So that was beautiful, you know, I watched them put in that That was an MRI machine at first And I saw them putting it up there and you know mark kept going and I'm thinking boy This is he's I thought it was improving the whole thing, you know And then I saw a carousel go up on the screen. I said he had this planned out, but it was good It was very good mark. Thank you, and I have Really am delighted to be here. It's been a while since I've spoken at Defending the faith we started coming Sally and I started coming here. I think it was around 1994 95 When our friends Dan and then at Kegas just said you got to go there And we went and then we came down from Michigan and we used to take with us I don't know how many people we had that but 25 30 people coming with us for a while. It was just wonderful Today I want to Do a few things Did you all get the outline? Okay, good. Good, then I don't have to spend too much time sharing it First of all, I'm gonna do this Gonna tell you a little story about myself and then I'm gonna go over basic principles for sharing the faith and Sharing the gospel big difference here sharing the faith sharing your faith and sharing the gospel are really two different things Obviously related, but sharing the gospel is Proclaiming the historical announcement of what God has done in Christ Sharing your faith is witnessing to what Christ's gospel has done for you So important point to keep in mind sharing the gospel is a verbal message It is about words. This is very important Paul the sixth said There is no true evangelization if the name the teaching the life the promises the kingdom and the mystery of Jesus of Nazareth The son of God are not proclaimed The finest witness will prove ineffective if it is not explained Now you hear people all the time say low I'm only gonna use words if necessary. Look, it's always necessary It's always necessary and you've probably gotten a kick, right?  I just live my faith so people can see it Well whoop-de-doo You've outdone Mother Teresa and Jesus and Saint Paul who I guess were all forced to use words Because they couldn't measure up to your level of visible holiness All right, these are stupid arguments When Paul the sixth wrote on even evangelization the modern world he insisted that we use words When our first Pope Peter wrote to us about this He said always be ready to give an answer or an explanation To anyone who asked for the reason for the hope within you with gentleness and reverence so words are Important and I want to just really make that clear All right, four big parts first can tell you a little story about me a much bigger story about you third an essential story about Jesus and then a cluster of four stories about non-christians who came to Christ now these are first-hand stories that I was Participated in all real people and one thing will become evident as I tell these stories the Holy Spirit is Working well before you ever arrive on the scene and I you know, I never say I make a convert Saying that an evangelist makes converts is like saying that midwives make babies God makes converts evangelists reap the harvest and The people I'm going to be talking about were all non-christians. They had no interest in Christ They had no interest in the church Not all of them became Not all of them came into full communion with the Catholic Church, although I think most of them eventually did Evangelism is not complete by the way until people are in full communion, but that's another task I want to get at the front end of the process here. All right Little story about me so you know those of you who don't know me should know a little bit I was born in New Haven, Connecticut 1951 the oldest of five kids my mom and dad faithfully sent us off to Saturday catechism class Mass every Sunday even on vacation. We went to confession once a month mom and dad discussed morality right and wrong But they never talked about Jesus. They never talked about God. They never talked about it's the sacred and Nevertheless, I liked talking about quote spiritual things like UFOs and purgatory and just odd thing They were all they were all as a kid. They were all clustered So my friends and I would often talk about these things my best friend at the time was Wayne Sanford Wayne was a Protestant and once in a while Wayne myself other friends would go sneaking into St. Claire's church, which is right across from Wayne's house in diagonal from mine and That's what was my home church and the first thing that would happen.   You're going to hell and don't even know about it am not R2 I loved evangelism from an early age And God God has a sense of humor because Wayne is now a permanent deacon in the Catholic Church. I Assure you I had nothing to do with it That part of the dialogue in fact is drawn from Garrison Keillers Capturing of how Catholic and Protestant kids in my neighborhood talked about matters religious We were ignorant, but we were tribal and so we went off against one another Unfortunately though when I hit adolescence my faith turned to the flesh and was all downhill My parents generation enjoyed the virtues of wine women and song my generation was not that different We just wanted drug sex and rock and roll and it devastated me I began my teen years as president of the class voted most likely to succeed and By the end of it. I was the first kid at my high school to be arrested for heroin possession I had a grade point average of 1.8 in a two-year suspended sentence over my head Now I ceased using drugs in May of 1969. It was a memorable day I remember it very clearly and I'll refer to it again later But I had had a string of pseudomistical LSD experiences. I just completed my senior year I was a musician and so I hit the road and I lived in vacant apartments and parks and beaches Railroad flats. I became something of a metaphysical guru kind of flopping around at the feet of any charlatan or alien that would explain these experiences to me and I there were all kinds of strange people it was 1969 1970 in Miami I met Swy Hart who was an alien from Venus who ran a science fiction bookstore Taught me past life regression in rural Michigan There was Bula who channeled spirits and started off her sessions with listen my children. I am the queen of life At Kalamazoo College. I had Hari Krishna's smelling like patchouli oil dancing around me until I was would receive a copy of the bag at Gita Jehovah's Witnesses were trumpeting the coming of Armageddon the children of God were talking about Comet Cahotec I studied with Mormons meditated with Buddhists went vegetarian with seven-day Adventists for five years I lived a strict discipline of vegetarianism celibacy avoidance of television radio and books that weren't published by the Religious group I was a part of called the I am religious activity kind of a new age or new consciousness group But in March of 1974 when I was at Michigan State University I finally encountered the Jesus of the New Testament and realized he was not the Jesus of New Age or a cultic thought Evangelicals would say I was born again As a Catholic I would say I appropriated the grace of my baptism finally and my allegiance no matter what happened My allegiance shifted from the Jesus of New Age thought to the Jesus of historic Christianity and the New Testament After 12 years of working within evangelical Protestantism in various forms of ministry I was called to pastor an evangelical Protestant congregation. I began doing some Christian talk radio and After five years the questions that have been forced on me by my pastoral experience made me reconsider the wisdom of the Catholic Church that had been around for 2,000 years and I resigned my pastorate, but not my microphone By the grace of God all my detours led me to Rome So that's my little short story So you know something about me now. Let's talk about you in Some ways what I have to say right now is the whole talk and if I can get it across we can leave early This is it Know and be yourself Now you might be thinking what I was talking about some pretty odd stuff there and you're right There was a lot of odd stuff, but to our father in heaven The one who created us redeems us sustains us Every single life story is equally odd Equally fascinating and equally worthy of attention. I read John Henry Newman In the 1980s and he taught me this Quote I am created to do something or to be something for which no one else is created I have a place in God's counsels in God's world, which no one else has God knows me and calls me by my name So here's the first and most important point in learning how to give away your faith or share your faith Know who you are in Christ Now let's take a look at this a few little humble exercises here We all go to these meetings and these parties where some host or Manager decides he's gonna make you say three minutes tell everybody who you are right So tell us Al tell us a little bit about yourself Well, what do you say in those meetings?   We're buried with him in baptism and raised in unison life, right? This is why I don't have a bucket list I mean people who are in the bucket list are trying to get the list done before death, but I already died with Christ I've got something else. I want to do it's too late for a bucket list for me I have a kingdom list of what I want to accomplish So be who you are in Christ. It's not some piece of banal pop psychology It's a survival strategy in this culture You know, we're living in a world in which I den everybody's talking about identity everybody, you know You've got identity politics, which is Balkanizing the nation. You might remember this hilarious story Rachel dolezal claimed to be black and become president of the Spokane NAACP and then her parents outed her She was a plain old vanilla white Caucasian, but great at makeup and ethnic hair styling And it wasn't widely reported, but Rachel also had posed as Asian and Native American at times More seriously the transgenderism the crisis Time magazine says this is the next great civil rights Movement, but what is transgender? Controversy but a conflict over who gets to discover invent or accept one's identity Questions of identity are percolating all over the place. I mean look around we've got new technologies every week People are not discovering themselves in God who they're called the image They're learning to reinvent themselves recreate themselves come up with new identities in which they imagine some phantasm of their own Imagination, you know bloggers have a motto I post therefore I am in Tire industry serve this search for revised identities You got image consultants and spin doctors and experts in impression management and plastic surgery and Botox and ethnic and racial Makeovers social media and blogging has trained everyone in the art of perpetual self-creation Relentless self-promotion and everyone is explaining and defending and selling and exposing themselves at just the time when people are most unsure if anyone is really just being themselves You know ironically in the age of the selfie people wonder more and more what their self really is and Whether they're encountering real selves or mere phantoms are images and others So everywhere you look right now people are asking who am I who are you who are we? So you Have in prayer in worship in reflection on scripture You have a very vivid and clear identity in Christ This is established by the very word of God the one who holds all creation in existence You are a new creature in Christ. You're a child of God You are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works You are a joint heir with Christ a partaker of the divine nature and ambassador for Christ part of a chosen generation a royal Priesthood a holy nation you're free from the fear of death Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world and it's not you who live but Christ who lives in you our Identity in Christ is secure even as the world is suffering from terminal insecurity Remember this the goal of redemption is About the formation of a new identity It's the creation of a renewed human race The church is the pilot plant for the new humanity our task is become like him the last Adam and to present this new man in Christ to the watching world You know unfortunately, I mean the world is often is blinded to reality because it's fascinated with the peace Appearances, but that's not a new thing with baby boomers or gen Xers or Millennials It goes back to Samuel for heaven's sake Samuel first Samuel 16 7 Humans look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart There's really nothing new here in Samuel's time and in Mark Zuckerberg's time humans are obsessed with appearance and They normally form their identities By seeing themselves through the eyes of those closest to them. It's called the phenomenon of the looking-glass self But real character real identity is who we are when no one's looking for God If we really understood who we are in Christ, we could end the talk here right now But I'm still learning and I assume you're still learning We're trying to understand this mystery of what it means to be in Christ so Catholics must get comfortable live out their Catholic identity authentically joyfully radically because the world is confused and they need to know who you are So to give away our faith we start with this very simple thing Who am I in Christ? And here are a few again. I'm keeping this really small beginnings be faithful in small matters You'll have plenty of opportunities to share your faith in the gospel. Okay, most of us get asked this question. How'd the weekend go? How'd the weekend go? Come in on Monday Well, I I used to answer this. Yeah, I got the garage cleared out Sally and I went down to the Ark to hear the California guitar trio. Hey David Got a hat-trick at his lacrosse tournament Never did I say Yeah, I think I was tremendous. We had such a powerful time at mass It was an incredible time of worship or you know father-dead's homily had me thinking for a half an hour afterwards I don't lie about it. Maybe it was a lousy homily, but the point is If the Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith Once in a while there had better be something to share when somebody says to you how the weekend go, right? And that little habit of transparency that ease with honest disclosure can serve you well in lots of situations Yeah, I just remember as I was thinking about this years ago a waitress asked me If I was a student, you know, I'm sitting down just having a meal a long time ago And I said no, no, no, I just graduated and Predictably her next question was what's next? You getting out of here. What are you gonna do to get a job? And I told her the truth I said well, my wife and I are gonna stay in town because we're deeply involved in our church And we have a great circle of friends who are helping one another grow spiritually Well, she stopped and for 20 minutes in and out as she ran around the place We were talking about spiritual and social priorities. Why church is important. What does it mean to seek first the kingdom? Don't despise small social interactions like that that come about simply because Your identity as a disciple of Christ is right in your face Here's another transparency exercise for you How many of you have really wanted to share your faith in Jesus with someone but chickened out because you were afraid That that person would be offended or you would embarrass yourself or you would appear uncool Show of hands. How many of you have done that and The rest of you are liars You've got bigger problems than I thought You know Did you ever consider in that situation just saying hey Ken I really enjoy our friendship and I wanted you to know something about me that I sometimes find hard to talk about I've really wanted to tell you why I've been trying to follow Jesus, but I was afraid I'd turn you off or offend you Why doesn't it occur to you that you could be yourself and say something like that? Don't you think ken would find that kind of honest self-disclosure refreshing? Maybe we take your relationship to a new level You know, there's an old asian saying from Lao Tzu when you are content to be simply yourself And don't complain or compete Or compare Everyone will respect you It's not your humanness. That's the problem. It's not my humanness. That's the problem Jesus was human And becky pepper pepper makes a great point. Jesus is not only the center of our message. He's the pattern of our proclamation He's not the only the one we share He's the one we imitate when we share and that leads me to this next essential point How does Jesus do it? We're called to imitate him the master How does he witness because when a disciple is fully trained? He tells us he will be like his master First of all, Jesus isn't afraid to ask for help You know He's not ashamed of asking for directions if he needs them I'll work on that Jesus was without sin, but he wasn't without hunger or apprehension or fatigue or even Human loneliness. I mean think at the moment of his greatest His greatest agony there in the garden He asks his inner circle of closest friends peter james and john to come and pray with him for an hour In john chapter 4 Jesus is thirsty and he asked the Samaritan woman for a drink Now this is about as basic an icebreaker as you can get Give me a glass of water. Would you I mean this is a conversation starter Jesus who created water Asked the Samaritan woman who has a water jar to give him water He dignifies her by giving her something she can do for him. He isn't afraid to ask for help He's not going to lose his spiritual stature A lot of Christians think they've got to come from a position of power When they're witnessing the people or have it all together. No You can come from the standpoint of knee Secondly, Jesus wasn't afraid to display his emotions. He wept before the tomb of Lazarus He was angry at the money changers. He drips sarcasm with the scribes and Pharisees What did Jesus regard as important?  I'm going to leave the 99 and go after the one He's the one who knows that they rejoice in heaven over the one sinner who repents than over the 99 who don't He's the one who said the blind beggar Bartimaeus Could stop the whole show and talk to him an insignificant pauper Interrupts the schedule of the great king And Jesus stops everything. He serves the beggar And he actually asks those who tried to keep the beggar away to start serving that beggar as well Jesus regularly gives his attention to the unimportant the weak the sinful the poor the powerless.  And do you look at the people who are feeling left out or maybe don't know anybody or do you run just talk to your friends? I mean, what about your kids What would be like if our kids were trained to invite the girl or boy to the prom Who would most likely be ignored or not asked by others Jesus organized his life in his day in his time To be identified with those who don't rule the roost or who don't get the awards He took the time to talk to children Who are crashing his meetings and the disciples scolded him and Jesus ends up scolding the apostles the disciples Jesus's love of people meant that he was approachable. He was available. He was open to strangers and new relationships He made time for people You know people always say I don't I don't get any opportunities to witness Well, the reason you don't have any opportunities to witness because you're so wrapped up with your kids Your grandkids your job your church When are the heckler own believers ever going to enter your life? I mean, I know this because I rarely see unbelievers anymore. I'm surrounded by wonderful catholics I've got to make room to get unbelievers into my life. I have to make a day of the week when it's my Al's gonna have some bad company today, you know Jesus was available and open to people they could you know, we're like legos You know how legos work right you clip on these they got these little round Nobs and you clip onto them all of us have our lego knobs clipped onto Nobody can latch into our lives anymore. At least met my life and I assume it's similar to yours Look, jesus always had time There's this wonderful little story John in the gospel of john where john the baptist is at the jordan and two of his disciples are there Jesus walks by and john the baptist says look at that. That's the lamb of god So the two disciples say this is important and they begin basically stalking jesus they're walking behind him, you know And then jesus stops he turns around and says what do you want? They get tongue-tied. They're unsure of what to say and then they stammer something like, um, well, um What kind of wonder where you live in these days? And and jesus says come follow me come follow me and he takes him to his home You know and they become his disciples He's hospitable He's open to strangers and believe me most people will respond to an invitation to come to your house Long before they're going to come to an invitation to come to mass So use your home jesus did the late evangelical apologist francer schaefer Used to say there are no little people C. S. Lewis said it much more eloquently When he said there are no ordinary people You have never talked to a mere mortal Next to the blessed sacrament itself Your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses Artists evangelists missionaries see splendor in the ordinary Because they are artists of the soul They see in every human being No matter how ruined and desolate The glorious possibility of restoration through christ's love total restoration of course only at the end of time But we can see in our experience the beautiful beginnings of a masterpiece In everybody Because that's why jesus created them We're like a beautiful rembrandt masterpiece that's been vandalized and ripped We're like magnificent medieval castles that have fallen into disrepair These artifacts are really good They're broken down They need to be restored You know van Gogh knew this vince and van Gogh was first of all a missionary. Did you know that? He was too zealous and his church dumped them. So he began doing art But van Gogh said this christ is more of an artist than the artists He works in the living spirit and the living flesh. He makes men instead of statues So my point is It's easy to avoid people we don't like It becomes a real challenge of evangelism to make room for them to Look at the most crusty person in your sphere of influence Begin praying for them and try to remember that their father in heaven likes that person Delights in that person enjoys that person rejoices in that person If he was an earthly father they'd pull out his wallet and say hey, look at this. This is my kid. You know pretty cute, huh? And of course you would say Yeah, it got to develop a taste That's where we are So let me tell you four quick stories here Tell you the story about sue first of all This is a story about using What I call turning the tables helping a person realize Kind of pushing them to the logical conclusion of their assumptions G. K. Chesterton tells a beautiful story that illustrates this and I'll start with that It's the story of innocent smith a philosophy student at Cambridge one day after class innocent is invited to the rooms of the Great philosopher pessimism emerson aims and for hours they relax sipping pork And aims pontificates life is so painful that an omniscient god should put us all out of our misery and strike us dead And so innocent smith says well, why doesn't he do that? And the professor says because he's dead himself and Innocent smith then well, he snaps And he pulls out a cold small black barrel Trains the revolve around the professor and says old man.  I'd give anything to get back the terrified professor said Give anything smith asked Yes, anything Then blast your impudence give us a song And the startled and a professor sang a song of gratitude for existence and smith helped him back to safety When they were back together in the professor's rooms Smith said he was sorry I have to ask you to realize that I have just had an escape from death And the professor said you had an escape from death Oh, you don't understand professor. You don't understand. I had to prove you wrong or die The thing I saw shining in your eyes when you dangled from that bridge was enjoyment at life and not your empty nihilistic philosophy What you knew when you sat on that damn gargoyle Was that the world when all is said and done is a wonderful and beautiful place I know it because I saw it at the same minute professor I had to prove you wrong or die In spite of your opinions. You now know that life is worth living It's a great story. I didn't use a gun in my conversations with sue But the point is similar when we met I immediately sensed the kindred spirit even though she made no pretense of being a christian We were both musicians. I played classical guitar. She was a pianist In the moment she identified herself as a pianist I was seized by an intuition or a word of knowledge or whatever and I said I can tell you your favorite composer Chopin she said, how did you know that? I said, I'm not sure. I just had a very vivid hunch about this Now I didn't know it at that moment But this actually did affect her uh much deeper than just an odd coincidence And I point this out because the holy spirit is always engaged in an inner dialogue with people Long before we're aware of it. She had transferred to michigan state from scintz and adi university of scintz and adi She wanted to study horticulture. She was working in the botanical gardens and she was at that time psychologically fragile but working hard to appear tough In scintz and adi her inner world had been destabilized by a diet of books by uh thomas pinchin I ran kurt vonnegut and these authors are quite different But they all write as enemies of traditional morality and historic christianity for them Altruism is described disguised self interest heroism is no more a testimony to human goodness than villainy Kurt vonnegut thought we are what we pretend to be so we must be careful about what we pretend to be And for sue this seemed to be an inside joke that everybody had but her And life was ultimately pointless irrational and absurd and it was like an infection That was running through her stream. She wasn't in on the joke And she wasn't uh confident in what was real or unreal right or wrong What was good or evil one of the last draws is when she got an a for a paper in philosophy of modern art That she knew was complete gibberish She was even less confident after that in objectively real knowledge of morality I learned much later when I had pegged shopan a special for her that I was unlocking a chamber inside of her That she had deliberately closed out of self protection In this chaotic world My appeal to shopan completely unbeknownst to me Held out the promise of sanity and beauty restored to her She was thinking is this so much a part of me that even this new guy who I don't even know can detect it She was intelligent sensitive interested in literature But the christian faith was nowhere on the horizon for her Two good friends said to me don't don't waste your time She she's not open to the gospel at all I didn't think I thought differently. She had moved to michigan To be a work therapy major because she needed something real and concrete She didn't want the abstract the speculative the intellectual She believed that working with plants would put her back in touch with some fundamental realities the rhythms of nature She needed grounding literally And to me that signaled that she needed healing And if she wants healing then she's got to want god, right? She believed that truth and morality were Individually specific. There were no moral absolutes. No one triggered right and wrong. She wasn't happy about this She was actually thought it was rather tragic and this is where we actually had a turning point She couldn't be a relativist I said And I said even those guys who write those books They're not relativists at heart if their daughters were raped They would not act as if morality was a matter of complete indifference or a matter of personal choice They would act out of pure moral outrage as though something truly evil had occurred They were like professor aims in chesterton's story They have one attitude toward life and death when they're comfortable in their writing room And they have quite another when they're grimly hanging on to the buttress while staring down the barrel of a gun All thoughts can be thought but not all thoughts can be consistently lived And she agreed this was a turning point. She agreed that these authors for all their bluster Probably wouldn't be able to live consistently with their philosophy if their daughters were raped They would say that was evil Around that time a new friend of mine named John Gonzalez needed to dry out. He was about 10 years 10 years older to me an opera composer He needed to dry out and he used to regularly go to a convent in Cincinnati where he the nuns took him in So I invited sue to come with us and she was familiar with Cincinnati We were greeted there by the mother superior and one of the sisters Sue's hands were calloused She had been working in the gardens and the mother superior 80 years old somewhat frail Took sue's hands held them and just looked at them And sue tells me she realized Somehow this woman was operating on an entirely different spiritual plane than she was There was no condemnation no judgment just pure love and acceptance and a beautiful gentleness That emanated from this 80 year old nun Very unfamiliar world to sue Well that night it turned out that my friend John Gonzalez Decided he was going to disclose to me that he was gay By giving me a most inappropriate hug and asking me to be the object of his affections that night His name was as I said John Gonzalez and he said to me Al I am a latin man And we like to express our affection to our friends in very demonstrative ways I said, um, well john, you know, I'm austrian rather teutonic and we don't do that kind of thing So no way was I sleeping in that room that night? So I went walking the halls of the convent in order the chapel to pray and walking the halls I found sue roaming around she had had some disturbing dreams that involved her beloved grandfather A deeply committed christian lovely guy And this gave us some intense time to just walk the halls discuss god What he might be saying to her in these experiences Our spiritual conversations were growing increasingly more meaningful About two months later. I finally popped the question directly. I said sue You know, we've been talking since august at thanksgiving now Where are you and you're thinking about jesus?  She never told me this Yeah, I bought a bible. She'd been reading paul. He really excited her She also said she had had a strange experience After lunch one day, she was walking across the michigan state campus And uh tossed the rest of her sandwich into the trash and said to god, I feel like this trash Um, if you want this trash, you can have it see what you can do with it It was not exactly the most articulate prayer, but it was real She began attending the house church that we had started our friendship continued to flower She ended up being baptized became a follower of jesus two months later I popped another question to her and asked her to be my wife So that's actually sally, um, not sue She was excited by the prospect of christian missions. We had a deep interconnectedness So we married a year later and for 41 years and five kids and 14 grandkids in a boat load of very unusual ministry experiences I would say god's sure god has money's worth out of that trash I'm like taking a look at the clock here. Let me see, uh, how many of these stories we're going to get through Let me tell you rebecca's story. It's the next one in line here It embodies two major points. Each of these stories have a certain key point about evangelism This point is that people are not what they seem they often do not appear to be what they seem They are often send If you listen to them carefully You can find what they are really desiring And as saint Augustine said our hearts are restless until they find the rest in you um rachel warned me That her friend rebecca was coming to live with her and she said this listen al she's not open to talking about religion or spiritual things so shut up And And I said well, okay, that's fine Rebecca was just returning from hitchhiking through canada for a year She was a child of divorce had longed for a white picket fence happy traditional american dream family And then her fiance was murdered in detroit When he refused refused to turn over his wallet to some punk who shot him for 20 bucks This is what finally beat her down and drove her to spend a year on the road and Some very untraditional actions and behaviors She was unusually independent determined not to get hurt She was not unattractive, but she worked hard to appear so Dressed in dirty overalls Didn't think much of hair brushes or basic makeup And she never parted with a rancid shabby knapsack that I kept my distance from Unlike sally I didn't or sue I didn't Sent any immediate rapport with her her favorite song was suicide is painless Favorite movie was herald and laud and I said, no, that's not for me She was also jewish and I didn't know anything about Judaism. She wasn't observant at all But I wasn't I was naive enough To not know you're not supposed to talk to jews about jesus and as we got to one another got to know one another I realized she did hunger for family Her bitterness or hardness was a result of great loss Peter berger in his book rumor of angels describes what he calls signals of transcendence These are impulses that are within the domain of our natural world But appear to point to something beyond this world She longed for a family That transcended her present situation in fact the absence of a family undermined What she had once believed life held for her But that longing persisted even in the absence of a family Even though life was meaningless and suicide was painless. She still longed for that family She was not a christian so she didn't really Come to church with us or anything like that But she we invited her to activities that our christian friends were involved in she thought I was a fanatic But I was careful to never imply that our friendship depended on her You know thought becoming a follower of jesus One day I happened to come across a book called ben israel by a guy named art cats A jewish philosopher who had become a follower of jesus as a jewish messiah I was curious. So I said to rebecca. I said hey look at this book Tell me if it sounds authentically jewish to you. No pressure, you know I mean hear from her for a month and I figured oh my gosh, what I do the book was a real dud Then one night she calls she needs to talk She comes up my apartment. She's agitated Al All these months. I've enjoyed your company with roger and linda and carrey and I've always felt protected that nobody Was going to force me to change. I'm jewish your christian Now this book it's got me all confused.  Well, I mean after months of prayer and friendship I'd been studying about jewish mid's conceptions about christianity. I was Old testament prophecy and jewish jewish messiah pass over and communion.   And I said yeah now And we prayed together Just a few minutes She made a commitment to follow jesus then she excused herself and went into the bathroom She came out a few minutes later and she asked me Did you know what I was doing in there? I I said, uh, I'm no it wasn't really on my mind, but I I suppose there's a 50-50 chance if I guess Uh No, silly I got rid of these and she pulled out an empty birth control dispenser That was her declaration of repentance and her embrace of a whole new way of seeking love and family She was baptized a few months later began attending the small house church that a few friends and I had started We eventually grew apart, but she stayed faithful to christ. She sent me an email a few years ago I hadn't heard from her in probably 25 years She was living in st. Paul turned to the program. She was happy as a mom married a great baptist engineer Uh, I was working as a church secretary And she said to me isn't it amazing That jesus made you what I thought you would be she meant a teacher And he gave me the joy that you promised me he would It's a great story and it's been a great life for her Let me tell you just one last story here and wrap this up Uh, this is a story of Not second chances, but third fourth fifth sixth seventh eighth ninth tenth chances That god is a god of unending chances until we die My brother michael had been in prison for two years Nobody in my family had been in regular touch with him It's not as heartless as it sounds. He chose heroin Over my mother father sisters and brothers I lived in michigan, so I wasn't really close to him. We had been close when I was very young I was on vacation at my parents house in connecticut. I was passed from a church in michigan It was the sunday that we were planning on leaving And uh, it had been an unsatisfying visit Michael had not been a part of conversation. Like I said, nobody really paid much attention to him anymore Well, my my family was very secular in their mentality And I was praying deliberately and intentionally for an opening to be able to you know connect somehow about the gospel That sunday morning. I decided I wasn't even going to go to church I was just going to hang out and look for an opportunity But then an old family friend came by and they started talking about diets and lousy sitcoms And gossip and I said I'm not going to miss church for this So I went to downtown new haven where they have three churches on the green and I figured you know Somebody has an 11 o'clock service They didn't they had 10 o'clock services So I ended up going to a burger king right there at the corner of church in chapel and I got myself a soda Don't ever call it a pop if you're in connecticut because they think you're from the Ozarks Um and for roughly an hour and a half I sat in this air conditioned restaurant and prayed read some scripture Journaled a bit and I asked the lord. I said, what can I do best in the remaining hours to serve my family and help move them in your direction About an hour an hour and a half went by and then you know, you just have that feeling that it's time to leave You're kind of satisfied. So I got up walked out the door took a few steps onto Uh chapel street turned left And there was my brother michael walking down the street about 10 yards from me We just looked at each other and started smiling Ran to each other hugged one another Brother brother. He said to me. What are you doing here? And I said God sent me And he said expletive deleted expletive deleted. There is a god We caught up a little bit and I he was in bad bad place. I urged him to come to michigan Uh, I went home talked to sally about it. There were all kinds of problems. There was parole. There was work There was my family. I told each family member privately what had happened. It's very interesting the way they regarded this this thing When they saw when I told them about the encounter one of them said, oh my gosh, that's fate Another one said, oh my gosh, that's luck Another one said, oh my gosh, that's karma Another one said, oh my gosh, that's god Another one said, oh my gosh, that's weird Their entire world view is caught up in responding to that for me, of course, it was the hand of god Michael came to michigan lived with us for a period of eight years He made a profession of faith in christ was baptized He found fellowship with decent people for the first time in his adult life But he it was tough. I tell you michael's the kind of kid who if you took him to the opera He'd find the only person in the room who preferred wild thing, you know He could always hone in on the worst people in the room He was off and on sober But then he hit a great period and for two years he was clean and sober He ended up going to college Nobody ever thought that this kid who had started drinking and he got into crime at 12 years old would ever End up getting on the dean's list at a college But then in the fall of 1996 my 16 year old daughter, alexis noticed something was wrong And over the next six months he ended up in three different rehab centers Finally we moved to an arbor. I prevailed upon him to leave Detroit and come and live with us We had agreed to pick him up the next morning And that would give him another 10 days straight and clean on this trip Sally uh when he didn't answer the phone in the morning sally drove into detroit to pick him up He didn't answer the door.  When you just got out of high school. He said that was the best day of my life Now he was referring to that remarkable day back in may of 69 that i referred to I remember that day because i decided to stop doing drugs. It wasn't just a decision there was a sense of extraordinary grace in my life that day and uh, and i didn't go downtown I didn't go to jam anywhere. I just stayed home with my 10 year old brother I was 17 we played basketball. We walked we talked we told stories We generally hung out and did what big brothers and little brothers ought to do when they have time together I was amazed i remembered the day but i was amazed that he remembered it as the best day of his life Now i've lived longer I've married happily i've had five children of who i'm proud i've had some modest success in my field of ministry I've had the joy of seeing people come to christ in repentance and faith But that day with michael still stands out as one of the most heavenly days of my earthly life I believe that on that day we each tasted the powers of the age to come in some inexplicable way A foretaste of christ's kingdom People ask me all the time, you know, do you think you'll see michael in heaven? And I say, um, well, I certainly pray Uh for that But I pray that he no longer needs to remember that one day from 1969 because i'm hoping that his eternity is full of them But as a catholic, I know That such a judgment is not mine to make It's a hope I can hold but it's not mine to make And I hold that hope Because i'm not ashamed of the gospel of god because like st paul I've seen it as the power of god for salvation for so many people And when all is said and done Effective witnessing means Knowing who you are in christ and being yourself Showing your priorities live them out Loving people as individual images of god and just organize your life So you have some room to share it with bad company Thanks very much


Does he shake all the time? Yes, all the time. Really? All the time. Does he have one of those? It didn't work. Really? I bought it for him. It didn't work. I sometimes bought him, I buy him like CBD chews as well, that's supposed to help calm him. It helps a little bit. You ever do CBD in the other ear? Like let it drip in? No, I should do that.  He just wants to lay down and eat. Sav though, and he has. Are there things that trigger him more than others? No, just everything. Everything. So, hearing fireworks on the 4th of July versus a squirrel chirping in the backyard, both are going to equally cause him some severe anxiety. Yes. Aw, poor guy. Yeah. Josh!  I'm Rich. I just stood pretty high on the volume scale there. Did it? Yeah, really good. Let's see if we can make a peak. Now you're giving my wife anxiety. Sav, sorry. Today we got to, this is a video. This is called Kapal Dev and the Story of 1983. Oh, very nice and deep. You know, we did the other one, we saw a little speech. We did. It's going to go a little bit more in detail of what happened in the event. Cool. So we can be a little more knowledgeable. I feel like it's not a spoiler. It's like, no, we know that they won. We know they won. And so. We know it was dramatic and it was more than just an underdog kind of a win. It's, it's, it's. When you're watching something like this, I think it kind of helps you. Kind of a little historical context. Yeah, I know. Like both ways. If you go in blind, that's cool if it's teaching you and it's also cool to know and see if they replicated it the right way. Yeah. So here we go. I mean, the big kicker on this is, we know they won. Yeah. Kapal Dev was one of those cricketers who certainly when he became captain, he left from the front. He inspired his team of deeds and he, you know, put up plenty of both bat and ball. They're really fabulous. One of the great all-rounders in cricket. I was golden. We'll deliver it again from Kapal to Max. It comes for eight. Big trouble for England that won 77 for eight in the 54. Kapal Dev was as much ability as anyone was playing cricket, but mentally strong and still is. I can tell you, you meet Kapal now and you listen to him talk about the game. He thinks tough. England went into that semi-finals at Old Trafford as big favourites. They qualified quite comfortably from their 14 group. And on home soil, you know, they would have been very strong favourites. And there was a real feeling in the country that England could win their first ever World Cup. It was 68 in those days and England were bowled out for just over 200. Kapal Dev got three wickets in the end. Aminath, who people generally remember as a batsman, but his canny median pace took quite a few useful wickets in actuality. England were bowled out for a pretty porphyry score. Kapal Dev got three wickets, he was catching that day and obviously did a really good job leaving England because England just didn't seem to be in the match at any stage. Given that India really troubled England in test cricket, we're much in one degree to that point in English conditions. I guess it was a big shot back when I was losing to Aminath in that semi-finals. So far, it's way back there. England wanted to toss back at first on this, so just from the end of their way to about 200. Again, it's a good Indian backing line-up, also not enough. There you are, that's the England total. Two, one, three, four, four, the Indian with nine. Kapal is waiting for the field to be cleared. Because I think we can confidently predict what will be the last four. Because there can be no English ruminations, there will be a tremendous Indian victory. They've beaten West Indies, they've beaten Australia. There's a common misconception about that India side, that it was essentially Kapal Dev's team and while he did have an outstanding tour of me, it really was a team effort. Guys like Manon Lowell and Roger Binney and Mahindra Aminath who got Man of the Match in the semi-finals and the final. In English conditions, against a team who many thought were the best in the world at the time in the West Indies, they produced a masterclass of adapting to conditions and coming to the party when it mattered. The single, because that brings up the 104 India. Power of the wall, flying out, 69-2 for two. In 1983 the World Cup was again held in England and the scene was set for a third West Indies triumph in a row. They really were the masters of the one day game. They were still in his prime as a Vaxman. They had great pace boulders but were able to deliver devastating blows. And up against an India side that many had found, perhaps a little surprising that they had got as far as they had done. They certainly were given no chance at all of getting one over on the West Indies but of course in a two horse race in the final anything could happen. Oh that's safe enough. The West Indies were the best team in the world at the time and they had so many big names that just a look at the team sheet would have been quite daunting but India had some very plucky characters themselves. They played pretty well in the Caribbean test series that previous winter and they had an emerging side with lots of big game players who would have relished the challenge. Except that, he's just gone away for a run in the spirit and break the line. A danger of time for West Indies where Goals and Richards have to bowl out 12 eras between them. At the halfway stage India had been bowled out for 183 which would have been a poor score, especially in the final and coming up against that West Indies attack they really just kind of blinked in the headlines. It took a few decent partnerships lower down the order even to drag them up to that score and in a 60 over game with the might of the West Indies batting line up people really would have been forgiven for thinking this could only have gone one way. It's only the left hand, 183 or out. It wasn't a great time to look at, it was something that I guess put them in the game but the West Indies with their powerful batting line up the likes of Desmond Hayes, Viv Richards would have fancied getting over the line and collecting their third try. India's skipper and his deletion, a tremendous job to get back there. Ravus running catch and Richards has gone for 33. He was charging through calling Desmond Hayes for 2 but didn't quite get it, it would have landed 10 to 15 yards inside the boundary and Poppins have had a long way to go to make his ground. Couple Dev famously said we might have a winning total boys but we have a total we can fight with and fight they did and the side of couple running back to the ground stand to catch Viv over his right shoulder it's one of the great sights in cricket as is the moment of victory which was celebrated not just by Indian people here in England but Indian people all over the world and I'm not sure in that night they've had the party in their lives. And that's out, yes it's all over the stand lost his nerve and Michael Holland tried to swim that straight ball with a leg so although we get around the matter I've been right to deal with it. I don't think we've thought it all out the rest of it is. That Indian gold cup team were fated as heroes on their return to India really catalyzed interest in the game and especially the one-day game really the roots of what we now see is this enormous explosion in Indian cricket in the 90s and around the turn of the century this in many ways was the start of it. India has always been a huge cricketing nation but to win on the global stage to claim their first world cup really was a game changer and it is what helped cricket move from being I guess a popular sport to being the only sport that the Indians were bothered about that's why to this day Kapaldem is a living legend and it is why India and cricket go hand in hand. They were a severe underdog playing like the behemoth team really David and Goliath I guess common phrase that's used here it's obviously from the Bible's big giant little man kind of thing it's almost like I mean I'm much bigger event but like when the giants have won their two NFL championships they weren't supposed to. Same thing with the New York Mets in 69 the New York Mets they came back from just no one expected them to make the playoffs so they won't be champions and then I guess the transition of the sport I guess he would be comparable for those of you who know Major League Baseball Babe Ruth was responsible for completely transforming the popularity of the game it was already a popular American game but he changed baseball to what it is today where the home run is the thing that people want to see and he was hitting home runs to the tune of 40 a season when the most anybody was hitting was 12 and so when he came on the scene it was just transcendent transformation in the sport and it seems like he didn't have those kinds of statistics as a player comparatively but the impact that he and this team had on the sport like they said at the end he was apparently an all arounder Ruth could do Ruth was actually a tremendous pitcher but the psychology in the nation about the game that's why I'm making the comparison with Babe Ruth Baseball went from a really popular game to what it's called now it was called America's Pastime and it became this completely different mindset for people to watch baseball and you would watch baseball not just for your team itself and it seems like that's why remember when we first started watching cricket people were saying this isn't a sport it's a religion and I guess this is when that happened yeah it probably elevated it when you can win on a world stage like that but yeah I'm so excited I can't wait for this film I'm so excited to see all their portrayals of is that one other guy there at the end they showed him I don't know if it's Bunty who's playing him but he's pretty distinct look himself and I like that about the trailer we pointed that out in the trailer he has a pretty distinct look that's second, seven, twenty-six the guy next to Kapal Dev pretty distinct look so I'm wondering if that is Bunty and I like that in the trailer we pointed out they made it really clear from the trailer that this isn't the one the Kapal Dev story that this is that team that year and every one of those team members made a contribution I'm pretty excited so let us know in the quick videos we can write the information or highlights let us know down below


We also released our results for our WIPO arbitration and mediation centre which deals with in the first place domain name disputes. So these are cases brought by trademark owners claiming that their trademark has been registered illicitly as a domain name by another person without authorization. We had a growth rate of about 10% of those cases, about 3,000 cases. The interesting thing there now is there are 1,200 new generic top level domains in operation and this area, the expansion of the domain name space obviously creates the opportunity for illicit registering of other people's trademarks as domain name registration. So we would expect this to see this dispute resolution procedure continue to offer a very good service and finally perhaps to say that the arbitration mediation centre also offers mediation arbitration procedures, alternative dispute resolution procedures for general intellectual property disputes not just domain names but more generally, technology patterns, copyright trademarks and we have a rising number of cases there. We had some 60 cases in 2016.


Hello, everyone. I'm super excited to be here today. My name is Emma. I'm a software engineer at Spotify. And yeah, I've been working on Backstage over the last five years on different parts. And I'm super happy to be here today to talk about accessibility. So let's take a few steps back first. We're all in here on a mission to make Backstage the industry-leading developer portal, right? Because we love and care about happy developers. And I believe if we want to get there, we need to build Backstage with an inclusive mindset. And what do I mean by that? Well, I think we need to build and test Backstage based on input and needs from a wide set of users. By doing so, we will improve accessibility and thereby increase the number of happy developers as well. So yeah, last year we've paired up with our amazing accessibility team at Spotify on a mission to make Backstage a little bit more useful for everyone. So I'm here today to talk about the audit process that we went through, but also present a couple of actions that you can take already today to improve accessibility of your Backstage plugins. So this has been a three-step process for us. We realized pretty quickly as we started off this work that it would be impossible for us to audit all the plugins out there. So we decided to scope the work to Backstage Core Futures as well as the commercial plugins we have. The second step we wanted to take was to run the automated audits and third step, the manual audits, which is still in progress at the moment. But why do we want to include both of them, maybe you ask? And the reason for that is while automated audits is a great start for you to kind of start, identify issues quickly, but it only captures a low amount of them. So it's super important to let users actually walk through the product so that you can catch more issues to solve. As I mentioned, we're still in progress with the manual ones. So I'll focus in on the automated audits today. So yeah, we used Lighthouse DevTools to conduct our automated audits. And on the screen here, you can see that I've navigated to Backstage Entity Page, open up the DevTools, as well as navigate it to Lighthouse. Lighthouse is a tool to improve general web quality of web pages, but we use it specifically for accessibility. And by using Lighthouse, we were able to identify 106 accessibility issues across these plugins, where today we have resolved around 76% of them. And yeah, as you can see, you are able to configure Lighthouse based on which mode you want to use, which device you want to run on, and which categories. And then you click on Analyze Page Load, and it will generate a report for you. And what's really good with this was not just that it identified issues for us, but it also linked out to additional information of how to resolve the issue and also the user impact it had. So among these 106 issues that we identified, a couple of the common issues that I wanted to lift up here today was, for example, not having enough color contrast, which means that elements blend in together, and it's super difficult for people, for example, with low vision or being colorblind, to actually distinguish the elements from each other. Two other common issues that we capture were that the HTML wasn't structured properly, which means that when you're using a screen reader, it doesn't get announced to you correctly, which means that you can't navigate through the page. We also, of course, wanted to make sure that the issues that we fixed didn't return into the product. So what we did was that we added CI checks to the backstage open source repo to make sure that we were running these checks on all the plugins that we configured to run on. We were using Lighthouse there as well, but this also means that we do not introduce new issues, but also the issues that we have fixed doesn't return. Since we added the CI checks on the open source main repo, we have also seen checks being added on the microsite, which is amazing, and this is all because of this amazing community. OK, three ways you can do to improve accessibility on your backstage plugins. First thing, you can obviously as well run Lighthouse DevTools or Lighthouse CLI on your plugin as you develop them, which means that you will catch these issues early on. Second thing that you can do is I mentioned that we already configured backstage main repo to have to run these checks in CI. So you can add your plugins if it lives inside the main repo to this configuration, so it will automatically run on your plugins as well. But if your plugins live outside the main repository, you can use the CI checks we have put together with GitHub Actions and move them over to your repo. And if you're not using GitHub Actions as you see a provider, you can also, of course, look at the official Lighthouse documentation to see which other ones they have supported. We have more documentation around this over at backstage.io slash docs slash accessibility if you want to read more. But maybe you sit here and think, this is all in the development phase. Why do we need to go all the way there to actually start identifacious? And if you were thinking that, I'm very happy, because I also wanted to send you off with some from my perspective things that we can do already earlier in the process. So from a product research perspective, really make sure that we include this as part of the requirements that we create, because it all starts there, right? And as you are doing a user testing, make sure to include a diverse set of users. But also, put yourself in the shoes of your users. You can also use assistive technology. There is this keyboard testing template that I wanted to share with you, which you can use to actually walk through the product with just keyboard.  So for example, should this be a decorative image or an informative image? So that means it can easier decide which alternative text we should use, for example. So there has been a lot of teams involved in all of this work. And the backstage community have picked up issues and improved this as well. So I just wanted to send a huge thank you to everyone who have worked on this. And yeah, thanks for listening into this talk today. And if you have any questions, I'm happy to chat with you throughout the day as well. So thank you so much. Thank you, Emma. Any questions for Emma? OK, there you go. One more. We have a break after this till 11.05. Thank you for that presentation. I have two short questions. First, have you found any ways to improve the backstage default themes while you're through your investigations? And second, do you think it would be worthwhile offering more themes to users by default to adjust for personal preferences? Yeah, great question. So one of the issues that I presented here around the color contrast, so that was actually one of the issues that we found were around the primary color that we used for the theme. So that was an update that we did across the themes, which applied to many plugins, right? So that's one thing around offering different types of themes. I think at least one of the issues that we have found is on a third-party library that we use for code snippets, which comes with a theme that is not accessibility friendly. So that's probably something that we'll look in together if we can create a custom theme for that one to bring into the project. Thank you.


When it comes to traditional medicine, many people still think that that is something we should leave behind and focus on modern medicine, inventing new drugs and medicines for treating different conditions. There are two funny things about this. Firstly, traditional medicine has been around for centuries, treating different kinds of diseases and conditions, and even though modern medicine doesn't want to give it some credit, they're still bringing back to life some of the oldest and somehow weirdest ways to treat conditions like leeches. And secondly, many pharmaceutical drugs are actually inspired or made by different compounds of plants that have been used in traditional medicine for thousands of years. Ashwagandha is one of the most well-known and used plants in Ayurveda, traditional Indian medicine, for a variety of purposes, including stress and anxiety reduction. And no, the benefits are not only anecdotal, they are also based on modern clinical trials. So what are those benefits of Ashwagandha? Is it worth supplementing it? Are there any side effects? Hi friends, welcome back to the channel. My name is Greg and I'm a certified brain health professional. On this channel we help professionals achieve peak brain performance, so if you're interested then subscribe below and join our amazing community. Today we are going all in about Ashwagandha. We'll cover the benefits based on the current research, my experience with Ashwagandha, what's the optimal dosage, if there are any possible side effects of taking it, and in the end I'm going to tell you who is Ashwagandha best for. Now for those of you who are unfamiliar with Ashwagandha, Ashwagandha is the queen of Ayurvedic herbs. Its name means the smell of a horse, which applies to both the smell of the plant and the potential benefit to increase strength. In more modern terms, Ashwagandha is known as one of the most well-researched adaptogen herbs. Adaptogens are natural substances like herbs that can help us adapt and manage stress better. We'll get back to the benefits of adaptogens a little bit later on. First, let's explain what happens when we are stressed and how adaptogens work to understand the potential benefits we can get from them. Now when you are stressed, your body releases a stress hormone called cortisol, which helps you get your fight or flight response mode on. It helps you fight the perceived emergency or flight the potential danger. You know, running away as fast as we can when someone starts chewing in the middle of a family dinner. It's called misophonia, Bob, and yes, it's a real thing. Anyway, stressful situations from heavy workload, a lot of deadlines and meetings to struggling to balance work and personal life, and chewing, yes, chewing, impact us both physically and emotionally. And the problem with stress is that too much cortisol and too long fight or flight response mode turn on can compromise our immune system and lead to burnout, cardiovascular disease, chronic illnesses, anxiety, and even depression. So how can adaptogens like Ashwagandha help? What are its benefits? Now, Ashwagandha contains a high number of special compounds called withanolides that have a positive effect on different systems in our body. Now, in general, studies show that supplementing Ashwagandha may decrease inflammation in the body and reduce the stress and symptoms of anxiety and even depression. It can also improve the quality of our sleep, lower blood pressure and blood sugar levels as well as contribute to longevity while fighting off oxidative stress, often linked to many chronic diseases. The first well-known benefit of adaptogens, yes, Ashwagandha included, is that it helps us cope with stress better. Now, the more a situation is stressful for us, the more cortisol our body is releasing and the more anxious and overwhelmed we feel. Ashwagandha reduces cortisol levels and helps us cope and resist stress for a longer period and so it prevents exhaustion, which is often the side effect of too much stress. Now, the studies show that many benefits of Ashwagandha are actually correlated with Ashwagandha's ability to decrease inflammation in the body and also in the brain. Now, studies show that consistent inflammation in the brain, called neuroinflammation, is involved in experiencing symptoms of anxiety and depression. The biology behind this claim involves C-reactive protein, an inflammatory marker. Now, increasing levels of C-reactive protein are not only associated with an inflammatory response but also with a higher risk for symptoms of anxiety and depression. In one specific clinical study, adults who experienced stress but were otherwise healthy supplemented 125 to 250 milligrams of Ashwagandha for 60 days and the results were very impressive. The results showed a significant reduction in C-reactive protein and anxiety symptoms in those who took Ashwagandha compared to the placebo group. One interesting study also showed that 300 milligrams of Ashwagandha taking for 60 days also improved the social functioning of individuals. Now, this shows promising benefits also for those with social anxiety. Now, because of the mentioned abilities of Ashwagandha to decrease stress and anxiety symptoms, supplementing Ashwagandha can also improve the quality of our sleep and shows promising benefits, especially for those dealing with insomnia. Now, some people also report better sleep if they take Ashwagandha right before going to bed. As mentioned, stress effects are physically too, so Ashwagandha, through decreasing stress, also decreases some of the physical symptoms of stress. Now, studies especially show lower blood pressure and blood sugar levels in those supplementing Ashwagandha. But how to properly take Ashwagandha to get the desired results? First, let me tell you my experience with Ashwagandha and the effects I noticed in myself. By the way, guys, have you ever tried Ashwagandha and did you like it? Let me know in the comment section below. Now, I usually take Ashwagandha in short periods. I take it for about one to three months and then I stay off for about the same period. And that's how I can get the most out of Ashwagandha and of course, avoid any kind of side effects. Now, even my doctor, who is a doctor of Ayurvedic medicine, recommends exactly the same protocol. So three months on, three months off, and then you repeat the cycle if necessary. Now, usually I take 500 milligrams of Ashwagandha per day. I take it in the afternoon. And this is a KSM66 extract, so one of the best extracts available on the market. Here, I have another one from Tropics Depot, and this is 300 milligrams, also a perfect dosage basically. Somewhere between 300 to 500 milligrams is what you should take per day. Now, personally, I don't feel any effect after I take one capsule, especially not in the first day after starting a new protocol. But in about a week or so, I tend to get calmer. And then in about two to three weeks, I kind of get the most out of it. I'm generally feeling much better. I'm in a better mood. I'm less anxious, less stressed, and so on. And that's why it is important to take Ashwagandha for a couple of weeks to really get the most out of it. Now, for me personally, I find Ashwagandha one the best and strongest on Tropics on the market. But of course, you have to try it out to see how it works for you. Now, how about the optimal dosage of Ashwagandha? Well, the optimal dosage that has been shown to be effective in the studies is 300 to 500 milligrams of Ashwagandha root extract, taken either with a meal or on an empty stomach. You can try it out to see what works the best for you. Now, one thing that I need to point out is that you can't expect totally chill wipes immediately after you take Ashwagandha. Or can you? Well, not really. The thing with adaptions is that in general, you need to consistently take them for at least a few days to start noticing the first results. Now, you may wonder now, okay, Greg, where can I find the best Ashwagandha extract to get those results? Well, stay with me, we'll get to it in a minute.   But first, let's talk about the safety aspects of supplementing Ashwagandha. Now, Ashwagandha is safe for a majority of people. A review of 69 studies, including clinical trials, has shown that Ashwagandha seems safe and also effective for managing different conditions, including stress and anxiety symptoms, as well as insomnia. But Ashwagandha is not all sunshine and rainbows for all people. Even though there are not many side effects reported, there are still some people who experience gastrointestinal discomfort, diarrhea, or even sleepiness. Now, if you want to hear more about the possible side effects of Ashwagandha that no one is telling you about, I've made another video just about this topic, and you can watch it up here. How about the synergies with other entropics and medicines? Well, first of all, I personally love combining Ashwagandha with other adaption herbs, such as rhodiola rocea, macabamaniary, and even panicked ginseng. They all work synergistically, but they also have other mechanisms of action, so you do get more benefits if you combine them together. Now, if you take any kind of drugs or supplements regularly, it's good to talk to your doctor prior to starting with supplementing Ashwagandha. This is especially important if you take sedatives, blood thinners, thyroid supplements, and drugs that suppress the immune system, drugs for anxiety, high blood pressure, and diabetes, benzodiazepines, anticonvulsants, or barbiturates. Moreover, if you have any kind of thyroid issues, you should check with your doctor before supplementing Ashwagandha, because it can also affect the functioning of the thyroid. By the way, guys, if you like this video, please press the like button below. Right before I tell you who should consider supplementing Ashwagandha, let me tell you what you need to know about it before buying it. Obviously, not every Ashwagandha extract on the market is of high quality. The best way to make sure you get the best extract is to buy it from a reputable brand, or you can go for a standardized Ashwagandha extract like this one here. This is KSM 66, or Sensoryl is another great extract. Below, I put a link to my favorite Ashwagandha extract that worked wonders for me. Now, my verdict. Ashwagandha is an adaption herb that is nowadays really gaining popularity. This doesn't seem strange though, because of its powerful benefits to help us cope with everyday stress and anxiety, or help us improve our sleep to be well rested and perform better the next day. So, is it worth supplementing Ashwagandha? Based on my opinion and based on the research we've done, I definitely recommend supplementing it, especially if you want to decrease anxiety and if you want to improve your general well-being. It is great for most active individuals who work 50 plus hours per week, are often stressed and would like to feel calmer and to be in a better mood. Now, scroll down in the description of this video where you can find my favorite entropic stack with Ashwagandha and my favorite Ashwagandha extract. And if you really care about your well-being, I definitely recommend combining Ashwagandha with Rodeola Rosea. Why exactly? Well, watch my next video on Rodeola up here. Thank you guys for watching and I hope to see you soon again. Stay well.


Pike Central High School is sending their first percussionist to perform in the KMEA All-State Orchestra. Thomas Smith has secured his place in the ensemble as the second chair percussionist and will soon be performing with other accomplished students from around the state. Mountaintop News spoke with Smith to hear his thoughts. I'm very confident in myself because I've been trained very well. And I'm very excited to play for orchestra because I've never done that before. I've never even seen one. So it's very eye-opening, really awesome. We're all here at Pike Central. We love each other so much. We're a family. We're not just friends hanging out. We're a family. Those are my brothers and sisters in there. And we all love each other and we encourage each other all the time. Absolutely, because when you get put in that situation, you become the best person you can be. Because you're striving for excellence and you're competing for everybody else to show them that you will earn that spot. So when you come out, you become more aware and you learn things and you share them with people. It's awesome. I've been encouraged by everybody I've come across. Whether that be Mr. Johnson, Mr. Thacker or any of my bandmates or my parents or friends, everybody encourages me and I love that and everybody needs that. He can do it at J&M Custom. Director of bands Jason Johnson praises Smith for his abilities. He says the other band members at Pike Central are inspired by his confidence. Yeah, in the history of Pike County Central High School, Thomas is the very first percussionist to ever make an all-state ensemble. We keep a record of that and it's been over 30 years now and he is the only percussionist ever achieved at this high of the level. Yeah, Thomas has already been a great motivator behind our percussion section here at Pike Central giving lessons and motivating other students to achieve at their highest level. Many of our percussionists have made all county and all district and achieved at very high levels because of Thomas' leadership. What he brings back from the all-state level, I'm sure, will just continue to foster those relationships and to build what we have started here at Pike Central. Reporting for Mountain Top News, I'm Nick Collum.