Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Power Outage

We survived about 6 and a half hours of school today without electricity! About 8:40 this morning all of a sudden all of the lights in the building blinked then went out...and didn't come back on and didn't come back on and didn't come back on. It didn't take us long to figure out that an excavator working on the road construction on State Road 26 had somehow severed our power line...whoops! They originally said we should have power restored by 11:30. Whatever. We had some mighty creative teaching going on in the building as teachers found ways to have light in their classrooms. All the candles came out of hiding for those who didn't have windows, or else class was moved to an area of the building where there were windows (like the MRC or church foyer). For myself, thankfully I only had about 3 piano students during this time--and there was no way to actually teach in my room, because even if I'd had a candle it would hardly have been enough light. So for 2 lessons we just sat by the outside door and talked through what to do. For my third, beginning student I used the music suite (with the door open to let in light). It was HUMID outside, too. I noticed this because Mr. Heim had FMT, Junior high choir, and Senior high choir in the music suite with the door open to let in light, which also let in all of the humid air, of course! My music pages were starting to get all soggy and the piano bench was sticky! Thankfully, though, it wasn't pouring down rain like yesterday so P.E. classes could be outdoors. And since there was no way to prepare lunch without electricity we ended up with a hot dog cookout outside for lunch, which I'm told went fairly well. (I went home for lunch and enjoyed the comfort of air conditioning.) My sister and other secretaries were left with not much to do as most of their work revolves around the computer, which doesn't work so well without electricity. The phones worked on battery backup for about 4 hours but then died as well. Thankfully the power came back on--just as school was being dismissed at 3:15!

As a spiritual illustration, I was reminded how much I try to do on my "battery backup" power without plugging into the source of daily renewal of God's Word! I was reminded again of my dependence on Him as the Source of all power. Just as I am extrememly thankful for the electric power I often take for granted, I need to spend time plugging into my Source of spiritual power. Okay, I need to go read my Bible now and have my "God and I" time for the day!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I figured someone working on the road was the culprit--before I read it.
It didn't get out of the 60's here today and we were grateful for a few sprinkles of rain. We need a lot more. But we have strawberries, corn and tomatoes from the garden.

Anonymous said...

Ok, that's crazy. But I'm glad that things worked out for good. Sounds like it made for a memorable day for both kids and teachers.