AT&T Mixes In Some Tourism Strategy

AT&T has their thinking cap on. Yesterday they announced that they will be continuing to expand and improve their wireless service on Block Island, also known as New Shoreham, Rhode island. 
    This is a very smart move. They are capitalizing on the frustrations that many travelers feel when they do not have good cell reception while on vacations.
    According to Steve Krom, vice president and general manager, AT&T New England,

 "Our goal is for our customers to have an extraordinary experience everywhere they use their mobile devices, including at popular summer destination spots like Block Island. We're always looking for new opportunities to provide an enhanced customer experience, and our investment in the local wireless network is just one way we're accomplishing that..."

    In 2009, AT&T signed a 2 year marketing agreement with the main tourism organization in New York City which "provided an integrated package of marketing assets to allow AT&T and its YELLOWPAGES.COM brand to reach customers throughout New York City." This agreement allowed them to integrate popular  search products with the AT&T user experience, creating better connectivity between tourists and the city. It also provided businesses associated with the tourism board to access special deals and promotions from AT&T. This seems like a win win situation. 
    I would love to see them do this with more tourism associations, especially in New England. They could do the same things in Providence and other Rhode Island destinations such as Newport and Block Island. Like they did in NYC, they could offer specific web to phone integration with VisitRhodeIsland.com, extra snippets for those walking the new Providence Independence Trail, and even connect with TonightInRI.com/.  
   They could get specific branding partnerships with T.F. Green, RIPTA, and the Providence train station.  
   These are just suggestions, but I was definitely happy to see a corporation actually thinking about travelers. Yes they will profit in some way, but so will those now able to get better signals on Block Island and other destinations.


    AT&T also supports tourism in other ways as well. They sponsor the AT&T Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City Oklahoma, AT&T Center for Performing Arts in Dallas Texas, AT&T Park in San Francisco California. They also provide wireless services to airports such as the Newark Liberty International Airport. 


In fact, according to Premium Traveler Magazine, AT&T repeatedly gets voted as the carrier with the "Best Mobile Phone Coverage." This year is their fourth year with that recognition and Bill Hague, executive VP of international, AT&T mobility and consumer markets says that this affirms "that AT&T customers appreciate our commitment to connecting them to the people and information that matters most during their travels." 


Getting into the tourism market is a smart plan. After all, the U.S Travel Association says that in 2009 there were about 1.9 billion times that people traveled for business and leisure. Most often people who travel are interested making their trips more exciting, convenient, and comfortable, a reason AT&T could make a killing. 

Thoughts on Grief: Don't Do That To Me

 I thought this excerpt very helpful out of a very helpful article by Robyn Huck, Grief Diary 4: "Meltdown in the Produce Aisle."  She is talking about an "artichoke meltdown."  I've had one of those before, maybe not with artichokes, but more like a "car oil meltdown." haha.

If I were to come to you for counsel, what would you do? Are you going to pull out a book on “stages” of grief and tell me that I’m fitting some standard pattern and will “get over” it in 1 to 4 years? Or will you be concerned that I’ve seemed to skip a step or two? Please don’t do that to me. 

Instead, explore the specifics of my sorrow, my fear, and my longing—with me. Let this be a time of growth and enrichment. Because you, dear Christian, have the very best answers to these feelings that anyone can give. But you will also know not to rush to answers. First, you weep with those who weep. I am vulnerable right now, and I am sharing very deep things with you. Don’t rush. 

There are big fat categories of typical responses to grief that my experience does fit into. But if you counsel me in generalities, checking off boxes on a prefab list, you’re not going to be a lot of help to me. Certainly, I do want to hear that I’m not crazy, and I might need to be reminded that everyone experiences grief in their lives, but I don’t want to be lost in check-lists or categories. Treat me as an individual, because I’m hurting and feeling very alone. Generalities will make me lonelier. 

But once you know me well, telling me how I personally fit into the bigger picture of life is not speaking generalities. It’s helping me make sense of what I’m feeling.

The plain fact is, living in this world hurts. And as Ecclesiastes teaches, it makes no sense without the knowledge of God to anchor our experience into his plan. We need to see each enjoyable moment, each glimpse of beauty, each smile, each sunrise as a gift from Him.

Check out the whole article though. It's worth it.

Titus 2: But Where's My Older woman?

In her Radical Womanhood blog post- "Where's My Older Woman," Carolyn McCulley talks about how many times she has read the Titus 2 passage, where God is exhorting older women to train-up the younger women in godliness:

Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Titus 2:3-4

And after reading said, "Ok God, where is my older women to mentor and disciple me? I'm not seeing her." All the while expecting that some "elusive, grandmotherly type" would come and take her under her wing and teach her everything about being a godly woman, just like her. But then she realized she had never asked God, "Lord, who is my younger woman to disciple?"

Wow. Ouch. How challenging. 

I honestly spent a lot of time this summer in a needy, selfish mindset, complaining to God that there weren't any older women in our church who could disciple me, while hardly even looking for a younger person who I could disciple!  I love how Carolyn says:  

Yes, you are a sinner, but Jesus has redeemed you. 

Yes, you need to grow and mature, but God has also given you a tremendous amount of wisdom and insight. True, you will never be perfect, but that doesn’t mean you can’t by God’s grace be a loving, caring older woman to a younger woman."  

She goes on, pointing to 1 Corinthians 12:12-31- 

Paul explains that we are one body united by Jesus through the Holy Spirit. As a body we are to care for individual members, using the gifts and abilities God has given us. We don’t have to wait for the Christian Martha Stewart to come along and make us just like her. We have been adopted by God the Father through his Son, Jesus, and are now being made more like him (Ephesians 4:22-24).

Who knows, maybe if we all took that more seriously, your older woman would come along, too. But if not, what joy you will have in training your younger woman! Let’s not allow Jesus’ sanctification, the gifts for life and godliness that we each possess, end with us, ladies. Pray for God to put younger women in your life, who you can pursue and help point to Jesus.

I am only 21, and maybe you are only 25, or 31. But lets really take the time to ask:

  "Ladies, who is your younger woman?" 

Marriage is a Hospital: And Other Lessons on Married Life from Martin Luther

I love Martin Luther and what he has to say on marriage. So do the guys over at The Resurgence, which have been host to a series solely dedicated to Luther and holy matrimony which I have been enjoying incredibly. This article by Justin Taylor, titled 4 Lessons from Luther on Married Life stood out to me quite a bit so I thought, "Nows the time!" (to share a little tidbit of course.)

No marriage seminars will tell you this, but Luther will: marriage is like a hospital. You won’t find the metaphor understandable or appealing until you realize that you are sick and that you need to be healed. Here’s how Luther put it:
The temptation of the flesh has become so strong and consuming that marriage may be likened to a hospital for incurables which prevents inmates from falling into graver sins.

Luther biographer Roland Bainton picks up another metaphor in his writings:

"After his own marriage Luther’s tone shifted to a stress upon the home as a school for character. It is the area where the Christian virtues find their readiest exemplification, and, whereas in Catholicism monasticism is the sphere for the cultivation of the counsels of perfection, in Protestantism the home is as it were a functional substitute."

Both metaphors—a school and a hospital—signal the important role of marriage as an agent of sanctification and rehabilitation. Our selfishness and pride are exposed. And if we respond in God-honoring humility, marriage can be used by God to cleanse us of our sin. The shift away from the monastic metaphor is also significant, for it signifies that marriage is never a purely private affair. Christian marriage is not to be of the world, but it must certainly be in the world.

Amen, Luther, Amen. (Like I even know)

Check out others in the series:

• Luther: The 40-Year-Old Virgin?
• When Martin Met Katie
• The Original Lutheran Marriage: Love and Marriage Aren’t Always Like a Horse and Carriage
• The Luthers' Marriage

"About Love, or, Why I Hate Attraction."

I love CCEF (Christian Counseling and Education Foundation). I literally aim to read all of their books, blogs, booklets, web content, and heck I would go to their school if I lived in Philly. They are legit, bible based, gospel oriented, and rock solid. And so I figured I would share the love.

Ed Welch recently wrote an article titled "About Love, or, Why I Hate Attraction," and its super interesting. If you have been around me for more than 231431 minutes, you will know how I stand on relationships and attraction. No, I DO NOT hate attraction, and I am NOT some sort of crazy prudish love hater.

I just think the role that so many people place attraction in, the center role usually- well, needs to be rethought a little bit.
I IMPLORE you to read the whole article. Click the title below.

About Love, Or, Why I Hate Attraction: by Ed Welch

Here is a tasty tidbit:

"Attraction is fun, and in Western systems of courtship and marriage, it is the way couples get started, but attraction is about me. It’s about how someone makes me feel. In that sense, attraction is rubbish. It gets people together but it is powerless to keep them together. Even more, attraction, without the addition of other forms of love, promises to separate marriages and any once-close relationship."

Amen brother, and I would possibly go so far to say that this kind of love should be adapted and applied to all Christian relationships. Example, are we "attracted" to your friends, because they can do something for us? Are we "attracted" to our church because of how it serves our "needs"? Or are we loving like Christ has called us to?


Thoughts?

The Soul of Russia: Fascinating Look Into Russian Orthodoxy

This article from National Geographic is literally the most fascinating article I have ever read on the Russian Orthodox Church pre- and post Soviet Union. The article chronicles an introspective man’s journey and observations about the battle that the church has faced in the past 80 years. It goes on to tell of some of the victories that the Orthodox church has experienced, as well as short comings and failures.

This article slightly touches on the friction between western denominations, or “sects,” and the people of Russia, as well as the perceived desire for the Orthodox church to become the state church.

 I recommend that you check it out. click the title below.

Soul of Russia By Serge Schmemann 


Interesting tidbit:
"The Soviet regime was the product of faithlessness, but at least it allowed real believers to live the flame of faith," he says. "Today we are more concerned with fighting sects and 'enemies' than with repentance. These forces are tearing the church from within."

According to Nikolai Mitrokhin, a historian and critic of the church, about 60 percent of Russians today identify themselves as Orthodox—they may be baptized, married, and buried in the church—but less than one percent actually enter a church at least once a month. Other sources put the figure closer to 10 percent. One reason for the sparse attendance may be that the Orthodox Church is not entirely friendly to people who are casual or clueless about its hallowed traditions."