Dear Friends and Family,
A happy New Year to each and every one of you. We hope you have all had an excellent holiday season.
The last two months have been a mixture of lots of work and fun here in England. Most weekends in November and early December you would have found Rachel sequestered in her room writing research papers. For those of you who remember Rachel’s style of writing at Azusa Pacific, you will be happy to know that all of her papers were drafted 2 weeks before the end of term. Brian was spared all-night writing sessions and emergency 5am proof reading. Hurray! While Rachel would like to believe this is due to greater maturity, the fact that each paper is worth approximately 70% of the grade for each class may have actually been the greater motivation for this diligence. 
Brian has been working extensively as a
contractor for World Vision; striving to find a balance of work and play from his home office. He will begin looking for a full-time local position in January, however, because he greatly misses having colleagues to interact with daily.
Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Eve were all spent in Oxford. Turkey Day was an unusual mixture of expatriate American students in the Brookes University restaurant. (It served as an opportunity for the culinary arts students to prepare a banquet-type dinner). Complete with cranberry sauce and a Sports Illustrated American Football Highlights video it was a nice evening. The turkey definitely left much to be desired, however; something we made up for at Christmas. Through the
local butcher we were able to get a fresh Christmas Turkey, which we prepared with all the trimmings for the first time ever. It was great fun, but a lot of work!
We have spent some time enjoying Oxford and the surrounding area during the Christmas season. This included enjoying Return of the King (the final instalment of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy) at the local cinema and several concerts. We’ve also made a bit of music ourselves, as both of us sang in the annual Carol Service choir for our church, something we enjoyed very much.
We’ve had the wonderful opportunity of seeing friends from home twice this season. Just before Thanksgiving, we had the pleasure of visiting with Mel and Glenna Shoemaker. (For those of you who do not know, Brian and Rachel met during an event coordinated by Mel back in 1997). Mel, who continues his work as the honours program and study abroad coordinator for APU was in the area checking on the students at Oxford this term. We had a great time catching up with both of them over a cup of tea. We also got a very special present on Christmas Eve. Teresa
Johnston, Rachel’s best friend and former university roommate, came to spend the holidays with us. It has been wonderful having her here.
To our very great surprise, New Years Eve brought the first snow of the season. Although rain later prevented any of the snow from staying, it was great fun to walk through the streets of Oxford chasing snowflakes.
As we look to the New Year, we realize that many new challenges await us. Rachel will begin dissertation research in earnest this spring, while Brian will decide on the future direction of his career. In an unusual opportunity, we will be collaborating on a volunteer project this winter. Because of her conference planning experience, Rachel is serving as the logistics coordinator for a human rights film festival in Oxford in late
February. Brian graciously volunteered to design a database to keep track of all the venues, films, speakers, etc. for this event. It is enjoyable to have a common project that implements skills we both have.
