Angukali’s (Angu’s) introduction to Langham was in the early 2000s when she heard about a seminar that was taking place teaching participants how to read the Bible.
Angu shares “What interested me more though was that at the end of the seminar, all the participants were to be given a set of Christian books. So I ended up attending the two-day and went home happy with my set of books. I learned later that it was Langham that had organised the seminar and this was my first exposure to Langham Partnership”.
Angu went on to become a Langham Scholar in 2016. She was also a former student of Langham Scholar Havilah Dharamraj, whom she later worked with through Langham Literature.
An interest in the Old Testament
Angu is an editor, writer and contributor to various publications, with a particular interest in the Old Testament (OT), and completed her PhD in Old Testament in 2020 from a college in South Asia.
Langham not only supported Angu during her studies but also sponsored numerous research trips enabling her to visit various libraries abroad including Melbourne, Michigan and Cambridge. This gave Angu the opportunity to access vast resources and meet other scholars.
Angu’s interest in the OT stemmed from many factors, including the layered nature of the books, and the depth of understanding.
She shares “My interest in the Old Testament grew from my observations as well as from a personal interest. Despite growing up going to Sunday school, church and being active in youth and student ministries I realised that I had never heard a sermon from the OT. With OT being the bigger chunk of the Bible, this disconnect intrigued me. The other thing that drew me to the OT was that it was so layered. When the time came to choose, there was no second choice in my mind, I was going to study OT”.
Writing for Langham Literature
Currently, Angu continues her association with Langham as a writer and editor for Langham Literature publications. She is also involved in her local church and serves as a member of the pastoral team and preaches quite frequently.
“My involvement as an editor and contributor to publications through Langham Literature began in 2011. I had just completed my Masters in Theology in OT and received an invitation from Dr Havilah Dharamraj, another Langham scholar, to contribute to commentaries on 1 Samuel and Daniel for the South Asia Bible Commentary,” she shares.
“It was an opportunity to truly reflect on what it means to write contextually, to remain faithful to the text but also be contextually relevant,” she said.
“It was refreshing, but it was also a daunting task since writing a commentary from a South Asian perspective was new. It was exciting to be able to show the readers the similarities between our own culture and the culture reflected in the Bible, which provided ready avenues to critique our own worldview and practices – to affirm and encourage what was right and good in our culture as well as to denounce what was wrong or questionable. To be able to bridge the gap between the OT and the contemporary South Asian readers, even in a very small way, was a blessing and something that I hope to keep on pursuing,” Angu shared.
Angu was also invited to contribute to and edit for the South Asia Study Bible in 2019, and in 2020, she was invited to co-edit a book on OT Theology which she says was an enriching experience.
Hopes and prayers for the future
In the country where Angu grew up, only around 3% identify as Christians. With this in mind, Angu hopes and prays that God will continue to use her to speak in the contexts that she knows well- her country and her culture. She shared that this could happen through her preaching and writing ministries but she is willing to be used by God for whatever his plan is.
“My hope and prayer for my region is for true discipleship to happen – for Christians who will worship God not only in churches but whose faith and righteous living will permeate every part of their lives whether it is in their professional life, family relations, social and community engagements; for Christians who will think and reflect deeply on the what and the why of what they are doing.”