ge it to an even skimpier swimsuit here's 20 bucks oh yeah baby touch me like that oh yeah why don't you get deep into that microphone and and whisper me some sweet nothing zero 50 bucks stuff like that we didn't call well we didn't have experiences like that we i mean we had phone sex lines when i was a kid i guess you like paid by the minute so i guess we technically had that so i shouldn't say it didn't exist when i was a kid it was just different but we didn't call it simps where the actual term came from i have no idea i'm not i'm not a youngin so i have no idea where where the term actually came from but yeah it's not like it didn't exist when i was younger we just i don't know like we had a name for it i mean you can say creeper but i have no i don't know if we had a specific name for it hey quick question guys so i know nintendo fixes the joycon drift for free but if you're in north america for sure but what about pro controller drift i don't know um all all i would say hose is called nintendo's customer support uh you usually get through pretty quickly and you can literally ask them hey is this is this covered by your joycon repair will you repair drift in my thing or do i have to pay a fee just ask the support that's what's nice customer support just a phone call away i think it's 24 hours you might even be able to call them right now i don't think it's only during certain hours but i can't remember it's been a while since i've called customer support so but i had a very very positive experience last time i talked to customer support and that's before they realized i was a youtuber um it wasn't until like uh 15 minutes into the conversation the guy's like wait a second you're a youtuber aren't you i'm like yeah how do you know do i recognize that voice word are you nintendo prime it was kind of weird seeing customer support recognize me like cool um but like that's not how the conversation started so they were being nice to me before they even realized who i was so um what do you think that's not me trying to think i'm a big deal i thought it was really weird that someone at nintendo's customer support watches my videos but i guess they're just i suppose that the customer support people are probably just like gamers that want to work at nintendo and i'm sure the job pays you know okay like 15 bucks an hour or something you know i'm sure it's fine and you get to work at nintendo and tell people you're working nintendo i mean that's that's gonna be enough for some people you know nothing wrong with that make that shot yes sweet it's a really tight game between milwaukee and the utah jazz right now four point game with three minutes ago bucks up four on the road bucks have not won by the way fun fact milwaukee bucks have not won in utah since 2001 that's how long it's been like and for how great the bucks have been the last three years they lost all three of their games in utah because they only play utah twice a year once at home once on the road it's like they just don't beat utah on the road so if they win today this is huge especially with brook lopez back i know he's not in right now because you know they're working on back in the game shape but cool um i've actually broken analog stick on one of your joycon have you damn dude nintendo has the nicest customer support the game stop supports that great i mean game stop game stops experience varies very different store to store so all right well i think we are going to call that a stream we're not getting too many more questions um hotel tunes is what do you think of video game cartoons and i liked them when i was a kid you know i still like the zelda cartoon to this day joycons are hard to put on when someone uses my switch and it's hard to put them back on joycons are hard to put on when someone uses my switch what they break the lock that's the only thing i can think of is that the lock broke all right well i'm gonna catch you guys later you guys are awesome um an amazing and i thank you guys so much for the support we got we had uh what 64 dollars in super chat tonight that's awesome we didn't get to the great hundo we also didn't get a big a big boy in to do a custom rap today that's okay you're not gonna get that every live stream besides it was jaylo jaylo drops those big ones once in a while we don't get a lot of people that go for the big boys uh maybe maybe that'll happen tomorrow night now normally guys tomorrow night i would be doing a game stream i'm actually moving this week's game stream to friday and we're going to be doing a marty card eight deluxe um tournament stream and hopefully have the new tracks we can play so that's where we're going to move it we're going to feature the marty card eight deluxe dlc this friday so should be fun should be fun so we'll catch you guys then um otherwise we have a brand new video dropping tomorrow as always maybe multiple who knows depends on the news


As I was driving here about an hour or so ago, I actually haven't been to any other Masjid in the Bay Area, this Ramadan, except SBIA, my own Masjid. I've done a little bit of traveling and maybe a few fundraisers here and there. I chose for this Ramadan to be a fairly focused Ramadan for myself, just so that I could spend some time with the Quran, really, and just focus on my Ebadah. The year is very, very busy and there's a lot that's going on, despite that I've been to the East Coast twice in the last six days. I flew, came back, flew and came back. The reason I share all of this is because as I was taking the exit and as I was driving down, I was reminded that it wasn't too long ago that I did a fundraiser for MCC in Ramadan while I was in an empty room and a computer in front of me. You remember that, COVID, where all of us were glued to our screens. And I recall, I actually vividly recall just sitting there, an empty room, computer, a camera in front of me and trying to raise funds and we were successful, Alhamdulillah. But Allah SWT has brought us a very, very long way since then. And one thing that I have been talking to a lot of people about, there's one massive problem that every Masjid in America has had this year. And that is space issues. Every single Masjid is full. No matter whether you talk to people who are praying in a community center, people praying inside a Mosalla, people praying inside a large Masjid, wherever it may be, the Masjids are packed. And it almost seems like there's new faces. Like I look around the room and there's so many people, I just don't know. And a few years ago that was not the case. It was almost like we knew most people that we came to the Masjid. If I wouldn't know you by name, I at least knew you by face. Like, yeah, that's a familiar face. So almost like the entire, as I came home today, earlier today, I was just talking to my brother. He goes, how was Juma? And I said it was packed. He said the exact same thing for me. In other words, brothers and sisters, the reason I share all of this is because the Masjids are full. The Masjids are being utilized to their maximum capacity, potentially even beyond their maximum capacity. Parking, water bill, gas bill is just packed. And the people are coming and there's a sign that everyone loves Allah SWT. Everyone wants to get close to Allah SWT. And Allah SWT has chosen for us to be amongst those individuals. We all have a place to pray. We're not praying outside. We're being, we're all fed. I'm sure everyone here, you're full. Alhamdulillah. Maybe it was Friday, you ate a little more than you should have. And if you ate less, it was out of choice, not because you didn't have food. We didn't make iftar with grass today as people in Gaza are reported to have been making. We have a lot to be grateful for. We have a lot to be grateful for. And I say this, and I say this again, that everything in our orbit is a part of our nasiib. Generally when we think nasiib, it is, we usually think of money. We usually think young people, when they hear the word nasiib, they're thinking of, spouse, marriage, yeah, nasib.com. But in any case, young people, when we hear the word nasiib, we have all these things that we think of. But in reality, our family is our nasiib. Our community is our nasiib, is our risk. Our local masjid is a part of our risk, is a part of the sustenance that Allah has given to us. For us to be able to pray behind an individual who recites the Qur'an so beautifully, we know if we go to the MCC for Salatul Tarawih, we are going to get a class tarawih, insha'Allah. We're not going to have any issues with our tarawih, insha'Allah. We're going to go for prayers, we're going to get a good khatib. This is all part of our nasiib. This is all part of our nasiib. And before I begin asking for funds, brothers and sisters, I just want you to close your eyes for a few seconds and to be able to say Alhamdulillah. Ya Allah, I'm grateful to you for these amazing blessings that you have given to me in order for me to remain a good practicing Muslim for some of us in a land far away from home where we couldn't have even imagined this some years ago. And Ya Allah, we're grateful to you for this. And we ask you that this remain a blessing for us for as long as we live. Amen Ya Rabbil Alamin. Brothers and sisters, it goes without saying, none of these things happen for free. All these lights that are turned on, these TVs that happen to be there, the hot water that we use, the water that we flush, the parking lot that gets paved, all this costs a lot of money. And this is not back home where we can get things done under. Everything has to be up to code, everything is permitted, everything costs money and this costs a lot of money. Also, I want to share, if this community wouldn't have been generous, if you wouldn't have been people who would give, no one would be asking you. People only come to people who give. If you happen to be a giver, naturally someone's going to come knock on your door and say, can you please help me?  They're going to move on to the next door. This is a very, very generous community. We ask Allah SWT that may Allah SWT facilitate for us to be successful in our fundraising tonight. Do we have our first donor, someone who's going to start us off tonight with $25,000 who believes that this happens to be their Masjid? This has been a good year for them. Allah SWT has blessed them immensely and Allah SWT has been very, very kind to them and they feel like this Masjid has done immensely for their family, for themselves, and they feel like they're in a place, in a beautiful place right now, where they can make that contribution of $25,000. No Purvesh Bhai made it very clear. He told me in my ear as well before he came up. He said, there's no promises yet. We haven't done any pre-fund raising. So we're simply just asking for your generosity. Is there one individual or one family who's willing to say that I'm willing to make a contribution of $25,000 to my local Masjid? If you do the math, it's about $2,000 a month. It is a lot of money. $25,000 is not easy to come. It's very, very difficult, but I really want you to look into your heart. Think of what this Masjid has done for you. Think of what Allah SWT has done for you. Think of the rewards with Allah SWT and no one would come to you unless you were a generous individual. Unless you were a generous family. We plead and we ask for your generosity tonight. Do we have someone to start us off at $25,000? One individual or one family who says, you know what, I can do this, inshallah. It's a little bit of a push. It's a little bit of a stretch, but it's something that I can do. Do we have our first individual at $25,000? May Allah bless you and your family. May Allah reward you and your family. We ask Allah SWT to inspire one of us in this room to raise our hands at $25,000. Brothers, I know we all have to pray tarawih. Myself included, but we need to make this happen. It's very, very difficult. Anyone at $25,000? We'll make this easy, inshallah. Do we have two individuals at $15,000? Do we have our first donor tonight at $15,000? Someone, you'll be careful. You scratch your nose. Someone scratched their nose. I got happy, masha'Allah. Anyways, whoever scratched their nose, may Allah grant them tofi to make that $15,000 contribution soon, inshallah. Say, Ameen. Anyone at $15,000, brothers and sisters, we have one. Takbir. Allahumma atimun fikham salakha. Say, Ameen. Do we have a second individual at $15,000? A second individual or a second family at $15,000? Oh, you want me to speak here? Okay, sorry. Sorry, that's okay. That's okay. Got three microphones now. Does that mean three times the money? Okay, a second individual. A second individual to match our first contributor at $15,000. Do we have anyone at $15,000, brothers and sisters? We got to have at least one person in the room, inshallah. I'm hoping that you're about to raise your hands for $10,000, but Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will grant you the tofi to raise your hands at $15,000. Do we have a second individual to start us off tonight, inshallah? A brother or a sister? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has been very, very kind to you and this is something that you feel that you want to do to do your part for your local community. May Allah bless you and your families, inshallah. Our second donor at $15,000 will come, inshallah. Brothers and sisters, there's not a single masjid in the Bay Area that facilitates five Jumu'ah prayers. There's not a single one. In fact, MCC is not just one of the largest and quickest growing masjids in the Bay Area. It's probably one of the quickest growing masjids in the entire country. I haven't seen any community grow this fast. It's a humongous masjid. It's a humongous operation, very large operation. That's why we're really appealing to your generosity. Do we have anyone last call at $15,000?  At this point, the onus is on you. The onus is on every single one of us. If you can give $1,000, whatever you can give, please give for the sake of your masjid. Honestly, don't think that you're doing the masjid favor. By giving that $1,000, just thank Allah that Allah has put you within a few minutes, a few miles of one of the most vibrant, most beautiful masjids in this country. And you just want to thank Allah. And you just want that this blessing remains with you and your family and your progenies for as long as they live. These are things you don't plan. These are things, right? If you would have moved to Pleasanton 15 years ago, this was not, this didn't happen, right? These things, you don't plan them. Allah plans everything. Allah plants you in different places. May Allah bless us all and reward us all. Jazakumullahu khil once again to all of you for your generosity. I apologize for coming between you and your Salatul Tarawih. Please forgive me and my family. In these blessed nights, make dua'at for the entire ummah. Make dua'at for me. Let's make dua'at for yourselves. Make dua'at for your families. Make dua'at for the entire community. And make dua'at for our reciters who lead us in Salatul Tarawih every night. Especially for our elder teacher, my brother Qari Amr. May Allah bless him and reward him and his family. And may Allah grant jannah to his parents and to his teachers who have passed away who facilitated him for this community. May Allah bless all of us. Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi ta'ala wabarakatuh. Is that a hand up? Mashallah, what is that? 52? I don't know, 52 inshaAllah. May Allah bless you inshaAllah. Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.


What's everybody JC from Jeff these case breaks calm 2020 tops triple threads baseball hobby nine box intercase break picker team number 18 Just sold out and we sold this one out straight up guys straight up. No R&B's no nothing Here you go. All right guys. So here you go. Let's open this up And again, this is the second half of The last inner a jock walk. All right. We got Mike Trout and Nolan Aronato So Matt L with the angels Jonathan Kent with the Rockies ours today as a Pino and will Clark DJ poor with the Reds Giants Randy Ramos Lobosha and Jordan Alvarez We got a Larry Walker six out of nine It's batting average 371 That is Colorado Rockies Jonathan Kent Little pinstripe. I'm at Rosario Jose Altuve at 36 Fung with the Astros and David Peralta tonight or not for the d-backs when a Nick G My first box down What's that? Do you have some dinner somewhere here? There you go. All right, we got Chipper Jones to 235 and Glaber Taurus to 299 Yankees Lazardo Bass and Bray is just going to Matt Chris Bryant to 99 and Aquino Kahluas I've got Jeff McNeil Michael Comfort. I'm at Rosario triple relic 27 out of 27 It's gonna go to the Mets and Nick Stober Dominic Smith a little double pinstripe to 75 another one for Mets and Nick and those seconds the last spot mojo right there Paul Goldschmidt Could have been another one there for you Nicholas, but That is a hard nose edition two out of 18 And And Glaber Taurus eight out of 27 little pinstripe relic That is last spot mojo Yankees going to Matt. All right next box Yeah, TJ, I kind of want to do that absolute tonight. I think tonight's the perfect night to do stuff like that Since after this it's not really too many breaks that are I mean there's no breaks that are sold out after this We're not gonna roll in since we started but this was the last one here I think definitely try to rally my absolutes at a good price point under 40 bucks I have that I'm a girl junior And wholesale to be Cody Bellinger Yeah, 34.99 not expensive at all All right. See you later. Bye. Have a good drive safe drive. We got Alex Bregman 27 out of 27 Houston Astra's going to phone That absolute was pretty good though guys for the price point definitely to 99 Matt Dice Gary Sanchez nine out of nine another one for the Yankees and how about a triple autograph Walker view or Gavin Lux and Dustin May 19 out of 36 Dodgers going to TJ There you go Very nice. Maybe there's multiple case hits on this side Potential white will as well Yeah, guys, let's get that absolute role and I got said tonight's a perfect night to get some of those breaks Done tonight. I'm gonna sit. I'm usually still here till 10 o'clock. That's usually my eight hours right there from two to ten But I usually tend to stay Couple hours extra to about midnight maybe one o'clock when it's rocking and rolling but right now Hey after this we're not the really rally on some of these breaks I know people are watching some football, especially the World Series right now bottom of the sixth inning I think once Once this World Series is over with Think people might Come over to the case breaking side and maybe potentially start working on some breaks. Oh There you go. Todd Reardon Says I dare you to do the same It's going on top. All right, Willie Mays and Eloy Heminus Freddie Freeman, Tony Gwynne Matt Olson three out of three. How about that? That's a very nice looking one From the start Nice patches Oakland going to Howard and a little Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. Nice three out of 25 Lugins Ian Hap Seven or nine Next over and how man another triple autograph for the Dodgers this time. It's Corey seager Gavin Lux and Max Muncie. Jesus Nice break for the Dodgers very nice Not one But two triple autos Right here hot case, maybe hot case. I know it's like my Jason Dodger I guess right not Dodger Joe. This feels like a book. There's a book in here guys There is a book what it is, but there's a book Brandon McKay and Raphael Devers Pete Alonzo and Josh Donaldson Austin Riley, and we got a redemption guys I have no idea what this is Let's take a look rookie autographed card printing plate. Whoo. It's printing plate one-on-one of Bo Bouchette and TJ poor also picking up the blue jays. They have a rookie autograph card printing plates There you go. Very nice. Man. This case is loaded these And we also have a booklet coming up with 10. Yeah, we have a booklet coming up. Alright, let's leave that book there and Trey Turner 27 and we have a 2020 Letter plus autograph relic book card. I have no idea who this is. I didn't look. Let's take a look Good luck guys Wow three out of three and it's another lot of brave chipper Jones Whoo Matt There you go, man three out of three chipper Jones Braves hot case that is awesome.  Just got to go grab one. So just leave it over here. Very nice All right guys, well, we're pretty much halfway there. We got four more boxes including this one here What an inner case guys, honestly, Jesus Christ Good printing plate, which technically could be a white wheel Triple auto and a booklet Sometimes these cases are just extremely hot the Alcubara and Whitmerfield Reese Hoskins and Boba chef And we got Brandon Lowe Or is it Lowe Lowe? little future stars 7275 Tampa Bay rays as we're in a mass y'all on Moncada white talks And a John Garrett we got Wilson Contreras To 27 for the Cubs by the next over and David Peralta 41 out of 50 for the D-vax All right, three more boxes. I think we have a white wheel still on this side Jesus What an inner case Garrett Cole Mark McGuire Ozzie Smith Don Manley Burnham and Kay Alex Rodriguez 16 out of 27 legend Yankees Last one will join a map and how about more for the Yankees last one module 68 out of 75 Miguel and do hard You have a one-on-one white will Elvis Andrus Wow Texas Rangers going to Gary Goldberg What a case steady Elvis and clean Churchill 4 to 18 for the Dodgers All right, two more boxes. So guys man, the hits are still coming Absolutely down to 10 guys. So there you go. It was at 16 the last time I seen it Later the whistle man stuff two boxes left Could be some Marlins in here All right, I'm Jim McCutcheon and Josh Donaldson Scherzer and Derek Jeter for the race right alone Dustin May one out of ten and Nice break for the Dodgers All right, Christian. Well, like I said if it breaks tonight awesome Good luck if it some reason it doesn't which I don't see now if it's in single digits We will We'll definitely get it done soon. So let's get it going guys. How about more for the Dodgers will Smith? 76 out of 99 and Luke Voight the Dodgers were like 225 something something That crazy high I want to say Dodgers were 230 actually 230 bucks Yeah, Cory, I don't know if you heard me the first time man, but yeah, we did it already The video is already uploaded to the to the YouTube channel man. So you just got to look for it I dropped the link last time. I don't know if you've seen it either But here you go. I'll drop it again one more time But if not, if you can't find it then I'll just have to look for yourself And I think it's right here. Give me one second. It's right here, Cory Just look for the YouTube video if you can't click that link our last box And if someone can type that in I don't know Cory has sound or not much appreciated guys All right, Tom Siever and George Brex All right, Mike Schmidt and Fernando Tatis Jr. I was fast off Jesus Little Cody Ballinger 11 out of 18. This is the last box guys and Seth Brown for the A's We got Raphael Devers nine out of nine How about that one? That's very nice right there nine out of nine Red Sox gonna Chris Walker. How about this last one is a little Luis Robert 12 out of 27? All right, well there you go guys. This is a very very nice case I mean a lot of nice stuff coming out of 999 Devers You got a Will Smith Dustin May at a 10 White whale here of Alvis Andris I mean you got a handful of case kids guys Two Dodger triple relic and autos bulb a shed rookie autograph printing plate card and I mean Besides these monster sits here, how about this three out of three booklet Chipper Jones? Hatches and the autograph So there you go guys. This was triple threads baseball nine box inter case break figure teams number 18 Jasper's case breaks.com


Welcome, welcome to Global Connections. I'm your host, Carlos Juarez, and joining me today, I've got two young leaders that are going to share a little bit about insight about their experience studying abroad at the moment. I have with me on my immediate left, Brooke Barber. Brooke is coming to us from, well, she's from Falls Church, Virginia, a student at George Mason University, and together with Haley Sieger. Haley is from Northern California, Walnut Creek, and she's a student at Denver University in Scotland. But today, both of them are joining me here in San Andres Cholula Puebla in Mexico, where they are both students studying at the University of the Americas here in Puebla. Welcome to the show, and thank you for joining me here, Brooke and Haley. Well, we'll want to take an opportunity, because of both of you, I want to first thank you for just being bold enough to leave your comfort zone, to get out of what might typically be just staying in either your home country or your home institution.  And so what we want to do is kind of reflect on that a little bit, some of the challenges, some of the issues. And I always like to say, when you have these opportunities to study or live or work abroad, it changes you. You're never the same person. But before we jump into some of that, let me just ask each of you to give us a few words about yourself.   Now you're in number two, getting close to about halfway. Tell us a little bit about yourself and maybe what motivated you to take the study abroad. Well, I'm from really close to Washington, D.C., so politics are really prevalent and relevant in that area. So of course, the study government and international relations there. So studying abroad is kind of an important part of that. Sure, yeah, a good fit. And I feel like I've had kind of a different experience because I feel like a lot of international students, they choose where they're going to study abroad based on wanting to experience something new. But beforehand, I've actually been here to Pueblo and I really liked it. And so I just wanted to come and actually experience it from year to time. Excellent. And so you had a short visit before, just was it by chance or because you had some connection or how did you end up visiting? I've been here a couple of times because my boyfriend of two and a half years, his grandparents are from here. Oh, okay. So there was a link of connection. Yeah. And then suddenly it opened up that, hey, well, there's a place I could actually go for a longer stay and actually continue my studies. So in some ways you've came back and that's different. Sometimes when you go study abroad, you might go to a place you've never been to, it's a whole new experience and you saw it at a brochure or somebody described it. You came back having seen it, but obviously a different experience to come as a tourist as it is. And we'll talk about that, what it's been like for you to assimilate it just via part of the community here because that's really what you are. And Haley, tell us a little bit about yourself.  You actually study in Scotland in the United Kingdom. So tell us a little bit about your background and how did you end up now in Mexico? Not quite California, but California was once Mexico, so you're closer to home than being in Scotland. Yeah. I originally chose Scotland because I wanted to get international perspective since I studied international relations and I still wanted to go on a year abroad, even though some people thought that was kind of weird since I'm already abroad. And I chose Mexico because being from California, I've kind of been exposed to parts of the Mexican culture and I wanted to know more about it. And I've been studying Spanish since middle school. And so I thought I'd continue learning it and experiencing it. And especially like, yeah, being from California in the US, getting a different perspective of Mexico, like the real perspective of Mexico. Yeah, and of course you say that because even in the outskirts of DC, all the major urban centers of the US, they have a large population of Mexicans, but the reality is they Mexican immigrants are everywhere. They're in the Carolinas, the Dakotas, the Midwest, meat packing plants of Kansas. Mexicans are everywhere. Of course, California Mexicans all know, used to be part of Mexico. Americans sometimes don't realize it was a large land transfer in the mid 19th century.    I mean, once you had been here before, but how you came in a different capacity, what were some of the impressions or I don't know, challenges when you first arrived?  Whereas for example, when I would come on vacation, I have like a family that would like do things for me and explain things to me. So you have to solve a lot of basic things yourself and ask questions or just figure it out. And that's different from vacation, you're in a different mentality, right? Here you're actually having to live and then shop and decide basic needs that are quite different.  I was, one thing I was really nervous about was just kind of the perception of being an American in Mexico. Was there any kind of like a hard time because I've gotten kind of a hard time about it sometimes of being in Scotland and so I expected to be a lot worse when I came here but it was the complete opposite. Everybody was excited when I say I'm from the US especially from California because they have family there, they've been there. Before I left my coworkers, some Mexican coworkers that were telling me about it and really excited for me to come. So they just got me more excited. It was like both ends of the spectrum, I'm nervous and excited and it's been better than I expected. Yeah, and I think often, because those of us, if you look at the headlines or see things happening in different parts of the world sometimes the news only covers, I don't know, the sensational news, the drama and there's no question Mexico is a country that has a lot of challenges there you have to be careful even here as a visiting international student where you're going, who you're with, use good judgment. The same as if you were any big major city of course, but especially given some of the insecurity issues, but that aside really what I wanna get at here is that often I think people are surprised at Mexico as a place where most people have normal lives if we wanna call that or they have basically a lot of, well even exciting and dynamic and rich culture and things that it's not a dull or boring experience. There's always things happening and particularly the rich diversity of the culture here and even the rich ones, if you're here in a provincial city in Mexico different from the big mega, you know, Mexico city, which is nearby. Maybe tell me a little about some of the challenges when you first arrived, things that were, you know, difficult to figure out so that you wish, you know, in retrospect you knew or you had some better idea and then maybe similarly, if there are things that you expected to be tough but turned out to be, I don't know, a lot easier than expected, anything come to mind? One thing that's definitely not an issue but it's just funny is that in America, everyone kind of runs on the schedule and it's actually in like cities and like in the metro area and stuff, it's very like structured. And here when I would be on vacation and things like, that doesn't really matter. You appreciate that there's not really like. Yeah, it's a situation but. But when you come here and you have like disabilities and you have homework and you have things to do, you really learn to appreciate like the structures that we have there. For example, like a week ago, I didn't have Wi-Fi in my apartment and I told the maintenance guy, like when it happened, you know, I need Wi-Fi and he's like, okay, like right now I'll bring it or like help me fix it. And like a week and a half later, he's like, okay, like right now I'm coming up and then it's like, what are you talking about? I already fixed it and so. So the concepts of time or even the sort of structure of managing that time are very more elastic and flexible here. And it works great in some level maybe, but also it's the kind of thing and when we learn about cross-cultural relations how to deal with these differences, you wanna sort of anticipate that and understand it. And then, you know, we often hear the, you know, phrase used in Mexico, yammerito or just a little minute and that minute can be three days or hours. And you know, you just wanna, at some point understand what that really means. And if it is important, you've got to follow through, you got to be on them more. Otherwise, you have to relax your own expectations, right? Anything you could share, Haley? Again, the things that surprised you, challenges, issues? Yeah, definitely the time thing has been hard, especially as somebody who likes to have everything planned out really well and scheduled. Like after this, I'm going to the grocery store and like I'm meeting my friend at the bus stop at four, but that definitely does not mean we're leaving. It may not be four or zero, yes. And the bus definitely does not come every 20 minutes. Like it's supposed to. Oh, the schedule says that, but maybe not, yes. But no. I guess the only other thing that's been a consistent challenge or something that I don't like is paying for water, which seems kind of trivial, but, and it really is, but. Yeah, and it is one of those sort of first world problems. You assume water everywhere you turn on, you could drink and here you want to be careful. Especially someone who might be coming from outside here, maybe your stomach is not quite used to the challenges here. And that's true of traveling to many places. You always want to be on the safe side, but yeah, having to pay them for everything, can every time you drink some water. And as you probably well know, Mexico has perhaps one of the, be the highest per capita consumption of soft drinks, of sodas. And maybe that is reflected in that there's not as much abundant water available everywhere. So a soda can be a quicker or a beer, in many cases, an easier option. Now, one of the things, and as we continue our dialogue, I mean, you've come at a time now, here we are in 2019, we've had now two over two years of the new administration, President Donald Trump. Of course, as he campaigned for office, in fact, he didn't know he was gonna be president, but at the time he had a rather, a lot of negative things to say about Mexico and the relations have been soured quite a bit. But more to the point, here you are, students from the United States studying here, and like it or not, you are cultural ambassadors. You represent that country. And when you meet people, they may have questions and puzzles, and you have to try to, part of your role as a cultural ambassador is helping them understand more about your home country, including ciliarities of politics and the puzzles of that. Have you had opportunities? I don't know, questions, awkward moments, or any times where you had to try to explain what's going on back home. And both of you are students of politics and government and international relations, so you're in a better capacity than maybe a nursing student or someone else. Nevertheless, talk a little bit about, I mean, what it means to be an American in Mexico here in 2019 or in the last year, the time you've been here. I think it's been interesting every time, some find, well not every time, but often when people find out that you're American, they always wanna ask you what you think of Trump. And I always just say like, I don't think that I would be interested in necessarily in standing abroad here for a whole year if I was that big of a fan of Donald Trump and the things that he says about Mexico. So that's been interesting, but more than that, I think, when people find out that you're American, even more than politics, they're always interested in the language and they always wanna speak to you in English and try to make that cultural connection. So that's really interesting. And I mean here, especially at the university, I mean by and large, this is a very international oriented institution and the students, particularly those like you studying internationalization, they have a good working knowledge of English. So for them, it's an opportunity to kind of perfect a little bit, practice it, improve it. And so there's a certain excitement about that. Moreover, and your peers here, the students, they have a lot of experience traveling, many of them have been US or to Europe, other places. And so they're pretty familiar with these issues, but I'm sure one of the differences about studying where not only are you in the classroom with your peers, but you're actually living here, dealing with the local community and everything that entails. As we continue, I wanna take a short break in a moment here. And as we come back, just talk a little bit about again, what are some of the things that you had to do it again or otherwise provide some tips and advice to others who are about to embark on a new journey, traveling, living, studying, working abroad. What are the kinds of things that you would put on your little checklist that many of them you may have done already to organize your structure. But there are certain, there's always things that you kinda, oh, if I had only known or if I had done this, but we'll come back after a short break to talk a little bit more about this experience. I'm delighted that you're sharing these. And I, again, I wanna thank you both for this bold decision to get out of your comfort zone, get into see the world. And as a final reflection, we'll talk a little bit about how this experience has changed you as an individual because these are life-changing experiences. We'll never quite go back to the same. It'll open up new connections, but even a new way of thinking. So as we come back, we're gonna take a short break right now. We're here on Global Connections. I'm your host, Carlos Juarez. I'm joined today by two young leaders, American students that are studying here in Mexico, Brooke Barber from George Mason University in Virginia, and Haley Zieger, who's from California, but she's studying abroad in Scotland and she's studying abroad from there in Mexico. So that complicates things even more. But join us for more on the story as we come right back in a short break. Thank you. Hey, Loja, my name is Andrew Lanning. I'm the host of Security Matters Hawaii.  We wanna teach you about those things in our industry that may be a little outside of your experience. So please join me because Security Matters. Aloha. Hi, I'm Rusty Komori, host of Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. My show is based on my book, also titled Beyond the Lines, and it's about creating a superior culture of excellence, leadership, and finding greatness. I interview guests who are successful in business, sports, and life, which is sure to inspire you in finding your greatness. Join me every Monday as we go Beyond the Lines at 11 a.m. Aloha. Aloha, and welcome back. I'm your host here, Carlos Guadiz, back on Global Connections, and joined today by Amy Barber from Virginia and Brooke Barber... Haley Zegger, I'm sorry, from California, and Brooke Barber from Virginia, but both of them are students studying abroad in Mexico at the moment. And of course, these are experiences that are so important, especially to help us understand how to function in the world today, how to develop important cross-cultural relations, even just adaptability skills, because we live in this age of a lot of interconnections, global links, and that's what we're here talking about. But also, the idea that you and preparing to come here, you obviously had some images and ideas, some checklist of things that you decided, Brooke, you had already come, so you had maybe a slight advantage, or at least having been to Mexico. In your case, Haley, you were far off in Europe and you're on your way to Mexico, so you've got a little research and reading, what do I do?  Anything come to mind? Or everything worked out? You came and planned it and everything's been... So far, everything's been good. And again, we're talking about, we're not in like Madagascar or someplace where you don't have access to Mexico, it's a pretty well-integrated place and you can find most of your needs in general. But I guess I'm just thinking more about that. The past, though, many of us like to travel and go and see the world. I'm certainly a global traveler myself. I find the more I travel, less I need and the lighter I like to travel because we often have this image of, you've got to have this, you've got to have the hair blow dry, you need this, and in the end, no. It's sometimes better to go simple and just keep it simpler. Any reflections on that or? I live alone in an apartment, so I had to come here, obviously I didn't pack up all my blankets.  I had to like buy all those things so now I'm coming back home soon. It's kind of an issue of something that I'm going to do with all those things. Exactly. I mean, you have to learn how to solve it. Keep it simple, right? And otherwise, before, for the day before, you've got to start maybe reaching out to some friends and moving it off. That's the life of a college student, in general, you accumulate stuff and we others who are arriving that need stuff. So you'll find a way. Now, maybe another angle would be this. These experiences are so crucial for us to develop our own personal growth, professional growth. You open up links and you're developing friendships that are going to be lifelong. We will know five, 10 years from now. But beyond that, I mean, I wonder if you might talk a little bit about how it's changed you, if it has. I mean, or if you're the same person, maybe just let us know that. But you think you've changed as a person, having come here and your way of thinking, your values, what are maybe, I don't know, advice that you would give others who are considering studying abroad. Should they do it, why? Or what are the kind of skills that you need to make it work? I say, yes, absolutely. Study abroad if you have the chance. I think that it's given me a more open mind in terms of being more flexible and just letting things happen as they happen and being open to different, trying different things. And I knew I would be trying different things, but it's challenged me just in a really positive way. It feels good to, you know, it's been hard. And sometimes, and getting through that makes me like feel really good and it feels, reminds me that like I can keep doing things. Yeah. And it's again, that it's sort of getting out, I said that getting out of your comfort zone because wherever we are, we develop a certain routine, a certain way of doing things. You get comfortable with that. You come to a new country, a new environment and things are never quite the same, whether it's putting a stamp on a postcard and trying to mail it or how to get the wifi service going. Things just aren't done the same way as you might know. And there's often not an instruction manual that tells you where to go, who to ask. So you have to be resourceful. And you described, I guess, the idea of open-mindedness. And that's really an important skill you develop, because you realize people do things differently. And maybe the same thing, and it's not that your way is better or there's better, but it's just different. And that's something you have to come to accept. Anything you could add, I mean, how it's changed you or what kind of skills you need? Definitely. I mean, it's been interesting learning kind of problems on a different level. But also, I'm a very shy person, naturally. And even when I speak in English, everyone always tells me to speak louder or whatever. So having to speak in Spanish is that much more of a challenge. And so it's just made me a more confident person because I have to be not necessarily because at first I wanted to be, but you have to really put yourself out there. You wanna survive. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think we can take this in jest as well. I often note that you need a sense of humor.  You're gonna do things that you may not know, you're stumbling along the way or things that are just different and odd. And if you don't have the ability to laugh, to laugh at yourself, and I don't mean laugh and make fun of others, but just to kind of take it as stride. And that's part of the open-mindedness that you described. And I wonder, maybe pushing this a little farther, what are the kind of skills that are again needed? You mentioned open-mindedness, maybe patience, maybe learning to listen carefully because often this is often maybe a criticism of none of the Americans. There's a sense of optimism or an attitude that we know how to do it and this is the answer. And sometimes you have to have a certain level of humility and just step back, observe, listen, and not always have the answers. Just see that things are being done in their own organic way and go with that flow. Anything that comes to mind for you? Knowing that things are gonna get done and they might not be getting done how you wanna do it or you might not get to do it how you would usually do it, but it's gonna work out and things will happen better than you think that they will. Yeah, yeah, that's it. Something last semester, we were talking about group projects and things. Like if you're in a group of like Mexican students, usually they're really like back and they procrastinate. Of course we procrastinate too, but we did them for a little bit more. Yeah. So, thanks for that.  So the United States is a very diverse place. You've got populations and cultures and religions all over. And it's important to learn how to bring together people with different values. You don't always get to choose your groups or your partners or your workmates. And that's I think an important skill. And as a professor, we have to somehow figure out, help you develop those skills, not just memorize things, but even working in a group project because ultimately that's the nature of what you do in the real world. You've got a team, you've got to figure out and the challenge there is how to either motivate or get people to do the right thing. They may not be the main initiators of things, but maybe they've got other skill sets that you can somehow harness. It's the challenge of cross-cultural management or intercultural management of how do you get others to do things? And maybe they're on a different system of values, of time concept or what is urgent for them and things like that. So I think you're developing those skills just in your day-to-day life, just negotiating everything from going shopping, getting a bus ride, figuring out your work assignments. All these are good examples of that. And I think ultimately the challenge that we all have is how do you work, build from that and get rid of some of the bad habits you might have if you have any, but as you are evolving from this experience, it's gonna bring out the best in you, but inevitably too, and there's this thing that we often talk about, the sort of culture shock, which even happens if you're on vacation, but certainly more if you're going to a place to live, the honeymoon after two or three weekends and then suddenly you're faced with some anxiety moment like why am I here or how do I do that? Maybe just as we kind of followed through with this, each of you have any examples of a culture shock moment? Maybe you were lost, maybe you were frustrated, maybe you were at a sudden moment of anxiety that you just wanted to scream or cry and nothing like that. Um, I'd say just sometimes in terms of transportation, that might be one thing that has been... Like a frustration.  And just but knowing in advance that you kind of have a bit of power in helping to set the price. And then figuring out that maybe that's the first task when you get in, you got to clarify, what is that price here now? And that's a lesson again, I've traveled the world and sometimes if you're in a taxi and you wait until the end, how much are you then? It can be very, very awkward.   So you want to learn to somehow clarify that right from the get-go, right? And how much is that? Even though it says eight there, maybe it's 10 and, you know, just figure that out, right? Any culture shock moments for you? I mean, again, you've had experience having before, but it's very different to come and live here, right? Right, culture shock, I'm not sure. But I think just maybe adjusting to life in general. And like I said before, like I'm very shy. So like, like you said, with the taxis and setting prices and things, you have to be very direct because they see, they can tell that you're not from here.  And so you need to be more assertive in some ways, like it or not, it's just a skill you have to develop. Toughen up a little bit, very good. And, you know, beyond that, let me, as we kind of wind down our talk, I wanna thank you for the opportunity to reflect on some of these things. You are now, you've been here many months and so well into your second semester, you've had opportunities now to get to no Mexico on the level, not just the school and classmates, but travel a little bit. As you think about that and the takeaway you have, I mean, if you're, you know, sharing insights and impressions, once you go back, back to your family, to your friends, what are some of the things, takeaways that you have from Mexico, things that you would want people to make sure they knew or understood or appreciated? I don't know, you know, how would you describe Mexico, Mexican culture, Mexican society? Because there are a lot of images and impressions we often get. Just a few days ago, we celebrated the Oscars and the number one director was again another Mexican director, five of the last six. And I say that because, you know, there's this image and stereotype if you listen to Donald Trump and it's that Mexico sends us their worst, their rapist, their murders and certainly there are some bad hombres and there's a lot of that, but there's also a steady flow of workers that are an integral part of the US economy. But more than that, Mexico also has, you know, more positive elements, whether it's Hollywood film directors or even just, I don't know, people here who, you know, despite the animosity intentions of US-Mexico relations today, often still have a very positive image or impression of the US. A very high percentage of Mexicans have some family connection. They've got people living there or they've lived themselves there. So just back to this question. I mean, what are some of the things about Mexico you would share with your family and friends back in the US? I would say there's just a widespread perception in America that Mexico is so insecure and it's so dangerous and everything. And of course it is in some places and whatever, but it's, there are people that live here and that are happy here and that enjoy life here. And despite that, just like in America, we have our problems, but it's a place where people live and it's not all what you see in the media. And if you have the chance to go to places that aren't included, it's kind of absurd, whatever, you should get out and like learn about that part of the culture too, because it's not all about this. It's like coming on spring break. I think that's often a real, I think, unfortunate story. Many Americans will only go and visit a hotel resort in some popular place and okay, that's fine. You can have a good vacation, but it's also a bubble. It's not the real Mexico and it's not easy for everyone to go on vacation and be with the local community, of course, but there are opportunities and those who want to adventure and sort of see in general, you would agree probably it's a very warm and friendly culture. The people are interested, they wanna help and share. And yes, you have to be vigilant and careful, but in general, most people's lives here are not lived under this constant fear of violence and robbery. It's just not the reality. Now, bad aside, yes, you always wanna be careful, but you travel New York City, you wanna also be looking if you're in DC in the wrong part of town, you wanna obviously know what's going on. What would you reflect fairly any thoughts on? Again, things that you would share about your insights now into Mexico, Mexican culture society. Yeah, I'd say the biggest two things that I want to tell people back home or anybody who just doesn't know much about Mexico is that one, it is so incredibly diverse in ways that I never, I did not know at all like the different cultures throughout different regions are indigenous versus there's just so many influences and the way that different regions interpret that about that has been so fun to learn and is so exciting. So that's one of the things. And then the other one is just the kindness. Everybody just wants you to be happy. Every time I, every new person that I meet is so excited that I'm here and wants me to enjoy and wants me to see how great this country is and I do, and I do see how wonderful this country is and I love it so. Yeah, there's a strong sense of national pride. Mexicans really do want you to experience there and their cuisine is different from the other town or state and this image of Mexico as being the stereotype. It's a very diverse, a very large place. It's a rich country in many ways. It's also poor. There's a quality injustice, but it's a very old country but it's also new. It's got such a paradox of many different things and the regionalism I think is something that people don't appreciate as much. Again, if you're just visiting a little resort town that's not quite the real Mexico. The same can be said about anything, you know, visiting one place in any place but I'm glad you were able to share again and you've seen these experiences. It's true any place you might go. You have to learn the local culture, the history of the context, how people relate themselves and to you and I thank both of you for sharing these. We've had a good conversation.  You have a full academic year now in the middle of your second semester. What I will just end by saying is that you'll never quite be the same person. You've opened up a world of both ideas of feelings.  And I'm sure you'll come back for visits and to reconnect and experience what you've done here. So I wanna thank both of you, Brooke and Haley, a chance to understand your exciting opportunity, the study abroad experience. For our listeners, I'm grateful that you could join us today to hear these insights. Brooke Barber joining us from Virginia where she's a student at George Mason University, Haley Zieger from California, studying at the moment in Scotland, well not at the moment, she's here in Mexico but doing her studies in Edinburgh, Scotland. But both our students here at the University of the Americas in Cholula Puebla. And I think it's fair to say they are the future generation that are gonna be well-rounded intercultural managers, cultural ambassadors themselves. Thank you both for joining me here on Global Connections and best of luck as you continue your studies here. Thank you so much. Thank you.


Excuse me. Recording started. Okay. Welcome back to our class. We are studying on the insecurities as a ministry leader, what may be the insecurities that we may not allow our congregation members to grow. Sometimes as a minister of God, we carry a lot of personal insecurities, and we try to operate in that insecurity among the people we serve. One of the insecurities can be the attention, the attention that we get in the ministry. What if somebody else is much better in the congregation? What if the attention moves to them? Or what if they consider him as a great leader than me? Something like what happened between Saul and David? We should know one thing. Our identity in Christ. God has called you. God has raised you as a leader. Okay. So we need to be secured in that, and we should not have such insecurity within us. Some of them may have the insecure that someone else may preach better than me, and people will start hearing from them and not from me. There would be again another insecurity that people may leave a church. If I allow people to attend different churches, and when they go to the church, they like the setup, they like the infrastructure, they like how the pastor shares, teaches and preaches, or they like the people in that congregation, so they may leave a church and go. So to avoid that, I'll make sure that I will not allow any of the church congregation people not to visit any church. So threaten them from the pulpit saying that you are directly accountable to us, and God will honor only those people. God will bless only those who honor and follow what the church pastor is saying, the church leaders saying, we should not be insecure, and because we are insecure, we share such instruction from the pulpit to the people, not taking away their freedom of fellowship. And there'll be another instance where some of them may be insecure of their identity, because they're insecure of their identity, so they expect everyone to look up to them as a man of God, so they'll keep instructing them, I'm a man of God, I hear directly from God, and God does this thing, God hears from me, so they bring this often, telling them, they are the man of God, and there's a certain instance will be there where we would have seen insecure that someone in the ministry may do better than them. So they try to suppress, if somebody is showing interest or becoming very active in the ministry, they try to suppress them, keep them still or not hinder their work in the church. Or if they're seen any insecure in the identity, they talk about themselves being influenced by some rich people or some politician people or political people or how powerful they are because they know other powerful people, they try to link themselves with somebody else. So I think we need to avoid all that and we need to give our identity from Christ and we need to allow people to grow, people to explore. If you find any youngsters or other members in the church who are been very active or growing in the word, growing in the Lord, as a leader, we need to allow them, give them the opportunity to grow and minister to people. Okay, open up new doors in the church, in the ministry, so that they can serve in that area. If you see any of your congregation member, very good in singing. Okay, give them some training and put them in the worship team. If you see yourself somebody very well teaching and preaching the word, give them the opportunity, arrange for a cell group or LG or there can be some kind of training that you can set up where you give this person the opportunity to teach and preach in that area. So yes, we'll start up with small but then we will never suppress them. If you see themself interested to learn much more, you can refer them to good Bible colleges so that they can be equipped in the word as a ministry leader, as a pastor, we should not have this insecurity. Oh, if I send them to a Bible college, they may get equipped and they may become better than themselves. Actually, that is one way good. We should see as a pastor, as a ministry leader, we should see that our church members, our congregation, our children grow much better than what we are. We should not be insecure in this area. The word of God says we need to equip them to be better than us. We need to show them the way, show them the path, okay? So we should not hold them. Do not provide a platform for people with a personal agenda. So there are many, many times people come to a church with a personal agenda. For example, if there's a businessman, he may have this in mind. If I see this congregation is big, they have about, you know, 1,000 people in their church or more than that. So if I'm part of this church, I can build my business. So what happens with this mentality, he comes to church. So the minute he comes to church, he meets with the pastor one-on-one. He shares about his background, his business plan, how strong, how powerful he is and how he can grow his business. So if you can talk about me and my business in the church and when my business grows, I can bless the church much more. You know, each people come with big personal agendas to the church. But one thing, as a ministry leader, many offers may be very attractive, but then this is not business. This is ministry. This place is for us to serve God and God's people, not to promote anyone's personal agenda. Just like this person, there may be somebody else coming up with another agenda. So our church platform should not become an ad agency or advertisement center to advertise each and everyone's business, to promote each one's business in the church. No, we teach and preach the word of God and that's it. We minister to people, we serve people, but not promoting, not providing the church platform to anyone to promote their personal agenda. It can be anything. I just gave you an example of a business. It can be anything, various scenarios, you will come, but we need to be very careful. We need to discern with what agenda the person is coming. Some of them, like this, what I shared, may be very direct, but some of them, they may not be, but they will try to put it across as though they are doing favor to us. We need to discern. We need to be very careful. We need to understand with what mindset the person has come. So as a leader, we need to set things in place. We should not promote any such thing. We do not do ministry for the people to support us financially, but then we serve people because God has called us to serve. This should be rooted and grounded in our mind. When we have this mentality, nothing will move us, especially money. That should not be in our mind. And also, second, giving priority to some influential people. No, we should treat everyone equal, everyone same. We should have this understanding that we all are on the same level ground. Just being a leader is a responsibility that God has given us. And also, we should not be mindful of the position, the position, the title, that should not matter. Today, you may be a director of a company, but tomorrow with related to a recession, we may lose our job. So what happened from a CEO of a company? Today, we have become zero. So if you hold on to that title, will the title save us? Will the title bring honor to us? No matter who we are, no matter what position we hold in, in the ministry elsewhere. One thing we need to be assured of is our identity in Christ. We are the child of God. We are the servant of God. This should be our identity when we serve people. This is a permanent identity. You may be a pastor. You may be a ministry leader. You may be a servant of God, no matter who you are. Your title should not affect from what you are trying to serve or serve people, serve God.  God has called you for this reason, for this season, for you to minister, for you to be there, you to help people. So we should have this in our heart. As we study the Old Testament books, we see how the God raised each and every king, each and every judge for a certain period, for a certain purpose. They had God had placed in them the authority, the people to whom they can minister, whom they can serve. So under their leadership, we are accountable to God with the people whom God has put in our hand. So we need to be mindful of serving them, ministering to them, not having any kind of personal agenda or not holding to any kind of title and seeing to that people serve us or people respect us or people, you know, whatever. But we need to serve them without any personal agenda. Do not fight for what you do not understand. A God cannot be put in a box so the Bible reveals God, but it does not set boundaries for God. God will never violate his word, but he is not confined to his word. Like God is bigger than the book that he has given to us. God can work in different ways. So when certain things in our little mind that we may not understand, then we need to allow, we need to say, Lord, I may not understand now, but I know you're working, you're moving in this. And then allow God to give us time, give us the ways that we can understand and move. So the best thing to do is not to fight for what we do not understand. We need to allow it to God saying, God, it is your work and you will know what is best and you will handle it in the right way. Some things people say and do are not worth our time. We are here to serve people, so we should not be controlled. We are not responsible for people's behavior. We cannot control their choice and decision what they take in their life. Sometimes in ministry, we see people easily forget how we serve them. People suddenly change their mind about us and initially they would have really encouraged and supported us, but then suddenly, they start criticizing us and point out all the flaws and shortcomings that we have. Yes, there's no man perfect. We all have our own flaws. As a leader, when we stand, we are not standing here as perfect being. We have our own challenges in our life. We have our own weakness. We have certain things that we need. We ourselves need to be equipped and taught and learn and outgrow certain things. We have our own flaws and our own shortcomings.  So, we need to be strong in the ministry. We need to be very strong. We should not get ourselves distracted with all the comments that you get. Yes, you can see what they have shared is going to help you to change your life, to set things proper. Please go ahead and implement that. Okay, acknowledge it. Thank you for correcting me. I will make sure that I will change.  It is to do with people, their thoughts, their opinion. In that time, you need to just bring it to God and say, Lord, you handled the situation, you minister to them, you talk to them and we need to stay strong, focus on God and continue in the area we're serving. So, in this situation, in this season, you may see people leave, people retaliate, people criticize, people forget the good things that you have done for them when they were at difficult time. So, that's okay. So, we don't have to point out all the history to them to remember the good things, what you have done to them, but allow that to the Lord. Leave that to the Lord.  May God speak for you. We have to just remain quiet. There are situations where we have faced a lot of hardship. Yes, with a little experience, we have not faced much, but little that we have come across. There are times when, you know, not try to defend yourself. Just kept quiet by saying, I'm very sorry. I should have handled it well. Very sorry, my mistake. Just keep it. Allow the Lord to defend you. And in season, in time, we have seen how Lord turned that situation in your favor. It has made people to come and acknowledge their mistake and our sorry. We have seen things change. People transform. People come back and say, apologize for the mistake what they've done. But in this way, we are showcasing Christ's likeness. Christ imaged ourself. It is, sometimes we don't have to defend ourself. We don't have to, you know, when somebody is trying to criticize you, somebody's pointing finger at you, it is okay. Be focused on God. Yes, it is very difficult, but we need to stay strong. We need to be focused because God has called you for the ministry. It is not there. Yes, certain areas we need to work on. Do bring a change, work hard, stay strong. Allow the Lord to work in you and allow the Lord to work in the other person as well. And leave the offenses behind. Not worry, not worth carrying them with you. Yes. And people may offend you, but do not get disappointed because people also offended Jesus. Even Apostle Paul in his ministry was very disappointed, discouraged by many believers in Galatia that he labored. I mean, he served them faithfully, but easily they swayed by some other people's teaching and they, you know, they deviated. They came against Apostle Paul, but then he prayed for them. He was not offended with them. He prayed for them. He prayed for their attitude. He asked God to handle them. He asked God to bring a change in them so that God could give them the understanding. So in the ministry, we may come many people in our way, in our life who may offend, but leave the offenses, carry on the ministry because God has called you. And we'll see the next point here is people grow, people change, so be ready to let go. So in the ministry, you may minister to people. You may take some people, minister to them, nurture them. You'll see them grow in the ministry. And there would be a point where they want to have a change in their journey. They may want to have their own ministry. So as a pastor, as a ministry leader, we need to be ready to let go of them in a nice way, in a way we enjoy sending our own children to abroad for our higher studies. We don't get offended because our children are going. We are happy with more maturity. We bless them and we send them. In the same way in the ministry, we have us people walk into our life as they have been learned. We should not say, we should not have this in our mind. Hey, I taught you everything so that you may serve along with me in the ministry, not to leave my ministry and go away. No, people will bring, I mean, God will bring the right kind of people who can continue your ministry, who can help you in your ministry for your ministry to grow. But as you grow, as you minister to people, as you raise leaders in the church, you should also be ready and understand that people grow, people change. So we need to be ready to let them go into the area what God has called them to be. We should not hold on to people just because we need our work to be done. We need to allow them to go and explore things in their life. Okay, at APC, we have the privilege to see each and every leaders grow, mature, develop. They walk with God and in the ministry and we see pastor, I've released many leaders. Released from the ministry because, and released into the call of God, many have come to Bangalore, they have studied in the Bible college, they've joined as a staff and then they would have said like, I want to minister, I want to plant a church and pastor wholeheartedly have sent them to do what God has called them to do. And we also see new leaders, we create opportunity in our church so that the new leaders are encouraged to grow, to take up that place and serve in the ministry. So God always provides the right kind of people and we need to have the generous art to bless them and release them without any kind of heart feeling and flattery. Do not accept it, do not give it. Flattery is very different from the encouragement. Flattery is something, having a personal agenda behind what we wanted and we just flatter to make people, you know, for the pleasure. We don't do that, we don't accept it also. Even when somebody says every time they'll come and say like, wow, today your sermon was so good, you ministered to me, okay, it touched me, changed my life and every week they come up with the same thing. Oh, this is what God spoke to me and you exactly said the same way. Every week after week, you know somebody is genuinely not saying that, you know, they're trying to flatter you to be recognized or to be, to be, they have a kind of a personal agenda, what they wanted from you, okay? So we need to draw a fine line from Flattery. Do not accept it, okay, praise God and leave it there and do not give it. And we also as a leader, we don't have to flatter anyone, anyone, no matter how rich, how influential, how powerful they may be in the church, we don't have to flatter anyone, but we need to respect everyone, keeping in mind, okay? Yes, encouraging is different. Encourage one and on, build one and one, exhort. But this is Flattery. Flattery is not good, it is not from God, okay? So this reminds us, Thumbs 115 verse three says, not unto us or Lord and not unto us, but to your name give glory because of your mercy and because of your truth. So whatever we are in the ministry is because of God. Somebody gives you a very good comment, praise God.  So there's nothing for us to take that praise or glory, but then we need to direct it to God, give God the glory with all your heart, okay? And do not take anything to yourself at the same time with others also. When you see people doing good work, we don't have to flatter them, but give praise to God for that person and encourage that person genuinely in the right way. And you can listen to people's idea, but you make the final decision. So as a leader, yes, there's safety in people's counsel, we read that in a book of Proverbs. So yes, we do counsel with each other in our church. Yes, we have our staff, we have our core team, then we have a core team with whom we discuss the ideas. We discuss the situation, we take the ideas, and then finally we decide and we implement it. So when we decide and when we implement, things go well, praise God, give the credit to the team, but things don't go well, you take the ownership because you made the decision, okay? They're safe and you make it, you know, if things didn't work out well, you learn the lesson from that area, you take the ownership of the mistake and you move on. So it is better that you decide and not take the ideas from everyone. Take the ideas, but do not make the decision based on others' idea, you have to decide. As a leader, you have to decide and make a decision. Do not permit any individual to control you. So as a leader, as I said, there would be many influential people, business people coming to your church. Okay, one of the agenda they may have is to control the pastor. At church, especially when we are young leaders, we have different people come to our church. They may be rich, they may be very influential, they may be very pioneer in the ministry, they'll come to your church. And they'll come to the agenda, oh, this pastor's very young and age. We can try to, I mean, we can make them serve according to how we want it. They may have come to the church very new, just one month or one week or, you know, they would start giving their suggestion to us. They will start suggesting, I think you need to change your worship style, you need to change the prayer style, you need to change your sermon, topics, themes. I can suggest you, can we meet up at home? Can you come to my office? We can meet up, we can discuss more, how better you can take up the church. I can do this so and so at church. So, you know, we should not be carried away with any such thing. Do not allow anyone to control, any individual to control you. With the intellectual, they may be very intellectual, they may be very knowledgeable. But whatever it is, this is God's work. God has set you as a leader. You see God, you have your own team in the church that is set. So you discuss and you move as a team. And God has appointed you as a leader. We are responsible to lead the church and not give that to any individual or come and try to control us. And the super spiritual ones with caution, it's very important. There may be many in the church saying, God is speaking to me as a, you know, God spoke to me saying that you need to change, you need to start speaking about the end times or you need to start speaking about healing. According to the situation, what they are going in their life and what they need. So they will try to come and impose that on the pastor, on the leader saying, God spoke to me to tell you to do this. So as a ministry leader, you need to handle very, very cautious. When God has appointed you as a leader, God will definitely speak to you. He will definitely put an impression in your heart what you are doing, how you need to lead the church. So you will listen to them, but at the same time, you will handle it carefully. You'll say, okay, we will see to it how we can implement that. I will discuss with the team, we'll get back to you. So that without offending the other person, you will handle it right. Sorry. But at the same time, if a person is genuinely spiritually walking with the Lord and, you know, God has impressed something in their heart for which you also been praying, asking God to guide you and talk to you and God puts a word and you can sense it. It is from God. Listen, take it with all humility and all submission and implement it. And you see that suggestion that which they said would bear fruit in your walk, in your ministry. And also raise up leaders. Very important, very important. We see in the New Testament how Paul raised young leaders. Wherever even he raised leaders like Priscilla, Akila. He also raised Timothy, a young man who may came across, he nurtured him in the word and in the spirit.  And he was so much confident that he will take the ministry after him. And also the other places he raised many other leaders where the word of God can, you know, reach and also he himself imitated Christ so that, you know, he set an example, he set a spiritual example as a leader where all the other leaders can follow him the way he prayed, the way he conducted himself in the ministry of God without any expectation. He labored unto God more than 100%. He was mindful of people. He was mindful of God as a leader and we need to be mindful of God. We need to be mindful of people. We need to be available for them and serve them. Okay, and at the same time, raise leaders so that our work will not be stopped but our work will continue. The good work that we have started will continue when we raise good leaders. So it is very important to raise leaders and stand by your leaders as we raise people expectancy will be as equal to the leader. But then, yes, as leaders, we all make mistake. We all have a, you know, a time of growth in stages. As I said, we do make mistake, we do learn but as a leader, as a pastor, you stand with your young leaders as you nurture as you grow with them. Okay, there will be many in the congregation coming against your leaders, coming and complaining to you. Okay, so reason it out, discuss with the leader but at the same time, you will allow, you will give in the time to correct change minister but stand by your leader. Do not put your leader down. At the same time, if there's any mistake, you will encourage him to apologize, to correct this mistake, to live by a standard, a godly standard, okay? But then, you will be with the person. Do not let inaction or negligence birth, absolones like what King David did. He never corrected his own sons. It can be Absalom or it can be Amnon or it can be Tamar. When the things didn't go well in David's family, David, yes, he was a very good king but he failed to be a good father. He never corrected Amnon when he violated Tamar's virginity. When he violated Tamar's virginity. He also didn't address Absalom's anger. When he killed Amnon, he didn't even talk to Absalom or for the wrong that he did, he killed his own brother. So he failed in bringing a correction to his own children and we see Absalom becoming rebellion against his own father. So it is very important to bring correction in the right time among the people as we also discussed how to bring the correction before lovingly, gently bring correction to our people but it has to be done immediately. There should not be any delays and do not be partaker of other people's set. We need to be very careful. As a ministry leader, there would be many scenarios where people will come to you. They will come and say, pastor, give me a letter for, give me a letter that stating that I was serving along with you because I want to apply for a Bible college abroad. Okay, so they're asking for a previous experience letter that you served in the church. Well, this person maybe attending the church is not even serving as a volunteer but then coming and asking you, claiming for a letter to be given like that in the church. So we can clearly say no. Yes, he may be in our church, he may be faithful but he never served under you or during the marriage proposals, people may come and ask you, how is this person? How is each one's character? Yes, the parents before giving the bride and groom exchanging, they will inquire with the church pastor about the person's character. So there's nothing for us to manipulate, nothing for us to give only the good part of the person. Tell what the person is. Let your yes be an yes, no be a no. Say clearly. Or we not sign for anything, we do not partake in anyone's personal agendas for any other benefit. Be very careful, stay away from all that. Saying no is not a sin. Saying no is not a sin. We may think as a Christian leader, if I say no, this person may leave our church, it's okay. He's just asking me a letter to give it to him. Anyways, he's going to study in a Bible college. What's wrong in just giving a letter? No, it is wrong because he has never served under you or with you. He's only been attending the church. So you can give a letter saying that, you can clearly tell him yes, sure, I can give you a letter, but I can only give you a letter saying that you have been attending the church. I cannot give you a letter you served as a volunteer or you served in the church as a staff. No, I cannot do that. So let your no be no, no is not a sin. Do not stoop down to the level of your accusers. There will be many who will come against you, who will accuse you. So we as a leader, as a servant of God, don't have to stoop down to their level to speak ill about them or what you good you did for them and what went wrong or what they're doing is wrong. We don't have to explain it. We don't have to stoop down to their level. It is, as we said, let the Lord be your defender. Let Lord be your defender. Allow God to work in their life. So this is very important because we always have a choice not to repay evil for evil, but we always have a choice to live at a level above those offending. We can allow God to work in their life. And in us, when we allow God to work, God will definitely defend our case and God will definitely bring a change in that person and also bring a change in our own life. It is godliness not to defend ourself, not to stoop down into the other person's level, just to have a big heart, big mind and allow things to let go, stay focused on God. It's not very easy, but we need to be encouraged ourself to focus on God. We need to encourage ourself to let things go. We need to tell ourself like, let God be my defender and I don't have to defend myself or I don't have to stoop down to their level to accuse back or whatever. We should be mindful of God and His people. We are here to serve them. We are not here to accuse them. We should allow the lot to work. Okay, with this we are completing the third chapter on people and handling people. And at APC, we believe that every minister, every believer is a minister of God. At APC, we believe every believer is a minister of God. We teach the word, we equip them, we raise them as a leader. We create opportunities for our church members to step out, go and serve out in different ways. We plan out missions, we plan out short term Bible colleges in rural areas in North India and we open up that opportunity to our church members. We tell them we have been teaching you, we have been equipping you in the world and who can keep themself, who can make themself available to travel to so and so place and minister to them. Be a blessing to them. And we see many of our church members come forward from the busy schedule. They take one week time. Each of them take turn to take time and they step out to serve God. It's amazing to see how people get involved. As they step out to serve God, they see how God minister to them through them, to others. They are filled with awe of God when they come back with great testimonies. And we praise God for all that. So even in our Bible college, when we equip our students, we don't equip our students just in the word. They've come here, they'll stay with us a year or two or three years and they'll go, no, we equip them for life. We equip them for life. We build them with the word, with the spirit and also along with the character. We speak a blessing over them. You know, we try to build them because character is very important because that is what will hold the anointing. So we build a strong character in our students' life. Every student who I've been graduated from our college are ready to serve people despite the condition what they are. They're recognized or not recognized. They have this heart to serve God, serve people with the limited resource what they have in their hand. So this is what has been expected and we encourage them that every one are leaders. When the students join in our college from the very first year, we look at them as a leader, keeping the final picture in mind, we work with them. We lead them, we speak into their life and build their character. Yes, our students, we see our students learn and also at the same time, they unlearn certain things and they build themselves in the word and spirit and step out as a true servant of God. That's amazing to see. As you all grow, you yourself, yes, you're on online, but then, even on online, we trust God to minister and shape our students. Build them for the ministry and be released to serve God with mindful to serve only God and His people. Yes, there's a lot of advantages when we have the opportunity to study in Bangalore. Praise God, if you all have the opportunity, that is, I tell you that is a privilege. You have to grasp it and come over to stay with us in Bangalore. We have a residential school. It's nice. It's a very different experience because the whole agenda changes from morning till night. We have certain things to do and this training will shape us for life. We'll set us in ministry for life. We'll have nothing else than to please God with all our heart and mind and soul. There's a joy when we serve God. Despite the circumstance, the difficulties we may go through, but then, but then every day in our college will be a learning. Every day, there's something to learn. God will orchestrate things. We get to learn from people, from our leaders, from the pressure, from the situation. It may be a difficult situation. At the same time, it may be some pleasant situation. We see the presence of God when we worship together. We meet many new people every week after week in the different locations where we are assigned to serve. And as we serve, we serve under other leaders. So we get to learn from their life the heart that they carry for the ministry, the work they do. So the learning is immense. Learning is immense. So yes, with this, just pray, just ask God, God, is this what you want me to do? Is this what I can do? Ask God to give you that opportunity, to create that opportunity, to learn and equip in the bud. And as we prepare ourself, let's be mindful that God is teaching us and God is building us, okay? As God is building people, he's also building each of us. We are his people, we are his children. We are the fruit of his labor, okay? We need to harvest more because God said, I will use you to be fruitful in my kingdom. Each one will harvest 30, 60 and 100 folds into his kingdom, bring glory to him. How? When we submit ourself, we will see God move in and through us. Yes, with this, I'll open up to the class to share your experience. We'll go with brother Enoch. Good morning once again, everyone. I want to ask a question. Are you having me? Yes, please, go ahead. Yeah, you are saying something about the leadership and the culture. With my own experience, I want to share my experience and also ask a question. Sure, brother. When my senior pastor, then, before we start our minutes to call me, although before you called me, God told me on Saturday that we are relocating to a new branch. If someone is there, so we are moving us to the branch. And after I'm moving them to the branch, I'm not that resident pastor, then after a resident pastor, then I'm not that resident pastor called me and said, if I don't submit to him, he's going to pull me out from the branch. It's not his senior pastor. He wasn't the one who sent me to the branch. So, and I ask, in terms of what, he was talking about finance, money, command to keep me out. It's like a gas moment to me, because this is just money. We have to deposit it in a bank account. I cannot remove halfway and side to a resident pastor like me, who, although, is my senior as a resident pastor. But why do you request for money? So, as in the episode, I went straight to report the incident to my senior pastor, my superior. Please, this is what the resident pastor said. I don't want to offend anybody. I want to do my work the way God and use you to send me to the branch. Eventually, he came up and I was to remove from the branch, back to the headquarters. So, in first scenario, because he said we should respect each my senior as a resident pastor. I'm a resident pastor, but we are both a resident pastor then. Now, I took a step, and the step was for me to report the matter to the superior, our superior. Is he right for me to report, though I've reported, though I'm not a man in the ministry, God has given us our own ministry by the special grace of God. But we are talking about we should respect and obey the leader. It is my senior in that level. But what I should have done in first case, he likes to respect in this way that he wants to express money because I know that's his position. That's my question. We like to go ahead and see the respect in knowing that this particular pastor is asking for money, which I am not. So, in first case, what should I have done? Did he get my question now? The last point, brother, I didn't get that. Okay, I'll say what should I have done? I mean, what do you think I should have done? You don't have given money or keep on respecting him or to concern him? Because you were saying that I reported him to the senior pastor. What did you do? So, that's what I did. I reported him to senior pastor. And you were saying that what should I report him to senior pastor? I think that was the right thing. That was the right thing that you did not give any money, but then you reported to the senior pastor. Yes, but he planned my removal from the branch which I'm not angry. And I can't go that everything went well, but I was removed from the branch because I didn't give him the money. Yes, ministry is not a business. We will definitely come across that situation, but we need to understand that ministry is not a business. We need to, we should not be giving in to any kind of like this money handling or exchange for any kind of benefit. Yes, though you were removed from the branch, that's okay, ministry is about God. God raises us. Maybe God wanted you to do something else. Okay, it is God's work, God's ministry. We should not be offended, leave the offenses to God. And there is a plan of God, isn't it? Yes, it may cause kind of hurt, but then bring it to God and leave it to God.  And God has always have a plan. God's ways are very different. We cannot put God in a box and we cannot, just because we don't understand what happened, we cannot put God in a box and question. So I love the Lord to work. Maybe after some years or after some time, we will understand, okay, this is what it is. Okay, yes, as the time is running and you all also have the third hour, can we conclude the session with a word of prayer? Can I request anyone to lead us in prayer before we could dismiss our class? Sadavi, thank you for the lessons that we learned today. We pray that in ministry, we would be able to consider people in the value that you have given and help us to do everything in love, in honor, and in subjection to your word of God. Give us wisdom and understanding to do your will in the ministry, Lord. We thank you for that and to share your word and thank you for opening up our eyes. Or we pray that you'd be able to walk with you closely to see the miracles that you have in store for us as a ministry of God. We give you praise in Jesus' precious name, we pray. Amen, thank you so much. Amen, thank you so much. See you all next week. And yeah, thank you, God bless. Thank you, God bless.