Varanasi, on the banks of the river Ganges, is seen as the spiritual capital for India. Hindus believe that death in the city will bring salvation, making it a major centre for pilgrimage. The city is known for its many ghats, embankments made in steps of stone slabs along the river bank where pilgrims perform […]

Thanks to South Asian Concern I am on my way to Varanasi, on the banks of the Ganges to see a little of north India and to observe the heart Hinduism. However, there are no direct flights from Chennai and so my ticket takes me via Delhi (Delhi) on the way there and Mumbai (Bombay) […]

Today was a busy but rewarding day. Mr Pandian (Sharmilla’s father) kindly arranged for me to meet some very experienced Tamil Pastors and then to be taken out to see some Lutheran churches in villages way out of Chennai. This was one of those experiences which is what my sabbatical is all about. It was […]

August 22nd is Madras day – celebrating the founding of the city (now known as Chennai) in 1639, when the Englishman (this was before Great Britain) Francis Day along with his superior Andrew Cogan struck a deal with the Vijayanagar empire to acquire a stretch of no man’s land, on which to build a fort […]

In 1978 Prof S. Paneer Selvam (Jabez’s father = the father-in-law of Sharmilla’s sister) had the amazing vision to start Indian Bible Translators. He was struck that, although he could speak English fluently, he was only fully comfortable reading a Tamil Bible. He became convinced that every person had a right to worship God in […]

When we lived in Sydney we loved to drive west out on the M4 for about an hour to the Blue Mountains – so named because of the blue haze created by the gum trees. This weekend I have been travelling around the Nilgiri hills in western Tamil Nadu (almost into Kerala). You can imagine […]

This morning I had the privilege of preaching at St. Stephen’s Ootacamund(Ooty) Church of South India. Two things about the photo – yes, I am wearing a tie; no, there were more than 3 people in the church (there were about 150 there but the photo doesn’t show that.) The Parish Priest and his wife […]

While staying in Chennai my kind hosts are Jabez and Grace (Sharmilla’s sister). Today I flew with Jabez to Coimbatore where he grew up and where his father started IBT (Indian Bible Translators). From there we drove up into the hill country to Ooty where he showed me several IBT ministries. One highlight was a […]

Today Lopez was my guide – Lopez is the brother of Pastor Thomas Francis who showed us around Dubai. He kindly drove me around the city showing me the sights and helping me get my bearings. Chennai is a great, bustling city. We went to the famous Marina beach and the historic Fort area. A […]

We have become quite adept at using the trains in Sri Lanka. We were feeling very pleased with ourselves as we booked our 2nd class tickets for the 100km trip from Hikkaduwa to Mount Lavinia – tickets only cost 160 rupees each (about 90p) even though we splashed out on 2nd class in the hope […]