Time for some new glass... and the second week of class

This week has been a wild one. Started out two Sunday afternoons ago.When we arrived home and everyone had gotten their things into the house (except Elijah) the van door was closed so hard (by Elijah) that the rear passenger window shattered into what seemed to be about a million pieces and shards! I couldn't see Elijah's face when it happened but I'll bet it was TOTAL SHOCK. When the glass came tumbling down onto the ground (Elijah was not cut at all) it sounded as if a huge bag of water was poured out right beside the van. What does a father say to his child whom he had warned at church not more than an hour earlier - "Elijah are you all right?" (of course :-|)

I was shocked myself. How in the world could our brand new van have something this huge broken already? I cleaned out as much glass as I could before it started to sprinkle and headed into the house. Next day was Labor Day, no classes. Praise the Lord I was able to get the van down to the campus garage where there is a power vacuum. A fellow student (bless you Ace Glidewell) helped me get to rest of the window out and design a plywood window to hold us over until we could get the thing repaired.

Second week of classes has been going really well. Lots of new phonetics to learn. If I could plug in some of the strange fonts we've seen used I would try and show you some of what we've been studying. Some things you already know, we now have phonetic names for them. For instance, say the letter 'T'. It so happens that it is phonetically a 'voiceless' 'stop'. here is a look at the chart we use for our reference -->

One of the men from the saturday morning mens' Bible study and prayer meeting I attend (at Rock Mills) took me out to a nearby town auto salvage and purchased the replacement glass for our van! Praise the Lord, and Elijah gets to see God provide on his behalf. That replacement glass cost almost $230! Elijah gratefully wrote a thank you note for more than just the glass I'm sure. Wouldn't you know it, the guy who helped me (remember Ace) take out the broken stuff was available to help me put the new one in place (that is the picture at the top of the post).

We are pressing forward with studies this coming week. It will get more difficult as we continue on. Thank you for your prayers for us and our children, we can't express our gratitude - really - knowing God has many folks lifting us to Him. We thank God every time we remember you and your partnership with us while we're in preparation.

You have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places and we have too! Together we trust God with your lives and ours as He accomplishes all He's begun.

Resting in Christ our Lord,
Roland (for the shafer family)
2 Cor 4-5