AUGUST 23

It's the end of the first week of school and we are having a great time. The week's festivities started off with orientation. That lasted two whole days. Thankfully the staff here actually value the students opinion on things, so when they asked what we thought about it, I had the opportunity to make a complete fool out of myself (which I'm quite comfortable with) by telling them that at certain times I would have rather taken a fork to the eyeball. Plenty of it was very inspiring and of course they completely went through the entire handbook . They did a raffle drawing 3 times a day to win shirts and bookstore credit. That only proved once again that, yes, I am a loser.

All that ended on Tues. and Wed. started actual classes. AMAZING. First and foremost, our God. Secondly, the gift He has bestowed on the staff here. I am absolutely in shock at how I crave to do homework and sit in class. I actually comprehend what is being said and am amazed at the grand scale of things in the bible that I've never thought about. This, after only 3 days of actual classes. I Peter 2:2 "as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby". My homework is awesome and awesome. I said it twice because 1.) I'm not a gifted reader so it takes me longer than others, and 2.) It has been such a blessing to be able to, as one of the teachers here put it, marinate in the word. My homework lasted 7 hours on Wed., 4.5 on Thurs., and 5.5 on Fri., with a few hours of extra credit reading so far.

My classes are in block form. This means that instead of doing all 7 required classes and 2 electives the whole semester, I am doing 3 required classes and one elective right now in their entirety. Quiz', tests, homework, reading, memory verses and finals for those classes will be done and over before the next set begin. At the end of the semester I will still have taken all 9 classes, but I won't have the pressure of studying 9 classes the whole time. Right now I am taking Bibliology, Biblical Foundations, and Evangelism which are required and Job as the elective. The rest of the semester includes Hermeneutics, Proverbs, Pentateuch and Old Testament History with Catholicism for the elective. I've also been approached by the teacher of OT History to do a project this year for him. It will be a life sized model of Goliath. Framed with wood, wrapped in some sort of chicken wire and then paper mashayed. I get to pick a team of about 7 others to be involved with me.

Delilah's classes are the same as mine except she doesn't have the first class of the day and all electives. That drops her credits to 10 a semester so she can still do the motherly/wife thing.

Thank you so much for all your prayers. It's so encouraging to have great friends and family that care about us and the work of the Lord.

"Let your eyes look straight ahead, and your eyelids look right before you. Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established. Do not turn to the right or the left; remove your foot from evil. Proverbs 4:25-27

Love,

The Spears