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28/7/2006 My Thesis was Submitted This Week: the story behind it |
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On Wednesday July 26, my PhD thesis was finally submitted!
But that doesn’t mean that I’ve been busy on it lately – I’ve been flat out with work here at ADRA Laos. The delay in submission since my departure from Australia has been due to the need for additional proof-reading and administrative procedures back at UNSW. The post-departure proof-reading was done mainly by me but a fellow student was able to find a few more minor corrections too, for which I’m thankful! That is, I’m thankful she found them, not that they were there!
 No wonder I didn't quite make it to submit before I left!
So many things fell so well into place that I really believe the hand of God was over my work. I can’t offer any better explanation than Providence for how the events of my last week or so unfolded.
One very helpful factor in helping shape the finished thesis product was that Hal, my overseas-based supervisor, happened to be able to be in Australia on an unscheduled trip (as far as his UNSW obligations were concerned) on the way from Brunei to Durham. On the Monday of my final week, he arrived in Canberra, and then came to Sydney on Wednesday, leaving again Friday. I was able to give him my last few chapters to read on Monday while he was in Canberra, have meetings with him Wednesday and Thursday, and then had time to make the changes he suggested before printing the final draft late Friday afternoon.
There’s a story about getting the final few chapters to Canberra, too! I’m talking about the Introduction, Conclusion and another couple of ‘smaller’ chapters. I was working hard on finishing those last ‘smaller’ chapters during my penultimate week in Australia, so I could mail them to an address in Canberra, where Hal, my overseas supervisor, would be able to read them when he arrived. But then I heard that friends of mine from Canberra, Steve & Mel Wawrzonek, were going to be coming to Sydney for that weekend. This was such a blessing, both to see them (they were able to come to my farewell on the Saturday night), and also so that I could spend some extra time getting the chapters done, and send them back with Steve & Mel as they drove back to Canberra early Monday morning.
Now, there’s another evidence of God’s leading in the delivery of those chapters to Canberra. The address I had been given was number 46 of a particular street. I gave that address to my friends Steve & Mel, but they were unable to find any number 46 on that street! So they phone me to check. I was able to check it on whitepages online, and found that the correct address was actually number 49. Fortunately there was no number 46, or my friends would have dropped the thesis there, where it would have found its way into the hands of some bewildered person. It would then probably have been used as scrap paper; except since I had printed it double-sided it might have been used to light a fire on a cold Canberra winter night.
Another piece of the picture of God’s hand was in the change of my date of departure. Around the end of April, my plane ticket was booked for May 17. But the ADRA Laos Country Director scheduled a field trip from the 17th to 19th, so advised me that I should reschedule my departure until after that time, since he would not be available to introduce me to my new job. At that stage I was not aware that Hal would be in Sydney during those exact dates! Only later did it become very clear why the shift of departure dates was part of the plan orchestrated by the Master Planner.
There were several other smaller but extremely beneficial things that all came together also. Due to my focus on finishing my thesis, I was unable to put much time at all into packing my belongings up (for storage or for taking to Laos). I was blessed to have two great friends, Sandy and Matt, who were able to help by packing nearly all of my gear for storage for me! The bags I took to Laos I packed after Sabbath in the couple of hours I had before going to the airport.
I was able to buy all the things I really needed to get and take with me, too – and was especially thankful for a Sony sale which I happened to walk into on my last Thursday night on my way home during late night shopping. I was able to buy a couple of things I really needed, and at great prices – better than Thailand!
My Mum had a car accident on that Thursday night, too, that effectively wrote off the car; but amazingly she was unhurt and the car was still driveable. So, while a few minor adjustments had to be made to the logistics of our family’s last Sabbath together before my departure, we were able to spend that valuable time together.
 The almost-finished thesis, late Friday afternoon May 19
The fact that I ended up pulling out of submitting the thesis on that final Friday afternoon was a minor let-down at the time, but looking back, it was much better that way. The first and biggest reason was that it meant that my supervisor, Nick, was able to read over the thesis as a complete document, for the first time, during the following weekend. He emailed me a few pages of listed corrections. And I also was also able to read through it for the first time, going through it meticulously, during the next 3 weeks. I found probably well over 1,000 further things (most quite minor) to correct/improve. I did a little in my first week in Laos; also while on planes; a lot while at a workshop in Krabi, Thailand; and finished it a couple of days after arriving in Florence, Italy. And now – all thanks and praise to God – it is finally submitted!
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