Lexie Johnston nearly dropped her phone, she was laughing so hard.

She had just checked her Ceaseless Prayer app.

It’s an app that randomly selects people listed in your contacts who could use your prayers. At 7:13 a.m. Wednesday, Johnston checked to see who it would be that day.

“It was MLGW,” Johnston said. “I kid you not.”

MLGW estimates power outages will last several days

So let us bow our heads and send up a word for Memphis Light, Gas and Water.

Or at least pray that the good folks over there aren’t reading or hearing what Memphians are saying about them these days.

Because it’s bad.

It’s really bad.

“I hate MLGW,” said my radio colleague John Martin Wednesday “With the fire of seven hells.”

Of course, Martin was living with his wife and young daughter in a house without air conditioning, during an excessive heat warning.

That will ruin someone’s mood.

So will taking refuge in a local Airbnb with your two dogs — one of which had gotten fixed that very day.

Barrage of storms complicate long-term improvements at MLGW

That was the situation Creedon and Read Morton found themselves in Wednesday, after their house lost power and then the hotel they found as a temporary alternative also lost power.

“He’s a mess; he’s breathing a thousand times a minute,” said Creedon, referring not to her husband, but to Bailey, one of their dogs.

The Mortons only had the Airbnb for a single night. They’ll have to find another if their power doesn’t return by Thursday.

No, the current Airbnb isn’t booked or anything. The owner needs it because he, too, lost power.

So pray for patience and comfort and — surely God will understand this — an immediate upgrade in infrastructure.

Can I get an “Amen?”

I can get one from Bill Papageorgeon, I’m certain, who has a tale to tell.

Power outages the eighth-worst in MLGW’s history

“We lost power in the last storm, on June 25,” he said. “We were out six straight days. It went out on a Sunday, remember? We got our power back the next Saturday. But that’s when the fiasco started. In between that Saturday and last Friday night, the power went out nine times.”

Nine times?

“Nine times,” he said. “It would come on and then go right back out. The first seven times it came back, the longest we had power was 27 hours.”

Papageorgeon lives in Bartlett, on a power circuit with 46 homes. All 46 would get power back and then lose it again whenever it even threatened to rain. The outages were so relentless, neighbors weren’t daring to grocery shop for more than a single night.

“You can’t talk to anyone at MLGW anymore,” Papageorgeon said. “It takes an act of Congress to speak to a live person over there. But I will defend them. They called me back. And I think they finally got it figured out.”

To be clear: The neighborhood lost power again Tuesday. But this time it felt different.

“We actually feel pretty good about it,” Papageorgeon said. “We were back within a few hours. And this time, it was a real storm that did it. We actually passed the test of rain.”

Papageorgeon sounded downright philosophical. Which is easier when your power is back, of course. It also helps to remember there are tens of thousands of Memphians for whom the loss of power — the loss of a single refrigerator of food, for that matter — is a true calamity.

“But did Johnston really do as the app suggested? Did she really pray for MLGW?”

There is also kindness, amidst it all. Stories of neighbors, pitching in. Cutting up fallen trees. Taking in friends or strangers without air conditioning. Facebook is brimming with those stories. I’ll share just one of them. 

“My neighbor, Ron Childers, is such a giving guy,” wrote Gary Daly. “I’m about to have spine surgery. Had a nerve block this morning. Terrible pain and can’t walk well. He was kind enough to bring a generator over, hook it up and gave me a cold refrigerator and the ability to use my medical equipment.”

Yes, he’s talking about that Ron Childers, the chief meteorologist at Action News 5. He had no idea Daly was going to tell me about his good deed. He was just doing what a good neighbor does. May we all be good neighbors during the coming days.

Oh, and back to Lexie Johnston. That’s where this column began. With the Ceaseless Prayer app, suggesting she pray for MLGW. God works in mysterious ways.

But did Johnston really do as the app suggested? Did she really pray for MLGW? 

“Of course I did,” she said. “I prayed for the workers; I prayed for everyone affected by the storm and I prayed for the company and the leadership going forward.

“I think it’s pretty obvious. They need your prayers.”