A New Hope

Laura let me know that she didn’t like the church I had been attending – the New Rainbow. It was also quite a distance from where we were living. We looked closer to where we were. There was a church not too far away called Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) that was a lively and modern Anglican church, yet they still met in a great, old cathedral-type building.

They had several different kinds of services, from more traditional to very contemporary. Cherilyn went to the contemporary service. They were also running what was then becoming the very popular Alpha course - a ten-week introduction to Christianity that has since spread around the world. We attended HTB for a time but ended up at a sister church called St. Paul’s, closer to where we lived with a more family-oriented feel. 

We also joined one of the church’s small groups. It was run by an American who was related to a speaker I had known in YWAM. Yet, even though the leader was American, we felt like people related to us somewhat as celebrities because of where we were from. It was an interesting dynamic but we did feel very welcomed and found some genuine friendships.

St. Paul’s was close enough for an enjoyable long walk home. In those days, most of the stores were closed on Sundays but there was a place on the route home which sold fresh-baked, still-warm French bread. We would get a loaf and make salivating sandwiches.

Speaking of making sandwiches, since we didn’t have a washer and dryer in our flat, we had to do our clothes at the local laundromat. Laundromats are warm places for homeless people to hang out in London during the winter. That was where I met one particular older Irish man.

He would ask for money but I have a rule about not giving money to homeless people because I don’t know what they will spend it on. What I did was bring him sandwiches. I hoped that showing him that kindness would help to build a relationship so that we could talk about how he got here and what he could do to change his situation. I also tried to connect him with a homeless ministry.

The English school break schedule seemed to be better than the American. There would typically be a break every couple of months with a shorter summer break. They still ran the preschool during the breaks for those parents who wanted to keep their children in but the teachers only worked if they wanted and got paid extra. Laura wanted to go see her family at Easter so she worked the first week of the break and went to California for the second.

Even though the dream had pretty much been dead for a while now, I still wanted to be a filmmaker. A spark of hope came my way. The university that YWAM had been building in Hawaii was now an international reality. It wasn’t accredited but you could get credit towards one of their degrees at any course on any YWAM base around the world. 

The YWAM leaders decided that if you grew up in YWAM, you could get a free education at the University of the Nations (U of N). The Hawaii base/campus had the most courses available and that’s where my mom lived. We started planning to move there. There was one stipulation to the free education. You had to pay your own way to do a Discipleship Training School (DTS), the fundamental prerequisite course for YWAM. 

Growing up in YWAM, I had already heard so much of the teaching in a DTS. And as my dad had been an evangelist, I had also been involved with many outreaches. Given this, I tried to see if I could get out of the DTS prerequisite - no dice. While I was going through this process, the Anastasis was visiting Scotland and we decided to go for a visit. 

Being me, I tried to figure out the cheapest way to get there. We could have taken the train but it was expensive. I found a car rental company called Rent a Wreck. It was a company that rented out cars that were, let’s just say, not in pristine condition. So they were cheaper than a typical rental.

I had never driven in England yet so I had a little trepidation. Not only was the steering wheel on the side of the car that I was not used to but I also had to drive on the side of the road I was not used to. The layout of English roads is also different from the US and I was going to have to drive in and out of busy London, all with a stick shift!

Despite my wariness, I was also excited. I hadn’t driven in a while so I was looking forward to it and the impediments only presented a challenge. I quickly got used to it and it all went off without a hitch. Cherilyn joined us for the trip up.

Visiting friends


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