Class, powerless, decorating

Class yesterday went well. I had eight participants but none of them were overly active in the class. Most sat through the class passively. I do know that a couple were not feeling well, either in the throws of an illness or recovering from one. It is sad to say, but it is nice to hear someone referring to an illness as the root of their malaise as something other than COVID. I have a class tomorrow, but I believe there are only a few – maybe four- participants in that class. We could finish early with that one. Time will tell, but I will enter the class with the expectation that it will be stretched out over the allotted time fairly closely to the six plus hours we set aside for the class. Tomorrows class is a participant driven class, so their engagement is what determines, to a large part, the length of the class. The good part is that it is the one class that I really enjoy teaching. When that class is done, I will have only two classes to teach to finish out the year. That is coming quickly.

While Mama and I were finishing up dinner yesterday evening, the lights in the ceiling fan over the dining room table flickered and dimmed, then went out. One bulb came back on, but the others in the light on the ceiling fan remained dark. Then that bulb flickered and went out. Mama and I were so focused on that fixture that it took us a moment to realize all the lights had gone out. We had lost all power to the farm. Mama called the power company to report the outage, but we did not get power back before we left for church. Mama did not get her shower, but we stumbled in the mostly dark and managed to get ready for church with light from our cell phones and some candles. I do not mind the dark. Mama is a different story.

At church a friend of the church from BBTI’s class that graduated in 2019 presented his work and preached. Nathan Schrock and his wife had been with us through that entire school year and we had eagerly taken them on as missionaries when they graduated. He and his wife went to the Ivory Coast to work alongside her parents in the work they have there for a year to see if the Lord would have them dedicate their lives to that people group as well. Having completed that year of short-term service, they are now on deputation to raise the support to go back and start a new work in Ivory Coast. It was very good to see them again, to be able to spend time with them and hear their heart for the work God has called them to. Mama and I spent a little time with them after the service, but there were many in the church that wanted to grab their ear, so our time was limited.

As we headed home, Mama called Victoria to see if the power had been restored. It had not. So, we called the power company to report to ongoing outage. We were called back right away. Crews got to the farm before 9 pm and began to investigate. It took until a little after 11 pm for them to get us powered up, but they acted pretty quickly considering we were the only ones remaining in the dark in the entire area. I do not know what they had to do to get electricity to us but when power did come back on, it took four or five times of stopping and restarting whatever they were doing for the power to stay on. The lights would come on for a second and then go off. I was wakened by the light, so I got up and turned off switches and lamps that had illuminated between attempts to get full power restored. That process took about fifteen minutes. By 11:30 we were back on the grid. I went out to the small coop to make sure the heat lamps had come on so the chicks would not get too cold overnight. Then I finally laid down and slept. It was a short night sleep wise.

Mama is struggling to decorate for Christmas. Without the help she seems to need to stay on one project and without the drive to get the house ready for children to enjoy, there is a definite flagging in motivation to accomplish the project, but she insists that today is the day she will get it all done. Since I am working from home today, I suspect that I will be called upon to participate at various intervals while I take a break from work. I don’t mind, in fact I very much enjoy being with Mama in whatever capacity lends itself to our doing something together. Christmas decorating, or decorating for any season, is not my forte, but Mama likes it, and it looks nice when she is done.

So, we get it done whether it is what I would choose to do or not.