Effective Biblical Church Leadership

Africa International University A. I. C G. S. U Training College Church Youth Ministry Strategic Plan Period: 1st October 2012-31st December 2012 Unit Title: Church Administration Unit Code: PA 204 Presented to :Lecturer –Dinah K. Nyamai Presented by: Stephen Mutua Adm no: 12066 Background General Service Unit Training College Embakasi Church is a under the umbrella of Africa Inland Church of Kenya. We are situated in the Training College main compound. The Church main congregants are the Training college community and the surrounding neighbors.Since the church was started there has never been any active youth ministry. There has been growing need to meet the spiritual needs of the increasing number of youth church members. This has led the church administration to take a move to initiate and strategize on how to effectively the community at large. Thus, a need for a comprehensive and attainable strategic plan for the youth ministry be put in place to help our young people. Th e Church Strategic Plan for youth ministry will be for a period of three months from 1st October 2012- 31st December 2012.Our first main focus will be to equip the leaders who will thus help has a important means to reach the entire group. Time has come that the church has to seriously need to invest in the youth group for if we miss them then the churches will be at a threat of closing their doors tomorrow. This is because there will be no one of the young generation to be handed over the church leadership. Our strategic plan has been prepared in line with the Vision, Mission, goals of Africa Inland Church of Kenya; VISION: To equip and teach every church member in all wisdom, so that every church member may be mature in Christ; Col: 1-28MISSION: To fulfill the Great Commission of Our Lord Jesus Christ. (Matthew 28:19-20) Our Goals: 1. To fulfill the great commission of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Matthew 28:19,20;†Go therefore and make disciples of all nations†¦ 2. To instr uct and strengthen church members in the faith and holy living   3. To help Christians to stand firm on the scriptures principles   4. To show and demonstrate Christ's love and concern for people by engaging in selective community development projects based on biblical and evangelical principles and practicesOur Vision, Mission, Goal and objectives for the Africa Inland church General Service Unit Training College Embakasi youth ministry; Vision To be a youth ministry that effectively shares our faith and hope in Jesus Christ, (Acts 20:27), Mission: To nurture the youth in church so as to nurture their peers in Christ . Goal: To inspire, train and mentor Christ like youth leaders. Objectives: 1. By the end of October 2012, fifteen youth leaders will be trained to lead at least four youth members through personal Bible study and evangelism. 2.By the end of November 2012, all the trained leaders will evangelize to at least ten people mainly the youth in our surrounding church comm unity. 3. By the end of December 2012, youth leaders will be trained on how to effectively formulate youth programs. October – 2012. |ACTIVITY |HOW TO ACCOMPLISH THE ACTIVITY |WHO TO UNDERTAKE THE ACTIVITY |COST | | A three day seminar for the| The seminar takes place weekly on |Youth pastor, Youth Patron and the youth |Total cost is ksh 20,000. 0 | |youth leaders. |Saturday’s, starting from 9:am-3:30pm |chairman to organize the other youth |The facilitators will be honored | |The seminar topic will be how |We will have two facilitators for the seminar. |leaders to attend the seminar and be |with Ksh 1,000/= on everyday of | |to lead a Bible study group and| |available on time. |attendance . Thus totalcost foe them| |evangelism | |Youth leaders attending the seminar will |will be Ksh 6,000/=. | | |be fifteen. |Tea and snacks will cost kshs | | | | |4,000/= and Lunch will be Kshs | | | | |10,000/=. | ? Evaluation; At the end of the three day training seminar the le aders will undertake an exam and some practical presentation on what they have learned in the seminar. . November 2012 |ACTIVITY |HOW TO ACCOMPLISH THE ACTIVITY |WHO TO UNDERTAKE THE ACTIVITY | COST | | Youth leaders and other five | The group will divide themselves into four |Youth Pastor, Youth patron and The youth |Approximately Ksh 17,000. | |active members will evangelize in|groups. |chairman will lead the other group. |The amount ksh 12,000/= for lunch | |the area around the church |Evangelism will be a three day ministry taking |We expect twenty participants. and kshs 5,000/= for soda and | |community. |place weekly every Saturday of the week. A door | |snacks for the get together. | | |to door and one on one evangelism method. | | | | | | | | Evaluation; After end of evangelism each group will be giving their reports on how many people were saved, challenges the met in the field, follow up procedures adopted e. g contacts of those with specialn needs and the newly converted members. †¢ Fourth Saturday we will hold get together fellowship especially to welcome the new converts from the evangelism ministry. 3. December 2012 |ACTIVITY |HOW TO ACCOMPLISH THE ACTIVITY |WHO TO UNDERTAKE THE ACTIVITY |COST | | A two day seminar for youth |The seminar will take place weekly on Saturdays. The Christian education department |Kshs 7,000. 00 will be used to | |leaders on formulating smart youth |Leaders to be trained on how to identify youth |coordinator will facilitate the seminar. |cater for tea and snacks Kshs | |programs in line with the youth |needs and how to formulate programs in line with |All the fifteen youth leaders will attend |2,500. 00 and lunch kshs 4,500. 00 | |members needs. |how to overcome and reach those needs. |the seminar. |for the two days | Evaluation There will be an exam at the end of the seminar and each leader to formulate his or her program to be presented for discussion by all youth leaders. I believe with the above training foun dation for the leaders will be an important tool to be used in the ministry to reach even more and more in the community at this time when young men and women are vulnerable to all manner of social entertainment and vices. With the help of the trained leaders we will be able to reach many and unto their personal spiritual needs.

Child and young persons development

Understand the kinds Of influences that affect CYP's development Criteria Describe with examples the kinds of influences that affect CYP's development including d) background e) health f) environment 3ackground: The children I'll be working With Will come from a wide range Of backgrounds that will have an impact on their development, such as family composition, culture and beliefs etc.If a child iS from a different culture or belief from most of the other children in the class, then here may be certain rules in that belief that may stop them being involved in a play activity the other children may be taking part in. The child may feel excluded and lonely their physical development could be affected but also their social development could be affected. Health: The children and young people come across may have a number of health issues or disabilities.If a child has a disability that restricts them participating n activities this may have an effect not only primarily on their physical development but also their social development. To avod this, the child must be included as best they can and for them to feel valued. Also Is a child is from a low income family they may not nave the correct diet and nutrition to help them to grow. This may also affect their physical development. Environment: The main environments where a CYP develops Will be their school and home. Both at home and atschool if a child is nurtured and given time then they will develop faster and to a higher level.At home whether the CYP is cared for by parents. grandparents or arers then they will be the first people that the child will develop a bond with. Activities such as read too, and with them and letting them know that their opinion matters will help develop positive growth. A child that is sat in front of a computer playing games may not develop and learn key skills as quickly as a child that has lots of interaction with parents/carers, The surrounding area of the home and school can also hav e an effect. Their development will grow if there are libraries. arks, community centres for Sport and other activities. There they will interact With peer and adults developing a range Of skills. criteria describe with examples the importance of recognising and responding to concerns about children and young people's development. Recognising an Issue with a CYP's development Is Important and responding to any concerns is vital! If during work In a school I have a concern about a pupil's development I would first raise It with the class teacher. I may be asked to record my concerns In-case actions are needed to be taken later.I would need to be sensitive to both the child's and their parent's teelngs and even It others have already raised an issue I should still intorm scrTleone senior in the school. An example that may tind of a child's development being compromised could be a pupil that is new to a school that struggles with English as they may have recently moved to the 13K. This could have an effect on not only their intellectual development through not being able to complete the work done in class, but also their social development. If the pupil has trouble Child and young persons development Understand the kinds Of influences that affect CYP's development Criteria Describe with examples the kinds of influences that affect CYP's development including d) background e) health f) environment 3ackground: The children I'll be working With Will come from a wide range Of backgrounds that will have an impact on their development, such as family composition, culture and beliefs etc.If a child iS from a different culture or belief from most of the other children in the class, then here may be certain rules in that belief that may stop them being involved in a play activity the other children may be taking part in. The child may feel excluded and lonely their physical development could be affected but also their social development could be affected. Health: The children and young people come across may have a number of health issues or disabilities.If a child has a disability that restricts them participating n activities this may have an effect not only primarily on their physical development but also their social development. To avod this, the child must be included as best they can and for them to feel valued. Also Is a child is from a low income family they may not nave the correct diet and nutrition to help them to grow. This may also affect their physical development. Environment: The main environments where a CYP develops Will be their school and home. Both at home and atschool if a child is nurtured and given time then they will develop faster and to a higher level.At home whether the CYP is cared for by parents. grandparents or arers then they will be the first people that the child will develop a bond with. Activities such as read too, and with them and letting them know that their opinion matters will help develop positive growth. A child that is sat in front of a computer playing games may not develop and learn key skills as quickly as a child that has lots of interaction with parents/carers, The surrounding area of the home and school can also hav e an effect. Their development will grow if there are libraries. arks, community centres for Sport and other activities. There they will interact With peer and adults developing a range Of skills. criteria describe with examples the importance of recognising and responding to concerns about children and young people's development. Recognising an Issue with a CYP's development Is Important and responding to any concerns is vital! If during work In a school I have a concern about a pupil's development I would first raise It with the class teacher. I may be asked to record my concerns In-case actions are needed to be taken later.I would need to be sensitive to both the child's and their parent's teelngs and even It others have already raised an issue I should still intorm scrTleone senior in the school. An example that may tind of a child's development being compromised could be a pupil that is new to a school that struggles with English as they may have recently moved to the 13K. This could have an effect on not only their intellectual development through not being able to complete the work done in class, but also their social development. If the pupil has trouble

Diagnosis and the Treatment Planning Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Diagnosis and the Treatment Planning - Case Study Example The full range of approaches would be based on establishment of a secure therapeutic relationship which may move gradually into formal psychoanalytic therapy. The motivation and life situations are important to understand since they extensively contribute to the development of psychosis, which in this case is manifested by delusions. Family interventions are not possible in this case. The need-adapted approach should be based on idiographic assessment of his needs and the type of treatment suited to these needs. Need-adapted approaches, although difficult to design, are more suitable since the overall therapy would depend on several interventions over time rather than a single approach. The therapy would thus not only aim towards reduction of psychotic symptomatology, but also would address a number of developmental trajectories, the deviations from which are responsible for the current symptomatology. For his alcohol dependency, counseling and psychotherapy again are important compo nents of effective treatment. Although psychosocial interventions are recommended, it would take time to arrange a supportive network for this patient. In this case given his dual diagnosis, apart from psychotherapy improved drug therapy may also be employed.

The Impact of Digital Marketing on Consumer Behaviour Essay

The Impact of Digital Marketing on Consumer Behaviour - Essay Example This study sought to determine the influence of digital marketing on consumer buying behaviour. Specifically, this research sought to attain the following objectives: 1. To determine the change in customer buying behaviour brought about by digital marketing among internet and mobile users in the UAE market. 2. To analyse the consumers’ attitude towards interactive digital advertising. 3. To examine the academic literature related to consumer attitude and digital marketing, thereby establishing the relation between both the concepts. For a marketer, communicating with customers anywhere at any time is an essential way to effectively promote products and services. Nowadays, this type of marketing communication has been revolutionized by the development and innovation of digital technology. According to Stewart, digital technology has paved way for immediate interaction between marketers and consumers through digital advertising. In the study done by Radzeviciute & Sliburyte, it was revealed that the most common form of digital marketing tool is the short messages where photographic images can be transferred to computer, mobile phones, and online community. With this, four sub-types of digital marketing strategies were also identified and these are the internet-based and email advertising, and mobile-phone-based SMS- and MMS-type advertising. Over the years, the growth and development of digital marketing has largely been due to its precision, personalization, precision, measurability, easy targeting, and customization.

Strategic Management and Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Strategic Management and Leadership - Essay Example The major European countries where General Motors has strong sales network are Britain, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Turkey, France, Spain and Ukraine. Chevrolet, Cadillac, GM Daewoo, Buick, â€Å"Opel, Vauxhall and Saab (Europe), Saturn, Hummer, Pontiac, Wuling and Holden are among the major brands that Company is offering to its clients. In Europe, GM has been offering Saab in Sweden, whereas it offers Opel and Vauxhall brands in France, Germany, Italy, Great Britain and others. It must be highlighted that GM planned to sell its European Operations because of huge losses it incurred due to uncertain business conditions but then rejected the offers of some buyers or corporations which were interested in purchasing General Motors majority stake. (Company’s report, 2009) I will first discuss this issue in detail in this paper using relevant frameworks such as PEST, Porter’s five forces, Core Competences and Financial Analysis for external and internal analysis respectively. I will then present SWOT analysis, Product-market expansion grid or Ansoff matrix and finally an analysis of key stakeholders of General Motors. The paper will be supported with relevant references, tables and charts. As I mentioned in the above section that General Motors offers Opel and Vauxhall as the major brands in Europe. Although the GM constantly developed, assembled and marketed new vehicles yet it was unable to earn respectable profits from its European operations due to uncertain economic climate that I will elaborate later. The end result was that GM announced its bankruptcy because of unbearable costs and also decided to either close or sell off its Opel/Vauxhall units to avoid further losses. It must not be forgotten that Gm Europe remain involved in restructuring in past to control mounting losses. The decision to sell off European Operations was

Figuring out how to deal with china VO1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Figuring out how to deal with china VO1 - Essay Example Despite the challenge, it was important that the company directly entered into the Chinese internet market. Evidently, the Chinese servers do not get all the information they need from Baidu and that is why they opt for Google when they want materials from outside China. It is also evident that the success of Baidu and the apparent failure of Google in China are just but a perception. There are therefore chances that Google can do something to change this perception and experience some success as well by making improvement its content and adopting a Chinese name. Based on the 1997-2005 statistics of internet usage and access in China, the Chinese internet market is large and fast growing. According to information from the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC, 2005), Chinese internet market grew from 0 in 1997 to about 10 million by the beginning of 2000. Within the next two years, this had risen to over 35 million and by the second half of 2005, this figure was already over 100 million. At the same time, the number of users with broadband access is rising at an attractive rate. This figure grew to almost five million in its first year, 2002, and by the second half of 2005, it was over 50 million. The rate of growth of broadband users is faster. However, the actual size and growth of the Chinese market is larger than this given that the figures do not include users in Macao, Taiwan and Hong Kong. The figures were also obtained via fixed-line telephones and this means the study did not fully capture the actual market represented by the young people. The Google search service has evolved one that was less reliable to a more reliable search service. Since its establishment, the Google search service aimed at improving offering superior search experiences than those of Yahoo and Vista (Lawrence, 2009). Currently, the search service offers super-fast results that are highly matched and more relevant

Assessing the impact of modular construction products and processes on Dissertation

Assessing the impact of modular construction products and processes on the sustainability of the construction industry - Dissertation Example re 3.3.1: Suggested Research Process for Construction Management Research 65 Figure 4.1: Stadthaus Apartments, the World’s Tallest Prefabricated Timber Structure standing Nine Stories High, Constructed in 27 Days 76 Figure 4.2: The Renault Centre, Swindon, England Presents an Example of Modular and Prefabricated Steel Architecture with High Level of Modularisation, Prefabrication and Judicious Use of High-Embodied Energy Materials for Superior Life Cycle Performance 77 List of Tables Table 2.1.1: Embodied Energy of Common Construction Materials 17 Table 2.1.2: Five Topical and Three Bonus Categories in the LEED v3 Sustainability Rating System 19 Table 2.1.3: Matrices for Assessment of Various Building Products Based on Various Attributes 20 Table 2.1.4: Core Indicators for Sustainability in a Building 24 Table 2.7.2.1: A Comparison of Different Structural Schemes for Multi-Story Buildings in China and their Associated Construction Methods 46 Table 4.1: Housing Affordability in Various Countries 73 Table 4.2: Stakeholder Interest in Construction 74 Acknowledgements I would like to thank firstly GOD who has given me strength and wisdom to which has allowed me to complete this course successfully. Secondly I would like to thank my wife and family for all of their support and encouragements. Thirdly I would like to thank Mr. Willy Confait for his trust in me and his support during my studies. And fourthly I would like to thank Doctor David Moore for his most appreciated support, teachings and guidance to which has allowed me to complete my dissertation. Lastly but not least I would like to thank the University for the opportunity and also all of my teachers (Mr Gerard Buda, Mr Graham Castle, Mr Rod McLennan, Mr Paul Begg, Mr Bassam Bejeirmi, Mr Richard Laing, Mr Neil... Results of the investigations suggest that there is overwhelming evidence to support the hypothesis that modular construction and prefabrication enhance sustainability of the construction industry. Considerations related to affordability of housing, the built environment and products of construction demand use of innovative designs that present judicious use of construction materials with modularisation and prefabrication. However, a need exists to collaborate to develop standardised modular systems for construction, standards for modular construction and flexible systems that enable flexible construction. It is important to note that deployment of highly flexible CAD / CAM systems for manufacturing of prefabricated, modular components is essential for manufacturing of high precision and flexible modular systems, and designers need to emphasise a life-cycle approach for incorporating sustainability, modularisation and prefabrication in designs for construction. Innovation in modular design for construction is all important because a judicious mix of materials for construction, including high embodied energy materials, such as steel, with other fourth-generation materials promises to deliver construction that is sustainable, aesthetically pleasing, comfortable for the users and suited to material reuse after dismantling at the end of its useful life. Thus, it makes sense for builders, architects and engineers to emphasise the use of modular components for construction by incorporating the modular in design and adding to the number of modular components used for various products of construction.

End of Course Assessment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

End of Course Assessment - Essay Example Evidence about this is available to us both through Roman literature and what we know about how Roman villas were constructed. Although some of this evidence might be questionable, it can still give us important clues into how Roman villa-owners spent their leisure time, which can in turn show us the different ideas about the value and purpose of leisure in ancient Rome and how they continued to affect society long into modern times. Two philosophers who had important ideas about what leisure meant, how to use it, and who should have it were Aristotle and Epicurus. Aristotle was probably Plato’s most famous student of philosophy, who went on to become a philosopher in his own right. Two of Aristotle’s works which deal with questions of leisure are â€Å"the Politics and the Nichomachean Ethics† (Price 2008, p11). In these two works, Aristotle tries to answer questions about leisure that ultimately lead him to ask â€Å"a rather different question: what is it to be an excellent human being?† (Price 2008, p13). The reason Aristotle was interested in this question is because he had somewhat unusual views about leisure. He believed that â€Å"leisure and well-being are intimately connected: living well involves having plenty of leisure, and using it in the best possible way† (Price 2008, p12). Today, most people would probably say that leisure was just what you do after you’re finished working, but Aristotle did not agree with that either. When he talked about leisure, he did not mean just lying around and relaxing, doing nothing. Instead, he used it to mean â€Å"the pursuit of activities that we value for their own sake† (Price 2008, p12). More importantly, Aristotle did not just mean any activity at all. Instead, he wanted the activities to be those which made excellent human beings. So for Aristotle, leisure was pursuing excellence for its own sake, instead of for some other purpose. Of course, being a privileged philosopher, he

Animal Memory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Animal Memory - Essay Example This experiment can serve as a starting point for more researchers on neural networks that enable animals to learn from the environment. This effort requires neuroscientists to look into the brain functions of live animals. Scrub Jays are known to store or cache foods for their consumption. An experiment by Clayton et al. showed a resemblance of rationality in the part of the scrub jays regarding their food caching behavior. Scrub Jays were made to cache perishable and non-perishable foods in distinct trays. Upon retrieval of these food types, scrub jays appeared to display rationality by picking first perishable food over non-perishable ones. A behavior like this, according to the researchers, requires memory of past experiences with types of food in order to make a decision of effectively using his stored food. In another experiment, scrub jays were found to retain memories of pilferage of their cached food and thus resorted to caching food in private or retrieving food in private. These two experiments illustrate the complex behavior of scrub jays which are not witnessed in other animals. Dolphins were found to demonstrate memory of complex commands (Mercado et al. 210). In their experiment, a bottlenosed dolphin was able to replicate 36 behaviors it was tested on. It was also able to perform simultaneous and self-selected activities which signified, according to the researchers, the ability of dolphins to flexibly utilize recent behavior for the replication of complex activities.

Discussion Questions Essay Example for Free

Discussion Questions Essay †¢ In the video this week, Bill Goodykoontz discusses watching movies as a group in a theater versus watching alone, on computers, or in your home. Explain how the availability of movies has evolved over the last century. Which experience do you prefer and why? You can rent and own movies almost anywhere now, from your phone, computer and TV. I remember when going to the theater was the only way to see a movie, now you can get it right off your computer. We enjoy watching movies directly off from our Netflix account on playstation, its beats paying late fees going to blockbusters and they’re unlimited for a nice fee. †¢ In the Week Two Learnscape, you craft an introductory paragraph for Sen. Johnson for a speech he is giving on the impact of the Internet on politics. After scanning the sites you’ve been given, how comfortable are you with the credibility of the information you found on the Internet? What, if anything, makes you uncomfortable about the credibility of these sources? If you think the information is credible, explain why. Im not comfortable with credibility of the information found on the internet since I don’t know what I’m really suppose to be looking for. †¢ In this week’s video, Bill Goodykoontz discusses the value of critics in popular culture. Do you find value in criticism or do you prefer to experience movies, music, etc., without outside feedback? Explain your answers. Personally, experience movies, music, etc without outside feedback is what I prefer. It makes it harder to view someone else art when you read other criticism because than you expect that predicition †¢ In this week’s video, Bill Goodykoontz discusses having to stay true to your own reactions and experiences when evaluating art. Why is this so difficult to do? What do you think influences us most? Do you try to shape others’ opinions when sharing your thoughts about music and movies? It’s so difficult to stay true to your own reactions about art since there’s so many media and critics in the world. There’s other that try to point out the negative in everything which gets you to start thinking about it. Media has a great impact on what we believe in this world, and shape what we think of certain things. I’ll give my own opinion about music and movies, but I let them view it themselves before really giving my thoughts. †¢ Over the last century, do you think music has changed from being about artistic expression to being more about money and business? Is it even possible for a band or artist to make topical or political commentary in a song today while focusing on turning a profit? Yes, music this century hasn’t been artistic and seem more about the money. Music these days seem more alike with the same rhythm, beat, lyrics and etc. Though you can find a few music artist who have their own taste and don’t care about the money and business. I’ve heard that some artist and bands put political commentary in a song, but I hadn’t been able to capture them. †¢ Feedback Question: How are your time management strategies working for you? Which strategies have been most effective? What time management challenges remain? What may be done about those? Time management is still a tiny struggle, but I’m getting the hang of juggling work, school and my family. It’s just getting back in the schedule of doing work and getting the strength to get it finish. †¢ Feedback Question: How are your reading strategies working for you? Is reading the content of this course same or different from reading content in other courses? Is it easier or harder? Any suggestions for how to make reading this sort of content more effective for yourself? Reading strategies for this class has been a little difficult than my other classes. Their more material to absorb, therefore I need to make more time for it which I plan on doing. Also, I plan on taking notes as I go than review that same day, that way the material will be able to sink in a little more.

China Airlines Flight 611 Engineering Essay

China Airlines Flight 611 Engineering Essay China Airlines Flight 611, Boeing 747-200 aircraft, was flying from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport Taoyuan Originally named as Chiang Kai Shek International Airport to Hong Kong International Airport in Hong Kong, a regularly scheduled flight on 25 May 2002. The aircraft was reported to be disintegrated in mid-air, and crashed into the Taiwan Strait just after 25 minutes after taking off, killing all 225 people aboard. The aircraft was popular around the world and was widely used for over 20 years. After which the accident happened, Taiwanese Authorities quickly launched one of the largest rescue mission of the country aviation history. The incident of the crash occurred between 15:37 and 15:40, local time, the aircraft disappeared from radar screens, assuming that it has experienced and in-flight breakup at FL350 (approximately 35,000 feet), in the Taiwan Strait, near the Penghu Islands. It was spotted by a military C-130 aircraft, approximately 23 nautical miles northeast of makung. The aircraft consists of total 19 crew members and 206 passengers. All was found dead after the crashed and the first body was found at 18:10. Some passengers were found floating on the surface of the ocean, while some remained strapped in their seats. Pieces of the aircraft were also found in the ocean and on Taiwan, as well as the city of Changhua. No signs of burns, explosives or gunshots were found on the wreckage by searchers, except that oil slicks were spotted. Section 2 Event The aircraft was popular around the world and was widely used for over 20 years. After which the accident happened, Taiwanese Authorities quickly launched one of the largest rescue mission of the country aviation history. More than a thousand people took part in it. Fishing boat, coast guard and Taiwan military race out to the sea. The aircraft was found 55km away from the Taiwanese shore, north of the Penghu island where it disappeared. Great amount of wreckage, including landing gear wheels, are found on the ocean. Wreckage of the plane was spread far and wide. Some items are found on land, and some were more than a 100km away in Central Taiwan. As the rescue team continues, Taiwan Aviation Safety Council begins its investigations into the crash of the 22 year-old plane. It was reported that, there is typically one major accident happens every four years, for China Airlines, and this particular accident was so far the most difficult one. The search for survivors goes around the clock. There were 225 people on the airplane, however, none was found alive. Bodies were taken to the Penghu Island to be identified and examined. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) then joins the investigation, and a team of investigators was dispatched to Taiwan. Investigators wants to know how one of the most successful and popular airplane simply fell off the sky. 25 days after the crash, of flight 611, two Black Box were found, in which, one contains the voice recording of voice conversation in the cockpit and the other, data from the flight computer. However, either could give what happened. After trying to retrieve the conversation in the cockpit, there are no unusual sounds before the crash, only after which, the sound of the plane crashing apart was recorded and the recording stopped. Wreckage examinations were the only option left for investigations. At a cruising altitude of 34,900 feet, the aircraft experienced an in-flight break-up. After which, it approaches to its cruising altitude of 35,000 feet. Before the breakup, the thrust of one of the aircrafts four engine began to subside. Concurrently, the engine was the only one recovered from the sea floor. It was likely due to the structural failure in the aft lower lobe section of the fuselage. The final investigation report indicates that the accident was caused by improper repair and maintenance after a previous incident, happened in 1980. It is the result of metal fatigue of the aircrafts tail. On the 7 February, 1980, China Airlines Flight 611 had a tailstrike accident while landing in Hong Kong. Part of the planes tail was damaged in the incident. A temporary repair on the airplane was done the day after.  A more permanent repair was conducted by a team from China Airlines from 23 May to 26 May, 1980. However, during the permanent repair of the tailstrike, it was not carried in accordance with the Boeing Structural Manual (SRM). The area of the damaged skin on the planes tail was not trimmed or removed properly. In addition, the repair doubler plate that was supposed to cover in excess of 30% of the damaged area did not extend beyond the entire damaged area enough to restore the overall structural strength. The cause of the metal fatigue had evidences of brown nicotine stain, caused by the smoke from the cigarettes of people, about seven years before the disaster (smoking was allowed in a pressurized plane at that time). The engineers detected brown nicotine stain all the way around the doubler plate during the inspection. It is concluded that due to the nicotine to had been seeping out because of the pressure that built up when the airplane is in cruising altitude, then stained the part around the doubler plate of the tail. However, there is no proper maintenance done to the doubler plate, which then causes the plane to fall apart in mid air. Section 3 Maintenance Error The accident for the crash is due to improper structural repair. Day after the tail strike, China Airline did a temporary repair, engineers attached a large aluminum plate over the damaged area but a more permanent repair was to be carried out within four months. Engineers of China Airline placed doubler plates right over the scratched material, but the doubler plate that they used was not 30% larger than the affected area. In fact, it was barely or maybe not even larger than the scratched area in certain area. According to the Boeing Repair Manual, many of the scratches on plane were too deep to be repaired. The entire damaged section should had been cut out and replaced by a new one. However, it was not done so, as evidence indicates that the repair was not done according to the Boeing repair Manual. After much investigations, it appears that the maintenance technician failed to replace the damaged pieces, which causes the scratches to remained. China Airline engineers told the investigator that the scratched area was too large to be cut down, so they sanded the scratches down instead. Even though the repair was not done accordingly to the Boeing Repair Manual instructions, they made it seemed like it was. China Airline Engineers documented that they had repaired according to the Boeing standard, and that made the damage impossible to detect as anyone reading the entry would assumed that the damaged area had been cut out as it should had been done so. Thus, metal fatigue of the instrument caused a maintenance error of improper structural repair by the China Airline engineers was disastrous. Section 4 Contributing Factors 4.1 The China Airlines Flight 611 accident was caused by improper use of information/ incorrect modified information/ improper work process. The China Airlines Flight 611 suffered a tail strike while landing on runway on the 7th of February 1980, 22 years before the accident, at the time when the airplane was only six months old. On the day after the tail strike China Airlines did a temporary repair by attaching a large aluminium plate over the damaged area. A permanent repair was scheduled for the aircraft four months later. According to Boeings Structural Repair Manual, a light scratch on the structure of the aircraft can simply be sanded down. But the tail strike that occurred left a deep scratch on the skin of the fuselage that cannot be repaired by sanding it down. The correct procedure was to cut out the damaged area and replace it with a doubler patch that is 30% larger than the original affected area. China Airlines told that the area was too large to be cut out. They did not follow the procedure and carried on sanding down the scratches and finally covering it with a doubler plate. Unfortunately the repair wasnt sufficient nor was the doubler plate large enough. This shows that the engineer tasked with this did not use the information given to him by the Boeings structural repair manual nor did he followed the work process/ procedure but instead modified the manufacturers Structural repair manual incorrectly. With the doubler plate perfectly concealing the improper repair from ever being detected by anyone, the scratches were left to deteriorate into cracks and allowed to spread out for 22 years, until the pressure in the plane was too large for the structure of the plane to withstand that the plane tore apart in mid-air. 4.2 Another contributing factor includes the complacency of engineers. According to Boeings recommendations, the scratches on the skin of the fuselage were too deep to be repaired. The proper action was to cut out the damaged area and replace it with a doubler patch 30% larger than the removed area. The engineer in charge of the task was probably complacent and thought that it was okay to simply sand the scratched area and put a doubler plate on it. He probably thought that the scratch was nothing serious and the doubler plate was strong enough to support the skin and hence did the repairs following his own false judgments. After the Aloha Airlines Flight 243 accident on April 28 1988, the Federal Aviation Administration laid out inspection procedures to be done on older planes. The inspection of China Airlines Flight 611 was carried out on 2001, a year before the accident. This would have been an opportunity for China Airlines to detect the improper repair that was done 21 years back when they found a brown stain on one of the 31 doublers found on the aircraft. This could have warned them of the catastrophic crack that lies behind the doubler and forced them to take immediate action. The China Airlines overlooked this to be something minor and moved on to the second part of the Federal Aviation Administrations procedure which was a detailed inspection of the repaired areas scheduled to be done on the 2nd November 2002. Unfortunately the Boeing-747 never made it to the specified date. 4.3 Another contributing factor includes improper work process and procedure. The repair done was on the damage caused by the tail strike four months later was not logged in truthfully. The way that the engineer logged the repair done to the damaged area made it seem like it was in accordance to the Boeings recommendations and structural repair manual. This lead the improper repair to be oblivious to anyone as anyone who read the entry would have thought that the damaged area had been cut out as it should have been. 4.4 Amount of supervision The repair job might have lacked supervision when it was done and logged. There was no one to witness and re-check the repair that was supposed to be done, how it was done and how it was logged in the entry. If there was someone watching over their actions then hiding such a big mistake would have been impossible. At the very least the engineer would have had to schedule for another proper repair to be done on the next scheduled check. Section 5 Error Prevention Strategies Aviation agencies around the world to inspect their plane more thoroughly for any hidden damages that might develop into a major structure failure. Operators should take the doubler plates off and do a visual inspection to the structure underneath. Develop a tool that allows mechanics to easily detect hidden damages behind the doubler. Such tools are used today. Using ultrasound, sound wave travels through metals and it can reveal damage underneath the doubler. It is the same technology that allows doctor to see the foetus inside the mothers womb .The disadvantage is that it requires a lot of time. Reinforce importance to perform structural repairs according to the Structure Repair Manual or other regulatory agency approved methods, without deviation, and perform damage assessment in accordance with the approved regulations, procedures, and best practices. For any structural damages beyond existing approved data, operators should seek assistance and consultation from the manufacturer(s) for appropriate repair procedures. Categorize structural repair as a major repair Describe defect type and location clearly Step by step instructions and signature requirements Detailed drawings of the damages, locations on the aircraft, doubler dimensions, material specifications, applicable Structure Repair Manual sections, and any special instructions Review the record keeping system to ensure that all maintenance activities have been properly recorded. No longer accept any quick writes of the repair work was done properly if the repair does not have all the necessary documentation that show the repair was done properly in order to provide a clear view for inspector/auditors conducting records reviews. Assess and implement safety related airworthiness requirements, which consists of the Repair Assessment Program(RAP) and Corrosion Prevention and Control Program, at the earliest practicable time and ensure they are completed in conformity with the approved maintenance documents. When implementing the programs, information such as, operational factors, safety aspects, and the uncertainty factors in workmanship and inspection should be fully documented. Increase maintenance crews awareness with regard to the irregular shape of the aircraft structure, as well as any potential signs that may indicate hidden structural damage. 7. Operators to maintain healthy relationship with the manufacturers field service representative so as to actively seek assistance and consultation from manufacturers field service representatives in maintenance and repair operations. 8. Consider the implementation of stand-alone power sources for flight recorders and adding of cabin pressure as one of the mandatory Flight Data Recorder parameter to improve effectiveness in investigations.

Time to Wake Up :: essays research papers

Time to Wake Up As society becomes more Mcdonaldized or methodical in order people lose meaning to live and people’s quality of life is diminished. There is no wonder why suicide levels are the third leading cause of death for youths (ages 15-24) because when you take away creativity you taking away meaning. Although this order has brought efficiency it has caused humanity to lose focus of what separates us from all other animals. Humans are not met to be robotic, there is a reason why we have feelings, emotions, and passions and don’t act on everything by instinct. Since these special traits have been suppressed humanity now runs around like chickens with their heads cut off and does whatever society tells them to do. It is my belief that this trend to Mcdonaldize everything will eventually lead to mankinds destruction and the only way to prevent this is for us all to wake up. People need to realize that we are not in a race to win or to see who finishes the strongest, so there is no point to join societies rat race because all it is an illusion. People need to stop for one second and ask themselves what are they doing and why. When people can finally answer those questions then humanity will finally wake up. The question I have for everyone is, where are you going and what is the hurry? Can’t you see that we are all in this together! My suggestion to anyone who reads this would be not to join the band wagon but instead be unique or different. Sit outside the box and look in it and then you will see what I am talking about, people are like lost sheep that have gone astray and don’t know who they are, so instead of searching who they real are they submit to society and do whatever is in. So they key is to search within yourself to find out who you really are and to live this out you all the days of your life. Time to Wake Up :: essays research papers Time to Wake Up As society becomes more Mcdonaldized or methodical in order people lose meaning to live and people’s quality of life is diminished. There is no wonder why suicide levels are the third leading cause of death for youths (ages 15-24) because when you take away creativity you taking away meaning. Although this order has brought efficiency it has caused humanity to lose focus of what separates us from all other animals. Humans are not met to be robotic, there is a reason why we have feelings, emotions, and passions and don’t act on everything by instinct. Since these special traits have been suppressed humanity now runs around like chickens with their heads cut off and does whatever society tells them to do. It is my belief that this trend to Mcdonaldize everything will eventually lead to mankinds destruction and the only way to prevent this is for us all to wake up. People need to realize that we are not in a race to win or to see who finishes the strongest, so there is no point to join societies rat race because all it is an illusion. People need to stop for one second and ask themselves what are they doing and why. When people can finally answer those questions then humanity will finally wake up. The question I have for everyone is, where are you going and what is the hurry? Can’t you see that we are all in this together! My suggestion to anyone who reads this would be not to join the band wagon but instead be unique or different. Sit outside the box and look in it and then you will see what I am talking about, people are like lost sheep that have gone astray and don’t know who they are, so instead of searching who they real are they submit to society and do whatever is in. So they key is to search within yourself to find out who you really are and to live this out you all the days of your life.

Skyscrapers Essay -- essays research papers

skyscraper architecture "http://www.coshe.com/search/" The architectural design of the 20th century skyscrapers has been redefined due to the advancement of our modern technology. Benny Louie Humanity 450 Dr. Maureen Schmid 17 May 1999 The architectural design of the 20th century skyscrapers has been redefined due to the advancement of our modern technology. In our modern society, the architectural design of skyscrapers is changing the downtown landscape of metropolitan areas. Due to the change of technologies, it has changed the architectural design of skyscraper dramatically in terms of the its function, design structures, heating and cooling systems and it social status in society. The basic function of the architecture is to provide a roof over peoples’ head. The main purpose of architecture is to act as a shelter for people to protect themselves against Mother Nature. As civilization development advances, we increased our knowledge and became more creative. Peo ple start to design buildings for means of displaying wealth and social status. The skyscraper fits the criteria to show the social status of such building with great height and elegance to the society. According to O’Gorman, â€Å"architecture is a form language, of communication.† (P.89) This communication is represented in the forms of texture, shape and style that reflects certain period of time. In the early period, architectures were associated with style and culture. â€Å"The Greeks built marble temples with Doric, Ionic or Corinthian columns. Egyptian architecture used heavy lotus columns, massive battered walls and pyramidal forms. The Gothic style used point arch, vast areas of stained glasses, pointed rib-vault construction.† (P. 92) Each had its unique characteristic feature to express its message. In the 20th century architectural design, architecture is no longer viewed as simple shelter to provide a roof over peoples’ head. Architectures a re designed with a more environmental conscious issue like cost, energy conservation and practicality of the structure. The interior environment is designed according to the space function of the structures. For example, â€Å"a dance hall, needs a large open-space with sufficient room for the band and a bar and maybe for tables and chairs around the edge so that people can sit and chat.† (Conway & Rowan) This concept always applies to real life s... ...e is a sense of prestige for having offices or shops in these skyscrapers. Modern skyscrapers are being redefined by the use of advance technologies. Due to the advancement in technology, skyscrapers are able to reach new height easily. It changes the way architects design the structure of these buildings. The new function of the skyscraper is to provide great views, house antennas for communications, telebroadcasting and for entertainment purpose. The use of computer climate control system made the building a more comfortable environment for everyone. The great height of the skyscraper like the Sears Tower, it associates itself with the prestige of being the tallest of all. With the rapid advancement of technology and the influence of fame and wealth, sky is limit for the next generation of skyscrapers. Work cited Bennett, David. Skyscrapers Form & Function New York 1995 Conway, Hazel and Rowan, Roenisch. Understanding Architecture: An introduction to Architecture and archit ectural History. London and New York: Routledge 1994. O’Gorman, James. ABC of Architecture Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998 Online www.infoplease.com May 15, 1999 Word Count: 1429

Visual Culture :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Symbols and images have a more than significant impact on one?s views of the world. Since childhood, a person?s brain uses representation of images into meanings to make sense of their world. These images then go on to being either the truth or falsehood and base a person?s views of the world for the rest of their life. All this can be explained through the idea of representation of everyday cultural mediums; such as advertisements and the television.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Representation is the way a person interprets symbols and images of a culture and the way these images explain why the world is the way it is. These symbols and images are seen in everyday cultural mediums so nobody is exempt from representation; even under strict exclusion from society. An example would be of a person brought up on Fifth Avenue who believes that the best clothes are made by the likes of Armani compared to a vagabond who believes that the best clothes are the ones that last him through the night.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Nearly every form of visual media a person comes into contact with is a photograph, which is undisputable evidence of an event. There is the myth of photographic truth, which means that photographs are subjective, yet can be manipulated and taken in different contexts. Take the photographs taken by Nazi?s during the holocaust. The photographs denote that Nazis killed millions of people, but the photographs may also take on many connotative meanings. Connotative meanings are views people hold on images based on their cultures and past experiences. One may have the connotative view that the images are horrendous while another might find justification within the actions of the Nazis.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Of the two connotative meanings mentioned with the Nazi pictures they each hold different ideologies; ideas that form a culture. The ideas of ideology are usually taken in as the views of most of the population of a given culture, therefore ideologies define cultures. An American ideology is the belief in independent freedom while a communist ideology is communal sharing. How are these ideologies passed on in a culture? They start off in schools and places that people gather. Malls are filled with advertisements. There are ads that symbolize skinny brunettes wearing Chanel as the perfect woman, which is what most men and women tend to take as truth. Then there are ads to enlist people into the army, which give a message of a strong country run by individuals.

Future of Investment Banking

Future of Investment Banks is extremely relevant topic for today’s studies. This type of banks institutions plays one of the main roles, being circulating element in the whole body of financial system. Vital role guaranteed by the abilities to help clients to raise capital through debts, equity or other potential deals. Needless to note that investment banks are those privileged institutions that are involved in processes of mergers and acquisitions. Concern about future of such an important investment banks are brought up by relatively recent events in bank sector of the economy.Even when BNP Paribas signaled that they had problems with properly pricing its book of subprime related bonds, a lot of experts were starting to worry. Chain of events is noticeable because of Lehman Brothers’ collapse as well. And nowadays questions of the development perspectives of investment banks increased dramatically. In attempts to describe possible development perspectives of investme nt banks, following picture can be drawn. First of all, it’s given that quantity of â€Å"investment banks† already decreased.It’ better to describe it as consolidation process with a lesser amount of big banks and more small boutiques. Acquisition of JP Morgan in massive less effective structure proves this argument. Second, the problem of maturity gap should be solved. Dealing with asymmetric by the means of Repurchasing Agreements is not acceptable anymore due to the lack of trust. Moreover, asset/liability mismatch is risky and hard to control. Therefore it’s important to relay on long-term funding such as deposits. The next gesture of brush is certainly about the regulation issue.Industry experienced some sort of deregulation caused by Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which had replaced Glass-Steagall Act. Thus, commercial banks with more conservative structure noticeably had gotten closer to investment banks with all their risk-taker items. Good example is i llustrated by Citigroup, where blend of banking, security and insurance may be observed. Separation should be supported for the purpose of avoiding conflicts of interests which incurred in internal environment of financial institutions.Next thing to observe in order to fulfill the forecast of development perspective of investment banks has to deal with bonuses in sector. There are no doubts, that people who worked on the field of investment are really hard-working folks, dedicated to their job more than ten hours a day including weekends. Nevertheless, they play with â€Å"other people’s money† which imposes responsibilities that cannot be overestimated. It means that extensive impact may occur in case of unsuccessful activities but not for the trader.Bonuses should be limited. Motivation program should involve not only bonuses for profits but also some sort of provisions/allowances in undesirable case of losses. Discretion will inevitably lead to more risk aversion be havior. Actually, risk conservative approach is required all around banking due to elimination of the financial crisis threats. Before summing up, all the activities, that should be done for the future of the investment banks, there is one thing that will occur no matter what.It is something about experience that of course deserves to be thought of. Lessons learned from the significant episodes of financial crisis are really valuable. People will become more rational, especially in terms of dealing with unknown instruments like CDOs, CDO^2s and others. Arguments presented in this paper are supposed to support the idea of investment baking’s evolution. Despite the common concerns, the industry will survive, because of the never-ending demand of raising money

Ancient History Essay

New research has immensely impacted on our understanding of daily life in both Pompeii and Herculaneum. Experts in archaeology, science and other fields have revealed copious amounts of information about people, buildings and food found in the two cities prior to the eruption in 62 AD. Experts such as Estelle Lazer and Sarah Bisel have assisted in heightening our understanding of the daily life in Pompeii and Herculaneum. From 1986 Estelle Lazer worked on a sample of over 300 individuals who were represented by a collection of disarticulated bone. The techniques of forensic medicine and physical anthropology were used to determine sex, age-at-death, height, signs of disease and population affinities of the victims. The results indicated that almost equal numbers of males and females from all age groups did not manage to escape the town before it was destroyed. Sarah Bisel worked with the bone analysis of the skeletons of Herculaneum to determine and study the lifestyle differences between the social classes present within Herculaneum. She discovered many things about the people of Herculaneum such as the town was a genetically diverse society, children were often malnourished due to the lack of calcium in their teeth and the bodies had high levels of lead. This new information has majorly effected and broadened our understanding of daily life in Pompeii and Herculaneum. The evidence of food in the two towns and the study of these by experts such as Wilhelmina Jashemski and the team of principal researchers known as the Pompeii Food and Drink Project, further develop our knowledge of daily life in these famous towns of Campania. Jashemski’s project had the purpose of studying animal and plant remains in order to gain an understanding of the kinds of gardens in and around Pompeii as well as gathering information on the wine and oil industries of the area. By examining soil contours and carbonised plant remains, archaeologists have gained a more accurate picture of produce and ornamental gardens in Pompeii. The purpose of the Pompeii Food and Drink Project was to analyse the patterns of daily life in a non-invasive way to study the structures that are associated with food and drink. The Project has collected many ancient artefacts and information, and answered many questions about the food and drink storage, distribution, preparation, serving, and consumption in Ancient Pompeii. All these sources combine to give us a more acute knowledge of the ancient towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The buildings found in Pompeii and Herculaneum provide extensive information about the lifestyle of people living there. The House of Pompeii Project, started in 1977, had the focus of investigating and salvaging buildings which had been excavated in previous years but had not necessarily been recorded. The two houses that were particularly studied was the House of the Ancient Hunt and the House of the Coloured Capitals. The Project has not uncovered any new information, only recorded findings on certain housing which were either not properly recorded or completely ignored. The Insula of Menander Project had much the same aim as the House of Pompeii Project, in that they were redressing the deficiencies in earlier records. Their main focus, though, was the insula conducted under Amedeo Maiuri. The Project provided a detailed history of the insula showing that there had been frequent building changes over time and that there appeared to be a late appearance of shops and the addition of upper storeys in the last years of the city. The Pompeian Forum Project’s main objective was to produce more accurate plans of surviving remains by the use of architectural analysis to widen the understanding of contemporary urban problems. The traditional view that the Forum was a ‘builder’s yard’ after the 62 AD earthquake was disproved. There was also evidence found of a comprehensive earthquake plan for the Eastern side of the Forum. In Source A we can see how new research has amplified our knowledge of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Through research by Italy’s National Institute of Optics, it has been discovered that the famous ‘Pompeian red’ was a colour created from the mixture of yellow paint and the gases from Vesuvius. In conclusion, the impacts of new research and technologies have considerably expatiated our enlightenment of the daily life in Pompeii and Herculaneum. The many sources uncovered and analysed from these towns have been much more useful as a result of developing technology and research. In the years to come, technology will continue to develop, along with more information being discovered and this will result in more and more information being provided about the famous ancient towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Changes in Economic Structures

Changes in economic Structures Introduction Show knowledge of primary, secondary, tertiary Changes in primary Develop at least two points about why the primary sector has decreased in developed countries Explain advantages and disadvantages Change in secondary Develop at least two points about why the secondary has decreased in developed countries Explain Advantage/disadvantages Changes in Tertiary Develop two points about why the tertiary sector has increased Explain advantages/disadvantages (what’s good and bad about it) ConclusionWhat’s going to happen in the long term? What do you think the impacts of this have been overall? Changes in economic Structures Within the business industry there are 3 main sectors in which firms operate to, which is the primary secondary and tertiary sectors. Each of these sectors forms a chain of production which provides consumers with products and services. In the primary sector firms are involved in extracting raw materials from earth ’s natural resources.This includes fishes being fished out of the ocean, rubbers being tapped from trees, and oil being drilled from the ground etc. Whilst as the secondary sector manufactures and assembles the raw materials collected from the primary sector to make a complete product. Examples are refining crude oil to turn into useful products such as gasoline, cooking uncooked food to serve in restaurants and turning copped wood into finished products such as chairs and tables etc.Finally in the tertiary sector firms focus on selling the refined and manufactured products/services to customers, for example selling finished chairs in a furniture shop, refilling gas tanks in a petrol station, selling diamonds to soon to be engaged couples etc. Over the past centuries we have seen many changes in the business industry including the decline of employment rate in the primary and secondary sector, and the employment boom in the tertiary sector.In the 1700’s 75% of the worl d’s population was working in the primary sector, 15% in the secondary sector and 10% in the tertiary sector, whereas now only 2% are employed in the primary sector, 28% in the secondary sector and 70% in the tertiary sector. One of the main reasons why there has been a decline in the primary and secondary is sector is the change in technology. As the newer technology provided businesses with more efficient ways of extracting and manufacturing products (using machinery) it also reduced the amount of workload needed by humans in the chosen job.This meant a lot of workers had to become redundant and thus taking jobs in the tertiary sector. Additionally because of the over-extraction of natural resources there are very scares resources left to extract out of the earth; as a result businesses have to compete for the resources that remain meaning businesses that cannot compete to acquire these resources have to make their employees redundant hence the decline in employment rate in the primary sector.Finally because of the increasing safety standards and more people caring about their health there has been a decrease in primary and secondary sectors. On the other hand, whilst the primary and secondary sectors are decreasing, the tertiary sector has increased dramatically. This is because of the increase in educational standards and the amount of pay in the tertiary sector. As decades past more and more people are receiving better education around the world, thus people with higher education require higher paying jobs.This is where the level of employment in the tertiary sector skyrocketed because the tertiary sector could provide these people with a higher pay and a job that they want to pursue. Furthermore as a result of increase in tourism many tertiary sector businesses have opened up to fulfill the demand tourists. In conclusion the sectors in the business industry will always keep on changing because of the factors shown. We are in a generation where the tertiary sector is very popular and this has influenced the way each country works.For example in Thailand there are many tertiary businesses in the capital city such as offices, super-markets and malls which are mainly highly successful. And schools nowadays guide students to work in the tertiary sectors instead of primary of secondary. However there are still large populations of people working in the primary sector as rice farmers etc. Nevertheless I believe in the future the tertiary sector will decrease and the primary and secondary sectors will rise again because once the tertiary sector meets its peak, it will drop back down.

Practical Demonkeeping Chapter 26

26 TRAVIS'S STORY Augustus Brine sat in one of the big leather chairs in front of his fireplace, drinking red wine from a balloon goblet and puffing away on his meerschaum. He had promised himself that he would have only one glass of wine, just to take the edge off the adrenaline and caffeine jangle he had worked himself into during the kidnapping. Now he was on his third glass and the wine had infused him with a warm, oozy feeling; he let his mind drift in a dreamy vertigo before attacking the task at hand: interrogating the demonkeeper. The fellow looked harmless enough, propped up and tied to the other wing chair. But if Gian Hen Gian was to be believed, this dark young man was the most dangerous human on Earth. Brine considered washing up before waking the demonkeeper. He had caught a glimpse of himself in the bathroom mirror – his beard and clothing covered with flour and soot, his skin caked with sweat-streaked goo – and decided that he would make a more intimidating impression in his current condition. He had found the smelling salts in the medicine cabinet and sent Gian Hen Gian to the bathroom to bathe while he rested. Actually he wanted the Djinn out of the room while he questioned the demonkeeper. The Djinn's curses and ravings would only complicate an already difficult task. Brine set his wineglass and his pipe on the end table and picked up a cotton-wrapped smelling-salt capsule. He leaned over to the demonkeeper and snapped the capsule under his nose. For a moment nothing happened, and Brine feared that he had hit him too hard, then the demonkeeper started coughing, looked at Brine, and screamed. â€Å"Calm down – you're all right,† Brine said. â€Å"Catch, help me!† The demonkeeper struggled against his bonds. Brine picked up his pipe and lit it, affecting a bored nonchalance. After a moment the demonkeeper settled down. Brine blew a thin stream of smoke into the air between them. â€Å"Catch isn't here. You're on your own.† Travis seemed to forget that he had been beaten, kidnapped, and tied up. His concentration was focused on Brine's last statement. â€Å"What do you mean, Catch isn't here? You know about Catch?† Brine considered giving him the I'm-asking-the-questions-here line that he had heard so many times in detective movies, but upon reflection, it seemed silly. He wasn't a hardass; why play the role? â€Å"Yes, I know about the demon. I know that he eats people, and I know you are his master.† â€Å"How do you know all that?† â€Å"It doesn't matter,† Brine said. â€Å"I also know that you've lost control of Catch.† â€Å"I have?† Travis seemed genuinely shaken by this. â€Å"Look, I don't know who you are, but you can't keep me here. If Catch is out of control again, I'm the only one that can stop him. I'm really close to ending all this; you can't stop me now.† â€Å"Why should you care?† â€Å"What do you mean, why should I care? You might know about Catch, but you can't imagine what he's like when he's out of control.† â€Å"What I mean,† Brine said, â€Å"is why should you care about the damage he causes? You called him up, didn't you? You send him out to kill, don't you?† Travis shook his head violently. â€Å"You don't understand. I'm not what you think. I never wanted this, and now I have a chance to stop it. Let me go. I can end it.† â€Å"Why should I trust you? You're a murderer.† â€Å"No. Catch is.† â€Å"What's the difference? If I do let you go, it will be because you will have told me what I want to know, and how I can use that information. Now I'll listen and you'll talk.† â€Å"I can't tell you anything. And you don't want to know anyway, I promise you.† â€Å"I want to know where the Seal of Solomon is. And I want to know the incantation that sends Catch back. Until I know, you're not going anywhere.† â€Å"Seal of Solomon? I don't know what you're talking about.† â€Å"Look – what is your name, anyway?† â€Å"Travis.† â€Å"Look, Travis,† Brine said, â€Å"my associate wants to use torture. I don't like the idea, but if you jerk me around, torture might be the only way to go.† â€Å"Don't you have to have two guys to play good cop, bad cop?† â€Å"My associate is taking a bath. I wanted to see if I could reason with you before I let him near you. I really don't know what he's capable of†¦ I'm not even sure what he is. So if we could get on with this, it would be better for the both of us.† â€Å"Where's Jenny?† Travis asked. â€Å"She's fine. She's at work.† â€Å"You won't hurt her?† â€Å"I'm not some kind of terrorist, Travis. I didn't ask to be involved in this, but I am. I don't want to hurt you, and I would never hurt Jenny. She's a friend of mine.† â€Å"So if I tell you what I know, you'll let me go?† â€Å"That's the deal. But I'll have to make sure that what you tell me is true.† Brine relaxed. This young man didn't seem to have any of the qualities of a mass murderer. If anything, he seemed a little naive. â€Å"Okay, I'll tell you everything I know about Catch and the incantations, but I swear to you, I don't know anything about any Seal of Solomon. It's a pretty strange story.† â€Å"I guessed that,† Brine said. â€Å"Shoot.† He poured himself a glass of wine, relit his pipe, and sat back, propping his feet up on the hearth. â€Å"Like I said, it's a pretty strange story.† â€Å"Strange is my middle name,† Brine said. â€Å"That must have been difficult for you as a child,† Travis said. â€Å"Would you get on with it.† â€Å"You asked for it.† Travis took a deep breath. â€Å"I was born in Clarion, Pennsylvania, in the year nineteen hundred.† â€Å"Bullshit,† Brine interrupted. â€Å"You're not a day over twenty-five.† â€Å"This is going to take a lot more time if I have to keep stopping. Just listen – it'll all fall into place.† Brine grumbled and nodded for Travis to continue. â€Å"I was born on a farm. My parents were Irish immigrants, black Irish. I was the oldest of six children, two boys and four girls. My parents were staunch Catholics. My mother wanted me to be a priest. She pushed me to study so I could get into seminary. She was working on the local diocese to recommend me while I was still in the womb. When World War I broke out, she begged the bishop to get me into seminary early. Everybody knew it was just a matter of time before America entered the war. My mother wanted me in seminary before the Army could draft me. Boys from secular colleges were already in Europe, driving ambulances, and some of them had been killed. My mother wasn't going to lose her chance to have a son become a priest to something as insignificant as a world war. You see, my little brother was a bit slow – mentally, I mean. I was my mother's only chance.† â€Å"So you went to seminary,† Brine interjected. He was becoming impatient with the progress of the story. â€Å"I went in at sixteen, which made me at least four years younger than the other boys. My mother packed me some sandwiches, and I packed myself into a threadbare black suit that was three sizes too small for me and I was on the train to Illinois. â€Å"You have to understand, I didn't want any part of this stuff with the demon; I really wanted to be a priest. Of all the people I had known as a child, the priest seemed like the only one who had any control over things. The crops could fail, banks could close, people could get sick and die, but the priest and the church were always there, calm and steadfast. And all that mysticism was pretty nifty, too.† â€Å"What about women?† Brine asked. He had resolved himself to hearing an epic, and it seemed as if Travis needed to tell it. Brine found he liked the strange young man, in spite of himself. â€Å"You don't miss what you've never known. I mean I had these urges, but they were sinful, right? I just had to say, ‘Get thee behind me Satan', and get on with it.† â€Å"That's the most incredible thing you've told me so far,† Brine said. â€Å"When I was sixteen, sex seemed like the only reason to go on living.† â€Å"That's what they thought at seminary, too. Because I was younger than the others, the prefect of discipline, Father Jasper, took me on as his special project. To keep me from impure thoughts, he made me work constantly. In the evenings, when the others were given time for prayer and meditation, I was sent to the chapel to polish the silver. While the others ate, I worked in the kitchen, serving and washing dishes. For two years the only rest I had from dawn until midnight was during classes and mass. When I fell behind in my studies, Father Jasper rode me even harder. â€Å"The Vatican had given the seminary a set of silver candlesticks for the altar. Supposedly they had been commissioned by one of the early popes and were over six hundred years old. The candlesticks were the most prized possession of the seminary and it was my job to polish them. Father Jasper stood over me, evening after evening, chiding me and berating me for being impure in thought. I polished the silver until my hands were black from the compound, and still Father Jasper found fault with me. If I had impure thoughts it was because he kept reminding me to have them. â€Å"I had no friends in seminary. Father Jasper had put his mark on me, and the other students shunned me for fear of invoking the prefect of discipline's wrath. I wrote home when I had a chance, but for some reason my letters were never answered. I began to suspect that Father Jasper was keeping my letters from getting to me. â€Å"One evening, while I was polishing the silver on the altar, Father Jasper came to the chapel and started to lecture me on my evil nature. â€Å"‘You are impure in thought and deed, yet you do not confess,' he said. ‘You are evil, Travis, and it is my duty to drive that evil out!' â€Å"I couldn't take it any longer. ‘Where are my letters?' I blurted out. ‘You are keeping me from my family.' â€Å"Father Jasper was furious. ‘Yes, I keep your letters. You are spawned from a womb of evil. How else could you have come here so young. I waited for eight years to come to Saint Anthony's – waited in the cold of the world while others were taken into the warm bosom of Christ.' â€Å"At last I knew why I had been singled out for punishment. It had nothing to do with my spiritual impurity. It was jealousy. I said, ‘And you, Father Jasper, have you confessed your jealousy and your pride? Have you confessed your cruelty?' â€Å"‘Cruel, am I?' he said. He laughed at me, and for the first time I was really afraid of him. ‘There is no cruelty in the bosom of Christ, only tests of faith. Your faith is wanting, Travis. I will show you.' â€Å"He told me to lie with arms outstretched on the steps before the altar and pray for strength. He left the chapel for a moment, and when he returned I could hear something whistling through the air. I looked up and saw that he was carrying a thin whip cut from a willow branch. â€Å"‘Have you no humility, Travis? Bow your head before our Lord.' â€Å"I could hear him moving behind me, but I could not see him. Why I didn't leave right then I don't know. Perhaps I believed that Father Jasper was actually testing my faith, that he was the cross I had to bear. â€Å"He tore my robe up the back, exposing my bare back and legs. ‘You will not cry out, Travis. After each blow a Hail Mary. Now,' he said. Then I felt the whip across my back and I thought I would scream, but instead I said a Hail Mary. He threw a rosary in front of me and told me to take it. I held it behind my head, feeling the pain come with every bead. â€Å"‘You are a coward, Travis. You don't deserve to serve our Lord. You are here to avoid the war, aren't you, Travis?' â€Å"I didn't answer him and the whip fell again. â€Å"After a while I heard him laughing with each stroke of the whip. I did not look back for fear he might strike me across the eyes. Before I had finished the rosary, I heard him gasp and drop to the floor behind me. I thought – no, I hoped – he had had a heart attack. But when I looked back he was kneeling behind me, gasping for air, exhausted, but smiling. â€Å"‘Face down, sinner!' he screamed. He drew back the whip as if he were going to strike me in the face and I covered my head. â€Å"‘You will tell no one of this,' he said. His voice was low and calm. For some reason that scared me more than his anger. ‘You are to stay the night here, polish the silver, and pray for forgiveness. I will return in the morning with a new robe for you. If you speak of this to anyone, I will see that you are expelled from Saint Anthony's and, if I can manage it, excommunicated.' â€Å"I hadn't ever heard excommunication used as a threat. It was something we studied in class. The popes had used it as an instrument of political control, but the reality of being excluded from salvation by someone else had never really occurred to me. I didn't believe that Father Jasper could really excommunicate me, but I wasn't going to test it. â€Å"While Father Jasper watched, I began to polish the candlesticks, rubbing furiously to take my mind off the pain in my back and legs, and to try to forget that he was watching. Finally, he left the chapel. When I heard the door close, I threw the candlestick I was holding at the door. â€Å"Father Jasper had tested my faith, and I had failed. I cursed the Trinity, the Virgin, and all the saints I could remember. Eventually my anger subsided and I feared Father Jasper would return and see what I had done. â€Å"I retrieved the candlestick and inspected it to see if I had done any damage. Father Jasper would check them in the morning as he always did, and I would be lost. â€Å"There was a deep scratch across the axis of the candlestick. I rubbed at it, harder and harder, but it only seemed to get worse. Soon I realized that it wasn't a scratch at all but a seam that had been concealed by the silversmith. The priceless artifact from the Vatican was a sham. It was supposed to be solid silver, but here was evidence that it was hollow. I grabbed both ends of the candlestick and twisted. As I suspected, it unscrewed. There was a sort of triumph in it. I wanted to be holding the two pieces when Father Jasper returned. I wanted to wave them in his face. ‘Here', I would say, ‘these are as hollow and false as you are. I would expose him, ruin him, and if I was expelled and damned, I didn't care. But I never got the chance to confront him. â€Å"When I pulled the two pieces apart, a tightly rolled piece of parchment fell out.† â€Å"The invocation,† Brine interrupted. â€Å"Yes, but I didn't know what it was. I unrolled it and started to read. There was a passage at the top in Latin, which I didn't have much trouble translating. It said something about calling down help from God to deal with enemies of the Church. It was signed by His Holiness, Pope Leo the Third. â€Å"The second part was written in Greek. As I said, I had fallen behind in my studies, so the Greek was difficult. I started reading it aloud, working on each word as I went. By the time I was through the first passage, it had started to get cold in the chapel. I wasn't sure what I was reading. Some of the words were mysteries to me. I just read over them, trying to glean what I could from the context. Then something seemed to take over my mind. â€Å"I started reading the Greek as if it were my native language, pronouncing the words perfectly, without having the slightest idea of what they meant. â€Å"A wind whipped up inside the chapel, blowing out all the candles. Except for a little moonlight coming through the windows, it was completely dark, but the words on the parchment began to glow and I kept reading. I was locked into the parchment as if I had grabbed an electric wire and couldn't let go. â€Å"When I read the last line, I found I was screaming the words. Lightning flashed down from the roof and struck the candlestick, which was lying on the floor in front of me. The wind stopped and smoke filled the chapel. â€Å"Nothing prepares you for something like that. You can spend your life preparing to be the instrument of God. You can read accounts of possession and exorcism and try to imagine yourself in the situation, but when it actually happens, you just shut down. I did, anyway. I sat there trying to figure out what I had done, but my mind wouldn't work. â€Å"The smoke floated up into the rafters of the chapel and I could make out a huge figure standing at the altar. It was Catch, in his eating form.† â€Å"What's his eating form?† Brine asked. â€Å"I assume from the deal with the flour that you know Catch is visible to others only when he is in his eating form. Most of the time I see him as a three-foot imp covered with scales. When he feeds or goes out of control, he's a giant. I've seen him cut a man in half with one swipe of his claws. I don't know why it works that way. I just know that when I saw him for the first time, I had never been so frightened. â€Å"He looked around the chapel, then at me, then at the chapel. I was praying under my breath, begging God for protection. â€Å"‘Stop it!' he said. ‘I'll take care of everything.' Then he went down the aisle and through the chapel doors, knocking them off their hinges. He turned and looked back at me. He said: ‘You have to open these things, right? I forgot – it's been a while.' â€Å"As soon as he was gone I picked up the candlesticks and ran. I got as far as the front gates before I realized that I was still wearing the torn robe. â€Å"I wanted to get away, hide, forget what I had seen, but I had to go back and get my clothes. I ran back to my quarters. Since I was in my third year at seminary, I been given a small private room, so, thankfully, I didn't have to go through the dormitory ward rooms where the newer students slept. The only clothes I had were the suit I had worn when I came and a pair of overalls I wore when I worked in the seminary fields. I tried to put on the suit, but the pants were just too tight, so I put the overalls on and wore the suit jacket over them to cover my shoulders. I wrapped the candlesticks in a blanket and headed for the gate. â€Å"When I was just outside the gate, I heard a horrible scream from the rectory. There was no mistaking; it was Father Jasper. â€Å"I ran the six miles into town without stopping. The sun was coming up as I reached the train station and a train was pulling away from the platform. I didn't know where it was going, but I ran after it and managed to swing myself on board before I collapsed. â€Å"I'd like to tell you I had some kind of plan, but I didn't. My only thought was to get as far away from St. Anthony's as I could. I don't know why I took the candlesticks. I wasn't interested in their value. I guess I didn't want to leave any evidence of what I'd done. Or maybe it was the influence of the supernatural. â€Å"Anyway, I caught my breath and went into the passenger car to find a seat. The train was nearly full, soldiers and a few civilians here and there. I staggered down the aisle and fell into the first empty seat I could find. It was next to a young woman who was reading a book. â€Å"‘This seat is taken,' she said. â€Å"‘Please, just let me rest here for a minute,' I begged. ‘I'll get up when your companion returns.' â€Å"She looked up from her book and I found myself staring into the biggest, bluest eyes I'd ever seen. I will never forget them. She was young, about my age, and wore her dark hair pinned up under a hat, which was the style in those days. She looked genuinely frightened of me. I guess I was wearing my own fright on my face. â€Å"‘Are you all right? Shall I call the conductor?' she asked. â€Å"I thanked her but told her that I just needed to rest a moment. She was looking at the strange way I was dressed, trying to be polite, but obviously perplexed. I looked up and noticed that everyone in the car was staring at me. Could they know about what I'd done? I wondered. Then I realized why they were staring. There was a war on and I was obviously the right age for the Army, yet I was dressed in civilian clothes. ‘I'm a seminary student,' I blurted out to them, causing a breeze of incredulous whispers. The girl blushed. â€Å"‘I'm sorry,' I said to her. ‘I'll move on.' I started to rise, but she put her hand on my shoulder to push me back into my seat and I winced when she touched my injured shoulder. â€Å"‘No,' she said, ‘I'm traveling alone. I've just been saving this seat to ward off the soldiers. You know how they can be sometimes, Father.' â€Å"‘I'm not a priest yet,' I said. â€Å"‘I don't know what to call you, then,' she said. â€Å"‘Call me Travis,' I said. â€Å"‘I'm Amanda,' she said. She smiled, and for a moment I completely forgot why I was running. She was an attractive girl, but when she smiled, she was absolutely stunning. It was my turn to blush. â€Å"‘I'm going to New York to stay with my fianc's family. He's in Europe,' she said. â€Å"‘So this train is going east?' I asked. â€Å"She was surprised. ‘You don't even know where the train is going?' she asked. â€Å"‘I've had a bad night,' I said. Then I started to laugh – I don't know why. It seemed so unreal. The idea of trying to explain it to her seemed silly. â€Å"She looked away and started digging in her purse. ‘I'm sorry,' I said, ‘I didn't mean to offend you.' ‘You didn't offend me. I need to have my ticket ready for the conductor.' â€Å"I'd completely forgotten about not having a ticket. I looked up and saw the conductor coming down the aisle. I jumped up and a wave of fatigue hit me. I almost fell into her lap. â€Å"‘Is something wrong?' she asked. â€Å"‘Amanda,' I said, ‘you have been very kind, but I should find another seat and let you travel in peace.' â€Å"‘You don't have a ticket, do you?' she said. â€Å"I shook my head. ‘I've been in seminary. I'd forgotten. We don't have any need for money there and†¦' â€Å"‘I have some traveling money,' she said. â€Å"‘I couldn't ask you to do that,' I said. Then I remembered the candlesticks. ‘Look, you can have these. They're worth a lot of money. Hold them and I'll send you the money for the ticket when I get home,' I said. â€Å"I unrolled the blanket and dropped the candlesticks in her lap. â€Å"‘That's not necessary,' she said. â€Å"I'll loan you the money.' â€Å"‘No, I insist you take them,' I said, trying to be gallant. I must have looked ridiculous standing there in my overalls and tattered suit jacket. â€Å"‘If you insist,' she said. ‘I understand. My fianc is a proud man, too.' â€Å"She gave me the money I needed and I bought a ticket all the way to Clarion, which was only about ten miles from my parent's farm. â€Å"The train broke down somewhere in Indiana and we were forced to wait in the station while they changed engines. It was midsummer and terribly hot. Without thinking, I took off my jacket and Amanda gasped when she saw my back. She insisted that I see a doctor, but I refused, knowing that I would only have to borrow more money from her to pay for it. We sat on a bench in the station while she cleaned my back with damp napkins from the dining car. â€Å"In those days the sight of a woman bathing a half-naked man in a train station would have been scandalous, but most of the passengers were soldiers and were much more concerned with being AWOL or with their ultimate destination, Europe, so we were ignored for the most part. â€Å"Amanda disappeared for a while and returned just before our train was ready to leave. ‘I've reserved a berth in the sleeping car for us,' she said. â€Å"I was shocked. I started to protest, but she stopped me. She said, ‘You are going to sleep and I am going to watch over you. You are a priest and I'm engaged, so there is nothing wrong with it. Besides, you are in no shape to spend the night sitting up in a train.' â€Å"I think it was then that I realized that I was in love with her. Not that it mattered. It was just that after living so long with Father Jasper's abuse I wasn't prepared for the kindness she was showing me. It never occurred to me that I might be putting her in danger. â€Å"As we pulled away from the station, I looked out on the platform, and for the first time I saw Catch in his smaller form. Why it happened then and not before I don't know. Maybe I didn't have any strength left, but when I saw him there on the platform, flashing a big razor-toothed grin, I fainted. â€Å"When I came to, I felt like my back was on fire. I was lying in the sleeping berth and Amanda was bathing my back with alcohol. â€Å"‘I told them you'd been wounded in France,' she said. â€Å"The porter helped me get you in here. I think it's about time you told me who did this to you.' â€Å"I told her what Father Jasper had done, leaving out the parts about the demon. I was in tears when I finished, and she was holding me, rocking me back and forth. â€Å"I'm not sure how it happened – the passion of the moment and all that, I guess – but the next thing I knew, we were kissing, and I was undressing her. Just as we were about to make love she stopped me. â€Å"‘I have to take this off,' she said. She was wearing a wooden bracelet with the initials E + A burnt into it. ‘We don't have to do this,' I said. â€Å"Have you, Mr. Brine, ever said something that you know you will always regret? I have. It was: ‘We don't have to do this.' â€Å"She said: ‘Oh, then let's not.' â€Å"She fell asleep holding me while I lay awake, thinking about sex and damnation, which really wasn't any different from what I'd thought about each night in the seminary – a little more immediate, I guess. â€Å"I was just dozing off when I heard a commotion coming from the opposite end of our sleeping car. I peeked through the curtains of the berth to see what was happening. Catch was coming down the aisle, looking into berths as he went. I didn't know at the time that Catch was invisible to other people, and I couldn't understand why they weren't screaming at the sight of him. People were shouting and looking out of their berths, but all they were seeing was empty air. â€Å"I grabbed my overalls and jumped into the aisle, leaving my jacket and the candlesticks in the berth with Amanda. I didn't even thank her. I ran down the aisle toward the back of the car, away from Catch. As I ran, I could hear him yelling, ‘Why are you running? Don't you know the rules?' â€Å"I went through the door between the cars and slid it shut behind me. By now people were screaming, not out of fear of Catch, but because a naked man was running through the sleeping car. â€Å"I looked into the next car and saw the conductor coming down the aisle toward me. Catch was almost to the door behind me. Without thinking, or even looking, I opened the door to the outside and leapt off the train, naked, my overalls still in hand. â€Å"The train was on a trestle at the time and it was a long drop to the ground, fifty or sixty feet. By all rights I should have been killed. When I hit, the wind was knocked out of me and I remember thinking that my back was broken, but in seconds I was up and running through a wooden valley. I didn't realize until later that I had been protected by my pact with the demon, even through he was not under my control at the time. I don't really know the extent of his protection, but I've been in a hundred accidents since then that should have killed me and come out without a scratch. â€Å"I ran through the woods until I came to a dirt road. I had no idea where I was. I just walked until I couldn't walk anymore and then sat down at the side of the road. Just after sunup a rickety wagon pulled up beside me and the farmer asked me if I was all right. In those days it wasn't uncommon to see a barefoot kid in overalls by the side of the road. â€Å"The farmer informed me that I was only about twenty miles from home. I told him that I was a student on holiday, trying to hitchhike home, and he offered to drive me. I fell asleep in the wagon. When the farmer woke me, we were stopped at the gate of my parents' farm. I thanked him and walked up the road toward the house. â€Å"I guess I should have known right away that something was wrong. At that time of the morning everyone should have been out working, but the barnyard was deserted except for a few chickens. I could hear the two dairy cows mooing in the barn when they should have already been milked and put out to pasture. â€Å"I had no idea what I would tell my parents. I hadn't thought about what I would do when I got home, only that I wanted to get there. â€Å"I ran in the back door expecting to find my mother in the kitchen, but she wasn't there. My family rarely left the farm, and they certainly wouldn't have gone anywhere without taking care of the animals first. My first thought was that there had been an accident. Perhaps my father had fallen from the tractor and they had taken him to the hospital in Clarion. I ran to the front of the house. My father's wagon was tied up out front. â€Å"I bolted through the house, shouting into every room, but there was no one home. I found myself standing on the front porch, wondering what to do next, when I heard his voice from behind me. â€Å"‘You can't run from me,' Catch said. â€Å"I turned. He was sitting on the porch swing, dangling his feet in the air. I was afraid, but I was also angry. â€Å"‘Where is my family?!' I screamed. â€Å"He patted his stomach. ‘Gone,' he said. â€Å"‘What have you done with them?' I said. â€Å"‘They're gone forever,' he said. ‘I ate them.' â€Å"I was enraged. I grabbed the porch swing and pushed it with everything I had. The swing banged against the porch rail and Catch went over the edge into the dirt. â€Å"My father kept a chopping block and an ax in front of the house for splitting kindling. I jumped off the porch and snatched up the ax. Catch was just picking himself up when I him in the forehead with it. Sparks flew and the ax blade bounced off his head as if it had hit cast iron. Before I knew it I was on my back and Catch was sitting on my chest grinning like the demon in that Fuselli painting, The Nightmare. He didn't seem at all angry. I flailed under him but could not get up. â€Å"‘Look,' he said, ‘this is silly. You called me up to do a job and I did it, so what's all the commotion about? By the way, you would have loved it. I clipped the priest's hamstrings and watched him crawl around begging for a while. I really like eating priests, they're always convinced that the Creator is testing them.' â€Å"‘You killed my family!' I said. I was still trying to free myself. â€Å"‘Well, that sort of thing happens when you run away. It's all your fault; if you didn't want the responsibility, you shouldn't have called me up. You knew what you were getting into when you renounced the Creator.' â€Å"‘But I didn't,' I protested. Then I remembered my curses in the chapel. I had renounced God. ‘I didn't know,' I said. â€Å"‘Well, if you're going to be a weenie about it, I'll fill you in on the rules,' he said. ‘First, you can't run away from me. You called me up and I am more or less your servant forever. When I say forever, I mean forever. You are not going to age, and you are not going to be sick. The second thing you need to know is that I am immortal. You whack me with axes all you want and all you'll get is a dull ax and a sore back, so just save your energy. Third, I am Catch. They call me the destroyer, and that's what I do. With my help you can rule the world and other really swell stuff. In the past my masters haven't used me to the best advantage, but you might be the exception, although I doubt it. Fourth, when I'm in this form, you are the only one who can see me. When I take on my destroyer form, I am visible to everyone. It's stupid, and why it's that way is a long story, but that's the way it is. In the past they decided to keep me a secret, but there's no rule about i t.' â€Å"He paused and climbed off my chest. I got to my feet and dusted myself off. My head was spinning with what Catch had told me. I had no way of knowing whether he was telling the truth, but I had nothing else to go on. When you encounter the supernatural, your mind searches for an explanation. I'd had the explanation laid in my lap, but I didn't want to believe it. â€Å"I said, ‘So you're from hell?' I know it was a stupid question, but even a seminary education doesn't prepare you for a conversation with a demon. â€Å"‘No,' he said, ‘I'm from Paradise.' â€Å"‘You're lying,' I said. It was the beginning of a string of lies and misdirections that have gone on for seventy years. â€Å"He said, ‘No, really, I'm from Paradise. It's a little town about thirty miles outside of Newark.' Then he started laughing and rolling around in the dirt holding his sides. â€Å"‘How can I get rid of you?' I asked. â€Å"‘Sorry,' he said, ‘I've told you everything that I have to.' â€Å"At the time I didn't know how dangerous Catch was. Somehow I realized that I was in no immediate danger, so I tried to come up with some sort of plan to get rid of him. I didn't want to stay there at the farm, and I didn't have anywhere I could go. â€Å"My first instinct was to turn to the Church. If I could get to a priest, perhaps I could have the demon exorcised. â€Å"I led Catch into town, where I asked the local priest to perform an exorcism. Before I could convince him of Catch's existence, the demon became visible and ate the priest, piece by piece, before my eyes. I realized then that Catch's power was beyond the comprehension of any normal priest, perhaps the entire Church. â€Å"Christians are supposed to believe in evil as an active force. If you deny evil, you deny good and therefore God. But belief in evil is as much an act of faith as belief in God, and here I was faced with evil as a reality, not an abstraction. My faith was gone. It was no longer required. There was indeed evil in the world and that evil was me. It was my responsibility, I reasoned, to not let that evil become manifest to other people and thereby steal their faith. I had to keep Catch's existence a secret. I might not be able to stop him from taking lives, but I could keep him from taking souls. â€Å"I decided to remove him to a safe place where there were no people for him to feed on. We hopped a freight and rode it to Colorado, where I led Catch high into the mountains. There I found a remote cabin where I thought he would be without victims. Weeks passed and I found that I had some control over the demon. I could make him fetch water and wood sometimes, but other times he defied me. I've never understood the inconsistency of his obedience. â€Å"Once I had accepted the fact that I couldn't run away from Catch, I questioned him constantly, looking for some clue that might send him back to hell. He was vague, to say the least, giving me little to go on except that he had been on Earth before and that someone had sent him back. â€Å"After we had been in the mountains for two months, a search party came to the cabin. It seemed that hunters in the area of the cabin, as well as people in villages as far as twenty miles away, had been disappearing. When I was asleep at night, Catch had been ranging for victims. It was obvious that isolation wasn't going to keep the demon from killing. I sent the search party away and set myself on coming up with some kind of plan. I knew we would have to move or people would discover that Catch existed. â€Å"I knew there had to be some sort of logic to his presence on Earth. Then, while we were hiking out of the mountains, it occurred to me that the key to sending Catch back must have been concealed in another candlestick. And I had left them on the train with the girl. Jumping off the train to escape Catch may have cost me the only chance I had to get rid of him. I searched my memory for anything that could lead me to the girl. I had never asked where she was going or what her last name was. In trying to recall details of my time with her I kept coming up with the image of those striking blue eyes. They seemed etched into my memory while everything else faded. Could I go around the eastern United States asking anyone if they had seen a young girl with beautiful blue eyes? â€Å"Something nagged at me. There was something that could lead me to the girl; I just had to remember it. Then it hit me – the wooden bracelet she wore. The initials carved inside the heart were E + A. How hard could it be to search service records for a soldier with the first initial E? His service records would have his next of kin, and she was staying with his family. I had a plan. â€Å"I took Catch back East and began checking local draft boards. I told them I had been in Europe and a man whose first name began with E had saved my life and I wanted to find him. They always asked about divisions and stations and where the battle had taken place. I told them I had taken a shell fragment in the head and could remember nothing but the man's first initial. No one believed me, of course, but they gave me what I asked for – out of pity, I think. â€Å"Meanwhile, Catch kept taking his victims. I tried to point him toward thieves and grifters when I could, reasoning that if he must kill, at least I could protect the innocent. â€Å"I haunted libraries, looking for the oldest books on magic and demonology I could find. Perhaps somewhere I could find an incantation to send the demon back. I performed hundreds of rituals – drawing pentagrams, collecting bizarre talismans, and putting myself through all sorts of physical rigors and diets that were supposed to purify the sorcerer so the magic would work. After repeated failures, I realized that the volumes of magic were nothing more than the work of medieval snake-oil salesmen. They always added the purity of the sorcerer as a condition so they would have an excuse for their customers when the magic did not work. â€Å"During this same time I was still looking for a priest who would perform an exorcism. In Baltimore I finally found one who believed my story. He agreed to perform an exorcism. For his protection, we arranged to have him stand on a balcony while Catch and I remained in the street below. Catch laughed himself silly through the entire ritual, and when it was over, he broke into the building and ate the priest. I knew then that finding the girl was my only hope. â€Å"Catch and I kept moving, never staying in one place longer than two or three days. Fortunately there were no computers in those days that might have tracked the disappearances of Catch's victims. In each town I collected a list of veterans, then ran leads to the ground by knocking on doors and questioning the families. I've been doing that for over seventy years. Yesterday I think I found the man I was looking for. As it turned out, E was his middle initial. His name is J. Effrom Elliot. I thought my luck had finally turned. I mean the fact that the man is still alive is pretty lucky in itself. I thought that I might have to trace the candlesticks through surviving relatives, hoping that someone remembered them, perhaps had kept them as an heirloom. â€Å"I thought it was all over, but now Catch is out of control and you are keeping me from stopping him forever.†