Without Power

I drove to the church in a hard rain on Monday morning, July 21 to find that a very strong wind had blown through Rock Island. The closer I came to the church the more debris was in the street and when I came the last few blocks there was no electrical power.

At church there was neither electrical power nor telephone service. With our cell phones we received word that our Work Camps Director, Erin, was unable to come to church because a very large tree had fallen in the driveway of the family home and she was unable to move her car. There was a work camp group from Southern Illinois at the church waiting to go to work that day to help rehabilitate some housing. Our partner, Project NOW called to say that they were unable to receive the group.

I walked over to the parsonage and asked if they wanted to help alleviate storm damage. Their answer was "Sure!"

We drove to the 1400 block of 45th Avenue in Rock Island, where Erin's family lives. Their home is right next door to a family from our church. The church family had a 140 year old oak tree uprooted next to the driveway. It had fallen on the roof of their home. The family was in the yard. The house was uninhabitable. To date they living in a motel waiting for the repair of their home.

The work camp group helped several families remove tree limbs that had fallen. I think their presence also represented an encouragement.

Well, the church was without electrical power until Thursday, July 24. We served sack lunches in the front yard to kids who came for the summer lunch program. Our big concern was that we had hundreds of dollars invested in frozen food for the lunch program. In the photo above you can see my Honda generator outside the front door supplying power for the freezer.

We tend to forget how much we depend on electricity till it is gone for a time. The good point was that people actually talked with each other more since the television sets were off.