travel
Sometimes a Lone Person is better than a Lonely Planet. With just a day in our schedule to explore the Scottish Highlands that Lone Person for us was Graham Slater, a dedicated ‘Munro-bagger’ (NB: a Munro is a mountain in Scotland over 3000′ and Graham has ‘bagged’, or climbed, all 282 of them – and…
READ MOREWhen things get tough I try to look in two directions. One is horizontal. Maybe chronological is a better word. I bring to mind the way God works with a 24 hour day and how dawn follows midnight. Always. Without Fail. Then in many countries, far from the equator, He works with a 4 season…
READ MORESeldom do I remember flights taking-off these days. I am asleep by that time, as an involuntary nap overwhelms me on the way to the runway. On this occasion I could be excused for such behaviour befitting a baby. Eight long days of listening, facilitating and note-taking had left me a little weary. I boarded…
READ MOREIt was like driving into spring. In Toronto the trees were leafless, but as I made my way by train to Windsor (Ontario) – and then by car to Ohio and on to Kentucky – the trees and countryside came alive with a fresh and velvety green. It was beautiful. That was last month. Last…
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As this was my first ever visit to China, I thought I’d collect a few photos and reflections. On Easter Sunday morning we attended one of the officially recognised churches. 1000 people, standing room only. Traditional, but not necessarily nominal or liberal. The Germans occupied the province for less than twenty years, but transformed the…
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Earlier this month I enjoyed my first trip to the Arab world. After meetings in Amman (Jordan), I travelled to Lebanon to spend a few days with my colleague and friend, Riad, at his home in the Bekaa Valley (that flat bit above the central ridge in the map below). Lebanon is a small country,…
READ MOREThere is this hunger within to learn about the peoples of the world, particularly those ones about whom I know so little. Almost ten years ago I got lost in Meredith’s The State of Africa. It changed me. With my first visit to the Middle East looming in March, recent months have been devoted to Eugene…
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At our age, an overnight flight leads to an afternoon nap. Once that was over, Barby and I wandered out onto the streets of Yangon. No map to follow. Nowhere to go, in particular. From across the road we stumbled across this building. Just another church in all its faded glory? With more pigeons outside…
READ MOREAbout this time yesterday there was a tear in the eye. Barby and I were returning home after a 40 hour visit to Vizakhapatnam – or Vizag, for short. In expressing my gratitude to the couple who had welcomed us into their home, I became a bit misty. Here we were – so very different…
READ MOREIt has been hard living so far from New Zealand during the two hundredth year celebrations of the arrival of the gospel – on Christmas Day, 1814. I’ve been following all the facebook chatter closely. I’ve loved that space at Oihi Bay for a number of years, even taking a horde of friends on a…
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.