Day Eight Survivor Day

We woke up this morning wondering if we had signed up for “Survivor Oxford.” In an attempt to cook, we stood; staring at the oven like it had dropped down from Mars. We absolutely could not get it to work. All three knobs were pushed and turned numerous times and ways with no success. Once again, we turned to the wisdom of Google, but this time, even Google was puzzled. I know, many of you are thinking “Chrys can’t work an oven in America, why did she think she could in Oxford.” Good point. But, I’ll remind you that I've always said I know how, I just don’t choose to. Eventually, we resorted to the microwave and resigned to asking the landlord, who is by now, most assuredly, tired of us.

Last night, with the washer still out, we decided to lay one towel over the heating rack in the bathroom for a morning shower. The towel was sufficiently dry; however, when we pulled it off the rack, it resembled a white sheet of plywood. Johnny was willing to scrape his body with it and proceeded to take a shower. “Screaming like a little girl” doesn’t quite describe the next sound from the bathroom, but there was a loud yep followed by, “There’s no hot water.” We added that to our growing list for the landlord.

We worked as usual in the morning and headed to college for lunch. To college is the correct way to say where we go every day. We are not to say “to the school” or “to the university” or ‘to class.” These facts, and such information, were given to us by Isabella Bunn (pictured above). Davis (her husband) and Isabella are the ones responsible for our trip here. They live about one hour from Oxford. Isabella is the Associate Director for the Oxford Centre for Christianity and Culture. She does not tutor students, but occasionally gives lectures. She is responsible for bringing guest lecturers from all over the world to the center. Davis has been an author in residence at Oxford and is a full time author (was one of ours). They are both Americans, but have been in England for 25 (her) and 35 (him) years. It was great to sit down with her after a week here, now that we know enough to ask a question, and get some valuable information. We had planned to take a bus tour to Scotland this weekend, but she was adamant that we not do that. Listen carefully—she said, “You are too young for a bus tour. Those things cater to geriatrics.” Whew!! Just when I thought a bun and cane were right around the corner, I get this great news! So, we’re going to Scotland on Saturday on the train with all the “youngins.”

We got home today around 5:00pm and there was a note on our counter telling us the washer was now working. WOOHOO! We started it at 5:15 with two hand towels, three washcloths, and one dish towel (remember, it’s very small). It’s been washing since then and it’s 8:00pm. I figure by 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning, we’ll get to the underwear.

As for the hot water and the oven……the hot water has a booster switch that has to be turned on occasionally and the oven has a switch on the wall that has to be turned on—in other words—the electricity was off. WHO KNEW???

In America, we often compare plugging in our electrical appliances with plugging into God. Both supply energy and are a source for strength and power. Without either of them, we are found lacking. As we touched the switch that would warm our water and the one that would heat our food, we were reminded of our greatest energy source. “No prolonged infancies among us, please. We'll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are an easy mark for impostors. God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love.” Ephesians 4:14

NOTE TO SADIE: Notice the umbrella that I never leave home without. You did a great job picking it out. I love it!!!

Hugs to all,
2 mama

Day Seven Work Day (Sort Of)

It's Tuesday---we can't believe we've only been gone for seven days. It's seems like months already.

We've been sight-seeing, we've been orientated, and now it's time to go to work. That was the plan anyway and we actually did that for half the day. We worked in our flat until 12:35. At that point, we headed out for the our 20 minute walk to the university. We arrived at 12:55, just in time for the lunch bell to ring at precisely 1:00. We lined the dining hall, waited for the prayer, and then lunch was served. Yesterday there were three long tables; today there were four. The students are starting to arrive so the dining room had to grow. We witnessed something that has never happened at Regents. The head table, the sacred post for faculty members, but not used by Regents faculty, was used today as there was not enough seating in the dining hall. It caused quite a buzz among faculty members. Some said it was historic. If you don't recognize the handsome man in the photo--that's 2 papa, all dressed up for college. He's standing in the beautiful quad of our school.

It was warmer today (still raining though) so after lunch we decided to walk back down to the shopping area and check out those great boots I spotted the first day. They were still in the window waiting for me and are now enjoying my new bedroom floor. Great purchase. You'll all love them. Actually, if you'll notice the mannequin is missing her clothes as I bought the entire outfit right off her back.

Back to our flat with high hopes that our washing machine would be fixed. Instead, we found a lovely note that said they could not make the washer repair today as they were unable to get the parts. I have to tell you our bathroom is not smelling that great since that load of wet clothes is still sitting in the bathtub. It smells a little like a gym locker room. UGH!! We walked seven minutes to the nearest shopping area and located a Laundromat. The coins we found in the drain may come in handy after all. Tomorrow--clean towels!!

If you know me very well at all, you know I love peanut butter. The peanut butter I bought the first day doesn't taste very good, so we went back to the grocery store to get another brand. What was I thinking??? We are so blessed in America! I know for myself I'm not always grateful that I can choose Jif, Peter Pan, or the cheaper store brand. And even if my washing machine breaks, I can go next door and someone will gladly let me use theirs. As with any trip out of the country, this trip reminds me of all the blessings I have. I love this scripture in Luke as it is translated in The Message. I need to be more noisily grateful for all the blessings I have.

"They all realized they were in a place of holy mystery, that God was at work among them. They were quietly worshipful—and then noisily grateful, calling out among themselves, "God is back, looking to the needs of his people!" The news of Jesus spread all through the country." Luke 7:16

I hope you are all having a great week. You're missed and loved. We are loving skype and getting to see our grandkids by video phone. Another blessing! Thank you God.

Hugs, 2 mama

Day Six School Day

Hey everyone! Yes, today was school day so we walked the 20 minute walk to school this morning with butterflies in our stomachs. It was cold and dreary, but not too bad. I didn't shiver all day, but I didn't take my coat off either. When we arrived at the college we were greeted by Fiona, a very proper and sweet English lady with short hair, glasses, and a flowered dress. She is the secretary of the school and was assigned to give us an orientation of sorts--mostly we asked a lot of questions and she answered them.

Warning--Lesson of Day: We expected to attend classes as we know them to be in America. But, Oxford is very different--with no students attending classes as we know them to be. All students are assigned a tutor. The tutor's have PHD's and are very intelligent, learned in their subject matter, and are continuing their research all the time. On their first meeting with their tutor, the students are given an assignment and then they spend their time in independent study of the assignment. Once a week, they meet with their tutor and present an essay on the given assignment. The tutor challenges them to perfect them on the subject matter and gives the next assignment. Lectures are given all over the Oxford campus, in all of the 39 colleges, and students are either encouraged or told to attend the lecture appropriate to their study. It's a very intense program. Knowing the small percentage of students In American colleges who begin and actually graduate to be very small, I asked about the drop out rate at Oxford. Fiona said these students are so bright and so carefully selected, they don't have a drop out rate. One or two at Regents Park may leave because of illness in several years. Interesting, right?

Next, we had our first lunch with the students and faculty. Lunch and dinner are in a dining hall that looks like the one in Harry Potter--long tables with a head table for faculty (see photo above). Regents, our college, is the only college that doesn't use the faculty table anymore. They make a point of being more open and interactive with their students. Everyone stands behind their chair and waits for the prayer and then they are served at the table. You can either have a hot meal or the salad bar (you get up and serve yourself for that) which consists of a jacket (baked potato) and salad. I did the salad bar, 2 papa had the hot meal. Both were good. On Friday evening, everyone will dress up for dinner and the faculty will wear their tradition robes. It's very formal with faculty sitting at the high table. We will sit their as well, but we're not clear about the robe thing. I don't think they mean my pink one with the drawstring.

After lunch, all the faculty members go in the Senior Common Room (lounge) for discussion and coffee or tea. We asked Fiona what our responsibilities were besides lunch with the students and meeting with the faculty. She said, "We don't expect anything of you except for you to research and work on your own projects and enjoy your time in England." I told her I'm not sure I can operate like that and told her I would be happy to help with the dishes. She laughed at me and handed me a long list of the fall lectures.

We got home around 2:00 this afternoon and real life awaited us. We had started the washing machine this morning (since we only have two towels) only to discover it never ran. You can see 2 papa knelt before the washer/dryer combination for two hours in a valiant effort to fix it. (Keep in mind this is a man who hasn't even changed a tire in 30 years.) But, with the help of a google search, he found the problem and discovered six coins blocking the drain. It was a shining moment in "man conquers machine" history. Alas, the washer still didn't work and the repair man was called. Help is coming tomorrow. In the meantime, every towel (well, all 2 of them), washcloth, and dish towel were used to soak up the water from the drain that held the coins. Consequently, we have nothing to wash or dry with until a repairman shows up. Oh well, I've always said showers are overrated and we're a few pennies richer for the effort.

While 2 papa battled the washer, I worked for several hours on the book I am editing. With the machine war over, 2 papa decided to cook dinner while I continued to work (is England sounding like a good choice for us?) and the day was ending.

I was so inspired and impressed with the amount of study required and given by the amazing students at Oxford University. Having been involved in education as a career choice, I know that the real purpose of study is to be able to apply the knowledge we acquire to make a difference in the world. If we, as believers, put as much time into studying God's word as we do in other subjects, think what a difference we could make in the world.

"Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we'd better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!"

Hebrews 12:1The Message

Love you all.

Hugs, 2 mama

Day Five Worship Day

It's Day Five and we started the day in the best way--a fantastic, contemporary worship time in an old, old church building built in 1500s. When we walked in the building, we were greeted by Nick who said he hoped we enjoyed the experience, but warned us that the service today would be longer than usual as they were having a baby blessing. He left off the fact that we would stand for every song. But, we were prepared. After all, we have been in training for both for many years at WFR. Long worship services and baby blessings, no problem and, thanks to Gary Myers and Tommy Inman, standing for long periods of time--piece of cake. We successfully made it through both endurance tests and loved it. The people were warm and friendly, the music was uplifting, and the preacher was excellent. We had hoped to go to ACU's service at 9:00 tonight, but after walking all day, I had a headache that needed attention. We'll try for next Sunday.

I haven't said much about our flat, so I thought I would show you a picture of the outside of it today. With all the incredible old buildings in town, we got the one that was designed in the 1960s. I'm not sure that time period was the most creative in architecture history. It's more about straight lines and lots of glass. The back of our flat is solid glass, from top to bottom. Six long sets of plastic blinds are hanging over the windows in an effort to provide privacy. Of course, every fourth one is bend like a broken finger. So much for privacy. The good news is there's a beautiful, enclosed garden out back. It's a lot like our first home--a house trailer (now, the more politically correct term is mobile home) parked between the cemetery and meat packing plant in Searcy, Arkansas. The big difference now is I don't let the dishes pile up in the sink. It's not that I'm neater, it's just that as a newlywed I attempted cooking; today I don't even try.

Historically, today took us to two of the colleges that were used to film Harry Potter. The picture above is the cloister (a really long hallway) in the Magdalen College. The setting was used when students in the movie were seen walking around their school. One of the other colleges we toured is call Christ Church College. It's one of the biggest colleges in Oxford and really beautiful. We're not sure what part of it was used in HP; the literature just said scenes were shot there. The dining hall was replicated in Hollywood for filming. All the dining halls are similar with long tables for students and one table perpendicular to the student tables and raised on a platform for the faculty. If you saw HP, you are familiar with this.

The city is not very big and we're getting more comfortable with walking it or riding the bus. It's very much like NY, as far as it's a small space with a lot of people walking around dressed in black and gray. (2 papa wore a bright blue shirt today and he stood out like a sore thumb.) The buildings are tall with no space between them and the roads are tiny and curvy giving the feel of a back lot at Universal Studios. I keep waiting for someone to yell, "CUT!" Today would have been a good day to do that as we came upon a woman who had been mugged. She had a cut on her head and a policeman was tending to her. Another policeman was questioning a young woman who was pleading her case for knocking this woman to the ground. As I said before, the English sound so polite. Even the policeman questioning her sounded like he was asking her to tea. Oh well, we walked away so we don't know what happened to her.

As we watched the baby blessing today, we were reminded how grateful we are of our home church who have loved and supported us for so many years. What a blessing to see God's love acted out in the same way in Oxford as we do at home. People holding hands, praying together, laughing, blessing babies, making announcements about upcoming events, singing with hands raised, hugging their children--it's amazing--God's plan for Christian living is very simple and hard to miss if we just listen to His word.

"So don't lose a minute in building on what you've been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others. With these qualities active and growing in your lives, no grass will grow under your feet, no day will pass without its reward as you mature in your experience of our Master Jesus. Without these qualities you can't see what's right before you, oblivious that your old sinful life has been wiped off the books." 2 Peter 1:5

I hope you all had a blessed Sunday. Tomorrow is our first day at the college! Lots to look forward to.

Love you all.

Hugs, 2 mama

Day Four The Exploring Continues

From the looks of our self-done photo (even with my long arms, you still get the squishy-chin look of a self-done photo), you can see that the weather took a dramatic turn for the worse today. I could have been easily swayed to stay in and read, but 2 Papa was not to be deterred as he had spent hours the night before mapping out our adventure for the day. (Speaking of the night before, if you see that I'm on the computer at 9:00 P.M. your time, know that it's 3:00 A.M. my time so tell me to go to bed! I worked way too long on a project last night.)

Back to today, wide awake---Here we are on the top of a double-decker tour bus with winds gusting up to 70 miles an hour. The orange ear phones I'm wearing are not to my Ipod, but the tour guide. Notice, they do match my hat. Even though it was pretty cold, it was a great tour of the city, helping us get more acquainted with our new hometown.

Aside from the historic landmarks, we found more shopping areas and eating places. You know which one of us looks for eating and which one for shopping. My only purchase today was an amazing find, one that I had been searching for since we got here. Here it is---those little hangers that go over the bathroom door to hang your towel or robe. (WalMart, pay attention. Oxford needs you!) It's the little things that we take for granted, right? Now, I feel complete. There are no drawers, closets or cabinets in the bathroom, so I was desperate for something to hang things on. Great find!!! Now, for the eating places. I haven't been able to convince 2 papa that we are not on vacation. So far, he keeps choosing restaurants as if we're here for the weekend--something different each meal with an incredible menu. A few more weeks of this and we'll have to call home for the kids to send money. :) Oh yeah, if you're wondering how we're doing with our veggi-tale diet, we're doing great. However, we found a MacDonald's, KFC, and Burger King today and the temptation was pretty strong. There's something about finding American food, even food you won't eat in America, in a foreign country. You think you have to go in there---it's just so American. But we resisted. We also found a movie theater, which will be fun to visit later.

Everyday we see so many historical places--duh, Oxford been around since the 9th century---but today's visit to Oxford Castle was amazing. (Here's where those not interested in history can tune out.) The Castle, built in 1071, was built to protect the city and as a prison. It continued as a prison until it closed just 13 years ago in 1996. When you walk through it (101 steps in a spiral to the top) it's hard to believe that people actually lived in the horrible conditions of that prison so recently as 13 years ago. Now the buildings are being preserved and are open to the public for tours and a new hotel. The tour guide, dressed in 17th century dress, did a fantastic job telling some of the sad tales of prison life during it's existence. One story is of a seven-year-old little girl , sometime in the 1800's, who stole a pram (buggy) to put her doll in. She probably just intended to borrow it, but there was no difference between an adult or a child crime. She was sentenced to hard labor, meaning she had to shovel dirt and stone to built more of the prison. It made me so sad to think of that happening to Bella or Aslyn, my two seven-year-old granddaughters.

How fun it is that we can continue to hear from our family and friends while we're away. In some ways, it would feel like a prison, if this were not true. We just heard from Ryan (our son) about Aevin's football victory. In Ryan's words, Aevin's team put a stomping on the other team. Wow, a stomping when you're five must be pretty cool!

We are so blessed to live in a time when this is possible. I thought of the many people through the centuries who were imprisoned for false accusations. I thought of Paul, who spent many years in prison for the cause of Christ. Communication was restricted to letter writing, and that in itself, was very difficult. Yet, he wrote and wrote as he mentored to the followers of Jesus. In his letter in Ephesians (from The Message), he said, "In light of all this, here's what I want you to do. While I'm locked up here, a prisoner for the Master, I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel. I don't want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don't want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences."

What a great message for all us! When you began to feel as if you are inside a prison of maybe your own making, remember Paul's words and get up and run on to the road God called you to travel.

Tonight, we're determined to get to bed at a decent hour. Love you all and miss you greatly!

Hugs, 2 mama

Day Three Exploration Day

Today was our day to explore the city of Oxford. Our first stop was two blocks away at ACU's Oxford campus. That was such fun to meet some of the students and visit with the one of the administrators, Janine. We hope to worship with them on Sunday evening. They don't have a Sunday morning service as everyone does something different.

Our next stop was our first encounter with English food. I'm still wondering how two countries can speak the same language and it sound so different (I couldn't understand one word the waitress said) and the same for the food. For lunch, I had a jacket and beans. Translation--a baked potato covered in baked beans (straight from a can, no seasoning). 2 papa had a veggi-burger (pretty good) and chips, translation-french fries. A man from northern England ate with us--I'm assuming this is common practice as he asked and I said okay. He was very interesting and explained that he had too many disabilities to work, but had written a book on China. We asked him to take our picture, so you'll see us pictured at a very popular pub. Don't get too excited-pubs are restaurants, too. Other things on the menu were bangers, which is just sausage that has to be pierced before you cook it or it will explode, and mash, which is mashed potatoes.

As you can see from the photo, the sun shone today so it was a beautiful day to explore the city. It was between 55-60 degrees, so a coat was needed, but still nice. After lunch, we went on an Oxford University walking tour. Very quickly, so I won't lose you, Oxford U. is made up of 39 colleges. Most of the colleges are buildings built in a quadrangle surrounding a garden of grass, similar to a golf course, and beautiful flowers. The colleges have an average of 500 students who are, as the tour guide said, very clever and carefully selected. The college we are with, Regents, has 300 students. When first developed, each college's students came from a single location or region of Great Britain. For example, the people from Wales had their own college, etc. Now, the colleges are very diverse. Women were admitted somewhere in the 1800's, but could not get a degree until 1920's. Now the schools are 50/50, men and women. How's that for progress? One more interesting fact, if you're still interested, is the university owns 95% of the land in Oxford, giving it enormous income from rent, etc. The street that I am walking down in the picture above was originally the moat that surrounded and protected the city of Oxford. Now it is a main shopping area. I'm not mourning my left-behind boots so much now---I found the cutest pair ever today!!

We made a quick trip back to our flat to drop off our purchases and off to dinner at an Italian restaurant--ahhh...food we could recognize and easily a place we could go daily. Weird that we can recognize Italian food and not English. When did we get so far from our roots??? On our way home we had to stop, once again, for toilet paper as 2 papa accidentally got paper towels last night.

Now, I think we're all set up. The grand kids handmade cards are displayed in the window, we have a bowl of fruit on the counter, and 2 papa is flipping through the TV channels. Yes, it's almost like home, except there's no chance of someone walking in the door. It still seems like we're here for the weekend and will head home on Monday, but we're getting used to it.

As we toured the old buildings today, so rich in history and culture, I couldn't help but think how sad it is that we once fought this country to gain our freedom. But, what a blessing it is that today we all live together in peace. I love Ephesians 2:16 that says, "Christ brought us together through his death on the cross. The Cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of the hostility. Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and peace to us insiders. He treated us as equals, and so made us equals. Through him we both share the same Spirit and have equal access to the Father."

The young man who ate lunch with us today heard a slight reference we gave to our faith and jumped on the chance to ask if we were Christians. He was so thrilled that we were. The cross brought us together in peace. Pretty cool, huh?

Hugs, 2 mama

Day Two Arrival Day

We made it! The trip over was long, but uneventful. On our 8 1/2 hour flight from Houston to London, we were blessed when the man sitting next to us decided to go sit by a friend--woohoo!!--room to stretch my long legs! We landed safely at 7:45 a.m., but spent one hour in a line to get through passport check and another fifteen minutes with baggage claim as one suitcase didn't make it. The trace on it said it was stopped by security in Houston. I think that means the plane was too heavy and ours got picked for a later flight. But, saying security stopped it sounds more important. Anyway, we were told we wouldn't get it until tomorrow, but it just arrived at the apartment about an hour ago. I almost missed it because the doorbell sounds like a telephone and I kept answering the phone. I know--blonde alert! Keep in mind, we flew all night and I couldn't sleep for the 360 movies offered on our flight. Hey--I was trying to catch up!


A super-duper nice man, Tim, from the university picked us up in London so we not only had a ride to Oxford, we had a tour guide. It was great. Once we arrived in Oxford, about a one hour drive, Tim took us all around town and then to the university to meet people (That part I did not expect as we had just traveled all night. So apply more lipstick and smile...). Then Tim took us to the grocery store, which was quite interesting. It was very small and neat with only a few choices of different labels per product. We thought we got everything we needed, but 2 papa had to walk back later for toilet paper (needed in any country). We had a note explaining the drainage problem in our flat. It started out by saying "this is not a cheery subject" then it went on to describe proper flushing and draining techniques. Everything they say over here sounds so nice.


As you can see from the pictures, our flat is very small, but it will be great. I went straight to work getting our clothes in drawers and in the closet and 2 papa and our commuter guru, my brother, Jeremy, got us connected to the world. Soon, suitcases were shoved under the bed and both computers were up and running. We even used the video cam to talk to Jeremy back in Monroe. How cool is that???? We hope to see the whole family soon. I have heard that another grandchild is done with the flu, so I'm anxious to get a fam-report.

It's 6:00 England time, which means it's almost been exactly 24 hours since we left Monroe. In 24 hours we've traveled over 5000 miles, set up our apartment, and then talked to loved ones back home by way of a video cam. That, my friends, is life in 2009. Wow!!

When we visited the university we noticed a saying in Latin engraved over the front door. Tim said it means, "Test everything and hold on to what is good." Sounds like a great plan to me as we will be exposed to so many brilliant minds in the next ten weeks. I'm looking forward to stretching my brain as I meet new people and hear new ideas.


Here's what James had to say about testing. "Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way."


We don't know all that these next ten weeks will bring, but we plan to pass the test and let God's love shine through us.


Hugs, 2 mama