The Road to Oxford

In the Old Testament  it was common to place stones to remember events. In Exodus, Moses sets up 12 stone pillars to represent the covenant that the 12 tribes of Israel had with God. In Joshua 4, after God miraculously stopped the flow of the Jordan river so that all 2,000,000 Israelites could cross safely to the other side, Joshua commanded them to set up 12 stones at their camp as a memorial. And Joshua said to them, “When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ 7 then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.” I have always appreciated this passage of scripture. I value monuments that help us to remember. 

Shortly after we moved to Monument, CO I discovered an amazing place to hike in the old Baptist church camp just north of our neighborhood. It had been closed for years and was in the process of being sold to a developer. Up one of steep ridges in the midst of the Ponderosa pines was an old wooden cross with a view of the Front Range behind it and some old railroad ties for seats in front. Everytime I climbed up to that spot I began to place stones at the foot of the cross or on the still strong beams that made up its arms. Each stone represented a prayer request, a burden, or a praise given up to God, released from my hands. Over the years I noticed that other people had added to the pile.  Seeing the rocks resting on the beams of the old cross or secure at its feet was soothing to my soul. 

Recently there are days that I need reminding of the stepping stones that brought us to Oxford.  John needs reminders too, his days are very long and the program is very intense. We find ourselves pondering how it would have been if we'd stayed in the familiar comfort of Colorado or tried harder for UCSD, where the weather is always nice and family surrounds.  That's when I get out my old journal and look at the signs and wonders of how God sent us here in the first place. 

Sometime in 2013 we began to talk about what was next for John's career. He was teaching Anatomy and Physiology at the USAFA and we knew that in 2015 it would be time to move on to the next assignment. Obtaining a PhD was a long time goal of his but it seemed like an impossible dream since the military had recently cut school funding and the Biology department specifically was not allocated a slot for 2015. Besides, John still had to be released from his "Space career field" to even consider continuing down the academic route and that was a big hurdle to overcome. Around this same time a colleague of his had applied for a prestigious Oxford scholarship (one per year) that the Academy offers. She was denied. But we discussed it, how amazing of an opportunity would that be to go to Oxford? Fast forward a year.. 

In May of 2014 we received the good news that John was officially released from his Space systems career field in the Air Force so he could now be free to pursue the academic route. Although John was pegged as the next guy in his department to get a “school slot”, there wasn’t one allocated for the 1^st time in years.  We were confused, we began to pray in earnest for direction and for a slot to open up.  Four months later in September, the English department decided to give the Biology department their allotted slot .  Now John was given the task of finding a suitable PhD program. He decided on Cardiovascular Physiology and narrowed the choices down to: Denver University, CSU Boulder, UCSD and Oxford. At the end of October John decided to apply for the Dean’s scholarship to Oxford through the Academy. It was narrowed to two candidates- John was one of them! November 13^th was interview day.. it went well but he found out that all of the panel were from the Engineering department and the other candidate  was an engineer.  The decision was supposed to be announced within a week but it stretched out until December. During this waiting time I spent a lot of time agonizing in prayer over where we were supposed to go. It was in one of these times of prayer  that I opened my bible and was drawn to Jeremiah 29:7. I had always skipped past this verse to my favorite verse in 11 but now read it with fresh perspective “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper”. 

WOW could God be talking to us about praying for Oxford? Would we be “exiled” to England? I was feeling more certain. Then on December 4^th John called from work- the answer was NO. The panel had picked the other guy. We were so disappointed. We now realized how badly we had wanted to go to England, to follow this new dream. That night I was outside trying to fix the lights on a half-lit Christmas tree and asking God “Why?”. Just as I heard him whisper to my spirit, “This isn’t over”, the tree lit back up in full light. I felt hopeful. 

Late the next day John called from work to say that the panel had misspoke and that it was actually a " tie", the Academy wanted to send both candidates but the funding wasn't certain and he should look for scholarships. Although very excited this left us in limbo.  All scholarship deadlines had passed and the rest were for US schools only. Still we prayed that if this was God’s will he would make a way. By January John had submitted applications to Denver University, CU Boulder and Oxford. He had a skype interview with Oxford in Februaury and also interview weekends for both CO schools.  He was offered a spot to both DU and Boulder by the end of February. He held back accepting to wait on Oxford. We were starting to sweat a bit.. one night late in February after falling asleep praying about the decisions ahead I had a dream where I saw an email- it was an acceptance letter from the John Radcliffe hospital offering John a position in their DPhil program with Oxford U.  I didn’t think much about that until a few days later when John forwarded an email to me from work with the subject title “Here we go!” The email was a carbon copy of the one I had seen in my dream.
             
   

Dear Odaro,

I am pleased to inform you that the Radcliffe Department of Medicine intends to make you an offer of a place on the DPhil in Cardiovascular Medicine.

This is an offer of a place only and does not come with any funding commitment. I understand from Professor XXXX that you have some alternative funding in place.

In order to proceed with making you an offer we need to reroute your application from the DPhil in Medical Sciences to the DPhil in Cardiovascular Medicine. This change is merely administrative to ensure that you would receive the correct support, both up to and after you are admitted. Please can you confirm that you are happy for us to make this change?

We hope that you will be able to accept this offer.

Regards,

Bob

Dr Bob XXXX

Graduate Studies Administrator

        

He was accepted to Oxford! This news was a huge relief to us, but the funding issue still loomed. By April we heard good news that the Air Force had the scholarship money available but it still had to go through many bureacratic layers for approval.  On April 14^th an administrator in Ohio decided that it was a better use of government money to send him to school in CO. We went into prayer warrior mode.. we had not waited this long and seen this many doors open to hear no from some man behind a desk who knew nothing of the whole picture.  John and I climbed that familiar hill to the Old Baptist camp cross and prayed, placing a big stone at the foot of the cross to represent our burden.  We went to bed in prayer, woke up in prayer. By noon the next day we got the call, the administrator had changed his mind and approved the funding! Thank God for quick answers!  

One would think it would be clear sailing from there on out, it wasn’t.. we didn’t even get our orders until mid June, we had to get passports and visas, tickets, find renters, arrange for travel.. but we knew this was part of the journey. A journey started years before when God put the idea of Oxford on our hearts and minds.  So here we are living in England, the land God "exiled" us to.  We still aren't exactly sure of our purpose here, but we are certain that God brought us here. I look forward to the day when we can lay another stone at the foot of the cross and tell the future generations exactly what these years have represented.