Bring on the Vitamin D

The sun was shining today. I realize that for most people this is not the most exciting piece of news you've ever heard. But on a winter day in England this is a momentous occasion. As I walked to a cafe this morning to meet Chris for lunch, not even needing my jacket, my spirits were lifted by the presence of the sun unhindered for once by the clouds. There is a couple with our company looking at coming to London. They've been in Scotland and the husband became very ill by what turned out to be a severe Vitamin D deficiency due to lack of sunlight. So obviously it can be a very serious problem. We were told recently by our supervisors that we both looked really pale. I believe it. I look back at pictures of us before we came here and it's crazy how tan we looked! I look at myself now and you'd think my skin had never seen the sun before. It's easy to find yourself feeling down during these gloomy winter months. But on a rare winter day like today when the sun is out for more than five minutes I say, bring on the Vitamin D!

Snow Day

So Monday we had an unusual day here in London. Starting from about Saturday the weather forecast kept saying that the "Russian Snow" was coming. So on Monday morning we woke up to more snow than London had seen in 18 years. It actually started the night before so I went just outside our flat and made a snowball and brought it in to show our friend who was staying with us. In honor of the Russian snow she affectionately named our snowball Vladamir. London isn't exactly a city with snowplows waiting at the ready so the city basically shut down on Monday. Schools were closed, most people didn't go to work, and public transport wasn't running. We walked over to our supervisor's house via the golf course to play in the snow. There were loads of kids out playing and building snowmen. For those who are used to such snows I know this isn't a big story, but it is quite uncommon for us Texas folk! Here are some pictures from our snow day.


me outside our flat with a snowball

looking at our flat (we're on the left)

looking out and to the left of our flat

this is the golf course - really!

playing with my camera, taking fun photos

Chris making the head for the snowman

playing again


Vladamir the snowman sitting on the couch

A conversation about a bus.

If you read our recent prayer updates, then you have definitely heard about the atheist bus advertisements in London. Well, a few days after I posted that update I read that a Christian organisation in England has submitted a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority with a demand that the adverts be removed. (read the article here)

Well, in abnormal fashion, I decided to email the organisation to understand why they might take this step. Below is our correspondence (slightly edited for time sake). Thought you might be interested.

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From:Chris
To: Christian Voice

To whom it may concern,

I just read an article on the BBC online about a complaint your organisation made to the ASA about the public transport adverts unveiled on 6 Jan that say "There's probably no God." (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7818980.stm)

I have a question and a quick statement:

What do you hope to accomplish with this complaint and how does it increase the glory of God in Britain?

I have spoken with or heard of no less than half a dozen followers of Jesus who have already had positive conversations about God with people not following Jesus solely because of this advertisement campaign. Personally, I am extremely excited about the potential of these adverts to prompt people to think about God. But followers of Jesus MUST respond as Jesus would to take advantage of this opportunity to connect with people who normally don't give the subject much mind. We must listen intently and ask probing questions that provide a canvas on which we can display God's love found in Jesus. I had a conversation with a teenager a few days ago who has seen this potential and taken advantage of the opportunity. He and a mate saw one of the adverts and he just started asking questions of this atheist friend. In the end, his friend was a bit more accepting of the potential for God's existence.

Can God not use what was meant for harm to bring glory to His name? I hope that you do not take this as an attack on you. By no means is it meant that way. I simply hope that the followers of Christ in Britain will take every opportunity to bring glory to the name of Christ.

God bless...

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From: Christian Voice
To: Chris

Hi Chris,

Greeting to you in our Lord's precious name.

I don't know why you are so upset at my reporting the bus adverts to the ASA on grounds of substantiation and truth.

It's really good that conversations have started because of them, but that does not mean Christians should excuse wickedness because some good has come of it. Does Solomon's birth excuse David's adultery?

Read John 7:7 and 8:44 and then tell me that Jesus would not have spoken against this untruthful ad!

Yours sincerely...

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From: Chris
To: Christian Voice

First, please do not hear me to be "upset". I simply hope to have a conversation with a brother and, hopefully, learn from each other.

Both the story of Solomon and John 8:44 are in the context of those who already profess to follow the One God. Scripture is very clear from beginning to end that we are ALL "wicked" and can ONLY overcome that wickedness through faith (since Jesus' resurrection, in Him). I won't quote the scriptures because I'm confident that you know them. I can't recall a single moment which Jesus spoke against Caesar or the Roman government. And by this time Caesar considered himself god. I can't recall a single time that Jesus rebuked a group outside of the Jews. If you can think of one, please share. But for the most part, Jesus only spoke to the Jews (or those closely related), so...

Let's look at Paul for a bit. In Acts 17 we find him in Athens. As I'm sure you are well aware, he looks around and sees the city full of idols. We don't know exactly what the ensuing conversations entailed, first with the Jews and worshipers of God, then with people in the marketplace and philosophers. But we do know that he was "telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection." The next part is the interesting bit. He is taken to the Areopagus to argue his point. There are several views on the function of the Areopagus at this time, but it suffices to say here that they were a recognised council who were looked to for wisdom and discernment. Presumedly, this would be the time when Paul would make a case for the important things. Under the supposition of your response, Paul should have taken this opportunity to request the removal of the idols from the city. But he doesn't. Instead, he uses the idols as a platform to communicate the truth. And even to the end of his dissertation in Athens, we have no record of him even mentioning the removal of these idols.

So, no, i do not believe that Jesus would have taken the time to speak against this untruthful ad. I believe that He would have taken every opportunity to love people and share the truth with people (not entities).

Update

So apparently we are not doing so great at updating this. Perhaps because we get busy. Perhaps because we don't feel we have anything interesting to say - on a regular basis anyway. But I thought I would take this opportunity to write while I sit here drinking my tea trying to stay warm. We had a great Christmas although it felt a bit strange, being our first one with no family. We made an American breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage and buscuits and gravy. It was so good! Chris and I had gotten each other gifts so we opened those in the morning while we waited for our families in Texas to wake up.

Chris got an ipod touch, a new scarf, and some su doku books. I got a new ipod and tickets to Royal Albert Hall where they will show the first Lord of the Rings movie with the musical score being played live by the London Philharmonic. Then we started one of my new traditions:



That's right - we watched a Charlie Brown Christmas! I was probably more excited about it than Chris was, but whatever. Then we skyped with our families and opened our gifts from them which was kind of an odd experience, but it worked and it was better than not seeing them at all! So here are some skype pictures:

This is my side of the family: aunt and uncle on the left, granny in the middle, mom and dad on the right, and brother up top.

Mom wearing her Christmas hat while my brother looks on.

Chris with his brother and sister-in-law, Philip and Lacey, and his sister Amber's little boy.
Chris' sister and brother-in-law, Joe and Amber, and their little boy, Ciro.
So we had a really great Christmas and made some great memories. Chris was in Portugal over New Year's Eve, but I watched the countdown on BBC.

So now as we begin the new year, this is the calm before the....well, not storm exactly, but a busy time anyway. We have two interns coming later this month for six months who will be working with us and Chris will also be getting ready for another busy summer. Next Thursday I will start attending a photography class that I am really excited about. It's something I've wanted to do for a while and will give me great opportunities to meet people and hopefully share Christ into their lives. That part makes me a little anxious, knowing that I have a bigger purpose in mind. But it's good to get outside our comfort zones even if it's not always comfortable. So that's what we've been up to and we appreciate your prayers as we continue to speak Jesus into lives here in London.

Just another day...

Those of you who know me (Chris) well know that I believe strongly that anything can be fixed. And usually I get one of those looks from Angie that says, "Why can't you be normal?" Yesterday was no exception. While taking a shower, I noticed that Angie's "loofa" was beginning to grow things deep in the middle of that mish-mash of mesh. Ladies, do you ever look in there? I don't know if it is normal for things to grow there or if it's a product of the damp environment that we live in here, but, nevertheless, I couldn't take it.

So you might have guessed by now. I briefly tried using cleaner on it, but it just seemed to move the stuff around rather than get rid of it. So, I took it apart. If you have never taken a "loofa" apart before, you might want to think twice before you do. Here is what you get.


I have learned a few things in my many years of taking things apart to fix them. One, always pay careful attention to the appearance of all parts as you slowly disassemble the item so that you can put it back together. I did that. But I ignored one of my fundamental rules. Always wear your contacts or glasses when taking something apart. Well, I wasn't. And as the "loofa" unraveled further and further away from me, it became a blur in the distance.

So, after a fruitless 45 minute search online for "how to refold a 'loofa'" - and all the derivatives of this phrase - I dove in head first. What do you think?


I think it turned out alright, thus proving my former beliefs - "Anything can be fixed."

Some things I learned during this process...A loofah is actually a plant. There is a bloke in North Carolina growing real loofahs in his back garden (roughly 150 a year in a 10' x 20' space). The thing in the picture is more commonly known as a "pouf mesh sponge". It is likely that these things are assembled by a machine. If you happen to take yours apart and need advice on putting it back together, I can now give you step by step instructions:)

New Life

If you've followed our prayer updates over the past year (or even less), you might have noticed that once a month we meet with a church plant in Deptford (East London) to invest in their teenagers. The faith community consists of Chinese from North Vietnam who have immigrated to London. Their teenagers (mostly pre-teens) are second and even third generation in the UK. So, in reality, they are as much Londoners as they are of their parents cultural background, if not more. When we met them, they had little to no knowledge of Jesus or the God of the Bible. The understanding that they did have came primarily from film and TV. It has been an interesting road.

Each time we have met with them, we have shared a different aspect of God's nature and the human condition. Over the past few months, we have moved closer and closer to the resolution of a holy God with self-centered men - Jesus, the Christ. Today, Angie shared her experience with Jesus and I told of God's sacrificial love for us, His enemies, through the story of the peace child (http://www.newhope.bc.ca/97-12-21.htm). In the end, we had each of them close their eyes. Then we asked them to raise their hand if they wanted to make a decision to follow Jesus today. I had a sense that that one or two of them had been wrestling with God over the past few months. I expected that we might get one, maybe two reluctant hands.

With their eyes closed, without seeing what the person next to them was doing, ALL FIVE enthusiastically raised a hand. There was nothing subtle about any of their decisions. They were confident! And now, these five Chinese-British teenagers have made a confident decision to follow Jesus. It's still a bit surreal, but SO exciting. Thank you for every one of you who has prayed for us and for the teenagers of London. The hope of Christ is being made known to the nations.

Bonfires and Mustaches

So Wednesday November 5th was Guy Fawkes Night (also called Bonfire Night) in England. Guy Fawkes was a member of a group of English Roman Catholic revolutionaries who planned to carry out the Gunpowder Plot. The Gunpowder Plot was the failed assassination attempt against King James I of England and VI of Scotland. The plot intended to kill the king, his family, and most of the Protestant aristocracy in a single attack by blowing up the Houses of Parliament during the State Opening on 5 November 1605. The plot was foiled shortly before its intended completion, as Fawkes was captured while guarding the gunpowder on that dark night in November. (taken from Wikipedia). So originally the idea was to make an effigy of Guy Fawkes and burn it, but now most people just make a bonfire. Since Guy Fawkes was on a weekday this year many people celebrated this weekend. Last night we went to our first Bonfire Night. We were here last year at this time, but were still settling in and didn't really know any British people yet. So we had a really good time watching the bonfire and the fireworks and eating good food (including my fun autumn cookies) and spending time with friends. At the end of the night we decided that it's basically like our 4th of July celebration, but with a bonfire. Here is a picture of my fun cookies:


On a totally separate note, we were talking to the teenagers of the family who we have gotten to know and they told us about a very interesting phenomenon. I'll preface by saying that sponsorship is a very big deal in this country. I've never seen so many adverts for sponsorship of all kinds of things. So our friends were telling us about a very interesting thing being sponsored at their high school: mustaches. That's right, mustaches. They call this month "Movember" (mo being short for mustache). The kids said it was kind of creepy seeing all their male teachers growing mustaches. Apparently the men get sponsored with the purpose of raising awareness for men's health. Find out more at www.movember.com