The power went out in Grabill last week. The owner of the grocery store called the coordinator of the food bank, wanting to give her the contents of the freezer and the cooler. She was without power. She called me. The church was without electricity, too.

Thanks to some creative generator use, a meat-packing plant, and people living outside the power outage, we were able to rescue food for the foodbank AND leave plenty for the people who came when the doors were opened to the public. But the whole morning got me thinking: We worry about problems. What would happen if we worried about opportunities?

Let’s turn our experience last week into an exercise.What would happen if someone gave you a grocery store of perishable food? What are the questions you need to ask?

• How could you get move it quickly?
• What kind of organizing would you need to do?
• What equipment would help you ahead of time?
• If the power is out, what’s your communication plan for volunteers? For people you are helping?
• How do you keep your cell phone charged?
• How do you give food needing refrigeration to people who don’t have working refrigeration?

I know that this exercise is for the challenge we had. It may never happen again. But what are the other opportunities that we might face?

• A hospital being renovated, leaving a wing of unneeded equipment
• A company closing a branch office, full of office supplies and furniture

After our experience, I’m thinking about planning to help people before we have the resources. So that when the opportunity strikes, we are ready.

In the comments, help us out. What kinds of crises provide resources? How have you planned for good for the worst that could happen? And I’ll tell you about the two examples.