It is Friday in Oxford and I just got back from having dinner with a friend I made a couple weeks ago while attending a church. Her name is Emily, she is from England, studying French and Linguistics and is a first year. I met her when my friend Jordan when we attended an evening service of church that was supposed to be more charismatic. Emily was just standing there, pretty close to us with no one to talk to and so I started a conversation with her. Jordan and I talked to her until the service began. I liked her. She was smiling, she was friendly and was happy to meet another "American." Jordan and I left a little early because he had a skype date with his family and girlfriend, so I gave Emily my e-mail address so we could stay in contact.
Since then we tried another church service together and tonight she invited my friend Kasey and I for dinner and authentic chai! The food was amazing and she was such a great little host. As we started talking about how the Brits perceive the Americans and vice versa we came to talking about how Emily became a Christian. Emily is of Indian decent so I was expecting this amazing conversion story about how her parents got saved or how she got saved and is living a life for Christ, but to my amazement, this did not happen. Our conversation went to Emily's belief that everyone's religion ties to the same God, that Jesus was just a "jolly" prophet with good practices, and that everyone wants happiness. My bubble of beliefs popped and my mirror shattered of what I thought my friendship was going to look like with Emily. We talked about why she believes what she believes for quite some time and after butting heads on many topics, and me being very vocal and passionate on what I believe, our conversation came to a halt, it almost broke our friendship. Kasey and I talked with Emily for some time after and then we left. Our conversation reminded me about how long it has been since I have shared my faith with anyone. When I was in Cru (Campus Crusades for Christ) it was expected of us to go sharing and I did, but I would get frustrated when I could not see eye to eye with people. What is wrong with them? What is wrong with me? Emily did ask good questions that any non-believer would ask such as, why can't all paths lead to God, what makes you so sure about the Bible and why are there contradictions, or why do Christians think they are so right about how to get to heaven? These questions are so important to understanding God's compassion but somehow we miss the point of Christianity. The frustration I feel right now and while talking with Emily is probably exactly how God feels with all of us, and yet he loves us, me! It is so hard for me to see anyone do or go in a direction I know is not right. It is just how I think. But that is something I am learnig to work on and spending time with Emily has been worth this whole trip.
Emily and I plan on going to church this Sunday together.
As for this past week, not too much has happened. On Valentine's Day the girls from the flat below invited me for dinner, chocolate and to watch a movie. I liked talking to Elena and Jenna. Elena is from Ithaca and so we reminisce about the area, and Jenna is so sweet to talk to. Later that week I simply had school work and Kasey and I went to some lectures on Christian worldviews. They were led by Micheal Ramsden from Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (Kasey is a huge fan of RZIM). I enjoyed seeing a British outreach led by St Ebbes Church. Other than that, the week went by super fast and I only have three more weeks of the term before our Summit session begins.
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