The First Light | MINI 2616

0:03Speaker 1:Miss Jean here, and I am ready for a mini-adventure. How about you?

0:07Speaker 2:Oh, good.

0:09Speaker 3:It looks like Chaplain Jake, Reader, and Harold are at the Harmony Corner Church. Youth Group has just finished, and everyone else has headed home, but our three friends are in for a little surprise. Let's join them for today's mini-adventure called The First Light.

0:28Speaker 4:Harold, next week at youth group, can you lead the Bible study?

0:31Speaker 5:Me?

0:32Speaker 2:But how?

0:33Speaker 4:Just the same way Reeder did today.

0:35Speaker 5:I can walk you through it, Harold.

0:37Speaker 4:Oh, Reeder, your keys are over there on the piano.

0:40Speaker 5:Oh, thanks, Jake. I'll grab them.

0:47Speaker 4:What was that?

0:49Speaker 2:The lights just went out.

0:50Speaker 5:Did someone flip the switch? I can't see where I'm going.

0:54Speaker 4:No, I didn't touch anything. Let me try.

0:59Speaker 2:The power must have gone out. Here, reader, I'll put on my phone light for you.

1:04Speaker 5:Oh, thanks, Harold. There they are.

1:07Speaker 2:I'm going to turn this off now, you know, to save the battery. Yeah, good idea.

1:11Speaker 4:Who knows how long the power will be out?

1:14Speaker 5:Should we wait here in the youth chapel for a few minutes? Just to make sure nothing went wrong somewhere else in the church?

1:21Speaker 4:I don't smell smoke, but good idea.

1:25Speaker 2:It's a little weird being in here with no light.

1:27Speaker 4:Yeah, all the shadows... The moonlight really doesn't shine much light through the small windows.

1:32Speaker 2:No, not much at all.

1:34Speaker 5:This is what it must have been like before electricity. My dad still remembers those days, you know.

1:40Speaker 2:Wait, Gramps Gordy was alive before there was electricity?

1:43Speaker 5:He's not that old, reader. Well, yes and no. My dad grew up on a farm in the Midwest. And no, they didn't have electricity at the farm when he was a little boy.

1:56Speaker 2:How did they survive?

1:57Speaker 5:Well, just like generations before him did, Harold. They had candles for light.

2:03Speaker 4:I wonder if we have any candles. I'm gonna look.

2:06Speaker 5:Okay, Jake. Yeah, Harold, my dad's family had kerosene lamps too, but that was it. When the sun went down at night, it was dark. And for the most part, work stopped.

2:18Speaker 2:But in the winter, the sun goes down early.

2:20Speaker 5:Yes, and so they would tell stories and sing. How'd they cook and make food with no electricity? As my dad tells it, they had a wood stove. He had to chop wood to keep it going.

2:33Speaker 2:That wouldn't be fun.

2:35Speaker 5:It wasn't all bad. And the family had an icebox. They'd have ice delivered regularly to keep the food cold.

2:43Speaker 2:That's what we do when we're camping.

2:45Speaker 5:Yes, same idea.

2:46Speaker 2:Look!

2:47Speaker 5:I found a candle! Here, let's light it.

2:54Speaker 2:Uh, now it feels even creepier in here.

2:57Speaker 4:You'll get used to the candlelight, Harold.

3:00Speaker 2:So, reader, I know that there was electricity in the 1920s and even earlier in people's houses. So why not at Gramps Gordy's family farm?

3:10Speaker 5:You're right. Electricity was widely used in the cities. But for the rural areas, it took longer. Farms were often a long distance apart.

3:20Speaker 4:So it would take a lot of power lines to get them electricity, huh?

3:24Speaker 5:Definitely. And that was expensive for the electrical companies. But that all changed with Franklin Roosevelt.

3:31Speaker 2:Oh, he was president. I remember that.

3:34Speaker 4:Natasha would be so proud that you actually listen in history class.

3:39Speaker 2:I listen. Most of the time.

3:42Speaker 5:A lot of changes took place in the mid-1930s, including the Rural Electrification Administration, or REA.

3:50Speaker 4:You know, Teddy Roosevelt was president, too.

3:53Speaker 2:Right. So how were Teddy and Franklin related?

3:56Speaker 4:Distant cousins, I think.

3:58Speaker 5:Yes, but we're talking about Franklin now.

4:01Speaker 2:Right.

4:01Speaker 4:Go on, Reader.

4:02Speaker 5:Well, after the REA, farmers worked together to form electrical co-ops.

4:08Speaker 2:So they could get electricity at last? Yes.

4:11Speaker 5:They paid for electrical poles and transformers and power lines.

4:15Speaker 2:Finally! They were living in the Dark Ages. Dark Ages, get it?

4:20Speaker 4:They're a good one!

4:22Speaker 5:Well... My dad was about five years old when all this happened. He remembers the crews digging holes for the electrical poles.

4:30Speaker 2:That would be exciting as a five-year-old kid.

4:32Speaker 5:Yes, and the whole family watched as the poles stretched closer and closer to their farm.

4:38Speaker 4:How exciting!

4:39Speaker 5:Yeah, for most of the family. But Grandmother Reeder wasn't excited. She didn't trust this new, modern convenience.

4:49Speaker 2:But why not?

4:50Speaker 5:Well, it was all new. And there was fear about fire, too.

4:54Speaker 4:Well, that's a valid fear. But candles start fires, too.

4:58Speaker 5:They do, Jake. We need to be careful with our candle.

5:01Speaker 4:Yes, indeedy.

5:03Speaker 5:Well, finally the electrical poles arrived at the reader farm, and the lines were all connected.

5:09Speaker 2:So they could finally plug in their laptops and turn on the TV.

5:12Speaker 4:Harold!

5:13Speaker 2:I'm kidding, Chaplain Jake. But what was the first electrical thing they had? A fridge? I mean, that's what I'd choose. No.

5:22Speaker 5:They used their icebox for many more months. But their first modern convenience happened at the flip of a switch.

5:30Speaker 2:Flip of a switch. Oh, electrical lights.

5:34Speaker 5:Yes, for the first time. But Grandmother Reeder never liked them.

5:39Speaker 2:And now we just take them for granted. Until the power goes out.

5:43Speaker 4:Life must have really changed on the farm after that, Reeder.

5:46Speaker 2:Oh, yes.

5:47Speaker 5:Now they could work after dark. Electrical lights were installed in the barn and in the house, and they got a radio.

5:54Speaker 2:Oh, and there were all kinds of old-timey radio stories back then.

5:58Speaker 4:Well, back then, they weren't really old-timey, right? They were new-timey.

6:02Speaker 2:I guess.

6:03Speaker 5:And they did get a fridge, and an iron, and running water.

6:08Speaker 2:Wait, before electricity, there was no water on the farm?

6:11Speaker 5:There was, but you had to pump it by hand.

6:14Speaker 2:Life before electricity sounds exhausting.

6:18Speaker 5:But simpler.

6:19Speaker 2:And quieter. Yes.

6:22Speaker 5:But as my dad tells the story, life after electricity was also quiet.

6:28Speaker 2:Oh?

6:29Speaker 5:How? Well, everyone could do their own thing in the evening. He would lie on his bed and read a book. Ah, but before, they relied on each other to talk and sing, like you said. Yes, exactly.

6:41Speaker 2:Huh. I had no idea Gramps Gordy was so iconic.

6:45Speaker 5:Iconic?

6:47Speaker 2:I mean, he's from a different universe. I need to interview him for.

6:52Speaker 5:Aha! The power's back on.

6:54Speaker 3:Oh, good!

6:55Speaker 4:I didn't want to walk home without the streetlights on.

6:58Speaker 2:Creepy! Oh, Chaplain Jake, I would have walked with you.

7:02Speaker 4:Let's blow out the candle.

7:05Speaker 2:Reader, do you think that Gramps Gordy would come to Youth Chapel next week and tell us some of his stories?

7:11Speaker 5:Oh, I'll ask him. His memory for back then is pretty good.

7:16Speaker 4:Hey, Harold, are you just trying to get out of leading Bible study?

7:20Speaker 5:Harold, is that it?

7:22Speaker 2:No, no. Honestly, this is interesting. I can make a Bible study from it. Like, there's even a verse where Jesus says he's the light.

7:29Speaker 5:Of the world.

7:30Speaker 4:John chapter 8.

7:31Speaker 2:Oh, okay. There you go. I'll look it up.

7:34Speaker 5:All right. Well, come on, you two. Let's go home.

7:40Speaker 3:The power went out, and Jake, Reader, and Harold had a good reminder that electricity isn't something that we should take for granted. Life before electricity was more.

7:51Speaker 1:Difficult, but it also seems cozier, don't you think?

7:56Speaker 3:I'd much rather talk to my family and tell stories than stare at a screen in the evening. But life isn't always better in the dark. Electricity brought lots of life-saving inventions with it. And the most wonderful, the first light with a capital L is Jesus.

8:15Speaker 1:Harold was right about that verse.

8:17Speaker 3:It's John 8, verse 12. Again, Jesus spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. Will you allow Jesus to shine his light in your heart today?

8:34Speaker 1:I pray so.

8:35Speaker 3:It's a wonderful way to exercise your faith. I'm Ms. Jean, and you've been listening to a mini-adventure in Discovery Mountain, where the air is clear, clear enough to hear your imagination, and where every day is an exercise in faith. Join us online to listen to episodes on demand at discoverymountain.com. Discovery Mountain is a listener-supported program brought to you by The Voice of Prophecy.