James Cuénod's Newsletter 2009-10-27

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.

It seems as though every time that I sit down to write one of these I have
to think harder to remember when last I sent one. I am sorry that I have
become less regular but I hope that you will understand that as the
pressure increases and the workload steps up my Newsletters get eaten by
the dog.

I realised this last weekend that I only have five weeks left until I
return to Joburg. This may seem like a lot to you but it dawned on me that
the coming two weeks will be term time, the following two will be exams
and the final week will be just packing up and graduation. I think that
this time is going to fly by really quickly.

This is probably going to be one of the more hectic weeks (although half
the hecticness is already over). I wrote a literacy test on Monday for NWU
(North West University) which they kind of sprung on us at the last
minute. It was supposed to be a 3 hour test but I finished in less than 45
minutes which was quite a pleasant relief. Today I wrote a New Testament
Introduction test and it went better than expected and I thank God that I
recalled a few things from class which I hadn't even studied (including
stuff from a class in which I was sick). This Friday I have an Early
Church History assignment due and I will have to do my last preaching
practical on Leviticus 1-7 (I've already done Ephesians 2:1-10 and Mark
10:17-31 both of which went well).

Anyway, despite the work for this week, tonight I will be attending the
first of GWC's soon to be "Annual Lectures" which will be on John Calvin
by JB Krohn, a guy who lectured here last year (and was very popular). I'm
quite looking forward to it, I'm just wondering how to get through my
reading lists, preparation for my sermon and my Early Church History
assignment.

I've kind of skipped over a lot of stuff that happened a few weeks ago
though, I had a nuisance of a migraine a while ago at the end of the day
(and so largely missed one of the NT Intro lectures - although I managed
to recall something out of it...) and I was quite out of things for that
week. Since then a table tennis tournament has been started in which we
participate during tea times. I entered with a friend in first year and we
went off and got matching shirts at pep that say "Valiant Knights of
Honour" and we choreographed a Greek version of the haka to intimidate our
opponents. (This began when we all thought that the end of term was far
off and so life was still easy, little did we know...)

I think as far as prayer requests go, please would you pray that my focus
would be on God and not academics as the heat is turned up. It's easy to
be "too busy" to read your Bible at times like these. Please also pray
that I would get through my reading list and comprehend what I'm reading
in time to be ready for exams (as well as having time to study for exams).

Thank you once again for your support and prayers. I don't really know how
to express my gratitude but please know that I am truly grateful.

In Christ,
James Cuénod

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

James Cuénod's Newsletter 2009-10-07

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.

I struggled for a few moments to work out when last I actually sent a
newsletter out. It was only when I checked my sent mail that I realised
that it was about 2 weeks ago. Since then a lot certainly has happened.

On the more objectively significant side of those things, GWC recently
received accreditation to issue their own BTh Degree. Right now they issue
a degree through North West University but the necessary loops have been
jumped through and the government is now allowing GWC to issue its own
degree. Unfortunately I will be the in the last group to receive the North
West one and a GWC Licentiate. Nevertheless, this is exciting news for the
college.

I have been kept quite busy with assignments. Ethics, for example,
required that I write a letter to the editor of the Cape Times on an
ethical issue. Doctrine of Revelation required a 1500 word essay on
Inerrancy and Greek, well, Greek always has something to keep you from
boredom.

The thing that is blotting out my memory of the majority of that time
though is the recent church camp that I went on last weekend. It was not
much like Honeyridge Church camps in that
1. It wasn't at the YFC campsite (a Honeyridge necessity)
2. It had about 50 in attendance (I didn't realise camps were financially
possible with those numbers)
3. The focus was not on sessions with a speaker.
Even so, it was a lovely camp and a good experience. I got to know a lot
more people and what's more, it was at Rocklands (a campsite that is
definitely on par with YFC). I had the oppurtunity to present a sermon to
teenagers (my first full length sermon ever). It went quite well despite
the slight anomalies such as; my all female audience, the small size, the
late notice of the talk and the assignments that were due up to the day I
was to present it. I think it went quite well, whether anyone else agrees
is another story but it was quite cool to do it and I'm looking forward to
the next time I get to preach (although at least a month of notice will be
preferable in future). The theme of the camp was family and so I decided
to talk about the doctrine of adoption and God as our Father for which I
used Romans 8:12-17. The rest of the camp was mostly game/activity centric
but more than half of the time was free and even the activities very were
optional.

So I made it back and I'm immersed in college again. The pressure is going
to build up to around the 20th of October when there'll be a culmination
of assignments and tests due and ultimately the start of the mental
breakdown of any sane individuals who may have dared to sign up for this
course.

Please pray that I would be diligent in my work, not only for assignments
but also (and especially) required reading (since it's quite easy to fall
behind on). More importantly, that I would have a strong devotional and
prayer life (which is not very strong at the moment). A number of my peers
are feeling quenched by college and sapped of the joy of being a Christian
because of the academia so please pray that we would be renewed with a
love for the God behind the stuff that we're studying.

Thank you all for your faithful prayers and support.
In Christ,
James Cuénod

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