Dear reader,

It was has been a long time since my last posting, but be assured that I am quite well. I have been relatively busy at school lately. Last week I had to write an essay on the poetry of Alfred Tennyson, the most popular English poet of the 19th century. He's the man we have to thank for the lines, "Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all."

This week I had to lead the seminar in my Greek class, which entailed translating the selected passage (1 Cor. 4:6-21) into English, and then bringing up prudent questions or points of discussion that were found in my designated commentary. A commentator is a person who writes a novel-size critical analysis on any one of the letters or gospels of the New Testament.

Our professor for the second-half of the course is a rather short, elderly man, with a large nose and protruding lips which only old people possess; but he has a set of eyes that seem to live more in the spiritual world than the physical. He is the sort of man that you can tell at once, merely by his manners and expressions, that he has seen many things in the world, or, rather, spent many years in humble service to his neighbor. He is a very learned man, fluent in several languages, and an ordained minister. It is amazing how a person with such a wealth of knowledge and experience, can look so meek and unobtrusive on the outside. He isn't at all intimidating in class, as a proud man of his stature would be, and neither does he seek to force his knowledge upon us. The five of us take turns leading the class, while he seems to remain in the background, though he speaks more than every one of us. I am very happy indeed to have such a professor not only for his intellectual ability but for his moral ability as well.

Next week on Monday a few others and I have to give a Jeopardy-style presentation to our English seminar group, on Kipling's book of short stories, "Plain Tales from the Hills" (if either Will or Jordan is reading this, you would be proud). One of our group members is a very sweet, middle-aged mother, though very smart as well. I would have expected her not be nervous for the presentation, seeing she's much older than the rest of the students, but she is in fact the most nervous of everyone. She has repeatedly told us that she has never been part of a group presentation.

When I'm not in class or working, I spend the majority of my time with two guys. One is from Germany, Phil, and the other China, Max; both of which have spent their last few years in two large cities in Canada, which has seemed to Americanize their accents considerably. Phil loves three things in life: golf, fishing, and cars (family and friends of course excluded) and Max loves basketball (especially Kobe Bryant), cooking, and photography. You can tell how I came to meet them. It is amazing how quickly people can become friends, regardless of their backgrounds. I'm sure all of you have in mind a person or two, whom you could never have guessed would one day pass you by on the road of life, and, walking in the same general direction, spend a moment or two along your side, before being forced to part again.

God works in mysterious ways. That is another way of saying He works in every way. He is with us at all times, whether we know it or not. He is our constant companion and our destination, our "be-all and end-all," our most intimate friend and our protecting father.

I find I am more and more wanting a God, who is always doing His very best for every one of us; a God whose mercy and justice is one and the same thing; a God who gives everyone fair play; a God who would rather slay us all than see us become mean and selfish creatures; a God who would not remove one ounce of suffering, until He saw his child as the strong and fearless man or woman He meant him to be; who would never condemn one of His children to eternal punishment, for God is Love, and Love is inexorable. The one, true God will be infinitely higher and better than the most far-reaching human imagination, for the grandest idea in our mind must be the one closest to the Truth. We were made in His image, therefore all that is good in us, all beauty, all love, all friendship, is of Him, that is, it is first His beauty, His love, His friendship; even more, it is His very being. This is the God I will forever hope for, and I think I am beginning to know Him more and more each day.

Cheers!