Sunday, May 22, 2011
Flight Itinerary
I thought it might be a good idea to put this on here, I know some of you might be curious to see where I am and when I am in transition. Its kind of funny because basically I had to have 3 round trips... love it.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
The Luau
Well, Last night we had our final official fund raiser. It was a huge success! Our Hawaiian themed Uganda event always makes me chuckle, but it is so much easier to find Hula and fire dancers, then it is to find tribal dancers. =) Everyone loves Hawaii, and that is what people naturally think of when they think of a tropical Paradise.
We had a number of fun booths that our team members staffed; Picture booth, face painting, bounce house, shaved ice, a small section to buy nice Hawaiian clothing and African necklaces, food, and the main events for the evening. I worked in the sound booth with Matt Robertson (New ALC Technical ministries guy), whom I didn't really know all that well, but now that I have spent some time with him; I think he is outstanding. He was a great help. The live and silent auctions went well, the Limbo went well, The hula dancers were very nice dinner entertainment. Then we dimmed the lights put on some rhythmic and pounding music and brought the Fire dancers in. They did awesome. I actually brought my tripod so that I could attempt to get some good pictures of them this year, and I think it worked out.
Thanks so much to everyone who attended, and who helped. The team did an outstanding job.
If you would like to see the most recent picture of the School that we have been and will be working on at Adventure Village, you can click this link.... LINK
We had a number of fun booths that our team members staffed; Picture booth, face painting, bounce house, shaved ice, a small section to buy nice Hawaiian clothing and African necklaces, food, and the main events for the evening. I worked in the sound booth with Matt Robertson (New ALC Technical ministries guy), whom I didn't really know all that well, but now that I have spent some time with him; I think he is outstanding. He was a great help. The live and silent auctions went well, the Limbo went well, The hula dancers were very nice dinner entertainment. Then we dimmed the lights put on some rhythmic and pounding music and brought the Fire dancers in. They did awesome. I actually brought my tripod so that I could attempt to get some good pictures of them this year, and I think it worked out.
Thanks so much to everyone who attended, and who helped. The team did an outstanding job.
If you would like to see the most recent picture of the School that we have been and will be working on at Adventure Village, you can click this link.... LINK
God working in my life
About a year ago I was living with a few guys in a place over in Milwaukie. I remember the day that the landlord raised the rent, I was going to have to get out of there and find a place that would be cheaper. I only had about a week before I was leaving for Africa, which was about a 2 month trip. I packed up my stuff and landed at some friends place just before my plane took off. My problems were solved for the time being. When It came time to do taxes, I wasn't getting all the information that I needed. My Mortgage Lender was one of the only remaining companies to send me my information. I called them up, and turned out that they still had that address in Milwaukie, so I had them change it to My Aunt and Uncles place in West Linn. That is where I like to keep my mailing address, because I know that I will always receive my mail. I got my tax information successfully, and filed, once again, my problems were solved. About a week ago I received a letter in the mail from my mortgage company. In this letter was a check written out for my mortgage amount. Naturally I wondered why it was there, and when I read the letter it said that I need to call them to find out. I didn't want to lose it in the chaos of my floorboards, so I put it in my glove box. I went to the Strannigan's house after work today, to talk to them about their back yard project. They had just returned from a trip to Palm Springs. They never got the chance to spend time together and relax while they were there, so they told me to go ahead and not worry about working on the project today. I was actually relieved since it was pouring outside, and I had all these loose ends that needed to be tied up. I got home and opened my glove box for the garage door opener and noticed the letter. As I looked closer at the letter I noticed the words "Service Release" and took that immediately to mean that they no longer were providing me with a mortgage service; they must have sold my loan! I got inside, and started working on my list of things to do. I called the mortgage company to find out what was going on. Sure enough, they sold my loan. There was something going on though, when I called them they said that they were forwarding payments for the first two months. So, why were they cutting me a check? I found out that my loan was paid in full on November 1st of 2010. So that meant that 6 months had gone by since the loan was sold. I never received notification that there was a change in mortgage lender.. I got the name of the new mortgage company and called their number. When they started talking to me I had this internal realization that if they sold my loan in November, and the old mortgage company only forwarded the first two payments, that would make me 4 months delinquent with the new lender! Sure enough, 
I was 4 payments delinquent, and my account had been handed over to the loss mitigation department and was in foreclosure. It had also been sent to their attorney's office where it had now accrued legal fees of over $1000. I called over the course of the next two days talking to whomever I could trying to reason with them. I had all my payments since they were being rejected, and returned to me, but I could not afford the Legal fees. Every single person that I spoke to was a brick wall. I swear everyone was trained to answer only the questions that had been given to them on a memo and push the one button that just moves callers onto a different department.
The day was over for everyone in the office and I had to sleep on it. Matthew 6 popped into my head as I was venting to a co-worker;
"Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?"
The next day, after the 6th person I had talked to, I felt defeated. I remember saying to God, "God, if this is what has to happen, then your will be done, but I pray that you would show me favor with this company. I pray that this wont stop me from gong to Uganda." I knew this was all God's money. Maybe God was sending me through a little test to see if I would give up. So, feeling defeated, I looked down at my sheet, and realized that there was some information that I forgot to ask for. I called the customer service back and talked to a man named Chris. I got the information that I needed from him, then he asked me if there was something that he could help me with. I told him "Probably not, I have spoken with about 7 other people that probably work right around you and they have all told me the same thing. "I know you get to talk to people who are angry all day, and I'm sure that it must be exhausting for you. I don't want to be one of those people, because I have already done that to your co-workers." He told me to give him a shot. so I went ahead and told the story to him. After I had given him the run-down on the situation, he told me that he understood where I was coming from. He said that he also saw it from my side and thought that the charges were unfair. He moved me on to speak with someone else in a different department, but he actually got up and went and explained my case to this new person. I believe this new person was his supervisor. The next man I spoke to was named Todd. He answered the phone and said "Mr. Neil, I see that you have a problem here, and I want to help you solve it. Could you please tell me what is going on with these 4 payments that are delinquent?" so I told him the story too. He said that I seemed like I nice guy, and he also saw where I was coming from. He wanted to talk to his manager and show him my case, and see if there wasn't something that could be done about my situation. My new instructions from him were to sit tight, and wait for him to call me back on Monday. He said that this was now his problem and that he was going to work on it to see that something is accomplished. I hung up the phone and not 10 minutes later did he call me back and let me know that he had spoken with his manager and they thought that they could help me out a little bit. He said, "I'm going to let you know what we came up with and you can let me know if it is satisfactory for you. The Legal fees; don't worry about them, you will not be charged. The late fees however, we can not forgive because the payments are in fact late. what we can do, however is reduce them for you. My manager and I agreed that reducing them by half would be fair. Is that fair for you?" I was blown away.
"I am more than happy to pay for half of the late fees. you have been a great help, thank you so much for helping me." The legal fees were going to put quite a bit of stress on my trip to Uganda and Italy. I had a number of people praying that this would work out, and God came through as he always does.
"So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Change your address when you move out of a place.
The day was over for everyone in the office and I had to sleep on it. Matthew 6 popped into my head as I was venting to a co-worker;
"Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?"
The next day, after the 6th person I had talked to, I felt defeated. I remember saying to God, "God, if this is what has to happen, then your will be done, but I pray that you would show me favor with this company. I pray that this wont stop me from gong to Uganda." I knew this was all God's money. Maybe God was sending me through a little test to see if I would give up. So, feeling defeated, I looked down at my sheet, and realized that there was some information that I forgot to ask for. I called the customer service back and talked to a man named Chris. I got the information that I needed from him, then he asked me if there was something that he could help me with. I told him "Probably not, I have spoken with about 7 other people that probably work right around you and they have all told me the same thing. "I know you get to talk to people who are angry all day, and I'm sure that it must be exhausting for you. I don't want to be one of those people, because I have already done that to your co-workers." He told me to give him a shot. so I went ahead and told the story to him. After I had given him the run-down on the situation, he told me that he understood where I was coming from. He said that he also saw it from my side and thought that the charges were unfair. He moved me on to speak with someone else in a different department, but he actually got up and went and explained my case to this new person. I believe this new person was his supervisor. The next man I spoke to was named Todd. He answered the phone and said "Mr. Neil, I see that you have a problem here, and I want to help you solve it. Could you please tell me what is going on with these 4 payments that are delinquent?" so I told him the story too. He said that I seemed like I nice guy, and he also saw where I was coming from. He wanted to talk to his manager and show him my case, and see if there wasn't something that could be done about my situation. My new instructions from him were to sit tight, and wait for him to call me back on Monday. He said that this was now his problem and that he was going to work on it to see that something is accomplished. I hung up the phone and not 10 minutes later did he call me back and let me know that he had spoken with his manager and they thought that they could help me out a little bit. He said, "I'm going to let you know what we came up with and you can let me know if it is satisfactory for you. The Legal fees; don't worry about them, you will not be charged. The late fees however, we can not forgive because the payments are in fact late. what we can do, however is reduce them for you. My manager and I agreed that reducing them by half would be fair. Is that fair for you?" I was blown away.
"I am more than happy to pay for half of the late fees. you have been a great help, thank you so much for helping me." The legal fees were going to put quite a bit of stress on my trip to Uganda and Italy. I had a number of people praying that this would work out, and God came through as he always does.
"So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Change your address when you move out of a place.
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