Autumn
Some of us share in the benefit of admiring a more pronounced change of seasons: that new biting chill in the air, the vibrant hues of orange, brown, yellow, and red cloaking the landscape, as trees appear more withered and their leaves congregate beneath our feet—signaling the beginning of a special time of the year. England is one of those unique variable-seasoned places where, with each color-saturated bristle, the Lord paints each layer of intricate detail on the backdrop of life's canvas. With each stroke, we marvel at His invisible qualities made visible (Romans 1:20) to those who seek. To use some familiar metaphors, Autumn (or what we Americans refer to more commonly as Fall) can represent a difficult time in someone's life or their twilight years as the sun begins its descent. Natural revelation, along with Scriptural revelation, also has something to teach us, and with each season, there is a lesson worth learning.
My family and I have taken some intentional time to immerse ourselves both spiritually and culturally in this season. Autumn in England offers many local harvest-themed festivals that don't particularly emphasize Halloween as much as we see it take center stage in end-of-October celebrations back in the States.Â
Autumn Fest
Nearby, Blenheim Palace, the only country home referred to as a palace though not owned by a British royal, is located in Woodstock, Oxfordshire. The vast estate and expansive Baroque-style property is open year-round to the general public and has been known as one of the area's most traveled tourist attractions. Each year the property puts on a lovely Autumn Fest in its walled garden, providing children with fun fair-like activities and adults with a market of local vendors and eateries.
Pumpkin Patch
We've also made it out to a nearby pumpkin patch at Millet's Farm and picked up a small £2 pumpkin and pumpkin squash for Steph to make baked goodies for the kids. There seemed to be more Halloween-themed decorations set up at the farm this year than last, so perhaps some Americanisms have begun to seep into British culture (although it originates from nearby Ireland). Halloween seems more visible in places like London or other large metropolitan areas and is somewhat scattered around the countryside in smaller towns/cities.Â
Halloween
We didn't see children dressed up for trick-or-treating in our local area or neighborhood. Some of our neighbors had a few decorations on their porches, such as a sign and a jack-o-lantern. Churches weren't putting up adverts for Halloween events or running missional-minded outreaches in the area, which contrasts with what some churches do to engage with their cities/communities in the States.Â
Bonfire Day
Aka Guy Fawkes Night. Since 1606, the 5th of November marks the anniversary of the failed attempt to blow up Parliament and assassinate King James I.Â
In recent weeks, we've met with various staff from Friends International in multiple locations across England as we discern the path forward with international student ministry and resource development. Just last week, we met in Bournemouth, where we got to hear about the life of a local church, the area's various needs, and their tireless commitment to engaging with international students. The Centre Team Leader was scheduled to facilitate an attractional event to celebrate Bonfire Day.Â
Prayer & Community Update
Pray for my family. We went through a very hard time at the end of October and the beginning of November. We will be sure to share more details in a future article.Â
Pray for the city and town centres we've been connected with as the year winds down and our ministry further develops.
Steph and I have continued to stay connected with local community in Oxford and have built key relationships with a growing network of contacts in the UK. Local discipleship and evangelism are of utmost importance to our family during the autumn season. Steph has continued to be in settings where she can minister and mutually encourage other women. She has also served others through cooking and baking. These last few months, I have met with prospective ministry partners in various locations here in the UK and reconnected with many of our team of senders in the States to share the vision for the new chapter of ministry. I've also continued to support the ministries and general witness of close colleagues here in the UK. One of the more recent topics of study and conversation has revolved around spiritual warfare and the supernatural.Â
Spiritual Climate in the UK
Having a biblical worldview necessitates the possibility and existence of the supernatural or paranormal, or to put it another way, the extra-dimensional (consider the film Interstellar). Scripture often describes the interconnectedness and overlap of two realms; the seen and the unseen. Still, many people remain skeptical of such things and hold on to presuppositions that can only account for naturalistic explanations. It doesn't matter how compelling the evidence is, such as reports of near-death experiences or accounts of exorcisms; people won't believe or acknowledge it. There is a modern tendency to bifurcate the two realms or to magnify one as 'actual' perceivable existence and dismiss the other as merely mythological, antiquated, subjective, or narratival. Over the years, as our faith in Christ has developed, Steph and I are keen to be more and more open to understanding and discerning the latter.Â
During our period of preparation and formal pre-field training, and since our arrival in the UK, we've increased our ability to discern the spiritual climate here to pair with our cultural learning and minding each seasonal change. There is an epidemic of particular brokenness in the UK, such as drug use, loneliness, and lack of family stability. If we're to take Scripture seriously, these specific issues aren't just unrelated cultural phenomena that overlay our society at the level of the individual. This would be one way of looking at the data. Could these issues be symptoms of something ominous and more formidable than we could imagine? Is there some hidden principality at work regarding influence and governance that has long established an infrastructure of sin, evil, and darkness in this interconnected world?Â
If you do some research on Britain's history, you will no doubt find some astonishing accounts of the supernatural. From the prosecution of witches during the 15th-18th centuries to present-day ghost sightings, there is an openness to the occult and spiritism even with the rise of secular, atheistic post-modern thinking. During our 2018 vision trip, Steph and I met with a local charity leader in Devon where we first heard stories of encounters with witchcraft in the South West region of England (Cornwall and Devon). The UK has a storied belief in the supernatural (as well as a collection of strange cryptids). Archetypal dragons have occupied the stories of many ancient volumes of books (in the UK and across the world). Wraiths, banshees, phantoms, and revenants have long haunted the minds of the British people. Upon surveying, there seems to be an acknowledgment of varying degrees of such anomalies in the UK.Â
Stonehenge has been shrouded in legend and mystery, with some attributing their megalithic construction to an astronomical alignment for solar/lunar observation. In contrast, others believe it was a sacred place of ceremony and ritual for ancient pagan Druids.Â
The most widely held supernatural belief in the UK (1 out of 3 Brits) is a belief in the existence of ghosts. The National Trust site has lists of the most haunted forests and properties in the UK.Â
Where, why, and how do such tales even emerge? Has the shift in societal thinking made us more aware or more ignorant of what is real?
Growing up in a Filippino home, I was no stranger to the possibility of the supernatural. I heard tales of the eerie presence of mumus and culturally specific folklore of frightening monsters like the penanggalan. I was even exposed to stories about personal encounters with the dead within 40 days of their passing. For example, my mom's cousin reported a time when a recently deceased relative appeared, which resulted in him passing out. The whole episode caused him to miss his bus, which he later found out got into a terrible accident that very same day.
Believing in the supernatural can be polarizing to many of us, as it's a break from the aforementioned post-modern secular (humanist) perspective, which attempts to ground itself solely on the material world. Being open to accepting unexplainable things and not simply writing them off splits the difference between opposing viewpoints. Some stand near the Darwinian materialist clinging to this inconsequential rock hurtling through a meaningless universe toward certain extinction. Others stand nearer to the authentic believer of the Triune God, the gracious saving work of Christ, and the ultimate reconstitution of reality. On one side, there is an inescapable subjective nihilism at its core, where one passes the time by injecting counterfeit meaning, shifty morality, and idolatrous significance into all things or persons (that they don't refer to as gods but function as gods). On the opposite side, there is a full acknowledgment of humanity's morally bankrupt condition and one's fundamental necessity to turn away from their fallen ways—and turn to Christ as the only means of salvation, peace with God, ultimate purpose, and objectively grounded morality and significance.Â
In one sense, someone who believes there is an unseen realm to our world is within earshot of a saving and functioning faith in God, but in another sense, it can easily be a distraction. An aimless journey down a rabbit hole of general spirituality (or religion) apart from Christ toward a dead faith that wholly misunderstands grace and barely functions except during crises and times of emergency. We invite you to brave one step forward—to look into these things, to think critically and openly, to study—to choose.Â
Resource
We've found the work of Dr. Michael S. Heiser very eye-opening and it has further developed and reinforced our thinking about the supernatural. Check out the recent documentary entitled The Unseen Realm.