The Moses Machine

Working at a non-profit ministry we get all kinds of donations. Food, money, craft supplies, school supplies, recently we got a whole new building. The Lord takes care of Voice of Hope in so many ways through some very thoughtful people.

However, being a non-profit, you never know what people are going to ask of you or give to you. We get calls asking for helping paying bills and calls asking for a phone number or directions to a business in West Dallas. People also like to donate tickets to different events around Dallas (see one of the previous posts on the Dallas Symphony Orchestra). But, occasionally you get things that, well, you just don't know what to do with.

One donor graciously told us he had some old computer equipment that he would like to donate. One of our maintenence workers sorts through the donations and puts everything away. Roberto is from Brazil, speaks very little English, and very fluent Portugese.

Where's Fabio when you need him?

I wish I could have understood all of the Portugese that was coming out of Roberto's mouth when he walked into the office with this:

The words that we could make out included:

"I just found a computer that is from Christopher Columbus' day."

I don't know if I was laughing harder at Roberto trying to explain Christopher Columbus to us or at the massive machine he was holding in his hands.

And then he changed his mind and said something to the effect that he'd found "the machine that Moses used."

The whole staff was on the floor with stitches in our sides, and Roberto just stood there in amazement wondering why someone would give us something so old.

This, my friends, is a Toshiba laptop. In fact, I'm pretty sure it was the very first lap top ever. It's hard drive is a floppy disk and it's screen pops up in black and green. Here's the specs.

This gem of an antique is rivaling some pretty old equipment that we could probably dig out of my dad's closet. He has an old computer where the keyboard is attached to the monitor - it's one big, glorious computer. I use to sit on his lap, punch the space bar with all the strength in my little three-year-old fingers, and play Space Commanders with him.

My dad is a superior collector of all things computers - not because he likes collecting old, out-of-date parts and pieces, but because he might need something one day. Never know when you could use that extra motherboard. Actually, he could probably put his last child through college selling some of those ancient parts to a museum.

We'll never be able to let a child use this computer - one, because it doesn't have a mouse and they won't know how to work it, and two, because even if they learn to work a computer using this laptop they'd be stuck using this computer for the rest of their life, as they'd never see another computer like this at any school or library.

However, we are enjoying a good laugh at something most of us had never seen before, while Roberto goes through another pile of donations, muttering something in Englishese that resembles, "People think this is the dump."