people, places (I)

Across 51 days, Barby and I have set ourselves the goal of holding 34 Open Homes.

With one eye on these covidian times, the idea is to share about our work in smaller, conversational settings. We want to thank and update those who have been standing with us over these 12 years, while welcoming others to come along as well. We’ve devised a two hour interactive, multisensory time – and it has been fun! The combination of seeing again both our friends and our Aotearoa-New Zealand has been a tonic to our souls. The second lockdown in Auckland almost scuttled our plans, but in the end we postponed the North Island trip by five weeks and headed straight to the South Island.

Here are some of the people and places that we’ve enjoyed along the way…

[NB: It didn’t help that I left my camera at home, so these are all taken from my phone 😞]

Crossing over on the ferry. I jumped off the boat to get this photo… 😀
Our first Open Home, in Nelson
Early spring blossoms in Christchurch

The Canterbury plains, green and blue and snowy
Great friends from way back. They believed in us in our early years. Thank you.

The McKenzie country

The Lindis Pass

Forsythia, the first bright colour of spring in the South. It splashes such hope. I miss it.

A moody Arrowtown

Sunrise over the Shotover River

Queenstown

An Open Home in Invercargill, where we pastored a church more than 30 years ago. Thank-you.

An Open Home in Dunedin

During Sunday intercessions, a child in Dunedin articulates the request on all our hearts.

Kaikōura

nice chatting
Paul
PS: Here is our Open Home schedule. We start again on Monday with the North Island road trip. Then from 15 – 29 October, by God’s grace, we are planning 8 Open Homes around Auckland. Feel free to contact us for further details (we are respecting peoples’ privacy by not including those details here).

More great South Island sights

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About Me

paul06.16

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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