travel
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…
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It is clever, isn’t it? The enduring inability of foreigners to spell (and pronounce) the name of their country has led to a marketing campaign, with everything from t-shirts to coffee cups, reminding us to get our vowels right. And if that strategy proves to be unsuccessful, there is always the fallback Bart Simpson option:…
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If ‘Incredible !ndia’ can headline a tourist campaign for India, what about Magnificent Mongol!a for that large land-locked country in Central Asia? Here, let me try and make a start—because there was plenty of magnificence on display when I visited last month… a walk My hotel was on a major intersection near the center of…
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My records show that this is my 800th post, going all the way back to 2nd February 2006—913 weeks ago. Yes, I do think about stopping often enough and I certainly think about deleting dozens of posts, but I keep going because of three loves: (a) I love chatting away to myself, shaping-ideas and smithing-words;…
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Her workplace and his birthplace are barely 60kms apart in South India—but the places they occupy in our home could not be more different. Amy Carmichael of Dohnavur takes her place across an entire shelf! … while V.S. Azariah of Dornakal looks decidedly lonely, in comparison, doesn’t he? Yes, just a solitary book—and it is…
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To stage the Opening Ceremony of an Olympics on water instead of land, with crowds gathered along a riverbank instead of in a stadium, and with performers perched on buildings instead of stages… It was outrageously creative. I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. Ohh, to have been an antipodean fly on the wall…
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It is hard to miss him. The airport in Budapest, the gateway to the country, carries his name. Numerous buildings around the city are also named after him—opera houses, museums and music academies… So who could it be? I’ve heard about a few Hungarians in my time—as have you, I’m sure. Houdini (as in Harry),…
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Cuddy is the affectionate name given to St Cuthbert, patron saint of Northumbria, “the birthplace of Christianity in England” (305). Cuddy tells the story of the ‘life’ of his dead body because “his death is far from the end of the story” (122). He was a shepherd-lad from Melrose who was called by God to…
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While the start of the first day wasn’t great (with my suitcase not arriving with me!), the next few days in Cairo were filled with things to enjoy and to remember—as always seems to be the case. [NB: in my ‘Featured’ posts on this blog’s home page are memories of earlier visits to Egypt]. a…
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Yeah, you’re right. That doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, when compared with Peaches & Herbs singing, “Reunited and it feels so good”. Nevertheless it did feel so good, while on holiday near Whakatāne last week, to recreate a photo of my mother—from something like 40 years ago. She died last year, on…
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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.