Our first day in Oxford included a walking tour with Yarnell and got to explore the city a little bit. I enjoying getting to see the sights of beautiful Oxford and learn more about it’s history. The pictures include: Christ Church College (Home to the Great Hall from Harry Potter), the Divinity School, and the spot where Christians were burned at the stake for their beliefs.

Dr. Steve Gaines, the pastor of Bellevue Baptist was on this trip with us and he gave lecture on Evangelism that was excellent. I got explore Blackwell’s a bookstore and bought copies of The Philosopher’s Stone. 

For dinner, we walked around the corner to The Eagle and The Child. This is the pub where The Inklings, which included C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, met to discuss writing. It was high on my Oxford must see list and I was thankful it was right around the corner from where we were staying. Classes were getting going so I had a couple lectures that night.

The next day was a Sunday where were days for us to spend on our own. We went to church at St. Ebbe’s and heard them preach the gospel. That night, Dr. Allen preached for our worship.

The next day was a lecture day and I got to go to the oldest coffee house in England for tea. It was good to get into our classes.

This day was my favorite of the entire trip I could probably do an entire post on it but I’m going to try and do it in with this one.

The Morning of July 12th, we loaded the bus and headed to William Carey’s church. William Carey was the first Baptist missionary. Dr. Gaines preached on Matthew 20 and being the Servant that God uses. He ended the sermon by washing all the professors’ feet, you want to talk about powerful. There are few things more powerful than seeing the President of the SBC (Southern Baptist Convention) washing the feet of the professors on the trip. We got to explore Carey’s church and house. There was mural of Carey’s life which was really neat, I didn’t get a good picture so I bought postcards of it.

After Carey’s church, we went to John Newton’s church, John Newton is the man that wrote amazing grace and we got to sing in it in his church. It was a special moment and Dr. Eccher’s lecture was great. It was my favorite stop of the day.

The Epitaph on Newton’s grave reads: “JOHN NEWTON, CLERK, Once an Infidel and Libertine, A servant of slaves in Africa , Was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST, Preserved, restored, pardoned, And appointed to preach the Faith He had long laboured to destroy.”

We also got to hear from a Pastor who is doing ministry to the English people and it was really neat to hear those stories. From there, we headed to Andrew Fuller, the great Theologian’s church. We got to hear a lucture from Dr. Grace before our full English tea. It was my favorite day of the entire trip.

The next day was a lecture day but Dr. George preached on Luke 8 that night and it was incredible message. It’s where this map on the gallery wall came from.

Our next day trip was to Bath which was incredible and included a trip to the Jane Austen Centre along with seeing the Roman Baths.

After almost getting left in Bath, we went to the Cotsowolds which was one of the most beautiful place we went. It was chill afternoon. Annie and I dreamed about coming back with our husbands some day.

After our last lecture day, we back to London for the day. We did the British Library and British Museum before getting the afternoon to due what we wanted. I went to the Churchill War Rooms with a few other people, I always love going there. It was a long day but it was lot of fun.

Our last day in Oxford was a Sunday and I went to Woodstock Road Baptist Church with the Kings, Allister, and Wilbur. It was a neat service and we even got to see a baptism. That night, I got to have dinner with Ally, my neighbor from home, and she came to worship. 

It was fun week of exploring Oxford and learning about early Baptist life in England.

 I’ll be back on Tuesday for my final Oxford post: Scotland!