Our work permit took six weeks to process. We also had to apply for a visa for me, but we could only apply for that once we had the work permit in our hands. Finally on Friday the 20th of April, the company in London notified us that they would courier through the work permit and said they wanted Hendrik there as soon as possible and asked him to book our tickets immediately.

 

What we did not realise, was right at that point a lot of the airlines cut down on their number of flights to South Africa and the first flights we could find were only three months later. After notifying Hendrik’s employer of this development, they immediately came back with the reply to upgrade the flights to Business Class. The big smile on Hendrik’s face said only one thing: “I told you so.”

 

The shipping company had loaded our furniture. All we had to do now was pack our bags, get my visa from the British Embassy, and draw our last bit of money from our Bank Account. We sold and delivered our car to its new owner and managed to get a lift to my brother in Pretoria, where we waited for the work permit to arrive. We booked our airline tickets for Tuesday evening the 24th, the same day that we expected to receive the work permit. We found out that the Embassy hours for visa applications close at 12 pm. At 11 am the courier company delivered the permit, and we rushed through city traffic to the embassy.

 

We had about 30 minutes to complete the forms and hand it in. We ran into the building, completed the form, and reached the counter. Here we faced two problems: 1. Since the company in London booked a B&B for us and arranged to collect us from the airport to take us there, we did not bother to get the address. They informed us that without that address, they would not grant the visa. 2. They needed the payment for the visa upfront in cash. We were not prepared for that either. It was about 4 minutes before they shut the embassy. The clerk told Hendrik: “There is a cash machine a few blocks away. Run!”

 

I was standing at the door, waiting for Hendrik to return, praying that God would slow down the minutes. When the man at the door started closing the doors, I saw Hendrik appear and I begged the man to wait for him. We managed to push the cash over the counter, but we still had no guarantee that they would issue the visa without our destination address. We had to return at 3 pm to collect the visa and for the next 3 hours, we prayed non-stop. It was now completely out of our hands, and we entrusted everything to God.

 

At 3 pm we were back. We thanked the Lord when they gave me my visa, even though we had no UK arrival address. That was a problem for the next day when we had to go through customs.

 

However, we were about to face more immediate obstacles. We drove to the closest branch of the bank that held our account. We needed to close our credit card account and withdraw most of the money from our current account. A week before, I made sure through our local branch if there would be any problems in getting our money out of our account on a one-way ticket to England. They assured me that it would not be a problem. We need this money to put down a deposit to rent a house. But, here now at the bank, a lovely young lady told us we cannot withdraw our money since we are leaving South Africa on a one-way ticket.

Standing there I was reminded about a dream I once had about experiencing a meltdown before God regarding my constant state of poverty and my persistent pleas for His assistance. As I cried to the Lord, I envisioned myself being swept away in a fast-flowing river, struggling to grab onto something to help me escape the water, but each time, I ended up with a clump of grass in my hand. I felt God was saying to me “Let go Leonie. Let go.” I didn’t understand then what He meant, but I was on a journey learning to let go and let God. Back in 1993 when I started tithing, I started to let go. And the blessing for both Hendrik and me was at hand.

 

This was one of those moments where we had to get out of the way and let God take care of this. We were in our right to draw our money, but the teller dug her heels in and refused. Eventually, Hendrik said to her: “Would you give us a moment please?” and right there in front of her, we closed our eyes and prayed, asking God to help us. When we opened our eyes, Hendrik told her that we refused to accept what she was telling us and that we wanted our money. She went to find her supervisor and we told her too that we got the assurance from our branch that this is in order and therefore we want our money. The young lady showed her supervisor the manual from the South African Reserve Bank she was using and basing her decisions on. Eventually, the supervisor got on the phone with the South African Reserve Bank, and they told her that the manual they were using was outdated and they should give us our money. Thank You Almighty God!

 

It was truly a relief when we finally boarded our plane and left South Africa. It was very clear to me that we faced opposition around every corner and I expected the same to happen when we arrived in England. Our outbound flight took us through Athens in Greece, and we almost got detained there just for being South Africans in Greece without a visa. But eventually they let us through.

 

In the UK, when the customs officer looked at our passports, he asked us to wait and disappeared down the corridor with his weapon (his stamp) under his arm. When he came back, he was very apologetic and told us that he must ask us to follow him. A vivid memory of the awful time in a customs office in Indianapolis came to me, when I had to convince an officer that the Vineyard Church is not a cult. However, this very kind gentleman was different. He apologised again for wasting our time and then said they must take X-rays of our chests to screen us for TB as that is part of the requirements. Ten minutes later we were through and were collecting our luggage. We checked in at the B&B and after a quick shower, Hendrik went straight to work.

 

My task that week was to find us a place to live. Every morning, I would hop on a bus and scan the local agents. We finally found a home in Hounslow in the South West London area and at the end of our week in the B&B, a very kind fellow South African couple that Hendrik met at work, picked us up with all our luggage and took us to our new home. They even lent us a duvet and two pillows. That first night we laid our bath towels on the bare dirty mattress before covering ourselves with the duvet and departed off to dreamland in our new home.