Fixing the UPS.
Around here UPSes (uninteruptable power supply) are very important. The power goes out frequently and having a battery backup/surge protection for your computers extends their life. Last week I spent setting up a new monitoring system so that we could see when servers went down.
We noticed Friday afternoon that a switch went down repeatedly during the power failures which was indicative of a UPS failing. So we found a replacement UPS after closing time.
Monday morning, we arrived at the door with a new UPS and this particular department was doing typesetting. Typesetting is one of the final stages of a Bible translation in which they perfect the look and feel of the text before publishing. (from my current understanding anyway).
They said, "wow, we hadn't even called yet!, how did you know?"
Typically the first time we know about a problem is when someone complains, but this new (free) software we put in place allowed us to see the problem, and come up with a solution before the problem was reported by the people in the office.
I gladly swapped out the UPS and they were rather impressed that they saw little to no interruption of their work.
THIS is how things are supposed to work. To know that our efforts of the past three weeks led to a very direct solution for the translation process is extremely rewarding. It means that our vision (our =CTS) of helping Bible translation is working and will work. The alternative was that they could have been unable to do their work for half a day if not more while we scrambled to get replacement parts.
As a comedic side note, I spent some time repairing the (now spare) UPS, and while one "customer" was watching, proceeded to discover a short in the UPS.... the hard way.
Sparks flew, flames flew, smoke billowed.
We apparently have a bad UPS.
I've never.... ever... ever done that on a UPS. I've never seen that happen on a UPS. And I had to do it right in front of someone who by now has told several people I'm sure.
It was in this moment that I realized the pride I felt from doing the quick replacement for the typesetters was equally relational to the amount of humility I felt from blowing up a UPS in front of a non-computer technician. The following moment I paused and gave the glory to GOD that anything I touch works at all in the first place, and to thank Him for the nice free new software that enables the vision to become reality.
I LOVE how God doesn't let me get full of myself.
I also like He made it so that hair grows back. (-;
