My 200th Post - MyPhone

Recently I was researching for a message I'll be giving in a month, and as I did so I read a guy's blog where he started it off by saying "The iPhone is now MyPhone". Well, those words are now MyWords.

To celebrate my 200th blog post, I'm going to admit to the world that I now own an iPhone. One of my friends who shall remain nameless (but his initials are Mike Goril) said "Erin, I'm a single guy who gets paid very well, and even I can't justify buying an iPhone.  How does a guy like you afford to get one?"

Well, Mr. Anonymous Mike and all those with similar thoughts, let me tell you a story that will hopefully glorify God in the purchase of a little gadget...

My church has asked that each of the Equipping Staff have a cell phone.  I was the last one to not have one.  I knew that I would function best with a smartphone - to have my PDA and cell phone combined.  I've used Palm OS systems for years, so I figured I would get a Treo 680, the least expensive Palm on the market.  But a "free" Treo 680 actually ended up costing $40 more after a 2-year contract than an iPhone did after its 2-year contract.

So I was surprised I was even considering an iPhone.  I mean it was too expensive, right?  But then Apple started selling "refurbished" units (which I now believe was actually a clearance of brand new units given their recent decisions concerning the iPhone) for $100 less.  So now I needed to come up with $400.

I happened to be on the Tapland forums (which I hadn't visited for probably a year), and someone in Uganda was wanting to buy a Zodiac 2, which was the PDA I was using daily.  So I offered to sell it for $100 and my new Ugandian friend agreed to it and paid the shipping.

So then I needed to come up with $300.  As I pondered this, I realized I am planning to close my web design business this fall, and in doing so, that frees up the almost $200 in that account.  So now I need to come up with $100.

Because I sold my Zodiac, I needed to go ahead and purchase the iPhone.  But I kept praying that God would somehow provide the last $100.  So when Apple announced on Wednesday they were dropping the price of the 8 Gb phone $200 and getting rid of the 4 Gb altogether, I was confused why God didn't lead me to wait until the price drop.  But then I "just happened" to see on a website that Apple has a 10-day price guarantee.  I quickly looked at a calendar, and lo-and-behold, I had purchased my phone exactly 10 days before.  I immediately called Apple, sat on hold for an hour and a half, and finally heard the good news that not only would I be refunded $100, but I would actually be refunded $150 because I had purchased a refurbished unit.

So my "$500" iPhone actually ended up costing $250, and I won't have to spend a penny out of pocket.  While I've struggled to understand why God answered these prayers for me and hasn't answered others (lots of messy ministry situations right now that I am aware of, plus many messy situations around the world), all I know is that God clearly worked in this situation and I am SOOOO grateful.

Hopefully this was a worthy enough story for my 200th post...