anniversary

It was one year ago today that God set in motion the events that would lead us to apply to the Air Force Chaplain Candidate Program. For those that have been following this blog you probably already know the story, but in case anyone wants to read the details you can find them here. As I stated in my last post I found out that I have been accepted into the program. Well, I have received my letter of appointment and this past Friday we drove to Cullman, AL to meet Dee Dee's parents so that her dad (who is a retired Air Force officer) could swear me in as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Air Force Reserve. All that's left now is to get the final paperwork in so that I can receive my orders to attend training this summer. This has been a long process and at times we wondered if we were really following God's plan. But every step of the way He has revealed to us that we are doing what He wants us to do. Thanks for all the support and especially for all the prayers that so many have offered up for us over the past year. They really mean alot to us.

into the blue

Well it's official now. I just got off the phone with my recruiter and he has received my letter of appointment as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Air Force Reserve. All that's left now is for me to be sworn in and to contact the Chaplain Candidate Office to have my orders cut for this summer's training classes. I'm not sure yet exactly when we'll get the oath accomplished. I have asked my father-in-law, who is a retired Air Force officer, to swear me in, so we have to wait till they can wrap things up in Louisiana with his dad and drive up. This has been an incredibly long year of working towards this point but we have seen the hand of God on us throughout the process. We continue to pray that he would guide us and we continue to covet your prayers as we prepare for this next phase in our lives. I'll be gone for 6 weeks this summer so Dee Dee will need lots of prayers and support to make it through that time with 3 kids and no family in the area.

Well I better cut this off. I have two mid-terms this week and I need to get to studying. I post more details later.

ports, pork barrels and whiny politicians

Wow. It's amazing how quickly time can pass by between posts. It feels like just a couple days ago that I made my last post on this blog but I see that is has been almost two weeks. With school assignments and meetings and projects at work time can very quickly get away from me. Anyway, on the the reason for this post.

I have not said anything about the whole port scandal though I have been following it via talk radio and the internet. Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about a Middle Eastern country controlling some of the terminals in our ports. The security is still the responsibility of the Coast Guard and the Dept. of Homeland Defense but it just doesn't seem quite right to me to allow a potentially hostile country to control some of the means of shipping in this country. But that's not really what this post is about anyway. My problem with the whole situation was the way legislation was presented to oppose it. Attaching an amendment to a bill that the President could not possibly veto just seems like a dirty underhanded trick to me. I know, I know, it's the way things are always done in Washington. You attach an amendment to a bill in order to get your pet project through. And that's my problem. Our politicians act like a bunch of kids. If they can't get enough other people to agree to vote for their pet projects they whine and cry like a bunch of babies and find a way to slip it through. You can almost here them sitting around saying "Well if you don't vote for this, I won't vote for that." In fact, sometimes you actually can hear them saying it. I hear echos of children playing "If you don't play like I want to play I'm going to take my toys and go home. Nyah." I just wish they'd all grow up and let their bills live or die on the strength of their own merits, and stop attaching riders for silly insignificant junk to bills that really matter.

*Stepping down off soap box now.

some companies still believe in customer service

As I'm sure many others have, I have long been decrying the general decline in customer service in our culture. The old adage of "the customer is always right" seems to have been pitched out the window in favor of an "I just show up to get my paycheck and I don't care what you want" type of attitude. Well, today I found one company that still has excellent customer service. I ordered some of my books for this semester through Christianbook.com. One of the books was on back order so it was not shipped out with the others. I checked my account yesterday and noticed that the back ordered book had indeed been shipped, 2 weeks ago. I called Christianbook today. As is common a computer answered and gave me a list of options to choose from. But it was only 2 options as opposed to the confusing list of possibilities at many other companies. I selected my option and was placed on hold ... for a total of about 3 seconds. The person that answered listened to my explanation then asked for the order number. When she pulled up my order she said "Yep, it would probably be there by now so we'll reship it." I was flabbergasted. In a world where we have to navigate increasingly confusing automated phone systems, and then explain our problems to 17 different levels of management before being told that it's not the company's fault and that there is nothing they can do to rectify the situation, here is one company that still believes in customer satisfaction. I'll definitely be ordering more from them in the future.