Walking through the market, two men called out to me ‘mvivu’. It sounds a lot like ‘mbivu’ which means ‘ripe’ (often overripe), a common word in such a setting. But we couldn’t work out why it was directed at me. Arthur wondered if it had some sort of sexual innuendo. […]
At the end of our first week of language learning, there’s a lot to like about Swahili. It’s way more phonetic than English (goodbye diphthongs!) and the grammar structure is more like Hebrew, except the verb stems are long enough that they don’t disappear. Plus, there are no gendered pronouns […]
A mate put me onto Bill Gates’s 2013 annual letter and the surrounding discussion. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation makes targeted attacks on big issues, like poverty, health, and education. Gates’s letter emphasises the importance of measurable goals and measurable change: In the past year I have been struck again and again […]
1. Culture shock is a weird term. I associate shock with surprise. There have been things I’ve been surprised by but not upset by and things I expected that I have still been upset by. When I have a negative feeling, I have this conversation with myself: ‘I don’t like […]
I recently reviewed The Gospel-Centered Woman. Much of its content was developed on Wendy Alsup’s blog Practical Theology of Women. In this post I want to zoom in on one discussion I’ve been following pretty closely. It’s about Genesis 3:16 ‘Your desire will be for your husband and he will […]
The Gospel-Centered Woman is Wendy Alsup’s third book (first, second) and a return to practical theology. How does theology get behind the polite smiles and Conservative Christian Values to hurt, brokenness and depravity? Wendy’s contention is that it is the gospel alone that equips us to bridge this gap. The […]
Arthur and I make an effort to do some sort of marriage building activity each year (e.g. read a book, do a course, etc.) Recently when friends loaned us Laugh your way to a better marriage, we thought we’d give that a go. It’s a set of 3 DVD sessions […]
Meet Jesus at uni 