Ok. Here’s the story. This past Sunday I was setting up to teach my adult bible class. It’s on the Large Catechism. We’d only just begun the previous week with the prefaces, and it was on to the First Commandment. I enjoy teaching the Catechism greatly, so much so that if I’m not careful we will spend six weeks on each commandment/article/petition/whatever. So in order to streamline the class some I decided to PowerPoint it.
I’m not a huge fan of PowerPoint, mind you. This was a first for me, using that particular application to teach the Catechism. But it worked well for the Prefaces, so I went ahead with it. A good deal of the point for me was that I would do a lot of highlighting and amplifying, while the people would go home and read it. To this end we took orders and procured copies of the new Concordia Readers Edition for anyone who wanted one. It was gratifying to see how many availed themselves on the opportunity to have one. It laid the foundation nicely for the walk through the Book of Concord that they may not realize they may have begun!
So they arrived last week, and Sunday morning we began to distribute them. It was not the most disorganized distribution it could have been. So I’m off to the side unpacking boxes and handing out books. All of a sudden there was a great crash. It probably wasn’t all that great, actually, but it was amplified by the gravity of the crash (no pun). I turned to see a blue screen where my presentation once had been projected. And there on the floor lay my 10-month-old laptop…in pieces.
I remained calm. I quietly collected the pieces and went to set it back up again. It was totalled. The person who had knocked the podium over, quite accidentally, was mortified. It was the latest in a string of events that was making it a bad day for this person as well, so I did what I could to reassure this one that it would be ok, knowing that the computer itself would certainly not be.
The sign for me that I must have entered a new stage of life somewhere back there was that my first thought was for my data. Regardless, I set it aside and taught the bible class, but not before my good wife broke down and wept. For her it was a last straw of sorts, the latest in a string of unfortunate events that has lately befallen us. One gentleman–not a member, mind you–who was there took a moment and prayed for us, for which I was thankful and by which I was very moved. So then bible class went along. I think God took care of his humble servant in that hour, because I was remembering to mention things that I had not prepared, and the class went well.
So anyway, the CPU’s totalled, but the hard drive was intact. I took it to a local place to have it removed and my data salvaged. And then I ordered a new computer. The church’s insurance should cover a good deal of it, and the church agreed to make up the difference–a tremendous blessing.
And now the sweetness. The replacement was scheduled to be built by and ship on the 14th of this month. I just visited the website and learned that it shipped today. I may have it as early as Monday. That’s hot. I’m told it’s supposed to scream, too: Pentium M 740, 2 GB RAM, 256 MB video RAM. I think I’ll have to work to put this one through its paces. The Lord is indeed good.
Posted by OSC 
Posted by OSC 
