The last few hours before departure on a long trip are quite tense – cleaning up, closing cases, locking everything, hiding keys, instructions to family, drinking the remaining juice and milk, last attention to the garden, cancelling Netflix and Ancestry, checking in on the airline site, looking at the temperature in Germany and adding some summer clothes…
And then the stress of airport departure (although this leaving at Melbourne airport was the smoothest we have had – pacemakers and CPAP machines do not even draw a glance these days) and the endless walking to finally reach the gate.
It is still such a huge thing to trust ourselves to a machine that flies so high and fast, but when the command comes to close and arm the doors, I know we will not be getting out for a long time! I breathe deeply to control the panic that rises, and then we are up and away.
It seems to go forever, and suddenly, we are on the other side of the world.
I am feeling excited now. Late last year, while laid low with Covid, we decided to give overseas travel another go. The last memorable trip was in 2018 and we have been wondering when we might travel again, if ever!
After much discussion, many YouTube videos and a great deal of exploration, we took the plunge and booked flights in and out of Frankfurt. In deference to our advancing age (and bodies), we are going very slightly upmarket in premium economy.
Southern Germany, Tuscany and Sicily won the contest as destinations, and many hours have been spent deciding how, when and where we will go. Images of sunsets in the Tuscan hills, Sicilian cannoli for breakfast and the Zugspitze peaks in Germany seduced us, connected by many trains (love European rail), a couple of rental cars (I have to control my fear) and a ferry (with our sleeper train on board). Time seems to go slowly and now, suddenly, and we leave in a few days.
My life has double joy at the moment. Not only am I able to walk again without pain after my knee surgery, but in doing so I have fallen into a love affair with mangroves. Well-being for me right now consists of a combination of a titanium prosthesis and drab looking shrubs growing quietly on our foreshore. Maybe I am easily pleased!
The historic fish shed (1866) at Hastings foreshore
I was introduced to mangroves nearly sixty years ago: as a third-year geography student at university I researched mangrove habitat as part of the course. Memories of mud, squelch and mosquitoes at Corner Inlet are still with me, but I had no idea how that trip would come full circle and be part of my life today.
Then came my life in West Papua in the eighties. I delighted in the pristine environment of Manokwari on the Bay of Doreri, the mountains rising to 5000 feet out of the water, the tropical growth and our own private white sand beach in paradise. We were surrounded by mangroves but I was too busy having babies and coping with primitive living conditions to explore very much. I know now that over half of the mangrove habitat in Indonesia is located in this part of West Papua and that the trees play an important part in everyday life there.
Journal of Contemporary Ministry (Christian Research Association) Issue No.8 2023
Book Reviews
Living for Shalom: The Story of Ross Langmead, Woods, Jeanette. Eugene, PR: Wipf & Stock, 2021, 283pages.
The city of Melbourne (Australia) is not generally known for its theologians. This biography of Australian missiologist, Rev. Dr Ross Langmead, goes some way to changing that. Living for Shalom is an insightful, well-resourced biography written by Langmead’s sister, Jeanette Woods, during her time in enforced COVID-19 lockdowns. The book, displaying appropriate pathos while being widely informative, includes contributions from many notable figures of Australian theological contexts, along with the rich array of community-based characters who were part of Langmead’s life. Woods narrates the text in third person, creating a sense of professional distance as she surveys her brother’s life with its struggles, victories and complexities. There is a delicate balance here that is managed consistently, whereby Woods has – from her privileged familial position – been able to make the most of sibling intimacy and resources, whilst avoiding the hagiological bias that at times is present when authors write about those they love. The interest of the reader is kept as an ever-present driver of the text.
Langmead’s life is sketched in its own narrative arc, beginning with his arrival into the world, born into a Salvation Army overseas-missionary family. The anecdotes of early life are conveyed with amusement, insight and conjecture as to their ensuing effects on Langmead’s development – a theme of Langmead’s own later reflection, as demonstrated in excerpts of his private journals and public materials. From the get-go, it is clear that Langmead’s intelligence, thirst for wisdom and grounded social ethic drove him in many concurrent directions, and that deciding in which directions to pour his limited time and energy was an ongoing wrestle. Music performance and outreach, practical research, skills teaching, community development, academic writing, theological lecturing, research supervision, church responsibilities and involvement in denominational (Baptist) and wider ecumenical contexts – not to mention overseas and cross-cultural work – Langmead was involved in so much.
My latest publication is the forty-year story of Flinders Christian Community College in Tyabb, Victoria. I was invited to co-author this volume with my long time friend and colleague, Valerie Mason; we both were heads of campus in the college and retired in 2008. It was a wonderful opportunity to research and collaborate to write the history of three campus over four decades.
The college was founded by people with a vision for Christian education for young people on the Mornington Peninsula, and has grown to be a vibrant educational community with nearly 2000 students, a large staff and modern buildings and facilities.
Val and me at the launch of the book.
We chose to represent the voices of students, staff and parents by canvassing memories and thoughts about the school. These form a large part of the text and bring immediacy and authenticity to the narrative. Building on the previous history of the college from 1983-1994, written by Mrs Avril Howard and titled Born to Bear Fruit, we first painted a word picture of the school as it is today. Our goal was to show that while the college looks very different now, it still encapsulates the founding values of Christian schooling.
