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.