The Blogging Begins

We left Westerville on the morning of September 1 to come to a place that four of the five of us had never seen before.  Friends and family had been working tirelessly for days and weeks helping us to get ready for this moment.  Collecting suitcases, finding boxes, packing, crying, getting passports and visas, making phone calls, food runs, finding a good home for our dog, putting the house on the market, cleaning, painting walls, “packing the POD parties”, selling cars, buying plane tickets, looking for a new home, raising support, saying many tough good-byes to family and friends, and crying some more.

Jeff's acceptance into the RZIM program through Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University came on June 2, 2011.  Believing that the Lord had put this dream in our hearts to follow Him into the wild unknown is what propelled us through the next days and weeks.  God’s hand provided in miraculous ways, opening doors and confirming His call.  A dear friend wrote this two and a half weeks before our departure date:  “As I was praying for you guys the other day, I had a picture in my mind of a train moving quickly ahead and a track already put together was being rolled out just in front of it--like God has it all planned out but He kind of just makes the way just a little in front of where you are.  It seems a little scary that way, but He really does have it all under control, and He really is taking care of everything, so you can move ahead in confidence even if you can't see very far ahead.”  This explained exactly how things seemed, and we took great comfort knowing that God was taking care of the myriad of details that needed attention.  There is no way we could have done all that needed done in such a short period of time without God making the way for us.  

The morning of September 1 was filled with moments that no amount of planning could have truly prepared us for.  We woke up early and got ready in our nearly empty home (some very dear friends came later that day to pack up our beds and remaining boxes), took a long look at our house and the beautiful, quiet street and pulled away in the van that would only be ours for another 27 minutes.  We pulled into the parking garage at the airport and handed over our van keys to the new owner who met us there to drive it away.  Precious friends met us inside with suitcases and smiles.   I believe God knew we needed friends around us right up until the end.  Eddie, the Delta employee who helped us get checked in, gave each of them a badge to go all the way to the gate with us.  They hugged us and loved on us, bought us all Starbucks and prayed God’s peace on us.  What a gift.  

We boarded the plane and began the long journey to Oxford, England, the place we would call home for the next year.  What a strange feeling it was to be soaring through the air to a faraway country with just a few of our belongings and each other.  We had left everything familiar and weren’t even sure where we were going.  Talk about scary!  We prayed inwardly and constantly for God to give us strength and comfort, and to help us to help our kids, though we felt much like kids ourselves.  We were comforted just by having each other, knowing we were all in this together.

We arrived in London in the early morning of September 2 with seemingly thousands of other people.  Five very tired and nearly delirious Blackburn’s, with 10 of our 21 bags. stood in very narrow and winding immigration lines for a couple of hours, which felt more like an entire day.  We collected our 11 large suitcases and made the trek upstairs to be dumped out on the streets of London where we hoped to find a bus that would get us and all of our things to our new unseen home.  We had been told that it would not be a problem getting a bus as people coming to University did this all the time.  But the fact that there were 5 of us and a bazillion bags meant that was no longer an option.  Taking a taxi would mean $450-$700 because we would have had to take 2 or 3 over quite a long distance.  The only other idea given to us was to rent a full-size bus.  We thought the man was joking, but realized he wasn’t.  Instead, Jeff spoke with a man at the airport information booth who was just as perplexed as we were.  After thinking for a minute, he made a phone call and told us someone would be here to pick us up soon and take us to Oxford for $150.  We thought it might be too good to be true, but as promised, Abdul showed up in his large Mercedes Van and an hour and a half later dropped us all off in the driveway of our new home.  Though tipping is not customary here, we tipped him pretty decently, as it appeared that he was not aware of what he was getting himself into with us.  (The keys to our home had been carefully placed inside one of Oxford’s colleges and none of us knew where we were going, as the maps were buried deep in one of the suitcases.  Abdul patiently drove us around until we found the keys to our home.  Think 5 sleep-walking Blackburns giving directions to a driver who barely speaks english, doesn’t know the roads of Oxford and we didn’t know where we were trying to tell him to go.  Not sure what number this would be, but it is somewhere on the list of miracles that got us here.)

We dropped all the suitcases into the living room and collapsed on top of them.  After looking around the house for a bit we did the only thing we knew to do and left to go into the City Centre to get food.  We decided to go for something safe and chose Pizza Hut.  Our kind waiter told us he liked our American accents and told us we sounded peaceful.  Take that in people.... peaceful.  Since when have  you thought of the Blackburn 5 as sounding peaceful?  I think we were just so tired we couldn’t raise
our voices.  The past 2 months have been an emotional roller-coaster...probably more to do with the unknowns and things missed from home than any one event we’ve encountered here.

Simple things like opening a bank account took weeks.  Learning and navigating bus routes is a continuing lesson. Riding bikes (2 feet away) next to those same buses on the street is still something we are trying to get used to.  Grocery shopping is interesting to say the least.  

Getting everyone in school has been an amazing adventure in itself.  The short version is that Olivia and Luke just started at a new school this past week.  Yes, that would be their second school here in Oxford.  The story deserves a blog post of it’s own in the future...let’s just say it involved us going through an appeal process with the city council that was comparable to a court hearing.  We are so thankful that is behind us and look forward to a much better school experience for them.

Jeff is fully immersed in school now and really enjoying all that he is learning.  His biggest challenge is balancing the school work with the rest of the changes we are navigating here.  He has classmates from all over the world and loves hearing the stories of other people’s journeys following after Jesus.  To date, his most interesting lectures have been under John Lennox as they study the convergence of science and religion.  

Well, that’s probably enough reading for one sitting.  We are excited to finally have the blog up and running and will try to share things in bits and pieces in the upcoming days and weeks.

It’s hard to put in words how much we care for and miss so many of our family and friends, but we find our comfort in the confidence that we have in God’s call for us to be here.  It will be exciting to see how this year develops and unfolds.

Thanks for joining us in the journey!

(p.s.  below is a picture of our first official 'fish and chips' dinner in Woodstock.  Note to self:  Prepare the kids for the fact that the 'skin' is left on the fried fish here! :)