Home Thoughts From Abroad

Last year on the way to England from the Cayman Islands we had an extended visit with family and friends. Covid played havoc with some of those visits, but we rented a place to stay so we could partially isolate and managed to get some good visits in before coming to this part of the world. This year, with only partial Covid protocols in place, we flew out again for Canada.

Our church, West London Alliance, had encouraged us to come earlier in the year so we could speak to the congregation about our change in ministry. While I did that in both morning services, Pam was able to go on her first Ladies’ Retreat in many years where she was encouraged by expressions and prayers of support. My message was well received and the church offering of over $5,000 far exceeded our expectations.

We also got in some nice visits with family and friends in Ontario, and with the help of a very generous loan of a car from longtime supporters Al and Shelley, were able to get up to the Lucan area to see Pam’s cousins for lunch. The car also enabled us to get down to the Aylmer area to see Jon and Nic and celebrate their birthdays and visit with their kids in Pat and Wendy’s yard.

Then it was off to Wheaton for a week of Orientation. We met folks going out for the first time and some that were just touching base with the mission because they had come onboard during Covid and had not been able to go to orientation in the past, such as ourselves. The beds in the dorm were hard, but we were much encouraged by the warmth of the fellowship and the numbers of those who were willing to go to Asia to serve in some very difficult fields of ministry.

Then it was off to Vancouver to see Greg, who was gracious enough to put us up for a couple of nights. His little flat in New Westminster isn’t much, but it is affordable and close to services and Greg is quite happy there. With Greg we took the ferry over to Vancouver Island to see Russ who is still recovering from cancer and very frail. He was cheered by our visit and the many rounds of Euchre the four of us played.

Then we flew off to Calgary to see our kids and grandkids out there. Dave and Sayda had just bought a house and they were happy to put us up in the basement. It was so wonderful to spend some time with them and to see how that relationship has developed over the years. We had been able to loan Dave $50 grand to contribute his share of the down payment, and their home is going to be a good investment in a very nice part of south Calgary.

Meanwhile, Liz and Greg had moved to Airdrie on the north side of Calgary and were enjoying the community life they are finding there. As a family they have undertaken to walk as often as they can, and we were happy to tag along. Their kids are doing much better in school these days, and since Liz has yet to return to work after Covid, she was able to spend some quality time with them over the summer.

Coming back to Canada is always bitter sweet for us. Through lengthy planning and taking advantage of flight deals, we were able to get all of the trip done at a pretty reasonable cost. Sayda was able to loan us her car, and with Greg and Al and Shelley’s help as well, we were able to the whole trip without renting a vehicle, which in the post-Covid years was truly exorbitant. We saw just about everyone we wanted to see and touching base with Russ and Greg after many years was particularly meaningful for Pam.

However, despite the fact that it was wonderful to see and do all that we could in that whirlwind four weeks, I must confess that at the end of it all we were physically and emotionally drained. We are not as young as went we went out 17 years ago. And while it was so encouraging to see how the Lord had blessed our family and friends, there is more that a touch of sadness at having missed spending all those years watching them grow up. Our service to the Lord has not been without cost.

After a long flight from Calgary back to England we arrived more than a little jet-lagged and travel weary. Fortunately, things were pretty quiet back at the office with many of our colleagues still away on their summer break so we were able to get back on our feet at our pace. We now know better than we did a year ago just how demanding this new ministry is going to be. But with renewed commitment and encouragement from home we are ready for the new year ahead. And we can also look forward to seeing our family again next summer.

July 2022

We are constantly amazed at how easy it is to get around in this country. We are three stops on the train from Gatwick and less than an hour to Victoria Station, where we have been a number of times already. Today we decided it was time we went in the other direction and headed off from our little station in Horsham to the seaside city of Portsmouth.

Portsmouth is the most important naval port in England and still home to two thirds of England’s fleet. At the height of the British Empire it was the largest and most important port in the world. The city was extensively bombed during the Blitz of WWII, but survived multiple attacks to become the pivotal embarkation point for the D-Day landings.

Portsmouth’s active naval base also houses the National Museum of the Royal Navy which has a collection of historic warships, including the Mary Rose, the flagship of the navy of King Henry VIII, recently salvaged and restored, and the HMS Victory, Lord Nelson’s flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar, and the world’s oldest naval ship still in commission.

HMS Victory is a massive ship that in its day could hold 850 men on five decks along with over 100 canons of various bore including 68 pounders which Nelson would hold in abeyance until he had used smaller canon to come along broadside and then unleash a furious cannonade with these massive guns utterly destroying the French fleet at Trafalgar. The ship has been restored several times, but is due to undergo a massive ten year restoration starting in May of this year.

We also walked through town to Portsmouth Cathedral, a lovely old building with a wooden vault in honour of the city’s shipbuilding heritage. It was founded in 1180 and dedicated to St. Thomas a Beckett, archbishop of Canterbury, who had been martyred in 1170 following orders by King Henry II. There was some delay in the train going back to Horsham, but nevertheless it had a most enjoyable trip and it was great to see some of England’s naval heritage so close by.

February 2022

In February, Queen Elizabeth II became the first British Monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee, marking 70 years on the British throne.

From some reason we foreigners don’t understand, her birthday is never celebrated until June, possibly to take advantage of the weather. We took advantage of a day off as a staff by going into London on Thursday, the first day of the celebration.

There were thousands of people in town, and the trains and stations were absolutely packed. But Horsham is early on the train line to London, so we all had seats and chatted happily among ourselves on the ride to town. At Victoria Station we joined the crowds moving through Green Park and found a pretty good spot on the Mall only about six rows deep from the front.

I had brought my selfie stick and by holding up my phone as far as my arms could reach was able to capture some shots of the various horse guards and mounted military bands that paraded by. Everyone was good spirits and there was no shoving or shouting to be heard, except for the raucous applause when the troops went parading by. We caught a glimpse of what might have been a few royals, but we make no claim to have seen anyone notable.

After the troops had paraded both up and down the Mall, the crowds were allowed to leave the barricades and move forward to surround the Victoria Monument in front of Buckingham Palace. We opted instead to find a place in Green Park where we could see the flyby of the Royal Airforce in formation going over the skies.

The Queen is a remarkable woman, and a most devout Christian who has served her country with devotion and resilience. Her reign for 70 years on the throne will likely never be matched, and her legacy of service is a model for heads of state around the world.

From quietly confronting tyrants to using her considerable diplomatic skill in expanding the Commonwealth, she has helped her country to navigate a treacherous world with a sure and steady hand. She well deserves the outpouring of affection we witnessed in London today.

June 2022

One of the joys of living overseas is having family come to visit. When we were in Malaysia, all of our children came to visit. The same held true when we moved to the Caribbean, though with a four-hour direct flight from Toronto, and an Idyllic spot in the Caribbean, that is not surprising.

Now, after being in England for nearly a year, we finally got a visit from our son Jon, his wife Nicole, and their three children. Admittedly, it was a stop over for a trip that included both France and Germany, but we were so happy to see them and planned to pack their days.

Of course we took them on a tour of our little town of Horsham, but we also took them down to Arundel, which is a lovely little village less than an hour south of here. We took a small detour through Amberley to see its little thatched roofed houses, took them into the fairly recently constructed Cathedral in Arundel built by the family that owns the Arundel Castle.

The Castle itself is well worth a visit, not only for its implements of war and other antiquities that it has on display, but for its lush and spacious gardens. The Lord had given us plenty of sunshine and Pam had packed a lunch, so we were able to sit on the grass and enjoy a little sun while we ate.

And of course, no trip to this part of the world would be complete without a trip to London. We are fortunate to live just an hour from the city by train, and we can come in at either Victoria Station or London Bridge depending on which side of town we want to be on.

Of course, we had to see Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament and Trafalgar Square, and the kids were great as we walked them all the way through town for hours on end. They never complained about the distance or the route, but seemed to content to follow what we had planned out for them and their company was just a delight.

One of the places that I had loved to visit when I came to England as child was the National Gallery on the north side of Trafalgar Square. The entrance to this and many of the wonderful sites in London is free, but I had to book well in advance as they only allow a certain number of visitors in each hour. Once you are in, you can stay as long as you like and all of our grandkids seemed to enjoy the paintings as much as we do.

However, the highlight of the whole trip was not the buildings or the parks but the Harry Potter show at the Palace theatre. We had talked about this for some time, and we knew that the kids, especially Eli, were looking forward to it. We were not disappointed.

The show lasted over five hours in total. After the first part we went out for dinner at a local pub where we had booked a table. Then we went back for the second part. There is something magical about London theatre. It is not the best place in the world to see live theater for nothing and the show was just spectacular with very dramatic special effects they we are still trying to figure out. It was a lot of fun

We had three glorious days in London and saw all that we could in that time. Jon and Nic went on to France and Germany after they left us, and we are sure they had a wonderful time there as well. But it was just grand to have them here in England for a few days and it looks like they enjoyed themselves as well.

June 2022

We live in a county of England that is known as Sussex. I was born in Essex, to the east of London, and Wessex, the historical seat of Anglo-Saxon power, used to lie to the west.  Sussex is divided into east and west counties, and our little part of the world lies to the north of what is known as the South Downs. On the other side of the Downs are the seaside towns of Brighton, Worthing, and Littlehampton. In the other direction you would come to Eastbourne, near the chalk cliffs known as the Seven Sisters.

Our office staff had agreed to go for a walk in the Downs along a ridge above a valley that skirts the Devil’s Dyke. Devil’s Dyke got its name from a legend that says the devil was furious at the conversion of the people of the Downs to Christianity and carved a dyke through the South Downs, so the sea could flow in and drown their villages. Though fanciful, the legend pass homage to the conversion of this area to Christ very early in its history.

The day was blustery and cold; most unseasonable after such a pleasant and warm Spring. But we bundled up as best we could and made our way along a well marked trail. The views from the ridge over the Sussex countryside were well worth the hike and wrapped up in coats and conversations we hardly noticed the cold.

At the end of the hike, some of us stopped in at the local pub that sits at the top of the hill at the head of trails that wander off in every direction. The pub was cheery and warm and a nice pot of tea was all we needed to warm us back up again. We have a friendly team of both Americans and Canadians to work alongside and their company, whether walking or talking, is always welcome.

May 2022

When I retired from Cayman International School, we thought that we might come to England for a couple of years to reconnect with my extended family and tour the countryside. We had no intention of taking on another ministry. So we were a little surprised to find ourselves serving again with an international Christian organization when we arrived. At first our responsibilities were light. But as others got to know us and see what we were capable of, the demands on our talents grew.

This reached something of a turning point a couple of months ago when we were asked by the Regional Director of Asia and the President of the organization if we would step in as Associate Regional Directors for West Asia. We checked with our oldest son and his wife to get an outside perspective on the request, and with their blessing accepted the responsibility.

Our first task, which took the entire month of March, was to hire a National Director for Bangladesh. This took hours of writing job descriptions and screening perspective candidates, but with help from those we still knew from our time there, and some understanding of what this would entail from our previous service in that country, we hired who we believed would be the best candidate.

Our next task was to get to know the people and the projects of our region. Our new boss insisted that our first trip be to Turkey and Kyrgyzstan and booked our flights according. This past week has been a whirlwind of flights and meals, meetings and site tours. We are dizzy with the prospect of getting to know all these fine workers for Christ and their places of service.

Our hotel in Istanbul was much like anything you would find in any European city, but the little guest house in Bishkek was an absolute delight with its charming little sitting room and its garden overflowing with pink peonies in lush profusion. The school itself was well situated with decent facilities and a most notable yurt in the playground. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much time to look around either city. But we did earmark Istanbul for further exploration.

Despite our years and the distance we have come, it looks as if the Lord is not finished with us yet. We are not sure how long this present service might last, but for now we are happy to find that the Lord still has something useful for us to do and we will do what we can serve those He has called us to help.

May 2022

We have both been captured by the personal and expressive paintings that are the hallmark of Van Gogh’s style. When I was fortunate enough to have six hours in Amsterdam on my way to Malawi to serve with the Canadian Teacher’s Federation, I used the time to go to the wondrous Van Gogh Museum which is on the edge of the aptly named Museumplein.

There are a number of his paintings at the National Gallery in London that we stop to look at each time we go, including his famous “Sunflowers.”  So when the Van Gogh Immersive Experience came to London, we made a note of its location and cost and this week took the time to go into town and enjoy the show.

The exhibition hall was located in Shoreditch on a commercial street between Liverpool Station and Brick Road, the kind of district you don’t want to be walking around in anytime past midnight. It was not all that easy to find, and there isn’t much in the way of decent places to eat nearby, so if you go, you might want to eat in a nicer part of town first. We didn’t, thinking we’d find somewhere local, and went hungry as a result.

There had been a recent flare up of a local COVID variant in the weeks leading up to the event, so a number of participants were masked up in preparation. The crowds were also thin as a result, so we had no trouble finding a comfortable place to sit to watch the panoply of paintings moving across the exhibition walls in time with synthetic sounds intended to convey the varying moods of the portraits and landscapes.

I confess it was a little disorientating sitting in the midst of paintings in 360 degrees around your head. I am more used to seeing static art that allows you time to reflect and examine the work. This was something else, and whether it was more show than art I will leave for others more qualified than myself to say. I will say that I found the experience insightful.

To be immersed in the moods and brushstrokes of Van Gogh is to lose the sense of detachment that one usually has in an art gallery. Instead, you were captured by the overwhelming fluidity and adventure of an art that so shattered the norms of even that most experimental time that during his lifetime Van Gogh was only able to sell one painting. Now $100 million would likely not be enough.

There was more than a touch of sadness to that reflection. Beauty and gentle genius are so often lost in a culture that seems to only value commercial and financial success. The brash and the brazen succeed on the basis of bravado alone, while the sincere and studious are scorned as losers and failures. It is a terrible commentary on the shallowness of our culture.

Tragically Van Gogh took his own life in 1890 and never lived long enough to reap the rewards of his talents. In the two years before his death, he produced nearly 300 paintings and hundreds of drawings and sketches. It is an astounding output and mute testimony to the creative genius that was Van Gogh.

February 2022

Living in England has not only afforded me the opportunity to reconnect with my British roots, it has allowed us to dig into British history. And there is no more iconic event in British history than the Battle of Hastings in 1066. We had travelled down to Kent to help my cousin Ros prepare her house for its sale in the Spring and decided that rather than take the motorway home, we would travel along the south coast to see this historic site.

Harold II, the reigning English king, had just fought a decisive battle at Stamford Bridge, near York, where he had defeated a claimant to the English throne, Harald Hardrada, King of Norway, in September of that year. Now he was facing another claimant in William of Normandy, a Nordic colony on the coast of France. When the news of William’s landing reached Harold, he rushed his battle-weary troops back south, stopping only briefly in London to gather any extra forces he could. By October he had them stationed on a hill not far from the English coast using a nearby abbey as a barracks for his troops.

With his army holding the high ground, Harold had a clear advantage over William and was able to repel several charges. As the light began to fade, William mounted a final assault advising his first wave of troops to pretend to flee defeated. Sensing victory at the end of a long day, Harold allowed his army to pursue the Normans downhill to collect the spoils of war. It was a fatal error. William rallied his troops and led them in a crushing defeat and an uncontrolled slaughter of Harold’s men.

As William surveyed the battlefield on the following day, he is said to have been overcome with revulsion and remorse for the bloody carnage his troops had inflicted on Harold’s army. He vowed to rebuild and expand the shattered abbey, where it still stands to this day.

We walked the entire site, stopping to read the informative displays and taking in the significance of the events of that day. England does a great job of preserving and presenting his history to its visitors. We had a sunny day and didn’t mind the stroll through what is now and peaceful and picturesque site

William proved to be an able ruler, uniting the country for the first time in its history and beginning a line of kings that extends down to this day. What looked at the time as a crushing defeat, turned out to be pivotal in England’s rise as a great nation, and in the nearly 1,000 years since the Battle of Hastings, has never again been successfully invaded.

October 2022

England is a land of gardens, and one of the nicest of these is Wisley, just up the road from us. We’ve passed by it several times on the way to Heathrow and we have often said that we really must stop and have a look around. So this Spring we did, and we weren’t disappointed.

I will warn you if you choose to go that it is not cheap. A single entry for an adult is around 20 quid ($35 Canadian) and membership for two is around 50 quid ($90 CAD). And unlike many venues in this country, there was no senior’s rate, mores the pity. So we bit the bullet and went for the 20 quid each and I have to say it was worth it.

The Gardens were the former estate of candlemaker George Wilson, who entered his father’s business at 18 and was so successful that he was able to retire and sell the business at a considerable profit in his early forties and used the earnings to buy a 60-acre property he had recently bought in Surrey, building an expansive estate house and numerous greenhouses.

An avid gardener, Wilson spent the next forty years transforming his Surrey farmland into one of the premier horticultural properties in England before turning it over to the Royal Horticultural Society in 1902 in his will. Subsequent purchases by the RHS have expanded the property into a 240 acre network of lush lawns, expansive gardens, and experimental greenhouses.

Outside of the botanical gardens in Singapore, we have never seen anything like it. The pictures here don’t do the place justice. The rhododendrons were in full bloom and there were vast swaths of them in every colour and variety imaginable. There were rock gardens and waterscapes, and acres of graceful trees. We wandered for hours without coming to the end of all the gardens there to see. As I say, well worth the cost.

This has been an exceptionally warm spring in England, according to the locals, and we have enjoyed the weather. Although we still miss the Caribbean; this milder climate seems to suit us both well. It allows us to spend many hours walking around in the sun without having to seek shelter in the shade. Sitting outside for a cup of tea and the end of our “labours” was a particularly nice treat.

May 2022.

We have worked really hard on getting up to speed on our new working roles in England. So hard, in fact, that there has been precious little time for us to travel and see the beautiful country that the good Lord has brought us to. So feeling that we needed to get away from the pressure of our jobs for a bit, and taking advantage of the Queen’s sad passing and a national holiday, we took a trip to what is called the West Country: Dorset, Somerset, Cornwall and Devon.

We started in Bath in Somerset, where we stayed at the Old Mill just outside of town. Warned about the impossibility of driving in town, we took the bus in ostensibly to see what remained of the Jane Austin Festival. There wasn’t much to see that we could afford, but the town itself was delightful, with a lovely cathedral, pleasant riverside walkways and plenty of genteel local colour. Walking tours were free, but our garrulous guide kept getting lost, both geographically and mentally, so we opted out and settled for a personal walkabout instead. Dinner back at the Old Mill was most pleasant.

The following day we drove to Wells, an unprepossessing town with a most impressive cathedral featuring a stunning open archway to the sacristy. Outside the cathedral, we strolled through the gardens and market stalls before heading on to Glastonbury. On the way we saw a most curious structure on top of what is locally called a tor, or mound. Intrigued, we stopped to climb the 500 plus feet to the top only to discover the remains of a church reputedly established by St. Patrick on his return from Ireland. Local lore has it that the surrounding area was the site of King Arthur’s legendary realm.

That may be myth, but the reality is that Glastonbury has developed a reputation as the site of all that is mystical and otherworldly. Beside hosting the annual Glastonbury Festival – England’s answer to America’s Woodstock – the town was full of wonderfully weird and wacky shops and we spent a delightful afternoon there before returning once again to the Old Mill.

Then we made the longish drive from Somerset through Devon down to Cornwall and the beautiful little seaside town of St. Ives where we found, wonder of wonders, an actual sandy beach. It looked so inviting that the following day we braved the waves up to our knees. However, losing the feeling in our feet from the icy water was enough to convince us that we might be best to leave that dip for warmer weather.

The town of St. Ives could have been plucked from any Italian travelogue. The streets were sunny and wonderfully serpentine with little art and craft shops as befits such a destination. We stayed in grand hotel that overlooked the town and splurged on a lovely meal in the evening. It had been a steep climb down into town and back up again, but the day was once again crisp and clean in the sunny Fall air and it felt so good to be exploring England at last.

The following day we drove to Land’s End where our walk down to the cliff edge was rewarded by the sight of a large pod of dolphins cavorting in the bay. We sat entranced. A few more miles down the road brought us to the site of the Minack Theatre, unfortunately closed for the weekend, much to our chagrin. We did spot another lovely sandy cove below the theatre that we have put on our ‘must return’ list. We took the shortest route back to our hotel, as the coastal route had proved tortuous in the extreme.

Then it was off again, this time to Plymouth to see the harbour where those famous colonists had set out so long ago and where Sir Francis Drake had defended the realm and the honour of the first Queen Elizabeth who would not yield her crown to the Spanish king. Then, after an almost impossibly difficult search and drive, we arrived at Greenwood, Agatha Christie’s retreat in the county of Devon. We walked through the gardens and the home, filled with the mementos collected in a lifetime of travels with her husband Sir Max Mallowan. We stayed the night in Torquay, a miserable and seedy little town on the coast that might at one time have been worth visiting. The lesson? Don’t believe all you read in the guide books.

However, the next day, and our last, more than made up for that temporary setback. We were disappointed we didn’t have time to explore Corfe Castle more than we did, for it has a spectacular setting and a rich history. We did manage a Starbucks coffee at Lyme Regis, the only one we had seen on our travels.

But I was eager to get to Worth Matravers, the site of one of the most important radar installations of the war and the place where my parents met, courted, and married. The Winspit Quarry where they loved to walk can been seen as a location in the new Andor – Star Wars series. The Norman church of St. Nicholas where they married is one of the best preserved in all of England, virtually unchanged since 1100 AD when it was built. And the Square and Compass where they met for drinks and spent their wedding night was a delightfully iconic British pub. We had a pint in honour of our parents who had met and married in such dire circumstances and yet forged such durable marriages.

We covered a lot of ground in five days and are now more determined than ever to explore further this lovely country where we are fortunate enough to reside for this little term. For those who haven’t yet been, the county of Cornwall was surprisingly lovely with gentle rolling hills and spectacular views of the sea. When the weather is warmer, we must return.

September 2022