Power Out

Sunday night we had the remnants of Hurrican Ike blow through Columbus. It meant that for about 4 hours we had 60 to 70 mile per hour winds. And it caused a lot of power outages.

When the storm started the electicity went out in many places. Like the church. I got to church at 4:30 Sunday afternoon and there was not power (electical that is!) I have to confess that my immediate response was that we should cancel church at 5:00 - the gospel praise service. Dawn told me that we should go ahead and do it. And, of course, she was right.

We had 25 in worship - which is a lot for that service and it was pretty interesting considering that our church is all windows and we could watch the trees in the storm throughout the service. it wasd like living out our reality - we gather to worship in the midst of the storms of life. Glad we did that - especially because Nicole joined church that Sunday.

I went home to no power at the house. And it was okay. We got our candles out, found some flashlights and it was really interesting. We spent a lot of time on the front porch watching the storm. And then went to bed and read by flashlight.

The next day we still had no power. I had to visit someone at the hospital early in the morning, so I was able to get my morning coffee there. I did a funeral service and rode with the funeral director to Dublin - a trip that took a long time because there was a tree blocking the main road and many, many lights out. At the church there was no electicity. So, I ended up making some phone calls with the cell phone and finally going home. We managed fine that day and spent time in different ways than we usually do - like talking to each other on the front porch. Something really good about that!

The lights came on at home at 10 PM and I jumped out of bed and ran downstairs to the computer. I was going to spend Monday putting together my sabbatical proposal which was due Monday. Unfortunately, I could not do it in that short of time and so, I will do a sabbatical but I will not be eleigible for the $10,000 from the Lilly Foundation. I figure this was still a gift to me because it enabled me to define what I really want to do. (study healing churches)

The church and many, many people still do not have electicity. As I write this on Wednesday morning, I prepare to go to churcha and check it out. We have a program tonight that will be cancelled if we don't. The Columbus Schools have been out now for three days. Very strange, all of it.

The positive part to this experience has been the sense of community that has come in the neighborhoods and everywhere else. On Monday our neighbors allowed us to tap into their generator so that our food in the refrigerator did not go bad. People are helping people with their yard work and just talking about this shared experience.

It is one of those weeks we will talk about for years to come.