Keeping Up With the Andersons

We recently had a holiday in Jervis Bay. It was great fun, and we got to see the bottle-nosed dolphins that live in the bay. Here are some photos we took.

Us at Jervis Bay

Dolphin at Jervis Bay

After our holiday we had a training weekend for our Scripture Union mission on location in Tarcutta. Each section's plans for January started taking shape, which is very exciting.

Now we are into the second week of a 4-week block of lecture time, with an essay due this Friday. Next week we need to get stuck into studying for our exams which will start on the Tuesday of the following week (we requested to do our exams two weeks before our fellow students because our baby is due in the college exam week). We won't bother trying to go to lectures in the week we are doing exams.

It's a busy time of year for everyone at SMBC; This afternoon I had to study in the dinning hall because all the desks in the library were taken up (FYI there are 62 desks in the library), and for us this busyness is compressed by 2 weeks. Our last exam is on 7 Nov. After that we only need to be concerned with our baby. It's very exciting. Many of our friends have just had babies, and they're very cute. It's a bit scary too, but I 'm definitely looking forward to it. We've rearranged our house so what was the study is now a nursery and the living room doubles triples as a study and dining room - which actually works out pretty well!

Pray that we'll get all our college work done in the next few weeks and that we get through exams. Pray for MG's final month of pregnancy and for the birth.

I'm working on two essays this week. The first which is half done is a response to Hebrews as if I was an original recipient. The second which I'm yet to start is What is the rationale for the ruling against mixed marriages in Ezra-Nehemiah?. I don't really like writing essays because it's hard work, but once I get into it I actually like it because I learn so much from researching and I end up knowing a lot more about the topic, and I really love learning stuff.

The last essay I wrote was about how chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation (The letters to the 7 churches) fit in with the rest of the book. Here's my conclusion:

The whole book of Revelation provides a big picture of what God is doing, into which the present afflictions of the church can be placed. Chapters 2 and 3 contains the messages of the glorious Lord Jesus as He addresses specific churches directly and indicating He knows their situation, their strengths and their weaknesses. It is exhortation to continue under pressure with the rest of the book as motivation to do so: The upcoming judgment of the world and victory of Christ. As their current situations are placed alongside God's grand plan for the world, these messages also allow the hearers to see that their suffering as part of something much bigger. Finally it provides them with hope, through the promises to those who overcome, as they see into the future a new Jerusalem where there is no more pain, and so they can push on toward that goal.