What's In a Name?

Nine weeks ago today we were still recovering from jet lag as we walked these streets in awe of our new surroundings. How quickly routine sets in and all that once seemed new and so intriguing becomes so familiar that you hardly notice. A couple of days ago as we walked home from a trip to the grocery store in Witney, we were reminiscing about that first day when David, Janice, Ray and Sue drove us down Witney Road through the heart of Ducklington, Oxfordshire. Even as we slowly made those turns through the village streets, we felt they were driving too fast for us to take it all in. We only got a glimpse of the little chapel that our hearts are now so attached to. My words can hardly describe the feeling that we now get when we walk through those doors and into that room where we worship each Sunday and where all those little children laugh and play on Monday mornings. You have to wonder what those walls would say to us in 2010 as they would recount the past 160 years of standing as a witness to our Lord Jesus in this little village.

Life in the village has changed drastically over the past 20-30 years. Someone told us the other day that where our house now stands was once the village barnyards. I believe they actually used the words “pig pen.” That’s a nice thought, isn’t it? What is now a beautifully designed housing addition (they would use the word “estate”) was once home to the village livestock. The beautiful houses of Cotswold stone that are mixed in around us were once barns. My goodness, what a different just a little patching and cleaning and imagination can do. All of the original village barns, including the old schoolhouse, have been transformed into lovely homes. Some are very small, but quite lovely.

Every home has its own name –


Manor Farm















The Manor Barn















The Church Barn















The Old Farmhouse















Wall stone at The Farmhouse dated May 5, 1682















Old Thatch Barn















The Old Schoolhouse















And some are still barns . . .















9 Bartholomew Close (our house) is Vine Cottage. We have Clematis vines growing all over our garage in our back garden, thus “Vine Cottage.” Somehow every house’s name, as well as most street names, indicates something descriptive about it. Our house in Bartholomew Close is “close” to St. Bartholomew Parish Church. It’s just up Church Street.

















And I can't forget the village neighbors who come to visit . . .















All of this makes me think about the ways God refers to us when He comes in and does that amazing job of cleaning us up by the blood of Christ. We become His Children, called by His Name. Whatever characterized our lives before now looks very different and aren’t we glad? What we were before is now gone, just as the pig pens where our house now sits. Who would ever even think about a pig pen when they drive in front of these beautiful old village homes?

As Dennis prepares for his sermon tomorrow from John 15, I can look out our back door and consider the vines growing on our garage. Right now they look so dead, but as the daffodils around them are beginning to bud and the primrose are starting to open in colors of bright yellow and pink, I know that because those vine branches have remained attached to the old, sturdy vine at the base, it will not be long until they are filled with beautiful white flowers (or so that is what our neighbors are telling us). The same is true of us, as we are attached to The Vine, we will produce beautiful fruit in its season.

As we are now starting our tenth week of ministry here, we are praying and trusting Christ to cause the fruit to grow in season. There is much work that needs to be done to get us ready for what is to come. We are continuing to pray for our own spiritual growth and maturity. We are continuing to ask the Lord for more servants. We need guidance from the Holy Spirit to know how to minister to young families and their children. We are seeking and praying for ways to make this little church more visible within the village and the community of Witney. We all have a deep sense of God’s activity in us and around us. As we remember the things that God has done in our lives since February 2005 when Dennis' job with Ross Labs ended (Or, as the English would say, "made redundant"), and as we listen to the stories told to us by the church members here to bring about their association with American Interim Pastors, we KNOW without a doubt that God is at work in this place. However, at the moment it’s a bit like looking at the back wall of our garden. Nothing seems to be growing there . . . YET! The timing is His. We will "remain in Him” as we wait.

So, for now, we walk the streets and pray and we meet people and pray more. We enjoy looking at the beautiful homes so reminiscent of days gone by. The windows that once framed the faces of horses, sheep and pigs, are now hung with crisp curtains and window boxes planted with spring flowers. What is God’s design for the future of Ducklington Baptist Church? What will it look like when He begins the growth? We pray that soon we will welcome young people and children and those 160 year old walls will turn the page of its old, worn diary and begin a new story of God’s unchanging and steadfast faithfulness to the next generation of villagers.

Thank you for your faithfulness to pray as God continues to transform all of us.