My wacky life...victories and defeats...and God's grace

My wacky life - victories and defeats...yesterday (Apr. 27, 2016) as an example:

9:00-12:00 - encouraging meeting with the HET-Pro team in St-Légier...things are moving forward!!!

12:30-16:15 - probably still deep in thought and distracted, I filled car tank with wrong gas in Bulle (regular instead of diesel)...then got the tank emptied and the fuel line cleaned by the wonderful "Garage Kolly" in Le Mouret (wow, the engine still works!)

16:30-18:00 - ...finally arriving home in Tentlingen...understandably not too pleased with myself...I started translating a letter destined for Pope Francis (German to English) for friends promoting women's participation in the life of the Church (a worthy cause!)

19:00-21:00 - spent a great evening with the VBG-Group in Fribourg, teaching how to read the Bible like in the early church (together, reading through an entire book and aloud).

Moral: even if you do something dumb (and expensive) during the day (like the second event above), you can still accomplish something useful. Don't give up...the grace of God is greater than our sin and failures!

'Oldest' Koranic fragments - amazing discovery in a university library!

One of the oldest fragments of the Koran (Islam's holy book) was just waiting a hundred years to be identified as such in the library of the University of Birmingham. Further research will be conducted to verify the initial

results.

Here is what makes this find so fascinating: the parchment (sheep or goat skin) has been dated from between 568 and 645. This places the manuscript very close to the period when Mohammed claimed to receive revelations, between the years 610 and 632 A.D. The scribe may have even heard Mohammed's preaching.

I'm intrigued by what these pages might reveal of the textual history of that early (or earliest) period of the Koran. Specialists (textual critics and Islamic scholars) must be anxious to read this manuscript for themselves.

Here's more information about this discovery:

Article in English

Article in French

Experiencing God’s love

One of the joys of working with university students is to hear and see how God has become real to them. I'd like to share about two students in the nursing program in Fribourg, Gloire and Simona.

Gloire says that he was a teenager like the others: he liked football, friends, and naturally...girls. One week, some of his friends asked him to go to a concert in their church at the end of the week. On the moment, he said yes, forgetting that there was a party at the same time. So, when the day of the concert came, he was looking for excuses the whole day to avoid the concert. Yet, since he promised to go, and being a man of his word, he finally decided to go. He got there late, and people were already praising God and dancing. He felt like joining them, but his pride kept him from doing it. When the preacher asked people if they wanted to receive Christ as their savior, he didn't get up. But when a friend pronounced the word "divine," that really struck him and he really felt the fulness of God's love for him. That evening was an awesome experience that gave him a new start and direction in his life! Gloire is in one of our Bible groups, and his love for God really shines through him.

Simona grew up in a Christian home. Her family attended church regularly and her faith was growing. She learned about Jesus and loved him. Yet, when she was in early teens, her world fell apart one day when her parents told her and her sister that they were going to divorce. Three days later, Simona’s mother left the country. Simona didn’t see her again for six months. In fact, Simona didn’t want to see her ever again, but at this point she had to live with her. She was angry with her parents and with God. She thought: Why didn’t God help me? Why didn’t he help my parents understand and love each other again? At that point, she decided that she wasn’t going to pray anymore. Yet, that didn’t last long, she remembered the special moments that she had experienced with God in her childhood. She couldn’t forget God. She realized that he was calling her to draw close to him. Through prayer and reading the Bible, her world began to make sense again because God was consoling her and giving her a new joy. Simona's life continues to demonstrate God's love and joy in tangible ways.

Gloire and Simona have two things in common. They are both training for the nursing field, and they have a contagious, joyful faith in Jesus Christ. What a blessing they are to their fellow students, hospital patients and staff!