Musings in Mindanao: Oxford England

We arrived in Oxford about midnight and were met by our dear friends, Chuck and Anita Saunders. They are missionaries with Calvary Chapel and they arrived in the Philippines the same year we did. We got to know them because our kids were friends at Faith, and then they became Daniel's dorm parents as well. We often stayed with them when we went to Manila for graduations and other events, and here we were, staying with them again!

Yep, there we all are, after all these years, looking older but just as happy and contented serving the Lord!

Anita has taken many visitors on walking tours of Oxford. At first, she lined up a tour guide to do it, but decided she could save time and money by just doing the tours herself, so she made sure she knew the details and now gives private tours to visitors! It was great! Let it be no reflection of her tour if I am not able to give the details she gave me as I write this blog! It was very complete, but I wasn't taking notes.

There are buildings here that were built back in the 12th century! Oxford University is made up of a number of colleges. Students take classes and lectures from different colleges, but usually live at and a part of one college. Chuck works as a porter at The University College.

This is a fun looking clock at one of the gates to Oxford.

This is one of the main streets, High Street, I think. it is pedestrian only, with many old buildings, but as you can see here, full of modern shops and lots of bustling people.

But this old tavern is right on that street, looking much like it looked hundreds of years ago.

Here is an old church and church yard on that same street.

You can see how old these buildings are. They are right across from the memorial to the martyrs put up by the people of the Oxford Movement in the next picture.

This is to honor the three men who were burned at the stake because they found fault with the Roman church, and Tyndale who was burned later for putting the Bible into English.

This tiled cross in the street makes the exact spot where the martyrs were burned, and across from it, on a wall is the plaque below, honoring them.

It says, "Opposite this point near the cross in the middle of Broad Street, Hugh Lattimer, one time Bishop of Worchester, Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of London, and Thomas Cramner, Archbishop of Canterbury were burned for their faith in 1555 and 1556."

Another nice door I couldn't resist...

One of the colleges... David probably knows where one. There are colleges everywhere you look!

This is inside the quad of one of them.

This statues was also inside the quad, and the door below was one of many similar doors opening off the quad in to the departments of this college.

This door opens into the quad of another college, from the street.

Another lovely quad, surrounded by the dorms and classrooms.

This stain glass window is a tribute to William Tyndale who, against great opposition, persecution and eventual death, translated and published the first Bible in English.

This is Oxford church. The next picture and some others are taken from the steeple.

From this view you can see many of the colleges

And the Bollian Library, which has so many volumns that it is almost like our Library of Congress.

Here are the steps coming down from the steeple...

And a view of the roof,

And mores steps down the the main floor where we were waiting.

The outside had some interesting gargoyles. Where do they get the ideas for those things?!

This quad had a bust of Charles Westley in the wall. He attended this college and studied in the room behind the bust.

This is the Rhodes building, of the Rhodes Scholarship fame. The largest figure, in the middle, is Mr. Rhodes himself. Bill Clinton studied in Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship.