Parked outside Trinity Lutheran Church North Morristown on Sunday morning for the congregation’s annual fall dinner.
THE IRISH I M van parked outside the German Lutheran Church makes me laugh.
And it’s good to laugh on a Sunday morning when the power has been out for hours and the Lutheran ladies have been scurrying, along with their anxious husbands, to cart roasters of hot food from the church basement.
It is the morning of Trinity North Morristown’s annual fall dinner and the worst possible date for the power to fail at a nearby substation.
Before worship services on a Sunday morning at Trinity Lutheran Church, North Morristown. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo.
Upstairs in the sanctuary, pews are nearly empty as congregants scramble to move food to the homes of parishioners with power and to nearby Camp Omega. Eventually the pews fill. The church organist gathers her songbooks from the balcony and hurries to the piano at the front of the sanctuary.
The pastor jokes, during the morning worship service, about his strong and resilient German Lutheran congregation, then prays later for the electricity to come back on.
But when he blesses worshipers, the lights are still out.
So the well isn’t working and the toilet can’t be flushed except it can with water hauled in milk cans to pour into the toilet tank.
Outside, the scent of coffee wafts from an open kettle set atop a propane fueled burner.
Tickets for the dinner are selling and diners file in a side door, up the steps and into pews to await dismissal to the basement. Food has been hauled back, down the stairs, into the semi dark kitchen.
In the dim light of the sanctuary, conversation flows with the comfort that comes from visiting within the close confines of a small country church.
Then, just like that, the lights flick on at 11:10 a.m. Applause erupts. An audible gasp escapes, though, when the power flickers, off and on, before remaining on.
Tables await diners in the church basement. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo.
Diners file to the basement, the IRISH I M and the Lutherans, to feast on ham and turkey and to give thanks for an answer to prayer.
© Copyright 2014 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
Whew—-dinner is saved!!!!!
Yes, it was quite the ordeal, I’m sure, to haul that food back and forth. As always, dinner was delicious.
Oh how dependent we’ve become on electricity! Think of our ancestors – candles, oil lamps, and lanterns. I keep an oil lamp around as we’ve had our share, especially when we have some bad storms. Has been 2-3 days sometimes before we get it back on. Glad it came back on for Sunday lunch!
You are wise to keep an oil lamp. It’s seldom that we are without power for any length of time. But in the country it’s usually longer.
Love the inside of the church and the old Ford truck.
Yes, isn’t that truck sweet? Would love to own it.
And the church is beautiful, like most old country churches.
And the Midwest “little lunch” is saved!!! Before we moved to our current rural home, such experiences would have been merely stories to read about and marvel at creativity of such groups (living in the Twin Cities Metro, rarely would we have been w/o power and the dinners held in those large church venues have a totally different ‘feel’) but, having lived here for 40 years, we know that this accommodation to “life” is the ‘norm’…and we love it!!!!!!!!! Great post!!!!!
There’s a certain spirit of working together, rising to the unexpected and making it work that prevails in these small country churches.
God is good….all the time. 🙂
A great reminder.
The power came on ten minutes after serving was slated to begin. God’s timing is always right, isn’t it?
The Big Man is testing everyone and their level of patience that all will work out! At least it was not winter weather time – brrr. Love the license plate. Happy Day 🙂
The church was a little chilly during worship services. But certainly not unbearable.
So lucky the power came back in the nick of time!
Absolutely.
The title of this story is a beautiful prayer and has generated much devotional introspection. Thanks.
Marilyn, I had no idea of the double meaning of this title until I read your comment. God works in mysterious ways, doesn’t He? Often we don’t even realize it.
That is indeed an answer to prayer. What a tense morning it must have been down in the kitchen. And in the bathrooms. And in the hall! I’m so glad the event got to go ahead. We’ve had terrible cyclonic storms here in Sydney and thousands of homes are without power. The temperature has plummeted and it’s snowing in the mountains again. Fortunately, our home hasn’t been affected xx
I’m sorry to hear about the storms and pray the cyclonic storms did not cause too much damage.