Nō Ingerangi, nō Koterangi ōku tīpuna. I whānau mai ahau ki Inia, e noho ana ahau īnaiani ki Te Whanganui-a-Tara, ki te rohe o Te Atiawa. E mihi ana au ki ngā maunga, ki ngā awa, ki ngā Iwi katoa o Aotearoa.

I’m a New Zealander, born in India and growing up under the Himalayan mountains, the 5th generation of my family to have a strong connection with the Indian sub-continent. My parents were Baptist and evangelical and at the same time generously open to all branches of Christianity and respectful of other communities of faith.

My schoolmates were all flavours of Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Parsi, and Muslim and came from India, Thailand, Nepal, Bhutan, the UK, Australia, the USA and New Zealand.

I chose to follow Jesus for myself when I was 14 and was baptized in our school swimming pool. Completing school in India, I had a 6 year stint in New Zealand during which time I married Paul and we spent 20 years as Baptist missionaries in Bangladesh.

We came to Wellington in 1999 and have stayed. I trained as a spiritual director in 2001-2 and as a supervisor in 2009. I continue to learn how to live here, as a follower of Jesus in Aotearoa. Part of that has been learning te Reo Māori for the last 8 years, and now, discovering what it means to be Tangata Tiriti, and beginning to learn ways to subvert some of the racism and inequity that are threaded through our society. I am deeply committed to exploring and living a spirituality fed by all the rich traditions of Christian faith but firmly anchored in Aotearoa

Community is precious to me: the community of Wellington Central Baptist Church; the community of <strong>Stillwaters (an anarchic church in the inner city); the collegial community of Spiritual Growth Ministries</strong> where I contribute to the Formation Programme; the community of fellow language learners (e mihi ana ki a koutou, e ngā ihu oneone!); the Treaty Action Collective of Pōneke; the many people with whom we have shared our house; and above all my family – husband, children, in-laws, gorgeous grandchildren, mother and siblings – and the friends who are like family to me.

“Listening with another to the Spirit’s direction.”