The Bates go to Birmingham: Serving the Church through Academic Ministry

  I Can't Believe it's been Three Weeks!  We arrived in the UK on October 29, 2020 and what a whirlwind it has been. In some ways, it feels like we've been here forever, given that our first two weeks in the country we had to quarantine in our home, but now that we've started to get out into our Birmingham community and begin a normal, daily routine, time seems to whip by. We've started making our house a home now and learned our neighborhood fairly well. Clark walks to the University every week day and really enjoys his time spent there. We've really been blessed with the house and area that we found to live in. Considering that we chose our rental without knowing much about the area, God really came through. We were told by a local resident that we ended up in the "posh" part of town, and if the homes around us are any indication, he was right. For those that follow us on Facebook and/or Instagram, you've seen some of our photos of the area, and ...

  We thank you for supporting us on this journey! We have finally made the trip across the pond and this short video is for you to see a bit of what the adventure was like. It was a long trip, but it has honestly gone much more smoothly than we ever imagined it would. Praise God!

  In this video, Clark explains why he is pursuing a PhD and what he feels God has placed on his heart to do with it. He also explains why the family  is moving to the UK rather than stay in the United States.

  In our third video, we share what we think might be a big difference between England and the USA.

  This week, we share what we're afraid of with this big move to the UK.

  In this first video, as we're preparing everything stateside for the move, we thought we'd share what we're all excited to see once we're in England. 

  Hedgehog Friendly Campus!   As we've been researching the Birmingham area, we discovered an unexpected envrionmental treat! Apparently, Birmingham is known for having wild hedgehogs roaming through the lands! Sadly, we've also learned that while they used to be widespread, they have been dying off as a result of urbanization. That being said, the University of Birmingham is a hedgehog friendly campus, meaning they have set up habitations and feeding areas for these amazing little creatures. We've also learned that it's not uncomon to have a hedgehog find its way into your back yard! Needless to say, the kids are very excited about this, and we want to become what's known as Hedgehog Heroes! Here's a list of things that we plan to do when we find a home, to make it hedgehog friendly: 1.   Provide good food Leaving food out for hedgehogs can help them during cold snaps and help them reach a healthy hibernation weight. A meaty dog or cat food (not fish flavoured)...

  Whenever I head off to a new research project, inevitably anyone who knows about it is asked what I'm studying. For my family and friends, it's often a real struggle explaining the field that I work in. So, I thought the first post for this page should be to acquaint everyone with both the man I will work directly for and the topic I will be tackling. To begin with, my doctoral supervisor, affectionately called my DoktorVater in German, is Professor Hugh Houghton (pictured above). Professor Houghton is the director of the Institute for Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing at the University of Birmingham and is the foremost expert in New Testament manuscripts that contain commentaries from the early church fathers. He is versed in both Latin and Greek and is responsible for groundbreaking work in the digital editing of manuscripts as well as revealing new insights into how the books of the New Testament were used and understood by the church from the 6th century through ...