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interested who are dispersed abroad: Greetings. Grace to you and peace
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I must say, it doesn't seem like an entire year has elapsed but it sure
does feel good seeing the new first years and realising how far we - as a
second year group - have come. I've only recently got my internet access
back online and unfortunately, I got to the library about 20 minutes too
late last Saturday to send out my first newsletter. Despite the great
difficulties and the seemingly insurmountable problems that faced me,
though, here is my first instalment regarding 2010.
The academic year began with what has become "the usual" GWCesque bumpy
ride like a motorbike shuddering to life – once it's going it can work
quite well but if you can't get it to stand up you'll probably have a bit
of a problem. "No one knows what happened to the sound key last year," "Oh
you actually need the key to your room," "No, you've already collected
it... Oh wait, here it is..." etc. Luckily I was spared from the majority
of the strange and wonderful things that can go wrong around here. My
concern was the sound key but, thankfully, it has been found (I will
refrain from mentioning where). And of course, what is the start of GWC
without languish week (I know, it's because Hebrew word plays aren't that
impressive either). If you didn't follow that; it's the summer school or
"language week" (Greek for first years, Hebrew for second years). It's
lovely to see the first years awestruck at the quantity of memorisation
required, knowing that they have not even seen one twentieth of what
they'll have to have memorised by the end of the year.
I've been shuffling through Hebrew. I won't say that I'm succeeding just
yet (we wrote a test today which didn't go quite as I had hoped –although
that may have something to do with the fact that the language we're trying
to learn is bunch of darn squiggles that all look the same and are
entirely foreign). I've learnt just how closely related Greek really is to
English based on this past week because Hebrew is totally backwards (yes,
another weak attempt but I am a bit tired).
We received a large consignment of first years this year (even larger than
my first year group) so learning their names is taking some time
(especially those who hide in dark corners when perfectly good social
events are taking place – such as table tennis at tea time – which should
be a required recreational activity). You may remember that last year we
began each day with a chapel service and Gavin Millard was our guest
speaker, doing Jeremiah. This year has had a less smooth start with John
Child taking one, Doc Seccombe stealing John Child's spot for the rest of
his sermon from the previous day and the John Child finishing off on
Friday. This week, however, we have Edwin Ngubane from a CESA church in
Benoni who was pretty good this morning.
I guess after the first week I don't have much to say, so I'm sorry if
that was a tad verbose (it was probably because I don't really feel like
going to work on my Hebrew). Please pray that I manage to take in the
Hebrew as I did the Greek and to understand its abundant set of rules and
even more numerous set of exceptions. My plan at this point is to simply
survive Hebrew so please pray that I develop a really thorough
understanding of it (our lecturer – who came out from Australia to lecture
us in Hebrew this year – has done a good job of illustrating the use of
Hebrew in exegesis and has made it suitably exciting for us so you can
thank God for that).
Other than that, please pray, once again, for my spiritual growth to
exceed mere intellectual growth. It is such a tragedy to hear of so many
qualified atheists who have mastered theology and yet have not been
mastered by its subject. I look forward to this year and all the exciting
opportunities it brings.
In Christ,
James Cuénod
--
James, a bondslave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ
