suffering
There were two earthquakes in Canterbury last week. One was the actual earthquake that has created such fear and anxiety throughout the region and headlines around the world. Every image and every sound-byte is still so compelling. The bill will press on beyond NZD2 billion. The great ‘act of God’ in this disaster is that…
READ MOREOver recent years I have appreciated my links with World Vision. My brother-in-law (Jon Warren) is their top photojournalist internationally (well, I think he is!); two opportunities to speak at World Vision (NZ) prayer days stand out in my memory; I was thrilled to see the recent appointment of an esteemed friend, Chris Clarke, as…
READ MOREToday is ANZAC Day in New Zealand. It is when we remember those who have died in wars – with a particular focus on Gallipoli (Turkey) in World War 1. My mother’s Uncle Edgar is one of those who died in Gallipoli. Today I heard my mum read a poem written by Edgar’s mother Maria…
READ MOREThis year of 2009 has had some sad and unique features for me. I do not remember a year when I have known so many people struggling with cancer nor a year when I have known so many marriages under stress to the point of breaking apart. On the cancer front, my wife Barby attended…
READ MORETwo funerals in five days. Mike (aged 27) died of cancer. Tony (aged 29) drowned in the flash Mangetepopo flood that also took the lives of six of his Elim Christian College students. Both ‘orders of service’ from the funerals are in front of me as I write. Mike was a close relative of a…
READ MORELast week Barby and I tacked on a visit to Kanchanaburi after speaking at a conference in Thailand. This is ‘Bridge over the River Kwai’ territory and all those stories about the Japanese using 200,000 POWs in 50 different camps to build a 400km train track in just six months – before the Allies bombed…
READ MOREIt was sitting on the shelf of a bookshop at Melbourne airport. Everthing seemed to catch my eye. ‘New York Times bestseller’. The title – and more importantly, as often seems the case these days, the subtitle – ‘Letter to a Christian Nation: a challenge to faith.’ There was even an endorsement from today’s most…
READ MOREThere was a moment in Blood Diamond when I almost stood up and screamed “No!” at the screen. It crossed my mind to do so at the time. It really did. I was ticked off… At various times in the movie people shrug their shoulders at the mess they see around them and simply say…
READ MOREI went to a funeral yesterday. These can be sad events, particularly when you are a close friend or family member and you feel the death has been an untimely one. I don’t want to minimise the grief at a funeral in this posting. But in the last six months I have been to three…
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.