And now for something completely different.
My brother always e-mails me when we send out a newsletter. Something along the lines of, Nice to hear what you've been doing, but tell the HoJ I really liked his update. He loves hearing what's going on in more than just the hospital, and I figure he might not be the only one. So here, for the first time ever, is something that I hope might start to happen a little more regularly: a guest post by none other than the Husband of Joy! Because I agree with my brother; there's some pretty cool stuff going on on this ship, and not all of it happens on Deck Three.
-----
God knows. That's all I can think to say when I reflect on events of these past couple of weeks. As everyone knows, I work as an electrician in our engineering department. Most of the time we know what's happening on the deck above (in the ORs and wards and such), but sometimes we lose sight of that because we are very focused on the task at hand.
Usually the only times people realize that there is an engineering department on board is when the power goes off (along with the air conditioning) and the temperatures start to rise within the ship. Power outages are even more dangerous when a patient is on the OR table.
Well, this past week I was given a project to complete. I had to install a variable speed drive for our emergency diesel oil pump. Normally, we run two generators from the main fuel pumps. In an emergency, there are valves that switch over and there is only enough fuel pressure to run one generator, which doesn't provide enough power to run the whole ship. There's a certain amount of air pressure needed to hold these valves over to the 'normal' setting (where two generators will run), but this pressure is hard to come by because the lines get clogged. The variable speed drive would allow us to run two generators no matter what, whether on the 'normal' side or the 'emergency' side because it increases the flow.
[A note from Ali: There is a very good reason I work in the hospital and not the engine room. He's tried to explain all that to me more than once and I just can't wrap my head around it. I'm so glad there are people who can understand these kinds of things!]
So there I was that morning, going down to the engine room, when I noticed something different about the fuel control valves which are on each generator. At first I didn't think much of it; there must be something else going on, but I had this nagging feeling to go and get the third engineer and investigate. So we did that and found out the air pressure which keeps these valves turned in certain direction so that the generators get fuel from the main fuel pumps was dropping.
The third engineer said he would bring it up with the chief engineer, and that we might have to do a planned blackout to clean out the air lines, never something that's easy to accomplish when the hospital is up an running like it is right now. So I went about my work of installing this drive. The plan was for the drive to be installed before intentionally turning off the power so that we could be sure that even on that emergency setting, we'd still be able to run the two generators needed to power the ship.
It was nearly lunchtime so I went up and grabbed some lunch and went to the cabin to enjoy the air conditioning after spending most of the day sweating in the engine room. We normally get an hour for lunch, but I had this nagging feeling again to go and finish connecting the drive I was working on to the emergency diesel oil pump.
I pulled myself off the couch, went down and connected everything, and started up the drive just to make sure the pump was going in the right direction. As I was doing this, people were coming back after lunch and alarms started going off for our main fuel system. Just as I finished checking the rotation of the pump, the power went out.
Pitch black.
The emergency generator kicked in, and we had some lights and power to the systems that we needed in order to start up a generator and put power on the ship, so the engineers tried to start up one generator using the emergency diesel oil pump I just finished working on. It started up and restored limited power to the ship.
They then tried to switch back to the the normal fuel supply, but quickly realized that the air pressure had dropped to the valves and they were stuck on emergency fuel and not normal fuel supply, which meant that on any other day we would only be able to run one generator. There was starting to be a slight panic as to how we were going to get two generators going to power the ship, so I said, Well, I just finished installing this drive. Let's see if it can handle two generators. By the grace of God, the emergency diesel oil pump was able to run two generators and restore power to the whole ship, and eventually, after cleaning the lines and valves, we were able to rectify the underlying problem.
I know you hear a lot of stories about God leading people to other people to minster to them and things like that. This was one of the first times that I can think of where the Lord has clearly guided me not to a person, but to a piece of machinery to help further His kingdom.
Can you say God knows? God knows.
-----
[Me again: I was working that day, and had just sat down to a late lunch of my own when the power went out. There really is a feeling of panic that rises in your throat when you realize that the lights are taking too long to come back on and that there are patients on the operating tables in the dark, silent operating rooms. I didn't hear this whole story until a bit later, and I'm still blown away by how perfect God's timing is. He called an electrician down to the engine room in the middle of lunch and set him to work finishing the installation of the one piece of equipment that was going to solve a crisis that would begin just as the final tests were run.
God knows.]
My brother always e-mails me when we send out a newsletter. Something along the lines of, Nice to hear what you've been doing, but tell the HoJ I really liked his update. He loves hearing what's going on in more than just the hospital, and I figure he might not be the only one. So here, for the first time ever, is something that I hope might start to happen a little more regularly: a guest post by none other than the Husband of Joy! Because I agree with my brother; there's some pretty cool stuff going on on this ship, and not all of it happens on Deck Three.
-----
God knows. That's all I can think to say when I reflect on events of these past couple of weeks. As everyone knows, I work as an electrician in our engineering department. Most of the time we know what's happening on the deck above (in the ORs and wards and such), but sometimes we lose sight of that because we are very focused on the task at hand.
Usually the only times people realize that there is an engineering department on board is when the power goes off (along with the air conditioning) and the temperatures start to rise within the ship. Power outages are even more dangerous when a patient is on the OR table.
Well, this past week I was given a project to complete. I had to install a variable speed drive for our emergency diesel oil pump. Normally, we run two generators from the main fuel pumps. In an emergency, there are valves that switch over and there is only enough fuel pressure to run one generator, which doesn't provide enough power to run the whole ship. There's a certain amount of air pressure needed to hold these valves over to the 'normal' setting (where two generators will run), but this pressure is hard to come by because the lines get clogged. The variable speed drive would allow us to run two generators no matter what, whether on the 'normal' side or the 'emergency' side because it increases the flow.
[A note from Ali: There is a very good reason I work in the hospital and not the engine room. He's tried to explain all that to me more than once and I just can't wrap my head around it. I'm so glad there are people who can understand these kinds of things!]
So there I was that morning, going down to the engine room, when I noticed something different about the fuel control valves which are on each generator. At first I didn't think much of it; there must be something else going on, but I had this nagging feeling to go and get the third engineer and investigate. So we did that and found out the air pressure which keeps these valves turned in certain direction so that the generators get fuel from the main fuel pumps was dropping.
The third engineer said he would bring it up with the chief engineer, and that we might have to do a planned blackout to clean out the air lines, never something that's easy to accomplish when the hospital is up an running like it is right now. So I went about my work of installing this drive. The plan was for the drive to be installed before intentionally turning off the power so that we could be sure that even on that emergency setting, we'd still be able to run the two generators needed to power the ship.
It was nearly lunchtime so I went up and grabbed some lunch and went to the cabin to enjoy the air conditioning after spending most of the day sweating in the engine room. We normally get an hour for lunch, but I had this nagging feeling again to go and finish connecting the drive I was working on to the emergency diesel oil pump.
I pulled myself off the couch, went down and connected everything, and started up the drive just to make sure the pump was going in the right direction. As I was doing this, people were coming back after lunch and alarms started going off for our main fuel system. Just as I finished checking the rotation of the pump, the power went out.
Pitch black.
The emergency generator kicked in, and we had some lights and power to the systems that we needed in order to start up a generator and put power on the ship, so the engineers tried to start up one generator using the emergency diesel oil pump I just finished working on. It started up and restored limited power to the ship.
They then tried to switch back to the the normal fuel supply, but quickly realized that the air pressure had dropped to the valves and they were stuck on emergency fuel and not normal fuel supply, which meant that on any other day we would only be able to run one generator. There was starting to be a slight panic as to how we were going to get two generators going to power the ship, so I said, Well, I just finished installing this drive. Let's see if it can handle two generators. By the grace of God, the emergency diesel oil pump was able to run two generators and restore power to the whole ship, and eventually, after cleaning the lines and valves, we were able to rectify the underlying problem.
I know you hear a lot of stories about God leading people to other people to minster to them and things like that. This was one of the first times that I can think of where the Lord has clearly guided me not to a person, but to a piece of machinery to help further His kingdom.
Can you say God knows? God knows.
-----
[Me again: I was working that day, and had just sat down to a late lunch of my own when the power went out. There really is a feeling of panic that rises in your throat when you realize that the lights are taking too long to come back on and that there are patients on the operating tables in the dark, silent operating rooms. I didn't hear this whole story until a bit later, and I'm still blown away by how perfect God's timing is. He called an electrician down to the engine room in the middle of lunch and set him to work finishing the installation of the one piece of equipment that was going to solve a crisis that would begin just as the final tests were run.
God knows.]