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Transcript

The First Light | MINI 2616 · Discovery Mountain

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Miss Jean here, and I am ready for a mini-adventure.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: How about you?
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Oh, good.
• 0:09
  Speaker 3: It looks like Chaplain Jake, Reader, and Harold are at
• 0:12
  Speaker 3: the Harmony Corner Church. Youth Group has just finished, and
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: everyone else has headed home, but our three friends are
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: in for a little surprise. Let's join them for today's
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: mini-adventure called The First Light.
• 0:28
  Speaker 4: Harold, next week at youth group, can you lead the
• 0:30
  Speaker 4: Bible study?
• 0:31
  Speaker 5: Me?
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: But how?
• 0:33
  Speaker 4: Just the same way Reeder did today.
• 0:35
  Speaker 5: I can walk you through it, Harold.
• 0:37
  Speaker 4: Oh, Reeder, your keys are over there on the piano.
• 0:40
  Speaker 5: Oh, thanks, Jake. I'll grab them.
• 0:47
  Speaker 4: What was that?
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: The lights just went out.
• 0:50
  Speaker 5: Did someone flip the switch? I can't see where I'm going.
• 0:54
  Speaker 4: No, I didn't touch anything. Let me try.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: The power must have gone out. Here, reader, I'll put
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: on my phone light for you.
• 1:04
  Speaker 5: Oh, thanks, Harold. There they are.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: I'm going to turn this off now, you know, to
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: save the battery. Yeah, good idea.
• 1:11
  Speaker 4: Who knows how long the power will be out?
• 1:14
  Speaker 5: Should we wait here in the youth chapel for a
• 1:16
  Speaker 5: few minutes? Just to make sure nothing went wrong somewhere
• 1:20
  Speaker 5: else in the church?
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: I don't smell smoke, but good idea.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: It's a little weird being in here with no light.
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: Yeah, all the shadows... The moonlight really doesn't shine much
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: light through the small windows.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: No, not much at all.
• 1:34
  Speaker 5: This is what it must have been like before electricity.
• 1:38
  Speaker 5: My dad still remembers those days, you know.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: Wait, Gramps Gordy was alive before there was electricity?
• 1:43
  Speaker 5: He's not that old, reader. Well, yes and no. My
• 1:49
  Speaker 5: dad grew up on a farm in the Midwest. And no,
• 1:52
  Speaker 5: they didn't have electricity at the farm when he was
• 1:54
  Speaker 5: a little boy.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: How did they survive?
• 1:57
  Speaker 5: Well, just like generations before him did, Harold. They had
• 2:01
  Speaker 5: candles for light.
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: I wonder if we have any candles. I'm gonna look.
• 2:06
  Speaker 5: Okay, Jake. Yeah, Harold, my dad's family had kerosene lamps too,
• 2:11
  Speaker 5: but that was it. When the sun went down at night,
• 2:15
  Speaker 5: it was dark. And for the most part, work stopped.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: But in the winter, the sun goes down early.
• 2:20
  Speaker 5: Yes, and so they would tell stories and sing. How'd
• 2:23
  Speaker 5: they cook and make food with no electricity? As my
• 2:27
  Speaker 5: dad tells it, they had a wood stove. He had
• 2:31
  Speaker 5: to chop wood to keep it going.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: That wouldn't be fun.
• 2:35
  Speaker 5: It wasn't all bad. And the family had an icebox.
• 2:39
  Speaker 5: They'd have ice delivered regularly to keep the food cold.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: That's what we do when we're camping.
• 2:45
  Speaker 5: Yes, same idea.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: Look!
• 2:47
  Speaker 5: I found a candle! Here, let's light it.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: Uh, now it feels even creepier in here.
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: You'll get used to the candlelight, Harold.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: So, reader, I know that there was electricity in the
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: 1920s and even earlier in people's houses. So why not
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: at Gramps Gordy's family farm?
• 3:10
  Speaker 5: You're right. Electricity was widely used in the cities. But
• 3:14
  Speaker 5: for the rural areas, it took longer. Farms were often
• 3:18
  Speaker 5: a long distance apart.
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: So it would take a lot of power lines to
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: get them electricity, huh?
• 3:24
  Speaker 5: Definitely. And that was expensive for the electrical companies. But
• 3:28
  Speaker 5: that all changed with Franklin Roosevelt.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: Oh, he was president. I remember that.
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: Natasha would be so proud that you actually listen in
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: history class.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: I listen. Most of the time.
• 3:42
  Speaker 5: A lot of changes took place in the mid-1930s, including
• 3:45
  Speaker 5: the Rural Electrification Administration, or REA.
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: You know, Teddy Roosevelt was president, too.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: Right. So how were Teddy and Franklin related?
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: Distant cousins, I think.
• 3:58
  Speaker 5: Yes, but we're talking about Franklin now.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: Go on, Reader.
• 4:02
  Speaker 5: Well, after the REA, farmers worked together to form electrical co-ops.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: So they could get electricity at last? Yes.
• 4:11
  Speaker 5: They paid for electrical poles and transformers and power lines.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: Finally! They were living in the Dark Ages. Dark Ages,
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: get it?
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: They're a good one!
• 4:22
  Speaker 5: Well... My dad was about five years old when all
• 4:25
  Speaker 5: this happened. He remembers the crews digging holes for the
• 4:28
  Speaker 5: electrical poles.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: That would be exciting as a five-year-old kid.
• 4:32
  Speaker 5: Yes, and the whole family watched as the poles stretched
• 4:35
  Speaker 5: closer and closer to their farm.
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: How exciting!
• 4:39
  Speaker 5: Yeah, for most of the family. But Grandmother Reeder wasn't excited.
• 4:45
  Speaker 5: She didn't trust this new, modern convenience.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: But why not?
• 4:50
  Speaker 5: Well, it was all new. And there was fear about fire, too.
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: Well, that's a valid fear. But candles start fires, too.
• 4:58
  Speaker 5: They do, Jake. We need to be careful with our candle.
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: Yes, indeedy.
• 5:03
  Speaker 5: Well, finally the electrical poles arrived at the reader farm,
• 5:07
  Speaker 5: and the lines were all connected.
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: So they could finally plug in their laptops and turn
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: on the TV.
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: Harold!
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: I'm kidding, Chaplain Jake. But what was the first electrical
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: thing they had? A fridge? I mean, that's what I'd choose. No.
• 5:22
  Speaker 5: They used their icebox for many more months. But their
• 5:26
  Speaker 5: first modern convenience happened at the flip of a switch.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: Flip of a switch. Oh, electrical lights.
• 5:34
  Speaker 5: Yes, for the first time. But Grandmother Reeder never liked them.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: And now we just take them for granted. Until the
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: power goes out.
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: Life must have really changed on the farm after that, Reeder.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: Oh, yes.
• 5:47
  Speaker 5: Now they could work after dark. Electrical lights were installed
• 5:51
  Speaker 5: in the barn and in the house, and they got
• 5:53
  Speaker 5: a radio.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: Oh, and there were all kinds of old-timey radio stories
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: back then.
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: Well, back then, they weren't really old-timey, right? They were new-timey.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: I guess.
• 6:03
  Speaker 5: And they did get a fridge, and an iron, and
• 6:06
  Speaker 5: running water.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: Wait, before electricity, there was no water on the farm?
• 6:11
  Speaker 5: There was, but you had to pump it by hand.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: Life before electricity sounds exhausting.
• 6:18
  Speaker 5: But simpler.
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: And quieter. Yes.
• 6:22
  Speaker 5: But as my dad tells the story, life after electricity
• 6:26
  Speaker 5: was also quiet.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: Oh?
• 6:28
  Speaker 5: How? Well, everyone could do their own thing in the evening.
• 6:33
  Speaker 5: He would lie on his bed and read a book. Ah,
• 6:35
  Speaker 5: but before, they relied on each other to talk and sing,
• 6:38
  Speaker 5: like you said. Yes, exactly.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: Huh. I had no idea Gramps Gordy was so iconic.
• 6:45
  Speaker 5: Iconic?
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: I mean, he's from a different universe. I need to
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: interview him for.
• 6:52
  Speaker 5: Aha! The power's back on.
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: Oh, good!
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: I didn't want to walk home without the streetlights on.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: Creepy! Oh, Chaplain Jake, I would have walked with you.
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: Let's blow out the candle.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: Reader, do you think that Gramps Gordy would come to
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: Youth Chapel next week and tell us some of his stories?
• 7:11
  Speaker 5: Oh, I'll ask him. His memory for back then is
• 7:15
  Speaker 5: pretty good.
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: Hey, Harold, are you just trying to get out of
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: leading Bible study?
• 7:20
  Speaker 5: Harold, is that it?
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: No, no. Honestly, this is interesting. I can make a
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: Bible study from it. Like, there's even a verse where
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: Jesus says he's the light.
• 7:29
  Speaker 5: Of the world.
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: John chapter 8.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: Oh, okay. There you go. I'll look it up.
• 7:34
  Speaker 5: All right. Well, come on, you two. Let's go home.
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: The power went out, and Jake, Reader, and Harold had
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: a good reminder that electricity isn't something that we should
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: take for granted. Life before electricity was more.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: Difficult, but it also seems cozier, don't you think?
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: I'd much rather talk to my family and tell stories
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: than stare at a screen in the evening. But life
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: isn't always better in the dark. Electricity brought lots of
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: life-saving inventions with it. And the most wonderful, the first
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: light with a capital L is Jesus.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: Harold was right about that verse.
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: It's John 8, verse 12. Again, Jesus spoke to them saying,
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: will not walk in darkness, but will have the light
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: of life. Will you allow Jesus to shine his light
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: in your heart today?
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: I pray so.
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: It's a wonderful way to exercise your faith. I'm Ms. Jean,
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: and you've been listening to a mini-adventure in Discovery Mountain,
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: where the air is clear, clear enough to hear your imagination,
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: and where every day is an exercise in faith. Join
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: us online to listen to episodes on demand at discoverymountain.com.
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: Discovery Mountain is a listener-supported program brought to you by
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: The Voice of Prophecy.