It’s Important To Pray

What Is the Correct Way to Pray?

Despair and self-pity come more easily than joy and hope. That’s why, in times like these, it’s important to pray. We pray: to thank God for His blessings, to praise Him, to confess and repent of sins, to seek guidance, and to communicate with a God who loves us. 

We also pray to ask God for help. Praying for help is the most natural prayer of all. When a sister was torn from her children and put into a detention center over immigration issues, many of us asked God to help her, and she was released and restored to her family. When I had COVID-19 and was stuck in a hospital not knowing what the end would be, we asked God to spare my life and sustain me. He did, and I am doing well today. 

Today, prayer is needed at times. Sometimes God answers our requests for help exactly as we ask. But we must be faithful in prayer. Pray to give thanks, praise God, confess our sins, and ask for help. Prayer connects us with God. Prayer builds relationships. Prayer strengthens the bond between God and us. When you have a good relationship with someone, hope and patience become a little easier, especially when that someone created and sustains our universe. 

Be faithful in prayer. — Romans 12:12 

Let’s Pray 

Yahweh, thanks for answering my prayers and for helping me when I was in trouble. Father, we pray for hope in these seemingly hopeless times. We also pray for help for our leaders in the world and the church. God help my family, friends, and enemies. God, please help me today in Christ’s name, Amen. 

Celebration Time

Today Is The Day To Be Happy

Don’t wait for everything to be perfect before you decide to celebrate what God is going to do in your life. Put some action behind your faith. In the middle of that adversity or tough time, start making a list of who you’re going to invite to your victory celebration. That means if you’re in the hospital, start planning what you’re going to do when you get out. If you’re in debt, start planning your coming-out-of-debt party. No matter what you are facing, no matter what’s going on in the world around you, no matter what anybody says, you should always be thanking God, because your victory is on the way. The Scripture says God will always lead us into victory!

Today, when things don’t look good in the natural and you don’t feel like celebrating, remember, we serve a supernatural God. He can turn things around in a moment. With God leading you into victory, you can always plan for change. You can plan for restoration. You can plan for a comeback that will make you stronger and better than you ever were before! Hallelujah!

“Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ…”

(2 Corinthians 2:14, NKJV)

Let’s Pray

Yahweh, I celebrate right now because of Your promise of victory. Father, give me faith to celebrate Your vision and victory, so that I can be more confident in Your abundant life. God, help me to start planning now for the changes I want to see in my life based upon Your Word, in Christ’s Name! Amen. 

Kanye West’s Breakdown: A Christian Weighs In

Godinterest - Kanye West's Breakdown: A Christian Weighs In

In recent months, the internet has been abuzz with reactions from Kanye West’s latest tweets which have become quite reflective, political and controversial. As Christians, we may not necessarily be concerned about this sort of tabloid news, but amidst all the emotional and irrational responses of people, there is certainly more to it than what meets the eye.

On November 21 (2016), Kanye West was hospitalized following a series of bizarre on-stage proclamations and ultimately the cancellation of twenty-one Saint Pablo tour dates. A mixture of exhaustion and depression over his mother’s death reportedly contributed to his break. TMZ claims that Kanye was at his trainer’s house when the cops received a call because he was “acting erratically”.   He was then forcibly hospitalized at the UCLA medical center. Apparently, he was actually handcuffed to a gurney during transport to the hospital, which cops claimed was a standard protocol. He was later released on November 30 with a higher dosage of prescribed medication than when he went in. He stated that he had been addicted to opioid after having had liposuction, which was done to avoid people calling him fat during his wedding to Kim Kardashian. He had been prescribed the opioid after his plastic surgery and had been taking them ever since, but states that when he decided to stop taking the pills, he landed up in hospital two days later. Prior to his forced hospitalization, he used one of his concerts as a platform for a political rant, claiming that he loves Donald Trump.

After his hospitalization, Kanye West resurfaced with bleached hair, which reminded me of the rapper, Eminem. A few years ago, he went through the same process after he began to speak out about certain issues, and when he returned from hospitalization, he not only came back with Baphomet horns on his album cover but with the bleached hair too. If you begin to look back on the public breakdowns of other celebrities, you begin to see a pattern. Celebrities like Amanda Bynes, Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, Michael Jackson and his daughter Paris Jackson have all attended this hospital. We may say that it is merely a coincidence, or that it probably means that the hospital is one of the best in the country, but I believe that something far darker lurks behind the walls of the hospital.

At one point in the history of the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, it was home to the top mind control programmer and psych ward head, Louis Jolyon “Jolly” West. In the years 1974 to 1989, he received at least $5,110,099 in grants from the federal government, channeled through the National Institute of Mental Health, a major funding conduit for CIA programs. Many other millions were poured into the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute that West led, including over $14 million in federal funds in one year before he stepped down. There are stories circulating about the mind control programs inflicted upon the patients of the hospital. Reports of people being admitted one way but coming out completely changed have surfaced, with some patients claiming that their memory prior to hospitalization had been completely wiped out. It was stated that the program had stopped, but evidence seems to suggest that it still continues today.

You would need to be living under a rock to not have heard about conspiracies such as the Illuminati, MK Ultra Mind Control, Cloning etc. These conspiracies are circulating around the web like wildfire, with some believing them and others tooting them as made up stories, with some even making fun of them. When it comes to celebrities acting strangely or breaking down, people will automatically associate it with drug abuse, mental health problems, and exhaustion, but if you took the time to listen to these people during their moments of “odd and erratic behaviour”, you may just find yourself realizing that there is a hidden powerhouse that seems to be controlling everything, from banks to the media and even governments. These celebrities refer to this powerhouse as ‘they’, but never seem to reveal just who ‘they’ are.

In one of his tweets back in April, Kanye said “be fearless. Express what you feel not what you’ve been programmed to think.” He believes that people are being programmed to think a certain way, but he says that expressing your feelings is the way to get out of that programming. As Christians, we know that our feelings are not reliable and that we should base our thinking on the truths of the Bible. In another tweet, “Don’t follow crowds. Follow the innate feelings inside of you. Do what you feel not what you think. Thoughts have been placed in our heads to make everyone assimilate. Follow what you feel.” Once again, the idea of programming is brought into this tweet, and his solution is (again) following your feelings. One of his tweets centered around GOD says, “I don’t subscribe the term and concept of GOD fearing. That’s a dated mentality that was used to control people. We are in the future. If GOD is love and love it’s the opposite of fear then… to fear GOD makes no sense…” In his search for truth, he totally misses what the fear of GOD means. It’s not about being terrified of Him, but showing respect and fearing the loss of His presence in our lives. In some way, we fear our parents, not because we’re worried about what they can do to us, but because we understand their authority and position in our lives. A loss of fear can result in a lack of respect. The fear of GOD is the beginning of all knowledge, but it is our love for Him and His love for us that cultivates the relationship that we have with Him.

In his interview with radio personality, Charlamagne, he said that his breakdown came from “fear, stress, control, being controlled, manipulation… stressing things that create, like, validation that I didn’t need to worry about as much.” He also spoke about fearing that he would be killed in the hospital, “…I can’t express to you how traumatizing that moment is, and then you wake up drugged the f-k out.” Although some would brush off his words and think nothing more of them, I cannot help but think that he is trying to say something or even warn the public about something without saying too much. For a man who has been described as ahead of his time, a forward-thinker and a maker of his own rules, why would he turn around and say that he was fearful? That he was being controlled and manipulated? And then to fear for his life in hospital? There is definitely a lot more to this story than what meets the eyes.

Kanye West has also expressed his love for Donald Trump, which has earned him disdain from other celebrities. He has received a lot of criticism for his new way of thinking, with some even going so far as to say that the person that came out of the hospital isn’t Kanye West. Could Kanye have been ‘reprogrammed’? Or is he waking up from his programming?

Although we are not of the world, I believe that we should take note of what is going on to avoid being fooled. I know that many Christians continue to listen to secular music and do not censor what they watch on TV. We are being bombarded with irrelevant information to keep us in the dark of what is really taking place in the world. We are being lulled into thoughts of safety when the reality is that hidden powerhouses are plotting our demise through the control of the media, Hollywood, the music industry and the government. There is a hidden agenda, and Kanye West is just one person in a sea of celebrities that is being controlled to influence us and program our thinking to fit into dangerous ideologies. The next time a well-known figure suffers a breakdown, is labeled as crazy, commits ‘suicide’, is taken to a hospital, prescribed drugs and seems changed, take note of it. We need to open our eyes to what is happening in the world, even the smallest of events is part of one big event: preparing the world to accept the Anti Christ.

9 Architectural Projects That Busted the Bank Vaults

The Channel Tunnel

Since the beginning of recorded time, construction projects have always been a major part of history. In fact, grandiose construction projects to erect the architectural visions of Pharaohs, Kings, Rulers, and Monarchs was used as a way to put the wealth and power of leaders on display for all of the people their lands to see.

Not surprisingly, all of these projects came at a great cost to the leaders that initiated them.

The Great Pyramid at Giza is one example of a grand architectural vision. This massive structure was built under the leadership of Egyptian pharaoh Khufu in the 26th century B.C.E. By the time work on the structure was completed, Knufu spent a great deal of his kingly fortunes on the project. According to sources, it is estimated that this project would cost more than  $5 billion dollars to duplicate today.

Since then, there have been many other building projects that have cost significant amounts of money to build, some that were so grand in their scope they effectively broke the bank.

We will examine more of these projects here.

The Three Gorges Dam
The Three Gorges Dam

1. The Three Gorges Dam

This massive Chinese construction project took place over the Yangtze River in the Hubei province of Central China. This scope of this project was enormous and came with quite a bit of controversy due to the changes to the environment that were needed to make the project become a reality. When this project was approved in 1992, the Vice Premier at the time, Zoa Jiahua quoted the project cost at $8.35 billion to complete. In 2006, when the project was officially ended, the total cost ended up being closer to $37 billion dollars, or roughly four times more than the original estimate.

The Ryungyong Hotel
The Ryungyong Hotel

2. The Ryungyong Hotel

The ground broke for this 105 story luxury tourist hotel in 1987 in North Korea, despite the country being closed off to foreign visitors. After investing approximately $750 million dollars in the structure, the project came to an abrupt end when the Soviet Union, North Korea’s major economic supporter, collapsed. Today, the building remains unfinished and is recognised as being the tallest unoccupied structure in the entire world.

The MOSE Project
The MOSE Project

The MOSE Project
The MOSE Project

The MOSE Project
The MOSE Project

3. The MOSE Project

This building project was originally intended to help control flooding in Venice. However, it primarily served as a project to sink money into. The original budget for the project was $1.7 billion dollars but jumped to $8.1 billion over time. None of the work that was completed did anything to prevent flooding. Many people involved in the initial construction were arrested on bribery and corruption charges in connection with the project. Venice continues to have problems with flooding and sinking.

The Mirabel Airport
The Mirabel Airport

4. The Mirabel Airport

This airport was originally opened to serve Montreal, Canada in   mid-1970. The Government seized 100,000 acres of land and displaced thousands of residents from their homes for the land that was needed to construct the airport. The cost of the land was $140 million dollars. This amount was eight times more than the costs that were originally projected. Once construction on the airport began, the price skyrocketed to a total cost of around $276 million dollars. Adding further pressure to the Mirabel Airport project was the fact that the Montreal-Dorval International Airport was located within a short driving distance away. While this airport did operate for a number of years, it ceased operations in 2004. In late 2014, demolition of the site began which added another $15 million dollars of cost to the failed project.

The Sagrada Familia
The Sagrada Familia

The Sagrada Familia
The Sagrada Familia

The Sagrada Familia
The Sagrada Familia

5. The Sagrada Familia

There is no doubt that building a Cathedral is no small undertaking. For the Sagrada Familia Cathedral, it is a project that has advanced at a snail’s pace and with a hefty price tag that can not even be calculated due to how slow the project has been to finish. Construction on the house of worship began in 1883. In 2015, it still needs  to be completed. In 2011, the President of the Building Committee said that it might be completed in 2026 – 143 years after construction originally began.

The Millennium Dome
The Millennium Dome

The Millennium Dome
The Millennium Dome

6. The Millennium Dome

This is a London based project that has a happy ending, despite a shaky, and very expensive start. When construction of the Millennium Dome began in the 1990’s, the original budget of 758 million pounds was exceeded when it ended up costing 789 million pounds, so it lost money from day one, even without including maintenance costs. However, in 2007 the structure was sold to AEG and renamed the 02 Arena, so some of the initial investment money was recouped. This site is now a top venue for sporting events and concerts in the London, UK area.

The Channel Tunnel
The Channel Tunnel

7. The Channel Tunnel

Sometimes referred to as the “Chunnel” is a tunnel in the English Channel that links the United Kingdom with France. It’s not surprising that a project of this scope would cost a lot of money and time to complete successfully. In total, it took six years of work and $21 billion dollars to finish. In financial costs, it ended up being 80% more expensive than originally forecast. This privately funded project caused many of the initial investors to lose most of their investment due to over run costs. Today, their diligence to the project has made it widely successful. Hundreds of millions of people use the Chunnel trains to commute between France and the UK, with a travel time of around 35 minutes.

The Central Artery Tunnel Project
The Central Artery Tunnel Project

The Central Artery Tunnel Project
The Central Artery Tunnel Project

8. The Central Artery Tunnel Project

In 1991, Boston began construction of the Central Artery/Tunnel Project, also known as the Big D, to provide commuters with an alternative to using the main highway through the City. This project is one of the most expensive construction projects in the history of the United States with a ‘real’ cost of $22 billion dollars once interest on the funding for the project is paid off in 2038. The Central Artery/Tunnel Project included the construction of roads, bridges, and even a tunnel that was built under the Boston Harbor. While this project did have the original effect it was supposed to have by alleviating traffic congestion in parts of Boston, overall traffic in the areas where the Big D serves has also increased.

Panama Canal, Centennial Bridge
Panama Canal, Centennial Bridge

9. The Panama Canal

The Panama Canal is another example of a building project that came with many personal and financial losses during its construction in the early 1900’s. The project was hexed with obstacles including outbreaks of deadly malaria and mudslides that, according to hospital records, resulted in over 5,600 labourers deaths. Today, the Panama Canal remains a key part of the shipping industry between the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean. In 2014, work at the Canal ground to a halt after a dispute between the Panama Canal Authority and a conglomerate of European construction companies disagreed who would pay for a $1.16 billion overrun in costs. All parties involved in the dispute agreed on stop-gap funding that put the project back in action. In 2015, expansion work on the Panama Canal continues and the overall costs of the project continue to rise.

Professional Consultancy Responds to Health and Social Care Challenges

As people in the UK live longer, demand for residential care and nursing homes is growing, as are our expectations of the standard of living they will provide.  Dean Jones  offers insights about the value a professional consultancy has for overcoming the challenge and driving value for patients.

The current state of affairs

As a result of some well-broadcasted care scandals that attracted extensive, and in some cases, damaging media attention, the government has responded with cuts that are impacting local authority (LA) fees and resulting in far tougher  Care Quality Commission (CQC)  policies.

Office for National Statistics (ONS)  Projects That by 2035 There Will Be 3.5 Million Uk Residents Aged 85 and Older, Compared to Only 1.4 Million Currently

In spite of this, the “extra-care” – or Residential Elderly Care (REC) sector – continues to overcome these challenges, attracting new investments, particularly into new-build care homes. These are specially designed, owner-occupied, self-contained housing, often with round-the-clock support and meals and sometimes with nursing assistance.

A typical pattern is for owner-founded care home operators to reach a growth limit, based on the founder’s management capacity, access to capital and appetite for risk. They cease to invest in new capacity and don’t benefit from economies of scale which can be passed on to commissioners. Public markets typically do not fulfil their function as a supplier of capital in the case of healthcare services, because they generally demand relatively modest gearing.

There’s a widely recognised need across all health and social care market segments for innovation and system change, as well as capital investment in new services. A private equity investor is well placed to leverage technical services to strategically programme and project-manage Residential Elderly Care (REC)  public real estate schemes across their entire lifecycle.

Supply and demand challenges

Today, professional healthcare businesses and registered social landlords (RSLs) are the main providers of new capacity, period. Since 2008, private and voluntary status providers, who service 92 percent of all Residential Elderly Care, have reported an upswing in demand and occupancy. Paradoxically, as adult social care budgets are decreasing and the provision of residential care by the  NHS  and local authorities has shrunk, the number of UK people who require help and support is rapidly increasing.

The Increasingly Ageing Population of the Uk Appears to Be Underpinning the Overall Rise in Rec Capacity and Occupancy

While Local Authorities (Las) are seeking to divert placements to inexpensive non-residential/domiciliary-based alternatives, the increasingly ageing population of the UK appears to be underpinning the overall rise in REC capacity and occupancy. Britons are living longer than ever. The  Office for National Statistics (ONS)  projects that by 2035 there will be 3.5 million UK residents aged 85 and older, compared to only 1.4 million currently. The cost of caring for these residents is also forecasted to increase. For example, caring for a person with dementia will increase to $1,142,677 by 2025 and $2,092,945 by 2051. In total the government estimates that 1.7 million more adults will require some type of care and support over the coming decades.

As a result, the current number of nursing and residential care homes in the UK (over 381,000) will need to almost double over the next 20 years to cope with rising numbers of people aged 85 or more.

dependent-100342

A bright future?

The demand for care will continue to rise as a result of life expectancy increasing and ageing. A robust REC independent sector arises primarily from the net increase in residential demand, and more recently, improved occupancy. These are the result of a number of competing forces:

  • Demographics, with the ageing population expected to drive the demand for health and social care.
  • Outsourcing, the long-term transfer of residents from LA homes to independent care homes.
  • Severe financial constraints, at least over the next five years, as the government – which pays for the bulk of health, social care and special education – seeks to eradicate the public expenditure deficit and restrict new builds.
  • Outdated assets, or older care homes that no longer meet needs.
  • Consolidation, a trend within segments of the independent sector.
  • Maturity, against a currently immature healthcare market.
  • Efficiency, highlighted by the “Nicholson challenge” for the NHS to make £15 to £20 billion in efficiency savings between 2011 and 2014. (It costs the NHS approximately £3,000 a week to care for elderly patients with no clinical need to be in a hospital ward. By contrast, it comes to about £1,000 per week for a residential care home provider.)
  • Demand and Occupancy. Unless the supply of new builds increases (currently by approx. 7,500 beds p.a.), it’s possible that some regions may see bed shortages, driving up LA fees.
  • New Technology. Progressive management capabilities in leveraging technology and strategic collaboration will constitute the formula for success and sustainability in the new healthcare business environment.

While a longer life is welcome news for millions of Britons, it could ironically trigger a public service meltdown as our national health system is stretched to its breaking point. Local authorities and NHS trusts retain a significant role in delivering services, with 75 percent of nursing home places funded by the public sector. There exist ever-increasing opportunities for private care providers to take some of the strain from NHS and ease bed-blocking by caring for patients, mostly elderly, in a residential setting when there is no clinical need to be in a hospital ward.

The REC Sector Could Potentially save the Nhs Billions of Pounds.

A combined approach to health and social care and some innovation is required for this savings to become a reality. In addition, Care Home Operators have a unique opportunity to grow their businesses and benefit from economies of scale, leveraging the expertise and resources of a professional consultancy. In doing so, they’ll have necessary resources and systems to bid for significant re-provision of services tendered by local authorities.

About Dean Jones

Dean is an Associate in AECOM’s Programme Leadership Practice. Dean joined AECOM from Care UK, the UK’s largest independent provider of health and social care, where he was a Programme Manager and delivered a £250m investment growth programme over 2012/15 which increased Care Uk’s number of homes circa 33%. Dean was also Programme Manager for a £60m Suffolk programme to build ten new care homes and ten day clubs, bringing much needed additional nursing and specialist dementia care to the Suffolk community.

 

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