Ok here is the rest of the story.......(little Paul Harvey joke there).....

So, that night all I could do is wait to call the insurance company the next morning and then find out what they said..... and see if H.H. Gregg could help out with replacing the laptop. Well for some reason I have set y cell phone to silent and I charge it in the office room of our house so I never heard it ring...but after I woke up that next morning I went into the home office and I saw that I had 2 cell phone messages. I immediately grabbed my phone and held down the number 1 button to get into my voice mail and low and behold there was the Affinity rep. guy (the one who came over to my house the night before) and he told me that he had good news and that they recovered the laptop, and he was heading over to my house with it and a small gift from H.H. Gregg to apologize and let me know of their appreciation of the entire ordeal!

The next message was from the loss prevention guy @ H.H. Gregg to make sure that I got the other guys message and to make sure that the laptop was OK and in good shape.

I immediately called back the Affinity guy and told him I was thrilled that he got the laptop and that I would be here at the house until he arrived and that i could not wait to hear the story.

Ok before I tell you more I must tell you what else happened the day before:

After the two police men heard the description of the truck and the two guys they immediately called Affinity and after lots of talking they finally found out the next two places the truck was going to deliver stuff too and questioned the two guys and searched the truck all over the place and they found nothing. So, this then made the story my word against their word. And I think that is why the H.H. Gregg general manager and the Affinity man came over to my house to see if I was legit and if my story panned out. (and there was no other way my laptop could have been lost unless I just lost it and could not find it.

OK, so the Affinity guy shows up to my house that morning with the laptop...and tells me the story.....

He said that when he visited our house last night that the one thing that really hit home wiht him was that we could careless about the laptop itself...(the church has insurance it could be replaced) but all the ministry on it could not be. That killed us...there is a ton of work that has gone into Th3 Waters and most of it was one this laptop and in my head...and I need the ministry on the laptop more than anything else on it. And the Affinity guy said that he realized that this was a horrible situation and really hit hard on his heart.

So apparently, they had a (heart-to-heart) talk with one of the guys and one of them must have been touched in some small way and called up the other guy who had the church's laptop @ his house. After talking to him for a while he went over to his house and "softened his heart" a little I guess and he eventually gave it over to the one guy who gave it over to his boss who had just given it to me wrapped in bubble wrap.

I got the laptop, opened it...and signed in and everything was there! The laptop had a few scratches on it...but it woluld have gotten those over time anyway...so I was not worried about it at all...and then the Affinity guy went back to his car to get me the small gift from H.H. Gregg. It turns out the other guy the GM from H.H. Gregg felt like we needed some kind of compensation from them to say they were horrified and sorry for what happened. And he handed me a $200 gift certificate to only be spent @ H.H. Gregg in 6 months!

And that blew me away. They kept telling me that I was one of the nicest guys they had ever met and that any number of them would have been throwing things into the walls and much more upset, heh.... well then I decided to call the other loss prevention guy to tell him the laptop was fine and to thank them for the gift...and I told him I was going to give him a hard time...and he said go ahead that it fine with me, heh... so I told him that it sure was funny that they were going to be willing to replace a $2,700 laptop, and then all they gave me was $200? ha ha ha ha... i really was just joking....and he had a good laugh and we hung up the phone...but then the GM called me and asked if everything was OK, etc... and I told him the whole story and then i gave him a hard time too....and he said....wait...your right... I agree with you. And so, he proceeded to tell me that he would sent out another $300 to go with the $200 and make it an even $500!!!!

I was blown away! I know that when I was in corporate America we could do things like this, but man oh man that was very cool.....and he said that when ever we decided to make the purchase for me to call him and he would get the product at cost!

so, that is the rest of the story, and now I have no idea what I am going to do with $500 in a store that sells electronics (insert ironic tone here, heh) again if anyone of you know me then you know that I love my tech...and home theater especially)....the only problem is that I am not sure if I can save up enough money in 6 months to get what I would want, heh....

but isn't it amazing how people even when they have been bad....might all have a small soft for him?

I will not press charges against the guys, what I told the police was i would love to take them out to eat and get to know them and show them grace! I have no idea if the policeman will put out a warrent for them or not.... he has plenty of evidence to do it and it would at least go on their record...and that might not be a bad thing too. And the one guy I know for sure does not have a job...and the other guy I am not sure about...but anyway...what a wild ride.....heh


Well, it is off to Staff meeting...the 1st one with Tiffany as the new youth and children's pastor!!!

Oh and the KY Conference has officially accepted us to join their conference so at this annual conference they will vote us in....and we will both be officially members of the KY Conference of the UMC! Very cool indeed if you ask me! Praise be to God!

And I must apologize for taking so long in getting this post up...several of you begged and some of you ordered me to put it up, heh... but life is just a little busy right now. we are not totally out of the old parsonage yet, we are trying to move into the new office @ work, and our house is filled with boxes that seem never ending! So, thank you all for putting up with my crazy life and until next time... God bless you just as much or more so as he has blessed and is blessing me, and never forget to KUTPs!!! love yall!