family
As I travel and find myself in and out of peoples’ homes in different countries, I’ve noticed something… Generally speaking, Christian homes in ‘the West’ (for example, NZ, Australia, UK, and the USA) seem reluctant to adorn their walls with promises and texts from the Bible, or anything that is overtly Christian in its message.…
READ MOREWhen Barby and I left NZ last September to go and live in India, our grandson had just begun walking. Now Micah is running. On this visit home, I have loved watching Micah run. High knees. Expansive smile. Flowing hair. Elusive step. Blinding speed. He’s got it all. At the Monte Cecilia Park in Auckland…
READ MOREThe power of story cannot be denied. Neither can the priority of story within the Bible. It is a story. And yet sometimes those most committed to biblical preaching suddenly become ambivalent when the conversation moves to story and storytelling. I don’t get it. As far as I am concerned, at its best, biblical storytelling fits…
READ MOREThis is our one hundredth day living back in India, the land of our childhood. The joys, the frustrations – and the conversations – have not changed much over the decades. Once again Barby and I find ourselves talking a lot about how to live alongside the poor. While it is not the daily ‘in…
READ MOREI have often given the advice that the way to cope with big bureaucracy in India is to adopt the gait and manner of the big animals in India – elephant, camel and buffalo. Steady. Unruffled. Metronomic. Here was my chance to prove it. Our shipment of goods from New Zealand (mainly my books) are…
READ MOREThe irony was going to be sufficiently delicious for me. Earlier this morning I was on a flight from London to Dubai on an Arab airlines (Emirates). I decided to listen to Handel’s Messiah, that supreme piece of Christian music, on its entertainment system. But God had other ideas. He wanted me to have an…
READ MOREI don’t often write about our children in this blog – but these photos are too cool to overlook… After thirty years in New Zealand, Barby and I have moved to India – leaving behind 5 children (we like to think it is 6 because we have a son-in-law as well) and 1 grandson. If…
READ MORE29 November 1979 I’ve written about this date before. It is a huge date in my life. The morning after the Erebus disaster and I found myself at a shocked Auckland airport ready to fly to the USA. At 20 years of age I was heading to the USA both to attend Urbana ’79 (where I was…
READ MOREIf Barby and I were able to claim a commission for books we have recommended over the years, the justification for doing so would hover around just two. One would be John Baillie’s Diary of Private Prayer for which Barby has had a standing order in every second hand bookshop in NZ (or, so it would…
READ MOREMy dearest son, I must speak to you. Life has caused a reversal But my sacrifice remains. This is what you are doing. This is what I have done. You threaten me with harm. I threatened those who harmed you. You gain by forcing me to go hungry. I chose to go hungry for your…
READ MOREAbout 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.