A new review of Walking the Emmaus Journey appears in this month’s (May’s) Daystar Magazine. It is reproduced below:

In Walking the Emmaus Journey, we’re invited to join with the author as he reflects on his life journey. Based on the familiar story from Luke 24, Andrew Butcher has written 26 short reflections on the three different parts of this story: the beginning of the journey; meeting Jesus, “the very best of travelling companions”; being equipped to journey by having “a fresh encounter with Jesus” and; inviting others to join us.

Many of the reflections are based on Butcher’s own life experiences over a two year period –a journey that involved travel through hard and life threatening places as well as stimulating and challenging times. There is something here for everybody.

Butcher writes in a readable writing style with no padding, which probably reflects the influence of his previous careers as an academic and public servant. Currently, he is a member of Karori Baptist Church, works for a high level apolitical organisation in New Zealand and is on the National Board of TSCF (Tertiary Students’ Christian Fellowship).

While challenging and provocative at times (e.g. prayer is a seditious act, p 45) it is also dashed with humour (e.g. never have your God stuffed). I particularly enjoyed Butcher’s New Zealand “voice.”  His website is www.andrewbutcher.org
–Reviewed by Janette Busch

Book reviews, Christian writing, Meditations, Other, Published Writing | No Comments »

There has been a lot of discussion in the past couple of weeks about how the media portrayed the canonying tragedy where seven people were killed, and about how open and willing Elim Christian College were to the media. Churches have tended to see this in very positive terms and as a great opportunity for sharing the Christian message. Certainly, watching the interviews with some of the key players at the school, one goes away both deeply impressed and moved by their articulate, wise and godly responses to difficult questions in difficult times. It is useful then to have some, perhaps, more objective assessment on Russell Brown’s new Media 7 show on TVNZ 7. He devoted over 15 minutes to it on his show earlier in the week and it is well worth watching by following the links to the items here.

Christian writing, Meditations | No Comments »

For those of you who have visited my web-page recently (rather than just reading these blogs in your RSS reader, which is all I usually do with blogs), you will have noticed some new additions to the right-hand side bar, namely pictures of the covers of some of the books I’ve written (including the latest, Bring in the New Day, which comes out later this year). Hope you find them helpful.

Academic writing, Christian writing, Published Writing, Published articles, Research reports | No Comments »

Ever since I attended a funeral last Friday of an extended family member - a 27 years old who died of Cancer - I have been struggling to figure out what to say and how to say it. There is a great deal of unfairness and injustice, it seems to me, about someone so young and full of life to be taken so quickly and in such an awful way. And then I came across Paul Windsor’s latest blog. Paul was at the same funeral as me last Friday, and then another funeral earlier this week for one of the seven killed in the canyoning tragedy last week. His reflections are sound, articulate and wise. Read them here and be moved.

Christian writing, Meditations | No Comments »

My colleagues jokingly referred to it as my Homecoming speech.

I returned to the place where I spent the first twenty or so years of my life to speak to the Tawa Rotary Club about the work of the Asia New Zealand Foundation. Rotary clubs do good work in the community: they help out with bookstalls, provide to the needy, and sponsor the Christmas carols. They are internationally focussed and draw together professionals from all walks of life.

OK. So that sounded like a promo for them, but really it was to illustrate something of a comparison. On Tuesday night, Yvette and I lowerered the average age of the group by, approximately, 120 years. We were, seriously, the only people in the room without grey hair. Yvette was the only Asian. I joked to her before hand that I would introduce her as ‘Exhibit A’: this is what an Asian looks like. ‘Say something Asian dear…’

Needless to say, I didn’t actually ask her to do that. But it serves to illustrate a point: that Asians are, perhaps, still not that widely understood in the small communities of New Zealand, like Tawa.

The questions I was asked were interesting - references to “Chowick” were made and there was a startingly frank remark that, and this is a fact, there are no, and I quote, no Europeans (I think the term used was “New Zealanders”) on Queen Street in Auckland. Not one. It was full of Asians, from the top to the bottom. We’re not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy…

Then there were questions around what, if any, contributions Asians made to society (my response: “they don’t make any contribution whatsoever. They come to New Zealand and bludgeon off the state, fill up our prisons, and commit dastardly crimes. And they don’t speak English, which is even worse. And nor do they play rugby, unless they’re from Japan, in which case they eat whales”.)

OK. I didn’t really answer that. But, I suspect, if I had answered that, I would have received a standing ovation. Instead, I said that Asians are amongst New Zealand’s civic leaders and top business people. I almost added “some of my best friends are Asian” but thought that might be taking it too far for this crowd.

‘And how do you guys know if you’re making any difference?’ I was asked. ‘You guys’ I took to refer to the work of Asia:NZ. Well, I reflected on changing public attitudes, openness to Asian communities, disagreement with the soundings of particular politicians. I said that none of that would have happened six or nine years ago. The questioner didn’t ask a follow-up, so perhaps she was satisfied with my response.

And then we ended the evening, and I absolutely assure you I am not making this up, by standing in front of a portrait of our Queen and singing ‘God Defend New Zealand’. The first verse only, in English. Not in Maori, of course. I would not be surprised if there were a few tears shed in this moment of patriotism.

And I reflected as I left that if this ever were a representation of some sort of a New Zealand community, some sort of New Zealand values, it isn’t a contemporary representation and it certainly isn’t the future of New Zealand. The reality is that Asians are already part of everyday New Zealand life. In twenty years time, if not less, I probably won’t get all the same questions I got tonight. Some will be the same. Some attitudes will remain. And I sincerely hope that there isn’t any singing of our national anthem in front of a portrait of the Queen. We don’t even do that when we visit Government House now. We’ve moved on.

And Asians are moving in. This is their home now. The next speech to the Rotary Club in twenty years time will be their homecoming speech.

Christian writing, Meditations | No Comments »

It started snowing in Karori last night. Right inside my flat. Outside, there was a not-so-gentle peltering of rain. But inside: snow. It covered me, my floor, all of my possessions, and even things I don’t even own.

Let me explain. Over the weekend, we bought some new flanelette winter sheets, to keep me warm and dry in these winter nights. I dutifully put them in the wash, as one does, to make sure that whatever pesticides that had been involved in its manufacture in some sweat shop in South Asia were removed, and then took them out to dry.

Well, I have never seen so much fluff in all my life. There was more fluff than Fluffy-the-Dog has; there was more fluff than Fluffy-the-Snowman; there was more fluff than E-Channel. There was fluff everywhere. I just pick the sheets up and whole piles of fluff fall on my carpet. I know have white, fluffy carpet. I also, for a moment, had white fluffy suit trousers, which isn’t a good look frankly. It looks like I walked into a fluff-storm and came out white as driven snow, or fluff.

So I thought I’d put the sheets back in the machine to see if they would become de-fluffed. Well, naturally, the problem didn’t go away. It got worse. The sheets grew fluff: fluff bred fluff. Or, to put it in biblical terms (for it was of biblical proportions): fluff begat fluff. A cascade of fluff was the unknown plague in Egypt. Fluff was everywhere!

So, at the risk of getting too fluffy with the truth, I am intending to return these sheets of snow to where I bought them (for a song, it has to be said; I knew that there was probably something not quite right about them being sold so ridiculously cheaply) and hopefully return with sheets that look more like sheets and less like snow.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I have snow to shovel…

Meditations | No Comments »

Nobody does comedy as good as the British. The Americans, when they laugh, do so when it’s crude. The British laugh when it’s clever. So a recent post on publicaddress.net by David Hayward, on a walk through British comedy duos, is well worth a read. It is perceptive and largely accurate.

Then to have a longer look at how to write good comedy, watch John Cleese in a masterclass with script-writers, talking about the upcoming 2nd Pink Panther movie. Excellent and informative.

Other, Writers and Readers | No Comments »

Read a lecture I recently gave on international education and Asia here

Academic writing, Conference papers, Research reports, Unpublished articles | No Comments »

Watch my interview on the Chinese television station WTV (World Television), which is broadcast in Auckland and elsewhere, about the Asian population in Auckland. The item is all in Chinese except for the interviews with me and the report’s author Dr Ward Friesen, which are in English but subtitled.  

Media articles, Other | No Comments »

A chapter I have co-authored with Terry McGrath, John Pickering, Hilary Smith and Yvette Koo on “Engaging Asian Communities in Aotearoa New Zealand: An exploration of what works in community research” will appear in Researching with Communities: Grounded perspectives on engaging communities in research edited by Ruth de Souza and Andy Williamson, published by Muddy Creek Press, coming out soon. For more information about the book visit here

Academic writing, Published articles, Research reports | No Comments »