To the Ends of the Earth (Isaiah 41-49)

One day I hope to offer a course on the prophet Isaiah and Ezekiel of course. Much of my calling comes from Isaiah 6 as my initial vision of God's calling was mediated through a heavenly being like one seen by Isaiah and was later confirmed in the first few months from Isaiah 41-49. There is Isaiah 41 God calls His servant from the ends of the earth, from the rising of the Sun, namely the East. 41 years ago and three weeks I was born again in the city of Christchurch and spent 6 of my most formative years in South Island and 6 months in the North Island where I chambered and almost enrolled at St Johns Theological College in Feb 1988.

But it was five years later that I would set my foot again at St Johns and Carey Baptist College where I studied Hebrew and Greek (1993). Postgraduate studies came another 5 years later at Otago University down South where the winters were bitterly cold but we were young and daring then as they say. Now more than 10 years since my last visit and although I did not plan this, I could attend Carey College's graduation and then attend a seminar at Laidlaw College where I presented my postgrad research in a seminar in 2002. I hope to reconnect with friends though there is only one person whom I have kept in touch all these years. "Hear ye islands" the prophet Isaiah thundered (Isa 49:1). May both the North and South Islands of New Zealand rise up again and hear God's Word.