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Ireland? – in the Bible?!
If you’re living on an island, like I am, let’s enjoy together the privilege of being swept up in the final stage of the Great Commission – that’s from Isaiah’s point of view of course. It seems like God gave the great old prophet a veritable obsession with islands. They hadn’t been a big thing… Read more
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Did you hear the eclipse shouting to the BBC?
The BBC does it’s best. On Monday April 8th they arranged for some of their best reporters to observe the eclipse that traversed North America. As soon as totality arrived in Ohio, they had Helena Humphrey on hand to ask the locals what they thought. When the light re-appeared she asked the nearest local, ‘Michelle’,… Read more
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Jesus was no saint
Protect me, I implore you, from Easter – if it’s only going to be another vacuous, vaguely religious-sounding bank holiday (and do the banks really need these ‘holidays’ anyway?) I’ve just recently been dragged through St Bridget’s Day. After being deluged with the reported goodwill for Bridget, I thought it was only right to perform… Read more
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Easter in the Khyber Pass
I couldn’t miss the massive tribal turban on his head and the rifle hanging from his shoulder. I had noticed a man waving at me while I was waiting for an appointment on Peshawar university’s sparse front lawn. He had been in the shadow of a tree so I couldn’t make him out clearly. More… Read more
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Thank you for coming
My dear American missionary friends, of all types and organizations: Thank you for: • Coming to Ireland in the first place. That first day when you stepped off the plane, Ireland wasn’t quite like it is today, was it? • Patiently answering the question, “how were your holidays?”, when you have just come back from… Read more
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Racing to St Patrick’s Day
In my teens I read the old tomes of biographies that told tales of missionary doctors like David Livingstone. Maybe I should be a doctor and get serious about the biological sciences (after all I had attempted to breed newts, found in a nearby quarry, in a makeshift aquarium under my bed). But it was… Read more
