Poland launches Armoured Vehicle Coalition for Ukraine. In Warsaw, the opening of a coalition of armoured vehicles in support of Ukraine took place reports the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine. As noted by the department, during the meeting representatives of the participating countries formulated a position on strengthening the armed forces of Ukraine with certain armoured vehicle models and organising their repair. In addition to Poland and Germany, the initiative also involves the United Kingdom, Sweden and Italy. The purpose of the Armoured Vehicle Coalition is to strengthen the armoured shield of the armed forces of Ukraine, jointly enhance our military capabilities, encountering the Russian aggressor, ensure the effective functioning, technical maintenance and repair of equipment and weaponry provided to us by Allies, said Deputy Minister of Defence of Ukraine Ivan Havryliuk, who led the Ukrainian delegation. Within the framework of the coalition, four syndicates have already been created. Each has been assigned specific tasks, supply of weapons and ammunition for western armoured vehicles, technical maintenance and repair, training of crews and technical personnel, development of effective tactics for the use of armoured vehicles on the battlefield. This is a very important initiative of our Allies considering the existing issues in the armed forces of Ukraine with the repair of foreign-made armoured vehicles. I hope that with the help of Allies, we will be able to quickly, as much as possible, establish an effective repair base for western armoured vehicles in Ukraine. Havryliuk added, he clarified that within the coalition, a roadmap will be developed in line with the strategy for the development of the armed forces of Ukraine. It is expected that in the long term, coalition members will assist Ukraine in creating a fleet of vehicles and establishing industrial partnerships with our country. On March the 18th, Polish Defence Minister Władysław Kostyniak Kamiz announced that his country, together with Germany, was forming an armoured vehicle coalition for Ukraine. The official emphasised that this is one of the most important coalitions. It is worth noting that there are several other coalitions aimed at assisting Ukraine. These include the Aviation Coalition, Drone Coalition, Tank Coalition and others. One is fighting for the next and the other. The name of the company is called a medical term. This is so that it can be associated with the paint. It is interesting for anyone to google it. The Ministry of the Interior of Ukraine, as well as the teeth, of course, is responsible for this. There is a difference in the protection of the strange sex. If the mine is based on an instrument, it is like a knight and is supported. The task of the pilot is to tear it apart. There are different cases. Here it is. And the bull. Of course, the bulls of the river mines bring them to the water with half-drones. As you can see, the horns meet in the middle of the battle. That is, the bulls of the river mine. Here it is. It is already thrown away. And it is returned for the execution of the next bull. The bulls of the real kamikaze are taking place. They are alive. This is how, according to the light, the mine is torn apart. Here you can see it. An insecure luggage. Thank you to the pilot of the Poles from the development of the 38th Brigade of Morpiches who, on his own time, kept his eyes open. Next, we will call the witnesses of the feyary self-requit of the saboteurs. He throws the mine to the water, takes it for the next one, and... Something went wrong. The bull broke out. We have not even expected such a quick and deep collapse. What kind of sword are you fighting? Such a path and you will die, as they say. In a word, Khrubak really made an auto-filtration. To give and take in one...


Let's begin reading here in John chapter 20. I'll begin reading at verse verse 11 and I'll read to verse 18. We'll get into our study John chapter 20 beginning at verse 11 Mary stood outside by the tomb Weeping and as she wept she stooped down and looked into the tomb and she saw two angels in white Sitting one at the head and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain Then they said to her woman. Why are you weeping?  Why are you weeping? Who are you seeking? She's opposing him to be the gardener said to him Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you've laid him and I will take him away Jesus said to her Mary And she turned and said to him Roboni, which is to say Teacher and Jesus said to her do not cling to me For I have not yet ascended to my father But go to my brethren and say to them. I am ascending to my father and your father to my god and your god Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that he had spoken these things to her So Jesus knew how his disciples would take his death He had taught them that this was going to take place, but he knew that no matter how much he taught them they were still going to be devastated and Because he knew this he continued teaching them because he wanted to encourage them to remain strong remember when we were in chapter 14 here in the gospel of John and we read verse 28 Jesus had said you have heard me say to you. I'm going away and coming back to you If you loved me you'd rejoice because I said I'm going to the father for my father is greater than I So he's preparing them. I'm going to go. I'll return But I'm going to go in John 16 verse 20 he had said most assuredly I say to you You will weep and lament but the world will rejoice you will be sorrowful But your sorrow will be turned into joy and so Jesus had prepared them and it even said that That the sorrow that they were going to have which they of course have and and Mary is suffering with right now It's going to be something that passes as a sorrow that will lead to joy And so Jesus had prepared them and now we have Mary and Mary and others have come to the tomb They come very early in order to complete Jesus's burial and as they've arrived even as we've read They discovered that the stone had been rolled away the Bible tells us an angel of the Lord had rolled back the stone from the door in in Matthew's gospel in chapter 28 it says that the angel was speaking to them and the angel told them go quickly and tell His disciples that he's risen from the dead and indeed. He's going before you into Galilee there You will see him behold I have told you so they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to bring his disciples word and So the angel has rolled back the stone from the door Mary Madeline had informed Peter and John that Jesus's body was missing We saw that in verse 2 of chapter 20 when it says she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other Disciple whom Jesus loved and said to them they've taken away the Lord out of the tomb We don't know where they have laid him and so she had gone and informed them that Jesus's body is missing She thought that that Jesus's enemies had perhaps taken his body because it's it says it here in verse 15 When Jesus speaks to her she says if you've carried him away Tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away. So she thought that somebody had taken the body of Jesus Christ Well when they had heard this news they they ran to the tomb to see what had happened Peter and John came They viewed the tomb as we saw but they had experienced different reactions Peter only saw an empty tomb But John saw and the scripture says that he believed he believed that Jesus had risen from the dead And last time we together we had ended at verse 10 where it simply said the disciples went away again to their own homes Either they had homes there in Jerusalem or they went to a friend's home or a rented home, but they left as The disciples leave Mary is unwilling to and she remains behind she's determined to find out what happened She's not going to leave She's waiting perhaps for someone to give her information And so verse 11 tells us that Mary stood outside by the tomb notice weeping and as she wept She stooped down when you look at your Bible and you read that word when it speaks Concerning her in verse 11 weeping if you take note you might want to know that's a very strong word in the Greek She's crying as if her heart has broken It's not just a simple tear running down the side of the corner of her eye. It's a heart broken cry She's sobbing with strong strong tears She's mourning with a pain and a grief as if her heart was breaking Have you ever done that has anybody here in this room ever done that we've done that haven't we I have You know, I when my father went home to be with the Lord, you know, it was a sudden unexpected Death and and I still remember it was the hardest thing that I had that up to that time had ever experienced I still remember when when night a few few days maybe a couple weeks after dad had died I still remember waking up because I heard somebody was I heard someone crying I woke out of a deep sleep because I heard somebody crying and when I woke up and looked around to see what was it was me I had actually awakened myself because I was weeping in my sleep If you ever had a heart that is so broken that you can't even sleep and when you do you still cry Well, that's Mary That's what's happening to Mary. Mary is weeping. She's sobbing. She's broken hearted and as she's crying there She's missing her Lord Jesus Christ So she's weeping and as she weeps verse 11. She looks into the tomb verse 12 She saw two angels in white Sitting one at the head the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain and they said to her woman Why are you weeping? She said to them because they've taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have laid him Why am I crying because I can't find Jesus? It's interesting that these two who are seated there Well, it doesn't even disturb her that she's looking at them. They look human. She's crying She's upset and she begins just to speak to them, but they ask a question notice verse 13 They say why are you weeping? Now the reason they're asking her why are you weeping is very simple This question is intended to reveal the root of her sorrow. The root of her sorrow is unbelief She had not fully understood the promise of Christ and Jesus had said he would be raised from the dead So she's crying and sorrowing, but it's really an unbelief. It's a pain That is is rooted in a fact that she she's not aware She hasn't really grasped what Jesus was going to do and so when they're saying why are you weeping? It's it's actually revealing the root of her sorrow. It's her unbelief and and she responds if they've taken away my Lord I don't know where they've laid him. I Wanted to come and give him a proper burial. I wanted to show him Respect but he's gone and so as mentioned a moment ago the question reveals the condition of her heart Her heart is broken. She loved him with a pure and intense devotion But she's right now not realizing what is taking place and so in verse 14 when she had said this She turned around and saw Jesus standing there didn't know that it was Jesus. It's early in the morning She's emotionally distressed. She's blinded by tears.  No woman Why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking now notice her response notice the response? She's supposing him to be the gardener It's not that he looked like the gardener She's supposed she made a mistake. She's supposing him To be the gardener said to him sir if you've carried him away Tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away So she makes a mistake. She sees this man. She sees just a man in the garden She's not really looking closely at him.  She's still in sorrow It's still a bit dark and all and so she makes a mistake She's thinking this is someone who can help her You see if he's a gardener he can tell her where the body of jesus has been taken If you've removed him, let me know where he is so I can retrieve him Now jesus did not materialize a different body for temporary use after death He was resurrected in the same body. He was crucified in Though that body Is is now a spiritual body Mary made a mistake. It says that she supposed him to be the gardener But jesus had been resurrected in the same body And jesus verse 16 said to her mary And she turned and said to him roboni Remember in john 10 Where jesus had spoken of the shepherd and his sheep and he says when he has brought out All his own he goes ahead of them his sheep follow him because they know his voice She at first didn't recognize his voice as he had spoken when he had said why are you weeping Who are you seeking But this time he spoke to her and he used her name And he said mary And when she heard him she immediately responded This is my savior. This is jesus. She recognized the voice Of her shepherd And and though it's not saying this you see by the response what she did because She must have grabbed hold of him and by the way that the word roboni He says which is to say teacher It's actually stronger than that rabbi as a teacher roboni is a way of speaking my dear or my precious teacher It's a term of endearment and so She's she's telling him how precious he is And and it's obvious that she begins to grab hold of him because jesus said to her in verse 17 Do not cling to me. I'm not yet ascended to my father You can't keep me here in the same relationship we had stone grab hold of me But go to my brethren and say to them. I'm ascending to my father and your father to my god and your god Don't try and keep me here. I am to ascend. I have work to do. I'm going to send the holy spirit I've already taught you things about this. You cannot keep me here. I need to go a new work is occurring I'm not going to be physically present with you. You need to remember. I promise I would send the holy spirit the comforter I have yet to ascend to my father So he said that's going to take place But I want you verse 17 to go and tell my disciples go and tell my disciples what you've seen Well verse 18 Mary manglin came and told the disciples that she'd seen the lord And that he had spoken these things to her Now when you look at mark's gospel and compare mark's account with what we're reading here and john It's clear that initially these men didn't believe they weren't receptive to what she had to say In mark 16 verses 9 through 11 it says when he rose early on the first day of the week He appeared first to mary magdalene out of whom he had cast seven demons She went and told those Who had been with him as they mourned and wept And when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her They did not believe they refused to believe to them. It was like a It was just a story. It wasn't really a fact now Why is it that she that he first appeared to mary? I was asked about that just the other day and One of the commentators I use his name is benzin Benzin said this. I think this is a good explanation. He says it much better than I could perhaps the men Had a mark of disrespect put on them Both because they had with cowardice forsaken jesus And because their faith was so weak That they had absolutely given up on his being messiah when they saw him die on the cross How different was the conduct of the women? Because of this they were honored with the news of christ's resurrection And they preached the joyful tidings of his resurrection to the apostles themselves You know the men where were they well? They were hiding for fear of the jewish authorities. We'll see that in just a moment It says in verse 19 The same day at evening being the first day of the week when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the jews Jesus came and stood in the midst of midst and said to them boo. No said to them peace be with you I don't know why I say that i'm sorry, but it just makes me laugh Wouldn't you do that? I mean, I'm anyway When he had said this he showed them his hands in his side and the disciples were glad when they saw the lord and so His disciples were assembled They more than likely were discussing the events of the day Notice how john tells us that the doors were shut in in fear of the jewish authorities And that's understandable after all if they took jesus why would they not be taken? Remember how that when jesus had been arrested remember how he had protected his men When they entered in to take him there in the garden how it says in john 18 7 through 9 As they came and he said whom are you looking for and they said jesus of nazareth And he said i am he and when he did so they fell to the ground and then he asked them again whom are you seeking and They said jesus of nazareth and he answered i have told you that i am he therefore if you seek me let these go their way That the sane might be fulfilled which he spoke of those whom you gave me i have lost none and so initially When jesus was taken They were still protected But jesus is now gone And because jesus is no longer physically there to protect them they're hiding from the jewish authorities For fear that they would also be arrested if they arrested christ and put him to death Why would the authorities not arrest him and so jesus is no longer physically with them and therefore they're afraid And so in verse 19 It says that jesus came and he stood in the midst And he said peace be with you now he didn't knock on the door He simply entered into the room He had what is called a glorified body giving him the ability of simply passing through any barriers And he says to them peace be with you Remember they're assembled for fear of the jews and his appearance would have certainly scared them Not just a few days before jesus had promised them that they would have peace And he had said this to them to prepare them for the for what they were now enduring you see god can make a promise But we don't necessarily receive the promise it's fulfillment immediately jesus said i'm giving you peace But he gives them peace when they need it In john 14 27 peace i leave with you my peace i give to you not as the world gives do i give to you Let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid He said i'm giving you my peace But he also had said i'm leaving you But you'll see me again In john 16 verse 16 a little while you will not see me again a little while you will see me i go to the father And so there's this interim period where he says i will give you peace while they need peace right now He's entered into a room they're assembled there for fear of jewish authorities as they see him they're frightened So he speaks and says you can have my peace even as i promised Now as this is taking place verse 20 when he had said this he showed them his hands and his side Then the disciples were glad when they saw the lord He shows them his wounds Now he shows them these wounds for at least two reasons One he shows them his wounds that they might know that it is really him When you look look at luke 24 verses 36 to 40 It says as they said these things Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and said to them peace to you They were terrified and frightened and supposed they had seen a spirit He said to them why are you troubled? Why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet that it is I myself Handle me and see For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have When he had said this he showed them his hands and his feet So one he's showing them this is actually me This is how they can know it's really him But also the wounds that he shows them reveals how deeply he loves them In isaib 53 4 and 5 The prophet said surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows Yet we esteemed him stricken smitten by god and afflicted But he was wounded for our transgression He was bruised for our iniquities The chastisement for our peace was upon him by his stripes We are healed He loved us so much That it hurt And the wounds that he had Is an outward reminder of what love does And what it cost Their souls were so important to jesus that he was willing to receive these wounds And to see those wounds Was a way of reminding them of the depth of the love that god has For them god demonstrated his love for us and that while we were yet sinners christ died for us Think about that It wasn't when we were trying really hard to make him love us doing our best to be Winsome to him to win his affection Now he loved us while we were yet his enemies when we were hostily opposed to him paul says in romans 5 We were his enemies we were opposed to him And yet jesus christ came and laid his life down and somebody says lord How much do you love me and he says this much and he shows the wounds in his hands Because the lord loves us that much and he demonstrated his love when he gave up his life for us So he loved us so much that it hurt Well the disciples in verse 20 were glad When they saw the lord And so verse 21 says so jesus said to them again peace to you As the father has sent me i also send you And when he had said this he breathed on them and said to them Receive the holy spirit If you forgive the sins of any they're forgiven them If you retain the sins of any they're retained And so He's commissioning them But he begins by saying peace to you Then he moves on to say the father has sent me and i'm sending you So peace to you peace will come through my death and resurrection I just showed you my wounds and that's where peace will come from understanding this But the father in verse 21 has sent me and as he sent me i also am sending you You're going to go into the world And you're going to preach the wonderful gospel of jesus christ We're going to preach a message guys that is unique You see the gospel of god is unique And it's a message that you have been that i have been entrusted with It's a message that is not to be altered It's a message that is to be communicated clearly And it's the only message that changes lives Eternally I've had people in the past say that one of the things that they have grown to appreciate about our ministry Is that we try to teach what the word actually says well, that's because that's what we're supposed to do We don't try and make the gospel attractive to people What we try to do is present it as it is because jesus is very attractive when he's presented properly And we value the message of the gospel because it's the only message that god has ever given to mankind That can save them. It's the only message that god has given to us that actually transforms us from the inside out It's a message that promises that god by his holy spirit will work within us guys It's a it's a promise where god says that he will transform us by the renewing of our mind to Through the washing of his word and the yielding to his holy spirit That we can actually be new creations that the old things really can pass away that we who at one time had been had been enslaved enslaved by sin at one time We were known for the sins that we did we who at one time were known for being a drunk or are angry or lust filled or A druggy or you name it, you know just an angry person We we have been transformed and when people say what happened to you That's when we have an opportunity to say well the life changing message of the gospel. Oh you got religion No, I didn't get religion. I already had it That's how I lived before I was already religious.    I am not ashamed of the gospel of jesus christ It's a power of god into salvation to all who believe to the jew first and also to the gentile Paul said I'm not ashamed.  Do you know that today? He loves you. Do you know that how madly in love With you god is and you say how could he be? I know what I am Yeah, so does he and he loves you anyway And he loves you anyway. He knows exactly what you are Guess what? He knew what you would do with the gospel when he gave it to you And he still gave it to you Because you know what that gospel changes lives.  No, no, there's none good. No not one It's because he's so good And he gave us his spirit and he gave us his word and he washed us and cleansed us And we became a new creation in christ jesus and this is the message that transforms In first Corinthians chapter one verses 17 and 18 christ didn't send me to baptize but to preach the gospel Not with wisdom of words Lest the cross of christ should be made of no effect For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing But to us who are being saved it's the power of god His men are about to go into the fields He had earlier said in chapter four verse 35 that these fields were white for harvest In order to do so they need to have authority And they need power So jesus is giving this to them notice in verse 21. He says as the father sent me I send you Now in verse 22 it says and when he had said this he breathed on them and said to them Receive the holy spirit You breathed on them Receive the holy spirit It's interesting how when adam was just a formless not formless just a A form of a man Laying there god had created him from the dust of the earth. He had formed the man You remember the story in the book of genesis of creation out of the dust of the earth god formed man made him in his image But when you look at it, it says that god breathed into him and he became a living soul He breathed into him. I've shared this with you many times. Perhaps some of you have heard this before How that When it says in that god breathed into him that the word breathed At least some commentators related to An understanding of the nuances of the Hebrew language said that That god's face-to-face breathing was an intimacy. It was Some some commentators have gone so far as to say that he actually it was a form Of closeness and intimacy that could be portrayed as kissing life into adam To show the intimacy of god You can almost see god's face I'm not saying that you know, I'm not making god. I'm not creating an idol I'm just a picture of god breathing into a Beautiful adam must have been an absolute hunk. He had to have been He had to have been Just a very I can you imagine the very first man Who had an unbelievably beautiful beautiful handsome whatever the word you want to use for him The very first man beautiful, but lifeless lifeless beautiful, but lifeless Until god breathed into him And he became a living being You need God's life in you And if You're going to be used by god He gives you the power of his holy spirit his life in you And so he's giving his life if you will the spirit is entering in he's saying receive the holy spirit And he's breathing on them So receive the spirit You need to welcome by the way when he says receive you need to welcome What what jesus is imparting they need to desire this is something they're open to And so i'm going to be sending you out But i'm and giving you authority, but i'm also giving you power And that power comes through the holy spirit In first chrithians 2 verses 4 and 5 Paul said my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom But in demonstration of the spirit and of power that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of god Now this breathing is what is called a pre pentecost empowering And a commissioning it is strengthening them empowering them But on pentecost are going to receive the fullness of the holy spirit And as he's sending them out and preparing them for their ministry He says in verse 23 and this is an interesting scripture if you forgive the sins of any They are forgiven them if you retain the sins of any they are retained now I'll say this very quickly, but hopefully clearly they're not being given the power of Solution of sin What they are being given authority is to declare that sin has been forgiven They're going to declare sins forgiven And sins are forgiven Based on the reception or rejection of the message of the gospel This is not someone said an apostolic privilege It is one enjoyed by the body of christ in general. This is what it means If you leave tonight and you're sharing with a brother sister mom dad grandmother aunt neighbor, whatever co-worker And you share the gospel with them and you say to them, you know Jesus christ died on the cross for you And uh You begin to share the essence of the gospel and as they're listening to you You can pick up a that they're receptive and so you say to them Would you like to give your heart to christ? And they say yeah, I do I've been I've been wanting to get right with god and And so you give them an opportunity and they receive it you now have the authority to say to them your sins have been forgiven you You didn't forgive them of their sins You are declaring something god has promised Now if you're speaking to them and you say would you like to give your heart to the lord? And they say no well I'm not saying you should say this but Your sins are retained You didn't release them. You didn't ask for god to forgive them They're not being washed and so you walk away knowing that they're still in their sins And that's basically what jesus is saying when you take the gospel and present it And whenever I've given invitations and people have come forward and I'm able to speak to them This is what's taking place. I'm literally saying to them. Though not in these words your sins are forgiven you Not because I forgave them and not because I have the power of absolution But because I'm declaring a message that promises forgiveness And when they receive by faith that message, I'm able to declare Hey, welcome to the family of god. Your sins are forgiven you and praise god I can say that not based on my goodness, but because I've given them the gospel And that's what jesus is doing here guys. He's speaking to his men. He breathes on them says receive you the holy spirit It's a pre pentecost kind of thing. They're going to go out continue ministry But on the day of pentecost when when the holy spirit comes and baptizes them That's when the church's birth. This is what they call just a pre pentecost commissioning And later on they're going to receive the fullness And they're able by god's authority and and and the promises that they find in his word to declare what god has decided Now as this is taking place There's thomas your old tommy boy Thomas called the twin dinimus One of the 12 was not with them when jesus came The other disciples therefore said to him we've seen the lord So he said to them unless I see in his hands the print of the nails And put my finger into the print of the nails And put my hand into his side I will not believe And after eight days his disciples were again inside thomas with them Jesus came the doors being shut and stood in the midst and said peace to you He said to thomas reach your finger here and Look at my hands Reach your hand here Put it into my side Do not be unbelieving But believing And thomas answered and said my lord and my god And jesus said to him thomas because you have seen me you believed Unless it are those who have not seen And yet have believed thomas The twin that simply tells you he had a brother was also a twin And he was a twin. He had a brother was his twin He's called, uh, what's his nickname? Everybody knows his nickname Doubting thomas, right doubting. How do you like to have that as a nickname doubting thomas? He's known as doubting thomas You know over the years I If I were to give him a name, I I don't know that I'd give him the name doubting thomas to be honest with you That's a traditional name. They've given him because because of this I would I I'm I'm more inclined to call him disappointed disappointed thomas remember all the way back in chapter 11 when jesus was entering into An area that he he was in danger in in john 1116 thomas had said let's go with him so that we may die with him He was willing to die with jesus christ. I don't think that he was a coward I think he was disappointed As we read about thomas in scripture, we see that he he loved the lord, but he didn't really understand him In chapter 14 in in verses 4 through 6 Jesus said where I go, you know and the way, you know, but thomas said to him lord We don't know where you're going. How can we know the way and jesus said to him? I am the way the truth and the life no one comes to the father except through me We don't know where you're going. We don't know what you're up to. He was he was aware of jesus. He loved jesus He's just not really fully understanding the ways of jesus And so jesus had died And thomas had found a place to sorrow and privacy The news that he was alive was too good to be true Even though his friends Said it was Again, I I don't want to over personalize this but but I can tell you You From from personal experience and others can share their experiences more than likely very similar That there are times in your life if it hasn't happened yet It will There are times in your life Where your faith is put to the test in a way that's very extreme And maybe you're not as prepared for that test as you thought you were Again when my father went home to be with the lord we were we were at the um The mortuary chapel and it was time for viewing and the family was there my My wife marie my kids my mom My my brother and sister Or sisters I believe And there's this casket and it's just the family in the room and And I still remember while people were speaking by the family was speaking amongst themselves I went and stood there looking into the face of of my my my father And I I was staring staring into his face looking at my dad knowing that that soon he'd be placed in the ground and And you know, those are those are touching strong moments very very grievous moments.  It's And I remember standing looking And and I began to think and And it's a small voice within me said do you believe in the resurrection? Do you believe in the resurrection? And I remember responding just me nobody obviously knows what you're thinking My family didn't my wife didn't But that's what I was thinking. Do you believe in the resurrection? And I remember as I was there I prayed I said, you know God I have taught about resurrection For many many years now And I've presided over many funerals And I've given words of comfort to many people over the years This is the first time I've ever asked myself Do I really believe that because up to this point I have always believed that I did believe that And I still remember looking down at my dad And I still remember saying yes lord, I do you are the resurrection and the life You are You stand in a place sometimes When your faith becomes real When all of the facade and all of the exterior and all of the Things that go into who you are are stripped away and and you're just left with what really is Thomas was like that and you have to put yourself in his place He had heard the words of christ. He had seen the works of jesus He had been imparted the spirit prior to this This event that has been spoken up. He had he had Uh Done so many things preached so many places But he saw him die He his heart was broken. He was shattered And he had Descended into this despondency He had found a place to be alone to wrestle And the news that jesus is alive. Well, that almost seems like a cruel joke. It's too good to be true Even if my friends are saying this So so for me, I am not going to exalt unbelief god knows that But I do I do see an honesty in thomas He wasn't hiding disappointment. He he wasn't hiding unbelief Jesus's death was so brutal It left him shocked Would take more than their testimony to convince him He he had he had seen what had happened to christ. He knew how he died And now jesus is saying to him Do you want to put your hands into the the wounds? Jesus isn't rebuking him by the way. He's offering him proof. He's meeting him where he is jesus is aware of what had been said In psalm 139 verse 4 there's not a word on my tongue, but behold, oh lord, you know it all together And so when they were saying we've seen the lord Thomas says I need to touch the wounds and then verse 26 There's there's there's uh thomas and and jesus comes the doors are Shot he speaks and then he challenges him. He says you want proof reach your Reach your finger here. Look at my hands reach your hand here Put it in my side. Don't be unbelieving But believing And what was his response my lord my lord and my god Now i'm going to give you a real quick approach to that my lord and my god There are those who say that jesus christ is is not god in the flesh Jehovah's witnesses for example all of us have spoken to jehovah's witnesses They have come to everybody's door and spoken more than once probably to you if you open the door to him They will speak to you and they will tell you what they believe and and all and and They will tell you that that uh that jesus christ is not god in the flesh They will tell you this is jehovah's witness teaching that that he is michael the archangel the first creation of god That's what they will tell you all of you know that if you've ever spoken to them That's what they'll tell you so you say to them No, jesus christ is god in the flesh and and that jehovah's witness will say no no, he's not He is michael the archangel first creation of god They'll tell you the the name michael in in he grew as who is like god and so jesus is michael He is the first creation and they go that route and so when i've spoken to them i have said but In john chapter 20 verse 28 thomas called them my lord and my god You need to mark this in your mind because you will have this conversation if you haven't already In john 2028 thomas calls him my lord and my god and the jehovah's witness will tell you He was surprised. He was basically just saying oh my lord my god And my response is this and that's that's what they'll say and my response has always been the same. No No, because that's blasphemy To just use the name of the lord in vain is blasphemy Jesus is a rabbi as a rabbi. He would have corrected him immediately for using his name Or using god's name in vain, but he did not Rebuke him. He offered him a blessing verse 29 because you have seen me you believe Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. No, it's not blasphemy me What's what whatsoever what it is is a recognition of who jesus christ is thomas was telling the truth you are my lord You are my god and instead of a rebuke His declaration of faith is affirmed by jesus christ. He even went on to pronounce a blessing on such who believed like that The bible in first peter 1 8 says whom having not seen you love though now you do not see him yet Believing you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory Thomas had a chance to see him. He saw his wounds and he said you are my lord and my god You and I have not physically seen him yet having not seen him yet We love him and we trust him and that's why jesus said Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed we have believed having not physically seen him And then finally truly jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples Which are not written in this book But these are written that you may believe that jesus is the christ the son of god And that believing you may have life in his name Why did you write this gospel john? I wrote it so that you might believe I chose the works that I listed and the words that are recorded So that you would know that jesus christ is who he says he is That you would know that jesus is the messiah That he is the son of god And that believing you may have life in his name This is an apologetic and this is this is the an evangelistic message So that you might come to faith in the lord jesus christ remember That when john was writing and i'll close with a couple of thoughts when john was writing That there was a movement that had arisen remember this that were called the gnostics The gnostics did not believe that the spirit could inhabit the material The gnostics believed during the time of of the writing of the gospels That that uh, there is no way that god who is spirit would take upon himself human flesh And so john is convincing those who have been Affected by and he's speaking to those who have yet to be He is letting them know that jesus christ is god in the flesh That's why he began in the beginning was a word the word was with god the word was god The word became flesh dwelt amongst us we beheld his glory the glory of the only begotten son of god That's why he began his gospel that way He was writing as an apologetic to those who were being infiltrated by gnostics And he's closing his gospel by reminding them jesus is the son of god jesus is the christ Jesus christ was was resurrected from the dead Thomas could have reached and touched this physical body of christ He wasn't a spirit. He was a resurrected body. He had a resurrected body. That's the whole point that he's making And i'm writing this to let you know But i also want to declare the truth so that you may believe who jesus christ actually is When somebody first gets saved you probably were told this What is the first book they tell you to read the gospel of john? why Because of what we just read That reading you will be believing that was the first book they told me to read when i got saved They said you need to read your bible start with the gospel of john Because john tells you why he wrote this Truly jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples which aren't written in this book But these are written that you may believe that jesus is the christ the son of god and that believing You may have life in his name If you have any friends that you want to have to come to faith in christ encourage them to read the gospel of john One last little story and we'll close with prayer My mom when she first got saved and she had been a christian a couple of years I went into the military got out. I was living at home When I was living at home, my mom said a woman has come and wants to she wants to Teach me the bible son and my mom wanted to learn the bible and i'm a new christian myself But i've i've already started to study and i've already started moving in the direction of of growing in my understanding of the word In all I was about 23 at the time and she says that she's a jahovish witness And she wants to teach me the word of god And I already had had some encounters with people from that particular cult and and so I said to my My mom. Well, let me talk to her. I didn't really know that much yet about What they believed in all but I did know a few things and I still remember this this woman coming to the house And talking wanted to talk to my mom, but I was there And I said well, I'd like to talk to you and the woman said of course I said, uh, you're here to want to teach my mother the bible and she said yes I am and I said well that that's interesting. I said, how about this? How about you and I studying the bible together? How about you and me? You know, I got my mom out of the situation and I wanted to talk to her myself And she says well, yeah, I'll study with you. I said wonderful Well, I said let's study the gospel of john She says oh, no No, we can't do that And I said why not She says no What we have to do is we have to study the materials that the jahovish witnesses the watchtower organization Gives to us we have to go through their study plans and I said and why is that? She says because that's how you learn the basics of of christian faith No, I knew otherwise because I knew that The guy who had who had started the uh, the jahovish witness organization Had uh, charles days. I think it was charles tays russell. I'm not mistaken russell Had it's been a long time since I remembered his blasphemous name, but it's been a long time since I thought of him but He had written that He said if you read the if you read my materials and read the bible You will remain in the truth But I have discovered that if you read the bible just by itself That it's a short time that you are no longer in the truth Even the russellites they were called the russellites before watchtower organization took over and jahovish witnesses became their name and so He said that it was reading the bible that took him away from being in A jahovish witness and I knew that and that's why he told her I said let's read the bible together Oh, no, I can't do that. I said no, no, we should let's read the gospel of john and I'll tell you what You can read and explain to me what you're reading and then I'll explain to you what it's saying She said oh, no, I can't do that and she wouldn't do that You know why?  There is no other source of spiritual life guys outside of the word of god Never forget that


Home Office Hacks for the new entrepreneur, save time and money.  Ooh, big shot, right? Nobody can see you. Nobody can see you. You know, I think it's so funny when people say, well, I'm an entrepreneur now. I don't even know what that means outside of the fact that I know you're gonna have to work a lot harder than you did on your job for the other guy that was paying you. I know that for a fact and I know in the beginning, you're gonna make less money. So, you might as well set it up right. This video is all about setting up your home office.  I just wanna get that out of the way. Some of you may not realize that. I have a lot of comments from teenagers and saying, you know, how do I make money as a teenager? The same way you would make money as a 25-year-old because the people online don't go, hey, I think I wanna buy this bell right here, but how old is the person that's selling it? I wanna know. They don't, they never do. So, you've gotta understand that online, it's an equalizer.  They care about the product, whatever product they're buying. So, don't worry about it. And I just wanna get that out of the way because so many people are like, am I too old to make money online? I started when I was 50, okay? And I didn't think I was too old. I don't think I'm too old now and I'm older now than I was then, okay? But the point is it doesn't matter how old you are, it doesn't matter how tall you are, it doesn't matter what you weigh, what for your health it does, sure it does. Don't don't get out of shape. But it doesn't matter, it's irrelevant. So, we're gonna talk about setting up your office, saying we wanna save money, that's why we wanna do this. And I want you to think in this way of thinking because I didn't in the beginning and I should have saved money, conserved money. And I'm not bad at it, never was bad at it. But there were things I bought before that I probably shouldn't have bought because I was anticipating more money coming in and it didn't at points that it was tight, okay? So now I'm really conservative about what I buy. I think about it over and over. I rarely will just go online and see something and buy it. I wait till at least a day or two. If I wait a day or two, a lot of times the urge to buy it will go away. And I want you to do the same thing with your home office. I also want you to think about the fact that you need to conserve all you can in your home office because probably nobody's gonna see it. Let's decide how we're gonna do this. First thing we're gonna do is decide our work office space. Where's our work office space? This is my work office space for videos. But you know what? My work office space is also a TV tray and the couch in many cases in my living room. Now, I never have a TV on when I'm working. I just don't do that. I think that's a bad idea. Matter of fact, I rarely have a TV on unless it's after nine or 10 o'clock at night. And then I don't have long to watch it. And I don't even watch it long then, maybe an hour. And then I'm gonna get in bed and get my laptop out and do a little bit more work or maybe watch a YouTube video or something like that. But think about your work space because if you're in the wrong space it's gonna be hard for you to be productive. Create your floor plan. Now you say, well, JR, I don't have any room. I'm in a one bedroom apartment. What's my floor? I don't have a floor plan. Well, I'll tell you, I had a pretty large house when I started my home-based business. But I knew that I didn't wanna go to some other room, some other place in the house, some room upstairs and work. I wouldn't have enjoyed that.  That was my floor plan. So your floor plan doesn't have to be elaborate. It can be a desk and it can be a chair. If you notice on my desk, I don't even have a desktop computer. I did a few years ago, but I just got rid of it. I never used it. I always use this laptop. This is my whole business right here. This is my business. So if something happens to this, I'm kinda screwed. But this is my business. You don't have to have a lot. Quit thinking that you have to have three monitors to get all these things done. I love seeing people with all these monitors and arms going up and all these things. When I know they can only concentrate on one thing at a time. People say, well, I multitask that way. That way I can watch. No, you're not multitasking. There's no such thing as multitasking. It doesn't exist. We've been sold a bad bill of goods. Here's what happens with your brain. It can only think of one thing at a time. It can only concentrate on one thing at a time. So if you've got three things going on, what it's doing is it's switching from this thing to this thing to this thing. Like there's three monitors and it's going back and forth constantly. Which what it's also doing is it's not doing service to all three of those things at the same time. So you're not doing any of the things well.  You can't multitask. You only need one screen right here. This is it. Some people will argue with me. I don't care. You can't multitask, not possible. Next thing is determine what you can do yourself.  What can you do yourself? I didn't have an accountant in the beginning. I didn't need an accountant. I had nothing to account for. I had no money. So why would I need an accountant? Everybody says you got to go out and get an accountant right away. No, you can get some accounting advice but you don't need an accountant when you don't have any money. I'm telling you, there's not much for them to do. Same thing with SEO. You know, I tried to learn my own SEO and I did my own SEO. I built my own websites as far as I could and then when I had to hire somebody I did. But decide what you can do on your own to save some money. You'll want to conserve money.  Next thing I'll tell you for setting up your home office is use what you've got. Use what you've got in the beginning. I didn't have a desk like this in the beginning. I had this old metal thing that I've had for years and years and years and moved it across country. And that was my desk, okay? I didn't have any fancy computer. I had old desktop computer and that was what I had. And if I wanted something to motivate me I'd get some pictures of my kids or something and put them on the desk. You probably don't need to buy anything. If you've got a comfortable chair in your house it doesn't have to be an office chair. Here's the problem with you watching this video right now. You're seeing this nice fancy desk and fancy chair and nice equipment and all this stuff. I didn't have this stuff in the beginning. These are things I don't even need now but I have them now because I earned some money and I felt like, eh, go ahead and get it now. Now I get it. But these things didn't earn me money. So don't think that you gotta have these things to earn money because they didn't make me money. They really didn't. And they probably aren't really making me money now. Maybe it makes the video look a little bit better, something like that. But in the beginning you don't need any of this because for the most part nobody's gonna see you anyhow. I didn't do videos like this in the beginning. I was selling products online. I did e-commerce, which I still do. So I didn't need to have all these accoutrements here. All these fancy things. They weren't necessary. I think for doing YouTube videos it's helpful. It maybe makes it a little bit more interesting. You got this bell here. You got this guy here going like this. Hey, it looks pretty interesting for my YouTube videos, but it's not what made me the money in the beginning. And it won't make you money either. Conserve your money. Try to use what you already have.  Let's say you need file cabinets. And if you notice, I don't even have file cabinets because I don't have files. But if you had two file cabinets, you could lay a board across it and boom, you've got a desk. It's that simple. And I think it's so funny when people try to start a business and they think they need certain furnishings to make it happen. They don't.  Okay, I didn't even use my own chair and table. I used theirs. I would sit there for two, three, four hours and use their free internet. You don't need all this stuff. That's why this video is so important to somebody who's been through it and who spent money on that stuff and realized I didn't need it. And that's not what made me money. It was my effort that made me money. It wasn't my office setup. So many people say, well, I got to get the coolest office setup. Get some shoeboxes and stack them up if you've got a printer and stuff like that. I don't even have a printer in my office. My wife has one at her office and once every two or three months will print something but we pretty much went paperless. If I have paper coming in and that was the only way I could stay organized, my desk used to have papers everywhere. Papers, it was terrible, papers everywhere. Now what I do is if I get a piece of paper which I don't want it, I don't want any paper but if I do get a piece of paper, I look at it and I say, is this important or not important? If it's not important, I shred it, okay? If it's got pertinent information on it. And if it is important, I will take a picture of it or I'll scan it and then I put it online or I put it on a desk or somewhere then I get rid of that piece of paper. I don't have any paper. I don't want paper, don't need paper. Now I will tell you, I used to use a lot of paper. I used to print out a lot of stuff and you can't see it but I've got a file cabinet kind of closet over there and I've got reams of paper because I bought one of those big boxes of paper when I started using it, not long after I bought that paper I quit using paper. So now I've got a lot of paper. Don't know what to do with it. Next thing I'll tell you is shop around for cheap bargains. Look at swap meets, look at flea markets. You know, go into the Facebook marketplace or there's actually some buy nothing groups in Facebook now where you could get a desk for free, you get a chair for free. You don't need this stuff. You don't need it. Nobody's gonna see you, okay? Nobody's gonna see you. It's so funny how people think they need all these nice new shiny things because they have a new business. You don't need them. You don't need them. You don't even need an office. I could have just not done this video and said just go someplace that has internet. You could pull up in front of KFC. KFC has some of the best internet by the way. That's a little bit of a secret right there. You could pull up in your car and get a tray. I have a tray that hooks on the steering wheel and I can put my laptop right there and I can work in front of a KFC. There's my office, there's my office setup but that's not what this video is about. We gotta get back to what the real office is but you can also accept free furniture. There's a lot of free furniture out there that people wanna get rid of. I know I had a bunch of file cabinets from my old office and I said, well, I've got some nice file cabinets. I'm gonna sell these and there's a few hundred bucks here and I can tell you ultimately, I gave them all the way because nobody would. I went to the Goodwill and pulled up with file cabinets and you know what they said? We don't accept them. You don't accept them. This is free though. They say, I know but we get so many. We don't have anything to do with it. Nobody wants a file cabinet. And then I realized that paper's useless because nobody's filing anything anymore. File cabinets are gone. I don't know who the file cabinet salesman were if that was even a job but they don't have a job anymore. That's done. Something else you can do is swap with friends. Talk to some of your friends online. I'm sure there's a Facebook group about that where you can swap stuff.  We're in San Diego now and we have a buy nothing group here and I know there's one in Texas where we're moving to but you can go among these groups and I'm sure you can furnish your office for nothing. So if you clicked on this video thinking I'm gonna learn how to decorate a really cool office I'm an entrepreneur who's here to tell you don't spend your money. Don't do it. Not necessary. Certain things you need to spend money on and you're gonna need money for that. I do YouTube videos so I have to have a decent camera. I have to have some decent lighting. Doesn't mean you need them because you can start in the beginning by standing right in front of a window and filming from the window to your face and that will give you the lighting that you need. You can use your iPhone because when I started the cameras on the iPhones, they were not this good. They're really good now. I can shoot 4K on my iPhone video, 4K video on my iPhone, okay? So you don't even need a DSLR camera not necessary, you don't need it but I have it now. We have the stuff and I've got the cordless microphone. You don't need a cordless microphone. You know, I'll put a link in the description down there. There's a wired microphone you can get if you wanna have your camera further away from you.  Not necessary. Wait on all this stuff guys. Don't buy stuff if you have to put anything on a credit card especially if you're quitting your job to be an entrepreneur or that's what you've already done. Don't put anything in a credit card. Just not necessary to do that. Understand these people aren't gonna see you especially if you're e-commerce or you're doing a course or whatever it is. You know, you need this basic stuff. Most everybody has everything they need to have a home office right now. You've got a telephone. You've got a light. You've got sunshine.  So don't think you need all this stuff but do try to designate an area where you're gonna work where you're not gonna be disturbed. I hope this video was helpful to you. I hope it gave you some insight. May not be what you have wanted. You may have wanted to decorate this really cool office. I'm not a decorator guy, okay? I'm a guy who's here to tell you how to make money online and how to save your money so that you have money because if you have money, you have security. You have money, you've got freedom.  Fancy offices, you don't need them. But I do like my desk, okay? I do like my desk, custom desk. Had it built a couple of years ago. Very happy with it. It's very heavy. If you saw the stand below, that's also all welded and kind of cool too. Nobody even sees it. Didn't need the stand below, did I? Didn't need it, nobody sees it. Oh well, thank you so much for watching this video. Don't forget, the important thing you need to do for your home office is to subscribe to this channel. You gotta go down there and hit that subscribe button. Smash it hard, give me a thumbs up.  I would love to meet you and I would love to talk to you. Also, put in the comment section any questions you may have, anything you wanna know. If you've got questions about selling online, marketing online, that's all we talk about on this channel. And I wanna help you out, I really do. So I appreciate those comments and questions down there. If you've got stories about your home office, put it in the comment section below. I would love to hear about it. Thank you so much for watching this video. I really appreciate it. As a token of my appreciation, I have a $97 course and it's down in the description.  No credit card required. Thank you so much for watching this video and I'll see you in the next one. Hey, thanks for watching my video. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel and click that little bell right here so you can be notified every time I do a new video. Also, click on one of those videos there. Keep watching on my channel.


Welcome to the Valley Advocate Podcast, featuring interviews that take us deeper into the people and happenings on the local scene. For more podcasts and a closer look at what's going on in the valley, visit us at valleyadvocate.com. Hi, my name is Dave Eisenstadter. This is the Valley Advocate Podcast, which Valley Advocate does in collaboration with Amherst Media. I'm here with Gina Beavers, our arts and culture editor here at The Advocate. Thank you, Dave. And we're here with Dara Hermann Sireline. Good enough. Thank you. Great to be here. Who is an artist and environmentalist, anti-plastic. Completely anti-plastic. And we're going to talk to you about your journey to being anti-plastic. But first of all, talk to us about your art. Yeah, you've got to show up. Where is it? Right now, I have a show up at the Hosmer Gallery at the Forbes Library, which I'm very excited about. It's a great brand. It's a great cast. And we're having an opening on, actually it's a closing, on June 27th, because the show is only up until the 29th. Okay. It's a great event, actually, because they're showing Casablanca that night. And they turned it kind of into an event, come dressed in the 1940s, you know, Rick-style. Nice. Bar. So it's become kind of an event there. Yeah. I've never actually even seen Casablanca. Do we ever talk about that the other day, as a matter of fact? Great chance. Well, yeah. And really, yeah, I kind of am looking forward to it. But yeah. Yeah. Right. But you... I didn't... I'm not a big fan. But you went to Pratt, right? I went to Pratt Institute. Okay. So your art is just a part of who you are? I've been doing art from the very beginning. I've always used art sort of as, you know, a poet writes poetry and a singer belts out a song I paint. Yeah. And my message out. And your messages. Well, right now, my message, my focus is the environment. But I definitely paint about a lot of important issues. Yeah. You paint out a quality. Big woman. Equality, gender, role models, you know, motherhood, you know, it's really kind of hits me at the time. Right. So, but the environment is right now the biggest. I've been painting about the environment probably for the last ten years. Yeah. What is it that sparked you? About the environment. Well, I used, I drink a lot of water and water bottles were a big part of my life. And I really just got sick of the whole recycling, you know, process and I wanted to find out really where do these bottles are going. And the more research I did, the more I found out that, you know, our recycling is not really working. There's maybe 9% of everything that we use that's a plastic item is recycled. That's not a big number. Wow. Yeah, it's, it's horrific actually and it's destroying our oceans. And I woke up and I went, I'm done with this. I'm done with plastic. I think my son was probably maybe two. He's 16 now. Oh, he's used to it. Yeah. So I try to be very good about it.  So we have to kind of go through this world trying to make choices.  Oh, man.  And you're saying it's like 9% is a horrific low number or less. Yes. Okay. So, you know, so the reality is, is that the recycling is really not working, which means that we have to be more aggressive with the planet by eliminating plastic from our lives on a daily basis. You brought an amazing visual. Yeah. Visual aid. I did. Can you show it to us? Yes. Absolutely. Crinkle, crinkle. Crinkle, crinkle. Crinkle, crinkle. Here is, and I put in a clear plastic bag so you can get an idea of what these items are. Oh, wow. Excuse me. It's everything that you can imagine. Takeout items is a huge problem. Right.  We've gotten so used to the convenience of a plastic world, you know, that it's, we're kind of living for convenience and sacrificing, you know, the earth, the ocean. In the graduate, in the graduate win, uh, Benjamin. Oh. What was that? Oh, there's friends as plastics. Plastics as the future. Yeah. But it's also like a horrific future. Yeah. The devastation.  That's why I look at it. Wow.  Right. Well, that's what those stores should be for. Emergency. Hmm. I mean, I'm not, you know, saying that, uh, everyone should stop using plastic but I think that they really got to start trying. Yeah. So this is the, this is the result of stopping trying. So tell us how long, how many years were. This is a collection that has been with me. I moved from Belcher down, um, four years ago and I took that bag with me to California for a year and collected, I didn't know if the plastic was going to change on the West Coast. Yeah. I thought maybe. Yeah. Yeah. The plastic, I don't know. So I just started to collect there and actually I had a big bag of just balloons. Yeah. That are, you know, people use them one time. Congratulations. You know. You have a painting with that. Yeah. Yes, I do. Right. Because. There's so many things that are just one use only. Right. One time use items, um, for convenience, we just, we don't realize that when you're taking a bottle of water from the store that you're using it for, how long does you have your bottle of water for it until it gets warm and you don't want it anymore? Yeah. I don't know. Maybe an hour, the longest, but that bottle is living with us for 200 years. Ugh. And, and. It's not a very good trade. It's not a good trade and our recycling is only 9%. Yeah. So we have to start asking ourselves, where is that plastic going? And um, you know, people don't want to think about that. So with my art, back to my art is I've spent a lot of time researching plastic, the industry, how the oil business is involved in it, how all the business McDonald's and everybody is, has their hands really deep in this plastic industry. Cause it's an industry that started in back, way back then, plastics came out. Everybody was so happy. It was convenient. You wrap everything up and nobody thought about. Another petroleum byproduct. Yeah. Which is a whole nother. Right. And that's not a whole nother. Right. Podcast to talk about. Exactly. Yeah. About seven years in the end. That's seven hours. And we're just like looking at this. So it's like, so we've got the plastic forks, plastic spoons. I see like a Haagen-Dazs thing in there. Tabs on. You know, all your little. Yeah. Pull tabs on the bread. Extra safety. Yeah. The safety. Do you remember some 1982 there was like three cases of Tylenol. It was the Tylenol case, right? It started, everything had to be wrapped and sealed. Before that. It was 20 years ago, right? Yeah. It was crazy. Before that, you just opened something up. Sure I did. After Tylenol, it was 16 layers of safety. There hasn't been one thing since then. But I don't think it's the plastic that's saving you. You can certainly get in the bottle if you. There's like surprising things in here too. Like this cork. Like I think, I don't think a fork. That's right. But like, but this one is. It's a great business. They stopped making it out of. Out of cork. And now they make it out of plastic. Yeah. How convenient. You can stick it back in. Like I said, we're living our lives. We're giving up the precious world for our very simple conveniences. And you know, I can go on about this topic really and all the negative things. But I wanted to come here with a more positive outlook. Yeah. Because I don't think that this, that we're stuck with this. I think we can make changes. And that's why I make paintings like that. Yeah. I could come here and I could show you horrific pictures of turtles with hairs bleeding from their nose. I could bring you pictures of whales with stomach cut off. And their stomachs are filled with like 80 times of plastic. Right. So what I decided to do is if I drew paintings about them or I made art about it, that we're a little more creative and caught a little off that that might strike like an interest in the viewer. Yeah. Nobody wants to look at turtles with that look. Yeah. That's horrible, isn't it? And nobody wants to look at whales. Nobody wants to look at the albatross birds. That was my painting that you saw. Oh, the albatross. Yeah. They're very famous.  And really what this is all about is it's consumption. We just keep consuming. Do we really need so much? And that's what I want people to ask themselves. Yeah. What is it for you to give up that plastic bottle and take a tin bottle with you instead? You're saving money, first of all. Yeah. You really are. You're eliminating the plastic from the planet. And you're also whatever you, PCVs or whatever you're taking into your body. We haven't even talked about what kind of chemicals that are coming off that. I mean, I gave my son baby bottles from plastic that I boiled in water. Sure. Absolutely. If you would think about that and you think about the chemicals that are coming off the plastic, no sane mother would do that. One mother in the world that would do that. You just wouldn't. You wouldn't want those toxins going into your bloodstream. So there's probably a lot of that going on too. So what I say to people is just try one thing. Stop accepting plastic bags from your grocery store. Take your metal bottle with you. If you bought a plastic bottle and you're attached to it, fill it up a couple of times. Of course, I really would rather you not do that.  There's so many alternatives. There's bamboo. We have a lot of amazing restaurants in this area that are already turning over. They're already using alternative materials in a plant base. You can't even tell the difference that there are plastic cups. Tart bakery, for instance, everything in there is plant based.  You think it's a plastic cup, but it's not. It's plant based. You turn it upside down. It says plant based. So we live in a rich area where people are really conscientious. They want that change. I think it's lack of education. People just don't know. They believe in the recycle system. And I believe in the recycle system too. You just have to keep doing it no matter what. That 9% counts no matter what. But, again, like I said, try to eliminate. This is so informative too.  I mean, I think that if everybody did it this way, I mean, I know that if I did it this way, I would be horrified at the trail I was leaving behind. You know what it is? We're humans. We're habitual. We're just used to doing what we do. And we love to have at least resistance. Right. And we are comfortable. We're so easily comfortable. So it's kind of comfortable to go to a restaurant and come out with a takeout plastic bag. You go home. You don't think about it. You throw it in the trash. You're not seeing what's happening on the other side of the world. You're not seeing what's happening underneath the ocean's surfaces. And so, again, back to my art, I don't show you those pictures because I'm hoping that my art is going to open up a conversation. Yeah, you brought some. Yeah, maybe we could make some room. It's not even... I think you've done a great job. It looks like a lot just sitting here filling up the table. But when you think six or seven years, it's really... You know what? Like I said, I was collecting balloons on the beach in California because you couldn't believe the one-time use balloons. Congratulations. Please, Navidad. It's a boy. It's a girl. McDonald's. We've got to get McDonald's responsible for using plastics. And me. Right, Leah. We haven't gotten to the meat yet. But we have to start getting these companies to be responsible because they're in control.  Yeah, right? So I feel like a lot of the businesses need to start taking responsibility if they want us to keep going to there. And there's a lot of people with campaigns and they're out there pushing for that stuff. This painting is not in the show but I had a poster of it so I thought I'd bring it in. Yeah. You want to hold that up? Can I hold that right for you? Yeah, nice. Whoops, sorry. You can hold it because it's not. It's just a copy. It's kind of reminiscent of the whale. It is. It's the whale and the albatris birds. There was a picture going around that showed the inside stomach of the albatris birds and it was filled with... It looked like this. This is what their stomachs look like. Yeah.  It's tragic. It's tragic and it could be avoided. So what were you saying in this painting? So in this painting that I did was I thought if I drew a human that maybe that can open up the conversation where people are saying, oh, that's horrific. That would be awful if that happened to a baby. If I was feeding my baby plastics, well, this is what it would look like. Well, that's what's happening to our wildlife and that's what's happening to our rivers and our waterways and the plastic is entering in every way it can. It's entering when we wash our clothes with microbeads and our shampoos and we have plastic in our materials.  And then they go right into your ocean and let's not forget that you're also eating it. It's like a terrible chain reaction. So the simple changes are don't accept the plastic bags. Grab a cloth bag. I brought you guys a present. Okay. I'd love to show you. Yeah. So we brought you... Oh, I read about these. Oh, goodie. Okay. So... What have we got? We got the... Because I'm very proud to be a Northampton person now. I've been living here for three or four years. All right. Because it's such a progressive place. Our mayor passed the plastic bag ban and we are officially a New England plastic bag town. All right. And this is for you. Thank you. I love Schwag. I love Schwag. I love Schwag. And blue. And that's the Northampton City Hall. Exactly. Make a great t-shirt. It's... This blue is psychedelic. Oh, that's really long. It's like popping out of my eyes. You could choose your color. I love it. It's vibrating, right? Yeah. So how will people get these? These you can contact me at my website or by email if you'd like a bag. I wanted to thank... We wanted to thank it was my husband and I. I wanted to... He made the bags actually. He's also an artist. His name is Peter Tseerlein. And he made these bags. And we were so excited about the plastic bag ban that we went to the town meeting. And we were like, thank you mayor. And we gave bags out to be supportive of that. We're hoping that Northampton is going to set the trend for all the surrounding towns. Yeah. Because it's such a progressive place. But even...  We actually... We wrote kind of a funny story about a guy who wanted to challenge the mayor to a race where he would be carrying plastic bags and the mayor would be carrying paper bags and they would see like how... Did he have crutches? Well, yes. Right. Yeah. Because he was like that the paper bags would rip or something. But it's like... But beyond that, it's like there's all these things that you're talking about. About alternatives that you can use that you're not... But again, we're just creatures of habit. So if the bags are made available, then the people will take them. Yeah. If the bags are not available, the people will find alternative ways. I think whoever has this bag would win the race. That's what I think.  I'm excited about this. You love it. I'm so glad. Let me see what else I have in my goodie bag. Wow, yeah. I see an advocate down there. That's good. I have an advocate. That's great paper. Well, we don't print it on... We don't print it on plastic. Well, that's an added plus. Yeah. Not yet. I brought you... And we will make sure that does not happen, Gina. I brought you... I knew you were going to... I brought also postcards. It's the same... Well, actually, I don't know if you saw this. I remember. This was in the show. That is in the show. And on the back of it is an alternative list to plastic. Oh, terrific. And it's really easy to... Oh, that's like used glass bottles, not plastic bottles, used straws made of metal or glass, not plastic. And then there's a whole list of these. That's terrific. There's also some resources on there, like the Plastic Coalition. And there's Beth Terry's book, To Live a Plastic-Free Life, which is a great resource. I think I brought that, too. Just to show everybody. Oh, terrific. Because you see my little tags in here. I'm still learning. Yeah. I imagine that it's a lifelong endeavor. And this is a great resource for anyone who just needs to... What do I do now? I don't have my plastic bags. What do I do? I don't know what the alternatives are. Yeah, I'd love to know what you personally have found kind of either difficult or maybe easier than you expected, going, you know, low plastic or plastic-free as possible. You know what? It was so much easier than I ever thought it was going to be. You know, it took the point of frustration for me. I was carrying, like, jugs and jugs of water bottles. I lived in New York City, and I thought, I'm not drinking the water out of the pipes. You know, they say New York City is the best water, but, you know, every time I turn on my pipes, there would be rust coming out of the best water. New York City thinks they're the best at everything. Well, that's kind of true. Some things are... Yeah, right. We have great water here, so... And there's no rust coming out of my pipes, but it forced me to buy water jugs, and I didn't realize there was a problem with plastic at the time. I just did what everybody else did. Went to the store, got my six bottles, brought them home, and every day I'd be finished with my bottles after a week, and then I was like, I had to take these bottles to the recycling bin, and I started to get frustrated. I'm carrying these jugs. I'm trying to put them in plastic bags. I just... This has got to be something better than this. And where is all this stuff going again is like, where is this going? So that started the investigation, and the minute I started investigating, all, you know, what does plastic do to your body? Where does the plastic get recycled?  It changed my life instantly. So how many years? So my son's baby bottle, and I want to say 13 years, solid 13 or 14 years. That's so awesome. That's impressive. And I love this book. The look of it is like... I know, I know. Well, of course, it's done. All echo. Yes, right. And actually, my husband and I, we're coming out with a book, too. Oh, great. It's a children's book. It's called Don't Eat the Plastic. Oh, I love... All right. I got a kid. And another time, it's great, actually. And my husband's an illustrator, so he illustrated it, and I wrote it. And we're hoping it's going to come out in 2019. We have some people interested in it. Oh, so cool. And if that's the case, I'd love to... I want to get out there to the schools. Yeah. Because, you know, we have the schools. They put the little plastic. I was an art teacher for 20 years. Where did you teach? I taught all over the valley. Okay. Through an outreach program. Oh, okay. Outreach art program. I was one year at Waiteley Elementary School, as a full-time art teacher. And then, otherwise, they're what they call an outreach art program. And I traveled Waiteley, Conway, Sunderland, you name it. I brought art. That's cool. Did you get to indoctrinate your kids at all with their anti-plastic ways? This is a very tricky business. I have a son at home. Yeah. And he wants to go to Starbucks.  I'm living it. Yeah. So he sees it every day. You don't want to be pushing something on a young person because you want them to become an advocate on their own. Right. On their choice. So he came home the other day and said, guess what, Mom? And I was like, what? He goes, I bought a recyclable Starbucks cup. So when I go there, I bring my cup and they refill, give me the liquid I want in there. And I thought, good for you. That's a great beginning because, you know, for a while I was like, I don't really want you to go to Starbucks. But then I thought, this is not going to work. Yeah. This is now it works with teens. Right. And now he's really an advocate. He puts on his Instagram and don't use the plastic, you know, and that was just from being, you know, role models at home. That's great. Such good advice. It was a transition. First, I started my husband.  I'm all educated now. I know what we're doing. We just got to stop. Yeah. So it's like that. And now it's great. Cause now my friends are influenced. And that's my point. It takes one person to have a message when it comes to the activism and to get that message out there. And if you make a difference in one person, you made a difference. Right. I mean, you made a difference.  Don't get me wrong. This is, this is, this came in my life and I didn't want it to. Yeah. This was like, you can't, you have to go out in the world. You can't be crazy. I mean, my, my, I put stores in my bags and they end up in my, take out food. I put the, it's like a Jacob Marley kind of thing where you're like, screwed. And that's how I'm just like, these are the plastics I've forged in life. And I'll come and torch you at night. Yeah. A plastic carol. I mean, so the, the artwork comes really from, we wanted to get the message out there without being blunt. Yeah. I mean, I know this is very blunt, but somehow when you're looking at art and you see color and you're attracted to, you know, rhythms of color or of the way someone draws a style.  I'm hoping that, that doesn't really come through at first. First I wanted them to be, oh, that looks attracted to colors.  And that's pretty much in everything I draw. I was trying to see if I brought you anything else. What's interesting now with what I've been doing this over a period of time is people that are in this kind of thing is there, they're finding me. And they're like, can you come and talk? Can you come here? I am with you guys. You went to my show. International publishing and stuff like that. Yeah, in London. I've been published in Australia. I've been, you know, because these communities are very strong about, they're anti-plastic. You know, they're doing books in there. They want to do interviews with artists and they want to show the work. The beautiful thing is everybody has a common mission. So you could be a musician. You could be a painter or a writer and it's not even important. Right. Like right now, my artwork is, it's not, it's not important to me, the artist part. It's the message part. I'm not stuck on, I've got to get people to see my paintings. I'm stuck on like, I hope they're going to see what I'm trying to show them. So I'll have like students contact me. Like I had students contact me in California and said, that hit me, that image hit me. Can I use it? We're doing a green festival. I want to be able to show them that and can I use your work? And I'll do a poster for them. No charge. That's cool. You know, I'll send stacks of my posters with an alternative list. I'll just put it out there as much as I can. So here's what was done with this original image that I showed you for Golden West College in Huntington, California. Oh, that's terrific. Earth Week. And yeah, Earth Week. They had an agenda for the week and they asked for my art and I said, great. There's nothing better than when you can combine words with pictures. That's great when other people can combine the words for me. I know. And I don't. It's exciting. That makes it my job easier. Yeah. It's funny because I had a few people drop through the show and they said, oh, there were no titles and I wasn't even... I said that too. Oh, yeah. So, you know, I'm a little shy about showing my artwork. That's the truth. So I just kind of... You are? I am. I'm kind of one of those shy artists, believe it or not. Like, the mission has really helped me to show my artwork, actually, because I'm not one to... I'm not showy in that way. Right. So I'm not one to... I'm aggressive because I want to get the work out because, again, the message is so important and that's what that is about. Awesome. How do people find you? Do you have a website or what's your... I have a blog so you can actually write to me if you want and you can respond to my paintings always. That's what I really hope for because what I do is it's kind of more like an information I'll put down, you know, a resource you can go to once you look at one of my paintings and I want people to know that they don't have to look at this and feel bad. They can do something. Right. You know, the point is is you can really do something if you choose to have a conscious mind and if you want to make a difference. What's the website? How do people find it? MothersTime.blogspot.com MothersTime.blogspot.com MothersTime.blogspot.com But you know what, really, if you just put in Dara Herman's here line and Google, you're going to... Z-I-N. Z-I-N. You got that. Yeah. Oh, good. Z-I-E-R. I have faith in you. I have faith in you. I just... It's the German last name thing. It is. It's true. Yeah. So just put my name in and there, all my articles will come up and all my interviews you know, I'll cross the way so much. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for having me. I'd love the show too. Thank you. And with Pam Acosta, that was really a great combination. And I really enjoyed the interview too. Great. And the article. Pick up the advocate and check us out in the paper. What you said. We're there. Yeah. Great. Well, thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks for listening and don't forget to visit us at valleyadvocate.com. Thank you.