Well, I just found out that Google’s payment processor is now available.  (I can tend to be behind with the news.)  People were saying it was going to be called Google Wallet.  Turns out it’s called Google Checkout.  I think Google is trying to give Paypal a run for it’s money.

Google Checkout’s transaction fees are a lot lower than Paypal’s starting as low as 2.0% and 20 cents a transaction, not too shabby.  The fees can be lowered according to how much you spend in Adwords.  (Which does no good for me since I don’t use Adwords.)  Paypal’s fees start with 2.9% + 30 cents with monthly transactions of $3,000 or less.  The lowest fees are 1.9% + 30 cents with monthly transactions of $100,000 or more.

I wonder if Ebay will allow people to use Google Checkout on Ebay.  I would be surprised if they do since Paypal is an Ebay company and Google is taking over the world.  L.O.L. :)  We’ll see.

I will watch and see how Google Checkout does and I might just add it as a payment option on my site.  Anyone else have an opinion on Google Checkout?  Has anyone used it yet?

I’M WAITING TO GET MY HAIR CUT. I JUST BOUGHT A NEW PHONE IT’S THE POCKET PC BY SPRINT. I’M WRITTING THIS POST WITH IT. IT’S A PRETTY COOL TOY. I BOUGHT IT TO HELP ME STAY ORGANIZED. I HAD SOMEONE GIVE ME A POCKET PC WITH OUT PHONE CAPABILITIES AND IT REVOLUTIONIZED MY LIFE. THIS THING IS TOP NOTCH. IT ALLOWS ME TOCHECK MY EMAILS ON THE RUN. I HAVEN’t FIGURED OUT HOW TO TURN OFF ALL CAPS YET. I’LL GET IT FIGURED OUT EVENTUALLY. I HAVE TO GET MY HAIR CUT. UNTIL NEXT TIME….

I deal with a lot of purchase orders with what I sell.  I’ve finally ran across a company that hasn’t paid up.  They owe around $1200.  I could blast this organization and talk trash about them all over the internet, but that’s not my style.  If I told you their name, everyone would know who they are.  This is my first experience dealing with a customer who is 5 months over due.  I’ll fill you in on how everything works out.  Does anyone out there have any experience with bill collectors?  Fill us in on the best tactics of getting your money back.

I got back from camp the other day and have been using the past couple of days to rest. Camp was awesome! It was a lot of fun. I usually went to bed after 12AM and woke up at 6:10AM. By the second week, I resorted to Red Bulls for energy to make it through the day.

A couple funny things happened during camp. On the first week, we were playing this game where the counselors had to lick 8 pepperonies off a sheet of plexiglass. The pepperonies had cheddar cheese covered over and under them. I made the counselors eat the pepperonies. Two counselors blew chunks. My wife later informed me that they weren’t suppose to eat them, but just lick them off and spit them out. I also saw two counselors who were tubing get launched 15ft in the air. They lost their water shoes and everything. I never in my life saw anyone get launched like that tubing. There were other funny things that happened that I can’t discuss just in case someone from my church stumbles across my blog.

There were a few kids who received Jesus as their savior the first and second week of camp. There were quite a few kids receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I spoke about the baptism of the Holy Spirit on Tuesday night of each week and then I spoke at the Thursday morning chapels. I love to talk about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. My lesson the first week didn’t go as I planned so I rewrote my whole lesson for the second week. If you are interested in the Holy Spirit, check out these scriptures: John chapter 14-16. These chapters took place before Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsamane right before he was crucified. Jesus was telling his disciples the most important things before he left. Guess what Jesus talked about the most in these three chapters and especially in chapter 14 and 16? He talked about the Holy Spirit. Also read Acts chapter 1 and 2. The cool thing is after Jesus rose from the dead he showed himself to hundreds of people and then 40 days after his resurrection he told the disciples not to leave Jerusalem until they received the Holy Spirit of promise. On the day of Pentacost, Acts chapter 2 took place and then the discples began to change the world. I’ll talk more about this Jesus stuff at a later date. I plan on devoting a whole section of my site about Jesus.

Okay, it’s late and I have to get up early, so I’m going to keep my life story short. My mom had my brother when she was 16 and me when she was 17, so I guess you could say she got off to a bad start. It was pretty rough for my mom. She did her best to raise us as a single parent. I had a pretty wierd upbringing. On one hand, there were my grandparents who would take us to church and do their best to speak into our lives. On the other hand, at home there was physical abuse, drinking, and dudes smoking weed in our living room. From my grandparents’ house to my house it was like to opposite worlds. I could go into detail, but it would take too long and I want to keep this a good story. You could just say we went through a lot of crap.

As the years passed, things began to get a little better. My mom began to see that she didn’t want to live the kind of life she was living, so she started attending church. She then got married to a Christian guy. By the time I was in the 8th grade, my mom went from casual church goer to on fire for God, take no prisoners type. The big change in her life came when she made God a bigger part of her life. God went from the “big guy upstairs” to her best friend.

My mom became the person I looked up to. I was a pretty good kid growing up. I didn’t get into drugs. I tried a few things out of peer pressure. As far as alcohol was concerned, I did most of my drinking in elementry school (against my will). I think I stayed out of a lot of stuff just out of respect for my mom. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was weighing all this stuff out in my mind. Really, there are only two paths to take in life. A life that involves Jesus Christ and a life without him. Many people out there would like to debate that statement, but this is my story and I don’t have time to get into debate. Back to the story… by the time I graduated high school I had made the decision that I wanted to serve God, because the other path of life was full of crap.

I went to Bible college and on August 25th of 1998 I went down to the altar and said I just want to know, that I know, that I’m saved. I want to know that when I die I’ll be going to heaven. Growing up, I knew about God, but I never had a relationship with him. I didn’t even understand what salvation was. Romans 10:9-10 says” If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Paraphrased) If you believe that Jesus rose from the dead and say He’s your Lord, it is on like Donkey Kong! I have more to say about that at a later date. But any how, I’m going to Bible college and I end up accidently getting involved with children’s ministry. I started doing children’s ministry inside a church. Then later, I started working with both children in the church and in the inner-city. The church I was involved with had a bus ministry where we bussed in more than 1200 kids a week. I love inner-city ministry because those kids are going through some of the same things I did when I was a kid. After Bible college, I started doing full-time children’s ministry. I went to a couple of countries and was involved in a couple mass crusades. I’ve seen so many families changed because they had an encounter with their creator. This is why I do what I do. I do full-time children’s ministry because I get to see lives change.

I have an internet business because I enjoy it, and I like the idea that my wife can stay at home and instill values in our children. Being a dad is an amazaing thing for me. I get to be what I never had. My boy isn’t going to get exposed to all the junk I did. My boy is going to have a father. This is how my wheels turn. It’s about living a life with a purpose.

This upcoming Sunday, I will be leaving for camp. I go to camp for two weeks every summer. I come home for about a day and a half on the weekend and then I go back. There’s no tv, no internet, and no cell phone reception. Really, I don’t have time to miss any of these things. When you get to camp, you hit the ground running. You go to bed way late and get up way early. About 200 kids attend each week. It’s a lot of fun. We have a zip line, rock wall climbing, innertubing, and all that fun stuff.

Every year, the church where I work, opens up camp for two weeks. It’s an awesome time. My internet business only takes up about 15% of my time. The rest of my time is spent with my family and doing ministry. My wife and I used to work together doing children’s ministry until she had our son. Now she is a stay at home mom. My goal with the internet business was just to replace her income. I believe by the end of the year her income will be totally replaced or very close to it. I said all that just to say the internet isn’t my greatest passion in life. My passion is helping other people. I enjoy making money on the internet and all that, but it isn’t everything. Maybe before I go to camp I will share my life story or something. I’m really short on time this week, but I really want to fill in my readers about who I am, what I do, and why I do it. It will give you an insight on my business philosophy and will hopefully get your eyes on what matters most in life.