October 10 – “Power’s out”

 

 

Woke up to some amazing sounds yesterday.  Thunder.  Rain on the roof.  It's been a really long time.  The new pastor's class started at church yesterday morning, so I had to leave early to get set up.  Chris stayed at the house to give Mom another day to sleep in and to let the antibiotics take effect.  She did seem some better by the end of the day.  She even went to bed at her old "usual" time around nine o'clock. 

 

On my way to church I hit a patch where the rain was coming down really hard.  I had to slow down because visibility was poor.  When I got to Pirates Beach I noticed the traffic light was out.  No power.  Oh, boy.  Not a good sign.  Sure enough, when I got to the church and flipped the light switch … nothing. 

 

Now ordinarily that wouldn't have been a problem. We are extremely flexible at Seaside.  The problem was that the whole pastor's class presentation is powerpoint based.  The study is one on biblical backgrounds that I prepared when I was teaching a class for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UTMB.  It was geared to college level, so I have a lot of pictures of archaeological relics and ancient leaders, maps, charts, and the like.  I could do the teaching, but it would sure not be the same. 

 

I called Chris to see if the power was still on at the house, and she offered to bring my laptop out to me.  Mom was still asleep and probably would be for a few more hours.  I accepted her offer and rested a bit easier.  I could operate it on battery power and have everyone gather closer to the screen so they could see.  I was working on a plan to get the words to songs available to everyone when the power came back on.  That was a relief.  But would it last?  I called and let Chris know, but she agreed to bring the laptop anyway as a backup.

 

There were six people at the first class meeting.  I think maybe some folks had electric alarm clocks and would get a wake-up call around noon.  The class went well, though, and the ones who attended seemed to enjoy it.  The weather affected the regular church-goers as well.  We only had about 25 people in worship.  But that group really did some singing. 

 

Proverbs 28:13 says, "He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy."

 

Father, thank you for the faithful folks who braved the rain to come to worship.  Honor their expression of commitment.  Amen.