Asatru Folk Assembly - 2⧸14⧸24 Victory Never Sleeps, Episode 84 - Gythia Edition 2

00:00:00.000 Transcription by CastingWords

00:00:30.000 We'll be right back.

00:01:00.000 Thank you.

00:01:30.000 Thank you.

00:02:00.000 Thank you.

00:02:30.000 We'll be right back.

00:03:00.000 Good evening.

00:03:30.000 Welcome to Victory Never Sleeps. I am Witten Brandi Callahan, filling in for the Alshira

00:03:36.260 Godhi Matthew Flavel, as he is traveling for our national event, Charming Up the Plow.

00:03:41.540 And with me tonight, I have Githia's Sheila McNallet and Githia Katie Erickson. Hello

00:03:47.640 ladies. How are we tonight? Doing very well. Thank you. Doing great. How are you? Doing

00:03:55.140 wonderful. So thanks for everyone for coming in. First thing that we want to do is let you know

00:04:01.620 why the Alshira Gothi is not here and why the Gythias are taking over. It is because him and

00:04:06.580 many of our other awesome Witten and Godar and folk builders and members are currently getting

00:04:11.780 ready to head to Florida for our National Charming of the Plow events. Tickets are still on sale. If

00:04:17.620 do want to go to this event contact um go the trent east or the hof steward mike joiner they

00:04:26.820 can get you all set up and ready to go it's going to be a great time please check that out get your

00:04:31.540 ticket go support your folk down down in florida so tonight is going to be one of those nights

00:04:38.500 where we just talk about all the things that interest the githya so if you have any questions

00:04:43.300 put them in the chat we do also have questions that have been lined up for a couple days

00:04:49.300 so we will get to all the questions if you do want to get your question at the head of the line or

00:04:54.660 you just got something to say go ahead and check in the comments section and there is some information

00:04:59.460 on how to send us a donation and your question will go to the front of the line all right so

00:05:07.380 one thing we wanted to do tonight is with all of our leadership traveling and kind of off and away

00:05:15.700 tonight we want to take a chance a moment to uh talk about them while they can't say anything back

00:05:22.420 so we're going to be highlighting some of our leadership tonight and i do want to start with

00:05:29.220 and i think nick has us prepared there i want to start with our newly named folk builder

00:05:34.660 coordinator nathan erlinson so nathan erlinson has been with us for a few years now and he's

00:05:43.380 made a really really big impact and he does a lot of great things for our folk he does a lot of

00:05:48.660 great things for balder soft district and he is also now our folk builder coordinator so he is

00:05:54.340 responsible for training up our new folk builders getting them set up with all of our processes

00:05:59.380 making sure that we're all doing the right thing at the right time so i would like to give him a

00:06:04.260 a big shout out and let anybody know if you are interested in folk building please reach out to

00:06:10.720 folk builder or go the folk builder coordinator Nathan Erlinson and that would be your first step

00:06:17.160 in being a folk builder getting involved in leadership and serving your gods your church

00:06:22.460 and your folk also you can reach out to your Witten in any of your districts so that would

00:06:29.400 be myself in Baldershof District. That would also be our amazing Wynton Clifford Erickson over there

00:06:35.980 in Thorshof, in Thorshof northern part. He would be a great one to contact there. You can reach out

00:06:42.580 to Wynton Svon Harrell, Wynton Daniel Young. You can also reach out to the law speaker Alan Turnage.

00:06:49.940 He can get you squared away there. But reach out to any of your Wynton. But also if you are interested

00:06:54.160 in folk building, please contact Folk Builder Coordinator Goethe Nathan Robinson.

00:07:00.540 And as we go there, I want to just talk to Githya McNallan and Githya Erickson about how important

00:07:06.900 and how close they've become to the folk builders in their districts and the impact that those

00:07:13.720 folk builders can make for the folk and for the church. Githya McNallan, would you like to go

00:07:18.180 first certainly wow we have a very large district if you happen to look at it on a map we include

00:07:30.340 about half the world because we go up to alaska across western canada down to australia hawaii

00:07:38.260 over to all the western states to the rocky mountains and up again to the canadian border

00:07:43.300 that is a very large area and uh with a lot of people spread all over that a lot of our members

00:07:49.860 are in very remote areas of that of that district of our odenshof district so it's really important

00:07:56.580 for our folk builders to attempt to reach out and we're actually and that's one thing that uh

00:08:02.660 wit and brandy and also nathan erlinson have done is to help us get set up so we're doing that

00:08:10.020 in efficient way but also in a way that we are really checking in to see how people are doing

00:08:15.540 we want to do that and i depend on my folk builders to do that to make those contacts

00:08:21.140 to make the phone calls to let me know how things are going is there anybody who's struggling right

00:08:26.420 now what kind of an issue is there you know those kind of calls come in during the day and um it's

00:08:33.220 up to us as the giddies in my case is really pretty much my responsibility in our district

00:08:39.940 to make those phone calls and check in on people make sure that they're doing okay

00:08:44.180 but uh everything from hosting events writing articles for the newsletter um

00:08:51.300 moving on in their own you know afa careers if you could call it that but to

00:08:56.580 to push themselves and work towards excellence so that they can rise up from apprentice to

00:09:03.220 oath folk builder and from there on to uh the go there program and we have three people who are

00:09:09.460 in that process right now three out of eight and that's that's a wonderful thing to behold

00:09:14.980 and celebrate with the people in our district which is called odinsoff district so that's kind

00:09:20.820 of the recap of that i also depend odinsoff here in california really uses our um our folk builders

00:09:29.060 they're very essential to make sure everybody knows what's going on and help me plan the

00:09:34.340 monthly events because it tends to a lot of it falls on my shoulders just because i'm here

00:09:39.220 i'm close in i don't have outside work like other people do and i love it because it's my home you

00:09:45.380 know odin's office home to me and started in 2015 and i've been here a long time and it's not about

00:09:52.180 to change so there we go thank you ma'am githia erickson can you tell us how important your

00:09:58.340 folk builders are over there on that side of the country absolutely so uh similarly to odenshoff

00:10:05.220 thorshoff district is really large we stretch all the way down to south carolina um we stretch all

00:10:13.540 the way up into canada we stretch into europe there's a lot of territory to cover and we have

00:10:18.260 a lot of members and we don't have very many folk builders not as many as we need to do the work and

00:10:25.060 the job of a folk builder is it's huge our folk builders reach out to members to check on them to

00:10:30.980 see how they're doing they reach out to help them uh get things settled when things need to get

00:10:36.740 settled our folk builders are our number one point of contact um with our folk they're the ones who

00:10:43.300 help them find a golar when they need help with something um they they do a lot of the work um

00:10:50.340 that we really, really desperately need to have happen in order for the AFA to run as a church.

00:10:58.700 And our Godar are also folk builders. We all also do the work. We all do

00:11:05.140 as much as we can to carry the weight, but our folk builders are the ones,

00:11:10.160 excuse me, are the ones who really carry the burden of that work. And without them,

00:11:14.560 we wouldn't have an Austin True Folk Assembly the way we have right now. We probably wouldn't

00:11:19.640 have all the hops that we have now because without them we can't do the work so our folk builders are

00:11:23.800 essential um as mcnallan i'm sorry sheila as sheila pointed out earlier

00:11:32.120 if you want to become one of the godar one day you have to be a folk builder first

00:11:36.200 so for for a lot of people that's a stepping stone but i i feel like it really needs to be stressed

00:11:42.600 our folk builders are what make the Aussie True Folk Assembly happen. They're the ones who

00:11:50.240 schedule events. They're the ones who host events. They're the ones who connect people

00:11:55.840 to each other, to the church, to our go there when it's necessary. And it is a very admirable

00:12:04.720 and very worthwhile job for people to do. And I can't stress that enough. I know that I

00:12:11.400 rely on the folk builders in my district a lot. My husband, Witten Erickson, and I,

00:12:18.500 we can't do the job entirely by ourselves. We can't do it without them. So they are some of

00:12:24.900 the most important people in the AFA. Absolutely. Thank you, ma'am. And we do have a donation from

00:12:33.920 Ronald Blake, $50 for help a folk family in need of a home. Thank you, Ronald. You are

00:12:41.320 consistently donating to your folk into your church into the church every week and we can't

00:12:46.420 appreciate your generosity enough we can't thank you enough for that you are always here to support

00:12:50.260 the folk in need or donate to the hof with our amazon wish lists or just send for things that

00:12:58.020 we need or projects that we're doing so thank you sir your generosity generosity is very very

00:13:03.460 appreciated and the first question that we have tonight comes from ali and this is for the githias

00:13:11.180 what are some ways to bring our children into our practice and teach them as a true at home

00:13:16.700 get the ericsson would you like to take that one first sure i uh as a mom of two young children

00:13:23.180 i'm definitely firmly in the mom zone of life right now and uh i like to brag about my son a lot um

00:13:30.940 owen is very very in tune with asa true um he asks some of the most amazingly deep questions

00:13:39.740 for a five almost six year old um about death about the lore about all kinds of stuff

00:13:47.020 i'm bragging because he's mine uh but i do really think that he's a remarkable kid

00:13:53.180 because you know his mom or whatever but uh one of the most important things that you can do is

00:13:58.220 and i stand by this we started reading him the lore uh when i was pregnant theoretically they

00:14:06.060 can hear you all there in the womb right and we've been reading it to him ever since um we've read

00:14:10.300 him stories from delers uh north myths and from the children of odin children of odin and we've

00:14:18.540 read them consistently since before he was born and he knows the lore better than most of the

00:14:24.940 adults i know and when he asks questions we answer them those that's that to me is the number one

00:14:32.140 thing you can do just constantly read the stories make it exciting make him know or make them uh

00:14:39.100 know the lore because if they know the stories and you treat them like they're they're real then

00:14:44.780 they become real um and then there's all kinds of little things you can do uh when we moved to the

00:14:50.940 house we live in now witness von harrell gave us a little bell um with like a dragon and we mounted

00:14:59.020 it in a the central part of our house on the wall in a door frame and now every night before bed

00:15:05.500 part of our routine is we do a group hug and then we go over to the bell and we each bring the bell

00:15:12.780 in honor of the house white and we all say something like owen often says house white

00:15:16.860 house white full of might keep away the evil spirits and the monsters tonight and then i'll

00:15:21.740 ring the bell and we'll hail the house white and alice usually just hails the house white so

00:15:26.460 So that makes the land veteer and the house veteer real to them because we've just turned

00:15:32.840 it into such a normal thing.

00:15:34.180 Like if we forget by accident one night because we're busy, the children will remind us we

00:15:38.600 need to ring the bell.

00:15:40.100 And we usually leave an offering at least once a week and the kids get very excited

00:15:44.260 about choosing what they're going to get to leave the house white.

00:15:46.760 And they almost always choose candy from their own personal stashes or something because

00:15:51.320 they like to give them something of their own, not just a throwaway thing, but something

00:15:55.600 they value because we've taught them that giving we we ask the housewife for gifts and the gifts

00:16:03.780 are his protection from the evil spirits and the nightmares and so we let him know that he's welcome

00:16:09.840 in our home and that we're grateful for all he does for us and they that that gift cycle is

00:16:15.400 important and they know about that um it's all about the little things the everyday things

00:16:22.720 When you go outside and you see a squirrel, maybe that's the squirrel that climbs the

00:16:28.860 world tree to whisper insults.

00:16:31.600 Or when you see a cat, maybe that's one of Freya's cats, or two ravens or crows more

00:16:39.240 often than not.

00:16:40.940 Maybe those are Odin's ravens.

00:16:43.940 We have a hawk that likes to nest in a tree outside of our house.

00:16:46.940 Not nest, he lands there a lot.

00:16:49.440 And Owen asked me the first time we saw him if we thought maybe that was Freya in disguise

00:16:54.400 coming to check us out and see what we're up to.

00:16:58.460 We encourage that because that makes it real to them and if it's real to them, it's something

00:17:03.620 that it varies deep into their hearts and it'll stay with them.

00:17:08.440 So, long story short is just have everyday little things.

00:17:16.600 It doesn't have to be big.

00:17:18.300 things read them the stories find daily associations have an altar owen is old he

00:17:24.060 turned when he turned five he got a little altar in his own room and we bought him a four statue

00:17:28.620 to put on it and he's collected little things he has a seashell from somewhere and he uh got a set

00:17:35.900 of runes as a gift that he has on his little altar and like little berries that he found outside one

00:17:42.060 time and he just collects little things to put on his altar and now he does little prayers by

00:17:47.740 himself and every he likes to do rune rolls all by himself even though he

00:17:51.400 doesn't know what the runes mean he has to ask us but he likes to do that stuff

00:17:55.160 all on his own Alice doesn't care as much Alice is still very much into I'm

00:17:59.180 gonna do what I want so whatever Barbie dolls and stuff but she knows the

00:18:03.700 stories she's a she's only three though so she's got a little bit of time but

00:18:10.240 yeah make it every day make it little things don't they don't have to be good

00:18:16.120 big grand gestures and that's i think something that hangs a lot of people up

00:18:20.040 me and my husband when we first found out we were having kids it was a bit of a hang up like how do

00:18:23.480 we make sure this is real how do we make sure they're all such a little things every day find

00:18:29.480 those associations it doesn't it doesn't have to be big and that is the end of my my long for now

00:18:37.320 Gidea, Sheila, you've been working with children for a very, very long time. I won't say the three

00:18:46.560 varies, but I will say the very, very, very long time. Yes, indeed. Yeah. Well, I think some of

00:18:53.600 the things I've seen recently with the families that come to Odentzhoff, I'm very impressed at

00:18:59.580 the quality of religious life that our families are presenting to their children and encouraging.

00:19:07.320 For all families, though, and which is something my husband, Steve, and I have been doing consistently for quite a long time, but we didn't start that way, and that is doing meal blessings.

00:19:18.260 So if you come to any of our haughts or probably any events hosted by AFA folk builders, you're bound to experience food blessings because we do it basically with every meal.

00:19:30.400 Why? Because we are very appreciative of what's before us.

00:19:33.520 Yes, we make the effort to do that ourselves, but still there are gifts of life that come to us.

00:19:39.020 And we always acknowledge that, the animals that died, because with that, their life force, with all that power and energy that they had comes into us and allows us to do our work in this world.

00:19:52.400 I've got a cat here on one side.

00:19:54.140 She's very busy right now.

00:19:57.060 But I also know that a lot of our families have children partaking in food blessings as well.

00:20:02.880 and it doesn't have to be memorized it doesn't have to be the same every time

00:20:06.900 but give them the experience of having a little bit ownership of that of leading the family

00:20:12.960 and things like that simple little rituals and things that are worthy of acknowledging

00:20:17.500 um certainly lighting a candle um i want to talk about ancestors for me i was ready for

00:20:25.520 because i was always aware of my ancestors from the earliest time i didn't know except that they

00:20:31.160 came from Ireland and that was enough right and that was instilled I mean a

00:20:35.240 very early age and that's how I've always connected but with that I think

00:20:42.020 one good example of how you bring the ancestors into your life for your

00:20:48.020 children is something that which and Harold does at you will every year and

00:20:53.000 each night of you will the children receive a gift and the gift comes with

00:20:59.720 name of one of the ancestors that is the person who sent that gift pair of socks a hat a book

00:21:07.960 those things and then at that point tell the story show the pictures get them really familiar

00:21:13.640 with their ancestors and then you say explain to them that we are doing this also true

00:21:19.320 is who we are and it comes to us through that long long line of ancestors whose names we don't

00:21:25.800 even know anymore but they did what we do and we're just like them and we honor them and love

00:21:32.520 them and that's really important for parents to get children knowing that this is not a moment in

00:21:39.880 time but we have that long line that we need to always respect and honor and then they have

00:21:46.360 responsibility too so i have to say when i was teaching fifth grade um i would often go to the

00:21:54.520 whiteboard at the front of the classroom and i would put these words up there because i think

00:21:59.560 they're a maxim for anybody and is we are our deeds and i would also say to them something to

00:22:09.160 think about is that voicing an opinion is a deed keeping it in your brain and thinking about it

00:22:18.600 holding it tight to yourself but not sharing it it doesn't become a deed at that point the

00:22:24.280 deeds the ones that can be harmful are oftentimes when we act out publicly against others so just

00:22:31.480 remind children that they are their deeds it's their actions that become visible to others and

00:22:38.600 it doesn't mean they can't talk to you about what's bugging them they need to do that too

00:22:42.520 but it's that self-control and you know you need to say hey guess what kids we do that too we have to

00:22:51.160 be aware of what we say and do to others and so it's being a good model to your children

00:22:57.240 um talk no noble virtues but also other virtues because children need ones like respect

00:23:03.400 responsibility all those ones that you want them to know when they're in their very early ages

00:23:09.880 in their early years so that they, to share, to be patient, to, you know, work on impulsiveness

00:23:20.600 and have them wait. All those things that the little guys need. And they, of course, will get

00:23:27.000 the nine noble virtues throughout their lives. But there are other things and just reinforce good

00:23:32.020 values with them. And they're going to be outstanding adults when they get there. But

00:23:38.040 um yeah people who pass lighting candles remembering birthdays death dates those kinds

00:23:44.040 of things let children know that those people who lived before who are all part of our family

00:23:49.560 line still in memory that um that they still matter so those are just a couple of things

00:23:56.120 i would say but i do love everything that katie said i wish i had little kids around

00:24:00.360 in my home it's been many many years but if i could do things over also let them explore

00:24:06.200 let them just kind of create their own stories about the land what whites land they tear or the

00:24:12.040 gods if they want to you know if they want to come up with amazing stories and draw pictures

00:24:18.840 yeah encourage that kind of stuff let them experience also true on their own too

00:24:25.400 wise words from both of the githias thank you very much ladies

00:24:28.680 We did have another donation that just came in as well from Gothe Stamm. He sent us a donation

00:24:37.940 and it says, in it to win it, best as half, hail our Githias. Thank you, Gothe Stamm. I do believe

00:24:44.840 that the conversion is complete. Best as half. Well done, sir. Well done. So speaking of Gothe Stamm,

00:24:53.740 since he made a donation. Let's go ahead and put him on the screen real quick. So Gauthier Rob Stamm

00:24:59.420 is the dean of our As A True Academy. He has him and also Sheila is very involved in that as well.

00:25:07.660 So if you have any questions about the As A True Academy, how to get your kids

00:25:13.260 enrolled and active in the homeschool program, reach out to him. Also reach out to folk builder

00:25:19.580 Sarah Ault. Sheila, would you like to take a minute to talk about our As A True Academy while

00:25:24.220 we've got Go These Dams picture up there? Excellent. All right. Well, this is our second

00:25:30.240 year. We started with just a K-1 program. It's now up to third grade, and we'll soon be pushing

00:25:38.860 on to sixth grade. We have, using a program that is all established, and it has basically a very

00:25:47.760 natural holistic approach to it and that is the waldorf program and what's ideal about that is

00:25:55.680 that it is very kind of open-ended for parents to use it as a guideline but to also integrate all

00:26:04.880 learning throughout the day whatever you do make it a learning experience for your children and

00:26:09.760 And since this is a homeschooling program,

00:26:13.360 it really is up to the parents to make determination

00:26:16.920 of the rate of speed acquisition of knowledge

00:26:22.160 that the children are getting.

00:26:23.640 You know, you do a lot of that on your own.

00:26:26.860 And we are there to provide religious background,

00:26:32.980 religious stories and activities

00:26:35.460 for the kids to partake in at the early grades.

00:26:38.800 And so there'll be artwork and things that children create

00:26:42.860 and get to share.

00:26:44.240 Oftentimes they're in the Runestone Journal.

00:26:48.360 We would love to have the kids get together at some point

00:26:52.720 and the parents a little bit more than they have been.

00:26:55.040 But when we have had story time online,

00:26:57.540 the children have gotten together and sit and all together

00:27:01.880 get to clap along with the story,

00:27:03.080 especially when Nick Rice is there,

00:27:06.320 Folk builder Nick Rice is a favorite of all the kids,

00:27:09.420 no matter what he reads, it's delightful to them

00:27:12.780 and they love those.

00:27:14.480 But we have 40 children now in the program

00:27:17.600 and we're halfway through the year

00:27:19.040 and we'll be checking in with all the parents

00:27:20.840 and seeing if they need anything.

00:27:23.080 And we're there to help provide support,

00:27:25.940 give them some guidance for any state mandates

00:27:28.920 or anything that they have.

00:27:30.480 And Rob has been wonderful in setting all this up for us.

00:27:35.280 We also have some other great volunteers, but again, it is all volunteer.

00:27:39.220 And I know that there's also a donation link.

00:27:42.060 If you would like to make a regular contribution to the Alistair Academy, it would be greatly

00:27:48.020 appreciated.

00:27:49.300 Give us some feedback, please.

00:27:50.920 We'd love that.

00:27:52.340 Absolutely.

00:27:54.660 And speaking of Folk Builder Nicholas Rice, I'm pretty sure he's got a picture of himself.

00:27:59.300 He can go ahead and pop up on that screen as well.

00:28:02.440 So Folk Builder Rice, it was a joke not that long ago when I had the wild idea that we were going to start the monthly membership meetings.

00:28:13.480 And this was over a year ago now that we started the monthly meetings and Folk Builder Rice decided that he was going to start popping up useful links and pictures and files and all of these things during our membership meetings, right?

00:28:28.860 Well, when we had an idea that maybe we should do a podcast, I knew the perfect guy for the job.

00:28:35.620 And I voluntold him that we would be using his services.

00:28:40.640 And he didn't know anything.

00:28:42.260 I don't know if he didn't know anything, but he didn't know very much about producing and he didn't know very much about things, but he learned very quickly.

00:28:49.520 And he is a huge part of why Victory Never Sleeps and the AFA is so successful.

00:28:57.260 And speaking of those membership meetings, there is a Baldur's Hoff membership meeting

00:29:02.300 on the last Thursday of every month. And Githya Erickson, Githya McDowell, do you want to share

00:29:10.060 when the other districts have their membership meetings as well? Do you guys have those off the

00:29:16.060 top of your head? Go ahead, Sheila. Oh, yes. Okay. Ours is the day after theirs. It's the last Friday

00:29:22.220 of the month typically should be very close but anyway the last friday of the month that is for

00:29:27.580 all the members in the odenshoff district it's 7 30 p.m pacific time 6 30 alaska time and mountain

00:29:37.340 time would be what 8 30 and that's usually about as far as we go in our time zones but join us

00:29:42.780 please we always have we have a slate of speakers and um can take questions we want to see come on

00:29:49.740 those and join us please do yeah absolutely i know we do have membership meetings um elsewhere

00:29:57.340 around the afa as well um kithia erickson would you like to talk about any of the other things

00:30:04.300 that are going off are going on in uh kind of the the thorshof area with moots and uh studies

00:30:13.020 calls or anything else that you guys have got going on over there in that side of the country

00:30:16.540 see this is where my husband comes in handy because i'm not the organized one he's the

00:30:24.180 organized one i don't remember any of this stuff off of the top of my head i'm very sorry

00:30:28.860 no problem and i kind of put you on the spot to memorize the calendar i'm sorry

00:30:33.720 no like i said i i deal with the kids in in the full schoolers my husband does the the organized

00:30:41.000 stuff because I don't have a brain for that. Perfect. Well, since we're talking about him,

00:30:46.960 let's throw his picture up on the screen. So for information on what's going on with

00:30:53.860 the Thorshoff North District, you should really contact Witten Clifford Erickson. He does manage

00:31:00.200 that district. He wrangles all of those folk builders and takes care of all the folk over

00:31:04.720 there. I'm going to let Githya Erickson talk about all of the things that Witten Erickson does

00:31:12.320 because she sees it firsthand and she sees the time and the dedication and the way his time away

00:31:18.600 from her, his time away from his kids, all the work that he puts in behind the scenes. So can

00:31:24.100 you tell us how awesome your husband is? If I have to. No, I'm just kidding. I like him. I married him.

00:31:32.540 So I guess that makes me a little biased, but, um, so I know that when

00:31:40.020 Cliff joined the AFA, uh, many years ago, and he has been by Matt's aside as a WITN member since

00:31:51.660 Matt, uh, became Al Sharagody, or at least shortly after, cause I, I don't know the exact

00:31:58.260 timeline i was not a member of the afa at that point but uh he's been there with matt the whole

00:32:04.820 time he has uh been lovingly called the tech guy for a very long time because before nick

00:32:11.460 came around my husband was the only one who knew how to do all of the tech stuff he was the one who

00:32:17.460 had built all of the previous versions of the website sometimes by scratch um i remember when

00:32:24.020 owen was a baby we were on like um a wix type site uh wordpress i think and they decided they

00:32:32.340 were no longer going to do business with us and they just shut down our account we lost everything

00:32:38.180 we lost the website there were no backups and and i didn't see cliff for like two weeks because he

00:32:45.380 was busy trying to manually rebuild the website in code from scratch so that it never happened again

00:32:52.740 um he is always always available for a call i mean i know yesterday he came in from work

00:33:02.340 late excuse me he came in from work late because he was on calls with members

00:33:07.220 um he's always on call with leadership he's just he's constantly working um

00:33:12.020 um he's very careful though he always makes sure to set aside a time set side to set aside time

00:33:22.460 i'll get there uh to spend with his kids it's very important him to spend time with us um as a family

00:33:28.400 so i know like we we sit down and we eat dinner together every night and we always bless our

00:33:32.500 meals too i forgot to mention that i like to do the alan turius version that they do down

00:33:37.900 at Thorsoff. If you're ever down there, you'll hear it. My husband likes to do the more traditional

00:33:44.420 hammer, hammer one that Stephen McNallan does. So we kind of split it up between the two.

00:33:53.080 But he always, he is one of the most dedicated people I know when it comes to the AFA.

00:34:01.500 I don't know that we would have ever gone out on our first date if I hadn't eventually just

00:34:08.320 decided to join the AFA because I'd been around for a long time. I've been in various

00:34:13.740 Heathen and Ossetree circles since I was like 19 years old. It's been 18 or something years now.

00:34:22.900 And I'd always been kind of hanging out on the periphery. We knew each other from several

00:34:27.580 different over um overlapping events and stuff and finally i was just like all right i'll join

00:34:33.020 whatever and like two days later he asked me out so um i don't know that it would have ever happened

00:34:39.500 if we were he weren't in the afa our whole family is centered around the afa when i'm not with my

00:34:44.540 kids i'm doing afa stuff and i will admit i spent a lot more time with my kids than i do doing afa

00:34:49.420 stuff but that's because they're little and i don't want to waste that time with them um and

00:34:53.820 and I know Cliff feels the same way, but he doesn't have as much of the luxury of stepping

00:35:00.840 away because he's a WITN member, and when you're a WITN member, you don't get to take

00:35:04.940 a break ever. I mean, none of us do. I think all of the Gideos on this call will agree.

00:35:10.480 If you've gotten to the point where you've taken an oath to the AFA as one of our Godar,

00:35:15.520 there's no such thing as time off. You wake up in the middle of the night for that phone call.

00:35:20.020 you wake up or you spend hours at a time on a phone call with somebody who needs help you do

00:35:25.460 all of that and when you when you become a Witten you do all of that also but you also have to do

00:35:31.640 all the back door not back door uh it's the wrong word all the the behind the scenes work that even

00:35:38.480 our Godar don't see it's just it's it's never ending it's non-stop and uh not just my husband

00:35:45.600 and all of the WITN numbers in the AFA,

00:35:48.160 all of our goals are too, but mostly the WITN numbers.

00:35:51.820 You'll never see 90% of what they're doing

00:35:54.220 because they're always, always on, always working.

00:35:58.780 Yeah, so my husband's pretty cool.

00:36:01.900 He does a lot of stuff, he's dedicated,

00:36:05.540 but he's not the only one, so.

00:36:09.620 I have to remember to stop making faces.

00:36:13.560 Sorry.

00:36:15.600 You're good. We like your faces. Get the Erikson. We like your face.

00:36:25.600 All right, Sheila, we've got a question I'd like you to answer, and it is from our member Laura in Sweden.

00:36:32.900 And her question is, what are some of the unique ways in which the women in the AFA leadership can serve our folk?

00:36:40.920 oh wow um well women in the afa in general obviously um you know we one of our one of

00:36:55.480 our noble virtues is hospitality and that is absolutely essential when you meet someone that

00:37:01.800 you've met maybe even known your whole life and greet them and warmly and with love and when

00:37:08.040 somebody new comes to your home or you happen to be at a hof and there's a new member a new person

00:37:14.600 even who's inquisitive make sure you are right there inquiring about the person asking what

00:37:21.400 brought them there and and um making them feel really really welcome that is the one thing

00:37:28.280 that i always want to hear from somebody who's been around for a while they say that wow really

00:37:34.040 coming to the afa coming into our home coming into a hoff it always feels like coming home that is

00:37:41.160 the most important thing that any one woman can do and is to also support all those other people

00:37:47.640 who are there helping make things happen um at hoffs you have a group of men who might be out

00:37:56.360 building fires or setting up torches or cutting wood or something you know acknowledge when people

00:38:03.240 are doing things the people in the kitchen the people taking care of the children be there help

00:38:10.600 volunteer don't just stand on the sidelines in fact if you're a shy person being in the afa is

00:38:16.440 a perfect place to get over that i think we've in fact that is kind of a common trait i think

00:38:21.640 with probably all three women here i know yeah katie talks about it i certainly am that way

00:38:26.920 but being in the afa has taught me that it's almost selfish to step back and not being engaged

00:38:32.680 because we do have so much to give people and to encourage them to come because this is this may be

00:38:38.280 the one place in their lives that they feel that it's safe it's it's warm it's friendly

00:38:48.440 it's a place of learning a place of spiritual might because you obviously feel that if you

00:38:55.000 attend assemble or bloat it's a place to come together and do all of our rites of passage

00:39:01.160 marriages our baby namings honoring someone who has passed those are all things we can do when

00:39:07.480 we're together and there are not many other groups in the world that can do it and that do it with

00:39:14.040 the love we have so i would say just be there for the people that you know you know talk to them if

00:39:22.600 they've got issues going on reach out to one of the giddies or godar and just say hey there's

00:39:28.360 somebody who really needs some help so kind of be our eyes and ears let us know what's going on

00:39:34.920 and be there to step up and even be a folk builder yourself if you've got kind of inclination you

00:39:41.640 think you would can put in the time put in the effort it takes to learn it because there's a lot

00:39:48.200 to learn but it is one of the most rewarding things that most people say they've ever done

00:39:52.920 so please consider that because we need we need more folk builders throughout all of the afa

00:40:00.200 absolutely get the erickson tell me about that amazing and wonderful frith weaver

00:40:07.480 probably the best frith weaver that you know right now

00:40:12.600 so that's like the easiest thing i'll talk about all night um a lot of you have probably heard

00:40:18.840 about heather young uh many of you have probably gotten random text messages and phone calls from

00:40:23.880 her heather is absolutely inherently the most powerful frith weaver i have ever met in my life

00:40:34.440 without even meaning to heather knows how to take the most sour grumpy person and have them laughing

00:40:41.800 in in minutes uh sometimes even faster than that uh she's the one of the kindest individuals i know

00:40:51.320 and she has um she has started doing this thing recently all by herself she was struck by

00:41:00.040 inspiration i guess you will to just start reaching out to people uh and she's been reaching

00:41:05.080 out to people just randomly all over the country um for several months now which is why i say many

00:41:10.600 of you will probably hear from her or if you have not expected to because that's her mission her

00:41:15.240 mission is to reach out and just say hi to everybody and if you are lucky enough to hear

00:41:20.600 from her please answer um talk to her get to know her um because she's one of um i can't i

00:41:29.880 i could literally sit and talk about how amazing i think heather is all day uh she she really is

00:41:35.560 She's one of the best people of leadership we have in the AFA, I would personally say.

00:41:45.560 Like I said, inherently, she is inherently embodies everything that a Frith Weaver should be.

00:41:55.000 Yeah, she's awesome. What about that husband? He's all right. He's okay.

00:42:02.120 So I am uniquely proud of Witten Young because I was his mentor when he was going through the

00:42:12.760 Godar program and he has always been very insightful and very thoughtful. And it was a

00:42:19.640 moment of extreme pride for me when he was elevated into the position of Witten. Not because it had

00:42:26.520 anything to do with me he did that on his own merit but i watched him when he was starting

00:42:32.440 and i watched the entire journey to where he is now i couldn't be more proud of him um and he's

00:42:39.720 he's he's very similar to his wife he he's not a woman he's not a frith weaver per se but he

00:42:45.960 absolutely is the sort of person who can bring people together he he inspires people he's also

00:42:52.280 one of the most talented um for lack of a better term he's one of our most talented counselors

00:42:59.960 when people have problems i've never known anybody who couldn't talk to daniel and who

00:43:04.440 who wasn't able to to walk away feeling at least a little bit better than they did before they

00:43:10.040 started talking to him he's amazing and he's very dedicated and he even after suffering a huge like

00:43:19.000 massive health crisis he was up and doing this again like days later he didn't even take enough

00:43:28.920 what i would call enough time for himself to like heal and be better before he was off running

00:43:34.600 doing the job of whitman and godi so uh yeah they are a power couple they are two of my very

00:43:44.280 favorite very best people in the asa so again could talk all day i always kind of talk about

00:43:52.120 like the different when you look at the alshira go these witten there's like different aspect

00:43:57.400 aspects of them right and cliff is very much our voice like cliff is very much our voice and he's

00:44:03.960 very much our reason in our in our logic and if i had to pin down what daniel would be it would be

00:44:13.240 heart daniel is is the heart of a lot of us so we always say he is one of the best of us so

00:44:20.680 definitely now sheila you've got some very wonderful um a pair of really wonderful ladies

00:44:28.040 uh over at otan's hop as well who are excellent frith weavers and who work really really hard for

00:44:33.960 you um would you be able to tell us a little bit about um folk builder olivia and what she does

00:44:41.480 over at the Huff and why she's so important to you and to that district oh yes yeah I find that

00:44:50.760 I'm calling on her for her wisdom at being a lady so much younger than me but she comes to us with

00:44:57.800 actually quite a background in religious studies she was in a seminary at one point and has had

00:45:04.840 counseling training and all sorts of things so it's not surprising that she's not just a folk

00:45:09.640 builder but she has moved on quickly into the gothling program because she is truly a lady

00:45:15.480 with great gifts and great insight um what does she do for us well besides coming with her family

00:45:22.360 and bringing them to every event we have and helping out the best she can with all the planning

00:45:27.560 she is in charge of our website she edits our journal the runestone journal for us

00:45:35.320 our edition of it she has a special ladies group that is called daughters of frig and that is for

00:45:42.200 all afa all odenshoff ladies okay everybody in our district who's who's a lady in our district

00:45:49.560 are welcome to be part of it it's a me we group i need to actually put in a plug before we go on

00:45:54.760 because we need to keep doing that please get on me we if you are not it's the social media platform

00:46:01.000 that we all use we kind of live on there as as leadership but it is really important because it

00:46:08.040 will connect you to all far corners of the country of the world and we have people who are very

00:46:16.120 isolated places and it is their way of connecting and knowing people being friends but going back

00:46:22.280 to that um yeah um having her uh with Daughters of Frigg uh we're doing ladies events there at the

00:46:30.840 Hoff um this weekend of course Charming of the Plow uh we will do we actually call it a ladies

00:46:35.640 tea and we have tea cups and we we just kind of dress it up like our grandmothers or great

00:46:40.840 aunts would have done it and it's wonderful for us to come together and there's just something

00:46:45.160 so very sweet and um such integrity to everything that that olivia does and she does it with poise

00:46:55.160 she's just delicate like a little teacup in a way but she's strong and she has tremendous

00:47:02.120 amount of knowledge to share with us so she's really brought a lot to our district and i

00:47:07.000 very much appreciate all of her ideas um i mean we're out there trying things and she comes up

00:47:13.720 with with good ideas for us they don't all work because it's just the nature of life but she is

00:47:20.120 always trying so kudos to her for all she does yeah and sierra too i mean sierra sierra is also

00:47:28.520 been a staple over at otenshoff and a big helpful there in that district and one of the frith weavers

00:47:34.600 there in your district can you tell us a little bit about sierra yes sierra um took on quite

00:47:41.400 early the job of being a Hof historian and doing that. She's keeping track of everything that's

00:47:47.080 been happening since she arrived, but also she's gone back to the very origins of us purchasing

00:47:52.920 Udenshof, which was 2015. But she's even dug deeper than that. She has people in the community

00:48:02.360 who have sent her black and white pictures of way back when, and she collects the stories of

00:48:08.280 when people were doing karate classes there and and doing dances there it was very well known for

00:48:15.080 all the dances for all the teens for a long time and um she's doing she's collecting a lot of that

00:48:21.480 i know she works with other historians of the other hafs as well um she does a lot of our meals

00:48:27.480 she's out there shopping she's hosting things when she can but she has two little kids and in fact

00:48:34.440 one is only a couple of weeks old now little erica who is already smiling and i can see why because

00:48:41.320 um you know her mom is doing a lot and is accomplishing a lot and her job is as a folk

00:48:47.080 builder so i really appreciate um the time that she can put in folk building but right now

00:48:52.760 um she's got two little ones who are needing her attention but she's still there um always

00:48:58.760 in touch with me and i appreciate that she she does everything she can to help and make our

00:49:04.840 our Odenshof district and especially Odenshof, a wonderful place to attend and to be a part of.

00:49:15.480 I know you do also have Angelina over there in your district speak just to round out that

00:49:20.440 trifecta of beauty and piety and awesomeness and frith weaving. You've got those three

00:49:27.080 ladies that are all over the place talking to people so talk to us about Angelina.

00:49:31.560 Angelina, Angelina Stone, came to us with her husband who actually at this point is

00:49:40.960 living in Arkansas. She's at home in California. She recently had a baby. She had a baby at

00:49:49.000 the very end of December. This is her third little boy, ages three, two, or even one and

00:49:57.740 half and then this little one little charlie and uh we were able to do his his baby naming which

00:50:03.820 was wonderful my husband stephen and i did the baby naming and pulled the runes and did all that

00:50:09.180 kind of stuff we've done the other um the other three children have all been her of this her

00:50:16.620 three little boys have all been had their baby naming at odin's off what does she do she is uh

00:50:23.580 out there participating in just a lot of things. She's been on calls, she's former military,

00:50:32.940 and she was on a really wonderful call with Brandy and another lady where we did at

00:50:39.740 V-City and Harriar, the role of women in the military. She comes, she and her husband have

00:50:46.460 done a lot they always come in camp and set up things for the kids and are just very active in

00:50:53.180 the background she loves taking around the uh the welcome horn of mead to people when she was very

00:50:59.980 pregnant with this little this little one the new one and she's there and she's carrying the horn

00:51:04.460 out front and offering in the most genteel way a horn of welcome to people that is kind of my image

00:51:10.460 of her. She is just a very solid, loving, caring lady. And she, of course, is now taking time off

00:51:18.100 too because she's had this little one just in December. So we have babies all over the place

00:51:23.780 at Odenseoft right now from our folk builders, which is great. And Olivia too has her three

00:51:31.760 as well. And we also have two older girls in the group. Anyway, wonderful families. And I love all

00:51:39.580 these ladies who work with me. It's a very feminine feeling to it all. And it's unique

00:51:45.560 because it never used to be that way. You may know that Odinsoff always had kind of

00:51:51.300 a very male dominant kind of a strutting kind of an ambience to it. And that has gone by

00:51:58.900 the wayside. It is very family oriented. The men come knowing that they are there to support

00:52:05.720 the families and the children and the ladies who are there. And there's no such thing as heavy

00:52:12.560 drinking or doing anything like that. No swearing. It's just a really perfect environment to raise

00:52:20.080 families right now. And Brandy, who was there at Midsummer, kind of set some wonderful things in

00:52:26.840 motion for us. So it really did put that feminine perspective. It doesn't mean the guys aren't being

00:52:33.740 guys because they definitely are in fact they come together for work weekends and they get to

00:52:38.380 really spend their time you know being bad using whatever kind of language they want to use when

00:52:44.060 they're together but um they do it again with much caring and commitment to each other and helping

00:52:50.380 odenshoff um grow and prosper and become more beautiful more functional because it's it's

00:52:56.780 needed a lot of work so the men are really very there's nothing offended about a single one of

00:53:02.300 them but they're very in tune with the feminine that we have at odenshof and so it's this perfect

00:53:08.380 balance now i call it in fact even though i expect we're probably going to have well over 100 people

00:53:14.220 at mid-summer this year because it's our 30th anniversary in the austral folk assembly

00:53:21.100 i'm calling it a retreat and it seems kind of a funny word but to me that's what we achieved last

00:53:27.020 year when brandy came out and we had a most mellow wonderful enlightening kind of a three four days

00:53:34.860 together and there's no reason we can't do it again i mean just have it be perfect in tune with

00:53:40.380 each other something where everybody grows grows in knowledge and awareness but to each other and

00:53:47.500 that's really what we're going to be able to achieve so different from the old events we used

00:53:51.900 to have if you used to come to our big events 150 people there were some rough kind of people around

00:53:58.780 that you know they've all left um it's just because that was the nature of friends inviting

00:54:03.740 friends inviting friends it's not that way anymore it's really really uh it feels like family come

00:54:11.260 together and this is afa family i tell that to people and that's what it feels like now and it's

00:54:16.940 a very um very strong place uh place of everybody unified for the same same things anyway so that's

00:54:28.540 that's one of the the gifts of our women is we have a way of of bringing people together and

00:54:33.020 that's part of that whole frith weaving process right that's part of what we do as women is

00:54:37.660 we can we can tie ourselves to each other we can tie our men folk to the other men folk and

00:54:43.740 bind our families and bind us together as a folk in a church and we've noticed a lot a lot more

00:54:50.140 leaning towards the frith weaving as we've gained more and more women in leadership um

00:54:56.140 waldershoff has an outstanding core of frith weavers at waldershoff um ashley mcstalker is

00:55:05.580 by far one of the bubbliest and most beautiful personalities that you'll come across

00:55:10.780 um ashley has a way of running into someone at a store while she's shopping for our school supplies

00:55:19.740 um and you know spending the money that we got for the donation for the school supply

00:55:24.460 drive that we do every year and she somehow struck up a conversation with someone and

00:55:30.060 the next thing you know we've got like over 20 free backpacks you know that's ashley's gift

00:55:36.220 she has she has the ability to build instant relationships with people um and get to know

00:55:43.740 them in a really feminine and really loving way you know she can really relate to other people

00:55:51.740 um and she has a an outstanding way of representing our church um not just to members but also to the

00:55:59.020 community so she's helped build a lot of of trust and a lot of faith in the the communities around

00:56:05.020 with those that um donate food for us for those that donate to our school supply our toy drive

00:56:12.780 that is all ashley mcstalker and the wonderful helpers that she has in the proud foot family with

00:56:19.580 with brock and corey brock and corey are amazing volunteers and they may not be leadership but they

00:56:25.580 are very much um the heart you know part of the heart and soul of that of that team that makes

00:56:30.620 that food drive and the school drives that everything's successful um also jesse schaefer

00:56:36.620 we were talking earlier about how to uh get children into as a true she's figured that out

00:56:42.140 i mean her children are absolutely amazing you know she's she's got this rambunctious little

00:56:47.340 crowd of children that are in they're ingrained in the family you know it's like they have always

00:56:55.980 been there you know and she also has a way we call her the Hoff mom because she just collects

00:57:00.740 children children are just attracted to her and she's definitely the Hoff mom she's she's always

00:57:05.880 the one with the band-aids and the snacks and prepared for anything um we always tease her that

00:57:11.160 she's like a lady MacGyver because you know she can hold a full conversation while grilling burgers

00:57:15.920 holding a toddler and then we need to cut down a tree and she's got a chainsaw in the back she's

00:57:20.420 just she's got everything that you would ever need you know and we've also got um uh lydia phelps

00:57:27.780 that does a lot of stuff for us as well um especially afa wide with the websites and

00:57:33.860 victory never sleeps and all of these amazing projects that we can now do with her help now

00:57:42.020 that we have her expertise we've got her skill we've got her motivation and her sight for

00:57:48.340 what looks good and what appeals to people. What is it that the people want to see from us? A lot

00:57:56.480 of the changes that we've made to websites and VNS is all things that she had ideas about and

00:58:03.320 worked with Nick on. She's absolutely amazing. And her husband, now he's not one of the ladies,

00:58:09.620 but since I mentioned Lydia, I'll mention her husband as well, Zach. Zach has been a huge help

00:58:16.080 with you know our security team and our if you have a question on anything technical Zach can

00:58:23.020 answer it really really quick he's also actively folk building reaching out to the folk and stuff

00:58:28.040 but other than just their folk building duties the Phelps have been just a huge help with all

00:58:33.600 of the back end stuff and the technical things and and getting us out there to our folks and

00:58:38.480 help bring people home so we've got those those people as well and I did receive a message from

00:58:45.000 to get the applaud um and she wants to do a special shout out to uh katie joiner katie joiner

00:58:53.500 in her party planning skills and her frith weaving and her cooking and all of the things that

00:59:00.860 that she does and she does with a smile on her face and she does with a lot of joy

00:59:06.340 um katie is absolutely amazing we love katie for all that she's done to new york for norshoff

00:59:12.760 the way that she supports the folk down the way, the way that she supports the Hoff down there.

00:59:17.860 She's just, she's an absolute gem and we adore her for that. And she also wants to say a big

00:59:24.320 shout out to Tracy, Tracy Adler, the Hoff historian. So she did very much what Sierra

00:59:31.480 did with Odentopf, where she's basically traced the very beginnings of New York's Hoff from day

00:59:37.300 one and she's got all the pictures and the videos and the stories and and all of these things and

00:59:42.980 she was you know she's so passionate about it and she's so dedicated to it um you know she makes it

00:59:48.340 a point to make sure that the legacy of new york top will live forever um so tracy does an outstanding

00:59:54.100 job with that and we appreciate everything that she has done so thank you tracy and also thank

00:59:59.380 you katie and that's from your get the get the applaud all right we do have another question

01:00:07.220 this one is from go the trent east what made each of you want to become afa leadership

01:00:13.860 get the mcdalen what made you want to be leadership

01:00:18.340 oh my goodness why would you want to be leadership for the afa

01:00:21.940 i think i was there on day one i just had a passion for it i like steve when steve my husband

01:00:30.340 for those of you don't know steven mcnellen when he first came across the gods he did not

01:00:38.100 want to keep it for himself it was all about let's build

01:00:43.860 a community a world about the truth is i mean he has no limits to his visions and i did kind

01:00:51.140 of the same thing when i kind of came on the scene with him i wanted to build the folk and

01:00:58.180 i called we were always talking about folk and so we needed a name when we came back with the new

01:01:04.260 whatever it was going to be and had been the austral free assembly i said let's call folk

01:01:09.220 the austral folk assembly so you know i gave it the name we last two weeks ago we happened to drive

01:01:15.620 the road um where i was i remember exactly where i was and what the view was when i said that and

01:01:22.340 so i reminded steve on that drive two weeks ago and he didn't even know that story so this is

01:01:27.460 where it happened this is where we got our name but um yeah i i have always been um

01:01:37.380 you know i never really took on a motherly role but i was the person who made sure that things

01:01:42.740 happened we did we did our events they started out really small you know it was in a backyard

01:01:48.180 kind of thing like people still do but that eventually it grew from that i put out the

01:01:53.620 newsletters i did membership i did all those things and i never so you talk about a role of

01:02:00.100 leadership i did that but i didn't take on a role of a gidea for a long time because i never felt

01:02:05.940 it was going to be my path i was very much in the day-to-day while i was working full-time

01:02:12.420 as well but making sure that the afa was growing and functioning best i could

01:02:17.540 and of course there were a lot of things i couldn't do i wasn't involved in the folk building

01:02:21.620 or the go thar program or anything like that during those years but i kept very very busy

01:02:27.140 and put on some wonderful events that was what i i loved was events and i'd always bring in bands

01:02:32.660 for music and they were really good from the get-go we did some fantastic events but what is

01:02:40.180 different now is that we are all folk and we are all connected we come together we look in each

01:02:45.780 other's eyes we know exactly that we're all there for the same reason whereas in the old days we

01:02:51.940 have an odd assortment of people who would come because it did have more of a pagan overlap we

01:02:58.500 don't use that word we don't even use the word heathen for ourselves but it definitely had that

01:03:03.060 because again we had friends who were leaders in other groups and they kind of brought in

01:03:07.460 oddball people so it was eclectic in the early days some nice events but they were much more

01:03:13.300 eclectic now it's folk it's folk coming together as family so that is i've been doing it for a long

01:03:19.620 time and i don't see that ending anytime soon i certainly don't want it to and um my role is here

01:03:27.140 to be with my people to help my people connect better with the gods and their ancestors and with

01:03:33.300 each other and build their own sense of self and and um their own personal evolution to get where

01:03:40.820 they need to get um so that's been my role what about you get the uh so when i was 12 i decided

01:03:56.740 i wasn't christian anymore i was going to be pagan and way back when i was 12 in the the olden days

01:04:03.300 um geo cities was basically where you went to find any information about being anything

01:04:10.180 pagan or whatever um and for a very long time i mean i was 12 i couldn't exactly go out and meet

01:04:16.100 random strangers and practice you know paganism with them so i was by myself for a very long time

01:04:22.260 um none of my friends were really doing what i was doing uh i wasn't telling my mom about it

01:04:27.060 because she was you know she's catholic she's not gonna be super happy here i'm doing you know

01:04:31.300 whatever satanic thing she thinks i was doing at the time i'm grateful that she's very supportive

01:04:38.180 and um she was here with for dinner with us earlier tonight and she just quietly says her

01:04:43.700 prayers while we do our meal blessing and it's it's all good um but i was by myself for a very

01:04:50.580 long time and for it was it's always hard to be by yourself it's always hard to be alone and

01:04:56.740 And when I was old enough to go out and meet with other people who were believing the things

01:05:04.060 I was believing, I was finding the weirdos, because that's what exists outside of the

01:05:10.220 AFA and outside of what we do.

01:05:13.860 Maybe not across the board, but a lot of them are very strange.

01:05:16.880 I mean, like, let's do birthing canal rituals where you, like, climb through, like, a weird

01:05:25.060 tube of cloth and pretend like you're being rebirthed as new people and i wasn't there

01:05:29.620 for that one but i've i've heard stories from from people i used to be friends with about doing

01:05:34.900 birthing rituals and stuff and i've always been very spiritual i've always been very connected

01:05:41.380 to the gods and the libertir at least for myself and i was always very lonely and um

01:05:48.820 When I finally found a community of people who believed in things I believed, it was like the biggest sigh of relief and the idea of being able to make sure that there are people in the world who don't have to feel what I felt for so long because there's going to be somebody there who can help connect them.

01:06:13.060 that was always a really big motivation of mine to to be able to serve the folk to grow the folk

01:06:20.580 to make sure that there are our little girls out there who grew up and find a community sooner than

01:06:26.820 i ever did um and a lot of people will hear almost all of uh of the women who have been around in the

01:06:36.500 pagan circles and in Ossetru for a long enough stay. There were not a lot of women in Ossetru

01:06:42.900 back when I first started. I mentioned earlier I've been doing this for like 18 plus years now.

01:06:49.620 Started as Thadish, moved up to Ossetru with AFA. It's only been those two things but

01:06:56.020 there were not a lot of women and so the idea of being a woman who could help other women

01:07:01.780 find their way home was really important to me um the folk building aspect i didn't realize it was

01:07:08.660 folk building at the time to me it was just serving my folk serving people serving the other young

01:07:15.620 women um so that they had some place that they could turn around and go to that was always one

01:07:23.620 one of my prime motivations and also serving the gods um i want to build bright fame for myself

01:07:30.580 uh which i think all of our folks should want to do in whatever capacity they can

01:07:34.980 um there's a little bit of ego there because i want the gods to know who i am and i want to be

01:07:39.940 remembered one day when i die and as they give you for the afa i can almost guarantee that at least

01:07:45.780 for some time after i pass away there are people who will remember me and raise the horn to me

01:07:50.740 um and that's important to all of us it should be um to be remembered um and then i had children

01:07:58.100 and once you have children especially as women you know that the world changes and your perspective

01:08:04.560 on everything changes so what started off is wanting to to create a home for other young

01:08:10.120 women and to honor the gods and to be remembered turned into wanting to create a place

01:08:16.000 for the children so that there's a future here um and i don't think i'm i'm capable of doing that by

01:08:24.700 myself obviously but having children has become my number one motivation in a lot of ways because if

01:08:30.780 i can if i can do my very best and build the ossaroo folk assembly now for my children it'll

01:08:37.180 be easier for them and they'll have a place to bring their own children home to one day and uh

01:08:43.020 what is more worthy than that so thank you ma'am and since it was uh go the east that

01:08:51.260 ask the question. Let's go ahead and slap his mugshot off on the screen real quick.

01:08:57.700 So, Gothe East is, when I talk about the Gothe, I need you to understand he's one of my favorite

01:09:03.460 people and a very good friend, but I love to tease him because it's fun. Gothe East is,

01:09:11.500 he was in the Gothe program with me. He was in class with me. We're both part of the class of 21.

01:09:17.080 and he is definitely someone that you rely on in hard times because no matter

01:09:24.300 no matter what you're going through he's going to have a comment that will make you laugh

01:09:29.720 and forget what it is that you're mad about or sad about um he he's an outstanding goethe he he

01:09:37.380 has got an incredible way of talking to people he's got a wonderful spiritual practice that can

01:09:43.400 motivate you during bloats. He's just an overall, just an outstanding human being.

01:09:50.920 So if you have not had a chance to talk to Go The East over in your top district,

01:09:56.340 please do. Please reach out to him, harass him, and let him know that Witten Callahan sent him,

01:10:03.660 and remind him that wonderful men and strong and outstanding men never skip leg day. The best men

01:10:10.820 do like day so always remember that go these thank you we do also have um a donation from

01:10:20.140 michael cosgrove hail the women of the afa the mead couldn't be properly blessed without you

01:10:25.500 all nor could the next generation be raised into the folk thank you so much michael for

01:10:30.500 your donation we appreciate you very much now since i gave go the east a shout out i'm going

01:10:37.820 to give his beautiful wife a shout out. And now she's not necessarily a, she's not an official

01:10:44.000 member of leadership or anything like that. But Madison is a, she creates some outstanding and

01:10:54.220 beautiful artwork. And a lot of the artwork that we use for the Outstreet Folk Assembly

01:10:58.220 comes from her and from her gifts and her talent. So I just want to take a minute to give her a

01:11:04.780 really quick shout out. You may not be leadership, Madison, but you are appreciated for all the

01:11:09.960 things that you do and all the contributions that you make in the time that you give to us.

01:11:14.080 And while I'm shouting out beautiful wives, I do want to go ahead and get

01:11:19.520 Mrs. Flavel up on the screen for us because we're going to talk about the lady of victory here for

01:11:26.780 a minute. And she's going to shoot us all later. That's okay. So Mandy has been one of the driving

01:11:35.360 forces in the modern AFA. She is always there for support. She is always there to help out the

01:11:42.840 ladies. She's very active in the ladies group. She has tirelessly dedicated to the baby blanket

01:11:52.020 project. And she is a huge motivator for a lot of our women leadership. She is someone that always

01:12:00.140 has a kind word when needed. And she always has a swift kick if you need that too. She'll give

01:12:06.880 you both if you need both. Whatever it is, Mandy seems to know what it absolutely is that you need

01:12:12.920 at that time. And she has an uncanny ability to give that to you, to give it what it is that you

01:12:20.940 need to get through so we want to send out a huge thank you to the leaders of the lady the the leader

01:12:28.140 of the ladies and that is that's going to be mandy flavel for all that she has done for all that she

01:12:33.260 continues to do for all of her sacrifices that she makes for the folk for the gods and for the afa so

01:12:40.540 thank you mrs flavel we love you and we appreciate you

01:12:42.940 all right we do have a couple more questions this one's going to be for you Katie

01:12:51.780 and this one is going to be from your son so I would like you to answer it

01:12:57.800 and the question is is how many bears can you take out in one punch

01:13:03.060 um in my my fantasies i can go out and kill a bear one day i'm going to do it just because

01:13:19.620 um in reality zero uh i'm pretty sure the bear would knock me out before i ever had the chance

01:13:26.380 to not get out uh my son owen i love you very much he is very very into all of the violent

01:13:34.140 boy things that it is possible to be into so i shouldn't be surprised that that's his question

01:13:43.020 oh and i can knock them all out

01:13:48.460 i don't know the only bears that i can can knock out are those cinnamon ones about this big

01:13:54.140 you guys the witten is a sucker for some cinnamon gummy bears i tell you what oh gummy bears i

01:14:00.700 thought you meant the teddy grams oh no no no the gummy bears because you know you can line them up

01:14:06.700 on your desk you know and just take them all out at the same time hi those are the only bears that

01:14:13.900 i can fight are going to be those uh those cinnamon gummy bears all right we've got a question from

01:14:23.580 go these stam what is the most rewarding part of being in leadership what is the most challenging

01:14:29.980 githya mcnallen would you like to take that question

01:14:37.340 um oh my goodness most rewarding um um sensing that we are making a difference in people's lives

01:14:50.380 those so many people are out seeking looking for something maybe they're not even seeking it but

01:14:56.940 we know that finding the afa would be a huge benefit many people's lives being able to connect

01:15:04.140 with something other than this moment in time and to have the positive attitude that we can

01:15:10.220 bring to somebody and we come together and we stay so positive when we're at all of our events

01:15:16.140 because there is such a wonderful sense of peace and um well-being that we get when we're together

01:15:24.940 it's really important to facilitate that when we're together and so that is one of the things

01:15:33.180 i i always seek to do and if i come home and feel that i've been fulfilled by an event

01:15:38.780 because it has gone well you know i know that i'm probably not the only one who feels that way

01:15:44.620 the other hand i really am troubled by how hard it is for us to reach again the people

01:15:52.460 who should be with us but they don't know about us and um you know occasionally people will say

01:16:00.060 where have you been my whole life i needed you but we have been um in fact i guess we're a shadow

01:16:06.220 band it's so hard for us to share who we are what we believe and the power that we have within

01:16:15.500 our church to connect with divine powers and the things that just carry us forward and will

01:16:21.500 carry us into the next life you know again i have no fear about what comes afterwards because i'm

01:16:27.260 very confident that we do we do continue we go through the veil family is there we've got places

01:16:33.580 to go but um that is the biggest challenge and even today you know trying to come up with a way

01:16:40.700 of finding traditional women who don't think there are any men out there we've got them we've

01:16:45.740 got the guys believe me but how do we find those women and that was a part of a phone call i had

01:16:51.660 with olivia today because we talked about that at our last ladies tea how do we find the women to

01:16:57.900 draw them here because they're looking for real men and uh so anyway those are my couple of things

01:17:04.540 that i would say ma'am get the ericsson we have a question for you ma'am

01:17:12.220 do you see your role in leadership as being different than that of your male counterparts

01:17:17.340 if so how okay first getting mcnalon your cat is huge

01:17:25.500 oh yes she is she's huge i had to get it i had to get a medium-sized we want to put on a harness

01:17:36.120 so we can take her for walks i had to get a medium-sized dog went for her she's so big

01:17:41.600 she's huge her name's jersey but she's she's that's a big cat she's 20 some odd pounds

01:17:47.680 sorry i had to say something um she's my family you can do that

01:17:55.500 I got three very large dogs so I get it. So yes, I believe that our role as women is definitely

01:18:07.320 it's like a Venn diagram. There's the men, there's the women, and there's the spot in the

01:18:15.940 middle where it intersects and we have very similar jobs. We do a lot of the same stuff.

01:18:22.540 we we bloat to the gods um we facilitate that connection uh for the gift cycle between the

01:18:30.060 gods and the folk of the folk and the gods um we do a lot of the counseling stuff that men do

01:18:37.580 um there's a lot a lot of what we do is very similar but then there's the things that are

01:18:43.100 unique to the women and unique to the men and i i really do believe that just has to do with

01:18:49.980 a woman's role in in society in general women are the peacekeepers the frisk weavers um

01:18:58.060 we are inherently better at creating

01:19:03.340 certain type of uh certain types of spaces um when men are all together in a room it was like

01:19:10.620 uh what gideon mcnell said earlier about the working that owns off that's when the men get

01:19:14.620 together and they do the the more rough stuff the cussing and the spitting and getting stuff done

01:19:19.260 and being all macho but when the women are there suddenly it's a it's a different environment and

01:19:23.980 that's because that's what women do we have an energy that changes things um i mean if you if

01:19:32.060 you look at what for sleeping is from the the metaphysical point of view it literally is

01:19:39.100 changing the energy of a room changing the energy around people um taking it from a a

01:19:47.500 kind of frictive chaotic sort of energy to a peaceful or at least controlled energy that is

01:19:55.900 easier to digest um we're the

01:20:00.540 yeah i i don't know if that makes sense i know what i'm trying to say i don't know if i have

01:20:08.700 more words to say properly but i do believe that the roles between men and women are different um

01:20:18.700 but not entirely there's just things that the men do that the women can't do and things that

01:20:23.820 that the women can do that the men can't right and we talk about you know amongst amongst each

01:20:31.960 other amongst the godar amongst leadership and amongst membership is it's not necessarily so

01:20:38.340 much about what can a woman do that a man can't or what can a man do that a woman can't it's more

01:20:45.900 important of what talents do we have and what talents do they have and how can we come together

01:20:50.900 for the best possible future for our folk you know so there there are innate feminine qualities

01:20:56.980 and there are innate male qualities but coming together and taking both sides of that for a

01:21:04.180 future goal and for a path is going to be the most important thing the role of leadership is going to

01:21:10.260 be the same whether you're male and female but the way you approach it is going to be very much

01:21:14.500 different right um women are much more receptive um we're much better communicators a lot of the

01:21:21.860 time uh and the men do the men strive and the men push push forward so fast and so hard you know so

01:21:28.580 there's really that quality of taking the best of that femininity and the best of that masculinity

01:21:36.100 and together as leadership help our folk get to you know get to the hops get to a bigger and

01:21:45.560 brighter future connect with our gods build beautiful things that's it's really what we're

01:21:51.240 trying to do on both sides the male and female leadership side that makes sense yeah thank you

01:21:59.840 I couldn't come up with those words.

01:22:04.880 So I do want to take a second to shout out a couple people really quick, because I believe these two people for me, and then we're going to go back to a couple other districts.

01:22:16.360 But there are two people that I want to mention that when you think of dedication, hard work, sacrifice, there are very few people who have given more of that than the two I'm about to mention.

01:22:33.660 And the first one is going to be our senior folk builder, Jason Gallagher.

01:22:38.160 So our senior folk builder, Jason Gallagher, took the state of Minnesota and turned it into one of the most membership heavy states.

01:22:48.420 It is not the most, I'm not saying that, but what I'm saying is he built from just him in the state of Minnesota to spreading as a true and bringing his folk home to the point that we now have the third half of the as a true folk assembly in his home state.

01:23:10.740 Jason Gallagher did that. Jason Gallagher's hospitality did that. Jason Gallagher's

01:23:16.760 dedication did that. The sacrifice of his time, his money, his body, all of those things.

01:23:25.140 Baldershoff is here because of Jason Gallagher. So there are very few people who have sacrificed

01:23:30.820 as much as he has. And the second person that I want to bring up is going to be Sarah Ault.

01:23:38.460 There are very few people in the AFA who donate as much time and work as Sarah.

01:23:48.000 Sarah is involved in just about everything that the AFA has to offer, whether it is book studies, whether it is the Rune Stone, whether it is the As A True Academy, the Ladies Mysteries podcast that she is running with that.

01:24:05.060 she works tirelessly for the folk and a lot of that time is spent on her sisters in in the afa

01:24:15.660 it is spent talking to women building frith making sure that there are book studies and um

01:24:22.460 podcasts and meetings and things that are centered around the feminine aspect so that all of our

01:24:28.700 women know that you do have a place here and this is where it's at let us show you so i would like

01:24:34.740 to definitely give a shout out to those two. They work so hard and appreciate everything

01:24:39.100 that they have done. Absolutely dedicate more time than, than anybody else that I know of.

01:24:46.960 So I definitely want to thank them for that.

01:24:51.640 All right. There is a question specifically for Githya McNallan.

01:24:57.420 And it is, I was wondering how you felt about the AFA erecting statues in honor of you

01:25:04.340 and our founder, Steven? Well, it came as a total surprise to both of us. I mean, it was enough to

01:25:17.620 know that there was a video that was made because Matt made sure, I mean, everybody kind of got the

01:25:22.960 word, there's something big happening. You've got to be on VNS tonight. I know that Brandy told me

01:25:26.940 that. Sure enough, about 20 minutes before it started, Matt sent a message to me saying,

01:25:34.720 you've got to look at this. And there was the link. And so I started watching it and I was in

01:25:39.880 it maybe about three or four minutes. And I called my husband over and the two of us watched and

01:25:47.280 watched. And, you know, I have to say the picture that was chosen is one of my all-time favorites.

01:25:52.900 It was from a very special day involved with the Kennewick Man case, a day that we were there as part of a tribe.

01:26:02.900 You know, we were saying we were a tribal group, too, and were acknowledged as that.

01:26:07.060 It was just amazing.

01:26:09.200 And so we're hearing all these wonderful things that Matt is saying about us.

01:26:15.500 We're just getting so moved by it all.

01:26:18.400 And then all of a sudden, we see the statues.

01:26:21.580 and we both we were in tears we had no idea that would ever happen and it still has not really

01:26:28.060 sunk in but you know it's been said how many people ever see a statue of themselves you know

01:26:34.700 it happens you know post-mortem after they die you get a statue and i'm glad that other ones

01:26:41.660 other people who are as worthy and deserving as as our contributions will also be getting

01:26:49.180 statues throughout the country and throughout the world um it was truly incredible and um

01:26:58.780 yeah um i've said i said right afterwards i guess we're gonna end up there you know

01:27:04.220 awfully hard to not be at cigarette i'm not sure what's gonna happen in our old age

01:27:09.660 you know in the next 30 years yeah right but um we've always been cared for so generously by the

01:27:16.940 AFA, Matt himself, takes good care of us. People always wonder, you know, Matt took over blah blah

01:27:22.940 blah. No, Matt stepped in to help. Matt did what we couldn't do. We were at the point where we had

01:27:29.340 nothing more to give to the AFA. We had to reach a kind of stasis. Matt came in, chose the right

01:27:36.140 people, has grown it even better with better people who really understand the mission.

01:27:41.820 and it is wonderful to think that we contributed to the point we are now you know this is far more

01:27:51.060 you know ask me what was my vision in the early days why i want to have 15 people to my home

01:27:56.300 that was a start i never thought we'd have this steve on the other hand probably did imagine he

01:28:03.900 still wants to galactic colonization i'll tell you that he's not done yet but very moved and

01:28:11.720 very, just totally loved my folk. And I thank everybody who wasn't, excuse me, involved in

01:28:20.720 making this happen. I know a lot of people kept the secret for a long time, and it worked.

01:28:25.640 You totally honored us in a remarkable way. I have nothing more to say. I just love you all,

01:28:32.080 love all the leaders who made it happen. And I'm glad that we had the means to do that.

01:28:37.080 you know who else what other church does that I don't know but we've done it and we're going to

01:28:43.220 do it again we appreciate all the things that you and Stephen have done to make this all possible

01:28:50.780 Sheila so we love you both thank you we have a question from Carl what is the overall health of

01:29:00.080 the folk? Well, I'm going to say that the overall health of the folk is pretty good. Other than a

01:29:07.160 few sniffles, other than a few sore muscles from too many late days, I'm going to say it's pretty

01:29:14.300 good. And the reason I'm going to say it's pretty good is this. I don't want to focus on the

01:29:19.220 negativity. I don't want to focus on those things that are going on around us when we can be

01:29:27.280 focusing on something else that is much more beautiful. I don't want my folk to

01:29:32.660 focus on all the things that are going wrong in the world and with themselves to the point where

01:29:41.920 we lose sight of the bright, shining folk flame right ahead of us. The health of the folk is good

01:29:50.200 because I want the health of the folk to be good.

01:29:52.920 and i say this because i want you to always to focus on the positive things and the things that

01:30:00.700 we can change we don't always want to be worried about what could happen or what might happen

01:30:09.480 we need to worry about what it is that we can influence what we can change what we can build

01:30:16.440 that's what i want us to focus on and i also want to make sure that you all take your vitamins

01:30:22.600 and drink your vitamin C because it is flu season and there's been some nasty, nasty colds going

01:30:29.100 around. So please make sure you take your vitamins and drink your orange juice. So as far as I'm

01:30:33.520 concerned, the health of the folk is good because we're strong and the health of the folk in general

01:30:39.440 is good because we are moving forward. And for those who have not caught up with the healthy

01:30:47.560 folk soul, this is the place for you to do that. If you are feeling that soul sickness, reach out

01:30:53.600 to any of the Gethiyas on this call. Reach out to any of the leadership that we have already

01:30:58.320 mentioned or any of the leadership that we will be mentioning throughout the podcast tonight.

01:31:03.980 And help us help you get over that. We can help you build a bright and beautiful future

01:31:09.340 for you and your family and leave behind those things that you cannot change and those things

01:31:15.460 that do not need to be dwelled on. That's my answer for that. All right. Speaking of awesome

01:31:24.700 people in leadership, there is a couple people that I want to bring some attention to.

01:31:31.800 And those people are folk builder and Hoff steward, Mike Joyner. So Mike Joyner, I'm not

01:31:39.500 sure if he's going to be listening to this or not, because he's probably super busy preparing for

01:31:43.440 Charming of the Plow, which I'm going to plug again is this weekend in Florida. Please get

01:31:48.260 your tickets at www.brunestone.org. It's not too late. Contact Mike, contact Go the East or any of

01:31:56.500 the leadership in your top district if you plan to attend. So Mike is a ball of sunshine and

01:32:05.100 everybody kind of laughs when I say this, but it's true. I have never seen the man without a smile on

01:32:09.620 his face. I'm sure he can get upset and I'm sure he can get angry and I'm sure he's probably sad

01:32:14.500 from time to time, but I've never seen it because he's a continual ray of sunshine and happiness

01:32:19.840 and positivity. I had the pleasure of meeting both him and his beautiful wife not that long ago

01:32:25.560 and they are just amazing people. They will do anything for their folk and for their church

01:32:31.440 and they work tirelessly to make New York's Hof a beautiful temple to New York. So thank you

01:32:37.700 folk builder joiner for all that you do for our folk. And I also want to thank folk builder

01:32:45.760 Justin Day in Texas. So Justin in Texas is a ball of confidence and positivity and a go-getter,

01:32:57.680 and he runs tirelessly to make sure that there are things for his folk to go to. There are ways

01:33:04.220 for them to celebrate and honor their gods. He's always active. There's always pictures of him with

01:33:10.420 his kindred flag and an AFA flag. That man is everywhere doing everything. So if you are in

01:33:16.360 that area and you want to get involved, get a hold of folk builder Justin Day, because I'm sure he's

01:33:21.220 probably got going something on, something going on. And knowing him, he's probably got a pretty

01:33:25.320 good plan of when he's going to have things going on in the future. So thank you, Justin, for

01:33:30.460 everything that you're doing in Texas. And we do have a couple donations that we want to give a

01:33:38.700 shout out to. Cole Van Gilder, hey ladies, sending love. Hail all our women. Hail the Githias. Hail

01:33:46.020 the AFA. Thank you, my dear. I appreciate that. And from the Phelps family, hail the heart of the

01:33:53.100 folk. Hail bright and beautiful future. Thank you to the Phelps family who do so much and

01:34:00.440 donate so much to us each and every week. We appreciate you too. All right.

01:34:08.640 Um, I think we had a couple other questions on here really quick.

01:34:15.140 Oh, this one I'm going to give to, to Githia Erickson. What are your thoughts on patrons

01:34:22.120 and matrons? And is it quote unquote new age? And do any of you have a patron or matron or

01:34:28.300 just a deity that you feel closest to get the ericson what do you got on that man

01:34:36.620 i i have very mixed feelings and this is a personal thing i'm not saying it's uh the the

01:34:42.780 view of the asa on the one hand i can't help it the idea of having your patron god is sort of

01:34:49.420 wiccany on the other hand i also recognize that most of us um if not currently then at some point

01:34:57.020 have recognized that we've had a patron deity that we we chose um and i do think that's that's

01:35:03.900 the point right you choose the god you feel close to and you dedicate a part of yourself to that god

01:35:11.420 um i started off uh very young dedicated to freya um

01:35:19.420 um, because I admired all that she stood for, um, the magic, the death, the, the war, all of that,

01:35:29.500 um, because she was a strong, independent female, and at 19 years old, as a person who was at some

01:35:36.160 point, still, I'm still very shy, but at, at that time in my life, um, it was almost crippling,

01:35:42.880 crippling shyness, like, I wouldn't walk into a grocery store and ask somebody for help finding

01:35:47.400 something because that meant i had to talk to a stranger um so freya to me was the epitome of that

01:35:54.040 strong independent female and i don't mean independent didn't need men i meant independent

01:35:59.800 like could walk into a grocery store and ask for help you know um uh at one point odin was the god

01:36:12.040 i felt closest to um up until i had children uh now i find that i have an affinity for friga

01:36:19.880 um as a mother um i've i've felt like i've had an affinity to frayer at some point

01:36:26.200 i think a lot of um for me personally the the the recognizing an affinity with the god tends to

01:36:32.920 go with the the cycles of our lives um as a young independent or as a young

01:36:38.840 unattached woman freya i was drawn to her there's a lot of

01:36:43.160 reasons why that would make sense um as a slightly more mature woman on a

01:36:49.160 journey of i had just found not just found

01:36:54.920 also true but i i was i was relatively new to

01:36:57.960 also true and i was seeking wisdom and the desire to

01:37:03.720 know more about magic and odin seemed to make a lot of sense for that to me

01:37:07.480 because he was a god of wisdom he's the god of poetry forgot a lot of things you know he's an

01:37:12.760 all father but he made sense to me and i was drawn to him again as a as a mother obviously um

01:37:21.560 frigga you feel drawn to frigga i think most people who have children are drawn to frigga

01:37:27.400 um when my children are sick suddenly i i i focus on air um and i become connected to her

01:37:36.760 and those connections never really go away. I never lose an affinity for the gods that I have

01:37:43.840 chosen to pay particular homage to. All that happens is that my relationship to them personally

01:37:50.300 grows. So I don't personally recognize patron deities because I think as Asatuar, all of our

01:37:59.560 gods, all of the Aesir are important and we should recognize all of them. And so what I would say is

01:38:05.680 absolutely you can dedicate yourself to a particular god or goddess at any point in your

01:38:11.360 life but don't shut yourself off from or don't limit yourself to just one of our deities

01:38:16.920 allow yourself to to feel that connection to all of them as the cycles of your life bring you closer

01:38:23.420 to a particular god because all of them are important all of them we should do our best

01:38:31.080 every day to to form those relationships with all of our gods um because they are a part of

01:38:40.120 our history they're a part of our lives and our spirituality and what we do and um it's easy to

01:38:46.760 choose one of the major gods that we all know because they're in all the stories and in the

01:38:52.920 marvel comic books and whatever but um don't forget about gefion or scotty or you know any

01:39:01.560 of our other gods and goddesses that don't talk about get talked about as often we should remember

01:39:06.920 them all we should try always strive to to form those connections so uh sorry there's a very long

01:39:15.080 long way of me saying i'm not personally in favor of the concept of uh patron deities

01:39:21.480 I am in favor of dedicating yourself to a god or goddess in a limited capacity so that you're always

01:39:31.360 you should always be growing and learning and connecting again just it comes in waves

01:39:39.660 you're never going to be connected to every goddess or god all the time yeah yeah thank you ma'am

01:39:47.840 we've got a question from folk buildings folk builder steen penner witten callahan could you

01:39:57.220 tell us a little bit about what it takes to be part of afa leadership and how one can start an

01:40:02.280 apprenticeship folk building in their area absolutely i can so the first question of

01:40:08.520 what it takes to be part of afa leadership it takes time and dedication so one thing i always

01:40:17.420 like to tell my leadership and any leadership that I talk to in the AFA is that your role as

01:40:24.800 a folk builder for the As True Folk Assembly is a form of devotion. You are dedicating your time,

01:40:30.520 your energy, you are sacrificing, you know, time away from work, time away from your family,

01:40:36.700 sometimes money to get where you're going. All of these things that you could be doing,

01:40:43.280 you could be on a kayak somewhere. You could be playing golf. You could be playing tennis. You

01:40:48.920 could be on your Harley going 80 miles an hour down a road, right? You could be doing all of

01:40:54.320 those things, but instead you're calling a member in Missouri who needs someone to talk to. You are

01:41:02.960 coordinating with a gothi or a githya to plan an event to honor one of your gods at one of our

01:41:09.280 holidays. You are holding a feast and cooking a dinner for 12 people coming to your house

01:41:15.260 in remembrance for one of our heroes. You're calling people, checking in on them to see how

01:41:22.880 they are. There's a lot of other things you could be doing, but these are the things you should be

01:41:30.940 doing. Building that relationship with your folk, honoring your gods, and building a bright future

01:41:36.620 for your church. Those are all forms of devotion. So the first thing that you need to have

01:41:43.820 is that relationship with the gods. Be willing to sacrifice and work for them.

01:41:52.220 That's the first thing. You need to then be willing to sacrifice and work for your folk

01:41:58.440 and for your church. That's the second thing. And then I need you to find all the time in your day

01:42:05.660 to talk to your wife or your husband,

01:42:09.100 help the kids with the homework, still go to work,

01:42:11.820 then I need you to add the time for the gods

01:42:13.860 and for the folk and for the church into your day.

01:42:18.060 Those are the first steps that you need to take.

01:42:20.540 Find that devotion, then find a way to make it happen.

01:42:28.520 If that is something that you would like to do,

01:42:30.680 contact our folk builder coordinator,

01:42:33.400 Gauthier Nathan Arlinson.

01:42:35.200 Any of the Godar in your district, any of the Witten would be willing to talk to you about that.

01:42:40.520 The Elshira Godi himself, or even one of the other folk builders that we've mentioned,

01:42:45.900 or the apprentice folk builders, find out what their day is like.

01:42:49.080 Find out what the job is like.

01:42:51.080 Find out why they do it.

01:42:54.140 Why do they sacrifice?

01:42:55.760 Why do they work?

01:42:58.040 What do they love about this?

01:43:00.340 What don't they love about this?

01:43:01.800 Ask them that question, too.

01:43:04.320 but for me, this, this is a form of devotion to my gods, being a member of, and it's not

01:43:11.620 just being a Githya, I am a priestess of the Aesir, yes, but a lot of what I do is devotional

01:43:20.340 to my gods, because it's a lot of time spent, and it's a lot of work, but this is a form of

01:43:28.260 devotion for me. So that would be the first thing. And then if you are interested in being an

01:43:35.700 apprentice in your area, even if you're not quite willing to take that leap yet,

01:43:43.140 try to get some folk together. If you want to get with in contact with the folk in your area and

01:43:50.480 just hold a dinner for a day of remembrance, or maybe see if you can get one of the go these or

01:43:56.400 get these to come to your house for an event and do a bloat we're willing to go do that as long as

01:44:00.720 the as long as it's not a 15 hour drive or something crazy like that you know coordinate

01:44:04.780 with them we would love to come to your house and do bloat for you we would love to

01:44:11.220 this is something that we've been working on as well if you are not a member of leadership but

01:44:18.700 you are willing to hold a potluck at your home and network and coordinate and meet other members

01:44:25.680 in your area, let us know. There are several Gothis and Githias who would love to show up

01:44:33.900 via Teams or Zoom or any other way that we can get you there and talk to you. Maybe hold a book

01:44:42.020 study for you. Maybe hold a rune study for you. Maybe hold a class on anything that you would

01:44:47.940 like. We would love to do that for you. So if you are willing to get your folk together,

01:44:53.920 reach out to your local leadership and let them know you know you don't have to be a member of

01:44:59.000 leadership just to just to feed your folk and build frith with your folk and get them together

01:45:07.360 build community i don't care what anybody says whether it's in a book whether it's on youtube

01:45:16.420 if it's in a podcast if they're an expert on whatever as a true was not meant to be a solitary

01:45:25.160 thing it is not meant to be a religion of one as a true is built on community that is a huge

01:45:34.380 huge part of what we do you're not meant to be a solitary practitioner

01:45:39.600 if you are isolated unisolate if you are all alone in the only person within 400 miles of you

01:45:49.860 call us come to a national event charming of the plow this weekend new york's hof www.runestone.org

01:45:59.480 come to a national event find out what's going on around you carpool with somebody to go to the

01:46:08.700 Hoffs. See if you can get people to come spend the weekend with you. Ask. Don't be afraid to ask.

01:46:17.200 If you don't have a way to get to the Hoff and you're four hours away from Baldur's Hoff,

01:46:22.640 call one of the members of leadership and we'll see what we can do to help get you there.

01:46:27.020 Whether it's, do we need to bring something to you? Do we need to maybe have someone pick you

01:46:32.220 up along the way it's very easy to this is going down a whole different rabbit hole sorry stan

01:46:41.420 um it's very easy to say oh that's a lot of work it's very easy to say oh i'll just go next month

01:46:49.820 the leadership is there to help pave the way to make that path easier

01:46:54.780 if you are willing to do that in a leadership or even as just folk support supporting folk

01:47:03.100 let us know we'll get you in touch with people around you hold a dinner have one of us come in

01:47:10.160 and do a room study with you that'd be awesome wouldn't it be awesome to have get the a sheila

01:47:14.400 mcdalen give you a personal rundown on the history of the afa for an hour or so while you guys are

01:47:19.660 eating dinner. Wouldn't that be awesome? Wouldn't it be awesome to have Godi Plourd, you know, on

01:47:26.940 your TV screen talking to you about the runes with you and your three best buddies? Wouldn't that be

01:47:32.780 cool? I think it would be. So if you're interested in that, get with the folk builders, get with the

01:47:38.260 Godar, and get that worked out for you. Speaking of Godi Plourd, let's throw him up on that screen

01:47:46.280 real quick. All right. Go the Plourd is one of our go there down in your top district. Again,

01:47:53.900 charming out of the plow this weekend. Go. You need to be there. All the cool kids are there

01:47:57.900 except for us. That's why we're on BNX right now, because we didn't get to go.

01:48:04.500 Go the Plourd works really, really hard down in your top district. He's very knowledgeable in

01:48:09.300 anything from the lore to the runes. Also very helpful in regards to if you just need somebody

01:48:16.200 to talk to. He also holds a lore study that I believe is on Tuesdays, isn't it guys? I do believe

01:48:24.660 that lore study is on Tuesdays. Somebody will correct me in the chat. Mondays, there's my

01:48:30.640 producer telling me when it is. This is why we have you, Nick. He's the keeper of all the knowledge

01:48:35.680 for me. So Mondays, he holds a lore study and he does a lot of things down in York South District

01:48:42.440 and we very much appreciate him.

01:48:43.880 And I think it would be very, very awesome

01:48:45.640 if you got a potluck dinner together

01:48:47.480 and we invited Gauthier Jason Plourd

01:48:49.720 to talk to you about the Lord

01:48:51.040 or about the Day of Remembrance

01:48:52.700 or about the holiday

01:48:53.660 or about whatever it is that tickles your fancy.

01:48:56.260 I'm sure he could talk about it.

01:48:58.440 So contact Gauthier Plourd

01:49:00.260 if you want to Gauthier in your living room

01:49:01.880 or at least on your TV.

01:49:07.940 All right, Sheila,

01:49:09.060 you've got some awesome men

01:49:11.020 over there in your district.

01:49:13.240 if we can talk about a couple of them can you tell me about

01:49:16.520 school builder ryan harlan and why he's outstanding uh ryan harlan my goodness

01:49:24.920 um he is a man who stepped out of a previous century he is saxon through and through

01:49:36.440 he knows the lore he looks at he dresses in his tweeds but he does it with this this firm

01:49:46.360 way about him that is exuding truly who he is and he sees himself as that harlan being har

01:49:55.240 you know another name for for odin but harland coming from england and he is just can do all

01:50:05.000 kinds of crafts he is very knowledgeable in the lore he's a great historian he moved from

01:50:11.880 california over to montana to take a very demanding job he works for the u.s forest service and his

01:50:20.200 he rarely gets days off so he's very busy over there he and his wife bought a beautiful

01:50:27.240 old home in a ghost town in montana and they have three little girls and are soon to have

01:50:33.400 a little boy join them um in a few months and we're very happy for them but he um he just is

01:50:42.200 one of those people who is easy to talk to he just comes in and gives a sense of reassurance to

01:50:49.240 everybody so he has really grown that part of montana run helena um to be um just amazing

01:50:57.560 um group of people he has a kindred going and you see all the pictures

01:51:01.720 of them and they're just they look so compatible they look like extended family all together

01:51:06.680 they get together and they have all these little things for the children to do especially his own

01:51:11.160 little ones um very very powerful man and very knowledgeable i just wish he didn't live so far

01:51:16.760 away but he's been a great asset to the afa all these years goes way back and another person in

01:51:24.600 montana is tyler heinlein who is um doing his own adventures out there in um south central montana

01:51:36.120 with his wife and two little girls now um he has 20 acres there and he's homesteading it

01:51:43.560 he's not off-grid because he does have good internet but everything else we went out to

01:51:49.240 visit them in august to a fray faxie and he had a lot of people come in from all over the northwest

01:51:55.640 to basically rough it on his land and people came knowing that's what it would be and it was fine

01:52:00.440 because he he just does everything with such confidence for being a young man and raising

01:52:06.760 animals and is doing building a meadery he just has these great dreams and he's achieving them

01:52:12.600 step by step by step as well as dealing with negative 20 degrees helping his wife birth a baby

01:52:20.440 a couple months ago in like 20 minutes i mean there it was just them and their little their

01:52:25.960 other little girl briar just uh quite the amazing fellow he does um a lot of organizing in odenshof

01:52:34.200 district trust it helps me with things like our membership meetings um he as i said he's in the

01:52:40.440 golfing program so he's working towards being a godhar godi and the other thing he does is

01:52:46.520 something called the unity calls sunday night 6 p.m pacific time he brings people together to

01:52:53.960 discuss lore to discuss personal development everything from physical to mental emotional

01:53:03.880 the whole thing you know reading books learning uh the lore um uh sacrificing making personal

01:53:11.480 sacrifices and goals all those things he does in a really well well uh documented way so

01:53:18.360 highly recommend if you're anywhere in the northwest get in touch with tyler heinlein

01:53:22.120 T-H-E-I-N, H-E-I-N-L-E-I-N, at runestone.org. Good guy. His brother is a folk builder,

01:53:34.700 Aaron Simbeck. He's new to our group, but he's up there hosting some things like

01:53:42.140 snow camping. That's one of his moots he's doing. He's got a lot of enthusiasm. He hasn't

01:53:49.380 with us very long but we hope he definitely grows into all the things that a folk builder can do he's

01:53:54.500 got a good attitude about it we have kyle reader who's in idaho idaho falls um he is a power lifter

01:54:02.100 i forget he was lifting 777 pounds or something just last week it was amazing he also along with

01:54:10.180 that he's a big-hearted man he um he loves folk building he's one of the strongest advocates for

01:54:17.140 how it has changed his life and why he does it and gets so much out of it so if you want to talk to

01:54:21.700 somebody who is all about folk building talk to kyle reader he has a wife and children who

01:54:29.220 participate in doing bloats and and gatherings at their home and they open their home to everybody

01:54:35.140 and he's a very friendly person trying to build the folk best he can and do bloat and all those

01:54:41.220 thinks he's pretty good and yeah i remember talking to kyle at midsummer and he's like

01:54:48.420 oh i'd like to do that someday i'm like how about today and he did the first time he ever met

01:54:55.300 anybody and he signed right up and he hasn't regretted it proud of him yeah and then we have

01:55:02.740 lou lou is down in arizona he works really long hours being a truck driver out for one of the

01:55:09.700 mines there but when he's home he is spot on trying to do all of his folk building duties

01:55:16.580 um he he's a bit like sierra sierra is very social she knows people all over the country

01:55:23.140 so does luke he'll end up talking well i talked to so and so and it's somebody you know five states

01:55:29.220 away but he also knows all the people in his own area and he puts on really good events uh he

01:55:35.220 himself has a beautiful family there and um in southern arizona he's also um in the godhar

01:55:42.100 program so he's up and coming go the in odenshoff district again very knowledgeable he does these

01:55:49.620 wonderful historic um presentations and uh writings on things dealing with uh characters

01:55:58.580 out of history or our heroes and that kind of thing and he's known for doing that and

01:56:03.380 And he's just a genuinely nice guy.

01:56:07.980 I mean, he doesn't have a bad word for anybody.

01:56:11.160 I've never seen him do it.

01:56:12.420 He's just so gentle and easygoing.

01:56:14.720 So I think I've got everybody.

01:56:16.900 I think that's all of Odenshof.

01:56:19.380 Yes, ma'am.

01:56:20.160 I think so.

01:56:21.160 Yeah, it's eight of us.

01:56:22.240 We could use more.

01:56:23.540 So please take heed of that.

01:56:25.440 We could.

01:56:26.080 So we could definitely use more folk builders over there at Odenshof District.

01:56:29.820 And if you're interested in that, please contact Sheila.

01:56:31.980 And again, even if we don't necessarily want to be leadership, get a hold of Sheila or one of the folk builders anyway.

01:56:40.260 Just say, hey, listen, is there anybody in my area that might want to come over for dinner, might want to go to a movie?

01:56:44.740 We'll get you in touch with people if that's what you want.

01:56:47.720 Absolutely.

01:56:49.420 For sure.

01:56:51.720 All right.

01:56:53.400 Githya Erickson, you've got some people that I want to talk about over in your district, too.

01:56:56.920 can you talk to us about uh folk builder jonathan brock in indiana please

01:57:03.000 the king of the corn the king of the corn

01:57:06.620 um it's really funny because john is both simultaneously a really quiet guy and a really

01:57:17.960 not quiet guy i don't know how to describe it better than that because you know he'll walk

01:57:23.320 into a room and he'll kind of he has his little swagger and i'm pretty sure he does it on purpose

01:57:27.880 but he totally swaggers and uh i've made fun of him to his face about it because he walks in and

01:57:34.020 he's just he's a cool cat you know um and he he'll drop all his his jokes he's very witty uh

01:57:42.680 loves talking about corn because he's from indiana i guess corn's a thing in india and i

01:57:48.800 know but it was a thing for a long time i'm talking about his corn and he seems like a kind of a

01:57:53.920 goofball um which is totally i love that about john i wouldn't change it for in a second but

01:58:03.440 if you really spend any time getting to know john at all you you learn very quickly that john is

01:58:08.960 actually a very intelligent very deep thinking sort of guy um he really knows

01:58:19.440 a lot about what he's doing he he understands also true um

01:58:26.400 very well um and he's just he's he's a really he's a really good guy he's a good guy to have

01:58:31.760 on the team and i really appreciate the stuff he does because he uh he folds for the the

01:58:38.400 state of indiana i mean he folk builds for all of um the australia folk assembly

01:58:44.160 it's something i always like i like to um make a point of saying our folk builders are not folk

01:58:50.240 builders for states they're folk builders for the aussage folk assembly um we cross lines all the

01:58:56.080 time uh there's no reason why our folk builders in thorsoff district shouldn't know the members

01:59:02.640 in Odenshoff district. And it's a big project and something we're working on evolving. But

01:59:11.440 John is a very good folk builder and he has to folk build in a state where people generally are

01:59:19.200 very, don't talk to me unless I know who you are first. So I know that it can be a little tough

01:59:26.880 with our members in Indiana. They know John and John is their guy. And that's perfectly okay with

01:59:32.480 them they're happy that way and john has really risen to the task he also um while he does

01:59:40.240 everything he does in indiana getting his guys together making sure that they're they have some

01:59:44.720 place to be and a place to go to to honor the gods he also is working really hard on folk building

01:59:51.200 from michigan there's a whole entire state between him and michigan the state of ohio and john still

01:59:59.120 does his best to to football for them i know that he hosts monthly calls with the the members in

02:00:05.600 uh michigan um i know that he has also taken a lot of time to drive up into michigan at various

02:00:12.560 points to um put together moots and stuff it's a little bit harder to do because again he has to

02:00:20.960 drive through the entire state of ohio or at least a good chunk of it ohio is a pretty big state but

02:00:27.120 but he still does it.

02:00:30.000 And we really appreciate that about him.

02:00:31.580 He spends a lot more time

02:00:35.560 actively driving from place to place

02:00:38.000 to make sure that our folk have a connection

02:00:41.760 than you might realize.

02:00:44.360 So we love John and we love his humor,

02:00:47.440 but we also love the fact that he is a deep thinker.

02:00:52.960 Yes, absolutely.

02:00:54.040 So we've got a couple apprentice folk builders that we've got over in Europe and also across

02:01:03.800 the Pacific. So let's start with our one in Australia. Sheila, would you like to let people

02:01:10.560 know that there is now an apprentice in Australia? Yes, indeed. This is Chris Robbie, and he just

02:01:19.880 came on board a few days ago very excited to be with us um he had kind of hinted way back when

02:01:29.080 when he first joined that it might be something he'd be interested in but you know it's been quite

02:01:33.720 a while since we've had somebody actually handle australia or what we call oceania because it is

02:01:39.400 new zealand as well we do have i think we have a few members in in new zealand but chris is uh

02:01:46.600 perfect for the job he just comes across as if you see his picture you say i want to meet that

02:01:51.000 guy we'll have a beer with him he's he exudes that kind of a impression when you see him and he's

02:01:57.640 he's going to be fantastic so if you are in australia if you're listening to this

02:02:03.640 and you are not a member you have somebody now to reach out to and i'm sure he's going to be

02:02:09.640 great at organizing you know we tend to cluster in australia up near sydney down by melbourne

02:02:16.280 that kind of a thing and he will help you coordinate and get some some events going

02:02:21.640 and uh he's just what we've needed i think he's the perfect guy for the job so very exciting to

02:02:26.760 see that yeah welcome chris robbie yes ma'am and githia erickson you've got some uh

02:02:36.440 people over your direction too that are doing some very good work over there

02:02:40.760 um across the ocean can you tell me a little bit about apprentice eric lugnit

02:02:46.280 in sweden i absolutely can um eric wignett is one of our rock stars in thor's hof

02:02:55.240 district he is tireless the man is always or i mean that he

02:03:04.040 i am a big fan of his he really works really hard i think for eric one of the things that

02:03:09.960 really has helped him um to succeed as a folk builder out in he's in sweden is the fact that

02:03:17.640 he did him and his wife actually lived in odenshof district was it for a little while or

02:03:26.120 oh they were in colorado yes yeah yeah okay yeah they lived out here uh in the united states for

02:03:35.160 several years so they actually got to see what the afa was like in person and the way we do things

02:03:42.200 um in person um and that's something that most if not all of the rest of our our folk builders

02:03:49.720 um and members out in europe and across the world haven't had access to because we

02:03:56.600 can't really just travel out to australia to hold moots and whenever we want uh one day i hope that

02:04:03.000 we can we can do that so that we can show them what it looks like when how we do it um but eric

02:04:09.880 and his wife did live here and so when they moved back to sweden they went with the knowledge of

02:04:15.800 why what we're doing works um why what we're doing is good because they got to see it firsthand

02:04:22.920 where it was thriving um i know that he's got uh small children and his wife uh just helped

02:04:30.200 translate a book the children of uh i'm gonna draw a blank now because i'm trying to remember it uh

02:04:38.360 but she helped thank you frosty mo mountain um which is for sale y'all should go out and support

02:04:45.400 our wonderful uh folk building family from sweden uh by purchasing that book if you have the

02:04:51.320 opportunity um they're just eric works incredibly hard um and he has a a very uphill battle for him

02:04:59.480 because he lives out in the middle of nowhere in sweden the closest person to him is like three and

02:05:05.880 a half hours four hours away from him um and in sweden where the the snow is thick this time of

02:05:13.000 year and everything like that travel really isn't very easy but he's still trying really hard i know

02:05:17.960 that they have um i think weekly calls for the membership out in his area um where they get

02:05:26.120 together my husband and i have popped in on a call once or twice and they're well attended um

02:05:33.320 and he's always contacting people he's always reaching out he works faster than a lot of the

02:05:38.680 people and are out here who you know i think the time difference helps because a lot of us

02:05:44.280 are sleeping and he's awake uh getting stuff done you know but he's a really good really hard working

02:05:52.200 man and we really really really really appreciate him um and as soon as we can get him to an event

02:05:58.440 i'm pretty sure he will no longer be an apprentice but he has to be able to get out of sweden for

02:06:04.040 that or we have to get to sweden one of those will happen eventually yes we have a question

02:06:13.560 from owen again and i lost it where did it go katie you're taking this one because it's your son

02:06:20.680 So mom has to answer this question. And Owen asks, Owen would like to know if our Githias

02:06:29.320 have thoughts on the role of the Asinja at Ragnarok? I feel like my son probably did ask

02:06:38.860 that question but I feel like my husband probably rephrased it so I know I've

02:06:51.760 always had this theory that the reason why Freya gets to choose the the first

02:06:57.340 half of the battle slain is because she is building an army to fight at Ragnarok

02:07:06.400 but they're like the last defense when everybody when Odin and the warriors of

02:07:12.100 Valhalla have all been slain her her army is there in the background waiting

02:07:18.760 in case they're needed like the absolute final last line of defense against the

02:07:28.060 destruction of the entire world I don't know why that's that's just always been

02:07:32.500 this theory I've had in the back of my head that's why she gets to choose

02:07:36.160 first she's choosing the best of the best because when all else fails if all else fails she and her

02:07:46.480 men her warriors are going to be the absolute final line between the destruction of everything

02:07:56.880 i have no reason to believe that's true other than it's just always been in my head that's

02:08:03.120 what that was gonna that's how that happened um as far as the rest of our awesome year uh awesome

02:08:09.600 yeah that was the word was that uh my husband specifically typed um i'm not really sure

02:08:17.920 i don't know i just know that i believe freya is waiting somewhere and in the shrouds the shrouded

02:08:26.240 mystery off in the distance waiting in case all of time and everything is going to be destroyed

02:08:34.400 so that she can be the final that's like i said just my personal thing how about you sheila do

02:08:41.600 you have any opinions no i don't it was an interesting question um yeah i think one thing

02:08:50.800 is this and you're so often are connected with with frig particularly also to some extent with

02:08:57.360 freya but you know are very much rooted with midgard as we know it and as as ausgard as the

02:09:06.240 gods know it and um i don't know i have to wonder um what the role would be at ragnarok where are

02:09:14.400 they yeah that's an interesting question but i also do like um what you were saying about freya

02:09:20.240 taking her pick and why does she get to do what what happens to them later on in the story right

02:09:28.560 we don't really know you're i think what you said is it could be quite valid so it's interesting to

02:09:35.200 ponder thanks for sharing that so i'm not sure if owen is still awake or not but if he is let him

02:09:42.960 listen and if he's not play it for him tomorrow so oh and when you fall off of your bike who picks

02:09:51.280 you up and puts the band-aid on mom when there's a whole big mess to clean up after the dogs tore up

02:10:00.560 the pillows who typically has to has to clean up that dog mess mom right who's got to make sure

02:10:11.120 that you and alice get fed mom do you know why because dad's out busy protecting and providing

02:10:22.080 for you fighting ragnarok and your mom's staying home to kiss kiss the wounds and heal the hearts

02:10:33.760 and make sure that no matter what happens no matter what happens

02:10:38.480 that there will be a safe place for you and the folk

02:10:43.320 and that no matter what happens there are strong hearts and hands to rebuild

02:10:50.600 we'll never fail because we will stand behind our men as they protect and provide

02:10:59.660 and we will heal the hearts and heal the wounds and rebuild them over and over and over again

02:11:06.480 so that's what I think they're doing

02:11:09.660 all right

02:11:13.940 so also

02:11:17.800 Githya Eriksson you've got a couple other people over there

02:11:22.380 that I want to highlight for your leadership as well

02:11:25.200 and you've got a gentleman in Poland

02:11:27.860 Asper can you tell me about him

02:11:30.580 So Asper is very dedicated to building the folk out in Poland and beyond in Europe. He's constantly

02:11:44.340 coming to our Godar and to our Witten with ideas on things we can do to grow the folk out in Poland

02:11:51.220 and beyond in europe um constantly it's it's it's amazing to me that the

02:11:59.300 the absolute ceaseless ideas that that man comes up with and it's it's for the better we don't

02:12:05.780 always take him up on all of his offers um we know some things are going to work and some things

02:12:10.500 aren't going to work that's just the way it is um we've been around for long enough to know

02:12:16.900 that we have tried we've experimented and sometimes things just don't work out uh

02:12:23.060 sometimes we're not ready to move on with a certain idea that uh asperger brings to us but

02:12:29.220 he never stops he's relentless and in a really really good way um he works really hard to reach

02:12:36.420 out to our folk in europe to to help connect them um and i know that it's got to be extremely

02:12:45.940 it's got to be a very hard job in europe because there's so so much space between members you think

02:12:53.380 that it's bad in some of the states here where like in iowa you might not have a member anywhere

02:12:59.380 closer than 200 miles away but um poland sweden all of the countries out there there's hours and

02:13:08.740 hours and hours of space miles and miles between between folk and it's hard to convince them always

02:13:15.060 uh to come out um to drive those distances to get together in person but he never stops trying

02:13:22.980 and uh that's really really important and admirable and i i believe that if he continues

02:13:29.940 the way he's continuing he's going to be a very successful folk holder we definitely appreciate

02:13:34.980 all the work he does he's very quick to respond very quick to do the job and uh sometimes being

02:13:41.540 quick to do the job is one of the most important things that we can do because you never know when

02:13:47.380 taking the time is going to end up

02:13:53.540 you never know when it's important to be immediate in your responses to people or not because

02:13:58.580 sometimes that response in an immediate way is enough to alter a person's choice to harm themselves

02:14:08.900 or to just disappear and not come back you never know when they really really need you

02:14:17.620 to be there right away so that's something we're always going to appreciate in our folk builders

02:14:24.420 excuse me is when we know that they're they're going to respond as quickly as they can

02:14:28.500 because it really can be the matter of a difference between life and death for some of our folk

02:14:33.940 Absolutely. We had a question from Corey saying, can we give a shout out to folk builder Allie

02:14:43.040 Clausen? Absolutely. I would love to get a shout out to folk builder Allie Clausen.

02:14:48.160 Allie Clausen is one half of the awesome Clausens over in Nebraska. So Allie herself does a lot.

02:14:56.780 Allie helps run the AFA store. Allie runs several calls that are related to several different things from the Sisters Chat that's on Sundays to a book club where they discuss books that they're reading.

02:15:13.860 um she also does the sisters fitness challenge she is also one of our godar students and an

02:15:22.620 amazing folk builder an amazing human being all the way around super proud of ali and everything

02:15:27.400 that she does as well and her husband cody aka the milkman in nebraska um he is an amazing human

02:15:35.840 being he supports everything that ali does on top of folk building on his own he is one of those

02:15:41.260 people that no matter what you need, day or night, Cody seems to be able to answer the phone

02:15:45.480 and help me or help the folk. If you want to know what's going on with somebody, Cody probably knows

02:15:51.160 because he's constantly reaching out to people. He's constantly doing moots and he's constantly

02:15:55.420 working towards a better community for his people. So Awesome Clausens in Nebraska cannot

02:16:02.200 thank you guys enough. You guys are absolutely amazing.

02:16:05.140 and we did also have another donation $20 from Chris Lukett and it says he is moving to Iowa

02:16:16.500 in just a month now can't wait to meet our folk out there and be in and visit the best half

02:16:22.080 Baldur's half and these Baldur's half people in their bestest half I have no idea where they get

02:16:27.580 it from at all I mean I don't know where they get that but I'm awful proud of them I'm awful proud

02:16:34.100 of them. So Eric or Chris, we're very excited for you to come out. There's a lot of great folk in

02:16:41.860 Iowa. If you are looking to come to the Hoff, get a hold of them. And speaking of Iowa, we're going

02:16:47.780 to talk about folk builder Chris McDowell really quick. He is currently traveling down to Charming

02:16:55.900 of the Plow, so I'm wishing him a safe journey and making sure that he represents the bestest

02:17:01.140 Hoff while he's down there and to remind Go the East, which one is the bestest Hoff while he's

02:17:05.640 there. And super proud of Chris and everything that he's done. He has been a tremendous help

02:17:11.500 in things that we've done beautification and structural wise at the Hoff. He was a huge

02:17:17.280 help for the Feast of the Einherjar that we held in South Dakota. He also helps out Odin's Hoff

02:17:23.140 as well, helping Sheila with a few things on the back end. So Chris is one of those people that

02:17:29.200 he has a very quiet stoicism about him and he just keeps pushing forward no matter how long

02:17:37.000 it takes no matter how much it hurts no matter what else is going on he's always moving forward

02:17:42.080 so i want to wish him a safe and happy charming of the plow over at new york's office weekend

02:17:47.620 and get the mcdallan can you tell us about this amazing gody that we have over there gody thorgrin

02:17:57.580 he's been quite the staple in the AFA for some time. He has been, yes. So yeah,

02:18:06.860 Thorgan is one of our elders. He and his wife Katie are well known to the folk out here.

02:18:15.180 They came to us in the mid 90s just as we were getting the AFA launched. They were there in

02:18:20.700 Monterey area, Santa Cruz area. And we had a lot of big projects we started in those early days.

02:18:29.740 We had the Kennewick man case. He was very involved in that. There's a really cool picture

02:18:34.300 of, again, that day that the picture was taken where I'm holding the horn and Steve is doing

02:18:40.140 the algae's rune. Thorgan was with me and the two of us got to see inside the skull of Kennewick

02:18:48.620 man together i mean and there's a picture of us together it was just cool we've got such great

02:18:53.260 history with him they stood up with us when we did renewed our vows in 2010 um out at our mid

02:19:01.260 summer that we did that year um he has traveled to sweden with matt he did that in 20 i guess 2016

02:19:09.340 or 17. he went over with the group that went over at that point um he's been around for a long time

02:19:15.820 he's a phrase go these got some great stories about how he determined that frere was was um

02:19:22.940 his his patron um due to a boar that um visited him numerous times in his particular day in the

02:19:32.140 redwoods so thorgrin has been with us a long time he's there at odin's hop he and his wife

02:19:37.900 have a trailer right next to odin's hop the hop itself and he keeps an eye on the place he waters

02:19:44.540 throughout the summertime in the heat he helps get things going he's heating it up today because

02:19:53.900 we're doing our food pantry this weekend and bringing in food tomorrow so he was there when

02:19:59.020 the propane was delivered today and is lighting up the the pilot lights of the furnaces so it'll

02:20:05.820 be warm and ready for the rest of us so that's kind of what he's doing at this point he's also

02:20:10.060 going to be doing our fray bloat though come um come saturday because of course our else

02:20:15.900 harry is going to be at new york's off so with that it kind of falls on thorgrin and myself

02:20:22.380 to do the rituals and uh he's going to do be do a bloat to frere and um and i'm going to do

02:20:30.860 uh sometimes we've done a um frere and freya or frere and see if we've done various combinations

02:20:38.300 this year and it will be to geffian i'm going to talk about her role at charming of the plow i've

02:20:43.980 often done that and it should be very nice it might have to be indoors though because right now

02:20:49.100 we have a raging storm outside the window outside in the darkness and uh it's going to pass but it's

02:20:55.900 going to be back this weekend so it is likely going to be too wet at odenshof to even do our

02:21:01.660 ritual outside like we usually do but he's been with us a long time he's very dedicated to us

02:21:06.940 he built a hoff forest at one point and he actually built the house i'm in right now

02:21:11.820 he helped us build this house so yeah he's he's family and he's everybody's family he's a wonderful

02:21:18.060 man i hope many of you can come out this summer come out for the 30th anniversary midsummer at

02:21:24.300 odenshof um june i want to say 20th to 23rd come out and meet thurkin yourself you're going to

02:21:32.060 to really enjoy him. Absolutely. So speaking of amazing Godis, I do just want to point out that

02:21:40.940 we do also have some amazing Godis, a couple more amazing Godis down in your top district.

02:21:47.680 And one of those is going to be Godi Bodhi Mayo. So Godi Bodhi Mayo is one of my favorite humans

02:21:54.880 ever. He is such a gentle soul, but he'll never let you know that he's a gentle soul. He's got a

02:22:04.560 big heart, and he's so wise. His stories are amazing. His lore retellings are amazing. He's

02:22:13.780 actually one of our instructors for our Gofflings program, as well as our Godhar program. He's one

02:22:20.640 of our mentors because his knowledge is astounding. You know, if I have a question, sometimes I will

02:22:27.240 often go to Gauthier Mayo to ask my question if there's something that I don't know. He is just

02:22:32.640 an amazing human being, and I can't thank him enough for all the things that he's done for me

02:22:36.420 personally and been there for me in times when I needed somebody. So thank you very much, Gauthier Mayo.

02:22:43.140 we also have a go the down in your top district go the ashby so go the lane ashby he's he's been

02:22:51.240 on vns a time or two i think him and i did an episode last year as well and he was really

02:22:57.560 instrumental to obtaining and doing the improvements on your top and there there wouldn't be in your

02:23:06.580 top without without go the ashby so we appreciate all the work that he's done all the the time

02:23:13.120 that he puts in down there and everything that he did to make that happen. So definitely want to

02:23:18.360 thank those two gentlemen for everything that they've done. And the other Neuertshof leadership

02:23:24.060 that I wanted to point out is a folk builder, Jesse Parton. There are very few people that travel as

02:23:32.840 much as Jesse. Jesse is everywhere all the time. He goes to Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma. He is

02:23:42.440 all over the place. He will, I don't know what the best way to put it, but he's the traveling

02:23:50.480 folk builder. You know, he's always in, involved in things in Dorshoff district, involved in things

02:23:56.200 of Mjortzhoff district. He's always involved in Baldershoff district. Everybody knows and loves

02:24:00.880 Jesse. He's one of the friendliest and most wonderful people you'll ever meet. He's, he's so

02:24:06.520 hospitable. He's willing to travel to, to, to make it to see you. So can't say enough good things

02:24:13.980 about folk builder, Jesse Parton. He's absolutely amazing. So thank you, Jesse, for everything that

02:24:19.660 you've done for us. Olivia does have a question for us and it says, thank you, Githias, for doing

02:24:27.380 this episode and for all you do for the folk. Which goddess are you most connected with and

02:24:32.160 how do you connect best with her what do you do for your bloat to this goddess

02:24:39.120 i'll give that one over to githia mcnellen first i think olivia probably knows um because she's

02:24:47.600 been at so many of the the bloats that we we do at odin's hof um i definitely connect with with

02:24:54.400 Frigg and part of it is it's it's matches my relationship with my husband and the fact that

02:25:02.880 Frigg is the consort the wife of Odin and if anybody knows my husband you know Steve is

02:25:10.160 Odin all the way it's just his guiding light that's where he focuses and he pretty much always

02:25:17.280 has he's just got a different a different path than most people and also true um but anyway

02:25:24.640 frig is the hospitality it's the home it's what i try to to uh accomplish uh out there at odin's

02:25:34.560 half when we have people come the frig is there with us um and also that that balance with odin

02:25:44.240 and it's made me certainly knowing i'm the githy of odin's off of odin himself that

02:25:51.520 i often think about that relationship of myself with odin um we've done some wonderful things

02:25:59.760 last summer and she knows herself olivia that we um we had a thing about blue flowers we did uh we

02:26:07.680 We did something called Family Camp

02:26:10.680 and read a story about Frigg

02:26:15.180 and the children all did artwork.

02:26:17.420 At the same time, we were talking

02:26:18.820 about what color flower she has.

02:26:20.780 Obviously, she's gonna have a beautiful garden.

02:26:23.080 What's in the flat?

02:26:23.920 Well, it's gonna be blue.

02:26:24.840 Okay, what kind of blue flowers?

02:26:26.000 But we found, what is it?

02:26:30.000 Not flax, slipped my mind.

02:26:34.040 But anyway, her own daughter, Olivia's daughter,

02:26:37.520 madeleine did a beautiful picture um with chicory it was wild chicory and it's blue a blue flower

02:26:44.800 and it was just really touching the way we tied all that in that weekend and doing a bloat to

02:26:50.480 frig and the whole thing and the kids loved it and yeah frig is always there every time we go to the

02:26:57.000 we feel her nature there so yes i've done bloats to her but we just also just recognize that this

02:27:03.620 is her place you know so awesome get the ericsson who is your goddess and that you relate to and

02:27:13.860 what do you do for her for bloats

02:27:18.020 sure uh apologize my eyes for some reason have decided they're just gonna start watering

02:27:25.780 so i mentioned earlier that i um i feel particularly close to uh to frig also um

02:27:33.620 when I became a mother, um, more than when I became a wife, but that's probably because I

02:27:39.340 was a mother before I was a wife, uh, thinking about that, but I should think before I speak

02:27:44.740 sometimes, uh, it's impossible to be a mother and not to feel connected to Ferga, um, I also am

02:27:53.720 a crafter um I like I love to quilt and to embroider and to sew and um I I think of Frigga

02:28:06.360 when I am doing those things because as the woman of the house as the woman of um

02:28:13.040 children and the household and all of that stuff I I can imagine her sitting by the fire and and

02:28:20.160 and darning socks for her kids or or making that blanket for her child

02:28:28.080 that kind of i think of frigo when i'm cooking i think of her when i'm cleaning my house

02:28:32.640 because it's my and it's for my children so i see frigo everywhere and everything i do

02:28:42.880 when i stop to think about it i mean obviously i don't like get up and start dusting my house and

02:28:47.280 think oh Frigga would dust her house or anything like that but when i'm dusting my house if i if

02:28:52.960 i'm deliberate about it the way we should be deliberate about all the things we do intentional

02:28:58.480 i think to myself i have pride in my house i take pride in my family and those things

02:29:05.040 make me think of Frigga and so that's how i kind of bring her into my everyday life um

02:29:10.080 um but also uh for bloat um flowers i use flowers a lot in a lot of my my bloat and um

02:29:22.960 not because women like flowers but because i like flowers and i i i think flowers are a very good

02:29:31.040 very natural gift i also think of water a lot when i um blow to frig um because water is

02:29:38.880 you use water for everything it's such a huge part of what we do water is so clean and pure

02:29:44.560 you use it to clean the things that need to be cleaned uh you drink it when you need when you're

02:29:50.720 sick you use it to you know you put a cool damp cloth on your kid's forehead um you drink it when

02:29:57.840 you're thirsty water is just really important and i think of uh water when i blow it to frig

02:30:03.680 um a lot more than i do mead um not that mead isn't important and all of that just

02:30:08.880 these are my personal associations with her um

02:30:11.760 yeah you light a candle and you you thank her for the good things you have in your life i don't know

02:30:18.880 i i like to keep things simple and a lot of the reason why i do that is because i include my

02:30:23.360 children in 99 of everything i do so when we're doing blow oftentimes it's just a matter of here

02:30:31.140 take a flower throw it into the creek and hail frigga you know little things like that that we

02:30:37.340 can do every day oh and always hails thor because thor is his favorite um but yeah this like i said

02:30:45.920 i'm in my mom phase right now my kids are pretty much in the center sorry everything i do so um

02:30:51.760 yeah i like to keep things simple because it makes it easier for them to digest um and it makes it

02:30:57.980 easier for me to be able to work it into my day when it's simple. Yeah. Awesome. So I am

02:31:07.900 particularly fond of Saga. For those who have heard me talk about Saga, I kind of see her in

02:31:15.780 more than just a lady pouring mead or more than just as her name would suggest as a keeper or

02:31:26.480 teller of stories, right? When Saga and Odin are sitting on the bank, it is more to me, it is more

02:31:34.800 than just him relaying stories and she's memorizing them. It's to me, it's more than that.

02:31:41.700 It is very much a man having a confidant that he can tell things to without judgment or fear

02:31:54.920 or feeling threatened.

02:32:02.720 It is someone that he can tell his fears to,

02:32:06.080 his hopes to, or anything to.

02:32:13.400 And still keep those things,

02:32:16.620 still keep the legacy of those things, right?

02:32:22.040 Telling the stories, of course,

02:32:23.780 maintains the legacy of the story but it also gives you a piece of the person who's telling

02:32:29.260 that story and i think that's part of what saga does she's more than just a recorder of history

02:32:35.100 she's more than just the poorer of need she listens and she supports in that listening

02:32:44.120 she holds those things that you're afraid to tell anybody else

02:32:49.800 that's what she is to me and that's something that I've always wanted to be for others so

02:32:57.340 that's why I'm close to her um that's why I'm particularly fond to her fond of her

02:33:02.440 things that I offer saga in particular

02:33:07.060 a lot of flowers as would be expected for a goddess but I have a particular

02:33:15.480 cup. It's only for Saga. It's what I use for Saga, and it's a blue ceramic chalice that

02:33:23.560 I use to put whatever drinks I'm giving her, whether it's wine, mead, tea, whatever that is.

02:33:32.560 She has her own cup because she is the cup holder, right? So that's what I do specifically for her.

02:33:39.380 she's got her own little beautiful chalice that's it's absolutely gorgeous I don't have it to where

02:33:46.260 I could reach it and show you otherwise I would because I'm quite proud of it but yes saga it is

02:33:52.460 for me all right we do have a couple more questions ladies but before we get to them

02:34:00.200 I would like uh Githia Erickson to talk to me about how awesome folk builder Mike Malillo is

02:34:09.380 I have a particular soft spot for Mike Malillo, sorry, for Mike. Him and I come from a shared

02:34:23.000 Thetish background, which is becoming more and more a thing. Think of theetism like the

02:34:29.160 Catholic version of Christianity. A lot of us find our way out of it eventually because

02:34:34.320 we realize that there's a lot of flaws with the process but um mike kind of calls himself like

02:34:44.960 the the dad of his of his uh kindred um maybe it's more like the granddad i don't know you know

02:34:55.440 no i mean i think i think he literally calls himself like grandpa mike um

02:35:00.240 i know that at yule when we were at his house for yule he dressed up like krampus and he came out of

02:35:07.680 the basement full head to toe dressed as krampus and he was walking around with a switch like where

02:35:13.040 the kids and my children were terrified they would not go near him to save their lives like

02:35:20.160 literally we're trying to get a picture of owen with krampus and we had to pick him up and carry

02:35:25.600 him over there and he was like no it worked out very well i think the picture of him is sitting

02:35:31.280 there like this because he was mad at us um but mike has such a good sense of humor about that

02:35:37.520 kind of stuff but he's also been around um for a very long time um i say in the heathen circles

02:35:44.960 because i believe i firmly believe that the afa is also true and anything else is not also true

02:35:52.640 not properly so when i say the heathen circles i mean like everything else outside of the afa

02:36:00.480 so as a former theidsman one of the things that we really value

02:36:04.080 um in the thedish circles is a very very very strong academic background you you read the books

02:36:11.840 you know the stuff um and mike has been around long enough that he has read the books he knows

02:36:17.440 his stuff and i really appreciate that about him and he's just he's a really

02:36:23.280 he's very approachable he's very easy to talk to he's the kind of guy that will absolutely spend

02:36:31.760 four hours on the phone listening to you when you sorry when you have a problem and you need

02:36:36.480 to talk to somebody um we really appreciate mike in this area it helps that he only lives like

02:36:42.880 two hours away so um we actually get to see him from time to time not like with all of our

02:36:47.920 folk builders that that live um in the distant reaches of new england for example so yeah we

02:36:56.880 like mike he's a good guy we like my children not so much right now as long as you ask off he'll be

02:37:06.800 okay i don't know i think they might still remember no i'm just kidding they like

02:37:14.560 you've got a couple other folk builders over there that are doing a fantastic job you've

02:37:18.000 also got folk builder uh pat cook over in west virginia and folk builder joe dronas over there

02:37:23.920 in ohio yes uh both of those uh men are men that i am also particularly fond of i say that about

02:37:31.760 like all of our folk builders um a lot of that is because i've i've gotten to know them all very

02:37:37.120 well over the course of the last couple of years um pat cook i remember that he drove back before

02:37:45.120 we moved up into erie pennsylvania he drove seven hours after a day of work to our house outside of

02:37:51.040 philly to attend his first afa event and he stood in stumble and he cried because he was so grateful

02:37:59.120 that he had finally found community and then he turned around and drove seven hours back home

02:38:03.840 which i thought was nuts we tried to convince him to stay because he looked exhausted but he did it

02:38:08.320 and he's been here ever since um i know pat is kind of quiet he lives in west virginia and he's

02:38:16.480 very um he's a very quiet kind of guy but he's a very deep thinking guy he's very intelligent he's

02:38:24.640 so pious uh pat is one of the most pious men i know um and you might not realize it unless you

02:38:30.880 spend some time talking to him and i recommend everybody get to know pat cook because pat cook

02:38:35.040 is a really just a solid guy he's a fa all the way um which is something i'm always going to

02:38:41.840 appreciate because i am a fa all the way and uh um like 100 my life is two things my family and

02:38:50.240 the afa and i think pat um agrees i think pat is the same and that's something that like i said

02:38:56.240 i'm always going to appreciate loyalty is an important thing that sometimes i think we we

02:39:02.080 forget about oh and joe joe jodos joe jodos i was just at his house last weekend he has

02:39:13.200 joe is one of those guys who doesn't always talk a lot but when he does

02:39:17.200 he usually has something valuable to say so you stop and you listen um he has been

02:39:25.680 quietly and slowly and consistently working on building ohio since the minute he became

02:39:32.080 a folk builder he's constantly hosting stuff in his own home um out there in ohio of him

02:39:38.880 and his fiance are hosting they they have a beautiful property with a garden and chickens

02:39:46.400 and it's beautiful out there and even when they only get one person to show up from their own

02:39:55.120 kindred they still host even when it seems like it's not working and people aren't doing it he

02:40:00.880 still hosts stuff he's consistent and non-stop and it's one of the reasons why the northern

02:40:09.040 ohio area has done as well as it has done is because joe has worked relentlessly at it and

02:40:14.720 And that's something that I think

02:40:17.500 that's just one of his superpowers.

02:40:19.440 He's relentless, he's like a workhorse.

02:40:23.780 He's slow and steady, but he never stopped.

02:40:27.160 And Joe is, he's awesome.

02:40:30.480 I'm a big fan, I guess.

02:40:32.160 I keep saying that, but I mean it.

02:40:33.520 I mean it genuinely 100% about all of the people

02:40:35.860 I say that about.

02:40:37.100 I'm a big fan of these people.

02:40:38.480 And we have a lot of people

02:40:42.720 a lot of territory to cover in in the northern half of thors off and i couldn't do it by myself

02:40:50.960 we couldn't do it without these people so i'm never going to be able to say enough good things

02:40:55.680 about them thank you ma'am we got a question of do you do meetups weekly like how they would go

02:41:05.520 to church every sunday in a christian church yes and no so the hoffs have monthly services typically

02:41:15.600 um unless there's a wedding or something you know some kind of event or something like that but

02:41:21.040 services themselves are usually once a month at the hoffs but there is something going on

02:41:29.840 in the afa every weekend whether it is a rune study or a remembrance dinner or you know we're

02:41:39.280 having trimming of the plow at new york's off there might be a trimming of the plow in ohio

02:41:45.040 there might be a trimming of the plow in missouri there is always things going on all of the time

02:41:51.680 Um, if you go onto our websites, it's, uh, baldershoff.org, odenshoff.org,

02:41:59.440 nureshoff.org, and thorshoff.com, and go into the calendar section.

02:42:05.440 Those will tell you all the things that are going on in your area.

02:42:09.800 Um, there's always something happening all the time, every weekend.

02:42:16.020 During the week, there's stuff going on, whether it's an impromptu mood,

02:42:19.980 or whether it's a leadership meeting or a leadership call that we're doing for district

02:42:24.620 members or lore studies or ladies book studies there is always something to do and there is

02:42:32.220 always somebody to talk to so no do we have weekly church services no we have monthly

02:42:39.340 Hoffs services, but we have events or activities or some kind of educational or spiritual

02:42:48.300 thing going on almost every day. So check out your calendars and see where you're at with that.

02:42:58.180 And speaking of awesome moots and events and people being involved in things, I'm going to

02:43:03.600 take a minute to talk about my kindred brothers. So they are both members of leadership and they

02:43:12.100 are folk builder, Jamie Elaine and folk builder, Stan Penner. And I'm going to start with a folk

02:43:18.420 builder, Elaine. Um, I have watched him go from his first days in leadership to his first fall

02:43:28.480 Fest, to becoming an apprentice, to being oathed at the Hoff. And I couldn't be more proud of where

02:43:37.780 somebody is today. He is noble, and he is strong, and he is good, and he's hilarious. Watch that dry

02:43:48.240 humor. He'll get you every time. Jamie is amazing. And Stian is disgustingly talented.

02:43:58.480 He cooks, he plays drums, he carves horns, he does metal work, he's an artist, he does

02:44:07.340 all of these amazing things, and it should be illegal for there to be so much talent

02:44:14.660 in one man, because some of the rest of us could have used some of those gifts, and everything

02:44:20.920 that I did not get, I think, went to stand.

02:44:24.240 I can't draw. I can't play music. I can't sing. I can't do any of these things. Stian does everything. So I got to admire Stian. Stian works really, really hard. He's a very pious man, and I appreciate everything that he does for his folk, for the other districts, and for the Hoffs. So shout out to my two kindred brothers for that.

02:44:45.540 let's see i think we had a couple more questions uh we've got a question is it strange to think

02:44:56.420 that if one of our deities has a need for us that they will reach out to you in some fashion

02:45:03.140 so that's going to be between you and the gods because i'm not going to tell you what the gods

02:45:11.940 do or do not say to you. However, I believe if you are meant for something, that no matter what

02:45:18.880 happens, you're going to be led to that direction and to that end, whether it's by the gods or the

02:45:26.080 ancestors. But when they need something from you, is it that they need that from you or is that what

02:45:34.780 you're meant to be? Is that what you're meant to do? Are you meant to be disgustingly talented

02:45:40.460 like Stan? Or are you meant just to be good with Gab like me? You know, what is it that you're

02:45:49.280 meant to do? What is it that you are called to do? What is your calling? Is your calling to be an

02:45:56.400 advocate for your folk? Is your calling to be a folk builder for the Asher Folk Assembly and

02:46:02.260 help build your church? Is your calling to be a Gothier, a Githia, and be a priest or priestess

02:46:09.140 of the easier it all depends on what your calling is i think each of us especially those that are in

02:46:19.460 especially those of us that are godar and those of us that are folk builders

02:46:24.020 and those membership that volunteer and help and dedicate their time and all of the things that they

02:46:31.220 do, I believe that they have a calling to serve their gods. Do they directly talk to you? That's

02:46:39.940 between you and Odin, my dear. I'm not going to tell you if Odin's talking to you or not. That's

02:46:44.220 up to you. It's not my call to make. But I do believe that the gods will call us to our purpose

02:46:53.040 in one way, shape, or form. And I think that that can look a lot of ways. That can look like

02:47:00.920 an obsession with getting things done that can that can be a divine inspiration of githia

02:47:10.840 mcnellen deciding to use the word folk and as a true folk assembly that can be githia erickson

02:47:19.560 doing a desir bloat that makes every man woman and child in her circle cry with happiness and

02:47:31.460 memory i think those are all callings of some sort so if you're looking for a specific answer

02:47:40.340 that's going to be between you and the gods but i do believe we're all called for a purpose

02:47:44.880 one way or another

02:47:47.380 all right we got a couple more people that i want to talk about tonight

02:47:53.380 one of them is going to be um well is going to be bruce and the first thing i'm going to say about

02:48:02.840 folk builder bruce perrin is get down you're going to crack your egg because the man likes

02:48:08.880 to climb on high things and send me videos of him on high things doing dangerous stunts and

02:48:16.520 the inner mom in me wants to wrap him in bubble wrap and tell him to get down it's like reliving

02:48:23.880 my toddler my children's toddler years but with a grown man and he does it just to just to irritate

02:48:29.960 his witten um so bruce get down you're gonna break your egg i'm gonna bubble wrap you if you don't

02:48:34.760 knock it off but bruce is tireless in all of the things that he does for the folk he he works a

02:48:41.560 lot but he still makes time to travel he still makes time to do moots he still makes the time

02:48:47.720 to come to baldershoff he still makes the time for his folk because his folk are very important to him

02:48:53.320 so i just want to thank bruce for all the things that he does

02:48:56.600 in wisconsin get down you're gonna break your egg please and thank you

02:49:04.840 hey katie you've got um you've got several apprentices over there in thorshoff district

02:49:09.240 who have given folk building a shot and are doing a good job.

02:49:12.780 Do you want to talk about some of those?

02:49:14.140 Can you tell me about Danielle and Mary Jane?

02:49:19.640 Sure.

02:49:20.640 So Danielle, my husband and I met for the first time

02:49:24.940 when we drove up to Buffalo to attend a moot

02:49:27.600 that was being held by another apprentice, Danielle Tomkill,

02:49:32.320 who I will talk about in a little bit.

02:49:33.620 And she is a very intelligent, very down-to-earth woman.

02:49:39.240 and i super appreciate that um very much loves horses i'm pretty sure if you get her to start

02:49:46.120 talking about horses that's what she'll talk about for hours she loves them so much uh as a a fellow

02:49:51.640 horse lover i don't mind this at all but um she is a mom uh all of her children most of her children

02:49:59.320 are older her youngest is seven and i think there's a pretty big gap between her her seven

02:50:04.520 year old and i think for 16 or 17 year old i don't remember off the top of my head i'm sorry but um

02:50:13.320 she is a very hard worker um i know that she just started a new job right now and it's a

02:50:20.200 very physically demanding job and still she does what she can to folk building to build her folk

02:50:25.400 she still hosts she still reaches does member outreach she still uh reaches out to me on a

02:50:31.560 fairly regular basis and we talk and i am not the most um i am not a very good uh speaker because

02:50:46.200 i tend to be a little disorganized i uh i go off on tangents um i like to tell people i don't talk

02:50:52.920 in a straight line i talk sort of in a curvy line i always get where i'm going eventually

02:50:57.640 so that's one of the things that i really admire about danielle is because she's she's very

02:51:03.840 thoughtful she's very intelligent she's very um very concise in the way she speaks and i appreciate

02:51:11.380 that um she's still pretty new at this so she's learning but i have really high hopes for danielle

02:51:17.320 because i think she really gets what we're doing and i think building the folk she understands why

02:51:23.720 that's important and she's really she's really wants to dedicate herself to that right now

02:51:30.520 so she's she's pretty awesome um and then he said mary jane mary jane

02:51:37.560 i love mary jane uh mary jane is down in ohio um mary jane is

02:51:44.920 it is impossible not to smile when you're around mary jane she is such a happy happy person and

02:51:52.520 she's funny um she also doesn't give a crap about what you think about her she's gonna say what

02:51:58.920 she's gonna say and you're either gonna like it or you're not and for some reason i know for me

02:52:04.520 personally for a lot of the people i know i don't mind it when she does it she she has a way about

02:52:10.760 just telling it like it is that it's perfectly acceptable and it's easy to appreciate that about

02:52:16.120 her um i know that she takes what we do very seriously and i know that she expressed to me

02:52:26.440 that she has a a love of the afa um that helps keep her going when things are rough and that's

02:52:37.080 something really admirable that i really admire about her that um even when she's having a very

02:52:43.960 hard time she's still willing to turn around and and talk to the folk and to work with the folk and

02:52:52.280 again she's also a very new folk builder um but i suspect that she is going to be around for a

02:53:00.440 very long time and i'm looking forward to working with her a lot in the future because i i really

02:53:05.640 i admire her again and i like her a lot she's a cool chick she is she really is

02:53:13.560 we've got a couple over in balder soft that i want to give a shout out to as well

02:53:18.520 they just started folk building and i'm super proud of all three of them for stepping up

02:53:23.160 especially in areas where we really needed them to and that is um apprentice jordan welch she is

02:53:28.840 such a sunny personality and she is so patient and she is so positive and she's located in

02:53:34.600 missouri she is a she's a wonderful woman um she's a mom and sweet just being there for whatever her

02:53:42.760 folk need her for and we also have hope white in illinois i got the chance to meet hope not that

02:53:49.560 long ago and she is absolutely amazing so i'm looking forward to seeing all the things that

02:53:54.280 she's going to build in illinois she's super hard working super motivated and i really appreciate

02:54:01.560 get her stepping up. And we also just had Coke Crawford step up in Kansas. So I'm really excited

02:54:07.160 to see what he can do down there with Jordan and see what they can get cooking down there. He's

02:54:12.540 surrounded by great people down in Kansas. And I know those people have been wanting to get things

02:54:17.840 going and really get forward movement down there. So I'm really excited for them. So thank you to

02:54:24.000 Jordan and Hope and Koch for stepping up and making the commitment to serve your gods and

02:54:31.780 serve your folks. So thank you for that. All right. You got a couple more we want to cover

02:54:40.800 too. You've got Tyler Sagert and Daniel Tomkeel and Jaeger Croft in your district. Katie,

02:54:49.160 what can you tell me about those awesome gentlemen?

02:54:54.000 I cannot tell you a lot about Yeagercroft. I'm pretty sure he's like brand, brand new,

02:55:03.240 isn't he? He is, yeah. I haven't had a chance to talk to him. Sorry, I know he's pretty

02:55:10.280 new. It was more of a rhetorical question. I'm embarrassed to admit that I haven't had

02:55:20.120 going off um but i'm going to fix that as soon as uh i wake up in the morning

02:55:31.400 as far as daniel tomkill goes daniel is daniel works really hard um and i know i say that a lot

02:55:40.920 i mean that genuinely most of our folk builders are working really hard there's not enough of us

02:55:46.040 and there's a lot of work to do um daniel is the type of guy who will literally just call people

02:55:52.200 and i know he's he's just called people um because he was willing to just call people

02:56:00.840 to check in to see how they're doing just because that's what he wanted you to get to know people

02:56:05.960 um we know that he he reached out to somebody who really desperately needed to be reached out to um

02:56:13.240 um and probably saved the man's life just call that man one day um and that is something

02:56:24.040 that we will always raise the word to daniel for because it's important for

02:56:28.040 our people to remember i think she wants to go back out again

02:56:31.000 it's important for our folks to to know that our folk builders do a lot and our folk builders

02:56:47.560 most of them if not all of them know that that call can be the call that saves somebody's life

02:56:52.520 and daniel did that one day um a few of our other folk builders have too but i'm not talking about

02:57:00.040 them right now about daniel he's a cool guy and if he calls you answer chat with them get to know

02:57:06.920 them because one of the things the most important about our folks is getting to know them they're

02:57:11.480 the people that connect you they are the community that helps get you involved and uh you can only

02:57:18.280 get out of the also true folk assembly what you're willing to put into it if you're not willing to

02:57:22.520 put the time and effort into being a part of it you're never going to get anything out of it and

02:57:26.840 i think that's something that's really important to remember daniel's one of those guys he's put

02:57:31.480 a lot into it he hosts i think he hosts on average two months a month up in buffalo new york

02:57:38.920 excuse me that's more than most of our folk builders do two months two months a month is a

02:57:44.280 lot um when you take into account the fact that most of us have day jobs most of us have other

02:57:50.840 things we have to do if he takes two weekends out of his month to host events um he doesn't even

02:58:00.680 know that sometimes he's not gonna have anybody showing up and he doesn't anyway he's gonna keep

02:58:05.640 on doing it because eventually he's gonna have a bustling community around him because he was

02:58:11.640 willing to do it and not give up and to just keep going that's really important um

02:58:20.840 So I remember the first time I met Tyler. Tyler and his now wife live up in New Hampshire and they were willing to drive something like eight and a half hours down to the to the suburbs of Philadelphia to our house to attend a five hour moot at our house.

02:58:41.320 and they showed up and Tyler and Jessica and I can't say Tyler by himself Tyler and Jessica

02:58:48.720 are some of the absolute sweetest people I have ever met in my life they always smile they were

02:58:56.060 so happy Jessica had just found out that she was like 10 weeks pregnant with her first daughter

02:59:00.940 Nora and they were so excited about it and I don't think she meant to tell us that she was

02:59:06.860 pregnant because i think it was waiting to tell people but they accidentally did so

02:59:11.180 i think we were the first people who knew that she was pregnant at that point um

02:59:16.460 and uh they're just they're awesome people but they drove eight hours from new hampshire because

02:59:21.740 they desperately wanted to find community and they had attended um some stuff up by them that had

02:59:29.340 gone very poorly and they still had the courage to drive down eight hours to our house

02:59:34.300 to meet strangers at their house because that's what they really wanted and tyler has been here

02:59:39.500 from the beginning ever since then he has been a part of the afa he's been working as a folk builder

02:59:44.540 um and excuse me my husband and i drove up there to do a baby naming for their first

02:59:52.620 daughter and accidentally married them at the same time like i have a very big soft spot for them

02:59:58.700 because uh they're just some of the most genuinely happy positive people i've ever met and they're

03:00:07.260 they're building a beautiful family and they're doing it in the ostrich folk assembly

03:00:11.580 and they're just he's new hampshire massachusetts maine vermont those areas have always been kind

03:00:19.420 of a rough spot for us in in the thorsoff area because it's remote um and tyler has

03:00:26.940 has managed to build a really good community up there um and the fact that he's managed to build

03:00:34.380 that good community up there says a lot because it's something we've been trying to do for years

03:00:40.140 um and they're good people and i have a feeling that uh tyler and new hampshire are going to be

03:00:47.900 thriving for a very long time and i'm really excited to see it happen and i will always do

03:00:52.860 whatever i can to help make sure it happens so tyler's a cool cat i'm going to say that after

03:00:59.100 all of them now no right they're they're just they're really awesome people and if you ever

03:01:04.380 get a chance uh they're they're coming down to ostar in the south in march so if you guys on

03:01:10.780 this call can make it to ostar in the south you absolutely should one of the best events of the

03:01:15.260 year um i'm particularly partial to it because i think it was like my first national event in the

03:01:20.060 afa ever um but they're going to be there a lot of our leadership in our area i'm pretty sure

03:01:26.140 all of our northern leadership are going to be there so you should make it so you can meet them

03:01:31.900 and their baby is going to get named at ostara their second baby so always all right that's one

03:01:38.540 of the best parts about being in the afa is watching the the people bring their families

03:01:42.940 into it to watch these babies get named being born into it is so much better than just finding

03:01:48.380 your way into it as an adult. I agree. So rounding out the leadership down in Thorshof District,

03:01:58.240 we've got folk builder Bobby Shotwell. So if you haven't had a chance to meet him, I'm sure he'll

03:02:04.980 probably be at Ostara as well. He's at the Hof quite a bit. He does a jujitsu moots all the time

03:02:11.200 down there. He's super helpful down there at the Hof. So go down there and check out all the things

03:02:17.180 that are going down at Thorshoff.

03:02:19.780 It's not just their services.

03:02:22.320 They're holding moots down there,

03:02:23.660 jujitsu moots down there,

03:02:24.740 and he's teaching those.

03:02:26.400 Bobby is a great guy

03:02:27.580 and a lot of help to the leadership down there.

03:02:29.440 So I want to thank him for everything that he's doing,

03:02:31.780 as well as Tyler Bethea.

03:02:34.360 I got the chance to meet Tyler

03:02:35.800 for the first time at Winter Nights.

03:02:38.260 And he's a wonderful man

03:02:40.840 and he's got a beautiful family

03:02:42.120 and I appreciate everything that he's doing.

03:02:43.860 He puts a lot of work in,

03:02:46.300 not just in volunteering and volunteering for leadership of the church, but he puts a lot of

03:02:52.300 work into his own spiritual well-being and knowledge. And he's just overall a great man

03:02:58.920 and great person to talk to, whether it's about things going on at the Hof, whether it's about

03:03:04.200 your day or whether it's about, you know, his idea on the Lord. I think you would really like to talk

03:03:09.320 to Tyler Bethea. He's a great guy. And that brings me to Witten Svahn. Witten Svahn Harrell is one of

03:03:18.200 the Witten and Thorshoff district. And we were talking earlier about kind of the Witten have

03:03:22.940 their own personalities. If Cliff is the voice and Dan is the heart, I think Witten Harrell is

03:03:31.680 the soul so he's very much the guide for the godar when it comes to um spiritual education

03:03:39.140 and finding deeper meaning behind everything that we do um he's he's an amazing man and he is so

03:03:46.300 pious and so strong in belief and troth with the aesir that he he's just he's the one that teaches

03:03:56.600 the priest. He's the priest that teaches the priest, right? So he's very much part of, very

03:04:02.240 big part of the soul of the AFA, and we can't thank him enough for all of his contributions

03:04:06.080 that he's had to the AFA in general, but, you know, to Thorshoff as well. Odenshoff, Baldershoff,

03:04:12.620 Nurenshoff with the beautiful murals. So if you get a chance to go to Thorshoff and see Witten

03:04:19.580 Svan or Witten Young and Bloat, please do. They're amazing men. They're spiritually sound.

03:04:26.600 they, they're some of my best friends, so I'm a little bit biased, but you really need to get

03:04:33.580 to Thorsoth. You, you've got to see a bloat from Witten's Fawn. Take one of his classes,

03:04:38.900 listen to hear, listen to him talk, listen to him tell you about the lore, um, and you got to get

03:04:44.120 down there with, uh, Witten Young for the same. They're amazing men. Please go down there and

03:04:48.960 visit them. And I think we have a Githy applaud here with us. Yay. I saw we had the camera not

03:04:57.780 that long ago. Welcome to the live stream, ma'am. Thank you. I was at work. I'm sorry.

03:05:09.040 I was, I was, yes, we can. I was saving this question for you just in case you were able to

03:05:16.720 on. So I'm glad that you're here. Cause I was like, she might make it. If I prolong this long

03:05:22.860 enough, Anna's going to be here. They can't keep her forever. Right. All right. So we have a

03:05:32.740 question from Allie and it was, can you talk about air and why she is so special to our ladies?

03:05:40.220 yes um i'm going to start by telling you why air is special to me um i work in the health

03:05:50.700 care field um i you know i see health i see sickness every day and being in altitude for a

03:05:59.780 while um i've seen our folk kind of the health of our folk kind of ebb and flow and it's something

03:06:08.040 that we we need to pay attention to um if you are sick if you are not feeling well if you're just

03:06:14.920 generally in a poor health you are not going to be able to be present spiritually

03:06:24.920 and i've also seen you know the amazing things that you know praying for a person can do

03:06:31.480 so when we call on air we are calling on air to help with the health of our folk

03:06:36.440 a healthy folk. It's more of us. It's more people showing up to events. It's those healthy

03:06:47.500 families that we want. We call on AIR for our numerous pregnant women that we seem to

03:06:56.820 be having more and more of. AIR didn't used to get a lot of play. I think for a while

03:07:04.500 it was just all we knew about was Frigga and Freya and while those two are great they don't

03:07:11.860 they don't entirely cover the experience of being a woman

03:07:18.340 air offers another option we are also healers she is known as the best of doctors that's just

03:07:25.860 another aspect of you know womanhood that we have we have that soothing healing ability

03:07:34.500 whether it be as a clinician or nurse or just comforting a child who's skinned

03:07:39.780 their knee that is our realm thank you ma'am and I kind of feel like I I feel

03:07:48.960 like I hijacked the circle of air group a little bit so I want to point out that

03:07:52.380 it was Katie's before mine before I started getting involved and it was Pat

03:07:58.920 cooks before it was mine so it goes where it's in the best hand like it goes where it needs to be

03:08:05.880 so there we go so we've got some um folks in leadership get the applaud that we would like

03:08:16.280 you to tell us a little bit about can you talk to us about uh tabitha owens the apprentice down in

03:08:21.800 arkansas um tabitha has been going at this for a while and she has a very busy life she has

03:08:31.720 i believe three little tiny children are all adorable but she is regularly putting on moots

03:08:39.120 she's you know bringing people in she's very welcoming she's very

03:08:45.240 she likes to bring people home when I've heard when people are with her they feel like they're

03:08:54.820 home. Yes she is wonderful and you've got a couple more apprentices down there you've got

03:09:04.340 um Amber Cameron down in Georgia and you've also got Laura Morris in Alabama what can you tell me

03:09:11.820 about those ladies. Again, Amber, same as Tabitha, she's very hard-working for her

03:09:20.340 region. She's bringing folks home. So even though we have all these Hoffs, not

03:09:29.220 everybody can make it to the Hoff every single time. So when we have people kind

03:09:35.180 of spread out, we have people doing moots, that's still that opportunity for people

03:09:39.900 to come together. That's still

03:09:42.000 that opportunity for people to experience

03:09:44.460 Obstachew, to experience

03:09:46.000 not just

03:09:46.860 ceremony and ritual,

03:09:50.140 but actually folk time

03:09:52.300 and the idea of folk building

03:09:54.060 and getting to know who's in

03:09:56.100 your church.

03:09:57.780 Getting to know them well enough so that they do

03:10:00.100 become family to you.

03:10:03.620 And I can say the same thing about Laura.

03:10:05.840 She's really been reaching out.

03:10:07.900 She's been reaching out

03:10:09.100 to outliers.

03:10:11.600 She's reaching out to people

03:10:12.720 that we haven't talked to in a while.

03:10:15.640 Again, she's working on bringing

03:10:17.260 all these people home

03:10:18.560 that maybe have lost interest

03:10:21.720 or just haven't had time.

03:10:24.940 It's a lot harder to not have time

03:10:27.720 when you have somebody

03:10:28.660 constantly reaching out

03:10:30.160 because they've got all this time

03:10:31.280 to reach out.

03:10:32.760 Surely you have enough time

03:10:34.160 to reach back,

03:10:35.380 at least a little bit.

03:10:39.100 got a couple new apprentices down there as well um jordan in georgia as well as patrick

03:10:46.460 in texas and i believe both of those two have been just started practicing not too long ago

03:10:55.980 they are they both have a whole lot of enthusiasm um

03:11:01.100 i know we have a great team behind them jordan has the georgia crew

03:11:07.020 who are all just amazing um and patrick has justin in texas so i'm looking forward to seeing what

03:11:14.460 they are both capable of i'm looking forward to them expanding our reach and i'm really looking

03:11:23.340 forward to seeing texas get built up texas has been a hard go and justin has made it work so i

03:11:31.020 i'm looking forward to seeing what we can do with more people working on texas right

03:11:42.140 because it's such a big state and i'm super proud of everything that they've

03:11:45.180 already accomplished down there they're doing a great job so if you are in texas um

03:11:52.620 get a hold of patrick and justin because there is all kinds of things going on in that area it's

03:11:58.460 It's just a matter of find out when and find out how to get there, right?

03:12:02.840 They're doing amazing things down there, you guys.

03:12:04.900 Please take a look at them.

03:12:06.480 Get in touch with them if you're in that area.

03:12:08.900 We've got a couple more people that I do want to give a little bit of thanks to.

03:12:17.220 One of them is Folk Builder Otto Refuse.

03:12:20.600 He is one of the folk builders down in Florida in Mjortzhof District.

03:12:25.320 He's been a lot of help to the Hof down there.

03:12:27.460 Anna you want to give us some few words about Otto Otto just hit the ground

03:12:35.620 running with us so he was all over the Hoff he was looking for stuff that can

03:12:40.780 be worked on he's always ready with a suggestion he's not just a guy that will

03:12:45.360 you know have a whole laundry list of complaints he also has well this is

03:12:49.780 what's going on but here's the solution or here's a couple of solutions he is

03:12:56.060 fantastic. Yes. We appreciate all the hard work that Otto puts in. So I got two more people that

03:13:04.740 we want to talk about. The first one is going to be the law speaker. So I'm going to let

03:13:08.440 Anna go ahead and tell us about the awesomeness that is law speaker Alan Ternan.

03:13:14.820 alan is great he is he's welcoming um he will make you feel like your family the second you

03:13:28.040 step into that hof um he is incredibly knowledgeable he's a lot of fun to hang

03:13:35.540 out with but he's also incredibly pious um if you misuse a word in that hof and there's a

03:13:44.040 specific word. He is going to be right there with the jar, shaking it. He is always encouraging

03:13:56.560 all of us, Gothar included, to elevate ourselves, to be doing better, to be being better, including

03:14:04.000 our language including our dress including how we carry ourselves he is

03:14:12.000 he's fair he's just incredibly kind and i you know i do have a bias he was

03:14:19.120 he was the guy that did irene's naming

03:14:25.200 but he is honestly he is something we are all very very lucky to know and the afa is so lucky

03:14:33.600 to have him yes we are just one reason kids love alan kids adore now everybody loves alan i mean

03:14:45.200 it's true but yes i know my kids are still like they've seen him like four times in their whole

03:14:50.320 lives my kids still talk about alan and they haven't seen him in a couple years and they're

03:14:56.800 and they're not little kids they're older kids you know alan is like the coolest person in the

03:15:02.560 world to these kids. And I think, correct me if I'm wrong, producer, but I think that only leaves

03:15:08.900 us one other person other than the four of us on this call. And everybody knows who we are. We've

03:15:13.320 been talking for four hours. That's it. So there's only one left. Only one. So let's give a thank you

03:15:23.780 to our share, Matthew Flavel, who couldn't get here. And he's probably fussing, wondering what

03:15:30.360 the Githias are up to that he can't get a hold of. So we're all going to sign off tonight with

03:15:35.800 a message to the El Shirogothi. Katie, anything that you want to say to the El Shirogothi?

03:15:43.460 All I can say is El Shirogothi, Matt, thank you for everything you do. Without you,

03:15:51.940 we wouldn't have a future for our children here in the Ossetroof Folk Assembly, and you'll never

03:15:57.120 know how much that means to our families because there are no words that can properly express it

03:16:07.600 get the applause do you have a message for you i'll share a go that he's going to have

03:16:10.640 to catch us on the replay um i do it is thank you um because of your hard work um again our

03:16:21.840 Our children aren't gonna know what it's like

03:16:23.900 to not have a Hoff.

03:16:26.260 They're not going to be just constantly renting space.

03:16:32.660 We have our own spaces.

03:16:35.000 They're going to know other little children

03:16:37.060 who are also true.

03:16:38.200 They're not gonna be the odd kid out.

03:16:41.160 They have a place.

03:16:43.540 And that is,

03:16:46.260 that Matt had a lot, a lot, a lot to do with that.

03:16:49.280 So thank you.

03:16:51.840 Githia McDalland, do you have anything for the Elshir and Goldie tonight that he can catch tomorrow?

03:17:08.320 Oh, to take the lead, to take over when Steve retired, and he stepped into it a bit uncertain

03:17:19.620 how it would all go but no time at all he took the reins and he has led us all in the most

03:17:26.440 wonderful direction um none of us are perfect we've all had things we've done we wish we would

03:17:33.280 do differently but my goodness the successes he has had he lives victory we are all victorious

03:17:39.720 because he has kept his eye on the prize and keeps us all motivated and is so sure of what we should

03:17:49.140 be doing. I love the clarity of how he presents everything. There's just never a doubt that we're

03:17:55.460 going to try this way. And almost always, it's absolutely the right way. And we're just so

03:18:01.380 fortunate to have him leading. I can't imagine anybody else getting us here to this point.

03:18:07.720 And in a way, we're just still beginning. So it's wonderful to have him at the helm right now.

03:18:14.080 It's made all the difference for us. Thank you, Matt.

03:18:19.140 So I'm going to start off with saying thank you to the Alshira Gauthier.

03:18:22.700 However, I'm going to be taking orders from Mrs. Flavel, and I'm going to give it to him, she says.

03:18:30.040 So we're hoping that you're having a wonderful time at Charming of the Plow.

03:18:33.740 If you want tickets, you can still get those at www.runestone.org.

03:18:38.000 Contact any of the New York's Hof folk builders in order to find out what's going on, when it's happening, and how to get there.

03:18:44.260 in the meantime while they all share a go these having a good time in Florida we hope it starts

03:18:49.000 calming his uh tyrantisms and he gets a good long vacation and comes back rested and in a good mood

03:18:57.140 and tanned there you go Mrs. Flavel I did that for you ma'am

03:19:04.380 all right I think that is all the questions that we had for tonight

03:19:10.660 so is there anything else that you'd like to say ladies before we head off

03:19:15.940 just hail the folk

03:19:21.340 hail the gods hail the folk and hail the afa let's talk to you guys next week and remember

03:19:29.620 victory never sleeps have a good night it's true good night good night good night good night everyone

03:19:40.660 We'll be right back.

03:20:10.660 We'll be right back.

03:20:40.660 Thank you.

03:21:10.660 Thank you.

03:21:40.660 Thank you.

03:22:10.660 Thank you.

03:22:40.660 Thank you.

Asatru Folk Assembly - February 15, 2024

2⧸14⧸24 Victory Never Sleeps, Episode 84 - Gythia Edition 2

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