May Day in Oxford

Waking up at 4am - agonizing. Standing in the rain at 5am with hundreds of drunk people - smelly. Watching streakers jump off a high bridge into two feet of water - eye cringing. Seeing a drunk old man dance with scarves wearing laderhosen and a cheese head - words fail utterly. Experiencing May Day in Oxford - PRICELESS!

May 1st at dawn starts a very big festival here in England and especially in Oxford. I got up at 4:30am with my residents, took a taxi to Magdalene Tower and Bridge to wait for the choir to stand on top of the Tower and sing in the first sunrise of May and Spring! It was such a fun experience!



Cole, Janice, Cliff, and Me waiting for the sun to rise and the singing from Madgalene Tower... at 4:30am!



First sun rays!



You can't see them, but the Magdalene Boy's Choir are standing at the top of this tower and singing a Latin Hymn and the Sumer Is A Cumen In!



Nothing like bagpipes in the morning!



We went to breakfast at St. Mary's Church Vault Cafe for a traditional English Breakfast of eggs, bangers (their word for sausage), bacon (which is what they call fried ham slices; I refused to eat them anyway), mushrooms, tomatoes, asparagus, salad with avocado, toast, a chocolate chip croissant, and a latte!



Moorish Dancers. They beat these sticks really hard and fast against each other's and I can just imagine how many bruised and bloody fingers they must have during practice!



A very drunk Moorish Dancer who must have once been to Wisconsin! You'll notice all these men dancing with scarves. I don't think you could ever get this many grown men doing a scarf dance in America! :D



Me with the May Day Green Man! There's a man inside there! It's actually a pretty ancient pagan tradition. But it looks like a walking Christmas tree and is therefore well worth the effort of chasing him down for a photo. :)


I had such a great time today! It was so worth waking up at such an unsightly hour to experience it; something I will probably never see again. But after doing all of that and then giving two tours, I am worn out and going to bed!

Stories and Apologetics

Last night I went to the Eagle & Child pub for dinner with one of my resident fellows. We sat in the "Rabbit Room," which is where the "Inklings" all hung out and discussed the brilliant ideas they all had and generally had a good time. I did too!

The chicken curry pie I ordered was fantastic, but the side that came along with it has me puzzled about the English and their tastes. On the side of my dish was some lettuce, carrot sticks, and then brown gravy poured all over it. It wilted the lettuce and made it all taste sharper than the ale I had with it. Why in the world do the British substitute brown gravy for dressing? It might resemble a balsamic vinaigrette, but it certainly does not taste like one! Anyway, that's a side note of little or no importance. Sorry!

After dinner, I went to the C. S. Lewis Society's weekly meeting at St. Pucy's to hear a lecture by Alistair McGrath. It was on Lewis as an apologist by his use of personal experience and his use of the imagination. It was thoroughly engaging. I love that other more academic minds than mine also find Lewis so engaging because of his love for story, imagination, and whimsy. I've always been in love with stories, and it is so wonderful to feel validated for my yearnings by such a respected person as C. S. Lewis. He wasn't afraid to tell a children's story and still be a high academic mind. That's one of the things I have loved most about him and it's nice to be validated in that as well by other academics who have followed in Lewis' footsteps.

I do not see myself going for the higher halls of learning and becoming a teacher of great literature. I don't think I would be capable or that I would even like it. All I see is the pressure. Education has become a different monster than the one Lewis had to face, and I don't see myself as any kind of white knight. Frankly, I'm scared of the entire process. But I would love to learn more, read more, and write great things. I want to tell my own stories. I'm not sure how, and there are so many other distractions in life that keep me from it. But I simply must. No more leaving it for a quieter time! I'm afraid there won't be any of those until it is too late.

Well, Oxford is thrilling so far. I've been yelled at by a cranky bus driver, almost ran over in the street because I forgot to look the right (or arguably wrong) way, met an incredible amount of simply wonderful people in such a short amount of time, and have free reign over Lewis' bookshelves. And I'm keeping busy enough to almost not be homesick.

My Adventure in England

God is leading me down an extremely new and exciting bend in the road. I am leaving this February 21st to go to Oxford, England for the spring to be the Acting Warden (British term for Resident Director [no jail involved!]) and Jr. Fellow at C. S. Lewis' home and study center, The Kilns!!! Thank you all for your prayers and support. While there, I will be taking care of The Kilns, leading tours, writing for the C. S. Lewis Foundation, and hopefully soaking up as much of England as I can as I continue to learn how to put my faith into action.

Here's basically how it happened:

After moving back into my parent's home this Christmas, I started to get very worried about what I was supposed to do next. What I thought was my direction ended up feeling really wrong and I decided to look elsewhere. However, that left me with no direction and I started to panic and get extremely depressed, because I hate not having a plan and not knowing what I'm supposed to do next. I've been in a constant moment to moment battle between trusting God to be in control of my life and trying to figure everything out on my own. Sometimes I won and sometimes I lost.

A former professor and friend of the family of mine and his wife were incredibly encouraging to me at this time. They helped me put together a fantastic resume and personally delivered it to their friends at the C. S. Lewis Foundation (www.cslewis.org), who were in need of a Warden for the spring semester at The Kilns, where C. S. Lewis lived and where students of Oxford, scholars, and Lewis fans now live and study. I was called in for a first and second interview and was so encouraged by God's planning when I read through the job description. Almost everything on the list I have had some kind of experience doing either at Wolf Mountain Camps, CBU, or other places. God has truly been knitting things together, even when I have missed the connections!

For the past couple years I have been on a quest to learn how to have an active faith in Christ Jesus. Two summers ago I spoke at campfires about great leaders in the Bible who "By faith, did..." and I wanted to have faith like that; not just knowing the Truth in my mind and then trying to control my whole life by myself like I am always tempted to do, but to know the Truth in my heart as well and to step out into it and trust God to hold my steps in His hands. Since Hebrews says that faith is all we can have to please the Lord, then that is what I want to develop. And that has been my goal since then. And it has also been quite the struggle since then! It's also taught me how important it is to be able to hear His voice and obey!

I'm still working on it, but it has been so encouraging to find that every time I have been at my absolute lowest, God has done something incredible and perfectly needed in that moment to keep me going. I'm collecting Ebenezer moments like crazy these days!

Once again, thank you so much for your prayers! I can't wait to see how God will use this next opportunity to touch the hearts of others through me! It is so wonderful being the voice and hands and feet of Jesus. Please pray that my faith will continue to grow in strength and action, that I will be able to hear God clearly, that I will have the courage to obey, and that He will give me what I need to accomplish the tasks set before me. My confidence is not in me, but in He who strengthens me!