Yesterday, I observed that the opposite of dependence is not isolation but having something to offer. In our case, that means recognising that national church leaders are often far more effective in mission and ministry in their national context than missionaries. (We are expensive, for a start, and often have […]
The question of dependence is a critical one for engaging in any sort of cross-cultural partnership. In the nineteenth century, CMS’s Henry Venn came up with three marks of a mature church: self-supporting, self-propagating and self-governing. Though he planted churches in west Africa, he believed that autonomy was key to treating […]
Going into town for us is a matter of negotiating cars, 4WDs, carts, bikes, motorbikes and pedestrians where there are no traffic lights, zebra crossings are nominal and there aren’t really any footpaths. You can’t use a stroller and Elliot won’t tolerate being on my back anymore so there have […]
When I’m having a conversation with someone and I say something, if they understand, most of the time they repeat it. Often if I’ve made a mistake, they correct it which is really useful for me, but I don’t think they’re doing it just to correct me. I think it’s […]
The problem with making custard ice cream is that you’re left over with egg whites. I guess you could use them for pavlova, but that requires more cream than we generally get from our cow’s milk, especially after I’ve used a cup of it for the chocolate ice cream! Add […]
I think Elliot has passed some sort of Tanzanian developmental milestone. Where before I had to ensure that he was wearing socks, and field questions about whether he was cold, now that he’s walking the discussion is about whether he’s talking yet. This is also possibly because he’s twice the […]
Last week I wrote on Facebook: As one commenter put it, that’s a lot of ‘likes’ for a non-life event! It’s lovely that people were so supportive – language learning is a hard slog and the triumphs are few and far between. And we Aussies love a bargain! But behind […]
Meet Jesus at uni 