James Cuénod's Newsletter 2009-04-29

James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To those
interested who are dispersed abroad: Greetings. Grace to you and peace
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Well, this term certainly hasn't started slowly despite the myth about
public holidays (last Wednesday we had lectures before lunch and were off
only after lunch to vote). I've handed in a small Worldviews assignment, a
Philosophy essay and done a Philosophy test, in addition I wrote my Greek
1A exam. That was just today...

Greek 1A was tougher than I anticipated but I anticipated something much
simpler than was really fair to expect. I did last year's past paper (the
rewrite) and I finished it in about 10 minutes (we have an allotted time
of 2 hours). It went reasonably well though.

This past Sunday I was able to go and hear John Blanchard preach at Tokai
Community Church in the evening, his topic was "Does God Believe in
Atheists?". It was much better than his talk that I went to in Joburg
entitled "Where Do We Go From Here?". I still would like to hear the one
that he presented at Honeyridge though so I plan on downloading the mp3s.

It seems, having spoken to Mark Dickson, that my ministry placement is in
sight so keep that in your prayers but hopefully it will be set by the end
of next week.

I can't remember whether or not I mentioned my plans last time to join the
Evangelism class... That plan has come through so I am now doing it on
Thursday afternoons.

The public holidays have been a nice relief from the amount of work we
were suddenly given at the beginning of this term and I've managed to get
some extra reading done. I read "God's Smuggler" last week (about Brother
Andrew; a missionary who smuggled Bibles into closed, communist countries
like China, Bulgaria, East Berlin etc.), it is well worth the read. Work
is picking up though so my plans for "Tortured For Christ" are falling by
the wayside a bit.

That's about all I can think of right now. Thanks, once again, for all
your support. Please pray that my ministry placement is really sorted out
in the next week and that I use my time this term wisely and well. Also,
that I keep in focus the point and purpose of my studies here.

Thank you all.

In Christ,
James Cuénod

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

James Cuénod's Newsletter 2009-04-21

James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To those
interested who are dispersed abroad: Greetings. Grace to you and peace
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Firstly, I would like to give my sincere apologies for the time interval
since my last correspondence. I have just returned to GWC to kick off the
second term. I'll quickly catch you up on some interesting stuff that
happened towards the end of last term first though: I had the opportunity
to hear Daniel Dennet (I'm not certain of the spelling), a very prominent
atheist who specialises in the philosophy of the mind, speak at UCT on the
topic "What can we teach our children". We got quite busy at the end of
the first term, writing our final test in Ephesians as well as handing in
various assignments (hence the lack of newsletters at the end of the first
term).

Upon consideration of writing a newsletter when I got home to Joburg, I
realised that my contact list is all sitting here at GWC (hence the lack
of newsletters during the last two weeks). Nevertheless, the holiday was
quite relaxing. During the first week I didn't do much GWC work but I
helped out with stuff for www.neverthirstagain.co.za (the h2o website)
(Although I'm given to understand that there are still some problems that
need to be ironed out). I also had the chance to speak to various people
about recent events at the church which was helpful.

During the second week of my "study break", I focused more on GWC stuff
and completed some work that needed to be done for when I got back.
However, it was still a restful time and I managed to relax and have a
break from the work. I also got to see a number of friends from church but
also a couple from school which was a lot of fun.

I write the final test for Greek 1A next week Wednesday and so that is my
main focus right now but I also have a few other assignments to do. Today
we had a discussion after lectures on who to vote for tomorrow which I
thought was done really well. Well, in that there was no specific party
that was pushed but rather, the way to think about who to vote for was
thrashed out.

You can pray that I get back into the swing of things quickly and that I
work to the best of my ability but that my focus is not on results but my
walk with God. Thank you for your prayers it is always a comfort to know
that there are people supporting you.

In Christ,
James Cuénod

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