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Outsourced prayer lines confuse callers
LarkNews ^

Posted on 12/18/2012 6:27:38 PM PST by Gamecock

DES MOINES — Last month, Lori Danes, 43, called the prayer line of a major television ministry and requested prayer for her mother’s persistent ulcers. But her prayer representative, who called himself “Darren,” prayed in a strong Indian accent that “all the gods would bless her mightily.”

“I was stunned,” Danes says. “It was like I’d called a demon prayer line.”

The manager of India Prayer Solutions, located in Mumbai, India, apologized for the incident and fired the employee who, he said, had not been properly trained. But dozens of similar incidents have rattled U.S. callers since major ministries began outsourcing their prayer lines to India. The ministries insist they are overwhelmed by the growing number of calls for prayer.

“There aren’t enough Americans willing to sit in the prayer tower and take calls anymore,” says a prayer coordinator at a major ministry which jobbed out its prayer lines last year.

But the interactions have left many callers baffled.

Rich Douglas of Orem, Utah, called a prayer line for the first time this month, requesting prayer for his wife’s cancer. His prayer partner, “Stephanie,” took him through a series of prayers that felt “pretty clinical,” says Douglas. “I definitely didn’t sense the Spirit. It sounded like she was reading from a script.”

“Stephanie,” whose real name is Reha Jain, is a Hindu woman who works at a call center in Mumbai and has prayed with “many satisfied prayer customers,” she says. “It’s like my old job at a Microsoft call center. The caller is happy if you deliver quality customer service.”

Her fellow worker Rajneesh Tuwalla likewise had never heard of a single U.S. ministry, but was “sick of working at the Sprint call center,” he says. “The customers always got angry about their bill.”

Tuwalla landed a job at a prayer center and learned to pray “Christian prayers” by watching Kenneth Copeland.

“All the TV preachers pray good, but Copeland prays the best,” says Tuwalla, who mimics Copeland’s style on the phone with callers.

Like many service reps, he uses an American name while on the job. In Copeland’s honor, Tuwalla calls himself “Ken.”

Tuwalla has heard the rumors that U.S. ministries may repatriate their call centers. He hopes it isn’t true. At his Sprint job he would have to “run around the block and maybe pull the head off a stray chicken” to settle down every night because of the stress he felt serving demanding U.S. customers. But the prayer center job is more relaxed.

“The callers are very nice,” he says. “I like my life again.”•


TOPICS: Humor
KEYWORDS: humor; satirejoke
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Comment #21 Removed by Moderator

Comment #22 Removed by Moderator

To: Squawk 8888

Pinged an earlier posting, thanks.


23 posted on 12/18/2012 6:54:06 PM PST by Slings and Arrows (You can't have IngSoc without an Emmanuel Goldstein.)
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If the lady doesn’t have enough discernment to figure out what Kenneth Copeland is all about, I’m surprised the Indian call center raised an alarm.


24 posted on 12/18/2012 6:54:12 PM PST by Hayride
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To: Gamecock

A minute (or so) ago I called the suicide line. The recorded message told me to call tomorrow as it was open during business hours.


25 posted on 12/18/2012 6:55:09 PM PST by Revolting cat! (Bad things are wrong! Ice cream is delicious!)
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To: Gamecock

Tuwalla, you’re supposed to choke the chicken, not pull its head off!

No wonder you’re stressed!


26 posted on 12/18/2012 6:58:02 PM PST by headsonpikes (Mass murder and cannibalism are the twin sacraments of socialism - "Who-whom?"-Lenin)
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Comment #27 Removed by Moderator

To: DeepInTheHeartOfTexas

they asked me if I knew how to walk in to a crowed public space and push a button..

Not sure what that was all about.


28 posted on 12/18/2012 7:00:20 PM PST by cableguymn (The founding fathers would be shooting by now..)
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To: Gamecock

UHHH, why would one want to call a prayer call center anyway.

“My” God says it is fine if I sit someplace and pray to him day or night. Yes, he would probably prefer I attend Mass now and then, but ‘direct prayer’ has been in vogue for years. Now people are ‘paying’ for the privilege to ‘pray, on the phone’ in India....

We have come a long way baby, just not quite sure we are heading in the right direction.


29 posted on 12/18/2012 7:04:22 PM PST by xrmusn (6/98 "It is virtually impossible to clean the pond as long as the pigs are still crapping in it")
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To: HiTech RedNeck
There's a dial a prayer for atheists too. No one answers.
30 posted on 12/18/2012 7:15:40 PM PST by CrazyIvan (Obama's birth certificate was found stapled to Soros's receipt.)
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To: xrmusn

“UHHH, why would one want to call a prayer call center anyway.”

Pay attention to me!!!


31 posted on 12/18/2012 7:19:49 PM PST by AppyPappy (You never see a masscre at a gun show.)
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To: HiTech RedNeck

LOL! Why not?


32 posted on 12/18/2012 7:22:32 PM PST by stormer
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To: Squawk 8888; Slings and Arrows; Gamecock; F15Eagle

Don’t you mean the na’an ping list?


33 posted on 12/18/2012 7:28:27 PM PST by Larry Lucido
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To: Gamecock; Alex Murphy

They are trying to curry favor with God.


34 posted on 12/18/2012 7:29:55 PM PST by Larry Lucido
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To: Gamecock

First, I laughed until my sides ached. Then, I tried to be sad, but I couldn’t keep a straight face.

“A demon prayer line” ...

OMG. I’m crying I’m laughing so hard ... but it really isn’t funny.


35 posted on 12/18/2012 7:31:50 PM PST by BuckeyeTexan (There are those that break and bend. I'm the other kind.)
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To: Larry Lucido

We have a winner!


36 posted on 12/18/2012 7:34:08 PM PST by Gamecock ( If we distort the gospel, that distortion will influence and affect everything else that we believe)
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To: Larry Lucido; Squawk 8888; Gamecock; F15Eagle
Don’t you mean the na’an ping list?

Are you trying to curry favor?

37 posted on 12/18/2012 7:41:38 PM PST by Slings and Arrows (You can't have IngSoc without an Emmanuel Goldstein.)
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To: Gamecock; humblegunner; Lazamataz

If you’ve ever had to snap the head off a stray chicken to settle down at night ... you might be an Indian call-center representative.

Bwahahahaha!


38 posted on 12/18/2012 7:43:10 PM PST by BuckeyeTexan (There are those that break and bend. I'm the other kind.)
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To: Gamecock

This is one of the most twisted, evil things I’ve read today. Deceiptful faith robbers. Good grief!


39 posted on 12/18/2012 7:45:05 PM PST by SaraJohnson
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Comment #40 Removed by Moderator


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