The Little Generator That Could
By Andy Harrington Posted on August 09 2010
Ever thought you had everything under control, that the plans were laid, that nothing could possibly go wrong? Now I know you would never make that mistake! (But then, I’m not as smart as some people.)
A few years ago, our team in the UK planned a truly awesome youth event. As part of a larger festival, we brought in a Circus Big Top tent for four days and put together a program that would blow the minds of the two thousand-plus young people that would be camping onsite. Man we pulled out all the stops! A humungous sound system, a lighting display that would do justice to a Muse concert, loads of video projectors, art zones…you name it, we had it. We even had Delirious coming to do a late night special on the second night.
We spent a nearly a year putting it all together and in the last few days, we moved en mass to the site, everybody excited and ready to rock.
We raised the tent, tested the sound system (and got complaints from people two miles away!), and fired up the lights. Everything was set and we were beside ourselves with anticipation. There was no way this could be anything other than a slaaaaaaaam dunk. Glory was coming our way!
That is until about two hours before we were due to open the doors.
People had already started to arrive and were sitting on the grass outside when we heard a muffled explosion from about 500 yards away, followed by a puff of smoke and then…nothing. I mean literally, nothing: no sound, no power hums, nothing. You see, a very nice man who had been digging a trench in his lovely little digger had just cut through the main power supply for the whole site. We couldn’t even run a 100-watt light bulb.
I ran over to see how long it would take to fix and was told, “don’t worry son, we’ll have you up and running in few minutes.”
Well those few minutes passed…and a few more…and a lot more.
In the meantime about two thousand people had gathered outside the tent and wondered what on earth was going on. Feeling nauseous inside, I managed to find a megaphone and scream out a few incoherent words about what was happening and asked them to be patient. Crowds can be funny things though, and this beast was getting restless. So draining the well of my youth work knowledge, I started to get the crowd playing games, screaming directions from the top of a chair and wondering what the heck I was going to do.
It was then that I noticed a hotdog van in the distance. Coming from the hotdog van was a hum…a sort of generator hum. Leaving one of my teammates frantically trying to entertain the crowd, I ran over to take a look. It was a mini generator, putting out just 1000 watts. That was still 1000 watts more than we had though. Promising to buy every hotdog the owner could produce in the next five years I scrambled back to the big top carrying the generator and grabbed hold of the soundman. “What do you expect me to do with that?“ he said. “Something, anything!” I begged him.
It was about this point we stopped to pray. Yes, desperation had finally driven us that far.
In the corner I noticed an old overhead projector someone had brought, though goodness knows why. A crazy thought ran through my head. “How about we use that as the lighting system?” I suggested to the lighting engineer, who I could tell thought I was delusional. But it was too late—survival instinct had taken over. Turning to the band I told them, “Look we have power for one microphone, one 200-watt speaker and your lighting system is going to be an overturned projector. You’ve get 10 minutes ‘til I let them in.”
Strangely, a sort of peace came over us as we ran around trying to sort things out. That peace then turned into hysterical laughter as we realized how crazy this all was.
In they came, and on the stage they found me with a megaphone next to a guitarist on a chair, a vocalist with a single mic and our wonderful little OHP lighting system…all surrounded by the best gear that money could buy, hanging uselessly from the gantries.
“God, if we ever needed you, we need you now” I prayed aloud before telling everyone what had happened. We went for the humor element but inside we were expecting to be torn to shreds. After all, these people had paid a lot of money and we’d been telling them for months this was going to be special.
And then God showed up.
As the guitarist struck the first chord, two thousand voices swelled and the light from the OHP seemed to be shining with extra intensity. That worship time turned into one of my most treasured memories as everyone met God in such a profound way, despite our little disaster. Our speaker that night spoke with such passion (bursting his lungs to make everyone hear) and the students met the Lord in droves…and all the while I could hear the putt-putt-putt of our tiny little generator that could.
At the end, I closed the night almost in tears as I admitted to these thousands of young people that God was bigger than all of our plans. He’d shown us, yet again, that our big ideas often just get in the way of what He wants to do.
People left singing and jumping, telling our team it was the best night ever.
After everyone had gone and our team meeting had finished in hilarity and praising God, I sat on my own in the dark, thanking God that he could find ways to get around my lack of faith. Just as I admitted that, there was a huge whirring sound and every light in the place sprang into 3D July 4th fireworks-style life, followed by the excited whooping of our tech crew.
God sure is hilarious when he wants to be.
Comments
From Keith Reeser on August 11, 2010
Awesome story! I can’t even imagine. Thats why i never do big events…. haha just kidding. Isn’t the Lord GOOD?
