travel
Dalrymple, google maps, and wikipedia have become such a happy triumvirate in my life. Because of it, his books take so long to read, especially this one where he traces the journey of a Byzantine monk through Greece, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Egypt: From the Holy Mountain: A Journey in the Shadow of Byzantium…
READ MOREIsn’t it great when a vision comes together? For a few weeks I’ve had my eye on framing these two photos and then keeping them near each other. On Sunday, the deed was done. I am a happy chappy. May I tell you about them? Like the stereotypical preacher, I’ll use a few few words…
READ MOREIndia & Burma. 1793 & 1813. English & American. Serampore & Moulmein (or, more accurately, Srirampur & Mawlamyine). Baptist & Baptist. William Carey & Adoniram Judson (even with plaques next to each other at Carey Baptist Church in Kolkata). Famous names in our upbringing, especially for Barby, whose brother-in-law (Dale) is a direct descendent of…
READ MOREThe primary reason for our visit to Mawlamyine was to discover the sites related to the work of Adoniram Judson and the early Baptist m-workers from the USA. They arrived with the gospel in 1813, just a few months before Samuel Marsden landed in New Zealand, with the same good news. The quality of the…
READ MOREI am sitting in the Cinderella Hotel in Mawlamyine (formerly Moulmein, in Myanmar), racing through a biography of Adoniram Judson, and I encounter this paragraph: Scattered around Moulmein are many Baptist churches and schools. Those schools, built and run by missionaries for more than a hundred years, are now nationalized. The government has taken over…
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It may not roll off the tongue quite like ‘two weddings and a funeral’, but with our holiday into a new part of India (for us), we were captivated by two cities and a mountain. We knew about the two cities beforehand. Afterall we had to make travel and hotel bookings. But we did…
READ MOREThe transition from train to plane can be tricky in India. Trains usually run late, often by some hours. So when I saw that our train was due to arrive in Kolkata at 0600 hours, I booked our onward flight to Bangalore for 3.20pm. Nine hours. That should be ample time methinks. The train pulled…
READ MOREWhile not as complex as the celebrations ten years ago, my children still orchestrated something for my 60th that will be with me for forever. Plus it was more accommodating of my advancing years! It was all about a trip and a suitcase. A trip With my love of mountains, rivers, lakes, beaches and maps (which…
READ MOREIn 2015, this author writes ‘a new history of the world’. It sits on those best-seller lists for all those weeks. It sells a few million copies. It is a majestic book, one of the books of the decade for me. Then, in 2019, just four years later, out comes The New Silk Roads: The Present…
READ MOREI repent in dust and ashes – again. I am a Himalayan lad. I grew up in real mountains in North India. “How will these mounds, bumps and pimples spread across the landscape of the South ever appear impressive to me?” But now into our seventh year of regular visits to the South, mine has become…
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.