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Stream Send Responds
As I mentioned in our September 4 2008 entry, we recently switched from Stream Send (SS) to Constant Contact (CC). When I canceled my account with SS, I was prompted to supply a reason for our cancellation. I simply wrote, “Here is why” then supplied a link to our blog.
It wasn’t long (maybe two hours) before I received a call from SS. I was told that my blog was read and was then asked to reconsider. I was offered a month of free service, and our own personal SS assistant. Usually they only offer assistants to larger companies, but because of our bad experience with their product, they would allow us access to one for free. I was also told that we had an older version of SS and the newer version was much more user friendly.
I explained to SS that since we had already moved on, created templates and used CC, it was too late for us to consider their offer. But, what I would do for them is to update the rest of you about their offer. They are very serious about keeping customers so I thought it only fair to mention that they made an effort to get us to come back. There is no expiration on their offer to me so if we decide to leave CC, we could give SS another try.
If you decide to use Stream Send, feel free to let us know about your experience with them.
Twenty Years of Forgiveness- My Testimony
Yesterday was my 20th spiritual birthday! I shared that with some alumni from Emmaus Bible College and one of my friends asked me to share my testimony. I decided that it would be easier to do it on YouTube rather than write it out.
Enjoy!
Jehovah’s Witnesses And Politics
I’ve posted a few blogs about Mormonism and politics, due to Mitt Romney’s influence, but I have yet to write about Jehovah’s Witnesses (JWs)and politics. The reason for that is pretty simple. The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (WTB&TS) does not allow their members to vote or hold any political office.
The WTB&TS’s official web site states,
“In advocating God’s Kingdom, Jehovah’s Witnesses do not mix in politics or
foment rebellion against secular governments, even in lands where the Witnesses
are banned or persecuted. (Titus 3:1) Instead, they try to make a positive, spiritual, nonpolitical contribution in the way that Jesus and his first-century disciples did. The Witnesses strive to help righteously disposed people in their various communities to adopt wholesome Biblical values, such as familial love, honesty, moral cleanness, and a good work ethic. Primarily, they endeavor to teach them how to follow Bible principles and to look to God’s Kingdom as mankind’s real hope.”
Notice the false dichotomy. JWs are faced with seemingly only two choices. You can either participate in politics or you can advocate God’s Kingdom by making a positive, spiritual, nonpolitical impact on the world. Obviously JWs want to promote God’s kingdom so refraining from political involvement is a no-brainer. The reason JWs never think to entertain a third possible option is because of their belief that all of the World’s governments are controlled by Satan, hence another false dichotomy; either stay out of politics or be controlled by Satan. To the JW, the choice is obvious.
In June of 2008, Tennis star Serena Williams told reporters at Wimbeldon that although she was excited about Barak Obama, she would not vote for him because she is a Jehovah’s Witness. She went on to explain that JWs “don’t get involved in politics.” Her sister, Venus, would not even make a comment on the issue. I find it interesting that Serena would make a comment about Obama at all. If he, as a politician, is controlled by Satan, why be excited about his chances of becoming the next President of the United States?
There is a question about this WTB&TS policy that I would love to have answered. As we get closer to the Presidential election in November, I will add this to my Youtube video collection of Quick Questions For Jehovah’s Witnesses. Why are JWs forbidden from participating in politics when we have Scriptural examples of faithful heroes of the faith who actually held public office in secular, pagan Nations? Joseph was second only to Pharaoh in Egypt, Daniel was an advisor to the Kings of Babylon and let’s not forget Ester who became the Queen of Persia!
With godly examples of Old Testament saints heavily involved in politics, why can’t Jehovah’s Witnesses escape the horns of the false dilemna? Isn’t it possible to be a faithful Christian, yet support your country with such a simple thing as a vote?
From StreamSend To Constant Contact
We have been using a mass emailing product to keep in contact with those who sign up for our email update list. Our email update list is for those who would like to be informed of newly posted articles on our web site, scheduled speaking engagements, or special events. Contact information will be kept confidential and will not be shared with anyone. Feel free to sign up if you are interested.
After reading some reviews last year about different products, I settled on StreamSend. The review ranked StreamSend third, but talked about how user friendly it was. There were a number of features that interested me and I was really pleased about it’s reported ease of use. I don’t know who the reviewer was, but StreamSend is NOT easy.
My Mom and I are the ones who run the list, and after the both of us tried to figure out a number of things, we came to the conclusion that StreamSend is not for us. We gave it a fair shot and kept the service for more than a year. I guess we hoped that the learning curve would get less difficult, but it didn’t. Both us of found ourselves in the position of not wanting to email our various lists because if was so difficult to do.
We looked into other options and settled on Constant Contact. The only problem was, we needed to import our lists into Constant Contact from StreamSend. What I will share next is a perfect explanation of why we no longer use StreamSend.
I was trying to sort through certain names using their filters. After trying everything I could think of, reading their FAQ and searching their help section, I finally had to call their support. Here is a picture of their filter tool. I was confused because no matter what I entered into these fields, the list would not export anything into an Excel spreadsheet like it was supposed to. The “simple” filter is not so simple after all. 
When I was explaining what I was trying to do and then attempted to walk my way through it, the tech lady said, “No, not that way, you are supposed to skip the simple filter and enter your info on the bottom where it says, ‘Select fields.'”
Huh? I am supposed to skip the simple filter and enter my stuff on the bottom of the form?
I asked where the instructions were that explained this. She said they didn’t have any.
I asked, “Well, then, how am I suppose to know what to do? If Isee an empty field why would I think that I should not put a value there” She answered that given the lack of instructions, I would not know what to do. That is why they have tech support. I was stunned. After a pregnant, five second pause, I suggested, “Do you think you could talk with whomever designed this page and wrote the instructions and have them put complete instructions here so that people would not have to call you to get an answer that should already be here?”
Can you believe she actually said, “No, I don’t think they’ll do it.” Right then and there, my thoughts about switching from StreamSend were confirmed. I knew I was doing business with the wrong company.
On the contrary, Constant Contact has been extremely user friendly. Unlike StreamSend, their FAQ section actually answers frequently asked questions. When I wanted to figure out how to add a Paypal button on the bottom of an e-mail, there was a link to a video tutorial that helped me through the process.
Creating the emails is so much easier as well. Instead of working with confusing templates, Constant Contact’s options are very simple and easy to use. I am happy to say that since we now have a product that is much more user friendly, we will be doing a better job of keeping in touch with those who are interested in Evidence Ministries.
2008 Football Season Is Upon Us
Are you ready for some football? I created a football pool two years ago and invited family and friends to join. I finished in second place last year and hope to win it this year. This year I will do something a little different. The winner gets a $10 gift certificate to Dairy Queen. I can taste that large Chocolate Extreme Blizzard now!
I invite you to sign up for the EM football pool and join in the fun. In order to join, you must register as a user at http://www.poolhost.com/ When registering, you will choose a personal username and password. Once you’ve entered PoolHost.com as a registered user, go to the ‘User Tools’ menu and choose ‘Join a Private Pool’. Click on the “Pro Football Pick’em” icon in the upper left corner and then you will be asked to enter the Pool’s Login Name and the Pool’s Password.
For the Pool’s Login Name type: EMfootballpool
For the Pool’s Password type: football
That’s it and then you’re in! The next time you login in to http://www.poolhost.com/, you can go to ‘My Pools’ and you’ll see all pools that you belong to. Clicking on a pool name will take you to that pool. You can switch to a different pool by going to ‘My Pools’ again at any time. To Register, click here: http://www.poolhost.com/index.asp?page=register.asp
From The Jewel Box # 23
We were sitting at the table for lunch today and our oldest son says, “Look Daddy. I am a parallelogram!”
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Important note: We will not reveal the names of our children on this blog. Any comment that mentions our children’s names will be deleted. It is nothing personal, we just feel that it is an important safety measure for our family. If you would like to read the other FTJB entries, click on the “From the Jewel Box” link in the side bar on the right or on the Jewel Box icon at the end of this paragraph. Come on parents! Feel free to share special jewels from your precious children. Just know that on this blog, our kids are the cutest! 
Obama For Infanticide?
This is a pretty disturbing video. I don’t know how the guy sleeps at night.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIdbYjmbFzo&hl=en&fs=1]
Keith Walker For President- I’m Going For It!
http://www.paltalk.com/marketing/media/vanksen/main.swf
Yeah, it’s for real all right.
Romney Advocates Following Mormon Prophet, Even If It Is Wrong
No, not that Romney. The other one. Marion G. Romney, 1st cousin once removed from former Presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Yeah, that one.
Marion G. Romney, who attained to the First Presidency of the Mormon Church, once told a story about then President of the LDS Church, David O. McKay. In this story, the LDS President encourages Romney to “keep his eye on the President.” Romney states;
I remember years ago when I was a bishop I had President Grant talk to our ward.
After the meeting, I drove him home. At that time there was a great deal of
criticism against the President of the Church because of a front-page editorial
some of you may remember. We talked about it. When we got to his home I got out
of the car and went up on the porch with him. Standing by me, he put his arm
over my shoulder and said: “My boy, you always keep your eye on the President of
the Church, and if he ever tells you to do anything, and it is wrong, and you do
it, the Lord will bless you for it.” Then with a twinkle in his eye, he said,
“But you don’t need to worry. The Lord will never let his mouthpiece lead the
people astray.”
(Elder Marion G. Romney, Conference Report, October 1960,
General Priesthood Meeting 78.)
Even if it is wrong? This statement raises a number of questions.
First, if something is wrong by nature, who decided that is was wrong? That would be God, right? He has the authority to declare what is right and wrong.
Second, doesn’t the LDS prophet claim to receive authority and direction from God? That being the case, the LDS prophet is himself subject to the authority of God.
Third, why would God bless someone who disobeyed Him because they were obeying someone else of lesser authority?
Fourth, why would that person of lesser authority, i.e. the prophet, encourage people to obey Him even if it is wrong?
Fifth, and this is a side question. Does Mitt Romney agree with this reasoning? If so, and he is chosen as the Vice President and some day is put in the position where he must chose to obey one or the other, how can Americans be assured that he will do the right thing instead of obeying his prophet?
The Heroes Amongst Us
First there was Iron man. Then there was The Hulk, Hancock, Hell boy and now Batman. All of these Summer blockbusters have one thing in common- they are all about super-heroes. Although I want to see all of these movies, I’ve only seen one of them to date. I’m going to see Iron man with a friend soon so I’ll let you guess which superhero movie I’ve already seen.
There are the heroes in the movies and then the every day heroes amongst us that we often look past. I’ve got a superhero on my mind right now, but she isn’t any of those listed above. My hero is my wife, Becky. Let me tell you about her.
First off, I have to say that she is tough. I cannot tell you how many times I heard men talking about her while we were on our mission trip to the Mormons in Manti, Utah. She was severely pregnant, yet still out there on the streets witnessing and serving God. She was in pain, yet shrugged it off by telling me, “They’re worth it” referring to the Mormons to whom we were witnessing. Not only did she impress me, she impressed everyone who saw her.
Now, after given birth to our third child, she continues to impress me. She had to endure her third c-section, yet wanted to make sure that her pain medication was not going to negatively affect our baby boy. Guys, I don’t know if you realize this or not, but having a c-section is major surgery. They cut her open with a laser, dig around until they find the kidlett, pull him out by his little head, nicely set some of her organs on a table and clean a few things up. It is pretty weird seeing her uterus lying on an operating table while she is completely conscious. Of course she could not feel anything then, but even the thought of it could make a lesser woman freak ou
t.
Once we got her and the little one home, she impresses me even more. For the first couple of nights, I have helped her with feeding our son during the night. Once she got the hang of it, she encouraged me to stay in bed because she really didn’t need my help any more. Wow, what a woman! I still get up with her from time to time, but for the most part, I have taken her up on her offer.
There have been a couple of nights where things did not go as smoothly as hoped. Our son wasn’t cooperating with our sleep/feed/sleep schedule and he decided to experiment with a no-sleep/feed/scream/sleep while feeding schedule. That’ll wear on you real quick. I’m a bit ashamed to reveal at what time I crawled out of bed, but Becky was already up. The baby was fed and sound asleep, the two older kids were in their room and I can hear Becky going over some of their phonics rules with them as they are reading through one of their books. That is when it hit me. The patience to do phonics in the morning after a hard, sleepless night? Holy contribution to the education of minors, Batman! I married my hero!
Today marks the 16th anniversary of our marriage. I knew I married the right one 16 years ago, but it is so cool to see God confirm that. Hard times allow us to see what is deep inside and after seeing how she responded to the difficulties of having our third child; I know that I married a true hero.
I love you, Becky.
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