I am so loving this new picture of my son Stephen. I just had to post it with a few comments…
Stephen finished his BA/LLB(Hons) and immediately headed off to Uganda to work as a Volunteer with the Refugee Law Project at Makerere University in Kampala. It will be twelve months in a couple of weeks. Stephen’s energies are devoted to “unaccompanied minors” – essentially the children caught up in the refugee crisis that continues to engulf the Democratic Republic of Congo, in particular. These children must be among the most forgotten people on earth. Whether it be the trauma associated with their individual lives or the trauma embedded in a dysfunctional system, it is an unimaginably horrific story and Stephen is deeply immersed in both. He lives simply (far too simply, for his parents liking!) and incarnationally, fired by a sense of justice tempered with seemingly limitless levels of patience and compassion.
I love the photo (above) for the smile and the embrace. Indeed the smile is as full as the embrace, covering not one, but two of his Congolese brothers. And they seem to be loving it too. The man on the left is Patrick, Stephen’s closest colleague. I love the photo (on the right) for the intensity with which he is making the case for his children to a visitor from World Vision.
I am real proud of my big boy!
[PS – the photos are taken by my brother-in-law, Jon Warren, who works with World Vision and whose photos adorn many a World Vision magazine and calendar]
nice chatting
Paul
About Me
the art of unpacking
After a childhood in India, a theological training in the USA and a pastoral ministry in Southland (New Zealand), I spent twenty years in theological education in New Zealand — first at Laidlaw College and then at Carey Baptist College, where I served as principal. In 2009 I began working with Langham Partnership and since 2013 I have been the Programme Director (Langham Preaching). Through it all I've cherished the experience of the 'gracious hand of God upon me' and I've relished the opportunity to 'unpack', or exegete, all that I encounter in my walk through life with Jesus.
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I found myself looking for the 'like' button that is so easy to push on facebook. Loving those pictures 🙂
Stephen is out there doing stuff that blows my mind.
The level of commitment, sacrifice, and love is incredible. His actions really are the most profound statement however helping me deal with this question: What can a white middle class christian do in a world foreign to his own?
Great photos, great post! Thanks Paul, I was literally just thinking about Stephen!
Brilliant. Stephen (and the rest of your family) inspires me.
AWEsome. Inspirational Jesus man.
Imagine a world of Windsors…you 7 connnnnstantly blow my mind.