Testimony of Sub-Deacon Steve Mortada

In the name of the Father of the Son and the Holy Spirit, I mean

beloved priests, deacons, sub beacons, lectors, and the

faithful that are gathered here at this 38th annual Youth

Conference. Thank you for the invite.

It's a pleasure to be here with you all.

You get to know you all exchange stories and just see obviously

our brothers and sisters in Christ over here in the United

States for thank you. A few months ago, Robbie Gennard

reached out and asked if I'd be willing to give my testimony and

it was a very emphatic yes. For me, it always is.

And if ever I'm asked to give my testimony or share my journey

with people, whether it's 110, the church or with the school

back in Sydney, Australia, I always oblige and say yes.

And the reason for that is because as you can see, I don't

call it a testimony about myself.

Steve Moltata. I actually got a testimony about

God's purse, will and time because I worked through this

story, this journey about my life.

You'll see how God moves and how he plants seeds and how He wore

things. I, like you, want to reflect as

I speak tonight about your journeys of Christ, your walk

with God, your families, church, and how you are growing up here

in the United States of America. So that is my home.

Saint Peter and Paul Parish in Sydney, Australia is the place

in which I fell in love with the Church of the East and that is

me on the left hand side at my ordination last year, September,

into the rank of Sub Beacon Hupajapa.

I'll call it the second greatest day of my life.

The first thing my baptism and my wife and children come are

that the God comes first. But I'm sure she might be

impressed with that. But OK.

So my name is Stephen Khalil Murkova and for those of you who

speak Arabic, Murtada is not an Assyrian name because I'm not

Assyrian. I was actually born into a

Muslim family, so my mom and dad are both Islamic.

I was raised as a Muslim household.

My parents come from a Shia and Muslim background.

So you follow your father's footsteps and that's a Shia.

OK, so my journey though begins in 1969.

So for those of you who are good at mathematics, I can assure you

I'm not 60 years of age. That is the year my father came

out to Australia as a 19 year old man.

So for you in your youth now, you can imagine that your

mindset, you want to explore, you want to Kyle Finns.

And as I talk tonight, I want you also just bear in mind, I'm

going to mention a few things that as Christians we shouldn't

be doing, but I want to mention them so you understand that we

are presented with lights and death.

We have to achieve life, not a road that leads to destruction.

So my father came out when he was 19 to Australia or a

adventure, left his salmon pine and he fell in love with a

woman, an Australian woman. And he obviously with his life

doing his things as an adolescent man.

Obviously we know that that is not right because, you know, she

become one flesh and they leave mother's house and father's

house. OK.

So he realized after a few years that she's been unfaithful to

it. And for my father, this meant

that all Australian women don't have a good moral.

And after that he actually went back to Lebanon and married my

mom, which is his first cousin, which is very customer.

And he brought my mom back to Australia and they were chalk

and cheese because my dad had assimilated into the Australian

way of living. So he went back and married my

mother, drove her back out to Australia and my father

assimilated into the country. My mother did lot.

She had that typical Muslim mentality, which was that it was

her nationality of being Lebanese, that Islam came first.

But the hypocrisy was that they didn't pray, they didn't fast.

I'd actually never set foot into a mosque until 2015.

In 1980, I came along and as you can see, I lived a pretty

average lifestyle. My mom and dad love me very

much. Photos and mindful birthdays are

all the same. Just as you explore and and and

celebrate. I had my cousins that were out

here with me, and I've got to tell you that Christ was

actually in my life from the very beginning.

From a young age, I used to celebrate Christmas.

I had a Christmas tree in my bedroom, but I didn't celebrate

Christmas with Christ in the picture.

It was just gift giving. Merry Christmas.

My friends were all Christian. My mom used to get angry because

she'd save you. Why don't you have Muslim

friends? Why don't you have Lebanese

friends? I did.

Predominantly. They were Crystal Islanders,

Vietnamese and my mum said to me when you grow up you'll marry a

Lebanese Muslim woman, which I did not.

I used to tell her that I'm going to marry an Australian and

it used to really grate her. The relationship with my father

was amazing. For you who have siblings, think

of the things you do with your brothers and sisters.

That was my dad because I'm the only Charles I say wahid in in

Arabic. OK, so my dad was my brother and

everything that I did with him was amazing.

Sports Archive. I could confess in my father and

talk to him because he understood the Australian

culture. Whereas my mom, although she

loved me and I love her very much.

You know, we butted heads a lot. I never went to a mosque that

prayers that I learned were in scripture.

The sedpa, right? To those of you not buddy, it's

like a standard pray that you recite.

I never did the Ricard. I never prayed as Muslim pay.

In fact, how I used to pray was I'd say the Befetta and I used

to conversate with the Lord. I say Lord forgive my parents,

Lord forgive me. Well, bring my dad back from

work safely. As I became a teenager, I

started to put God to the side, which is synonymous with

Christians as well, but starts to take second say for some of

us. I used to start thinking, well,

does God really exist? If he does, why is there wars?

Why is there murder? Why is there all the error and

mistakes in the world? So I started from a young age of

teenage, you started to delve into like agnosticism, atheism.

And when I became a young an adult man in Australia at the

age of 18, when you can legally drink and go out and party, it's

exactly what I did. I rebel, but in the secular

world, it's celebrating, right? Because it's cool to go out and

get drunk or do drunks and party.

That's what I've been. 2001 comes along and just to give you

an insight into how I grew up, when the World Trade Centers got

attacked here in America, I woke up that morning to see my mom

yelling at the TV along the lines of Down with America,

cursing them, cursing the hue. So I grew up hating Israel.

I grew up hating the hallucination because you know,

as a young child you are a protest of your environment.

Lebanon is bordering Israel. So I had this hatred for him and

I actually I celebrated and enjoyed the Third Reich and he

that was my mind. So something else that happened

in 2001 is I met my wife Nick at my work and she's Australian.

And guess what? He's also a pre she.

So most people intend for like, give his testimony.

So that's why you convert it. Definitely not.

When I told my mom and dad that I'd met this woman and she was

Australian and she was a Christian, my dad's thoughts

were, well, he's having a bit of fun, it would be OK.

My mom was like, well, what's wrong with your own people and

your own stuff? So it started to take again was

fair. I was really close to my dad

growing up and I was right. She was starting to fracture.

When I brought her home and introduced her, things started

to go South and I decided to make a decision that if you

aren't going to accept my wife, I want nothing to do with you.

My pride, I was filled with pride.

So that's just stopped off from my parents for 13 years.

I said if you don't accept her, then I will not interview with

you. So red flag #2 I moved out with

my mom. Well, they don't do right as

Christians, even in Islam, we're not meant to do that.

But I did that. So I moved out, living life,

everything was grand. And then in 2006 I was to get

married. And my wife is an Anglican

Christian and I rang my dad. I've been writing letters to my

dad for several years since I moved out.

Trying to reconcile how to make peace never worked because it

always flash. I rang my dad and said look, I'm

getting married. And his first words were where?

And I said in the church because she's a Christian.

And his words were why of why are you giving up your faith to

be, you know, submitting to her and her purpose of Nissan?

Where's the his hypothesis coming from?

Because you don't even practice real quick.

Why does it matter? And his words were to me, I'll

translate it. But when you break a cup, you

can never piece it back together, correct it.

And that crushed me because my father was essentially saying to

you, what if he'd throw my wife away?

So I hung up and I was essentially I made, I drew the

line in the sand and said, well, I want nothing to do with you.

And he refused. They refused to come to the

wedding. Now the next question people

tend to ask was how did you get married in the church as a

Muslim slash atheist slash agnostic?

So I met with the pastor of the Anguism church, my wife's

church, and he asked me the question.

He said, what do you believe in? I said, look, I believe in

something bigger than us because remember, it's atheism slash

agnosticism. I wasn't decided what do you

believe? And I said, look, I believe

there's something bigger than us, but I don't label it as God.

So do you believe in Jesus? I said no in fatique, right,

because I wasn't a Christian. He said, OK, do you believe in

design or evolution? I said definitely not evolution.

I said, OK, well I can work those out now.

We know in our church, in the Apostolic churches, that

wouldn't fly, would it? Is how can a man who doesn't

believe or a woman marry a Christian partner in the church

because they're unequally out. It doesn't work, but he was

willing to do it. And I got married in the church

and everything was great. Years went by.

Not everything was rosy because look, my, my, my, my Martin.

Sorry. My wife and I would argue

whenever Christianity came into a picture if she mentioned

Christ or God, I used to say to her if I don't want to hear it

because if the Devons tremble at the name of Jesus and she was

mentioning that to me, it raged me.

But I'd storm out of a room. I didn't want to hear it and

then I'm going to be OK. So now Fast forward to 2004 and

three huge things happened in my life.

The first was my wife said to me, we haven't filed.

The second, my dad rang me and said we're moving back to

Lebanon, but OK, how, why? And he basically said to me, my

uncle, his brother said you have nothing left in Australia for

your son doesn't speak to you, come back and die in the country

you were born. So my dad took the opportunity

and said, all right, so I actually went and saw them the

night before they left walk through the house thinking I'll

never see them again in 13 years of not talking to each other.

So I hugged my dad and I hugged my mom and essentially said

goodbye. The third big thing that

happened was, and this is timeless of the world, top

soccer club by the name of the Western Sydney Wanderers was

formed in Australia. For those of you who enter your

football. If how on earth does this have

anything to do with God, the church and the Church of the

east? Well, as I said, remember how

it's on his perfect will and assignment of things happen.

So this club is born, it's partying with atmospheric

football, it's active support and flares and united.

And that's what my life became. Because when you have a void in

your life, you don't have God in your life, you live in the

flesh. That's what I was doing.

So this club's born. My parents have moved overseas,

my daughter's born, and the next few years are great.

And I meet these people, I don't know if you've heard of them.

They're called the Siri. A lot of Assyrian supporters in

the western city, Wanderels. And I got to know about the

whole show. I got to know about your church,

although I has to say I didn't really scare, but I got to know

the people. And I met a gentleman who became

my godfather by the month, David, and things were great.

Now at about 2013 fourteen, Daesh, ISIS, ISIL was wreaking

havoc in the Middle East and I had grown to detest Islam

throughout my life because of what happened with my fan, the

hypocrisy, you know, the double standards.

So seeing on the news and reading and now having this new

friendship group, the whole heap of Assyrians like it hit home

but not in a God like manner. Just you feel moved and

compassion towards your friend. And one night I was reading the

newspaper and I was reading about what was going on, the

killing years, you know houses being signed with the noon and

out of like nowhere the thought that I never thought went into

my head did. And that is why he's so much

turmoil, murder, wars, corruption in the world.

And I was always a person who wanted truth, like, curious.

So I'm thinking truth. I'm not thinking cost.

But the next thought that came into my mind was, you know,

things from the Islamic perspective.

Mind you, I've never had the put on.

I don't read Arabic. But going up in it, you

understand, Why don't you open the Bible and look for some

truth in there, which I never thought would ever happen

because if you mentioned Christ or Bible or Zod or anything, I

said I would run. So I funded the thought for a

little bit. I told my wife and she was

ecstatic because she's thinking he's going to become a fish.

Slow down. It's not about you.

It's about what I was I'm seeking through.

So I ring my friend and I said to him, Fab, I want to see you.

I went over to his house. He's laying on his bed and I

said I want to read the Bible. And he literally sat up and the

first thing he said was why, followed by praise Zoe.

And he looked at me and he said this is from Donald.

If he knew, I didn't know. So I told him why and I said

where do I start? And he said you need to start at

Matthew, skip the genealogy and continue reading.

I thought, that's a bit strange. Why would you mention that to

someone wanting to read, right? And he tried to get me a Bible.

I said no, I want to do it on my own because I'm all or nothing.

I'm 110% or nothing. So I went to a bookstore.

I bought a new King James Bible and began reading.

And when my wife and child would go to bed, I start reading at

night and I opened to Matthew. I look at the genealogy and it's

bigot, bigot, bigot, bigot, bigot.

I flipped it because I understood why he said that and

continued reading. But I read slowly because

remember, I'm I'm wanting truth. I'm wanting for some something

to jump out and grab. It wasn't about Christ.

And as I'm reading as the next three days, I'm reading and

taking it in. And don't don't forget growing

up I celebrated Christmas in gift giving.

I said put into a church at the age of 9 before I'd said put

into a mosque. I knew the prophets.

There's the prophets I mentioned in the Quran in Islam, but

they're just, they're skewed right.

As I'm reading, I get to about Matthew chapter 10 verse 343536.

Matthew 10 · chapter mention

And as I'm reading it says do not think that I came to bring

peace on earth. I've not come to bring peace,

but a sword, for I've come to set a man against his father, a

daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her

mother-in-law. And a man's enemies will be

those of his own household. So when I read that, the first

thing I thought of, well, if this is Jesus, why is he

bringing a sword? As in Islam, you comfort by the

sword, convert or be killed. But I didn't look at it like

that. I look at it as a sword pieces

I'm teaching, seek, seeking truth, and the sword cuts to the

very core and 35 through to 36. Well, that's what was happening

in my household because my wife was a Christian and when I

brought her into my life, her faith divided my household.

It crumbles everything that I have news and I read that three

or four times and the first thing I said when I read that

was Lord Sagivable, which took a lot of party for because I

wasn't seeking him, I was seeking truth.

That's and I said, Lord, forgive me forever being arrogant and

cursing me. It's a blackboard where to curse

God would do this. Why would you do this?

So would you do that? And I'm alone.

My wife and Charles are asleep. And I knelt, I prostrated and I

prayed and I prayed with Christ on my mind because I knew that

was truth. And that was written 2000 years

ago, but it's aligning with my life.

How's that possible? So in an instant, it wasn't a

picture, it wasn't anything fancy.

It was a quiet moment. It was a quiet moment that I

felt convicted and understood and I'm all or nothing.

Remember that? So when I woke, when my wife

woke up and I told her, she was ecstatic and we're both crying

wimpy. And my search straightaway began

to look for a church over the next couple of days because I

wanted a church now being all nothing.

I knew what the Protestant movement was, evangelical

churches were. And I started researching

Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and everyone kept coming up

Orthodoxy. I found a church, the Ansiokun

Lebanese Church, as his Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy.

Ring, my friend, tell him you're coming to joke with me on

Sunday. He without doubt came on the way

to this Eastern Orthodox Church. He's telling me about the

parable of the prodigal son and how it's sort of, you know.

Look at what's happened with you.

You're returning to the Lord. You walk into this church and

the sermon that day and remember our calendars don't wanna, but

the lectionary readings aren't the same and the sermon was

about the particles are so my friend looked at me like in

complete awe right now. To me it was just like a hand.

I just want to listen to the sermon.

Relax, right. So afterwards you spoke to the

priests of a winner. He introduced me.

He said this is my friend. He's a Muslim, wants to convert.

Had a conversation with him and he was very, very nice man,

don't get me wrong, but very methodical, meticulous, and I'll

say sterile in that it was you have to become a CAD If you you

must come to Bible studies. I said, I'm there.

I'll be back next week. We jump in the car, we drive

away and my friend says to me next week I want you to come to

the Church of the East. I'm like, never heard it really

like it known the name for, for the Syrian people, but don't

know much about it. Question for me is, is it

Orthodox? Is it?

Of course it is. Listen, I'm there, go home,

start researching heresy, Mother of Christ, all this stuff's

coming up. I'm what's this?

I'm trying to find the true church, right?

So I ring him and tell him and he says, tells me all about it.

And I said, OK, I'll, I'll come Friday.

I ring him and say I, I don't think I'm going to come.

I I sort of changed my man back and forth and I knew he was a

bit upset about it, but in the end I said I'll come, why not?

What do I want to lose? So on that Sunday we walk into

Saint Peter Room for parish and we sit up at that back right

hand corner and he says to me, this is what's going to happen.

The Purdens are going to open the priest in the name of the

Father Son the Holy Stuart Bishamasha.

Yeah. And Piruma Bismar giving a

priest. I'm like try and caper in since

that current opened, our priest was Madhavan Yaman.

At the time it was Ravi Nilos. And since the current opened and

he said in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy

Spirit, and I saw the shamash standing there, I knew that was

home straight away. Because the liturgy, the

reverence from the people sitting there, what you, the

reverence you show for your church and God.

And the other thing is, do Muslims have icons and

portraits? No, I'm simply in that church

with my focus fixated on the frost on the wall.

So for me, this church fit in perfectly because my ascension

was sipped out on the divine worship.

Not to say that the icons are a bad or anything like that.

So iPhone, that's all that, that's fine.

But it really hit home for me afterwards will go into

fellowship. I meet Rabi Marvin Yaman and he

come up to me and he shook my hand with three kisses as we do

in the Middle East. And he said, Steve, it's so nice

to meet you. And it was so warm and genuine.

Whereas in the Orthodox Church it was very much thought.

He said, I want to see you and we start to be catalyzed next

Wednesday. Bible studied every week.

One hour spent like mad. And the questions I would ask

him as I'm sure some of you ask your priests about life, you

know, I'll think back, you know, and kind of get embarrassed the

questions I asked, but that's what he was there for our

tattoos. Wrong, Robbie.

I said to him, I want to get the tattoo of the youth here.

He said you want to get God's name on your chest.

Yeah, all right, but I have tattoo, but I covered them up

now. But I don't believe.

And when he explained to me why, and it's I understood now.

I started dialoguing with my parents because Christ says you

must forgive your enemies. And my parents were my enemies.

And I started talking to my dad. He's moved to Lebanon.

On WhatsApp, I tell him about my journey.

My dad said to me, you do what you want, son.

I believe in the prophets. I believe in the Saints.

But Jesus is not the Son of God. But you do what you want.

Come June 2015, I ring my dad. I'm having a chat with him and

he tells me my mother is quite sick.

And when I get off the phone, my wife looked at me and she knew.

She said, you want to fly to Lebanon, don't you?

I said I do, that's because I need to go and make peace.

I need to go and forgive me I have to because that's what the

teaching is. So that night hook flights to

fly out of strata. Wednesday I meet up with Mahd

and I tell him. He says I want to anoint you and

I want to pray on you because where you're going coming from

Islam as a Christian, you don't know.

So that's close. Friday morning 10:30 our

meeting. He anoints me, he preys on me.

I got him to seal my daughter as well because she was bad guys in

the Anglican Church. I had them.

I said Chola, I'll see you too. At 3:30 my dad rang and told me.

My mum thought so I was going forgive and I think and I've

been and my wife thought that I would unravel but I didn't.

I said to her it's OK. She asked me the question, what

are you going to do if I asked if you're a Christian?

And my response to her back then in 2015 was I won't deny the

Lord before man because he will deny me full of thought and she

freaked out. She thought, what are you

saying? And she's a Christian all her

life, but now she's hearing and living.

So I boarded the plane. I landed in Beirut and buried my

mom all nights up. I hadn't seen my dad in three

years. It was bittersweet, Kevin and

the people around him, because he was in tears, holding to man

up. But where's the compassion?

So I buried hers. And I spent three days, about a

week with my dad. But he said to me, you want to

go and see mom? And I said, yeah, I walk into

the room where she was on the journey, deceased, and they have

the ritual of washing the body. And I walked in and I took a

knee before her. And you know, we pray with our

arms open and so do Muslims. And they often say to you, why

does Jesus pray like this? He's coupled up from us the

other way. So I knelt down and I was

praying in the name of the Palestine hospital.

And I read the Lord's Prayer in son of my mom's body.

And I stood up, my eyes were closed and I I lifted my hand up

to crush myself in front of all the women in that room.

I didn't care but I knew the truth but I didn't know that my

dad had walked in standing next to me and as I lifted my hand

after he just grabbed me and said son let's go outside and

let the women mourn a hidden. I wasn't across myself When I

told him about a week later he said thank God you didn't do

that because I would have. It's a hyperbole that would have

slaughtered up you and me Bo meaning it wouldn't have gone

down too well. I spent a good week or so with

my dad and I spoke to him and we rekindled our friendship.

And it was amazing. And I took the Bible for him and

I wrote a passage in the on the front cover and I gave him a

icon of Saint Fistapa because my dad grew up.

When I was growing up, my dad used to wear a pendant of a man

holding a cross around his neck. And I asked him, why do you wear

that if we're Muslim? That doesn't make sense.

And he said he's a patron site of Safe Travels because he used

to travel a lot and someone gave it to him that meant something

for him. So he still wore it.

So I saw him at the airport. I hugged him and I said, Dad,

I've left you something in his drawer.

And I came back to his soda. And when I landed, he texts me

saying thank for the Bible, make sure you read it.

I came back. And just on that note, I took my

dad to my shadow bed, Saint Charbel's Monastery in Lebanon,

because I wanted to visit it, right, being Lebanese and a huge

St. in the church. And I went into the room and I

prayed. And then I came out and I said

to my dad, come in. And my dad came in and he sat

there praying and he spent a good few minutes in there and

just watching him. I had hope, thinking possibly,

could it be? I don't know.

And that's the last bottle I have written.

When I came back, August 20, 2015, I was baptized as Stephen

Mortada because that's the name my dad gave me when I was born.

I was born Stephen Khalil Mortada.

My mom wanted Khalil. My dad said no, he's a Westerner

growing up in a Western country, so he's speaking with Stephen.

I'm glad he did. So was that by Stephen Mortada?

I couldn't fit into the font because it's an infant's font,

right? And when people look at that and

they start questioning, I said, it's not the water, it's the

Apostolic succession and the laying on of the hand up here.

What I couldn't do for nine months as a catechuman was

partaking korbana, right? So you've seen it when someone

stands up and you have to walk past me.

And I said to my friend Fab, I said, I pray that everyone sees

me not moving and doesn't take for granted that they can come

here and eat and drink because it hurt.

It hurt that I couldn't Kamaki on that day.

I ate to the first Pilandra and wet.

I think you can see Marv smiling very happily there.

Now in 2018 I got to serve on some Eddie and in 2018 my dad

rang me in January and he said I've got cancer.

I had bladder cancer. You've been smoking more than

four, six months later, on a Friday afternoon, he rang me and

I was having a chat with him and he was breathing heavily.

And I he said to me, son, look after your wife, your daughter.

And if anything happens to me, never come back to this country

with my uncles. And I've got husbands with

Canvola and how to get the ammo, which is a movement in Lebanon.

You can't trust these sick and to death.

That's a promise I would beat. The next day I got a phone call

from my uncle and saying. Now the privilege of being on

the committee is that you have the keys to the church.

And that's exactly where I went. And I sat in front of the altar

who wept, but I had hope there. You know, the same prayer that I

prayed to these days, that on his deathbed, in the same manner

that I said, Lord, forgive me, he's.

And we don't know, the Lord said I'll have mercy.

Honour who? I'll have mercy if I see him, if

I'm worthy to enter and I see him, praise God.

If I don't, then through the Scriptures we know how you enter

the Kingdom. And if he made his bed, he lies

enough. I'm comfortable with that

because you know what? The treaty last year in

September, the second greatest Depuvian.

I've been asked by our priest if I was interested in becoming a

beacon, Mr. Marsha and I had to think about it.

I've been doing Bible studies, taking Bible studies for the

last five years, preaching all by the grace of God.

And as we're saying this morning, we don't boast in it,

but we boast in the Lord. So when my priest asks, I said,

let me think and pray and fast about it.

And I said yes, because of the surgical life is different to

teaching, right? God bless our priests and the

Shamata and all those in the clergy.

It can be tough, but it's a blessing of amazing.

So I was lifted into the altar with my good friend the Shamasha

Robert. And people ask me what's it like

coming from where you come from to stand in the altar?

And I simply said in this, on the day of my baptism, just my

ordination, just like every other liturgical service, every

Raza, when the prayer of absolution Messiah is read out,

I got to kneel in the altar for the first time.

And as His Eminence Marmilius was reciting that Messiah, I

kept thinking, God said to Moses, Take off will sandal.

The ground you stand upon is hallow.

It's holy. Yet what am I doing in here?

This is sacred, It's consecrated, it's set apart.

So I knew you. You have to say that you have to

change your life. You have to change the way you

are. I owe everything that I have to

God because I have my standing. And obviously I wasn't a

Christian when I met them, was my wife and my two children.

My journey has brought my wife closer to her faith that my

youngest was baptized in the Church of the East.

My wife attends to Church of the East.

Saint Paul talks about being transformed and a renewal of

mine. It has to happen.

You can no longer walk the way you used to walk when you choose

to walk with Christ. I'll end with this.

I always emphasize that you are blessed to be part of the Church

of the East. You're born into it.

I wasn't. This isn't a biased opinion I

could search. Don't take it for granted.

Don't take Bourbana for granted. Every Sunday you are blessed to

eat and drink, to ask for forgiveness.

You're blessed with the church that is so rich.

We heard from Doctor Bling today.

So cherish the church. Cherish your faith.

We make mistakes, but his hand is always extended to pick us

up. God bless you all.