Welcome to our Airwaves for Equity webinar and launch event. I am Michael Calabrese. I direct the Wireless Future Project here at New America's Open Technology Institute. You will be hearing today from some of the nation's leading advocates for digital equity about an opportunity to reinvest billions of dollars in proceeds from the auction of licenses to use the public airwaves to fund digital literacy and inclusion efforts. I will kick things off by describing our proposal and then turn it over to the other speakers, starting with Larry Irving, then Angela Sefer, and finally a panel of leaders from the groups behind this effort. Today we are launching the Airwaves for Equity initiative. Next slide. The founding members of this initiative are nine of the leading NGOs in this field, representing schools and libraries, low-income communities and digital inclusion practitioners, children and families, consumers and rural Americans. Next slide. We believe a share of future spectrum auction proceeds should be dedicated to endow a digital equity foundation chartered to make sustainable investments in digital literacy and inclusion. This is essential to ensure that major new spending for broadband access and affordability is successful in closing the digital divide long-term. Next slide. The problem, as that's well known of course, is that more than one in five Americans still lack broadband internet at home, including millions with access who have not adopted it. This disproportionately afflicts low-income, elderly, rural and BIPOC communities. The federal government is dedicating more than $60 billion in new funds to subsidize access and affordability, but relatively little to address the third driver of the digital divide. The need for digital literacy and inclusion. Simply put, if people don't know how to use technology, don't have the skills or cannot tap the value of broadband internet for basic needs, our efforts to connect them are fruitless. As House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Polone put it at last week's oversight hearing, it takes all three, access, cost affordability, cost adoption equals equity. Next slide. There is a large source of additional funding available to address this problem, spectrum auction revenue. Like land in the agricultural era and oil in the industrial age, the public airwaves today are a key driver of wealth creation. This public resource is owned by all of us, the American people. Auctions of public airwaves have generated more than $200 billion since the 1990s and more than $100 billion in last year alone. The FCC's auction authority expires this year. Congress needs to renew it and to decide whether $30 billion or more in expected revenue will flow back into the telecom sector and for what purposes. Next slide. We believe the logical solution is to designate a substantial portion of these proceeds to endow a digital equity foundation that makes sustainable investments year after year in digital literacy applications, devices and training aimed at closing digital equity gaps. Because auction revenue is unpredictable in both its timing and amount, auctions are an appropriate source to endow a foundation that can sustainably target efforts that complement the coin and affordability. Next slide. An endowed foundation can address critical needs in two general categories. First, digital literacy and adoption. Examples are the community-based digital navigator programs that are proving so successful but difficult to sustain libraries and other community technology centers, local outreach and assistance to expand enrollments in the affordable connectivity program and in Lifeline and other assistance. A second category is public purpose applications, training and evaluation for education technology, for disability access, for telehealth and for school and library initiatives to close the homework gap more permanently. Next slide. We suggest the vehicle should be a federally chartered independent foundation. The benefits of this approach include sustainability since an endowment provides the certainty of support year after year and the ability to evolve to address new digital equity gaps as they emerge. Expertise from advisory groups that represent diverse stakeholders, innovation, including the ability to raise additional funds from the private sector and of course, transparency and accountability mechanisms to Congress. Next slide. There were both recent and historical precedents for this approach. Legislative visionaries have long established that the monetization of public assets, including the public airwaves, can be dedicated to forward-looking investments in the national interest. When Congress last renewed the FCC's auction authority in 2012, it designated $7.5 billion in auction proceeds to establish the first net public safety wireless network. This was the first and only time that auction proceeds were returned to the sector to serve a public purpose. But there are historical precedents as well. At the height of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln signed the Land Grant Colleges Act of 1865 transferring tens of millions of acres of federal land to states to establish public colleges. And far more recently, current Senate and House Commerce Committee leaders from both parties embraced this general approach in recent auction legislation that was in 2019 to concerning the C-band in two different Senate bills. Next slide. So to close, our coalition believes the time is now. This Congress is likely to make two key decisions this year. First, renewing the FCC's auction authority, which expires September 30th. And second, deciding whether the $30 billion or more in revenue expected from future auctions will be recycled into the sector and for what purposes. As it did with first net in 2012, Congress can designate a substantial portion of the future revenue from this public resource to meet vital public needs. Next slide. So please join us. We hope your organization can endorse this initiative. You can visit the website for more information. It goes live today, www.airwavesforequity.org. And actually it's a F-O-R equity, airwavesforequity.org. Join us in asking Congress to designate a substantial share of the proceeds to endow a digital equity foundation. Next slide is the last. And once again, the website.  With that, I'd like to bring on our first speaker who's been in the trenches of this for so many years, Larry Irving. Larry is president and CEO of the Irving Group. Among his other roles, Larry serves as chairman of the PBS Board of Directors and serves on the board of the Shelby Coalition, one of the nine groups you saw earlier. Larry also served for seven years as assistant secretary of commerce and administrator of the NTIA under President Clinton. Larry was widely credited with coining the term digital divide and was among the first in government to raise awareness of this problem and he's never given up working on it. So Larry. And thank you so much, Michael.  And so many of my fellow co-conspirators on this digital divide issue. You know, as I was looking back over the history and when you say I'm seasoned, it actually means I guess I'm old, but I was looking back over the history of both the spectrum auctions and the digital divide. And they both have their origins about 29, 30 years ago, 28 to 30 years ago. I was involved, I helped when I was at NTIA provide spectrum for the first spectrum auctions. And I think many of you know NTIA back in the 1990s helped with their falling through the net reports to identify the problem that we now call the digital divide that some of us where it had access to the newest technology, understood how to use it and it was affordable. And then some of us didn't. And 28 years later, we still have the problem of the digital divide. And fortunately, the thoughtful work that went into spectrum auctions has brought $200 billion plus at $100 billion last year. And we need to rethink how we use those dollars. One of the things that I'm really always been very grateful for, the number of people out in our communities who are trying to find ways to bring access, affordable access and digital skills to people. Back in the 1990s, we started talking about the four C's which were connectivity, computers, content and competence, which is kind of digital equity. In the 2000, we're talking about access, affordable, affordability and aptitude. So it makes a lot of sense that when Chairman Palone talks about access, affordable, affordability equal digital equity. When we were in the 1990s, we were doing demonstrations and products at NTIA, our partners with community technology centers and libraries and folks in the community who understood the needs of the people they lived with. The airways for equity opportunity that we have before us gives us the opportunity to provide funding for much needed skill leveling. And all the things you talked about, Michael is so important. I'll give you one other. We never think about how low income people don't have access to the legal system. And one of my heroes from last year, her wins from last year is the Chief Justice Michigan Supreme Court who recognized with the courts closed that it was low income people who were disproportionately impacted, couldn't get into the courts, but they also didn't have the tools to access the courts. So you use mobile technology and created a program to bring technology to communities so that people could access the legal system. There's so many opportunities, but we have to veil ourselves of them. Yesterday, I was reading something that somebody sent me last week. In 1993, I wrote an article on why physicists should care about the forthcoming internet. 1993, 50 million people on the internet. And I said to these physicists in 1993, as physicists, you should care about the information superhighway, as we called it then, not just because it adds convenience to your personal lives and not just because we'll enable you to expand your own professional horizons, but because we'll help to provide a future for your children, your profession, your country, and for the world community. That's just true to days that ever was. And it is really fitting that we combine a 1994 concept that's worth $200 billion into federal coffers, spectrum auctions, with a concept that we started in 1994 with our first reports at the Commerce Department, but who was connected, who was not connected, the digital divide. We're coming full circle. And I'm really proud as individually, even though I can't speak on behalf of all of the organizations I work for, but as individual on behalf of Shelby, I'm really proud of this work. And I'm glad to add my support to New America and these nine organizations are trying to do. Thank you, Michael. Thank you, Larry. Your support means a lot to us. And of course, thank you for all your efforts, both past and current. As you said, you are well-seasoned. Another veteran, not quite a season, perhaps, is up next, Angela Sefer. She is the executive director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance. NDIA is itself a coalition and a community of digital inclusion organizations and practitioners from across the country. And they are the folks that are doing this work on the ground. So we definitely need Angela's guidance in this effort, Angela. Thank you, Michael. And thank you, Larry. Big thanks to all of our partners here. I am thrilled about this. I haven't been doing it quite as long as Larry. I started around 97, but then we did call them community technology centers and know there wasn't money for it then. So the fact that we have this Digital Equity Act funding coming in through the congressional action is amazing and fabulous, but it's a set time limit. We have it, we're gonna spend it, it's gonna change some lives, but is it gonna change systems? Ooh, right? That's a lot harder. And we like to think that we only invent, like everybody does this, right? We all think, oh, that's only invest in things that are sustainable. But if there's no sustaining source of funding for the Digital Equity work, for the Digital Literacy work, for helping people connect to a low cost offer, right? That's the inclusion part. How do you even get in the door? If we don't have that sustained source of funding, are we really making the most of this incredible investment that Congress has made for us now? So I'm thrilled that we are proposing such a thing. I'm thrilled that NDIA is part of it. As technology keeps changing, we are going to need to make sure we're keep helping folks so that they're not left behind. Because as technology changes, we can't forget how to use it. We all struggle with that, right? We're like, ah, my favorite app changed something. Or your employer tells you gotta do something different or we're so scary administration is like, oh, if you wanna check what you have, you gotta do it here, right? I know you used to come into the office, but we don't do that anymore, right? So like that's a reality for all of us. So we like to think that technology is a choice. Sometimes it's not a choice. Sometimes those who need it, we need to interact with are forcing us to use that technology. And so as a country, we can't be like, well, so sorry, you don't know how to use it. So sorry, you don't have access. That is not acceptable, right? And this group here is like, no, that's not acceptable. We need a long-term answer. And that long-term answer has to include funding. And as mentioned by Larry, it's the folks on the ground. It's the folks that are most connected in their communities who are trusted by those that they're serving. That's where change occurs. But what we want them to just volunteer their time to do it. They have families to feed to. So this is amazing because we're gonna figure out how, right? Together as a group, we can all convince Congress, this is a good idea because it is a really good idea. And it really gets at the equity piece. We want folks to have lots of opportunities. We wanna make sure that those who've been kept out have a chance in because technology is an incredible tool and we need to be there for everyone. And this, airwaves for digital equity, this is the way we could get there. Back to you, Michael. Thanks so much, Angela. That's exactly right. So I would like to now turn this over to John Windhausen for the panel. And John is the executive director of the school's health and library's broadband coalition, the Shelby Coalition, which John built from the ground up. And Shelby's members are among the community anchor institutions, most active and innovative in advancing digital equity. So he has his ear close to that ground around the country. So John, can you proceed with the panel? And I invite the panelists, of course, to turn your video on and we'll see and hear from you for the rest of the event. Well, thank you, Michael. This is a great, great pleasure to be here at the launch of this event today with such a distinguished panel of speakers. And I'm very excited to be here. This is a very important initiative. And Michael, I think a lot of the credit goes to you for originating this idea and creating this coalition. But it's such a great idea. You see a lot of organizations immediately jumping on board because it's so well thought through. The Shelby mission, as you may know, is to support open, affordable, high quality broadband for anchor institutions and their communities. And the addition of those last three words is particularly relevant to this conversation because it's important for the anchor institutions or it's important for policymakers to recognize that it's the anchor institutions that are at the forefront of trying to solve the digital divide and solve the homework app by reaching out to their communities. We've seen this through the emergency connectivity fund program that Congress created and schools and libraries have done a great job of applying for that funding, bringing service to unserved and underserved homes. But that funding is going to run out and we need to have ongoing more permanent source of funding to promote digital equity. Some of you may know that I formerly worked on Capitol Hill back in the 90s and I had worked with Larry Irving and had something to do with the creation of the first spectrum auction authority that we gave to the FCC at that time. And when we drafted that statutory language, we made clear that the auction was intended, we were going to authorize the use of auctions but that the public interest was paramount in proceeding with enforcing that auction authority. And so we laid that principle out very clearly at the very beginning of the auction authority as a past Congress and was enacted. But I sure wish we had an airwaves for equity coalition around at that time because then we could have even gone further and dedicated this auction revenue to these public interest purposes. So I'm so glad that this airwaves for equity coalition is getting started now and hopefully we can finish the job this year. The broadband ecosystem and solving the digital divide is a multifaceted problem. And as the previous speakers have talked about, there are many, many dimensions to that. So I'm very pleased that this digital equity foundation is going to be able to solve the digital divide by focusing on the need for digital literacy training and digital inclusion efforts and explore all the possible ways to get everybody connected. That should be our goal. We should have accomplished it by now. We haven't, so we need to step up. And that's what this coalition is all about. So I'm very pleased to open it up to our conversations with our panelists. Let's start and hear from Amina Fazlula who is the policy council at Common Sense. Amina, go ahead. Thank you, John. And at Common Sense, we care deeply about the issue of digital inclusion and we're really excited to see airways to equity and see this great group get together to create a lasting program to support digital inclusion and digital equity. Families and kids I think have been deeply impacted by the lack of digital equity and digital inclusion in the country. Access to telemedicine, access to education, access to remote work and job training, access to government services, impacts vulnerable families deeply. And much of that access runs over broadband and runs over the ability to utilize technology and having an ongoing fund to support the ability of students to use the next new form of technology or families to be able to continue to afford devices into their home or for parents or caregivers to be able to get trained on how to support students or other children in their home in their use of technology is incredibly important. The digital divide doesn't end when you hand somebody a device or when you hand somebody some dollars for one month of service or even one year of service. It is a persistent issue. And so it's important that Congress create a program that addresses this persistent issue and supports providers on the ground whether they're institutions like schools and libraries whether they're community broadband organizations doing the work through their trusted relationships to make sure that kids and families are well supported every step of the way as they use technology and as they continue to need to use technology and the benefits don't end with the families themselves when you have communities that are well trained well connected can rely on these technologies then you have institutions, educational institutions healthcare institutions, government institutions that can create long-term strategies to use the best technology available to maximize their resources as they deliver these essential uses these essential services. So I'm really excited for this effort and John, I'll let you turn it over to our next panelists. Very good, thank you, Amina. Very pleased next to hear from Chris Lewis who is the president and CEO of Public Knowledge. Chris, go ahead. Thanks, John. Thank you, Michael and New America for organizing this event. I'm very excited, Public Knowledge is very excited one of the founding partners here to support our ways for equity. Public Knowledge is a 20-year-old organization based here in Washington where we focus on the importance of free expression and affordable open access to communications tools and creative works. And over the last 20 years, closing digital divide has been a big part of our policy portfolio here in Washington because broadband is the essential communications network of the 21st century. And as technology has evolved and changed the values that we care about at Public Knowledge but the values we care about in civil society and in our country and in our communities haven't changed. Everyone needs to be connected to communications for the core essentials of their lives for education, for their work, entrepreneurship, health and safety. And without ensuring that the digital divide is closed and all aspects, all drivers of the digital divide then we're never going to make sure that everyone has an equitable chance in our society. So this is an exciting proposal. And what I love about it is its emphasis on sustainability, having a long-standing fund. That is just smart policy making to make sure that when we value something we make sure that it is always there and available. And that's especially important in technology because of how technology changes over time and how the things that we need to teach and help introduce people around technology and communications tools changes over time. And so to have a sustainable fund like this put together in a digital equity foundation I think it's just smart policy work and we're just so excited to support it. So thank you, John. Thank you, Chris, very well said. I'd next like to turn things over to Whitney Kimble Co who is the director of national programs at Rural Assembly. Go ahead, Whitney. Thank you, John and thank you, Michael and I'm just so pleased to be part of this really powerful group coalition that has been working to close this divide for a long time and I can't remember who said it but it's overdue, we need to get there. And this might be that really that last push that it's gonna take. So I work for the Center for Rural Strategies where I direct the Rural Assembly and we've been in this space for a while from the perspective, working on from the perspective of rural communities. And I feel like addressing this third driver of the digital divide, this issue of digital literacy and adoption sometimes gets glossed over with rural communities because we're often speaking about access and accessibility and affordability but this is such an important piece of the whole package. So whenever we speak about digital inclusion I think we're also speaking about rural inclusion. And just to give everybody a reminder or a sense, 60 million people of us call rural America home. Rural America is a diverse set of communities were represented across geographies and cultures and experiences. Families live in small towns on reservations in hollers along the coasts. And many rural communities are grappling with the same challenges that occupy most families everywhere, everything from figuring out how we're gonna cover expenses to how we're gonna achieve quality and affordable childcare, healthcare, education and housing. So these are basic ingredients that must be met across the board in order for any family and any community to find a foothold in our democracy. And we know that an additional basic ingredient is broadband. And that broadband is out of reach for many rural families and communities. And so too are the accompanying tools that are needed to ensure its adoption and its use. And because broadband has for so long been too expensive or unavailable in rural communities, residents have struggled to develop the skills to use it or to see it as the critical piece that it could be in helping with the flourishing of communities. So I think this airwaves for equity initiative just really targets that gap in literacy because it will help rural folks and others develop those skills alongside investments in infrastructure that are bringing more affordable and accessible broadband to the countryside. This initiative would provide an ongoing source of support to rural families as technology shifts and changes and as more services move online. I think the one other point I wanted to make, John is about digital inclusion and democracy and how it strengthens our democracy to invest in digital adoption and literacy in an ongoing way. It shores up our democracy because it strengthens communities in all the ways I was just talking about because it allows families to take advantage of opportunities that exist online, from telehealth to online ed courses and legal services. But it also just gives people the opportunity to participate in building a nation that honors the dignity of all of us because it ensures greater participation in the global exchange of ideas and culture and commerce. So there's a real link between airwaves for equity and strengthening our democracy. And I just wanna make sure that that's a point we bring out. Wendy, that's a very important point that you raise. And I often think how some of the difficulties that we're having in this country right now are their people are feeling disconnected. And it's not just that they're disconnected from broadband but all of the important government services and social services that come over that broadband connection and that there's a very real risk that people are gonna be left behind and don't feel like they've been fully able to take advantage of all the new technologies coming down the pike. So I totally agree with you about the importance of tying broadband connectivity to the future of democracy in this country. That's a very good point. And now it's my great pleasure to turn to Alan Inouye who is the Senior Director of Public Policy and Government Relations at the American Library Association. Alan, go ahead. Well, thank you, John. And thank you for that setup since the nation's 117,000 libraries are a great place or a great way to connect with Americans all over in terms of democracy and everything else. And so, and should say that digital literacy and digital inclusion are at the core of all libraries. Libraries are well situated to provide effective programs across the country especially reaching people who need help the most such as those in rural and tribal areas or those in low income areas in suburban or urban communities. Libraries serve everyone of course but especially people who need specialized services such as those with disabilities, veterans, children, new immigrants and the recently incarcerated. Just two quick examples to give a little bit more flesh on the bones, if you will. So one is that the libraries provide literacy programs and resources for kids and everyone else on how to keep safe and responsible online addressing issues such as personal safety and cyber built bullying or securities such as fishing and scams and how to manage passwords or larger issues such as licensing and the permanence of postings. Another example is in terms of folks who want to start and develop small businesses and to provide training and resources for them since many new or small business owners are not fully aware or available understanding of new technologies and how they can help serve to promote their businesses or what kind of online databases or online systems there are that might be of use or how to use these things. And so those are just two examples of how libraries promote digital literacy and digital inclusion. Libraries are also a strategic place for investments because of the 117,000 locations they leverage investments that we've already made in our communities, right? There are buildings, there's already internet access and computers and technology. Of course there's experts, staff like librarians and of course there's a lot of store of information resources and in particular resources that are tailored to that local community. And of course, libraries have this stellar reputation and trust. So it's a great place to place investments in digital literacy and digital inclusion in terms of getting a good return on investment in terms of the federal dollar. And so libraries are ready and eager to make a big leap that would be enabled by the Airways for Equity initiative and how people leverage technology to advance their education and learning, economic prospects, health and just their overall quality of life. And just in conclusion, because I know that we're getting into the next phase of this discussion, just to say that the broadband connections are of course fundamental. If you don't have the actual connection to the internet then you're missing out on a lot of things in life nowadays. But that's not enough, right? It's like having the interstate highway, that's great. But now I need a car, I need driving lessons, I need insurance, I need a GPS, rest areas, restaurants, hotels, et cetera and the knowledge to use all of that. So we need Airways for Equity to get us to our final destination. Thanks John. Thanks Al, and that's a great closing statement for this round of the conversation today. So I have some questions that I have prepared in advance that I'd like to ask the panelists but I also invite audience members to submit their own questions and we'll be trying to integrate some of your questions into the conversation that we are about to have. So if I could start off with Angela and bring you back into the panel discussion Angela, I think that, and then I'll open it up to some other panelists. But I think the starting off question is Congress just passed this infrastructure investment and jobs act with $65 billion for broadband. So why is it that we need an additional Digital Equity Foundation or Digital Equity Trust Fund in addition to the money that Congress has already appropriated? Can you answer that question? The shortest answer John is that technology keeps changing. So whatever we do in the next five years, I'm sure it'll be awesome but the technology is gonna change again and then folks are still gonna be left behind plus people grow up, right? Somebody moves into their own home, we're not taught, it's not the same people in this five years as the people in the next five years. The population changes, we have new residents. So we need to make sure that everybody has the support they need because the technology keeps changing and because the people themselves need to the support as they come into our communities. Gotcha, very good answer. Would anyone else on the panel like to take a stab at that question? Well, I just wanna add on to the point about technology changing. I mean, think about what digital literacy training looked like a decade ago versus what it looks like now. A lot of the issues we're talking about, we weren't training people on 10 years ago. Looking at how do you protect your privacy online looks different now than it looks then. The hardware is changing then and we could have endless trainings on media training for education around fighting disinformation or understanding how we're influenced by what we see and hear online. So there's so much to train about and to have a sustainable fund like this to just make sure that we can adjust and make sure that people are getting these sort of lessons that they need as new generations come online. And I would just say, John, more and more services are moving online. So understanding how to access legal justice systems or telehealth or education, those programs will continue to grow and expand most likely in the future. So we're just gonna need to continue to help connect people to those, especially those folks who don't have access to them in their own communities.  We like being able to get stuff done online. It's awesome, it makes our lives easier but for some people, it makes our lives harder. So that's the difference like, yes, let's continue moving technology forward. Let's find all the cool solutions. Let's just not leave folks out of it. I think it's also worth pointing out that the authority that we are asking for, for Congress and the Digital Equity Foundation would be a 10-year mission, whereas the IIJA spending is probably going to be, we don't know for sure, but it's probably gonna be expended over the next three to four years. And so that money is, that's one-time money, that's not ongoing money from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. So we need this foundation to continue to invest in this issue, to make sure everybody gets connected and stays connected in the future as the technology changes. And also to Whitney's point, I think, hypothetically, let's say the digital divide, if 30% of households don't have broadband access today, and even if that number stays the same, we hope it doesn't, but even if that number stays the same, the digital divide gets worse because the 70% of people who do have broadband are using it for more and more important things. And the 30% that don't have access fall further and further and further behind in their ability to access the internet and participate in this modern society, economy and democracy. Anyone else have a response or I'll move to the next question? Okay, well, we have a good question from Kelsey Griffiths in the chat that has come up about how does this proposal square with the recent call by FCC chairwoman Rosenwurzel that suggested auction proceeds should be used for 911 funding? Is this a conflict or my view is that this is perfectly compatible with the idea of serving the public interest and reinvesting those auction revenues into serving public interest goals? Well, what does our panel think? Who would like to respond? Amina, shall I call on you? Sure, I was just about to put myself off mute. No, I think they're both very compatible goals. I mean, we've got, I think what you're hearing from the chair is this interest in making sure that essential activities are well supported. So certainly, I know when one is important, but then we've also got to make sure that communities who are vulnerable have continuing support to be able to use technology as well, especially if there are changes with other forms of essential emergency communications and things like that. So, I think for sure, having both, they both fall under these public interest priorities and I could see them as complimentary. Very good. Anyone else like to answer that question? Yeah, go ahead, Alan. Sure, John. Yeah, I would say that, I think one thing that we, this group has known for a long time, but has became painfully clear from the pandemic is that we have many needs in this country and we've painfully revealed the fact that some people don't even have basic access, much less have more advanced digital literacy or skills or access. And so that, so we have, so there are many things that we have to do and the chairwoman's proposal is very important and we need that. And I think clearly we need this too because it's the next big step or the additional big step in addition to connecting people is that they have to know how to be able to use that technology effectively. And so we need both. And I might modestly say that maybe these two are the most important priorities in terms of what deserves a big increase in big allocation of funding, for example, from the spectrum auctions. Gotcha, good points. So my next question is, what do we imagine this funding from the Digital Equity Foundation is going to be used for? Can you, can the panelists give us a sense of what kinds of activities or priorities that you think or how these decisions will be made about who gets funded out of the foundation? I think we're gonna, super cautious, right?  There's some basics though that I think we do know we would want to have in there and we can get the other items as we move this forward. But the basics would be what we've talked about so far, the digital literacy. So that's training, but it's also one-on-one support. It is trusted support, right? It's digital navigation, which means having somebody who can talk you through, okay, here's what your options are for broadband. Let's talk about what you can afford. Oh, are you eligible for affordable connectivity program? Okay, let's help you sign up for that. Do you need a device? Let's figure out what kind of device is best for you. It's a laptop, it's a tablet. What are the choices for how to get one? Is there anything subsidized that you're eligible for? Right, so figuring that out with individuals, that's the part that it's not gonna stop, right? We have to keep doing that with people and helping them find the resources and then figure out where to get the skills and encourage them. A lot of it's just, you can do this, right? And it takes a real person to say you can do this. If an ad tells you you can do this, do you believe it? Right, this is a human kind of issue. And I think maybe one way for us to think about it even is that this fund can fund the human side of being connected, because it's not just about the bits and the bytes. I love that. Very good. I'm sorry, I'm jumping ahead. No, go ahead. No, that's fine. When do you go ahead? No, I just love Angela's framing there at the end. This is funding the human side, which to me means we're funding relationships and trust-building and strengthening the core of community. And that's also going to take a cohort of diverse people at the table talking about how this can make the biggest impact. Because communities or different institutions of trust are different in different communities. So there's an opportunity here to be a little bit flexible, I think, about understanding that a one size doesn't fit all model here. But we do know that there are, at the core, there's relationships and trust that can be forged through this. Yeah. And I think what's exciting is that we can build on what's been done well. We have an opportunity right now thanks to ECF funds going out the door, thanks to the funds that NTIA will be pushing out the door to be able to see what really works and what we want to continue to invest in. And so, I think this fund will have, I think the benefit of being the next step and we'll be able to lift up those programs that are really working and that we wanna make sure don't fall away. And we have the opportunity to continue. I like to build on Whitney's point about the big impact. And so I think for, at least for me and for some of us that we often think in terms of the bottom up in terms of, someone doesn't have to work with all to apply to Walmart for a job. And so we, how do we help them on the internet and give them access? And that's all really important. But I think with a more substantial amount of money potentially, we can also think in terms of the big picture and big vision. So some of the issues in this country, like the, you know, in the past where the blue collar worker or the miner would end up with the middle class income and those jobs don't exist any more nearly as much as they used to. And so how do we bring up a prior opportunity to people like that? And for many of them, it's gonna be through digital literacy and digital inclusion and it's gonna be via technology. So providing, how do we provide them with opportunities and access? And I'm hopeful that this initiative will help address some of these bigger issues we have in society. Just one more thing, if I could. Sure. Because, you know, as I watched, you know folks were doing the work on the ground like, like, Angel's Group and DIA and others, they've been really advocating for local communities to develop their own plans of what did they need to do as a community?  When a community can get together and say, so this is how we wanna attack this problem. My hope is that then they could take those plans and bring them together as a community by their public private partnerships or the folks who are doing the work on the ground. But putting these proposals forward for funding from a fund like this. So then you're really taking the money and using it in a specific way that community needs to increase their digital literacy, their digital equity. Well, Chris, can we stay with you for another question? Because, you know, traditionally, these programs are run by Congress appropriating money to the FCC or to NTIA or in this last year, the Department of Treasury and going to the state. So that's sort of the traditional appropriations method. Why couldn't we ask Congress to continue to appropriate more funding? Like why is a digital equity foundation? Why are we recommending a digital equity foundation in this initiative? Right, well, you know, I never wanna speak for Congress, but I hope they'll listen to us because I think there are benefits to doing it this way. And I also think it matches the policy challenge in front of us. So when we talk about, you know, affordability with old programs like the Lifeline Fund or some of newer programs like the ACP, you know, issues like authentication or verification of households becomes an issue. And so centralizing those programs made sense. Same for giving out funds for deployment to rural areas that don't have broadband infrastructure or need an upgrade in broadband infrastructure, then you get into issues like mapping where in order to use that money effectively, you really wanna have it a centralized effort to make sure the maps are accurate and you're investing wisely. All of that makes sense. But when you're looking at what an individual community needs are, you want them to be in conversation with you.  So that when we're attacking each of the legs of the digital divide where we're hitting them exactly where they need support. Also, I'd add that, you know, for families, especially having a gap in support is really detrimental. It can be devastating. You know, if you think about the course of a student's career, you know, if you've got support for, you know, grade two and grade three, and then you've got nothing for four, five and six because you're waiting on Congress to pass some additional relief, that's gonna drastically change the course of that child's career in education. And in our own research found that, you know, when students are left in the digital divide and don't have the digital skills or don't have access to the tools that they need, you know, what we experience is about 22 to 33 billion dollars in annual GDP loss. And that's a conservative estimate. And that's just talking about the kids. So if we start to think about, what does it mean to leave adults in the digital divide? What does it mean to care for aging populations who are in the digital divide? And what are those additional costs to healthcare and other social services? You can start to see how that number goes up and up and how the impacts to the entire country go on. So you don't want those to lag. You know, whatever we've put in place, we want to be able to continue to support. So we have a couple of other interesting questions in the chat. So Don Means has asked an interesting question about, you know, we've also had a policy in this country of awarding certain slices of spectrum for two public interest entities, like the EBS spectrum that was allocated for schools and colleges and universities. So if we were to proceed with this digital equity foundation legislation, would that remove the possibility of allocating spectrum for other public interest groups? I mean, my own answer is no, that that's also a good idea to allocate spectrum to for public interest purposes. And, but I'd love to hear their panelists' thoughts about that. I see Chris, you nodding your head. So maybe we'll start with you and then we'll go to others. Sure, sure. So there's so many different ways to meet public interest needs with spectrum and spectrum options and since it's the public airways, it's very appropriate. You know, EBS and where spectrum specifically is allocated is one way, you know, this is just a proposal to take the revenue and put it towards a specific purpose, which we've seen a number of times, you know, from the Congress, whether it was the creation of FirstNet or other designations. And when they do that, they can make estimates and hopefully those estimates are close and close projections on what revenue will be available so that they can make sure that the revenue that's generated by an auction meets the public interest need in dollars, that's needed. But yeah, there's so many ways that we see spectrum used to make sure that public interest needs are met. I would be remiss if I didn't note the importance of preserving unlicensed spectrum use, which has always been folded in either as a reservation of a slice of spectrum or as an underlay so that smart, small, innovative uses for unlicensed spectrum can come to market and give people things that they never thought they would see before or now that they take for granted like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, baby monitors, all of that was developed over unlicensed spectrum. So there's different ways to slice it. That's a good reminder. It's not just preserving the unlicensed spectrum as we need more unlicensed spectrum because it's become so useful, it's becoming crowded and that would be another allocation that we ought to look at. Angel, I'd like to bring you back and answer this question, an interesting question that Sean McLaughlin has raised in the chat about local community media organizations because they have had contracts with their local communities to provide public benefits and to help meet the local needs of broadband consumers. Have you encountered and as part of NDIA, do you have some of these local community media organizations that are doing digital literacy work? Oh, most definitely community media centers are doing this work along with libraries, housing authorities, community-based organizations. The list of who does it is pretty wide and what they refer to it as isn't always, they don't always say, like if you looked at any community media centers website, you may not see digital literacy listed as one of their programming, but if you dig in and you'd be like, oh, they're teaching people how to use the technology, they're running training classes, they're providing one-on-one service.  And so it's the specific activities that we say, yes, that falls under digital equity. The definition of digital equity is that individuals and communities have full access to information communication technology to do whatever it is they need to do. The definition for digital inclusion are all the things that we've been discussing today. These are the activities that get us to the digital equity and the activities of the media center and the libraries and housing authorities and rec centers and everybody at the local level, they do those activities. They help folks learn how to use the technology, they help them get access to internet at home, they help them have the right device, they teach them digital literacy, they do digital navigation. So they're doing the pieces that make up digital inclusion for the media center and all the other local organizations. That's great. And just so everyone knows, we consider all of those organizations that Angela just listed to be anchor institutions and Shelby is very pleased to be able to work with Angela in promoting these objectives. So I think we're coming to the end of our Q&A session and I suspect Michael Calabrese would love to offer his concluding thoughts. So Michael, I'll turn this back to you. All right, well, thanks, John. And hold on here, let me, there we go, you can see me even. Yeah, that was a terrific discussion and thanks to all of you for filling in so many blanks on what this can do, which just has enormous potential. And I think it's particularly important to emphasize again, as you all did, that this is a longer term perspective. So for example, the FCC is probably not going to have another very big auction for a few years. So last year, two auctions generated more than a hundred billion dollars. That was unusual and auctions, the nature of it is that it's lumpy. But when Congress extends auction authority, it's typically for, well, the last time it was for 10 years. So when you think of a five to 10 year period and when you think that this need is, as you all said, it's really an evolving persistent need to keep addressing digital equity gaps and to reinforce what we are achieving over the next few years with more funds, a huge amount of funds for access and affordability. This will come into play at just the right time. And when there is another large auction that can be used to endow this effort, then that funding can be available year after year beyond that. So I would just wrap up by encouraging everyone out there to talk about this within your organization and join us in, join our coalition, join Airwaves for Equity, it's airwavesforequity.org. You can go there now and endorse this proposal and hopefully engage with us going forward as we all together advocate for this.


Okay so here we go. So yeah so Abraham it is good thank you for sharing that God's love you know we can never learn all about it and it's always a subject that's you know that it's good to be reminded of and to good to be reiterate to reiterate the truth of this aspect of God's love and what he's extended to us. So thank you it was wonderful and also yeah something that was fresh and nice was about you know those two aspects that you shared about God's love the highest to the lowest and and the lowest to the highest and yeah something that for me it was something that I had never seen it that way yeah so thank you for sharing that it's a good the way you presented it very clear and you describe God's love describe and when moved on transitioned on to talk about the different kinds of love and so on and also you know the challenge or the question you know what should our response be and and so on yeah so it was good really inspired I think inspired us to look at it and also to extend love and express love to others as well just one suggestion is you know when you yeah you're I think this is your normal rate of speech you know you go at it so you know you go at it pretty rapidly when you or maybe you are just aware of the time you can actually slow down you can slow down you can take your time and you you know you finished well well you know within the time so you can take your time and talk about it and vary your speed you know it'll be for even more greater impact and I also felt the scripture when you know maybe you could slow down to read the scripture so that we you know really get it we think about what you're saying you know what the scriptures that you read out or maybe displaying it would have helped we could just you know read it it'll be there on the screen but since you're not displaying it you could just slow down and read it out and you know it'll help yeah so yeah that's all I have in terms of feedback and yeah so so Abraham what do you do and where are you from all right so I'm from Ghana but I'm currently in Vietnam yeah in Vietnam yeah that yes okay right so are you a student are you studying working so currently yeah I'm teaching English no and all the best thank you yeah any other feedback from the class if you would like to share something or any other input just a small input I just put it in the chat when we talk about John 316 if you can just connect it with John first John 316 yeah our responsibility you know yeah that's good so it's easy to remember John 316 and one John 316 nice thank you okay okay so next we have Bula so Bula's from my so yeah Bangalore yeah so over to Bula Bula you can take this time to share thank you thank you pastor I'm actually basically from my so but it wasn't Bangalore in all papers church and then again I'm back in my so right now so yes first so can I just yeah you can start yeah it's 11 9 you can start 12 minutes so I'm just sharing about healing and the main thing I would like to connect here is the healing is in the atonement and it is the children's bread that a believer be healed and live a healthy life so when we just look at the present situation and everything that's going around we see that medical science has made great strides in its efforts to elevate human suffering but yet they accelerated pace of our modern society continues it to take its toll on the bodies of men and women producing sickness that's beyond a man's ability to help the demands for sufficient doctors hospitals beds and cures they grow with increasing pressure and many new drugs and medicines are creating new problems that can only intensify the message that man needs a healer God and it is within the context of human need that the greatest message of the Gospel of Christ salvation it shines forth as a beacon in a faithless world and in all things our heavenly Father can be trusted to honor his word and by the principles of faith every Christian can discover and possess through the benefits of Calvary all that Adam lost now before people can even have a steadfast faith for healing of the body they must be rid of all uncertainty concerning God's will in this matter so appropriating faith cannot go beyond one's knowledge of the revealed will of God before even attempting to exercise faith for healing one needs to know what the scriptures plainly teach that it is just as much as God's will to heal the body as it is to heal the soul it is only by knowing that God promises what you are seeking that all uncertainty can be removed and a steadfast faith is made possible now his promises are each a revelation of God of what God is actually eager to do for us and until we know what God's will is there is nothing on which to base our faith it is important that the mind of those seeking healing be renewed so as to be brought into harmony with the mind of God the scriptures declare in Romans 5 12 that by one man sin entered the world and death by sin here it is plainly stated that death entered the world by sin therefore it is clear that disease which is incipient of death entered into the world by sin since disease entered by sin its true remedy must be found in the redemption of Christ even honest physicians will admit this they claim that they have only the power to assist nature not to heal because since disease is part of the curse its true remedy must be the cross and who can remove the curse but God and how can God justly do it except by substitution now the Bible teaches us like one writer puts it that the disease is the physical penalty of iniquity since Christ has borne in his body all our physical liabilities on account of sin our bodies are therefore released judicially from disease now to the question did Jesus redeem us from our diseases when he are told for our sins let's take a look at some of the scriptures when we go into the Old Testament we see that there are types of atonement that is given in connection with bodily healing throughout the Old Testament for example if we see in the book of Exodus the 12th chapter this chapter refers or mentions about the Passover where the Israelites are they are required to offer a Passover lamb apply the blood of the lamb upon the dopo's but at the same time they are instructed to eat the flesh of the Passover lamb and we come into the account of what is written in the Psalms 105 Psalms 105 verse 37 here it states that he brought them out with silver and gold and there was not one feeble person among their tribes when we look at another version it says here these people were all made healthy and strong and they were fit for the March so we see here in the book of Exodus a type of atonement where the Passover lamb is a type of the atonement of Christ we also read in second Chronicles chapter 30 verses 20 the Bible says that the Lord her couldn't it was a kaya and healed the people when they kept the Passover you're also we see that the people of Israel had backslidden and they are not kept the Passover for a very long time when Ezekiah calls forth people to come and celebrate and keep the Passover and then when he prays we see that the people God hears the prayer of Ezekiah and he heals the people we also look into the book of Eleviticus chapter 14 verses 18 the Bible says that the priests were instructed to make atonement for the cleansing of the leper we see an atonement made for the leper's healing the types in the book of Eleviticus 14th and the 15 chapters they show us that that it was invariably through atonement that sickness was healed and coming to the book of Numbers chapter 16 verses 46 to 50 we see an incident written here where the plague breaks out in the camp of Israel and about 14,700 people they die of plague and Haran the high priest in his editorial office he stood before the between the people and between the dead and the living and he made an atonement for the removal of the plague and when that was made the healing of the bodies took place and when we come to the book of Numbers chapter 21 verses 19 we read that the Israelites they were asked to look at the brazen serpent which was lifted up which was a type of atonement and then when we look at each one of these examples we see if healing was not to be in the atonement then this Israelites why were they required to look at the brazen serpent which was a type of atonement for their bodily healing both healing and the forgiveness came through the type of the atonement now one of the scriptures that is very clear concerning this is in the Old Testament is in the book of Job chapter 33 verses I'd like to read from 23 onwards it says here if there is an angel I'm reading from the amplified version as a mediator for him one out of a thousand to explain to a man what is right for him that is how to be in the right standing with God then the angel is gracious to him and says spare him from going down to the pit of destruction I have found a ransom a ransom for redemption and atonement the word used here for ransom is it is a price for redemption or a term that is used and atonement and he says let his flesh be restored and become fresher than in the youth and let him return to the days of his youthful strength verse 26 says he will pray to God and he shall be favorable to him so that he looks at his face with joy for God restores to man his righteousness that is his right standing with God with his joys so when we look at this particular scripture we are just seeing because of the atonement Job's body was healed and he was granted the right standing with God his prayer was answered and God was favorable to him so it is through atonement that Job's flesh was healed and even in the book of Psalms and David in Psalm 103 he opens up by calling upon his soul to bless the Lord and to forget not all his benefits then he specifies and he says who forgives all dying iniquities and who heals all died diseases the atonement here provides both the forgiveness of sins and the healing of diseases it is in the same voice or the same line he mentions the forgiveness as well as the healing every Old Testament sacrifice had to die and shed blood before the blood was effective the Bible says with other shedding of blood there is no remission of sins and this is another way of saying that all the promises of God including his promise to heal over their existence and power exclusively to the redeeming work of Christ how does God forgives him of course to the atonement of Christ and he heals the disease also in the same way the atonement of Jesus Christ is the only ground for any benefit to the fallen man how can God save any part of man except through the atonement all of this typical atonements point to and prefigure the Calvary which is the final atonement as in the Old Testament scriptures the types assure that healing was invariably through atonement so also the Gospels in the New Testament when we look at Gospel of Matthew chapter 4 the Bible says so the news about him spread throughout all Syria and they brought to him all who were sick those suffering with various diseases and pains and those under the power of demons epileptics paralytics and he healed them and when we come to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 8 verses 16 and 17 there again it's written definitely says that Christ was healing all the diseases on the grounds of the atonement the atonement was his reason for making no exceptions while healing the sick the Bible says here he healed all that were sick that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet Isaiah saying himself took our infirmities and he bore our sicknesses it is our sicknesses he bore he's atonement embracing us all that and it would require the healing of all to fulfill this prophecy when we just take a look at Isaiah 53 verses 4 and 5 it says he assuredly agrees he himself bore and the sorrows he carried yet we ourselves he esteemed him stricken smitten of God and afflicted when we see this word bore our sorrows the Bible here states of this word in in in this word it is our griefs and our sorrows the word for grief is coli meaning sickness and the word sorrow is pain so it is very clear that he bore our sicknesses and he bore our pains which is physical as well as mental now in the first Corinthians chapter 10 was 11 paul is telling us bill i think that's the same time's up but you can finish yeah i'll just finish first okay so paul tells us all of these things happen to us for examples for our admonition and that which has come on the ends of the age in the sense this is for both the Gentiles and as well for the Israelites people both the Israelites and the Gentiles and also paul says in first Corinthians 11 verse chapter 11 verses 29 and 30 that Christ's body when talking about the Communion is talking about the Christ's body that is to be estimated or examined when we partake of it so that so that the life of Jesus may also be made manifest in our mortal flesh which is written in 2nd Corinthians 411 in conclusion i just wanted to say that Jesus tells us in Luke 4th chapter verse 19 that he was anointed to preach the acceptable year of the Lord referring to the Old Testament year of Jubilee which shows the year of Jubilee is the gospel era where people were supposed to return to their own possessions on the day of atonement where their turning sacrifice was offered and mercy was granted to the people there was a blowing of the trumpet that announced their liberty and their release and then it says each man can return to our own possession so we are in the gospel era where Christ atonement and the announcing of the trumpet or the gospel trumpet that says he bore our sins and he bore our sicknesses to be sounder to every creature and then every man is to return to his own possession so the two outstanding possessions to be restored for us in this gospel area era is the health for our soul and health for our body that the inner man and the outer man both may be made whole ready for the service of God thoroughly furnished onto every good work so that we could finish our course so thank you so much pastor and thank you everyone Amen amen thank you thank you billa yeah i think that was a it was a very powerful reminder of the truth of atonement in the cross and yeah i was you know taking back many years ago and my wife and i used to come back and you know sit and listen to these things were new to us like the atonement in the cross and what jesus died for us healing as well as forgiveness and forgiveness as well as healing and so we used to come and listen to those cassette tapes you know just sit and listen and after work maybe a few hours just take time to do that this is a reminder of you know those messages again yeah but just coming back it was a very clear i think teaching right starting from the Old Testament types and you moved on to the gospels and and how healing is in the atonement and a very necessary and important message and of course i think the natural progression would be to to pray for healing right as as you finish the message so so why don't we do that right so that's my feedback billa i think it was good you need more time of course and this actually cannot be compressed in 12 minutes we need to really you know take more time so yeah so that's another thing to think about you know you know the topic why is you know do i do it in 12 minutes or is this something you know that can that i can do it over three days you know that's also something to think about you know the topic and the time so yeah so i'll just that's my feedback class if you have anything more to share i can see a few feedback you can you know share to billa yeah okay so let's pray them let's pray for let's pray for healing maybe some of us you know this based on what we heard right as i have 53 versus four and five he himself bore our graves sorrows so we know what he bore on the cross and he did it for us today maybe you have something in your own body that needs change or maybe there this maybe someone in your family or someone in your friend circle who need the touch of God so so let's let's just pray let's believe God let's pray so i'll just request billa to pray billa quickly if you can just pray for those of us who need their healing and so you can if you just pray go ahead yeah sure heavenly father we come into your presence father only in the name of your son the lord jesus christ who is our atonement lord and father as we see in your word father you have provided for us lord healing in the atonement lord we thank you so much for the remission of sins in the forgiveness that you have given us but we also understand to receive our full inheritance lord your word says is the earnest of our inheritance for us to have a healthy body card and father in the name of jesus i pray for each one of us gathered here i pray for our family members lord i pray for our loud ones i pray for us lord the people of god who are incombinant with you i mean i just asked this day father got an agreement with each one of us here for the healing of our bodies but even as your word says lord those people father who sat inside those houses and ate the body of the lamb that day which was just a type of atonement they were in the Passover and the Bible says that each one of them came out of their houses and the land of Egypt lord they were all healed a healthy strong and fit for the march this day god as you're raising the army of god father in this end times i just pray that in each one of our houses as we gather in our church's lord and we partake of the body of christ lord and we partake of his blood and we celebrate the atonement lord that christ has obtained for us and he has finished for us the divine substitution and our redemption on the grounds of atonement on the grounds of the redeeming working of christ on the grounds of his divine substitution we just want to ask that you grant each one of us a healthy body a healthy soul oh god that each one of us will be healthy and fit and strong fit for the march of god in this end times so i thank you father we receive this blessing oh god and we give you all the glory and honor let the world see what the atonement of christ has done for us in our lives and through our lives in the name of your son the lord jesus christ to pray father god amen amen amen thank you bill I think there's a prayer point which Rupa has put here pray for a little cherry who's admitted with fever okay let's let's just agree and pray okay let's just pray right now father god we pray for this little one who's admitted with fever admitted in the hospital father god we just pray for your healing hand to rest upon her right now lord we pray that you will touch her in healer and we as your as your children we take authority in the name of Jesus and we we command that fever to leave in the mighty name of Jesus fever leave in mighty name of Jesus and whatever is causing that fever whatever causing the symptom of fever in the mighty name of Jesus we rebuke that condition and we cast it out and we say be healed the cherry be healed in the name of Jesus it release and healing in the wholeness in the name of Jesus according to the word of the lord according to the finished work of the cross be healed in Jesus name amen we thank you lord thank you okay let's pray for blessing let's pray that god will touch her and hypertension high blood pressure okay let's pray right now okay who'd like to pray for blessing um she has high blood pressure so let's pray for healing anyone else would like to pray um can I just request probably Rupa to pray yeah Rupa there Rupa yes yes yeah let's agree and pray for father we acknowledge your powerful presence in our midst lord thank you for releasing your word of healing in our midst this morning lord your servant thank you master we bring blessing into your loving presence lord you know the high pressure blood pressure that she's going through lord for the past one year lord send forth your word and heal her in the name of Jesus father god complete healing body mind and spirit in the name of Jesus christ father god we receive it in faith in Jesus name I pray amen amen amen amen amen thank you thank you Rupa thank you for praying yeah awesome praise god yeah so we come to the third speaker who is let me check okay Kennedy Kennedy so yeah Kennedy you can go ahead yes thank you thank you very much uh I wanted to share on excellence okay because it's grace and work but unfortunately where I am okay I'm by the roadside okay okay so I'm by the roadside so I'll just request if I can do it on Wednesday I'm sorry sorry I'm by the roadside I look like a street freezer as for now okay go ahead so I'll request if I can do it on Wednesday because it's a bit we want to do it on okay you want to do it on another day okay that's fine yeah sure when I say but my my someone will be your excellence excellence again is grace and work okay okay sure sure yeah no problem that's fine yeah no worries okay sorry Kennedy is not doing it today so um is anyone else who's prepared and who wants to share um you know you can go ahead and share um sir shall I share it yeah sure of course Rupa you're scheduled for November sometime right um but yeah last sir Friday I could not share right if it is okay yeah you can share go ahead please okay I think bad connections so Rupa's we'll just wait for Rupa to join in and then okay maybe somebody somebody can put it on the group um and check if Rupa's connections are okay if she'll be able to join back and I'll give probably one more minute and then let's see okay Rupa's back okay yeah Rupa yeah I think you had a bad connectivity your mic is muted Rupa your video is on but mic is muted yeah okay I'll just switch off the video if it is a no problem off again no problem I'll just say sir okay good morning friends and thank you I thank God and thank pastor for giving me this opportunity this morning and my sermon topic for this morning is an imperishable jewel in God's sight topic is the beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit and the title of the sermon is imperishable jewel in God's sight and the text I have taken is from first Peter third chapter first Peter third chapter three to six I would like to read three to six your beauty should not come from outward adornment such as braided hair and the wearing of old jewelry and fine clothes instead it should be that of your inner self the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit which is of great worth in God's sight but this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful they were submissive to their own husbands like Sarah who obeyed Abraham and called him her master you are his daughter her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear I'll just say a word of prayer Father God we commit this message and we want you to speak to our hearts open our hearts open our ears Lord Father God to receive your word and please give me the grace to convey what you want me to convey Lord in the name of Jesus we invite you Holy Spirit God to take over in Jesus name amen. Today morning I want to just highlight in this passage the gentle spirit the inward spirit this passage is talking about we all know the first Peter in the first Peter letters is talking about submission submission to our leaders submission to our masters here it is the submission of a wife to her husband in that context this is written here a gentle spirit means is the spirit that is gentle tender humble mild and considerate it is a spirit that is disciplined and under control at all times it does not flare up talk back rant act defensively cutting rave and go on and on a gentle spirit will not whine and whimper or act persecuted or take on a martyr complex so we see not only women but to the church to the bride of Christ it is written put on gentleness and humility it's a gentle tender me considerate disciplined and controlled spirit it also talks about a quiet spirit what does it mean to be quiet and a peaceful spirit a spirit that is at peace with God and with itself and that builds peace with its loved ones husband maybe the family a quiet spirit specks peace all throughout its home and around everyone who enters its own so God is saying this is a something which he really values and this spirit is like an adornment usually we like to adorn ourselves outwardly to enhance our beauty or presenting ourselves well but God is saying more than that he's not against it but he's more than that he's looking at our hearts what are we putting on inside where no one else can see and only God can see he's saying that a gentle and a quiet spirit he values and it is imperishable all the jewels we wear perish but this is very valuable and imperishable in God's sight that is what this scripture is mentioning and also we he's talking about an example of Sarah Sarah we all know that she is Sarai her name was my princess the meaning of Sarai but God changed her name to Sarah mother of many nations and we have to remember as Abraham is the pioneer and father of faith Sarah is also a mother of faith and we never think of Sarah in the lines of that she had a quiet and gentle spirit but when we look at when we nearly meditate on her life the the life she went through we see that he this gentle spirit is man if it is very easy to be gentle when everything everything around is working out very well but our gentleness it is tested when the the circumstances around us are very pressing and when we are not comfortable in that position we all know that Abraham was called out from his people from his nation to live everything and to without knowing the address where he had to go he started you had to start traveling towards that place believing in God just imagine we all it is called traveling came from a word called travail travail is a word which speaks about intense pain or discomfort we go through a travail can be like a mother giving birth to a child so in in those days traveling was so difficult traveling was so dangerous going to do strange places and all but in those places she agreed with her husband to follow God in faith to go to those places if i were there i would have agitated leaving my home leaving my comfortable all the people whom i love everything to live everything back and walk with my husband to the place where God is showing and you also have to remember that they don't have anyone to fall back they were pioneers of faith so they were walking only with the voice of God speaking to them once in a while they did not have written scripture they did not have a body of believers to first comfort them or strengthen them guide them through we have to keep those things in mind when we are talking about Sarah and Abraham and we have to remember that at 75 years Abraham left his place with his even he wanted God wanted to live everything but in the beginning he had to travel with his father and also with his nephew lot we all know that but i'm not dwelling on that you know it's very difficult to travel we don't know where you're going where you're going to next place of dwelling and they were not going alone they had 318 people born in their home warriors so you can understand how many sets of people are traveling families are traveling along with them and the the herds and all the animal husbandry that is following them you can understand the magnanimity of the travel they're traveling towards and here God is saying her heart is so beautiful and in Genesis 12 you say you can see there Abraham saying to his wife in 12th chapter when they then they had to face a once 12th chapter 10 and 11 verses now there was a famine in the land and Abraham went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe as he was about to enter Egypt he said to his wife sarai i know what a beautiful woman you are when the Egyptians see you they will say this is his wife then they will kill me and but will let you live say you are my sister so that i will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you this is what Abraham saying to his wife sarai this is not after they started and traveled to Egypt that is saying to his wife you have to understand that even before they started their journey in Genesis 20 you see that he says in um he's talking to Abimalek the king Abraham replied said to myself there is surely no fear of God in this place and they will kill me because of my wife honey one one more thing 12th verse he said i said to her this is how you can show your love to me everywhere we go say of me he is my brother this is what Abraham wanted sarai to say wherever they went to the strange lands and you have to understand the threat was very real they used to they if the wife is beautiful they'll just kill the husband and take her away your fear his fears are not um they're valued they are genuine fears and i don't understand how sarai agreed to that because for a woman giving her life is very easy but giving her honor to sacrifice her honor is very difficult i don't know i see a deep relationship a friendship a understanding of her husband fears and a deep and she had a strong faith in the in the god who called us called them during that time even though she's not expressive but you see a a quiet spirit in her a gentle spirit in her she's not talking back or in anger for what all Abraham is doing because every time they travel every time they they are going through a travail so many problems but she is always you never see her talking in it she's very quiet and gentle because god the spirit of god is saying that i could understand as a woman woman myself if i am in her shoes how will i feel in that situations in the pressure in the pressure they are going through and she was promised they were promised a child she waited for nine years after the promise i don't know how long we wait for the promises to be fulfilled in our lives but we are very quick to judge when sarah so many times here we see her so beautiful and sarupa i think the time is up but can you yeah you can conclude now yeah okay sorry and uh you see her so beautifully and how god rescues her and i just wanted to highlight jesus he has rescued sarah but jesus gave his life and he has sacrificed his honor and his holiness on the cross for each one of us that we may be part of his family so we see a great sacrifice we have received and made part of god's kingdom and as it's bride of christ god wants us to put on this quiet and gentle spirit which is not easy but with the spirit with the help of the holy spirit god god will enable us thank you sir sorry for that no problem at all thank you there's a wonderful message thank you um yeah um i was i was wondering you know what you are going to share actually as a imperishable vessel in god's sight and i never really looked at sarah i know most times we we look at abraham's life and study you know abraham and he's he's out there you know up there in front very tall figure with regards to faith and all that so you know very visible out there but normally we we know that sarah laughed and you know we so we kind of not i don't know at least me personally i not really spend time studying and looking into sarah's life so this was quite my hope now thank you thank you rupa so um yeah a gentle spirit quiet spirit um now to god looks at it as something very precious like something that that that beautifies a person um and something that that is a like a beautiful jewel and it's amazing to see that the character of the heart is seen as something that's that's like a jewel that's something precious and something that beautifies uh one of the inside and yeah and and also the inside that you know your gentleness will be tested you know it's it's easy to be gentle with gentle people people who are gentle but people who are aggressive and people who are loud and who are arrogant maybe and rude it's uh and it's so much more challenging to continue to be gentle right and i think that's where the that's where god's spirit helps us to do that and yeah so thank you for sharing that i think it was a very detailed study and you know as a teacher you know just went i think from the basics and the text and the you know even describing the title and the sermon title and the topic and yeah so very very very detailed etc yeah so my only thing is of course time you know you can be mindful of that and yeah mindful of that and and probably you know certain things you can cut down and just mention and then keep going when it comes to time and then you know it's it'll be even even more impactful right because we really wanted to hear you know the whole especially a topic like this you know we would want to hear the whole thing and yeah so planning according to time that will really help you to even finish on a very high impact kind of a note right yeah yeah yeah it was good absolutely no no need to apologies at all we were blessed thank you and i just wanted to share something yeah yeah this message is directly i never meditated on it but one day one hindu she was just coming to faith and she came to me and said why didn't you compare our gods with your god then i said how can i compare something nothing with something everything god is everything and we cannot compare which is nothing there is no nothing there so then when i sat there holy spirit god started revealing this character to me and i was just standing in awe of that because i never saw sarah like that before but when i saw it and the love and the way god let those people from faith to faith abraham and sarah from faith to faith but so it touched my heart and it was very powerful and when i was praying god wanted me to share it with you with our friends also thank you right wonderful thank you thank you so much right okay so uh yeah we've come to the end of this last session so um this thing so um uh i just wanted to say that wednesday this that is today we are monday to wednesday um uh we okay let me just stop the recording um just stay with me for a minute please


The word doctor scares people sometimes. In the ICU, we take away that hierarchy and we're all one level. We're one team. The thing that we're trying not to do is the kind of old doctor-nurse game, which I kind of paraphrase as Tarzan. Me, Tarzan, you, Jane. But rather, you know, we're colleagues working together on the patient. I really feel like that is the culture of Kaiser. It's embraced. It's not looked upon as, you know, be quiet or mind your manners. If people don't feel comfortable speaking up, there may be a problem that goes unsolved. This is a job that requires different disciplines to all come together. The doctor makes a diagnosis, makes a plan, writes orders, but it's all the other professions that provide the care that the person needs. So we work together. I call that the grand jury because you stand before all of these people in rounds and they are in different areas of the medical field and you have to present your case. We have our dieticians, we have the pharmacists, the intensivists, our DA and our clinical nurse specialist, as well as the social worker and on occasion our chaplain comes too. We meet room-to-room with all of our ICU patients. It's a way that you can give information to the family and also allow the family to see how many people are actually caring for their loved one. It is time-consuming, but it's very thorough. Things aren't missed. It's, well, it's just different than what I'm used to. With one of my patients today, we had a different order than I'm not used to seeing. So I did question it to the doctor. How would, oh, you did that? Okay. Our dietician stepped in and she was like, oh no, that was me. I put that order in and she explained why and enlightened all of us. I talk to the nurses all the time about speaking up because we value their opinion, they're part of the team and they feel part of the team. The respect you give them, the opportunity to let them think and suggest as opposed to constantly telling them what to do, all of those little things over time, they'll build trust and then they'll build comfort. I love it because we are a team and I think that makes Kaiser so different because we can talk freely and we can work together and we can be successful in so many different ways.


We kick off this week. President Mohamed Abouhari has urged businessmen and contractors to benefit other people as they also benefit from the government by giving back to the society in engaging in corporate social responsibility. The president, according to a statement by senior special assistant on media and publicity, Malam Gharba Shehu, stated during the visit to the Emir of Daurah, Dr Omar Farooq Omar, at its palace in Daurah on Friday. The Emir said the president must remain focused in getting results, particularly in securing the country.


My point is, stop lying on God. I'm not saying that the spirit didn't move. He does move.  So God is not looking for him to show us miracles. He's looking for us to show him and others his love. I don't believe that the miracles and all of that stuff is cease, but I do believe that a lot of the foolishness that we do see in the churches where people, you know, got their heads on the forehead and flipping up and down the aisles and all of that stuff. I do believe that that stuff is, you know, is not a God and it's not the spirit moving. But there are some people who still will consider a person who holds my position in yours as a continuationist. So how would you kind of explain that position to where we believe that God can still use people, but we're kind of skeptical of some of the stuff that we do see in churches? How do you believe that a person can't? Well, I think you said it the other night, spoiler alert, but how would you explain that a person, you know, who does believe that a person can't speak in tongues and still, you know, miraculously heal a person, you know, by the workings of the Holy Spirit? I tell them and I don't, if I'm talking to someone who doesn't know me, who's not familiar with me on the channel or just in general, I just tell them, yeah, God can move. I agree with that. I absolutely believe that without even a but. And then I'll ask him, and don't you think that when he does move, everyone will know it. It'll be obvious. And they're gonna say, yes, what charismatic or what continuation is gonna say that when he moves, it's not obvious. And then we look at the Bible every time he moves. And I mean, every time he moves. God is not a secret agent of power. He doesn't just do stuff, let me just do this and no one knows. Now there's a lot of things that he does that no one knows about, or we don't pay attention, we take for granted, such as keeping this dog on globes spinning and keeping the sun hot and keeping gravitation right where it's supposed to be. He does those things we take for granted, but there's other things that he does that we don't think about, that we don't even realize.  How do I know? Because exhibit A, you're right there. And so we don't think about that, that maybe someone had designs on us and the devil does. He desires to set all of us, he desires to destroy all of us. And so I would say, so let's just make sure we don't misrepresent God. Meaning if someone comes and pretends to be our father and they show him as a clown or as a buffoon, we're not gonna accept that. We're not going to accept someone misrepresenting our own family member, father or mother or us or our children and so forth. And so we're not gonna accept someone misrepresenting God as well. When he shows up, we don't have to worry. And this is why I say the whole cessations continuations argument is really not a, it's kind of a moot point because for those who are continuationists, you don't have to worry about cessation is not believing in the move of the spirit. If that's what you think, cause they do though, but you don't have to worry about that because when he does move, everyone knows it. You don't have to worry about cessation is thinking that they can't speak in tongues or thinking about that there is no gift of healing. There's no process. You don't have to worry about that because every time it happened, it happened at the behest of the spirit, not the person. The person didn't conjure that up. The spirit moved upon them. The first folks speaking tongues in the Bible, they didn't know they were gonna speak it. Matter of fact, every time someone spoke in tongues in the Bible that we see an actual biblical account, they didn't know ahead of time. They didn't say, Lord, give us this ability to speak in these languages, they just happened. That is as the spirit moved when someone was healed. That is as the spirit moved. They didn't decide, I wanna heal. If that were the case, then Paul would never say, tell someone, tell Tim, take a little alcohol, get you a little wine for your stomach or trophomess is still sick. That wouldn't be the case because they know the move of the spirit is not on command.  When the Holy Spirit moves, he moves, irrespective of what you want to do. So if tongues are legitimate, the tongues that we see, when the Lord moves on me, then I'll speak them. I will speak in tongues when the Lord moves. You will too, but if you wanna go do it in tongues, that is not biblical. There's no where in the Bible where someone speaks in tongues on command. Let's pray in the spirit.  Laying your hands on someone, that was never on command either. If the spirit moves, he moves, irrespective of you. Do you think you and me have the ability to stop the spirit if he moves? If the Lord wants to use Alton's hands to bring someone back to life and Alton's kinda, I don't know, but no, I guess what Alton's gonna do. If the spirit comes upon him, Alton's hands, bam, he's alive or he's healed. Whether I think it or not, whether I feel like it or not, that's not the case. And so, so the cessations don't have to worry about what continuations believe. Continuation, I'm sorry, continuations don't have to worry about cessations believe. So since the charismatic movement is growing, then that means that God is doing something and God is working. So therefore we shouldn't be questioning the move of the spirit and all of that stuff. So how do you address those claims that, well, this must be of God because it's moving and people are starting to accept Jesus now and it's only majority through the charismatic. It's literally the dumbest argument that you can make. Really? So because it's large and growing, that means that it must be the Lord. As though all of these warnings that we have about people, about false prophets and about people in mass being led astray, that's not, so if this, because the charismatic movement is growing, well, tell me, apply what God is saying. Apply this passage, these passages speak about how people will not endure sound doctrine. Where does that come from? So touting numbers is a silly thing. Again, few are they that find it, these are Jesus' word. So if when Jesus says that there will be few, irrespective of whether they're charismatic or not, continuations of cessationist or biblical continuations, it doesn't matter, there's only gonna be a few.  And so the mere fact that you've got a large number and it's growing, well, think about this. If it was so much, but if charismatic, if the whole notion is this is an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon people, the Lord is moving through His Spirit upon people on the earth, that's a lot of folks that are saved. And if that's the case, well then, shouldn't the world be affected? Because even the detractors of Christianity early on said that these people, these apostles, these Christians, they are what, turning the world upside down. That was then, there's more Christians now. And so if the Holy Spirit is even in greater usage and the power is greater now, or just like it was then, then shouldn't we see the world still turned upside down? But we don't see that. Now, I'm not blaming Charismatics on this. I want you all to hear me. I'm not blaming Charismatics on this. But I was using this to prove a point. If the charismatic movement is so powerful, and even in America, or Africa, or Asia, or Europe, two things I want to ask them, why is the place, the places that you see the least amount of Charismatics are the places where there's the most persecution? In other words, in Northern Nigeria, you don't have a whole lot of Charismatics in the Central and Southern part of Nigeria, you do. You don't see a whole lot of Charismatics in North Korea or in China. You know why? You don't have to have time for that. So if it's gonna be true, it better be true. But more to the point though, what we have seen in the world is an increase in lawlessness, like the Bible said. What we see is the love of many waxing coal. We see more crime, more debauchery. Wait a second, how is the presence of the Holy Spirit so great, so thick, so powerful, but it's not affecting society? We got a problem then. So my point is, stop lying on God. I'm not saying that the Spirit doesn't move. He does move. But do you know how he wants to see, how we ought to see the Spirit moving people? By you going to your neighbor and helping him. By you going to someone and sharing the gospel with him. By you praying for someone.  That's why he said, let your light so shine that men will see your good work and then glorify God. Not by you, hominah, hominah, hominah, and missing that and falling out. That is not how it's done. It's by your actions in your, through your heart happening, people see your light shining by what you do. Hey, can you pray for me? No, I'll do you one better. I'll pray with you. By you showing love for them. The love of God compels us to do these things and also the terror and the fear of him. And so God has never been interested in seeing. God is not impressed by himself, I'm sorry, not by, God is not impressed by his own miracles. That's what it, that God's miracles, you know what that is for him? A regular day. So God is not looking for him to show us miracles. He's looking for us to show him and others his love. To show the power of him in us, how in spite of what we're going through, let me tell you what the Holy Spirit, true power looks like. And some of y'all might wanna go ahead and take a pen and write this down. True power, the Holy Spirit really looking like something in someone's body, in someone's life, is when you're going through something and you still keep your peace.  You're going through something and you're still talking about the goodness of the Lord. The power of Paul is not his power, not the Lord working through him, but the power of Paul is what he said while he's going through. Paul's writing these letters while he's going through something in prison. Paul's writing this stuff even while he's being persecuted. That's the power of the Holy Spirit.  You might wanna lift the hood up, look in there and examine yourself to see if you actually have Christ. Because your Christ seems to be dependent on things, seems to be dependent upon signs like a wicked and adulteration generation looks for. That's what seems to be your Holy Spirit.    I submit to you that you are either not a Christian with no Holy Spirit or a very weak one. And if that's the case, sit back, relax, and watch the others that are filled with the Spirit do the job of a true believer. That is to live out the gospel in word and deed. Amen.


Okay, here's the kivy video. Thank you, John Joseph. This cannot be a real thing. Oh God, I'm so excited.   I'm genuinely shocked by that who shared that was that you John John. Thank you for sharing that Oh my god, I've never been more impressed by a republican in my entire life. We've got to watch this again They are um We're getting us Excuse me a slight increase in the number of doses that we'll be getting because If okay, is there more of this press conference because I feel like if this went on she'd be like And then she'd be like Like how bad does it get I she just like she doesn't miss a beat. That's what's so amazing to me. She just keeps going Okay, I'm so sorry. I'm gonna lose viewers if I harp on this But we've got to watch it at least a couple more times.  She's not even like trying to conceal it.  Um, okay. I have to retweet this first of all Because I want to make sure that I don't lose this What should I say What a best speech from a republican ever, um, what are the reactions here?  Okay I'm genuinely stunned Another of the mic. Oh my oh my goodness Hey, I read a stank.  I don't even know what they're saying It's funny though.  How did I not see this before this stream? Oh my god, can we watch it again one more time folks? I promise There's slight increase in the number of doses there. Um, okay this time. Let's watch for the reactions for the other people We're getting us. Excuse me a slight increase in the number of doses that we'll be getting to the state You can't see the reactions Oh my god We're getting us. Excuse me a slight increase in the number of doses that we'll be getting to the state Folks, I I'm speechless I don't I don't know what to say My respect for kiv Skyrocketed Um Look, maybe this is a little bit too soon But uh, I'm gonna say it Kiv 2024 I would actually vote for I would actually vote for I would actually vote for 2024 I would actually vote for her over bernie sanders just because of this burp Um, I care more about that burp and normalizing this culture Then uh, everyone having healthcare. That's such a sigma bell Why aren't more people talking about the kiv burp? Let me do a quick google search. I like i'm actually offended That more people aren't Mentioning this. Let me just google kiv burp if if there's if that one was so like Loud and obvious odds are there's more burps right Um, I see a couple of parodies here. I'm afraid to click on them, but let's do it Uh, you had the music too loud my dude I mean when you when the burp takes a back seat to the music You kind of fail there. Let's let's see here's somebody reacting to it I just need to see more people reacting to this This is a video of the governor of alabama memaw kiv burping memaw during a press conference. Let me roll the clip How is he just I love my state How is he just still facing it? How old is this too by the way?