The High Pressure Sales Pitch

Do you do that as well? You buy a groupon with the best intentions to use it, but then you forget and you keep forgetting and then it's almost too late... 

Well, I found one of those and decided to get signed up. It was a groupon for a 14 pass snazzy gym membership. I should probably leave out the 'snazzy', but well, it is snazzy. 

I knew they would try and sell me on their normal membership and was prepared for that. It happens at most fitness groupon places I have tried so far. 

So here I am, waiting for the pitch. the sales guy (who's forearms are seriously the size my thighs - and that means something. (His are muscles!) is taking me for a tour. It's an impressive place with indoor/outdoor pool, basketball court, raquetball and squash court, all kinds of classes and or course the normal weight and cardio sections. 

Then we sit down for the pitch. Throughout the tour I was asking lots of questions, coz I figure, 'hey I paid my groupon and am allowed to use whatever the groupon states I can use. So I'm gonna use it! Lots. So explain sales person.'

He might have thought we've become friends or something. I don't know. 

The sales pitch is a 20 minute affair and let me just document for you the last 7 minutes. (I'm writing down my thoughts in blue)

Forearm guy: So it's $80 if you do month to month. I'm gonna give you June for free, credit the $29 from your groupon and you can cancel it whenever you want to.
Me: I don't know... *I think your math is off Dude. It's $51.*
Forearm guy: You'd only be paying $30!!! For 3 Months!! that's incredible!
Me: How easy is it to cancel? *ugh, I hate cancelling stuff. It's never easy.*
Forearm guy: Real easy
Me: How easy?
Forearm guy: You just fill out one of our cancellation forms. *yeah right!* (Turns out it's a full page long)
Me: .... Hmmm I don't think I can actually afford this right now. *Just paid my taxes, wanna go to Germany, wanna eat... Shouldn't do this. Just wait for the next groupon!*
Forearm guy: I can't guarantee this offer for very long.
Me: ... *Dude, you said it's the April offer. I have til NEXT week to make a decision!!!*

Forearm guy gets out the calculator to use visual aids to help me understand how amazing this offer is. Only thing that happened was that he realised that his math was in fact off and that it's $51 and not $30. Ha!

Forearm guy: Come on. $51!!! That's nothing. *For you that might be nothing. For me that's a week of gas in the tank, part of my rent or food money. It is NOT nothing!!*
Me: Weeeellll.... (I was really thinking about it at this point. It IS a good offer.... But then I made the decision.) You know what, NO, I can't do it right now. I will just do the Groupon for now and think about this offer.
Forearm guy: I can't guarantee this offer... *yeah yeah yeah. You never can. Let me go now!*
Forearm guy: Are you sure???
Me: yes *can I go now? I just wanna go.*
Forearm guy: OK. (then he stood up and walked away as if he was mad at me. Thing was I still need to get the pass for the groupon, but he'd decided he was done with me.

Sales pitches are never fun and I certainly appreciate it far more when you let your product talk for you. My last groupon stint was with a yoga place that I absolutely fell in love with. Not only did they leave me alone with sales pitches, but they played normal music (and not always this yoga ping ping music), put the lights on (and didn't have it dimmer ALL the time), talked with their normal voice (and not the usual soft yoga voice) and they had the best bathroom/lockers with towel service, showers (that include shampoo etc), blow dryer (the ones you'd use at home) and the staff was super friendly. That place was awesome. If you're in Vegas you should check it out http://www.bodyheatyoga.com/ 

This place I am at right now is also very impressive and has great bathrooms/showers/locker rooms (it's just an important thing, ok?), but the high pressure sales pitch left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. And so I won't link to them coz they don't yet deserve it. :) 

I wish I could live my life without the sales pitches. It would be so much easier, but you find them all the time. Most girls have been to the Tupperware type 'parties'. Why do they still call them parties? There's no party, just a friend trying to sucker a group of friends into buying crap they didn't think they needed or wanted. Obviously that concept is still working. I don't understand why though? Maybe it's because most people buy something because it's their friend selling something. So it's a pity buy. 

What do you think of sales pitches and how do you deal with them?

Dear Future Me

So how is life? I wonder about a few things and hope you can answer some of my questions:

1: Have you ever found out why Ellen and Oprah were so freaking famous earlier on? I just can't get why people watch them or what it is that makes them famous. Do people even know who they were?

2: Has anybody been working on a device (or a food) that would enable us to lift ourselves up with our own farts? Still thinking there are some new sports out there, like human air hockey.

3: Has alcohol-free beer really stuck around? It seems weird since you could just have a coke instead of an alcoholic drink.

4: Has anybody invented a wooden chair that actually works? Or one that would be worth fixing? (remember how you 'fixed' those antique chairs? Yeah, they never worked again.

5: If you're still using mobile phones, has anybody managed to improve the battery life yet? I mean, they figured out how to make it smaller, then bigger again, then more apps, better call quality (not really), better plan... But no one worked on the battery...

6: if you're still in the USA, do they still have the normal light bulbs? And do they still insist on using toilet seat covers? What about free refills on sodas? (now that's a GREAT thing). And what about those HUGE cars?

These are all things I would love to find out. But the most important thing I want to know is if you managed to stick close to God and tell as many people as you can about Him. Remember how you wanted to go deeper with Him? Experience more adventures, talk to more people? You better have done that by now, Future Me. Remember how Jesus needs to be the center of your life. Maybe a lot of things have changed. Some for the better, some for the worst. But, Furture Me, hear me: You better have not let go of the one thing that never changes!! You better have a stronger faith, a better understanding of who Jesus is and you better have learned to listen and obey (not the delayed obedience, but the real thing).

Good on ya, Future Me, if you're still hanging with Jesus and sharing Him with others. If NOT, you better get your butt back to Him. And tell Him 'Sorry' from Past Me.

When you find a cool website...

you should share it... 
So I'm doing it...


Click here to read this report


It's a really cool photo report about juvenile detention in the US. Makes me think. 

What got these kids to those places? Not as in, what crime. But what was their home life like?Did they ever have someone who cared enough to actually set breakfast out on a table, with cutlery and plates and stuff? Did someone tell them that they are loved?How were they talked to? Was there yelling in almost every sentence?  

 Why did they mess up so bad?

This is why I love going into the juvenile detention center and talking to them about Jesus and how he took their sentence. He took everything they deserved. 

Grace - getting something we don't deserve

And how can we stop youths from getting into 'the system'? The question I'm asking myself is 'What can I do to give these youths a chance to hear about Christ and to feel loved?


Here's a chart from that website that also made me think:

That really makes me think about the great need of teaching, mentoring and CARING long before these kids become criminal.


What do you think?

Youth in Jail

Every Saturday I get to share with youth in jail. These guys are amazing. And yet, they are bad. Very bad. But so amazing. 
Here are some of my favourite moments from just this last week:

Miss? Who's Hosanna? (while watching the worship DVD) 

Me: How do you make friends?Them: We beat them up, check if they have money in their wallets and then usually we become friends. (totally serious about that. Now I'm thinking I might try this method at church this weekend!?) 

Miss, why doesn't God want to look at us? (question while I'm trying to explain that God is holy and the need for Jesus. Apparently I am not doing a good job at that)

I usually walk out of there puzzled.  And then I look back through the glass door, see them smiling and waving at me and they seem so happy when I smile and wave back. Totally love what I do. Totally worth every weird and awkward moment. You know... The ones that I can't publish here! :)

Borthwick - May he rest in peace... Part 6 (conclusion)

After church and lunch and fellowship and what not we were still trying to figure how we could get back to Darwin.


It's not like we had money. 


But thanks to some friends in Darwin who bought us Greyhound tickets we suddenly had a way back. 


We stayed the night in Katherine with a family, watched kids bull riding (yeah, really!) and then slept on the floor, on couches, in beds... Until the next morning when we woke up to rain. 



Now rain in the tropics is not just rain. Usually it's a lot of rain. 
But it's also not the random event like we have it here in Las Vegas now. At that time we were in the middle of the wet season and rain was to be expected. 
But this was A LOT of rain. So even driving from the house (outside of Katherine) to the bus station (Centre of Katherine) took several trips and quite a while because streets had started to flood. 


When we got to the bus station we found out that our bus was cancelled. The road out of Katherine was flooded. 
Panic set in, as we had tickets to fly to Indonesia in 2 days. We HAD to get out. Fast. 


There was a bus. There was a driver. But the road was flooded and we couldn't get out. 


We huddled together as a team and did the only thing we knew how to do... We prayed... 


10 minutes later the driver came up to us, told us to put our luggage in the bus (where the seats are, not underneath, because of the flooding) and told us to get in. Shortly after the bus started moving and we started towards Darwin. 


The driver kept on saying that the road was still considered closed but that he was gonna try to get through. Since us and our luggage were the only ones on the bus we all claimed 2 seats and started praying like crazy. 


It was still raining and there were parts of streets that you couldn't see anymore. Flooded with brown water, half the area on the way out of town was already not visible anymore. 


But we made it out. 


Now that doesn't seem like a big deal. But it was.... 


Turns out this storm and the rain was the worst in decades.
We were on the last bus/vehicle that left town for the next 10 days. The whole town flooded. As in REALLY flooded. Water up to the roof, people hanging out on top of the roof, getting picked up by helicopters - in short: Water everywhere. 




Now why is that story so amazing?

* Well, we made our flight to Indonesia and saw hundreds of people come to Christ.* We wouldn't have made that IF we would have had our own vehicle (Borthwick), as he wasn't high enough to pass through the flood waters, like the greyhound bus was able to. 

So Borthwick died so that we could go on outreach... 
Rather like Jesus died so that we can have life. 


Basically the same thing. :)

Happenings over the past few months

RUSH—

 Rewriting Ur Story Here:

RUSH is the youth version of God Behind Bars and what I’ve worked on for the past few months.

It’s about introducing youth to Jesus through a weekend worship experience on the inside; helping them deal with life’s issues through Freedom (Celebrate Recovery for students) and then disciple them when they get out through our mentorship program (Project 22)

We provide mentors who walk with them, check up on them, do stuff together and care. The mentorship program includes things like sports camps, rap/dance studio and more. It’s amazing!

We are getting ready!!!

Twelve volunteers came and got trained (a full day operation) and we were able to video the training to be shown in Vegas, as the center we are working with is 3 hours away.

Needs to be able to launch (please pray)

· Equipment such as projector, screen, sound system etc.

· Games such as Basketball hoop, balls etc

· About 20 more volunteers

My Day with God

At one point I realized I was quite worried about a number of things and to get some perspective I was able to take a day and spend it with God at Mt Charleston. (I’m really blessed that I can even do that kind of thing)

It was a great day filled with good talks with Jesus, new ideas, sorting out my head and gaining new insights and perspective.

Things I learned:

· Psalm 91 still blows my mind

· Things are not as bad as I sometimes think they are

· I came out of the day with a renewed passion for God and going deeper with Him.

Random exciting stuff in short:

· We just recently trained 30 volunteers (getting ready to reach more inmates)

· We also partnered up to put on a huge sports day for kids and youth

· We’re close to launching another adult campus in Colorado

· RUSH launched in the youth unit at the jail 3 weeks ago!!

Random stuff I do and love

· My church small group rocks

· My Junior High Small group has been challenging, but it’s been good. I get to hang out with JH girls… How much better can it get?

· Love going to Midnight Hockey games (game starts at midnight. Oh and I LOVE the mascot!)

· I’m part of the medical team at church again. Because I can and I love it

Random stuff I need or want:

· German Bread (it’s just THAT good)

· Learn Spanish for real

· $$$ for my flight to Germany ($1,500!!! Yikes!)

· Be more positive (that’s a need AND a want)

Website you should check out sometime:

www.godbehindbars.com and www.churchwithinmates.com

Cyber hang outs: 

twitter.com/jackie/doyle and facebook.com/jackie.doyle and jackieinvegas.tumblr.com 

________________________________________________

Yes, you can support me:

For  online giving go to: www.godbehindbars.com and find the ‘donate now’ button on the bottom.
 Make sure you put my name in the comments and questions box to ensure it goes towards me. You can set it up to be automatic and it sends you an email every time it gets taken out of your account.

For 'old school' giving send checks to:

God Behind Bars

c/o Jackie's support

129 W Lake Mead Parkway

Suite 22

Henderson NV 89015

USA

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If you have any questions about why, how or how much you can send an email to jackiegotmail (at) gmail (dot) com