Everything that could have possibly gone wrong did.
At 9:45, only fifteen minutes before the service was supposed to start, she found herself running to almost the furthest house on the property to grab the third - THIRD - computer as a last ditch but hopeful effort that it would work with the new projector.
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It wasn't necessarily the projector's fault. The gift had come in with the team on Saturday afternoon and was working great. The main problem was that the cable available wasn't the correct hook-up needed for her computer or the roommate's computer. The attempt at using a thumb drive proved futile unless the song lyrics included a picture.
On Saturday evening, after multiple attempts at different formats and the final plan being to download pictures then edit the lyrics onto them, the roommate figured out how to use the cable to hook up the projector to the AppleTV 'box', then remotely hook up a computer to it using the available wifi. Since the original work was on a computer not compatible with said 'box', she decided to make new copies of the powerpoints needed in the morning without trying to mess with transferring the original work. She knew it would be easier than the picture idea and was already getting a little irritable from trying to figure out what was going wrong. Better to leave it like it was - after all, the test run worked.
While hanging out with the neighbors that night, she and the roommate were readily happy to find out that an extra computer had the needed hook-up and would work with the cable! But since they had already figured out a viable plan for the morning and most of the work was done, they decided to leave it as it was and wait to use said computer till next time.
While falling asleep that night, she felt so thankful for the much-anticipated projector and the assurance that all should go well in the morning. With a feeling of excitement that always comes with using something new for the first time, she prayed habitually yet sincerely, "God, take charge of tomorrow. It's Your service, not any of ours - please help us to understand that."
In the morning after uttering a similar prayer, she wrapped up the unfinished lyrics and checked over the finalized copies of the chord sheets to make sure everything was in order. Everything was seemingly ready for setup down in the 'center' where services would be taking place in an hour. One of the team members was going to be playing with her and the roommate so if everything went well with setup, they should be able to print out the chord sheets and run through the songs one more time before everyone showed up. Her biggest concern was that the internet had been spotty the night before and they needed a good signal in order to have the projector work.
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Forty-five minutes later as she headed back to the 'center' with the third computer, the one that had the correct hook-up for the available cable, the internet working properly was the last thing on her mind!
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Problem number one came in when she couldn't find the extension cord. Prior to this morning, it had always been with her keyboard or at least in the same room. At the same time, chairs had been set up in the 'warm room' with the light green walls instead of the large 'hall' with the white walls. Without the extension cord she couldn't double check to make sure the lyrics would show up on the green walls and they wouldn't have to set up in the 'hall' - without the extension cord no lyrics would be showing up on any walls! Mr. J who is in Guate. with his wife for 2 months, came in after she had searched high and low for said cord. He saw her frustration and sweetly offered to run get a different cord out of storage for her.
Meanwhile, to save time, she set up the roommate's computer and hooked up the 'box' to the projector. Since it wasn't her computer, she wasn't sure how to set up the remote access. She also realized that she'd left the keys to the office, where the printer was located, up at her house. At this point Mr. J showed up with the extension cord. After shutting all the blinds, she was relieved to find that the lyrics showed up on the green walls almost as well as on the white ones so they would be able to stay in the 'warm room.'
After messing around with the focus and other projector details, the roommate arrived. She quickly ran up to her house to grab the keys and informed the roommate that she hadn't been able to figure out how the remote access worked. A few minutes later, she came back with the key only to find that the remote access signal wasn't there - as if it had never existed. It might have been the wifi but other devices seemed to have a great connection. The techy guy on the team couldn't even figure out why it wasn't working. The signal just wasn't there!
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"God, this is out of our hands. You can make good come out of this, right? Please let this third computer work!"
It was 9:45. Fifteen minutes to search the web for pre-made powerpoints and hope the layout would work for what they had practiced
"Please, no more hang ups!"
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"None of the 3 printers work," the roommate informed her as she walked back into the 'center' for what felt like the upteenth time, "so, we can't print out our chord sheets. We'll just have to scroll on the computer as we go." And, of course one of the songs wasn't available in powerpoint format anywhere online - no where!
People were showing up and there was little time left to find another song. At least the computer, hook up, and everything else involved was working! But what other song?
The team member was playing one of the guitars, warming up while she and the roommate figured everything out. "10,000 Reasons" - the title of the exact song he was softly singing jumped out at her as she was searching for powerpoints. They'd played it multiple times before and had the chord sheets already printed. Perfect! She set it up on the screen while everyone was sitting down, knowing in her heart that this had to be their opening song.
"Good morning! So, everything that could have possibly gone wrong this morning did! I couldn't find what I needed for what we had originally planned as an opening song, but there is always a reason to praise God, no matter what, so if you could all stand, we'll open with prayer and get the service started with the song 10,000 Reasons."
When I had prayed the night before, asking God to take charge of the morning service, I had no idea that there was even a possibility of so many things going wrong! But every time, when the next thing went wrong, there was this check in my heart reminding me, "You gave this morning to God, He'll take care of it." Was I stressed? Of course! I worried that things would never work out. But at the same time, I trusted. Maybe not as much as I should have but during this morning's worship service, my faith grew incredibly and I learned a little nugget that I'd know in my head but only now seemed to reach my heart.
Worship goes so far beyond Sunday morning and singing songs - I knew that. I would have told you that at any given time. But as the presence of God filled that room this morning and His name was glorified in a breathtakingly beautiful anthem of people praising His name I knew, I knew, if I hadn't been forced - physically, emotionally forced - to release all control and completely rely on Christ, that sweet, beautiful presence of God wouldn't have been felt so strongly in my own heart.
To sing together with other believers who love Jesus is always a precious experience. But to realize that true worship (worshiping with our day to day lives, with our daily conversations, with our 'spiritual acts of worship [Romans 12:1] ) is true complete surrender, at times won't hit home until everything is taken out of our control and put into His hands. But when it is, when that happens, the doors swing wide open for Him to take control and refresh and revive the hearts of His people! Then - when that happens - everyone knows it is not because of 'me'. Then - when that happens - everyone knows without questioning that God is why we are here - that God is why...
P.S. Even though I personally thought I did a good job of not spreading my tenseness, sweet Mr. Jeff gave me a big hug several hours later and said he was glad it all worked out! All God - He knows I love hugs ;)
Oh, and the remote access on Rachel's computer is working again...in case you were wondering :}
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
On Saturday evening, after multiple attempts at different formats and the final plan being to download pictures then edit the lyrics onto them, the roommate figured out how to use the cable to hook up the projector to the AppleTV 'box', then remotely hook up a computer to it using the available wifi. Since the original work was on a computer not compatible with said 'box', she decided to make new copies of the powerpoints needed in the morning without trying to mess with transferring the original work. She knew it would be easier than the picture idea and was already getting a little irritable from trying to figure out what was going wrong. Better to leave it like it was - after all, the test run worked.
While hanging out with the neighbors that night, she and the roommate were readily happy to find out that an extra computer had the needed hook-up and would work with the cable! But since they had already figured out a viable plan for the morning and most of the work was done, they decided to leave it as it was and wait to use said computer till next time.
While falling asleep that night, she felt so thankful for the much-anticipated projector and the assurance that all should go well in the morning. With a feeling of excitement that always comes with using something new for the first time, she prayed habitually yet sincerely, "God, take charge of tomorrow. It's Your service, not any of ours - please help us to understand that."
In the morning after uttering a similar prayer, she wrapped up the unfinished lyrics and checked over the finalized copies of the chord sheets to make sure everything was in order. Everything was seemingly ready for setup down in the 'center' where services would be taking place in an hour. One of the team members was going to be playing with her and the roommate so if everything went well with setup, they should be able to print out the chord sheets and run through the songs one more time before everyone showed up. Her biggest concern was that the internet had been spotty the night before and they needed a good signal in order to have the projector work.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem number one came in when she couldn't find the extension cord. Prior to this morning, it had always been with her keyboard or at least in the same room. At the same time, chairs had been set up in the 'warm room' with the light green walls instead of the large 'hall' with the white walls. Without the extension cord she couldn't double check to make sure the lyrics would show up on the green walls and they wouldn't have to set up in the 'hall' - without the extension cord no lyrics would be showing up on any walls! Mr. J who is in Guate. with his wife for 2 months, came in after she had searched high and low for said cord. He saw her frustration and sweetly offered to run get a different cord out of storage for her.
Meanwhile, to save time, she set up the roommate's computer and hooked up the 'box' to the projector. Since it wasn't her computer, she wasn't sure how to set up the remote access. She also realized that she'd left the keys to the office, where the printer was located, up at her house. At this point Mr. J showed up with the extension cord. After shutting all the blinds, she was relieved to find that the lyrics showed up on the green walls almost as well as on the white ones so they would be able to stay in the 'warm room.'
After messing around with the focus and other projector details, the roommate arrived. She quickly ran up to her house to grab the keys and informed the roommate that she hadn't been able to figure out how the remote access worked. A few minutes later, she came back with the key only to find that the remote access signal wasn't there - as if it had never existed. It might have been the wifi but other devices seemed to have a great connection. The techy guy on the team couldn't even figure out why it wasn't working. The signal just wasn't there!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"God, this is out of our hands. You can make good come out of this, right? Please let this third computer work!"
It was 9:45. Fifteen minutes to search the web for pre-made powerpoints and hope the layout would work for what they had practiced
"Please, no more hang ups!"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"None of the 3 printers work," the roommate informed her as she walked back into the 'center' for what felt like the upteenth time, "so, we can't print out our chord sheets. We'll just have to scroll on the computer as we go." And, of course one of the songs wasn't available in powerpoint format anywhere online - no where!
People were showing up and there was little time left to find another song. At least the computer, hook up, and everything else involved was working! But what other song?
The team member was playing one of the guitars, warming up while she and the roommate figured everything out. "10,000 Reasons" - the title of the exact song he was softly singing jumped out at her as she was searching for powerpoints. They'd played it multiple times before and had the chord sheets already printed. Perfect! She set it up on the screen while everyone was sitting down, knowing in her heart that this had to be their opening song.
"Good morning! So, everything that could have possibly gone wrong this morning did! I couldn't find what I needed for what we had originally planned as an opening song, but there is always a reason to praise God, no matter what, so if you could all stand, we'll open with prayer and get the service started with the song 10,000 Reasons."
When I had prayed the night before, asking God to take charge of the morning service, I had no idea that there was even a possibility of so many things going wrong! But every time, when the next thing went wrong, there was this check in my heart reminding me, "You gave this morning to God, He'll take care of it." Was I stressed? Of course! I worried that things would never work out. But at the same time, I trusted. Maybe not as much as I should have but during this morning's worship service, my faith grew incredibly and I learned a little nugget that I'd know in my head but only now seemed to reach my heart.
Worship goes so far beyond Sunday morning and singing songs - I knew that. I would have told you that at any given time. But as the presence of God filled that room this morning and His name was glorified in a breathtakingly beautiful anthem of people praising His name I knew, I knew, if I hadn't been forced - physically, emotionally forced - to release all control and completely rely on Christ, that sweet, beautiful presence of God wouldn't have been felt so strongly in my own heart.
To sing together with other believers who love Jesus is always a precious experience. But to realize that true worship (worshiping with our day to day lives, with our daily conversations, with our 'spiritual acts of worship [Romans 12:1] ) is true complete surrender, at times won't hit home until everything is taken out of our control and put into His hands. But when it is, when that happens, the doors swing wide open for Him to take control and refresh and revive the hearts of His people! Then - when that happens - everyone knows it is not because of 'me'. Then - when that happens - everyone knows without questioning that God is why we are here - that God is why...
P.S. Even though I personally thought I did a good job of not spreading my tenseness, sweet Mr. Jeff gave me a big hug several hours later and said he was glad it all worked out! All God - He knows I love hugs ;)
Oh, and the remote access on Rachel's computer is working again...in case you were wondering :}
