pics from up north

We did make it up north after some trouble here in Oxford, but we hired a car, a very nice automatic Skoda. After traveling on Friday we spent the day sightseeing near the Scottish border. Do enjoy the shots that we took, it is a beautiful place to visit.

This is a street in Berwick on Tweed, it is a city that is situated right on the border of England and Scotland. It is one of 3 walled cities in England today

You just don't see this kind of building in the US or anywhere else that I have been for that matter. This castle is literally right on the North Sea, it is from the 12th century and we had the opportunity to walk up to it the evening that we were "stranded" on Holy Island. If you are interested in more info about Holy Island check out www.lindisfarne.org or look up Lindisfarne on Wikipedia, it is an amazing place on this earth.

This is a picture of a priory, that is a former monastic dwelling, this has been a site of worship since the 7th century, and this structure was built in the 1100's it has been through quite a bit of trouble as you can see, it is a beautiful sight to behold.

Lost at sea?

Yes we made it to the North, we stayed in a beautiful Victorian home (thanx Beth, Ann and Terry) in Middlesbrough and went to two great Christmas church gatherings while there. On Saturday we decided to go to Berwick-upon-Tweed, one of the three walled cities in England, it is an amazing town near the border of Scotland, in fact it has changed hands about 10 times in its history. Presently it is in England so being good tourists we drove the 4 miles to the border, took some pics and drove to the next exit, so now we can say that we did in fact reach Scotland in our travels. The real fun began as we were going home, I thought that it would be really exciting to drive out to Lindisfarne (Holy Island) and see a castle that is literally on the North Sea. While we were on Holy Island we looked at the castle, walked around an old monastery from the 1100's, went into an extremely old church, and while on the island there were not many other people there. In fact Rebecca stated that it was so nice and peaceful, that is because there was not any other people around. After using using the toilet I read the the tide timetable and realized that we had missed the low tide to cross back to the mainline. As I pondered the events of those hours the classic TV program "Gilligan's Island" came to mind, so please sing along in your head if you know the theme song to the new lyrics of "Robinson's Island", some further explanation will follow:
Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip
That started from a North England port aboard a tiny car
The mate was a mighty riding gal, the skipper quite unsure
Two other passengers rode along that day
For about a 1 hour tour, about a one hour tour
The weather was anything but rough, the car drove across just fine
Because of the cluelessness of the crew,
The car would be drowned, the car would be drowned
The family set ground on the shore of this ancient northern isle
With Rebecca, Earl too, Cliff and his wife, no movie star, no professor or Mary Ann there on Holy Isle
So this is the tale of the castaways they’re here 5 or more hours
They’ll have to make the best of things, by playing cards and drinking tea
The first mate and the skipper too, will do their very best
To make the others comfortable in the northern island nest
No food, no boats, no one around
Not a single luxury
Like Robinson Crusoe, as stranded as can be
So join us here on this blog my friends
You’re sure to get a smile
From 4 stranded castaways there on Holy Isle
Ya so we were stuck there for quite some time, we did eventually cross back over to the mainland after enjoying much tea, cards, some very good fish-n-chips, some amazing scenery and a somewhat nervous drive across the causeway that still had a remnant of the tide going back out. We are safe and sound in Oxford again, but the last few days have had some memories, some of which we don't want to replay again, except for in our mind. continue having a Happy Christmas
earl

Is God good? by: Rebecca

Today has been a very interesting day to say the least. All plans were laid out for us to take Dave Perry's (our wonderful Canadian theologian friend) car on our trip to north England and Scotland with Earl's parents. The time with the insurance company was set for 2:00 p.m. Dave was ready early so I took the car on a test drive around 1:30. All went well and we didn't think about the fact that I had gone out uninsured. So, Cliff, Della, and I piled in the car around 1:45 with me behind the wheel while Earl ran back into the house. We figured we were close enough to the time. I sat down, put the car in reverse, mistook the brake pedal for the gas pedal and all of a sudden the car was out of control! We went careening backwards in a wild frenzy, through the brick wall in front of our neighbor's house, and came to a screeching halt inches before crashing through their house! My immediate reaction bordered on hysteria as I was immediately plagued with guilt and remorse feeling as if I had ruined everything! So, the facts are that, the car is drivable but scraped in the back. The brick wall is broken and in need of repair. We are now leaving tomorrow in a rental car driven by Earl that we were able to secure for 99 pounds at extremely late notice. We were not insured so the damage is our responsibility.
You may wonder why I labeled this blog, "Is God good?" Well, one of the big lessons I have learned over the past few months is that being perfect doesn't mean you never make mistakes. Being perfect means mature. So, after I calmed down I had to ask myself, "How do I choose to respond to what just happened?" We could of easily gone crashing through our neighbor's home. If they had been around, who knows what would of happened. Not to mention, I am quite sure there would have been serious injuries to the three of us if the car had hit the house. The neighbors were gracious with my mistake. I am with friends and family this Christmas. I have family and a community that love me very much. Most importantly, I have a God who loves me unconditionally. He will sort out the details and take care of me, even when I make mistakes. My prayer is that God uses this somehow for His glory and continues to help me develop into who He has called me to be. Praise the Lord!
P.S. Earl is working on developing his masonry skills to repair the brick wall! :)

Merry Christmas to all

It is hard to believe that the holiday season is here, but alas it is. My parents arrived yesterday afternoon, let me tell you a short story of their arrival. Rebecca and I were sitting in Harvey's coffee shop waiting for the X80 bus from Gatwick, it finally arrived and two people slowly waddled off the bus, but they were not my parents. So like transplanted Americans we decided to go to McDonalds for lunch, and after waiting for a table we finally sat down with our meager meal, meant to satisfy and burn an hour until the next X80 bus arrival. Rebecca pulled out our mobile to see that we had missed two calls through all of the buzz of the city centre, and both of the calls were unidentfied numbers. In my mind this could only mean bad news, and as she listened to the message she said "Oh no", this is not what you want to hear when you are expecting your parents from an ocean crossing flight, customs and a two hour bus ride. All that we could understand from my Mom's confusing message was "We are not sure what to do, we don't know where we are, we don't know where to go, but I do see that we are near Queensway" This was enough for us to quickly set off from McDonalds with my milkshake in hand (the coldest day since being in Oxford) and we went out to Queens St. and started walking toward somewhere, not sure if that somewhere was where my parents would be standing by themselves with their luggage. We knew we had two messages on the mobile but we could only access one of them, so in a brilliant move we memorized as much of the first message as possible before deleting it, then we could access the second one, this one said the street intersection they were at. Within 10 minutes there they were looking somewhat lost, somewhat happy, and quite cold as they stood on High St. across from All Souls College and next to University College. It was a nice place to be dropped off if that was the plan, they and we thought that they would be deposited at the bus station, but alas that didn't happen. Anyway they are here, and we have some great plans planned, going to the North, Edinburgh, back to Oxford, London along with some great people to meet while here. So merry Christmas to all, we are enjoying the sites here for the holidays, even this morning there was a hard frost that resembled snow. later
earl

Here are some pictures

I promised some pics from the last while, these are of the "Son room" for Trinity week, some artwork and some friends from school

This is from the "Son room"

This is a triquetra that our school made to symbolize the Trinity

This is from another part of the Son room

This is the four of us from Sycamore at our Christmas banquet

This is a group of students visiting Blenhiem palace

This is my tutor group (The best tutor group around) Janson, me, Rach, Rebecca and Mark

Losing steam?

I'm going to guess that some of you think that I have been losing steam on this blog, to some extent you are correct. Life here at KBC has gotten incredibly busy and I have had many deadlines, unfortunately with that process the blog has suffered some. This is not a longterm illness that the blog is facing, more like a head cold that you get in the summer, you know it will go away but wow is it frustrating while you have it. It is not that my creative juices have been zapped by any measure, if anything they have been flowing at a quicker pace than normal, it is just that they have not been flowing into the blog, to you and the blog my deepest apologies. With all of that formality out of the way let me share with you some of what I have been working on lately. This week is Trinity week here at school, this means that we are learning about the Trinity (God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit) from a lecturer named Robin Parry who is the author of a book that I have read called Worshipping Trinity. This week is an interactive week with painting, music, poetry, dance etc... We were asked to put together a holy space about the Son, this entailed taking two parts of rooms and decorating them to help people interact witht the Son, and have an area that they could contemplate about God the Son. I will have pictures of these rooms tomorrow, as I am quite excited about how they worked out, my juices were really flowing on Sunday night. Also as of tonight I am putting the finishing touches on a 10 minute video about the Trinity, we have to do a creative project showing what we have learned, interacted with, thought about the Trinity, so in my best Rob Bell impersonation I have put together a video called "A Beautiful Concert". We are going to watch it as a college on Thursday, I am excited about that, Rebecca has written a monologue that she is going to perform. Also I have been very involved with our Advent themed chapels that have run for the last month on Thursday, this week is the first without a major part to play, I am excited for the short time off. Tonight I host the Songwriters Guild here at my place as we are going to meet with Robin Parry about and chat about encorporating the Trinity more into our songs. Friday night is the annual Christmas party for KBC, also on that date our good friend Kristine Detweiler is coming from Uganda to spend a couple of days, then next week my mom and dad, we and them are very excited. I am learning, enjoying and being stretched through all of this, and now Rebecca wants to check her email, so I am going to sign off. Later
earl

Understanding?

This post is called understanding? That's because we are learning so many new things about God, the universe, creation, history, the Bible, community, etc.. and the reality is that understanding all of that is impossible. I have come to realize that not understanding it all (life and faith) is exactly what we are in this life for, let me explain that. It is as though we are searching for a treasure that we know exists, but the catch is that we know that we can't find it, it is not that we question the existence but the possibility to find the treasure. With that being said we are also drawn into the search, looking for clues, peeking around corners, digging in the sand and all the time knowing that the full understanding of exactly where and what the treasure is will escape us. Do we stop looking for the treasure, no way! As a result of not understanding it all we continue to search. This is sort of where I am at, my mind has been expanded, my view of God has and is getting bigger, my understanding of the world around me continues to change, grow, and be formed. I am on that search, I love finding the clues, I love being a hunter with others in my community and I won't stop looking. If we could figure it all out then how big would God be? If we understood it all then He would be able to be figured out, this is not the God that we follow and believe, He is so much more than we can express or comprehend. Thanks for letting me think aloud and with the keyboard during this post, maybe something a little bit lighter next time. For now chew on these statements and do get back with me if you want to dialogue about the post. Later
earl