I’ve never flown over Iran and some of those other countries before, so looking down from the airplane window was quite moving. I was led to pray several times for the Christians that may be down there now, or that will be in the end times. A few weeks earlier i had read about some noble woman in Pakistan who had accepted Christ in the 1960s, and her hardships and trials. No doubt it would be even more difficult today. How are we going to get the 3 Angels’ Messages to them? Don’t they have a right to have a chance too? If i was born and raised on the ground directly under this airplane, how would i ever even get the chance to hear the truth? Many thots to crowd the mind…..
The scenery is just brown desert stretching in all directions, with a few low mountains here and there. Seeing Mt. Ararat just like it was shown in the National Geographic magazine was cool. It is beautiful, with a crown of snow even in the middle of July. After crossing the Black Sea, the scenery changed from the rocky brown seen earlier (after the sandy brown of western Pakistan and then most of Iran), to a green that got darker and darker as we travelled over Europe. It was interesting that anywhere you could see a little dab of lighter brown, or of green before, there would for sure be a village or town. But now there was just greenery everywhere, and it looked like the people don’t live so recognizably solely in a village or town with others.
This was my first time flying in the daytime into England, and the lovely green and the very carefully deliniated boundary lines, usually with green bushes or trees, was interesting. The streets and towns all looked to be carefully laid out and well-ordered.
Getting off the airplane i’m confronted with a problem – where to stay the nite? I go to the information desk, and after telling them i’m looking for a hostel or something cheap, they say the lowest they might have is 75 pounds. I choke, say thank you, and back away. No way i’m going to spend 2 1/2 months worth of rent in India on just one nite here in London. I ride the tube to Picadilly Circus, amazed that it costs 6 pounds for the 30-some minute ride. I find a book store and look for hostels, and call one, but to no avail. I wander the streets towards the main youth hostel near Tottingham Court, and see a sign: “Samaritans”. What a welcome sign thinks i, as i’m invited in by a young lady. She is helpful as she can, but i’m not really in her job description, so i head out again for the YH. While heading out the doors i notice what looks like a super-rich lady coming in. Seems she has some kind of emotional problems. So sad.
The light is finally fading here at 10pm as i make my way to the YH. I find it with the strong smell of urine permeating the air by the door. Ringing the bell the 3rd time finally produces a voice who irritatingly tells me they have no room. Sorry man, just asking. After a bit of walking around, i find an internet cafe. I mostly jot down names and places of SDA churches in London for visiting tomorrow. Hopefully some one will want to take me in, and perhaps even listen to my testimony.
London doesn’t have any convenience store chains. I know, it’s hard to believe that any first-world city could be so backwards in some areas, but this is one where London falls flat. There is also a law where after 11pm all the restaurants, including fast food ones, cannot let their customers sit down. So much for my idea of nursing an orange drink at Subway or McDs until the wee hours. It gets cold after dark. I open my large, 28kg suitcase, and pull out a tshirt, long-sleeved shirt, and rain pants and jacket. Now i’m set. Actually you can work up a bit of a sweat wearing all that while shouldering a backpack and pulling a suitcase 🙂
I mostly sit on my suitcase just beside the entrance to Oxford Circus tube station right in front of the Niketown shop. It was cool seeing all the beautiful and horrible people traipsying here and there at that hour. After the Niketown guard changed at 2am, i started to get really sleepy. It’s 6:30am in Bombay, time to be thinking about getting up. Glad i got about one hour sleep on the plane 🙂 There are lots of workers going in and out of the tube entrance, so i slide inside the entrance-way, about 8 steps from the entrance itself. I ask them if i’m in the way, but they assure me i’m not. Perhaps i dozed a few minutes, as i woke up with my heart in my throat when one worker stepped on the metal toe edge on the step i was sitting on, making me jump more than the 1mm raise from the pressure of his foot would cause – ha!
I know McDs opens at 6:30, and seeing it getting light, get up out of the underground steps heading for Tottingham Court. Oh yeah, if the sun sets at 9:15, that means it probably rises at 4. Thinking it will get nicer as the sun comes up, i spend some time in the semi-enclosed bus stop. The wind is just too strong tho, so i go down to a tube entrance that is locked, and wait. One lady is waiting there also. Two guys come in a bit, talking a bit loudly. Then a couple comes, and there is a loud, happy discussion about World Cup, with everyone agreeing that Italy stinks, and that Australia played really well etc. etc. It’s after 6, and this entrance is still not open. hmmmm. Then comes in a young black guy, a druggy-looking white guy, and a druggie-looking white girl. They ask one of the waiting ones for a lighter, and gather around doing something that looks like they are doing what i’ve seen in pictures – free-basing. I’m out of there with the other lady-in-waiting following me close behind. The happy couple ask me why i’m leaving so suddenly, and i say something about finding a different entrance.
The sun has come up friendly now, and is starting to warm up things. I sit in front of a mobile phone store on my suitcase, and warm up like a lizard. It is amazing how much the sun moves, as i have to move places 3 times within about 15 minutes to keep staying warm. I head over to McDonalds, and get a breakfast special from a mostly-surly middle-eastern man. He does agree tho to exchange the meat with an extra hash brown, so i’m happy 🙂 If this food was served in America, someone’s job would probably be on the line, but the scrambled eggs and hash browns taste nice. The toilet is grotty, and even tho the restaurant has just opened for business, it looks like no one has bothered to clean anything up. The computer shops in this area that i wish to go to don’t open up til 9, and having some time even after refreshing myself in the bathroom, i pull out a Bible. Then occurs what i can only regard as a miracle.
A homeless-looking man with around 4 newspapers was sitting at the table just a bit removed from mine. When he saw me pull out the Bible he called over: “Is that a Bible?” “Yes it is” i replied, thinking he would laugh or make some snide comment about real people using their brains wouldn’t need such a book, but instead, he says: “I used to be Christian”. Now THAT is interesting. He soon determines that i’m Seventh-day Adventist, and says he used to be one too! Lord, give me words for this man. In talking to him tho, it is obvious that the Bible is everything to him, and the Lord Jesus Christ is his all in all. He talks about the sins of the world, and the way some of his homeless friends diss God, and of his trials in holding onto his flat etc. He says he hasn’t eaten for 2 days, and i tuck 5pounds into his hand. He gets quite teary-eyed, and loves it when we study together something in John that i had turned to. He is fairly knowledgable about the Bible and SDA church, and is not bitter much towards the church, leading me to question why he had mentioned “used to be”. He said that was a slip of the tongue. Lord, i don’t know where Paul is tonite, but please give him a place to stay, and may he continue to live your Word and spread your Word strongly to everyone he meets.
Feeling hugely refreshed, i lug my suitcase back up the stairs and out onto the by now busy sidewalk. Maybe this type of refreshment is a little taste of like what happened with Jesus in praying all nite to his father? The first shop i go to looks to be run by Pakistanis like most all small shops are in London, and they say they can for sure get the parts and fix my computer quickly. hmmm. Look to be a bit TOO sure of themselves. In walking a bit further i come across a man holding a sign to a computer shop. The shop guy tells me to get it repaired, i need to go to the little shop inside the London University campus. Looks like i’m going to waste the better part of a day on this, and i was hoping to quickly go thru the hilites of the British Museum. Oh well, this is more important. I find the little shop and the computer guy really is knowledgable about stuff. He quickly sees that it is an Asian model without me even telling him, and says it would take him weeks to order the parts (if necessary). Thank you sir. I use his one pound per hour internet cafe, and then head out to the tube.
This internet price is almost 7-9 times what i paid in India. Everything is just so expensive, with a one-station hop on the tube costing 3pounds! That is over 3 times as expensive as Osaka. Signs in front of little shops are all advertising 4 – 5 pounds for lunch. Too much for my poor blood. Again, this is almost twice what it is in Osaka. Coming directly from India where i could eat 20 meals for this price – whew!!! what a shock! I finally settle for a gyro-like wrapped thing, very tasty, for 2 pounds.
It is a sight for sore eyes to see the London Central Church, and i expectantly ring the doorbell. I read on the internet the nite before that this church welcomes backpackers etc., so even if they can’t help me find a place to stay, surely they can help point me in the right direction,,,,right? Wrong! The second time down thru the doorbell list the pastor answered. I told him who i was and what i was doing with spreading SOP material. He said that was nice, so i told him perhaps if he could help with a place to stay, i could give a missionary talk at his church either Friday evening or Sabbath (this was Friday noon). He replied that they get 10 – 12 people coming thru a week looking for a place to stay, and they weren’t a hotel. I told him i was disappointed, because i thot he might be interested in Ellen White material and would want to help a missionary out, but he enjoins that with a school he can’t just let in everyone who comes in off the streets, and that……I say “God bless you” and turn away. Never having experienced even a hint of this kind of attitude in 9 months of travelling in Asia, and knowing that it is directly contrary not only to Jesus’ teaching, but also to normal human compassion, it is just too much for me to take in. Yes, i had been forewarned that Europe and Europeans are very different from Asians, but this is still quite strange to me. What will this pastor plead in the day of judgment? “When did we see you tired and travelling and didn’t give you a spot of floor to lay your head on?” May i remember this experience too, and always do all in my power to help others.
I hop on the tube (not really ‘hopping’ while lugging 28kg of stuff up and down the stairs – i find i’ve rubbed a hole in pants on the right leg side – ha!) and head for B church. There is the sign, but where is the church? I look like the lost foreigner i am in what is the parking lot for the business in front of the church. A man drives slowly out, and i peer down into his car. He kindly rolls down the window, and i ask him where the church is. He assures me it is back around the corner behind the parking lot, and then asks a question that is to make me very happy, and change his lifestyle for the next 5 days: “Where are you staying?”. He winds up taking me to his home and while his wife looks at me a bit skepticly, they prepare their little daughter’s bedroom for me. I catch some cats napping for a few minutes, then it’s time for a shower, then eat, then over to a friend’s house for sundown vespers. It is really nice to hear them sing. I’m not sure if all of them are of Jamacian descent, but their singing has power. We read chapter 30 of the 1858GC together, and they seem to enjoy it very much. I know that having some new blood in a spiritual meeting can be a great impetus to do more for our Master (or the opposite!). Sleep this nite is more like death – not aware of anything at all for around 8 hours.
B church is quite large, and today there is a group of travellers from a black church in New York, and the pastor is some “degreed” man in a large church back there. His sermon greatly offends the young people in the church, telling them that if they don’t know hymn number 596, they should be ashamed. Unnnnn pastor, did the Holy Spirit really tell you to say that? along with the 5 minutes of introductions of your kin at the start of your sermon? All afternoon at the home we have to listen to a young girl telling older men how bad the sermon was, and they sticking up for the pastor. What a disgrace. No doubt Satan had a good laugh. But it was perhaps better than the character assasinations that followed among some of the men. No wonder we don’t have time for Bible study, we’re too busy getting prepared for the fire. So sad. I spend as much time away from all this as possible, and don’t give any opinion until the next day when the Mrs. point-blank asks me. I reply that his sermon was not words from the Holy Spirit. She nods. Lord, please may your pastors learn to rely on you, and to draw deeply from your fountain of truth, because the members are busy comparing cars and clothes among themselves.
The family treats me very nicely, and Sunday i hear that my coming here was an answer to prayer!! Seems that the Mrs. had prayed Friday morning for God to lead someone to her that she could help that day. She remembered thinking in the afternoon after returning home that her prayer had not been answered. Somehow she forgot that when she saw me Friday, but just remembered it now. Wow! I’m humbled to think that somehow God used me to be an answer to prayer, when from my point of view – they are a HUGE answer to prayer 🙂
Monday i head up to the Division headquarters at St. Albans, around 30 minutes north of Kings Cross Thameslink. I go to the library looking for directions, and am able to give a good witness to the lady behind the counter. Soon i find the place, let’s see, one Jaguar, two Volvos, and other vehicles. Yes, i know you need a good car here, but maybe a bit down-sized could save money for missions? The Publishing director is not in, but am given directions to the British Isles Union headquarters in Watford, on bus line 321 near Hxxx Gardens, near the ASDA (Walmart) store. There is an automatic lock on the front door, so i wonder if they will just turn me away, but they kindly open up to me. The publishing director here too is gone, and i’m about to turn away when the lady mentions that there is a ABC store in the back. Good! At least i can see what is available here. Little do i know yet that God has prepared a Romanian translator for me!!
She is a student, but with experience scholasticly and practically in translating, and sounds like her family is connected well in Romania itself. She accepts my offer of 1/2 of the translation fee up front, so i hoof it over to the ASDA store where i exchange, and then buy some “still water”. Guess that is to differentiate it from that “jumpy” water (called “fizz” or “gas” or “mineral water” it seems). Good to see that some things are cheap as i buy a litre of juice for 83 pence, and the 2 litre water for 17p. I return and hand over the money and buy some food from the ABC store and leave praising God for how he has led today.
The evening is spent walking around Picadilly Circus – Regent Street area. I’m so hungry for pizza, but no way i’m going to pay 6.45 for all you can eat style. I settle for take-away Thai, and eat it in a park where there are two lovers entwined on the grass (until they have a huge argument), a chain-smoking Russian couple on the bench across from me, and a pigeon-lady thumbing her nose at the “Don’t feed the pigeons” sign. It is fun to walk thru Hamley’s, a huge toy store. They don’t have what i’m looking for, but it is cool just to see all the neat stuff lying around.
I have a fever, but must get up and going the next morning to go downtown. I walk around from Victoria station all over the place, find what i wanted, eat a Subway (yes, i want the WHOLE sandwich put in the microwave please), and go back home for a short nap. The house owner has given me the address of a Ghanian Brother in the faith who may be interested in getting this 1858GC book into Ghana for me, so i walk to his place and talk with him awhile. He isn’t the one for this project, but i’m not disappointed. God will provide when the time and person is ready. I have absolute faith in that – when we do what we can praying for God to lead, he WILL lead. When we don’t do anything, God can’t work thru us. So accept the results happily, and move on. Good information was received about the language used, and the ability of the Adventist press there 🙂
Our family spends around 1/2 hour every evening reading some of the GC book. The father and i also have a short Bible reading and prayer in the morning too, and i think this family is quite happy to have this opportunity to do this. May this habit of praying and studying God’s words together become a daily habit. I sure do appreciate the opportunity to do this too, and pray that i’ve been a blessing to your family.
Next morning i’m up early (6), and after a Bible reading and prayer with the parents, i’m in the father’s car ready to go to the bus stop for the bus to take me to Liverpool Street station where my train to the coast and the ferry to Holland await me. It is my first time riding in a double-decker bus, and it is kind of neat sitting in front of the top part, except the few times when we scrape the branches – ha! It is surprising how low the London skyline is, with mostly just one bunch of high-rises – the Docklands. There is one weird building called locally the “erotic gherkin”. But most all the buildings look so solid. Too solid. It wears on you after a while in England to see most everything built of red brick. In the city there are white painted brick areas, but mostly everything is just brick, brick, brick. There is a sign saying that some Bethlehem Hospital stood on this site from 1247-1645. That’s some history!! You can just feel the history, and imagine what it must have been like in Shakespeare’s days, or Wycliffe’s days, or Queen Elizabeth’s days (sorry).
The ferry appears after gliding thru green country with of course, brick houses everywhere. England, i’m happy to have seen your land again, and thank God so much for producing so many faithful souls who stood strong for Jesus, and gave us a faithful translation of the Bible so that we can stand strong today. It pains me to see that you have largely turned your back on Jesus, but i pray that many of you will return to the Lord in the last days, and give forth the 3 Angels’ Messages with great power, as befitting your national seal.
NOTE: Post written July 26, 2006