Adventures in British Driving

When we first arrived in England last February, we were picked up at the airport, driven to our flat in High Wycombe, and, with no real instructions, warnings or training, were handed the keys to our car. We knew we would be driving a car with the steering wheel on the opposite side and driving on the opposite side of the road. We knew it would be hard and scary at first. In fact, it was terrifying!

This was us on our first time behind the wheel. We can assure you that the smiles were covering up our fear!

We did get one driving lesson from a professional instructor within our first week, and that helped a lot, but after that we were on our own.

We shared this picture when we first arrived, but there is a notorious cluster of roundabouts near our flat, which we lovingly call the “roundabout of death”, that consists of 5 roundabouts surrounded by a hospital, a university, a shopping mall, a primary school, a high school, and a fire station. And it’s basically the only way we can get from our flat to the Area Office.

You can see why we were terrified! We’ve learned to navigate those roundabouts, and all the other narrow roads and packed motorways, but it’s a miracle that we’ve made it this far without hitting any solid objects (other than a few curbs), we haven’t gotten any speeding tickets and we haven’t killed each other!

We’ve now been here over 11 months, and we’re finally feeling like fairly competent drivers and feeling proud of ourselves for training our old brains to drive in a whole new way. But there’s a rule in the UK that you can only drive on an American license for one year, and then you have to get a British driver’s license. This turned out to be quite a process—let’s just say that it makes the California DMV seem like an efficient, smoothly run, well-oiled machine. ;)

First, we had to pass a theory test, which also includes a video “hazard perception test”. This is a hard test to pass, so we were nervous. (You can get an idea of what it’s like in this YouTube video here.) But driving in England is like doing a hazard perception test every day so we did okay and we both passed that part.

This was just one of the delightful questions on the theory test. :)

The next step was scheduling the driving test—that’s where a lot of the bureacracy kicked in. It took hours and hours online to schedule our tests, which wouldn’t be for at least 6 months out and at locations hours away. Then you have to go online regularly to keep trying to reschedule for a closer location and a sooner test date. My test was scheduled the soonest, which was this past week, and Jon’s test is still coming up on February 14th, only a few days away from our one year deadline. We’re cutting it close!

Needless to say, there was a lot riding on at least one of us passing this test. If we didn’t pass, we couldn’t drive the Church car and we’d be stuck taking a bus every day to the office and not being able to drive anywhere else. So I watched a million test videos, studied all the rules, practiced all the maneuvers, and prayed a lot. My test was in Worcester, a few hours away, so we decided to drive up the night before and stay in a hotel so that I’d have time in the morning to drive around the city and not have to stress about getting to the test centre in time.

I did my driving practice around Worcester and went back to the hotel room to pick Jon up so we could drive to the test centre. Somehow, in the short space of the 15 minutes while we were gathering our things at the hotel room, the car keys disappeared! We were only 5 minutes away from the test centre, but that wouldn’t do us any good if we couldn’t drive the car! Panic ensued! We frantically looked EVERYWHERE in that hotel room. I knew I had locked the car and had the keys in my hand in the parking lot, so I ran down to look there. Nothing. I looked in the lobby and the hallway. Nothing. And there was no one at the front desk.

We only had about 5 minutes remaining to leave so that we could get to the centre in time. They say in all of their instructions that if you’re at all late, they can cancel your test. We both said urgent, pleading prayers! I ran back down to the lobby, and there was still no one there. But I saw a few housekeepers down the hallway. I asked one of them if she had seen any keys. She said no, but thankfully the other housekeeper heard me and said she thought there were some keys at the front desk. She could tell I was a little panicked, so she quickly ran to the lobby and found the keys! Cue the hallelujah chorus!!

We grabbed our stuff, tossed everything into the trunk, drove quickly (but carefully) to the test centre, took lots of deep, calming breaths on the way, and made it just in time! Maybe the rush of adrenaline was just what I needed to be ultra focused for the 40 minutes that the test would take, because…

drum roll…

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I passed!! Such a relief!! This feels like one of the big accomplishments of my lifetime! So when I get home I think I’ll frame my British driver’s license!

All of this hyper-focus on driving has made me think more deeply about how so many of the things we do as a driver apply to our everyday life. In fact, you could say that our life here on earth is just one wild road trip!

One of the first unique signs I saw when we started driving is what we call a “yield” sign in the U.S., but here it says, “Give Way”.

I was immediately struck by the power of that phrase, to give way. As you’re going through all the roundabouts, knowing how and when to give way, is critical to survival. In much the same way, we have to choose every day how we’re going to “give way”--in our relationships with other people, and most importantly in our relationship with God. We have had numerous challenges and sacrifices as missionaries, but every time I see the “Give Way” sign, it reminds me to give way to God and let Him guide my life.

Which leads me to the next metaphor of driving: Follow your gps, except when it’s wrong!

We have had so many times when Google Maps gives us directions that seem to be the most easy and direct route, only to find that some of the roads are so narrow that we would only ever go down them if we were in a horse and buggy! And even then, it would be a tight fit! It’s a reminder to be careful about who and what you trust. When we’re looking for direction in our life, Google has a lot of good answers, but God has better answers and He won’t lead us down the wrong road.

Another little lesson that driving in England has taught us is the reminder that mistakes happen. Sometimes we miss a turn and have to go around the roundabout again, or we miss an exit and have to drive an extra 10 miles (or more!) to the next one, or we might have to back up out of a street we weren’t supposed to drive down. Oops, don’t ask how we know that! Just like we can hit reverse in a car, we can apply the power of reverse in our lives. We can back up, repent, change course, and learn from our mistakes. God gives us so many opportunities for u-turns.

I could go on with numerous analogies, but I’ll end with what I think is the most important.

As we’re driving down this crazy road trip of life, we’re meant to enjoy the journey. On our road trip through Devon and Cornwall, we had plenty of opportunities to practice narrow road driving! But if all we had focused on was how scary the roads were, we would have missed the most amazing sights all around us. It was so beautiful! And we’re also meant to enjoy the time we have with the passengers in the car with us. I’m glad that Jon and I are on this journey together! This life is meant to be one of joy, this is a gospel of joy, and we are on the road trip of our lives!

So as you drive around wherever you are, whether it’s on the right side or the left, on a narrow country lane, or a big, wide American road, we hope you’ll remember our lessons learned from British driving: to give way, not just to cars, but to God, to look to God for the best directions, to change course when you need to, and to find joy in the journey!

♥ Until next time, we love you! Cheerio! ♥

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Words of the Week:

These are unique driving/car words that we’ve had to get used to:

boot - the trunk

bonnet - the hood

windscreen - the front windshield

petrol - gas

lorry - large truck, semi-truck

motorway - highway or freeway

slip road - the entrance or exit from a motorway

dazzle - when you have your brights on and you “dazzle” another driver with your lights

overtake - pass another car

lay-by - a short-term parking area on the side of the road

car park - parking lot, or parking garage