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Normally Sunday is my day of rest. I look forward to simply setting aside my regular duties and just simply rest. On the weekend of my monthly “circuit rider” trip to our SK Fellowships in Tennessee and Georgia, I arrive home late on Sunday and so I take my rest day on Monday.
Yesterday, however, we had some severe thunderstorms in our area which left over 3,000 homes without power including my neighborhood. For the past several years, my cell phone coverage has deteriorated drastically.
I used to be able to hold cell phone conversations for long periods of time without losing the connection. Now, it is horrible. It is to the point where it is very spotty and I can never be sure if I will even be able to receive/send a text, let alone hold a conversation.
Years ago, I had dropped the old land line since I never used it. Due to the mobile phone connection deteriorating, I did get a Vonage “landline,” which is not actually a land line, of course, but is an internet-based telephone connection. It works great—except, obviously, if the internet goes down via our local cable company, and when the power goes out, all I have left is the mobile phone.
The severe thunderstorms yesterday afternoon caused the power to go out at about 1 p.m. I picked up the cell phone to report the power outage to Duke Energy. Frustration #1: Instead of a real person, I get the automated system.
Frustration #2: My cell phone cannot hold the connection long enough for me to even hear and respond to enter my identification information.
I move all around my house trying to find a place to get at least one bar—to no avail. (To get a continuously reliable connection, I now have to travel seven miles in towards the CBDs {Central Business Districts}.)
It’s storming like crazy, so I was not about to do that. After about 15 minutes of seeking signal strength, it finally held long enough for me to get through to the automated system and the Duke robot reported it ought to be fixed by 4:45 p.m.
Frustration #3: By 5:15, still no power, no internet, nothing. I finally get through again to “robo-Duke” and find out the power up time will be about 7:30 p.m. I did not want to open the refrigerator and freezer to make some dinner, so I gave myself the excuse that I could drive into town and check out the extent of the outage, and since I’m there, I could just get a pizza for dinner 😁.
Sure enough, some traffic lights were out, but by the time I did the seven mile trip (near a pizza shop), I found there was no outage. Service there was normal.
I enjoyed the pizza. By 7:30-ish, the power comes back on (PTL)…but soon goes out again. I take back the PTL 🙄.
Frustration #4: After several more attempts on the cell phone, I am finally able to get through long enough to find out the power can be expected back on at 12 a.m. Monday. Ugh!
Actually, all the “frustrations” were not so bad. Early on in the outage, I realized this was a good exercise to be prepared for what we may face nationally in the weeks or months ahead, as Juan has been warning—“a week or two” with no internet and/or power.
All yesterday, as I was without power, I was able to be “unplugged” to the outside world, and be more closely “plugged in” to our heavenly Father. I did Bible study all day. What a joy! With no electronic devices available, I had to use my hardcopy concordance and other Bible helps books from my bookshelves. It was wonderful!
By 9 p.m., I could not find a window with sufficient light to read anymore. I was not overly tired, but I figured I may as well turn in and just pray a while and He would probably not be too offended😉 if I drifted off to sleep shortly.
I was almost to that point when at 9:22 I heard a noise which turned out to be the blower motor of the HVAC kicking in. Oh, what a sweet sound! Praising God for all our modern conveniences.
Simultaneously, I am realizing how spoiled we are here in our once-great and God-blessed nation. I got up and began doing some more study with the help of my devices.
All in all, it was not only a great day of rest, but for me it was also a practice run for taking inventory of what I might want to do better to be more prepared for a much longer outage in the not-too-distant future. My thoughts in that event include being able to help my neighbors, who may not be prepared for what is coming.
Over the weekend, I had plans to blog about something else for today, but I thought I would share this experience just to nudge and remind all our readers of the importance of being prepared.
One of the things that jumped out at me at one point in my Bible study was how the children of Israel were trapped on the beach at the Red Sea. Remember, the Word prophesies that our deliverance will be “after the manner of Egypt” (Isaiah 10:24-26. We have taught about that in great detail in our Mystery Babylon and the Stone Kingdom series).
Well, at the critical time when the armies of Pharoah are closing in for the slaughter of many and return to slavery for the rest, what does God say to Moses?
Exodus 14:15 And the LORD [Yahweh] said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward:
This, to me, says there is a time for praying and there is a time to get off your knees and get into action. And it’s okay to pray while you’re acting, but sometimes we need to get off our duffs and into action.
Speaking of which, I think I smell my leftovers perhaps burning in the oven, so I’ve got to run, eat, and then get into action at one of my civic/political activities this evening.
Bless you all! And please keep in your prayers our brothers and sisters in the Texas area who are getting pummeled with the hurricane as we post this. They may be without power for much longer than my Sunday Preparedness Drill.
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