A poem for Christmas 2022
Arthur is away. Stephie is away more. And I am away from home At home with my babies, Searching with the magi for Joy. Artwork by the charity TADEC (Tanzania Deaf Child)
Favourite novels of 2022
These are my top 10 fiction reads from 2022, in the order I read them. After Story, Larissa Behrendt Della’s daughter Jasmine left their Australian country town to become the first in the family to go to uni and her relationship with her roots is complicated. One day she asks […]
Faith like a lion
I’ve recently come across Vincent Donovan. He was an American Catholic missionary priest in Tanzania in the 1960s and 70s and wrote a book in 1978, ‘Christianity Rediscovered’, about his experiences among the Maasai* and how he came to see Christianity differently as a result. I had never heard of […]
Women who threaten Satan
If there’s any book of the Bible that lends itself to allegorical interpretation, it’s Revelation! In chapter 12, a pregnant woman appears, clothed with moon and sun and a crown of twelve stars. She’s pregnant and about to give birth. There’s a great dragon too, which we’re told is Satan, […]
Reaching for normal and she’s not there
The day before we came back from our holiday at the beach, I caught myself thinking, “I can’t wait to get home to see Red Twin.” Isn’t that weird? Red Twin is not part of our life in Dar. She’s never even been to our current house there. I did […]
A community response to an adverse event
Recently I was attacked while walking along a beach near our friends’ place out of town. A guy who was working on his boat on the shore called out to me after we’d greeted each other (essential in Tanzania) when I walked past, then followed me, grabbed me and stole […]
Aussies, a call to global mission
Because Arthur and I are strong advocates of the church in Africa, often speaking about what God is doing here and the richness of African theology, we are sometimes asked, “Well, why are you there?” or “Isn’t the work of missionaries in Africa done?” These are good questions, considering the […]
Meet Jesus at uni 