Podcasts about northern pakistan

What happens when your voice is built through visuals, not volume? In this Unstoppable Mindset episode, I talk with photographer and storyteller Mobeen Ansari about growing up with hearing loss, learning speech with support from his family and the John Tracy Center, and using technology to stay connected in real time. We also explore how his art became a bridge across culture and faith, from documenting religious minorities in Pakistan to chronicling everyday heroes, and why he feels urgency to photograph climate change before more communities, heritage sites, and ways of life are lost. You'll hear how purpose grows when you share your story in a way that helps others feel less alone, and why Mobeen believes one story can become a blueprint for someone else to navigate their own challenge. Highlights: 00:03:54 - Learn how early family support can shape confidence, communication, and independence for life. 00:08:31 - Discover how deciding when to capture a moment can define your values as a storyteller. 00:15:14 - Learn practical ways to stay fully present in conversations when hearing is a daily challenge. 00:23:24 - See how unexpected role models can redefine what living fully looks like at any stage of life. 00:39:15 - Understand how visual storytelling can cross cultural and faith boundaries without words. 00:46:38 - Learn why documenting climate change now matters before stories, places, and communities disappear. About the Guest: Mobeen Ansari is a photographer, filmmaker and artist from Islamabad, Pakistan. Having a background in fine arts, he picked up the camera during high school and photographed his surroundings and friends- a path that motivated him to be a pictorial historian. His journey as a photographer and artist is deeply linked to a challenge that he had faced since after his birth.  Three weeks after he was born, Mobeen was diagnosed with hearing loss due to meningitis, and this challenge has inspired him to observe people more visually, which eventually led him to being an artist. He does advocacy for people with hearing loss.  Mobeen's work focuses on his home country of Pakistan and its people, promoting a diverse & poetic image of his country through his photos & films. As a photojournalist he focuses on human interest stories and has extensively worked on topics of climate change, global health and migration. Mobeen has published three photography books. His first one, ‘Dharkan: The Heartbeat of a Nation', features portraits of iconic people of Pakistan from all walks of life. His second book, called ‘White in the Flag' is based on the lives & festivities of religious minorities in Pakistan. Both these books have had two volumes published over the years. His third book is called ‘Miraas' which is also about iconic people of Pakistan and follows ‘Dharkan' as a sequel. Mobeen has also made two silent movies; 'Hellhole' is a black and white short film, based on the life of a sanitation worker, and ‘Lady of the Emerald Scarf' is based on the life of Aziza, a carpet maker in Guilmit in Northern Pakistan. He has exhibited in Pakistan & around the world, namely in UK, Italy, China Iraq, & across the US and UAE. His photographs have been displayed in many famous places as well, including Times Square in New York City. Mobeen is also a recipient of the Swedish Red Cross Journalism prize for his photography on the story of FIFA World Cup football manufacture in Sialkot. Ways to connect with Mobeen**:** www.mobeenansari.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/mobeenart  Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mobeenansari/ Instagram: @mobeenansariphoto X: @Mobeen_Ansari About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset . Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson  00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us. Michael Hingson  01:20 Well, hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of unstoppable mindset. I am your host. Michael Hingson, we're really glad that you are here, and today we are going to talk to Mobeen Ansari, and Mobeen is in Islamabad. I believe you're still in Islamabad, aren't you? There we go. I am, yeah. And so, so he is 12 hours ahead of where we are. So it is four in the afternoon here, and I can't believe it, but he's up at four in the morning where he is actually I get up around the same time most mornings, but I go to bed earlier than he does. Anyway. We're really glad that he is here. He is a photographer, he speaks he's a journalist in so many ways, and we're going to talk about all of that as we go forward. Mobin also is profoundly hard of hearing. Uses hearing aids. He was diagnosed as being hard of hearing when he was three weeks old. So I'm sure we're going to talk about that a little bit near the beginning, so we'll go ahead and start. So mo bean, I want to welcome you to unstoppable mindset. We're really glad that you're here. Mobeen Ansari  02:32 It's a pleasure to be here, and I'm honored to plan your show. Thank you so much. Michael Hingson  02:37 Well, thank you very much, and I'm glad that we're able to make this work, and I should explain that he is able to read what is going on the screen. I use a program called otter to transcribe when necessary, whatever I and other people in a meeting, or in this case, in a podcast, are saying, and well being is able to read all of that. So that's one of the ways, and one of the reasons that we get to do this in real time. So it's really kind of cool, and I'm really excited by that. Well, let's go ahead and move forward. Why don't you tell us a little about the early Beau beam growing up? And obviously that starts, that's where your adventure starts in a lot of ways. So why don't you tell us about you growing up and all that. Mobeen Ansari  03:22 So I'm glad you mentioned the captions part, because, you know, that has been really, really revolutionary. That has been quite a lifesaver, be it, you know, Netflix, be it anywhere I go into your life, I read captions like there's an app on my phone that I use for real life competitions, and that's where I, you know, get everything. That's where technology is pretty cool. So I do that because of my hearing does, as you mentioned, when I was three weeks old, I had severe meningitis due to it, had lost hearing in both my ear and so when my hearing loss were diagnosed, it was, you know, around the time we didn't have resources, the technology that we do today. Michael Hingson  04:15 When was that? What year was that about? Mobeen Ansari  04:19 1986 okay, sorry, 1987 so yeah, so they figured that I had locked my hearing at three weeks of age, but didn't properly diagnose it until I think I was three months old. So yeah, then January was my diagnosis, okay. Michael Hingson  04:44 And so how did you how did you function, how did you do things when you were, when you were a young child? Because at that point was kind of well, much before you could use a hearing aid and learn to speak and so on. So what? Mobeen Ansari  05:00 You do. So my parents would have a better memory of that than I would, but I would say that they were, you know, extra hard. They went an extra mile. I mean, I would say, you know, 100 extra mile. My mother learned to be a peace therapist, and my father. He learned to be he learned how to read audiogram, to learn the audiology, familiarize himself with hearing a technology with an engineer support. My parents work around me. David went to a lot of doctors, obviously, I was a very difficult child, but I think that actually laid the foundation in me becoming an artist. Because, you know, today, the hearing is it fits right into my ear so you cannot see it, basically because my hair is longer. But back then, hearing aids used to be almost like on a harness, and you to be full of quiet, so you would actually stick out like a sore thumb. So, you know, obviously you stand out in a crowd. So I would be very conscious, and I would often, you know, get asked what this is. So I would say, this is a radio but for most part of my childhood, I was very introverted, but I absolutely love art. My grandmother's for the painter, and she was also photographer, as well as my grandfather, the hobbyist photographer, and you know, seeing them create all of the visuals in different ways, I was inspired, and I would tell my stories in form of sketching or making modified action figures. And photography was something I picked up way later on in high school, when the first digital camera had just come out, and I finally started in a really interacting with the world. Michael Hingson  07:13 So early on you you drew because you didn't really use the camera yet. And I think it's very interesting how much your parents worked to make sure they could really help you. As you said, Your mother was a speech you became a speech therapist, and your father learned about the technologies and so on. So when did you start using hearing aids? That's Mobeen Ansari  07:42 a good question. I think I probably started using it when I was two years old. Okay, yeah, yeah, that's gonna start using it, but then, you know, I think I'll probably have to ask my parents capacity, but a moment, Mobeen Ansari  08:08 you know, go ahead, I think they worked around me. They really improvised on the situation. They learned at the went along, and I think I learned speech gradually. Did a lot of, you know, technical know, how about this? But I would also have to credit John Troy clinic in Los Angeles, because, you know, back then, there was no mobile phone, there were no emails, but my mother would put in touch with John Troy center in LA and they would send a lot of material back and forth for many years, and they would provide a guidance. They would provide her a lot of articles, a lot of details on how to help me learn speech. A lot of visuals were involved. And because of the emphasis on visuals, I think that kind of pushed me further to become an artist, because I would speak more, but with just so to Michael Hingson  09:25 say so, it was sort of a natural progression for you, at least it seemed that way to you, to start using art as a way to communicate, as opposed as opposed to talking. Mobeen Ansari  09:39 Yeah, absolutely, you know, so I would like pass forward a little bit to my high school. You know, I was always a very shy child up until, you know, my early teens, and the first camera had just come out, this was like 2001 2002 at. It. That's when my dad got one, and I would take that to school today. You know, everyone has a smartphone back then, if you had a camera, you're pretty cool. And that is what. I started taking pictures of my friends. I started taking pictures of my teachers, of landscapes around me. And I would even capture, you know, funniest of things, like my friend getting late for school, and one day, a friend of mine got into a fight because somebody stole his girlfriend, or something like that happened, you know, that was a long time ago, and he lost the fight, and he turned off into the world court to cry, and he was just sort of, you're trying to hide all his vulnerability. I happened to be in the same place as him, and I had my camera, and I was like, should I capture this moment, or should I let this permit go? And well, I decided to capture it, and that is when human emotion truly started to fascinate me. So I was born in a very old city. I live in the capital of Islamabad right now, but I was born in the city of travel to be and that is home to lots of old, you know, heritage sites, lots of old places, lots of old, interesting scenes. And you know, that always inspired you, that always makes you feel alive. And I guess all of these things came together. And, you know, I really got into the art of picture storytelling. And by the end of my high school graduation, everybody was given an award. The certificate that I was given was, it was called pictorial historian, and that is what inspired me to really document everything. Document my country. Document is people, document landscape. In fact, that award it actually has in my studio right now been there for, you know, over 21 years, but it inspired me luck to this day. Michael Hingson  12:20 So going back to the story you just told, did you tell your friend that you took pictures of him when he was crying? Mobeen Ansari  12:32 Eventually, yes, I would not talk. You're familiar with the content back then, but the Catholic friend, I know so I mean, you know everyone, you're all kids, so yeah, very, yeah, that was a very normal circumstance. But yeah, you know, Michael Hingson  12:52 how did he react when you told him, Mobeen Ansari  12:56 Oh, he was fine. It's pretty cool about it, okay, but I should probably touch base with him. I haven't spoken to him for many years that Yeah, Michael Hingson  13:08 well, but as long as Yeah, but obviously you were, you were good friends, and you were able to continue that. So that's, that's pretty cool. So you, your hearing aids were also probably pretty large and pretty clunky as well, weren't they? Mobeen Ansari  13:26 Yeah, they were. But you know, with time my hearing aid became smaller. Oh sure. So hearing aid model that I'm wearing right now that kind of started coming in place from 1995 1995 96 onwards. But you know, like, even today, it's called like BDE behind the ear, hearing it even today, I still wear the large format because my hearing loss is more it's on the profound side, right? Just like if I take my hearing, it off. I cannot hear but that's a great thing, because if I don't want to listen to anybody, right, and I can sleep peacefully at night. Michael Hingson  14:21 Have you ever used bone conduction headphones or earphones? Mobeen Ansari  14:30 But I have actually used something I forgot what is called, but these are very specific kind of ear bone that get plugged into your hearing it. So once you plug into that, you cannot hear anything else. But it discontinued that. So now they use Bluetooth. Michael Hingson  14:49 Well, bone conduction headphones are, are, are devices that, rather than projecting the audio into your ear, they actually. Be projected straight into the bone and bypassing most of the ear. And I know a number of people have found them to be useful, like, if you want to listen to music and so on, or listen to audio, you can connect them. There are Bluetooth versions, and then there are cable versions, but the sound doesn't go into your ear. It goes into the bone, which is why they call it bone conduction. Mobeen Ansari  15:26 Okay, that's interesting, I think. Michael Hingson  15:29 And some of them do work with hearing aids as well. Mobeen Ansari  15:34 Okay, yeah, I think I've experienced that when they do the audio can test they put, like at the back of your head or something? Michael Hingson  15:43 Yeah, the the most common one, at least in the United States, and I suspect most places, is made by a company called aftershocks. I think it's spelled A, F, T, E, R, S, H, O, k, s, but something to think about. Anyway. So you went through high school mostly were, were your student colleagues and friends, and maybe not always friends? Were they pretty tolerant of the fact that you were a little bit different than they were. Did you ever have major problems with people? Mobeen Ansari  16:22 You know, I've actually had a great support system, and for most part, I actually had a lot of amazing friends from college who are still my, you know, friend to the dead, sorry, from school. I'm actually closer to my friend from school than I am two friends of college difficulties. You know, if you're different, you'll always be prone to people who sort of are not sure how to navigate that, or just want, you know, sort of test things out. So to say, so it wasn't without his problems, but for most part of it's surprisingly, surprisingly, I've had a great support system, but, you know, the biggest challenge was actually not being able to understand conversation. So I'm going to go a bit back and forth on the timeline here. You know, if so, in 2021, I had something known as menus disease. Menier disease is something, it's an irregular infection that arises from stress, and what happens is that you're hearing it drops and it is replaced by drinking and bathing and all sorts of real according to my experience, it affects those with hearing loss much more than it affects those with regular, normal hearing. It's almost like tinnitus on steroids. That is how I would type it. And I've had about three occurrences of that, either going to stress or being around loud situations and noises, and that is where it became so challenging that it became difficult to hear, even with hearing it or lip reading. So that is why I use a transcriber app wherever I go, and that been a lifesaver, you know. So I believe that every time I have evolved to life, every time I have grown up, I've been able to better understand people to like at the last, you know, four years I've been using this application to now, I think I'm catching up on all the nuances of conversation that I've missed. Right if I would talk to you five years ago, I would probably understand 40% of what you're saying. I would understand it by reading your lips or your body language or ask you to write or take something for me, but now with this app, I'm able to actually get to 99% of the conversation. So I think with time, people have actually become more tired and more accepting, and now there is more awareness. I think, awareness, right? Michael Hingson  19:24 Well, yeah, I was gonna say it's been an only like the last four years or so, that a lot of this has become very doable in real time, and I think also AI has helped the process. But do you find that the apps and the other technologies, like what we use here, do you find that occasionally it does make mistakes, or do you not even see that very much at all? Mobeen Ansari  19:55 You know it does make mistakes, and the biggest problem is when there is no data, when there is no. Wide network, or if it runs out of battery, you know, because now I kind of almost 24/7 so my battery just integrate that very fast. And also because, you know, if I travel in remote regions of Pakistan, because I'm a photographer, my job to travel to all of these places, all of these hidden corners. So I need to have conversation, especially in those places. And if that ad didn't work there, then we have a problem. Yeah, that is when it's problem. Sometimes, depending on accidents, it doesn't pick up everything. So, you know, sometimes that happens, but I think technology is improving. Michael Hingson  20:50 Let me ask the question. Let me ask the question this way. Certainly we're speaking essentially from two different parts of the world. When you hear, when you hear or see me speak, because you're you're able to read the transcriptions. I'm assuming it's pretty accurate. What is it like when you're speaking? Does the system that we're using here understand you well as in addition to understanding me? Mobeen Ansari  21:18 Well, yes, I think it does so like, you know, I just occasionally look down to see if it's catching up on everything. Yeah, on that note, I ought to try and improve my speech over time. I used to speak very fast. I used to mumble a lot, and so now I become more mindful of it, hopefully during covid. You know, during covid, a lot of podcasts started coming out, and I had my own actually, so I would, like brought myself back. I would look at this recording, and I would see what kind of mistakes I'm making. So I'm not sure if transcription pick up everything I'm saying, but I do try and improve myself, just like the next chapter of my life where I'm trying to improve my speech, my enunciation Michael Hingson  22:16 Well, and that's why I was was asking, it must be a great help to you to be able to look at your speaking through the eyes of the Translate. Well, not translation, but through the eyes of the speech program, so you're able to see what it's doing. And as you said, you can use it to practice. You can use it to improve your speech. Probably it is true that slowing down speech helps the system understand it better as well. Yeah, yeah. So that makes sense. Well, when you were growing up, your parents clearly were very supportive. Did they really encourage you to do whatever you wanted to do? Do they have any preconceived notions of what kind of work you should do when you grew up? Or do they really leave it to you and and say we're going to support you with whatever you do? Mobeen Ansari  23:21 Oh, they were supportive. And whatever I wanted to do, they were very supportive in what my brother had gone to do I had to enter brothers. So they were engineers. And you know what my my parents were always, always, you know, very encouraging of whatever period we wanted to follow. So I get the a lot of credit goes to my my parents, also, because they even put their very distinct fields. They actually had a great understanding of arts and photography, especially my dad, and that really helped me have conversations. You know, when I was younger to have a better understanding of art. You know, because my grandmother used to paint a lot, and because she did photography. When she migrated from India to Pakistan in 1947 she took, like, really, really powerful pictures. And I think that instilled a lot of this in me as well. I've had a great support that way. Michael Hingson  24:26 Yeah, so your grandmother helps as well. Mobeen Ansari  24:32 Oh yeah, oh yeah. She did very, very ahead of her time. She's very cool, and she made really large scale painting. So she was an example of always making the best of life, no matter where you are, no matter how old you are. She actually practiced a Kibana in the 80s. So that was pretty cool. So, you know. Yeah, she played a major part in my life. Michael Hingson  25:05 When did you start learning English? Because that I won't say it was a harder challenge for you. Was a different challenge, but clearly, I assume you learned originally Pakistani and so on. But how did you go about learning English? Mobeen Ansari  25:23 Oh, so I learned about the languages when I started speech. So I mean to be split the languages of Urdu. You are, be you. So I started learning about my mother tongue and English at the same time. You know, basically both languages at work to both ran in parallel, but other today, I have to speak a bit of Italian and a few other regional languages of Pakistan so and in my school. I don't know why, but we had French as a subject, but now I've completely forgotten French at Yeah, this kind of, it kind of helped a lot. It's pretty cool, very interesting. But yeah, I mean, I love to speak English. Just when I learned speech, what Michael Hingson  26:19 did you major in when you went to college? Mobeen Ansari  26:24 So I majored in painting. I went to National College of Arts, and I did my bachelor's in fine arts, and I did my majors in painting, and I did my minor in printmaking and sculpture. So my background was always rooted in fine arts. Photography was something that ran in parallel until I decided that photography was the ultimate medium that I absolutely love doing that became kind of the voice of my heart or a medium of oppression and tougher and bone today for Michael Hingson  27:11 did they even have a major in photography when you went to college? Mobeen Ansari  27:17 No, photography was something that I learned, you know, as a hobby, because I learned that during school, and I was self taught. One of my uncles is a globally renowned photographer. So he also taught me, you know, the art of lighting. He also taught me on how to interact with people, on how to set up appointments. He taught me so many things. So you could say that being a painter helped me become a better photographer. Being a photographer helped me become a better painter. So both went hand in hand report co existed. Yeah, so photography is something that I don't exactly have a degree in, but something that I learned because I'm more of an art photographer. I'm more of an artist than I am a photographer, Michael Hingson  28:17 okay, but you're using photography as kind of the main vehicle to display or project your art, absolutely. Mobeen Ansari  28:30 So what I try to do is I still try to incorporate painting into my photography, meaning I try to use the kind of lighting that you see in painting all of these subtle colors that Rembrandt of Caravaggio use, so I tried to sort of incorporate that. And anytime I press my photograph, I don't print it on paper, I print it on canvas. There's a paint really element to it, so so that my photo don't come up as a challenge, or just photos bottles or commercial in nature, but that they look like painting. And I think I have probably achieved that to a degree, because a lot of people asked me, Do you know, like, Okay, how much I did painting for and create painting. So I think you know, whatever my objective was, I think I'm probably just, you know, I'm getting there. Probably that's what my aim is. So you have a photography my main objective with the main voice that I use, and it has helped me tell stories of my homeland. It has helped me to tell stories of my life. It has helped me tell stories of people around Michael Hingson  29:49 me, but you're but what you do is as I understand you, you're, you may take pictures. You may capture the images. With a camera, but then you put them on canvas. Mobeen Ansari  30:05 Yeah, I just every time I have an exhibition or a display pictures which are present in my room right now, I always print them on Canvas, because when you print them on Canvas, the colors become more richer, right, Michael Hingson  30:22 more mentally. But what? But what you're doing, but what you're putting on Canvas are the pictures that you've taken with your camera. Mobeen Ansari  30:31 Oh, yeah, yeah, okay. But occasionally, occasionally, I tried to do something like I would print my photos on Canvas, and then I would try to paint on them. It's something that I've been experimenting with, but I'm not directly quite there yet. Conceptually, let's see in the future when these two things make properly. But now photographs? Michael Hingson  31:02 Yeah, it's a big challenge. I i can imagine that it would be a challenge to try to be able to print them on cameras and then canvas, and then do some painting, because it is two different media, but in a sense, but it will be interesting to see if you're able to be successful with that in the future. What would you say? It's easier today, though, to to print your pictures on Canvas, because you're able to do it from digital photographs, as opposed to what you must have needed to do, oh, 20 years ago and so on, where you had film and you had negatives and so on, and printing them like you do today was a whole different thing to do. Mobeen Ansari  31:50 Oh yeah, it's same to think good yesterday, somebody asked me if I do photography on an analog camera, and I have a lot of them, like lots and lots of them, I still have a lot of black and white film, but the problem is, nobody could develop them. I don't have that room. So otherwise I would do that very often. Otherwise I have a few functional cameras that tend to it. I'm consciously just thinking of reviving that. Let's see what happens to it. So I think it's become very difficult. You know also, because Pakistan has a small community of photographers, so the last person who everybody would go to for developing the film or making sure that the analog cameras became functional. He unfortunately passed away a few years ago, so I'm sort of trying to find somebody who can help me do this. It's a very fascinating process, but I haven't done any analog film camera photography for the last 15 years now, definitely a different ball game with, you know, typical cameras, yeah, the pattern, you could just take 36 pictures, and today you can just, you know, take 300 and do all sorts of trial and error. But I tried, you know, I think I'm a bit of a purist when it comes to photography, so I kind of try and make sure that I get the shots at the very first photograph, you know, because that's how my dad trained me on analog cameras, because back then, you couldn't see how the pictures are going to turn out until you printed them. So every time my dad took a picture, he would spend maybe two or three minutes on the setting, and he would really make the person in front of him wait a long time. And then you need to work on shutter speed or the aperture or the ISO, and once you would take that picture is perfect, no need to anything to it, Michael Hingson  34:09 but, but transposing it, but, but transferring it to from an analog picture back then to Canvas must have been a lot more of a challenge than it is today. Mobeen Ansari  34:24 No back then, working canvas printing. Canvas printing was something that I guess I just started discovering from 2014 onwards. So it would like during that this is laid up, Michael Hingson  34:38 but you were still able to do it because you just substituted Canvas for the the typical photographic paper that you normally would use is what I hear you say, Mobeen Ansari  34:50 Oh yeah, Canvas printing was something that I figured out much later on, right? Michael Hingson  34:59 Um. But you were still able to do it with some analog pictures until digital cameras really came into existence. Or did you always use it with a digital camera? Mobeen Ansari  35:11 So I basically, when I started off, I started with the handle camera. And obviously, you know, back in the 90s, if somebody asked you to take a picture, or we have to take a picture of something, you just had the analog camera at hand. Yeah. And my grandparents, my dad, they all had, you know, analog cameras. Some of it, I still have it Michael Hingson  35:36 with me, but were you able to do canvas painting from the analog cameras? No, yeah, that's what I was wondering. Mobeen Ansari  35:43 No, I haven't tried, yeah, but I think must have been possible, but I've only tried Canvas printing in the digital real. Michael Hingson  35:53 Do you are you finding other people do the same thing? Are there? Are there a number of people that do canvas painting? Mobeen Ansari  36:02 I lot of them do. I think it's not very common because it's very expensive to print it on canvas. Yeah, because you know, once you once you test again, but you don't know how it's going to turn out. A lot of images, they turn out very rough. The pictures trade, and if can, with print, expose to the camera, sometimes, sorry, the canvas print exposed to the sun, then there's the risk of a lot of fading that can happen. So there's a lot of risk involved. Obviously, printing is a lot better now. It can withstand exposure to heat and sun, but Canvas printing is not as common as you know, matte paper printing, non reflective, matte paper. Some photographers do. It depends on what kind of images you want to get out? Yeah, what's your budget is, and what kind of field you're hoping to get out of it. My aim is very specific, because I aim to make it very Painterly. That's my objective with the canvas. Michael Hingson  37:17 Yeah, you want them to look like paintings? Mobeen Ansari  37:21 Yeah? Yeah, absolutely, Michael Hingson  37:23 which, which? I understand it's, it is a fascinating thing. I hadn't really heard of the whole idea of canvas painting with photograph or photography before, but it sounds really fascinating to to have that Yeah, and it makes you a unique kind of person when you do that, but if it works, and you're able to make it work, that's really a pretty cool thing to do. So you have you you've done both painting and photography and well, and sculpting as well. What made you really decide, what was the turning point that made you decide to to go to photography is kind of your main way of capturing images. Mobeen Ansari  38:12 So it was with high school, because I was still studying, you know, art as a subject back then, but I was still consistently doing that. And then, like earlier, I mentioned to you that my school gave me an award called pictorial historian. That is what inspired me to follow this girl. That is what set me on this path. That is what made me find this whole purpose of capturing history. You know, Pakistan is home to a lot of rich cultures, rich landscapes, incredible heritage sites. And I think that's when I became fascinated. Because, you know, so many Pakistanis have these incredible stories of resilience entrepreneurship, and they have incredible faces, and, you know, so I guess that what made me want to capture it really. So I think, yeah, it was in high school, and then eventually in college, because, you know, port and school and college, I would be asked to take pictures of events. I'll be asked to take pictures of things around me. Where I went to college, it was surrounded by all kinds of, you know, old temples and churches and old houses and very old streets. So that, really, you know, always kept me inspired. So I get over time. I think it's just always been there in my heart. I decided to really, really go for it during college. Well. Michael Hingson  40:00 But you've, you've done pretty well with it. Needless to say, which is, which is really exciting and which is certainly very rewarding. Have you? Have you done any pictures that have really been famous, that that people regard as exceptionally well done? Mobeen Ansari  40:22 I Yes, obviously, that's it for the audience to decide. But right, I understand, yeah, I mean, but judging from my path exhibitions, and judging from system media, there have been quite a few, including the monitor out of just last week, I went to this abandoned railway station, which was on a British colonial time, abandoned now, but that became a very, very successful photograph. I was pretty surprised to see the feedback. But yes, in my career, they have been about, maybe about 10 to 15 picture that really, really stood out or transcended barriers. Because coming out is about transcending barriers. Art is about transcending barriers, whether it is cultural or political, anything right if a person entered a part of the world views a portrait that I've taken in Pakistan, and define the connection with the subject. My mission is accomplished, because that's what I would love to do through art, to connect the world through art, through art and in the absence of verbal communication. I would like for this to be a visual communication to show where I'm coming from, or the very interesting people that I beat. And that is that sort of what I do. So I guess you know, there have been some portraits. I've taken some landscapes or some heritage sites, and including the subjects that I have photography of my book that acting have probably stood out in mind of people. Michael Hingson  42:14 So you have published three books so far, right? Yes, but tell me about your books, if you would. Mobeen Ansari  42:24 So my first book is called Harkin. I will just hold it up for the camera. It is my first book, and what is it called? It is called turken, and the book is about iconic people of Pakistan who have impacted this history, be it philanthropist, be it sports people, be it people in music or in performing arts, or be it Even people who are sanitation workers or electricians to it's about people who who have impacted the country, whether they are famous or not, but who I consider to be icons. Some of them are really, really, really famous, very well known people around the world, you know, obviously based in Pakistan. So my book is about chronicling them. It's about documenting them. It's about celebrating them. My second book without, okay, most Michael Hingson  43:29 people are going to listen to the podcast anyway, but go ahead. Yeah. Mobeen Ansari  43:35 So basically it's writing the flag is about the religious minorities of Pakistan, because, you know, Pakistan is largely a Muslim country. But when people around the world, they look at Pakistan, they don't realize that it's a multicultural society. There's so many religions. Pakistan is home to a lot of ancient civilizations, a lot of religions that are there. And so this book document life and festivities of religious minorities of Pakistan. You know, like I in my childhood, have actually attended Easter mass, Christmas and all of these festivities, because my father's best friend was a Christian. So we had that exposure to, you know, different faiths, how people practice them. So I wanted to document that. That's my second book. Michael Hingson  44:39 It's wonderful that you had, it's wonderful that you had parents that were willing to not only experience but share experiences with you about different cultures, different people, so that it gave you a broader view of society, which is really cool. Mobeen Ansari  44:58 Yeah. Absolutely, absolutely. So your third book? So my third book is a sequel to my first one, same topic, people who have impacted the country. And you know, with the Pakistan has a huge, huge population, it had no shortage of heroes and heroines and people who have created history in the country. So my first book has 98 people, obviously, which is not enough to feature everybody. So my second book, it features 115 people. So it features people who are not in the first book. Michael Hingson  45:41 Your third book? Yeah, okay, yeah. Well, there's, you know, I appreciate that there's a very rich culture, and I'm really glad that you're, you're making Chronicles or or records of all of that. Is there a fourth book coming? Have you started working on a fourth book yet? Mobeen Ansari  46:05 You know in fact, yes, there is. Whenever people hear about my book, they assume that there's going to be landscape or portraits or street photography or something that is more anthropological in nature. That's the photography I truly enjoy doing. These are the photographs that are displayed in my studio right now. So, but I would never really study for it, because Pakistan had, you know, we have poor provinces. And when I started these books, I hadn't really documented everything. You know, I come from the urban city, and, you know, I just, just only take taking pictures in main cities at that time. But now I have taken pictures everywhere. I've been literally to every nook and cranny in the country. So now I have a better understanding, a better visual representation. So a fourth book, it may be down the line, maybe five years, 10 years, I don't know yet. Michael Hingson  47:13 Well, one thing that I know you're interested in, that you've, you've at least thought about, is the whole idea behind climate change and the environment. And I know you've done some work to travel and document climate change and the environment and so on. Tell us, tell us more about that and where that might be going. Mobeen Ansari  47:36 So on tape, note, Michael, you know there's a lot of flooding going on in Pakistan. You know, in just one day, almost 314 people died, but many others you had missing. You had some of the worst flooding test time round. And to be reeling from that, and we had some major flooding some teachers back in. Well, climate change is no longer a wake up call. We had to take action years ago, if not, you know, yesterday and till right now, we are seeing effects of it. And you know, Pakistan has a lot of high mountain peaks. It has, it is home to the second highest mountain in the world, Ketu, and it has a lot of glaciers. You know, people talk about melting polar ice caps. People talk about effects of climate change around the world, but I think it had to be seen everywhere. So in Pakistan, especially, climate change is really, really rearing space. So I have traveled to the north to capture melting glacier, to capture stories of how it affects different communities, the water supply and the agriculture. So that is what I'm trying to do. And if I take pictures of a desert down south where a sand dune is spreading over agricultural land that it wasn't doing up until seven months ago. So you know climate change is it's everywhere. Right now, we are experiencing rains every day. It's been the longest monsoon. So it has also affected the way of life. It has also affected ancient heritage sites. Some of these heritage sites, which are over 3000 years old, and they have bestowed, you know, so much, but they are not able to withstand what we are facing right now. Um, and unfortunately, you know, with unregulated construction, with carbon emissions here and around the world, where deforestation, I felt that there was a strong need to document these places, to bring awareness of what is happening to bring awareness to what we would lose if we don't look after mother nature, that the work I have been doing on climate change, as well as topics of global health and migration, so those two topics are also very close To My Heart. Michael Hingson  50:40 Have you done any traveling outside Pakistan? Mobeen Ansari  50:45 Oh, yeah. I mean, I've been traveling abroad since I was very little. I have exhibited in Italy, in the United States. I was just in the US debris. My brother lives in Dallas, so, yeah, I keep traveling because, because my workshop, because of my book events, or my exhibition, usually here and around the world. Michael Hingson  51:14 Have you done any photography work here in the United States? Mobeen Ansari  51:19 Yeah, I have, I mean, in the US, I just don't directly do photography, but I do workshop, because whatever tool that I captured from Pakistan, I do it there. Okay, funny thing is, a funny thing is that, you know, when you take so many pictures in Pakistan, you become so used to rustic beauty and a very specific kind of beauty that you have a hard time capturing what's outside. But I've always, always just enjoyed taking pictures in in Mexico and Netherlands, in Italy, in India, because they that rustic beauty. But for the first time, you know, I actually spent some time on photography. This year, I went to Chicago, and I was able to take pictures of Chicago landscape, Chicago cityscape, completely. You know, Snowden, that was a pretty cool kind of palette to work with. Got to take some night pictures with everything Snowden, traveling Chicago, downtown. So yeah, sometimes I do photography in the US, but I'm mostly there to do workshops or exhibitions or meet my brothers. Michael Hingson  52:34 What is your your work process? In other words, how do you decide what ideas for you are worthwhile pursuing and and recording and chronicling. Mobeen Ansari  52:46 So I think it depends on where their story, where there is a lot of uniqueness, that is what stands out to me, and obviously beauty there. But they have to be there. They have to be some uniqueness, you know, like, if you look at one of the pictures behind me, this is a person who used to run a library that had been there since 1933 his father, he had this really, really cool library. And you know, to that guy would always maintain it, that library would have, you know, three old books, you know, a philosophy of religion, of theology, and there was even a handwritten, 600 years old copy of the Quran with his religious book for Muslims. So, you know, I found these stories very interesting. So I found it interesting because he was so passionate about literature, and his library was pretty cool. So that's something that you don't get to see. So I love seeing where there is a soul, where there is a connection. I love taking pictures of indigenous communities, and obviously, you know, landscapes as well. Okay? Also, you know, when it comes to climate change, when it comes to migration, when it comes to global health, that's what I take picture to raise awareness. Michael Hingson  54:33 Yeah, and your job is to raise awareness. Mobeen Ansari  54:41 So that's what I try to do, if I'm well informed about it, or if I feel that is something that needed a light to be shown on it, that's what I do. Took my photograph, and also, you know. Whatever had this appeal, whatever has a beauty, whatever has a story that's in spur of the moment. Sometimes it determined beforehand, like this year, particularly, it particularly helped me understand how to pick my subject. Even though I've been doing this for 22 years, this year, I did not do as much photography as I normally do, and I'm very, very picky about it. Like last week I went to this abandoned railway station. I decided to capture it because it's very fascinating. It's no longer used, but the local residents of that area, they still use it. And if you look at it, it kind of almost looks like it's almost science fiction film. So, you know, I'm a big star. Was that Big Star Trek fan? So, yes, I'm in port the camps. So I also like something that had these elements of fantasy to it. So my work, it can be all over the place, sometimes, Michael Hingson  56:09 well, as a as a speaker, it's, it's clearly very important to you to share your own personal journey and your own experiences. Why is that? Why do you want to share what you do with others? Mobeen Ansari  56:28 So earlier, I mentioned to you that John Tracy center played a major, major role in my life. He helped my mother. They provided all the materials. You know, in late 80s, early 90s, and so I will tell you what happened. So my aunt, my mom's sister, she used to live in the US, and when my hearing loss were diagnosed, my mother jumped right into action. I mean, both my parents did. So my mother, she landed in New York, and to my aunt would live in New Jersey. So every day she would go to New York, and she landed in New York League of hard of hearing. And a lady over there asked my mom, do you want your child to speak, or do you want him to learn? Frank Lacher and my mother, without any hesitation, she said, I want my child to speak and to see what put in touch with John Troy center and rest with history, and they provided with everything that needed. So I am affiliated with the center as an alumni. And whenever I'm with the US, whenever I'm in LA, I visit the center to see how I can support parents of those with hearing loss, and I remember when I went in 2016 2018 I gave a little talk to the parents of those with hair in glass. And I got to two other place as well, where I spent my childhood joint. Every time I went there, I saw the same fears. I saw the same determination in parents of those with hearing loss, as I saw in my parents eyes. And by the end of my talk, they came up to me, and they would tell me, you know, that sharing my experiences helped them. It motivated them. It helped them not be discouraged, because having a child hearing loss is not easy. And you know, like there was this lady from Ecuador, and you know, she spoke in Spanish, and she see other translators, you know, tell me this, so to be able to reach out with those stories, to be able to provide encouragement and any little guidance, or whatever little knowledge I have from my experience, it gave me this purpose. And a lot of people, I think, you know, you feel less lonely in this you feel hurt, you feel seen. And when you share experiences, then you have sort of a blueprint how you want to navigate in one small thing can help the other person. That's fantastic. That's why I share my personal experiences, not just to help those with hearing loss, but with any challenge. Because you know when you. Have a challenge when you have, you know, when a person is differently able, so it's a whole community in itself. You know, we lift each other up, and if one story can help do that, because, you know, like for me, my parents told me, never let your hearing loss be seen as a disability. Never let it be seen as a weakness, but let it be seen as a challenge that makes you stronger and that will aspire to do be it when I get it lost all of my life, be it when I had the latest or many years, or anything. So I want to be able to become stronger from to share my experiences with it. And that is why I feel it's important to share the story. Michael Hingson  1:00:56 And I think that's absolutely appropriate, and that's absolutely right. Do you have a family of your own? Are you married? Do you have any children or anything? Not yet. Not yet. You're still working on that, huh? Mobeen Ansari  1:01:10 Well, so to say, Yeah, I've just been married to my work for way too long. Michael Hingson  1:01:16 Oh, there you are. There's nothing wrong with that. You've got something that you Mobeen Ansari  1:01:22 kind of get batting after a while, yeah. Michael Hingson  1:01:26 Well, if the time, if the right person comes along, then it, then that will happen. But meanwhile, you're, you're doing a lot of good work, and I really appreciate it. And I hope everyone who listens and watches this podcast appreciates it as well. If people want to reach out to you, how do they do that? Mobeen Ansari  1:01:45 They can send me an email, which is out there for everybody on my website. I'm on all my social media as well. My email is being.ansarima.com Michael Hingson  1:01:57 so can you spell that? Can you Yeah, M, o b e n, dot a do it once more, M O B, E N, Mobeen Ansari  1:02:07 M O B, double, e n, dot, a n, S, A R, i@gmail.com Michael Hingson  1:02:17 at gmail.com, okay, and your website is.com Mobeen Ansari  1:02:26 same as my name. Michael Hingson  1:02:27 So, okay, so it's mo bean.ansari@our.www.mo Michael Hingson  1:02:35 bean dot Ansari, or just mo Bean on, sorry, Mobeen Ansari  1:02:41 just moving on, sorry. We com, no.no. Michael Hingson  1:02:44 Dot between mobien and Ansari, okay, so it's www, dot mobile being on sorry, yeah, so it's www, dot, M, O, B, E, N, A, N, S, A, R, i.com Yes. Well, great. I have absolutely enjoyed you being with us today. I really appreciate your time and your insights, and I value a lot what you do. I think you represent so many things so well. So thank you for being here with us, and I want to thank all of you who are out there listening and watching the podcast today, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Please email me at Michael H, i@accessibe.com that's m, I, C, H, A, E, L, H, I at accessibe, A, C, C, E, S, S, i, b, e.com, and we appreciate it if you would give us a five star rating wherever you are observing the podcast. Please do that. We value that a great deal. And if you know anyone else who ought to be a guest, please let me know. We're always looking for people and mobeen you as well. If you know anyone else who you think ought to be a guest on the podcast, I would appreciate it if you would introduce us. But for now, I just want to thank you one more time for being here. This has been absolutely wonderful. Thank you for being on the podcast with us today. Mobeen Ansari  1:04:08 Thank you so much. It's been wonderful, and thank you for giving me the platform to share my stories. And I hope that it helps whoever watching this. Up to date. Michael Hingson  1:04:26 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com . AccessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for Listening. 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In this episode of the Leadership Insights I Wish I Had Known at the Start series, Julia speaks with Falak Madhani, a health systems leader working in Pakistan, where she leads research and programmes focused on primary care, mental health, and suicide prevention in low-resource settings. Falak shares two hard-earned insights she wishes she'd known earlier. The first: stepping back as a leader too soon, even with the best intentions, can leave your team without the support and skill set only you can offer. Her second insight explores the complexity of leading with a deep sense of social justice. Falak speaks about the emotional cost of navigating injustice, whether it's systemic inequality, condescension in global health settings, or being overlooked despite expertise. She explains how leaders must balance their moral clarity with strategic patience choosing which fights to pick, and when. Listen to this episode to explore what it means to lead when you're tired, tested, and deeply committed to change. About the Guest: Falak Madhani is a health systems leader who works on the development and evaluation of healthcare approaches geared towards equity and social justice. Falak is passionate about enabling – through working closely with communities, patients, and healthcare providers – the creation of home-grown solutions that can make holistic primary care equitably available in low-resource settings. Falak's research portfolio is focused on primary care, mental healthcare and suicide prevention in Northern Pakistan. She holds an MSc Public Health in Developing Countries (now called the Public Health for Development program) from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a liberal arts degree from Bennington College, in Vermont, USA. Falak is also trained in humanistic integrative therapy. As a part of the AKU Brain and Mind Institute, Falak leads the establishment of a Living Labs framework in Northern Pakistan for brain and mind research and programme development. She is concurrently Head of Research at Aga Khan Health Service, Pakistan.

We bring you the ancient rock art of Northern Pakistan. Thousansd of carvings & inscriptions carved on boulders of the ancient Silk Road now part of the Karakoram Highway.

Happy World Radio Day! Today we'll celebrate WRD with your greetings and thoughts. There's the answer to the question about France's film submission to the Academy Awards, “The Listener's Corner”, and Erwan Rome's “Music from Erwan”. All that and the new quiz question too, so click on the “Play” button above and enjoy!  Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday – here on our website, or wherever you get your podcasts. You'll hear the winner's names announced and the week's quiz question, along with all the other ingredients you've grown accustomed to: your letters and essays, “On This Day”, quirky facts and news, interviews, and great music… so be sure and listen every week.Erwan and I are busy cooking up special shows with your music requests, so get them in! Send your music requests to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr  Tell us why you like the piece of music, too – it makes it more interesting for us all!Would you like to learn French? RFI is here to help you!Our website “Le Français facile avec RFI”  has news broadcasts in slow, simple French, as well as bi-lingual radio dramas (with real actors!) and exercises to practice what you have heard.Go to our website and get started! At the top of the page, click on “Test level”. According to your score, you'll be counseled to the best-suited activities for your level.Do not give up! As Lidwien van Dixhoorn, the head of “Le Français facile” service told me: “Bathe your ears in the sound of the language, and eventually, you'll get it”. She should know – Lidwien is Dutch and came to France hardly able to say “bonjour” and now she heads this key RFI department – so stick with it!Be sure you check out our wonderful podcasts!In addition to the breaking news articles on our site, with in-depth analysis of current affairs in France and across the globe, we have several podcasts that will leave you hungry for more.There's Paris Perspective, Spotlight on France, and of course, The Sound Kitchen. We have an award-winning bilingual series – an old-time radio show, with actors (!) to help you learn French, called Les voisins du 12 bis. And there is the excellent International Report, too.As you see, sound is still quite present in the RFI English service. Keep checking our website for updates on the latest from our team of journalists. You never know what we'll surprise you with!To listen to our podcasts from your PC, go to our website; you'll see “Podcasts” at the top of the page. You can either listen directly or subscribe and receive them directly on your mobile phone.To listen to our podcasts from your mobile phone, slide through the tabs just under the lead article (the first tab is “Headline News”) until you see “Podcasts”, and choose your show. Teachers, take note! I save postcards and stamps from all over the world to send to you for your students. If you would like stamps and postcards for your students, just write and let me know. The address is english.service@rfi.fr  If you would like to donate stamps and postcards, feel free! Our address is listed below. Another idea for your students: Br. Gerald Muller, my beloved music teacher from St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas, has been writing books for young adults in his retirement – and they are free! There is a volume of biographies of painters and musicians called Gentle Giants, and an excellent biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., too. They are also a good way to help you improve your English – that's how I worked on my French, reading books which were meant for young readers – and I guarantee you, it's a good method for improving your language skills. To get Br. Gerald's free books, click here. Independent RFI English Clubs: Be sure to always include Audrey Iattoni (audrey.iattoni@rfi.fr) from our Listener Relations department in all your RFI Club correspondence. Remember to copy me (thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr) when you write to her so that I know what is going on, too. NB: You do not need to send her your quiz answers! Email overload!And don't forget, there is a Facebook page just for you, the independent RFI English Clubs. Only members of RFI English Clubs can belong to this group page, so when you apply to join, be sure you include the name of your RFI Club and your membership number. Everyone can look at it, but only members of the group can post on it. If you haven't yet asked to join the group, and you are a member of an independent, officially recognised RFI English club, go to the Facebook link above, and fill out the questionnaire!!!!! If you do not answer the questions, I click “Decline”.There's a Facebook page for members of the general RFI Listeners Club, too. Just click on the link and fill out the questionnaire, and you can connect with your fellow Club members around the world. Be sure you include your RFI Listeners Club membership number (most of them begin with an A, followed by a number) in the questionnaire, or I will have to click “Decline”, which I don't like to do!We have new RFI Listeners Club members to welcome: Sami Malik from Northern Pakistan; Habib Ur Rehman Sehal, the president of the International Radio Fan and Youth Club in Khanewal, Pakistan; Pradip Chandra Kundu and Ratan Kumar Paul, both from West Bengal, India, and Mahfuzur Rahman from Cumilla, Bangladesh.  Welcome one and all! So glad you have joined us!This week's quiz: On 13 February, I asked you a question about our article “French film ‘Anatomy of a Fall' wins best screenplay, foreign film at Golden Globes”. You were to read the article carefully and answer this question: what is the name of the film that will represent France in this year's Academy Awards?The answer is, to quote our article: “The Golden Globes traditionally serve as a preview of the Academy Awards, but Anatomy of a Fall, which won the top Palme d'Or award at Cannes, will not represent France for the best international film, with La Passion de Dodin Bouffant, a historical romance between two gastronomists, submitted instead.”La Passion de Dodin Bouffant is translated into English as The Taste of Things. In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question: “What do you remember about your first experience traveling?”, which was suggested by Khuki Jahanara Yesmin from Bogura, Bangladesh.Do you have a bonus question idea? Send it to us! The winners are: Ras Franz Manko Ngogo, the president of the Kemogemba RFI Club in Tarime, Tanzania. Ras is also the winner of this week's bonus question. Congratulations, Ras!Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Hari Madugula, the president of the Young Stars Radio Club in Hyderabad, India, and Muhammad Shamim, the president of the Golden Eagles RFI Club in Keralam State, India. Rounding out the list are RFI Listeners Club members Kashif Khalil from Faisalabad, Pakistan, and Zenon Teles, who is also the president of the Christian – Marxist - Leninist - Maoist Association of Listening DX-ers in Goa, India.Congratulations winners!Here's the music you heard on this week's programme: The traditional French accordion song “La Reine de Musette”, performed by Lucy Riddett; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; Claude Debussy's “The Cakewalk” from Children's Corner, written and performed by the composer, and “Roi Fayssal”, written and performed by Ali Toure Farka.  This week's question ... you must listen to the show to participate. After you've listened to the show, re-read Melissa Chemam's article “Senegalese lawmakers postpone presidential election to 15 December” to help you with the answer.You have until 4 March to enter this week's quiz; the winners will be announced on the 9 March podcast. When you enter, be sure you send your postal address with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.Send your answers to:english.service@rfi.frorSusan OwensbyRFI – The Sound Kitchen80, rue Camille Desmoulins92130 Issy-les-MoulineauxFranceorBy text … You can also send your quiz answers to The Sound Kitchen mobile phone. Dial your country's international access code, or “ + ”, then  33 6 31 12 96 82. Don't forget to include your mailing address in your text – and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.To find out how you can win a special Sound Kitchen prize, click here.To find out how you can become a member of the RFI Listeners Club, or form your own official RFI Club, click here. 

http://www.philippacoxpregnancycoach.com Hi, I'm Pippa! With two decades of experience as a midwife, I've had the honour of assisting over 3,000 mothers on their incredible journey to motherhood worldwide. From working in a prominent hospital in Abu Dhabi to supporting mothers in a refugee camp in Ethiopia, my journey has taken me to diverse places, including Indigenous Communities in Outback Australia and small hospitals in Northern Pakistan. Whether in rural Australian hospitals or remote Yemeni healthcare settings, I've been privileged to witness the beauty of pregnancy and childbirth in various contexts. My passion for empowering women and their partners led me to step away from clinical practice, deeply concerned about the overmedicalization of pregnancy and childbirth in the western world. I believe in awakening the innate wisdom within women and helping their partners understand this profound journey.

This week on The Sound Kitchen you'll hear the answer to the question about Belgium and the EU presidency. There's “On This Day”, “The Listener's Corner”, Ollia Horton's “Happy Moment”, and Erwan Rome's “Music from Erwan”. All that and the new quiz question too, so click on the “Play” button above and enjoy!  Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday – here on our website, or wherever you get your podcasts. You'll hear the winner's names announced and the week's quiz question, along with all the other ingredients you've grown accustomed to: your letters and essays, “On This Day”, quirky facts and news, interviews, and great music… so be sure and listen every week.World Radio Day is just around the corner (13 February), and we'll cook up a mighty fine banquet to celebrate. What's the main course? Your greetings, of course! So get under your blanket with your phone – believe me, the blanket will make your recording broadcast quality – and record your World Radio Day greetings for us. Please, not too long, though. You must get it to us by 5 February. Send your recorded WRD greetings to thesoundkitchen@rfi.frErwan and I are busy cooking up special shows with your music requests, so get them in! Send your music requests to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr  Tell us why you like the piece of music, too – it makes it more interesting for us all!Would you like to learn French? RFI is here to help you!Our website “Le Français facile avec RFI”  has news broadcasts in slow, simple French, as well as bi-lingual radio dramas (with real actors!) and exercises to practice what you have heard.Go to our website and get started! At the top of the page, click on “Test level”. According to your score, you'll be counseled to the best-suited activities for your level.Do not give up! As Lidwien van Dixhoorn, the head of “Le Français facile” service told me: “Bathe your ears in the sound of the language, and eventually, you'll get it”. She should know – Lidwien is Dutch and came to France hardly able to say “bonjour” and now she heads this key RFI department – so stick with it!Be sure you check out our wonderful podcasts!In addition to the breaking news articles on our site, with in-depth analysis of current affairs in France and across the globe, we have several podcasts that will leave you hungry for more.There's Paris Perspective, Spotlight on France, and of course, The Sound Kitchen. We have an award-winning bilingual series – an old-time radio show, with actors (!) to help you learn French, called Les voisins du 12 bis. And there is the excellent International Report, too.As you see, sound is still quite present in the RFI English service. Keep checking our website for updates on the latest from our team of journalists. You never know what we'll surprise you with!To listen to our podcasts from your PC, go to our website; you'll see “Podcasts” at the top of the page. You can either listen directly or subscribe and receive them directly on your mobile phone.To listen to our podcasts from your mobile phone, slide through the tabs just under the lead article (the first tab is “Headline News”) until you see “Podcasts”, and choose your show. Teachers, take note! I save postcards and stamps from all over the world to send to you for your students. If you would like stamps and postcards for your students, just write and let me know. The address is english.service@rfi.fr  If you would like to donate stamps and postcards, feel free! Our address is listed below. Another idea for your students: Br. Gerald Muller, my beloved music teacher from St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas, has been writing books for young adults in his retirement – and they are free! There is a volume of biographies of painters and musicians called Gentle Giants, and an excellent biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., too. They are also a good way to help you improve your English – that's how I worked on my French, reading books which were meant for young readers – and I guarantee you, it's a good method for improving your language skills. To get Br. Gerald's free books, click here. Independent RFI English Clubs: Be sure to always include Audrey Iattoni (audrey.iattoni@rfi.fr) from our Listener Relations department in all your RFI Club correspondence. Remember to copy me (thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr) when you write to her so that I know what is going on, too. NB: You do not need to send her your quiz answers! Email overload!And don't forget, there is a Facebook page just for you, the independent RFI English Clubs. Only members of RFI English Clubs can belong to this group page, so when you apply to join, be sure you include the name of your RFI Club and your membership number. Everyone can look at it, but only members of the group can post on it. If you haven't yet asked to join the group, and you are a member of an independent, officially recognised RFI English club, go to the Facebook link above, and fill out the questionnaire!!!!! If you do not answer the questions, I click “Decline”.There's a Facebook page for members of the general RFI Listeners Club, too. Just click on the link and fill out the questionnaire, and you can connect with your fellow Club members around the world. Be sure you include your RFI Listeners Club membership number (most of them begin with an A, followed by a number) in the questionnaire, or I will have to click “Decline”, which I don't like to do!We have new RFI Listeners Club members to welcome: Sami Malik from Northern Pakistan; Habib Ur Rehman Sehal, the president of the International Radio Fan and Youth Club in Khanewal, Pakistan; Pradip Chandra Kundu and Ratan Kumar Paul, both from West Bengal, India, and Mahfuzur Rahman from Cumilla, Bangladesh.  Welcome one and all! So glad you have joined us!This week's quiz: On 6 January I asked you a question about Belgium, whose turn it is to hold the presidency of the European Union - each member state of the European Union holds the presidency for six months. You were to re-read our article “Belgium faces election juggling act as it takes over rotating EU presidency” because Belgium is tasked with organizing not only the European elections on 9 June but also their internal national elections, and no luck there, those elections are also on 9 June. All that and something else, quite important, falls during the time of Belgium's presidency, and that was your question: what else is the Belgian presidency tasked with accomplishing during its six-month term? What is one of the biggest issues it also has to deal with?  The answer is, to quote our article: “One of the big issues it will still have to deal with is the revision of what is known as the ‘multiannual financial framework', i.e., the European budget for the coming years, and also ensuring that aid to Ukraine does not wane.”In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question: “If you could resign from anything, what would it be?”Do you have a bonus question idea? Send it to us! The winners are: RFI Listeners Club member Richard Wasajja from Masaka, Uganda. Richard is also the winner of this week's bonus question. Congratulations, Richard – and welcome back to The Sound Kitchen !Also on the list of lucky winners this week is Mrs. Anjona Parvin, the secretary of the Shetu RFI Listeners Club in Naogaon, Bangladesh, and two RFI English Listeners Club members from India: Radhakrishna Pillai from Kerala State, and Samir Mukhopadhyay from Kolkata. Last but certainly not least, there's RFI English listener Khondaker Shihab Uddin Khan from Bogura, Bangladesh.Congratulations winners!Here's the music you heard on this week's programme: The “Scherzo” from A Midsummer Night's Dream, op. 61 by Félix Mendelssohn, performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Seiji Ozawa; “Quand on est bien amoureux”, a traditional folk song from Belgium performed by Wör; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children's Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer; “Happy” by Pharrell Williams, and “Minha Terra” sung by Ruy Mingas.This week's question ... you must listen to the show to participate. After you've listened to the show, re-read our article “France seeks change to EU nature laws in bid to appease farmers” to help you with your answer.You have until 26 February to enter this week's quiz; the winners will be announced on the 3 March podcast. When you enter, be sure you send your postal address with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.Send your answers to:english.service@rfi.frorSusan OwensbyRFI – The Sound Kitchen80, rue Camille Desmoulins92130 Issy-les-MoulineauxFranceorBy text … You can also send your quiz answers to The Sound Kitchen mobile phone. Dial your country's international access code, or “ + ”, then  33 6 31 12 96 82. Don't forget to include your mailing address in your text – and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.To find out how you can win a special Sound Kitchen prize, click here.To find out how you can become a member of the RFI Listeners Club, or form your own official RFI Club, click here. 

This week on The Sound Kitchen you'll hear the answer to the question about COP 28. We'll travel to a 250-year-old festival in Japan, hear your answers to the bonus question on “The Listener's Corner”, and enjoy a twist on music by Chopin on “Music from Erwan”. All that and the new quiz question too, so click on the “Play” button above and enjoy!  Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday – here on our website, or wherever you get your podcasts. You'll hear the winner's names announced and the week's quiz question, along with all the other ingredients you've grown accustomed to: your letters and essays, “On This Day”, quirky facts and news, interviews, and great music… so be sure and listen every week.World Radio Day is just around the corner (13 February), and we'll cook up a mighty fine banquet to celebrate. What's the main course? Your greetings, of course! So get under your blanket with your phone – believe me, the blanket will make your recording broadcast quality – and record your World Radio Day greetings for us. Please, not too long, though. You must get it to us by 5 February. Send your recorded WRD greetings to thesoundkitchen@rfi.frErwan and I are busy cooking up special shows with your music requests, so get them in! Send your music requests to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr  Tell us why you like the piece of music, too – it makes it more interesting for us all!Be sure you check out our wonderful podcasts!In addition to the breaking news articles on our site, with in-depth analysis of current affairs in France and across the globe, we have several podcasts that will leave you hungry for more.There's Paris Perspective, Spotlight on France, and of course, The Sound Kitchen. We have an award-winning bilingual series – an old-time radio show, with actors (!) to help you learn French, called Les voisins du 12 bis. And there is the excellent International Report, too.As you see, sound is still quite present in the RFI English service. Keep checking our website for updates on the latest from our team of journalists. You never know what we'll surprise you with!To listen to our podcasts from your PC, go to our website; you'll see “Podcasts” at the top of the page. You can either listen directly or subscribe and receive them directly on your mobile phone.To listen to our podcasts from your mobile phone, slide through the tabs just under the lead article (the first tab is “Headline News”) until you see “Podcasts”, and choose your show. Teachers, take note! I save postcards and stamps from all over the world to send to you for your students. If you would like stamps and postcards for your students, just write and let me know. The address is english.service@rfi.fr  If you would like to donate stamps and postcards, feel free! Our address is listed below. Another idea for your students: Br. Gerald Muller, my beloved music teacher from St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas, has been writing books for young adults in his retirement – and they are free! There is a volume of biographies of painters and musicians called Gentle Giants, and an excellent biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., too. They are also a good way to help you improve your English – that's how I worked on my French, reading books which were meant for young readers – and I guarantee you, it's a good method for improving your language skills. To get Br. Gerald's free books, click here. Independent RFI English Clubs: Be sure to always include Audrey Iattoni (audrey.iattoni@rfi.fr) from our Listener Relations department in all your RFI Club correspondence. Remember to copy me (thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr) when you write to her so that I know what is going on, too. NB: You do not need to send her your quiz answers! Email overload!And don't forget, there is a Facebook page just for you, the independent RFI English Clubs. Only members of RFI English Clubs can belong to this group page, so when you apply to join, be sure you include the name of your RFI Club and your membership number. Everyone can look at it, but only members of the group can post on it. If you haven't yet asked to join the group, and you are a member of an independent, officially recognised RFI English club, go to the Facebook link above, and fill out the questionnaire!!!!! If you do not answer the questions, I click “Decline”.There's a Facebook page for members of the general RFI Listeners Club, too. Just click on the link and fill out the questionnaire, and you can connect with your fellow Club members around the world. Be sure you include your RFI Listeners Club membership number (most of them begin with an A, followed by a number) in the questionnaire, or I will have to click “Decline”, which I don't like to do!We have new RFI Listeners Club members to welcome: Sami Malik from Northern Pakistan; Habib Ur Rehman Sehal, the president of the International Radio Fan and Youth Club in Khanewal, Pakistan; Pradip Chandra Kundu and Ratan Kumar Paul, both from West Bengal, India, and Mahfuzur Rahman from Cumilla, Bangladesh.  Welcome one and all! So glad you have joined us!This week's quiz: On 16 December I asked you a question about COP 28.  RFI English journalist Amanda Morrow was there, and in her article “Nations agree historic deal to 'transition away' from fossil fuels”, she explained why the agreement had to use the words “transition away” instead of “phase-out” regarding fossil fuels.  Which country objected to the term “phase-out”?The answer is, to quote Amanda's article: “The summit overran by a day, and the draft text put forward overnight Tuesday by the Emirati presidency was a last-minute bid to end a deadlock between crude oil producers, notably Saudi Arabia, and nations seeking a phase-out of oil, coal and gas.”In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question: “What incident changed your life?”Do you have a bonus question idea? Send it to us! The winners are: RFI Listeners Club member Rafiq Khondaker from Naogaon, Bangladesh. Rafiq is also the winner of this week's bonus question. Congratulations, Rafiq!Also on the list of lucky winners this week are RFI Listeners Club members Father Steven Wara, who lives in the Cistercian Abbey at Bamenda, Cameroon, and Hans Verner Lollike, from Hedehusene, Denmark.We have a new listener to congratulate: Miroslav Síleš from Košice, Slovakia – welcome Miroslav! Last but certainly not least, Arundhati Mukherjee, who lives in West Bengal, India.Congratulations winners!Here's the music you heard on this week's programme: "Seoto” by Michio Miyagi; “Winter” from The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi, performed by the Italian Baroque Ensemble conducted by Jacques Bernard; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children's Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer; “Fantasia Impromptu” by Frédéric Chopin, arranged by Hilario Duran and performed by Hilario Duran and his Latin Jazz Big Band.This week's question ... you must listen to the show to participate. After you've listened to the show, listen to Jessica Phelan's story on Alison Hird and Sarah Elzas' podcast Spotlight on France, or read her article “Françoise Giroud, a woman to be reckoned with in French media and politics” on our website to help you with the answer.You have until 19 February to enter this week's quiz; the winners will be announced on the 24 February podcast. When you enter, be sure you send your postal address with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.Send your answers to:english.service@rfi.frorSusan OwensbyRFI – The Sound Kitchen80, rue Camille Desmoulins92130 Issy-les-MoulineauxFranceorBy text … You can also send your quiz answers to The Sound Kitchen mobile phone. Dial your country's international access code, or “ + ”, then  33 6 31 12 96 82. Don't forget to include your mailing address in your text – and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.To find out how you can win a special Sound Kitchen prize, click here.To find out how you can become a member of the RFI Listeners Club, or form your own official RFI Club, click here. 

This week on The Sound Kitchen you'll hear the answer to the question about the Opening Ceremony for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. There's “On This Day” and “The Listener's Corner”, loads of great music, and of course, the new quiz question, so click on the “Play” button above and enjoy!  Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday – here on our website, or wherever you get your podcasts. You'll hear the winner's names announced and the week's quiz question, along with all the other ingredients you've grown accustomed to: your letters and essays, “On This Day”, quirky facts and news, interviews, and great music … so be sure and listen every week.World Radio Day is just around the corner (13 February), and we'll cook up a mighty fine banquet to celebrate. What's the main course? Your greetings, of course! So get under your blanket with your phone – believe me, the blanket will make your recording broadcast quality – and record your World Radio Day greetings for us. Please, not too long, though. You must get it to us by 5 February. Send your recorded WRD greetings to thesoundkitchen@rfi.frErwan and I are busy cooking up special shows with your music requests, so get them in! Send your music requests to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr  Tell us why you like the piece of music, too – it makes it more interesting for us all!Be sure you check out our wonderful podcasts!In addition to the breaking news articles on our site, with in-depth analysis of current affairs in France and across the globe, we have several podcasts that will leave you hungry for more.There's Paris Perspective, Spotlight on France, and of course, The Sound Kitchen. We have an award-winning bilingual series – an old-time radio show, with actors (!) to help you learn French, called Les voisins du 12 bis. And there is the excellent International Report, too.As you see, sound is still quite present in the RFI English service. Keep checking our website for updates on the latest from our team of journalists. You never know what we'll surprise you with!To listen to our podcasts from your PC, go to our website; you'll see “Podcasts” at the top of the page. You can either listen directly or subscribe and receive them directly on your mobile phone.To listen to our podcasts from your mobile phone, slide through the tabs just under the lead article (the first tab is “Headline News”) until you see “Podcasts”, and choose your show. Teachers, take note! I save postcards and stamps from all over the world to send to you for your students. If you would like stamps and postcards for your students, just write and let me know. The address is english.service@rfi.fr  If you would like to donate stamps and postcards, feel free! Our address is listed below. Another idea for your students: Br. Gerald Muller, my beloved music teacher from St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas, has been writing books for young adults in his retirement – and they are free! There is a volume of biographies of painters and musicians called Gentle Giants, and an excellent biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., too. They are also a good way to help you improve your English – that's how I worked on my French, reading books which were meant for young readers – and I guarantee you, it's a good method for improving your language skills. To get Br. Gerald's free books, click here. Independent RFI English Clubs: Be sure to always include Audrey Iattoni (audrey.iattoni@rfi.fr) from our Listener Relations department in all your RFI Club correspondence. Remember to copy me (thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr) when you write to her so that I know what is going on, too. NB: You do not need to send her your quiz answers! Email overload!And don't forget, there is a Facebook page just for you, the independent RFI English Clubs. Only members of RFI English Clubs can belong to this group page, so when you apply to join, be sure you include the name of your RFI Club and your membership number. Everyone can look at it, but only members of the group can post on it. If you haven't yet asked to join the group, and you are a member of an independent, officially recognised RFI English club, go to the Facebook link above, and fill out the questionnaire!!!!! If you do not answer the questions, I click “Decline”.There's a Facebook page for members of the general RFI Listeners Club, too. Just click on the link and fill out the questionnaire, and you can connect with your fellow Club members around the world. Be sure you include your RFI Listeners Club membership number (most of them begin with an A, followed by a number) in the questionnaire, or I will have to click “Decline”, which I don't like to do!We have new RFI Listeners Club members to welcome: Sami Malik from Northern Pakistan; Habib Ur Rehman Sehal, the president of the International Radio Fan and Youth Club in Khanewal, Pakistan; Pradip Chandra Kundu and Ratan Kumar Paul, both from West Bengal, India, and Mahfuzur Rahman from Cumilla, Bangladesh.  Welcome one and all! So glad you have joined us!This week's quiz: On 9 December I asked you a question about the opening ceremony for the Paris 2024 Olympic games.  It's a security nightmare, but, as you read in our article "French sports minister says 'no plan B' for Olympics opening ceremony", there is no plan B, and the committee is committed to making it work. I asked you, as of 9 December and as written in our article, how many free tickets were planned to be given away, and how many paid tickets were planned to be sold.The answer is, to quote our article: “Authorities initially planned to offer 500,000 free tickets for the ceremony as well as 100,000 paid tickets closest to the action, creating a gargantuan event with a total of 600,000 ticket holders and one of the largest spectator events in human history.”That number has been walked back a bit: as of today, the number of paid tickets has not changed - it's still at 100,000, but for the free tickets, it's been moved down from 500,000 to 300,000.In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question, suggested by Khuki Jahanara Yesmin from Bogura, Bangladesh: “Who is your best friend, and why?”Do you have a bonus question idea? Send it to us! The winners are: Razia Khalid, a member of the RFI Seven Stars Radio Listeners Club in District Chiniot, Pakistan. Razia is also the winner of this week's bonus question. Congratulations, Razia!Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Ras Franz Manko Ngogo, the president of the Kemogemba RFI Club in Tarime, Mara, Tanzania, and Alok Bain, a member of the very active Pariwer Bandhu RFI SW Club in Chhattisgarh, India. There's RFI Listeners Club member Bidhan Chandra Sanyal from West Bengal, India, and last but certainly not least, RFI English listener Sheuly Khatun from Dhaka, Bangladesh.Congratulations winners!Here's the music you heard on this week's programme: Presto in B-Flat Major by Francis Poulenc, played by Olivier Cazal; “Blue Bayou” written by Roy Orbison and Joe Melson, and played by Antonio de Almeida; The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children's Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and “La Bicyclette” by Francis Lai and Pierre Barouh, sung by Yves Montand.This week's question ... you must listen to the show to participate. After you've listened to the show, read Paul Myer's article “2023 Africa Cup of Nations: 5 things we learned on Day 3 - Robust and reckless” to help you with the answer.You have until 12 February to enter this week's quiz; the winners will be announced on the 17 February podcast. When you enter, be sure you send your postal address with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.Send your answers to:english.service@rfi.frorSusan OwensbyRFI – The Sound Kitchen80, rue Camille Desmoulins92130 Issy-les-MoulineauxFranceorBy text … You can also send your quiz answers to The Sound Kitchen mobile phone. Dial your country's international access code, or “ + ”, then  33 6 31 12 96 82. Don't forget to include your mailing address in your text – and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.To find out how you can win a special Sound Kitchen prize, click here.To find out how you can become a member of the RFI Listeners Club, or form your own official RFI Club, click here. 

This week on The Sound Kitchen you'll hear the answer to the question about the French investigative reporter Albert Londres. There's listener news and “The Listener's Corner”, loads of great music, and of course, the new quiz question, so click on the “Play” button above and enjoy!  Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday – here on our website, or wherever you get your podcasts. You'll hear the winners' names announced and the week's quiz question, along with all the other ingredients you've grown accustomed to: your letters and essays, “On This Day”, quirky facts and news, interviews, and great music … so be sure and listen every week.World Radio Day is just around the corner (13 February), and we'll cook up a mighty fine banquet to celebrate. What's the main course? Your greetings, of course! So get under your blanket with your phone – believe me, the blanket will make your recording broadcast quality – and record your World Radio Day greetings for us. Please, not too long, though. You must get it to us by 8 February. Send your recorded WRD greetings to thesoundkitchen@rfi.frErwan and I are busy cooking up special shows with your music requests, so get them in! Send your music requests to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr  Tell us why you like the piece of music, too – it makes it more interesting for us all!Be sure you check out our wonderful podcasts!In addition to the breaking news articles on our site, with in-depth analysis of current affairs in France and across the globe, we have several podcasts that will leave you hungry for more.There's Paris Perspective, Spotlight on France, and of course, The Sound Kitchen. We have an award-winning bilingual series – an old-time radio show, with actors (!) to help you learn French, called Les voisins du 12 bis. And there is the excellent International Report, too.As you see, sound is still quite present in the RFI English service. Keep checking our website for updates on the latest from our team of journalists. You never know what we'll surprise you with!To listen to our podcasts from your PC, go to our website; you'll see “Podcasts” at the top of the page. You can either listen directly or subscribe and receive them directly on your mobile phone.To listen to our podcasts from your mobile phone, slide through the tabs just under the lead article (the first tab is “Headline News”) until you see “Podcasts”, and choose your show. Teachers, take note! I save postcards and stamps from all over the world to send to you for your students. If you would like stamps and postcards for your students, just write and let me know. The address is english.service@rfi.fr  If you would like to donate stamps and postcards, feel free! Our address is listed below. Another idea for your students: Br. Gerald Muller, my beloved music teacher from St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas, has been writing books for young adults in his retirement – and they are free! There is a volume of biographies of painters and musicians called Gentle Giants, and an excellent biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., too. They are also a good way to help you improve your English – that's how I worked on my French, reading books which were meant for young readers – and I guarantee you, it's a good method for improving your language skills. To get Br. Gerald's free books, click here. Independent RFI English Clubs: Be sure to always include Audrey Iattoni (audrey.iattoni@rfi.fr) from our Listener Relations department in all your RFI Club correspondence. Remember to copy me (thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr) when you write to her so that I know what is going on, too. NB: You do not need to send her your quiz answers! Email overload!And don't forget, there is a Facebook page just for you, the independent RFI English Clubs. Only members of RFI English Clubs can belong to this group page, so when you apply to join, be sure you include the name of your RFI Club and your membership number. Everyone can look at it, but only members of the group can post on it. If you haven't yet asked to join the group, and you are a member of an independent, officially recognised RFI English club, go to the Facebook link above, and fill out the questionnaire!!!!! If you do not answer the questions, I click “Decline”.There's a Facebook page for members of the general RFI Listeners Club, too. Just click on the link and fill out the questionnaire, and you can connect with your fellow Club members around the world. Be sure you include your RFI Listeners Club membership number (most of them begin with an A, followed by a number) in the questionnaire, or I will have to click “Decline”, which I don't like to do!We have new RFI Listeners Club members to welcome: Sami Malik from Northern Pakistan; Habib Ur Rehman Sehal, the president of the International Radio Fan and Youth Club in Khanewal, Pakistan; Pradip Chandra Kundu and Ratan Kumar Paul, both from West Bengal, India, and Mahfuzur Rahman from Cumilla, Bangladesh.  Welcome one and all! So glad you have joined us!This week's quiz: On 2 December, I asked you a question about a piece our French history specialist, Jessica Phelan, did for Alison Hird and Sarah Elzas' Spotlight on France podcast. It was about the French investigative reporter, Albert Londres. France's most prestigious journalism award is named after him.You were to listen to Jessica's story and send in the answer to these questions: In which year was the Albert Londres Prize founded, and by whom?The answer is, to quote Jessica: “His daughter, Florise Albert-Londres, created it months after his death and the first one was announced in 1933. This year – 2023 – will be the 90th time it has been awarded.” The 2023 Prix Albert Londres went to Wilson Fache, Hélène Lam Trong and Nicolas Legendre. It is awarded every year to three journalists in different categories.In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question, suggested by Muhammad Shamim from Keralam State in India: “If you could time travel, would you go to the past, or the future?”Do you have a bonus question idea? Send it to us!The winners are: Muhammad Shamim, the president of the Golden Eagles RFI Club in Keralam State, India. Muhammad is also the winner of this week's bonus quiz. Congratulations, Muhammad!Also on the list of lucky winners this week are two RFI Listeners Club members:  Zenon Teles, the president of the Christian – Marxist – Leninist – Maoist Association of Listening DX-ers in Goa, and Samir Mukhopadhyay from West Bengal. Finally, two RFI English listeners, both from Bangladesh: Sultana Begum from Sirajganj, and Rozina Akter from Munshiganj.  Congratulations winners!Here's the music you heard on this week's programme: “Le Grand Voyage” by Ibrahim Maalouf, performed by the Haïdouti Orkestar; “Les Folies d'Espagne” by Jean-Baptiste Lully, performed by Musica Antiqua Köln conducted by Reinhard Goebel; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children's Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and “Lush Life” by Billy Strayhorn, sung by Queen Latifa.This week's question ... you must listen to the show to participate. After you've listened to the show, read our article “French film ‘Anatomy of a fall' wins best screenplay, foreign film at Golden Globes” to help you with the answer.You have until 5 February to enter this week's quiz; the winners will be announced on the 10 February podcast. When you enter, be sure you send your postal address with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.Send your answers to:english.service@rfi.frorSusan OwensbyRFI – The Sound Kitchen80, rue Camille Desmoulins92130 Issy-les-MoulineauxFranceorBy text … You can also send your quiz answers to The Sound Kitchen mobile phone. Dial your country's international access code, or “ + ”, then  33 6 31 12 96 82. Don't forget to include your mailing address in your text – and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.To find out how you can win a special Sound Kitchen prize, click here.To find out how you can become a member of the RFI Listeners Club, or form your own official RFI Club, click here. 

WORLD: 8 dead in northern Pakistan bus attack | December 4, 2023Subscribe to The Manila Times Channel - https://tmt.ph/YTSubscribe Visit our website at https://www.manilatimes.net Follow us: Facebook - https://tmt.ph/facebook Instagram - https://tmt.ph/instagram Twitter - https://tmt.ph/twitter DailyMotion - https://tmt.ph/dailymotion Subscribe to our Digital Edition - https://tmt.ph/digital Check out our Podcasts: Spotify - https://tmt.ph/spotify Apple Podcasts - https://tmt.ph/applepodcasts Amazon Music - https://tmt.ph/amazonmusic Deezer: https://tmt.ph/deezer Stitcher: https://tmt.ph/stitcherTune In: https://tmt.ph/tunein #TheManilaTimes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last question of every podcast interview on LightupwithShua Podcast is: What Lights you Up? This question is for all my viewers and followers as well. Feel free to leave a comment below. My special thank you to Dr. Amineh A. Hoti for this fascinating and enlightening conversation. About Gems and Jewels: “Gems and Jewels: The Religions of Pakistan” Dr Amineh Hoti opens the door to take the reader on a voyage of discovery of the untold story of pakistan; the story of a relatively young nation whose rich plural heritage has endowed it with multiple expressions of faith and custom,.woven into a gloriously colourful tapestry whose detail meshes to from a whole.“Gems and Jewels: The Religions of Pakistan” by Dr Amineh A. Hoti This book is a glorious read; accessible, enjoyable, a radiating resonance of vivid human images, of voices, faces, and places, and a celebration of the richness of diversity that connects us with the beauty of human character at its best." BOOK LINK: https://www.amazon.com/Sorrow-Joy-amo... https://www.instagram.com/gemsandjewe... About Dr. Amineh Ahmad Hoti: Amineh Hoti is the executive director of the Centre for Dialogue and Action. She was the co-founder of the first Centre for the Study of Muslim-Jewish Relations in Cambridge and of Dialogue and Action at Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. She has conducted ethnographic field research and lectured across Europe, America, and the Muslim world. She has also worked on designing innovative courses and peace-building textbooks for students and teacher training in the United Kingdom and in Pakistan. She wrote Sorrow and Joy among Muslim Women: The Pukhtuns of Northern Pakistan (2008), which was nominated for the 2007 Kiriyama Prize. Hoti was a participant in the International Higher Education Interfaith Leadership Forum. She received her Ph.D. in social anthropology from the University of Cambridge.   Who is the founder & Owner of LightupwithShua Podcast and LUWS ACADEMY LLC ? visit: lightupwithshua.com I am a student of knowledge of multiple disciplines, a mentor, and an intercultural & Interfaith practitioner, who wants to help heal and solve problems by bringing awareness for conscious living and conscious parenting to people with flexible mindset. Currently hosting a weekly podcast on LightupwithShua podcast on conscious living and parenting. Additionally, actively conducting Self - Healing & Transformation Training Workshops in Pakistan and in the USA. For more information please inquire through email or phone. You can connect with me here: Shua@lightupwithshua.com *Remember to LIKE, SHARE, RATE and REVIEW. Thank you. Shua - شعا ع https://linktr.ee/Shuakhan Copyright © 2017-2022 LUWS ACADEMY LLC & LightupwithShua Podcast All Rights Reserved Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International LicenseLightupwithShua

My special thank you to Dr. Amineh A. Hoti for this fascinating and enlightening conversation. About Gems and Jewels: “Gems and Jewels: The Religions of Pakistan” Dr Amineh Hoti opens the door to take the reader on a voyage of discovery of the untold story of pakistan; the story of a relatively young nation whose rich plural heritage has endowed it with multiple expressions of faith and custom,.woven into a gloriously colourful tapestry whose detail meshes to from a whole.“Gems and Jewels: The Religions of Pakistan” by Dr Amineh A. Hoti This book is a glorious read; accessible, enjoyable, a radiating resonance of vivid human images, of voices, faces, and places, and a celebration of the richness of diversity that connects us with the beauty of human character at its best." BOOK LINK: https://www.amazon.com/Sorrow-Joy-amo... https://www.instagram.com/gemsandjewe... About Dr. Amineh Ahmad Hoti: Amineh Hoti is the executive director of the Centre for Dialogue and Action. She was the co-founder of the first Centre for the Study of Muslim-Jewish Relations in Cambridge and of Dialogue and Action at Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. She has conducted ethnographic field research and lectured across Europe, America, and the Muslim world. She has also worked on designing innovative courses and peace-building textbooks for students and teacher training in the United Kingdom and in Pakistan. She wrote Sorrow and Joy among Muslim Women: The Pukhtuns of Northern Pakistan (2008), which was nominated for the 2007 Kiriyama Prize. Hoti was a participant in the International Higher Education Interfaith Leadership Forum. She received her Ph.D. in social anthropology from the University of Cambridge.   Who is the founder & Owner of LightupwithShua Podcast and LUWS ACADEMY LLC ? visit: lightupwithshua.com I am a student of knowledge of multiple disciplines, a mentor, and an intercultural & Interfaith practitioner, who wants to help heal and solve problems by bringing awareness for conscious living and conscious parenting to people with flexible mindset. Currently hosting a weekly podcast on LightupwithShua podcast on conscious living and parenting. Additionally, actively conducting Self - Healing & Transformation Training Workshops in Pakistan and in the USA. For more information please inquire through email or phone. You can connect with me here: Shua@lightupwithshua.com *Remember to LIKE, SHARE, RATE and REVIEW. Thank you. Shua - شعا ع https://linktr.ee/Shuakhan Copyright © 2017-2022 LUWS ACADEMY LLC & LightupwithShua Podcast All Rights Reserved Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International LicenseLightupwithShua

 Episode #3 My special thank you to Dr. Amineh A. Hoti for this fascinating and enlightening conversation. About Gems and Jewels: “Gems and Jewels: The Religions of Pakistan” Dr Amineh Hoti opens the door to take the reader on a voyage of discovery of the untold story of pakistan; the story of a relatively young nation whose rich plural heritage has endowed it with multiple expressions of faith and custom,.woven into a gloriously colourful tapestry whose detail meshes to from a whole. "Gems and Jewels: The Religions of Pakistan” by Dr Amineh A. Hoti This book is a glorious read; accessible, enjoyable, a radiating resonance of vivid human images, of voices, faces, and places, and a celebration of the richness of diversity that connects us with the beauty of human character at its best." About Dr. Amineh Ahmad Hoti: Amineh Hoti is the executive director of the Centre for Dialogue and Action. She was the co-founder of the first Centre for the Study of Muslim-Jewish Relations in Cambridge and of Dialogue and Action at Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. She has conducted ethnographic field research and lectured across Europe, America, and the Muslim world. She has also worked on designing innovative courses and peace-building textbooks for students and teacher training in the United Kingdom and in Pakistan. She wrote Sorrow and Joy among Muslim Women: The Pukhtuns of Northern Pakistan (2008), which was nominated for the 2007 Kiriyama Prize. Hoti was a participant in the International Higher Education Interfaith Leadership Forum. She received her Ph.D. in social anthropology from the University of Cambridge.   Who is the founder & Owner of LightupwithShua Podcast and LUWS ACADEMY LLC ? visit: lightupwithshua.com I am a student of knowledge of multiple disciplines, a mentor, and an intercultural & Interfaith practitioner, who wants to help heal and solve problems by bringing awareness for conscious living and conscious parenting to people with flexible mindset. Currently hosting a weekly podcast on LightupwithShua podcast on conscious living and parenting. Additionally, actively conducting Self - Healing & Transformation Training Workshops in Pakistan and in the USA. For more information please inquire through email or phone. You can connect with me here: Shua@lightupwithshua.com *Remember to LIKE, SHARE, RATE and REVIEW. Thank you. Shua - شعا ع https://linktr.ee/Shuakhan Copyright © 2017-2022 LUWS ACADEMY LLC & LightupwithShua Podcast All Rights Reserved Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International LicenseLightupwithShua

EPISODE #2 My special thank you to Dr. Amineh A. Hoti for this fascinating and enlightening conversation. About Gems and Jewels: “Gems and Jewels: The Religions of Pakistan” Dr Amineh Hoti opens the door to take the reader on a voyage of discovery of the untold story of pakistan; the story of a relatively young nation whose rich plural heritage has endowed it with multiple expressions of faith and custom,.woven into a gloriously colourful tapestry whose detail meshes to from a whole.“Gems and Jewels: The Religions of Pakistan” by Dr Amineh A. Hoti This book is a glorious read; accessible, enjoyable, a radiating resonance of vivid human images, of voices, faces, and places, and a celebration of the richness of diversity that connects us with the beauty of human character at its best." About Dr. Amineh Ahmad Hoti: Amineh Hoti is the executive director of the Centre for Dialogue and Action. She was the co-founder of the first Centre for the Study of Muslim-Jewish Relations in Cambridge and of Dialogue and Action at Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. She has conducted ethnographic field research and lectured across Europe, America, and the Muslim world. She has also worked on designing innovative courses and peace-building textbooks for students and teacher training in the United Kingdom and in Pakistan. She wrote Sorrow and Joy among Muslim Women: The Pukhtuns of Northern Pakistan (2008), which was nominated for the 2007 Kiriyama Prize. Hoti was a participant in the International Higher Education Interfaith Leadership Forum. She received her Ph.D. in social anthropology from the University of Cambridge. Who is the founder & Owner of LightupwithShua Podcast and LUWS ACADEMY LLC ? visit: lightupwithshua.com I am a student of knowledge of multiple disciplines, a mentor, and an intercultural & Interfaith practitioner, who wants to help heal and solve problems by bringing awareness for conscious living and conscious parenting to people with flexible mindset. Currently hosting a weekly podcast on LightupwithShua podcast on conscious living and parenting. Additionally, actively conducting Self - Healing & Transformation Training Workshops in Pakistan and in the USA. For more information please inquire through email or phone. You can connect with me here: Shua@lightupwithshua.com *Remember to LIKE, SHARE, RATE and REVIEW. Thank you. Shua - شعا ع https://linktr.ee/Shuakhan Copyright © 2017-2022 LUWS ACADEMY LLC & LightupwithShua Podcast All Rights Reserved Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International LicenseLightupwithShua

We're off to the mountains of Northern Pakistan to learn all about one of our most credible cryptids yet! Is there any truth to the tales told by shepherds of hairy men who speak no known tongue? And what does this have to do with a French rapping baby, a horny nun, and the Taliban? Only one way to find out! Tune in! Just remember, don't get spooked! (PS, sorry for the late upload and Ethan's audio quality).

My special thank you to Dr. Amineh A. Hoti for this fascinating and enlightening conversation. About Gems and Jewels: “Gems and Jewels: The Religions of Pakistan” Dr Amineh Hoti opens the door to take the reader on a voyage of discovery of the untold story of pakistan; the story of a relatively young nation whose rich plural heritage has endowed it with multiple expressions of faith and custom,.woven into a gloriously colourful tapestry whose detail meshes to from a whole. “Gems and Jewels: The Religions of Pakistan” by Dr Amineh A. Hoti This book is a glorious read; accessible, enjoyable, a radiating resonance of vivid human images, of voices, faces, and places, and a celebration of the richness of diversity that connects us with the beauty of human character at its best." About Dr. Amineh Ahmad Hoti: Amineh Hoti is the executive director of the Centre for Dialogue and Action. She was the co-founder of the first Centre for the Study of Muslim-Jewish Relations in Cambridge and of Dialogue and Action at Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. She has conducted ethnographic field research and lectured across Europe, America, and the Muslim world. She has also worked on designing innovative courses and peacebuilding textbooks for students and teacher training in the United Kingdom and in Pakistan. She wrote Sorrow and Joy among Muslim Women: The Pukhtuns of Northern Pakistan (2008), which was nominated for the 2007 Kiriyama Prize. Hoti was a participant in the International Higher Education Interfaith Leadership Forum. She received her Ph.D. in social anthropology from the University of Cambridge.   Who is the founder & Owner of LightupwithShua Podcast and LUWS ACADEMY LLC ? visit: lightupwithshua.com I am a student of knowledge of multiple disciplines, a mentor, and an intercultural & Interfaith practitioner, who wants to help heal and solve problems by bringing awareness for conscious living and conscious parenting to people with flexible mindset. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Currently hosting a weekly podcast on LightupwithShua podcast on conscious living and parenting. Additionally, actively conducting Self - Healing & Transformation Training Workshops in Pakistan and in the USA. For more information please inquire through email or phone. You can connect with me here: Shua@lightupwithshua.com *Remember to LIKE, SHARE, RATE and REVIEW. Thank you. Shua - شعا ع https://linktr.ee/Shuakhan Copyright © 2017-2022 LUWS ACADEMY LLC & LightupwithShua Podcast All Rights Reserved Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International LicenseLightupwithShua

episode 130 A Sacrificial Lamb (Literally) & A Critique of the West with Saima Ateeq Introduction I reached out to Saima for an interview because I have noticed Saima often achieves the difficult balance of being unfailingly kind, gracious, and encouraging to others while unflinchingly frank in her opinions on many topics of great import. It's so difficult to do both at the same time, but when someone does so successfully, that is exactly the type of person I'm most curious to speak with - and most likely to learn from! For this episode, Saima chose to share a lamb dish popular all around Pakistan, and generally eaten by her family for Eid Al Adha. The unique thing about Saima's experience with this particular lamb dish is that they begin making this dish with a sacrificial slaughtering of the lamb to commemorate the way God provided Abraham with a lamb to replace the sacrifice of Abraham's son. This episode covers dozens of topics including the making of this dish, how Saima's faith became deeply personal to her, and why she is so critical of the West. Listen all the way to the end and you'll even hear about her grandfather, the water diviner, and how to make roti from sourdough! I'm so excited to turn this over one to Saima - but first, thank *you* for tuning in. Highlights *The Pashtun tribe that crosses Afghanastan and Pakistan *What mutton means in Saima's language *KPK contains many races *The cuisine of the Pashtun tribe - lots of barbequeing *How Saima's tribe became part of Pakistan *Entering an arranged marriage at 18 and what that meant *Being a "single parent" for 10 years while her husband worked in Dubai *Why Saima is so critical of the US and the West *How Pakistan was affected by 9/11, the invasion of Iraq and the War in Afghanastan *"I don't remember one single day without people in my house?" *Why Saima's food memories revolve around her father *Eid-up-Adha - this celebration in Islam *Why the celebration begins with sacrificing a lamb *How they sourced the sacrificial lambs *Why Saima believes its important for children to see the slaughtering of the lamb *How Saima tries to live her religion *How Saima's Islamic faith became very personal to her *Her father/grandfather being water diviners *Where sheep carry their fat - and adding that to this dish *Sourdough naan/roti Listen Now Also listen on:   APPLE   GOOGLE   SPOTIFY   EMAIL How To Contact Saima This Episode's Storied Recipe Recipe Shared by Saima Ateeq Shinwari Mutton Karahi Recipe Best Shinwari Karahi, a delicious lamb dish with fresh tomatoes, garlic, and ginger from the Shinwari tribe in Northern Pakistan (& Afghanistan). Pin This Episode Related Episodes A Wanderer Through Life and a Lover of Spice with Nadia Bandukda Djiboutian Food at the Crossroads of Religion and Culture I Thought "Authentic" Was A Good Thing with Shayma Saddat More About The Storied Recipe Podcast The concept of The Storied Recipe is unique - every guest gives me a recipe that represents a cherished memory, custom, or person. I actually make, photograph, and share the recipe. During the interview, I discuss the memories and culture around the recipe, and also my experience (especially my mistakes and questions!) as I tried it. My listeners and I are a community that believes food is a love language unto itself. With every episode, we become better cooks and global citizens, more grateful for the gift of food, and we honor those that loved us through their cooking. Subscribe to the podcast in Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or simply search for The Storied Recipe in your favorite player. I am also a storytelling photographer celebrating food in extraordinary light Learn Food Photography here. You can shop The Storied Recipe Print Shop (where every image tells a story) here.

Radio enthusiast HAZEEN LATIF tells a story of how an isolated migrant community in northern Pakistan brought electricity, water, confidence and skills to their neighbourhood, through something called community centred media. Follow the work of Hazeen's organisation, Amplifying Voices Pakistan, at facebook.com/amplifyingvoicespk Help us tell more stories like this at patreon.com/arukahnetwork

Michael Canic is the President and Chief Flag-bearer of Making Strategy Happen, a consulting firm that helps committed leaders of mid-market companies turn ambition into strategy, and strategy into reality.He has delivered over 600 presentations to audiences on four continents and his recent book, Ruthless Consistency: How Committed Leaders Execute Strategy, Implement Change, and Build Organizations That Win, reached the top of two best-seller lists.Previously, Michael managed the Consulting Division at The Atlanta Consulting Group, a pioneer in the field of trust-based leadership. He is a former national championship-winning college football coach, and also has a PhD in the Psychology of Human Performance. An adventure traveler, Michael has been to more than 40 countries. He has journeyed by camel in the Sahara, trekked the mountains of Northern Pakistan, and — for some inexplicable reason — swum with piranha in the Amazon.MakingStrategyHappen.comLinkedIn: /MichaelCanic

Garrett Madison, founder of Madison Mountaineering is one of the few people on the planet to have summited K2 twice. He's hoping to get his third this 2021 summer. This is his sixth expedition to K2 making him the most experienced western operator to run regular trips to the Northern Terrorities of Pakistan. With the new 4G Cell tower in Concordia, Garret took the hour walk from K2 Base Camp to Broad Peak Base Camp to talk with me over Zoom about his expedition. We discussed their rotations to Camp 1 and 2, the snow conditions on the mountain, what happens when he finds bodies on the mountain and more. I think you'll enjoy getting this first-hand information directly from Northern Pakistan. Climb On! Alan Memories are Everything

*SPONSOR*We are SO excited to announce that we have Official Sponsorship from a truly incredible company in Odin's Vault, a dedicated company who only provide the very best officially licensed Pop Culture Merchandise, from Funko Pops to T Shirts, DC Comics to Marvel, you want it? Then over RIGHT NOW to Odin's Vault - Website Below:https://odinsvault.co.uk/Welcome to Episode 83 of The Hip Hop Orchestra PresentsIn this Episode, we are introduced to the absolutely incredible Wordsmith and Student of Philosophy Joshua Luke SmithIn this Episode, Joshua shares with us is inspirational story of how and why he got into Music, the INCREDIBLE story of his Parents who were Missionaries who had moved the whole family to Northern Pakistan to build a hospital for the blind to then move back to London after 8 years, the work that he has and has been putting in for his brand new Album, what it was like to give a TEDx talk and SO much moreWe hope you enjoy :)Available For Download On All Major Platforms -https://www.buzzsprout.com/826003/episodesFull Length Trackhttps://soundcloud.com/gsavvides/violin-hip-hopOkiemWebsite -https://www.joshualukesmith.com/Instagram - The Infinity OrchestraInstagram - @theinfinityorchestraTwitter - @joshualukesmithInstagram - @joshualukesmithYoutube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP8VyoqytUcqGjaLbI6rYrAThe Hip Hop Orchestra:Website - https://thehiphoporchestra.co.uk/Instagram - @TheHipHopOrchestraFacebook - The Hip Hop OrchestraTwitter - @TheHipHopOrchGeorgio Savvides:Instagram - @georgiosavvidesFacebook - Georgio SavvidesTwitter - @GioSavvidesLinkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgio-savvides-3414b668/Odin's Vault Odin's Vault Ltd is a UK based company that specialise in only the very best Pop culture merchandiseSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/TheHipHopOrchesta?fan_landing=true)

An early morning narrative from a hotel balcony in Karimabad, the capital of the Hunza District in Northern Pakistan. Dawn breaks, revealing the snow capped peak of Rakaposhi towering 7,788 metres above the roaring glacier fed Hunza River. Early Friday morning prayers in the city of Skardu in Northern Pakistan, considered the gateway to Concordia - the 8000 metre mountains of Pakistan's Karakoram range. David Harden started travelling at the age of sixteen when he hitch-hiked to Greece from London during a school summer holiday. After leaving school he set out from the UK to travel overland to Australia, but only made it as far as Afghanistan. After working in the corporate world (for fifteen long years) he's returned to what drives him forward the most: recording sounds, taking photographs and travel. His website: travelwornsatchel.com has a collection of sounds and photographs from his travels. Instagram & Twitter - davidharden123 and his Travel Worn Satchel Podcast is available to download via most podcast players.

Malala Yousafzai was campaigning for girls rights for education in Northern Pakistan in 2012 when she was shot in the head by the Taliban for her efforts. This is her story. She has since gone on to win a Nobel Prize for her Campaigning and continues to work hard at getting all girls in to education around the world, despite there being a price on her head.    Sponsors   Buy me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/aneedtoread    For 10% off your first month of Online Therapy head to: www.BetterHelp.com/Aneedtoread   Sign up for emails - https://aneedtoread.us19.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=0334e9242982fc3b7d0ab8bac&id=e2e171e387    Bookmarks - https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/929904097/ed-cunningham-a-need-to-read?ga_search_query=ed&ref=shop_items_search_1           Contact   Email: Aneedtoread.podcast@gmail.com  Instagram: @aneed2read

"Going into hospital to work was no longer just a job, it had become the perfect place to hone the skills that I might need on expedition, in the desert or on the side of a mountain. Expedition medicine gives me a renewed sense of purpose, and it has helped me to become a far better, and, more importantly, a far happier doctor".   In this episode, WEM Founder Mark Hannaford chats to Nathan Hudson-Peacock about how he found his 'why’, and why it’s so important to his work as a medic.    Nathan takes us through his journey from a disillusioned junior doctor, stuck on the treadmill like so many others, to a doctor that has travelled the world - from the Sahara Desert to the Himalayas of Northern Pakistan, and has become a passionate advocate for a career in medicine - sharing some of his top tips for those that also want to break the mould...   **    Follow Nathan on Instagram! 

Meet Safi, an architect and an explorer who loves the Northern side of Pakistan, and will often make plans spontaneously to retreat to these areas on a moment's notice. He has some interesting stories to tell

Hear about travel to Northern Pakistan and the  Karakoram Highway as the Amateur Traveler talks to David Harden from travelwornsatchel.com about his road trip in this remote and beautiful country.

Hear about travel to Northern Pakistan and the  Karakoram Highway as the Amateur Traveler talks to David Harden from travelwornsatchel.com about his road trip in this remote and beautiful country.

Hear about travel to Northern Pakistan and the  Karakoram Highway as the Amateur Traveler talks to David Harden from travelwornsatchel.com about his road trip in this remote and beautiful country.

In Episode 024 of Bike Tour Adventures, I have the chance to speak with Viktor Zicho, a 26 year old Hungarian citizen that is currently from Hungary to India on a recumbent bike. Not just your everyday adventurer, Viktor combines his favourite pastimes of photography, climbing and travelling in to one amazing lifestyle. Don't miss the bonus section where we discuss his spending 4 weeks in Pakistani prison for illegally crossing the border.For links to Viktor's social media and webpage, follow the episode 024 link posted below and you will find all his links before the show notes.EPISODE 024: http://biketouradventures.com/episode-024/Follow me at…WEBSITE: http://www.biketouradventures.com YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPQl_pNcMZA-hHckhVrpmaw FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/biketouradventures/ INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/bike_tour_adventures/ TWITTER: https://twitter.com/BikeTourAdv ITUNES: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bike-tour-adventures/id1464406852 Show Notes~ 01 min       Intro to Episode 24 with Viktor Zicho and all about him~ 4m 30s      Motivation for bike tour to India~ 08 min       Viktor's recumbent bike and all about it~ 19 min       Cost of the tour and sponsorships~ 21 min       Talking about the tour, how different Turkey is from Europe, and his route through Turkey~ 27 min       Riding through Iraqi Kurdistan~ 34 min       The terrible highway experiences riding from Kermanshah to Tehran, Iran~ 42 min       Becoming famous in Tehran and cycling Chalus Road to the Caspian Sea~ 52 min       Central Asia: 2 weeks in Khorog, Tajikistan, cycling into Afghanistan and through the Wakhan Corridor~ 1h 3m        Illegally crossing into Pakistan & Tips for cycling in Afghanistan and Pakistan~ 1h 11m      The people of Northern Pakistan and being hosted by a Prince~ 1h 16m      Most amazing part of the trip~ 1h 21m      What parts of his bike needed fixing after finishing the Hindukush~ 1h 24m      Temporary goodbye~ 1h 25m      Catch-up call after he gets out of prison~ 1h 28m      What it's like in a Pakistani prison and getting saved by his government~ 1h 32m      Conclusions and next time on Bike Tour Adventures

The 2019 Ethical Gift Guide is HERE! This is the most anticipated podcast episode (and post!) each year because not only do we have great gift ideas for almost everyone on your list, but also, my co-host, Em Sexton, founder of The Flourish Market joins me. We laugh! We talk gifts! We do trivia! Tell Christmas stories! Answer listener questions! It's so much fun. Enjoy this year's ethical gift guide... Thank you our sponsor for this episode of the Business with Purpose Podcast: noissue! noissue. is the online platform for designing and ordering custom, sustainable packaging for your business or brand. With low minimum order quantities, worldwide delivery in three weeks or less (for free!!!), and a team of designers ready to help, noissue is making customized packaging accessible for businesses of all shapes and sizes. You can use the promo code purpose15 for 15% off your first order! WOMEN'S ETHICAL GIFTS! 1. ENCIRCLED The Dressy Sweatpant - The Dressy Sweatpant is easy to dress up or down because of the modern design and luxurious fabric that’s comfortable, breathable and sustainable. This fancy sweatpant features a tapered leg with ruching at the ankle. Chic enough for the office and casual enough for weekends. The must-have pant for all seasons. Knit, dyed and sewn in Toronto! Use code "stillbeingmolly" for free shipping until January 8th, 2020. 2. POPPY ROW WEEKEND CAPSULE - Poppy Row is an ethically made, environmentally friendly clothing brand for women sized 2-28. Their fabric is made from Eucalyptus, which means it’s naturally cooling + wicks your body sweat! SO comfy and amazing. The Weekender Capsule… 3 pieces - shirt, pants, skirt… all can be worn interchangeably! Use code MollyHoliday19 (15% off through Dec 25). 3. Ten Thousand Villages Eco-Leather Convertible Tote (Black) – This amazing bag can be used 3 different ways. It can be used liked a tote, a fold over clutch, or even as a trendy asymmetrical handbag. It is handmade in India by a group that seeks to develop economic self-sufficiency for a vulnerable segment of society through traditional handcrafting skills. CRC provides marketing, design, finance and exporting assistance to a large number of artisan groups across India. Use CODE: stillbeingmolly25 for 25% off one regularly priced item. 4. Daria Day - Gemstone Jewelry - Beautiful and contemporary, Daria Day jewelry is ethically sourced and exquisitely handcrafted. They are deeply committed to elevating the lives of the artisans who create each piece. They create wearable and functional art for people looking for style and authenticity of the materials used, believing in the healing and connecting power behind each gemstone. Daria Day works with a group of local miners to source our gemstones and silver. They are closely affiliated with the Rupani Foundation, an NGO that has created a rigorous testing process and ensures our gemstones are of the highest quality. Daria Day works with 50 – 60 artisans from three collectives living in remote mountain communities in Gilgit Baltistan in Northern Pakistan. While their artisans live in largely isolated and economically disadvantaged communities, each one has their own story to tell and they are working hard to create a prosperous life. Use code MOLLY15 for a 15% off discount! 5. World Finds - gorgeous jewelry made out of recycled Kantha fabric! Perfect for the colorful person in your life. WorldFinds mission is to empower women through fair trade. Their jewelry and accessories create work for over 700 artisans in vulnerable communities in India. These thoughtful designs and sustainable practices bring change to the lives of the artisans, provide a bright future for their children, and strengthen their communities. They’re a { mostly } women-powered brand that began in 2001. We design all of our items in-house, and love to work collaboratively - both here at our office in the states as well as with our amazing artisans halfway around the world. Use code GG15 for 15% off! MEN'S ETHICAL GIFTS! Brave Soles - They sell bags, accessories, sandals made out of recycled TIRES! (both mens and womens!) But one of their most innovative and incredibly creative lines is their Aircraft Collection!  Their Aircraft upcycled leather collection is made from 100% upcycled plane seat leather and inner tubes. Beautiful, soft and with a lifetime of stories to tell, this collection is available for a limited time. The Pierre Upcycled leather wallet would be a great gift for a man in your life! They also have passport covers, card holders, etc. I have to also mention the Heather leather envelope clutch if you’re loving the upcycled aircraft collection! Use code EthicalTuesday20 at checkout! Sseko Designs Men's Collection - I talk about Sseko all the time! The men's collection is so amazing - wallets, leather belts, an amazing briefcase, and weekender duffel bag all in gorgeous oiled chocolate. Fair trade. Ethically made. Classic pieces! SHOP HERE >> ssekodesigns.com/mollystillman Right to Shower Head to Toe Bath and Body Products - This is such an amazing company that is providing access to mobile showers for people experiencing homelessness. My favorite is the Dignity body wash - charcoal and cotton blossom. Smells SO GOOD! It's vegan. Clean! Head to toe body wash! Available on Amazon and at most Whole Foods stores! They believe the access to cleanliness is a fundamental human right. With each purchase, you’re helping Right to Shower turn ordinary trucks and buses into mobile showers for people living on the streets. Shop here. ETHICAL GIFTS FOR TEACHERS / CO-WORKERS / FRIENDS! Fair Trade Winds has gifts for just about everyone on your list! SERIOUSLY! Love this store. They have gifts for men, women, kids, coworkers… I have a gorgeous striped tee from Fair Trade Winds that is SO soft and so versatile. Can you ever have too many striped shirts? We don’t think so, especially when they’re made of soft organic cotton! Meet the ‘Billie,’ an over sized tee that will make a great new addition to your stripe collection. What’s great about Fair Trade Winds too is that you can shop by “cause” - for example, eco-friendly, gifts that fight human trafficking, etc. https://www.fairtradewinds.net/ Use code MollyFTW for 10% off. The Flourish Market - Another one of my favorite shops where you can get something for just about everyone on your list! Seriously... home decor, jewelry, bags, books, so much! http://www.theflourishmarket.com/ Use code "stillbeingmolly" for free shipping! Batik Boutique -  This is one of my favorite fair trade brands. Hear their story on my podcast interview with Amy Blair. I love their gorgeous placemats, coasters, snack bags - many REVERSIBLE designs! These pieces are handmade by artisans in Malaysia using traditional hand-printing techniques.  https://www.thebatikboutique.com/ Use code Molly20 for 20% off. Solo Hope - Brand started by my friend Emilee - SoloHope works with incredibly talented artisans in Honduras. These nesting Set Baskets are super cute, super functional for ALL the things! Perfect for holding pencils and pens or your favorite plant or BOTH (since there's two in the set!) Each item is handcrafted in Honduras. These gorgeous baskets are made from pine needles + thread and the handles are genuine leather. Use code MOLLY15 for 15% off entire purchase. KID'S ETHICAL GIFTS! ZUTANO Organic Cotton Pajamas! My kids have these pajamas and they are SO soft, GOTS certified organic cotton. My kids LOVE them! They come in a variety of colors, prints, and sizes for kids. You could do matching or coordinating jammies! What kid doesn't love comfy jammies? Use code STILLBEINGMOLLY20 for 20% off. For Purpose Kids is a social good brand inspiring the next generation of global citizens by teaching kindness and doing good as a way of life.  Our Subscription of Toolkits includes curated books and fun, interactive activities around helping people, animals and the environment.  Each Toolkit focuses on a special cause and our activity guides use multi-cultural characters to help your kids connect to the world around them.  With touch points built into each toolkit, you’re not only promoting goodness, you’re making a habit of it. For every Toolkit purchased, 5 meals will be donated to kids at the Sunaayy Foundation, an organization in New Delhi India, that provides basic education, nourishment and support for underprivileged children ages 3-12 in makeshift, outdoor classrooms. Use code ETHICALMOLLY15 for 15% off. The Flourish Market Kid’s Gifts - The Flourish Market has brought on some AMAZING gifts for kids lately. Books like The Girl who Ran, ethical (and clean!) nail polish for little girls, and the cutest baby gown and hats - all products with a purpose! Use code stillbeingmolly for free shipping. So many options for everyone on your list! Hope you love this year's gift guide! Which gift is your favorite? A HUGE thank you to Em Sexton for being my amazing co-host and a huge thank you to my husband for being my amazing executive producer.

Antonia Bollingbroke-Kent balances a life of - big adventures with producing wonderful TV shows such as Joanna Lumley’s Silk Road Adventures. She once drove a bright pink Tuk Tuk from Bangkok to Brighton, did battle with 1000 semi-wild Mongolian horses in the footsteps of Ghengis Khan and nearly froze to death attempting to drive a motorbike and sidecar to the Russian Arctic. Often guided by her Granny’s mantra of ‘Do nothing, say nothing, until the police arrive’ Silk Road Adventures Antonia regales some brilliant travel tales over a cup of tea in her Bristol Kitchen.   On this episode we cover:   ‘Tuk Tuk to the Road’ – Antonia’s epic overland journey from Bangkok to Brighton Her friend Jo’s mental health problems leading to the trip Wanting to raise awareness and money for mental health Giving up her job as a producer at ITV to go on the journey The intense planning that went into the trip Starting the journey in hospital in Bangkok Crossing China being very scary (and taking a very long time) Having to drive on dirt tracks and dangerous mountain roads The late night storm they didn’t know whether they’d survive Driving from Thailand across the border to Laos A month in China and into Kazakhstan 12 countries, 12,561 miles Crying all night the day before they got home The surprise greeting from the guards at the remote border between China and Kazakhstan Cheap hotels, camping and staying with families Trying to hide the bright pink Tuk Tuk in the middle of the Kazak steppe The shocked reaction to them in the middle of nowhere Being driven off the road by curious locals Driving across the Gobi Desert Being trapped by an earthquake and turning it into one big party Doing karaoke with lorry drivers Sleeping under the Tuk Tuk for two days Ted Simon, Jupiter’s Travels ‘the interruptions are the journey’ Breaking down in Crimea and having to stay there for a week Hanging out with the descendants of Genghis Khan The marked transition in character and culture when crossing Europe on the Ukraine-Poland border McDonald’s, Tesco disappointment Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, Belgium The brilliant journey on Eurostar with a Tuk Tuk Driving around the M25 in the freezing cold in the Tuk Tuk Her Granny’s saying ‘Do nothing, say nothing, until the police arrive’. Her adventurous childhood in Norfolk Travelling Thailand aged 18 and coming back with bright green hair How once you’ve tasted big overland travel journeys it changes you How if you don’t have the time to take months off you can take smaller adventures Setting up extreme adventures with The Adventurists The Mongol Rally horserace following in Genghis Khan’s footsteps Finding and training 1000 semi-wild horses in Mongolia Her midwinter Siberian motorbike adventure in minus 36 degrees Tom Morgan and Buddy Munro Channel 4 Trying to get a Ural motorbike and sidecar up the frozen river Ob Wearing tweed and thinking they were going to die Being given a huge frozen fish to take on the motorbike How regular breakdowns of the Ural bike actually kept them alive The Khanty–Mansia living in wooden houses by the river No running water or sanitation but plenty of vodka Returning to TV work to fund her adventures Producing World’s Most Dangerous Roads for the BBC Travelling with Joanna Lumley Silk Road Adventure series Filming a series with Tom Hardy on elephant and rhino Poaching Wars ‘No comment’ on what Tom Hardy was like! Her book ‘A Short Ride in the Jungle’ on her solo journey down the Ho Chi Minh Trail on motorbike The military supply route used during the Vietnam War How a single footpath became a 12,000 mile network through the jungle The trail still being heavily contaminated with unexploded devices A dangerous and remote experience Having ‘a few near misses with cluster bombs’ The Americans bombing Laos every 8 minutes for a decade The millions of millions of UXO dropped The remote tribal areas where ‘the war is still everywhere’ Two American former pilots she went off track with Finding an unexploded live bomb at her feet 400 people still being killed in Laos a year Meeting people who had lost sons, husbands, wives when ploughing the land Driving the Pink Panther – a 25 year old motorbike Every day being so exciting and scary and unknown and making her feel alive How a very curious person has led to her exploration The human urge to see what’s around the next corner and over the mountain Trying to have adventures in every day life and look at the world with fresh eyes Alastair Humphrey’s on The Big Travel Podcast and #microadventures Silk Road Adventures – the company she runs with her boyfriend Marley Building a portable sauna and tugging it around techno festivals in Europe Starting by doing motorbike trips in Tajikistan A passion for travelling in places where there aren’t many travellers Specialising in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kirgizstan, Northern Afghanistan, Pakistan, Jordan, Palestine, Iran and the Caucuses Her book about travelling through Arunachal Pradesh in North East India- the Land of the Dawn Lit Mountains in the Himalayas A three month solo journey across remote lands with restricted access The invisible fold no one goes to The most ethnically diverse place in South Asia, 30 different tribes The local animists who worship hundreds of different gods Constantly trying to appease this pantheon of spirits Meeting the first local girl to climb Everest Being trapped for 3 days in a festival of animal sacrifice and shamanic chanting in a tiny village on the Tibetan border Massive opium bongs, and tripping over the guts of oxen and pigs to the background of Shamanic chanting Eating leaves instead of animal guts Just like Glastonbury Not wanting to spend five days vomiting under the Shaman’s hut Being 18 and trying opium in Thailand How people get the wrong idea about The Royal Geographical Society Their amazing map rooms and libraries Winning a grant to do an expedition to remote North East India and Burma travelling through the lands inhabited by tribal head hunters The Naga tribe who fought for the British Ursula Graham Bower – still the only female commander in the history of the British army How head hunting happened until comparatively recently Lisa’s head-shrinkers in the family (!) Lisa’s granddad and the hallucinogenic drugs How places ‘at the edge of the map’ telling stories that haven’t been told before Wanting to explore Northern Pakistan and Lebanon The Baalbek ruins in Lebanon Staying in the Palmyra Hotel in the footsteps of Nureyev The song that makes her get off her motorbike and dance                

The Judge (Daniel Green, @DanielAGreen1) is back for a new show, and he is live from Northern Pakistan at the Trango Towers.  The Judge is on a never-ending quest to climb the John Wall, and it may kill him - but we shall never stop climbing.  After we get back from Pakistan, the Judge discusses why he's a salary cap girl, he recaps the weekend, talks (sings too) about Lebron's wine tasting, and of course, breaks down Monday's excellent 8 game slate.  Sign up for TheQuantEdge.comPromo: TheJudgeLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lyla (Karachi, Pakistan) Mahnoor Lyla Saifi, is a resident DJ for Sunny Side Up! which aims to provide quality underground club nights whilst giving back to the global community. Their profits go towards sustainable energy resources and providing training and job opportunities in remote villages of Northern Pakistan. Links - https://www.facebook.com/sunnysideupm8/ https://www.instagram.com/mahnoorlylasaifi/ https://soundcloud.com/m-lyla-saifi https://www.mixcloud.com/mahnoor-lyla-saifi/

Maria Toorpakai Wazir is ranked among the top female squash players in the world. Growing up in a Taliban stronghold in Northern Pakistan, where girls are not expected to play sports or even attend school, Toorpakai Wazir became one of Pakistan's top female athletes. Her international presence has brought awareness to gender inequality in tribal areas of Pakistan and helped to increase female participation in sports. Join the Chicago Council and Maria Toorpakai Wazir to hear how she overcame threats from the Taliban and is empowering younger generations to build stronger communities in her native country.

Sam Carpenter author of, "Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less." He joins the show to discuss how can people make more money by working less.   With a background in engineering, publishing, journalism and telecommunications, Sam is author of the book, "Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less," (2009, Greenleaf Book Group, www.workthesystem.com). He is also CEO and majority owner of Centratel (www.centratel.com), a national telephone answering service that he has operated for 28 years. Sam is founder and director of Kashmir Family Aid, a 501C3 non-profit aiding surviving school children of the Northern Pakistan and Azad Kashmir earthquake of October 2005 (www.kashmirfamily.org).     Outside interests include mountaineering, skiing, cycling, reading, traveling. "Work the System" won the prestigious "Best Non-fiction" award at the New York Book Festival. The book is now in its third edition. Sam also owns a consulting firm and distributes an on-line product, The Work the System Academy (www.workthesystemacademy.com) Originally from upstate New York he lives in Bend, Oregon and Seattle, Washington with his wife Linda.   Get "Work the System" at www.workthesystem.com.    Visit the Work The System Academy at www.workthesystemacademy.com.  

sermon transcript Introduction: The Retelling of the Christmas Story is Essential to Our Faith Few Stories Told As Frequently As This One Well, Christmas season is upon us, in case you didn't know; decorations enough to tell us that. Also the lavish time of busyness, and activity, and planning, and preparation. One of my favorite aspects of Christmas are the stories that go along the Christmas season. I love reading those stories or watching movie renditions of them. Last night we watched –it’s kind of a family tradition to watch - the 1970 Scrooge presentation with Albert Finney. It was kind of a musical thing; music is a little odd for me, how people just break out into song in the middle of things. I don't tend to do that, maybe some of your families do that, but the musical aspect doesn't interfere. It's really a poignant story, and we love to watch that and the transformation of an individual from a stingy miser, a wicked miser, to a very generous, lavish person by the visitation of some ghosts. We'll get to all that later, I'll talk about that later, but that's the story, you know it well. Or the story written by O. Henry, The Gift of The Magi; you know that one, a young couple penniless, living in the city, set in I think the late 19th century, and they're trying to think of a really nice Christmas gift they can get for each other, but they don't have very much money at all. And so they each give up something very precious to them to buy a valuable gift for the other. Though the wife gives up her long hair to, I think a wig maker or something like that, she sells her hair so that she can buy a chain for his pocket watch. And then he, for his part, sells the pocket watch, so he can buy her an expensive set of combs for her hair. And so, that's how that goes. You know that story, The Gift of the Magi. And then, of course, the story of the Little Drummer Boy. I don't know that that ever really happened, but there he was, and all he had to offer was his drumming, and then “he smiled at me” and all of that. And so, you know the Claymation one, have you ever seen that one? I don't know who invented Claymation, but the guy must have been a genius. And of course, It's A Wonderful Life, and some of you have seen that, trying to find out what life would have been like without George Bailey. I have no idea what life would - I guess we all know what life would have been like without George Bailey since he was fictitious. But at any rate, Clarence, the angel, his guardian angel, shows up and shows him the value of his life. And all of these stories kind of a rich part of the tapestry of our culture. Scripture Tells It a Variety of Ways But you know, the Lord has spoken a far more poignant story in the actual birth narratives of Jesus Christ. And as you go, you deal with all of them, some of it's just straight out silliness, frankly. Some of it, very poignant, but nothing trumps actually going back and reading in Luke and in Matthew, the account, the historical account of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. And by contrast, it's just so simple and profound. And it is vital for us as Christians to go over this Christmas story again and again. It's vital to our faith for us to remember the actual events of the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And in Luke Chapter 2, I'm just going to read this account Verses 1-20. The value of hearing again of the birth of Christ. There it says: "In those days, Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria). And everyone went to his own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth and Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem, the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. And he went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. And while they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her first born, a son, and she wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the Inn. And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shown around them. And they were terrified. But the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid, for I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David, a savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. And this will be assigned to you, you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.' Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel praising God and saying 'Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace to men on whom His favor rests.' And when the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, 'Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.' So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the baby who was lying in the manger. And when they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child. And all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. Shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told." That's so profound, isn't it, as you look at that. And some time ago, I preached a sermon demonstrating the supernatural and natural aspects of that birth narrative. And it's good to meditate on that, some aspects of Jesus' birth are the same way every child has ever been born, and others are very unusual, supernatural even, the angelic visitations and the glory of God shining all around. And how perfect is it that there's a blending of both, because Jesus was both son of man and also Son of God. Matthew's gospel tells the story more from Joseph's point of view. It gives the genealogy of Jesus Christ, how through Joseph, through the lineage of David, Jesus had the right to be King of the Jews. And then it tells of Mary becoming pregnant through the Holy Spirit, and Joseph resolving to divorce her quietly, and then an angel appearing to Joseph in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." Matthew then tells how Joseph obeyed the voice of the angel, what the angel told him to do. He married Mary, took her home as his wife, but he had no union with her until after the baby was born. Matthew 2 recounts the story of the Magi coming from a distant land to, following a star right to Bethlehem, the house where Jesus was, and how they gave him gifts of gold and incense and myrrh, and they bowed down and worshipped him, and then they returned to their country by another route. But how Herod jealous and wicked and selfish, his jealousy triggered by the visit of the Magi, unleashed the first persecution in direct connection with Jesus, and that is the slaughter of the babies in Bethlehem and its vicinity who are two years old and under. And so, we have these narratives, these birth narratives, showing that Jesus stepped into time, he stepped into history, he's an actual individual, a human being. He's not a myth, he's not a legend. We also have in the New Testament, doctrinal explanations of the birth of Christ. For example, in 1 Timothy 3:16 there it says, "Beyond all question, the mystery of Godliness is great. He appeared in a body, was vindicated by the spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory." And then earlier in that same book, 1 Timothy 1:15, "Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners - of whom I am the worst." I love that verse. And that just shows the purpose of Jesus being born to save sinners. Then in the Old Testament, you have all these prophetic foretellings of Jesus. The predictions through the eyes of the prophets, centuries before Jesus was even born. Like Isaiah 7:14, which is also quoted in Matthew Chapter 1, "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel". And that means God with us. The idea of the incarnation predicted there centuries before Jesus was born. Or the location of his birth in Micah 5-2, "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times." Easy to Become Numb and to Tune Out Well, it's easy as you hear these verses, you hear all of these things, to become numb to it. I mean, we've heard it again and again, there's nothing new. And I would hope you'd be shocked if I came up with something entirely new. Like they recently discovered a new birth narrative of Jesus. I read about it in the National Enquirer. It's awesome. And you can find all kinds of new details; I hope you would all be sharp enough to reject any new birth narratives. And in fact, God is saying, you don't need any new narratives, you don't need any new insights, you don't need anything new here. The fact that any of this could make you numb, or you could become bored, just shows your own wandering hearts. What we need to do is have the Lord do a renewing work in us so that we can hear these things and remember again the significance of the birth of Christ. The World Garbles the Christmas Message - Worse Every Year The world garbles the Christmas message year after year, we hear about it, and it gets worse every year. Materialism rises up to confuse the message of Christmas. You know, it was Jesus that said, "A man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." Doesn't it seem like, like the retailers are trying to challenge Jesus on that point? In effect saying, yes, your life does consist in the abundance of your possessions. And so, retailers are counting on a really good Christmas to save the year, and they want you to buy, buy, buy, you know, jewelry and electronic gadgets and automobiles and other things. I bet all of you are waiting for that Lexus in the driveway with a big red bow on the top, right? The spouse is going to say, take it back, we can't afford it. But along with this comes the secular kind of winter holiday kind of thing, you know, more and more, a sense of the secularization of our country and the fact that we're losing the sense of Christ being the center of Christmas and radio stations playing that seasonal music. And we hear that year after year, and then characters like Santa Claus and the Grinch who piggybacks on Santa Claus, I guess, Frosty the Snowman in Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and all of that, just diverting attention from the center of everything, and that is Christ. Even Dickens classic, how much better a story would it have been if that regeneration had been done by the Holy Spirit because someone preached the Gospel to him, wouldn't have that been better than three ghosts, the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, Future? And then he just throws open all of his benevolence and generosity to the poor, because Christ has changed his heart. Somebody ought to write that story, maybe someone has, I don't know. But GK Chesterton was talking about Dickens classic, defended it as literature and having some noble themes, but he said this concerning Dickens, "We must not ask Dickens what Christmas is, for with all his heat and eloquence, he does not know." And that really is a symbol for our secular nation, they just don't seem to know what Christmas is about any more than they know what Thanksgiving is about. Thanksgiving is about God, it's about thanking God for the blessings of our lives, and Christmas is about the gift of Jesus as Savior of the world. And so for us, as Christians, we know the center, we understand what Christmas is about, but we still need to be renewed. Here: “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus…” We need our faith. Renewed faith comes by hearing, and faith is renewed by hearing about Christ, and that's what I want to do today. And I want to do it just from one verse. I want to look at 2 Corinthians 8:9, and I want to talk about how Christ, through His poverty, has made us rich. For those of you thinking, we're getting a Galatians sermon now because the title is wrong, we're not, okay? But we're going to talk today about how Christ through His poverty has enriched us. Look again at the verse, 2 Corinthians 8:9, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes, He became poor, so that you, through His poverty, might become rich." And isn't it interesting how the verse begins with what you already know? You know the grace of God in Christ, you know the grace of Christ. I'm not telling you Paul says anything new. And so it is with me in this sermon today, I'm not bringing any new insights, not bringing any new thoughts about the birth of Christ. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so, it's my pleasure to keep reminding you of things you already know, so you don't forget them, and they don't fade from your heart. And so, the verse begins with a sense of what it is we already know. And it is vital to our faith to keep the sense of the mystery of the Godliness, the gift of Godliness through Christ fresh. The miracle of Christmas is summed up plainly in these verses. John 1:1, "In the beginning was the word and the word was with God, and the Word was God." Verse 14, "The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us, and we have seen His glory, glory of the only begotten, from the Father, full of grace and truth." And also in these verses, in Luke Chapter 1:30-35, as the angel Gabriel appears to Mary and says, "'Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, and He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the throne of his father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever. His kingdom will never end.' 'How will this be?' Mary asked the angel, 'since I'm a virgin.' The angel answered, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. And so, the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God.'" So there's the center of the mystery of Christmas, the incarnation, Son of God, Son of man, born of a virgin, son of his father, David, but also son of the most High God. And the reason for the incarnation made plan in these verses, Luke 19:10, "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." How Jesus is seeking and saving lost people even now, through the power of the Holy Spirit. And again, Matthew 20:28, "The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many." Now, our text this morning puts the incarnation of Jesus in terms of wealth and poverty, and is worthy tracing this verse out phrase by phrase to try to understand it. The Origin of Christmas: The Grace of Our Lord Jesus The Text Begins with the Concept of GRACE The origins of Christmas, according to 2 Corinthians 8:9 is the grace of Jesus. It all starts with the Grace of Jesus in that Verse. "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, it says, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes, He became poor so that you through his poverty might become rich." Usually, when we think of grace; we focus on the first person of the Trinity, God the Father, and the gift of Jesus is definitely display of the grace of God, but here in this verse, it focuses on the grace of Jesus. What do we mean by grace? Grace is a settled determination in the heart of God the Father, also here in this verse, the heart of Jesus to do us good. It's a determination to do you good, you who deserved infinite wrath and judgment. And so, I think you really have to put those things together, what we deserved and what we receive. And as you put those two together, you really understand Biblical grace. We deserved wrath because we were sinners, we violated the laws of God. We had sinned against Almighty God, and that's an infinite sin, and therefore we deserved infinite punishment, but instead, what do we get? We get infinite wealth. We get riches beyond all measure, and that is grace. Christmas Started in the Mind of God Before the Foundation of the World So, Christmas started in the mind of God the Father and God the Son before the foundation of the world. Listen to 2 Timothy 1:8-10, speaking there about "God who has saved us and called us to a holy life, not because of anything we have done, but because of His own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time. But has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel." So before the beginning of time, God worked out and determined to save you, and Jesus just determined in our verse to make you rich, he wanted to make you infinitely wealthy. And so this is the grace of Christ Jesus, where it all began. Before God said, Let there be light, before there were rivers or oceans or continents, before there were stars in the cosmos, before any of these things, God determined to do you good, and Jesus determined to pay the price. Christmas Started by the Grace of Christ Before He Entered the World And so, Christmas started by the grace of Christ before he entered the world. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich yet for your sakes, He became poor. Jesus was willing to leave the glory of Heaven for the suffering and death of the earth. Now, he's the only one, only human being that's ever been born, the only human being that's ever lived that made a conscious decision to enter this world. That's language that we could never use. It's what he said to Pontius Pilate. You remember when he was on trial for being King, this is the King of the Jews. Pilate said to Him, oh, so you are a king. And "Jesus said, You are right in saying that I am a king. In fact, for this reason, I was born and for this, I came into the world to testify to the truth." It's an extraordinary statement he's making there. I chose to enter the world. It says the same thing earlier in John 6:38-40, "For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but to do the will of Him who sent me. And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that He has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." Where Christ Began: Infinitely Rich The Simple Assertion of the Text And so Jesus made a conscious decision to enter the world. And so Christ began before he entered the world, and the text says, infinitely rich, infinitely rich. It's a simple straightforward assertion of the text. "…the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich..." How Rich Was Christ Before He Entered the World? Alright, how rich? How rich was Jesus? How many of you have ever been to the Biltmore Hotel? Don't raise your - or is it a hotel? No, it's a house. Alright, and I've been there, gold bathtubs, jewels and the walls. Extraordinary wealth. I've actually been to the Vanderbilt summer cottage at The Breakers in Newport, Rhode Island. I've been to both of their houses. And The Breakers is just extraordinary, the lavish wealth; it's like one mansion after another there in Newport, Rhode Island. That wealthy? Or how about the Bill Gates home? Have you looked into that, $157 million home. Who is he going to sell it to? When you have a home worth 157 million, I don't know who you're going to - you're going to take a loss on it, probably. $157 million home there in Medina, Washington, overlooking Lake Washington. Spectacularly beautiful. There's kind of like an online tour, if you're so inclined. It's an amazing thing, state-of-the-art home where if you come in as a guest of Bill and Melinda Gates, they're going to give you a little electronic chip and you can kind of program the heater, temperature of the room, whatever room you want, you just program ahead of time and wherever you go, it will program the room to be climate controlled. What happens if you have two guests in the room. Frequently a husband and wife, one likes it hot, a little colder, I don't know how that works. But that kind of wealth or perhaps you've seen online, someone sent this to me once, The House That Golf Built, this was Tiger Woods home on an island off the coast of Florida, where he gets to see both the sunrise and the sunset over water, and it's this incredible house with all this glass, all the like glass windows, and it's like the master bedroom overlooking water right there, and then you find out at the end that he raised it and built his own mansion at that place. That kind of wealth. Friends, there's nothing on Earth that even comes close to the wealth of Jesus before he entered the world. Nothing comes close. I don't care what mansion you've seen, Vanderbilt or The Breakers. How rich was Christ before entering the world? Well, I want to focus on those things that He left behind. There were some things that he took with them into the world because he never stopped being God, but there are some things he left behind, and so as I was making this list, I was thinking specifically about those things he left behind to enter the world. Rich in Glory Shared by the Father First, he was rich in glory shared with his father. He was radiant in glory. What do we mean by that? Well, Jesus is the radiance of God's glory. And before He entered the world, Jesus was perfectly radiating the glory of God. Well, we learned in 1 Timothy 6 that "God dwells in unapproachable light." He's so blindingly glorious, sitting on the throne of Heaven, that the seraphim in Isaiah 6, have to cover their faces. They cover their face, they've got six wings. "With two wings they cover their faces; with two, they covered their feet; and with two, they're flying." And they're crying out, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory." And then John 12:41, it says, "Isaiah said this, because he was speaking about Jesus' glory." He saw Jesus' glory and wrote about Him. And so that was Jesus' glory that radiates heaven and earth. In Revelation 1:16, after Jesus has ascended back into heaven, John has a vision of Jesus. In Revelation 1:16, it says, "… his face was like the sun shining at full strength." He couldn't look at the face of Jesus, the radiant glory shining from him. In his incarnation Jesus left this radiant glory behind. At the end of his time on Earth, he asked his father for it back. In John 17:5, he says, "And now father glorify me with the glory I had with you before the world began." That's an incredible prayer, because it says in Isaiah 42:8, Yahweh says this," I am the Lord, that is my name, I will not share my glory with another or give My praise to idols." And so God will not share His glory with another but Jesus isn't another, the mystery of the trinity, and so he had the glory of God before he entered the world. Rich in Achievements of Creation He was also rich in achievements in creation. Heaven and earth put on display the handy work of Jesus. It says in John 1:3, "Through Jesus all things were made, and without him nothing was made that has been made." Colossians 1, 16 and 17 says, "For by Him, by Jesus, all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, where the thrones, or powers, or rulers or authorities, all things were created by Him, and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." Psalm 104 recounts, down here on Earth, all of nature, all of these realms of biology of animals in the sea and on land and moving through the air, and all of it displaying the glory of God. And it says in Psalm 104:31, "May the glory of the Lord endure forever. May the Lord rejoice in his works," but the Scripture teaches those are Jesus' works. He was rich in works and the heavenly hosts that were worshipping and knew that Jesus made all things, including themselves, and gave Him glory for that. Rich in Power over the Universe Thirdly, He was rich in power over the universe, directly reigning over the universe. He openly ruled over heaven and earth, his power was openly displayed and unquestioned. He ruled over stars and planets, over winds and rain, over birds and fish, over angels and men. Nebuchadnezzar said of Him, "He does as He pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth, no one can hold back his hand or say to him: 'what have you done?'" Rich in Possessions And Jesus was simply rich in possessions, he just owned a lot. As a matter of fact, he owned everything. Everything that could be owned, he owned. Psalm 95, 4 and 5 says, "In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land." I like Psalm 50, verse 10-12 says, "Every animal in the forest is mine and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, I know that creatures of the field they're all mine, if I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the World is mine and everything in it." He claims ownership over the nations of the Earth. In Psalm 60, 7 and 8, "Gilead is mine, Manasseh is mine. Ephraim is my helmet, Judah is my scepter, Moab is my washbasin. Upon Edom, I tossed my sandal. Over Philistia, I shout in triumph." He owned it all. He was the King of kings and Lord of lords. Rich in Angelic Worship & Service Fifth, he is rich in angelic, worship and service. He had a 100 million angels doing his bidding. 100 million. Thousands upon thousands attended Him. 10,000 times 10,000 stood before him. Only geeks like me would do the math - that's 100 million angels. 100 million ready to do His bidding, ready to obey Him. They were the ones that are crying to one another, holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty. And sixthly and finally, he was rich in happiness and satisfaction, completely blessed in heaven. Before he took on a human body, Jesus never knew pain or suffering. Book of Hebrew says "He learned obedience by what he suffered. He had never suffered anything before that," except perhaps one thing, he saw the damage that sin had done to the universe and specifically to his chosen people, and it grieved Him, and it motivated him to leave all of that comfort and power and pleasure behind and take on a human body and enter this world. And so that's where Christ started, that's how infinitely wealthy he started. Where did he end up? Where Christ Ended: Infinitely Poor Christ’s Free Choice Well, he ended up infinitely immeasurably poor. "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes, He became poor." Now, this was Christ free choice, but he became perfectly poor. Daniel read these verses earlier, listen to them again in Philippians 2:6-8, "Jesus being, in very nature, God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross." Christ’s Poverty: The Infinite Downward Journey So Jesus at the cross, I would contend, is the poorest man that ever lived Any of those things that would alleviate the suffering of life were gone from him, and he had actually infinite suffering as our sin bearer. So he became a human being, He became weak, He became beset with suffering, He became a servant. He was temptable, it says in Hebrews 2:18, "He Himself suffered when He was tempted, and he was tempted in every way, just as we are yet was without sin, able to become hungry, and tired, and thirsty, able to feel pain, able to suffer and able to die." In Isaiah 53:3, "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering." He was born a baby. And at one level, this absolutely had to be because he had to fulfill the fact that it would be the seed of a woman who had crushed the serpents head, but Adam was formed from the dust of the earth, fully formed as an adult human being. So we still need to see some aspect of volition on the part of Jesus to be born so completely helpless in the normal way, absolutely helpless, stripped of all visible glory and power, needing to be swaddled like a newborn baby does by a human mother and needing to learn everything. This will just blow the circuits of your brain. How can Jesus be omniscient and need to learn things? Does anyone know the answer to that? But Jesus did. He was God, and also needed to learn everything. He was completely mute as all babies are. I know they make sounds, but those aren't words. They'll let you know and they're hungry, and tired, and have needs or in pain, they definitely do. But he couldn't talk. He had to learn how to talk. He who was the Word incarnate, couldn't say a word when he was born. When he was born, a Jew, therefore a member of a conquered people under the heel of the Romans, they were effectively slaves in their own Promised Land, and within the Jewish nation born of unusually poor parents. If you look at the actual circumstances of his birth, very few babies in the world are born into that level of poverty. Joseph and Mary were clearly Godly, but they're also poor. Because it says in Leviticus 12, 7 and 8, "These are the regulations for the woman who gives birth to a boy or a girl, if she cannot afford a lamb, she is to bring two doves or young pigeons, one for a burnt offering, and the other for sin offering." So they met the criteria of too poor to offer the real offering, so they had to offer the poor man's offering. And look at the poverty of the circumstances of his birth, poor people generally have better birth circumstances than Jesus did: Born in a barn, laid in a manger where animals eat their food. In many ways, they were like homeless people at that particular point, and His poverty would continue throughout His life. To one disciple who wanted to follow him, he said, remember how the disciples said, "I'll follow you wherever you go" and He said, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has no place to lay his head." He was supported by a group of women who supported him out of their means. He was a servant of all, humble toward anyone who asked, hated and opposed by many, but the ultimate poverty was the death on the cross. The infinite downward journey was made complete when Jesus died under the wrath of God and the cross, as His clothes are being gambled for there in fulfillment of prophecy, He has no earthly possessions left, nothing, it's all gone. And then God pours out his wrath on Jesus. Our sin bearer suffering in our place, despised and rejected, hated and mocked, stripped of all possible dignity, he died, a death of an accursed man. No one ever has been as poor as Jesus was at that particular moment. Still Rich, Though! Still rich though. Still rich though. I don't like those theologies of what they call the kenosis, the emptying, how Jesus stopped being God, He would never stop being God. He was always the second person of the Trinity, and we can't quite fathom how he can be both sin bearer and also the second person of the Trinity, but the Father, the Son and the Spirit, that's eternal. It will never change. And so Jesus forever was and is God the Son. He never stopped being the son of God. He displayed supernatural power over the winds and rains, over fish, over donkeys, over people, over every illness, even over death. He displayed supernatural power. He was rich in wisdom. No one ever spoke the way he did. Supernatural knowledge, he knew people's minds and thoughts, even what they were thinking in the secrets of their hearts. And he was rich in love, his father loved him with a perfect love. It says in Hebrews 1:9, "You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions." He was perfect in His character, and so the characteristics of Jesus, the nature of Jesus, the perfections of Jesus, drew forth the affections of his father, and so he testified at his baptism, "This is my beloved Son, whom I love. With Him, I am well pleased." And he was rich in love toward others, He poured out compassion and love toward others. What Christ Accomplished: We Became Rich It Was All for Us! “For your sake…” So, what did Christ accomplish? Well, he made you rich. That's what he accomplished. We know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for our sakes, He became poor. So that through his poverty, we might become rich. It was all for us. We Were Poor, Though We Didn’t Know It Now, perhaps you didn't know that you were poor, perhaps you didn't know. There was a group of people in the Book of Revelation that didn't know either. And in Revelation 3:17, it says, "You say, I'm rich, I've acquired wealth and do not need a thing, but you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked." If you are out of fellowship with God, it doesn't matter how much money you make every year, it doesn't matter where you live, it doesn't matter what's in the bank account, you are infinitely poverty-stricken in the eyes of heaven. Everything we own will someday be taken from us, "…we brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out of it," 1st Timothy 6:7. The Vanderbilts left their beautiful homes behind, and now they're museums. Maybe someday Bill Gates's home will be a museum too if the Lord tarries, we don't know. But you can't bring it with you. And all of our beauty, and power, and strength, and skill are temporary and fading, as it says in Isaiah 40, 6 and 7, "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall because the breath of the Lord blows on them." We are like grass, and you might be young and strong and vibrant and capable and skillful and healthy, but it's all temporary, because all of our human capabilities and acquisitions are temporary. And apart from Christ, we were rebellious and we were under the wrath of God, as it says in Romans 3, "There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God." And again, in Titus 3:3, "At one time, we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived, and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures, we lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. And we were powerless to resist the devil." As it says in Romans 5:6, "At that time, we were powerless. At the right time when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly." "We were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. And we were dead in our transgressions and sins," Ephesians 2 says, "and we were under the death penalty, for the wages of sin is death." That's what we were. He Made Us Rich We were infinitely poverty-stricken, but Christ has made us rich, Amen. He has made us richer than your wildest dreams can imagine. Can't even imagine how wealthy we are. First and foremost, we are adopted as sons and daughters of the living God. We are heirs, as I said last week, with Abraham, heirs of the world. The meek will inherit the Earth, and if you're a child of God, you're one of those meek. If you're a son, daughter of Abraham, you're going to be named in his will and you will get some of the new heaven and new earth, infinitely rich, and death cannot take it from you, because you'll never die. You're rich in forgiveness, rich in righteousness, rich in adoption, rich in inheritance and rich in the Holy Spirit. Christ Richer Than When He Started: He Gained Us & Gets Richer Everyday (And So do We)! And Christ is richer too. What did he get? Well, he got us. Now, you would say that's not really much, but he doesn't look on it that way. We were created in the image of God and now redeemed through His blood and transformed back into the image of God, and he gained a "multitude from every tribe and language and people and nation" that will stand around the throne in white robes, holding palm branches in their hands and saying, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb." And he gets more and more and more of those people every day. It was a very, very good investment. He gets richer and richer every single day, as more and more of the elect come to faith in Christ. Application: How Christ’s Love Should Compel Us Receive the Gift of Grace, This is the Real Christmas Present So what application can we take from 2 Corinthians 8:9? Well, first, just receive the gift of God's grace. Receive the gift of God's grace. Perhaps you're a visitor here today, perhaps you're not a Christian, perhaps you're on the outside looking in, trust in Christ. You've heard the gospel plainly revealed this morning that God sent His son to save sinners like you. Trust in Him. You don't have to do any good works. As we've been saying in the book of Galatians, just by simple faith in Jesus, all your sins will be removed, and you will be adopted because he suffered wrath in your place. As JI Packer summed it all up in these words, “Adoption through propitiation, you are adopted as a son or daughter of the living God, because Jesus died in your place under the wrath of God.” Trust in Him. Revel in the Gift of Grace; Meditate on How Christ’s Poverty Has Made You Rich Secondly, if you've come to Christ already just revel in the gift of grace, feel your wealth, understand that you're an heir of heaven, understand this, meditate on how Christ's poverty has made you rich, and feel that. It has nothing to do with material possessions. Anything given to you this week will be, at some point, destroyed, as Isaiah 40 said, "It's grass, it's going to wither and fall." But you are rich in ways that no thief can steal from you, and no moth and rust can destroy. You are infinitely wealthy. Understand How this Grace Compels Us to Be Generous to Others And thirdly, understand how this grace compels you to act like Jesus and be gracious to the poor around you. That's the home base of 2 Corinthians 8:9, that's what it's all about. What is Paul doing in 2 Corinthians 8, he's raising money, he's raising money based on the example of the Macedonian Christians who were gracious, and despite the fact that they were really poor, gave lots of money to alleviate the poverty of Jewish Christians in Palestine. And so he's talking to the Corinthians, saying, I want you to know what the Macedonians did, you might want to think about giving. And then he talks about Jesus, and he says, "Look, Jesus is our example. You have been made rich by Jesus. Now, make others rich." Make others rich. How do we do that? Well we could start with money. Money is the beginning. Okay, we're surrounded by people who don't know the name of Jesus. They go to the ends of the earth, and we should care about unreached people groups. There are 7296 unreached people groups. We should care about them and desire to reach them with the Gospel, and money is involved in that. It takes money to send missionaries and support them on the mission field. We're about halfway to our goal, Lottie Moon. I have full confidence that this church will meet the goal, but I urge you to be sacrificial. Think about how much God has given you and be generous and have compassion on poverty-stricken people, have compassion on the poor and needy right around us and to the ends of the earth. As I was doing research for a talk I'm going to give a week from today at the cross-conference, I'm doing a talk on Mercy Ministry, lessons on Mercy Ministry throughout church history, good and bad. I can't think of a crueler topic, alright? I'm probably up to 36 pages, and they've given me 50 minutes. I think I'm going to appeal for another 50 minutes, but I don't think they're going to give it to me. I think I've got that length of time, and that's it. So now I have to go back and just get it down to these few stories. But one of the things I've learned is the incredible gap between the richest nations and the poorest nation, now it's wider than it's ever been in history. Before the industrial revolution, the gap was generally 4:1, that the wealthy nations per capita made four times as much as the poorest nations. Now, nearly half the world population, more than 3 billion people live on less $2.50 a day. The average American, $90 a day. Think about that. That's like 45:1. So what do we do with that information? What should we do with the fact that 1.3 billion people live in extreme poverty, about $1 a day, the fact that 1 billion children worldwide are living in poverty, 22,000 children die every day, directly due to poverty? What do we do with that information, the fact that more than 1 billion people lack adequate access to clean drinking water and 400 million of these are children, the fact that almost a billion people, 870 million people worldwide do not have enough food to eat, the fact that there are preventable diseases that take out the lives of people, like diarrhea even? The first human being I ever saw die, died of diarrhea in Northern Pakistan. It was a little baby, 20 days old, and the parents had ignorantly cut off that child's fluids because they thought it would solve the diarrhea problem, with exactly the opposite. And gave, by the time that we had the child, got the child, the doctor got the child, child had double pneumonia and very low pulse, low blood pressure. We couldn't get a vein. We tried to give it fluids, and it died. And it was the first person I ever saw die. But you just feel like it's eminently preventable. It could have been prevented. So what do we do with that? What should we think? Well, I don't desire to make you feel guilty. I do desire to make you feel accountable, that all of the wealth that God has given you, you're accountable, and you're going to give an account for it so I'm I. I another lesson I've learned as I prepared for this talk, the most effective Mercy Ministry is intimate connection with the poor, not just money. If all you do is fly over and drop money down on them, you actually, in many cases, going to hurt them. A key principle in doing Mercy Ministry is don't do for others what they can do for themselves. That's key principle, because if you're doing for others what they can and should be doing for themselves, you're hurting them, but there are genuinely needy people who can't do certain things for themselves, start with orphans, and others. So I guess what I would urge you to do as 2014 comes near, ask the Lord, what does he want you to do with your wealth? Don't deny that you have wealth. Think about 2 Corinthians 8, that you have been made wealthy and say, Lord, give me an outlet, and challenge yourself with the verse I consider to be most challenging on Mercy Ministry in the entire Bible. It's Isaiah 58:10, it says there, "If you spend yourself on behalf of the needy," just that phrase is enough, it's a lot easier to spend your money than to spend yourself, but it's nowhere near as effective. If you're willing to give your time and your energy to build relationships with poor people, you're going to find out what their needs really are, and then you can help them in ways that will really be life transformational. So, I challenge you concerning Lottie Moon, be sacrificial, let's meet our goal, but let's go beyond that, and let's each of us find patterns of ministry to the poor and needy in the year 2014. Close with me in prayer. Lord, we thank you for the extraordinary wealth you've given us, and I don't mean material wealth. I mean the riches of the Gospel blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Thank you for that, thank you for the gospel that sets us free from sin. How are imprisoned spirits are no longer chained to sin, and we're set free to follow Christ. Lord, we thank you also for our material blessings, but we're mindful that they come with accountability. Help us to be wise, help us to be generous to the poor and needy, but not foolish. Help us to be willing to invest ourselves, so we can find out the best way to help poor and needy right here in Durham and to the ends of the earth. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.