Winning the Marathon
Every year at Wesley International Congregation, Thank You Lord Sunday is a special event. On that occasion, a special offering is collected as an expression of our thanks to God for his goodness and love towards us. When I first accepted the position of Senior Pastor, the total given was in the vicinity of $30 […]
When Are We Going to Finish?
My wife and I had just concluded a successful Marriage Joy seminar in a church on the Gold Coast in Queensland where, as the tourist brochures remind us, the weather is beautiful one day and perfect the next. I was the invited speaker at the Sunday morning service of the host church, a young and […]
Getting my Feet Wet
Many years ago, at a Christian camp site in the Adelaide Hills, I was chairing a meeting of a couple of hundred Pentecostal pastors from various denominations. In a rash moment, I announced, ‘I want to suggest that we do something different tonight as an expression of our unity in Christ. When the service is […]
The Weapons of Our Warfare
Let me tell you about my mate John. John is a bit of an eccentric. He has a Ph D from Cambridge, four kids, a long beard and a depilated crown, which he protects from the elements with a tweed cap. One of his favourite tricks is to pull his whiskers up over his face […]
The Things You See in Church
Usually, when I am preaching, I am well prepared, I have clear notes, I know what I am doing and I am generally in command of the situation. But there was one occasion when I nearly did lose my way. I was speaking one Sunday morning in Bethel CRC Church in Papua New Guinea. I […]
Pickles Takes a Pill
Have you ever tried to feed pills to a cat? Probably not. It isn’t easy. We used to have a beautiful, white, fluffy cat called Pickles. How she came to have such an unusual name, I can’t remember. I’m sure it was a family decision, but my daughter tells me forty years later that it […]
Living in the Image of God
Dr Barry Chant encapsulates the heart of what it means to be a new creation in Christ. As he points out, faith is not just a theory.
Behind Berlin’s Wall of Shame
The distance from tyranny to freedom may not be far – but when you are on the other side, it is further than the longest journey in the world. Fresh from the clear, unchanging, sunny days of Israel, I was caught unprepared by the cold, misty weather that wrapped itself around Berlin. My light-weight acrylic […]
I Am a Lucky Girl
Vanessa and I were walking through the Scott Market in Yangon on a hot summer morning, where the temperature was climbing to an estimated 40o Celsius. It had taken us a while to get there. For several days we had promised ourselves a visit to the renowned shopping haven, but had usually opted for the […]
The Case of the Stolen Opals
The jangling sound of the phone rattled through my head, jarring my slumbering nerves. I opened my eyes reluctantly. It was dark. And cold. I stumbled out of bed to answer it. ‘Are you a minister?’ asked a young man’s voice. ‘Yes,’ I replied groggily. ‘I have a problem.’ I looked at the clock. It […]