The Beginning of Week 4!

Hello to all!  It's going to be brief today.  It is Monday, June 18th.  Our week was so full that there was little time to blog.  I will try to give a recap of the week:

11th:  Day trip to the Cotswolds!  It was cold and rainy the entire day.  Our host wanted us to see everything so we walked and walked in the rain.  It took about 3 days for everything to dry out!  But we had a great time anyway.  We visited Churchill's grave in Bladen, Lower Slaughter, Burford, and Bourton on the Water.  All were picturesque even in the rain.

12th:  Study of Buddhism taught by Tan Kang San.  He converted to Christianity from Buddhism.  His brother is a Buddhist monk.  The top 10 Buddhist countries are:  Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Japan, Hong Kong, Laos, Vietnam, Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea
p.m.  Dinner at David Lloyd's home.

13th: We have been studying the Christian disciplines of Fasting, Hospitality, Giving and Prayer will be next week.  Today Sharon Dirckx, OCCA tutor and speaker taught on giving.
Great thought:  What does God give us?  He gives lavishly--he gave his son, motivated by unconditional love.  He lowered himself to come into our world and died the most undignified death..
He gives us a new heart, assurance of salvation, power, intimacy with himself, effectiveness in prayer, and deliverance from sin, evil and death..........to name a few.

Christian Hofreiter from Austria taught on "War in the Old Testament."  How do we reconcile violence and genocide ("destroy every living thing" or "do not spare anything that breathed") in the OT with a loving God?

Michael Ramsden taught on Luke 15:  the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son--a wonderful study of love and repentance!

I enjoyed sharing dinner and conversation with one of our teacher's wives: Celeste Small at Turl Street Kitchen.

14th:  Dr. Ard Louis taught us today on the topic of Science and Faith.  He is a professor in the Dept. of Physics at the University of Oxford.  His parents were both biologists in the jungles of Africa.  He grew up with a pet chimpanzee!

Alister McGrath led discussions this week on the life of C. S. Lewis and how he does apologetics in his writings.  We reviewed texts of Mere Christianity.

15th:  Today was a day trip to London by train!  Ian Smith and David Lloyd were our hosts.  The morning was spent with the organization CARE (Christian Action, Research and Education).  It is a public affairs' team focusing on research and advocacy.  They send briefings to members of Parliament to inform and affect voting on various bills.  Lyndon Bowring is the Executive Chairman of CARE.

We spent the afternoon with Baroness Cox.  She is a appointed member of the House of Lords in Parliament.  We had a private session with her.  She is a committed Christian making a difference in the public square.  She also heads up a ministry called HART, Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust.

16th:  On Sat. and Sunday, my friends, Peta and Rob Stanton, drove to Oxford and picked me up and took me to their home in Wootten for the weekend.  What a lovely and relaxing visit.  We had not seen each other since September of 2008.  I enjoyed worship with them in their church.

17th:  Yesterday when Peta and Rob brought me back to Oxford, we attended the 4:30 service at St. Ebbe's Church.  After circling Oxford and trying to navigate the one-way streets and pedestrian areas, we finally drove the car to Jesus College where I will be living for the next 3 weeks.  They helped me move my things in.  This room is much smaller and compact, but has everything I need and more.