading Revelation six, one and two, we'll see, okay, this is the Antichrist. He's been given authority. He's been given dominion. He's exercising influence over the people. But will he actually come riding on a horse? No. Because these days, at least as far as I know, in most countries, you know, leaders, political leaders don't ride on horses, right? They go in cars or planes, whatever. You don't find them moving around on horses. So horses, Revelation six, and you'll find that, you know, four, four sets of horses coming in there. But there we have to interpret. Horse is figurative. It represents strength and speed. So this man who comes riding on a white horse, the Antichrist, he's moving with strength and speed and he's gaining influence over nations. Right? So there the horse is figurative. It's not literal. Okay. And then we see other things happening.  So it doesn't mean that literally horses running around. What he's saying is these things are moving with strength and speed across the nations, famine, destruction, death. That's what it all represents. Okay. So as we journey to the book of Revelation, just keep in mind, there is a lot of figures. Wherever the figure can be taken literally. Okay. You see that's literal. But whether literal is not practical, it's absurd. Then we say it's figurative and therefore we have to interpret that. Okay. And we will do this as we go worse by worse. Okay. So with this, our introduction to the book of Revelation is kind of done. Now we've got to read worse by worse. Okay. Any questions about the introduction before we start reading? Okay. Please. Come on. Thank you, sir. Just I want to know that as you said that the click when the John was given that scroll tweet. So is that literal? You want me to say, understand this that I have to take it as literal, like as you shared that, you know, example, like having a popcorn at the time of control. So what or is it the experience, just an experience of John like, you know, in the form of a dream or something like that, or he literally eaten that scroll. I just want to know that. Thank you, sir. Okay. So how should we process that? So we should ask the question. This, you know, okay. So we know that John has had this spiritual experience. Okay. Revelation 10. We see even Ezekiel having it and so on. This experience of being told to eat a scroll. First, we know it's not a physical experience, but it's a spiritual experience because it's happening in a vision. And the physical experience would be would not be right.  So it's a spiritual experience. But in a spiritual experience, would it be literal or would it be figurative?   You know, now, okay, maybe they will eat. Now we know in heaven, we're going to sit at the marriage supper of the lamb. I don't know what's going to be given, but there's this great feast. And Jesus did say, you know, he said, I won't eat of this bread and wine until I eat with you in my kingdom so that we know there is going to be that partaking of some kind of a meal in the spiritual realm. But would people actually eat a scroll? So we would say, no, no, that's, that's not literal.  So then therefore that experience which John had in a vision, it now it was a real experience. We're not saying it was an imaginary, you know, it was a real vision. And in the vision really, truly an angel came to him, sent from God and told him to eat a scroll. And in that vision, he, you know, ate the scroll and he had this experience of it being honey and then becoming bitter. So he had that. So that we're not saying that vision was not true, vision was true, but it was a spiritual vision. And it was, it was representing something. So it's not like John actually chewed and ate the scroll, but that whole experience, that whole vision is communicating something. What is it? It's again, the meaning is given there in chapter 10. The angel says, John, what does this mean? It means you've got more things to prophesy and speak to the nations. So that's what God was telling. So the scroll is representing the prophetic utterance, the things that God wants John to prophesy about, to write ahead of time about. And so he's got more to do. So it is representing the fact that John, God is going to give John more prophetic utterance and he has to write it down. But it is not something, so it's figurative, not literal. It's not that John was sitting there and chewing on the scroll spiritually. His spirit was chewing on the scroll literally. It's figurative. God is communicating through that experience that you've got to write more, write more of the prophetic things to come. So it's a little different from us going and eating popcorn in that sense, because our eating popcorn would be literal. John eating the scroll was figurative, communicating that God had more things for John to write down. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. Yeah, so maybe I shouldn't use that example of us going and eating popcorn. Maybe I shouldn't use it. Maybe it's confusing. Anyway. Okay. Any other questions? All right. So let's get started. Revelation chapter one. Let's read three verses. And we will read verses one through eight first. Revelation chapter one versus one through eight. You know, maybe somebody can read four verses and somebody else can read the next four verses, please. Revelation chapter one, one to four. This is the revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants and the events that must soon take place. He sent an angel to present this revelation to his servant John, who faithfully reported everything he saw. This is a report of the word of God and testimony of Jesus Christ. God blesses the one who reads the words of this prophecy to the church and blesses all who listen to its message and obey what it says for the time is near. This letter is from John to the seven churches in the province of Asia. Grace and peace to you from the one who is, who always was and who is still to come from the seven fold spirit before his throne. Next four verses, please. Somebody. And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first born from the dead and the ruler over the kings of the earth to him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and has made us kings and priests to his God and father to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with clouds and every eye will see him, even they who pierced him and all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of him. Even so, amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end says the Lord who is and who was and who is to come the Almighty. Amen. Amen. Thank you. So the book of Revelation. It's introduced to us as the revelation, verse one, as the revelation of Jesus Christ. So the book of Revelation. I know many times we, we talk about it as the book that speaks of the end times, the book that speaks of the last days, the book that speaks of the tribulation period, all of that. And yes, all of that is contained in the book of Revelation. But really it's a revelation of Jesus Christ. So the whole purpose of this book is to unveil Jesus to us as this great majestic king who is going to come and set up his kingdom. So this is the revelation of Jesus Christ. And he is revealing this or he's giving it to John through an angel. Right. So we will see that there is an angel and there is also an elder. We will talk about the elders who they are who are interacting with John. So through the book of Revelation, John will see visions. He will hear sounds, but he also has conversation. There are times there's this angel having conversation with John. And there are times when it's one of the elders who is speaking to John. Right. So God is using no, you know, somebody may ask, why did God have to use an angel? Why did God have to use an elder to talk to John? Why couldn't couldn't the Lord just speak directly to John? John, this is it. Write it down. So we know in scripture that angels or angelic beings have a role to play. Just like we human beings have a role to play in God's great program, what God is doing. So angels also have a role to play. One of the roles that angels play is to communicate to man. That's the way God set up his kingdom that he uses angels to minister to us, the redeemed saints. He uses angels to speak to us. So God uses angels in the book of Revelation. There's an angel speaking, there's the elder speaking, John. And of course, John hears the thunderous voice of God. And so John then verse two, he's the one who's written down the word of God. Now, I just want to mention something about the word of angels. And then we will take up Louis' question. The word angel is a generic Greek word, which is angel loss. It simply means messenger. So it's a generic word. And the word angel loss could be used to refer to human messengers or angelic messengers. It's the same word. So depending on the context, we will have to decide. Is this angel loss referring to your human messenger, a person? Or is the word angel loss being used to represent an angelic messenger? Because it's the same word. And you have, you know, in many other examples where there's one Greek word, but it's used in different contexts. So the reason I highlight this is because when you come to chapters two and three, the Lord Jesus says to the angel of the church of Ephesians or Sardis or whatever. You know, he said on each of the seven churches, he says to the angel of that church. Now, how do we interpret that? That word is angel loss, which simply means messenger. But would God be speaking to an angelic being of that church? Or would he be speaking to the human being who's a leader or the pastor of that church? The answer is obvious. He has to address the human person, not the angel. Because the angel is not the one who's dealing with the people and preaching and teaching. And, you know, the messenger in this case would therefore refer to the human leader. Each one of those human leaders responsible, each one of those seven churches. So to the angel of the church of Ephesians, meaning the human person who is in charge of that church, give this message. Right? So it's that same Greek word, depending on where it is being used, how it's being used. We say, okay, here he's talking about angels. Here he's talking about human beings. All right. I hope that's clear. Louie, what's your question? Your question, please. Louie, do you raise your hand? Do you have a question? Okay. Maybe that was a mistake. I'm not sure. All right. So, all right, let me just get back to whatever I was saying. So the word angel, how it's used, right? It could refer to either an angel as an angelic messenger being or it could also use as a human messenger. So in verse two, the other thing is the phrase, the testimony of Jesus Christ. That phrase is very interesting because you find it here in chapter one, and you'll see it again in Revelation 19 and in other places where it's talking about people having the testimony of Jesus Christ. And Revelation 1910 says, the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Right. So you put all this together. The phrase, the testimony, so verse two, Revelation one verse two, John, he bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus. What is the testimony of Jesus? It is what Jesus is saying. That's what the phrase actually means. The testimony of Jesus Christ. And this is what the Lord Jesus is saying. So the phrase, the testimony of Jesus Christ, as introduced to us in Revelation one and verse two, is referring to this is what the Lord Jesus is saying. So, and we will see later, there are believers who have the testimony of Jesus. That means they are saying what Jesus is saying. Revelation 1910, the Holy Spirit, the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. So through prophecy, through the spirit of prophecy, we say what Jesus is saying. So the spirit of prophecy helps us to give utterance to what Jesus is saying. So that's the testimony of Jesus Christ. Is that clear? It's a very interesting phrase because it's used in several places in the book of Revelation. Okay. Verse three. So, blessed is he who reads and who hear the words of this prophecy and keep the things that are written in it. So this is one, probably the only book. Now, of course, we know all scriptures given by inspiration of God. All scriptures is for us to be edified through and nurtured by and so on and so forth. But this is the only book that opens up by saying, hey, if you read this book and you keep it. You will be blessed.  You make a way prosperous. You'll have good success and so on. So I'm not discounting any of that. But this book opens with this kind of a statement saying, blessed who read this book. And if you keep it, you will be blessed. Right. So it's important for us to read the book of Revelation. Now, some many of us, many people would say, hey, the book of Revelation is so difficult to understand. There's so many of these images and so many things. I don't know. I don't understand what's going on. And so they just leave the book of Revelation aside. Right. So they will read all the other books of the Bible and leave the book of Revelation aside. Well, we shouldn't do that because God said that those that if you read it and we keep hear it, understand it, keep it practice and live by it. We are going to be blessed. So we should draw all the insight and the wisdom and the truth that's given to us in the book of Revelation and try to live by it. Try to apply it in our lives. And as we study this book, now you will understand the wonderful things that we can take and live by and apply. Right. Verse four. So so John has been commissioned by the Lord Jesus Christ to write these things. So he's starting now. That's okay. I've got a message first thing. I've got to write to the seven churches. That's verse four. So these seven churches were literal churches. And maybe I can just quickly share the PDF that I've put out in the coursework section. Yeah. So these seven churches. There's a little map here. Okay. So these seven churches were literal churches that were there at that time. So you see how Ephesians, which was a port. So this is, this is modern day Turkey. Right. Sorry, Pastor. I don't think you should end the map. I think he's on your second screen. All right. One minute. Let me share. Okay. Okay. So you can see the map now. Yep. So. Okay. So remember this is modern day Turkey. Right. The best western part of Turkey. Ephesians was right here. A sea port town. Paul, the Apostles spent three years or three and a half years in Ephesians on a third missionary journey. He was here spent a lot of time and it's very likely that during his time he discipled the leaders of many of these other churches. Right. So from here, all these churches were planted and it's very possible that Ephesians was like the mother church to all these other churches, the six others, Mirna, Pergamon, Titus, Ardis, will have the Laodicea. And you have Patmos here, little island off the west coast of Turkey. Right. So John was here. So these seven churches were actual physical little communities of believers that existed at that time. Right. So let me pause this. So John is writing a message from the Lord Jesus Christ to these actual churches. Now, some people take these seven churches and then they extrapolate them or they make them to mean seven dispensations or time periods of the church starting from 8030, the beginning, the birth of the early church to where we are today. And you may have even read some books on that, none of that. I personally feel that's not what the intent of the Lord was. Right. The Lord Jesus was speaking to actual churches. He was not speaking about time periods in the future because remember very clearly he said, Revelation 119, write things which are or things which you have seen, things which are. The seven churches were there. It was not seven church periods, but seven little churches.  Definitely we will be must and we will learn from what the Lord Jesus spoke to each of these seven churches. And we will be reading that in chapters two and three. We will learn from it. We will live by it. We'll apply it. So, we are learning from each of those seven churches. But to take those seven church periods, seven churches to represent seven church periods, I think is, is not correct. Right. It's not right. That's, that's my understanding. But you will find, you know, you will find people who do that. You don't have to fight about it. You know, anyway, we're going to learn from the seven churches so we can learn. But I don't think it's right to do that. Right. Because he was writing John, Revelation one, four, he was writing to the seven churches, which were there in Asia, right there at that time. Okay. Now let's just try to do a little bit more. I know we have just three minutes left. Where's four? Grace to you. Peace from the one who was, who is who was and who is to come and notice this. And from the seven spirits who are before his throne, verse five and from Jesus Christ. The word from is used three times in verses four and five from the one who is who was who is to come from the seven spirits, verse five from Jesus Christ. So you see the Trinity here, the Triune God, the God, the Triune Godhead. Verse four, the first from is God the Father, the one who is who was who is to come. The second from verse four, the seven spirits who are before his throne. So again, seven spirits doesn't mean there are seven spirits. Holy spirits, no. There's only one spirit, one Holy Spirit. But the word seven there has to be figurative, talking about perfection. And then verse five and from Jesus Christ, God the Son. So this message is from the Godhead, from God the Father, from God the Holy Spirit, from Jesus Christ. And John is speaking. He's writing that message to the seven churches. So this is what God, the omnipotent, the Triune God is communicating to each of these seven churches. But you see a beautiful picture of the Godhead in verse four and five. Okay. Let me pause here. I know we are kind of out of time. Any quick question before we pray and close? All right. I trust, you know, today you followed everything. If at any time there are any questions, please feel free to ask. Let's pray and we'll close and go for a break. Somebody could pray please. Father in heaven, we worship you and adore you. We bless you for this time and the time that means a lot. We have spent looking at the book of Daniel and then the introductory passage of the book of Revelation. We say thank you for our teacher and the knowledge that has been impacted and the understanding and more love to come. We say thank you. We pray as we continue to journey in the understanding of the things to come, of the things written for our learning, we pray. We pray for wisdom, Lord. We pray for understanding. We pray, Lord, for the comprehension, Lord, to understand the things you have spoken in your word for us, Lord, to be able to use your word, Lord, in our daily lives and also to equip others, Lord, in the truths that you have put in your scriptures. As we go for our other class, we pray for more wisdom, Lord, in that our classes will go on well and that, Lord, you will take the glory in our lives in all that we do. Thank you, Jesus, for in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you, everyone. We'll take a quick break and see you in the next class. God bless you all. See you soon. Thank you.


Operation Wendy is an operation that occurred over a three-month period looking at bringing together the countries to really, on the ground, apprehend or detect or investigate the people involved in the poaching of elephants and the illicit trade of ivory itself. So it brought together West Africa and Central African countries around a common platform, that threat that is a significant threat right now that is being faced on the elephant population and the conservational values of elephant species. And our action was to bring the countries together on a common platform to get them working together looking at transnational investigations. Partnerships for the Environmental Crime Program are critical. I mean, without working with other partners, with other elements or organisations around the world, you cannot stop or suppress the criminality-engaged environment in our environment by diversity and natural resources. We work with non-governmental communities, with governments, with other government or agencies that are outside of the general enforcement stream, such as aid agencies like USAID or NORAD in Norway. They're providing their expertise in financial investment and development, and we're providing the international support mechanisms that allow our enforcement partners around the world to be more effective and efficient in catching the criminals. In Nairobi and Kenya, we are holding on the 6th of November the Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Committee Conference. This is a point in time for our global community with regards to environmental compliance and enforcement to come together to design a strategy, to commit to that strategy to move forward into the future, to really take that fight or to tackle the criminals in a new manner, in a new combined collaborative manner. Operation Wendy is one of the mechanisms or one of the activities that we want to help encourage future ones to occur. Operation Wendy had great success. Our program in Interpol, working with our member countries, will be having other impacts across our other projects, looking at things such as illegal forest crime or timber crime, illegal fishing, looking at tiger exploitation of criminals, or looking at waste criminality as well. So over the coming months leading up to this 6th of November, we will be conducting and performing and delivering other outcomes, other impacts that will position the global enforcement community in the right spot to be able to move forward with greater strength, collaboration and coordination.


The next item of business is a debate on motion 7584 on the name of Tom Arthur on the Edinburgh Bakers widows fund bill. Can I invite members who wish to speak in the debate to press their request to speak buttons now? I call on Tom Arthur to speak and move the motion. Mr Arthur, six minutes please. Thank you Presiding Officer. I am pleased to open the preliminary stage debate on the Edinburgh Bakers widows fund bill. I would like to thank the other committee y bydd y cyfnodau, Alison Harris a Mary Fee, yn gweithio'r bydd yn gweithio'r bydd. The Edinburgh Bakers Widow Fund Bill was introduced on 20 March 2017 and is being promoted by the trustees of the widow scheme. The overall objective of the bill, in essence, is to transfer the property and assets of the widow's fund for the incorporation of bakers within the city of Edinburgh to a new charitable trust. The bill is the first private bill to be debated in the chamber this session. It is not a controversial bill and no objections were received. The first thing that struck me about the bill was its title. I must admit to having been unfamiliar with the fund. The committee gained some insight into the history of the rules governing trade incorporations in Edinburgh and how they now affect a trade scheme and now affect a trade some 200 years later. The incorporation of bakers of the city of Edinburgh was one of the trade incorporations set up in the medieval times to regulate trade and, in 1803, a scheme was formed to provide the fund for bakers widows, an act of 1813 that was passed, authorising the scheme. The fund was established to provide financial support to the widows of contributing members. The last contribution to the fund was made back in 1981 and the last annuity that was paid under the scheme was in 1997. Since then, there have been no qualifying beneficiaries. During promoters' evidence session to the committee on 14 June 2017, Lady Elizabeth Drummond explained that the question of introducing a private bill was raised a number of years ago. She said, and I quote, "...we had this widows fund for which a number of trustees was getting smaller. People were dying and there was nobody around to look after it. We saw that it would not be attractive or viable because of the very abrupt entry requirements under the 1813 act. You have to be male and under 45. The benefits that might occur to anyone were so vague and difficult to understand that it would not be an attractive vehicle for people to put their moneys into." Consecretly, the trustees were left with a fund of considerable value. However, it was simply not viable to promote the fund as, for example, an investment vehicle or a newty provider in competition with large pension providers. As the trustees quoted, it would be trying to set up something in competition with standard life. In 2013, the trustees decided that the scheme should not continue to operate in its current form and formally close the scheme to new members. Currently, there are two wives or contributing members who could qualify in the future for annuities if they were widowed. The promoter has advised that the wives have agreed to accept a payment in lieu of potential future annuities to which they might have been entitled as widows in terms of the 1813 act. In place of the fund, the trustees proposed to set up a new charitable trust that would make use of the money that has been invested by supporting education and training and being promoted through the baking community. In response to the committee's queries about the purpose of the original fund being in line with those of a new charity, the promoters explained that, and I quote, "...we felt that that was the best way to go to make a genuinely good use of the assets in line with the spirit of the incorporation of bakers of the city of Edinburgh so that we could get practical modern usage out of the money by promoting baking in the city of Edinburgh. That was one way to use the money and creating a charitable vehicle was a way to encase it in a fully responsible mechanism that fits today's purpose." The purposes of the new trust are the advancement of education by supporting education and training opportunities in baking and the advancement of the arts, heritage, culture and science by providing public information and promoting an appreciation of local baking and the history of the baking trade, particularly in Edinburgh. The new trust, the incorporation of bakers of Edinburgh Charitable Trust, has been approved by the Office of the Scottish Charities Regulator. On the basis of the evidence received, the committee is satisfied that the 1813 act has clearly become outdated and restrictive and that the trustees are correct in seeking a practical way of allowing the money and the fund to be redirected to a new set of objectives. Therefore, I move motion S5M-07584 that the Parliament agrees to the general principles of the Edinburgh Bakers Wadoe Fund Bill and that it should recede as a private bill. Thank you, Mr Arthur. I now call Alison Harris. Four minutes are there about, please, Ms Harris. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Firstly, I would like to thank the convener, Tom Arthur, for moving the motion. As Tom Arthur said, this is the first private bill to be debated in the Parliament this session. As such, I thought that members may be interested to have some brief information about private bills more generally and why they are necessary. A private bill is introduced by an outside promoter and is about making specific changes to the law affecting the promoter, rather than about changing the public and general law. In practice, many private bills are about updating bits of private legislation that were passed a long time ago and have therefore become increasingly outdated. In today's case, the act dates back to 1813. With private bills, there is always a right for the people or organisations who consider that a bill would adversely affect their interests to formally object to the bill. However, in some cases, including the Edinburgh Bakers Widows Fund, which we are debating today, no such objections were received. Nevertheless, the Parliament has an obligation to scrutinise the bill and to satisfy itself that the changes to the law that the promoter is seeking are reasonable and appropriate. I had no real awareness of private bills before being nominated for this committee, and I have found it an interesting insight into this little-known aspect of the Parliament's work. As with public bills, most of the detailed scrutiny of a private bill is undertaken by a committee. However, there are some important differences between the two types of committees, including the fact that the private bill committees are always ad hoc committees set up to scrutinise a particular bill. Any MSPs who have a close connection to the area that is affected by the bill are prevented from serving on the committee. The first stage of the private bill committee process is roughly equivalent to stage 1 of a public bill and is known as the preliminary stage. There are three aspects to the committee's task at the preliminary stage. Firstly, taking evidence and reaching a view on whether the general principles of the bill should be approved. Secondly, reaching a view on whether the bill should proceed as a private bill, and thirdly, giving preliminary consideration to any objections. If the Parliament approves the general principles of the bill and agrees that it should proceed as a private bill, the bill goes on to the consideration stage, roughly equivalent to stage 2 of a public bill. On to the final stage, where the Parliament debates whether the bill should be passed. In terms of the Edinburgh Bakers Widow Fund bill reaching the conclusion of the preliminary stage, the committee is pleased to support the promoters of the bill in their quest to set up a charitable scheme that will not only make good use of the moneys contained within the original Edinburgh Bakers Widow Fund but should offer other benefits to the wider community in the future, as we have already heard in Tom Arthur's speech today. Before I move on to the main focus of my speech, can I take this opportunity to thank the clerks to the committee for the help and support that they have given not only to me but also to my colleagues in the committee, Tom Arthur and Alison Harris? The convener has outlined the objectives of the bill and affect the general principles. In closing the debate, I will focus on the second part of the committee's role at preliminary stage to satisfy itself that the bill should proceed as a private bill. One of the aspects of the role is for the committee to satisfy itself as to the adequacy of accompanying documents to allow proper scrutiny of the bill. The promoter's statement sets out how the promoter has notified and made information available to those likely to be affected. The explanatory notes, as with any public bill, aim to summarise objectively what each provision of the bill does. Finally, the promoter's memorandum must set out the objectives of the bill, whether alternative ways of meeting those objectives were considered, and if so, why the approach taken in the private bill was adopted and the consultation was undertaken. I will not go into the detail of the committee's consideration of the explanatory notes and promoter's statement. Suffice to say that the committee was satisfied that the documents met the necessary requirements. However, I would like to say a bit more about the promoter's memorandum. The convener, Tom Arthur, has already set out the objectives of the bill and the committee was content that the memorandum set those out in adequate detail. In terms of alternative ways of meeting the bill's objectives, the trustees considered a number of options for transferring the assets and liabilities of the fund to a non-statutory charitable body and settled on a deed of trust, which would be regulated by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, Oscar. Having agreed a structure, various mechanisms were then considered to affect the transfer to the new trust, including applying to the court of session to have the terms of the trust varied. In that context, the committee noted that the new charity would have a significant change of purpose from providing financial support for widows to supporting education and training in relation to baking. The committee was aware that the law recognises that arrangements for administering trusts such as the widows fund can become outdated over time and that it is possible for the courts to approve additional administrative powers, for example. However, in general, the courts will only agree to change the purposes of a trust to something closely aligned to the original purpose. The promoter felt that none of the alternative remedies would enable the purpose of the trust to be changed and concluded that the most appropriate method of amending the objectives of the bill was to promote a private bill. In terms of consultation, the committee was content that adequate consultation had been carried out by the promoters with members of the incorporation, with the two wives of contributing members of the fund and with Oscar. In conclusion, the committee was satisfied that the accompanying documents were fit for purpose and that, overall, the bill should proceed as a private bill. That concludes the debate on the Edinburgh Bakers widows fund bill. It is now time to move on to the next item of business. For a few moments, I will pause to allow members to take their seats on the front benches.


I went to dance to warm my toes I saw you singing in the light You sparked a fire in my soul I was putting my heart out there My love was spent on I'll sing until my heart was bare, not a spark from anyone But as I looked from my guitar I saw you dancing from afar But when I looked back at you I saw you were feeling something too The last bus back to Portland You could be the last one that you I raced off for the train Stuffed into damn many clothes Too much to be explained The secret takes across the barn Tacos laughing and lots of punks Something strong, sit from a jar Something feels like it's begun Tonight I'm gonna ask you Do you feel the way I do Gotta set this scene up right All champagne and Christmas love The last one that you hold It's our song on my shoulder Her song's out of all my sleep And each day I wanna hold her Cheers We are Emily and Jake It's so great to be here with you guys In Arlington That's where we live That's where we live Like right down the road from here So it's so great to just pop down the road And play some music We could walk to here This is great, we could have We didn't We're gonna take it a little longer, yeah So that last song is the first single That we put out last April And it's called Last Bust of Portland You can always check it out online Where? Spotify or iTunes Limewire, no Apple Music, not Limewire That's my joke Yeah, I know, right It's also on our website Emilyandjakemusic.com But this next tune is a song That we wrote with one of our good friends Lindsay Sampson Yes She's from a band called Visiting Wine And they were just nominated Best in Massachusetts For a New England Music Awards So true And you could vote for them It's true Right online The interwebs This one's called Long Distance Runner The breath is steady, never quick Until you reach the top Your soft brown hands And from your mountain high You sing to me the memories The ones that make We sparkle It was just me And enjoy him No You turn and head back to your place inside of In any of our songs The first thing that comes into my mind is My dog's name Boo Radley Is in Boo Radley From To Kill a Mockingbird And so I'm tempted to say Boo every time I thought you were going to do it I hated You gave me a look I thought you were going to Hey, do you want to do her favorite song next? So this next song is called Her Favorite Song And it was written about a love interest of Jake's But what happened was My 11-year-old sister Found it her favorite song Which creeps him out a little bit It's kind of weird, but that's okay I like that people like our music So I'm cool with that 11-year-olds Yeah And 60-year-old women That's Jake's demographic Of fans You don't have to You don't have to tell everybody that Every time You say it every time It's true Yeah, this one's called her favorite song Thought this girl says that I'm a man Never felt this way before Said this wasn't my plan Shout me straight through the heart Now I'm lying down Asking for more With my ear to the ground I could hear that sound I could tell she was ready for that beat I grabbed her hand And I gave her a twirl We could feel the rhythm in our feet She asked me to play her favorite song I played every song that I knew She would always sing along Her favorite song was any song I'd pass this cup Got me kissing her after dark She'd always be mine And she's so damn fine In the bed in the midst of the charts I'll take this love With a side of fried chicken Something new, but I'll have to try Now she'll always have me Her favorite song I played every song that I knew To sing along Before Now we're making plans Let me to play Her favorite song She'd sing along Her favorite song So we didn't write the note-digity part? Right. But there's normally a guitar solo And I didn't bring my looper with me So we decided to do a little mash-up for you We did Why not? But that's definitely not in the recording We did not own that part of it? Right, of course And we put... Yes, we put that tune Oh, I guess so That's right That is track 6 I'm saying random numbers It's on our album that we just put out Back in April Called St. Augustine And you can always check that out online Or you can reach out to us And we'll mail you a hard copy of a CD Because people want those still Or Jake will deliver it to you On his motorcycle Or his bicycle Hand-delivered CDs I did do that after a show Last week We ran out of merch And I was like, I'll just bring it to your house And they were like It arrived like sweaty And people didn't know who he was His mustache was all weird Yeah, no, that's true Okay, so this next song Is about being dumped twice By the same person Driving to my destination Some place far in someone new You swim down I guess you weren't part of It's time for a pinkie, guys Jake does this thing Where it's called tuning I do that, it's true You like to do it in the middle of a set Most of the time Well, you know, after playing a little while Your guitar is like, hey I'm not in tune anymore And it's nice that I have that Communicative relationship With my guitar that it lets me know You're very communicative I don't like to brag So I won't So I'm just going to say a fact We just got nominated for Best in Maine Oh, yeah Thank you You can clap Thank you I feel pretty proud of it We're pretty excited For the New England Music Awards as well Which is really exciting So if you want to go on there And vote for Best in State of Maine That'd be awesome I'm from Maine originally For Emily and Jake For Emily and Jake You can vote for us There's this other band called Gorilla Fingerdub That's on there And every person in my family Told me they voted for them Not me Because it was a funnier name Yeah Which makes sense They're actually really solid dudes I like them I do enjoy their music But your family doesn't know them They don't know them But they do have a cool name It's a little silly Yeah, well they play reggae music So you'd be silly too Reggae, Gorilla Fingerdub That makes total sense to me Dub music, yeah Reggae dub Reggae You can vote for either You can vote for whoever you want But if you like us vote for us Right This next one We also wrote You already said we were doing a cover You're right I did say that We tried to trick the younger generation Into thinking that we wrote this next song And one day it's gonna work Mr. Petty Such a great artist Great, great tune I love that tune It's so funny We always write set lists And we're like yeah This is a great set list And then we always change it Halfway through the set Or we don't write set lists And then we're lost That's true But either way So I guess Either way we change You just fly by the seat of our pants So Jake has successfully sang this song Three times without crying Because he's an emotionally In touch with himself And that's amazing Thank you This next one No toxic masculinity here Sorry That's okay But this next one is a tune about My two and a half year old niece And her name is Natalie So the song is called Natalie's Song Lullaby I think I've only played it once for her live Twice, no we've done it twice for her now She didn't care either time Our parents liked it Yes, very true That is true One day she'll look back on it Maybe it'll be like the background music Of our graduation slideshow Or something That's what I imagine So there's probably something just in my eye I think that's what it is I think it's dry in here No it's okay to cry Yeah right Maybe I'm crying just a little bit Not a lot baby girl just a little bit So after that 50 cents reference So we're gonna play a song That we call Effervescence Effer And when we play at different Bars and stuff We do a little challenge At the end of the night Who can say Effervescence Effer three times Five times fast Five times fast And whoever wins gets a t-shirt That's true But we can't do that here Definitely not So next time you see us out in public Then you can definitely try And enter the competition Hey we're playing in Arlington We are So this is Effervescence Effer But after the break One of the tunes that we put the Least amount of time into writing And I think it's my favorite song That we wrote for this album Which is strange how that happens sometimes But sometimes things come naturally True But we're playing at the common ground Oh that's right September I was building the anticipation September Never do you're the calendar guy I am the calendar guy It's like September 13th Or something like that I think Yeah It's a Thursday It's a Thursday in September That's as close as we're going to get right now That's all I have That's all I can remember This next song I wrote When I was in a fury With my roommate And I was reading Stephen King The Gunslinger And so this song is called The Gunslinger Across the desert A hound's oiled in fear Red dust storms are rounding The man in black is Begins to cry Each air becomes a soldier Standing tall upon my neck The air grows That man clad in deepest black So the person I wrote that about is actually That's his favorite song Yeah he does love that song And his name is Adam in fact Yep that's why he said sorry Because I still feel guilty about it Well you know these things happen He really does like that song though I know I'm sorry I had angry feelings Anyways this is our last tune Yes This is the single off of our new album St. Augustine Jake did you tell everyone Where they can get it already or did I Lime wire right Yes Napster That's bad that's bad jokes No Emily and Jake music dot com You can follow us on insta media That's a thing The face to gram All those things You're not showing your age No I know social Thanks honey Social media Like Facebook Instagram Or Spotify iTunes Anywhere you stream Or download your music Yep I was just putting on an act That's funny So this song is called On to Gamble And we just put a music video out for it too Yeah And we shot it in Portland At our best friend's favorite coffee Coffee shop The proper cup Yeah It's great tune It's great Great shop Great tune Both things We're self confident today In an instant A wicked guin Of our dark design We're stacked against us In hopes the stars will not Contraction burn between us The shadows dance again From desire It's a secret kiss Our goal is south and south to shore Thank you so much


The Oshun State Governor, Buyega Uyatola, is grateful to the media for working as watchdogs and also partnering in ensuring his government's development agenda succeeds. The governor expresses appreciation to the Oshun State Council of the Nigerian Union of journalists' quarterly intellectual discourse. We as a man of media professions, we believe that there is a need for us to examine the journey so far, to look at our 30 years of assistance, to examine whether we have grown in terms of development, to look at the great areas, which is the constraint and the challenges and to project into the future so that we are able to have a state of our dream. The dream I yearning and aspiration of our forefathers is to have a state that will be viable, that will become a symbol of ammunition among the states of the federation. It's good this way, our 30, compared with other states of the same age. Oshun has performed excellently. In terms of security management, Oshun State is security compliance. In the past, we used to hear of Bomo-Bomo. In other cities now, it's Boba, Boba, Boba. Incidents of that nature have not happened in Oshun State through the good security architecture that have been put in place in our state. Secondly, when you look at COVID pandemic in Nigeria today, Oshun State has the lowest issues, how we have been able to manage ourselves, how we have been health conscious, and how we've been able to position ourselves tomorrow. When we talk about research in Akai Biru, if you don't know your history, other people will write your history for you. Hello, hope you enjoyed the news. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.


Kamikaze drone operator attacked Russian soldier who was hiding behind a tree. The Russian invader found the perfect place and hid behind a tree from the drone. However, the operator of the Ukrainian Kamikaze drone found it and eliminated it. A video of the attack by a drone operator was posted on social media, according to Slava Channel on X. A Russian found the perfect spot for hiding behind the tree, but Ukrainian drone found him. The thieves provided cover as they pressed against the sturdy trunk, heart pounding in rhythm with nearby wildlife. Peering cautiously, they sought refuge behind the tree's broad silhouette. A sanctuary from prying eyes, silence enveloped the hidden figure, their breath a whisper against the backdrop of the forest's secrets, Slava Channel added. The versatile Kamikaze drones possessed the unique capability to engage moving targets while simultaneously conducting reconnaissance, further augmenting their tactical utility on the battlefield. In the absence of sophisticated weaponry, Ukrainian forces have tactically employed Kamikaze drones to target and disrupt Russian military logistics. The efficacy of these low-cost Kamikaze drones has been showcased in their ability to partially isolate enemy forces in specific areas including small cities.


Have a UN delegation like in your country so I've reached out to them I promise you they probably don't have many youth reaching out to them asking them how they can get involved be that person to Reach out. How can I get involved? Can I join this committee? Can I be your youth delegate? Can I intern for you? There's always ways to get involved and they're looking for young people to try and get involved in You know offer their voice and perspectives


Hi, I'm Dave Augustine, and welcome to this episode of Quality of Life. In this episode, we're gonna continue to discuss major problem that our community has, substance abuse. Joining us for this episode is Wendy Stewart from the Red Balloon Group. Welcome, Wendy. Thank you. Also joining us is Chris Murphy from the Wisconsin United Live We Can initiative and also to talk about Narcan. And then last but not least, we have Sarah Moende from the Nova Counseling Group for Recovery. Welcome. Thanks. Welcome. Wendy, I'd like to start with you as far as your background on how you are introduced or how you were introduced and how you work with substance abuse. Well, I got involved because my daughter, Alyssa, passed away from a heroin overdose in June of 2014. And I just decided that I was gonna get more involved with education and awareness. And also because there were, like I searched for grief support groups and there wasn't anything that I felt comfortable with. So I started, because when your child passes away from something like addiction, there's a stigma. And so I just wanted to talk to other people who were going through the same thing that I was going through, other parents. So I started the Red Balloon Group. The name comes from a balloon release that we did for Alyssa on one red balloon that landed in a cherry orchard. But anyway, so I started the Red Balloon Group for parents and families who've lost a loved one, either a child or a family member, friend, anything to addiction. So I started that back in October of 2015 and it's really grown since. I now run three grief support groups, one for families in Ableton, and then one for just parents who've lost a child in Oshkosh at Solutions Treatment Center and then one in Ableton also at the Mooring House. So after I started the groups and realized that there was really a need for them out there because people started coming and they were so happy to be able to talk to people in their same situation, I actually partnered with Wisconsin United We Can and I became the grief support director for Wisconsin United We Can and so we joined together in our efforts. Okay, are those the only things you do or are those on the side or is it completely consume your oil? Well, I have a full-time job as a healthcare. And a full-time job asides, wow. There's that. You still have to pay the bills. But yeah, so I do have a full-time job. So I do this in my spare time. So the groups meet in the evenings and then I also reach out to families through Wisconsin United We Can and sometimes I'll meet with parents or families individually if they can't make it to the groups. So there's the other things I do. I share my story publicly whenever I can because Alyssa never had any criminal charges. So she came from the background where she went to a Catholic school and we had family dinners and all those things that you would consider a normal family, quote unquote. So I try to tell parents who don't think it would happen to them that I was that parent who didn't think it would happen to them or to me. And I was, Alyssa was that girl who didn't think it would happen to her too. So I try to spread the word that way. Okay. Kind of a tag onto that. How do most people fall into the trap of substance abuse that you see in all of your encounters? I just feel like it can happen any number of ways, whether they're trying to feel better because of some sort of illness, mental health issue. For my daughter, it was anxiety and depression. She was medicated for that with different things. She went off to college and she got irregular with her medication because she couldn't make it home for doctor's appointments and she started self-medicating with prescription pain medication. But there's other ways like kids could be experimenting, self-medicating, any number of ways that kids could get addicted or fall into that trap. Chris or Sarah, any? I also feel like we, as a society, I think kids have a need to be light. And so our kids are growing up in a totally different culture these days. So I think peer pressure is really big. I think kids know that drugs are bad and alcohol, there can be problems that come from consuming too much alcohol. But I also think that they never think it's gonna happen to them. And I think that peer pressure and that need to be liked is also a significant factor in some of these kids and addiction being prevalent in homes. I think it can also be as simple as a legal prescription opioid from a dentist or from a physician for sports injury. And something like that can trigger a person who's predisposed to addiction. And when those pills run out, then they can turn to other things such as heroin that's cheaper. Just to support that addiction. Why is heroin so popular all of a sudden? As far as boiling to the top because if memory serves, I believe, it's not even at the top of the list of addiction, of substance abuses. I think alcohol still is probably one of your number one and some of the others, but it seems like heroin is in the news lately so much. Any reason why that might be?  I think heroin is in the news more often than other things just because of different things it can be caught with. So it leads to more overdoses. And then those overdoses are more publicized than strictly prescription pill or different problems. And we have all of those. It's just that heroin finds its way into the news more often, so. Okay, okay. Back to the red balloon group. So what would a normal session meeting go like? Actually, it's just a matter of parents or family members getting together. We might have a theme. We might talk about a holiday. We might have, talk about a birthday. We might talk about an anniversary of a death. Whatever people are struggling with, that's what we talk about. I have the meetings as much for my own support as to support others. So it helps me a lot to talk about what happened. And we just understand each other. And sometimes we talk about their life before they overdosed or passed on, because that is so similar a lot of times too, the things that we were struggling with. And when you lose a child to anything, especially addiction, you have guilt. So a lot of times we talk about guilt and trying to get past the guilt that you feel and knowing that we've done everything that we, we had done everything that we could for our children, and we still couldn't save them. That's what we're dealing with. And so we talk a lot about that. And I just think it helps to get together with people who know what you're going through because you don't feel alone anymore. We can call on each other outside of the group too. And we do. If we're having a bad day, we call each other. We talk to each other. Okay. How old was Alyssa? She was 20. Her funeral ended up on her 21st birthday. Oh my goodness. Yeah, so when I talk to, when I talk to kids, I feel like that's very impactful because that was not planned. That just ended up that way. And so when I talk to kids and I talk about what they wanna be doing, imagine what you wanna be doing on your 21st birthday, pretty sure you don't wanna be doing what Alyssa was doing, cause we were celebrating her life at her own funeral. So it's impactful. I mean, I didn't think it was a blessing at the time, but now when I try to help others, I feel like that's a blessing in that it's impactful. How many people would you say you reach or meet with on a yearly basis? Oh gosh, that's hard to say. I mean, I have the groups three times a month where there might be anywhere from just two of us there to seven or eight of us. And then we have new people all the time, unfortunately. It's a group that nobody wants to belong to. And then when sharing my story, I don't share it on a weekly or monthly basis just whenever I can. But Chris and I have a presentation that we do and we just spoke at St. Francis Xavier High School in Appleton and there was 420 kids there, plus teachers and then we did it for the parents at night too. So I mean, that was the most recent one we did. Wow, that must take a lot of commitment and I thank you for doing that. You know, staying on top of it. Yes. Especially what you've been through in everything and in the Be Strong and to do that, that's fantastic. I mean, I'm just a mom. So Chris, turning to Wisconsin United, we can, could you tell us what that program is about? Well, we started out just as an online support group and it was because I think when you first learned that there's an addiction in your family, it's a very lonely road to walk and your first instinct is to cover it up and not say anything because you're gonna be judged.   And I met someone else on a site online and listened to her story and I thought to myself, my God, that's exactly my story. So we, a group was created. It started out with 50 or so members. Over the past couple of years, it has grown to over 800. And we have weekly or bi-weekly meetings in six different places all over the United, all over Wisconsin, the United States. And where people come together of, if they're just families or siblings or aunts, uncles, grandparents and everyone can share their story without feeling any shame. And we try to just educate and empower families to deal with addiction when they find out it's happening in their family. Again, I'll ask, what are your meetings consist of or a basic meeting when you have one? Our meetings are non-traditional. We don't follow a smart recovery. We don't follow Elinon or Narinon. It is simply a group of people coming together. We do introductions. And then anyone who needs to speak can. There isn't an actual format like a lot of the other structured programs. It is more just talking, getting opinions and having a group of people who you know aren't going to judge you. Nice. How long has this been in existence? May of 2014. 2014. Yes. And is that your only main thing or do you have a full-time job as well? I do have a full-time job. I am the service coordinator for the Appleton Housing Authority. And I try to, they're obviously separate careers. Sure. But there really is kind of a tie-in to that. When you look at, aside from our youth, the second next growing population in addiction is 55 plus. They are an at-risk population. And I deal with a lot of people in that situation because I am the service coordinator at a large residential facility in Appleton. We serve a large veteran population who have PTSD, pain issues. And the elderly, when a lot of people say, why would that be? And you have a lot of people who are seeing multiple doctors for multiple ailments and sometimes in multiple states. So, you know, I kind of tie-in that work with Wisconsin now that we can because you're still dealing with opioids, whether it's heroin or whether it's legal prescription pills. So, I know there's been a new treatment that protective services, fire services that have been trained on called Narcan. Yes. Could you go into that a little bit what Narcan is and how that's being used? Well, Narcan will reverse an opioid overdose. I think there's a lot of misinformation out there where people think that Narcan is strictly for heroin. The reason I say that is, you'll find Narcan in the news with a heroin overdose. In a lot of the comments you'll find are very negative and derogatory. You'll see anything from junky or let them die and it's always upsetting and I always stop reading it. But I think what people fail to realize is that Narcan also reverses a prescription pill, opioid overdose. And that can be as simple as a person taking their medication and then 20 minutes later saying, oh my gosh, did I take my medication? It's happened with me with my allergy pills but when it happens to the elderly and 20 minutes later they take their prescriptions again, that can be the difference between life and death. So it's not just heroin, it could be your mom, your grandma, your grandpa. Everyone can benefit from Narcan. It's been used in hospitals for decades. It's just more publicly in the news now because of heroin. I know when you had mentioned like grandma, a little bit of a scare at my grandma this past week where she was unresponsive and they thought maybe she had a stroke or something and it turned out everything was clear, good. So she came in and out of it and now she's back alert again but it's like we still don't know did they give medications too much or whatever. You just don't know as far as that goes. Or Narcan is the treat to that. It's like an epi-pen is the treat. If you hit an allergy with peanuts you don't just say, well, we ate that too bad, let them, it's just something we can't do. Exactly, yes, exactly. Anyway, the other point I just wanted to tag on to your point is when you just did say United States or whatever. It's still, as Wisconsin I think we have to be a United State where all of our communities unite to battle this condition we have in our communities because it isn't just gonna go away and like law enforcement said, Chief Domagalski said up at Green Bay when they did the heroin in Wisconsin is it's like this isn't a punishment solution to get us out of that. It's more of an educational and how do we cope with it and force it out of our community. And it's not an easy fix. No, and as they said too, we can't arrest our way out of this problem that won't work. And we do have a parent group so to speak that is United Weekend and that is throughout the United States. And we have different state specific groups and ours is the Wisconsin United Weekend. Okay, okay. Any side effects of using Narcan? No. She saw it, no. No, it will reverse an opioid overdose and if that is not the case there's really no adverse effects to it. Nice, nice. Sarah, let's switch over to you as far as NOVA counseling where you help with recovery process as well. Could you go into some detail about your programs and how you operate? Yeah, so NOVA counseling services is a 50-bed residential facility and we treat adult male and female clients with addiction or substance abuse issues. And so we have a residential inpatient program that's 28 days. We also have a 90-day TAERA program and then we have a focus program for clients that maybe are able to come just during the day and they just come and go five days a week. Okay, now with your program is that for people who are physically have substance abuse issues or is this for grief counseling like what Wendy and Chris talked about? Now, Wendy and Chris's programs are a little bit different because we are actually treating the problem. Okay. And they are more preventative measures as a result of the problem but our clients are, we are treating the clients, the individuals. And so my job at NOVA is marketing and business development so that leads me out into the community, networking with folks like Wendy and Chris. So basically your services are complementary to each other where the member of the family may be being treated but then for support services for the rest of the family may be relying on your services to help work together to combat the whole thing. Right. And I think that's how we all kind of collaborate together because addiction is such a community problem right now. All three of us have been at multiple committee meetings and part of task force, hero and task force committee meetings that are meeting to just kind of take a look and see what we can do as a community to help what's going on with our kids, with professionals, with our parents. You know, it's literally hitting everyone. Yeah. I think one thing that doesn't help is the more prescription type drugs that are being released on the market. And physician education, so to speak, for when they prescribe. I think there was an issue for a while. I know they've been taking some steps along for education for that too. It isn't like, okay, take a few Vicodin here and here like Dr. Hall, so to speak. As far as that goes, so I think that's some of it as well. With the patients that you treat, what would you say is the repeat factor or if there are any? Well, they're repeat as in somebody not getting well after they complete. I think there's so many determining factors in a client's treatment, but I know when clients come in the door, a lot of them are not sure. They're fearful. They don't know what to expect. They've been dependent on the substance for a very long time. They don't know how to live without it. So sometimes it's just that fear of implementing themselves back into society as productive members of society that they start hitting some glitches and they're not used to coping without the substance. So they go back to the substance or maybe they're not willing to let go of those old friends because they don't know how to socialize and they find themselves lonely. I know the addiction factor with heroin because it attacks the opioid receptors of the brain makes it highly addictive and it's been difficult to maintain recovery for a lot of, especially the young people because they're starting at a young age, they're not developed more than an adolescent, some of them, so they're finding their way back into society very difficult. And some of them without support or family support because they've just really pushed away every positive role model that they have. So these individuals are just finding themselves back in the same situations. I think we're doing better as treatment providers to recognize that yep, the first time may not always work, but we're willing to take them back and take a look at things so we can kind of get them so to speak to fly right. I think that's what's important is with the services that all of you provide the support, the relentless pursuit of making people better, which helps in the whole factor and helps us win against this epidemic is what you would call it.  We met at, we started the rethink addiction run approximately three years ago and all three of us were on board for that in the heroin task force in Winnebago County and Oshkosh. We started that run to benefit Solutions Recovery Club, Nova County Services, the DARE program and some other outreach programs in our area and all three of us kind of took a liking to it. Wendy came with her team, Alyssa and they were the biggest team the first year we had the race. And so I found myself as a runner running for all these other causes like all these other illnesses like cancer and for all these kids groups and everything. And I thought, how come we can't run for addiction? How can we can't help this issue? And so it's really taken off. I think we all feel like the race is growing. People are coming on board. It's an amazing day to be a part of as far as what awareness and so yeah. We had the first year, how many teams do we have? Only a couple of teams and this year we have like 10 more. I don't even know. 10 teams. Yeah, and yeah, team Alyssa the first year, I think we had 70 people on our team. So we were like a good portion of the race. It just kind of took off because it was right after Alyssa passed away. And now at my red balloon group, every parent that comes, I say here's a great way to honor your child, have a team. So a lot of the parents are having teams for their kids, which is sad, but it's a great way to honor your child and remember them with a team at the race. And it's a great event for everybody to get involved in and it supports the treatment centers and the programs locally. Okay. When is the next event or when is the next race? It is September 10th at eight o'clock and we'll have the race recovery speakers, a silent auction. It's just a great event to come and be a part of. And as we spread the awareness and the word in our own community, we encourage other communities to do the same thing. So that's the only way that we're gonna really have a chance against this thing. Where is the race and the festivities held? The Solutions Recovery Center. Okay. Crash, Crash, Wisconsin. It's on the quarter of Parkway in Evans. Okay. If somebody isn't sure if they should seek help or if they wanna learn more, how would they contact each of your organizations? Is there a website, email, phone number? I guess, Wendy, if we could start with you for the Red Balloon. Well, I partnered with Wisconsin United Weekend. So you can get ahold of me that way because the Red Balloon group is under Wisconsin United Weekend, too. So the website. Yeah, that's just something that people can search for online. It will come up with our state site. It's also something people can look for on Facebook. The group Wisconsin Can is a private group. So no one except the members in that group can see what you're talking about. It is a safe place. And people can contact any of the administrators through that venue. Sarah, how about you? Yeah, NOVA has, we have a website. And the Rethink Run actually has a web page through Do Try Run as well. And there's an 800 number to contact us for services if someone is feeling like that they need some type of treatment and they can call and talk to any of our team and we're open 24 hours. Nice. We have a few minutes before we wrap up. So if we could kind of just go around any final thoughts, advice, last info bits you'd want to share with our viewers. Wendy, we'll start with you. I just would, if I could reach everybody in the world and tell them that when you're making comments about either dealers or people who've overdosed, they need to remember that those people are someone's kids. Right. Sorry. That's quite all right. When they're making the comments about they're all scum, let them die, remember that they're someone's kid. Like, I don't know, it's just, it's disturbing. I guess what I'd say is I'm not proud to admit this. But I do remember when I was in college thinking that the heroin addict was the homeless, shoeless guy under the bridge. And that is not the way it is today. So if there's anything that I could say to people, it would be these drugs, no socioeconomic boundary.  And that's why awareness is key. OK. Sarah, to wrap up. I just want to, I would just say that there is help out there. And people are getting well. And recovery is happening all over the country. If you want help, there is help out there. Excellent. Excellent. Well, I'd like to thank you all for being on the show. This was very informative to me as well. And thank you for reaching out to our audience and that there are people out there willing to provide help in this ongoing epidemic of substance abuse. So thank you very much for taking the time out of your day. Thank you. Thanks for having us. This concludes this episode of Quality of Life. If you have any questions for us, you can email us at wscs at wscscheboygan.com. For Quality of Life, I'm Dave Augustine. Thanks for watching.


Yeah, my stream's not that big. Obviously, right now it's a little bit... Hey, it's 69! Nice! We did it, boys!  But don't dog food be kinda looking... good? It do be looking kinda tasty, I'm just saying! It's not very long, but it should do the job. Well, it's not that... I sped it... Oh my god. I need this for the party trick. Don't take that out of context.  Oh my god! That's what peak performance... You hear my hip-hop? I may not be pretty, but that's what peak human performance looks like. I look like a...  I already know where this is coming from. Three were given to the old Somodo, wisest and fairest of all beings. Seven to the dwarf lords, great miners and crafts.


Oh, hi everyone, we are live, we're here and we can begin. Is that right? That's right. Okay. Hi. Hello. So, but we're not on the full screen yet. But I guess it's fine. Okay. So. Hello everyone. Welcome to our presentation. And Valerie, the community communications manager for wiki base. And I'm going to present with Christos, who's the partner manager for base. So we're going to talk about the wondrous world of wiki base. What we envision is a hopefully easy to grasp introduction to what wiki base is all about. And yeah, we're happy to be here with you. And we hope you enjoy it. So today we'll talk about the vision. We'll talk a little bit on what linking data is actually about. We'll give you an intro into what wiki base can do. And where we envision it in the ecosystem and linked open data web. So I'm going to show you some showcases and talk about community and support. And that's it for today. So. We envision diverse communities around the world who participate in wiki data and in a network of specialized wiki bases to co-create an open and free global knowledge graph in a thriving linked open data web. So we're going to talk about the visualization of that on the left. And here you can see basically what we mean by by linking data. So the way that knowledge bases are organized within wiki base instances is in the same way that it is on wiki data with which you might be familiar with or some of you may be familiar with where you have items, you have properties and you have statements for each properties. You have unique items like my young genu here for instance, and then you have various properties for each one of the items. For example, the place of birth, which in this case for my young genu would be St. Louis. But the thing is that unlike a traditional database here St. Louis is an item in itself with its own properties. And in this way, as an item with properties and various statements and some of these statements would be again items themselves, you are able to create, we are able to create a much more resomatic knowledge base, not like the traditional database where you would have to know a very top down organization of data, but rather a knowledge base, what we call a knowledge base. And thus wiki base is the free source. Of course, that stores organization information which can be collaboratively edited and read by both humans and computers. It can be translated into multiple languages. And it can be shared with the rest of the world as part of the link open data web. Now, the key functionalities of wiki base is that users can create and manage their own link open knowledge bases. They can use a flexible data model. So users can build their own data model which should their needs. And they are not confined by the data model that is provided by the software. In this case, you can make your own that will suit exactly your needs. Everything is on media wiki interface, which means that we can easily access and update the data. All users collaboratively, everyone who is working on this specific wiki base on each specific base instance. And just like on wiki data, we can interact with and interact. We can ask questions using sparking the powerful query language. And we would say that wiki base is suitable for data collections that demand that want a flexible data model. It is very powerful for linking databases to external sources. And this means external sources in general, or it could mean to wiki data or other wiki bases to other wiki base instances. Then it's pretty suitable for collaborative projects as well, where many people can edit and manipulate the data. It is it is really good for data that should be readable by humans and by machines. So they can also access it before data that can be questioned through sparking this instance. And then for projects that involve multilingual labor. So one thing that makes wiki base also very unique is that wiki base doesn't see itself as a standalone project, but as a part of a greater ecosystem. So it's collaborative nature makes it easier than ever to create, connect and grow a collaborative link knowledge base. It's enabling the co-creation of the world's largest knowledge graph of free and open data, which will be used to create new and accessible knowledge for the world. When you look onto the next slide, then you see that it can be a it can be a scenario in which a lot of different knowledge bases and projects are interlinked with each other and can nurture exchange and create new knowledge together. And this is where we see wiki base heading towards too. You got a sense in the previous slide of the users of the organizations, but we went through it quickly. So we're going to go a little bit into more detail about who is using wiki base. It's, in fact, it's pretty difficult to say that it's pretty difficult to track down every time you're using it. And especially when we're talking about wiki base read, the self hosted version of wiki base. However, the image we have approximately looks a little bit like this chart here. In which, yes, we know that, you know, science researchers, governments as well, government related agencies and organizations are using wiki base, but essentially the largest, let's say part of the users of wiki base comes from the clowns from galleries, libraries, archives and museums. And here we have like a few examples of users. This is, for example, the European Union, the European Commission is using it for the EU knowledge graph. And as a data repository for the publication website, essentially what they have done is a database or a knowledge base rather in which there are data for all funding that the European Union has given, has provided to various projects over the years. And we see this actually as a very significant project and initiative for openness, for open knowledge, but also, you know, for a healthy democratic society, there is transparency about the funding. And there is, there is, it's not only open, such data are supposed to be open anyway, but by organizing them in this way and by making them sensible and queryable, it's also accessible, it's making it accessible. So citizens of the European Union or anywhere in the world can actually see where money from the European Union is going. It has been going over the years. And, right, that's one example then of Wikibase. And here's another. This one is the fact that it is a Wikibase instance that started as a research project of a research group of historians. But it started with a very specific purpose basically to document the history of the Illuminati, but by using it and by, you know, by exploring its functionalities, so to say, they have decided the makers, the original makers of this, they have decided that it can be much more. And what it has become today is, let's say, an open database for historians, for researchers, historians to not only deposit data, but rather to work live collaboratively, analyze and compare and connect data. RISOM is one of the first organizations that picked up Wikibase. RISOM is an art organization that works with modern digital art. And they have adopted, they have adopted Wikibase in order to create the art base, their art base, so to say, of, you know, of modern digital art works. And they commented in our discussions, they commented about how the flexible model of Wikibase captures the constantly changing nature of digital art. And this is exactly why this is exactly how it treats them, so to say. The modern digital art has the particularity that each artwork might be completely different, a completely different format, a completely different thing from the rest. So if we are talking about something that is not standardized and not canonical and you want to create a database of such items and of such data, then Wikibase, at least for them, has worked pretty well in doing that. Right, I think we don't have super much time, so I guess it's cool. I think you can still talk about quickly about enslaved and teacher art base. Slave is an amazing project and again, like a very, very significant initiative. It's a Wikibase instance in which they have created a link-open database of the history of the transatlantic slave trade. What I was describing before about a knowledge base in which properties and statements and items can be mixed and organized in a geometric way, it finds an excellent application in this case, because in this case we have, for example, items as people, events, places, and so on, and by connecting the data within the database, not in the traditional structured top-down way, but in the way of a knowledge base, like a Wikibase, you can explore users, historians, researchers, or anyone basically, you can explore, for example, people's biographies, or family trees, or, you know, movements of people in their states, for example. And again, we at least think that this is a very important initiative. Us, actually, the kids for this as well. Another example, a smaller Wikibase instance, in comparison to what we've seen so far, it's an attempt to document and create a comprehensive database of the third cell language, and this one is built on Wikibase cloud right. And finally, Yes, so if you want to use Wikibase and have a look at it, we'd be happy to welcome you and especially welcome you in our community. And it continues to grow and we really like to have other community members engage with each other, and we build or let them build by others together a number of avenues to connect with each other. So there's the user group, mailing lists, the telegram channel, monthly live sessions, or the Wikibase stakeholder group, and you can find all of them on our sites as well. And then we also offer support to help you onboarding into the software with detailed documentation on how to this is the next slide on how to set up Wikibase using the Docker images or do it manually. We have a useful FAQ and technical support through third party support service providers that you can also find. So that's it from our site. Thank you for joining us here. We hope that you have a better idea now of what Wikibase is. If you have any questions, you can reach out to partnerships or our contact address and you will find much more information on the Wikibase website and on media Wiki. So thank you for joining us here and have a great rest of your conference day.


One has asked a question. How does one go about developing the arguing skill sets? What are your takes for that? Arguing skill sets are developed by acquiring knowledge. If you know the law, you have all the confidence. You will not have diffidence. Moment you have diffidence, you will not be able to argue well. If you have confidence, you will be able to argue well. That confidence comes from the knowledge of law. If you know the law in its entire factual matrix, you will have the bravado to argue before any judge. But if you are not thorough with the facts or with the law, then you may have a false bravado. But then within a matter of three minutes, when the judge asks the question, it will all get dissipated. So know the law, know the facts, read well. Even at this age, even if I have read the brief hundred times, if the matter comes up tomorrow, I will at least brush up my memory by looking at my notes, looking at some of the pages the previous day. That is what you must do. You must never take things for granted. You must always remember that memory always fades. Of course, youngsters will have a better memory. There are some lawyers who have fantastic memory. But you must always be able to be crisp and be able to point out pages and annexures without batting an eyelid. Therefore, prepare yourself well. You can be a better lawyer. So according to you, empty vessels make more noise than ventriloquically recognize. Absolutely.