Who and Why
We are Mark and Roz Arnold, married since 2007 and have three children. We met in the Lake District and discovered we have a shared love of helping others engage with the Bible, along with and enjoyment of cricket, walking, books and good food. The early years of family life we had the privilege of living in Vancouver, BC, while Mark completed a Masters in Biblical Studies at Regent College before returning to the UK where he completed his PhD in Old Testament studies. Roz completed her Master of Divinity at Regent a couple of years before we met. Mark currently works for Langham Publishing in Carlisle Cumbria, and Roz is mainly full time at home but has also joined the team at Langham, for 4 hours a week as admin support. WE are also Associates with Living Leadership here in the NW. Mark continues to do some grading for WTC and we are both fully involved in the life of our local church. Mark has written for the Bible for Life project….
I still remember the day when I was speaking with the pastor of our church, and he asked me the question. ‘Roz who pastors the pastors? Who picks up the pieces for us and cares for us?’ In that moment I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to care for the pastors. To provide a safe place for them to sit and remember the gospel, to be amply fed with great food, to know that someone was praying for them as they sat with God. To give them a place of rest.
In October 2000 Roz journalled her longing to provide such a home that would be run not as a center but as a family home. It was May 2002 that the name Joshua’s Tree took hold following a book study she took at Regent on Joshua. The book of Joshua begins and ends with words about the rest God has in store for His people. And a tree can provide both shelter and food. It is part of God’s creation.
Having imagined that Joshua’s Tree would be in a very rural setting, in 2003 during a seminar course called Landscapes and Soulscapes her attention was drawn to George Mac Donald’s writings and in particular this quote. Throughout the course there was also the reminder that we are not returning to Eden but moving toward a city that embraces a garden.
‘ I said, Let me walk in the fields.
He said, No, walk in the town.
I said, There are no flowers there.
He said, No flowers but a crown.’
Wherever Roz has lived and since marriage wherever we have lived, we have sought to live out Joshua’s Tree in little ways as far as we could with our growing family. There have been times when it feels like a distant dream, a passing thought but it has never gone and since we have been back in the UK after living in Canada it has been an ever present thought and pondering.
One quote from Lord of the Rings when Frodo arrives at Rivendell perhaps sums up best the atmosphere we want Joshua’s Tree to have:
“Frodo was now safe in the Last Homely House east of the Sea. That house was, as Bilbo had long ago reported ‘a perfect house, whether you like food or sleep or story telling or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all’. Merely to be there was a cure for weariness, fear and sadness.”
For it to become the fuller reality that we hope and dream we are praying for a home that can provide space and light and rest. A home which will provide room for our family to care for the saints who minister God’s word both in this country and overseas. We believe that now is the time to be intentional and find ways we can live this vision out. Hence creating a space here to come alongside those who are living their lives out for the building up of the saints, with prayer, opportunities to dive deep into God’s word and to be nourished.
Joshua's Tree Rooted 