in underserved and under-invested communities and affordable housing. I applaud our Mayor, Mayor Keisha Lanza, that's focused on this mission and also the City Council and the Invest Atlanta Board for taking on this initiative and this landmark strategy. Government partners like Invest Atlanta play an important role in supporting impact-minded entrepreneurship. Invest Atlanta is fortunate to have some of the most stellar staff out there that are professionals and are open and are innovative in their thinking and want to do things different and impact this city of Atlanta. We have had, we have made many initiatives have continued to work together with our city and our city partners to really drive this diverse and inclusive action. In fact, two years ago, we partnered with Spanx by Sarah Blake Leafs Foundation and the Atlanta Emerging Markets Inc. and the Center for Civic and Innovation in Atlanta to launch the first ever Civic Impact Loan Fund. This program helps entrepreneurs with funding launch and grow social impact businesses. Many of these are early stage social impact businesses. And while we all understand that sometimes accessing traditional bank financing is not possible. Supportive, we've been able for women like Jen Graham, who's the founder of Civic Dinners. This is an awesome platform where people get together over dinner and they talk about some of these very difficult conversations. And Chop Art founded by Malika Whitley to extend dignity, community and opportunity to youth experiencing homelessness through multidisciplinary arts immersion and mentorship. Also recently, we introduced a financing program called the Atlanta Forward Loan Fund. This provides financial assistance to small businesses and startups that are located in our accelerators, our incubators, our co-working space all in the city of Atlanta. Diversity is a strength makes impact here in Atlanta. We are home to many exceptional, successful social-minded entrepreneurs. And as I like to say, it is in Atlanta's DNA. Like Jasmine Crowe, who's founder and CEO of Gooder, this is a three-year-old startup that is focused on sustainable food supplies. Not only she headquartered here in Atlanta, but she is now leveraging her technology to reduce food waste and feed the hungry. Her company has been crucial in this COVID situation and has helped the Atlanta public schools and the students get excited to see, exciting to see her in action. And Dr. Novalis, she is focusing gender equality advocate who believes in economic empowerment and inclusive economic growth. She is the founder of Enrich Her and is deeply engaged in the network of women-led business owners. And then we have the Women's Entrepreneur Initiative. This is the proud home of what Enrich Her has been able to focus on and how we help support our women entrepreneurs here in the city of Atlanta. Creating an environment where businesses like Gooder and Enrich Her and the Women's Entrepreneur Initiative thrive is part of the picture here in Atlanta. An inclusive economy starts in communities that are socially-minded investments that create brighter futures. Tools like the tax allocation district or new market tax credits are helping increase education, provide better healthcare, increase well-being, specifically in lower income areas of Atlanta. For example, these tools have enabled us to fund a youth center like the At Promise Youth Center in English Avenue. This has been an exceptional program. Why? Because working together with our partners, Chris 180, Boys and Girls Club, the Police Athletics League, the Urban League have produced results we've never seen before here in Atlanta. They registered 347 at-risk youth. That far exceeded the goal of 150. The participants had a 2% recidivism rate compared to 20% in Fulton County. Additionally, the students who participated who were seniors, 92% of them actually graduated from our high schools and we are so proud of what they've been able to achieve. Those are just some examples of the great work that we see as a result of working together. I wanna thank you again for your time today, inclusive, intentional, equity-driven investments. It takes teamwork and a lot of focus. And please know in Best Land is here to partner with you and we are ready to support change in this city and in this country. Thank you. Thank you so much for that. Now we'll welcome to the stage our first panel discussion of the day, Javier Torres Campos. Javier Torres Campos. Javier Torres Campos. Looks like we might be having a bit of technical difficulties. We'll wait on our panelists to join us here. Thank you for your patience. I see Sarah has joined us. I see our panelists are on their way. Thank you for your patience. Hey, Sarah, how are you? And I should close this out. It's because you're on your way. Close this out. Yeah, close this out on their way. Thank you for your patience. Hey, Sarah, how are you? And I'll close this out. Can anybody hear me? We can hear you, Erica. Thank you. How are you? Good, thank you. Sarah, I love your earrings. I had somebody give me if earrings are similar. Ooh, bear them to me. Now I can hear you. I'm gonna wear my earrings. Hi, Sarah, how are you? Good, thank you. Sarah, I love your earrings. I had somebody give me if earrings are similar. Still, I love your earrings. So I think that we might have a situation, okay, I think we are trying to work out some technical difficulties with one of our panelists. We apologize for that sound error. Sarah, are you doing well? Can anybody hear me now? Now we can hear you. Okay, was I doubling, by the way, because I heard myself twice? Yes, I think that was the problem, but I think they got you all worked out. Okay, I see Javier is here, Sarah is here, and I am going to exit. You guys are joined. Okay, thank you. Okay, was I doubling, by the way, because I heard myself twice? No. Yes, I think that was the problem, but I think they got you all worked out. What is that? Hey, y'all. I don't know if you can hear me. Sarah, Erica, can either of you hear me? Yes, I can. Beautiful. How are you both doing? I'm great. I'm just a little confused, because I think I'm opening two tabs. I think I've fixed it now, because I'm not getting the feedback. So I think we're all set for our conversation. Okay, let's hope so. All right. Hopefully it's not me. I just closed all those. I think we're good. So Sarah, do you want to start us off? Maybe tell us a little bit about yourself, and then we can jump into the conversation. Erica can do the same in the work she's doing. Sure. So my name is Sarah Eagle-Hart. I'm Oglala Lakota. My Lakota name is Mamblishinaoui, which means Eagle-Shell Woman. I'm Petit Wache. I'm CEO and co-founder of Return of the Heart Foundation, which supports Indigenous women-led initiatives. I'm just excited to get the conversation going with you both. Yes, hi. My name is Erica Alexander, and most people know me as an actress. I've been acting for 37 years. Don't do the math. I'm proud, but let's stay on past here. And I now have a co-founder of the company called Color Farm Media, and Color Farm Media is a film and television media company. We call ourselves the Motown of Film, Television and Tech. Our goal is to bring greater diversity and equity to media. And I'm very, very happy to be here. Beautiful. And my name is Javier Torres. I'm the Director of the Thriving Cultures Program at a almost 103-year-old family foundation based in New York called The Certain Foundation. The strategy that I oversee invests in cultural strategies to undo racism in the U.S. and build a more racially equitable society. To think today, we're talking about the role of investing in artists. You know, I would love to hear from the two of you and the work that you're doing and your ideas about how we do that well. And Howard, what are some of the examples that you two have been working on? Well, at Color Farm Media, Sarah, if you don't mind our start off, is that okay? Well, at Color Farm Media, we know that representation matters. I know that because out of my own story, I played this character called Maxine Shaw. She was on Living Single, a show that ran for five years on Fox. And at the time, in my young 20s, I thought nothing of really just being in a show. I was an actress. I was hired to do something and I did it. But now, nearly 30 years later, I can see how it was like a ripple effect. And it went out and it inspired young people at the time. And they come up to me now and tell me that they're in politics and leadership positions and because of Maxine Shaw. And it's just not anybody. It's people like Stacey Abrams, Marilyn Mosby, Mayor de Blasio and his wife. I met five judges that won last in 2018. And they, I was in New Orleans and they all stopped me and said, you have no idea what that character meant for us. I had gobs of teachers, you know, pin me in and say, do you understand how significant that was? Well, I do now. But at the time, it was, again, me fulfilling the need as an actress to do the show. But what it meant for other people was that they were seeing themselves. So then we ask ourselves the question or we answer that question when we do stories is what does this have to do with me? And it's answered by that story. And I truly believe to this day that we get, you don't, if you want to really change policy, if you really want to influence culture and tell a story that can again, echo from New Mexico to New York to Bangladesh, you should tell a story. Because I think past flesh and bone, that will turn to dust. But stories are evergreen, ever ready and everlasting. And that's why stories matter. Yeah. And for me, I mean, so a lot of my work has been kind of all over the place.  I mean, as much as COVID is so painful, and what's happening right now in the aftermath of George Floyd is systems are breaking. And I think that that's so exciting for me, because as somebody that has spent their time in so many different sectors, like whether it was a faith based, you know, Episcopal church, or the philanthropic sector, I sort of landed around where we really can't have any change for Native Americans until, you know, we're really seen on every level of media. And so Return to the Heart Foundation is focused on really changing that narrative. But what that means is we have to be visible in every aspect. And so for me, unconventional partnerships.  You're in no you're in this area in this area. And I've actually really enjoyed not having all of those lines and, you know, being so set into places because I think that, as you know, Javier, many of us that work in social justice and have for a long time, I think that's the through line for every, you know, project or career that I've had is that we are also the storytellers. And so, you know, we have all the stories. And so for me, it's like, okay, if I want to reach, you know, maximum impact, I have to find a way to really create a culture shift across America, where holistic indigenous wisdom is an everyday thing, right? Because right now we're falling back on patriarchy and like Western systems that haven't worked for us at all. And so, you know, one of the examples that I would point to is Crow the Legend, which I was really happy to get, you know, a credit for and get an Emmy for.  And then to have amazing allies step forward and play the voices of these characters, you know, like, you know, John Legend played the skunk, Constance Wu, actually Constance Wu played the skunk, Ty Sheridan played the turtle.  And then Oprah playing the one that created everything by thinking. And the world, which is, you know, a 360 world where you're dancing with the animals and you're trying to save the earth, basically. As a Lakota person that grew up with understanding that we are all related the animals to Mother Earth as well, to see it in this visual medium was very healing for me as an adult, because I was, it was playful. It was a playful way to like heal. But it was visual and was, you know, right into the entertainment industry. You know, so when I was asked to play the moon, Luna, which is named after John's daughter, for us, the moon is named how we, I played the moon because they asked me to. But also because I was like, how could you say no to playing the moon? Like, that's the moon. So I did it. But I have to say, Erica, it was super hard. Like, I was like, I am not an actress. Like, I had like you did well. It was hard. But yeah, I love those types of projects where it's a collaboration, there's social justice attached to it. And we're also breaking and changing systems. And for me, that's that's the exciting part. Amazing. You know, we've had a lot at CERDA in my two years and my 10 years in philanthropy now, a lot about what it means to resource storytellers, culture bears and artists. One of the central tenants that we've brought to the strategy is that it's important that society gets away from this idea of the capital A artist, and really understands that culture is embedded in our urban planning and design, our storytelling that happens on TV. It's embedded in our policies and systems and connected to our values. And how do we really resource artists from an R&D perspective to think holistically about their needs so that they can bring their intellectual capital to bear to solve some of the challenges that we believe need to be solved in society. Some of the ways that we're doing that we have a, you know, a nationwide our individual artist re granting program with 11 organizations across the country, that's solely supporting artists of color that want to work with their communities to begin to prototype and imagine racially just systems. We think a lot about, you know, a project that I had the privilege of being a part of in Boston called that was led by an organization called the Design Studio for Social Intervention that was saying, if we have public libraries and public schools in every neighborhood, why aren't our tax dollars making sure that everybody has access to healthy food if food is a basic human right? So they created a public kitchen where folks could get free food where they created a seed library and a recipe library and created a narrative that recognized that most low income communities and communities of color are going from their first job to their second job to their third job, just trying to pick up kids from school, get parents from elder care and make enough money to keep food on the table. So that means as funders that we need to think critically about how we fund debt reduction, how we fund savings for retirement and healthcare, how we think about in some of the budgets that we've developed with our partners, we even have a vacation line item because somehow in our society vacations have become a privilege for those of us that have salary jobs or have amassed some level of wealth. And in reality, all of us as humans need to be able to get away and be inspired and reflect and rest in order to bring the best of who we are to our work. One of the other things that we've been doing is working specifically in immersive technology space, recognizing that female founders and founders of color will continue to face two primary sort of fundraising barriers, whether they're in media or any other sort of sector. I think about an amazing producer, an artist on Thomas based in LA who used to work with Will Smith and his production company, who's been trying to get this sort of narrative space and speculative fiction for females of color and their stories and their perspective and their view and their gaze for themselves and for the world out into the rest of society. And so part of what we've been thinking is how do we use grant dollars to overcome the first hurdle? Most women and people of color don't have the networks in order to raise the $150,000 to a couple million dollars in a friends and family round on an idea that they have. Well, grant dollars could replace that because then when many of our sort of friends and family rounds fail and we go to a series A with VCs and with angel investors, they look at that friends and family round and say, well, if your community doesn't believe in it, then we won't either. So we partner with our director of impact investing that builds financial models, does some financial due diligence with these companies and then thinks about how we might be able to follow on with a program related investment out of our endowment that is an equity investment in the IP of the company. Thereby creating a financial runway of one to 10 years and then in that time, socializing those entrepreneurs and those companies and portfolios with our fund managers that are part of our primary portfolio so that they're ready for a series B and overcoming those two big financial barriers. But those are some of the ways in which we think and we're trying to use sort of our bully pulpit and our positional power to influence how others are resourcing the sector. I think that's awesome. What I love about that have a year is that it's for profit. Now that's what I heard and I have been told by people, oh, we'll invest with you if you make it not for profit. And I go, why? Why am I not for profit? Because you don't have the balls, you think that it's a risk.  But you've written me off for centuries. No, I plan to be a success. I must be a success. I must show that not only are these stories important, that they're valuable. And that means that I can make a return on investment. And you should look at me as something that's not just a charity and or a good feeling or oh, this fulfills a something in your to check off. No, that this is something that you fully expect to be accountable toward making not only a valuable return on investment, but also valuable return on investment inside of community that needs it. And so I so appreciate that because that's what you're talking about. And I and I've done, I do diligence on you, brother. And the that's really sustainable communities as you put it and is everything. But I also believe that that whole you talk about narrative, it takes a village narrative is exactly what you're talking about when you say that you're that when people look at the arts program and they say, you know, we need to fund this because for years, they made a whole, I want to say campaign out of defunding the arts. And now here we have people saying defund the police. And we know that that means totally more than what you know, it's it stands for at first, but they defunded the arts.  And in broad daylight, somebody could film you. And they think nothing of it that they not only knew that they could do it, but they would be no accountability. And guess what, people said no. So I appreciate all that. And I think it's high time. That's the narrative I'd like to hear. And that's the best narrative I've heard for probably since I co founded Color Farm, was that you were willing to invest in something that was going to have a return on investment? Even Sarah, you know, what I think about some of the narrative work that we've been doing, we were planning an event in Chicago and trying to ask private industry and government to have to reckon with its relationship to land and labor. And our native partners in Chicago said, all of that's good, well and good, Javier, if y'all like some policy wins about how to redistribute land. But fundamentally, until we reckon with the genocide that's happened on this land, it's those those policy wins can be short, short lived. We've seen the way that our government, whether it's at the local level or the federal level can swing from far left to far right over time. But if we look at examples like in South Africa with apartheid and in Germany with Holocaust, one of the first things that each of those societies needed to do was to publicly recognize the genocide, to create physical landmarks and recognitions so they could no longer be denied that this entire country and society was built on the stealing of land and murdering of Indigenous peoples and the stealing of labor from Black individuals that were brought mostly from Western Africa. And so I wonder, as you think about the narrative change work that you've been a part of, whether you've seen opportunities or some bright spots where folks are in fact working towards that kind of reckoning and public recognition and or how you think we might be able to organize to get there. Yeah, I think we have a long way to go. But I think that, you know, I started with narrative change around the history of America when I worked at the Episcopal Church on the staff of the presiding bishop Catherine Jeffery Shory, where the Episcopal Church in 2009 was the first church to repudiate the doctrine of discovery. Now, I and then the World Council of Churches repudiate the doctrine of discovery, which is basically manifest destiny, the inherent right to conquer and rule of people, which is what caused is causing everything, all of the injustices that have happened to all of the people of color. It's going to lay it out there. So like they've already said, they're sorry.  That'd be cool. Like, how about you give the resources back to our community? And I think that that's the next level of like really being able to rematriate the land and resources that go back to our community and to indigenous peoples. And I think, you know, for me, one is that I've been really fortunate to be able to develop relationships with influencers. And I began that around five years ago, right after Standing Rock, because there was an opening. It was like all of a sudden society had an opening where they had gotten a perspective of, you know, what was really happening to Native Americans. And they wanted to know more influencers wanted to know more. And so I jumped into that space and said, okay, here I am, I'm ready to help you. I'm because I also understood that, you know, their platforms being able to share these messages on their platforms was that was how we were going to create culture ship. That was how we were really going to create something different for us. And so for me seeing impact was jumping into that space with places like people like, you know, Mark Ruffalo, who has done various projects with me.  And then so many of them taking up land acknowledgements, right. And like making it just a normal thing. Portugal the man was doing that probably over a year ago, he was doing that he was the first one. Secondly, I think there are systems that have to be changed. So with us, we're we actually created a fellow a fellowship called return of the heart society of indigenous women. And part of what I saw was that the women that were on the ground indigenous women were usually the organizers on the ground for anything that was happening. And so when COVID happened, we jumped in because you know, I how could you not. And then you had all of these tribal networks, you know, that regional tribal networks that could really be in action. And of course, they were all led by women. And then, and then when the protests started, the riots started happening, of course, indigenous women were in the middle of it for their communities. And I began to really think about how these women are the grassroots leaders, but yet they're fighting for basic things, like health. I mean, are you kidding me? They're fighting for basic things like health. So if they wanted to get a friends and family round of funding for a project that they have, come on, like it's almost it's almost unheard of for them to even have the time or the opportunity because there's still many of them living in poverty conditions. And I think for me, like that's what kills me, because you know, I come from that background, I come from those those conditions. I actually know how to play the philanthropy game, right? Like I actually, I know how to play, you know, I did the Hollywood game, right? Like so, when I think about like how difficult it is for somebody like me, that's even gone through all of that, you know, those systems and hardships and challenges to to find that type of funding, you know, I thought, okay, we need to create a fellowship program for these women, because not only do they need access to funding, but they also need access to a support community and to other other women's to network them in. So that's where I'm I see a lot of opportunity coming. I want to remind folks that you can put questions in the chat for us to respond to. Eric, I wanted to come back to the storytelling, you know, one of the things that I'm really excited about with the work that you've done with Color Farm is that in many ways, you started tapping into the two primary mediums, where I think storytellers have the most leverage on audiences, both in comic books and on TV, are the only places where audiences connect with individual characters and storylines over long periods of time. Film and other sort of forms of media are flashes in the pan. And so I think a lot about or I'm curious around your intentionality with those two particular mediums, I know that you do film work as well and other forms of media and leadership, but I noticed that those were two sort of pillars that you started with and would love to learn about your sort of intentionality and strategy there. Sure. I was very unintentional in doing it because I did it as a means to get around the racism and pushback when we, me and my creative partner Tony Perrier created something, let me just set this up, a graphic novel called Concrete Park. And we first imagined it as a film and television show, actually. He was the first African-American to write a movie that made over a hundred million dollars. He wrote Eraser. And I had already done the Cosby show and Living Single by that time and thought we could use some of this leverage to talk about black people and brown people in space because we were very inspired by City of God. So we thought, what if we did that but in space somewhere on another planet? And our simple question was, what if Earth sent its youth off to another planet? Would they reproduce the tribalism, the hostility, and the racism? Or would they make something new? And our bet was that they were going to make something new and beautiful, but it would go through a very hard journey. When we pitched that, this is an actual quote from the movie producer, president of a company here in Hollywood. We started to pitch, he says, let me stop you right there. Black people don't like science fiction because they don't see themselves in the future. He actually said that. And it's because he had had some sort of experience with making some movie and a black man stayed at one of their focus testing. And they came out and they asked him, do you have any questions? And he looked at the screen and he said, yeah, I just want to know how that nigga get to Mars. That is a full quote. Now, my partner at the time stopped him and said, let me tell you something about black people. For black people, the past is paying for the present for carries, but the future is free. We always create the future. We are the aliens that you took from across the ocean to rock your world and make your planets twirl. And by the way, he reminded them about Tavia Butler and Samuel Delaney. And he said, last time I checked, Will Smith is the number one science fiction star in the world, which he was. He was independent. He was men in black. So this was a straight lie. His narrative told him from one man, they can't see themselves in the future when the whole future around him had been built by the thoughts of black and brown people. Look at Stevie Wonder. He took the Samba and put it in his, yeah, you look at the Beatles and they were inspired by the native and the tribal beats that they were hearing. So we were offended, but here's what we did. We got mad and he decided to teach himself how to illustrate comics after 50 years of age. And that's what you see with Concrete Park. It was a means to an end. It became proof of life and concept, but that's what they're forcing you to do. They force you to lift, make a whole mountain in order to do the thing that you were given on earth to do. We still have not done the film and television show and we plan to, but I'm just showing you, talking to you a happy year about, well, sometimes something to do, to do things because of racism and it pushes it forward. And we go back to the caveman narrative of pictures on a wall. You're right, comic books are very instructive and they move past language and anybody can enjoy them. But I'm doing a documentary now on reparations and some of the reparational work that needs to be done now is the lie that we told ourselves about the extent of how we are represented inside of all media. And it doesn't stop at just wanting to be in stories, which by the way, we, that will change everything. But it also means podcasts. It also means comic books. It also means in space. It also means in health. It also means everywhere. So that's, that's reparations work for real. And Amen. It's totally necessary. Our time is coming to an end. Sarah and Erica, I'd love to just hear some closing thoughts from both of you before we wrap. Yeah. I, you know, my closing thoughts are really around storytelling and how I think that storytelling is, it's a very contemporary form of healing too. And I think that, you know, indigenous people's part of the stories for us is that it's, it's also our connection to our culture. It's our connection to our identity. It's connection to our spirituality. And so for me, that type of storytelling is really interesting because I think sometimes people don't really value those types of stories and, and they don't understand how we really need those stories for healing. And for me, I, you know, I went to Ghana last August for the 400 year return. And it was such an amazing experience, but I really saw so much of the similarities between Native American tribal groups as well as the truth, the tribal groups there and some of the practices. And, you know, it really brought home to me that the way that we can heal is really through telling these stories. And so one thing that I'm working on right now is a self-help slash memoir with my identical twin sister, Emma Eagleheart White, who's a psychotherapist. And we really decided to tell the stories of our lives because we thought we've been through so much. And we want to be able to give back and help our community heal, especially when our community has so little access to mental health opportunities, but also see it as a way to help other, you know, non-Native groups connect to spirituality and understand Indigenous worldview. And so for me, those things are intrinsically like related. And we have to be able to know each other's stories and histories and how we can also be unified in order to really create change. And that's like across the board, like doing the work and showing up. And so thank you. Sarah. Erica, closing thoughts? Well, I just want to say thank you to you, Javier and Sarah. Thank you so much for inspecting from inviting me and having this opportunity. And I think overall that one of the things that you and I have in common, Sarah, is that I grew up in a Native land. I grew up in Arizona, from the mountains and Flagstaff. I was born in Winslow, and I grew up around Navajo and Hopi children. And I didn't know that they were any different from me. So that culture is very dear to my heart. When I see that culture, I think of myself and people wouldn't see me in that space. They see me in urban space because of the things I've been on, but I'm very, very tied to Native lands. And more importantly, the Southern Gothic culture that I lived in, that they caught no country for old men, no country for Black men. That's exactly what I experienced. And so to see a beautiful brown man and your beautiful self, which are identical twin, talking about telling your stories and memoir is inspiring to me. And the last thing that I'll say is that I want people to understand that the hidden figures that they found, like 40 years after the moon launch, it shouldn't have taken 40 years to hear about those women.  It's brilliant. So you can see the person standing next to you. That's exactly the work we're doing. It's reparative work. It's restorative, more importantly, it's sustainable, as you say, environments. Now we're talking about the things that you've put your, your life and commitment to. And so I appreciate the opportunity to say I'm down with you with that work. Thank you both so much. My final thoughts for any of the investors or fund managers that are part of Spectrum and the SoCAP community is, you know, statements of support are beautiful and not enough. You need to make sure that you're backing it up with your money.  So thank you both so much for making time and I look forward to seeing y'all out in the world. See you. Take care. Beautiful. Wow. Thank you so much to Erica, Sarah, Javier for centering art in this movement. It's reparative, restorative and sustainable. That is exactly right. And so I thank you for that conversation. Now we're going to turn our attention to our first Lightning Bolt of the day with Cherise Conanan Johnson. Hi, my name is Cherise Conanan Johnson. Let me first say that I am heartbroken as to what's happened in our country over the last week. I come to you today as a Black American, as an entrepreneur, as a mother and as now managing partner at Next Street. A mission-oriented firm that revolutionizes how our clients provide more equitable, inclusive growth through developing strategies for capital, services and customers to get to small businesses and entrepreneurs. We are an anti-racist organization. As part of the work we've just released a report called the Equity Capital Gap for Entrepreneurs of Color in Chicago. It has ramifications beyond Chicago. And as I want to share these findings with you, I recognize the moment in time that we are at as a country. This report, though, was commissioned by Arc Chicago. The fund created for Benefit Chicago, which is an initiative of the John D and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Chicago Community Trust and Calvert Impact Capital. It's through this work that we try to dismantle structures around systemic racism, around racial justice and inequity. And so we are here to agitate four solutions to solve the problem around capital, specifically equity capital for entrepreneurs of color in Chicago. This report was started before COVID-19, before this civil unrest, but there is no time like the present to share its findings. I want to start with a quote from one of my favorite writers, James Baldwin, who wrote this ironically in 1963. I'll read just a few words of it and let you sit with it as I share the rest of our findings. James said, everything now we must assume is in our hands. We have no right to assume otherwise. If we and now I mean the relatively conscious whites and the relatively conscious blacks who must, like lovers, insist on or create the consciousness of others. Sit with that as I share some of the findings of our quantitative research and qualitative research for entrepreneurs of color that we did in Chicago. When I say entrepreneurs of color, through this research, we predominantly looked at and heard the voices of black and Latinx business owners and founders and their journeys about how they've experienced race, but also growing their businesses, not having the right equity capital. And so it's important to understand where we are in terms of where these businesses sit within the landscape of the broader Chicago economy. In Cook County, which is where Chicago sits, black and Latinx people make up 57% of the population. However, firms owned by black and Latinx individuals that have employees only make up 9% of all businesses here. And then most starting only 6% of revenue is generated from those same black and Latinx businesses. This is a problem, particularly if we had more business owners of color, those individuals would have wealth. But beyond that, these individuals are more likely than their white counterparts to hire from communities and to hire people that look like them spreading the wealth effect to the local and regional economic level. That's really important. And let me first start by defining equity capital. When I say equity capital, I mean first cash paid into a business in exchange for an ownership stake in that business. That tends to come in a form of family and friends money, founders money, venture capital, private equity. Another form of equity capital, which I define as equity like capital comes in the form of revenue based financing. Revenue based financing is really based on an investor getting a percentage of return based on the revenues of that company. And it has also some repayment options that look like debt, but is not debt, because it doesn't hamstring a company in the way that debt does. So with that capital frame, let's look at what's happening in Chicago, specifically around the equity piece. In Chicago, when we did our analysis, we recognize that black and Latinx owners seek roughly $182 million worth of equity capital. However, they are only receiving $36 million, leaving a gap of $146 million or 80%. That gap for their white counterparts is only 43%.  This is appalling, but why is this the case? There are several contributive factors. I want to introduce Daniel Digme, the owner of the Woodlawn, which is based on the south side of Chicago. His experience is rooted in three contributing factors. One, the lack of availability and scale of local equity providers in Chicago. When Daniel was starting his business, he just did not have a lot of options on the equity side. Number two, there's this product mismatch. Darnell needed equity capital, but often investors want business owners of color to receive debt capital. That's really the only kind they think about, especially if you don't have a high growth tech business. And so that mismatch is often there. There are not that many revenue-based financing options that really match needs like Darnell's, who was starting an incubator on the south side of Chicago. And third, there are limited family and friends options. Like many business owners of color, there is less intergenerational wealth for many of the systemic reasons. There's also higher student loan burdens, and the risk tolerance is a lot lower for many communities of color. There are many Darnells who faced many of these issues, and that was affirmed through our research. So what are we going to do about it? I want to propose four solutions that help us get to systems change or shifting the conditions that are holding a problem in place. Number one, we need multiple equity sources. There's no one fund, one silver bullet that's going to solve all of the problems for her business owners of color who need equity financing. We need a lot of funds to do so, especially in large cities like Chicago. Number two, we needed expanded focus and product alignment. We could use more revenue-based financing products that help match two businesses that are more moderately growth, were more lifestyle-oriented, that are in certain sectors that don't fit some of the traditional equity products or don't fit, obviously, on the death side. Number three, we need greater representation of people of color, making decisions, usually at the general partner level, on the investment side. Now, we started to see some momentum in Chicago, for instance, with initiatives like Chicago Blend, and even at the national level, you have leaders on the venture side, like Cape Park Capital, that are making efforts to have diverse teams making investment decisions. We need more. And number four, we need a mindset shift. This is not a moral problem. It is a business imperative. There is alpha to be created. There is return to be created by investing in business owners of color who have the same opportunity as many of their fight counterparts to really generate positive return. We will all do better and be better economically with more investment in business owners of color. And so I ask you and leave you, what will you do? What steps will you take to ensure that cities have small business and entrepreneurial communities that are vibrant, thriving, and provide equal access to opportunity, especially equity capital to businesses regardless of their race? You can download the additional findings and the full report at www.nextstreet.com. Thank you so much. Cherise, thank you so much for that. I think we're wet. There you are. How are you? I am doing very well. It's so great to be here. Thank you so much for taking the time to join us. You laid out very clearly steps and what we need to do to kind of see a change in this space in terms of having entrepreneurs of color access more capital. But I wondered if you could go a little bit deeper in terms of how do we go about increasing equity capital sources across the country, but certainly in Chicago, but also across the country? Absolutely. Thanks for the question. I do think we are at a critical moment where we have the wind at our backs to launch additional funds with, obviously, institutional money, other limited partners. And so I think one of the things that we hear often is, well, there's just one fund and let's throw everybody to that one fund and hope for the best. And so I just want to encourage us to think broadly about we need multiple funds that are out there and we need funds across the continuum. And so you have a market like Chicago where one particular, for instance, revenue-based financier founders first. Some people might have heard of them, but they are a revenue-based financing organization. They have a fund and they are trying to build and expand into new markets. They started out in Southern California. They're also based in Texas. And so we need to embrace new solutions like this in cities to help to ensure that they're successful, but also help other traditional equity sources as well. So it does take a whole ecosystem in order to, one, let business owners also be aware that these sources exist and allow these sources to be capitalized properly, not just with the money, but also with the human talent necessary to be making investment decisions as we move forward. So in some senses, that question seems much easier than the last one that I will leave with you. And that is you talked about really trying to, one of the things that the solutions that needs to happen is really shifting the mindsets of folks so that they're not seeing people of color as social problems, but as business opportunities. Now, if we look into the history, we know that at one point, Black folk and brown folk were seen as business opportunities. What would you say it will take to really shift the mindsets of partners to really look at Black and brown folk differently? Sure. I would point to two things. One is, and this is one I feel like we have to believe that this can happen, which is education around what you just said, that this isn't charity. And when we actually look at the numbers and experiences of successful Black business owners, there are so many examples of what that can look like. And we need to lift those examples up so much more, but also recognize that those aren't just a talented 10th. There is a whole lot of other Black and brown folk doing really fast-moving and innovative solutions out here to solve problems for customers. So part of it is just education and exposure. But then the second part, which I think is even more important, is reading by example. You're not going to get the mindset shift if people in decision-making platforms and of authority don't also see other people taking the step. And you have to ask yourself, why not me? You can't always wait for the next person to take action steps and invest the capital, writing the check, it matters. As a person myself who was an entrepreneur who started a company, a lot of times in these types of investment opportunities, you have people following the herd. But I want to encourage folks to take the step themselves, lead their peers, and use your wealth to usurp the system forces that have got us in this place in the first place. And so it's going to take bold, courageous action. And hopefully that's a multiplier effect so that it's not just seen as bold down the line. It's par for the course. And that's what we need to move to in order to move the mindset. Absolutely. Sharice, I want to thank you for giving up your time and energy today. And I thank you for joining us and giving us things to think about and real solutions because that's what we are here to do is really uplift those solutions that we can take action on. So thank you so much for your time. Thank you, Nadia. It's a pleasure to be here and looking forward to more great things out of you all. Absolutely. Thank you. Okay. So very interesting tie between


Catch up and get ahead with a special Spring Break 2016 edition of The Edge. Barack Obama became the first sitting U.S. President to speak at South by Southwest in Austin this month. His conversation with Texas Tribune's Evan Smith was all about the need for civic engagement, voting, and equity, making sure everyone has the opportunity to participate. Obama said the country faces serious challenges that require focus and collective action. We go back to the need for civic engagement. We cannot solve the problems in government, and we cannot solve the problems that we face collectively as a society unless we, the people, are paying attention. One place people are not showing up is at the polls. Texas has the second lowest voter turnout in the nation. What's the problem? Obama says there are too many barriers, including some barriers put in place by lawmakers. Online voter registration is perceived to be insecure, or same-day registration. It's not insecure. It's done because the folks who are currently governing the good state of Texas aren't interested in having more people participate. While everything else seems to be getting faster and more convenient, voting is still done the slow and low-tech way in Texas.  Like the obstacles, Obama urged people to reconnect for the sake of democracy. Your field is, there is a way right now for you to engage and participate to take this democracy back in ways that we have not seen before. Obama also warned against being distracted by shiny objects, and said it's important to keep focused on equity. Technology, he said, should be used to help people across the digital divide, not leave them behind. It's to focus on what's the cool next thing. Part of what we have to do is to figure out how do we use and harness the cool next thing to make sure that everybody in this country has an opportunity to make sure that we're dealing with our environment in an effective way. He returned to his original theme, the need for civic engagement. To step up and get involved, because the country needs you. Looks like we're running out of time, so... I'm the president, so I'm going to take one more minute. You will? Good. Okay, time for one more video. Spring Break at South by Southwest will also include a keynote address by First Lady Michelle Obama. Here's a replay from her 2014 talk to a few hundred college-bound students in San Antonio. Or maybe, maybe like me, along the way somebody told you, you would never make it to this day. That you simply weren't college material. Well, this day is for the doubters and the haters, too. It's the day that they see how wrong they were. This is their day, too, but most of all, this day is for you. Thanks for watching The Edge. See you next time.


Hi, everyone, Joe for Jasby's casebreaks.com, coming at you with an immaculate baseball box here. It's a filler, giving away 11 of finest baseball teams. So that's gonna be in the next video. Top 11 will win the teams in this order right here. So we'll do that with the second dice roll. The first dice roll will be randomizing names and teams. So we'll do the break itself. Thanks everyone for getting in. Three and a one, four times for names and teams. One, two, three, and four. Got Ed down to Martin. Three and a one, four times for the teams. One, two, three, and a one, fourth and final time. We've got Baltimore down to the New York Yankees. Now traditionally, for fillers, we don't have a trade window, but just because this is sort of a nice box here, we will have a short little trade window. All right, Ed with the Oreos, less with the twins, Shay with the Astros, even Kay with the Reds, Nancy Cubs, Mets. Ed with the Brewers, Nancy with the Tigers. Ed with the Phillies, Kevin with the Diamondbacks, Jason with the Rangers, Mike with the Giants, Devin with the Rays, Chad O with the Rockies, Shay, Marlins, White Sox, Kyle Mariner's, Las Palmojo, Jason with the Pirates, Nancy with the National, Cesare with the Guardians, Shay with the Cardinals, and Padres, Craig with the Braves, Shay with the Blue Jays, and Red Sox, Marky got my Dodgers, Shay, A's, Angels Royals, Martin with the New York Yankees. It's Alphatides, and we're gonna pause the video just for a little bit. When we come back, we're gonna see if there's any trades, and then we'll have the break. Stick around, be right back. All right, I'm back. No deals were done here in this one box break. It's a filler, but there could be some interesting things in this one box break. So let's find out. 2022, Immaculate Baseball, Redemptions. All right, let's see what we got here. Let's use this blank card here to slow play some of the hits. Here is, mmm, beer. 39 out of 99. Kevin with the Diamondbacks. Got Yorda on Alvarez, piece of his jersey. 27 out of 99. That will be for Shay and the Astros. And we got some Jaren Duran Duran, 33 out of 99, three color patch at Autograph for Shay and the Red Sox. She does the Red Sox. We got a thick one here, that's Logan Gilbert. Eight out of 10. Nice jumbo fielding glove signatures. That's pretty awesome. That's gonna have to go into a slider box. That's for Kyle Harper of the Mariners. We got Jake Berger, 11 out of 25, Jersey and Silver Inc Auto. We got a beer and a burger in this break, nice. Chicago White Sox for Shay. We got a three out of five, Cal Raleigh. Look at that patch. We had a nice season last year. I think that's another slider box candidate right there. Excellent patch, on-card Autograph. Nice RPA for Kyle Harper and the Mariners. Out of fives and under, get the train whistle. All aboard the Big Head Express. Woo-hoo! That's awesome. All right, and the final one here is just a Raleigh 13 out of 49. Thomas Sapooky for Nancy and the Mets. All right, yeah, see, this is the potential of a maculate baseball. All right, let's flip back over here. For those of you who didn't get hit, you still have a shot at a team in the next break. So here we are, top 11 are gonna get teams and find a space ball, top 11 after eight, two and a six, eight times, good luck. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eighth in final time. So it looks like Shay already got a team. Ed, very close, not quite. 12 through 30, thank you. Thanks for taking the risk, but we'll have to get him next time. Happy times though for spot 11, Shay's in. So it's Les, Jason, Nancy, Nancy, Chad, Craig, Shay, Shay, Stephen K. Oh, and Ed and Evans, look at you. Right there on top, after eight times. So that's not so bad. Boom, all right, so that worked out. We'll put a mac two next to your name so you know you won those spots. So Ed with Detroit, Stephen K with the Cubs, Shay White Sox and Mets, Craig with the Toronto Blue Jays. Chad O with Arizona, Nancy with Cleveland and the Giants, Jays with Miami, Les with Milwaukee and Shay with Colorado. We'll see you in the next video for that finest break, JasperysKSprakes.com.


So let's begin our study here in Luke chapter 17 by reading verses 11 through 19. We're gonna only look at those verses this evening. Luke chapter 17 verses 11 through 19. And it's a story that we see Jesus cleansing lepers from a horrible disease called leprosy. So we'll begin in verse 11, read to verse 19 and get into our study. Luke chapter 17, beginning at verse 11. Luke writes, it happened as he went to Jerusalem that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. Then as he entered a certain village, there met him 10 men who were lepers who stood afar off and they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, master, have mercy on us. So when he saw them, he said to them, go show yourselves to the priests. And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned in with a loud voice, glorified God and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks. He was a Samaritan. So Jesus answered and said, were there not 10 cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner? And he said to him, arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well. Now as we begin here in verse 11, it's just a simple aside. He's given us a geographic location as well as the description of the journey that Jesus is on. When he says in verse 11, it happened as he went to Jerusalem that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And so notice how he says he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. Galilee is the northern region of Israel. If you had a map of California and you divided it into three sections, southern, central, and northern California, well, you can do the same thing with the map of Israel. When you look at the nation of Israel and you see it on the map, you'll see that it has the sea on the left side of it on the western border. And so very much like we have our Pacific Ocean, they have the sea there. And so you can actually look at the map of Israel, dividing it into three sections. And if you do so, then you have the north, the center, and the south. You'll know that the north is a region called Galilee. And the center would be a region called Samaria. Then you have the southern section of it that is normally called Judah. And so as you look at a map of Israel, you'll have an idea of what's taking place here. Jesus Christ is in the north. And as he's in the north, he's now making his way south. He's going to the city of Jerusalem. Now it's described in a simple way. It says he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. That gives to us a simple idea as to what he's doing. What he's done is he's left from a region there around the sea of Galilee to the north and he's now traveling south. As he's traveling south from the sea of Galilee, you travel about 15 miles and you enter into a city there called Bet-Shan. In Bet-Shan, it's an ancient city we were there just last week. When you go into that city there, he would from Bet-Shan go off to the east and cross the Jordan River. And as he crossed the Jordan River, he would proceed south. And what he was doing is he was bypassing Samaria. And he did so in order to avoid confrontation. He didn't want to have a problem with the Samaritans. Now, Luke has been recording Jesus' journey down south to Jerusalem since chapter nine. And in chapter nine, he says, if you want to turn your Bibles briefly there, I'll develop your introduction by turning you to Luke chapter nine for a moment, verses 51 through 56. He is giving to us a reason that Jesus would take this detour and the reason as you're turning there is because there's great hostility, a great hostility between the Jews and Samaritans. It was a great hostility that is difficult for us to understand even in our day, unless perhaps you would be thinking in terms of a radical Muslim and a radical Zionist, a radical Muslim who believes in the destruction of Israel and a radical Zionist who'll lay his life down for the perpetuity of Israel and you might have something similar. The Samaritans and the Jews had no dealings. John, when he was writing concerning that in John chapter four, verse nine, simply said that. John in his gospel said, the Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. In order to clarify for his Gentile readers that there was a tremendous antagonism between Jews and Samaritans. The Samaritans had nothing to do with the Jews and the Jews would have nothing to do with Samaritans. The Jew would not sit down to eat a meal with one. He would not drink out of the same cup or the same well. He would not borrow anything from them. He had no commercial dealings with them. There was a tremendous amount of hostility and Jesus has already been dealing with this in chapter nine. Now from chapter nine, verse 51 through 56, we read, it came to pass when the time had come for him to be received up that he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem and sent messengers before his face. And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans to prepare for him. But they did not receive him because his face was set for the journey to Jerusalem. When his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them just as Elijah did? Do you want us to make them into crispy critters? I mean, it's something we would like to do. We have no problem doing that at all.  And so there is this longstanding disagreement, hostility between Jews and Samaritans. Luke has already alluded to this and Jesus has been proceeding to Jerusalem. And now as he's proceeding to Jerusalem, he's leaving the region of Galilee, passing through Samaria, but he goes about, Shann crosses over the Jordan and proceeds south in order that he might enter into Jerusalem in another way. So as this is taking place back in Luke chapter 17, at verse 12, it says, he entered a certain village and there met him 10 men who were lepers who stood afar off and they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, master, have mercy on us. So Jesus is on the eastern side of the Jordan River and while he's entering an unnamed village, village 10 lepers approach him with a request. Now it would seem that they have heard of Jesus Christ. They have heard of the works that he has been performing and he's been performing many works including the cleansing of lepers. Luke had told us in chapter five verses 12 and 13, it happened when he was in a certain city that behold a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus and he fell on his face and implored him saying, Lord, if you're willing, you can make me clean. Then he put out his hand and touched him saying, I am willing, be cleansed. Immediately the leprosy left him, he charged him to tell no one, but go and show yourself to the priest to make an offering for your cleansing as a testimony to them just as Moses commanded. However, the report went around concerning him all the more and great multitudes came together to hear and be healed by him of their infirmity. So it would seem that these lepers have heard that Jesus Christ is a miracle working rabbi who has the ability to cleanse you from leprosy and so as Jesus has entered into this unnamed village, there are 10 men who are lepers who see him and begin crying out to him and I want you to notice verse 12 how it says that they stood afar off and they cried out to him. Leprosy during the time of Christ was the most feared disease in the ancient world. Leprosy was incurable. A writer by the name of Alice Heisinger wrote a book that he titled, Unclean, Unclean. And Heisinger in his book describes leprosy in this way. Leprosy generally begins with pain in certain areas of the body, numbness follows, soon the skin in such spots loses its original color, it gets to be thick, glossy and scaly.   Fingers drop off or are absorbed, toes are affected similarly, eyebrows and eyelashes drop out. By this time, one can see the person in this pitiable condition is a leper. By a touch of the finger, one can also feel it, one can even smell it, for the leper emits a very unpleasant odor. These men were lepers. Of the 61 defilements in ancient Judaism, leprosy is second only to the touching of a dead body. And God actually gave commands concerning this disease, specific commands in the Old Testament. And you would see those commands listed for you in the Old Testament book of Leviticus in chapter 13.  As long as he has the infection, he remains unclean. He must live alone, he must live outside the camp. That was what the law stated concerning leprosy. Leprosy was also regarded as moral because it was a symbol of sin. And because leprosy was a symbol of sin, lepers were rejected. Because in scripture, leprosy is a graphic illustration of sin. Like sin, it infects the entire person, is ugly, corrupting, contaminating, alienating, and is incurable outside of a touch from God. The rabbis during the time of Christ knew that no prayer, no offering, no ritual could cleanse a leper. And yet, these lepers cry out to the Lord Jesus Christ. These lepers who are the outcasts of society, these lepers who are to live alone, they are isolated. They're the kinds of people that nobody can have fellowship with. These people see Jesus Christ and begin to cry out to him. And they take a chance by calling out to Jesus. You see, during that day, a Pharisee or a very hyper orthodox or extremely religious in practice person, if they saw a leper, they might pick up a stone and throw it in the direction of the leper. They wanted nothing to do with these people, nothing at all. Because it was a symbol of sin. And because it was infectious, it was dangerous. And people didn't want to be around them, would not have anything to do with them. They were isolated completely. Here comes Jesus into this village, an unnamed village. And as he enters into the village, these 10 lepers, the only conversation they're gonna have, the only quote unquote fellowship that they're gonna have is gonna be with other lepers. These 10 lepers see the Lord Jesus Christ and they begin to cry out to him. Now they know that they can be rejected, but their condition moves them so that they step out and they actually ask for help from the Lord Jesus Christ. Undoubtedly they had heard that he had done so for others. So why not ask him to do the same for them? James tells us in chapter four, verse two, you do not have because you do not ask. And there are a lot of people who are in spiritual leprosy who do not receive because they simply don't cry out and ask for help, they don't ask for mercy. Sin makes a separation, it's destructive, it destroys your life. And yet instead of crying out to Christ, we have a tendency of hanging around with other sinners and getting worse at it. Yet these people here, they see the Lord Jesus Christ, they have heard that he doesn't reject you, they have heard that he has compassion for you, they have heard that he has power to do something that nobody else can do. And they cry out to him. I think that's the wisest thing you can do guys, is to realize your condition is incurable, to realize that there's nothing you can do except get worse. You can't get any better. You know, sometimes people will say, well you outgrow sin, you never outgrow sin. You don't mature past it. You refine it. You get better at it. You get better at hiding it. If you know anybody who's an alcoholic or perhaps you were an alcoholic at one time before you met Christ, you know that you could hide your alcoholism, at least you did for a while. You were capable of hiding the fact that you were drunk. You were able to do that. I know of people who are weekend drunks. They hold a nine to five, five days a week, Monday through Friday, they go to work. And their coworkers don't know they're drunks. But man, once they leave on Friday, they're drunk from Friday night until Sunday night. And then they're back on Monday morning working and their friends don't know it. But these are weekend drunks. These are people who are able to maintain to a certain degree. Now, the first time you get drunk, people know it. The very first time you get drunk, you might even be the butt of people's jokes.  That was the case for me. When I first started getting drunk, it was real obvious. I didn't know how to hold my liquor. I didn't want to. As a matter of fact, it was almost a state of symbol for me to be walking around drunk and everything. I didn't have a problem with that at all. I wanted people to know that I was drunk. But you know, after a while, I came to realize that there are people you don't want to know that you're drunk like your parents. And so what I learned to do, I thought, was I learned to hide it. I learned to maintain. I learned to be able to have an appearance of being sober when in reality, I was extremely drunk. Got pulled over more than once when I was extremely drunk and I was able to just talk to the police officer. I looked normal, but inside my heart was pounding because I knew that if he pulled me out of that car and had me do any of those tests, that I would fail them. But you learn how to maintain. You learn how to look like you're okay.  People see that. And ultimately, sin is that way too because you may think that you are getting away with it. But after a while, the telltale signs of being an alcoholic are there, the ruddy complexion, the puffy face and the slurring of the speech and you don't take care of yourself the way that you used to and you seem to have accidents often and you're bruising easily and what's going on. And it starts showing after a while. It starts showing after a while. And so these people here are a great example, not only of those in need of a touch from God to cleanse them but they're also a great example to us because they needed a touch from Jesus and they went to the right person. There was nobody else that could do that for them. There was nobody else that could cleanse them. There was nobody else that could make them well. Leprosy needs to be cleansed. It isn't necessarily healed though you can use the word healed when it making reference to it. But it is something, the law speaks about it being cleansed and sin is something that needs to be cleansed. We are cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. It's the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from all sin you see. And so as leprosy is being presented to us, there are 10 who have it and they are horribly, horribly infected by it. They see Jesus coming into the village. They stand afar off because the law commands that they do and they begin to cry out in verse 13, Jesus, master, have mercy on us. And I want you to notice by the way here, they lifted up their voices. They were willing to be identified openly in their crying out to God. There are so many people who say, well, yeah, I'd like to know Jesus and all. These people were willing to be openly identified as those who cried out for help. That's why an open invitation, that's why when we give an invitation, I'll say come forward because I really believe it's the model you find in Christianity of being open about your profession of need and receiving of that healing.  And so you see that in obedience to Levitical law, remain a distance away as they're calling out to him. And notice again, they're saying have mercy on us. Psalm 103 verses 10 and 11 says, he has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities, for as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward those who fear him. And so they're crying out and they're asking for mercy and so notice verse 14, so when he saw them, he said to them, go show yourselves to the priests and so it was that as they went, they were cleansed. He doesn't touch them, he simply commands them to go and show themselves to the priest to reveal that they've been healed. Now in doing so, this is keeping with the law if you keep notes, that's described in Leviticus also in chapter 14. Now what's interesting is they all had leprosy, they all wanted to be cleansed, they all believed that Jesus could cleanse them, they all asked him to cleanse them, they all went to the priests and they were all healed. But notice verse 15, one of them when he saw that he was healed returned and with a loud voice, glorified God and fell down on his face and his feet, giving him thanks and he was a Samaritan. This guy wasn't a quiet person apparently, this guy was pretty loud but I guess there's a good reason for it. I guess there's a good reason for it. I mean God had done something, God had done something incredible and he wasn't about to be quiet about that, there are a lot of quiet Christians and I don't think there's anything wrong with being a quiet Christian, I'm a quiet person myself, I identify with that but I can tell you there are times when I'm not quiet, I can still remember and this is ancient history for some of you, you weren't even born at this time, but when the Dodgers last won a World Series, you know that Kirk Gibson homerun that you see played over and over again on Sports Center and various of the things that's the greatest hit and I was there, I was there when that happened, I was in the right field box seats, I saw that game, I was sitting there when Gibson came up, when he's hobbling around up there, I saw him when he hit that ball and it traveled past us going up and then it lands in the bleachers there in right field and the entire Dodger Stadium erupts unbelievably, we were all shouting and so loud and so hoarse and I stood there with my hands up going yeah, right, just like everybody else, yeah. And then, I mean it kept going on and on and on for several minutes, so long, then we finally got in the car and we were driving out of the parking lot and there were thousands of people who were still in Dodger Stadium, still screaming and you could hear them as we drove out of the parking lot and drove on down the street, thousands of people screaming at the, because a little white ball guy hit by a little stick over a fence, think about it, think about it, we will scream until we're hoarse over things that don't matter, it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter, it really doesn't matter, he gave me joy for that moment but that was what, 20 years ago, I haven't been happy with the Dodgers ever since man, 20 years, 20 years is a long time, it's a long time, it's too long, and I'll be mad at them this year too, I know, they're losers, but anyway, we yell and get excited and it's okay, it's great to be excited and to yell but this guy, now he had something to shout about, he did, this is a man and none of us can really understand this because none of us have suffered like this man, this is a man who knows how long he'd been in this condition, his body wasting away, wasting away, no fellowship, no relationship with other people other than other lepers, the kind of man that couldn't come into a city without having someone throw a rock and I mean, this is a guy that doesn't say whether or not he had leprosy as a married man or as a single man, but this is a man who couldn't approach his wife, he was married, this is a man if he was not married who would never get married, this is a guy if he was unmarried and he'd never gonna have children, he's never gonna have the dreams and his hopes fulfilled, he's never gonna have any of that guys, he's never gonna have any of the things that we take for granted, this guy's never gonna have any of that, he's not gonna have friends, he's not gonna have quiet meals, drinking a cup of coffee, visiting with a friend or watching his grandchildren grow up around him, he's never gonna have any of that, he's not gonna have that, this is not part of his life, he can't even hang around with normal people, this is a guy who hangs around with people whose hands are falling off, whose noses are falling off, literally falling off, this is a man who has cloth around the open wounds because they ooze that he has change and sometimes he just doesn't have the ability to change it, so it cakes on him and he smells in such a way that people can't even get close to me, how difficult is that? I can't imagine what this guy was going through, so when he's walking along the way and he senses strength in his body, and he feels health in his body for the first time and he couldn't take another step away from Jesus, he had to run back to him, he had to run back to him and he wasn't quiet about this at all guys, this is a man and this is how it's described, verse 16, he fell down after with a loud voice, he glorified God, he fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks, that is the absolute perfect picture of a sinner who's been saved, that you just, you glorify God, you fall down at his feet and you give him thanks for what he has done, that salvation, you see a lot of times people say, oh I'm a Christian, they've never experienced glorifying God, they wouldn't even think of falling down at his feet, they wouldn't even think about praising him out loud, I questioned somebody's sincerity when they don't have this kind of sense and then I was lost, I was dead, I was putrid in my life and now I've been cleansed, I mean there's just something and it happens when Jesus Christ grabs hold of you in that way, that transforms you and you're not ashamed of it, you're not ashamed of it, you know there are so many people today that I encounter who are, they seem to be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, they don't want to admit that they're identified with him, not this guy, this guy didn't care about who saw him, he didn't care about what he was doing in public, he didn't care about his dignity, this is a man who couldn't even walk hardly without any pain, this is a guy who's now on his face in front of Jesus Christ, glorifying God and giving him praise and then Luke tells us very quietly he was a Samaritan, this is a guy who was outside of the promises of God, this is a guy who wasn't part of Israel, this is a guy who had a religious system that was antagonistic to the truth and yet Jesus Christ still healed him and still did a work in his life. I want you to see that, it says one of them when he saw they was healed returned with a loud voice and glorified God, they were all cleansed but only one of them actually thanked him for such a work, 90% didn't even say thank you, 90%, nine out of 10 didn't even say thank you, that sounds like the 21st century to me, we're living in times that are unbelievably prosperous, but you wouldn't know that if you listen to the news, you wouldn't know that if you listen to what's being said, in order to be elected president you have to say everything's horrible and the funny thing about it is you'll always have somebody agreeing with you. I was at a gas station and a young man probably in his early 20s pulled up in a, it was a Lexus, one of the smaller versions but it was a Lexus, black tinted windows, nice sound system, I know it had nice sound system because he was showing it off, vibrated me, he climbs out of the car and he's wearing a leather jacket, nice slacks, very handsome young man, very, very handsome young man and he's putting his gas in and I can hear the lyrics of the music he's listening to as he's, his head's bumping along with it, he's got me vibrating and the lyrics are saying how bad things are, it was real down, you know him this and I'm that and he's just oh I'm so depressed, I'm so, it's just, the world is just stinks man, it stinks.  Hope you do, but can you? Do you have money to go out and buy a cup of coffee at one of these expensive coffee places man?  But I can remember it, I can remember it.  Can you take a friend out and have a meal? Can you do that? Do you have more than one pair of shoes, you got more than one pair of pants, do you? Do you have a TV set? How many do you have?  And life is bad, isn't it? Got a job? Come on man, we of all people are so unthankful. God just can't do enough for us, can he? He just can't bless us enough, can he? And when something doesn't go our way, who gets blamed? God, how come you let this happen to me? Well, why not you, sucker? Gotta happen to somebody, why not you?  I'm jet lag, forgive me. I will edit that word, sucker. No, I won't, I don't care. Bottom line, we ought to be thankful. But 90% didn't even say thanks. 90% didn't even say thank you. They just went on their way and did. They went to the priest, they received their cleansing. But this man, he's different. This man fell on his face and he gave Jesus thanks. Psalm 30 verses 11 and 12, you have turned for me my mourning into dancing. You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness to the end that my glory may sing praise to you and not be silent.  And that's what this man is doing in Psalm 107 verses 20 through 22. He sent his word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions. Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men. Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving and declare his works with rejoicing. And that's what this man is doing. You see the symbol of death, living death has been removed with just a word received by faith. And that's what happened to us. That's what happened to you. And that's what happened to me when God's word was received by faith. When I heard that evangelist, Arthur Blessed, give an invitation. And he said, if you give your heart to Christ he will cleanse you from all of your sin.  He will change you. And I heard that. And I thought, that's too good to be true. But it was true. It is true. It is true. But that's how we were. We, according to Ephesians chapter two verses one and two, we were dead in transgressions and sins in which we used to live when we followed the ways of this world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work and those who are disobedient. We at one time were dead in trespasses and since transgressions. We were dead. We were walking dead people. Walking dead people. We had no spiritual life. We were walking in darkness and we enjoyed it. It was the only life we knew. We didn't have a concept of anything that would be better than what we had. We had dreams and aspirations but these were things that were basically really out of reach for most of us. Our dreams were bigger than our abilities. Then we got to the point where we, and I'm speaking as a saved man now, just came to realize that now I was miserable. I had no joy. I had no peace. I didn't know what love was. No relationships was hurtful and harmful to anybody who knew me and those who loved me would get hurt the most by me. Isn't that the way it normally is? Those who loved me the most were hurt the most by me because they loved me. And so I got away with a lot of things. But not really because in my heart of hearts I knew I was in need of some help. I needed help. I remember when I had been arrested I was put in jail. Just an overnight thing. My dad came and bailed me out. I remember telling my dad as he was driving me home. I remember telling my dad I'm sick and my dad sent me to a psychologist. I didn't need a psychologist. I needed a savior. I needed forgiveness. I needed help. And the help that I needed was beyond human aid. I mean, the psychologist couldn't convince me there was nothing wrong with me. And I couldn't convince myself that there was nothing wrong with me because inside my heart of hearts I knew there was something terribly wrong with me because I was a miserable kid, a drunk at the age of 20, you know, abuser, you know, couldn't have a relationship, couldn't keep a relationship. Went from a girl to girl. I couldn't keep a relationship.  But I heard that message, I heard the message. I heard that God is merciful. I heard that, I heard that God forgives and God knows I needed that. And with a small amount of faith and a very large God I simply said God forgive me a sinner and I passed from death into life. Instant transformation, the Bible says if any man be in Christ he's a new creation. All things are passed away, behold. All things are become new, absolutely new, brand new. That's the promise. If I confess my sin, he is faithful and just to forgive me my sin and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness. That's the promise. And I took God like you did at his word. The way this leper did, as he was walking he felt that he's healed. And he could not resist returning to give glory to God. Fell down at the feet of Jesus Christ. And glorified and thanked the Lord. But what's Jesus's response? Verse 17, Jesus answered and said, were there not 10 cleansed, but where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner? Again, I wonder if this is the normal ratio of gratitude. The Bible in Psalm 100 verse four says, enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful to him and bless his name. First Chronicles 16 verse 34 says, O give thanks to the Lord for he is good. His mercy endures forever. Paul in 1st Thessalonians 518 says, in everything give thanks, this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Were there not 10 cleansed? Where are the nine? What happened to the rest of them? And then he says, were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner? So the person who returned to give glory to God wasn't even Jewish. Jesus speaks of him as being a foreigner. That word foreigner is an interesting word. It speaks of an alien. Literally it speaks of one from a different tribe. This guy's not even part of the nation of Israel. No one who should have shown thankfulness did not do so. And the one that you wouldn't expect to be grateful was. That's how it worked. You see, as a Samaritan, his theology was not sound. As a Samaritan, he had what we would today call a hybrid faith because the Samaritans were actually not indigenous Jewish people. They had been transported into a region that had Jewish population that was repopulated by foreigners. And it was in the area of Samaria. And so the king of Assyria had invaded and had dispersed the 10 northern tribes and replaced the inhabitants with people from various countries. And when they came and settled in that land, they didn't belong to the nation of Israel. They were outsiders. And when they came, they brought their foreign gods. And they began to suffer because of that. So ultimately what they did is they said, the God of this land is angry at us, sent for one of the people who know the ways of this God to teach us how we're supposed to worship him so that he'll no longer be angry. And so a Jewish person came and basically said, this is how the God of Israel is worshiped. But what they did is they began to combine their religious faith with the faith of Israel. It says in 2nd Kings 17, verse 33, they feared the Lord, yet served their own gods according to the rituals of the nations from among whom they were carried away. So they combined their paganism with the Jewish faith, created a hybrid faith, and as a result of that, the Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. They wanted nothing to do with them. As a matter of fact, the most famous story concerning that in John 4 is when the woman of the well, a woman of Samaria came and Jesus said, give me something to drink. And that's why John says, she looks at him and she says, how is it that you being a Jew ask a drink for me, a woman of Samaria? And then John says, for the Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. And as they're speaking, she even says to him, well, you Jews say that you're to worship God in Jerusalem, but we worship him on this mountain, Mount Gerdzim. We worship him here, but you say that he's supposed to be worshiped in Jerusalem. She's tried to start a religious debate with Jesus Christ when he was there ministering to her. He says, you don't even know what you worship. That's how he responded. You know not what you worship. He said, salvation is from the Jews. And he immediately corrected her. But see, the Jews had a religious system that was from God. The Samaritans had a hybrid system. And this guy here didn't even have an understanding, a deep understanding of who Messiah is. He simply knew that he trusted him and he was healed. See, when you get saved, you don't instantly become a master theologian. You get saved and you still carry in some of the craziness and your beliefs that you had before you got saved. You do. When I got saved, I came in with all kinds of crazy ideas about God. So how are those crazy ideas gonna be eradicated? The way they're eradicated is through teaching the word of God, being taught God's word by reading the Bible. And as I, as a young believer, started reading the Bible, I started saying, oh, he doesn't like that. Oh, he likes that. That's how it was. This is when I got saved, if you don't mind, one other quick thing about that. When I got saved, this is what I did. You know, I was raised in the Roman Catholic Church and so I went to Mass. I went to Mass because that's where I went to church. But the day I got saved, the follow-up counselors said, to me, you need to go to a church that teaches the word of God. And so I got a Bible and I went to Mass. I hadn't been to Mass in about five years, six years. And I went to Mass and I sat there in church.  I waited for the priest to tell me to open the Bible. He never did. And I thought, well, if I'm gonna know God, I ought to be in a place that opens this book. I was a brand new Christian. It means since to me, if I'm gonna know God, I ought to go to a place that's gonna open this book because I sat there with the Bible on my lap and I didn't have to open it up. And so I started thinking about that. And then one day, shortly after, I went to my sister-in-law's house, my brother's house. And as I was sitting there, I saw this, one of those 500 pound family Bibles. And I opened it up to the very back. It was a huge Bible. I opened it up to the back and it had doctrines. And I was waiting there and I thought, well, this is interesting. So this is what I did. I was 20 years old, brand new Christian. And I said, I wonder where these things I was taught are found in Scripture. So I started with the letter A and I looked for the assumption of Mary. It's not found in the Bible. Church tradition. I said, well, if it's a church tradition, I don't need it. And I just started doing that. I looked for penance. Where is it found in Scripture? It wasn't found. Looked for purgatory, didn't find it. Looked for limbo, didn't find it. Looked for all kinds of things that I'd been taught, didn't find it. And it wasn't like this act of rebellion. It wasn't like, I'll show you, I'm mad at you. It was nothing like that. I just was a young guy saying, if it's not here, then why would I believe it? If God didn't say it, then why would I embrace it? It doesn't make sense to me. See, so a lot of this that I had in the past, my religious beliefs were altered.  Because if they just said that to me, if it fights on, we're gonna argue. We're gonna argue. Because you shouldn't judge me. What do you know about me? And that's how I was. But when I opened up the word of God, and I started saying, this is what he says, it made sense to me, it still does, that I ought to embrace what he says rather than what man says. It's really that simple. It goes deeper than that, but it's really that simple. That's where it begins. And so this guy coming out of a religious system that is antagonistic to the true faith was still touched by God because God is merciful. And once he grabs hold of you, then he directs your footsteps into truth. He gets you with the truth. He builds you up with the truth. He fills you up with the truth. He guides you with the truth. It all comes from his word. So here he comes to Jesus and Jesus says, this guy's not even part of the tribes of Israel, and yet he has come and has given praise to God. And so God did a work in his life. Psalm 50 verse 23 says, whoever offers praise glorifies me. And to him who orders his conduct a right, I will show the salvation of God. And so he said in verse 19, he said to him, arise, go your way, your faith has made you well. Your faith is not simply this, oh, I've got faith. A lot of people today will talk about their faith. Now this wasn't some nebulous thing. This was a directed faith. What are you saying is your faith in me, your faith in my word. The fact that you've embraced what I said to you and you know who I am, that has saved you. That is what has made you well. You see, faith is only as good as the object that it is placed in. His faith had been placed in Jesus because he knew that Jesus could heal him. And so he received what God had for him. So it's not some nebulous faith. It's a direct faith, a directed faith towards God. It's a directed faith towards Jesus Christ. And that's what Jesus is commending. Not the fact that he has faith, but that his faith was placed in him. That his faith was placed rightly, correctly in Jesus Christ. And that faith in hearing his word and acting on it is what cleansed him and ultimately is what saved him. It's the same kind of thing that happened to you if you're a Christian. You heard God's word, you cried out to him, have mercy on me. God said, I will have mercy on you. You received it and you were saved. Now let's be thankful. Now let's be open. Let's be willing to be identified with Christ. Let's glorify him.