Life does go on

I suppose, if ever I were to blog about something on my blog which has no real subject, being in Oxford, England, and especially being here during the London bombings, is as good a reason as any. First off, let me say that Oxford is a couple hours from London, so I was no where near the bombs yesterday morning. Everyone has been a bit shaken, especially yesterday. Hopefully the news filtered out most of the rumors by the time you heard about it. There were various and wide reports about the extent of the attack, the worst (and therefore most circulated) at one point was 4 explosions on the train system, and 3 buses bombed. As you all know by now, there were 3 train explosions and 1 bus destroyed, but the rumors were flying wild for a while.

The American students here were all rather concerned, especially those planning to travel later in the day or the next morning. One of my classmates left Oxford for London shortly before the first bomb went off, but she was not anywhere close to any of the attacks. Transportation went crazy yesterday, and is still recovering today, although the Tube system is up and running (mostly).

Everyone around here is taking this seriously, and yesterday the news was on all day in the bar, but life goes on. In Oxford people still turned out to watch the England/Australia cricket match on the big screen, and there were still plenty of shoppers filling Cornmarket street. Everyone seems to have a silent sense that our activities won't be governed by violence. I wish I could say I saw the church active in all of this, but I haven't seen much of the church since arriving. But God will use this, as he does every tragedy, for His kingdom and glory; I for one am not afraid.

Please pray for those injured by the attack, and for the families of the dead. And please, please pray that God would enable the church to minister in these times.