James Cuénod's Newsletter 2009-02-06

Hello again everyone,

My first full week at GWC has just drawn to a close. We had a college
braai to celebrate the end of "Greek Week" which was great fun (the Greek
Week - not the braai; I'm pretty much neutral towards the braai). I can
now translate delightfully large amounts of Greek (we did 5 chapters of
Duff's NT Greek textbook in the 7 days of Greek Week).

I haven't spent much time on anything else really because we've been
getting a lot of vocabulary to do every day and on days when there is not
as much vocabulary to do, we're learning strange grammar. I wouldn't say
that I have it all figured out; with what we have done so far I understand
it but need to practice it quite a bit.

My Greek lecturer, Jonathan More, seems brilliant; he arbitrarily sprouts
French or Latin (and of course he knows Greek and Hebrew) during class and
today he wrote a play on words on the board in Italian saying, "I think
that's how it goes, my Italian isn't that good…" – mine isn't either.

I may be able to do Hebrew in the coming months with a lecturer for BI
(the Bible Institute; a nearby Bible College that used to be closely
related to GWC). He was at the college a few days ago and said that he
would be giving free extra lessons. Of course, next year the language
school will be "Hebrew Week" but I may as well get a head start if
possible.

I don't have any plans for this coming weekend except that I want/need to
explore the churches and find a good one. On Monday I will be going on the
"Commencement Camp" which is a time to get to know other students
(regardless of what year they are in) and then Wednesday I will return
with the other first years after a day of something that only first years
do (other people return on the Tuesday evening). Next week Thursday then
is my first day of lectures and next on week Friday I will have my first
non-Greek-Week Greek lesson which means that there is a full week until my
next Greek lesson so I hope I retain all that has been taught over the
past few days.

If it seems like all I talk about is Greek it's probably because I do.
We've been finishing between 14:45 and 16:00 every day (except today) and
starting at 9:00 but have had a lot of homework so although our lecturer
told us that because Ancient Greek is not spoken anymore they do not use
the immersion technique, I certainly feel immersed.

I hope there aren't any spelling or grammar mistakes here, I don't have
time to proof read the mail because the library is now closing. My
profound apologies if there are any.

Once again, I appreciate the prayers and support. If there's anything that
I would like prayer for right now, it's that I find a good church to join
down here. Other than that, I am still loving it here and I praise and
thank God for this opportunity.

James Cuénod

--
James, a bondslave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ