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.