together again

Over the years, I haven’t written much about my work with Langham on this blog.

There are a couple of reasons.  One is that for the best part of a decade our lives were focused in South Asia and so issues like security and visas were on our minds.  The other is that since COVID began, my Langham life has been lived in a little office in front of a screen!

However all that changed earlier this month.  After ‘three years and three months’ the team for which I am responsible was able to meet in-person once again.  We gathered in a large house in Keswick (Lake District, UK) called Hazelwood.  It is such a beautiful part of the world and I enjoyed, as I tend to do, the ‘panorama’ setting on my phone…

Ullswater
Rydal Water

Derwentwater and Keswick, with the sun setting over Bassenthwaite
Buttermere (well, a slither of it on the left) — taken by Mark

Having not been together for such a long time, we decided to ‘double the time and halve the business’ in order to create space for just being together and re-filling our relational tanks.  People were invited to linger for up to 12 days and our ‘business’ was comprised of 10 open-ended, two hour conversations around matters of ‘innovation and/or complication’ on five of those days.  We also opened and closed each day with a time of prayer and meditation.

We found ourselves taking lots of photos of ourselves 😂.  I think people were just so happy to be together once again.  In this first photo, from left to right, we have Igor (Bolivia), Slavko (Bosnia & Herzegovina), Paul (New Zealand), Jennifer (Canada), Mark (UK), Dwi (Indonesia), Ruth (UK) and Femi (Ghana).

Friars Crag, Derwentwater

On the circumnavigation of Buttermere

Carlisle


Stopping atop a hill above Rydal Water to share and pray through needs in our families.

With Ruth based in Carlisle, she was our host — just as she was back in 2014 when the first version of this team gathered in nearby Skelton.  Since then we have met in Lima, Peru (2015); Antalya, Turkey (2016); Bogor, Indonesia (2017); Barcelona, Spain (2018); and Nyanga, Zimbabwe (2019).  On this occasion it was good to go back to the place where we stayed in Skelton and give thanks to God (and take another photo of ourselves!) — 

He has brought us this far by his grace; He has led us by fire and by cloud…

He has sheltered us under his wings; He has planned every path that we’ve trod…

Blessed, O Blessed be God.  

Next year?  Vancouver…


nice chatting

Paul

Archive

Receive new posts to your inbox

I’d love to keep you updated with my latest news and posts.

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

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.

Posted in

2 Comments

  1. Heather on June 26, 2022 at 8:57 pm

    What a joy for you all! So pleased to see the photos 🙂

  2. Paul on June 28, 2022 at 3:20 pm

    Yes, Heather — it was a special time … with many, many more photos (217 in my folder!).

    kind regards to you both

    Paul

Leave a Comment





This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Recent Posts

true, but not true enough

February 5, 2025

“What is a Christian?” A ‘follower of Jesus’ is the standard response. And it is true, but it is not true enough. Let’s think about this for a minute. So I have this encounter with Jesus. Maybe at a camp of some kind. In the singing and the speaking he becomes so real. It is…

yay! it’s you

January 27, 2025

We had been on holiday in Queenstown. Barby had to come back early to go to work. I stayed on for a couple more days with our daughter, Alyssa, and her family. When I did fly back, Barby had the car and so the easiest thing for me was to get an Uber home—and so…

expect an exception

January 24, 2025

I know I’ve mentioned this one before, but I am not really a flag-in-church kinda guy. All those years ago, as a student in the USA, it was a shock to see the flag up there in the same neighbourhood as the pulpit, the Lord’s Table and the baptistry. “What is going on?” “Have I…

transforming friendship

January 15, 2025

Just when I thought that it could not be possible to have another first-hand account of the impact of John Stott’s life (d. 2011), along comes this book by his close friend, John Wyatt. I am always ready to learn more about John Stott, but also about friendship. It fascinates me. It keeps coming up…

handa leads the way

December 29, 2024

Reading stories to grandchildren over Christmas reminded me again of how powerful they can be. They are so compact and simple in presentation, and yet so clever in construction. There are just so many features at work in an effective story. It is some years since I taught narrative preaching, but when I did I’d…

elchristo, elmina—and beyond

December 19, 2024

Today is Day 56—and on Day 57 we board a flight for home. There has been so much to absorb as Barby and I have encountered the people of God in different places. el-christo, in bolivia A few days before we left NZ, I discovered that I had five sessions to give in Pakistan. Yikes.…

cadeca art

November 20, 2024

The little chapel at Cadeca Casa del Catequista, a retreat centre on the fringes of Cochabamba (Bolivia), caught my eye on an earlier visit in 2017. Lots of photos… I was thrilled to learn that there would be a return visit, this time with Barby—and with lots of video. Enjoy. A 360 view Some Old…

the emus

October 19, 2024

Apart from the eight years in which we were based overseas, Barby has been working at the Refugee Resettlement Center in Auckland since 2002. This year she is a ‘release teacher’, spending one day each week in three different classrooms, with three different age groups. Impressive—and demanding. One day is spent with 11-13 year olds—from…