Old Geezer

"As old as these Generators are, they are still producing megawatts. They remind me of my grandparents. Eventhough they are old and need caring, I still need to take care of them because I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for them. " said David.

I work for a utility company in New Orleans call Entergy as an engineer. One of my responsibilities is managing engineering projects which usually entitles me to manage a bunch of hardcore, old school union labor workers. It's always amusing to see their reaction when they meet me for the first time due to my age and the role that I have been entrusted with. But more often than not, I always end up building a good relationship with them.

Today was just another day in one of the busiest plant in the system. We are in a middle of an outage, which means, we take one of the units down for a regular maintenance, kind of like your regular doctor visit. There were these 2 new pipefitters that joined the crew today and it was the usual orientation, tagging, job briefing, etc. Small talks were the most that came up of any of our conversation as I have been struggling to meet my deadlines with other projects. But at the end of today when I stopped by to check on their work, they brought an issue to my attention. In the midst of trying to figure out the problem and resolution, we began discussing about how old these units are. There are 5 units in the plant. All generating a total of approximately 2000MW. They were all built around the 60s.

Why did those words blurted earlier was worth mentioning? It left me a lasting impression of
1) The attitude of David towards his job
2) The attitude of David towards his aging grandparents
3) My change of attitude towards old things in life
4) The opportunity to make the best out of what is entrusted into our care

I recently had an opportunity be a part of a team that is rebuilding a century old church building call Valence Church. Our vision is to replant/revitalize the church and utilize it as a central hub to restore New Orleans for the cause of Christ. This church was founded and built in 1886. It's located right in the heart of uptown New Orleans on Magazine street. Led by one of my best friends Rob Wilton who was recently initiated as the Senior Lead Pastor of the church, our heart is to see the church being used as a place where God is loved and where people are loved. It shall not be a building or monument of history but a place where the truth is rediscovered in this unique city. We have been meeting there for the past month and God is already moving. This has been a journey that all of us are going through in faith. We do not know what will happen nor where it's going to go. But what we do know is that God has provided the farm house and has planted the seed and it's up to his people to water and harvest.

It's an exciting time of my life's journey but I'm also preparing for probably one of the biggest battle thus far. Please pray for us and write me if you are interested to find out more.