James Cuénod's Newsletter 2011-08-11

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.

At church last Sunday I heard one of the coolest metaphors for utilitarian
Christianity's view of God (Christians who are "Christians" because of
what they get out of it): God, the divine vending machine. Maybe that's
not new to you but it was quite appropriate an analogy and I enjoyed it.
Tokai Community Church is doing a series on Jeremiah in the morning and
Job in the evening this term and the Bible studies are doing topical Bible
studies on elements from the Apostles Creed and none of that is the right
currency for the divine vending machine.

Courses at college are almost all intense and full semester courses. That
means, this term very few of our assignments are due but next term we're
going to be hammered by them if we haven't got a good head start. SRC
Elections are coming up which means my term as Residence Representative
is, and I say this with relief, fast coming to an end. It does mean that
in addition to praying that I correctly manage my time you can pray for
next year's SRC (they really have a huge role behind the scenes). I will
probably still be here next year, I've just handed in my "Application for
Continuation" form to do honours here next year with a bunch of my
classmates which is an exciting prospect. Please keep my future in your
prayers though and ask God to help me pick a research topic wisely. I'm
also in the process of applying for a bursary for next year, one of the
sections of the application asks for a few names of people who may be
willing to support me (or the college in general) and so I thought I'd ask
here if you are willing to have your name put there. The support can be
any amount, I just need to know in the next week or two. This is another
item regarding which I'd appreciate your prayer. Honours is, as I have
said an exciting thought as is the rest of the semester, though it is
quite daunting (as my degree is around the corner) and yet these too;
whether I attend every chapel, hand in every assignment and graduate magna
cum laude this is still not the appropriate currency for the divine
vending machine.

Over the long weekend I didn't do much work, I had lots of fellowship
though. A few of us went to support a girl from college on Saturday
afternoon in a dance competition (in which she absolutely dominated,
winning ballroom and latin). On Monday I went out with other friends to
Stellenbosch which was a good time and on Tuesday we had a birthday party
for one of the guys who will be staying for honours. I think one of the
biggest changes I have noticed in myself since coming to college is that I
have come to value relationships far more highly. In Work of Christ at the
beginning of the year we were shown that unity and mere friendship are
through Christ. Even being a good friend though is not a currency that
works in the divine vending machine.

Perhaps part of the problem becomes that there is no "divine vending
machine": it is a false understanding of God and the way He operates. We
don't put something in, like being a good friend or good student or good
Christian and, thereby, get something out. Rather, God in His grace gives
us every good and perfect gift - an important truth in an age of nominal
Christianity and the kind of mystic ideas that would have us believe we
can manipulate God into doing what we want.

Please pray that our lives conform to His will rather than us trying to
manipulate Him. I've put some prayer requests through the news, the future
(including post-Honours), time management (as always), wisdom for research
topic, next year's SRC and I think that's it. That's all that comes to
mind. Thanks for enduring another long newsletter.

In Christ,
James Cuénod

--
James, a bondslave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
http://www.rekindle.co.za

James Cuénod's Newsletter 2011-07-05

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.

Today's fun fact: The side of a Jacobs Krönung has stuff written in three
languages; English, Greek and Hebrew. Jacobs was made for Bible College
students! The reason I felt it necessary to preface this newsletter with
that fact is that I have that delightful aroma wafting around the study
right now and it's good to share.

Last time I mentioned the youth programme: the "SOUL" course. It finished
really well and it looks like the group has grown because of it. Every
week the main leader got a different kid to share his/her testimony (they
were prepared) and it was encouraging to hear from them. Term finished
fine, the last week is a blur but exams are now scarred into my memory.
They weren't that bad but results aren't out yet so I can't say that with
real certitude.

I've also been anticipating ministry week for some time and it was a
blast. We spent most of the days studying a passage and then preparing and
improving Bible studies from it. I think its safe to say that my group has
some idea of what to do with the story of the rich young ruler in Mark
10... I (and two other guys) also had a chance to preach. I chose to speak
from Mark 4:35-41 which is the story of Jesus calming the storm. I love
getting the chance to sit and sikkel with a passage for the time that I
had with this story. I haven't preached from plain narrative story before
and it was tough but I enjoyed it.

So now I'm on holiday, I have two weeks left in which to try to read the
King of God's Kingdom (600pg) and The Consequence of Ideas (200pg), I've
just finished Tozer's "Pursuit of God" and it was brilliant. I don't have
the whole two weeks though because next week I'm going to be helping with
the holiday club. A college friend and I are writing Bible software which
we're now trying to write with some design plan and so when I'm not
reading, I'm programming or making coffee. I love the holidays.

Lastly, I'm becoming more decided (not in any definite sort of way) in my
plan to do honours next year. I've not yet made a final decision but
that's where my thinking is going. The exciting question then becomes what
to write on (the honours course consists of a handful of courses and a
mini-dissertation, of 20000 words I think). The trouble is I like
everything. Greek is making sense and I like systematics so I could write
some sort of doctrine paper but then I feel like I'd rather spend my time
understanding what the Bible is trying to say and so do a study on Hebrews
or something. The problem is I also want to do something in the Old
Testament because I want to chance to improve my Hebrew and be an
evangelical who has looked at the Old Testament (because it's only really
liberals who do right now). A few options have come to mind but I've got
time on my side for that.

So please would you pray for finality in my decision for next year. Please
also pray that I would be able to focus in my reading during the coming
two weeks so that I get through enough of it. This coming semester looks
to be hectic (which is why I've started reading now) so I would also
appreciate your prayers for my ability to manage time and not get bogged
down too quickly (it does seem inevitable). Praise God for an awesome
ministry week though and a positive response from our host church (Trinity
Church Hilton) and thank God for His sustaining us through exams.

Now for some more coffee.
Exciting times... What? You can't end like that James: a participle is not
a finite verb!
Times is exciting.

In Christ,
James Cuénod

--
James, a bondslave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
http://www.rekindle.co.za

James Cuénod's Newsletter 2011-06-01

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.

At this point I feel sort of like a small child with an impossibly large
MacDonalds burger. I can't really sink my teeth into everything, I'm a bit
overwhelmed but "bada ba da ba, I'm loving it". The last few weeks have
picked up in time commitment at church and assignment commitment at
college.

Life on the one half of the roll is church where I've been involved in a
few cool things. First, Christianity Explored. It's a Tuesday night dinner
aimed at non-Christians or young Christians who want to explore
Christianity and ask any questions they like. We have tables of about five
to eight for the meal and so the format is conducive to discussion which
centers around a different topic every week. It seems to be a really good
evangelism tool. Sort of coupled to that is the SOUL course on Friday
nights which is simply Christianity Explored for youth. This is going
phenomenally well; it also uses the dinner format and so we're broken down
into table groups the content is simply made more appropriate for a
younger audience. Finally, Thursday nights are still Bible Study. We've
been going through Romans and I've got to say that this Bible Study has
been such an encouragement to me for the future of Bible Studies.

The other half of the roll is college. I don't really know what to say
here other than that life goes on. Today I presented my Ethics III paper
on "Deceit in Gameplay" which was fairly well received. It was quite an
enjoyable assignment, it has just taken away time that I needed to finish
off the term's work before hitting exams which are looming large all of a
sudden. The end looks to be a killer but focus is shifting from work this
term to ministry week. I've got a sermon to prepare as well as a couple of
Bible studies.

The meat and stuff in the middle has been a rebirth of some of our former
glory days as far as society goes. We've had a bunch of good social times
in the last while which, it seems to me, is one of the best things about
being at college.

Please pray that I'm really grown by the work of this term. I suppose that
until next year you can pray for me about next year and, really, the
following years. Time has been scarce so please pray that devotion is the
word that characterises devotions for me. Thank you and enjoy the chips.

In Christ,
James Cuénod

--
James, a bondslave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
http://www.rekindle.co.za

James Cuénod's Newsletter 2011-04-30

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 remember when time meandered its way through an afternoon. I recall days
when I used to do whatever took my fancy. The holidays were almost like
that; I had plenty of work to get through during that week - I just
didn't. So, arriving back I had to catch up on the stuff that I had due.
I've handed in assignments, started a new course, I've even done an exam.

I imagine that the outcome of the exam is of some interest. It was for
"Work of Christ" and the scope was enormous. The subject was lectured by
Robert Doyle, a guy out from Moore College in Australia. It has been one
of my favourite courses thus far. Last term I wrote an essay for it
researching the cry of dereliction ("My God, my God, why have you forsaken
me?") and in what sense Jesus was forsaken. I really enjoyed the essay and
it was meticulously examined which I appreciated because the notes on my
essay will be very helpful in trying to improve my writing and
researching. Regarding the exam though, I was a bit nervous going in, I
had been particularly interested in one aspect of the course and had
studied it more carefully (the extent of the atonement, if you're
interested) and - to my great delight - it came up.

The exam was last Tuesday and it seems like the third years have largely
been measuring time in BE and AE (Before Exam, After Exam). We did,
however, have a good break beginning on Good Friday. I read C. S. Lewis'
"Till We Have Faces" in the break which was pretty cool. I'm not really a
big novel reader but I enjoyed it. Lewis is cool because even if you don't
like reading, you can manage his books which are easy reading, engaging
and - best of all - short (it makes you feel like you've accomplished
something). I went to a Passover meal at Muizenberg Community Church and
then I went to the Easter services at Tokai Community Church (which, I'm
not sure whether I've mentioned, is my placement church this year). By the
way, I can recommend Easter with a fresh slice of "Work of Christ" on your
mind. Those time filled days are now gone though.

I must admit; I don't know how many weeks of term remain, I don't know how
many assignments are coming up, basically I don't know what's going on in
the near future with regards to college. What I do know is that the Fun
Run is happening on the 7th of May (I'm not down to run but I'm hoping to
change that - although I feel like I should be nearby after they nearly
burnt down the pavilion by overloading an extension cord as soon as I
turned my back - it's like a conspiracy) and then, the end of the term
brings with it not only exams but ministry week which promises to be
fantastic.

Ah one last matter which weaseled its way out of the foreground of my mind
is that of the melting pot. The melting pot is a nearby cafe type bar
thingy-do (that's right "thingy-do" is actually a technical term, look it
up). On Wednesday they have "open mic night" and on Thursday they have
"blow-your-eardrums-out-it's-too-loud reggae" (I wonder if that means I'm
getting old). Now you may be expecting me to say that I am now famous.
This is not the case. I have, thus far, spared the world my unspeakable
talent. A few college guys have been going there though (to perform and to
listen) and it is beginning to turn into a great witnessing opportunity.

On a slightly different note, I would appreciate your prayers. I've got
mounds of work that would rival Mugg 'n Bean muffins, I have
administrative stuff to do for things like ministry week, SRC and the Fun
Run, there's that looming question of what will become of me next year and
in the midst of all that stuff I'd kind of like to be reading my Bible,
praying and - just generally - being a Christian. So, with particular
emphasis on the last bit, please would you keep me in your prayers. This
would be appreciated considerably more than the aforementioned muffins.

I think that as time went on in my writing of this newsletter my mind
became more frivolous - I just reread a part of it and thought, "that's
what comes of putting the word meandered into the opening sentence James,
you need to just calm down with your verbage".

In addition, I hope that this Newsletter made you smile as much as it made
me wonder about whether or not I am in a regular state of mind for a human
being. My insanity, for your amusement.

By the indelible grace of God,
In Christ,
James Cuénod

--
James, a bondslave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
http://www.rekindle.co.za

James Cuénod's Newsletter 2011-04-02

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 must begin by saying that I am sincerely sorry that I have not sent out
a newsletter in the last month. Time to write and send newsletters has
consistently eluded me especially over the last couple of weeks.

The most recent in my recollection of work for GWC has been an assignment
for "The Work of Christ" which, for me, was an essay on Jesus' being
forsaken and what that means. I must say, it has been one of the most
beneficial essays that I have written at college; it was one of the
assignments that, once finished, leaves you loving Jesus more. I felt
privileged to be doing it. I've had assignments for just about every
subject though and so time studying and writing has been exhausting. One
other 'assignment' that I should comment on is preaching in class. I had
to preach a parable from Matthew and so I chose to preach on the parable
of the unforgiving servant (from Matthew 18) and I felt that it went well
(and I mention it because I had an awesome time doing it).

In spite of the busyness, I have had the chance to do a few other things.
I visited YWAM a few weeks ago which was interesting as GWC doesn't have
much to do with them and so it was a good chance to meet with them. They
had a missionary from China do a talk encouraging people to go to China
but don't worry, I'm not feeling pulled very strongly in that direction.
GWC has just had their annual lecture, Peter Jensen (a big-shot from
Australia) was the guest speaker and he had some thought-provoking things
to say.

I also went through to the city to see the wildlife photo exhibition; in
first year I went to the WWF Wildlife Photographer of the Year display and
it was a treat so I took the opportunity to do so again. It did not
disappoint but as I think about the photos, I realise that no photo can
truly capture the grandeur of its subject. On Friday the 1st TGIF Cape
Town (an early morning meeting around a talk which is aimed at thinking
Christian business people) began, the topic was beauty and I was reminded
that the beauty of this world is only pointing to that of the next.

A bunch of the guys at college have recently started taking advantage of
the diversity of culture and minds available and we have been meeting to
talk about African Theology (a relevant topic given our context). I have
found these discussions incredibly stimulating lately and I've added this
interest to my thoughts about the future. Speaking of the future, please
keep that in your prayers. I'm home for the holidays right now so I'll
have some more discussion with my parents, doing honours has recently
popped more strongly into my radar. I'll be going down to KZN for ministry
week though which promises to be good. I'm leading a team to my uncle's
church in Hilton and hopefully I'll leave there with some more direction
regarding next year.

Please keep ministry week and plans for the future in your prayers. I've
got a pile of work to do in this break (which is only the next week) and
then I have an even busier term to look forward to. Please pray that
college work would keep pointing away from itself rather than drawing
attention away from its glorious subject. This year has been challenging
but exciting, so please pray that I would be enthralled by the studies
because of their goal.

Finally, thank you for reading my newsletters.

In Christ who saved me!
James Cuénod

--
James, a bondslave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
http://www.rekindle.co.za

James Cuénod's Newsletter 2011-02-15

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 trust that this email will find you well. Over the December holidays
(really the January holidays), by God's unfailing grace, I turned 21.
That's a lifespan more than 500 times that of a worker bee and I haven't
harvested a drop of nectar. I did, however, have the privilege of
preaching during the holidays to the Honeyridge youth group and in the
main service. I relished the chance to expound God's word and thoroughly
enjoyed it. God's Word is sweeter than honey.

The holidays flew by swiftly but I managed to do some reading and see a
number of people. Somehow things that I wanted to do still slipped through
the cracks though. Nevertheless, the holidays drew to a close with
unexpected abruptness when I realised that I had a few SRC
responsibilities to take care of before returning but all in all, the
Christmas period was a much needed and appreciated break from college life.

Upon returning we didn't get much of a chance to get into gear and the SRC
were at work immediately, welcoming new students (especially the ones
moving into college residences) and preparing for commencement camp.
Commencement camp is an annual event which marks the start of the regular
timetable after summer school (a.k.a Greek/Hebrew week). I've always
enjoyed commencement camp although this one was particularly hectic
because of my involvement during the time leading up to it and during the
actual camp. During summer school, those of us who have done Greek and
Hebrew, were lectured on Galatians, 2 Corinthians, Luke and Revelation by
Paul Barnett. The lectures were good but somewhat rushed.

The fact that internet connectivity for me has been reduced (which will
hopefully change in the near future) coupled with my 25 hour day schedule
has delayed this newsletter by a couple of weeks so I'm kind of relieved
to be writing it right now. I'm realising how true it is that Satan
delights in a "busy" person, it's much easier to persuade him not to be
over-devoted to devotions.

Please redouble your prayer efforts as this term - in fact, this year
looks to be an intense workload. Pray for diligence in studies and, more
importantly, for spiritual growth to match any intellectual growth. I'm
also not certain which church I will be attending this year, it looks very
much like Tokai Community Church is the best option but please ask God to
make it clear.

The coming year excites me, the following year confounds me and the future
humbles me. Grace alone.

In Christ,
James Cuénod

--
James, a bondslave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
http://www.rekindle.co.za

James Cuénod's Newsletter 2010-12-01

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 can't believe that another year of college has come to an end. Exams
went well and I'm glad they're over, I was satisfied with the results.
I've been quite busy post exams though as well. The Mountain View Baptist
youth had a "wake-over" on the Friday immediately after exams which I
supervised. For something that sounds like misery it was quite enjoyable.
It was also a great chance to say cheers to the youth that I have been
involved with for the past two years.

Following the wake over on Saturday morning I went to a 21st birthday
celebration but I don't think I was entirely cognisant having been awake
well over 24 hours by then. The party may have been a bad idea but then it
was followed by a potentially worse idea; I then left for a camp with
college people. We went to a place in the Cederberg called Beaverlac. It
is a beautiful area and a lovely place to get lots of sleeping done.

I then left on Sunday so that I could make it to one last church service
at Mountain View and say cheers to everyone there. Mountain View has had
it's highs and lows for me but I know that God has grown me through the
experience and they'll stay in my prayers. They also seem to want to get
jacked up as far as having students in their church is concerned (getting
them involved in different ministries and having some sort of mentoring
program with them) which is good.

Then came college clean up, college social, transcript checking, final
chapel and finally graduation. Last year I didn't feel like I had really
known the third years that well and so it wasn't a big deal saying good
bye but I suppose I've spent two years with the current third years so it
was sad to say goodbye to many of them.

I came back on Friday and met with some school friends on Saturday. The
significant thing since I've been back though is that I preached on Sunday
at the youth at Honeyridge. I preached from Philippians 3:1-11 (because
when we were translating it in Greek I got excited about some word play in
verse 2) and I hope I did so faithfully.

Then, as though in judgement, I had surgery on Monday because of stuff
that my braces did and now I can't talk. Hopefully I won't have to wait
until I have a child or something because that would be pretty slow
healing!

So on the top of my prayer list right now is that God would heal my mouth
fast after that 'doctor' ripped it up (he did do what he was supposed to -
I just don't appreciate it yet). You can also pray for Mountain View
Baptist, a student from BI will be joining them and probably filling in
where I left off but also for spiritual maturity in the congregation. It's
great to be on holiday now, please pray that I would grow in my walk with
God over the next few weeks and that all the stuff floating around from
the past year of college would become truth that not only enhances my
knowledge but enhances my love of God.

In Christ,
James Cuénod

--
James, a bondslave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
http://www.rekindle.co.za

James Cuénod's Newsletter 2010-11-11

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.

Hello again, last time I sent my newsletter out I spoke a lot about the
activities to come. This time I can look back on them. In the last few
weeks I have heard a whole bunch of speakers who were absolutely
excellent. John Piper, Tim Keller, Christopher Wright and John Azumah all
featured in that time. It was really amazing to hear them all I wish it
could have been spaced out a bit more. The reason that we've had all these
international speakers in the area is of course because of the Lausanne
Congress on World Evangelism. It sounds like that went down well too, I
wasn't involved in it but the reports about it that I have heard are very
positive.

I had anticipated lots of activity during those two weeks immediately
after my last newsletter, what took me by surprise was the slew of
assignments that came after those two weeks. I don't know how many there
were now but there were a whole bunch. I found a few quite beneficial
though and in those cases it's not a chore to do them.

So now, exams have started. I wrote Hebrew yesterday and I'm writing The
Person and Work of Christ tomorrow followed by Reformation Church History
and Mission and Culture on Monday and Wednesday next week. Hebrew was
fine, I didn't really enjoy the exam but I can't put my finger on it. I
think I was just not perfectly confident on any of the answers that I
gave; normally I can count on a certain number of marks and then have
question marks over others but I don't know what I can count on in that
exam. I just thought of something cool though; next year I should be
getting a "Hebrew and Greek Reader's Bible" from someone flying in from
the States - it's a Greek and Hebrew Bible with translations of uncommon
words at the bottom of the page so it's not an interlinear but it's a nice
help.

Please pray that I manage to put in the necessary work for these exams. I
am also preaching when I get back so please would you pray that I manage
to put in the necessary preparation while I'm here. I can't believe that
another year is basically gone, praise God for his provision to me for all
this time. Of course, now a continual prayer can be that God would give me
some direction for after third year. Thanks for all your prayers, I'm also
praying for you.

In Christ,
James Cuénod

--
James, a bondslave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
http://www.rekindle.co.za

James' Newsletter

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's that time again; the time when I realise that it's two weeks since I
told myself to send out another newsletter. I was chatting to someone at
church this morning and he says that people ask him, "now that you're
retired, don't you get bored" and his response is something to the effect
of, "it seems like I've just woken up and half the day's gone and then I
start doing something that needs to be done and the rest of it
disappears". I'm experiencing more and more of that.

The past few weeks have been enjoyable though; I hiked Muizenberg's
mountain yesterday and went to the Melting Pot (a little open mic place)
and a piano recital last week. Meetings and responsibilities seem to
consume time though. There are a bunch of security issues in the various
residences and three new people have moved into the res in the past month.

The next two weeks also look to be crazy with a number of assignments
being due as well as an Islam block course, a Tim Keller conference (at
Common Ground), a few John Piper sessions (at St James) and the Lausanne
conference. As well as the annual lecture, a slot with Christopher Wright
and something else that I'm sure I've forgotten. So please keep me in your
prayers in that regard.

I had the opportunity to get my hands on a keyboard down here as well
which has devoured more time :). I have had a good term thus far though
although the courses have seemed a tad dry. Greek has been exciting to me
as we've been translating our way through Philippians and Hebrew has also
been pretty cool recently as we've been dissecting Genesis 11. Please pray
that these things would excite me for the right reasons (which I believe
they have been this far but it's easy to, for example, do word study for
the sake of doing a word study).

Slowly plans are forming in my mind as to what my options are once I have
finished my degree but it's still weighing on my mind so please also keep
that in your prayers as well.

In Christ,
James Cuénod

--
James, a bondslave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
http://www.rekindle.co.za

James Cuénod's Newsletter 2010-09-12

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.

Hello again, I am pleased to say that for a change I'm a bit more relaxed
as I write this newsletter. I am on holiday (and will be for the coming
week) which is quite welcome. The term was short but we packed a lot of
work into it and one of our subjects (The Person and Work of Christ) has
come to an end, the rest continue to the end of the year. So, in the
coming week, hopefully, I'll be able to get some work done and have an
easier term.

At my church in Cape Town, Mountain View Baptist, we have been looking for
an associate pastor to help with the youth. During a general meeting I was
nominated along with a bunch of other people to join the call/selection
committee and so I am now a part of that. Because of that, I had a few
meetings with a candidate and I must say that I have certainly learnt a
great deal about running something of that nature in a church (and it's
not an easy thing). I will be leaving Mountain View at the end of the year
though, so please keep the church in your prayers particularly with
respect to the youth and the calling of an associate.

The GWC SRC elections also snuck up at the end of the term and I had some
nostalgia over last year's campaign. There was quite a lot of work to do
though and so nothing much happened until the guy who we campaigned for
last year put up new campaign posters. There was still a lot of work
though and so it was late, the night before the elections, that my light
was on editing some campaign flyers to compete with and on election day it
was like a propaganda leaflet drop as I infiltrated each class and left a
number of them lying all over the place. The fruit of all this is that I
am now the Residence Representative so please keep me in your prayers with
additional responsibility of this and my role at Mountain View.

The GWC Booksale also happened on the last day of term and I'm pleased to
say that I managed to get some really good books. I am probably most
pleased that I managed to get my hands on Carson's "Exegetical Fallacies"
but there really were quite a few good deals that I picked up. CUM Books
has also had a crazy sale on these past few days which has helped to
further diminish my savings (which, I am discovering, should really just
be called "spendings") account but I'm certain that CUM made a loss on the
stuff that I bought from them (such as Commentaries marked down from R600
to R50 and others from R300 to R5). So I suppose you can praise God that
he has placed such opportunities before me and given me the capital to
take advantage of them.

This coming week I have quite a few things that I need to get done
(including Hebrew which is still the bane of my life and hopefully some
Greek, Reformation Church History and finishing two books - although that
may be a bit too ambitious). Please keep me in your prayers especially
with regards to Bible reading and prayer and please also pray that I would
maintain a quality work ethic this coming term and next year. I am also
not sure how to proceed after I have got my BTh at the end of next year so
please pray about that as well. I know that we have a sovereign God and
have been reminded today how gracious He is to us. Someone at church told
me his parts of his testimony and then we witnessed a number of baptisms
and I must say God is so gracious. Let's never get excited more about
books or Theological study than we are about the Gospel!

In Christ,
James Cuénod

--
James, a bondslave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
http://www.rekindle.co.za

James Cuénod's Newsletter 2010-08-01

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 can't believe so much has happened since I last wrote a newsletter. It's
been about eight or ten weeks now and I've had exams, holidays, ministry
week and of course the soccer was going on during all that time. So I'll
start at the beginning and try not to ramble too much.

The exams went acceptably, having been back at GWC I've had the chance to
see my results and I must admit that I was disappointed with some of my
results. The exams were a welcome end to the term though. I flew back to
Joburg a few days after exams finished which gave me the chance to watch
the opening SA vs Mexico game at a fan park which was quite an experience
and then it was back home for me.

My first week of holidays went by rather quickly, I did a fair bit of
reading (I've been reading the Count of Monte Cristo most consistently
recently) and I prepared a sermon which I thought I would need for
ministry week (which was the week after the holidays) but it turned out
that I didn't (I'll hopefully have the chance to use it at Mountain View
Baptist though). To be honest, the first week has become a bit of a blur
in my mind because for the second and third weeks I was involved in
Honeyridge's holiday club.

Thankfully, the holiday club wasn't two weeks of kids (the first week was
a setup week) or it would have been considerably more exhausting. It went
really well, I thoroughly enjoyed it and I'm pretty sure that the kids did
too. It's quite exciting to have the chance to explain the gospel to a
bunch of grade six and sevens (that was my groups age group) every day for
a week. Unfortunately, I had to fly back on Thursday and so I missed the
last day of the holiday club but I'm certain that it finished well.

So I arrived back in Cape Town on Thursday evening and on Friday I joined
some people from college and went to the Aquarium which was fascinating.
The creatures that one finds living in the sea boggle the mind, they
honestly don't look like they are from this planet - if you want to marvel
at God's creation the Aquarium is a good place to go. Since we were
already in the city bowl, I joined a college friend and his sister's
family and went to the fanpark again. It is rather weird to me that I
began and ended my holidays at a soccer event. Speaking of which, I have
been quite amazed at the power of soccer as a talking point to pretty much
any person in the country; it has been rare to find someone who wasn't
following it in any way.

Easing back into college, we started with ministry week - a week in which
all the undergrad students go to different churches, usually all over the
country but this year, because of the world cup, primarily in Cape Town
and do whatever their host church asks of them. I was assigned to Holy
Trinity in Gardens. Our primary activity was doing a holiday club but we
also visited a hospital and an old age home in the afternoons. I had the
chance to lead one of their Bible studies, on Sunday I also lead the
service and our team leader preached (and it was a quality sermon).

It was on Saturday though that I found out that a very good friend of mine
from school had passed away on Friday night. Although GWC began on Monday,
it was not really college work that dominated my thoughts. Thankfully, I
flew back for the funeral which was on Friday the 16th. It's quite a
thought that a guy who matriculated with me has died and not because of a
car accident or drugs or alcohol but something natural. It made me realise
that death is definitely not natural and, interestingly, one of my first
theological thoughts that I had as I thought about his death was that God
is definitely there.

Last weekend, then, I went on a "Music Ministry" weekend which was a great
experience. We talked about the power of music to manipulate emotions and
the correct use of music and then learnt a few songs. The weekend inspired
me to actively try to learn to play an instrument.

This weekend I joined people from Mountain View and we hiked to Elephant's
Eye at Silvermine which was also awesome. It's good to be back but I feel
that I have a lot of work that I need to start ploughing through which I
normally had weekends to use except over these past few weeks.

You can praise God that He has given me the opportunity to be here and
please pray that I can be an encouragement to some guys staying in res
with me who are struggling at college. I've got a lot of work that I need
to do and I'll need a lot of motivation to do it so please ask God to use
the work to improve my relationship with Him. Please also keep my
devotional life in your prayers; idle hands may be the devil's playground
but boy, I don't think we realise how much he loves busy ones as well.

In Christ,
James Cuénod

--
James, a bondslave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
http://www.rekindle.co.za

James Cuénod's Newsletter 2010-05-14

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.

Whenever I begin writing a newsletter, I always check the date of my last
one to see what I can catch people up on. I was surprised to see that it
is two weeks since I last sent one out, partly because I thought that it
was only a week ago that I had sent one but also partly because I can't
remember what has happened since then.

Perhaps one of the reasons I can't remember what has happened is because
some stuff is eclipsed by something that is standing out in my memory.
Last week I went and watched a debate between William Lane-Craig and Yusuf
Ismail on the topic "Identifying Jesus: Was he a man or was he God and
man". It was worth seeing, Yusuf Ismail (a muslim) was utterly destroyed
in the debate although I don't think many people realised that. He was
chucking out irrelevant little arguments that were off topic and not even
intelligent so I was quite disappointed by the Muslim representation at
the debate. Lane-Craig, however, was worth listening to; he had really
planned his argument well and structured the way in which he would address
the problem carefully so Ismail was on the back foot from the get go.

That was Saturday evening though and work has, as anticipated, picked up.
We wrote a Hebrew vocabulary test this morning and - praise God -
everything that I'd studied I was able to recall, unfortunately I somehow
managed to miss a chapter's worth of vocab which was a bit frustrating but
I have no one to blame but myself; I had even told people which pages we
needed to learn.

I've been trying to fight off some sort of flu-like thing but I seem to be
losing so I'll probably need to go to the doctor pretty soon. The number
of commitments just seem to be mounting up, next weekend is the weekend
the second year guys go to Hermanus and spend time with the CESA Bishops
but there's a lot of stuff that needs to get done and a weekend away right
now is not good timing.

Nevertheless, life goes on and it's encouraging to see exam timetables
coming out because I know that there are only a few weeks left of term
which will bring the first half of my GWC career to an end - what a
thought!

I suppose the first thing that I'd like you to pray for is my health, it's
quite annoying being sick and totally impractical if one wants to get
stuff done. The second is time management; I suppose it happens around
this time of a semester every time but I'm looking at what needs to be
done and the time in which there is to do it and I'm not sure how it's
going to be possible. Thirdly, plans for when I have finished studying,
I'm not sure where I'll be going and whether I'll be studying further so
please keep that in your prayers as well. As always, I am exceedingly
grateful for your prayers.

In Christ,
James Cuénod

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

James Cuénod's Newsletter 2010-05-01

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.

Before I talk about news perhaps I should just comment on my last
newsletter. Some people thought that it had a tone of despair about it. On
reading it again I don't really see it but I'm don't suppose I'm the
person to ask about identifying that sort of thing. However, as the author
I have the priveleged position of being able to comment on what was going
through my head at the time. I may have been writing it too soon after a
lot of stuff had just entered my head and I was still trying to sort stuff
out but I'm loving college and I am finding it to be a superb experience.

As for recent news, the calm before the storm in terms of work load is
coming to an end. Acts and Evangelism assignments are due pretty soon and
once they're done Homiletics will take their place. Thankfully I did my
major God & Humanity assignment last term. I'm reasonably on top of my
reading and other work so now it's just a question of getting this other
stuff done as well as the readings that are remaining.

There's a chance that I'll be preaching on the 23rd of May so please keep
that in mind and in your prayers. Exams will also begin in about 4 weeks
so I'll need to start preparing for those as well.

As for Hebrew, I've taken a number of books out of the library. I'm
finding one text book particularly helpful and I think I'll be able to
wrap my mind around it if I spend enough time on it. I realised that last
year where Greek came easily to me and many of my peers sat struggling
with it, the reverse is often the case for Hebrew. Please also keep my
Hebrew in your prayers because I can't really be sure whether or not I'm
getting it until we are more thorougly examined on it.

Friday night youth (grades 1-5/6) is going... To say well may be a slight
exaggeration. It's very difficult as most of the children are coming from
broken homes and their parents aren't Christians so often they're being
dumped there for baby sitting and they aren't interested in listening to
the leaders. Please pray for Errol (who is in charge) and the kids who
come. The group is really on the brink of being shut down. Senior youth
(grades 7 and up) is going well though and I thoroughly enjoy attending
it. This morning I joined the family that runs the youth (the couple has
three children) and we went to a nearby township to help at a soup
kitchen.

I am finding my mind incredibly stretched on all sorts of issues. So I am
loving just sitting and thinking and reading and discussing things with
people. I've had a great time listening to the way other people think and
seeing how culture affects our understanding of things and how the gospel
speaks into it.

Praise God that I've got this oppurtunity to study theology and please
pray that I would come out on the other end more devoted to Him than ever
(over the academics of it or anything else).

In Christ,
James Cuénod

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

James Cuénod's Newsletter 2010-04-14

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 pains me to begin by saying that I am sorry that I haven't sent out a
newsletter for over a month but no matter how much I consider how I should
begin this email, it seems like the only appropriate opening. Last term
became rather busy towards the end and I think everyone here was just
tired after the length of the term. Two weeks off was barely enough for
recovery and so I think those of us who don't live here have mixed
feelings about being back.

In the holidays I managed to take my mind off college for a while but we
did have some work - in particular Hebrew - that we had to get done. The
other thing that I worked on during the holidays was a sermon for a prayer
meeting. The prayer meeting was this morning and so I delivered the sermon
today.

I received useful feedback from the lecturers immediately afterwards.
Looking back I realised that I had no conclusion which I think they should
have been much harsher with me about but the main thing that they said I
had done wrong was to not exegete a passage. A point, I thought, that was
true but not fair since I had preached a topical sermon by design (my
topic was prayer and God's sovereignty which I tied into Matthew 6:10
"Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven"). Additionally, I managed
to call the leader of the service by the wrong name and so I have a number
of useful pointers for next time. People seemed to appreciate my
communication though for which I am grateful.

This term looks to be the one with the real work (as only one of our
subjects is not continuing from last term). We have a new subject; youth
work, with the lecturer who took us for small groups and I enjoyed his
style (while not academic, he wasn't trying to be).

Judging by the amount of time I have spent wracking my brains for content
for this paragraph it seems unlikely to be of any real value so I figure
that I'll stop here as far as news goes.

I really need prayer for discipline in my reading this term so that I can
keep up with it and get through assignments. Right now Hebrew is pretty
much the bane of my existence so heavenly assistance would be greatly
appreciated and in spite of having preached on prayer today, I realise
that my prayer life is lacks vitality so please pray that I would pray.
Having said that, you are in my prayers.

In Christ,
James Cuénod

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

James Cuénod's Newsletter 2010-03-08

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.

The longer I stay in Cape Town the more removed from the people I send
this newsletter to which in turn means that I forget how much you don't
know about what's going on here. It's been about three weeks since my last
newsletter and, when I think about it, quite a lot has happened.

One of the great things about being at GWC is that the college's
affiliation to CESA means that we are able to get a variety of speakers
(especially international speakers who are somehow linked to CESA). For
example, we had the privelege of listening to Dick Lucas (a preacher in
the UK) a couple of Fridays ago. He spoke exquisately about application
and a preacher's audience and spent a long time answering questions. One
of my favourite answers that he gave was a story about when he went to
speak at a school in the UK (which was, not surprisingly, pretty
secularised). He went up and spoke out of Genesis three explaining that he
didn't much care for the story since it was clearly not informed by
contemporary music or beliefs. He wanted to write to the publishers and
have it altered to, more accurately, say, "It was the cool of the day and
man was walking in the garden. Adam wondered where God was and called out
saying, 'where are you'. But God was naked and ashamed so He hid in a bush
and he answered, 'I'm hiding'. To which, Adam responded, 'why'. God
answered Him, 'I was naked and ashamed so I hid in this bush and you're
never going to find me'." Lucas continued, telling us how he would also
then alter some New Testament stories like the lost sheep, which was - of
course - about the good flock of sheep looking for the naughty shepherd
who had run away. Finally one of the staff listening to his talk laughed
which gave Lucas the chance to say, "Thank you very much, you're
absolutely right; what I have just said is entirely ridiculous. We are not
searching for God as culture would have us believe; He is searching for
us". I'm not sure what else he said but it sounds as though it was a
pretty good sermon to a relatively hostile audience.

We also had Steve Timmis (the author of the book "Total Church" which is
about not just meeting on Sundays but as Christians, sharing our lives
with one another). He had some interesting things to say and left me with
a lot of food for thought although I'm still struggling to think of
practical ways of implementing what he was talking about in our
indivualistic society.

Last week Thursday the Evangelism class got the oppurtunity to go out to
Capricorn (a nearby township) and witness. It was wonderful to see and
hear others explaining the gospel to people who were quite receptive.
Please keep our evangelism in your prayers (not just those who were spoken
to on Thursday; a group of us go out to the beach front on Wednesdays).

On an extra-curricular note, I mentioned in my last newsletter that we
would be playing against the St. James soccer team (which is an
established team and represents the flagship CESA church). The game
happened and despite my involvement, we won confortably with the result of
4-2.

Today Des Inglesby (the area bishop) spoke in Chapel. It was a sobering
reminder of the weightiness of our calling and the importance of not
slipping into the mindset that we were saved and therefore always will be.
There is a need for us to actively seek to grow in Christ. Please pray
that complacency would not set in with myself or my peers but that we
would spur one another on. I've been reading a book called "Worldliness"
subtitled "Resisting the seduction of a fallen world". It talks about 1
John 2:15 which tells us not to love the world or the things in the world,
the book exhorts Christians not to fall into the trap of being like the
world. Please pray for this not only for me but for Christendom. May the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of
the Holy Spirit be with you all.

In Christ,
James Cuénod

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

Book Giveaway

A great looking tome of a book is available in a give-away on at
http://jcrylequotes.com/2010/03/06/meet-the-puritans-book-giveaway/
so if you're interested in getting a hold of Meet the Puritans by Joel R.
Beeke and Randall J. Pederson then follow the link

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

James Cuénod's Newsletter 2010-02-15

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 has been quite warm the past while down here in Muizenberg and yet, I
have still managed to be snowed under, at least I have not melted in the
face of the workload (although I'm slowly withering).

Summer school went really well and Hebrew even began to make sense. We
wrote a test on the Friday and I'm satisfied with the result thereof. To
close off summer school we also arranged that it would be a full moon and
a number of us hiked up Lion's Head to watch the sunset and the moonrise.
Sadly, our meteorology is not as good as our astronomy and the cloud cover
provided a convenient shelter from the scenery (the cloud only actually
blocked the sunset and the moonrise - we could see the Waterfront and bits
of Table Mountain). Before the hike, however, I joined some GWC friends
and we went rock climbing (outdoor) and so I feel like quite an
adventurous sort of person right now.

The following Monday brought with it commencement camp which was a great
oppurtunity to get to know the sea of new faces swarming around the
college. It was, as last year, a thorougly enjoyable time. That Wednesday
we returned to the college and got to work, leaving the first years behind
for another day at Rocklands (the campsite).

The courses have started much more smoothly this year than they did last
year and I can really say that I'm looking forward to all my courses. We
have Acts, Hebrew Narrative (which is a course on how to read Old
Testament narratives), Biblical Hebrew (the Language), Greek (in which
we're translating and discussing John), Homiletics Theory (preaching), God
and Humanity (looks to be a brilliant course on the Doctrines of God and
of Man and their relationship).

The workload for these courses is reasonably heavy but quite doable. My
problem is that whenever I'm given required reading I seem to find a
hundred prefered readings to do instead which tends to slow me down. The
other activity that has hampered my newsletter sending and has made me
feel slightly more like the rugged outdoorsy and adventurousy type of
person is soccer. Many of the CESA churches in the area have soccer teams
and they challenge one another to friendly matches so, in the words of
GWC's team manager "we're gonna form a team and train hard and beat those
guys". Which is what we've done (except the beating; that comes this
Saturday).

As of now though, I have managed to stay precariously balanced on top of
the ball but I'd like to get a bit ahead and start doing more of my own
stuff (without it causing me to lag behind). Please would you pray that I
manage to get a good routine of work and personal study going and -
something that I got from our Ephesians Bible study at church - "Pray on
my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth,
to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel ... that in
proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak." (Ephesians
6:19-20).

In Christ,
James Cuénod

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

James Cuénod's Newsletter 2010-01-25

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 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

James Cuénod's Newsletter 2009-11-09

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.

First of all, a joyous Christmas to you if you happen who read this today
(the 25th for me). My prayer for you is that this day would be a reminder
of how despite our position of enmity with our Creator, he did not wait
for us to draw near to Him but He clothed Himself in frail humanity. While
we were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world, God sent forth
His Son, born of a woman, under the law to redeem those who were under the
law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. Praise God for His
gracious kindness towards us in sending His Son to redeem us!

Since I began writing newsletter's 11 months ago on February 2nd, I have
written 21, making this my 22nd newsletter. My apologies for the length of
time I have taken to write this, I didn't have my mailing list and the
webmail site I have been using has only just come back online. Thank you
for your prayers and support throughout the year, I know that I would not
be where I am but by the grace of God.

This holiday I have been relaxing. I have been reading through a few books
(my mind is not really focusing on any particular one) but what I've
particularly enjoyed is setting up a new website for reformed Christians
to get in contact with one another, have discussions and write blogs. The
address is http://www.rekindle.co.za if you want to have a look at it.

I suppose that a common question would be as to what subjects I've
particularly enjoyed this year. Early Church History was really cool (and
reformation history is still to come in 2010), I especially enjoyed our
exposure to original texts such as the Didache and writings by Origen,
Augustine and Justin Martyr etc. Greek was also really awesome because of
its usefulness to me now (since we have finished our text book all we will
really do from here is translate and learn in that way). Ethics has been
very interesting and has given me a lot of food for thought and Psalms was
fascinating (we learned about things like Hebrew parallelism which was
incredibly interesting).

I will be returning to GWC sometime around the 17th (I haven't got a
ticket yet) and can look forward to language week to start off the term. I
have already begun to learn some Hebrew but I don't think I'll go very far
past the alphabet before I go down. As mentioned, I will also be having
Reformation Church History sometime during the year as well as Mission and
Culture, Ancient Cultures and possibly Ethics 2 but I'm not sure what else.

I have appreciated your emails and prayer throughout the year, God's
richest blessings to you and your family.

In Christ,
James Cuénod

--
James, a bondslave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
http://www.rekindle.co.za
http://bondslaveofchrist.blogspot.com
http://imagesoftheinvisible.blogspot.com

James Cuénod's Newsletter 2009-11-09

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.

Thank you all for your prayers, I managed to get in all my assignments and
even my readings - just... The week that I sent my newsletter was indeed
crazy and the last week of term, although without assignments was still
busy because of readings.

I have now started exams, I write Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the
next two weeks. Today I wrote Greek, still to come is Ethics, New
Testament, Hard Questions, Doctrine of Revelation and Early Church
History. But I imagine that you are more interested to know how the Greek
went. I don't really like to say that any exam went well before I get my
mark back but I had no problem in any of the grammar questions.
Translation is quite tricky and I know I made some mistakes but I think I
did fine.

There's really not much to say since all that's been happening is work.
The week after the exams are finished we will be doing various college
things like a social, graduation, clean up etc. so some of us are planning
a bit of stuff for the social but it's all kind of up in the air right
now.

So all that I can ask for is that you pray for me as I write my exams;
that I would remember everything I've learnt (and even the stuff I haven't
learnt) and that I would understand the questions asked and answer them
clearly. Of course, please also pray that my relationship with God would
get hotter not colder through my studies.

In Christ,
James Cuénod

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