Introduction - Childhood Influences

I would like to begin this blog by outlining my philosophical background and core beliefs and principles, as I believe these are crucial to understanding the thoughts and reflections that will follow. These are obviously the result of my life journey, so I will give some narrative to explain the way my beliefs have developed. As I wrote above I have lived in four countries and this has shaped my perspective of the world, particularly the two years I spent in Papua New Guinea (PNG). At age 10 + 11 I was old enough to consciously take note of the differences in wealth and culture between east and west but also young enough for these differences to be imprinted on me and my understanding of the world at a deeper sub-conscious level.

The other factor that significantly shaped my world-view was Christianity. My father is a minister in the church and my mother’s father was president of the Baptist Union in New Zealand. Many might conclude that we were a deeply religious family but I think this would overstate its impact. I was not taught a doctrinal version of the faith; I was never told what to believe, but to believe what I believed. Indeed my father (who is a very liberal Christian and says he believes as little as possible) always challenged our beliefs whatever they were and encouraged a questioning approach. Christianity does run strong in the blood though and with the significant exception of school, almost all of my childhood community interaction was through one form of Christian group or another. So Christianity shaped me primarily by limiting my exposure to other sets of values rather than by giving me a set of easy answers. On the whole though, this is compensated for by my experiences in PNG that also came as a result of the beliefs and work of my parents.

I’m not sure when I first developed a sense of a personal faith but I would guess it was sometime between the ages of 8 and 12. From then on my faith was always based upon a sense of a personal relationship with God. From this I made a self/spirit initiated personal and public commitment to faith through immersion baptism at age 15 in 1996. From that point on I was active in the church at both a local and state level and spent my first three years of working life in different parts of the church as well.