'Hermits United' in Edinburgh

As part of my doctoral program, I am strongly encouraged to participate in a 'community of scholars' directly engaged in my particular field of study. Not only does this present an important opportunity for professional networking, but also contributes to a healthy balance in the otherwise rather isolated life of a full-time scholar.

'Hermits United', though, would be a good way of describing it. This week, I attended the Ecclesiastical History Society conference on 'Church and Empire' in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was a highly enjoyable time of meeting other scholars studying various aspects of Christian history. I presented a paper that formed part of a recent chapter in my thesis, and got a positive response from the eighteen or so experts and research students in the room. Timothy Barnes, whom I consider the top person in the field of study related to the Roman emperor Constantine, sat in as a guest and listened to my presentation. I had earlier learned that, although retired, he held an honorary professorship at the University of Edinburgh, so I leapt at the opportunity to invite him to hear my presentation. Meeting someone whose work I admire a great deal was easily the highlight for me.

I also unexpectedly had the opportunity to represent and explain the Church of the Nazarene to several others attending the conference. I had the pleasure of seeing a couple guys I had connected with earlier this year in Cambridge: one of them an Anglican priest, and the other an atheist studying Welsh poetry who is nevertheless friendly toward Christianity. I also met a Roman Catholic priest from Washington, DC, an evangelical youth-worker from Australia, and a pair of Russian Orthodox scholars, an Italian from Milan who is doing a Ph.D. in a second language at the University of Nottingham, and a self-described 'radical political theologian' whose worldview, except for our shared Christian faith, is almost completely different than my own. Finally, I met another high-calibre historian of late antiquity, Gillian Clark, whose grandmotherly demeanor and smooth aristocratic accent immediately won my heart.

I intended to advertise myself as connected with the University of Manchester, thinking it quite likely no one knew or cared about Nazarene Theological College. However, my name-tag said 'Nazarene Theological College' anyway. It was actually quite the conversation starter! Quite a number of people -- including the above individuals -- asked about the college and the Church of the Nazarene. Most had already heard either of the college or the denomination, and had very positive things to say. This was also a top highlight, explaining briefly and simply our denomination's 'place' in the body of Christ as related to our history and our emphasis on holiness.

Our travels often present us with opportunities to explain some aspect of our faith to people we happen to meet. In the UK, it is most often our American accents that start conversations: 'You're not from around here, are you?' is often followed by 'What are you doing in the UK?' We go on to explain her job, my research, and the church connection immediately gets inserted with those. People are almost always interested in hearing a bit more. Gina also had a similar conversation with the young lady who hosted us in her home for the week: she's a rather talented visual and performance artist, and has a general interest in and respect for all religions but self-identifies with none in particular. These personal conversations do not immediately result in any conversions: however, we do believe that, in such moments, we are part of perhaps a long 'chain' of people in someone's life through whom God reveals his love to people. We believe that if someone is having a positive interaction with us on any subject relating to Christ, the chances are high that their hearts will be drawn closer to him in the process.

Many of these people we have met, we may never see again. But we crossed paths once. We pray we will be able to do so again in God's kingdom.

Squirrel War of 2016

While other friends were relocating to Africa as missionaries, where they would post photos on social media of monkeys or other undomesticated creatures that managed to sneak inside their homes, we didn't think we had to worry about such things when we moved to England.

We were wrong.

The squirrels in Didsbury are quite aggressive. We have been told they're actually American grey squirrels that somehow got to England, bred out of control and dominated the native red squirrels to near extinction.

Anyway, we have a top floor, one-room studio apartment on the campus of Nazarene Theological College. We're actually in the undergraduate dormitory, where Andrew serves as the resident assistant for all the students living on campus. When we first arrived, there were warning signs posted throughout the building about invasive squirrels. We thought it was a joke.

Each summer we battle the invasions of the squirrels, competing with us for the food in our own kitchen. I feel truly sorry for those little red squirrels.

In Europe, most residents do not have screens on their windows. If it's hot or you want fresh air, you open your window wide and there's nothing standing between you and whatever is out there, waiting to come in. My biggest concerns is usually about mosquitoes and spiders. There have been few of those. But the squirrels are another thing entirely.

If we open our windows in the summer, because it can get pretty stifling on the top floor on a warm, sunny day, these cunning critters will just come right in. Sometimes they poke their head through to watch and see what we're doing. Once I was exercising vigorously to a video on my computer just a couple of feet from the window and a squirrel peered in and watched me, and even tentatively started putting its paws inside the frame as if testing the boundaries to see what I would do. If we're not looking or we happen to leave for a few minutes, or even go into the bathroom and the squirrels think we're not there, they waltz right in and start finding treats and then hiding them in other places in our flat.

Just last week, we had already been raided 3 times when we accidentally left a window open while we were out. But we thought that it would be OK to have them open overnight to make it more comfortable for sleeping.

At 6:15 a.m., we were violently started awake by a loud noise. We bolted upright and looked around, but could see nothing that had tipped over or was out of place. So, we tried to go back to sleep for a little while longer. Then, Andrew heard something and looked over to see a squirrel standing on our kitchen table. He leaped up to shoo it away, but in the blink of an eye, it had vanished. We looked around for a while, and then finally peered behind a large piece of furniture and saw a bushy tail in the shadows. We opened a kitchen window and then moved the furniture to prompt the squirrel out. The squirrel leaped on the table again and then jumped out the window.

Other incidents involve squirrels finding my hidden bag of chocolate under my side of the bed and hiding truffles and other pieces of chocolate around our apartment, I guess to come back and get later. I've found an unwrapped truffle underneath my laundry basket, a small chocolate bar inside a shoe, and strangest, a truffle tucked underneath the corner of the fitted sheet on our bed when I changed the sheets. They also like to eat hamburger buns.

I did try to put up mosquito netting on one window to see what would happen. The squirrel pushed right through it to raid our kitchen once again while Andrew was blissfully unaware, studying on the bed with headphones in, listening to his music. I came back to find crumbs all over the kitchen floor.

Cheeky!

Suffice it to say, this is an unexpected aspect of "missionary life" in England.