Packing Up

The saying that "all good things come to an end" is true only to a certain point.  It is true about the good things that we experience in this life, for this world is passing away, along with all its desires and pursuits.  But Jesus has risen from the dead and secured the life and world to come for all his people, for all who will bow to his rule and receive his love in this life.

And, if you will, since all good things in this life are known by God as one eternal present, to him no good ever passes away.  That means that any circumstance, event, person or any other thing we know in this life that is good, in one real sense, never absolutely and completely passes away.  Whatever exists in the mind of God exists, though we human beings, who experience everything chronologically, may not re-live those things that have flowed into our past.

England will continue to exist, though we must leave her on Friday.  We are sad to leave so much good and beauty.  But we will be thankful.  The word "England" will never mean the same thing to us again.  It will remind us of our friends we have left behind, of the many good things we have seen and done, of opportunities for service, and of good friends back home who have helped us along the way.

But in those immortal words of that great philosopher, Scarlett O'Hara: "Fiddle-dee-dee.  Tomorrow is another day!"  Our Lord is also already in the future, isn't he.  Jeremiah 29:11: "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope."  We're glad the Lord knows what's ahead, because we sure don't!  But a main ingredient in walking "by faith" is believing that God is good and he loves us.  He who has faithfully lead us through what has passed is going to faithfully carry us through what is ahead.  As David says, "He will be our guide, even unto death."

Lastly, it is also true that all good things are only beginning.  Through Christ's redeeming and creating work in his cross and resurrection, all the good of this world is but a hint, a foretaste, of the world to come.  And it is ultimately for that world that Jesus has rescued us and made us anew.  The joy of that world is the hope of Jesus (Hebrews 12:2).  Let's keep it our hope, as we continue our brief time in this life.

I could keep going on, but this post must end, too.  And we've got to pack!  Cheers!

Coming to the end

As we continue to walk through the changing scenes of life, Sheila and I find ourselves coming to the end of our time at The Kilns.  We fly out on the 21st and arrive in Chattanooga on the 22nd.  We aren't packing yet, however.  We've got a full house right now and odds and ends to take care of.

The group here is pretty interesting.  There's a young couple, both working on Ph.D.'s.  The husband is just getting started, studying the relationship between religious belief and warfare.  He hangs out with British generals.  Very interesting.  Then there's an English teacher from California, who made us a terrific supper night before last!  Glad to have him around. :-)  There's a N.T. professor from a college in Michigan; she keeps visiting her family here.  Last, there's an English professor from New Zealand who is in town for a conference at Pembroke on Samuel Johnson and Shakespeare - wish I could go with him!  A great bunch of folks, and we are glad to serve them.

I think we have taken care of the last item of business related to the summer seminars.  We had originally planned to leave Oxford at the end of last week.  We are so glad we gave ourselves more time!  There was no way! Plus, we are going to be able to spend a few days with an old friend of ours from our Cayman Islands days.  Her name is Arthurlyn.  Arthurlyn married a British fellow named Phillip, who had come to work on Grand Cayman.  They had two sons.  When we lived on Grand Cayman, they became very good friends; indeed, Phillip was one of the best friends I ever had.  After we returned to the States, however, Phillip suddenly died of cancer.  Arthurlyn is over here in England visiting Phillip's family.  This will be the first time we've been able to see her since we lost Phillip.  We are so, so thankful that the Lord has given us this opportunity to see her again.

We are also thankful for recent providences related to fellow clergy.  This past Sunday, we were able to say good-bye to the pastors at St. Ebbe's Headington, which was a big blessing because  - unbeknown to us - they are leaving this week on holiday.  The President of Pusey House - another friend - took time to chat with me the day before he went on holiday and he happened to recommend me to a physical therapist about my injured foot.  I went to the therapist yesterday and got just the help I have been needing.  Thank the Lord!

And thanks to all of you who encouraged us to undertake this "adventure" - as you called it - and have also helped us financially to be able to do it.  From what we hear, a lot of people have been blessed by our work and we remember that we could not have done it without you.  Can't wait to see you again in a few weeks. 

Socrates in the City - Oxford version

Sheila and I had a bit of time during this 2nd seminar week to head into town for one of the Socrates in the City events being held by Eric Metaxas.  Info is here.  We attended the conversation with Peter Hitchins, which was pretty fun.  At one point, Eric said, "You are a contrarian."  Peter's answer: "No I'm not."  :-)

At the end, Eric asked the audience how they had found out about the event.  Sheila raised her hand and said that her husband brought her, because she had been wanting him to take her to a Socrates in the City event in New York.  :-)

This is the sanctuary of St. Aldate's set up for the Socrates in the City event.  Sheila is the lady in the hat in the third row from the front.

Summer Seminars are upon us!

The two weeks of summer seminars, held here almost every summer by the Foundation, begin this Saturday, the 11th.  You can read about them here.  Sheila and I have been getting ready for them, while still tending to scholars-in-residence and tours.  We've been very busy, arranging transportation, planning entertainment, and getting the house ready.  

We've had a lot of interesting visitors lately.  Logan Sekulow and his father, Jay Sekulow, with family and friends visited.  Logan is working on a movie about C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien.  We had a group from the C. S. Lewis Institute to visit - mostly from the D.C. area - and they had Michael Ward over to the house for a lecture.  Then there have been college groups from different places.  

One fellow was by here this week with his wife, who grew up on Signal Mountain and went to Red Bank.  In fact, he was the captain of their football team in 1971, when my highshool team, Brainerd, was State Champs!  Got to rub that in a little. :-)  Such a small world.  

In two weeks we've got a big group coming from the C. S. Lewis Society in Florida, and Douglas Gresham is going to be here as well.  That should be fun.  Towards the end of the month, we're having a dinner here with Eric Metaxas and friends.  We are going to order take-out Indian food!

Speaking of Indian food, my stomach has been better.  As I mentioned before, I'm taking a PPI to see if that helps, and so far so good.  I went to a men's retreat in a little village north of here this morning, called Horton-cum-Studley.  Don't you love these English village names!  It was a group of guys from St. Ebbe's, Headington, where we attend Sunday evenings.  It was such a blessing.  We had a British army general talk to us about King David.  Anyhow, they fixed us the "full English breakfast" and I took a bold step and ate it.  No problems!  So glad! 

There is no news about the immigration situation, and there probably won't be for a while.  We'll see how that goes.  We hope to be home the next-to-last weekend of August.  Initially we will stay with our friends Tom and Linda Waddell, and then move to a house a friend is loaning us that is only 5 minutes from Paul and Rachel.  That will be nice!  We'll fill you all in on what's going on when we see you.

In the meantime, we need strength and the grace to keep all the things to be done in the Lord's hands.  I've been thinking a lot lately of how important it is to have the graces of faith, hope, and love evident in our lives.  As Paul tells us at the end of I Corinthians 13, these are the chief virtues for believers - love being the greatest, of course.  There is a sense in which the Christian life can be viewed in a very simple fashion: keeping our eyes on the Faithful Shepherd, taking up our daily cross, trust and obey, be thankful, have faith-hope-and-love.  But the simple things of God are the most profound for us; they reach far and wide.  Thankfully, the Lord has given us His Spirit to guide us in these things - and to bring us safely home in the end.

Not sure I'll be able to post much here over the next few weeks, but be sure to check out our Twitter feed: @TheKilnsOxford for quick updates on what's going on over here.  

The Lord be with you!

Prayer request

Certain issues have arisen with the local immigration department that may affect our future ministry.  Please pray for a quick resolution so that our ministry here may continue.  Thank you!

Trying to catch up here

Hey, folks: it's been ages since I posted anything - been really busy.  

I wrote the following on the 8th of this month (!), so I'll paste this up now and post more recent news directly.
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Tours, tours, tours!  We heard June is a busy month.  We must have a 100 people coming through here every week now.  They sure do enjoy themselves, so that's great.

We've been attending the Sunday morning services at Pusey House.  It's a bastion of high church Anglo-Catholicism, so there are some things we just put up with.  The folks are great; some are fellow Wycliffe Hall students.  I got to read the OT lesson recently, which was the first time I'd been able to do anything in a service since I got here.  I really appreciated being able to do that.  Yesterday they had a dinner in the "quad" after the service and I wound up having a conversation with two people who do not appear to know the Lord - one definitely does not.  It just underlined for me how important it is in these churches that they not get so philosophical and academic in their homilies that they fail to make the gospel call clear: repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  There are going to be people in those congregations who are there because of the beauty of the building and the music who really do not understand Christianity or their need of a personal Saviour.  Of course that's obvious, but the fact was so plainly there before me yesterday.

We are excited that our friend, The Rev. Victor Morgan, of St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Blue Ridge, GA, is going to be in town next week.  Victor is an American representative of Wycliffe Hall, and every year he comes over here for the last week of Trinity term.  I have often wished I could come over to Oxford with him for a trip, but it never worked out.  Now I get to welcome him here instead.  

We've had to spend a lot of time recently learning how to deal with gallstones.  Yes, gallstones.  Two weeks ago yesterday, I had a classic, full-blown gallstone attack, spending a night in the emergency room.  I had been having symptoms for some time; I just didnt' know what they were.  Now we have to watch what I eat.  Of course, Sheila is enjoying fixing me all these salads she has been wishing I would eat for a long time!  :-)  We've got the symptoms under control and I will have an ultrasound tomorrow to have a look to see what's going on.  Once this confirms the diagnosis, we'll get rid of them. [update: the test did not reveal gallstones so we are quite puzzled about my symptoms. I'm taking a PPI for my stomach for a few weeks to see if that helps.  We'll go from there.]

The C. S. Lewis Foundation will be holding their two-week summer seminar in July.  We've been helping them get ready for that.  I've spent a lot of time this past week finding some mini-buses to rent.  Those will be two busy weeks.

Sheila's also been trying to make a few improvements.  She's getting some new door mats and she has been working on freshening up the linens in the house.  She is also planning a house dinner for our current scholars.  We are so happy that Dr. Laura Smit of Calvin College is back with us for a month.  We also have Jacob Imam, who is translating some ancient Greek papyri.  He's a godson of Walter Hooper and a really great guy.  I'm especially glad to have him around because he likes to help with the tours! [update: we now also have a lady from France who is a Thomas Hardy expert, working on C. S. Lewis.]

A great way to keep up with what's going on at The Kilns is to follow our twitter feed.  It's been dormant since 2012, but I've started it back up.  Search for @TheKilnsOxford.  I do "retweet" some of my posts to my Facebook page, but not all.

Called for another year

Folks:
It has become plain that the Lord would have us accept the Foundation's invitation to come back to The Kilns for another year.  We will be home in Chattanooga for August and September.  We should be back in Oxford by 1 October at the latest.  We'll be home this summer visiting family and friends, raising support, and getting ready for a much broader ministry here in Oxford.  Details to follow.  Do pray for us.

Visit from Gianna Jessen

Yesterday, we were delighted when Aiden Mackey (G. K. Chesteron scholar) brought over a friend who was entertaining Gianna Jessen.  We learned about Gianna years ago and were very honoured to have her with us.  She has been befriended by the lady on the left of the picture, Amanda, who was here with her four-year-old daughter, Grace.  Sweet little girl.  Amanda works diligently for pro-life concerns here in Oxford.  You never know who's going to show up.

To learn more about Gianna, you can watch her testimony below.

Another letter for Professor Lewis

A great C. S. Lewis trip

A couple of weeks ago, we had C. S. Lewis scholar Will Vaus to visit with us for a few days.  He had with him Russ Head from Thomaston, GA.  Russ is the owner of The Travel Connection.  He and Will were touring the UK for the purpose of putting together a tour about C. S. Lewis that would include both Ireland and England as well.  We spent a good bit of time talking to Russ about this and some of his other tours, and I'm certain that his tour (which should be next year, I believe) will be one of the best C. S Lewis tours anyone could go on.  If you think you may be interested, you can contact Russ at www.russhead.com. 

Lots of visitors

We've really been having the visitors lately.  We had a couple from the States to visit for a few days; she was here to visit a Rhodes scholar from her school and he was here to take pictures - in Morocco!  We had Archbishop Foley Beach of ACNA and two other bishops to visit for a day.  I put the Archbishop up in Lewis' room!  We've had more tours, of course.  There are more people walking around just looking at the house.  Sometimes they peer in the window!  Amazing.

We also had the Buntings from our home church in Chattanooga visit for a few days.  Neither of us had ever been to Stratford and, since it's only an hour away, we went up to visit Shakespeare country.

We got a new scholar-in-residence today named Jacob.  Sadly, our Italian, Maria, will be leaving tomorrow.

Needless to say, we're a bit tired, but thankful.  We have two tours tomorrow, but thankfully our tour-guide, Myriam, will take care of them.  The one in the afternoon is some officers from the Salvation Army! 

Sheila and the Buntings at Shakespeare's birthplace.

Sheila and the Buntings in John Shakespeare's leather shop, inside his house.

Current Budget Shortfalls

Hey, Folks.  A few months ago, we told you that, based on how our monthly giving had been going, we were on average $400 short of our budget each month.  A few more months have passed and they have been lean.  Our current monthly shortfall is $719.  We really need some help!  If you can help us financially, please see the bar at the right.  Thank you so much!

I got through it

Well, Trinity term has finally wound around and I was able to address the Oxford C. S. Lewis Society. I spoke on "Debriefing Letters to Malcolm." The thing was recorded; perhaps I can get a copy of you want one. The Society meets in Pusey House. Afterwards we went to Compline and had hot chocolate and conversation after that. Up past our bedtime last night! :-)

Our Weekend Retreat

Well, we've still got some people hanging around here somewhere, but the retreat is now officially over.  We had 15 folks attend last night, 7 stayed over and we had a total of 10 today.  Seems like everyone had a good time.  We had lots of good things to talk about in Letters to Malcolm, and, of course, everyone was really excited about being able to study a Lewis book in Lewis' house!

I kept meaning to get more pictures, but it didn't happen.  I should have delegated that.  When we walked down to the Six Bells for lunch, I did get this shot, at least.

Sheila just counted up everything and said the retreat came in short 5 pence!  :-)  Ha!

The Glennies just showed up for tea - I've got to run.  More later.

Fun on St. George's Day

The bunting is up!

 

One of our tour guides leads a tour for students studying at the Oxford Center for Christian Apologetics.  The afternoon weather has turned lovely.

Sheila has walked to the store and is taking a rest at a Cafe Nero cooling off before shopping!  She's getting stuff for our retreat this weekend.  We've also had a painter come by to compose an estimate for painting the exterior.  We are praying the Lord will provide for that.

And the pesky moles are back!!!

Heading into the Retreat Weekend

Hey, Folks:

David here.  Thought I'd jot down a few things before spending some time this afternoon studying for the retreat this weekend.

The Trinity term will begin next week.  This means I'll be back over at Wycliffe Hall, taking a couple of classes and having fellowship with the brethren.  I plan to keep working at getting more tour guides from there to help us.  I am especially looking forward to the last week because that will be the week of the preaching seminar and my good friend, The Revd. Victor Morgan of St. Luke's EMC in Blue Ridge will be joining me.  He comes here every year and every year I wish I could join him.  This time he's joining me!

We have a few people from Wycliffe coming to our retreat this weekend.  All total, we have about a dozen.  Some we got from the local C. S. Lewis Society, some from church, and, as I said, some from Wycliffe.  There's also a professor from Texas coming to join us who is here on sabbatical.  We also have a grad student from Kings in London coming over.  It's going to be a good group and we are all excited about being able to study Letters to Malcolm together. 

Sheila and I are looking forward to having some more home folks visit us this spring.  Archbishop Foley Beach and a couple of other ACNA bishops will be here for a couple of days.  The Buntings from ACOTR will be here for a week.  Lauri Moyle from ACOTR will also visit -  hopefully with his family.  It's going to be so great to see everyone.

Something else I would appreciate prayer for is that next week, Tuesday, I'll be speaking at the first meeting of the Oxford C. S. Lewis Society for the Trinity term on the topic "Debriefing Letters to Malcolm."  I was going to speak on Lewis' narrative poem, "The Queen of Drum," but since I'm spending so much time preparing for the retreat, I thought I'd make my talk an extension of it - the old 2-birds-with-1-stone thing.

There is still nothing on the horizon vocationally.  CCS turned down my application for a history teaching position.  I'm talking with Inter-Varsity about a Faculty and Graduate Student ministry at UTC, but that's creeping along.  Just checked with the diocese (ADOTS) and there's nothing for me there right now.  There's always the possibility that we would do another year here.  But we just want the Lord's will.  After all, that's all we want, isn't it.  His way is perfect.  We and all those we love are safest when we walk in that loving path.

Gotta get busy.  I'll have a report on the retreat next week.  Cheers!

Odds & Ends on April Fools' Day

No fooling here; just some odds and ends.

Our plans for our retreat the weekend of 24/25 April are going well.  We have 7 people coming.  Most are local students.  One is a professor from Texas, who will be in Oxford on sabbatical, and another is a grad student from London.  I will make a presentation about the retreat to our church tomorrow evening.  We'll see if anyone else comes from that.  The important thing about tomorrow evening is that it is a prayer meetiing - very important to pray for things like this.

We've got three scholars staying in the house now, so we are more back to business as usual; it's been too quiet!  Lots of big tours coming through and one of my new tour guides got his feet wet with his first tour yesterday.

I'm having tea with Walter Hooper this afternoon to go over a survey of the Kiln's property from 1936.  I'm wanting to draw an illustrated map so people can get a better idea of what the place looked like in those days.

We finally heard from Archbishop Foley's secretary about a visit in May.  He's going to bring a couple of other ACNA bishops with him!  Looks like I'm going to be tour-guide and host for a couple of days.  Will be fun.

We had a lovely young couple from East Brainerd to visit for a tour yesterday.  He works for Precept and she's a doctor or medical technician of some kind at T.C.Thompson.  Great to see some folks from home.

I visited a couple of pubs with Michael Ward last night; he says there's lots of new and good books about C. S. Lewis coming out this year; that's good.

Sheila got to give a tour of the house for a young 10-year-old grand-daughter of some friends yesterday.  That was fun.  But what a windy day!  It's been gusting at 20 and 30 mph for the last two days and nights!  Thankfully it's a little calmer today with sun.

The flowers are blooming everywhere!  We're getting quite familiar with the classic British primrose.  They are in two sizes, like pansies and violets.  Spring is springing for sure.

We are rather schizophrenic with our worship these days.  When school is in term, we go to Pusey House in the mornings, which is extemely, as-high-as-you-can-get Anglo-Catholic.  In the evenings, we go to St. Ebbe's Headington - which is about as low liturgically as you can get!  But Pusey House is not holding services since term is out, so this Easter Sunday we are going to go back over to St. George's Chapel, Windsor, to worship with the Queen; just because we can, it's an easy drive, and we know it would make a lot of you happy.

Be sure to also visit my Facebook page, where my "tweets" are posted, in case you want more of an idea about what we're thinking about these days - and any other odd things that might show up; like grand-children pictures!! :-)

Love you all!

Upcoming BBC program

Hey.  Here's a heads up on the program to be aired Maundy Thursday on BBC Radio 4.  You will be able to listen if you are online for the program live, or after the program is over from this page.  We'll see what they did with it!

Here's the link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05nxn00

A word from the study

I just made this video for a Facebook event page; we're having a retreat here in a few weeks for local people.  I thought some of you might be interested in seeing it.

This still happens

Everyone once in a while, you'll still get a letter from someone who thinks C. S. Lewis is alive and they want to thank him for his books.  The letters from the kids are the best.  I get to answer these.  I'll share my own joy in Mr. Lewis' writings and try to encourage him to know the "other name" by which Aslan is known!

Middle middle March

It's so great to have Sheila back after her 2 weeks in Chatta.  Her trip home went just as well as the one going, so that's a big cause of thanksgiving.  

Our Italian scholar is working very hard and has long hours.  We are praying for her.

We are having several short-term guests this month.  We had one a couple of weeks ago.  We have another coming in this weekend, and then one here for Holy Week.

People are starting to sign up for the weekend retreat, 24-25 April.  I think we'll have a good little group.  I'm spending time getting ready for it now, reading back through Letters to Malcolm, outlining, seeking out key biblical themes.  I speak at the first C. S. Lewis Soc. meeting for the Trinity term at the end of April.  I'm thinking about changing from the Queen of Drum to Letters to Malcolm - something of a debrief of the retreat - for economy's sake.  One of the associate professors at Wycliffe Hall is trying to help advertise for the retreat.  That's cool.

We keep meeting new people.  At church, this past Sunday evening, we met a man who, with his wife, has moved here from Jerusalem.  He was on the staff at the Garden Tomb; my old stomping ground.  That was fun.  I've also met a man doing graduate study at Wycliffe Hall who is here with his wife for a year, not knowing what they are going to do next.  Sounds like we have something in common.  We'll be meeting with them for tea and prayer soon (the British way! :-)

We are encouraged that our new grandbaby is sleeping well!  It means our daughter-in-law has less stress.  Praying this is a strong trend.

I'm taking Sheila over to Burford today, "The Gateway to the Cottswolds;" it's about 25 min. away.  The sun is supposed to be out and the temps around 50, so we can't pass that up.  

We have some friends back home facing serious health issues; our hearts go out to them and our prayers as well.

Back with you soon.

David

A few quiet minutes in front of the house on a spring day

Out running errands

Here's a video I took as I drove through the little village of Marcham while running an errand for the Kilns.  Thought some of you would enjoy this.

A brief video

I just ran across this video made a few years back when the Kilns was under the wardenship of Malissa Kilpatrick. You will see a lot of the house - much as it still appears today - plus the grounds around the house and pictures of his church.

A lovely spring so far

A neighbour's flowers in his front yard.

Hey, Folks - temps in the 30's by night and 50's by day; not a lot of rain, flowers blooming - not bad!

Sheila is in her second week back in Chatta. helping out with the grandchildren.  Her brother and sister-in-law visited them this past weekend.  She's been able to visit with the ladies from Redeemer Church, as well as attend a couple of times.  She also was able to visit with our old "RP" friends up on the mountain after church on Sunday.  This week she plans to go by the law office for the monthly birthday party and see the folks there.  Otherwise, she's just hunkering down over at the house, trying to do creative things with the kids indoors, since the weather outdoors has not been favourable.

Back at the ranch, or on the front, or whatever it is over here, I have a tour of 50 American college kids coming over this morning and a tour of almost 40 coming over this afternoon!  Thankfully I have some help.

My connection with Wycliffe Hall is starting to bear some fruit.  I have been able to recruit 4 new tour guides there, which is really terrific because we've gotten down to only about 2 and they are not always available.

And speaking more of tours, I have been able to obtain a 1936 Ordinance Survey of the Kilns property.  The Lewises bought the house in 1930, so the survey has all the structures drawn on it.  I'm getting together with Walter Hooper so he can identify the structures for me and then I'll make a map of the place.  People should really like that.

Not having much opportunity to use my teaching and preaching gifts has been downright painful.  Our home office has given me some liberty to be creative with the Kilns so I have just had the idea of hosting a retreat here, the weekend before the Trinity term (24-25 April).  We will read and study Lewis' book Letter's to Malcolm.  Everybody seems to like the idea.  I had a local pastor say that he has been hoping I would do something like this.  It's been announced at church and at Wycliffe Hall.  I should be at the Oxford C. S. Lewis Society meeting tonight to announce it as well.  I'll let you know how that goes.

Meanwhile, Maria, our Italian researcher, is working very hard at the lab - I've hardly seen her the last day or so.  She has been missing her Italian cafe and cake, so I spent a few pounds and bought an Italian coffee pot and she has also made her first cake in the Aga, so that's been a morale boost for her.  We also have a young college student here for a few days, scoping out colleges at Oxford for when she graduates.  She's another one of these homeschooling gems; brilliant young lady.  And - good news - our Norwegian friend who was here a few weeks ago is coming back for Holy Week.

And, of course, you live in an old house, there's always the maintenance.  We keep having plumbing problems.  I'm getting to be pretty good friends with the plumbers!  For one thing, there's been a regular problem with a drain outside the kitchen for years.  I'm trying to get that fixed. 

Sheila and I are earnestly praying and talking about what the Lord may have us do next year.  The Foundation wants us to do another year at the Kilns.  We're not so sure.  We're going to be seeking advice, but the main thing we need is your prayers for us to keep up the cheer of faith and the confidence that what we do not now see, we will see in God's good time.  We want to be sure we are honouring the Lord with our confidence in Him. 

P.S.: When the 2nd tour came through today, they were from Conway, SC.  I told them I was a Gamecock, class of '85, and got a good round of applause.  That was fun.

Whiteworth Univ. crowd

One of the Whitworth University students who recently visited us just sent me this picture I took of their group outside the Kilns.  Great to meet you folks! 

BBC Radio 4 recording today

Today we had the pleasure of hosting Nicola and Helen from the BBC for the recording of an episode of the Radio 4 program "Open Country."  The program is about outdoor life in the UK and how landscapes can affect our lives.  The idea for their recording here today is that the C. S. Lewis Nature Reserve, which is behind the Kilns, is a favourite outdoor destination for locals.  But they were especially interested in the opportunity to record a program dedicated to C. S. Lewis, which will air on Maunday Thursday this spring.  They are both Lewis fans.  And to their delight, we were able to arrange for Walter Hooper - Lewis' personal secretary toward the end of his life - to be here to speak with them.  A one hour recording session turned into two hours.  We had a blast.

Sheila took a picture of me, Walter, Helen, and Nicola in the "common room" of the Kilns near the end of the recording.  We subsequently went up stairs for a bit. Walter is so full of good stories about Lewis - the ladies loved it.

Here we have Nicola and Helen recording Walter.  I was intrigued by the enormous fuzzy cover they had for the microphone!  Hilarious.  I wonder if it has a name. :-)

The team also recorded some conversation up in the nature reserve with the reserve warden, a representative of Holy Trinity Church, and a class of youngsters who were enjoying an outing today.  The program is only 25 minutes long, so there will be some heavy editing; Nicola has her work cut out for her.  As I said, it will be broadcast on Maunday Thursday, but available for listening and downloading for a year afterwards.  We'll probably have a reminder here plus a link when the time comes. 

Wildlife Visitors

Had some interesting visitors outside my desk window at the Kilns the last two mornings! A pheasant and a muntjac deer.

A couple of friends

This is a couple of our resident scholars while at the C. S. Lewis Society meeting last night.  Kari Anne, on the left, is from Oslo and a school teacher; she goes home this week.  The other is Maria, a medical researcher working on her Ph.D.  She's from Florence, Italy and will be with us for several  months.  Please pray we will be salt and light, the fragrance of Christ with all those the Lord sends our way.

Seeking God in the commonplace

Just read a sermon by Phillips Brooks on how our daily circumstances can be like little sanctuaries, little chapels, where we meet God.  A critical lesson in the spiritual life.  We are seeking the presence of God in little circumstances as we wait for Him and seek to be useful to Him.

Yesterday, I gave a tour for a couple who live near Brighton and are facing an unexpected ministry in a troubled church.  We seemed to have a lot in common in this time in our lives and we prayed together before they left.  

Today Sheila and I hope to gather details from various Bed and Breakfast establishments nearby to help the Foundation plan for their summer seminars in July.  

We will also take our resident scholars over to the local C. S. Lewis Society meeting tonight.  The presentation is going to be on the Left Behind series!  I'm anticipating some interesting discussion to follow from that!  

I will be spending time on some ongoing correspondence related to people visiting us in the future.

I have also got to compose some information for a young lady who is going to start helping us with our tours.

Then there's house maintenance: yesterday I had to unstop a troublesome toilet.  Today we have to buy some more light bulbs; they keep going out on us.  The voltage in the house needs better regulating, I believe.  

Tomorrow afternoon, we are having a neighbour over for tea.  He is an elderly man who has recently lost his wife. 

Little things here and there; but each with its own reason, its own place in God's plan for us and who knows who else.  And the same can be said for us all who seek Him.  

More company

We currently have a recent widower staying with us for a few weeks.  Saturday, a medical researcher from Italy will be joining us for 4 months.  Sunday, a Norwegian school teacher will visit for a few days.  Gathering quite a little company here lately!  They all need prayer, please.

A little snow is nice!

We got 2 inches yesterday in the wee hours.  This is the gate from the street to the Kilns.

This is a gate to a garden space at the front of the house.

A dinner with newlyweds!

Recently we had Jimmie and Allie over for dinner.  They live in our neighbourhood, but we met them at church.  Jimmie is going to be a student at Gordon-Conwell Seminary starting this fall.  They both work full-time with the church at the present.  Allie's family are from here, but Jimmie's folks are Virginians.  We'll be praying for them and we really look forward to what the Lord has in store for them in his service.

Lewis' study

Hi!  There's a couple of good pictures of C. S. Lewis in his upstairs study, where he probably wrote the Chronicles of Narnia.  The room has been empty, but I've undertaken to recreate the scene in the photos for the sake of our tourists.  I just got started today.  What I need now are two straight, long-stem pipes, an old tobacco tin, a square glass ash tray, a big mug like the one in the pictures, an old box of matches, a bottle of ink, and an old, dip pen. 

Once I get these items, it'll look pretty good.  In the meantime, I've put a few things on the desk to help.  I've got a facsimile of one of his letters on the desk that looks like the original; the more of that I can use the better.  The pictures show him working with manuscripts of his writing that are clipped together in bundles.  Wonder what they were!!!

I have also hung the two pictures over the mantle, both in the same frame, for reference.  I think they'll need to be bigger, so I'll reprint them and put them in separate frames.  Wish me luck finding the items I need!

I've also got a towel rack like one in the pictures as well; it's going to be cool.

Our Visit to Churchill's Grave

Today is the anniversary of the state funeral and burial of Sir Winston Churchill.  I would have liked to have gone to the formal ceremony on the Thames in London.  However, we live only a few miles from the Churchill family cemetery at St. Martin's Church, in the small Cottswold village of Bladen, and, since we had not yet visited his grave, we decided to do that instead.  We didn't know whether there would only be a few people there or whether there would be a crowd.

What we found was delightful.  We managed to squeeze our little Honda up the narrow road to the church gate.  We were uncertain where to park, but a very friendly lady pointed us to the clergy parking space, which, of course, suited us just fine.  It turned out that she was one of the ladies in charge of the church today, with the expectation of greeting visitors to Churchill's grave.  As we walked into the church yard, there was only a handful of people at the grave, so we decided to have a look inside the church.

The interor of St. Martins, Bladen.

The church was quite lovely.  The lady explained to us that the interior of the church had been wholly redone during the Victorian period, so it was all of a piece - not a hodgepodge of bits from different centuries.  The layout reminded us very much of St. Luke's, Blue Ridge.  Inside the church, there were a few people visiting and being greeting by the locals.  On one side of the church, in the back, there is a display of Churchill memorabilia, pictures, CD's, etc. for sale to support the church.  It requires £150 a day to run the church building!

I knew going in that they were raising money to install a Churchill window in the building.  This is the church's website, where you can find pictures of this lovely window.  I decided, since we were there, to make a small contribution.  We also got to sign the guestbook for the church on this very momentous occasion.

One of the enjoyable things about the church, was the lady whom we had met and continued to speak with.  She explained that she and her friends at the church were Southern sympathizers.  She told us that Shelby Foote had visited their church, and how glad she was that he wrote in a balanced way about the War Between the States - obviously caring about the Southern side of the story.  You can imagine I was most pleased.  She said that, because of the Churchill family connection, the choir - of which she is a member - are often called upon to sing The Battle Hymn of the Republic.  She said she really hates to do that - and that they remember 4 July as Vicksburg Day as well!  Simply splendid!  :-)

After spending time in the church, we went to the graveside.  I had brought along a Union Jack flag to place at his grave.  Sheila did the honours.

Sheila places our flag at the Churchill grave.

After she placed it, a young man walked up to us and commented on how brilliant it was that we had done that.  He got to talking to us, asking us where we were from and why we were in Oxford.  We had noticed that someone from a radio station was interviewing people at the graveside, and it turned out that he was one of the team.  He asked if I wouldn't mind doing a little interview.

Before the interview, the BBC interviewer (I suspect it was the local BBC Oxford radio station) asked about me and when he found out we were wardens of the Kilns, he was definitely interested in the interview.  So, at the cue, I spent a few minutes answering his questions about who we were and why we were there today.  I told him how I remembered Churchill's death and it was like the passing of an age of security and good in the world.  It was also great to give a plug for The Kilns in answer to his queries; lots of people around here don't know about the house.  But now more do.

While waiting for the interview, I got to talk with a gentleman who was the constable at the church on the day of the funeral.  You may know that the Churchill family wanted the funeral to be private.  The locals in Bladen strictly complied with their wishes, but when the family departed, an enormous crowd of tens of thousands of people converged on the church.  This gentleman stood at the gate all that day to try to help control the flow.  He had a devil of a time getting home that night because of the people and the cars.  His wife thought she'd pop over and see the grave at midnight - they lived in the town - but she had to cue up even then.  People were coming to see the grave through the night, waiting for hours in the cold.  There were no lights in the area to help the people see.  Bladen is a small residential village.  So, the fire department from the neighbouring town of Woodstock set up generators and set up lights on the north and south sides of the graveyard for the people.  And it went on for days.

Here's a very short video I took of the scene.  You'll see the church and a small group of people standing about, with the BBC crew there (it was so funny; the young lady with them simply stood there holding a large clock to help them keep track of time!).  If you look carefully, you'll see our flag by the grave briefly wave before a man stands in front of it.  And then you'll see Sheila.

So!  Our trip to Bladen on this day had some surprising features to it.  We even got to be part of the commemoration in our own little way.  Thank the Lord.

When we were done at Bladen, we had an errand to run in Woodstock, so we went by Blenheim Palace to have lunch at their new cafe.  Here's a picture of an amazing cake they had for sale and of Sheila sitting at our table.

No, we did not get a piece! :-)

You can see the Blenheim Palace stencils on the glass.  Instead of the cake we shared a Greek salad and an egg salad with water cress sandwich, plus two coffees.  We were so good! 

So, on this the 50th anniversary of the burial of the greatest Englishman of history, we were able to visit both the place of his burial and the place of his birth.  Pretty amazing.  I'm so glad that I was feeling well enough today to go.

Visit from Lee University

I've posted this on my Facebook page, but I'll post it here as well.  This past week we had Dr. Matt Melton of Lee Univ. bring a class of students to visit The Kilns. Dr. Melton is the Dean of Lee University's College of Arts & Sciences.  He is teaching a class on C. S. Lewis at Lee this semester and part of the course is a trip over here to see the Lewis-related sites.  I was so pleased to see former CCS student Katie Kerr with them. Great to see a familiar face from back home. It was a good group and we were glad to be able to welcome them with some "home town" friendliness.

Me with Katie Kerr, former CCS student.  We hope to have some more CCS students visit us in March.

Our New Zealand visitor

I told you in a previous post that we had a fellow from New Zealand visit us.  He is David Crawley, a senior lecturer in the School of Theology, Mission and Ministry at Laidlaw College in New Zealand.  Here are a couple of pictures from the visit.

Dr.Crawley and Sheila in the "common room" of The Kilns. 

And here is a picture of the two of us which David took - thought you might like to see us in the house.  We're still here!  :-)

Decorating

One of the things Sheila likes to do is get flowers from the garden or the store and make arrangements to place around the house.  She likes unusual things, like the ladies over at Making Arrangements. :-)  She has just put these little things together; pretty, aren't they.

Trying to get well

We've not posted much lately because we've been trying to get well.  Some virus did its work and now we are dealing with the aftermath.

We were able to have a professor from a bible college in New Zealand over for a few days.  He said being able to stay at the Kilns was a dream come true.  He's a great guy.

The Foundation is working on organizing a summer seminar in July.  Thankfully they are scheduling it earlier in the month so we have room to pack up for our return on 30 July.  We'll pass on info about the seminar when it's available. 

Hopefully we'll have some more news when we perk up!

The news from Lake C. S. Lewis

A little snow on the path; a little ice on the water: Shelley lake on the Lewis' former property.

Well, we are finally getting a little bit of winter weather; a light snow today.  Some more snow is predicted for first of next week.  But temps will continue in the 30's and 40's for the most part.

My Garrison Keillor parody in the title of this post is based on the fact that there is a lake just a few yards from the house.  It was formed by men digging clay to use for brick and tile making.  The poet Shelley is supposed to have sailed model boats on it.  The folks here at the Kilns used to swim and punt around in it.  Or, they just relaxed on a brick bench built on the northwest corner of it and enjoyed the stillness and the various water fowl that either nest or frequent here.

We have a new scholar-in-residence coming in a few weeks.  She is a medical researcher from Italy.  She will be doing work at John Radcliffe hospital - the local (national) univ. hospital.  She's going to want to improve her Eng. but I'm going to want to learn a little Italian!  

We also have a gentleman coming in for a few weeks who is my age, but sadly lost his wife a little over a year ago to cancer.  We'll be looking to share with him the grace the Lord gives his children.

Plans are being made for one of my bishops (I won't say who right now) to come and stay for a week this spring.  I really hope that works out, for him and us as well.  It would be restful for him and good fellowship for us all.

I'm also glad to say that we've found someone among the Wycliffe Hall students who can help out here at the Kilns with tours and - if need be - watching over the house after we leave.  She is such a godly, talented young lady; I'm really "chuffed" about our working with her.  (btw, chuffed is an English word, introduced to me by my fellow-Anglophile friend, Art, which means very happy or pleased - :-))

With winter come our little viral friends.  I'm coming out of a sinus infection set on by a virus.  It kept me out of class at Wycliffe Hall last week.  Looks like Sheila's fighting the virus now.  Lord, have mercy.

Just read a really good article on church planting by Dan Alger, concerning how the sacraments should model our church planting methods.  You can find it here:  http://anglicanpastor.com/sacramental-church-planting/  He states things so very well; I'm raving about this article.  My only caveat is that, as important as the sacraments are, the primary means of building the Church is the preaching and on-going teaching of the Word (Col. 1:23, 2 Tim. 1:13; 3:16-17; Acts 2:42, I Peter 2:2).  Now, the sacraments are the Word made visible - we cannot do without them.  Again, I'm promoting Dan's article - I love it.  But, Scripture teaches that the importance of the sacraments is to be kept in tension or balance with the importance of the Word preached.  It's a "both-and" thing.  But when it comes to a sacramental view of God's truth (which I hold with Dan), what Dan says about the light they shine on church planting methods is very good indeed.

Fr. Brice and I plan to talk on Monday about ideas for college ministry at UTC.  Sheila and I are still waiting on the Lord for our next step.  This may or may not be it; we just need the Lord's mind on it and oneness of vision with all who are concerned.

Well, we now settle into what will hopefully be a quiet weekend as we try to get well.  We'll be praying for you.

A mild winter

Everyone says that we are having a very mild winter - which is OK with us!  The temps are staying in the 40-50 degree range for the most part, with some dips down into the 30's.  But boy does the wind blow!  Islands can be so much more windy than places like Tennessee, that are so far inland.  We used to have daily sea breezes on Cayman.  Here, you regularly get these gales that come blowing through - the farther north you are, the worse it is.  But it's fun.  I like weather with "character."

This past Saturday, we had a group of 30 South Koreans to come and see the house.  They could hardly speak English!  I and our friend, Myriam, who was helping with the tours, had to talk through interpreters.  Now, that's all right.  You have to make quick, simple summaries of things on the fly, using simple speech and leaving out details.  But our problem was that our "interpreters" themselves hardly knew English!  You'd say something, and they'd just keep looking at you, as if to say, "OK, but say something else so maybe I'll understand at least a little bit of it."  But a good time was had by all!  And, of course, these people love to take pictures.  They had Myriam and me sit in the wing-back chairs in the library and then, in groups of 6 or 8, they'd gather around us and have their picture taken with us.  So funny.  I'm hoping they will e-mail some of the pictures to us.  If they do, I'll post them.

Sheila's having some thyroid problems apparently.  She went to the doctor on Monday for some tests.  We await the results.  I've come down with a bad cold, but hopefully I'll be better tomorrow.

It seems the Lord may be raising up a young lady for us to train for tours and to act as a temporary warden.  If there's no one to replace us when we leave in July, she will be able to step in.  That's a good thing.

Once we get ourselves feeling better, we get back to some more local hospitality. 

A new development

One of the things I'm supposed to do while I'm here is to network in Oxford in order to find and train student tour guides and also to encourage people to recommend our Scholars-in-Residence program to grad students. One of the colleges most sympathetic with our goals at the Kilns is Wycliffe Hall.

I had the idea of taking some courses at Wycliffe Hall so I could become a part of the student body to see if the Lord would use that to help us build the ministry here. Everyone seems to like the idea, so I'm going to do it.

I'll be a non-degree, part-time student. It will be extremely inexpensive compared to being a regular Oxford degree-seeking student! We will use Foundation funds to pay the tuition and fees.

Next week, I'll be taking an intensive course on the sacraments with about 18 other students. The following week, Hilary term will begin and I'll be taking a course or two. Personally, I'm really looking forward to the classes, to making new friends, and to what the Lord may do with this new facet of our work over here. We would appreciate prayer about all of this.

A Trip to Thame

This morning after Morning Prayer at church, I took Sheila to a little town 20 minutes away called Thame.  That is pronounced like "name," viz., "tame," contrary to the Thames River, which is pronounced "tems."  Who knows.  It's been a market town forever and there is a weekly outdoor market I wanted her to see.  It's especially a livestock market town - we'll have to go back and see that.  It was a rainy day, but over here, if you let the rain get in your way, you never do anything.  As the schoolmaster character in the Muppet Christmas Carol said, "It's the British way."  What we found was a very lovely town with tons and tons of wonderful Edwardian (and older) architecture, lots of quaint shops, and places to eat.  We also found some things we've been looking for, so that was really good.  Of course, when we got home, the sun came out.  We'll have to time our trip better next time.
Sheila has a dentist appointment this afternoon - oh boy!

Sheila walking down one of the little alley ways.

A sight along the market street.

Remarkable buildings!

Intriguing public house.

A very nice Italian restaurant with reasonable prices.

Lovely flower shop.

Cooking something new

Sheila saw a Steve Dolby video on English style lamb shanks and decided to try it.  They were four hours in the oven yesterday!  They are to be served tonight. :)

The dust settles after the holidays....

Things are quiet at The Kilns.  Our last scholar for a time went back to the States this past week, but we do continue to get tours.  Just a couple of days ago, we had folks here from Australia and Texas.  In the Lord's providence, two other couples showed up unannounced, hoping for a tour.  They were from South Africa.  We had a pleasant time.

The next day, Sheila and I were driving in when we saw a couple of young gentlemen walking around the house.  Such a thing is far from unusual.  I spoke to them and found out that one of them is a college student while the other - his brand new brother-in-law - was an employee of Oxford University Press.  They were simply hoping to do a little sketching of the place.  I took them inside for a quick look through, which they really enjoyed.  I then invited them to find any place they liked on the grounds for their project.  They wound up sitting in the pear tree garden on the bench there for a couple of hours.  Sheila offered them some tea.  It was a really neat way to bless a couple of fellows.

Yesterday Sheila and I finished putting up the Christmas decorations.  I knew she was hoping to go to the Aga store in Woodstock to buy a few things for the kitchen stove, and, since it was sunny yesterday but rain was predicted for today, I told her to just "drop everything and let's go to Woodstock."  After about 15 minutes on the road, we found the store and then did a little exploring.  In an antique shop, there was a young lady managing the store named Ruby.  Her mother was from Morrocco and married a Frenchman in France.  They are both artists.  She is interested in drama.  I kept thinking I wanted to talk to her about the Lord, and then I saw she was wearing a pretty little cross on her necklace.  I asked her if she was a believer and she said she went to the Catholic church in town.  I wanted to encourage her,  so I expressed my delight that she was going there and went on to talk to her about faith in Christ.  What encouraged us to believe in her sincerity was how she spoke of how many young people in the country were not going to church.  She seemed concerned about that.  We plan to go back up to  Woodstock to pick up a back-ordered item at the Aga store and I hope to pass a good book along to Ruby.  Let's pray for her.

Speaking of buying things, this morning - in that rain I mentioned above - we went out to find a new microwave for the house.  The old one had had it.  The former Warden had told us about a near-by shopping centre we had not yet seen, and so we went there first.  We found some other things we had been looking for, thankfully, but not the microwave.  On the way home, we remembered that she had told us about Currys.  So we stopped there and - voila - we have a new microwave.  I know that doesn't seem like much, but when you are still getting used to living somewhere new, don't know where things are, and have a hard time finding places you are looking for in heavy traffic with confusing roundabouts, it's a cause for rejoicing when something like this goes smoothly.

Tomorrow morning we will attend St. Andrew's, Old Headington, and then in the evening we'll go to St. Ebbe's Headington.  Next week we have a lot of tourists coming through, plus a couple from the States who are friends of the Foundation.  People are so very pleased to be able to visit C. S. Lewis' home and to talk with us about him.  It's a good thing we are here for them.