Bookstore Binge

So the good folks at the Westminster Bookstore do something special every spring for graduating students - they offer a one time 20% discount off everything in the store (and that's on top of their regular prices, which are already discounted up to 30% on list). So it's basically a really great time to buy all those books you are going to need for future ministry.

Of course one of the things pastors rely on are commentaries. Now, there are 66 books in the Bible, and each commentary generally runs anywhere from $35 (on the low end) to $70+ (on the upper end). You can do the math - it ain't cheap to stock a good library! At any rate, I've been saving book money this past year in anticipation of this event, and then for a graduation present my folks added a sizeable chunk to the kitty (thankyou!!!) - so yesterday afternoon, I walked into the WTS bookstore knowing I could spend $1000 on books.

And 66 commentaries later (isn't THAT ironic - I didn't know this was how many I bought until I counted them up this morning), the total bill rang up at $1501 (that's after the discount). Ouch! Now on the plus side, this is a great bargain, probably worth almost double what I was being billed for it. On the down side, it was $500 more than I had budgeted. Hmmm.... what to do? Bite the bullet or put books back? Hmmm...

Well, as you can tell from the receipt up above, I bit the bullet. It will probably be a long time before I have the opportunity to splurge like this again, and I can definitely use these sooner rather than later. Mark Traphegan told me later this was the largest sale he personally has rung up yet (although I know they've had bigger ones).

Now here's where this all get's humorous. I think both Marilyn and I were wondering how we were going to actually pay for this. Then last night about 11 PM we had a call from a woman whom we hadn't seen in years. She had stayed in our house a couple of summers ago, and had ended up not having enough money to pay all the utilities, etc. And she was calling last night to say that she had not forgotten, and a check for $317 was in the mail (which was actually more than she had owed). Not that we expected her to pay. She was in a tight spot when she left, and we were more than happy to help her out. But here she was, nearly two years later, calling to say hi, and thanks, and to settle up.

That says a lot about her, I think. And it says even more about God. He really is good, he really does provide for our needs. It's going to be exciting to see where he leads us next...