Trying week

Saturday we pulled into the town of Brentwood for a packed show only to discover that they were in the midst of a city-wide power outage. Being the stalwart, determined, and up-for-a-challenge team we are, we began setting up in the hopes that the power would soon be restored. Natural light is a wonderful thing. They assured us that the power company had promised light 'by 10pm.'

So we cooked, set up the house, and a general contractor brought us three generators to run the sound and lights. And we did the show. With the constant beeping of something electrical telling us that there was no power. In case we hadn't got the memo. Two somethings actually, which beeped in and out of synch with each other all day. It was very distracting onstage to be in the middle of a narration and hear *beep beep* *beep beep beep beep* *beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep* Add to that a hearing aid that whistled and all my emotional monologues were out the window. Otherwise, it was a great show and a very receptive audience. The general dismay backstage was - how on earth are we going to tear down everything and wash dishes once we take down the lighting equipment.

By flashlight and Coleman lantern. The bathrooms had two candles apiece, and stage crew kept the lights up as long as possible. Then, 15 minutes before we loaded the trailers the power returned. And the people rejoiced...

The best part of the evening was finding out that enough money had been raised not only to cover our cost, but to help the missionaries of the evening refurbish a boat they will be taking to provide transportation of medical personnel and Bibles to a set of islands that are difficult to navigate.