I was thirty minutes late, as usual, so if they discussed Haiti, I missed it. This is Part II of Genesis, the Flood, the Tower and the Nations. It's a continuation of Part I from the Fall (the season, not, uh, you know). We had done an in-depth study of Joseph in between. I can't say I remember much of the preceding two Genesis studies.

Since the study plan covers Chapters 3-11, we reviewed Chapters 1 and 2 in close detail to set the scene. Answers to basic questions ("How long is a day?") were glossed over with a "As we learned this past fall, a day can be ..."

Now I try to take the text seriously without taking it literally but these women think intensely, like, to the point of wondering whether Adam had a scar on his chest from God opening him and removing a rib to make woman. "The world's first surgery! God can do anything, can't he perform surgery without scarring?!"

Getting a hold of the study resources has been contentious in recent years. The church used to have a book cart that we could buy from. Then they stopped that and the leader offered to buy them from the web site, so long as she was paid in advance. Cash was ok for a while, then checks became necessary because otherwise the money came out short. Then she told us to order our own books but someone offered to order for everyone to save on shipping. That's where we are now, and we still pay in advance.

So a lady I'd never seen before joined us this morning and was approached after the introductory sessions about paying for her book. She was frank and firm: she needed the $23 by the next session because she'd ordered the books more than a month ago (iow, the credit card bill was coming due).

I almost went in there with money in case anyone needed some and didn't have it, but that doesn't really help anything: they'd just feel obligated to pay me back. Why get involved? I'm really thinking that I'll go back to buying my own book online and paying the shipping and all that because there seems to be so much anxiety otherwise.