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Nations 2k10 - Day 1 - Travels

Posted in: News, by Jimmy on January 6, 2010 | 12 Comments

Wow.

I am extremely humbled as I sit here by the fire with Jason, Jimmy… with our England host family Kris and Ness, and their pup Rayah.  The cottage is quaint with low ceilings; the candles still lit at the table we just gorged ourselves with wonderful homemade chow.  It is over 200 years old, but feels brand new.  The dining room has the original rock slate floors, and the backdoor we came thru is original, as well as the exposed wood beams.  Otherwise it is a very cozy cottage.   We are chatting about the events of the coming week, and the desolate community that has hunkered down in the worst storm in 20 years.

Yup, 20 years.  An hour after we landed at Heathrow Airport in London, the airstrip closed down for several hours.  The land is blanketed in white, and no one is to be found on the roads.  Our front wheel drive Ford rental car was pretty slow going on the icy roads.  After landing at 8am this morning, we have finally arrived in, as Ness spelled: “Um… (looks around) P – e – n – ummm – d -o – double g – e – double t…”

Now for the interesting part of the story…  We took off Seattle Tuesday at 830 am.  I got my favorite seat on the plane… the row right in front of the exit row, which, federal regulations prohibits reclining seats.  Sleep wasn’t an option, so I worked on some projects, sweated my brains out cause some lady complained it was cold and they cranked the heat… and I passed the time until our layover in Houston.  We grabbed some grub there and then hit the foggy dark skies for 9 hours to London.  We all had middle row seats so again, sleep wasn’t going to happen.  But we did have on-demand movie screens for each seat.  I think between the three of us, seperately, we watched Jurassic… [ok side note, Rayah, the pup, just lit off a massive bomb and is fogging our heads]…  Anyways, we watched Jurassic Park, Bourne Identity and Supremacy, Up, Harry Potter, Gladiator, X-men II…  Jimmy was the one that watched Harry Potter and Up… for the record.

He hit the pavement in London after circling the air for over an hour due to snow, fog and icy conditions.  We were blessed to make it here!  We hired a car after standing behind 1k people in the customs line.  After getting situated in the car and practiced driving the stick shift with the driver wheel on the right side of the car and snow ankle deep, we headed out.  After several mis-turns and wrong ways, we made it about 45 minutes down the hwy towards Polzeath for the week.  I had only slept about 8 hours in 3 days so I began situating the back seat for a long winters nap.  As I laid my head down, I noticed something wasn’t right.  I started checking bags and inventory and realized we had left Jimmy’s backpack -laptop, itineraries, passport- in the first rental car we loaded (which we switched out of because it was empty of petrol -fuel).  We took another 8 mis-turns and wrong ways to get turned around to start back the 45 minutes to Heathrow to hunt the bag down.  We stopped for a little Mcdonalds, because, well, we are American, and proud of it.  Another Lad had hired the car we originally wanted and headed out, with Jimmy’s bag and all.  He noticed the mistake, and drove all the way back to the car center and turned the bag in.  We made it back to the airport and retrieved the bag.  We made our way back thru the 30 round-abouts, wrong ways, mis-turns and got back on hwy A303 and headed out.  I finally got some nappage in.

THEN…

We realized down the road that Jimmy’s passport was in his pocket when we got into the first car and he had set it on the console.  So….  the passport is still in that car with the stranger who is in the complete other direction from where we are.  Tomorrow he is scheduled to turn in the car and we will be calling to try and track the passport down.  Please pray that we are able to retrieve the passport, which will be tough because it will need to be sent via courier, which is very jammed up right now with all the weather.  ”Britain Freeze” is all over the news like the winter snow we had in Seattle last winter that shut everything down.  Really not all that it is fussed up to be.

We made it into Pendoggett around 7 pm local time, 11am Seattle time.  The macbooks are out and we are getting wound down from the trip and ready for the adventures.  Tomorrow will be a big site-seeing, photo day, leading up to the first premier of ONEYEAR at Tubestation in Polzeath.  We are gonna head out to a windmill farm first thing, then to King Arthur’s castle, an ancient fishing town, an abandoned village and maybe actually surf in the snow tomorrow.  May be the dumbest idea ever… but so worth it.  You have to google-map this town so you can understand exactly how far away from anything we are.  Each village we passed thru had a couple cottages a couple feet off the road and maybe a mart.  Pendoggett has the raddest English pub around with a fantastic gentleman, John, holding the fort down.  A couple more houses and you are out of the village and onto the next…

Kris is a local pastor/ church-planter in Polzeath and has lived here with his wife Ness for 3 years.  They are working on getting another plant going soon.  He is an avid surfer, and loves action sports.  Tubestation, his church, has an indoor skate park which we will hit up as Jimmy brought his board.  As for now, my pits smell of cabbage and teeth have a nice film building up.  We are wiped from travel and so stoked with anticipation for the days ahead.  Tomorrow, we take southwest Britain by the heart and bring the Word and Grace and Glory of God to a very un-churched region.

Friday’s premiere, as well as all the others in Europe, will take place in local pubs/ bars.  Why?  Because we are here to meet people where they are.  We are no better than they, and are willing to fit in with them and see their lives and become friends, so that we may have the avenue of sharing the Gospel thru this film.

Thank you all for support and following our travels.  Continue to pray for safety and health, as roads are icy and the entire village has been passing a gnarly cold virus.  Pray that people have receptive hearts and opens minds to the message of the Gospel message.

Still awkward seeing the driver wheel on the wrong side.  Jimmy drove on the wrong side of the road half-way to Polzeath…