travel
It was fun for Barby and I to go back ‘home’ to North India – and to introduce it to our friends of many years, Jan & Bill Dewar and Stephen & Bonnie Bond, whom we first met almost 30 years ago when we started in pastoral ministry in Invercargill. We find that there is…
READ MOREI am a Dilly-wallah – or, a person from Delhi. [NB: ‘Dilly’ is the way the name sounds in Hindi]. Delhi was my home from the age of 10 right through until I was 17 – first over in Old Delhi (near Kashmere Gate) and then in New Delhi (in Jangpura Extension). I love the city.…
READ MOREThis book is a horror show. How is it possible that so few years can contain so much horror? Let’s name a few of the ones which Philip Jenkins discusses in The Great and Holy War (OUP, 2014). Horror #1 Not just the Great War, World War 1 was a holy war. Christendom reigned…
READ MOREIt’s one month ago now. Two conversations. One in which I participated. One which I heard about second-hand a couple of hours later. But there they are – both running around my mind ever since … and annoying me. So it is back to the purge-by-posting strategy. The first conversation was with a bunch of…
READ MOREI am 55 today. In Hindi, 55 is the catchy little alliterative, puchpun (पचपन). My mum enjoys ticking off her children as they pass through this age and stage. Just one more to go, Mum. I have moved past the expectation of real presents on my birthdays (although my son Joseph did send me a much-appreciated…
READ MOREI have fallen in love … with tea plantations. Given that I am a teetotaller (as in totally-tea, I guess), one day I plan to eschew the pub-crawl in favour of a plantation-crawl around South Asia. Sri Lanka. Nilgiris. Darjeeling. Assam. Any takers?! You don’t think I am serious, do you? You don’t know me…
READ MOREThe Bible says that God has planted eternity in our hearts. I’ve often wondered whether he has planted cricket in the human heart as well – but just like with eternity, it becomes a planting that is smothered and choked by other pursuits … :). I’ve always enjoyed the game of cricket. The rest of…
READ MOREA wedding. A visa. A birth. Barby and I are back in New Zealand for three purposes. My niece’s wedding was last Saturday in Matakana and I had the privilege of taking the service. Then on the next day we sneaked a visit to one of the celebrated beaches in New Zealand which I had…
READ MOREThere are eight boarding passes in this book. That is how many flights it took me to finish it. But don’t let that put you off. It is well worth the effort: Robert D. Kaplan, The Revenge of Geography (Random House, 2012). One easily missable sentence captures his thesis neatly. I believe that while geography does not necessarily…
READ MOREMy first twenty-four hours in Yorkshire – ever. Who could have imagined that it would be twenty-four hours after the departure of one of the great French institutions – the Tour de France?! Signs for Le Grand Depart were everywhere in Leeds. Buntings and gold-coloured bikes adorned homes. Even the Black Prince, on horseback in the…
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.