Activities, friends, and a wise lesson

Well, it's been a while. All kinds of stuff happened since my last post. On January 22nd, Anne, Briggs and Nanda came to Houten, to meet Gert, Jos and me. It was absolutely swell to see my friends again! We had a nice evening with dinner and chattering. Also, we talked to Renato on MSN, with webcams switched on. It was fun. The special part came when we were waiting at the train station and one of us said: 'We haven't prayed yet!' So we started praying on the platform, with our arms wrapped around each other's shoulders. It was a moment of such unity with each other and with God.

In the mean time, I was working hard on a paper on development in Thailand and Myanmar, and on our Atlas. We finished everything on time and were quite satisfied with our work. In the mean time, a friend of mine was promoted for his work on stellar evolution on the borderline of white dwarf and neutron star formation. It was really fun to be there, although of course I didn't understand much of what they said. Sometimes I understood what the mean point was (at least, I think so...), but no more than that.

Also, I got to meet my good friend Daniel again. He is en old roommate of mine. He lives in my neighbourhood, but still we don't meet as much as I would like. Daniel, it was good to meet again. We should do that again soon!

And, of course, the MidWinterWeekend of my Christian Union. It was an absolute success. We were in a location we knew, though in a different building this time. We had so much fun playing the 'Customs game', where you have to run through the woods and try not to get caught by the customs. At first I could get across the terrain quite easily, but I got so nervous that later on I kept running into their hands...

Also, we played some funny and weird games the day after that. We tried to make an egg fall on the ground without breaking, we made a long line with our clothes to try to get the longest one, we ran after each other with contained breath... And for the evening, we prepared a movie scene to play. There was a lot of laughter and we had much fun.

And now, the second week of the third period has passed already. I am following a subject at the Physical Geography department, which is a lot of fun, but also a lot of extra work, since a lot of knowledge is expected in advance, which I don't have. But, with a little help/force from the study group I attend, I think things will be alright.

Last Sunday, when I was in church, I was struck by a part of the text we read in Galatians: 'How can you be so foolish! You began by God's Spirit; do you now want to finish by your own power? Did all your experience mean nothing at all? Surely it meant something!' (Gal. 3: 3-4). For the Galatians, this text was about the choice you have to make not to try to get things right by keeping the law, but by believing in Jesus Christ. But for me, that day it had a different meaning. I was about to make the same mistake I made a couple of years ago, and which had caused a lot of pain for myself. This was mainly because I tried to fix things for myself, so everything would be the way I wanted it. But I failed at that. For the last weeks, I had been thinking about what I had been through, and what I should learn from that, because something alike was happening. But still, it was quite hard to really keep to that learning in practice. But the Lord provided me with an extra support in the back, by showing me these verses. With His help, I can go on without making the same mistake again.

At the end of March, my good friend Joo Ching is coming for a visit to Utrecht. I am so excited! Godwilling, we will have the same kind of meeting we had with Briggs and Anne again. But for now, there's one more month of studies coming up, alternated with nice activities with my friends of the Christian Union, with church, and with my friends-for-life Marieke and Marrita. All will be well, if the Lord blesses us.