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After several days of cloudy skies, the evening sun returned to suggest a spectacular view. So we drove to the car park and walked up to Latrigg View — to be greeted by this vista of Keswick, Derwentwater and the mountains beyond… With this post already taking shape in my mind, I just had to…
READ MORE“Oops!… I did it again.” Yep — reading a book while pursuing every imaginable Wikipedia, Google Maps and YouTube distraction. Why is the story so compelling? It’s been called the ‘Stalingrad of the East’. ‘Britain’s Thermopylae’. More significantly, ‘in 2013, it was voted as Britain’s greatest battle after a debate at the National Army…
READ MOREOver the years, I haven’t written much about my work with Langham on this blog. There are a couple of reasons. One is that for the best part of a decade our lives were focused in South Asia and so issues like security and visas were on our minds. The other is that since COVID…
READ MOREA highlight through 2022 continues to be having breakfast on Wednesdays with my mother. Others are offering all kinds of wonderful care and so, after a good chat together, we focus on a Bible reading, a prayer — and a hymn. I wander through Wikipedia, finding background details to the hymn to read — and…
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Over the years I have enjoyed taking two pilgrimages. One is to Rangihoua Bay, about 200km north of Auckland — and Marsden Cross, the site of the first preaching of the gospel here in Aotearoa New Zealand, in 1814. On one occasion, as a way to celebrate my 50th birthday, 30 friends joined me in…
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There is so much to like about God. Right near the top of my list is the way he works in anyone and everyone, helping shape them into all they are designed to be. Then he invites, or calls, them to join him in making the world all it is designed to be. He is…
READ MORENot so long ago I failed an online Intercultural Competency quiz. Yikes. That does not sound so good for someone in my line of work. It is embarassing. I resolved to broaden my reading and have set a summer goal of reading books originating from different continents. This past summer it was Africa. I made…
READ MOREWhen Langham Preaching’s Global Leadership Team meets, Lord-willing, in the UK in June it will be 1163 days since we’ve been in-person together. During this covidian season we’ve gathered on Zoom for two hours a week, three weeks out of four. We’ve grown closer together, while apart, for various reasons — most notably God’s gracious…
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They don’t make them like they used to do. It is not just that gravel and mud have given way to rubber and chips. Nor is it just that Occupational Safety & Health seems intent on ridding the world of every hint of dangerous play. What catches my eye are these playground monstrosities. They…
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.