Fly Away? 11-07-07 to 20-07-07

Laundry stop in Wehrendorf

We arrived in Wehrendorf, near Bad Essen, fully prepared to leave everything behind except the bare essentials, but we were not to leave quite like we imagined. For some time before we arrived, God had been talking to us about leaving the car and most of our travelling gear there, which meant continuing our journey by hitch-hiking. All these 'things' had limited our mobility since we were constantly worrying about where money for fuel would come from and where we could find a place to put up our tent. All these worries made us try to figure out things ourselves, instead of them drawing us into more intimate relationship with Jesus.

God really brought us to a point where we could say, "Ok, we are willing to give up our security in these things. We are trusting in You alone, O Lord, and we want to be willing to even sleep on the streets with the poorest of the poor, if this is Your will."

It was in this innerly broken & surrendered state that we arrived at Ulf's parents place. After a few days of rest (enjoying warm meals and beds), we looked up some of the Boiler Rooms in London and felt really drawn to the idea of spending time there. We also had friends in England that we wanted to visit, so we had peace about going there next. The next question was, "How do we get there?" If we're hitch-hiking, that means hitching into the Netherlands and catching a ferry across the channel. After some research on the Net, we found that the cost of the ferry was the same as a flight! But could we take such a comfortable, easy way out of the call to travel 'without'? At first we were sceptical and did not want to accept that flying to London is what God wants. However, as the days past, we realized that the challenge God gave us to give up everything was not to make us hitch-hike (not yet, at least), but simply to 'give it all up!' Still, the burden of money issues nagged at our minds, until we felt God telling us to simply go and then the money would come. He was yet again requiring our faith and trust. [Photo - We went mushroom hunting in the Wehrendorf Forest.]

Flying to the UK

We arranged to leave Belle, our precious bunny rabbit [pictured here eating her dinner], with Ulf's parents and re-packed our bags - two big backpacks, one small backpack and Emma's handbag. Ulf's Papa drove us to Bremen, one hour north of Wehrendorf, and we were off the ground in no time.

Surprisingly, the departure was quite sad for Emma. Germany had become her home and her home is something very precious to her. And it is this very thing that God is working on during this trip - learning that her home is wherever she is.

Arriving in Stansted-London airport turned out to be dramatic, as Emma had written on her landing card that her occupation was 'none.' This was suspicious for the passport control man because it looked like she had no money to support herself whilst staying in England. After some difficult to answer questions, like, "When was the last time your husband worked?" and, "How do you support youselves?" the man took her passport and his notes to his superior! Emma was quite surprised at all the fuss and after about 10 minutes the man returned to his desk, simply stamped her passport with 'No work or public funds, Permitted to stay for six months' and gave it back to her! Thank You, Lord.

Luton, not London...

Robert and Denise Houslin took us into their home in Luton (which is not in London). They only just (like days before) finished the main part of the extension they're buliding onto their house, so our arrival couldn't have been any earlier. We're so glad that God knows our travel plan before we do!

So now we're in England, trying to get into contact with the Boiler Rooms here, and getting used to the different landscape/culture/food/climate.

Left: Farley Hill Road in Luton. The houses are quite different to in Germany. (Brick, brick, brick!)

Right: Ulf sanding a wall in 'the study'.