The Taylor’s English Summer

The plan:

1. Drive from Poznań to Dorking, spend several days in Dorking, seeing friends and be in St.Paul’s church on Sunday
2. Drive up to Nantwich, Cheshire to spend time with Dale’s family
3. Drive to Lincoln to visit the Baptist church and plan next summer’s teen mission to Poznan
4. Drive back to Poland in the minibus full of stuff: King David’s School uniforms from M&S, yearly supplies of some English specialities, as well as things for different friends of ours …
    
“Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” (Prov.19;21) 

The reality: 

1. On the way through Germany, after several breakdowns, thought and prayed about turning back to Poland. Disappointed, but ready to go back, we knew there would also be many disappointed people waiting for us in England. Asked the Lord for wisdom – if we had to stop one more time soon, we’d be driving back to Poland. Spent the following 5 hours praying and worshipping the Lord and driving smoothly non stop. Took it as the Lord’s yes for our trip. In Holland and Belgium the problems reappeared, accompanied by an ominous sound from the gearbox. Got to see Dunkirk beaches just before the sunset – one fulfilled dream. 

 How we got to Calais, and then from Dover to Dorking, is God’s mysterious doing.
2. As usual on our stays in Dorking, had the privilege of the luxuries of our ‘holiday mansion’ at Rose Hill, courtesy of Nick and Marie Goddard - in their lovely home.

3. Friends started looking after us – David Basset took us to Box Hill,

 

Colin and then Tim Stevens took our poor car to the garage, Jackie Natt from St. Mary’s Reigate came up with a friend willing to pay for the repairs, Paul and Allie Studley and their homegroup organized a barbecue for us.
4. The garage people were very ingenious trying to trace the problem – we all thought they succeeded. 

5. Packed all our belongings, cleaned the house, left the key in the house and at 4 am left for Nantwich. Waved goodbye to the Dorking Cockerel and … here we go again … - decided the best direction was back to Rose Hill and the garage. As we left the key inside, we could not get into the house, so we parked outside till the decent hour 8 am, when we could ask Marie’s dad, Tim to come rescue us with his key. Read 2 separate devotionals for the day. Seemed to have the same theme: “...the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send?'” He definitely sent us back to Dorking. Unpacking time, kids!
6. The garage people continued scratching their heads,
 the bill continued growing, we settled back at Rose Hill, continued praising the Lord for His protection and asking Him for some decent way out.
7. Uncle David B. came to the rescue and sent the bored kids ...

 ... to the cinema. Asia entertained herself doing some decoupaging and cross-stiching, Dale entertained different options for the car as well as met up with some old school friends. Survived a Ninjas' attack in Rose Hill garden.

8. Found out that we could visit Barbara Richardson at the Nower Care as often as we wanted, so we did on several occasions. Realized how much of our girls’ success in homeschooling may have depended on prayers of formerly Kay and Barbara, and in the past couple of years Barbara. 

9. Took a nice walk to Elisabeth Teesdale for tea, where we met two Polish guys working for her, with their young families. Found out there are about 150 Poles living in Dorking, mostly attending St. Joseph’s church. Enjoyed the view of the river and a pheasant in the garden.

 

10. Our friends from Lincoln, Jonathan and Evelina with little Elijah came down and spent 2 good encouraging days with us.

Left their baby cot to take back to Poland and a spade and a pick for the wartime land rover of a friend of ours in Poland. Sure, there is space unlimited in our van to carry such things to and thro.
11. On the eve of the return of the legitimate owners of ‘our summer residence’, we were kindly invited to spend the rest of our enforced stay in Dorking in St. Paul’s vicarage.

12. Continued to attend St. Paul’s on Sunday mornings, surprising some, and surprised at the number of people approaching us and saying they regularly pray for us and our work in Poznan.
13. Dale’s family came down for their holiday just outside Dorking, so had plenty of time together, though in a different setting than planned.

 Attempted to produce a live genealogical tree in the Nower wood.

 

 14. Enjoyed fresh eggs, blackberries and the gate into the woods at the vicarage!
15. Did all the ‘necessary’ shopping in Sainsbury’s. Filled half the van with baked beans, weetabix and big bottles of orange squash. 
16. Filled the rest of the van with all the belongings, ours and others. 
17. On the last night in Dorking felt rather concerned about the state of the van and a thousand miles ahead of us. Prayed frantically for a safe journey home.

18. Our first attempt at the journey home lasted some 15 minutes. Having stopped twice before reaching Reigate, parked outside St. Mary’s in Reigate

and phoned our Polish PZU insurance company. They were willing to take us to the garage. We said the car would make it back to Dorking, but we couldn’t have it fixed – it wasn't worth it. - Scrap it and we’ll fly you home, they said. Bewildered, we hang up and drove back to the vicarage. This time we had the key handy at Shona's the curate. Unpacking time, kids, here we go again!
19. Humbly went to Sainsbury’s asking them to kindly accept back our yearly supply of English specialties we had bought the day before. Stuffed ourselves with wine gums and short bread.
 
The process of elimination began – cheap airlines allow each passenger to take up to 10 kg of cabin luggage, with the size limit as well. The fun began...
20. Necessities: Sarah’s schoolbooks (yes, apparently she studied Maths, Biology, Chemistry and Geography during the holidays! – that’s homeschooling for you); library books – we had some 15 of them, due to be returned on our coming home; King David’s School’s uniforms – no, we couldn’t leave these behind. A monkey and a leopard – no, Reuben can’t sleep without them; Bibles – why did everybody take their full Bibles with them?

21. Can we take the guitar? No. Can we take the table football game and the croquet set? No. Sewing machine? (You didn’t … ?!) Mixer? A football and a basketball? Swiss Army knives? Kitchen knives? Scissors? (why did everybody travel with all these knives and scissors on them?) Cross-stitching needles? Bedding? Mattresses? A tin of sand from Dunkirk beach along with a bag of seashells from the same? The list went on and on. The vicarage study room was covered with things left behind. 
22. Morning 29 August – farewell to our dear minibus, we’ll miss you!

 23. A 7-seater taxi took us to the airport. Several pairs of heavy army boots in a row and a small bag of girly make-up made the security guys think twice before they let us on board.

 

24. 3 hours later we were sitting round our table at home, eating a lovely Polish dinner prepared for us by our friends

 25. Did we get to England safely? Yes. Did we see everybody we wanted to see? Yes. (only Dale’s dad couldn’t make it). Did we see some extra people we wouldn’t have seen otherwise? Yes. Did we spend time together as a family? Yes. Did the Lord bring us safely home? Yes, He did!

("camme back fromm England to Poland!" - by Reuben)

*** 

It may seem that we didn’t have a brilliant holiday and that it was a disappointing time, not to mention the loss of the van and the costs involved in trying to fix it (kindly covered by a friend). Yes, the holiday didn’t go as we envisioned it, there were tears and stress and all the ‘why ?’s. However, throughout all this time we kept praying – asking the Lord to solve our problem as well as to show us why we ‘got stuck’ in Dorking and what could we do while there. Nothing spectacular happened, the Lord didn’t miraculously fix our van and our stay in Dorking didn’t bring any impressing fruit. What we have learned though, is to be thankful ‘at all times’, depend on the Lord deeply – as the situation really surpassed our human possibilities. We also kept reminding ourselves that our ‘hardship' is not that serious, it’s rather a mishap in which the Lord faithfully kept us safe and provided for us by surrounding us with caring people. That alone was worth the experience. Our problems have not been solved – we have no vehicle - however, we were given some money towards a new one; a lot of our stuff will stay in Dorking for a while - some not at all important, some we feel the lack of. Yet – can we really say we lack something when we have God’s love and grace?

 

 "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? (...) nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Rom.8;35-39)

Having had to leave our belongings and scrap the van is at the most just awkward. Our lives don’t depend on these things, we just got used to having them at hand. May this experience give us all a renewed trust in the Lord’s sovereignty and a gratitude for what he gives us every day which we so often just take for granted.

***

Last but not least, our stay in Dorking this summer reminded us again how many people in St. Paul’s support us through their regular prayers and how much of what happens in our lives is the result of these faithful prayers, often heard only by God.

"And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message,

so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ" (Col. 4,3)

Thank you!