Comme Les Sans Abris

University was over forever and it was time to return to the other side of the World. Back to the place where I was born for a four month vacation with my brother. It was like a magnet for us. I was nearly 9 when we had left 15 years before and I remembered it well but as in a dream. That part of my life felt like it was spent far from home. Going back to England, I had that sense of belonging again. Seeing all the family and places we had left behind so many years before was a surreal experience of a parallel life. We were back on dry land once more and time seemed to have stood still.

Two months after we arrived and having found every family member and friend we could think of, we decided to take a month pass and travel Europe by train. The responsibility fell to me to organise the trip so two days before we left, I bought our tickets planning to arrive in France on June 6th 1989 - the 45 year celebration of D Day - the day the allies landed in Normandy. Not to mention 200 years since the start of the French Revolution!

We left London early in the morning, crossed on the ferry (before the days of the tunnel) and boarded the train mid afternoon bound for Lille. Everything was going extremely well...until the conductor arrived. We gave him our train tickets but his face turned to a frown and when he spoke to us we knew we were in trouble. He started pointing repeatedly at the tickets and finally we saw the start date on the tickets...JUNE 7th!!! We gave him all our cash which thankfully got us to Lille where we hoped to withdraw some money but no, the banks were closed.

Without money, food and unable even to "spend a penny" at the public amenities, this was not a good start. "Comme les sans abris", we spent our first night at the Lille train station. We took it in turns to guard our bags through the night hoping to get some rest. But at 5am the guards came with their guns and alsatians to move us out before the first passengers arrived.

A small mistake can lead to disaster and it's true that in a moment you can lose everything and be at rock bottom! I read an article by an atheist last Christmas where he said that the homeless were very often the strongest believers he had met and he couldn't explain it. I've found God is very near to you when you are at rock bottom and so it shouldn't be a surprise. We may feel like strangers in a foreign land but we are never homeless! Ephesians 2:19 says "Now you are no longer strangers to God and foreigners to heaven, but you are members of God’s very own family, citizens of God’s country, and you belong in God’s household with every other Christian".

When you're young you don't worry about what can go wrong though! You just do it and that always works. We found some coins, bought some "Plops" from the vending machine, waited for the banks to open to get enough money for the day and then caught the next train to Luxembourg.

Read Next Chapter: Luxembourg and Switzerland