I've Got Something to Say
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The alarm went off at 6 AM so I could get up, shower and get to church around 7:15 or so. I was filling in for Tim, the sound guy, today. Being the first 'tech' person there, not only do I turn on the sound equipment and get some background music going, I usually get the PowerPoint PC stuff going too. Upon doing so this morning, however, I received a failure screen when clicking on the shortcut to the network drive where the PowerPoint files are kept. Well, may be things are done differently now - especially since the displays are actually managed through Easy Worship, so I waited for the designated PPT person to arrive.
I knew we were to have special guests singing this morning, and was initially told they would only be playing the piano during the 8 AM service. Leslie arrives (the PPT person) and can't get Easy Worship going since she can't get to the S-drive (network). I call Vance, a tech person who setup our current network, and he walks me through a couple things to try & get it to connect - no luck. I told him I would go to the server room and call him back. As I make my way through the Sanctuary, I am informed that the special guest will need microphones to sing during the 8 AM service after all. Its 10 minutes until service starts, but that can wait a few minutes. I get to the server room, and can't seem to key in the code to open the door. I call Vance - my cell phone is now about to go into 'low battery' mode. He is almost done with making his early pick-ups in the church van, gets me in the door, and I look at the servers - power is on and they seem to be running. The only other problem could be the switch/router which is in the office - Vance will look at it when he gets here in 10 minutes. I go find Pastor Randy to inform him of the status of things, then talk to the special guest briefly and get their microphones set up, and then talk to Dave, today's fill-in for our Minister of Worship who is out on vacation this weekend.
As I make my way back up to the balcony, Dave informs the congragation that we will be using the hymn numbers provided in the bulletin and Hymnals as the PowerPoint is not available - good thing the 8 AM service is still traditional and all music is taken from the Hymnal even though its always provided on PowerPoint. Leslie is able to provide lyrics for a few of the hymns that are part of the library in Easy Worship - Dave made a comment between songs about the 'teasers'. Vance arrives, checks out a few things, but the folder on the network is still not accessible. He then comes up with the idea to copy the files from the folder on the server onto a thumb drive and plug the thumb drive into the PowerPoint PC – a newer version of the old Sneakernet. This allowed for the sermon outline to be displayed right as Randy was getting into point number 1 of his sermon on Heaven - much to his relief.
By the end of the service things were back to normal. Vance had rebooted the server when he first arrived - it just takes so darn long to complete its boot-up process – so even the video display for announcements was able to be displayed on the end of the service.
The only 'snafu' in the 10:50 service was when Kathy got up to present Bibles to the Kindergartners - an annual event for our church on Promotion Sunday. Kathy has been doing the Children’s Moment for some time and I knew she used a lapel mike and I easily located its control on the sound board. However, even though I had it turned on, volume turned up and when I pushed the 'monitor' button I could hear her in the headphones, she was not coming over the house speakers. Well, good thing she was standing behind the pulpit, as Randy was actually handing out the Bibles, so I just turned up the pulpit mike and things went fine. A little later I realized that her mike channel is set to be part of the drama group and I did not have that slider up on the equalizer - that's why she wasn't coming over the speakers.
After church, Jacque & I went out with her father to Lone Star for lunch. Then we came home and we napped the afternoon away. We stayed up late into the night watching our back log of Ice Road Truckers on the DVR. It was nice knowing we didn't have to get up in the morning to go to work!
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