The next item of business is a member's business debate on motion number 1664 in the name of Ruth Maguire on celebrating international credit union day 2016. This debate will be concluded without any questions being put, so would those members who wish to speak in the debate please press the request speak buttons now. I call on Ruth Maguire to open the debate around seven minutes, please, Ms Maguire. In opening the debate, I would like to begin by thanking all the members who signed my motion that allows the debate to take place and all those who have stayed to take part. The role of credit unions in reducing poverty and the impact of financial worries is well recognised and has been described in reports by organisations from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation to the Social Market Foundation. I'm proud to mark international credit union day 2016, which took place on 20 October with this member's debate in our Scottish Parliament. International credit union day has been celebrated worldwide on the third Thursday of October since 1948 and exists to mark the achievements of the credit union movement to date, as well as to raise awareness and support for their work today and in the future. Owned and controlled by members and with membership based on a common bond, credit unions are underpinned by the co-operative ethos of people helping people and are committed to maximising the quality of service provided to members and not the extent of profit provided to shareholders. I've recently met representatives of step-change debt charity who do excellent work in my constituency of Cunningham South and, indeed, across Scotland. They told me that they often refer clients to credit unions and are strong supporters of their ethos and work and is a more sustainable and sensible way for people to get credit when they need it. As well as providing affordable loans with fader conditions and longer repayment terms than payday lenders, credit unions also empower communities and encourage individual entrepreneurship. Indeed, they are often termed community banks, a description which well reflects their nature and purpose. Credit unions provide effective and affordable services for over 217 million members across the world and, as a real force for positive, economic and social change, it's encouraging to note that they have a thriving presence here in Scotland. There are 103 credit unions in Scotland with a combined membership of over 383,000, which works out at roughly 7 per cent of the Scottish population, by far the highest percentage of the nations across the UK. Even more encouragingly, that current figure reflects a strong increase in membership in Scotland over recent years and a marked increase in junior members. I'm also pleased to note that several rich credit unions have recently participated in the UK Government-funded credit union expansion project to further develop their reach and impact. Six will now proceed to the next phase of the project, which will further develop and diversify their operating model, making them more competitive and efficient, including through a market-leading banking app and improved digital access channels. In my own Cunningham South constituency, the co-winning-based First Alliance credit union has been supporting a diverse range of savers and borrowers in the Ayrshire community since 2004. There are currently over 3,000 members with £2.3 million in savings and £1.9 million out in loans. I'm delighted to note that First Alliance has recently been awarded a five-star fair banking rating for its personal loans. I'm also pleased to share with the chamber that First Alliance is working constructively to deal with some of the challenges that are presented by welfare reform. Its partnership with North and South Ayrshire councils and six social landlords, in which the credit union has trusted partner status, for example, means that the services of the credit union can be utilised to help tenants in arrears or facing eviction. At the same time, it benefits social landlords as they are assured of the rent that they are due. The credit union also provides budgeting accounts for people who have problems managing their money, something that's proven extremely helpful in light of welfare reform, which has seen payments move from fortnightly to monthly for some folk, for example. I know that members across Scotland will be able to draw on excellent examples in the areas that they represent, and I look forward to hearing more examples of good practice in the course of this evening's debate. I applaud the support that parties across the chamber have given to credit unions in previous terms, and I welcome particularly the recently launched junior savers fund, which works with 10 credit unions to develop relationships with local schools. This progress is great, but there's still much more to be done to make Scotland even more of a credit union nation. It's encouraging to note too that the recent manifestos of every single party in this chamber included a commitment to supporting and expanding the role of credit unions in Scottish society. Equally, it's good to note the substantial cross-party support that was gathered by the charter published by the Scottish section of the Association of Scottish Credit Unions last year. Amongst other things, the charter calls for encouraging employers to partner with credit unions, improving financial health by encouraging regular saving and responsible borrowing, developing a stronger credit union presence in schools, and supporting and promoting the capacity of credit unions as providers of affordable credit in our society. I look forward to working with members across this chamber to achieve those aims during the parliamentary term ahead. I've finished just a little ahead of my time, so to end up, I'll just give a quick plug to the cross-party group on credit unions, which has already received good support from across the chamber. If anyone else wishes to join, they'd be most welcome. I now call Dean Lockhart to be followed by Neil Findlay. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Thanks to Ruth Maguire for bringing forward this motion and giving us the opportunity to celebrate International Credit Union Day 2016. This allows the chamber to discuss and to recognise the importance of the credit union movement for Scotland and for the people of Scotland and to highlight the future benefits that credit unions can deliver in Scotland. Credit unions in Scotland play a unique role in offering savings, loans and a range of services to their members that might not otherwise be available, or available on affordable terms. With a membership of approximately 387,000 in Scotland, credit unions play a leading role in their communities, and, as Ruth Maguire said, they are often thought of as community banks. Scotland benefits from a proportionately higher level of credit union membership than the rest of the UK, and indeed has the fourth highest level in Europe. I'm pleased to say that credit unions in Scotland have benefited from measures taken by the UK Government. For example, as Ruth Maguire mentioned in 2013, the UK Government announced an ambitious credit union expansion project worth up to £38 million towards the further development of credit unions across the UK, and many in Scotland have benefited from that. The credit union expansion project was designed to identify mechanisms to reduce the cost of lending, to assist credit unions to jointly develop new products and to implement a new operating system based on the same system used by a number of UK banks, thereby enabling real-time processing of payments and other transactions. All very welcome developments to widen the reach of the credit unions in Scotland. In my own region, Stirling Credit Union has been credited as being one of the most innovative and forward-thinking credit unions in Scotland. It was originally started in the late 1990s as a simple means for Stirling Council employees to save and borrow at affordable levels. Since it was established, it has expanded, and it is now a community credit union that includes individuals who work in Stirling, Clackmannanshire and areas of Lannarshire. The expansion of the Stirling Credit Union has been a very welcome expansion in the local community, and the credit union has recently been successful in encouraging local businesses to take up payroll-based savings schemes. Payroll-based savings schemes are important because it is often the case that those individuals who save in this way are better savers. The money that they save helps to improve their credit ratings and can help in other areas, for example, when those individuals are looking to save for a mortgage. The Stirling Credit Union has also established a junior savers scheme, something mentioned by Ruth Maguire, which has now expanded to include primary and secondary schools. I think that this is a very welcome step to introduce school children to finance and saving at an early level, so that in future life beyond school they are familiar with the concept of saving and finance. I offer my congratulations to the many people across Scotland who have made the credit unions a success. It is my pleasure to support the motion in the name of Ruth Maguire, and I look forward to supporting the continued leadership of the Scottish credit unions. Neil Findlay, followed by Ash Denham. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I thank Ruth Maguire for bringing forward the annual debate on credit unions. It is very welcome. I declare an interest as a member of the Blackburn and Seafield credit union, and my mum is a volunteer. We all understand that credit unions have been a great facility providing local and very much needed low-cost banking and financial services in our communities. Despite the best efforts of the previous chancellor to put some of the smaller credit unions out of business with his reforms previously referred to, they have overcome a very difficult period for some of them. In my region, the West Lothian credit union has just announced its £10 million worth of loans have been given out to the local community. A fantastic achievement in both myself and the Cabinet Secretary for Communities were delighted to attend their celebratory event. They and other credit unions are always innovating, trying to bring in new products, getting into schools, opening recently. They have a cash-tree account to help people to stop smoking, prepaid debit cards, free wills and loans at a much cheaper rate of finance than the likes of Provident, Wonga, Quick Cash and Home Bright. That is critical. Over 1.2 million members across the UK, more than 350,000 in Scotland. That is good numbers, but there is so much more we can do in terms of the untapped membership out there. Just 7 per cent of our population are members of these ethical financial cooperatives. That should be much, much higher. We need to create an atmosphere and a culture where credit union membership is the norm. Things such as baby accounts, children's accounts, young savers accounts, holiday loans, white goods loans, Christmas clubs, school clubs, mortgages and business loans for some of them. Those should and could be provided and taken up by so many more people, but that requires all of us to promote the credit union ideal and where possible follow our warm words for action and crucially budget. Invest in credit union development is truly preventative spend from which we will all benefit. I pay tribute to all credit unions across the world and to the people who, day in, day out in our communities, provide the essential lines of credit to our constituents, to our families and friends and indeed to ourselves. I will join in adding my thanks to Ruth Maguire for bringing this debate to the chamber so that we can recognise the great contribution that is given by credit unions. This year's international credit union day theme was the authentic difference and that was in celebration of the positive economic impact that the sector provides both in financial services and in social change. The continual growth of Scotland's credit union sector has led to an increase in membership. Credit unions are obviously owned by their members, they are controlled by their members and because they are owned by their users compared to other institutions that are owned by stakeholders and investors, credit unions put their emphasis on providing the best possible service to their members instead of just increasing profits. The most recent figures published by the Bank of Scotland revealed that Scottish credit unions have over £562 million in assets, £296 million in loans out to members and £484 million held in savings. Credit unions are also protected by the financial services compensation scheme, which gives assurances exactly the same protection as would be afforded to money held in a normal bank. Scotland's credit unions should rightly be recognised for the work that they do and their success both here in Scotland and in a wider global context. Among the 100 credit unions in Scotland, there is a membership, as has already been said, of over 387,000 and that 7 per cent of the population, which should be noted, is higher than in the rest of the UK, so it shows that the uptake in Scotland has been quite positive. The Association of British Credit Unions accepted the Outstanding Membership Growth Award from the World Council of Credit Unions recently in 2015. In February this year, the Scottish Government published a report on the work of Scottish Credit Unions. That report highlights the success of Lanarkshire Credit Union's Savvy Savers project, a very complex project in which they were able to help over 7,000 primary and secondary school pupils save over £650,000. Savvy Savers works in 74 different primary schools and five secondary schools in South Lanarkshire. They are also able to employ full-time school project workers to promote the education of financial responsibility and forward planning and money management in effort to tackle poverty. That is just one example of the way in which credit unions can work with schools to increase future generation's financial awareness. The Association of British Credit Unions last year produced a Scottish charter, and in that it suggested that changes that we, as parliamentarians, could make to help Scotland to become a credit union nation. It made suggestions such as that we could encourage all members to partner with credit unions to make savings and repaying loans via payroll deduction, a standard workplace benefit for all people across Scotland, and that we promote credit unions as providers of affordable credit for people from all walks of life. I think that those are some very good suggestions that we could take forward. In this chamber it is also obviously important that we recognise our local credit unions. In my constituency of Edinburgh East, I have the castle credit union, and I know that they have been working hard to help the community flourish. As our local credit unions grow, more money is brought into communities, and that is a benefit to all of us across Scotland. It is with great pleasure that today I participate in this debate, and let me at the outset also thank Ruth Maguire for bringing forward this motion and giving Parliament the opportunity to express our appreciation and raise awareness of the critical work the credit union movement is doing, both in Scotland and internationally, and what a movement. Having begun in around 1852 or perhaps even 1844 on one analysis, with a simple idea that people could pool their money and make loans to each other along the principles of cooperative interdependence, a community first mentality and a volunteer management structure, I note that now there are perhaps 57,480 credit unions in 105 countries around the world. Collectively they serve 217.4 million members and oversaw 1.79 trillion US dollars in assets. With that international footprint, International Credit Union Day, which took place on 20 October, is vital, not merely to reflect upon credit union history and achievements, but also to promote the credit union ethos and raise awareness. It is a day to honour those who have dedicated their lives to the movement, to recognise the hard work of those working in the credit union industry and show the appreciation of the members. I note interestingly that the actual first credit union day was 1927 on the birthday of America's apostle of thrift, Benjamin Franklin, who early credit union founders believed symbolised the life and teaching embodied in the spirit and purpose of credit unions. That day only folded because people were too busy to celebrate. The motion asked for commemoration of the impact and achievements of credit unions. I note that, since the credit unions act was passed in 1979 to give a common regulation framework for the movement, the credit union philosophy of mutual self-help has gone from strength to strength. At the macro level, over 1.2 million members in the UK have now recognised the value of credit unions and have savings of approaching £1.1 billion with them. In Scotland, as we heard, there are about 100 credit unions, with a combined membership of over £383,000, about 7 per cent of the population, as he said. I cannot speak about Cunningham South as the motion requests, but I can speak about the north-east. Drilling down into the north-east region, Angus, Tave Alley, Dundee, Grampian, north-east and St Macker credit unions provide a vital service, offering easy access savings accounts and, ultimately, given the interest rate cap at 3 per cent per month on a reducing balance, a responsible alternative to the high-interest payday loan companies, which can place individuals and families under a burden of debt for many years. The largest credit union in the north-east, the Grampian credit union, is one of the leaders in Scotland with innovative savings schemes and loan programmes. It leads the way in the field of payroll savings schemes, with more than 30 companies and organisations, including NHS Grampian, Aberdeen City Council, the VSA, the University of Aberdeen and the Aberdeen Foyer, all signed up to their staff-saving schemes, schemes that have been proven to be an easier way to save and that evidence has shown makes better savers. It is clear to me and, judging by the contributions from around this chamber, everyone here, that credit unions really do make the authentic difference. Although those of us in the chamber often have authentic and deeply felt differences, I have no doubt that, in supporting that motion, like the credit unions themselves, we share a common bond. Ivan McKee, followed by Claudia Beamish. I, too, welcome the opportunity to take part in this debate on international credit unions and thank Ruth Maguire for bringing this issue to the Parliament today. The debate gives us the opportunity to celebrate the credit unions' impact and achievements in Scotland and worldwide. It also gives us the opportunity to raise awareness of the work of credit unions and to encourage more people across Scotland to become members and to utilise their services. Scotland has a long history in financial services and Scotland also has a proud record of community spirit and co-operative ventures. The credit union movement brings both of those together, benefitting many people across our society and providing benefits to our economy. Scotland's credit union movement is growing now with more than 100 credit unions across the country with a total membership of 388,000 members and managing savings worth more than £400 million. In my constituency, several credit unions operate in Easterhouse, Hackhill and Deniston, Cranhill, Cairntyn and Ridry. All of them provide local services to support people who often may not be in a position to benefit from standard banking or financial services. I am a member of the Glasgow credit union, one of the largest in the country. Scotland needs a variety of financial service offerings, ensuring that all people in society can access both savings and lending services suitable to their needs. Credit unions offer that complementing traditional services. Credit unions also have the great advantage of typically operating with a local focus and with ownership structures based on co-operative principles, giving them resilience and a firm grounding in the communities that they serve. New models of saving and lending are an important part of ensuring the financial health of all in society. That is recognised by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, who recommends credit unions and their role they can play in reducing poverty. Credit unions are more than a service to borrowers and savers. A thriving and growing credit union sector in Scotland can play a major role in bringing more people actively into the economy, building strength and resilience in areas that are too often excluded from economic activity. They provide a role in supporting entrepreneurship and the development of micro-businesses across Scotland, something that our economy as a whole needs to drive our aspirations for inclusive growth. As the motion also clearly reminds us, credit unions are an international phenomenon. One of the most famous is Grameen Bank, founded in Bangladesh by Mohammad Yousaf Yunus. He later awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his work in establishing micro-credit facilities among poor women in Bangladesh, showing that the financial services model used by credit unions can deliver results in supporting financial independence for the most marginalised groups. I worked in Bangladesh at the time when Grameen Bank first achieved international recognition in what is first-hand the tremendous impact that it had on individuals and communities. Scottish Governments of all persuasions have over the years provided support to help develop the credit union sector, and all parties support taking steps to encourage future growth of the sector. The credit union movement in Scotland looks for support in a number of practical ways, encouraging employers to engage with the movement to offer payroll reduction services for employees for savings and loan repayments to credit unions, encouraging schools, colleges, and universities to teach about credit unions and financial management. The significant rise in young people becoming members of credit unions is to be welcomed. Early education and financial management and the co-operative principles is a benefit to our society and economy and promoting credit unions and supporting the development of their capacity to play a more substantial role in offering financial services. By raising awareness of credit unions through debates like this, we can all play our part to help make Scotland a credit union nation. Claudia Beamish, followed by John Finnie. As other members have done, I thank Ruth Maguire for bringing this member's debate to the Parliament today to mark international credit union day. I look forward to working with her in her role as convener of the credit union cross-party group. I am particularly pleased to speak in the debate as a new deputy convener of the reformed credit union cross-party group and also as a member of the Scottish co-operative party MSP group in the Parliament. As you will all know, credit unions are co-ops, and that means, of course, as we all know, they are owned by their membership, but this is a very inclusive model, which is very significant and important. Obviously, the main re-emphasis will always be on providing the best service for members and not for profit. Firstly, in my remarks, I would like to wish Lanarkshire credit union a happy 25th birthday. I am looking forward to attending their birthday party on Friday night to help them to celebrate all the hard work they have done over the last 25 years. After a long week this week in the Parliament, I am definitely going to look forward to some cake at the party. We all know the importance of credit unions in Scotland today. In difficult financial times, they not only help people to save for the future, but they help people when they are most in financial need. Joanne Lamont. Thank you very much for taking the intervention. I wonder if the member is aware of the Wee Glasgow loan initiative, which is Glasgow City Council, along with Pollock Credit Union, BCD Credit Union, offering people low-cost loans to ensure that they are not preyed upon by pay loan lenders. I agree that that is the kind of initiative that we would hope to be supported across the country. Claudia Beamish. I thank the member for that important intervention. The issue around payday loans has also been highlighted by some other members tonight. Some of the heavy advertising seems to have diminished a bit on the television about those things, but it is really shocking how they prey on vulnerable people. Credit unions are, though, truly for everyone. You will be joining a credit union through your work or going to your local credit union to get a loan. You will be joining the other 387,000 people who are already a member in some way, shape or form. It is true to say that many people are only a few pays away from being in financial trouble across Scotland, and being a member of a credit union can help you prepare for the unexpected. At the start of the year, I was delighted to visit the newly established outreach branch of the Lanarkshire Credit Union, which is open in Carlouc. Lanarkshire Credit Union worked closely with the local community council to provide a service to the local people who did not necessarily know about credit unions in the past. That has enabled them to use the facilities without the geographical challenges of setting up a permanent office and with the help of volunteers, which is often the case in credit unions, and should be recognised tonight. I do think that we need to be mindful of people in rural areas where geographical difficulties can indeed occur. I was however pleased to meet with Alison Dowling from the Capital Credit Union this summer, and the common bond area covers Midlothian and the Scottish borders in my region and in the ministers. She was telling me that even though there was a difficulty of setting up an actual outreach, like in Carlouc, in the borders, people in that area could still be members and such things as online banking and payroll deduction meant that it is easier to join a credit union. Lastly, I would like to speak very briefly about the support for young people, which has been mentioned also by Ash Denham and others tonight. I was pleased to read to be competitive about it that Scotland has seen a higher growth in junior savers compared to other parts of the UK. Ash Denham has already mentioned about the Lanarkshire Credit Union as well as teaching about debt and how to manage finances. That is done in a fun way. I hope that there will be other parts of Scotland where that is already happening too, and the sharing of models can be invaluable. The cross-party group can certainly help with that. I think that tonight has brought forward a whole lot of suggestions for future agendas, which is very exciting and valuable. The theme of this year's Credit Union Day was, as we have heard, the authentic difference, celebrating the positive impact that credit unions have on financial services and social change. I truly believe that they have a lot to celebrate. John Finnie, to be followed by Clare Adamson. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I thank everything that I have brought in this important motion to us tonight. The motion talks about commemorating the impact on that significant of credit unions and the achievements, and I would say that that is many. Like others, I declare an interest. I am a member of the Scottish Police Credit Union, indeed, in the roll-out from what was formerly the Strathclyde Police Credit Union. I was the first member of the north of Scotland as we trialled the system of payroll deduction. I think that that is an important part of encouraging membership if we can have employers play a role in deductions from salary. I think that the significant strength of the credit union system is the common bond, whether that is one of geography, where often credit unions play a significant role or one of the bond within the workforce and, again, commend the work of trade unions and staff associations working with employers in connection with that. The ethos that has been mentioned, people helping people, well, that to me is highly commendable. Not-for-profit co-operative seems to me to be a very attractive basis for going about business with the benefits retained and indeed shared. It has been highlighted by Ash Denham and, indeed, Claudia Beamish, the phase authentic difference. What a contrast, what a significant contrast with the banking industry, none of whom are likely to win the fair banking award that was referred to. That once honourable profession largely discredited by greed and actually the complete reverse of the ethos that underpins the credit union. It is about effective and affordable financial services and the motion details the global reach. I was particularly in a day when we all had a lot to say about the United States. I thought that it was very compelling to read that US employers can offer credit union membership as a condition of employment, which I thought was an interesting departure of what some might expect. The reach that I am particularly interested in is the reach into some of our more vulnerable communities and the accessibility and the role of volunteers. Colleague Neil Finlay talked about the volunteer role. I certainly know in my own area that there is a number of credit unions and the fact that they would pitch up at the local community centre at a known time is an important factor. I welcome an increase in membership, particularly as a number of other people have said, the junior membership. If that leads to a lifelong connection with the credit union movement, that can only be good. Why is that important? It is important because of the attitude to money. The savings are respected and it is responsible and non-exploited of lending. I am particularly delighted that this is a non-party political issue. I commend the comments from Conservative colleagues. The fact that it is a part of every party's manifesto is significant and shows that people do recognise a force for positive and economic change. Another factor that we cannot lose sight of is the fact that it empowers people and communities. The motion talks about a growing role that is capable of more. Historically, the credit union movement has come up against resistance from the big banks. We have heard of the excellent work that has been done to counter payday loans and store cards to encourage people to not only borrow but to save as they borrow. There is a valuable part of civic Scotland, a very ethical part of civic Scotland, and I am grateful for the opportunity of speaking tonight. The last of the open speeches is Clare Adamson. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I declare an interest as a member of Capital Credit Union. I congratulate Ruth Maguire on securing the debate this evening and on the re-establishing of the CPG on credit unions, a very well-respected CPG from the previous term of the Parliament. I am really glad that the Scottish Government is giving about £200,000 of funding to support credit unions in establishing schemes in schools and helping children to understand the importance of saving and managing money. That is so vital in our communities, especially since it is often the most vulnerable people, the people that find it most difficult to balance their checkbook that can get the greatest advantages from a credit union in their community. Lots has been said this afternoon about the benefits of credit unions and I want to thank the Association of British Credit Unions Limited for their briefing for today's debate. I also want to talk about the Scottish League of Credit Unions, a smaller league of credit unions, one that works closely with one of my local credit unions, Wish a Credit Union. The strength of the league is that it supports community-focused credit unions in whatever stage of development they are at. It will recognise and respect the different needs and aspirations of individual credit unions and it will not seek to impose a particular model on its members. I think that has come out so much in the debate this afternoon, that credit unions are of their community. Some will do outreach, some will do different types of work and it was really interesting to hear about the anti-smoking projects from Neil Findlay earlier on. Neil Findlay also mentioned the volunteers and I think that this is hugely important and why engaging with our young people is so important because the volunteers in our credit unions are aging, unfortunately, and we need young people to come on board and fulfil that role as well. The Scottish League of Credit Unions concentrates on key themes of education through group training sessions and materials that are provided to their members. It gives advice in the legislative compliance and financial issues. It offers the network for other credit unions to come together and share good practice. Fotilisation for members of credit unions will co-ordinate with one another to achieve common goals and it represents the group at local Scottish UK Government and other credit union organisations and promotes credit unions in our constituencies. I think that this is really important. Credit unions are so different. They approach people differently. If I could just mention one in your own area that I covered previously in East Kilbride, when you go on to their website, they welcome everyone, they give a commitment of their vision, of their mission statement and their commitment to the members who come to them. This is so important because credit unions are now financially secure. They now have the financial services associated with them and are covered by the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority. We know that this is really important because payday lenders have been mentioned already and how they pray on people in this situation. I also remember the collapse of the fair pack saving scheme where a banking technicality for those who have paid a direct debit were able to recover some of their money but many people lost money in a savings scheme that they thought was safe for them. It's really important that that financial security of the credit unions is out there but this also puts a burden on the volunteers. They have to know financial regulation and they have to take part in modular training schemes for the Institute of Chartered Bankers and this costs money and that money is used from the members to train people and volunteers and I know that this is a concern going forward because we want these organisations to continue to be sustainable and provide such a wonderful service that they do in our communities. I now call on the minister to close the debate up to seven minutes please. Thank you. I want to thank, as other members have done, Ruth Maguire for lodging her motion and we have had some excellent contributions from across the chamber and like John Finnie I'm delighted to see a genuinely cross-party motion and indeed a cross-party debate today because credit unions do play a vital role in our economy providing a range of ethical financial products, as we've heard and services to a wide range of customers many of whom do face financial exclusion. I too offer my congratulations as others have done for all those who have developed the movement in Scotland and indeed to wish Lanarkshire Credit Union a happy 20th birthday if Claudia Beamish is attending the birthday party. Credit unions are a part of a dynamic growing and increasingly global movement for change. A number of members have made that point Liam Kerr, Dean Lockhart and others have made that point. The World Council of Credit Unions estimates, as we have heard, there are now approximately 60,000 member-owns not-for-profit financial co-operatives worldwide and it is important the co-operative model that Claudia Beamish has highlighted for the benefit of the members on the not-for-profit basis of their approach and ethos. Of course, as Ruth Maguire and other colleagues across the chamber have recognised, Scotland has a good pedigree when it comes to this more inclusive way of doing finance and in fact, for more than 45 years credit unions have proudly served our communities providing members from all walks of life with more than basic financial services. As Ruth Maguire and Ivan McKee refer to Joseph Roundtree foundation, I pointed to the role of credit unions in reducing poverty. In my new role I have been pleasantly surprised to learn as others have highlighted today that a significantly higher proportion of people in Scotland are enrolled in credit unions in Scotland than in England and Wales and as the Bank of England data that has been referred to and a number of members have cited the 7 per cent in Scotland the comparable figures are 2.6 per cent for Wales and 1.5 per cent for England so I think the sector really deserves a lot of credit for its reach in Scotland and identifying a need and exploring that and also indicates there's great potential for growth in England and Wales as well so it's important to highlight on the occasion of a world event to celebrate the role of credit unions that there's great potential as Neil Findlay put that there's great room for expansion further but today around 100 credit unions are operating across Scotland as we've heard with a combined membership of 387,000 assets of 560 million and aggregate lending of 296 million to the members or at least those are the figures I have to hand and therefore it's right that the Scottish Government is committed to working with credit unions to support and promote this important work and that is why the Scottish Government established the credit union working group in October of 2014 under the chairmanship of my colleague Fergus Ewing who was the time minister for business energy and tourism and that group included credit unions their representative bodies, advice services and the accountant and bankruptcy and it considered a wide range of topics and identified two key priorities for strengthening Scotland's credit union movement the first priority identified was to help credit unions to play a fuller role in the delivery of financial education we've heard some great examples of that today and the second priority was supporting the expansion of payroll deduction schemes as a standard workplace benefit a point referred to by Ruth Maguire, Dean Locker and many others today in this debate turning to financial education is vital and I agree with members who have raised this point that children grow up with an understanding of money and saving and junior savers schemes run by credit unions in partnership with schools are a really excellent way to teach children aspects of numeracy and social studies in a real world context as well as helping them to develop a culture of saving and responsible borrowing ultimately and indeed as Claudia Beamish has highlighted it is really great to see such positive growth in Scotland in junior savers those schemes embed a savings ethos amongst pupils at a young age by holding regular collections of children's savings in the school and often with the incentive of saving towards a school trip or another savings goal as well and by running those schemes credit unions play a vital role in helping to educate children in money matters often incurring a financial loss so I think we should recognise the contribution the credit unions do to provide that and not always without cost to themselves and delivering on the credit union working group's foundation to explore the development of junior savers schemes the Scottish Government announced a new £300,000 funding scheme in March of this year aimed at supporting credit unions to develop sustainable junior savers schemes in schools across Scotland and credit unions were invited to bid for funding over the summer and in September the Cabinet Secretary for Communities, Social Security and Equalities announced that 10 credit unions are set to receive Scottish Government funding to launch new junior savers schemes across the country aiming to set up at least three new junior savers schemes in their local community and the Scottish Government will work closely with them to share learning from these schemes with the sector. Funding is also being made available to support the production of a junior savers toolkit which is being co-produced in partnership with the credit union sector and Education Scotland and this toolkit will bring together best practice providing a useful resource for all credit unions in Scotland well beyond the life of this funding so hopefully it will have a legacy value and education Scotland as a key partner we will ensure that the toolkit is consistent with the curriculum helping people to develop a broadly based financial capability focusing on understanding, competence, responsibility and enterprise and this in turn certainly will Willie Coffey is co-convener of the cross-party group in co-ops I'm delighted that you recognise the close connection between credit unions and the co-op movement would you similarly acknowledge that the world's first recorded co-op was established in FENIC in my constituency in 1761 some 83 years before Rochedale which is a continuing source of pride for my constituents in FENIC Yes indeed a round of applause for FENIC I'm delighted to acknowledge that there's such a long history in East Ayrshire and I welcome Willie Coffey's remarks in support of FENIC Each credit union is aiming to to set up at least three schemes and in terms of the scope they will also in turn make the offer of junior saver schemes even more attractive to schools Turning to payroll deduction and I think Ash Denham and a number of others have referred to this in the context of the authentic difference and I think it's in a really important role the second key priority identified by the credit union working group is around supporting the expansion of payroll deduction schemes and we know that credit unions see payroll deduction schemes as a key to ensuring a more sustainable future such schemes offer a convenient way for employees to save into a credit union account directly from their salary in turn they do help credit unions to build a wide and varied customer base of borrowers and long term savers as well and in order to further the same and demonstrate support for credit unions the First Minister has written a letter encouraging employers to partner with a credit union to enjoy the benefits of payroll savings for both staff and the organisation which is available for credit unions to use and the Scottish Government's business pledge also includes a recommendation to employers under their workforce engagement commitments to offer payroll deduction savings as a standard workplace benefit as well and yet another reason to encourage the business pledge but following a recommendation by the credit union working group report in coming months the Scottish Government will develop a package of resources for credit unions to use when engaging with employers to make setting up payroll deduction schemes a smoother process for all parties and an excellent way of bringing a wider benefits to the workforce and Scottish Government employees can take advantage of payroll deduction and last month on international credit union day we invited our credit union partner into the Scottish Government offices to raise awareness of this important employee benefit for all our staff I also want to just hide it very briefly before closing the point that relates to a number of references that John Finnie and others have made to access accessibility that is happening at a time when we are seeing a contraction in bank branches and credit unions at which are locally based, community based or workforce based will have an ability to extend the reach of financial services to those who are being affected by branch closures the Scottish Government is committed to improving financial wellbeing and reducing income equality to create a wealthier and fairer Scotland for all its citizens I'm delighted we've had such a positive discussion today around the role of credit unions in that capacity we recognise across this chamber the huge contribution credit unions make by providing responsible and ethical financial services which strengthen the financial capability of communities and change individual lives for the better as a number of members have said and we will continue to support this important work and indeed to raise the profile of the credit union movement in Scotland Thank you very much


His righteousness which he has done will not be remembered. But his blood I will require of your hand.  But I want you to see this. The Bible says, if a righteous person churns away from the righteousness, how many righteous people we have this afternoon? How many righteous people we have this afternoon? As believers, we are not righteous because we do righteous works. We are righteous to do righteous works. Righteousness is a gift from Jesus. And there is an opportunity where a righteous person can forfeit the righteousness by churning away from his righteousness. Watch this what it says. If a righteous person churns away from his righteousness, our righteousness is Jesus Christ. So if a righteous person churns away from his righteousness, that's not something we should do, but it's something we are capable of doing. Here at Hungry Gen, we don't believe that once saved, always saved. Meaning, if you're saved, you do not have the opportunity to forfeit your salvation. We believe that our salvation is secure in Jesus Christ. We believe it's like being in the airplane. But when you get into the plane, you know, the plane gets shot and you can exit from the seat that you are in. You can walk in the aisle and there is no fear of falling off the plane. But every single airplane has a door inside where if you are crazy, you can pull that door and get out. Now, if you are going to do that and I'm going to be in the plane, I will hold you back from doing that. Why? Because I care about you. If you're going to go to the door in the airplane and start messing with the door, most people will come and say, hey, bro, no, get back into your seat. But you can still do that. A Christian doesn't lose his salvation, but a Christian can forfeit his salvation by churning away from Jesus Christ. By opening that door and saying, bye-bye Jesus, I don't want to do anything with you. There's a lot of people that live with the fear of losing their salvation. Don't live with the fear of losing your salvation. Your salvation is secure. Salvation is not like a ring that you lose.  How many of you know you can lose this on accident? How many of you know you can lose this by being negligent? How many of you know none of you lose a marriage by being negligent? You don't just wake up on this like, oh my God, I lost my marriage.  To lose your marriage, you got to cheat on your spouse. To lose your marriage, you got to do more than forget to get the garbage out. To lose your marriage, you got to do more than sleep in one day and forget to tell your wife, I love you and forgot to bring flowers for the last six months. That takes a lot more because to lose your marriage, there's a bond in that relationship. The relationship with Jesus is a deeper and stronger bond than a marriage. You're not going to lose that easily. And what I love about this is the Bible says, if a righteous man turns away from God, God says, I don't let them go yet. I will put a stumbling block. Meaning God says, I will not let them jump off the plane that easy. I love this about grace. I love this about God. Because see, most of us think even the story of the prodigal son, the lost sheep and the lost coin deals with the lost people. But may I remind you, the lost sheep, the lost, lost coin and the lost prodigal son do not deal with the lost people. They deal with believers who turn away from the Lord because the son was a son. The coin belonged to a woman and the sheep belonged to a shepherd. And when the father got his son back, he didn't get a new son. He got the same one. When the woman got the coin back, she got the same coin. And when the shepherd got the sheep, it was the same sheep. It was not a different one. So that tells me when a believer turns away from their righteousness and begins to go and do iniquity as Ezekiel said, God says, I put a stumbling block. Have you ever seen a police chase? When you are running away from... I'm not going to ask for anybody, if anybody ever was involved in a police chase. But I'm very curious to find out if anybody has been in a police chase. I'm not going to ask for that. But anyway, have you? Anybody? Police chase is when you break the law. And then there's road signs. You ignore them because they don't apply to you. They apply to everybody about you.  And then you keep going after the siren. You begin to notice that there are people that are chasing you. Now they are going after you. And then there comes this point. A lot of times there are speed bumps that you go through really fast. And the police uses these stripes spikes where they would throw on the road so that they could puncture your tires to slow you down. And there's a little video behind me if you can play the word. Even there are people who are so stubborn that even if you put spikes in the road and you puncture their tires, they will still keep driving. No, not this one. It's the one from Dropbox. That was a little bit different one. I apologize. In the first service I talked about hell. Police watch the first service message. It's a lot more sober than this one. It's on Dropbox. And so the police would put spikes that they would puncture your tires. And after your tires are punctured, and I watched these videos this week where people would still drive and car would come to a stop. The car cannot go anymore. The tires cannot go anymore. And the people would still run out of the car and run. And of course they would send dogs. And then these particular group of people that I watched on the YouTube clip is that they would come and would get arrested. That's really how backsliding looks like. I want to let you know a few things. One is that God will use road signs. And if we don't heed them, He will use speed bumps. What are speed bumps? It's the experiences of people close to you. When somebody, your friend has a testimony and they share with you how they got saved. It gives you a speed bump. It shakes you up a little bit.  I probably need to get saved. It shakes you up. But some of us, that's not enough. We need to have some spikes in our life. We need to have some stuff happen to our own selves. Our bottom has to fall off. We have to fall from the horse and bite the dust. We have to get hit a lot of times. And when our tires get punctured. When Peter preached, the hearts of people were cut. And the Bible says they were cut. Meaning the conviction of God came in. But some of us we are so stubborn that even if you puncture our heart, our heart is broken. Maybe it's a breakup. Maybe it's some kind of a devastating situation. And God allows that. Because he is chasing after us. He wants us to come to a stop. He wants us to surrender. He wants us to be pulled back.  He says, I will set a tripping block. A spike, a road block. Why? Because I want to capture you. And no, I don't want to arrest you to take you to prison. I want to bind you with my love to take you home. Come on, somebody. In Hosea 3 verse 1 it says, Then the Lord said to me, Go again. Love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery. So this is, relationship is broken. This woman, she didn't just go out and have fun with her friends. This woman did not just forget that she was married. She went and she was loved by a lover and is committing adultery. She broke her covenant. I've struggled a lot of times to understand fully what is God's response to a believer who walks away from him. You know, there are scriptures in the Bible everywhere where it talks about, you know, severity of God's judgment. But I want you to hear today something where God's love is not only for the lost. It's also for a backslider. Look what he said to this man. He says, Go again. Love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery. Just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans. God pursues with the passion of a lover, the lifestyle of a felon. God pursues with an intensity of a police officer, somebody who's running from him. God tells Hosea, your wife, who legally, scripturally, you have to stone her according to the Old Testament. According to the New Testament, you have a free pass to walk away, wash your hands from that relationship and say, She was a prostitute before I met her. She went back the whole old life. And you know what? I'm just going to go get inner healing, get me some therapy, sign up for prayer line, get delivered, give me a six to set 12 months, and then I'm going to go ChristianMingleChristianSingle.com and then I'm just going to go find me a new wife. But God says to Hosea in the Old Testament, he says, I want you not only to go find her, rebuke her and tell her what she did wrong. He says, I want you to go. And this is the challenging part. Not just forgive her, not just accept her, not just bring her back and give her her room and her makeup table and her vanity table. He says, love her. I can tolerate her. I'm okay with not killing her. That's already mercy, God. I'm okay with not giving her divorce papers. God, that's huge. But you want me to love her while she's currently in an affair relationship. It's not that she broke up and came repenting. She's currently in that relationship. And God says, love her. Win her back. Why? Because that's exactly how my love is for my children who turn away from me. See, most of us think is that when God, when people turn away from God, when Christians walk away from the Lord, college life, maybe abuse happened, perhaps something other happened in your life that caused you to a stumbling block. You tripped over, you walked away from the Lord.  You died. There's another stumbling block. See, the devil is not the only one that uses stumbling blocks to get you off of Christ.  God will put stumbling blocks and God will pursue you with His love to get you back. He loves you so much. Today is your time to pull over, lift your hands and say, I surrender to your love and to your grace. In Matthew chapter one, in Matthew chapter one, it has this beautiful genealogy. And this is those about, how many verses are here, about 17 verses that if you ever started to read the Bible, these are probably you skipped. Because you're like, he begot who and begot what. And then you're like, man, I remember mom giving birth, but like that wasn't really a part of that. I mean, he was a part of that process, but not actually like delivering process. And so then you're reading, you're like an Abraham, you know, gave birth and you're like, man, this is the Bible must be right, but I don't understand it. And so let me just skip over until it starts talking about some stories. If you read this very carefully, you will realize it mentions a lot of men. And then it mentions only four women in 17 verses. These four women, it's important to highlight. The first woman that is mentioned is Tomar. The second woman is Rahab. Third woman is Ruth. Fourth woman is Peshiba. Now, this is not God saying all these men are righteous and all the women there are so messed up. Come on, we all know that none of these guys were good either. Okay, they were bad boys of the Bible, okay. They were the bad boys of the Bible. All of them from Abraham down to every one of these guys were bad boys. And it's not that there was no other good women, but I find it fascinating that God takes honestly the baddest women of the Old Testament. Scandalous women. Those kind of women that honestly, we would want to keep them away from a spotlight in the church. We're like, please go serve somewhere where nobody knows you come to our church. These are those women, they were on the front page of their local newspapers. The scandals they were involved in is nasty. Tomar slept with her father-in-law. That's bad. Rahab was a sex worker. That was her nine to five. Ruth was a part of Mobianites where they offered their children in fire toward their gods. She served. She lived in that part of the world. Her husband died. And then she met Boas. And Peshiba, well we all know Peshiba, couldn't afford shower curtains. David could not keep his eyes focused on whatever he was supposed to be doing. And next thing that happens is that, oops, I'm pregnant. And then Peshiba, you know, end up to be his wife and she was the lover. And so you look at these stories, they're extremely... These, if you were to write, that's why I believe God wrote the Bible. Because if we would write the Bible, we would hide them. We would say, these are things we don't want to talk about. Let's erase it. Where is the eraser? Let's not mention these are not our most proud moments. God takes these four women and he puts them in genealogy of Christ. What am I talking today about? God's chasing you. God pursuing you. The felon, the criminal, the sexually immoral. The person who crosses every boundary, breaks every conviction that they subscribe to. Falls flat on their face morally. God not only finds them. God not only rescues them. God is not ashamed of them. God is not embarrassed to involve them. Not scared to use them. And not intimidated to put them in the genealogy of a holy Christ. And not ashamed to start the first chapter of his new covenant to show off. And say, these are the people my son came through. A few things I want you to remember. Number one, every saint has a past. Every sinner has a future. Because of Jesus. Because of Jesus. No matter how deep you've fallen. No matter where you've fallen. No matter how scandalous your story is. No matter how the family, the media and others has spun that out of context. Oh, even if it's true. The birth of Jesus Christ, it starts from the beginning.  God taking all of that and saying, not only I can redeem that. Not only I can rescue you from that.  That's number one. Number two, Christ is better at saving you than you are at sinning. You're not as good of a sinner as Christ is the Savior. You're not that good. He is better at saving than you are at sinning. His grace is more powerful than sin. His blood is more powerful than the stain of sin.  He conquered death. What is your sin? He defied death. No emperor could ever do that. Alexander the Great couldn't do that. No dictator, no wise man, Solomon couldn't do that. Nobody could conquer death. Death leveled every great general, every great adventurer and leveled them all equal, except Christ. He conquered death. Therefore, your sin is no match to him. Even the sin of murder, even the sin of abortion, even the sin that you've done everything to earn your penance and it still doesn't remove your memory and it still torments you and it still reminds you that you are no good, that you are worthless. I'm gonna tell you something. There is someone who is better at saving you than you are at damning you. Does somebody say amen? 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 9, it says the following. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived.  And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God. And such were some of you, homosexual, lesbian, extortioners, covetousness, greedy, gossipers, backbiders, religious, self-righteous, and some and such were some of you. And see the Bible doesn't just say, but Jesus just forgave you. He said, but you were washed. This is more than forgiven.  See Christ didn't just pardon your sin. He took you and washed you. He, see the Old Covenant covered your sin until the next year and then it will be covered and covered and covered and covered and covered. Christ didn't cover. He came in and he totally washed. He removed that. That's why people who get saved, they say that I feel clean. But they didn't take a shower. You say, what do you mean? You feel, he said, I feel clean. I feel like something is scrubbed out of me. If you've been abused, if you've been the abuser, if you've been done something that you could not forgive yourself, I can tell you the cure is not retribution. The cure is not, I'm going to try to do so much good to undo the bad. That stuff messes the whole thing up. The best cure is to come into a shower of the blood of Jesus, of the forgiving flow of the grace of God. And some were such of you.  If you were in lesbianism, you need to be washed.  I'm not saying what you did was right, but Jesus Christ took it on a cross and he paid a full penalty for your sin. And today he is saying, I want to wash you. Even the stain of that sin, even the memory of the sin, even the guilt of that sin will be removed. But you were washed. You were sanctified. God doesn't just wash you. I could imagine the rehab in the Old Covenant where people judged other people for their sin.  She not only was washed from her many men a day prostitution, but she lived in Israel, not as some leper on the outside, as sinful. Nobody talked to that woman. Nobody do anything. Husbands, look away. No, this woman, not only she was washed, she was sanctified. She married one of the spies who came into her house, Salman. She got married. She had children. Boas was her son. Who married Ruth, who eventually had orbit and so on. So she was sanctified. See, I want to tell you something. God's grace is not just powerful to squeeze you in quietly into heaven. God wants to display his glory through your story. But it starts with washing you. God chases you down. He will put roadblocks. He will put spikes. He will put prayers on people. He will put church in your way. Why? God wants to arrest you so he can wash you.  And then the Bible says, end justified. Word justified means just as you never did it. Justified is not forgiven. Justified is just like you never did it. The record is clean. The record is wiped. The record is destroyed. There is no evidence. This is not that you served your sentence, got out of jail, and you're still a felon and it shows up on every application where you apply for housing or for work. It's that your record is sponged. It's completely clean. Just like you've never done. So these were Corinthians. Saramites. Homosexual. Thieves. Murderous. Idolaters. I want you to see what Paul says in 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians 11-2. He says, I am jealous for you. With God the jealousy. For I have bethrowed you to the one husband that I may present you a chaste virgin to Christ. How can you be a virgin to Christ if you were a Saramite? Homosexual. A thief. Idolater. A Gossiper. See, in the 1 Corinthians, Paul says, and such were some of you. And he says, but you were washed. You were sanctified. And you were justified. In the 2 Corinthians, he no longer talks about Saramites. Homosexuals. Adults. He's talking about a chaste virgin.  He redeems my innocence. There are some of you in here today. You lost your virginity. You lost your purity. And you feel like you are second best. Or maybe you feel like man, but I'm just a wasted person who just been loved by God, saved by grace, my friend. Oh no, no, no, no, no. You were washed. You were sanctified. And you were justified.  God is restoring your innocence. He is restoring your righteousness. He is restoring your purity. That grace is a good grace. It's a mighty grace. It's the glorious grace. And it's a grace worth shouting about. Grace worth giving God praise about. Grace worth giving God glory about. Somebody give God some praise. I'm not only rescued from the wrath of God. I'm redeemed from the life of sin. And Christ restores my future. The tale of the four women teaches me that not only every saint had a past and every sinner has a future. But it teaches me that Christ is better at saving me than I am at sinning. Christ not only redeems, restores, but He renews my whole life. If I let His grace do that. Number three, forgive yourself as Christ has forgiven you. This gift of Christ's death for many people, it doesn't fully work because of spiritual pride. What do I mean by spiritual pride? It's when you know Christ has forgiven you. But you somehow cannot forgive yourself. And why? Because somehow your standards are higher than Christ's standards. Like the reason why He forgave you, well of course because He is loving God.  If they're so much higher, why did you sin in the first place? If you cannot forgive yourself, you're telling Christ you are holier than Him.  Somehow you know something about you He doesn't know. I want to tell you something that you are not holier than Christ. The greatest gift you can give yourself this Christmas is not a new Apple watch, it's not a new iPhone, it's not a new trip to a spa. It's not going to put collars on your nails because you're not happy with the fact they're clear. It's when you can give a gift to yourself, the same gift God has given to you. It's called forgiveness. The Bible says to forgive others. Did you know that part of others is you? You're also that other, that's you. So many people hold themselves and punish themselves when Christ no longer punishes them. And they live in a cycle reliving their past even when Christ has redeemed them. I can tell you one thing, Rahab had to mentally excuse herself from her past. And to say to herself, that woman doesn't exist anymore. She still has the same name, but it's a total different nature. And when people looked at her funny and when people kind of like walked away because I can tell you one thing, if people do that in church, can you imagine that in the Old Testament? She was not even, she didn't even speak Hebrew. She wasn't even in Israel. I can tell you one thing, people would gather together to worship God at the festivals and there were women who were like, and I'm pretty sure Rahab had to tell herself, that's not who I am. You can look at me like that. You can give me those looks, give yourself those looks. I am washed, I am sanctified, I am justified. I'm a chaste virgin before God. Your opinion of me doesn't incarcerate my future. Your view of me doesn't limit my future. It's my view of me that limits my future. And I'm going to only allow God to limit that future. If he has forgiven me, I choose to forgive myself. Even if that which was done was abortion, release yourself from that. Save yourself, you are destroying yourself while Christ is trying to rebuild you. Because somebody say amen. Today is the day of salvation. Today is the day of forgiveness. Today is the day where the blood of Jesus Christ wants to wash you clean. Maybe you don't know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. Maybe you're visiting one of your friends because they invited you to a Christmas service and maybe the light show scared you a little bit. You're like, I answered both. We have a very dedicated young man over there. Ryan. See it as not us training creators show. We're just trying to give Ryan a place to exercise his gifts. And he has tremendous gift. Maybe this is completely new for you. I want to tell you something. You will live forever. That's according to the Bible. Jesus did come on this service. That's historic fact.  He did not say he was just a good man. He said he was a king and he said he was God. He died on a cross for what he said. But the Bible says he died on a cross for your sin. He rose again on the third day. He didn't come to start a boys and girls club. He didn't come to start a social club. He did not come to start a social movement and he did not die to save a planet. He died to save you. He died to save your heart. He did not come to save your skin. He died to save your spirit. Today you have a choice. If you reject that offer you are going to follow the default destination that the scripture says it is appointed for a man to die and stand before judgment. It says the wages of sin is death, not physical death. It's the spiritual separation from God. That's going to be you may say, but that's harsh. You know what's harsh is when somebody did everything they could make sure you don't go that and you still reject that. That's harsh. God is a holy God. He'll never stop being unholy to cater to you. Do not justify or hide behind the mask of I grew up Catholic. I got confirmed at this age. They sprinkled water on me. I sprinkled water on myself every day. It doesn't make me born again believer. Oh, but I watch services. I'm a good person. I follow like three pastors on Instagram and that's like that is awesome. That is really, really cool. But I'm really just like I'm just into positivity and everything and just positive vibes and just like good atmosphere. I just really like that stuff. That's new age. We're talking about new life. We're talking about Jesus the Savior, not energy not universe. I'm not talking about connecting with universe or energy. I'm talking about connecting with the being with the person whose name is Jesus Christ. Let me speak to the other category of people. Maybe you're returning today to church or to God and honestly you feel like you left them perhaps you feel that you dropped maybe you feel like man but I departed from my righteousness and I went into iniquity and man I have had few few speed bumps. In fact God has punctured my tires I'm flat my heart is flat. I feel like the air is gone, life is gone and will Christ accept me? The parable of the lost son the lost coin and the lost sheep is about you. Christ pursues you today in fact you're listening to me right now not on a mistake Christ pursues you you're already guilty He's not trying to make you feel guilty sin does that really well He brings conviction because conviction brings hope condemnation brings despair all you gotta do today is what you do when the police officer pulls you over and asks you for your ID but in your case God is not asking for the ID he says get out of the car lift your hands I need to see your hands in other words God's saying I want you to surrender this is not a time where you give me your card little prayer God says I need total surrender why? Because I want to wash you I want to sanctify you and I want to justify you let's rise Thorpey as the worship team is going to sing a song I would like to invite people in both of the categories today if you are in a category where you don't know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior I would like to give you the opportunity today to make Jesus the Lord of your life if you're in a category today where you backslid you walked away from relationship with God I'm not talking about the church I'm talking when you walked away from relationship with God your heart is judging you today maybe there's a conviction a punctured heart there's a call for you Jesus wants to bring you home today every head bowed and every eye closed if you're watching me on live stream on zoom or on YouTube 175 of you that are watching right now today is your day today now is your time if you're saying I would like to get right with God I would like to give my life to Jesus I'm not there what I supposed to be I feel that God is out to get me He is actually but not for the reason that you think He is He has no pleasure in seeing your destruction for He so loved you that He gave His Son He doesn't warm His hands at your calamity He came to save you not to condemn you not to push you down but to lift you up He didn't come to remind you of your past He came to remind you of His Son of His blood and of His sacrifice in this room or you on live stream and you're in one of these two categories where you're saying I'm far from Christ or I've never made a decision to follow Christ when I count to three I'm going to ask you to raise your hand high as your sign of saying Lord I surrender I surrender to your love and surrender to your grace I need your salvation today I don't want to keep running away from you God I want to run with you one two, three just raise that head high I'm going all over this room thank you thank you I see hands going all over this room thank you I'm going to ask you to do something bold right now for those of you who lifted your hand or who wanted to lift your hand but you just didn't find the courage to do so when the team will sing I'm going to ask you to come out of your seat and stand here with me I want to pray with you you can just begin to make your way out of your seat as the team begins to sing come with your family member just come just come come on come on church we can applaud them this is the best decision that people make it's to give their life to Christ it's to run to Christ instead of running from God come on come on if you can do the grace beautiful grace beautiful grace yes Lord I want to get saved I want to get run with God the presence of God is going to wash you right now his blood is going to cleanse you right now just to receive his grace just surrender to him right now come on church if you are grateful that he washed you and such were some of you and such were some of us but it's been the grace of God it was at this encounter at the altar it was this encounter somewhere in your car in somebody's house at the blood of Jesus washed you that his spirit gave you new life he revived those of you who are here in the front I see a lot of you God's presence is touching you you're breaking down and it's the blood it's the love of Jesus that is melting your heart it's the love of Jesus that's taking away the stony heart the religious heart the self-righteous maybe a sinful heart a proud heart right now I'm going to lead you into prayer but make no mistake no prayer can save you only Jesus saves us we believe with our heart and we confess with our mouth if you're watching us on live stream pray this prayer with me say this out loud with me say Lord Jesus I'm a sinner please forgive me of all my sin and wash me with your blood sanctify me fill me with your spirit and use me for your glory I surrender my whole life to you from this day forward I want to follow you in Jesus name Amen


here and this week we are looking at version 2 of Duke from 1988 and this is the first Tiger Force action figure that we've looked at on this channel. I'm talking about Tiger Force Duke. This is also an opportunity to revisit Duke. I have reviewed Duke on this channel before and my review was you might say not glowing. I do generally like Duke. I'm not a Duke hater but I do have some issues with the figure and the character. It's one thing to give a less than favorable review to Xandar. Nobody cares about Xandar but Duke is a popular character and I know a lot of my viewers are not going to agree with me. But you always get 100% honest opinions on this channel. Nothing watered down here. So HCC 788 presents Tiger Force Duke. This is version 2 of Duke also known as Tiger Force Duke. He is Tiger Force's first sergeant. This figure was on the peg from 1988 to 1989. He was discontinued for the year 1990 and there was no new Duke action figure that year. However in 1992 we did get another version of Duke which was now a master sergeant. In 1988 Duke was a first sergeant which is an E-8 in the US Army and that is equal to a master sergeant. A master sergeant is also an E-8. However they have different responsibilities. A first sergeant gets the diamond on their rank insignia after completing US Army first sergeant academy. They have some additional training. Tiger Force was a sub team within GI Joe and the focus of Tiger Force was really on the vehicles. The vehicles consisted of captured Cobra vehicles and repurposed GI Joe vehicles that were repainted in different colors. The Tiger Force vehicles are based on the NATO Tiger Association which was established in 1961 to promote solidarity between NATO Air Forces. They have an annual Tiger Meet in which NATO jets are painted with bright colors and Tiger Stripes very similar to the Tiger Force toys. The Tiger Force figures were uniforms in the motif of the Tiger Striped vehicles. There is nothing original in Tiger Force. It's all a reuse of old vehicles and figures with different colors. There was one new character Sky Striker but even that figure was made of reused parts. Tiger Force Duke is almost an exact copy of version one of Duke but there are some differences between these two figures other than just the colors and we are going to look at each of those differences in this video. Version one of Duke was first available in 1983 as a mail away exclusive. You could not get the figure in retail stores. However he was available as a carded action figure in 1984 the following year and in 1985 so you could get him at retail stores. He was discontinued in 1986 so there was a two-year gap between version one and version two of Duke. Version one of Duke only had two unique parts his head and his chest. Every other part of this action figure was reused from other action figures and there was a change in the head sculpt between the original mail away version and the carded retail version. The mail away version of Duke had less detailed hair and I think his face looks a little bit wider too. In the carded retail version they sculpted a few more lines on his hair. Let's look at where the parts for version one of Duke came from so when we look at the parts for version two we can see how they are different. Now the back piece for Duke came from the 1983 dock and that same back piece was later used for the 1984 spirit just recolored blue. Duke's waist and arms also came from dock. Duke's upper legs came from major blood and his lower legs and boots came from gung-ho. Let's take a look at version two of Duke's accessories starting with his submachine gun and this submachine gun is reasonably well detailed. It is modeled after the real-world Heckler and Koch MP5. This submachine gun is a recolored version of the submachine gun that came with the original Duke of course his was green and that itself was a recolored version of the submachine gun that came with 1982 Stalker. Around his neck Duke has a pair of binoculars. These binoculars have some detailing not a lot but they're okay but they do have this very handy strap so they can hang from Duke's neck. They are very similar to the binoculars that came with version one of Duke but version one of Duke's binoculars were more of a true black and these are a very dark gray. Duke's helmet is a standard helmet the same type of helmet came with a lot of 1982 and 1983 figures. It's a pretty generic helmet. It came with figures like grunt but they came in different colors. This helmet of Duke's version two should pretty closely match the color on his trousers. This helmet could easily be mistaken for the helmets on version two of grunt and version two of clutch but these helmets are slightly lighter in color. Duke's is very slightly darker. Duke's backpack has some detailing on it. It has what it looks like an entrenching tool there and a bed roll, some pouches, some fair detail. Once again this backpack is just recolored from an accessory that came with version one. That's just a recolored version of version one's backpack but that backpack itself was just a reuse of the backpack that came with the 1983 Airborne. This backpack was later reused for the Meilaway Exclusive Steel Brigade. That is a very similar backpack and a very similar color but you can see the color is slightly different. Let's take a look at the articulation on Duke. Duke did not have the typical articulation of 1988 G.I. Joe action figures. That's because he used a lot of parts from older action figures. That means he could turn his head from left to right but he could not look up and down. He could swing his arm up at the shoulder about so far and he could swivel at the shoulder all the way around. He had a hinge at the elbow that means he could move at the elbow about 90 degrees. He had a swivel at the bicep. He could swivel his arm all the way around. The figure was held together with a rubber o-ring that looped around the inside. That allowed him to move at the torso a little bit. He could move his legs apart about so far. He could bend his legs at the hip about 90 degrees and it could bend at the knee about 90 degrees. Now we can look at the sculpted design and color of Tiger Force Duke and finally address the elephant in the room. That hair color. The head sculpt for Tiger Force Duke is identical to the sculpt for version one of Duke. They didn't make any changes to the sculpting but there are two changes to the paint. Version one of Duke had white painted teeth that's unpainted on Tiger Force Duke and of course Tiger Force Duke has brown hair instead of Duke's original blonde hair. In all forms of GI Joe media Duke is clearly shown with blonde hair. He never has brown hair and no explanation is given for the change. Even on the card art they did not change his hair color. He still has blonde hair. The spontaneous hair color change from blonde to brown is something we already addressed was version two of Hawk where version two had brown hair versus version one's blonde hair. Now the stock excuse for this is that Hasbro did not want kids to confuse Hawk with Duke but that excuse does not work with this hair color change because now Duke has brown hair just like Hawk does. So if they thought kids would confuse these two figures or these two characters if they had the same hair color now won't they confuse them because now they have the same hair color again. I kind of have a problem with the unpainted teeth too. It's one of several things on this action figure that just make it seem kind of cheap. The chest and the back piece are the same as version one of Duke just in different colors. It has a brown strap here versus the green strap on version one of Duke has a hand grenade a couple of pouches and I had a problem with this strap on version one of Duke and I have the same problem on version two. That strap does not continue around to the back. It just sort of disappears there and I kind of have a problem with that. It just looks really odd to me. He has what looks like a parachutist badge here and this parachutist badge looks more like the Navy and Marine Corps parachutist badge than it does the army the US Army parachutist badge. I'm not sure exactly why that is now on the version one of Duke that parachutist badge is painted that's painted gold. It is unpainted on version two already we have a couple important unpainted details and that really hurts the action figure in my estimation.  The upper arms of Tiger Force Duke are a reuse of the upper arms of version one of Duke but the lower arms and hands are not. Those are different. These lower arms and hands are actually a reuse of a much later action figure the 1988 hit and run. These waste pieces are also different. Version one's waste piece came from dock. Version two's waste piece actually is reused from the 1982 and 1983 Cobra soldier and Cobra officer. This waste piece was also reused on some versions of Steel Brigade. The legs for Tiger Force Duke are the same as version one of Duke with those upper legs coming from major blood and the lower legs and boots coming from Gung Ho. The legs feature a gray pistol and a holster on his right leg a pretty plain left leg gray boots and a knife on his left boot. The legs had these horizontal slash marks and these were supposed to be the Tiger Stripe camouflage. Now we have had better Tiger Stripe camouflage in the G.I. Joe line. This is not my favorite. Let's take a look at Duke's file card and we get to do something we don't often get to do. I have the full card back for Tiger Force Duke so we can really see how this figure was marketed and of course here's the card art and that is essentially the same artwork that was on Duke's original card but he's been repainted with Tiger Force colors. Otherwise the artwork and the stance there is really identical to the first version of Duke. It has the G.I. Joe logo up here and has the Tiger Force logo stamped right here. It has a price sticker. It was $2.69 and part of the front has been ripped away when the bubble was removed. Oddly the rifle that's pictured on the card art is not the accessory that the action figure came with. The rifle that's pictured here is the one that came with the 1983 Arctic Trooper snow job. Duke was originally supposed to come with this rifle but at some point that was changed and he came with the rifle that originally came with stalker. On the flip side of the card we have a lot of interesting things. We have the cross cell here and we have this partition which shows the other Tiger Force action figures that were available at the time and it says right here Tiger Force uses captured Cobra vehicles and reoutfitted G.I. Joe weapons to battle the forces of evil. Each vehicle is specially modified and camouflaged for perilous assaults behind enemy lines. I'm not sure if you'd call that a bright yellow and black Tiger Stripes camouflage but they are repainted. Then of course it has these small panels around here that show the other G.I. Joe action figures available at the time. Like all other carded action figures this figure is worth one flag point and then of course we have the file card. The file card has his faction as G.I. Joe and it has a portrait of Duke here and this portrait is pretty much the same as the original file card. It's just zoomed in slightly. It says his code name is Duke and he is the Tiger Force first sergeant squad leader. His file name is Conrad S. Houser. His primary military specialty is airborne infantrymen. His secondary military specialty is small arms repairmen and this is different from his original file card where his secondary military specialty is artillery and small arms armor. His birthplace is St. Louis, Missouri and his grade is E8 in parentheses first sergeant and this is also different from his original file card which had his grade as E8 master sergeant. Now the grade of E8 is correct but he's going to be either a first sergeant or a master sergeant not both. And I think the Tiger Force file card is correct. I think Duke is an E8 first sergeant. Also between version one and version two of the file card, Duke's serial number changed which should not happen. This middle section is similar to the text on the original Duke file card but the phrasing is slightly different and there's some additional details. It says Duke was fluent in French, German and English when he enlisted, graduated top of his class for Benning Airborne School, opted for US Army Special Languages School where he specialized in Han Chinese and Southeast Asian dialects. Upon graduation he served in the Army's Special Forces Unit in Southeast Asia where he received the Congressional Medal of Honor and two bronze stars for single-handedly rescuing 34 POWs from a heavily guarded enemy compound. This section here about rescuing POWs must have been written after somebody watched Rambo II. This bottom section is entirely different from the original file card. It really has no similarity at all. It has a quote that says, the man's a walking legend. He's got more combat experience than some of the generals in the Pentagon. Duke's the kind of grunt you want to have right by your side when the going gets rough. He can assess any hostile situation with lightning speed and act upon it quicker than you could say Tiger Force. The man doesn't know the meaning of the word fear. In fact, I don't think he's ever heard of the word at all. This file card does the same thing that the original file card did but it cranks it up to 11. It paints Duke as just too perfect. He's the best at everything he does. He never fails and just everything he touches turns to gold. Duke appeared many times in GI Joe media. In the GI Joe cartoon series, Duke was the first leader of GI Joe. There was no Hawk in the cartoon series at the time. Hawk of course was the leader of GI Joe in the toy line and in the comic book. But as far as I can tell there were never any cartoon appearances of Tiger Force Duke. We did see Duke in the 1987 GI Joe animated movie where he went into a coma. But in that movie it was 1987. It was the year before Tiger Force came out and he was still wearing his version one colors. Duke did appear in the Deke animated series but the earliest appearances that I can find for him still show him wearing his version one colors. Duke first appeared in the GI Joe comic book in issue number 22 and he had many appearances thereafter and he sort of replaced Hawk as the field commander of GI Joe. I'm not aware of any appearances of Tiger Force Duke in the comic book either but I don't have every issue of the comic book. He may have appeared in the Tiger Force uniform in an issue that I don't have or haven't read but not to my knowledge. I think the best portrayal of Duke is not in the old vintage run. It's in GI Joe Resolute.  Giving Duke a meaner side makes the character more layered and more interesting. Duke is a first sergeant. He should have a commanding presence on the field. He should be a master of military tactics. He should be capable of getting his men to do what they must do even if he has to bully them into doing it. Duke should not be a nice guy. To do his job he's going to have to be mean and sometimes even brutal. But I don't think Duke should be the unit leader like he was in the old cartoon series. Hawk is the master strategist. He's the big picture guy. Duke knows the tactics to carry out the strategy. In the GI Joe cartoon series Duke is shown as having a romantic interest in Scarlet and I've said before that this pairing I don't think makes sense. I think Scarlet and Snake Eyes as it was in the GI Joe comic book makes a lot more sense. Now I've said before that I don't think Scarlet would have an interest in Duke but I'm not sure Duke would have an interest in Scarlet either. There are two strong personalities would clash right from the get go. You put these two together and you're going to have fireworks and not the good kind. I don't want to be too down on Duke. I've got some positive things to say about Duke too. I still prefer Duke to Flint even though Flint is a superior action figure. I've got a lot of good childhood memories tied up in Duke. When Duke was first available as a mail away I missed the mail away offer. So I thought I might not ever have a Duke action figure but then when I saw him the following year available on the card I was thrilled. By 1988 my original Duke was long gone either lost or broken. So when I saw Tiger Force Duke on the shelves I was really happy to have another Duke. I could replace my old Duke. Now I really wasn't happy about the hair color change but I just kind of ignored that. I was just happy to have a new Duke action figure. I've always had a problem with these expressive faces. It was always easier for me to project an emotion on a neutral face than it was for me to project an emotion that was contrary to the one that was expressed on these expressive faces.  How did that go? I have some bad news Duke. It's your grandmother. She got run over by a reindeer. Look out Duke. Cobra Commander is right behind you. See what I mean? It just doesn't work.  Looking at Duke overall I thought the original figure was about a middle tier figure so version two using almost all the same parts as version one is also a middle tier figure but it's dangerously close to being worse than that because of unpainted details. The Tiger Force colors are okay. Weirdly the colors are almost the reverse of the original action figure where version one had top half was khaki and the bottom half was green on version two is kind of reverse. The red undershirt is kind of weird and random but the figure is still reasonably camouflaged so I could still use him in combat. I would prefer a traditional organic tiger stripe camouflage like stalker and like recondo to these black slash lines but still overall not bad at all. Some other Tiger Force action figures got much weirder color schemes so I'm really not complaining not a bad color scheme for Tiger Force Duke. But why does he have brown hair? Duke is not portrayed as having brown hair anywhere there's no reason for it it doesn't make any sense. Get that picture out of here I'm trying to talk about Tiger Force Duke. We had the same issue three weeks ago when we looked at version two of Hawk. What's with these hair color changes? These aren't the only two figures they did this to and usually hair color does not spontaneously change from blonde to brown without the help of a Clairall bottle.  Yes that is a picture of me I used to have blonde hair I don't have blonde hair anymore but I don't really think that invalidates my point or maybe it does okay maybe it does okay I'm wrong congratulations you're right I'm wrong there you go you happy now happy I'm a naughty boy there you satisfied you know what I quit you can you can do your own vintage GI Joe toy reviews from now on I'm back but I do not like being wrong. This is my review of Tiger Force Duke I hope you enjoyed it if you did don't forget to leave it a thumbs up on YouTube and don't forget to subscribe that's what keeps this channel going and don't forget to like me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter you get a lot of updates there you don't get anywhere else thanks for watching I'll see you next week with another vintage GI Joe toy review