The Mission

I had very little contact with YWAM in England but one day, for some reason, a young lady from YWAM ended up spending the day with me. I have no idea how we got together. She wasn’t very appealing to me so it wasn’t anything to do with any kind of attraction. The only thing I remember is that she was from South Africa.

As I could go see free movies at the theaters where I worked, I could also sometimes trade tickets with people who worked at other theaters. A movie I wanted to see came out at another theater on Leicester Square and I found someone who worked there who was willing to trade. The movie became another one on my short list of all-time favorites. It was called The Mission and I took this YWAM girl from South Africa to see it.

As we were watching the movie, I became awed by one of the actors whom I had never seen before. It was Robert De Niro and he became to me to be what I consider one of the greatest actors ever. Unfortunately, I have still not seen him in a role that I think has lived up to his character in that movie.

The Mission is a very sad movie and as we continued to watch, I started hearing someone in the theater making some noise. I realized that the noise was crying. Then I realized that the someone was the lady I was with. Then her crying escalated into weeping. So here I was with someone I didn’t even know in a movie theater and she was sobbing. At least it was an afternoon show so there weren’t too many people in the theater and it was dark. The movie ended, we parted ways and I never saw her again.

I had another small brush with fame. Somehow I got connected with some Christian group and another guy and I were out doing a prayer walk in some back street area of central London. As we were walking, a tall, thin guy comes along with a long black trench coat and snazzy black and white leather shoes.

I didn’t recognize him but the other guy said he thought it was a singer named Rick Ocasek from a group called The Cars. I also knew The Cars from when I watched MTV in Ala Moana Mall in Hawaii. I didn’t care for most of their music but they did have one song I really liked called Drive.

As we kept walking, the guy comes walking towards us again. He looked like he was trying to find an address but was lost. As he approached I asked him, 

“Are you Rick Ocasek?”

“Yes”.

“Love your music, man.”

“Thanks.” 

And we kept on with our prayer walk.


I made no secret of the fact that I was a Christian. I hoped that I could be a good example to people at work that would give them a positive view of Christianity. I think I did and they respected my beliefs but they also tried to play around with me. 

They knew I didn’t swear but as I had not grown up in England, there were certain words they would use of which I did not know the meaning. One day, one of them got me to say one of the words. Immediately, he made a big deal of the fact that I had just sworn. I protested much, declaring my innocence due to ignorance and never said it again.


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