Let's begin reading here in Acts chapter 20 at verse 1. I'll give you as I normally do a little bit of a review so we can be up to speed with what we're watching here. Take place in chapter 20. So I'll begin in Acts chapter 20 at verse 1. I'll read the verse six and we'll get into our study. Luke writes, after the uproar had ceased, Paul called the disciples himself, embraced them and departed to go to Macedonia. Now, when he had gone over that region and encouraged them with many words, he came to Greece and stayed three months. And when the Jews plotted against him, as he was about to sail to Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia and so far of Berea accompanied him to Asia. Also Aristarchus and Secundus of the Thessalonians and Gaius of Derby and Timothy and Taichikus and Trafimus of Asia. These men going ahead waited for us at Troas. But we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread and in five days joined them at Troas where we stayed seven days. Now, Paul has just gone through a life-threatening situation in this huge city of Ephesus. I mentioned to you that Ephesus, which is on the border on the coastline of modern Turkey, Ephesus was a huge city of a population of approximately 250,000 people. And so Paul was there ministering and all. And what happened was a silversmith by the name of Demetrius had incited a near riot in opposition to the gospel. He had accused Paul of blaspheming their goddess Diana and he gathered a great crowd and the whole city of Ephesus became outraged and the city itself was in an uproar. Now at first nothing would calm the people down. The anger continued to grow steadily.  The theater itself seats 25,000 people. So you can see this is a huge crowd, a huge mob that was very upset and they were increasing steadily in numbers. They went into the theater, they were shouting and they were crying out in anger. They took two of Paul's companions, they dragged them into the theater. Well, when that happened, Paul wanted to go into the theater to protect them but because it was so life-threatening the believers would not allow him to do so. Now, Luke doesn't tell us what Paul was feeling at that time, but later Paul himself did. And I shared with you last time we were together had how Paul had written a letter to the Corinthians. Now the Corinthians was a church that had recently been birthed and Paul writes, we know for sure, two letters to that particular church and in his second letter, second Corinthians and I mentioned this last time, Paul expressed what he was going through. I wanted to remind you and share a little bit. And second Corinthians went eight through 10. He said, we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren of our trouble, which came to us in Asia. He's speaking of Ephesus, that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength so that we despaired even of life. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death and does deliver us in whom we trust that he will still deliver us. And so he said, we were burdened. We were burdened beyond measure. We were burdened beyond human strength. We went through an incredible stress and the intensity was so severe, he's saying, that we despaired even of life. That word despaired means that we saw no hope of escape. There was no exit from this oppression. Now the Corinthians were unaware of the stress that he had gone through. They knew he experienced trauma but they didn't understand that the trauma actually exacted a personal cost.  Now obviously that's understandable. How could somebody know the details of somebody else's life? And so for this reason, Paul finds it necessary to let them know what he paid, the cost. You see, even though they will not understand, it's important to let them know. You see, unawareness or immaturity in spiritual life sometimes will blind people to the cost that are paid for others like the apostle Paul. They might ask, why is he complaining? Isn't that what ministers do? Isn't he going through the things that ministers are supposed to? But the point is, he's saying, I remained faithful in my ministry to Jesus and my committed love for other people. Yes, he said in Versailles, we have the sentence of death in ourselves so that we wouldn't trust in ourselves. When he said we have the sentence, that word sentence is a judicial sentence. It's an official verdict with no hope of a reprieve. He's saying we had no human hope. We were completely without strength to save ourselves. But at this point, God intervened and he delivered us. Now when he wrote to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 13, he said, there's no temptation taking you but such as is common to man, but God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you're able but will with the temptation also make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. And so he knows that God has an escape plan and all of that, but in the midst of this horrifying experience, in the midst of wondering whether or not he might even die, we despaired even unto life. He still had hope in God and knew God was with him and he knew that God was refining his faith, that God was teaching him a deeper lesson. And sometimes when we as believers are going through difficulty, we need to have that understanding that God is giving to us lessons that'll deepen us in him. He had said that God was refining him, teaching him, and he went on in verse nine to say that we should not trust in ourselves, but God who raises the dead. God, the one who raises the dead is able to rescue me from death's grip. The psalmist said it like this in Psalm 116, verses eight and nine, he said, for you, O Lord, have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before the Lord in the land of the living. So God was teaching him, do not trust in your own abilities, but trust in mine. You see, the heart of the Christian faith is trusting in God. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not into thine own understanding and all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your path. And so he wants us to know this is what was taking place. He had said in verse 10 of 2 Corinthians who delivered us, does deliver us, in whom he trusts, he will still deliver us. And I mentioned to you that he was simply saying God has delivered, God does deliver, God will deliver, past, present, future, God has been faithful, is now faithful, will always be faithful. That's what it says in Psalm 34, verse four, I sought the Lord, he answered me, he delivered me from all my fears. And so as he's going through all of this, the mob became more threatening and the city clerk got involved. He quieted down the mob, he directed them to use the proper channels if they're so offended. He said, if you think your concerns are serious, take them to the court. If you have a justifiable case, take it before the higher assembly. If you continue this uproar though, you can be charged with inciting a riot and I ask you the question, is it worth it? So after saying this, the people were dismissed, peace was restored and that's where we're picking up our study in verse one of chapter 20. Because Luke says after the uproar had ceased, Paul called the disciples to himself, embraced them and departed to go to Macedonia. Paul wasn't running away, by the way, he was simply keeping the plans that he had already made. In Acts 19, verse 21, Paul had purpose to go to Jerusalem and hope to move on to Rome. But before he does this, he calls the disciples to himself, notice that he embraced them, that word embraced is not simply putting his arms around, the word embraced means to encourage. He was calling them to himself so he might encourage them. He assembled them so he could give them a farewell blessing. And so Paul leaves. It says here, Paul called the disciples to himself in verse one, embrace them and departed to go to Macedonia. So earlier he had sent Timothy and Arastus a minister in that region to the Corinthians and it's now time for him to return to the area that he might continue his ministry. And so in verse two, now when he had gone over that region and encouraged them with many words, he came to Greece and stayed three months and when the Jews plotted against him as he was about to sail to Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia.  So he had planted churches as we've seen in Thessalonica and a place called Berea as well as the city of Philippi. And what he was doing is he's encouraging them and he's giving them special, not special, spiritual insights. He's teaching them the ways of the Lord. Now next time we get together in chapter 20, he will say at verse 32, brother and I commend you to God in the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I commend you to the word of his grace. He wasn't just there putting his arm around them and patting them on the shoulder telling them it's gonna be okay. What he did is he showed up and he began to teach he was giving them the word of God. He was commending them to the grace of God that is found in the word. And that's a pattern that he has established early in his ministry after he got saved. In Acts 14, 21 and 22, it says they preached the gospel in that city, won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God, they said. In Acts 15, 41, he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. In Acts 16, four and five, as they went through the cities, they delivered to them the decrees to keep which were determined by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem so the churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in number daily. Chapter 18, verse 22, when he had landed at Caesarea, gone up and greeted the church, he went down to Antioch. After he had spent some time there, he departed and went to the region of Galatia and Friglia in order strengthening the disciples. And that's what he's doing. How do you get strengthened? You get strengthened through the teaching of the word of God. That's what he was doing. He wasn't just coming, showing his face and leaving. He was coming and teaching them, giving them the word which gives you strength. You see, Paul was not only a missionary evangelist, he was also a pastor, he's also a shepherd. And as a shepherd, he desired to make sure that they were healthy in a spiritual sense. So he went to the churches and he went to the churches with the desire to teach and to encourage the people and the leadership. And that's a pattern that we as church leaders to this day continue to follow. I was sharing this morning, I normally don't do this. I normally won't do this because of concern that it may seem like I'm trying to build myself up in front of you for some reason. And I assure you that that's not happening, but I never share with you certain things. Let me say this very briefly. As a pattern for church leaders, they will go to, as Paul did, and he's an example, to churches to strengthen them through the studies of the word of God, that's what they do. So in May, I was given opportunity to go to the Hudson Valley in New York to do ministry there. And also in the same month a couple of weeks later to go and teach at a pastor's conference called the East Coast Pastors Conference in Philadelphia. And in June, I have been invited to speak at the National Mexican Pastors Conference that'll be there. I hope I can come back. I have a passport, I think I can't. It's not too hard to get back anyway. So that'll take place, that's true. So that takes place in June, going to Mexico to Acapulco. I've been invited in July to go and minister to pastors in New Mexico. I've been invited also to go, and this I'm not sure about, to go to Honolulu to minister at the Hawaiian Pastors Conference there. I've been given opportunity and will be taking it to go up into Bellingham, Washington in September to teach pastors. That's what we do, that's what church leaders do. And that's what Paul sets as an example. He had planted churches, but he went back to minister in those churches so that they might know the ways of the Lord in a better sense. And so he came to Greece as it says in verse three and he stayed for three months. So he ministered in the north, he traveled south, ministered in a place called Corinth. Now he would have been at the port of Corinth which is called Sancrea when his opponents were rising up. They were plotting against him. So he left, he went north for safety reasons. In verse four, we have the names of his companions, Sopater of Berea, and so we have Sopater, Aristarchus. We have a man called Secundus. We have Gaius, Timothy, Tychicus, and Trophimus. He's just giving mention of these men who were companions. Now verse five said these men going ahead waited for us at Troas. So Paul had sent the team west, rather had sent the team to Troas which is located in northern Turkey. The men were able to prepare the church and Troas for Paul's soon visit. In verse six he says we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread and in five days joined them at Troas where we stayed for seven days. And so I want to look at this and develop some things with you in just a moment. So what happens is in verse six again, we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread. Now this feast was celebrated the day after Passover. That gives to us an insight into his timeline because Paul had celebrated Easter with the Philippian church and then he left. It took him in verse six five days to travel to Troas and he stayed there for a week for seven days. So they arrived on a Monday and he ministered to the church for six days and that would have been like a church conference. But it also gave him opportunity to minister on Sunday in a church service. So in verse seven on the first day of the week when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul ready to depart the next day spoke to them and continued his message until midnight. So I hope you guys brought a sacrilege. So after ministering to the church for a week, they celebrate the Lord's day. Gathering together for a Sunday service became the regular practice of the church. I'm gonna develop something with you, take just a moment. In 1 Corinthians 16 verses one and two, Paul says now concerning the collection for the saints as I've given orders to the churches of Galatia, so you must do also on the first day of the week, let each one of you lay something aside storing up as he may prosper that there be no collections when I come on the first day of the week. Some wonder why the church has formal services on Sunday instead of Saturday. I remember a lady approaching me after a study that I had given when, before we had built this particular sanctuary, we were in the chapel. And a lady approached me after the service and she said, this is my first time here, I'm a visitor. And I said, well, you're more than welcome, I'm glad you came. She said, I have a word from the Lord for you. I have a tendency of being a little bit like, yeah, okay, I'm not real big on visitors giving me words from the Lord, but I said, okay, then what, what's this word? And she took a moment to compose herself, I think, because as a prophetess you have to, but she, I'm teasing, she took a moment though and prepared herself and she said, the Lord is saying that if you were to meet on Saturday instead of Sunday, he will do a greater work. And I said, the Lord's not saying that. You are, and that's not true because the Lord is not doing, I'll show you why I said that to her. You see, the early church met on Sunday. It would beat on the first day of the week. And the reason the early church did that was to commemorate the resurrection of Christ. Jesus arose the first day of the week and in John 20, verse one, it says, on the first day of the week, Mary Madeleine went to the tomb early while it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. And so the church would meet on Sunday to celebrate the reality of the resurrection of Christ, the first day of the week. And a second reason would be that the church was birthed on a Sunday. Pentecost fell on Sunday. So we would congregate, the church would congregate on Sundays. When you read your New Testament, they have what is called the Decalogue. It's referred to as the Decalogue. It's also spoken of as the Ten Commands or the Ten Words. And so the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament are found in chapter 20 of the book of Exodus. And so when you look in the New Testament, nine of the Ten Commandments that are given to us in the Old Testament are repeated in the New, nine of them are. These Commandments make up what is called the Moral Law. They establish what is appropriate Christian behavior. Nine of the Ten are repeated in the letters that we read in Scripture in the New Testament. But one of those Scriptures, one of those commands is not repeated to the church in the New Testament. And the one that is not repeated to the church in the New Testament is to keep the Sabbath. It is not commanded of us to do that. Sabbath observance is an ordinance that was established for the nation of Israel and not the church. In Exodus 31.16, it says therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout its generations as a perpetual covenant. So the Sabbath keep it holy is a command to the nation of Israel, but not to the church. The Ten Commandments are reiterated in the New Testament because they establish moral behavior and the believer follows the precepts of those by the power of the spirit. But keeping the Sabbath is not a command to the church. So we as a church historically have met on the first day of the week, which is Sunday. Now we consider every day the day to celebrate the Lord. That's why you celebrate them 24 seven every day, but you'll congregate perhaps for a midweek study and you'll congregate here on a Sunday because that's what the church is historically done. You see when the church was first birthed and we saw this in Acts in chapter two in verse 42, it said that they had continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine, fellowship, break into bread and in prayers. So that was the habit of the church and in verses 46 and 47 of the same chapter, chapter two, it said continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house. They ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. So we gather on a Sunday, though we will gather other days, but we gather on a Sunday to celebrate as a congregation but we can do that throughout the week also. Now, there are those who believe that those who worship on Sunday are pagans. They think they are sun worshipers. I was reading that, I'm not gonna give you a lot of quotations about it, but I was reading that as I went and prepared the study. They call those of us who meet on Sunday sun worshipers and we're pagans. But we're to have daily fellowship with the Lord. According to Romans 14, five and six, one person esteems one day above another, another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day observes it to the Lord. He who does not observe the day to the Lord, he does not observe it. So for us, we meet, we do it because of the resurrection of Christ in the day of Pentecost when the church was birthed, but we celebrate Christ every day. But the habit of the early church is on the first day of the week. And that's what it says in verse seven, on the first day of the week when the disciples came together to break bread. So the church had gathered, they were celebrating communion, they received the teaching. Paul was gonna leave the next day, so he gave a very long message. See, in the early evening they gathered, they shared a meal. After supper, Paul continues teaching them long and to the night. And it's now midnight. And Paul is continuing to preach and to pour into them. He's about to leave them. His concern for them is very deep. He didn't know if he'd ever see them again so he continues teaching. Well, as this is taking place, verse eight, it says there were many lamps in the upper room where they were gathered. Now I'll give you something about that in a moment that is part of this, but the room is lit by torches. That makes the room warm and there in the top floor, heat rises. That means that it's very warm and it has smoke that is filling, if you will, that room. Now Luke makes it clear that there were many lamps that were providing light. Why was that? Well, part of the reason he'd say this is to save the church from false accusations. You see, unbelievers would party and commit sin under the cover of darkness. In John three, 19 through 21, Jesus said it like this. He said, this is the verdict. Light has come into the world but people love darkness instead of light because their deeds are evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. So in the darkness, your deeds are hidden but when the light is shining, they're exposed. I've shared this with you before but my mom, when I was growing up, had one of these makeup mirrors. Some of you ladies are aware of those. And this one was, it was a circular mirror with lights around it and you could actually set the setting. You could have dusk, you could have full daylight. It had different settings. Now as long as I kept it on the lowest setting, I looked good. But when you turn the light up, you see your imperfections a lot clearer. So people like to hide their deeds in the dark. So during that time, it is necessary to say that they are having a lot of light. Why? To save the church from false accusations because the world would say, look at them. They've been going at it for so long.  They're engaging in sinful acts. So the abundance of light was to provide proof that they weren't doing things that were evil. It's like what it says in 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 5, you are all children of light, children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. See, some Christians don't seem to care about what their testimony is like.  And that's not legalistic. It was a concern, a concern they had for the lost. And it was also out of concern for the honor of the Lord and his message. When Paul was writing the Ephesian church in chapter five verse three, he said, but among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality or of any kind of impurity or of greed because these are improper for God's holy people. So they made sure the lights were on so that no false accusations would be made about them. Well, as this is taking place, verse nine, in a window sat a certain young man named Eutychus who was sinking into a deep sleep. He was overcome by sleep. And as Paul continued speaking, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. They were up in the third floor. It's quieter there. They don't hear the sound of the city very well. Eutychus sat on a window ledge. The windows were not necessarily that large but they were large enough because they would let the air in and all the cool the room down. So there he is on a window ledge. After a long day, after eating a meal, he became sleepy and he dozed off. He fell asleep in church. When our church was young, I was teaching in a small church we were on Vine Street. And I heard a little bit of a noise. Now you have to understand, you could only see it 100 to 120 in this church. It wasn't much larger than a house.  And I hear some laughter and it was muffled but it was there. It was off to my left.  Well, what had happened is a friend of mine named Frankie had brought his bomb to church and she had dozed off as I was teaching and she fell and she fell on top of the people next to her. And so when she landed on him and she landed hard apparently, everybody around the room started busting up because they saw her go out. And so those things still happen to this day. I had a guy named Vinny in the church. Vinny was a young fella and we would have home Bible studies and Vinny would be no more than 10 feet away from me. He was that close. And I still remember, he would come to the Wednesday night study and fight sleep. I still remember looking at him. I get fascinated with things like that because you know when someone's about to fall asleep how their bodies begin to kind of move back and forth and it looked like he was dancing in his sleeves. And then his eyes crossed. He was that sleepy. Boom, he'd go to sleep all the time. When I was in Israel, our very first trip to Israel, we went with several people. A guy named Kent who was a friend of ours was there. We had traveled. We had had, we didn't have a direct flight. So we had traveled, had a three hour layover travel. It took us a long time to get to where we were at. We landed in Tel Aviv. Then you get on a bus and it takes you about an hour or so, a little bit more or so to get to our location that we were gonna be at. And Pastor Chuck Smith who was leading the tour wanted to teach. We're all totally out of it. And so I was sitting there with my wife Marie and I'm just kind of sitting there like this. But right in my sight line was Kent. And I'm watching him instead of listening to the pastor because Kent's sitting and his head is going forward like that. And you know how that is. And you try to look like you didn't do that. He did it several times. And then finally he fell out of the chair on the floor. And Pastor Chuck looks at him, guys picked him up and Chuck just kept teaching. That was Chuck Smith. He didn't interrupt his study for that. So people fall asleep in church to this day. This guy was in church and he was falling asleep and somebody walked up to him and said, why are you falling asleep in church? He says, well, because I always live to sleep at the feet of the master, which is garbage. That's just garbage. And so there he is and he faints. Now it says in verse nine, he was overcome by sleep but Paul continued speaking and he fell down. Verse 10 says, Paul went down, fell on him and heard him even worse. No, Paul fell down, went down, fell on him and embracing him said, do not trouble yourselves. His life is in him. He fell from the third story out of the window, three flights down, he hits the cobblestone and he dies, he dies. And so Paul embraces this young man when it says he fell down on him. He embraces young man and he stretches himself over him. Now that is something you see in scripture because it reminds me of the ministry of Elijah as well as Elijah, but pointing to Elijah. The prophet Elijah in the Old Testament was staying in the city called Sidon. He had ministered to a widow and her son but over time the son had died and the widow was overwhelmed with grief. So she came to Elijah carrying the boy and Elijah told her hand your son to me. He took the boy, he placed him on the bed, he stretched himself out to like what Paul's doing and it says in 1 Kings 17, 21 and 22 he stretched himself out on the child three times, cried out to the Lord and said, oh Lord my God I pray let this child's soul come back to him. The Lord heard the voice of Elijah, the soul of the child came back to him and he revived and so this is similar to what had taken place in the Old Testament but notice in verse 10 he says, do not trouble yourselves, his life is in him. They're so emotionally upset. Paul has to encourage them to compose themselves and he says his life is in him. He's been brought back to life. So Paul performs a miracle. Now a miracle is a sign of an apostle. Today there are people who refer to themselves as the apostle of the church and you can see it all you need to do is Google a church apostle and you'll see pages that open up for men who refer to themselves as an apostle. That's not something that's uncommon in our day. Well, the word apostle means it's from the Greek apostle it speaks of what has been empowered and sent out with authority and so sometimes they use that in lieu of using the name pastor or shepherd or whatever but there are no biblical apostles like in the early days of the church. There are no longer those. There are no longer those who are able to fulfill that particular role. You see that the genuine apostle was selected by Christ yet had seen Jesus, his death and resurrection and also according to 2 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 12 truly the signs of an apostle were brought among you in all patience, signs, wonders and mighty deeds. So Paul pointed to himself as an apostle and the miracles that were performed were validating that claim and so he was brought back to life. Verse 11, now when he had come up had broken bread and eaten and talked a long time even till daybreak he departed and they brought the young man in alive and they were not a little comforted. So the casualness of Paul's behavior is amazing. He performed a miracle but he went back to teaching. Miracles draw immediate interest and intensifies the importance of what is being said. So they're listening with more intensity and he's speaking and continues speaking the rest of the night and none of them was bored. No one else fell asleep. Now when they brought verse 12 the young man in alive they were comforted. Now in an earlier portion of Acts the apostles had started experiencing opposition. The religious authorities had commanded them not to preach in Jesus's name. That had led to a prayer meeting calling on God for protection. Remember in Acts 4, 29 and 30 they prayed now Lord look on their threats and grant to your servants that with all boldness they may speak your word by stretching out your hand to heal and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus and God was confirming his word through this miracle. Now verse 13, then we went ahead to the ship and sailed for Asus. They're intending to take Paul on board so he had given orders intending himself to go on foot. And when he met us at Asus we took him on board and came to Medellin. We sailed from there and the next day came opposite Cheon. No, I mean Cheos, I'm sorry. Cheon's a slanger for crybaby. Anyway, the following day we arrived at Samus and stayed at Fragilium. The next day we came to Miletus for Paul had decided sail past Ephesus so that he would not have to spend time in Asia for he was hurrying to be at Jerusalem if possible on the day of Pentecost. Now I'm gonna take you through a few things as we do this. Paul is sailing down the southern coast of Turkey. He's moving towards the nation of Israel. And what we have here briefly is Luke giving a sailing itinerary that he had taken. What they would do is they would travel for a day and then they would harbor overnight. Asus is a port city that's 24 miles south of where Paul was, Troas. So Paul decided to travel by land. No reason is given as to why but after so much activity it may be he needed a bit of quiet time. So it says when he met us verse 14 in Asus we took him on board and came to Medellin. Medellin is the capital city of an island called Lesbos. It was 30 miles south of Asus. So Paul would have stayed overnight on board in the harbor of that island. Again, we sail verse 15 from there and came opposite Chios. The next day they came to the island of Samus they stayed in the town of Trudilium but he's ending up in the port city of Miletus which is 35 miles south of Ephesus. But I wanted to develop verse 16 with you. Notice what it says in verse 16. Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus so that he would not have to spend time in Asia for he was hurrying to be at Jerusalem if possible on the day of Pentecost. Paul wanted to be in Jerusalem for Pentecost. Why? As an evangelist, as a missionary he wanted to speak to the greatest numbers of people that he could. When you go through the book of Acts you're gonna see that Paul would stop in villages but he also would go to major cities. He was there in Ephesus, he was in Corinth, he was in Thessalonica. He would go to major cities, Philippi. He wanted to go to where there was a large population where there was a greater opportunity to preach to a great number of people. It wasn't that he avoided the country villages. He went through them but he would concentrate much of his attention on the larger cities. So it's time for Pentecost. He wants to go to Jerusalem because according to one writer though Jerusalem numerically was not this large during the festivals when it was mandatory for Jewish males to show up for the festival unless they were simply incapable of doing so the city that wasn't that large would swell to four million people. Now if you've ever been to the city of Jerusalem so many of you have then I asked you to remember for a moment it's really not that large a geographic area. So four million people would show up for the celebration of Pentecost. Paul wanted to minister to them. He was a tireless evangelist and he was a church planter. Paul loved people in general. God had given him a commission to preach the gospel to the Gentiles and he knew that was his ministry but he had a special love for the nation of Israel. In Romans he speaks of it in chapter nine verses one through five when he says I speak the truth in Christ I'm not lying my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit. I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart for I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people those of my own race the people of Israel. There's is the adoption to sonship. There's the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. There's are the patriarchs and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah who is God over all for ever praise they've in. He said I love the people in general I received a commission you find this in other portions of Acts to minister to the Gentiles but in his heart there was a tremendous longing for people according to his flesh to come to faith in Christ he had a special burden for the Jews. He would go to the synagogues first when he first arrived and he would any city and he would minister first to them and then when he was writing to the Romans he would say to the Jew first and also the Gentile. So he points out that these are God's people these are the people that had all of these advantages they had the word of God they had the promises for Messiah they had the Messiah himself they had the prophets the temple they had so many things but they didn't have Messiah and so he wanted them to know Christ he wanted them to know Jesus Christ and so he longed to be there especially when there'd be more people so he could reach more people the more people there were the greater the opportunity to speak to them and to see many come to faith in Christ and that's what he did he wanted to share the good news with his people he wanted them to know Messiah had come and eternal life could be theirs and because of this he wanted to share with the greatest number that he could he wanted to be in Jerusalem on the birthday of the church because he wanted to preach to them and that's what the heart of Christianity is let me share with you a couple things Paul said I would give up my own salvation if my brethren could be saved what a love for the Jewish people as I mentioned to you recently I heard one young lady giving a study and she said that Paul was an anti-Semitic man nothing further than the truth this is one who had said I would give up my own spot to somebody else so that they could know Christ I want them to know Messiah the heart of evangelism the heart of the evangelist is calling people to repentance and come to faith in Christ that was the heart of the Jesus movement it still is the movement of Jesus never ceased but in the time that I got saved that was the heart of the movement with one hand you take Jesus' hand the other one you take a friend we had that as our basic theology you go into the world preach the gospel let people know about Christ and that's what motivated us that's what motivated somebody like me to talk to my friends, my family and all and when I got saved as I've mentioned before the first person who ever came to faith in Christ through me was my sister Madeleine because I had come home, I had been saved I shared with her what God had done in my life she had gone to bed that night and she said whatever you did for my brother please do for me and she came to faith in Christ shortly after I had gotten saved I went into the military I spent my time in the service I came out and I moved back home when I got out of the army and I talked to my sister Madeleine who is a very special woman to me and I asked her, I said, Maddie I said you were in high school as a born again believer what did you do with your faith and she sat there, I'll never forget she sat across from me at the table at my parents' house and she said David she says I wanted to be popular so I didn't share Christ with anybody and when she said that to me I didn't say anything to her I just looked at her and she started to cry she said I have so many friends that I could have shared with that I'll never have an opportunity to share again I won't see it my opportunity passed and she was crying and she said I will not do that again when I get an opportunity to share Christ I will so about a year later my brother gets saved I live in Norwalk at that time my brother lives here in Ontario so I saw that he wasn't growing in his faith because he wasn't going to church and it concerns me as a brother so I asked for permission to teach a Bible study to him and he gave me permission so on Monday nights starting in September of 74 on Monday nights I would go to his house a little apartment really and I would give him a Bible study and my sister Madeline would come with me every Monday night my brother Frank, Madeline and me my brother began inviting people to come to his Bible study a little apartment it didn't hold many but I still remember this one person who came walking in the door I still remember I could hear my brother's voice in my memory as he said David I'd like you to meet Marie and so Marie comes in I give a Bible study I ask her after the study how long have you been a Christian? She says all my life so she's been a liar for all those years you aren't born, born again so I just kind of nodded two weeks later she came to the Bible study my sister Madeline who cried that she failed to share Christ who had said I'm not going to lose opportunities ever again I will take the opportunities when they give it to me my sister Madeline took my then friend Marie and led her to the Lord you never know what's going to happen when you open up your mouth and speak I would not have my wife if my sister had not shared the goodness of God with a young woman who was searching know that know that Paul's hunger for people to know Christ drove him to go to Jerusalem so that he might have an opportunity to share with all of those people it's not just the multitudes though it's also the individual see this church began not because I wanted to have a building and a lot of people visit or be part of it began because Marie's sister had come to faith in Christ through my ministry she was the first person who ever answered an open invitation that I gave and so my Patty who is a sister to me when I resigned my position from where I was assisting asked me where are you going to be on Sunday and I said I don't have a place yet when I find a church I'll let you know can you teach me until you find a place that's how this church began so God ministers to multitudes but he begins with the man with the person with the individual Paul could see multitudes but he also would see the individual like when Philip saw the Ethiopian eunuch as he was returning from Jerusalem he attached himself to the chariot and the Ethiopian was reading the book of Isaiah then he turns and says to Philip who does this man speak of himself or some other and from that point in Isaiah Philip began to preach the word of God it's not the multitudes you should be really concerned with it's also the individuals and Paul had a desire to reach not only multitudes but individuals because multitudes are made up of individuals and so you never know what God is going to do through you when you speak to that one person who hasn't heard the gospel yet you don't know what God can do with that person you don't know you know Billy Graham who was led to faith by a man named Mordecai Ham very few people remember Mordecai Ham but they remember Billy Graham there was a shoe salesman who led D. L. Moody to Christ simply because he was a Sunday school teacher I don't even know the name of the shoe salesman but I can tell you D. L. Moody one of the greatest evangelists the United States has ever seen or heard that's what happens it's the individuals that you want to reach Charles Spurgeon the prince of the expositors the prince of preachers is in a small chapel in England and the pastor couldn't show up so a lay person got up and gave a message and pointed his bony little finger at a man named Charles Haddon Spurgeon and he said you son are very miserable but if you do not give your heart to Christ you will be even more miserable in hell Charles Spurgeon receives Christ and becomes the prince of the preachers you never know open your mouth share with people God can do wonderful things and in the case of Paul that's what happened Paul would reach out plant churches minister to the people he was tireless in his efforts to do so and we ought to be too what is better than the promise of heaven what is better than forgiveness of sins what is better than the losing that guilt that we carry on our shoulders so often for so long Paul said I want to reach people for Christ whether it's a single individual or whether it's a multitude because when I see the multitude I see the man a multitude is simply made up of many individuals perhaps the Lord perhaps the Lord has put it on your heart to lead someone to Christ someone you love you may even think there's no chance they won't come to faith did you just never forget there are people who thought that about you too there's no chance that person will come to faith there's no chance you never know last thing I was at a concert I've shared this before I was at a concert in front of me was a motorcycle gangster he had the Levi jacket with no sleeves he had his biker patch he's a big man very big and I'm looking at him and I'm thinking I'm sitting right behind him and I'm thinking he can't get saved this guy's too far gone that's what I was thinking he can't get saved he's too far gone the invitation was given I'll never forget how he stood up made his way past people as he was crying I saw him wiping his eyes and then I see this huge band come and stand in front of the platform and the spirit of the Lord poured something into my heart that I've never forgotten he said I can save anyone I can save anyone preach the gospel have a heart for the lost Paul did that's why he wanted to go to Pentecost on the celebration of the birthday of the church he wanted to see God pour out even more to reach those people for the gospel of Jesus Christ may God work that into our hearts also


Welcome to MIT Supply Chain Frontiers from the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics. Each episode features center researchers and staff or experts from the field for in-depth conversations about business education and beyond. Today, center researcher and instructor David Carell speaks with the MIT CTL military fellows about their service experiences and their time on the MIT campus. The views and opinions expressed in today's episode are those of the fellows only and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the United States military. Take it away, Dave! Welcome, Joe, Stephen, and Brian. Thank you for joining today's Supply Chain Frontiers. We're really grateful to you for your service and also for the time you're taking away from your studies to sit down with us and talk about your experiences as part of our supply chain management program and your impressions here on campus. Could I ask you first to each introduce yourselves briefly? Oh, yeah. Hey, I'll get started. My name is Stephen Lubbert. I'm a Lieutenant Colonel in the Louisiana Army National Guard branch qualified as both an infantry and an armor officer and listed in the military in 1996 as an M1 tank crewman and eventually commissioned as an officer in 2000 as an armor officer. I served most of my career about 26, 27 years now as an active duty officer in the Louisiana Guard. I've served primarily in force management, operations and planning and obviously just because of my affiliation with Louisiana, I had a lot of experience with things like Katrina, the BP oil spill, Gustav, COVID-19, lots and lots of hurricanes and lots of flooding type of situations there. Like my peers, I've had several tours in Iraq. I've served overseas as a scout platoon leader, a tank company XO, and last year I was in Northern Iraq in parts of Syria as a squadron commander. I received my undergraduate degree from University of Nebraska and from Louisiana State University and Shreveport. I've got a master's in national security and conflict resolution and married for 21 years yesterday and I've got a daughter that just got married last month. Thank you Stephen and congratulations. Let's go to Brian. Yeah, thanks David. My name is Brian Young. I'm also Lieutenant Colonel in the Army. I'm in the Army Reserve where I've been for about 21 years now and originally from North Carolina, now in the Boston area with this program. My Army career has been somewhat unique in the sense that I've started out in Army watercraft, so landing craft, port operations, and then moved to strategic transportation for about five or six years and then to Army contracting, logistics contracting mostly, on to training support after that where I commanded to Battalion in Hawaii most recently. Yeah, I also have served throughout the world, CENTCOM, Central Command, area of operations in the Middle East, European command, and then also most of the past decade in Pacific command in various commands. I was involved in also some humanitarian disaster relief operations, the Fukushima-Diachi natural disaster in Japan and then combat operations in Afghanistan and then port operations in Kuwait during Operation Iraqi Freedom. So thanks for having me. Excellent. Thank you. Joe, could you introduce yourself please? Yeah, hey Dave. So Colonel Joe Parker. I am a logistics officer, basic branch quarter master which is supply. I went to Wake Forest in North Carolina for my head. I've got a master's in acquisition and procurement management and won an operational art and science from the commanding general staff college out at Fort Leavenworth almost 20 years in the Army and most of my time has been spent at the tactical and operational level. So as a logistician spent a lot of my time working with armor and mechanized infantry units. I've got five deployments, three to Iraq and two to Afghanistan. I spent some time working plans and policy at the Pentagon, was a squadron commander out of Fort Irwin, California at the National Training Center and then did a follow on assignment as an observer controller which is responsible for training and then came here for the fellowship. So happy to be here. Excellent. Thank you very much and thank you all for sharing your really broad variety of experiences with us and with the audience. What are your impressions on the differences between how maybe the military and the private sector manage their supply chains? I think we've engaged with the faculty on this the entire time that we've been at MIT and MIT emphasizes the fact that the private sector is optimized for efficiency. It's optimized for cost-saving measures. It's optimized to limit inventory. All of the efforts that we see our fellow students and faculty going through every day, particularly at CTL, is how do you make the most efficient trip? How do you limit inventory? How do you reduce costs? The optimized delivery functions where you're only giving that customer what they need, when they need it. What challenges us as military guys is that's just not something that we typically have to contend with. When we look at a supply chain, and I'm a consumer as an armor and an infantry officer, I'm concerned about consuming logistics, not providing it. I depend on people like Brian and Colonel Parker to get it to me. But when we look at those supply chains that they're responsible for, we're looking at things like survivability, redundancy, hardened facilities and infrastructure, reducing risk and exposure to enemy action. All of these things that are often not efficient, cost is not a factor. It's just a very different way of looking at things. And I can give you one example. Brian and I just finished a study with the Humanitarian Supply Chain Lab. We were looking at particular fuel supply chains within the United States. And they've got inherent vulnerabilities because they've been optimized. Because those companies have to save money, or else we all end up spending more on heating oil and gasoline and whatnot. But the flip side of that is it makes them vulnerable to man-made events, to natural events. And that was really hard for, I think, Brian and I to get our head around initially is, well, why aren't they hardened against attacks? Why aren't they hardened against hurricanes? Why don't they have more than one? Because that's how we have to look at things. Because if Brian's first attempt to get me fuel for my tanks doesn't go well, there has to be a plan B. There has to be another route or another place where I can link up. So it has been a process to realize how important that cost saving is to the private sector and it makes absolute sense to us. It is just a big transition from how we look at supply chains in the military. That's really interesting. Thank you. And it seems like a lot of supply chain practitioners right now in the world that we live in are probably struggling with that same tradeoff that you just described from the other ends. Thank you so much.  Just to build on what Steven said, Department of Defense and specifically the Army, we kind of live in, we've got our feet in both worlds, right? So like he mentioned at the tactical level, our warehouses literally have to pick up and move every day, right? So it's got to be built. We've got to have containerization that allows for that. You've got to have an inventory management system that you can turn on and turn off. It's got to establish and re-establish connectivity and then a lot of the times we're completely reliant on manual reporting because we don't really have a digital infrastructure that automatically tells me that, hey, you know, Steven's tanks getting ready to run out of gas, right? I have to go off historical. I have to, you know, kind of base a plan. You know, the enemy gets a vote, all those kind of old adages. And if I don't get a report from him, I just send it. I'll send a convoy or a truck down off with 10,000 gallons of whatever and they'll come back with eight, right? And in any corporate structure, that would get you fired. But it's a Tuesday for us, right? And we sit in class and we're like, man, you know, listening to like Omni Channel. Yes, I would love to have seven different ways. You know, some sort of decision matrix that says if I can't get it this way, I'll go that way, you know, one day, right? You know, we're a dinosaur, but we're an evolving dinosaur in the sense that, you know, we're trying to find ways to make all this work. But we do have a very specific set of constraints that vary greatly depending on the operational environment. So in Garrison, back in the United States or at your base, you know, we do look for a lot of efficiencies and some of those supply chain principles that we were learning this year absolutely have applicability, automated warehousing, you know, there's stuff like that at Fort Bragg and Fort Hood. But it's not something that you can pick up and take out into the desert and then execute, you know, the same way you would back at home station in the Garrison environment as you would in a tactical environment. And then as you go up the supply chain, right?  And so not only are you looking at supply chain from, you know, how do I get parts and maintenance and commodities forward, but then how do I look at refit modernization, recapitalization and that reverse pipeline, you know, we're not building a lot of new engines. We're doing a lot of rebuilds. So every time, again, Stephen's our case study, every time he blows an engine or a transmission or something goes wrong in his tank, you know, there's not a lot of mom and pops out there that are building parts for tanks. We have this whole infrastructure built on recapitalization, modernizing, refitting, but there's also a reverse cycle that we have to get all that stuff back. You know, budgetary constraints, you know, we are beholden to the United States taxpayer. We have to work within all those types of things. So, you know, it's a lot of fun to sit at a place like MIT and just see everybody's thoughts and see the capability and, you know, what could be. Our challenge as leaders in the Army is to go back and find ways to take these concepts and see where we can gain efficiencies and hopefully push, you know, the modernization strategy or, you know, how do we take what we've learned here and then help improve the foxhole, so to speak, back at Big Army? Because there's a lot we can do, but we have to do it within kind of the constraints that we've been given. Excellent. Thank you. Brian. Yeah, I think something that we think about quite often is sort of that upstream downstream process that Joe was talking about and in our language, be strategic, operational and tactical. You know, a lot of these strategic and sometimes the operational are a combination of contract logistics and organic, you know, logistics, organic capabilities within our own units, green trucks, think, or gray tails in terms of aircraft and things like that. We have traditionally as we get out of counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan and Iraq over the past couple of decades and move towards fighting or training to fight and getting better at fighting near-peer competitors. That doesn't require a lot of, a lot more tactical expertise that gets, you know, it's sort of that contingency supply chain stuff that we've lost the muscle memory on and regaining some of that throughout the time that we have to train and hopefully never have to execute those, but be prepared to do those. So I think that, you know, we've lost some of that tactical expertise because for so long we were on a board operating basis dependent upon contract logistics for our commodity supplies, for example, everything from fuel to fuel, transportation services, all that was done by some very competent contracting and not always efficient, of course, as you can read in the news, but we're not going to have that luxury in the future, so we're going to have to be, we're going to have to rebalance that expertise and find it organically within our organization. Thank you very much for that, guys, for kind of describing the differences in the types of problems that you're solving as part of your day-to-day work compared to what you observe from your colleagues in the classroom. I wonder if we could take that question one step further and you could think about seeing those differences, what are some things that are lessons that maybe you'll take back to your day-to-day work from your private sector colleagues you've met here in the program and vice versa, what are some of the things that you think from your military experience would be helpful for your private sector colleagues to take into their day-to-day operations too? I think there's a lot of value. You look at the classes that you guys are doing on optimization. I'm in freight right now. We've looked at, you know, mega-city, how you plan routes, and how you optimize technology, particularly how much the civilian sector and the private sector is using data, you know, to drive decision-making, volumes of data that's being modeled and simulated and collected. And that's something that I think the Army is probably struggling with. You know, you can only make so many things your priority, and I think that's always something that a military branch struggles with. You know, every time we think we know what we need to focus on, something like the Ukraine happens, and we have to refocus to maybe some more fundamental skill sets. But clearly the private sector is making the most of data. And I think that that's something that the Army can capitalize on. Colonel Parker did some work on the fact that it's a skill set that we don't have a lot of in the military. So even if the data was there, we don't quite have the expertise yet to make the best use of that data. But he explored some ways that the Army might be able to bring some people. You know, include that data analytics portion into our education. But clearly that's an avenue for the Army to pursue where it could benefit from some of the optimizations that we're seeing now in the private sector, kind of turning the mirror around and looking at what the military has to offer. If anything has been evident to me, particularly with our graduate students and as they pursue a lot of different challenges at once, it's probably that ability to prioritize, you know, the ability to do a little risk management on the fly, to understand, you know, what we like to call is the decisive operation at what has to be done, right, what achieves success. And then what are all those other shaping operations or enabling operations that help you to ultimately achieve success. And then how do you organize all that into some kind of timeframe that's achievable and realistic. And I think that that's what we've tried to offer amongst our peers and students is, you know, show us what you got and we'll do our best to kind of help you prioritize that and show you what you need to focus on first and maybe what, you know, you can focus on later what you need to do now to enable your success, you know, a month down the line. And I think that's probably from talking to some of the individuals at MIT that help students find jobs, that that's a skill set that maybe we can offer to the private sector at the end of our military careers just because it's such a big part of what we do as leaders in the Army. Absolutely. Thank you. Joe or Brian, any thoughts on what the military side and the civilian side could maybe take from each other the practices that you've observed? Yeah, so, and I'll give you credit here, you know, taking your class, you know, one of the things was, hey, you know, we want you to be outspoken and engaged and speak up in class because it's an opportunity for you to get, you know, repetitions in an environment where you can learn and grow because that will help you once you get out into the commercial sector. And I thought, we're at MIT, right? Everything's a math problem. Every single person here is the top 1% of the 1%. They're all brilliant. But sometimes there's a little paralysis by analysis, right? And then, you know, there's been some instances where I've sat back. I may not have any idea what they're talking about necessarily because I was not a math major. But when they get to their conclusions, it kind of left me head scratching a little bit and said, okay, so what and why do I care, right? And it's not that the work that they're doing wasn't valid. It wasn't that it wasn't important, but they were very myopically focused on the problem set at hand without understanding kind of how it fit in the overall structure. And I think the professors and the courses that I've seen, you guys have all done a phenomenal job of pulling that out, getting to the so what. Stephen alluded to it, you know, that's something that the Army from day one expects you to do, whether it's ROTC West Point Officer Candidate School or Direct Commissioning, you know, as an officer as a lieutenant, you know, day one, you're in charge of something.   We've talked about this a little bit, but you know, a mission command philosophy, you know, where we use mission orders, we try and talk discipline initiative, we give clear guidance and commanders intent, and then we try and empower subordinates to enable them to be agile and adaptive leaders in order to achieve some sort of specific mission. That's a lot of big words to tell the lieutenant, hey, here's what I need you to do. Here's the resources you have to get to do it with. I need it done by this time. Go get them. All right. The principles of building teams through trust, trying to create shared understanding, giving clear intent, getting subordinates to exercise and reward discipline initiative, and, you know, accepting prudent risk, all principles under our mission command philosophy, you know, some of that, I think you see a lot of folks in the classes that want to do that or understand it, but you've got to do it under kind of a business construct where some of those things may not be palatable. And I think the advantage that coming from military background is, you know, we try and ingrain that from day one, and it's a continuous cycle, because we have our AA, our after-action review process, you go through all that, you work on something good, bad, or indifferent, we come back and we'll AA are the heck out of it, regardless of whether you're the CEO or, you know, you're the guy driving the truck, everybody gets a vote, everybody gets a say, and then we use that to improve the processes, improve the organization, and move forward. And so I think we do a really good job at that. I think the commercial sector likes to say they do a good job at that, but just in discussions we've had, I think that there's some lessons that could be picked up and adopted kind of between the two different areas. Oh, thank you for that.  So I want to shout out one of my mentors, Bill Shino at Bentley, who helped me develop that program for helping people speak up in class. Brian, your thoughts on what the civilian and military world can kind of learn from each other since your time here in Cambridge? Yeah, this has been a really awesome time. You know, every school that I've had the opportunity to go to, I kind of try to jot down a couple big takeaways. So I'll share two of them. The first, I think, came out of one of your classes as well, Dave, it was this concept of humans being provisionals in time. Do you remember that? And basically the way you described it, hopefully I get it right, this is that we're hampered by an overwading of current history and experience based on our own experiences. And there is nothing more true of that than an Army officer that's been in the same organization for 20, you know, 20 plus years, right? We have a lot of great experience, but we are also hampered by this experience in this organization that we're a part of. The great thing about the fellowship program is that the Army sends us out and we get to absorb not only a variety of different experiences from industry in the case of CTL, but also, you know, some non-U.S. centric view, viewpoints that we've been exposed to over the course of the past year, which I think have been incredibly invaluable. That's been, I think, the sort of the shining moment for me. I've had the opportunity to interact with people from a variety of international backgrounds that are not U.S. centric and to be able to hear their point of view, to hear something that, you know, you would never hear in a staff meeting in the Army, right? And that's been really good to challenge my own bias in that aspect. And I think it makes us better planners as national security experts in the long run, so I'm very thankful for that. And then some things that have reinforced what I knew to be true already that the Army, I think, does a good job at and is getting better at. I remember hearing Don Sol at the Sloan School talk in January about the best predictors of company culture based on his research were three things. It was mutual respect. You know, the second one was supportive leaders and then three was job security. His company, Culture X, is kind of expanding on that in terms of their research. But those were things that stood out to me that I think the Army has gotten right in our attempt to train leaders to found cultures in our units of mutual respect. Things like our initiatives with People First and I think it ultimately builds better organizations. Obviously, the research, his research is showing that and supporting that. But my personal experience has shown that as well. If you found organizations in those three values, then those would be good. But it's been awesome to have very frank conversations with VPs and directors. And we had a great conversation with CFO back in January at one of the corporate education events. You know, he was challenging us and we were providing some of our experiences and it was really great conversations in those moments on taking things back and forth and hopefully we'll be able to do that for the government service as well. Oh gosh, thank you so much. And that cross-pollination goes both ways. It really benefits us too. I remember multiple times in our classes together when you all would bring a perspective on if we were analyzing a case that really kind of pivoted the conversation to say, yeah, that chain of command is broken and we didn't see it until you all pointed it out. Thank you very much for that, guys. And following up on that topic of cross-pollination, it really feels like, in my career anyway, there's much more of an overlap between governmental affairs interest and supply chain management interest than I've ever previously have observed. You know, the government is really starting to think more about the national security implications of our supply chains and our supply chain managers are I think wanting to be very aware of what's going on in government and in some cases how they can help or how they can manage to new policies. So I wonder if you all could take a second and give some ideas about how that cross-pollination can occur, how have you seen it happen and how can we achieve more of it going forward? There's a lot of initiatives going on right now. I think of referenced earlier the People First concept that Brian mentioned. You know, there's a talent management task force, People First task force, and a number of initiatives at the Army and DOD are going through on how do we get talent, not just homegrown through the ranks, because some of it is prohibitive is that if I were to try and get someone that had the CV of one of the MIT students, they'd get out as a lieutenant just because they could get paid more. There's a little bit more to offer as far as a scope in the commercial sector than what the Army and DOD can do. However, the Army and DOD feels that there's a lot of folks out there that if given the opportunity, they'd be willing to serve in ranks for a specific purpose, for a specific task, for a specific time. And so, you know, looking at opportunities utilizing the Army reserves, where you can be part time and share your talents in supply chain, in the medical field, in national security, in electronic warfare, and a number of those kind of niche, highly specialized, highly competitive fields that you're learning so much so quickly that given the specific task in the Army, you might be stagnant a little bit because you've got a role and a purpose in an organization, whereas if you were coming from the commercial sector. So, you know, if you bring someone in as a lieutenant colonel or a colonel and then give them opportunities on a staff or in a command to really help bring about change from an organizational perspective, giving what they've learned and seen in the commercial sector. So I think from a leadership and an organizational training perspective, you know, the Army is specifically looking at that because there's a lot of talent and a lot of willingness, I think, out there. But they don't necessarily want to spend 26 years in the Army to make, you know, 06 and get to the point where they can make a difference. There's a lot of folks out there that can make a difference now if given the opportunity. And I think we're looking at ways to make that a viable course of action. Excellent. Thank you. I am happy to be the biggest fan of the fellowship program. I've had such a remarkable experience at MIT. I've learned so much that I haven't had any exposure to, you know, in the past 26 years or so. And I know that if I can have that kind of experience in 11 months, 10 months at MIT, I'm sure that if we had similar programs to provide the same to my private sector counterparts to come spend perhaps an equal amount of time at one of our units or at one of our headquarters or at one of our commands, that there's just infinite value in doing so. If I can learn so much in a rather short amount of time, you know, from being a fellow at a major institution like MIT, then I would certainly think that the private sector could benefit just as much from going to, you know, spend time at one of our commands or at one of our units and see how we tackle problems, see how we update the commander and provide them with options or her with options, you know, to go to our war colleges or our academies to see how we educate our leaders and teach those fundamentals at MIT, handing out a free sandwich or some pizza at lunch, right? And looking for those opportunities to bring some of these young mid-level graduate students or even faculty and researchers like yourself into our fold, into our world for an experience and for some exposure that they can bring back. And I think that's where, you know, we get to learn each other's ways and benefit from one another. And then I think that truly these relationships that are built can certainly come out and benefit all of us when something happens that affects both the private and the public sector, that affects national security and, you know, supply chains because we've created those relationships and we've established that we both understand what's important to the other entity and we've already seen examples like with COVID that affects everybody. Everything from national security to supply chain to people's health was affected by the pandemic and the military and the private sector had to come together, look at Operation Warp Speed to find a solution. Neither one of us was going to be able to do that without the other element. So I think there's just so much benefit and I think the military fellowship is just an outstanding example of one way to do it and I just think that we should expand that and offer similar programs to our civilian counterparts in the private sector. Thank you, Brian. Yeah, I had the opportunity to participate in a tabletop exercise with the Humanitarian Supply Chain Lab at MIT. Steve and I also conducted our research under their mentorship, if you will, over the course of the past year which has been awesome. So what I saw there was a lot of good interagency and government and industry working together to come with a solution specifically planning for, in this case, a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake and tsunami. Seeing that sort of interaction was tremendous, right? And I think that the more opportunities that we have to do that between DoD, FEMA and really industry, bringing industry to the table is so crucial because to really get after some key planning factors and knock some of those assumptions and turn them into facts to make our planning more solid it's absolutely key to have industry there to tell us what their capabilities are and what their capacity is and what work they've done on this side in terms of disaster preparedness and disaster response. I think that sort of cross-communication is absolutely crucial. So that's one thing. I think the second part I'll go back to what Joe was saying about the service and this idea of service. I think that the Army Reserve and the National Guard offer a unique opportunity for folks to I see so many bright students in the Boston area that are going on to work for some really great companies and do great things. I would like to see personally as a citizen more people with the opportunity to serve their government and to pursue a life of service and I think the great thing about the National Guard and the Army Reserve is it provides them an opportunity to do so. So take us back in the time machine like 10, 12 years ago I was a part-time Army reservist with a civilian job so I had the opportunity to serve and have a civilian career on the side to do that and there's quite a few 200,000 soldiers across 20 time zones doing just that and 70% of the Army's medical capacity is in the Army Reserve 85% of its civil affairs some like 66% of the Army's logistic capacity all resides in these part-time soldiers that are teachers and environment and policemen and vice presidents and chiropractors but they put on a uniform when it's time to go serve and when their country calls so I'd like to see there's a lot of great talent in the private sector that I would love to see serve the country in their own way and what they choose to do so that's my thoughts Thank you guys very much and on that topic I want to thank you for your service to our country both historical and going forward in your careers after MIT and I want to thank you for your contributions to learning for our students and our staff by being a part of our program and participating so thoughtfully in the classroom and finally thank you for the hour you spend with us today thank you guys very very much Thanks Dave we really appreciate it and we've enjoyed every moment with you your team and the other students and graduates at MIT and CTL Thanks Dave Thank you Alright everyone thank you for listening I hope you enjoyed this edition of MIT Supply Chain Frontiers my name is Arthur Grau communications officer for the center and I invite you to visit us anytime at CTL.MIT.EDU or search for MIT Supply Chain Frontiers on your favorite listening platform until next time


So my beautiful people I am back with another hour and ring video and today I'm going to showcase to you guys a strange weird Hidden out of the way golem some may call this a bus. I'm just going to call it an enemy That is literally down the side of a map He is hard to fight he's hard to defeat I'm guessing you can farm him a few times. I've killed him. I haven't had anything specific drop I'm hoping he has something dedicated to him so we can farm it and get it But I ain't sure as of right now either way guys is Definitely one I know a lot of people have missed. I mean it's been in the game from day one no doubt about that So obviously people have found him and killed him already But it is one I've definitely missed so I'm know for sure this people out there too. I've missed this dude Today again to you all How's it going guys? My name is DPJ and if you're doing enjoyed the video I like you to helps us and if you like what you see want to see more be sure to subscribe Also guys the first time you come down here. You will get an ash of war Called the rain of arrows. You can see this now guys. I mean It's nothing, but I mean I guess if you like arrows, you can see you just shoot them up into the air And they just spawn around you this and the other I'm not a Bull kind of person. So hey nothing great for me there But you get this while you're down here anyway So yeah, if you're a collector like me, it's one for the collection. Okay, so Where we're at we are right side of the map east side of the map right here, you know What a dragon for off, you know what a giant sleeping dragon is right there We have the Er tree here the minor her tree here We want to come down to this spot here They do have to park or down and I died so many times trying to get down here last place actually died was down here as well But hey any grace point around here guys want to pinpoint this part on the map right here I'm gonna go there.  This dude is hidden out of the way A lot of people will miss him. I mean I've got 500 hours into the game This is new to me So yeah, it's just weird that he's got nothing dedicated to him if that is the case So I'm hoping someone's actually spent time down here farming this dude to find out It's like I said I could find nothing really in the database in the database. Oh specific to this dude So yeah, we will see we will see okay, so you want to come to where I'm at right here guys This is where my this is where man So you can see actually I show you a bit longer there Erturi just behind it Right here now I'm hoping it's actually an easier way down here for you guys as well because it's got this is a pain in the ass I'm normally take damage there. Really.  Don't worry about him for now guys. This is your first time down here Have a little look around There is like I said look a ghost a phantom sitting on a chair you can interact with I'm sitting right here Just literally just walk straight through guys and you should get the ash of war like I said Then guys you feel free to farm this enemy if you want to like I said he's a bit of a pain in the ass It's hard to fight but if you want to fight and farm and see if your job's anything specific Be my guest and let me know as far as I'm aware from the things I have the amount of times I've killed him and also without sure their base and having a look I can find nothing Really specific to him apart from his weapon which you can get for more or less any goal and a random map So yeah, that's completely up to and there we have you guys guys If you enjoyed the video leaving a like it really helps out if you like what you see once more out of the ring Be sure to subscribe and hopefully mother you to four people. I will see you on that next one