Good time.

This never quite made it to the blog, so here:

Monday, March 31, 2008

I hope all you people enjoyed Easter Break – it snowed on Easter here! (That probably didn’t happen where you are.)

Nathan and I have been enjoying our break from school. Nathan enjoys the extra time to rest (ahem, sleep). We’ve both been working on vacation reading for the C.S. Lewis course, spending time around the house, jogging/biking to and around Shotover Hill. Dad, Mom, Nathan, Aaron and I all went to Shotover just before sunset yesterday. The boys went exploring on their bikes while Dad, Mom and I walked.

Last weekend was my second time to go to London. I spent a few hours in Westminster Abbey. It’s filled with dead people (in coffins or buried under the floor), memorials, and a thousand years’ worth of history. All the graves and memorials seem to be crammed into the building – several belong to some of the most memorable and influential people in history. Throughout the Abbey are memorials to various people for their service to the empire, or the king, or a particular group of people. But my favorite was the memorial to William Wilberforce…for his service to God and country. (Charles Darwin is buried a few feet from the Wilberforce memorial.) Wilberforce is also buried in the Abbey, in fact, he’s the first one you step on when you walk through the door.

(It was strange to see all the people walking over the graves – first, because they’re graves, and second, because the British, with their long history, seem a little less protective of their national treasure than us, and don’t seem to have a problem walking on them.)

The Abbey is filled with too many things to take in at once. Kings and queens, noblemen and their wives, artists, poets, authors, scientists, soldiers – some important for their title, others for their action – all buried or memorialized in Westminster Abbey. (I never thought I would live so close to the burial site all of those people we learned about in 9th grade British Lit.)

I wonder what my impression of the thousands of faces and images in the Abbey would have been a few hundred years back, before the advent of mass media….

After we went to the Abbey, Nathan and I crossed the road to Parliament Square, where we admired the huge statute of Winston Churchill, then walked across the bridge over the Thames River, past the Salvador Dali art along the river, the London Eye, and the street performers. Then, of course, it started raining. However, we’ve (finally) adopted the handy habit of carrying umbrellas, so even the freezing cold rain didn’t stop us (nor did it stop the kids skateboarding and trick biking under the bridge, which they seem to have claimed as their own, judging by the amount of graffiti they put up). When it was time to head back to Oxford, we boarded the bus. It takes forever to get out of London because it’s so big and busy, but there’s so much to see that it’s okay.

Since I’ve been off, I’ve read C.S. Lewis’ Surprised by Joy, as well as George Sayers’ Jack: A Life of C.S. Lewis. I love being surprised that I know the landmarks and places in descriptions of Lewis’ life in Oxford.

I finally read a G.K. Chesterton book – The Man Who was Thursday. It was one of those good-but-bizarre books that I’ll want to read again (so I’ll “get it” a little more). Again, recognizing landmarks in London gave me a funny feeling and definitely made the book come a little more alive – but how much more alive could a book which is subtitled “A Nightmare” and centered on infiltrating and exposing an anarchist ring possibly be?

Then I read Francis Schaeffer’s A Christian Manifesto. God provided that book at the perfect time (but isn’t His timing always so?) – it really pulled together some of the strands of thought to which last term’s work in Jurisprudence introduced me and gave me a well-reasoned, thoroughly-stated explanation of the Christian position on law and government. Schaeffer knows that our basic understanding of the identity and value of a human being is all wrapped up in the God who is there and has spoken to us. He also knows that a wrong understanding of what a human being is has devastating results, in individual lives, and especially in law and government. In his Manifesto, Schaeffer shows why Christians should be concerned with law and government: mainly, Christ is Lord of all of life. To confine “Christianity” to the spiritual realm only is to deny His Lordship over all of life.

Schaeffer cared about law because he cared about people and understood that ideas affect both individuals and entire societies.

Boundless published some excerpts of Manifesto a while back, which you can (and should) read here: http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001588.cfm.

Schaeffer’s introductory thoughts in A Christian Manifesto:

“The basic problem of the Christians in this country in the last eighty years or so, in regard to society and in regard to government, is that they have seen things in bits and pieces instead of totals.
“They have very gradually become disturbed over permissiveness, pornography, the public schools, the breakdown of the family, and finally abortion. But they have not seen this as a totality – each being a part, a symptom, of a much larger problem. They have failed to see that all of this has come about due to a shift in worldview – that is, through a fundamental change in the overall way people think and view the world and life as a whole. This shift has been away from a world view that was at least vaguely Christian in people’s memory (even if they were not individually Christian) toward something completely different – toward a world view based upon the idea that the final reality is impersonal matter or energy shaped into its present form by impersonal chance….
“These two world views stand as totals in complete antithesis to each other in content and also in their natural results – including sociological and governmental results, and specifically including law.”

Schaeffer's He is There and He is Not Silent, which I read right before we left Louisiana, was extremely helpful to me in the early weeks of last term.

The God Who is There is the first of Schaeffer’s “Trilogy” and is the book I’m reading right now. Being me, I am, of course, reading it last, instead of first. Guess I’ll have to go back and re-read the others. But Schaeffer’s points need a post of their own, so we’ll save it for another day.

That funny-looking, strangely-dressed man understood the times in which he lived…and I’m so thankful that he did.

Changing pace.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Last night I curled up in front of the fireplace with The Anatomy of Corporate Law, searching for the meaning of the legal concept of the “legal person.” Today we returned the books to the library, because today was the last day of Hilary Term 2008. In about a month, Trinity Term 2008 will begin, but until then, I’ll lay off the latest edition of Jurisprudence. ;]

In one sense, it’s hard to believe that it’s only been two and a half months since we left home – it feels like so much longer. In another sense, it’s hard to believe that it’s been only two and a half months - I’ve learned so much, from school books and otherwise.

Let’s start with what I’ve learned from books…Just kidding. (Just know that I’ve studied in six different libraries and probably read more books in the last eight weeks than I’ve read in the last 8 semesters and I enjoyed most of it…although I could have done without the braincramping and the last-minute dashes to the print a paper before a tutorial, only to discover that the printer doesn’t work and the bus is pulling in – but what’s learning without all that?)

Thursday, March 13, 2008

What I’ve learned lately – aside from lots about jurisprudence, media, British politics (and the Vietnam War) – is probably best summed up in Oswald Chamber’s March 8 entry in My Utmost for His Highest, “The Surrendered Life.”

Chambers writes, “Being born again by the Spirit of God means that we must first be willing to let go before we can grasp something else. The first thing we must surrender is all of our pretense or deceit.”

Dictionary definitions for pretense include “professed rather than real intention or purpose,” “make-believe,” “fiction,” “pretending.” Let’s add “ridiculously futile attempt to convince God that you’ve got it all together.”

Frail humanity stands before a holy God. Pretense is a “natural” reaction.

It’s also an unnecessary reaction.

“What our Lord wants us to present to Him is not our goodness, honesty or efforts to do better, but real solid sin,” says Chambers. “And what He gives us in exchange for our sin is real solid righteousness.”

But trading what I can do for what He can do is hard.

“If you are faced with the question of whether or not to surrender, make a determination to go on through the crisis, surrendering all that you have and all that you are to Him.”

But it seems that surrendering all that I have to Him would leave me with nothing. The truth is, however, that all I’ve got isn’t much. The truth is that all He’s got is better than what I’ve got. I don’t even really have anything. Remember, I just pretend that I do. God didn’t ask for my pretense. He asked for my heart.

“For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” Romans 8:15

Children cry “Daddy!” without pretense.

“…Make the determination to go through the crisis…And God will then equip you to do all that He requires of you.”

…...
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In other news:

The Vosburgs in England have officially (as officially as it can be) moved into Oxford. How about that? (It still feels weird, and probably will until we leave…and probably will even after that.) We’re so thankful that God has blessed us with a good location – close to the bus stop! – and that we’re not too far from the center of Oxford.

The weather is improving. The latest predictions are that it might not be winter forever! The days are getting longer, the rain has eased significantly and the sun has been sighted on multiple occasions. (Not to contradict that report, but: I saw the first real snow [that I can remember] the other day when Nathan, Aaron and I were waiting for the bus. It was just a quick, light snow, but it was snow.)

Not much other news yet. Remember, I’ve only been out of school for a day and a half day. :]

We love hearing about all that’s going on in Baton Rouge/Region VII!

Getting There.

Hey y'all,

Nearly four weeks have passed since we arrived in England!

I'm getting used to life here. I love walking everywhere. City life means lots of people, new languages, crazy drivers and mass transport.

[Pick a language, any language.]

It's twenty minutes to Oxford by train. The train takes us through lots of sparsely populated land. The cities are so full of people, but there's very little in between cities, mostly crops, cows, sheep and soccer ("football") fields. People rush through the train station in the mornings, all going places fast. A different crowd moves through at a different pace in the afternoon. Evening, when people are going home from work and school, is my favorite time to be going through the train station.

[Running for the 18:23 on Platform 2, Oxford Train Station]

We’re looking for a house in Oxford, which is an amazing town. The architecture and history are incredible! There are so many beautiful buildings and hundreds of years of history.

For example, just walking into town, I passed a huge hill that was the base of a castle built when William the Conquerer invaded in 1066. I kept walking and crossed a bridge over a stream where Christians were baptized hundreds of years ago. After a while, I came to a cobblestone marker in the pavement. It marked the place where the queen "Bloody Mary" had two church leaders burned at the stake.

I went to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford the other day. It’s the oldest museum in England (founded in the 1600’s, I think). There were at least four paintings in there that I learned about in Art History class at Southeastern. And there were whole sections of ancient Egyptian walls. And almost none of it is behind glass. It’s just sitting out there.

Oxford is actually a town, not a campus. There are more than 40 “colleges” in the Oxford system. A “college” is basically made up of whatever students, dons (teachers) and books fit in the building. Most of them were founded and built 500-700 years ago. Because Oxford is a medieval town, the streets are really narrow. The bikes have to ride on the street. The bikes go really fast. So do the cars. It’s crazy.

It rains every day. But it’s a light rain. It’s gray outside (almost) all the time. The sun rises late and sets early because it’s winter. I can’t wait for summer! They say sunset in summer is around 10pm.

I especially enjoy walking through Oxford, and trying not to get hit by the famous black cabs of Oxford.

[Off-duty.]

Walking through Oxford is like walking through history... a bit of recent history: I pass New College everyday. Your new governor studied there. :]

[Windows on New College.]

The colleges are so old and each one is unique. These pictures are from Trinity, which was founded in 1550.

The Trinity College Chapel is incredibly ornate. Like so many things in Oxford, it gives a striking first impression, but has so much more detail.

[Trinity College Chapel, front.]

[Trinity College Chapel, rear.]

[Trinity College Chapel, ceiling.]

Seems like the old and new just blend in Oxford.

[Christ Church and Modern Art, that way.]

Oxford has some pretty interesting places.

[Opium den?]

No, we haven't been in there.

***

Being here with my family is such a blessing. God is using this move to teach me about hanging onto him and being comfortable in Him, even when the new things around me aren't comfortable. I'm getting past apprehension and really enjoying this completely different place. Peace and joy!

In Christ,

Sarah

Medieval Town.

Just a few quick pictures from Oxford, which is about 20 minutes from Reading by train.

The last picture is a part of the Bodleian Library and the room where the parliment scenes in "Amazing Grace" were filmed.

Settling In.

Hey y'all,

We walked to town yesterday and today. There are so many little shops: world-famous brand name shops, distinctly British shops, and that little Polish shop where we bought sugar and cinnamon. There's also a farmers market on Wednesday through Saturday.

The farmers at the market hawk their produce, "Pound a pound, pound a pound! Get your carrots! Get your pineapples!"

St. Mary Butts, the church across from the farmers market.

The streets of Reading's shopping district are busy all day long.

It's strange to see the new shops in the old buildings.

We listened to the street preacher man as pigeons walked around and flew overhead.

Flowers are for sale everywhere. I guess the people crave color - the days are so short that the Sun hardly has a chance to shine here.

The Sausage Men selling the food that looked so warm.

Getting Here.

Happy New Year!

We had some problems getting Internet, but we have it now! We are still working on setting up the phone. The fact that none of our electrical appliances work here without adapters is just one of the ways that everything is different.

Also, we were saving the camera batteries until we could get the right adapter (which we have now), so there's not much here as far as good pictures go.

We left Baton Rouge around 2:15 on Saturday afternoon. Eight hours later, we arrived at Gatwick airport in London on Sunday morning, just before sunrise. (London is six hours ahead of Baton Rouge. For example, 12 Noon in BR is 6pm in London.)

That's the pickup lane outside of the airport where drivers run over anything that gets in their way!

Then it was time to rent a car. Dad strategically packed the luggage, but it barely fit into the Scion-like 7 passenger vehicle. So Mom, Nathan and Aaron took the train, Dad drove the car and I navigated. Sitting on the right side of the vehicle, driving on the left side of the road, going through roundabouts, reading the street markings and trying to get to a specific location is a job for no less than two people.

Only by the grace of God, we arrived safely at our apartment building.

Welcome.

Then it was New Years Eve and there were fireworks over Reading.

We watched them from the second floor of our apartment.

The sun was shining today! The days are short here; it doesn't get light until about 7:30am and it starts getting dark around 3:30pm.

More later.