I here that the Millennial generation (I am among the oldest of them) doesn't have the "brand loyalty" that past generations have had. That goes for anything from sodas to computers to churches. One bad experience and we are on to the next thing. Broken links get deleted. So what do people who want to reach out to this group do? You've got to forward the link. Things that are old and worn out get replaced, or refreshed. Or you keep the links active.  Who knows when I'll want to go find my favorite show from middle school or the references I used in a history paper?  So brands need to be both innovative and trusting. Look for some practical examples in a few days.

Her small group chose Mandy, a 21-year-old single mom of a 20-month old daughter, an 8-month old son, and a boyfriend in prison.  Sue says they "showed her the practical love of God in various ways: Diapers, food, rides to work, babysitting, books, haircuts, a listening ear, and unconditional love."

So when Mandy was out of luck and stuck on the highway, she knew who would care.  And Sue got a chance to minister in the name of Christ.

Sue encourages the rest of us to find a single mom to love on.  Or an elderly person.

And if that's too much to start with, give a thank you to your hair stylist.  Just get moving.

Bhargava suggested you start with your published mission statement. When you read it, does it sound like conversation, or a stilted line from a bad movie? How many buzzwords are there? Can you explain it without having to explain it?

Of course, I reading the book to figure out how to help congregations create the shared language and open pathways to include new people. And I want to figure out how to get the word out that this particular conversation cares about its target demographic.

The most telling indicator of the realness of the organization, he says, is how it talks about itself. Is everything tightly scripted and vetted? or does the company allow real employees to blog about their job? When the president of Boeing blogs about what he's doing to fix the complaints, or to counter negative press with insider facts, he becomes the face of the company. They've gone from "really big airplane company" to "airplane company that knows what it's is doing."

When the pastor's page is a sermonette on some point of faith, it's marketing. But when he talks about what's going on during the week, how he struggles to hold his temper when cut off in traffic, or when he apologizes for a poorly presented sermon, he's real. And for the post-modern generation, that matters.

So go read your mission statement. If it says something like "We Preach Christ" then there's no differentiation from a thousand other congregations. But when your mission statement is "Life lessons for the people of Dalesville," that's pretty specific. Or here's one: "adventurers at heart, looking to make ongoing discoveries that lead us toward finding strengthening our pursuit of a Christ-centered life."* I get it!

What's your mission? How are you going to change what it says about you?

------------

* mission statement from http://discoverychurch.org

The lady above is not the one that had the demon.  The lady I am with above is the one we threw the birthday party for that i talked about in a previous post.  I wanted to post a picture of her.  She is a sweetheart and I love her.  She says she has adopted me as one of her children.

Since i started the outreach program at my church in January I have been taking groups to the nursing home bringing them individual birdfeeders to hang outside their windows.  Then we go inside and check on them and minister to them.  On this particular Saturday our church was involved in another event so i wasn't able to get a group together.  But i decided i wanted to go alone anyways.  When I got there i went to visit one of the ladies that we have been visiting for a while.  In the nursing homes you very often run into people with dementia & alzheimer's.   But sometimes you run into people that deal with demonic oppression or possession.  Well, this particular lady that i went to visit i had suspected at times may be dealing with demonic activity.  She would randomly scream things and make weird noises while during conversation.  Which, in nursing homes is actually quite common and it happens a lot.  But i sensed a different spirit on her and some of the things she would scream made me suspect that maybe it was demonic and not just mental.  However, i could never tell for sure and i didn't want to start casting a demon out of her if she was just suffering from dementia.

But my suspicions were confirmed last time i visited her.  I was alone and as i walked in she immediately started begging me to take her home.  She's normally much more stable than that.  I wanted to pray for her to try and comfort her and calm her down.  And she normally really likes for me to pray for her.  Well, as i went to pray for her she got a very different look on her face and her whole demeanor changed and she told me she didn't want me to pray for her that day.  I asked why.  She said, "I don't believe in prayers anymore."  Then suddenly her demeanor switched back to normal and she started saying, "Please pray for me, Please, i want you to pray for me."  So i went to pray for her.

This is when the demon manifested.  Her whole face contorted into this awful face of pure hate and anger.  Her lips curled and her eyebrows went down and she began to scream at me in a way that is not like her, "Get out of her now! Leave! Get out!"  Ms. Doris' finger went up to her mouth and she began shushing herself going "Shhhh, shh, shhh, sh."  After she was back to herself she had a look of fear in her eyes and she started crying.  She reached up and grabbed my arms and begged me, "Please don't leave, please don't leave!  If you leave i'll die, they'll kill me.  And i'm not ready to die."  I started to comfort her and pray for her.  I asked her if she had made Jesus the Lord of her life.  Again her demeanor changed and she told me, "No. leave."  Then she would come back to herself.  I kept trying to get her to say the name Jesus.  She was never able to.  But i was able to tell her that Jesus could rescue her if she would just make Jesus her lord.  And she heard me.

I bound the demon in Jesus name and rebuked it in the name of Jesus.  However, a deliverance usually isn't complete until you can get the person suffering from the possession to themselves proclaim Jesus as their Lord and rebuke the demon themselves.  They have to break their "agreement" with the demon.  I don't think that i took Ms. Doris through the whole deliverance process.  After i prayed she did calm down and stopped screaming, but unfortunately i'm not sure that i got to the root of the problem.  But i am going back again and this time i am taking a team with me to fully free her.

Please pray for her.  Her name is Ms. Doris and she is a very sweet lady.  Pray for wisdom for me in how to handle it and for clarity and understanding.  And proclaim her deliverance in Jesus name.

Thank you.

Wat mij ook opviel is dat moslims hier echt strikt kunnen zijn... geen vrouwen in de ogen kijken, absoluut niet met ze praten... In het begin is dat wel een beetje wennen hoor dat mensen zo op je kunnen neerkijken, ma ja se...

Uiteindelijk was het een leuke dag en hadden we goede gesprekken. We hadden zowel indische mensen als alcoholverslaafden als andere over de vloer. Het was een eerste dag met uitdagingen en het was tof om te zien dat God ons hierbij hielp om die kleine uitdagingen aan te gaan.

Na een aantal uurtjes rust was het dan weer tijd om aan het werk te gaan. Eerst hebben we een super lekkere maaltijd met Linda klaargemaakt en daarna was het tijd om naar de jeugdsamenkomst te gaan en daar de mensen te gaan ontmoeten.

En op zondag dan hadden we 2 samenkomsten op het programma staan in de kerk van de New Life Church waar we ons zelf moesten voorstellen en waar we heel veel mensen ontmoetten (het waren er zoveel dat ik hun namen en gezichten niet meer kan onthouden en da zorgde wel voor grappige situaties achteraf)

Maandag hadden we dan een orientatiebabbel met iemand en savonds hadden we Jakes. Dat is een bijeenkomst van daklozen die samen komen in de kerk en daar een gratise maaltijd krijgen. Daarna blijven ze dan nog even plakken om een babbeltje mee te doen. Deze avond zijn we naar het park gegaan om baseball met hen te doen. We hebben dat vanaf nu op maandag en vrijdag. Kijk er wel naar uit dat is wel tof.

De rest van de week hebben we dan besteed aan gebedswandelingen, bidden, plannen en voorbereiden. We plannen om volgende week een 'cafe church' te starten in een kerk in de buurt. Dat is een soort dienst waarbij de mensen in de gezellige sfeer van een soort cafe zitten en ondertussen ook in de dienst zitten. Ik weet zelf nie zo goed wat er van te verwachten, maar we zullen wel zien.

Ale ik ga jullie laten.

Aja we hebben ook een groepsblog (is wel int engels) en da kan je vinden op volgend adres http://teamengland08.livejournal.com/

tot de volgende

dikke knuffel

The day was opened with an address by Japan’s G8 sherpa Masaharu Kohno who outlined the importance of the G8 process and Japan’s interest in running a smooth summit. Priority was put on climate change and African aid as issues of special interest to the Japanese who have shown leadership through the Kyoto Protocol and the four TICAD conferences. Access to someone this high-level, just days before the summit is in itself impressive, but Kohno delivered with a professional and comprehensive survey of his government’s plans for the summit.

The discussions of economic governance featured presentations from the Executive Director of the Bank of Japan Kenzo Yamamoto, former U.S. G7 finance sherpa Robert Fauver, CIPPS President Naoki Tanaka and others. The U.S.-originated sub-prime finance crisis and currency valuation variations among the G8 and the O5 (particularly China) were central to all presentations. Most passionate, Fauver called for a return of the economic-focused summits, particularly in the current environment, as only leaders have the ability to address these major issues.

The full afternoon programme examined the possibilities for nuclear energy opportunities within the G8, both political and technical. Here again, the cast of presenters was impressive. Among others included the chairman of Hitachi, the chairman of the Tokyo Electric Power Company, and Fujitsu senior economic advisor. Each analysed the challenges to nuclear power in Japan, with particular reference to plant siting, waste management and earthquake resilient technology.

Tying these discussions back to the G8 agenda, G8 Research Group director John Kirton argued that within the G8 there are immense opportunities for technical cooperation in nuclear energy management. While the G8 countries search for solutions to their great emissions, nuclear as a non-carbon option has great promise, but technology deployment and training remains an obstacle. Canada – as a major supplier of uranium and technology in the upgraded CANDU – could play an important catalytic role here, in his view. However, he identified the hesitant German position on nuclear cooperation as a as an impediment to policy advancement. Kirton called for the Chancellor Angela Merkel to drop her rejection of and conditions on promotion of nuclear energy as a tool for G8 as well as developing countries to meet their emissions targets.

With its ability to attract talent and high-level knowledge, CIPPS promises to be an important think-tank in Japan, leading the way towards sustainable policy options within Japan and in its international relations.

“If their kid is at daycare all day, the daycare provider is really the parent anyway.”

My blood ran cold when she said that.

I thought of my son, in daycare at that very moment so I could be there in that library meeting, and held my breath as well as my tongue.

Not that I hadn’t heard statements like that before. Not that I considered myself especially vulnerable to such judgments.

I just wasn’t expecting it there – from a “friend” and colleague of mine, at a meeting of a team of children’s librarians specifically dedicated to providing culturally appropriate and accessible outreach programming for socially excluded children and families. The topic of discussion was how to extend outreach library services to go past the child to influence the whole family, so that parents might, say, bring their kids to the library.

And what I really didn’t expect, from that group in particular, was the fact that when one member said something outrageous like the above statement, no one else in the room spoke up. To the day I don’t really know if it was the dreaded librarian “niceness” striking again (inhibiting our ability to hold ourselves/each other accountable), or whether no one else thought she was being offensive.

I was a student intern. They were allowing me to sit in on their meeting, so I could learn. I didn’t feel like I could interrupt and intervene at that time. But I certainly did learn.

***

The dominant library paradigm holds very particular cultural conceptions of the ownership/belonging/responsibility of children. These notions are largely based in euro-colonial and neo-liberal values of the family as isolated, self-sufficient unit.

Even in our progressive and outreach programs, are we really listening to our communities, parents, families, and empowering them to make our services their own?

***

"The best library users, the ones we love to work with, are the parents who already bring their children to storytime. They are the ideal. I love to work with them."

A library school instructor, one whom I sincerely like and respect, said this in front of a class I took.

Again, I was floored.

My child has never been to a library storytime. I have been a working parent since he was 2 weeks old, first lugging him on my back to my office, and then, too soon for my liking, sending him to daycare. My local library branch does not hold weekend storytimes for working parents. Even the summer reading club events are during weekday workdays, much to my child’s dismay.

I always garnered compliments from my library supervisors, but they don’t know my dirty secret – that I am The Non-Ideal Parent as a patron.

Shh…don`t tell!

***

We are beginning to acknowledge that “the ideal patron” is a problem - that this notion is culturally biased and exclusive; that we should be questioning it. I say this because we as a discipline have published papers to this effect, bestowed honours upon some individuals who have championed this message, and sometimes even committed funding to novel projects that work toward a more just community ownership of libraries.

But trickle down takes a long time, when it works. Will the status quo for plain old regular librarians – ones not leading special programs or “moving and shaking” their institutions - ever change?

***

Oh, but I didn’t mean you. Your son is wonderful, so smart.

Yes, and I don’t “look Jewish,” right? Let me guess, some of your best friends are black and gay?

Putting down who I am, my history and identity, and then telling me I am better than everyone else like me is not a complement.

I am not an exception.

Or rather, we are all exceptions.

I am a bit uncommon, in that I was a low-income single parent who went back to school and became a librarian. But I was certainly not the only one who met that profile in my library school intake of 40 people.

Really, it is highly likely that I am only unusual in following this path because of my privilege. Coming from a family with higher education and economic privilege, It was relatively easy to make the decision to go to grad school and change my situation. I was able to see that option and take the necessary path to get there, yes. However, the important part of this story is not so much how I got where I am now, but what I know of where I was a few years ago.

I know, I know, I’m different from all the other Black/Jewish/queer/Asian/poor/Latina/whatever people. The other daycare parents. You didn’t mean that slur to apply to me.

Isn’t that line getting old by now? Isn’t it one libraries shouldn’t be using anyway?

-Greyson

Vorige maandag hadden we onze laatste lecturedag geloof ik. Daarna hadden we een dagske vrijaf en dan hadden we outreachvoorbereiding. Onze leiding begon al goe door de 3 studenten van mijn groep aan elkaar vast te binden voor de hele dag om onze frustratietolerantie en onze communicatievaardigheden en zo een serieuze oefening te geven. Alles moesten we samen doen... huishoudelijke taken, opdrachten,voor naar het toilet te gaan hadden we een langere koord. Daarna was het meer praktisch werk zoals maaltijdlijsten opstellen, boekhoudpapieren in orde brengen, spelletjes en overdenkingen bedenken...

En dan vrijdagavond vertrokken we. Eerst vaarwel aan onze medestudenten zeggen. Da was wel nie zo simepel want ten slotte hebben we toch 3 maand dicht bij elkaar geleefd he. We kregen van hen ook een pakketje mee met allerlei briefjes in die we op het vliegtuig pas mochten open doen. 3 van de crewleden zullen we al niet meer zien omdat die tijdens onze outreach naar huis gaan.

Dus uiteindelijk vertrokken we met ons groepje naar de luchthaven (gelukkig konden we met een busje mee en moesten we niet op de trein en bus met mij zak die ik trouwens maar met veel proppen en vriemelen dicht kreeg).

Op de luchthaven duurde het nog 4 uur voor we op het vliegtuig konden, daarom kaartten we maar watm hing wat rond, aten wat,... Uiteindelijk vertrok ons vliegtuig 30 minuten te laat. We zaten met ons 5jes vrij dicht bij elkaar dus dat was ook wel positief. Tijdens de vlucht hadden we een klein beetje turbulentie, maar we overleefden het wel.

Op de luchthaven in Engeland werden we opgehaald door Steve Sullivan en Yan Nicholls. 2 super toffe mensen die sprekers waren op onze school. Was echt super leuk om ze terug te zien. Ze brachten ons naar de Jeugd met een opdracht basis in Harpenden. Daar hadden ze een kei mooie plaats voor ons om te slapen. We hadden zelfs ramen in onze kamer (wat we in onze boot niet hadden) ;-) Smorgens na een goe lekker warm douchke (we moesten hem nie elke keer uitdraaien zoals onze douches aan boord) hadden we een lekker ontbijt en toffe gesprekken met wat andere gasten die er sliepen. En daarna werden we op de koffie uitgenodigd in het huis van Steve. Het was echt heel gezellig.

Om 11 uur moesten Tamara en Chelanna de trein nemen naar Derby. Matt, Daniel en ik konden met Yan meerijden om 4 uur in de namiddag. Dus dan hadden we nog wat tijd om het terrein te verkennen. Ze hebben daar echt een super tof bos! We hadden ook de kans om mee te doen in een soort documentaire over jeugd met een opdracht en onze boot die ze binnenkort zullen uitzenden op BBC. Waarschijnlijk half julie. Het was ook tof om andere mensen van onze sprekers terug te zien.

Om 4 uur zijn we dan samen met Yan en nog 2 andere mensen naar Derby gereden. We kwamen juist op tijd aan. Linda (een andere spreekster die in Derby woont en die ons wil helpen bij onze outreach) wachtte al op ons aan de deur van de kerk (new life)

Van daar namen personen ons dan mee naar de huizen waar we zullen verblijven. Chelanna en ik zijn echt heel gezegend met de familie waarbij we wonen. Ze noemen Bill en Mary en hebben 3 kinderen waarvan er nog maar 1 thuis woont. Chelanna en ik hebben een eigen kamer. toegang tot internet,... Mary nodigde ons ook uit om 3 keer per week met haar te gaan zwemmen.

Meer nieuws over wat er daarna gebeurde volgt spoedig ;)

Gods zegen en dikke knuffel

Liesbeth

We have begun to connect with some people who are very different from us, at least culturally speaking. Even though these folks are of the same ethnicity their experiences in life are vastly different and I am discovering that the folks in our congregation have a difficult time understanding how to connect with them. I preach and teach about becoming the kind of faith community where anyone can find community and the warm welcome of Christ's love, but not all are willing to embrace that vision of Church. I have literally watched some of the "old-timers" make a physical loop around some of the new families to avoid contact with them.

Obviously, this kind of behavior/attitude grieves and frustrates me deeply. I think things should be further along after all the teaching, preaching, and casting of new vision we've done. However, many still are not getting it. But this frustration is at the same time an opportunity to continue learning how to equip this comfortable, complacent, preference-based congregation how to love, live, and act more like Christ. The call to living missionally as individuals and churches is unfortunately a radical message in churches today, but the journey toward becoming missional is so worth it. Nothing is more exciting than seeing the people of God really start living from the perspective of the mission of Christ.

My heart is that we increasingly become a church community that sounds, looks, acts, talks, thinks, and connects like Jesus. The road is long and bumpy, but I am certain as God's Holy Spirit guides us we will get there and we will have new stories of faith to rejoice in as we see God's hand at work among us and through us in the world.

I discovered this program when I interviewed James Wynne, co-developer of the excimer laser and now program manager, local education outreach, for the Thomas J. Watson IBM Research Center (Yorktown Heights, NY) as part of my article about community outreach which appeared in the January 2008 issue of SPIE Professional. Among many of the other outreach programs Wynne organizes, one of his favorites (and which did not get into my article) is the EXITE (EXploring Interests in Technology and Engineering) day camps specifically for girls in 6th through 9th grade put on by many different IBM offices internationally. Each program is unique, but the main focus is on getting girls hands-on experience in engineering and electronics.

At Wynne’s location, one camp program is the RoboDance contest. Using Lego robotics kits, the girls are challenged to make a robot that must follow a path marked on the floor, usually letters spelling something like IBM or ROBOT. Beyond those guidelines, the campers are encouraged to get creative in their design and choreography of the robots, including jumping, pirouettes, or whatever else they come up with.
As Wynne explains:

 “They take to this very well.
 “The judging is done by the other campers. We have several categories, and the girls watch the teams perform in the auditorium, and they vote on which team had the best design, which was the most creative, which had the best choreography/synchronization.
 “They enjoy this tremendously, but they do go through the tasks of making robots that don’t fall apart, and understanding when they do the programming what the consequences are going to be, so they do a lot of refining until they get the robots to do what they want. So they’re going through a real engineering activity leading up to this robot dance.”

The camps go from June through September, so it might not be too late to sign your child up for one. Unfortunately there’s no official IBM calendar for the EXITE camps; you’d probably have to scout out your nearest IBM office. But here is a flyer for one of the programs as an example.

Show mercy to those whose faith is wavering. Rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment.  There are still others to whom you need to show mercy, but be careful that you aren’t contaminated by their sins. Jude 1:22-23

Unbelievers, no matter how successful they may seem by worldly standards are lost and in need of salvation. We should not take witnessing lightly; it is a matter of life and death. If we saw someone about to be burned in a fire we would quickly pull them out of harms way. That is the same way we are to feel toward people we see that is wavering, that is lost.

The same mercy that the Lord showed us we should show someone else. Mercy is undeserved favor you can earn it, you can’t buy it is just given. As believers trying to rescue those deceived people who have been blinded, be careful not to become contaminated by falling into temptation. Remain faithful to God and to his word.

Marion Lawrence (SHFM)

* how can we spread a message (e.g. gospel) efficiently?
* structural property of religious social network
* cultural separation among languages (e.g. cyworld vs facebook)
* cell church explosion pattern
* using social net service to spread gospel with the Internet
* gospel network property

Inspired by

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~jure/research.html

Well, after I cleared out some days at Borders I returned the call with a rousing, "Heck yeah, Bro. I'm in."

That's how I got signed up to be a volunteer/speaker at this event known as the Sacred Ruckus ( http://www.sacredruckus.org/ ) Basically there will be a number of people camping out in a field for just about 3 days to hang together, hear the Word of God, pray, and try to get one step closer to being like Christ.

After I got recruited, I was encouraged to bring anybody that would want to come out with me. In short, if you're in Jersey and want to come out with me, I plan on leaving Thursday July 17th sometime between 9:30 and 11:00am -- depending on how many people are coming with me and how early I get up. I'll be returning home sometime Saturday evening.  If you want to come, just let me know and we'll plan on where to meet and how to get there.

If you're not in Jersey or just can't make it out, prayer is always appreciated. Check the web page too, to find out what these guys are about. I know two or three of the guys involved and they're all great folks that need all the support they can rally.

Elections are fluid, with each part of the preparation process continually being refined to improve overall efficiency while maintaining integrity of the vote.  While no process is perfect, we constantly strive to raise the bar with every election review.  And who better to help improve Elections procedures than the people who worked with these procedures daily?

To celebrate the accomplishment of five (yes, FIVE) successfully conducted elections beginning with the November 2007 Consolidated Municipal School District election through the June 2008 Statewide Direct Primary election, the Elections Office held a post-election bbq (well, buffet would probably be a better term).

All personnel connected with the election were invited to the Elections Office in San Mateo to partake in a post-election discussion to review possibly process improvements and share comments, observations, and ideas all in an effort to ensure that the November Presidential General Election is conducted as successfully (or even more so) as the past five.  During this review, the different perspectives allowed for some terrific dialogue.

Discussions covered a range of topics including voter parking at polling places, larger supply of power cords, use of Field Techs at Receiving Stations, hands-free phone policies, precincts at small polling places, split shifts, street indices of surrounding polling places, and student poll worker recruitment.

Picture, taken by Sarah Hill, of evaluation by L-P: Archaeology at Prescot Street, early 2006. Clockwise from behind the total station are Stuart Eve, Andrew Dufton, Brenna Hassett, Matthew Law and Francesca Lerza)

Congratulations to L-P: Archaeology, whose Prescot Street excavation website has won the first ever BAJR Web Award.

L-P perfectly demonstrate through this site that commercial archaeology can easily accommodate community engagement, and present a model that hopefully other excavation projects will start to follow. At the Prescot site, not only are there 'party line' summaries of each week's work from field officer Chaz Morse, but also blog posts to which every member of excavation and post- (or peri-) excavation staff is able to contribute; a video series by site supervisor Anies Hassan, daily photo updates, and a glossary of archaeological terms. For those of use who really want to engage with the raw data, the context sheets as written on site are searchable through L-P's ARK (Archaeological Recording Kit) system (including a few by me from the site evaluation in 2006, when I was a very novice digger).

The IRS is launching a new summer campaign to reach all retirees and disabled veterans who qualify for the Economic Stimulus Payment but have not filed a return to claim it.  This special stimulus category includes recipients of certain benefits from Social Security and Veterans Affairs who do not normally have a requirement to file a tax return.  However, these individuals must file a tax return before Oct. 15 this year to receive their economic stimulus payments. The IRS has accounted for 74 percent of Social Security and Veterans Affairs beneficiaries out of about 20 million initially identified as being potential stimulus recipients. All but 5.2 million of those have been accounted for as either having filed a return, having filed a joint return, or as not being eligible for a stimulus payment (for example, they were claimed as a dependent on another's return).  In Wisconsin, about 76 percent of people in this group are accounted for, leaving more than 77,000 potential recipients remaining who could be eligible to receive the Economic Stimulus Payment.

Retirees should be aware that receiving the stimulus payment should have no impact on other federal benefits currently being received. The stimulus payment is not taxable. Absent any other filing requirements, filing a tax return to receive a stimulus payment does not mean that retirees will have to start filing tax returns again.

The IRS has 7 local Taxpayer Assistance Centers across Wisconsin.  These centers can provide assistance to retirees and veterans trying to receive their payments. A list of addresses and office hours are listed below or can be found at "Contact My Local Office" at www.irs.gov.

* Note:  The phone numbers in the chart above are not toll-free for all locations.  When you call, you will reach a recorded business message with information about office hours, locations and services provided in that office.  You may leave a message to request an appointment for help resolving a tax issue or to reschedule an existing appointment.  You will receive a return call within two business days.  If face-to-face assistance is not a priority for you, you may also get help with IRS letters or resolve tax account issues by phone, toll free at 1-800-829-1040 (individuals) or 1-800-829-4933 (businesses).