Nevertheless I've had a few challenges of my own right here in Cascade, ID.
We returned home from the holidays before New Years so that I could do payroll on Dec 30th for our staff. We left Spokane that morning about 8:45 (had planned on 8:00). Normally it's about a 5 1/2 hour trip with an hour time change which would have put us home about 2:30 if we'd left on time. Plenty of time to sort through a week's worth of mail, go to the bank by 5:00 and process payroll by 6:00 (online banking deadline). But we didn't leave on time and the roads were snowy so we didn't arrive in Cascade until about 4:00. After picking up the mail at the post office, this is what we encountered at the office.
There had been 2 ft of fresh snow while we'd been gone and no one had been there to shovel. So while I sorted mail in the car, Steve tromped through the snow to reach the buried snow shovel by the door and worked on a pathway.
There's always more checks near the end of the year (which is a blessing!). Steve stayed and helped me prepare the bank deposit and carried it one block to the bank right in the nick of time at 5:00. I called to let them know he was coming. I got the direct deposit processed about 5:45 and everyone got paid on time. When I walked home three blocks from the office, Steve was still shoveling at home. A friend had cleared our driveway, but walkways still had to be cleared and the city plows leave a berm across the driveway entrances whenever they plow (we have two because of a circular drive).
New Year's Eve the low was -27 degrees in Cascade. Lows the following 4 days were -25, -23, -19, -15. An older lady at church didn't remember it being this cold for about 12 years. We went out for a New Year's Eve service at 11:30 pm, thinking we were a little crazy. If we hadn't been on the worship team we probably wouldn't have gone. And sure enough everyone who showed up was either on the worship team, related to someone on the worship team, or the pastor. And what did we have for refreshments afterwards? Ice cream! I discovered Cascade has fireworks on New Year's Eve, though. We had a perfect view from the church parking lot of the display put on by the Ashley Inn.
Tuesday morning last week I got to the office and the thermostat read 37 degrees. We've had a few instances recently of the old electric furnace shutting off unexpectedly, but we always seemed to get it going again. I set up some portable heaters, one by the kitchen pipes, one by the bathroom pipes and one by my desk.
It was the next day before someone could get in to look at the furnace and another day before new fuses arrived to get it going again, so I enjoyed a few (short) brisk days working in 50 degrees temps wearing my long underwear and lots of layers. We have a temporary fix now, but will need to replace our "disconnect" box in the near future.
So the same day the furnace got restarted (Friday) I was working at my desk and all of sudden I heard this electrical blowout type noise and the accounting computer went dead. No response on the CPU or the monitor. I had noticed the lights on the modem went off briefly, but came back on. The lights were on in the building, the furnace was still working, no circuit breakers had flipped. The other computers in the office were still working. Then I noticed my electric calculator wasn't working either, and after some testing I discovered it was apparently the surge strip that had gone bad. Fortunately, we had a spare at home and soon everything was humming again. Since when does a surge strip blow out??
Sometimes I have to wonder is this just coincidence or is it spiritual warfare. It is good to know God is always with us and He helps us to overcome even these small annoyances.
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