Thursday, July 06, 2006

bebo page

I’ve finally got round to putting some real photos on my bebo page.

Here are some snaps from my recent trip to Kenya on safari. It was a great experience, my first time in Africa. The place is so different, and yet the many Western influences are obvious. I guess Kenya is better off than many African countries, and still the poverty I saw was shocking. The roads were atrocious – for miles we would simply drive along side tracks because the actual road was so full of holes. We were on a package holiday, so we were very sheltered from the everyday realities. But everything I saw put me off any idea of living or working in Africa. Dare I say it – based on some of the church buildings I saw in Nairobi, the last thing Kenya needs is more Western Christians working as Christian missionaries, church planters or Christian teachers/preachers. Apparently, Nairobi is a dangerous place – but it is also the African centre for many international churches and Christian agencies. Every conceivable Christian group seems to have a presence.

And here is a gallery of my personal theological heroes – they have all contributed to my thinking (and practice) in significant ways for good. Most of them are professional teachers, academics or preachers.

A few other friends and mentors deserve a mention. Everett Julyan and Roland McCallum were my flat mates in the mid-1990s. Eric, Roland’s Dad, was my first bible class teacher – he basically gave me my first survey of the bible, its story and its teaching.

Ian Hamilton was the minister of Loudoun Church, Newmilns when I started going there in 1990. Through his ministry I became a Christian – in a sense he is my one and only theological teacher – more importantly, he is still my pre-eminent model for ministry. Every situation I find myself in as a student minister, I think: ‘What would Ian do or say or think about this?’


George Newlands is a truly liberal liberal. He supervised my dissertation on BB Warfield, introduced me to the thought of Karl Barth, and offered me the chance to spend a year at Princeton Theological Seminary. George and I disagree about many things – not least the value of Warfield’s theological legacy – but his kindness to me over the last two years deserves recognition. I hope our friendship will continue when I leave the student world.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am pleased to see Ian Hamilton there. We also went to Loudoun Church when we lived in Newmilns (we were only there 9 months) David was very helpful to us - two newly-married nomads trying to find our feet after leaving the University town which had been our spiritual home. When we moved on he recommended churches for us to try. And George, well he is really is a hero, one of the kindest and most gracious men I have ever had the privilege to meet - his Doctrine of God class was one of the real high points of last year.

Anonymous said...

For David (above) read Ian, my brain had already raced forward to another church and another minister!!