Be Prepared

Today saw the resurrection of our translation program at the church. On most Sundays I would come into church and setup the transmitter and put out the receivers for our English-only brothers. I translate the entire service in real time from Spanish to English.

A few weeks ago, my services become unnecessary as the brothers had opted to attend to attend an English speaking church from now on. This is their right and God bless and prosper them wherever they go.

I received instructions via wisper-down-the-lane, presumably from the Pastor, to put the transmitter away. I ignored these instructions for several reasons:
(1) The day will come when someone else visits us that needs translation, and I would have to scramble to unpack and setup the transmitter and receivers over again. We're talking about 20 minutes of finding a suitable corner, with an available outlets, plugging everything in, testing the transmitter and receivers, and swapping batteries as needed. God forbid I have to go to the pharmacy and buy more batteries. And when that day comes, I will be informed of the needed translation minutes before the start of the service.
(2) The transmitter and receivers themselves are already tucked in a corner, plugged in, ready to use as needed, and out of anyones way.
(3) If the orders did come from the Pastor, I will soon hear it from him directly; especially if I am ignoring him.

As predicted, I was informed of needed translation at 09:48; the service starts at 10:00. The late notice is of course no ones fault. The nature of a church is to welcome anyone who wishes to enter, so there is really no telling when translation may be needed on any given day.

No problem, I thought, everything is already ready already. Apparently not. Recently the church had collected clothes and toys go give out at an event we had yesterday. The room where I keep the transmitter was used for storage. The transmitter and microphone where inexplicably unplugged and separated.

I was able to locate everything and setup before the service started, but I didn't have time to test the transmission or get a Pepsi from the pharmacy.

I should explain the Pepsi. During the length of the service (2.5 hours at least) about four different people take the microphone and preform their respective duties. I translate for all of them. Every spoken word is instantly translated by me. I try to match the speaker's tone, cadence and inflection. If they scream, I scream. So I need a tasty drink that is cool (to sooth my throat) and loaded with caffein (to keep me going).

I ran into the kitchen looking for a replacement. I knew we had plenty of soda cans left over from yesterday's event. Unfortunately, there were no cans left in the fridge. I located the sodas but all the boxes where still closed. I felt kind of guilty opening a box of twelve just to get one. I decided to grab one of the two Diet Coke's on the shelf, the only cans not in a box.

It was only after the service stared that I realized that the warm (strike one) diet (two) coke that I had was also decaffeinated (somebody kill me).

The drink was unpleasant but it did help me maintain my voice. As uncomfortable as I was this morning, I am still honored by the privilege of translating the service, especially God's Word. "I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well." (Psalm 139:14)

In as much as I think I was sabotaged by others, the moral is still true: be prepared!