I just noticed on my "world clock" program that sunrise this morning was at 7:23 and sunset at 4:15. I didn't realize it was getting dark that quickly! Ah, well, we are a good bit farther north than Chattanooga.
Things are rather quiet here at The Kilns for the present. For some reason, we only have one scholar living with us right now. She is speaking at the C. S. Lewis Society meeting this week. We are looking forward to that. Week after next - the week of Thanksgiving - we will at one point have 3 other people staying with us. Our guests for Thanksgiving Day have now reached about 9 or 10, I believe. The quiet will soon dispel. :-)
Sheila has had to spend a lot of time and effort trying to get a turkey. It seems that people over here will order turkeys for Christmas, so the demand rises in December. But the meat dealers are used to Americans asking about turkeys in November. We have finally narrowed things down to the turkeys in the freezer at the "Super Sainsbury" store, and she is relieved!
We had three tours last week, totaling around 35 people. I lead them all. One group was made up of college kids from Abilene, Texas. We had another "small world" incident that day. Among some other guests on the tour was a couple in the U.S. Air Force. He was beside himself with happiness to be in C. S. Lewis' house. He was also thrilled to be able to talk with other C. S. Lewis fans, because he didn't know any other Lewis fans back at their base in Europe. Well, it turns out that next year, when this couple moves back to the States, they are going to be posted to an airbase very near Abilene. Crazy.
You will recall reading in a previous post about the retired CofE clergyman living in our neighbourhood. Sheila is going to go over to their house tomorrow morning to pray with his wife. She is such a sweet little saint.
One of the things I'm doing this week is having coffee with the curate of St Ebbe's, Headington. He is in charge of reaching out to the college campus near the church. I hope to get some pointers from him about college ministry.
Speaking of neighbours, we had one neighbour invite us and a few others over to her house last night. You would not believe the food! For "starters," she served us these small, crumpet looking things, with smoked salmon, caviar, and cream on them. In addition, she had these deep fried prawn balls (they call shrimp, prawns), and ball-shaped, breaded pieces of haddock - both with toothpicks in them to dip in a chili sauce - similar to cocktail sauce back home. Then the main meal was a piece of baked salmon with mixed vegetables. Afterwards, she brought out a desert - a bread and butter pudding with some kind of cream concoction served on the side with pieces of fruit and marshmellow in it. Then! Out came the cheese board - beautiful stuff; with crackers. And when we were thoroughly miserable, she offered us coffee and truffles. Amazing!
It is very common to find people standing at the gate, looking at the house. One day this past week, I came back from a bike ride (yes! I eventually found a bike - thank you for praying; more on that later) and there was a young couple by the gate. I went over to them and started talking to them about Lewis and the house. They were locals, but they knew little about the house. He had read a few books and she had seen the Narnia movies. They were so glad to have someone talk to them about the place.
A very important item on my list for this coming week is nailing down a date for the replacement of our shower. We do have a "bath room," with a nice, old, long tub and sink in it. But when the house was restored, a shower was put into one of the small areas off the kitchen. Well, it is now caput! Water runs out from under it. Dr. Matson is trying to raise the money for it, and I'm supposed to get the plumbers out here to do the work. Thankfully, the former Warden had already had some folks to come out and look at the thing, so I'm working with one of those tradesmen.
As I said, it's quiet now, but I hear we will be very, very busy in the spring and summer. In the meantime, we have more neighbours to meet. Do please pray for us as we meet these people and have them over for tea or dinner. We want so much to be Christ to them and honour him in our behaviour and conversation. Some of these people are not believers and we want to encourage them to know our loving Lord.
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