I’m not quite sure how to begin a “blog”! I’m not even sure where the term came from, but maybe someone will let me know. We arrived about 9:30 Thursday morning (May 8) at London Heathrow Airport. Both Jeannie and I slept little on the plane, partly because of people coughing or babies crying (standard fare), but more so because of the compact space you have. When you board the plane they make you walk through business class and sometimes first class to make you think, next time maybe I’ll do that – then you find out how much it costs!!

We arrived by bus at Oxford around 12:30 and walked the short distance to Regent’s Park College where we will be staying. Regent’s Park is a Baptist College in the Oxford University system and so the dining hall is Helwys Hall and we are staying in the H. Wheeler Robinson apartment. More about who those two are later, but suffice it to say that we are surrounded by Baptist history and even more than that the broader history of those who believed in the cause of Christ at a level many of us have never even considered. Right across the street from our apartment is a monument to the Oxford martyrs – Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley, and Thomas Cranmer – who were burned at the stake in that very place in 1555. Why? Because they disagreed with the church at Rome on salvation by faith alone and because they believed that the Bible should be translated into English. It makes me wonder what I would be willing to die for. Do I hold any convictions so deeply that I would refuse to deny them even while being burned alive? That’s pretty serious!

I hope to be inspired by such historic commitment and deepen my conviction of what is worth giving my life for – whether God asks for it in a dramatic fashion, or whether He asks for it a little bit at a time. For most of us that is the commitment God wants, total commitment, given one day, one hour, one minute at a time. That’s pretty hard too.

Tomorrow we learn about getting connected to the college and the university libraries and so on. It has been a long day and we are both tired but grateful to God for this amazing opportunity. May we be good stewards of what we’ve been given.

We are in an apartment just around the corner from the Eagle and Child - the pub where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkein met to read their stories to each other and exchange comments. It is the place where Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia were created! The picture shows Jeannie in front.

That's all for now!