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.

Off the Round-a-bouts and Into the Countryside

What happened to the past 2 weeks! The last time I sat down here to write was the middle of February and now it is March. The old saying that “March blows in like a lion” must have come from England (as did most things in America) because we had a couple of days last week that made us wonder if we’d been magically transported back to West Texas. Oh, yes, the wind can definitely blow in England, but with it comes blowing drizzle and it’s truly a dreadful combination. We even had to laugh at a weather forecaster last Friday who reported that the forecast was so depressing for Sunday that he just wasn’t even going to tell us about it. The last 2 days have been absolutely glorious – brilliant blue skies, 50 degrees, flowers popping out everywhere you look. We are anxiously awaiting the springtime because everyone here gets so excited about it.


We are continuing to have 25+ Mums at Mums & Tots each week and our March meeting of Dads & Tots is just around the corner on March 13. We are in hopes of seeing many of the same young men back for the next one. We have moved into a Bible Study focused on the Lent season. Lent is a really big deal in England probably because of the overarching influence of the Church of England. So, we have joined in that observance and have begun to wonder why we don’t actively observe Lent in the U.S. What more important holiday is there in our Christian faith than the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Christ! What other faith that can boast of the power of a Risen Lord! We are looking forward to the corporate observance of Lent by all of the churches in Witney and Ducklington on Good Friday on the village green.

Last Thursday we were invited to drive about 1½ hours north of here to Henley-in-Arden where another interim pastor is serving in a small church in that community. Travel is still a bit daunting to say the very least, but we pulled out the maps and mustered all our courage to make the trip. We decided that the quickest way to get there was to drive over toward Oxford and connect with the M40 which is a very major “dual carriageway” going north. The M40 is like a 6 lane Interstate highway. It was 70 mph all the way with people flying around us at speeds far exceeding the posted limit. We were on the M40 for about 30 minutes before we reached the exit that would take us through the countryside to Henley-in-Arden.


Round-a-bouts continue to be a terrifying experience but we have discovered something more terrifying than a round-a-bout. That would be exiting off of a major highway and finding that you have exited into a round-a-bout. But the story doesn’t stop there. This particular round-a-bout had 3 lanes and they were all under construction. As Dennis drove round and round the round-a-bout, I attempted to read the signs for the 5 (YES, 5) exits off of that round-a-bout. It seemed that all of the roads entering and exiting out of this round-a-bout were also under construction. Finally, in the interest of time (we drove all the way around it at least 2 times) and being a bit dizzy, we decided to just take an exit that would send us in the general direction of Henley and then we would deal with it once we were off the round-a-bout. We traveled about 300 yards down the highway when I determined that we should find the next right turn and head through the countryside.

Dennis made the turn and we found ourselves traveling down a single lane road surrounded by beautiful hedges and peaceful green fields filled with fluffy white sheep. After passing through 2 or 3 very picturesque villages we came to a cross roads where a sign pointed the way to Henley-in-Arden. We arrived right on time at the home of Jim and Carole Fox (Jim and Carole are from Los Cruses, NM) and had a wonderful visit with them sharing this interesting adventure with American Interim Pastors. As we left their house that afternoon, we determined that we were not going back by way of the M40. We would take the country roads.

I must tell you that my purpose for telling that long tale is really a spiritual one. We have been in the UK now for a little over 6 weeks. When we arrived in mid-January, we “hit the ground running” and had visions of meeting all of our neighbors and seeing them one by one come to Christ and join our little Ducklington Baptist Church. Every time we heard a voice in the street or noticed someone walking by our house, we would find an excuse to go outside and meet them. By the end of our first month, we knew most of our neighbors on a first name basis. In Frank Peretti’s book, The Visitation, he tells of a young pastor who began pastoring a dying church in a small town in the Midwest. The former pastor was retired but still attended the church. The young pastor exuberantly told the old pastor that “We’re going to take this town for Jesus” to which the old pastor replied calmly, “Son, even Jesus didn’t ever take a town for Jesus.” While that’s kind of a funny exchange, it’s not so far from our original thoughts about the little village of Ducklington. These folks need Jesus and we were coming here to tell ‘em about Him, right? Well, yes, if the opportunity affords itself. However, mostly, we have discovered that just as driving the M40 caused us to miss the beauty of the English countryside and ended up being quite stressful, our constant hurrying and rushing around to meet everyone and trying to figure out some way to get our little church in their field of vision was actually a hindrance to showing them their greatest need. What they need is for us to live among them, get to know them, and allow the Holy Spirit to open their hearts to our message and the peace and joy that we experience as His children. We needed to settle in and make some deeper friendships, enjoy their unique style of life, wait for the Lord to bring about those spiritual conversations, and grow to love these wonderful people that God has placed us in the midst of.


So, I’m posting several pictures of what we see when we get off the highways and drive down those wandering lanes through the villages and along the rivers and across this gorgeous country. Everywhere we’ve stopped we’ve met people who are talkative and gracious and helpful and inquisitive about who we are and why we are here. Each and every time that we just take a deep breath and see these as God’s moments and not ours, we come away with the realization that this truly is God’s mission, not ours. It is His work, not ours. He has called us to tend a sweet little flock of folks who have faithfully persevered and are hopeful that the Lord will revive their little church. They are diligent to attend our Wednesday prayer times and those times have been rich with intercession for God’s Kingdom work. Those who cannot attend because of health reasons have assured us that while we are praying in groups, they are praying individually for the work of the Holy Spirit in this village. Many of them have been faithfully serving the Lord for much, much longer than we have been alive. They have witnessed the decline of church attendance in the UK yet remain hopeful that just as God sent revival to the country of England in the 19th century, He can do it again. We stand with them in asking the Lord for His favor and for a harvest and thanking Him for allowing us a small part in what He is doing here.


Hope you've enjoyed the pictures! And we pray that you too will slow down an enjoy the beauty of the moments God gives you. All of life is in His Sovereign control. Dennis' message this past Sunday was from John 17. God is the One who draws men to Himself. We must be so careful that we are not flying down the "dual carriageways" of life and miss our opportunity to be the one who brings them the Good News. Enjoy the countryside. It's much more beautiful there!