Church this Sunday was quite an adventure! When I showed up to the theater around 7:15am the guys were already well under way with their setup, however, it was unusually dark in the main theater and lobby. After a few calls to the manager and some investigating from our head “Shop Steward” Fred, (that is his Sunday title) we determined that the power problem was on FPL’s end. The whole building was not getting “B phase”! (Fred’s words). It meant that the building was only getting 2/3 of the power it should. Our faithful setup crew waited for instructions. “What should we do?” they asked, and I instructed them just keep setting up in the dark and “we will figure something out”. Our first idea was to pull a large generator we have access to around back to hook up what we needed. Wouldn’t you know it, they were resurfacing the parking lot around back and it was completely blocked off to traffic. When it rains it pours! Our next option was to simply find power in the building that worked and run some extension cords we commandeered from Fred’s van to the places we needed it in the main theater and the kid’s theater. Fred and I ran around upstairs with flashlight and voltage meter in hand, until we found just enough outlets that worked. We went downstairs, fired everything up, and breathed a sight of relief.
Ok, we are going to have church. With no air condition it was going to be hot. But hey, it could be July and 96 degrees outside!
By the time the service started there was an FPL crew outside working on the problem. Things were going good, everything was working just fine, and we might even get the air back on if FPL could come through. Wishful thinking:)
If you were there you know that’s not what happened. About 20 minutes into service, and the last round of praise and worship, the power went out completely. But in a rather slow low voltage kind of fashion that does some real bad things to digital sound and lighting systems. All kinds of weird sounds came out of the speakers and lights where stuck on for a couple of minutes until it went almost completely black.
Scott assured everyone that things were going to be just fine. Oh sure, it looked like “business as usual” from where I was standing!
But, as Cheryl and Daniel finished the praise and worship set with just the guitar and voices, there was feeling of unity that came over everyone. A feeling that said, “We are going to get through this; we are going to have church.”
I was figuring it was going to stay dark for the rest of the service. So when I went up to speak I just never changed my shirt or put my dress shoes back on because they were killing my feet from all the running around earlier. You can only imagine my surprise when the power came back on mid sermon and I was standing there in a t-shirt and Crocks for my shoes. It didn’t help that some of the stage lights were stuck on at full level! Well, we still had church and you can hear right where we picked up on the audio if you Click Here. I hope we can keep the power on this Sunday, and if not that is ok because Scott is going to be speaking. Just Kidding.
Have a Blessed Week!
Eric
Posted on
Mon, January 12, 2009
by Eric Thomas