A quick prayer request for wisdom and guidance
really concerning the practicalities of the Britain visit in March / April ;
1) air tickets. More particularly, where to fly to and from ! I start out in Darlington and finish in Swansea passing via Glasgow in the north and Bath in the south, Whitby in the east and Swansea in the west ! I had assumed I would fly in and out of Manchester, but I also assumed I would probably be based in Shotton and make sorties hither and yon. That may not be the most practical thing to do in the end, though Shotton is excellently placed for the motorway networks and the joys of the M6, and not bad for the train, either...
2) transport. I won't be bringing the car to Britain. So do I entrust myself to the rail network or do I try and get a car to use for the three weeks ? There are firms that hire old cars to missionaries, and sometimes these are quite reliable (!) but that would mean flying to somewhere near their office. Alternatively I could simply hire the smallest car available commercially in Britain - there'll only be me. A Smart, perhaps ! When people come over to Britain from Ireland for conferences do they still fly Easyjet and hire Easycar Merc 140s ? The advantage of that is that I wouldn't need collecting from stations all the time and it may not be that much more expensive in the end. Also carting leaflets, magazines and DVDs etc.. round on the train would be tiresome in the extreme. I'll have drawers, socks, tee-shirts and shirts for three weeks as it is !
I'll ring the mission office in Swindon tomorrow to talk this through and see what they advise.
1) air tickets. More particularly, where to fly to and from ! I start out in Darlington and finish in Swansea passing via Glasgow in the north and Bath in the south, Whitby in the east and Swansea in the west ! I had assumed I would fly in and out of Manchester, but I also assumed I would probably be based in Shotton and make sorties hither and yon. That may not be the most practical thing to do in the end, though Shotton is excellently placed for the motorway networks and the joys of the M6, and not bad for the train, either...
2) transport. I won't be bringing the car to Britain. So do I entrust myself to the rail network or do I try and get a car to use for the three weeks ? There are firms that hire old cars to missionaries, and sometimes these are quite reliable (!) but that would mean flying to somewhere near their office. Alternatively I could simply hire the smallest car available commercially in Britain - there'll only be me. A Smart, perhaps ! When people come over to Britain from Ireland for conferences do they still fly Easyjet and hire Easycar Merc 140s ? The advantage of that is that I wouldn't need collecting from stations all the time and it may not be that much more expensive in the end. Also carting leaflets, magazines and DVDs etc.. round on the train would be tiresome in the extreme. I'll have drawers, socks, tee-shirts and shirts for three weeks as it is !
I'll ring the mission office in Swindon tomorrow to talk this through and see what they advise.
Comments
Maybe you should butter-up members of the Finance committee which meets before your visit...:-)
I intend to come dressed à la française - i.e. you can wear what you like as long as it's black.
As for the Finance Committee, where am I likely to get that amount of butter from...?
Speaking of butter, for health reasons we prefer euros. In cash. Far easier to swallow. Merci beaucoups.
The total came to £480, ish. Sounds like car hire is a goer, if you'll pardon the expression !
There's a grocer in the town (in the town)
opposite the Rose & Crown (Rose & Crown)
And on Thursdays we go down and load the van
with Country Life butter from the man (grocer man).
It's English butter, through and through (through and through)
Tasty, fresh and creamy too (creamy too)
Oh you'll never put a better bit of butter on your knife
And so the toast is 'Country Life' (Country Life).