Goed Nieuws Kerkdag 23.09.06 te Ronse

These pictures are a taster of how the day was! WE had so much fun, and thanks God we could converse about our vision as Church. Thanks to each of you who were there!

The third picture is the Bible Quiz winner team ... though I'm not there, I was part of the team ... someone had to take the picture. This is a confident team, since the picture was taken actually BEFORE the start of the quiz.

You see the guys playing football? it is a Kingdom Picture for its symbolism. The younger generation is teaching the youngest generation the skills to enjoy a similar Church Day in the future. Isn't it the Kingdom? Those who are there before prepare the field for the following ones, and train them in the Kingdom skills.

God blessed us with a nice automn afternoon, after a quite chilly morning. It was the right weather for a good walk and to enjoy the wonderful view in the region know as the Flemish Ardennes.

Be blessed!

More Pictures at the Church's site

More news on PhD!!!

Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord!
my thesis is over!
Praise the Lord for that!

My professor accepted the final version TODAY and I can submit it tomorrow to the Faculty Council.
It means that there is still work coming ahead, but that this step is over. If all goes as planned, by God's grace I will be able to defend my thesis on November 21st.

Psalms 70:4 Let all those who seek You rejoice, and be glad in You; and let those who love Your salvation forever say, Let God be magnified.

On PhD thesis issues

The cartoon was originally posted here. It reflects the iceberg's top of the stress that a PhD thesis generates.

Fotos

La cena en casa Ingrid, Alejandro, Mirna y yo (de derecha a izquierda)

Mirna, yo y Alejandro

Visitas

Mostrar gent es siempre un placer. Esta vez les ha tocado el turno a mi primo Alejandro, junto a su esposa Ingrid y una amiga de ellos Mirna. En la foto estamos en el centro de Gent, Ale y yo atrás, Ingrid en primer plano y Mirna al medio. Fue una visita corta y espero que se repita. Con el trabajo de la tesis, esta vez no pude llevarlos a pasear a otros lugares, así que tuvieron que irse "solitos" a Brugge, la parada obligatoria del turista en Bélgica.

Transition, Obesity & International Politics

Searching for some illustrations of the nutritional transition phenomen, which has to do with the global obesity epidemics, i found the one above. Actually, it has to do little with nutritional transition and lots with international politics. The picture was originally published in a cartoons site.

No time to blog

Uff ... revising the for the 1000 time the "last version" of your PhD thesis is simply exhausting. Thanks David that you got the energy to help me reading one key part thoroughly and critically. Some of my colleagues at the institute have been helping lots as well ... Fatima, Lies, Dominique ... Bedankt, Merci.

A good friend of mine reminded me some time ago that

"the worst enemy of something good is something better"

and she was actually right!

If whoever happens to be reading this post, I would appreciate you to PRAY for me.

Armando

Where oil is ...

A new state of the world

The previous days i've been thinking lots on international politics, probably the catalist for that was David's comment on geopolitics. As someone suposedly to be an intellectual, today I bought the last issue of Le Monde Diplomatique. The editorial by Ignacio Ramonet made a very clear diagnostic of the state of the world, following the war in Lebanon, the crisis in the middle east, and particularly the 5 years old war on terror.

What I like of his view is its comprehensiveness ... because it will bring enough elements to the reader to make his/her own opinion, based on published facts, rather than a specific propaganda.

The war in Irak is very expensive. In 2005 the US military expenditures were of 500 billion dollars, while they only consecrated 18 billions to development

Worth to read, and if you can get your own copy of this month's issue, do it!

Rapture related non-senses

My dear friend David Bolton started his blog recently, where he posted something from LarkNews, a publication of funny Christian stuff. I wonder how do they get so many entries, probably it isn't so difficult to guess. We Christians often do enough "non-senses" to fill books and books or the whole www.

As most of my friends know, I'm strongly opposed to the "left behind non-sense", though there are many sincere brothers and sisters that live their lives focused on a imaginary and non-biblical event called the rapture. LarkNews reported what some sincere believers do to speed up the Second Coming of Jesus. I just had to laugh out loud!

Weakness & True Power

Visiting the blog of my friend Ross Garner, he was commenting on other blog, and his words that I'm quoting below blessed me lots:

The true power of the gospel is revealed in our weakness. When we are weak the Glory goes to God. When we are powerful we don't need God. When we have everything we need and when we are in control life is easy ... but it is also easy to drift away from the Father. When we are crying out to him and clinging to him and depending on him we are spiritually connected.

In the last few days, I have been struggling with the re-organisation of the introductory chapter of my thesis. Well, in many ways, I had to "humble" myself, and accept the views of my colleagues and friends that kindly revised the early manuscript. Of course, I've asked all my friends to pray for me, so that I could bring a better proposal. Well, finally, my boss found that the new outline of the introductory chapter is OK! And I'm happy cause I felt renewed in my forces to work on it.

Circumstances like the thesis stress can always "drift away from the Father", but thanks Ross for reminding that we can keep connected to the source of Living Waters, by letting Him to take control of things.

Armando