March 2012
Dear Church Family,
At the time of writing, many around the globe are still grieving the loss of one of America’s most beloved singers Whitney Houston. With a background in Church music Houston became one of the great and popular vocalists of our time. One of the things that saddened me after word of her death spread was to read some of the comments of fellow believers on social networks. Many took the opportunity to point the finger and judge someone whose sudden death they said could have been avoided. It appalled me to read such comments by people who were themselves recipients of God’s grace. James 4:12 writes, “God alone, who gave the law, is the Judge. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So what right do you have to judge your neighbor?”(NLT) Houston’s bodyguard would later remark that she died listening to the music of gospel singer Fred Hammond.
One of my favorite Fred Hammond songs Lord Your Grace says, “As I look back over all the years that I made it through, I can’t imagine where I’d be now if it wasn’t for You. Why Your favor rests upon me I could never explain. But I’m so glad that I can say. Lord Your grace, covering me like a soft summer shower. Raining down on me, goodness and mercy. Loving me daily, forgiving me freely… I am no longer a prisoner of shame for the truth is I know that I am complete in Your grace.” That song is my story. Who is to say it wasn’t Whitney Houston’s!
With comments like this is it any wonder that when questioned 87% of American Non-Christian young adults stated that they viewed the church as judgmental and 85% hypocritical? Over the past couple of months I’ve been researching the faith and spirituality of young adult Americans, aged 18 to 29, for my doctorate. Young adults are less likely to attend church and be affiliated to a church than their parents’ and grandparents’ generations were when they were the same age. Fully one-in-four (25%) are unaffiliated with any particular faith. They are the least overtly religious American generation in modern times with fewer young people saying that religion is very important in their lives. Yet not belonging does not necessarily mean not believing, research has found that they pray about as often as their elders did at the same stage.
In 2011 the Adventist Church was found to be the fastest growing Christian Church with an annual 2.5 percent per growth rate in North America (if you’re interested readhttp://www.christiancentury.
This gulf in median age between the Adventist Church and American society represents a full generation’s difference between the world the Adventist Church seeks to serve and the reality of the Adventist Church. With a 14% share of church membership, Millennials (born 1982-1999); and Generation X (born 1965-1981), with a 10% share, hold a unique place in our Church. Across AmericaThis gulf in median age between the Adventist Church and American society represents a full , by the sheer fact of these stats, the likelihood is that decisions made at a local church level on how the church ‘does church’ and opinions about society and culture are more likely two full generations removed from the American median age.
Obviously there are some tremendous and hard to swallow ramifications in the analysis that I have shared. In this newsletter I will not venture into the potential reasons why there are so few young adults in our churches, you may have your opinions, some justified and some you may need to rethink. I’ll save that for next month’s newsletter. In light of what I’ve shared let me close by saying some things that I am grateful for and thankful to our church family.
1st that we have made it a priority as a church family to invest in our children’s ministries. 2nd that we have made it a priority as church family to invest in our youth ministries. 3rd that we have made it a priority as a church family to offer diversity in our worship services for all. 4th that we have had the foresight as a church family to invest prayer, time, energy and commitment to a strategic plan that considers how we are doing church now, our strengths, our growth areas and how we can become the kind of Church that God intends for us. This also involves thinking about how we can become a young adult friendly church.
Finally, I would encourage you to reach out to our young adults in our church family, we are blessed to have them in our church family this is NOT THE NORM ANYMORE. Let them know that you love and care for them. Keep them in your prayers.
God be with you.
Pastor Ed
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February 2012
Dear Church Family,
I hope that this newsletter finds you well.
At the end of 2011, our church leadership made a commitment to work on 5 different emphases in 2011. 1) Better Communication – to keep our church informed about church life and activities. 2) Better Sabbath School Options – to meet the needs are our Church family. 3) Tracking of Members – To form a ministry that will be responsible for keeping in touch with church members and visitors. 4) Small Groups – To establish a schedule of small groups where people can regularly meet for fellowship, prayer and Bible study, beginning in April 2012. 5) Children’s Ministries – to hire a children’s ministries leader to develop a more effective ministry to the children of our church.
I’m excited to announce that we are on track with our strategic plan. As of Feb. 1st 2012, we have a new Children’s Ministry Director. Sarah Grover. Sarah is no stranger to the Lancaster Adventist Church family, having grown up in our church, she is a graduate of Azusa Pacific University, and has rich experience working with children in many capacities from VBS to serving as a Youth Pastor. Her creativity, energy and warmth are a welcome addition to our Church ministry team.
On Sabbath Feb. 18, 2012 Floyd Martin will be starting a Sabbath School Parenting Class. This class is open to parents and will be particularly helpful to parents with younger children. More information will be available closer to the date.
Also, on Feb. 18, 2012, couples are invited to: An Elegant Affair – Valentine’s Banquet at the Palmdale Hotel. This is the first annual Valentine’s Banquet for the couples of our church. $30 per person includes a full course meal served with entertainment from the comedian Kathy Westfield and musician Wynell Montgomery. Couples names and payment should be forwarded to our Church Office no later than February 11.
In February we have an opportunity to remember our loved ones with perhaps a special dinner date, chocolates, flowers and of course we can’t forget the “Valentine’s card”. The “Valentine’s card” is said to originate from Saint Valentine who was a third-century pastor. During his life Valentine was put in prison for his faith. Whilst imprisoned he wished to keep in contact with his congregation. With no access to conventional writing materials he discovered another way. Just outside his cell there was a maple tree. As Valentine was able to reach the tree he was able to pluck maple leaves and upon these leaves write small notes to his members. These little “Valentine’s cards” expressed his love for the flock, and his desire that they demonstrate love toward one another. Gradually, over time, this tradition grew and Christians began to exchange notes of love and encouragement to one another on February 14th, Valentine’s birthday.
The Apostle Paul, 200 years before Valentine, also encouraged churches to love one another in his letters. Paul prayed for the Philippians “that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. Use your heads and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live a lover’s life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of: bountiful in fruits from the soul.” (Phil. 1:9-11. The Message)
I think I might just steal Paul’s prayer as I pray for our church family in February. May our love flourish as a church community and may we not only love much but well. In doing so, we will be a church on earth as it is in heaven.
Best wishes
Pastor Ed
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January 2012
Happy New Year!!! 2012 is upon us. But didn’t 2011 go quickly! What will you remember 2011 for? 2011 was the year:
• That the Japanese government ordered the evacuation of residents near the Fukushima Nuclear Plant after the 2011 earthquake badly damaged several nuclear reactors.
• That the iPad 2 took the world by storm when 500,000 units were sold on their debut weekend. The iPad 2 sold out across virtually all channels in its first week.
• Steve Jobs who had inspired millions of people around the world with his passion and creativity died. The technological visionary revolutionized the way people live and work with the aid of Mac computers, iPods, iPhones, and iPads.
• William, Prince of Wales married Kate Middleton and was watched by over 2 Billion people.
• US troops pulled out of Iraq after 8 years of sacrifice and nation building.
It has also been the year Lancaster Adventist Church:
• Served the poor and needy in our community by giving away hundreds of man hours and resources in help.
• Said goodbye to longstanding church family members until the resurrection.
• Made the decision to be more family friendly by voting to establish a nursery (ages 1-4) during our 2nd service for parents with young children and to appoint a children’s ministry director to further develop our ministry to the children and families of our church.
• Grew in weekly Sabbath attendance by approximately 25%.
• Saw it’s pastors get repeatedly dunked by church members in a dunk tank.
• Finished the year financially strong well within budget (2010 we were in deficit).
• Saw tithe go up by 25.1% (as of Oct. 2011).
• Has been blessed beyond words by a Faithful Gracious God.
How is 2012 going to be for us? This being the season for making New Year’s resolutions, I thought we might be inspired in our own commitments by a few of the 70 resolutions made by a young man when he was about 20. His powerful resolves helped shape not only his own destiny, but also that of a nation.
• Resolved, that I will do whatsoever I think to be most to God’s glory, and my own good, profit and pleasure…
• Resolved, to live with all my might while I do live.
• Resolved, never to do anything which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.
• Resolved, always to do that, which I shall wish I had done when I see others do it.
• Let there be something of benevolence in all that I speak.
These resolutions were written by Jonathan Edwards (1703 – 1758) who entered Yale University just shy of his 13th birthday and graduated at 17. One of the leading intellectual figures in Colonial America, his sermons in the 1730’s and 1740’s led to a series of revival movements later known as the Great Awaking.
May 2012 be a year of blessing for you and our church family.
Pastor Ed
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December 2011
Dear Church Family,
December is the month that we prepare to celebrate the birth of our Savior. Yet it is also a month for preparation of another kind, Christmas presents. Millions of people around the world believe in Santa. Sure, most are under four feet tall, but still it’s amazing that so many believe in the guy in the red suit. Consider the following: Around the globe, today, live approximately two billion children (persons under 18). Santa doesn’t visit all of them, of course. Subtracting the number of Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, or Buddhist children reduces Santa’s Christmas Eve workload to 15 percent of the total, or 378 million children (according to the Population Reference Bureau). At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, and presuming that there is at least one good child in each home, Santa must visit about 108 million homes.
Santa has about 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth. This works out to 967.7 visits per second. That means that at each household with a good child, Santa has around 1/1000th of a second to park the sleigh, hop out, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left for him, get back up the chimney, jump into the sleigh, and get on to the next house. For the purposes of our calculations we will assume that each of these 108 million stops is evenly distributed around the earth. We’re talking about a trip of 0.78 miles per household; a total trip of 75.5 million miles. To cover that ground in 31 hours, Santa’s sleigh moves at 650 miles per second – 3,000 times the speed of sound.
The payload of the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium-sized Lego set (two pounds), the sleigh must carry over 500 thousand tons, not counting Santa himself. On land, a conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. In air, even granting that the “flying” reindeer could pull ten times the normal amount, the job can’t be done with a mere eight or nine of them – Santa would need 360,000 of them. This increases the payload, not counting the weight of the sleigh, another 54,000 tons, or roughly seven times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth (the ship, not the monarch).
Six hundred thousand tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance – this would heat up the reindeer in the same fashion as a spacecraft re-entering the earth’s atmosphere. In short, they would burst into flames almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them and creating deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team would be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second.
Considering all this, it’s amazing that some people have no problem believing in Santa. By comparison, the story of the little baby in the manger is relatively easy to believe. The life of Jesus Christ is recorded not only by biblical writers but by secular historians as well. Some historians have said that there is more evidence for the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus than there is evidence that Julius Caesar ever lived at all.
Behind all of the decorations and festivities this Christmas remember the real reason for the season, the greatest gift of all. The angel told Joseph, “and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21) Many people refuse to believe in Jesus, but for those who believe with child-like faith, Jesus is the greatest gift of all.
Wishing you God’s blessings this Christmas,
Pastor Ed
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October 2011
Dear Church Family,
It has been a year since many of you signed up to volunteer in the diverse ministries of our Church. The Lancaster Adventist Church is one among many that nominates church members to serve for a two year period. On behalf of the Church I would like to recognize all that serve our Church for your God-honoring, joyful, faithful service to our community. Without your service our Church could not be the kind of community that God would have us be. Your service to our Church family honors God and makes our Church community a wonderful place to worship, grow and serve together.
The month of October is going to be a busy month for our Church family.
Adventist Heritage Month
Since October 22nd falls on a Sabbath this year we have appointed October as Adventist Heritage Month. On every Sabbath in October we will be remembering why we are Seventh-day Adventist Christians and what that means. We will celebrate our heritage by considering some of our distinctive beliefs that define us as Adventists.
Adventist Heritage Sabbath October 22nd: This will be a special day since our orchestra will lead our 2nd Service with a number of significant Adventist Hymns that remind us of our Adventist Heritage. Additionally, if you have been looking for an opportunity to invite a friend or relatives to our church, Christian Edition, the popular men’s chorus, will be holding a concert in our church at 5:30pm. Please make use of the opportunity it promises to be an excellent evening. The concert will be followed by supper in the Fellowship Hall. The concert is free to our church family. We would encourage you to give a love offering to support their music ministry. To be taken at the end of the concert.
International Sabbath October 29th: Dr. Ryan Bell will be our featured speaker for the 12th Annual International Sabbath. Dr. Bell is the Senior Pastor of the Hollywood Seventh-day Adventist Church which received the North American Division Innovative Church of the Year Award in 2010. Dr. Bell is an Adjunct Professor, author, and writes for a wide range of publications on community outreach and cultural engagement. On International Sabbath there will be no first service. You are invited to bring an international dish to our Fellowship lunch, which will be followed by a second presentation by Dr. Bell on how the Church can be God’s hands and feet to the community.
Fall Festival October 30th, 5-8pm: Our annual fall festival is a great opportunity for our Church to come together for a fun time. With live music, booths, competitions, and fun for children and adults alike our Fall Festival promises to be a great occasion for our Church family. This will also be a great occasion to invite your friends and relatives to attend a church function. It promises to be a great evening.
Unlike October 22nd 1844, the month of October promises not to be a great disappointment.
If you know of anyone who is in need of prayer, communion or visitation please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Out of the office: I will be out of the Office Monday-Friday Oct. 17-21 & Oct. 24-28, for a two-week intensive for my Doctoral program. In my place please contact Pastor Chad.
God be with you.
Pastor Ed
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September 2011
Dear Church Members,
I hope that this letter finds you well. At our last church board meeting, the board made a decision to spend the next three months seeking God’s leading to formulate a strategic plan that will communicate our mission as a church for the next two years. The goal of our church has long been “to become a church on earth as it is in heaven.” How successful do you feel we are doing as a church family heading towards this goal? The church board feels that there are areas in the life of our church that are doing well and also there are areas where we, in the words of my old school report … “could do better.”
The process of creating a strategic plan will allow a conversation about the areas where we “could do better” and allow us to consider our mission and ask if we are living up to our church mission “to invite people to Jesus Christ and to help them live out a relationship with Him.” In order to involve our church family in the ‘conversation’ of strategic planning:
1) The board has invited a cross section (age, ethnicity, gender, etc.,) of church members to meet together over the next months to have ‘a conversation’ about how and what we can do become a better church family.
2) I would like to invite you to share your opinions by email or letter with me, to share any observations and suggestions that you may have about church life and how we can become more faithful to our God-given vision and mission as a church. As a church member your opinion is invaluable; any input that may help us consider how we can be that kind of church will be welcomed.
Please pray for our process of planning… that we may be open to God’s leading and direction and be the kind of church God would have us be.
Coming Up…
This month please keep our CHIP (Coronary Health Improvement Project) team in your prayers. Our health ministry is launching the CHIP program, the first of its kind in the Antelope Valley, and we are expecting around 30 participants (a good number of non-members) to be involved in this potentially life-transforming program.
On September 24, Sure Harvest ministry (a ministry specializing in outreach to Muslims) will present: “The Crescent and the Cross” for our Sabbath services and a discussion on how to build bridges and reach out to Muslims (afternoon presentation). This promises to be a challenging and informative day as we will be presented with the similarities and differences between Adventist Christianity and Islam. Please be prepared to bring items for the fellowship lunch to be enjoyed before the afternoon program.
I pray for you on a regular basis, please keep me in your prayers.
God be with you.
Pastor Ed
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July 2011
Dear Church Members,
At the time of writing I’ve just got back from being on a week’s vacation camping with my family and friends on the Oregon coast.
One of the highlights of my trip was trekking out into the Redwood forests. If you haven’t stood in front of the trunk of a redwood tree before… it’s actually quite hard to explain the exhilaration and awe you feel. They are ginormous (is that even a real word) they are so big that we even got to drive our car through one of the smaller ones. That’s how big they are! Standing in the Trees of Mystery forest in Klamath, in front of a redwood tree that was 297ft high and 3,000 years old, I truly felt a sense of mystery that something could grow in such a way.
Now that I’m back to the grind and the reality of living in non-vacation mode I’ve been considering what has been happening in our church recently and how that informs us of what God is doing in our church. So let’s take a moment to think about what is going on in the life of our church. Then, I’d like us to consider what these things may tell us about how God is working in our Church.
What’s Happening
* New people and families are visiting our church to ‘test the waters’ almost on a weekly basis.
* People are looking to find meaningful community in our Church (through volunteering, involvement in Bible study and small groups).
* People are feeling burdened by the Spirit to start new ministries to minister to people (such as the ‘Genesis’ Young Adult group, CHIP etc).
* Attendance is up (in both worship services attendance is up on the same time 2010).
* Offerings are up (on the same time 2010).
What may these things tell us about How God is working in our Church
* Perhaps God is leading people to our church because God is making our church a ‘safe place’ for ‘seeking’ people. Let us take responsibility to do our part in making our church a ‘safe place.’ In the words of Paul, “as God’s chosen people… clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility… value others above yourselves.” Col 3:12, Phil 2:3.
* Perhaps God desires us to make easy access points for people to ‘belong’ and be ‘a part’ of our church family. Small groups, hospitality, social activities and ministries are easy options for new people to find their way into belonging in our church family, rather than staying on the fringe.
* God has an intention for our church. When the Spirit moves in a community He starts new things to bring new life to the church.
* Jesus said, “when I am lifted up I will draw all people to me.” Let us continue to lift up Jesus as the answer.
* God’s people have a heart to give when they see God at work in their lives. Let us thank God that he is at work in our midst.
Just like the redwood tree it is a mystery how God works in the midst of His people. Often we have a lot more questions than answers. Yet one thing we know to be true is Jesus said, “I will build my Church” (Matt. 16:18). Jesus is at the helm of our Church. Let us make room for Him in the life of our community that He will shape us and transform us into the kind of community He wants us to be.
Pastor Ed
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June 2011
Dear Church Members,
The story is told of a father who took his son around a cathedral in England before the evening service started. They toured the nave and walked through the choir stalls, they stopped to look at the memorials of famous people buried in the church. As they walked past the war memorials scattered around the cathedral. The father would stop and say, “These are the names of those who died in the Services.” After passing a number of memorials and hearing his father say the same thing. A look of shock spread across the boy’s face, in horror he asked, “Did they die at the morning service or at the evening service?”
As a choirboy I loved the singing part of the church service, but I can remember being bored out of my mind when the preacher started to speak. Don’t get me wrong I liked the preacher… but I couldn’t quite understand what he was saying, it just didn’t mean anything to me. Besides I couldn’t understand what he was saying as he used words such as thee, thou and betwixt. Often I felt a little bit like Abraham Lincoln who once said, “If all the people who fell asleep in church were laid out end to end…they would be a great deal more comfortable.”
Yet when I read about the early church I don’t see boredom, I see excitement. In The Rise of Christianity, Rodney Stark, a historian and sociologist, points out that in the Roman Empire around 100 AD, roughly 70 years after Jesus, there were around 30,000 Christians. Now at this time it was illegal to be a Christian. There were no church buildings. People met in home churches (the church = God’s people, not a building). Scriptures were in rotation but they were very few. It also was very hard to join the church. People lived in fear of their lives so the church had to be cautious about allowing people to join the Christian community. Stark says that in the year 100 AD there were some 30,000 Christians. He estimates that by the year 320 AD there were over 20 million Christians in the Roman Empire. So it went from around 30,000 to over 20 million in roughly 200 years.
So apparently when you make Christianity illegal, and take away all the buildings this movement thrives. Why? Take away the buildings, take away the budgets, make it illegal and all you’re left with is people going “Jesus has changed my life.” That’s all you’ve got. Apparently that is more powerful than all the other stuff. We may be thinking… well that was way back then they didn’t have the distractions that we have today.
When Mao Zedong, better known as Chairman Mao took over China in the mid-1900’s he began a brutal systematic persecution of all Christians. The general estimate was that when Mao took power there were 2 million Christians in China. He banished all missionaries and kicked all foreign Christian leaders out of the country. Then he nationalized all church property so that it belonged to the state. He went on to kill, imprison and torture Christian leaders and banned all public Christian meetings under pain of death. When Mao took power they estimated that there were 2 million Christians in China. But, when Mao died they estimated that there were 60 million Christians in China. Some estimate today there are over 100 million Christians in China.
The most important message we have to share as believers is how God makes a difference in our lives. It’s this testimony of God’s work in our lives that breathes reality to the gospel message. May we look for opportunities this month to share our testimonies of how God has been good to us.
Pastor Ed
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April 2011
Easter is coming! Easter means a lot of things to a lot of different people. To some it’s the time of spring and bunnies, to others it’s chocolate and Peeps.
The Sabbath before Easter Johnny listened as his Sabbath school teacher told the class that the lesson would be about the meaning of Easter. “Can anyone tell the Easter story?” she asked. When no one volunteered to speak, she called on Frank.
“Umm, I don’t think I know,” Frank said. The teacher reassured him that was okay and moved on to Betty.
“I don’t know how to tell it,” she responded.
Finally, Johnny decided to raise his hand. He said he would tell the story. The teacher was pleasantly surprised at his willingness, since he was usually the class clown.
“On Easter,” said Johnny, “Jesus and his disciples were eating the Jewish Passover at the last supper, but later Jesus was deceived and turned over to the Romans by one of his disciples. He was accused of teaching he was the Messiah and when he confessed it, the Romans made him wear a crown of thorns, took him to be crucified, and was hung on a cross with nails through his hands and feet. He said ‘It is finished’ which means ‘Debt paid in full’ and died. He was definitely dead because the water was separated from his blood when they stabbed his side. So they buried him in a nearby cave on Friday which was sealed off by a large boulder.”
“Very good, Johnny!” the teacher gasped excitedly. “And what else happened that we celebrate on Easter?”
Johnny thought for a moment before continuing. “Now, on Easter Sunday each year, we move the boulder aside so that Jesus can come out. And if he sees his shadow, then we know there will be six more weeks of winter!”
Easter means a lot of things to different people. How would you tell the Easter story? According to the Bible, the cross and resurrection of Jesus are the centerpieces of our faith. They teach us two things: (1) Jesus died on the cross for our sins, “He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed” (1 Peter 2:24). (2) Jesus rose again to offer us forgiveness and a new way of living. “He gave his life to redeem us, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds” (Titus 2:14). Without the cross and resurrection of Jesus our faith is pointless.
Take the opportunity this Easter-time to remember and celebrate what Jesus did for you. Embrace the reality that Jesus carried and paid for your mistakes and failures, your sin problem, so that you could be freed from our sin problem. Then celebrate the new life that Jesus’ resurrection has brought, invite the Holy Spirit to work in your life and make you like Jesus.
May God be with you as you seek to follow him.
Pastor Ed
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January 2011
Often we associate January with a chance to begin afresh and wipe the slate clean. If you’re anything like me, we often make New Year’s resolution about how we want to change our lives and live differently than we did in the last year.
I was surfing the internet the other day for “Popular New Year’s Resolutions” and was amazed to find that our government has a list of the most popular new year’s resolutions in our country. Click here to find this information. It reads:
• Drink Less Alcohol
• Get a Better Education
• Get a Better Job
• Get Fit
• Lose Weight
• Manage Debt
• Manage Stress
• Quit Smoking Now
• Save Money
• Take a Trip
• Volunteer to Help Others
Quite an interesting list isn’t it? I noticed that the list is not in alphabetical order and the website did not identify how they are listed. Are any of these on your list of New Year’s resolutions? There’s a couple that are on my list for 2011.
As your Pastor, perhaps I can encourage you to consider some additional resolutions for the New Year:
• Make daily time with God a priority
• Find ways to show people that you love them
• Take the time to stay in touch with friends that you don’t see very often
• Devote an hour a week to help people in need
• Look for opportunities to do random acts of kindness
• Use your gifts and talents to be a blessing to others
I’m sure you can think of many other creative ways to live out your Christian faith more deeply and meaningfully in 2011.
In 2011 may God’s power guide you, God’s might uphold you, God’s eyes watch over you; God’s ears hear you, God’s hand guard you, God’s way lie before you and God’s shield shelter you.
God be with you,
Pastor Ed
