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The 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 MOREIt has been awhile since a post on cricket. I am sure you have been disappointed. My therapist, nurturing me through the stages of grief after the shattering World Cup final loss, tells me that this is a good time to write, to reflect and to work-out some of the sadness. I love writing about…
READ MOREMesmerizing. This clip was sent to me by a friend in Hyderabad. When I found it online, this was the word used in one of the comments. I can only agree. Mesmerizing. I’ve watched it so many times. I went for a little surf to learn a little more. The guy on the right, Shankar…
READ MOREWhen I read William Dalrymple’s books there are times when my whole being tingles with anticipation. Look at this opening paragraph to his final chapter in his latest book: On 17 May 1798, two days before Napoleon’s fleet slipped out of Toulon and sailed swiftly across the Mediterranean towards Alexandria, a single tall-masted ship was…
READ MORE‘An explosion of protest, a howl of rage’ was the headline catching my eye this week, especially when in concert with this photo. The Guardian, through word and image, was capturing what is happening in the world today. Hong Kong may well have been the ignition, but the protests have been spreading to Iraq and…
READ MORESome years ago Barby and I started a tradition of giving books to our children. We’d been doing it for awhile, but fresh momentum came at a couple of different times. One was when John Stott died in 2011. He had been such a massive influence in my life and I wanted a deposit of…
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 MOREI haven’t been this excited about a birthday since I was a child. Today I turn 60 years of age. “What?! How can that be exciting?!” Good question. I’ve been trying to answer it. Part of it might be something I see in myself, as I relax into a fresh freedom, with less striving. Part…
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.