Countdown to Africa:
Back in the US, probably sleeping :p

Hey everyone! I returned from South Africa a few days ago and have been running around like a chicken with its head cut off in attempt to try and catch up with my life back in the US. True, I’d much rather be back in eSikhawini, but the reality is that I’m here now and so I must now do what I must do.

Over the next few weeks, expect to see lots of materials from the mission trip (snippets from journal entries, pictures, spiritual reflections, etc) as well as to hear about my thoughts on a return visit. Unfortunately, my camera broke, so I don’t have as many pictures as I wanted, but there’s still lots of great photos to share.

For now, I’d like to encourage you to check out my entirely revised about me page (just did it today) as well as the all-new Internet Goodness page with some of my awesome internet findings.

Dear friends,

For many of you, this is just one of several notes from me that you’ve been reading during the past few months. For some, this may be the first. For some, you may barely know me, or perhaps not have a clue who I am! Regardless of how you’ve ended up here, I hope you’ll spend a few minutes reading. However you may have arrived, I believe that you’ve ended up here for some reason. Please pass it on (links are good) if you feel there are other people who should read it as well.

In just 20 days, I will board a plane with 17 other college kids from Kensington church, headed to do mission work in eSikawini, South Africa. Many of you have been following along with me during the incredible journey I’ve been on leading up to this trip, through my letters, emails, and website. Thank you for your prayers. Thank you for your support and encouragement. Thank you to all of you who have given donations, as well as to all of you who desired to contribute but simply cannot with today’s grim financial conditions. I understand that times are very tough now and simply wish to express my deep, sincere gratitude for your willingness and desire to help me in all the ways that you have as I strive to follow where God is leading my life.

This past Wednesday, our New Community service featured the commissioning of many mission teams, including the one I will be working with. The pastor teaching during the service was Dr. Craig Mayes, very arguably my favorite, who himself is also embarking on an exciting journey with God this summer as he leads a church plant team to New York City. I would like to invite you to view the service online by visitng the following link: http://kensingtonchurch.org/message_video/index.asp?id=1771&zzwa=2008-06-04M . Craig’s sermon was absolutely remarkable this past Wednesday, and I would like to highly encourage you to set aside some time to listen to it using the above link. If you look closely, you can see me up on stage a few times!

The remainder of this note will serve as a status update for the different aspects of this very soon upcoming trip.

Spiritually, God has been thoroughly preparing me for the mission through my study of the scriptures as well as through sermons I have been hearing over the past several months. I have also been attending meetings with the mission team and leaders as well as a short retreat this past weekend in Port Sinclair. I feel that I have grown a tremendous amount in the time I have spent preparing for the trip, and look forward to much spiritual growth to take place through serving the Zulu people.

Financially, I am not nearly as prepared for the mission as I had hoped to be. I still need just under $2000 in order to be able to go, and will need to pay for whatever I am unable to raise by myself. If you would be willing to make a tax-deductible donation to this trip, please contact me as the deadline is extremely soon. I would very greatly appreciate your help! I will also be selling Africa t-shirts, available for $15. If you are interested in one or more of these shirts, please contact me.

I wish to thank you again for all the support you have shown me in any way, and ask for your continued prayers as I go through the final countdown before I leave on this mission. Thanks again, and God bless all of you!

This should keep you going for at least a good minute.

Be part of an exciting journey in faith as “C” Branch author Chris DeMarco travels to Africa this Summer!

Among the many exciting developments that have unfolded in my life during this time is an opportunity to go on a short-term mission trip to Africa. Upon much thoughtful prayer and consideration, I have decided to take up this opportunity, and will be traveling to eSikhawini, South Africa for two weeks this July, along with a team of seventeen other college-age students from Kensington.

You can read more and will find many useful resources here.

Last night I received a response back from 1&1 tech support saying that they were going to finally cancel my domain.

Dear Chris DeMarco, (Customer ID: [hidden] )

Thank you for contacting us.

I have set the domain name safenetsurfer.com to cancel. You should see
the refund on the next invoice/statement.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

I found it funny that they wouldn’t just do this in the first place, but at any rate, I got an invoice this morning showing the refund for the domain. Finally, this issue is resolved. Overall, I definitely could have been more impressed, and probably will move away from 1&1 as my domains need to be renewed. At any rate, they did resolve the situation and as far as I can tell, things are good for now.

On Wednesday, April 16th, shortly after publishing my blog entry discussing my problems with 1&1 Internet, I wrote an email to the company’s complaint department. I explained my situation and directed them to the blog entry, found here.

To whom it may concern:

Proceeding my unsuccessful phone conversation with a 1&1 representative earlier today, I have written a blog entry regarding this and previous problems I have encountered with 1&1 service. It can be found at this address: http://www.thecbranch.com/2008/04/16/11-internet-sucks/

I have still not had the domain safenetsurfer.com cancelled and refunded, which is what I sought to accomplish this morning. I cancelled the domain several months ago, and am still being charged for it. I would like to see the domain cancelled and my money refunded as soon as is possible. Unfortunately, should this not happen, I will be forced to be honest in future blog entries on the status of this issue.

My customer ID number is [hidden].

Thank you in advance for your attention with this matter. I will look forward to publishing future blog entries regarding this issue, hopefully with a more positive tone.

So, as promised, I am publishing updates to the situation as new developments arise.

I received an email just a few minutes ago from 1&1 tech support.

Dear Chris DeMarco, (Customer ID: [hidden] )

Thank you for contacting us.

I have looked into the account regarding this matter. The reason for
the domain name safenetsurfer.com not being canceled is due to the
cancellation not being activated. Please activate the cancellation
link which sent to the email address on the account and also a message
is sent to your account which can be viewed through the 1and1 control
panel. Once the cancellation has been activated, I will refund the
account regarding this matter.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

So, I again searched my email for any possible activation links, but again was unsuccessful. However, now that I was made aware that I have a “messages” section on my control panel, I headed there expecting to find a link which I could use to verify my cancellation of the domain.

As you can see from this screenshot, there were no messages in the folder.

So, I have responded to the email from 1&1 as follows:

Thank you for your response. Unfortunately, I never received an email containing any notice of the cancellation or any such activation links. Furthermore, when I looked in my “messages” folder on my 1and1 control panel, I discovered that it was empty, as you can see from this screenshot.

At this point there is nothing further I can do, so I will await your response so that we can resolve this issue. Thank you in advance.

Regards,

Chris DeMarco

Obviously, I’m not too thrilled with their response to this. I’ll keep you posted when I get another response.

Even if your life depended on it, I hope you are smart enough that you would still not resort to using 1&1 Internet - partly because their service is of insanely poor quality, also because they have no consumer relations department, and lastly because their tech support team doesn’t even know how their own service works.

You might recall how, several months ago, some of my sites went down for quite some time when I changed their domains. This was due to 1&1 Internet failing miserably at providing their services. Not only were there several problems in the process, but it also conveniently takes 1&1 an eternity and a half to change DNS addresses, sometimes taking almost a week before my domains were finally functional again.

I also had tons of problems trying to get my email functioning with a third-party service. While trying to figure out how to set this up, I ended up calling 1&1 tech support. Of course, they had no idea what they were talking about when they attempted to advise me on what to do. It was obvious to me that the service representatives I spoke with had little understanding of how domains and DNS work.

Lastly, I received an invoice from 1&1 via email a few days ago. I observed that I was being charged for renewal of a domain which I had cancelled several months ago. Not to mention, when I tried to do this, I had to hunt for quite some time to locate the cancellation site. So, like any other upset customer, I called to speak with the billing department. And, like any other upset customer would, I became angry when the representative refused to help me and attempted to blame me for the situation.

She claimed that I did not click a confirmation link sent to me in an email after I cancelled the domain. Furthermore, she refused to help me over the phone and said that I had to go back to the well-hidden cancellation site and repeat the process I had already done several months ago.

I called because I wanted two things. I wanted the domain cancelled, and the amount I was being charged for this domain refunded. Since neither were accomplished, I called back, this time looking for a consumer relations specialist. I discovered instead that 1&1 does not have a consumer relations department.

So, based on all this, I would never go with 1&1 Internet for any more services again, and hope you would not either. If you’re considering using 1&1, stop and rethink…it could be the worst decision you could make.

Oh hai, look I made a LOL:

Click here and vote foar it a 5 nao plzkthx.

If you haven’t heard yet, you might be interested in hearing how Dr. Neil Warren, founder of eHarmony.com, found love on the internet. There’s only one problem. It was on one of his major competitors’ sites, match.com! Take a look at this: http://www.onlinedatingmagazine.com/news2008/neilwarrenlove.html

And now that you’ve read through that, we can learn two valuable lessons:

1. Online dating is kinda a joke.

AND

2. Always look at a calendar before you believe stuff

Everyone, including the evil one, was certain that it was a checkmate. However, the King still had one more move.

         -Easter Message, Kensington Community Church

If you can make it to one of the services today, I highly, HIGHLY recommend it!
It will change your life, forever. I promise!!