My life Part 10 A few months after we were married in Africa, I received call up papers to do National Service. It would have meant involvement in jungle warfare against terrorists, which was most unappealing, as you can imagine. So we decided to leave for Belfast and ironically another war! We enjoyed a lovely ocean cruise, from Cape Town to Southampton on the old mail ship, Edinburgh Castle. It was a November so it was 26 degrees when we left Cape Town and 6 degrees in Southampton. So cold! I remember Trixie didnt have a proper coat and had wee sandals on her feet. She had never seen her breath on a winters day and had never seen snow! Actually, a few weeks later she went out and danced in the falling snow, it was all new to her! We stayed with family at first, and soon, with the help of a lovely Christian lady called Peggy, we got a wee flat near Stormont. It was our first home. Trixie got a job, right away as a typist with the Inland Revenue in the city centre. It was in a big building called Windsor House. I couldnt get a job and spent every morning walking up the big hill at Craigantlet, praying to the Lord about a job and about our future missionary work. It took seven months of prayer before I got employment. It was in a garage, selling Citroen cars. I was there over three years. I learned a lot about human nature. My boss was very high-powered. He told me to get the customers jackets off, rather than let them escape without buying! I never managed that, Im afraid! During the nights of overtime, when I was in the showroom by myself I would pray, Lord, get me out of here and let me do missionary work. But God had a lot for me to learn and He made me wait. Trixies office was often a target for IRA car bombs. I remember she was evacuated a number of times and had to brush the broken glass from the office windows, off her typewriter. I remember, once she was buying a flag from a blind man outside a shoe shop; there was an explosion and all the shoes went flying over her and the wee man vanished in the chaos! I was told that if the loyalists came some night and demanded the cars to let them have them. They would use them to make barricades. Your life is more valuable than the cars, my boss said. It had happened once before my time but thankfully I never saw it. Trixie and I attended a lunchtime Spanish class, in the town, as we were hoping to go to South America as missionaries. At that time we were told about GLO or Gospel Literature Outreach, a missionary organisation which was based in Scotland, in a town called Motherwell. I only knew about this place through football results on Saturday night tele. Little did I know then, how much that town would figure in our future! To be continued....
Posted on: Thu, 30 Jan 2014 09:58:32 +0000
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