CLICK ‘PRAY’
TO PRAY
Then, 30 minutes later:
8:05 p.m. Comment From Lisa Elliott: siting [sic] here in tears
8:14 p.m. Comment From Lisa Elliott: I hatmy [sic] life my abusive
boyfriend is drunk sleeping if he
wakes up I get beat
“Lisa, We are standing with you
during this time,” types one of the
moderators, called “Matt-ADMIN.”
He directs Elliott to a prayer site
and to the erroneous email address, [email protected].
“Our prayer team would love to
pray with you.”
Another woman in the chat
room, someone not part of the
Osteen team, tells Elliott: “my
prayers are with you, I was in your
situation nine yrs ago, there is a
way to get help, call your local womens’ help center as I did.”
“Can I have the number so I can
call them now,” Elliott asks. Then,
“crying over this I have never had
something like this.”
“Enjoy the experience, Lisa!”
a moderator answers cheerily.
Another half hour passes.
9:00 p.m. Comment From Lisa
Elliott: please pray for me toight
[sic] that nothig happens
9:00 p.m. Comment From Kelly-ADMIN: Lisa, we are standing with you
in prayer and faith.
HUFFINGTON
06.09.13
9:03 p.m. Comment From Lisa Elliott: I know he will beat me tonight
Another moderator is congratulating Elliott. Apparently,
she has just won a free copy of
Osteen’s newest book.
The MCP team is having trouble
keeping up. The room grows quiet,
save for the frantic tap of fingers
clicking on keys. An unpublished
queue of comments speaks to the
agitation of people waiting for answers: “CAN YOU SEE ME???”
one person has typed. A moderator
sends a private message to a particularly frustrated user, assuring him
they’re doing their best.
As tens of thousands of people
absorb the live stream, the video
is stalling, spurring even more
gripes in the chat room and on
Osteen’s Facebook wall.
“You’ve got 30 complaints on
your Facebook page that the servers are down,” the wife of one of
Osteen’s photographers informs Vo.
Vo clenches her jaw. The audience is diminishing, with the number of concurrent online viewers
down to 34,000 from over 41,000
earlier in the night. People have
spent an average of 48 minutes
watching the Night of Hope, but the
video’s hiccups seem to be costing
Osteen his viewers. Boyd tells Vo