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The Kettle

Wed, 6 Jan 2010 20:00:43 +0000

One of the great British electrical utilities is the kettle. It’s a bit like your oven or refrigerator--you use it on a daily basis and couldn’t quite imagine life without it. There is always the fallback of using a traditional kettle if needed, but the electric version is much quicker and much handier. Now, as Americans, we haven’t gone completely native and periodically skip tea time in the morning/afternoon and since we’re fairly devout coffee drinkers, we often use our coffee maker instead. Thus, our kettle is certainly useful, but isn’t quite as critical to our existence as it would be to the normal British family.
The reason I bring this all up is because our kettle broke this past week--actually it was semi-working, but became enough of an annoyance that I decided to email our landlord. Now all of this has to be taken in context. Over the past year and a half, there have been several occasions when we’ve needed things for the house like mold-killer, paint, garden tools, ant killer, etc.. Sometimes our needs were pressing, but usually it would take a day or two before I heard back from our landlord. So you can imagine that when I contacted our landlord about our kettle I was expecting a slight delay in response, but lo and behold, on a freezing winter’s night, he turned up at our front door with a new kettle! I think his response time was the fastest ever.
The funny thing is, it took me a couple of days before I realized why he had been so quick to meet our needs. I can just imagine him sipping his warm cup of afternoon tea while checking his email and the sudden shock and horror he experienced upon hearing of his poor tenants without a kettle! At least now we’re beginning to understand what qualifies as an ‘emergency’ and what does not.
We’ve been experiencing an extended cold front for the past few weeks, which hasn’t been too bad since it gave us a white Christmas. We had a wonderfully peaceful holiday playing indoor games and jotting about town. We discovered an amazing local pool that we’ve often passed by, but had never visited. It has two child-friendly pools and an incredible water slide that Nathaniel and Madeleine both loved.
New Years was just as relaxed and we spent it with the B’s, our friends from the U.S., and the kids got to stay up till 9pm. We were home and in bed by 10pm and woke the next morning to welcome the new decade. I keep wondering where the 2000’s went as my memories of the ‘past’ still seem to drift immediately to the 90’s.
This year will prove to be full of surprises for us. At the moment, I continue to search for teaching and pastoral jobs either here in the UK or in the US. We’re still not certain where the Lord wants us in the future, so now is a time of being patient and faithful. It’s difficult to maintain one’s peace when significant change looms on the horizon, but I have been thinking back to the constant echo of the words ‘hear’ and ‘remember’ in the Torah. It doesn’t take much for me to forget the miraculous way in which the Lord enabled us to come to Cambridge almost three years ago. And like the Israelites being exhorted to remember God’s deliverance in the exodus, so too do I constantly need to recall the provision and faithfulness God has always demonstrated in our lives.
So hopefully as we look forward to a new year we may also continue to look back, remembering the great and awesome things the Lord has done for us, as we welcome the future with an unshakable hope in him.

Autumn has already passed...

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 19:43:09 +0000

I feel delinquent having just seen that my last blog was in September! Forgive me for failing to keep you posted on what has been happening these past few months. I realize more and more that to have a proper blog requires an immense amount of time and dedication to keep it up to date. I think that’s probably why everyone just uses Twitter. It takes a lot less effort!
So now that I’ve confessed, let me move on to what we’ve been doing this past autumn as it certainly has been a busy time. My Mondays are now fully dedicated to teaching at a seminary in London call Oak Hill. Each week I give a three hour lecture for an introduction to the Old Testament course and it has been quite a learning curve. For any of those who have taught in higher education, you’ll probably remember the terror you experienced the first few times you stepped in front of 50 mature students who may very well have known more than you on a particular topic. Thankfully those days have passed, not because I know more than my students, but because I’m constantly telling them that I’m only there to facilitate learning and not just give them answers. This has been a good strategy because more often than not, I don’t have the answers!
The greatest blessing of this experience is that it has given me a greater confidence in my calling and what specific gifts the Lord has given me. I love the research and academic side of the classroom experience, but I also cherish the pastoral side as well. I have been able to get to know most of my students (though not as well as I would like to), which has provided for some ministry opportunities. Overall, I feel so incredibly blessed to have this opportunity in my final year as it has given me a bit more light at the end of the tunnel.
Speaking of this long, dark tunnel they call a dissertation...yes, I’m still working on it, and yes, it’s still just on Gen. 4.1-16. Cain still haunts me day in and day out, but I’m thankful to report that my work is nearing completion. With one more core chapter to go (and possibly another if needed) I will only have an intro/conclusion to write. If all goes according to plan, I should submit by this summer. Then we shall see where the Lord leads as I’m currently keeping an eye out for job opportunities.
Bettina’s schedule has also been packed this term as Nathaniel has been going to school 5 days a week for half days. She is constantly hustling both kids into the buggy and dashing out the door to make it to school on time. Nathaniel has recently started riding his bike to school as well, so Bettina is getting even more exercise as she tries to jog along side.
She has also continued to co-lead her women’s Bible study on Thursdays and they’ve had a wonderful group this year. I have had the same experience with a small group of men that I meet with on Wednesdays. Right now we’re just getting prepared for the Christmas pageant where Madeleine will join in for the first time as a sheep and Nathaniel has graduated to an angel with a speaking part. We’ll see if he is bold enough to speak this year!
We hope you’re enjoying this Advent season.

Summer fun...

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:36:04 +0100

Though the autumn weather has now settled down in Cambridge and the leaves are gradually falling to the ground, we are thankful to report that we did, in fact, have a ‘summer’ this year! It was wonderful to spend the better part of the past three months in shorts, eating outside on the patio and playing at our local park. It was truly a refreshing time for us all and amidst my continued studies, we did find time to make a few short excursions to see some of the country.
Our first visitor was ‘Oma’ (i.e. Bettina’s Mom), who was delightful to have with us for two weeks. We all spent a few days traveling through the Cotswolds, which I now believe to be one of the most beautiful areas in all of England. The honey-brown stone that makes up seemingly endless medieval villages in the rolling countryside is simply spectacular. We wandered around from village to village and discovered a whole new world of British culture and architecture. I highly recommend it if you’re ever traveling over here.
Thanks to Oma’s presence, we were able to spend a night in London by ourselves. It was the first time we have both been away from the kids in about two years and it was wonderful! We blitzed around the city (both of us had been there a few times before) and enjoyed the freedom of traveling on our own. We found a quaint Italian restaurant that had unbelievably good food and were able to get to see the musical Billy Elliot at the Queen Elizabeth theatre. It felt like a second honeymoon! We were so grateful to have that time together and are incredibly thankful that Oma did brilliantly with the kids while we were gone.
The big news for me this summer came unexpectedly when I found out that Oak Hill theological college (seminary) in north London had just lost an OT teacher. I happened to know a fellow who was teaching NT down there and emailed him on the odd chance that they might be looking for someone to fill in for the coming year if they hadn’t hired anyone already. It turned out that they were looking for some adjunct lecturers and I was asked to come down and teach their Intro OT course for this Fall and next Spring. This means that I’ll be going down on Mondays to give a three hour lecture each week during the term. We’ve already begun and I can tell you that talking for three hours is not easy, especially when you want to make it interesting! So I’m gradually adjusting to the lecturer role and absolutely love being a part of the ministry at Oak Hill and their mission to train young men and women for service in the church and in other capacities as well.
The other good news is that I was also asked to give the lectures on Gen. 1-2 at St. Melitus College in London this January. St. Melitus is linked with Holy Trinity Brompton and is another theological college that has a powerful vision for training future ministers to work in the church and in other contexts. I will go down and teach on two different occasions, but look forward to being a part of their new ministry training course.
All of this means that it will be a busy year, but I feel tremendously blessed to be out of the library for part of the week doing what I believe the Lord has called me to do. The dissertation writing continues, but thankfully there is not that much left to be written. I have a couple more chapters and then it will be time to review, write an intro and conclusion, review some more and then get ready to submit sometime in August. In the meantime, we will be keeping our ears open for potential job opportunities, but it is still somewhat early on at this point.
It’s hard to believe that I’m entering into the final year of this PhD, but the Lord has been so gracious to us through it all. The whole family is doing great; Nathaniel has started part-time kindergarden this year and Madeleine continues to surprise us on a daily basis! Thank you for your prayers as we enter this final season of the PhD.

The Lake District

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 21:59:51 +0100

After I finished all of my classes, papers and presentations, we packed up the car and headed north for the Lake District. Everyone talks about the Lakes in England and we were very excited to see a different part of this beautiful country. Unfortunately, they also talk about the weather in North Cumbria, which, for the most part, is wet (how surprising!).
We arrived on Tues. late in the afternoon to gorgeous sunshine, but there wasn’t time left for a hike. The four and a half hour drive felt much like driving to northern New Hampshire--not much traffic, beautiful mountains and lakes, with the smell of crisp, fresh air. It almost seemed to be too good to be true, and sadly, it was. We didn’t see the sun for the rest of our trip.
The next day it poured rain and since Bettina’s toe was still recovering from a previous fracture, we decided to visit a local steam engine, which provided for a morning of pure train fun. Nathaniel was overjoyed to be riding along the tracks and we made our way through the aquarium at our destination. After a bit of hot chocolate, we returned to our “home” and I managed to get the coal fire going in our little rental cottage. (This is a bit of an aside, but if you’ve never made a proper coal fire, you’ll be well advised to have some wood handy or a lot of charcoal lighter fluid. I spent the first 45 minutes trying to get it started with newspaper, only to realize that ‘real‘ coal [i.e. not the kind you buy at the store for your bbq] doesn’t burn that easily.)
The following day we managed our first hike and thankfully it was rain-free, but the gale-force winds at the summit kept us from lingering around and the cries of our children didn’t help either! We eventually made it to calmer trails and Nathaniel was proud of himself for getting out of the back-pack to hike on his own. All in all, he probably covered about 2 miles. He was quite proud of himself.
On Friday, we decided to have another go at hiking and since it was overcast in the morning, we thought we might just beat the rain again. No such luck. The first mile was clear, but then the heavens opened and we got drenched. Madeleine didn’t seem to mind as much since her backpack had a cover, but Nathaniel’s didn’t, so our poor guy got quite wet, even with waterproof pants and jacket on. We decided to do as the British do and ‘just get on with it.’ We reached a small ‘tarn’ (lake) set in the midst of a dramatic valley, but the wind kicked up and the rain poured down even harder. Nathaniel’s hood had gotten blown back and he was being pelted by the rain. I couldn’t see him, as he was on my back, and couldn’t hear Bettina calling out to me because of the wind. It wasn’t long before we got everything settled, but Nathaniel got a good taste of British mountain weather in the meantime and I’m not sure that he’s quite ready to go back!
The Lake District was magnificent, even in the rain. It is a different landscape from our beloved New Hampshire mountains. The mountains at the Lakes are bare, save for grass and sheep. It gives them the appearance of being much larger than they are. The highest peak, Scafell, which is also the highest ground in England, is only 3,210 feet, but appears absolutely enormous. There are lakes interspersed among these mountains, picturesque villages and hamlets, sheep and cows by the thousands, and hikers of all ages everywhere. What you would imagine a typical English stone cottage to look like is found here, along with miles and miles of stone walls and cottage gardens. I think we both dream about coming back and hiking the peaks in the future, preferably without the kids. It was a joy to share our love for the mountains with them, but carrying them on our backs for 6+ miles was a bit tiring!

Birthday Girl (BGS)

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 21:41:54 +0100

On June 6, our daughter turned two. How quickly time flies. They say that the days are long but the years are short, and I fully agree, although I do wish that the days had more hours in them.
“Let me do it”, and “It’s meins (German for mine)”, are words we hear often. Madeleine is our energetic joy-bug. She is sociable, full of smiles, independent, and feisty. She demands what she wants, and bullies her brother for it. She sings all the time, speaks in full sentences, has little fear, has an incredibly high tolerance for pain (discovered after many spills at the playground), and has shown a love for cleaning. Yeah! She keeps us on our toes and screams when we aren’t. It is such fun having two very different children!
I adore watching her development and seeing all the wheels spin in her little head. From one day to the next she changes, and I feel incredibly privileged that I am home with them. She is a gift from God and I pray that one day she will realize how precious she is to her heavenly Father.