Happy Thanksgiving everyone! While you are all settling down to a nice, filling, American-style meal, my fellow ex-patriots and I shall be attending lectures, researching and writing papers, and meeting with our professors. Not to worry though, our Thanksgiving has just been moved to Saturday instead. I'll let you know how it all turns out. I'm in charge of getting the turkeys carved on Friday night, and, for some unknown reason, they've decided to put me in charge of an afternoon football game. I tried to explain what "football" meant to me, but nonetheless I will attempt to organize the 'american-style,' as they put it, as best I can. By the way, the picture is my attempt at photographic-art... its the Bodliean Library at Night (5pm)...

There's not much to report, as usual. I just worked on papers all week. One on the historian Thomas Babington Macaulay (what a cool British middle name), and the other on the doctrine of the atonement. They were both great fun, and the Macaulay paper I presented last night. My tutor was impressed and I think it was actually one of my best papers so far. The question for that essay, and the one he just assigned me, also on Macaulay, were dreadfully easy. They have turned out to be simple "YES or NO" questions... well goodness, how do you say "yes" in 2,000 words?... I'm training myself to be efficient with my words.

The atonement paper was loads of fun. Its not as well written on paper, but the truths of it have be written on my heart. Mostly it seems that theological philosophers tend to abandon most elements that make God or Christ recognizable, and they tend to latch on to a single truth and then explain it to death as the "only reasonable understanding." This seems to have happened with the doctrine of the atonement. There are gobs of theories, each one focusing on one aspect of the idea, and for that reason incomplete... which spurs some other philosopher to develop a newer theory which deals with the problems but falls into the same illness.

For example, there is a theory that the atonement is all about Jesus defeating the evil powers and principalities of this world through his perfect life and innocent death under their hands. Another, suggests that Jesus is the sacrificial lamb which satisfies God's desires for justice. Another theory is that Christ's death pays off a debt we owe God. Yet another stands on the atonement as God opening the door for us to be reconciled with him. The problem is that all of these theories compete against one another, and I think they all have truth in them. It doesn't make sense to me why we would put God into our box of atonement and say, "it means this 100%." It seems perfectly reasonable to me that God used Christ's death to accomplish many things... conquering evil, paying off our debt and releasing us from punishment by claiming Christ as our perfect sacrifice, all for the purpose of becoming reconciled with God, because of His love and grace. So it was a fun paper.

Today, my lady-friend Shelby is flying into Britain. Her father work for United Airlines, and she's wanted to come to England for a long time, and what better time than when you know someone here, right? She'll celebrate Thanksgiving here with us, and then we'll spend a day in London. It ought to be a lot of fun, and I think she'll really like the people here... I sure do.

On that note, let me tell a quick story about my friend Adam's birthday. Adam turned 22 a few days ago, and at midnight, we decided to throw a big jamboree... We all had work to do, but how often do you really get to hang out with brilliant great friends? We decided to cook-up all the meat we had, and feast ourselves upon a manly meal. The result was a sausage, bacon, hamburger birthday cake, with potatoes, and fried vegetables. We completed this endeavor by 2am, and proceeded to watch the Shawshank redemption. It seemed like the guy thing to do. It was a ton of fun. A bunch of college guys, hanging out. It was a blast, and made me miss my friends, but happy to have added these guys to that list. Here's the video.


Happy Thanksgiving!

Finally had a night where I didn't have to stay up writing or researching... couldn't sleep anyway. My sleeping cycle is destroyed. Thankfully I saw something amazing in my insomnia. I live at the top of Headington Hill just outside Oxford city. Tonight, there was not a cloud in the sky until a thick fog rolled into town, but it enveloped Oxford first before rising up the hill. In those brief moments before it engulfed the house the fog actually smothered the ambient light from the city. For the first time in England, I saw the stars. They were just how I'd left them back in Kansas.

I know it may sound really cheesy and poetic, but it was a nice little moment for me. Goodnight. No pictures or video updates for tonight... go to bed! Although I hope you do enjoy the new Tabor inspired color (colour) scheme.

Alright team, round two... if you don't know what I'm talking about, read the blog below, I've split today's entry into academic (below) and social news. So here's been my social life the past week. Due to the fact that I finally feel comfortable with my work load (which will only last this and next week due to my long essay's immanent demand on my time) I've been able to branch out a little more with my social life.

Last week, Elaine, Johanna, Katie, and I made it to a salsa dance class that goes on in Oxford every Thursday night. I'm really bad at dancing and salsa dancing especially but I had a blast. Its sort of like swing dancing but different in a lot of respects. I'm sure if I could tell you what those differences were then I would have made a better salsa dancer, but sadly, I cannot. Whatever the case, we all had a blast and decided to continue our dance fever, but we're hoping to find a swing dance going on in Oxford, because we all felt that would be more our style. Don't fret Tabor, this dance was far off campus... and the next one I attend probably will be too.

Last Wednesday I attended an Oxford Men's Volleyball game and also an Oxford Men's Water polo match. My friend Scott plays Vollyball for Oxford, while Nick who went to Ireland with me, plays Water Polo for the Blues as well. The Blues (Oxford) won both! In fact, our water polo team is quite good. We stomped (and splashed) them good. In Volleyball we played Nottingham University, they were green, which I thought was appropraite. But I can't remember who our Water polo opponent was, and I wasn't allowed to take pictures so sadly I have none of the water polo match, but this is Alyssa, Matt, Joe, and I watching Volleyball.

Those were great fun, and since this has been my off week with papers, I've been able to sit in on discussions, and even catch a few movie nights with people. Its been a lot of fun. This picture is from Salsa night... Katie tried to teach me how to dance, and I tried to teach her how to take an intense picture... one of us was successful.

Like I said in the previous post (which is below this one) I recently wrote a paper on the Incarnation, which really put me in the Christmas mood. England doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, which means there's no buffer holiday between Halloween and Christmas. Many decorations are going up and songs are beginning to surface. I too, feel the yule-tide spirit. As a result I've been listening to Christmas music. There are four songs that encompass Christmas to me:
1.) Stille Nacht (Silent Night)
2.)Shchedryk (Carol of the Bells)
3.) Oh Come Emmanuel
----and----
4.) O Holy Night

Well, I've found possibly my favorite version of O Holy Night, as performed by Seven Day Jesus. Their version seems to perfectly encompass what the message of the song is by taking a different approach to the line "fall on your knees, O hear the angels singing." Instead of building up, as voices typically tend to do in this section, the music cuts and we are left with an accappella approach which seems to fit perfectly. I love it. If your computer has Flash player 9, check out this song:

http://scottsmall.vox.com/library/audio/6a00ccff9823396ea500cdf3a6a499cb8f.html

Life is going great. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers and for reading along. Praise the Lord, go Bluejays, go out and serve.

This video is a continuation from the video below. It too is riding through the same park on the ride home, but I take a quick right to head towards my house... be ready.

I guess its been about a week since I last posted. Its amazing how fast life goes. Oxford is really becoming normal to me... 10 page papers, two a week... lectures, and tutorials are normal to me now. I'm no longer nervous to meet or discuss my thoughts. In fact, I really enjoy it. Its sad for me that I've only got another 3 weeks to go... that's no time at all. Although I do miss home and family a lot, I already foresee how difficult the transition will be back to the colonies.

This past week went amazingly well! I met with my primary tutor in Historiography. We discussed the life and history of Edward Gibbon. Gibbon was an English historian in the 18th century who was the first real modern historian. He valued truth, impartiality, and accuracy above all else. Which is exactly the attitude needed for the study of history. If that weren't enough he added style, making history a narrative instead of just a list of dates. He observed the reason why Rome fell, in fact his famous seven volume work is called The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Its an amazing piece of history and personally quickly making Gibbon one of my favorite historians.

Gibbon faced a lot of criticism for his work however because he pointed out that the decline and fall of the Roman Empire was partly the fault of Christianity. Many people, maybe even yourselves, argue this position, but I, for one, absolutely see where he's coming from. Gibbon was writing history, not a commentary on our faith, even though many take this as a direct attack on Christianity. Mostly, I view it as a compliment to our religion. Christianity is an empire toppling set of beliefs. When properly applied to any system of government it will inevitably eat away at that structure. Gibbon pointed out, and I agree, that Christianity placed in the hearts and minds of its true followers a belief that there was something more important than empire, and beyond the scope of territory and personal honor. He's absolutely right, and after 1000 years of that, the empire simply didn't have to survive for Christians. As a result, when the barbarians finally invaded there was not the same sort of dire feeling to maintain the glory and grandure of Rome... by this time people were more concerned about their individual city or nation-states... which coincidently is still where we are today.

In any event, it was a great study, I really enjoyed, and I like Gibbon. My tutor greatly complimented my thoughts up to this point as well. Here at Oxford, grades are levied in the same way that music scores are awarded in the states... not in A,B,C,D, or Fs but in I,II,III,IV. Students take exams at their schools and undergraduates typically receive no higher than IIs. However, my tutor seems to believe that my work is of I quality. This was a real boost to my ego (which I suppose as a fifth year Tabor student it ought to be of that quality). Needless to say, Tabor College does a great job preparing you for the world and even for higher education.

I also had an amazing time in my secondary tutorial. I've actually dreaded it since my first meeting when I really got stomped, but the second meeting had gone better. Well, I have continued that upward climb. This past week I wrote a paper on the Incarnation of God in the person of Jesus Christ... it was amazingly fun and it really put me in the mood for Christmas. While my past papers have been based mainly on philosophers, this was the first time I could really bat around scripture, and Gospel scripture at that. Many thoughts on the incarnation come from th Gospel of John and thanks to Del Gray, Lynn Jost, Dad, Caleb Stanton and Sam Flaming I feel like I have a good grasp of the gospels.


It was great, I actually could argue and refute some of my tutors arguments. I was much more prepared and confident. She levied an argument and I was able to refute, "It doesn't seem like John, in any part of his gospel, suggests that line of thinking. It is much more likely he is intending this..." It was awesome. Basically here's the point; the gospels are full of hints that Jesus and God are the same, you just need to look for them. Like when Jesus refers to himself as "I AM"... over 30 times in John alone. Its amazing, but our English translations don't always make the transition. For example, Jesus walking on water scares the disciples and the ask, "Who is that walking on the water?" Jesus replies, "It is I" (English) but the Greek actually says, "I AM"

Anyway, this is becoming a very long entry, and I have much more to tell, so I'll split it up into two sections.

Today's video is from my bike ride home a few days ago. This is the route through a park I take to get to my house... this is only at the bottom of the hill however, and about a half mile from my house.

The past week has been a blur. I've been quickly readjusting to England life and times. Sadly with the latitude at which we live, combined with daylight savings time, it begins to get dark at about 5pm and by the end of term that will be closer to 4pm... its kinda crazy. The first day I was back, I finally made it to the house at 8am, and fell asleep, I woke up at 3:30pm, and saw the sunset. It was a gloomy feeling that I had only been in about 2 hours of sunlight that first day. But, I'm adjusting.

Its finally fall here, and by that I mean that quickly the trees have turned and begun to lose their leaves. I think that due to the near constant moisture in England, trees retain their leaves until the last possible moment, then they quickly turn and drop. The parks that I ride my bike through are beautiful during this time, and that is what the picture for this post is all about. This picture was taken as I was riding my bike home.

We threw a Fancy Dress and Talent Show/Open Mic night at the house for the entire program. There were about 50 people who showed up and around 15 acts that performed. It was a great time, there were original acts of poetry, short stories, comedy acts, dance routines, and many songs both original and covers. It was a great night. Adam Graham and I were the Emcees (MCs) for the night, and since it was so close to Halloween I decided to dress up a Dwight K. Schrute, a character from the widely popular American tv show, The Office.

For those of you who didn't know, I'm a member of my college's Student Senate, called the Junior Common Room (JCR). During the election we were all allowed the chance to give a two minute speech, and I chose to copy a speech given by Dwight Schrute in an Office episode, people loved it, and although I shouldn't have been elected as a result of it, apparently they elect people to control here in England on about the same amount of credibility as we do in the states. Oh well. But I thought it would be fitting for me to dress up as the character that got me elected.



Along with that, the JCR served crepes (Russian Pancakes) to the assembly. We provided about 100 crepes (2 a person) along with a wide array of toppings, such as peaches and brown sugar, nutella, cranberry and chocolate, pineapple and lemon butter, ect... it was glorious. But as a result they needed someone to make the crepes (Russian Pancakes) and thanks to Grandma Lil, there was a Voth who knew how. So for two hours before the program I cooked 100 crepes, 75 normal, but also 25 chocolate crepes. It was a lot of work, but worth it. Thanks Grandma, we made a lot of people happy and full.

I'm writing two papers this weekend. The first is on the first true modern historian, Edward Gibbon, who wrote in the 18th century about the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. He is the primary reason why historians tend to focus more on distant events than recent events, as well as adding a narrative feel to history. Which is kinda interesting... and he's a fun historian. He's entertaining.

But for the first time, the paper that I'm really enjoying is my philosophy paper. Its about the incarnation of God in the Christ Jesus. I've had a lot of fun reading the philosophy of the incarnation, and for once reading the philosophy has actually brought me closer to Christ. Its also turned my attention towards Christmas, which here in England starts after Halloween because there is no Thanksgiving to buffer it. So I started listening to Christmas music today along with most of the house. I feel this is appropriate due to the fact that I will miss out on much of the Christmas spirit that I've become so accustom to in the colonies. Therefore, since I can't have the quality Christmas I'm used to, I will at least start early and get quantity.

Tomorrow is 407th anniversary of Guy Fawkes treason...
This is the history as recalled by Johnathan Kirkpatrick, Oxford tutor extraordinar:

We are celebrating one of the great non-events of English history, the failure of Guy Fawkes to blow up king and parliament in 1605. He was apprehended on the night of 4th November as he watched over nearly a ton of gunpowder stashed in subterranean Westminster, and now we English regularly and ritually rejoice to burn the man in effigy, year in, year out. Most passionate in this respect is the staid town of Lewes in southern England; here torch-lit processions escort the effigies of not only Guy Fawkes but also Pope Paul V to a fiery doom, along with optional extra effigies of anybody the good townspeople of Lewes feel is particularly deserving that year.

Remember Remember the 5th of November
The Gun Powder Treason and Plot.
I know of no reason,
Why the Gunpowder treason,
Should ever be forgot.

Pretty interesting huh? As a result, for the past five days fireworks have been going off every night all over England and Oxford... even as late as 3am. Tomorrow should be an interesting day.

The video for today is a street musician I saw walking down Cornmarket Street. He had an amazing device which he peddled that played the guitar, while he fiddled. The contraption was so elaborate, playing different strum patterns, and chords that it attracted the attention of almost every passer-by. I am standing among a crowd of about 30 people circled around, paying more attention to the device than the music, nonetheless, paying the musician for his ingenious machine. Enjoy... try to figure out what's going on.

It has been a hectic past two weeks. I've had the normal routine of papers, but I also had the pedal fall off my bike, which severely limited my transportation. And I actually flew back to the United States to take part in my grandfather Denys' funeral. It was a beautiful funeral and I was so blessed to be able to make it back, see family, connect with friends and great-aunts and great-uncles, and say goodbye to Grandpa. Thanks especially to you for your prayers and encouragement for me and my family through this time. I also want to deeply thank Robert Miller, Shelby's dad, who arranged for me to fly home and back on such short notice affordebly. Thank you.

I also got to see the entire Voth family, for a short moment. They gave up their saturday morning to come to the funeral and that meant so much to me and I felt so loved and blessed to have such an amazing family. I'm sorry guys I didn't get more time with you. I was also blessed to make it to Tabor and connect with tabor friends. It was a valuable weekend in every way.

Since then, however, I've really been scrambling. I had a paper due, the day after I returned. But thankfully I got it done. I've since, fixed my bike, restocked my gorcieries, returned checked out books, and begun my next papers. However, I'm still trying to retrieve a bag that was delayed by the airport. There is so much to report, and the week feels like such a dream.

I don't know what else to say, I'm just trying to collect my thoughts and get back into the swing of life at Oxford. Tonight I'll catch up on sleep, and then I should be back in the groove. I've got a soccer game tomorrow, and I'm Emceeing a Halloween/ Fall Festival party on Friday, so it all should be a fun weekend.

Oh yeah, I also got an email from Dr. Jules Glanzer, Tabor College's next president. He seems like an incredible guy. It was so nice that he would take the time to talk to me, so that was an encouraging interchange.

I have also had contact with Dr. Timothy Richmond. Tabor College's next science professor. He is spending a year working in Belgium through a fellowship. He and his family will be coming through Oxford to visit a friend over Thanksgiving. So I'll be seeing Tabor people sooner than I thought. I'm really looking forward to it. I also hope to visit him in Belgium as I pass through on my post-Oxford Europe trip. You can see his experience at

http://oneyearinleuven.blogspot.com/

The picture is from the British War Museum and is a peice of the Berlin Wall. I thought it was especially poignant to be outside the entrance to the museum. In fact, I think the British intended this message.

Today was some what adventurous. I reffed an Oxford women's soccer game between Queens College and some other team... thankfully, these teams were in a lower league within the University so we didn't take it too seriously. I let a lot of things go, and I can think of at least five calls that I just missed... but otherwise I think I called a fair game. I hope my parents would be proud. So I was happy with how it turned out. I've actually got some things done today as well. Also an interesting aspect of life that happened today was the finals of the Rugby World Cup in which England participated. So all over town tonight, its been a crazy frenzy of English patriotism and celebration. I don't know quite how the game turned out, I was planning on going to watch it with the Englishmen, but we were dissuaded by the fact that the game would only be played in pubs, and in the event that England lost, it could get pretty crazy... I was a little disappointed, but I trust the advice of those who've done this all before. I'll let you know what happened tomorrow.

But let me tell you about my incredible day on Thursday. (This is another exerp from an email home)

I actually woke up at a reasonable time, I didn't feel rushed, we had a group lecture (for the whole program) today that was one of the strongest most Christ-like messages I've heard in a long time. He was one of the foremost economists in the world in fact, this guy David Hays has such an impressive resume that he was the Assistant-Chancellor of Oxford University... needless to say this guy is a big deal. He came in to speak about Christian Economics and how can a Christian interact with economics... are they opposed to one another... it was incredible. He looked at Old Testament theology on wealth, poverty, and accumulation... and he hit a home run. It was the academic equivilent of seeing Babe Ruth point out where he was going to hit the game winning home run. He answered every question right dead on with God's message... we have to find "enough" not pursue all we can get... Christianity is incompatible with unrestricted capitalism, ect... we have a responsibility to see the poor provided for.. ect it was awesome!!!

One guy asked this economist a series of questions trying to cut himself some breathing room. "What if God just blesses you with the ability to make money? Is that wrong?" he asked. "No absolutely not," Dr, Hays replied, "This is about Stewardship... its not a matter that you may be blessed with the ability to generate wealth. This is a matter of how you spend that wealth, is it only on yourself, do you invest in companies that pollute, or oppress workers and so on, or do you spend your wealth in bringing up the weak and poor and like minded companies?" To which the kid said, "Well then how can you become a savvy investor if you are limited in the companies you invest it? How can you get rich otherwise?" Which we were all shocked at his shortsightedness and wanted to say, "THAT'S NOT THE GOAL!!!" but then he went on to ask, "Can't you enjoy the nice things in life if you have the resources? Can't I own my Royals Royce and have three houses if God's blessed me with the funds to do it?" And then Dr, Hays gave the purest response I've ever heard, "No." It was so straightforward, from one of the leading economists in the world! It was glorious. Anyway, his entire message rekindled the fire in me... which I needed.

Then I went from there and joined up with the Queens College/Wycliffe Soccer team. We have a game tomorrow, I should see the second half. Then I was discussing my soccer experience and it was overheard by an athletic director here at the University. She hired me to assistant referee a Queen's College Girls Soccer Match on Saturday. So that felt good to the old ego.

Then to finish out the day I went to my primary tutorial... which last week I got through okay but only because I bunted a lot of his questions, well not today. Today I swung and hit some real homeruns and zingers. I was prepared and organized and educated... I did real well. Last time I felt 35% prepared and lucked out 40% more so I felt about 75% successful... today I knew 75% and lucked out on maybe 15% I felt really well. It was a great day!

As you can see some of those events has since transpired, but it was an amazing day. It really reinvigorated me. In fact, one of my three assignments for this next week just got completed. However, I've been thinking a lot of my family lately. My Grandfather Denys, who I know has been following these blogs, has been a pillar for my family, and I know it has been difficult for us all as his time with us has been running out. If you're still listening to these words grandpa, I want to tell you that:

"Thank you for always supporting me... and I always wanted to make you proud when I ran hurdles. Thanks for always seeing me through to the finish line. Thanks for all the magic... thanks for the smiles... thanks for the tears, those were always special to me... I love you very much. This is what Jesus told his disciples: "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going." John 14:1-4