Feel free to pass this along; it’s surprisingly true…

Rebekah Tauber, a 15-year-old Houston girl, is suffering from a rare form of cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy in Texas. Rebekah is a Christian who believes in the power of prayer and is wearing a “prayer pager” supported by the Second Baptist Church in Houston. (The church is currently providing prayer pagers for five people, three adults and two children.) Here’s how it works: Take a moment to say a prayer for Rebekah, and then dial 1-800-250-6939 for her pager. You’ll be greeted by the following message:

You have reached the Second Baptist Church prayer pager for Rebekah Tauber. At the tone, please enter your five-digit zip code followed by the # sign and Rebekah’s pager will go off. Rebekah will know she’s been prayed for by you. Thank you and God bless.

After you finish your message, Rebekah’s pager will vibrate and she’ll know that someone is praying for her.

Is it worse to miss out on something that you never heard of, or miss out on something by missing a deadline? Or, in other words, if found out you could create your own custom postage stamps (legally, of course) using your own photos, and then found out the program was on hold, would you:

1. Pound your fists on your desk
2. Pound your fists on your head
3. Pound your fists on your mailman

Stamps.com has just finished up a market test where you could upload your own photos and have them printed as stamp sheets. They would accept photos of your kids, your pets, or your business logo, and the stamps were perfectly legal to affix to any correspondence traveling via the USPS. What a great idea! While the sheets were a little more expensive (one sheet of twenty 37-cent stamps costs $16.99), I think it’s a product that would definitely fly. Unfortunately, the market test is over, but the postal service is evaluating the program and trying to decide if they should roll it out as a full-time product.

The site now carries the following message:

The USPS has informed us that they plan to make a decision on the future of the PhotoStamps program within the next 90 days. If you wish to express your interest in seeing the program continue, it would be extremely helpful. You may write to the following person:

Nick Barranca, VP Product Development
United States Postal Service
475 L’Enfant Plaza, SW, Room 5012
Washington, DC 20260-5012

If you think this is a product you’d like to use, visit the web site for more details and take a minute to send a note to Nick Barranca at the address above.

[Ed. note: As of today (August 14, 2006), I noticed that this service is back up and running. You can now order your own Photo Stamps.