Victory

I remember the first time I was asked to play this song our music minister gave me about 10 minutes warning and I sat there wondering how to pull this off with a single acoustic guitar. I asked God to use that moment for Him, and that any success or failure in my musical ability would honor His kingdom.

A friend passed away this week and as I spoke with his widow, sons, and daughter I was so encouraged by their attitude. Chris Tomlin wrote this song as a modern version of "It Is Well" by Horatio Spafford. As believers we will hurt when we lose someone but we stand over the grave in victory because of Christ.

We all know that song but do you know about Mr. Spafford's life and the circumstances in which he wrote it? If not, check it out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Spafford

"When sorrows like sea billows roll.." I once heard a preacher say this was written at the location where his daughters perished. Horatio Spafford knew how to worship.

We lost a good man yesterday

The attached song is one I play when my heart is grieving but my spirit is rejoicing. When I saw Mercy Me perform it the first time they shared the heart-wrenching story of how it had been written and it seems appropriate today.
Jason Kennard died last night in a car accident. When I was in the praise band at The Church at Sterchi Hills, his wife Lisa would always ask for prayer that the Lord would convict Jason and he would be saved. During this time, we built a new building and had a week-long revival to celebrate the opening. During the revival Jason came to hear one of the messages and received Christ as his savior. It was one of the greatest moments God has allowed me to witness. Shortly after this, Lisa was in Florida and Jason "dropped dead" of a massive stroke while home alone with his young children. I remember clearly sitting in the ER waiting room at St. Mary's hospital waiting for Lisa to return home from Florida so that Jason's life support could be removed. While we waited, and prayed, Jason showed some level of responsiveness which then prevents life support from being cancelled. Also during that time, one of Jason's friends contacted Lisa and told her that God had told her that Jason would be raised up from this because the Lord had plans for him. She quoted Jeremiah 29:11 "..For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."(NIV) I had the wonderful opportunity to spend every afternoon for the next two weeks watching Jason be healed by the hand of God. Each day he became more responsive and gave everyone a visualization of faith. Jason beacame a faithful servant of the Lord, leading his family and being the man God had called him to be. He was a walking miracle and one of the examples God showed me of walking through the fire of life's trials and emerging as a better man on the other side.
Please keep Lisa, Zack, Whitney, and Seth in your prayers. We know that Jason has been raised up by the Father and healed but our earthly hearts still hurt for the man we will be missing.
Grace and Peace to you.

Comcast Customer Service and the BCS Bowl Games

So it's only fair that if I don't like the games being on ESPN I needed to also alert Comcast that their lineup is part of the problem.

Here's what I said:

Dear Sir or Madam,

I was disappointed to learn that none of the BCS bowl games are
available to me. I pay only for the limited cable package because of the
amount of trash that is generally on television and excessive channels I
do not want. Because of the way channel selection works, I would have to
pay almost $60/mo just to get ESPN which I am not willing to do. This
year my friends and I will be unable to watch any available college
games. We all enjoy football a great deal but aren''t willing to have to
purchase 50 channels we do not want in our homes. Thank you for your
time.

Regards,

They wrote back quickly:

Thank you for contacting Comcast Cable E-mail Support.


I thank you for allowing me this opportunity to assist you. Captain Dude, as
your service representative today, I want you to know that your
satisfaction is of my topmost priority. I will be more than happy to
assist you with your concern. I assure you that you have reached the
right person and rest assured that all information included on this
correspondence will resolved your concern.

I am sorry to hear you are having issues with your current service as
you are unable to watch some of your favorite sports game. Captain Dude, I can
understand why you would be upset, I would feel the same way if I was in
the situation you are in. I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience
this has caused you. Rest assured that your concern will be taken care
of.

Captain Dude, it is a regret to informed that ESPN channel is available for
Comcast Digital Cable package and higher tier only. Therefore, in order
to view ESPN channel, you will need to upgrade your cable service. We
have several different packages for you to pick from; however, we do not
offer a la carte programming where you can pick channels that you would
like to include on a certain package you are subscribed to. If we do
begin to offer a la carte programming, we will notify all of our
customers about the package changes.

To check on available services, packages, and rates in your area that
best suits your budget and needs, please contact us at
http://www.comcastsupport.com/chat

Or, 1-800-XFINITY (934-6489) during office hours.

I suggest you have the following information available when calling or
chatting to ensure the time you need to spend on the phone or chat is as
short as possible:

- Name on the account
- Address where service is provided and mailing address if different
- Telephone number associated with the account
- One of the following: Last 4 digits of the Account holders Social
Security Number/Security Code/Account Number/Amount of most recent
payment on the account

Captain Dude, I thank you for taking the time out from your busy schedule to
share your concerns. We continue to strive for complete customer
satisfaction so your feedback is valuable to us. We appreciate that you
have chosen Comcast as your service provider and we thank you for your
business.

Thank you for choosing Comcast! In addition to providing you with the
latest and greatest products, we want to ensure that you are satisfied
with our services. It is a pleasure assisting you and resolving your
issue today. Thank you for bringing Comcast into your home! If you need
assistance in the future, please do not hesitate to contact us at:

Chat Support (24 hours a day):
http://www.comcastsupport.com/chat

Phone Support (office hours only):
1-800-XFINITY (934-6489) during office hours

Bulk or Business accounts (office hours only):
1-800-391-3000 or 1-800-361-1619

We hope to do business with you again. Have a great day and take care.


Sincerely,

Elaine T
Comcast Customer Care Specialist
**************************************************
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Wow, "Elaine" (Hello, my name is Peggy) writes terribly. It's unfortunate that the only solutions are giving someone more money. I pay enough and I am about to get rid of your "service" altogether. Yeah, I chose to disseminate this so that others can make an informed decision.

Disney has "stolen" all bowl games.

I wasn't paying attention last year when ESPN outbid everyone and got the rights to all BCS bowl games for the next four years. Disney, ABC, and ESPN are all the same so they could certainly choose to show a game or two on network television. In what's becoming the typical greedy american way, they aren't. Factor this in with your Comcast rates going up on purpose again, and the perpetual channel shuffling to make sure you have to buy channels you don't want and some folks simply can't watch the games this year. I realize I chose this predicament but thought I would write to ESPN so they would know I was disappointed. Here are the emails:

Dear Sir or Madam,

I was disappointed to learn that none of the BCS bowl games are available to me. I pay only for the limited cable package because of the amount of trash that is generally on television and excessive channels I do not want. Because of the way channel selection works, I would have to pay almost $60/mo just to get ESPN which I am not willing to do. This year my friends and I will be unable to watch any available college games. We all enjoy football a great deal but aren't willing to have to purchase 50 channels we do not want in our homes. Thank you for your time.

Regards,

I felt this was a reasonable observation and that I would receive some kind of sympathetic yet unwavering response. Here's what I got:

Thanks for contacting ESPN and giving us an opportunity to respond.

All BCS games will be available to almost 100 million homes on ESPN as well as through ESPN3.com and ESPN Radio. We are confident that fans will find and enjoy these games, the culmination of our year-round commitment to college football.

Sincerely,

Robert
ESPN Viewer Response

I put the selected text in bold as I felt "Robert" was implying that I am not a real fan because I am not willing to pay exorbitant amounts to watch sports. This is not correct, I enjoy sports but have better things to do with my money. Unfortunately, I feel I may be removing cable entirely from my home in the near future and will probably only have a television for family-type movie nights. My girls having to watch Viagra ads during kid's shows is kind of telling me things won't be getting any better. Oh, by the way I wrote "Robert" (Hello, my name is Peggy) back and said that previously the only reason I didn't have ESPN was the fact that it would cost me a minimum of $60/month (and that stupid cable box). I let him know that his arrogant response earned them another reason.