Under God’s good hand, I entered my 15th year with Langham Preaching on the 1st April—and now am inching towards ten years as programme director. Across these years the focus has been on establishing a Global Leadership Team (GLT). In the final days of March, we met at Rivendell, on Bowen Island, just outside Vancouver (Canada).
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| The GLT at Squamish, in British Columbia [from left: Igor, Jennifer, Mark, Dwi, me, Ruth, Femi] It has been such a settled team as this next photo, created by Mark, demonstrates. Caring, committed and skilled. Apart from the ‘3 years + 3 months’ break through the pandemic (when we Zoomed multiple times each month), we have met each year on different continents—with other Langham leaders often invited to join with us.  Rivendell is a beautiful location and we had the entire facility to ourselves…  We met to pray together, to introduce each other with stories, to discuss Henri Nouwen’s In the Name of Jesus and to reflect on some of the Psalms of Ascent … and then we also worked our way through a full agenda.   For just the second time in the ten years, we had our spouses (or ‘Plus Ones’, because those who are single brought a friend) join us. While the GLT was working around the table, they had their own programme, including some painting. In addition, the entire group each completed a spiral scope, colouring-in an expanding spiral until an animal gradually emerged.    We always enjoy a day away together in the middle of the working week. This year we travelled up to Whistler, home of the 2010 Winter Olympics, and then we stopped at Squamish on the way back, with its impressive, and squeamish (!), gondola ride.        Barby and I had three days between the GLT meeting and my next commitment, the Langham USA Vision Weekend, in Phoenix. So we rented a car and went across to Victoria, on Vancouver Island. The ferry rides, in gorgeous weather, were enough of a treat! On one day we drove the Pacific Marine Circle and on the other day we walked (and walked!) around Victoria.   First stop at Sooke potholes. When I picked up the car at Vancouver Airport, a friendly Fijian woman (on the verge of travelling to visit her sister in Auckland) was very generous, upgrading our Toyota to a luxurious Chrysler!  Near Mystic River…  Just north of Port Renfrew…  These colder climates take me back to our years in Invercargill, where spring was so eagerly anticipated and where it was set ablaze, each year, by the forsythia—as was the case in Victoria.  We stayed in the older part of Victoria, surrounded by all its beautiful homes. We had a little room in this house and as we left, I noticed that it was built the very same year as our old family home back in Mt Albert, Auckland.     The Lebanese Emigrant Statue celebrates and cements the ties between the two countries.  As a little boy, maybe in a Social Studies class, I remember seeing photos of The Empress Hotel, fitting neatly into a very British Victoria. My grandfather was born two days before Queen Victoria died and was named Albert Victor—and my father was Raymond Victor James … but there are no Victors, or Victorias, among our children!  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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