Thank you for praying for the meeting with my supervisor on Wednesday. His feedback was very helpful. Timing-wise, it seems I’m on track!
Please pray for the UK election on Thursday. Along those lines, I’ve just written the following post for the Sola Panel, which should appear online soon (after some minor editing):
I was listening the other day to a satirical comedy show on British Radio. The presenter was making a point about human relationships. The bulk of his satirical piece consisted of a reading from Genesis 2:18-25, in full, from the King James Version of the Bible (“And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him…”). He read it, slowly and theatrically, in a fake American accent. During the reading, the audience laughed uproariously. When the reading was finished, the skit was effectively over. The point was made. The show moved on to the next topic.
What grieved me most about this piece wasn’t the presenter’s viewpoint on the particular issue under discussion. Nor was it even the fact that the Bible was being ridiculed. The saddest part of the skit was the fact that the presenter chose an American accent for his reading of the King James Version of the Bible.
It’s not, I hasten to add, that I’ve got a prejudice against American accents—I myself spoke with a broad Californian twang up to age 4. But why did this English presenter choose an American accent for his Bible reading? The King James Version of the Bible is, after all, a very English product. It was commissioned by a King of England, created by English scholars, and influenced in large part by the English martyr William Tyndale. It is generally regarded as one of the greatest crowning achievements of English literature; some even regard it as the greatest literary work of all time. The presenter could have chosen to read it with a voice sounding like a Shakespearian actor, for example, or an upper-class holier-than-thou bishop. At least, then, his ridicule of the Bible would have had some connection with its English heritage. Why on earth did he choose to read it with an American accent?
I can only conclude that, in the view of the presenter and his audience (which consists of a substantial cross-section of well-educated Brits), the Bible is no longer something that belongs in Britain at all. This is the assumption behind the satire; it’s the reason that an American accent for a Bible reading has instant comedic value. The Bible is not just seen as historical, archaic, sentimental or vaguely quaint. For a substantial proportion of British society, the Bible is seen as something over-the-top, crazy, and, above all, foreign. The Bible is no longer at home here; it belongs across the Atlantic. This is, of course, a great testimony to the biblical faithfulness of many of our American brothers and sisters. But for British society, it is a great tragedy.
On Thursday (Wednesday evening Australian time), the UK will elect a new parliament, and the results are very hard to predict. Please pray for the election and the resulting government. From all reports, all three major parties are trying to distance themselves from the Bible to one extent or another. There are particular ethical stances which are causing concern to many Christians here. Above all, please pray that the Bible itself, the word of God that brings eternal life, hope and peace through Jesus Christ, is not lost to the hearts and minds of this nation.
As part of my PhD preparation, I’ve spent quite a bit of time thinking hard about Philippians; especially about the various connections between Paul’s warm commendation of Timothy and Epaphroditus in chapter 2 and his statements about Jewish privileges and “righteousness from God by faith” in chapter 3. This has helped me to understand more about the important ways in which the Bible, theology and ministry are interconnected.
Please pray for the meeting with my supervisor on Wednesday at 3pm, in which he will give me feedback on my first 5,000 words. Only 95,000 words to go (but things should speed up substantially from now on)! Pray that his feedback will be instructive and constructive.
My second cousin Gwen from Sydney is visiting us this weekend. It’s been lovely to see a member of our family! This has been the warmest weekend in Durham so far this year – we made the most of the weather and went for a walk by the river Wear.
As the new school term starts up, Ellie will move from 2 mornings to 5 mornings per week at Nursery. The British government provides 15 hours of preschool education to all children 3 and over. Thank God for this, especially as it will continue to help stimulate Ellie’s speech.
Thank God for a great time with the kids over the school holidays.
We’re feeling a long way from home at the moment – please pray that we’ll keep trusting God.
I’ve almost completed the first 5,000 words of the thesis to hand in to my supervisor for feedback. I’ll be using one of my supervisor’s books as a basis for my own work, but I’ll also be critiquing one aspect of his book. Pray for a helpful and constructive feedback session.
 On Wednesday evening Harry and I spent the night in hospital! Harry had developed a heart rate of 250 beats per minute that wouldn’t return to normal after jumping on a friends’ trampoline. Bronwyn took him to the doctor and they rushed him to hospital in an ambulance – which he loved! They fixed the problem straight away but kept him in for 24 hours, monitoring him with lots of machines that go “ping” (and kept going ping all night long …). Apparently he’d had an episode of something called SVT. Thankfully, the tests confirmed that Harry had the “good” kind of SVT which is very unlikely to ever happen again and doesn’ t require heart surgery. We’re thankful to God for the excellent medical care here.
We had a mild day this weekend and so we headed to the beach at Newcastle! Nobody was swimming, of course, but it was a good chance to run around on the sand and enjoy fish and chips. Adelaide: ‘I’ve been waiting for this day for 6 months!’
  
On Tuesday I had the formal six month review with my supervisor and secondary supervisor. Everything seems to be on track for the PhD. I will be able to get a much more detailed and thorough assessment of where things are at when I hand in the first 5,000 words to my supervisor to check and assess. This should happen in the next few weeks, probably after the Easter break.
On the financial front:
- There have been a few additional donations totalling $4,650: thank you for your generosity!
- After much prayer and number-crunching, we had to tell our landlord earlier in the week that we couldn’t renew the lease for next year, because we had to move away from Durham to one of the satellite suburbs in order to cut our rental costs. Our landlord responded by reducing our rent here in Durham to considerably below market rates (she loves having a family in her house, which is usually occupied by undergraduates). We are thankful to not have to move house again!
- We’ve also had a number of offers of low-cost holiday accommodation in the UK from members of our extended Christian family, which gives us some viable options for family vacations over the next year or two.
- The UK-Australian exchange rate is also very good at the moment.
We are still in need of further financial support in order to continue study to the end of the 3 years, but these pieces of news have significantly eased the pressure.
Thank God for his ongoing provision.
Please pray for continuing funds.
Please continue to pray for insight into and humility before God’s word as I continue my study.
Dear friends,
A significant advantage to studying in England is the chance to regularly meet with scholars who are shaping (or will shape) the future of academic theological study.
One of the very important issues in New Testament studies at the moment is whether the Reformers (like Luther, Calvin, etc.) rightly understood the Bible’s teaching on grace, works, salvation and justification. In the last 30 years, many scholars have taken great pains to point out that a lot of Paul’s letters revolve around the issue of the relationship between Jews and Gentiles. Some claim that this “new perspective” on Paul shows that individual faith, works, justification and salvation are secondary issues and have been seriously misunderstood by Christians for almost 500 years.
Durham is one of the key places where this discussion is taking place. In the last few weeks, I’ve had the chance to talk with some serious thinkers in this area. Just recently I met up with Jono, an American Anglican deacon doing a PhD on the concept of grace and merit in Paul’s letters. The quality of his work, judging from comments by faculty and fellow students here, is excellent. Jono is comparing Romans with other writings from the same time period (particularly the Wisdom of Solomon), and is demonstrating that Paul’s view of grace, salvation and works is quite similar in many important ways to that of the Reformers. It was very helpful to be able to talk with him in some depth about his research.
Last Monday in our New Testament seminar, we heard from Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham and influential “New Perspective” scholar. Tom argued that Romans 2:17-3:9 is (to quote him) “all about Israel’s vocation, not about salvation or justification”. It was a great opportunity to be able to hear from Tom on this issue first hand, to ask him hard and direct questions in a small group and to discuss these issues further with other students and staff. Many of us disagreed with Tom, but it was important to have the discussion.
Thank God that the new efficient heating system for our house is now up and running, and that the house is pretty much back in order after the disruption. I was able to get some good work done during the installation, so thank you for your prayers.
Patrick, our neighbour, came to Friday’s Passion for Life talk; please pray for further conversation and for his salvation.
Dear friends,
Please pray for the Passion for Life evangelistic talks this week. Phillip and Helen Jensen have arrived in Durham, tired after a long flight but safe and well. It was great to hear some Australian accents at church this morning and see their familiar faces. Please pray that those who come to the talks, including our neighbour Patrick, will clearly hear and be challeged by the gospel of Jesus Christ. Pray that our neighbour Ian will come too.
The new heating system will be installed this week, with pipes being put into the walls and under the floor. Please pray that Lionel can get some work done despite the disruption.
Thank God that the first week of Spring, though still cold, was sunnier than last week!
Dear friends,
Thank God that my thesis is “on track”. I’ve spent the first five months learning German and conducting detailed textual work in Paul’s letters – but now, I’m ready to begin reading more widely and writing my first chapter. It’s good to be finally ready to start typing the first of almost 100,000 words…
Thank God that my talk at the ultra-nerd science quiz last Saturday went well. It seemed to stimulate a few good conversations about Jesus. Pray especially for D, P and A, three science students who are asking excellent questions about the reality and meaning of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Pray also for our friend Peter, a former maths teacher (now school administrator). He accepted my invitation to come, helped us immensely with the maths questions, and after I finished my talk, we had our first serious conversation about Jesus. The text of the talk will be available soon on the Sola Panel, if you’d like to check it out.
Thank you for praying, and please continue to pray, for our financial situation, as we mentioned in our previous post, and the raising of an additional $40,000 in the next two years. We have received some encouraging indications of additional support. We continue to learn trust in our God who supplies all our needs according to his glorious riches.
Praise God that Patrick, our neighbour, has accepted our invitation to come to hear Phillip Jensen speaking evangelistically in Durham in mid-March. Pray that Phillip will present the gospel clearly, and that God will enable Patrick (and all who attend) to grasp God’s glory and love in Christ.
The weather is still very cold, but not quite so dark. It’s most likely shaping up to be the coldest winter in 30 years! Almost 3 months after our landlord’s initial application, the gas is now connected to our house; we just need to hear back from the plumber about installing the new heating system.
Today we had a church “Family Fun Day”, with a space theme. Harry and Adelaide dressed up as a special kind of alien…
Dear friends,
This news and prayer update is slightly longer than usual. We’ve been here for 4 months, and we’ve had a chance to review costs and income and make more precise projections. We have found that we will need to raise some more funds to complete the PhD. This need isn’t urgent yet—but I’m raising the issue now so that it doesn’t become urgent! Within the next two years, based on realistic projections of income and the cost of living in the UK, we will need additional gifts of $40,000, which is about 20% on top of the amount already raised. This update is to explain the situation, and to ask for your help.
The benefits of PhD study
Under God, we are still convinced that this PhD is the right thing to do. We are encouraged by the “votes of confidence” from people we know and trust: in particular my scholarship, awarded in consultation with the Principal of Moore College and the Rector of St Thomas’ Anglican Church, North Sydney; and the fact that our personal supporters, including many of you, have provided so much already. Thank you!
Furthermore, my supervisor and the faculty at Durham are world class: doing a PhD in England provides an opportunity to interact with, learn from, be challenged by and even – at times – challenge top-class scholars face-to-face. I can see that this interaction that I’ve already had will be invaluable for equipping future Australian (and God-willing, Malaysian) gospel ministers for a lifetime of theological thinking and teaching.
Doing a PhD at this time in our life actually has great benefits. I can see that my parish ministry experience puts me at an advantage compared with many of my colleagues, because it helps me better understand how biblical and theological issues can impact the life of real people in churches. Gospel ministry, not academia, is what drives us on. Of course, the decision to do a PhD at this time is also expensive, because of the need to support a family (not to mention the international university fees).
The need
When we left Australia in August 2009, our income seemed reasonably well balanced against expenses. The favourable exchange rate has also helped. One-off gifts have been substantially above our expectations, for which we are very grateful to God.
However, there are two issues that need further action and prayer.
Firstly, the regular, ongoing gifts from supporters are below the amount we expected from pledges.
Secondly, our costsare also slightly higher than expected, especially in the areas of heating and food Our initial estimate of UK living expenses, which we carried out from sunny Australia, has proved to be about 10% lower than the reality, even taking into account reasonable future reductions (e.g. this has been the UK’s coldest winter in 30 years; and our landlord is about to install gas central heating, which will significantly reduce our future heating bill).
At the moment, there are still significant funds in the bank, but on current trends we only have funds for about 2½ of the 3 years of the PhD. In order to finish the PhD (and bring our family home again to Australia in the middle of 2012) we will need an extra $40,000 more in total, which is equivalent to additional pledges of $1,380 per month for the next 29 months.
Our request to you
It is always humbling to ask for money. But we know that God is loving and provides for all the needs of his people. Please:
- Pray for us: specifically, please pray for $40,000 more over the next two years.
- If you can, please consider if you are able to contribute financially.
Giving money
This response form enables you to indicate your support. Our treasurer, Lindsay Dunstan, keeps track of offers of support and donations. Lindsay will inform us about the identity of donors and the total amount, but not amounts given by specific individuals.
The simplest way to give is by depositing money into the following Westpac account (via a Westpac branch, or by phone or internet banking).
Bank = Westpac (Australia)
Account name = Lionel Windsor
BSB = 732695
Account # = 685328
You can also write cheque(s) payable to “Lionel Windsor” and post to Mr Lindsay Dunstan, Treasurer (address below), who will deposit them into this account.
For more information
For more information, please use the following links:
We’ll keep you posted on how this all goes!
With love,
Lionel & (Leonie) Bronwyn and kids.
Please pray for Bronwyn, as she helps to run a Christianity Explored course through church. One of the women attending, Yvonne, and her husband Peter are friends of ours through the church’s playgroup, Sticky Fingers. Peter, Yvonne and their daughter Julia joined us for cake for Ellie’s 3rd birthday aternoon tea (photos below!) Thank God for our beautiful little girl whom we’ve had for three years and pray that she will grow in her understanding and love of the Lord Jesus.
The continuous stream of cold, dark grey days is beginning to noticeably affect my mood. I understand that this is quite common in February, especially in Northern England. Recent temperatures here have often been 5-6 degrees colder than in the South. I would appreciate prayer for this. Thankfully we did have a sunny day last weekend (again, photos below!).
We’re also thankful that, after numerous delays caused by administrative errors on behalf of National Grid, the gas has finally been connected to our house. This is the first (and, we are told, most painful) of the steps towards completing our landlord’s plan to install central heating. Once it’s finally up and running, central heating should reduce our energy bills considerably, since electricity is considerably more expensive in the UK. Please pray for a speedy resolution to whatever further administrative and technical hurdles lie ahead.
  
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