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