Touring

David here: Well, today I officially lead my first tour of the house.  The attendees were just 2, a lovely couple from Cardiff.  They had read many Lewis biographies and Douglas Gresham's books as well.  There was a sense in which this made the tour easier, because there were stories I did not have to tell, but then again, it made it a challenge because they knew so much!  But it was fun, and they were lovely.

Then, in the afternoon, Peter Cousin - famous for taking people around Oxford - gave us our own little tour, visiting many sites related, not only to Lewis, but to J. R. R. Tolkien as well.  He is a real treasure trove of knowledge about Lewis, and we learned a good number of things from him.  It was so nice of him to approach us earlier this week and invite us to ride around with him.  He's retired, and no longer does tours as he used to.

I took a few pictures.

Of the many houses we visited related to Lewis' life, I was especially concerned to get a picture of this one, because it is here that Lewis and the Moores lived while he was keeping his diary, later published as All My Road Before Me.  This diary is an important source for the paper I plan to present during the Trinity term at the local C. S. Lewis Society.

Mr. Cousin also took us to see Tolkien's residences and his final resting place.

In the same graveyard as the Tolkiens, Mr. Carpenter - biographer of Tolkien and the Inklings - is also buried, so we paid our respect to him as well.  A delightful afternoon with Peter, a very generous and kind man.

McGrath Lecture Tonight

I just posted this on the C. S. Lewis Society of Chattanooga Facebook page:

McGrath speaking at Christ Church (Blue Boar Theatre) tonight - should have brought my better camera.

Hey, Folks: Went to a lecture by Alister McGrath tonight covering important aspects of his book The Intellectual World of C. S. Lewis. He emphasized Lewis' use of imagery related to light and sight. Lewis' apologetic was not propositional arguments, but "Try to see things in this way and then ask if the Christian story doesn't give sense to it all." He mentioned Lewis' idea of "joy" and the argument for God from desire being a use of Augustine's famous statement in the beginning of his Confessions about our restless hearts finding rest in God. He spoke very highly of the depth of thought and apologetic genius in the Narnia books and reminded us that, even though Lewis is very accessible because of his engaging language, yet we must not take him as shallow. Much on the contrary! Well, that's some points I took away from it. Now I need to finish the book. Here's a picture from the lecture tonight. 

Dinner at the Kilns

Recently, Sheila prepared a dinner for our scholars.  She went all out, as usual. 

Here she has the table all set out for them - including candles in the fireplace, which she likes to do

And here we are about to partake of her fine cooking!

C. S. Lewis Society Meeting Last Night

Last evening, we attended the second meeting of the Society for this term.  The speaker was Dr. Evelyn Perry from Framingham State Univ.  Her topic was: "Rereading the Subject: C. S. Lewis' The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe as Memoir."  She stayed with us at the Kilns for several days and we got to be good friends.  I have pictures this time!  One of my nieces complained about not having pictures, so I took my camera.  Well, not a real camera, but my phone, so the shots are not that great, but they work.

This is a shot from the corner of the room.  The Society meets in a room in Pusey House.  It was a big crowd - over 50 - but that happens when someone gives a talk on a Narnia book.

Here is Sheila talking to a friend of Prof. Perry named Martin.  Martin is a leading scholar in the study of World War II evacuees, such as the children depicted in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.

Here we have James Crocker, the current Society president, kicking off the meeting, announcing that Alister McGrath is going to be speaking next Monday night at Christ Church about Lewis and Christian apologetics.  Seated beside him is Prof. Perry.  Sheila, in her hat, is sitting next to Martin and to her right is Sarah Clarkson, the student-writer who I mentioned in another post of this blog.

And of course here we are with Prof. Perry. 

Pray for a young lady

Magdalen College Chapel

Last night we did one of our favourite things, which is to go to choral evensong at Magdalen Chapel.  We got to sit right behind the choir; it was almost like be in the choir. It was lovely.
Walking back to the Kilns with one of our scholars, Sheila noticed a young girl - looked like a student - who seemed upset.  She noticed that the girl was walking up to people and the people were walking away from her.  Sheila decided to talk to her.  The poor thing had either lost her purse or it was stolen and she didn't have enough money to get a bus back to her lodging.  Sheila gave her what she needed.  Please pray for her and that this bad circumstance will be used to bring her closer to the Lord.
Today I'm spending all my time trying to get the car over here transfered and insured and all that stuff so we can drive it.  Sheila's been cooking up a storm!  We are going to have a house dinner tomorrow night with our resident scholars.  She's using Suzy C.'s minestrone recipe - will be excellent!
Tomorrow, the remnant of hurricane Gonzalo - yes the one that just hit Bermuda - will be hitting the UK and they anticipate gale force winds in places.  Not the time to be on your bike!

The blog of a new friend

I want to share with you the writing of a young lady we met at the C. S. Lewis Society meeting last week.  We were actually looking for her, because she and her sister attend Wycliffe Hall college and their brother may be spending a few months with us at the Kilns.  She is a very artistic writer and I think you could benefit from taking some time to casually read her posts.  So, without further ado, here's the link to Thoroughly Alive.

Toyota's answer to the Smart Car

Lots of interesting small cars over here!

The Smart Car

The Toyota "IQ"  :-)

Jeff, The Mole War, and Simon

Our gardener, Jeff, was finally able to visit us today.  He has suffered a back injury and some family losses.  But he seems back on the job now, and he talked to us about the moles.  He said all the hills in the garden were probably from one mole.  They seem to be very active all around the area - probably has to do with the weather.  Anyhow, he fixed the hills, as you can see from the photos.  I think he likes to put something that smells bad to the moles in their holes to encourage them to leave.

We went to the local health centre this afternoon to sign up for the National Health System.  While we were at the clinic, there was a man there in a wheel chair with something wrong with his lower left leg - some kind of break.  He had that metal frame around his leg with pins going into it - you've seen them.  He asked one of the nurses for some water, but they did not have any to provide for him.  Afterwards, he sat there, obviously in a good deal of pain.  I told him I overheard his conversation and offered to go get him some water.  He accepted and thankfully the pharmacy next door had some bottled water, so it was a quick and easy thing to do.  This lead to our having a good discussion with him, of course.  His name is Simon.  He smashed his ankle in a biking accident.  He lives near us.  We wound up exchanging names and numbers because he is looking for some kind of desk work to do until his leg heals up.  So, I plan to check back up on him in a few weeks.  We can pray that somehow we may be able to go beyond deed and share with him the word of the gospel at some future date.

We have a new scholar coming in this weekend to speak at the C. S. Lewis Society meeting Tuesday night.  We also have a missionary couple from Germany coming in for a few days as guests of their father/father-in-law, a scholar here.  Looks like a busy next few days.

This is what it looks like under the mole hills.

The hills are down - hopefully the mole is encouraged to dig elsewhere.  We shall see!

First Oxford CSL Meeting

I just posted this on the Facebook page of the C. S. Lewis Society of Chattanooga:

A coaster from the Lamb and Flag. The pub is owned by St. John's College and proceeds from the pub go to college scholarships.

Hey, folks! Greetings from Oxford. We attended the first meeting of the Oxford C. S. Lewis Society last night. They meet weekly! The speaker was a prof. from Canada who spoke about Lewis, the Psalms, and the Bible. It was just a basic introduction to Lewis' book, Reflections on the Psalms.
The meeting next week sounds interesting. One of our scholars staying with us here at the Kilns will be speaking on The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe as "memoir."

After the meeting last night, some of us went over to the Lamb and Flag pub. It's across the street from the Eagle and Child, which was pretty busy. I've heard several different stories as to why the Inklings went to the Lamb and Flag. Some say that the Eagle and Child ran out of beer one day, and so they moved. Another person said it was because of a menu change. McGrath says in his new bio on Lewis that it was because the Eagle and Child had been sold to a new owner and the new owner was making renovations that spoiled the privacy the Inklings used to have at the Eagle and Child. The Lamb and Flag does have some cool spaces, I must admit.
...

Veritas Forum at Oxford, etc.

Spending some time this morning gathering info for our scholars on local opportunities for lectures and stuff.  Just found the Veritas Forum at Oxford!  They will have a meeting in Nov.  The Oxford Graduate Christian Union also has Monday night lectures and discussion.  Usually they meet at the Mitre, but they had a special meeting last night with Alistair McGrath (couldn't go).  Dec 2, Udo Middlemann is going to be there.  Anyhow, I'll have to check in on this stuff and compare with what's going on at UTC and get some ideas.

Struggling and Reckoning

You may imagine that we have had struggles about our move to Oxford.  Even this morning, as we walked to church, we discussed the rational and irrational aspects of what we have done.  This evening, reflecting again on Hebrews 11, I had the idea of composing a summary of our mission, or step of faith, making it read like verses from the chapter, not because we are on their level - obviously we are not - but to help us visualize ourselves as having done something that was indeed by faith, that it is indeed the kind of thing that God leads His children to do at times, and to help us settle in our minds why we have acted as we have.  So, here goes:

By faith, David and Sheila left the comforts and securities of their home to serve the LORD in humble service in a foreign land, not knowing whither this step would lead.
By faith they did things they did not think they would do,* because they accounted that God was indeed alive, that He does guide His people, and that He could still give them new things to do in their latter years.

*Sheila thinks this line should read: "By faith they did things that only young folks would do." :-)

Our first drop-ins and the Mole War

I was out in the front garden this afternoon when I heard someone say, "That's the house."  I then heard someone fumble with the gate, so I walked around and met a lovely young couple from the States, Grace and Bratt (sp?).  They met at Hillsdale College, got married, and now Bratt is working on a Masters in Economic History here in Oxford.  I decided to show them around a bit, so I took them into the common room, the room where Lewis died, and the kitchen.  In the  process they got to meet one of our scholars, whose son attended Hillsdale.  They had not heard of the local C. S. Lewis Society, so I invited them to attend.  That was fun and they were able to do a lot more than they thought they'd be able to do visiting here.

I also showed Bratt "The Mole War".  The garden is getting overrun by moles - the proverbial "mole  hills" are everywhere, as you can see from my picture.  I'll have to have something done about this right away.

Sheila and I are still having to spend a good bit of time getting settled in and learning our way around.  Thankfully, we are feeling better, so that's good.  We plan to attend our first Sunday morning worship tomorrow at St. Andrew's Headington, where we attend Morning Prayer.  We'll see what that's like.  Then tomorrow evening, we'll probably go to Holy Trinity for Evening Prayer - Lewis' church.

The Mole War

Our first few days

Thanks to your many prayers, our trip over to Oxford went quite smoothly.  We were hardly here for an hour when we met some of our neighbours, who promptly invited us for tea and took us to the grocery store.  You can imagine that this was a huge blessing, because we were pretty tired. 

We are still somewhat jet-lagged.  You wake up at 3:00 in the morning and realize that your body is saying, "Well, it's about 10:00 p.m., but since you have been sleeping for 4 hours or so, you are not going to go to sleep any time soon!"  And so you don't.  :-)

We have had 3 scholars living with us, but right now we are down to two: a professor from Calvin College, and a gentleman working on his Ph.D. from Connecticut. Yesterday, one of them invited Sheridan Voysey over for tea, and we had a great discussion.  Since he has dealt so much with cultural issues, I asked him what he might do if he was trying to reach students at UTC, and he had some good advice, which I much appreciated.

Sheila has started cooking - which is really important!  There is an apple tree in the back yard and she has picked some apples and made apple sauce for our scholars.  She is so sweet.  She has also made her first pot of soup, which we have shared with the neighbours. 

We had a tour of the house yesterday and we will have a tour tomorrow.  I just had a mother call to ask if we had any material to help her 8-year-old daughter with a school paper on the life of Lewis.  Sadly we do not, but I could give her a book title they could use.  You just never know who you are going to be able to talk to or help here.  Do pray for those "divine appointments" that the Lord has for us, that we will have the wisdom and grace we need to minister to people.

Daily Divine Office

One of our resident scholars, Dr. Laura Smit of Calvin College, has introduced us to daily Morning Prayer at St. Andrew's, Headington.  Today was my second day - I plan to keep this up.  If you go to their site, be sure to check out their history.  They have a large arch at the entrance to their sanctuary that was built in the time of the Normans.  Beautiful.

My job

If I have not explained to you enough of what we are doing here, this is from the job description I have been given.  Enjoy!  :-)

Duties of the Warden

You will report directly to the Kilns Coordinator.  The responsibilities of the Warden consist of the following:

• Ensure that the house and property are properly maintained—(i.e. overseeing upkeep of entire house and garden);
• Oversee all of the financial matters relating to the administration of The Study Centre;
• Serve as liaison between the C. S. Lewis Foundation and the local community;
• Manage special projects and events as needed;
• Maintain accurate statistical data and information relating to the usage of The Kilns, including tours and all other activities;
• Serve as the primary contact person responsible for the oversight of all residents (both long-term and short-term);
• Maintain and advance the spiritual integrity of the C.S. Lewis Study Centre as an intentional community of Christian scholars;
• Promote the Scholars-In-Residence Program with the goal of maintaining the optimal level of occupancy at all times;
• Entertain and host special guests as needed;
• Oversee the tour ministry.

What is not mentioned is prayerful faithfulness to share the love of Christ with all the many people who visit the Kilns.  We need grace for all the "job" aspects of the position, but especially for the spiritual side of it all.  Do pray for us.